Bouncing Blood, Infinity, Broken Sword and Jekyll

[lathany]

I've finally finished OU assignment number 3, so I feel it's time for an update.

Blood
At the start of the month I made my now-usual four-monthly journey to the local centre to offer up my blood to the transfusion service. Last time my iron was too low (although still at a reasonable level) and I was rather depressed about it. This time... it looked to be a repeat. The nurse took a drop from my finger and dropped it in the liquid to test - it rose straight to the surface and I was told that was an automatic fail. So she tried again - same thing happened.

"Would you like us to run a proper test?" She asked.

This had happened last time around and I'd failed that test. I almost said no, but then gritted my teeth and agreed.

They took a large (I think) sample from my non-donating arm (my left); after the five minutes it took a second nurse to find a decent vein that is. Then they went off to test it as I lay on the makeshift donation bed sulking. However this time, they came back to announce it was OK and I was within acceptable limits.

So feeling much happier, I got to donate.

It's the first time I've had the nurse chat to me throughout the process. Turns out she's one of twins and has lots of them in her family. She held the strong opinion that I should be teaching Ryan to cook as well as Bea despite his autism. And I will... when he understands more than half the instructions.

Broken Sword: Angel of Death (mild-medium spoilers for the plot)
bateleur and I have spent the last month or so playing the latest Broken Sword together. He drives George (and occasionally Nico) around and I make puzzle-solving suggestions. Overall this one was pretty nice, a big plus was that it lost the timing-critical horrors of the previous incarnation, but ultimately a touch unsatisfying and with a somewhat sad ending.

The puzzles aren't bad. There are no pixel-critical ones and most of them make sense. On the downside, many items don't become available/connectable until you do the earlier parts of whatever puzzle, which is a major pain in the neck if you don't try doing things in the order they intended. I can see why this was done - it stops the "trying all objects with everything" approach - but it's still annoying.

Whilst the second-perfect timing critical puzzles are gone, there are still some bits that need to be solved/carried out within a time limit. However, at least when we weren't fast enough this time we knew we were missing something.

The plot had its moments, but wimped out somewhat. Also, Nico's entrance and presence were both rather weak. And whilst the dialogue was of the usual Broken Sword variety there was not a "He killed my Snooky." "He did?!" moment.

However, all that said, it's a point and click and it works (mostly, you may need the patch). bateleur commented that point-and-click really hasn't evolved much (since Monkey Island at least) and I agree, but I still love the genre.

Jekyll (mild spoilers)
This was a birthday present from chrestomancy and we managed to watch it within a week. I liked it, although I was also critical of a lot of it. I liked the fact that there were constantly twists and surprises coming (with the exception of episode 4) from start to finish. I also liked the way it was an addition to the original book. I was less keen on where some of that plot went and also how three of the characters were effectively parked for a good couple of episodes (there are six episodes in total).

Additionally, I found that episode 4 made me think about writing and generally constructing stories. You see, episode 4 is mostly a gigantic flash-back and bateleur theorised (I think, accurately) that it had probably been pencilled in as the first episode and then they realised that it was much too slow moving. Thing is, when it eventually turned up, there were no real surprises in it. It was much what you would have thought events in that time period would be. And I think this is the problem with flash-backs in general; the ones that don't work I mean. I disliked the vast majority of the flashbacks in Lost (I only survived the first season, whereas my mum is still going and she says the key to her success is to use the fast-forward button everytime they hit flashback mode). The main exception I can remember (I believe there were others, but...) was Locke's. Why? I now think it's because it was unexpected. The trouble that I had with so many of the others were that they were much too clichéd. The doctor's were all medical and the rock star had a drug problem... I mean TV has done that before! I liked the Alias flashbacks better and, again, it was the surprise ones that really worked for me. I mean to make sure that, the next time I put a flashback in a piece of writing, it really is necessary and really does tell something new. I'm a little too fond of confirming what a reader is already likely to guess.

So - where was I? Ah yes, Jekyll. Worth a look or a borrow (I have a copy for instance!), but don't expect too much. It's not nearly as good as The Lost Room which I will still happily rave about.

Amazon Films
Our last couple of films were Gone in 60 seconds and What lies beneath. Whilst rather different films (Nicholas Cage and Angelina Jolie in an action film vs Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford in a (lightish) horror), I felt much the same way about both of them. I quite enjoyed them, but nothing to write home about.

Infinity (I suspect only of interest to the other players and GM)
bateleur ran the second session of the second mini-campaign last weekend, so I thought I'd write down some of the things we discovered and mangle a few NPC names in the process.

• Mavere, the missing guardian from the Shurien Nexus set had a daughter (possibly) called Dau who has the symbol of the rising sun.
• Mavere was made patron of the underworld by the other Guardians.
• Mavere was investigating phantoms before she died (? If she died). She believed they might be the slave race of something larger.
• Time streams are running into each other here (and now).
• It's a fight for Shurien Nexus and the people on each side vary between streams
• We went up to the outer orbital and found we had left a mission for ourselves.
• There's a Guardian trapped outside in a space suit.
• We completed the mission other-we set ourselves and heard a conversation. That indicated that there were originally Guardian descendants that evolved into super people, so the AoA (Alliance of Arbiters) made them sterile. However the outer limits will have some of these in them.
• Outriders were therefore also expected to vanish.
• The rising sun symbol turned up is discussion and one said it looked familiar (found on the dead agent of the three who reported back on Guardian descendants).

And I love the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack.

Comments

[dr-bob.livejournal.com]

Watched Jekyll when it was on TV, and agree that the plot unpredictability and suspense were rather nicely done. Plus James Nesbit makes a damn fine psychopath!! Parking characters can be annoying, but in a series, often has to be donw to fit plots into the confined spaces of the episodes. Just look at Heroes, which each week features an unpredictable subset of the characters

And ta for the B'day card!!

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Just look at Heroes, which each week features an unpredictable subset of the characters

It's on my wait-and-buy-it list, but I'll take your word for it.

And ta for the B'day card!!

You're welcome!

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Jekyll, the next two episodes of Doctor Who are a Moffat 2-parter.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately we've completely stopped watching it (just kept missing episodes). However, maybe we'll catch it on repeats.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I doubt there's enough continuity in the series for it to matter that you've missed episodes. Depends whether you think Catherine Tait is more annoying than Steven Moffat is good...