Dragon Age, Lady Oracle and the Upside to Duff Ticket Woman

[lathany]

It's finally warming up outside. Time for an update:

• Dragon Age - I finished my game (as a warrior). I liked the story line and that there were various good/middling/evil choices to make. I loved the graphics and the other characters (although bateleur loathed Alistair). The system was OK, but I suspect that the user interface is less clunky on the PC (the double menus using the shoulder buttons were a real pain). I liked the choices of ability. However, I didn't like the difficulty level. I found "normal" really hard and had to retake a couple of sections to get through. I disliked that it was difficult to complete without doing all the optional bits; in Baldur's Gate the optional bits include harder stuff for people who want it. Overall I thought it was a good game, but it fell short just obviously enough that I was very aware it failed at being an awesome game. Particularly as just a little more work would have made it an awesome game (harder optional sections, slight more twist in the plot). Oh, and their download system is awful - it times out in such a way that the codes I have for extras did work, but it took half an hour for Bioware to admit that the "incorrect codes" actually weren't.
• Lady Oracle - This may be my favourite Atwood to date. Why? Because the ending feels (more) like an ending and isn't horribly depressing (pretty much every other of the six books I've read fails on one or both counts). It's the usual walkthrough someone's somewhat strange life and this particular book says a lot about self-image and what it's like to be over-weight. As I was on the heavy side until I hit university (although not to the extent of the heroine), I found I could empathise somewhat with the central character.
• Duff Ticket Woman - I'm occasionally reminded that most Londoners are actually pretty good about train delays, tube delays and general transport problems. Usually because I come across someone who isn't. On Wednesday I was travelling back from Leeds to Ashford. Coming into Kings Cross, the obvious thing to do was to take the tube to Vauxhall and catch my train from there. Arriving at Vauxhall, there was a queue to get into the main station. The reason was that only three of the machines were working. The fourth had the only guard trying to mend it. Eventually the guard managed, moved through and was immediately followed by a woman whose ticket failed to open the gate. The guard called back to try another machine and so this woman immediately switched barriers, pushing in front of me to try the next machine. That didn't work either. Now this happens from time to time and pretty much every traveller I've seen it happen to moves to one side to summon the guard to deal with them away from the stream of people. This woman didn't. Despite the fact that there were already only three machines working (Vauxhall usually runs on four or five at that time of day) she continued to block one by refusing to move and calling the guard to her machine. Fortunately for me, I was let into the next machine queue and caught my train. However, whilst I was annoyed with her selfishness, it also highlighted just how many people don't do this - it's a very rare event.
• Torchlight - I've also finished this (the main game at least) and have moved on to the extra dungeon at the end. For those who don't read (or perhaps don't remember) zandev's LJ, Torchlight is a type of budget Diablo II that you can get from Steam. It isn't nearly as good as Diablo II (IMO) as I found it felt repetitive really early (I'm not quite sure why, but I think a mixture of fewer power types and repetitive quests), but a fairly good way to relax for an afternoon if killing demons is your preferred approach. One big downside - it crashes a lot on my machine (at what seem to be regular intervals).
• The Running Man - Despite the age and cult status of this, I finally saw it for the first time this month. It's a really good action movie, really 80s (but in a good way! And it reminded me a little of various fighting games on arcades at that time due to the bosses) and unless you're allergic to Arnold Schwarzenegger, I'd recommend it. It's described as "loosely" based on the Stephen King novel (written under another name), but having not read the book I don't know how loosely.
• City of Ember - A night out with chrestomancy was spend at his local Thai (called Bridge Inn - it's the pub closest to the station), which I'd recommend (I had duck and the yellow noodles). We chatted about life, the universe and everything and drank red wine. Afterward, we went back and watched City of Ember. It's post-apocalypse and stars Bill Murray. It's about an hour and a half long and benefits from not having any slack in it. It's a nice concept and I liked the whole thing and thought it was almost like a roleplaying one-off (the leads were a couple of teenagers who Found The Plot Item).

Comments

[sosoclever.livejournal.com]

The Running Man: by "loosely," they mean that if the book and movie didn't have the same title, you might not realize that there was any relation. I enjoyed both, but the two have very little in common.

In the book, for starters, he volunteers for the show, because he needs/wants the money. Instead of being sent into a studio labyrinth to defeat the comic-book-hero-like people, he has to survive out in the world for a set number of days, while being chased by a group that are more like bounty hunters.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I wondered just how loosely they were linked - thanks! I suspect the film is more my thing than the book.

[sosoclever.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! There's a short story by Robert Sheckley, which title I can't remember (although the_original1 says he can find it quickly) that's very similar to the book The Running Man. It's a guy who goes on a game show to win a plot of land outside the extremely overcrowded city, and he has to escape the city in so many days. To compare it to a movie, I'd say it's more like Escape from New York than The Running Man!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

The Sheckley story is 'The Prize of Peril'. Which was also filmed, in French as Le Prix de Danger (which I haven't seen, but the story is very good).

[sosoclever.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Our books are all packed up in preparation for us making new library shelves, so while I'm sure the_original1 could have found it (he did the packing), it's nice he doesn't have to!

I'll have to see if I can find the movie. It was a great story.