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WerePaladin

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Who Update...

By WerePaladin 1 Comments


Well, it's been a bit since I've written anything in my Blog-y thing here on Giant Bomb, and after my last whinge-y post about the Daleks, I thought I should set the balance straight and write some more positive feedback on recent episodes. 
 
I've since managed to devour the next three episodes, entitled "The Time of Angels", "Flesh and Stone" and "The Vampires of Venice".  I'm going to (try and) give my thoughts on these episodes, but keep the *spoilers* down to a minimum, just in case any of you out there are (somehow) further behind on episodes than we are here in Australia.  However, consider this your official warning should you be sensitive about that sort of thing - don't say I didn't tell you, K?  :) 
 
Creepy Angel Statues anyone?
Creepy Angel Statues anyone?
The two-parter involving the return of the Weeping Angels (last seen in "Blink", an awesome episode from a couple of series back) was amazing.  Firstly it was written by Mr. Steven Moffatt, which means that you're in for a treat.  Besides that, it appears that the acting of Matt Smith and Karen Gillan has improved since the "Victory of the Daleks" particularly in some of the scenes in the second episode where Amy is suffering some visual difficulties.  With the improvement in acting comes an improvement in story and pacing.  In these episodes, there were no moments where I sat there and said "How did they get that done in such a short period of time?", like in the previous story. 
 
As for the characters, it was good to revisit Doctor River Song at an earlier point in her history, before she becomes Professor Song as encountered in "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead".  Actually, about River Song - I have some thoughts to share with you all on her...  Actually, since I'm going to quote some parts of the episode when I pose my questions, I'm going to put the next section in those cool *spoiler* sections. 
 
SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.
So here's the thing.  Is River Song even human?  I don't think she is...  Let me explain my thoughts and let me see what you think about it.  Firstly, she demonstrates an ability to pilot the TARDIS which rivals (and betters) the Doctor's own.  When he tries to claim responsibility for teaching her, she states 'It's a pity you weren't available that day".  Now who else could teach her how to pilot a TARDIS if not the Doctor?  Considering there is (allegedly) only one Time Lord loose in the Universe apart from the Doctor, and given that the Master is unlikely to have taught her, how did she get so good? 
 
Secondly, the Bishop makes a comment to her about revealing to the Doctor who and what she is.  Now does this mean the fact that she is some sort of criminal?  I mean, you threaten someone with that sort of thing when they're a murderer, or a rapist, or something similar - that's when you say "I'll tell them what you are..."  But the Bishop later tells the Doctor that River Song was in "Stormcage", which sounds like some sort of prison.  So she's a criminal / murderer, but is that what she is?  Why would you describe a human as a "what"? 
 
Thirdly, she demonstrates an ability to write a message to the Doctor in Old High Gallifreyan, an extinct language.  Now, given that she's an archaeologist, it would be reasonable to assume she might have seen some of it around the place, but to learn it?  Is this something else the Doctor told her (apart from his true name)?  Or does she know the language because she might share something else with the Doctor? 
 
Fourthly, when River Song mentions the "Pandorica" (whatever that is), and the Doctor says "That's a fairytale", Doctor Song replies with "Aren't we all?".  She's a fairytale?  Like an extinct species that only has a member (or two) left in existence - say, the Time Lords? 
 
Some of you have probably figured out where I'm going with this, but for those of you haven't watched the classic series, I'll elaborate.  I think Doctor River Song is actually a Time Lady by the name of the Rani.  Back in the older series, there were actually three renegade Time Lords running amok in the universe - The Doctor, The Master and The Rani.  The Rani was an amoral scientist who wasn't specifically evil, but didn't let silly concepts such as ethics in the way of her research.  She clashed with the Doctor several times in the old series, and even once masqueraded as one of his companions shortly after his sixth regeneration.  The Rani would be able to pilot a TARDIS, know the Gallifreyan language, possibly even know the Doctor's true name (as there were hints in the older series that the Doctor and the Rani were more than just acquaintences), and as a Time Lord, she would not be human.  How would she escape the Time War?  Possibly the same way that the Master did, or even more simply by just not being involved at all! 
 
So what do you all think?  Am I on to something here, or am I just clutching at further remnants of what once was, and hoping for a return?
 
Creepy buxom Vampire girls.
Creepy buxom Vampire girls.
The most recent episode Anna and I watched was "The Vampires of Venice".  Nice lil' story there as well.  Please note, this one was not written by SM either (for those of you who may accuse me of snobbery), so I think it's more a matter of the fact that I don't like Mark Gatiss' writing that much.  *shrug*   Definitely enjoyed seeing Rory adventure with Amy and the Doctor, even if he was a bit lame in parts.  Also enjoyed the acting and the story - nothing too earth-shattering, but still some good parts to it.  Even enjoyed the "Are they Vampires or not" mystery (which I won't spoil by answering here - go watch the episode yourself!  *grin*) 
 
My only real complaint (well, it's kinda two - but they are linked) involves the Perception Filter things.  They seem to work by altering someone's brainwaves to see something different than what is there, right?  So how does someone remove clothing that is part of a perceptual illusion?  And how does a mind-altering illusion protect someone from sunlight?  (Case in point, creepy Vampire girls being afraid of the sun early in the episode, compared to de-cloaked Vampire guy being atomized by sunlight later in the episode)  What the?  Apart from that lil' glitch, I quite enjoyed the story, and am looking forward to the next few, particularly with some of the rumoured returns of original series foes that I've read around the place.  :) 
 
A familiar face?
A familiar face?
 Oh, one other thing.  Did any of you notice the cool lil' continuity reference when the Doctor attempted to flash his psychic paper, but instead pulled out his library card?  Any of you recognise the face on the card?

So what are your thoughts, people?  Did you enjoy these three episodes as much as I did?  I'm happy to go into some more spoiler specific discussion with any of you about it, but just wanted to make sure you've seen the episode first.  What about my theory about River Song?  Am I on track or way out there?  Do you have a different theory as to what's going on with her or not? 
 
 
That'll do for tonight, early start for work in the morning.  So while I go off to read some of the Doctor Who spin off fiction about Faction Paradox, don't forget to... 
 
GAME ON!  :)
1 Comments

Minions and Sidekicks...

By WerePaladin 9 Comments


Evening everyone, how's things? 
 
I was just messing around with my profile here on Giant Bomb, and I noticed something that I hadn't paid a lot of attention to previously.  Under the "About Me" section of your profile, there's a bit where you select your "Alignment".  Mine for example is set to Microsoft.  It mentions in that section that if you change your alignment that it may have an impact on your Minion or Sidekick relationships... 
 
Erm, what?  What is all that about?  I had a search of the forums, and I couldn't find a mention of what it means.  (This possibly means of course that my searching abilities are sub-standard, but I choose not to believe that.  *grin*).  Can anyone explain what this whole Minion and Sidekick thing is about please? 
 
adTHANKSvance, 
 
Matt
9 Comments

Giant Bomb and OCD...

By WerePaladin 3 Comments


Hello and welcome to one and all (who might be reading this).  I hope your day has gone well so far.  :) 
 
In my continuing adventures around the wide world of Giant Bomb, I have now discovered the joys of editing Wiki pages.  Sure, the concept of the Wiki is the idea on which this entire site is structured - but I hadn't given it a whole lot of thought until recently.  Since I signed up, I have simply  been content to surf through the pages, looking up information on games that interest me, and generally having a chuckle at some of the content presented on the site. 
 
Then one day, not so long ago, I noticed that a page I was looking at had some typos.  It was at this point that the anal-retentive within surged forward and compelled me to correct the error.  It was just one page (Water, I think) and it was a very small mistake, but I made my submission and it was accepted.  Wow.  I made a change to something, and it stuck!   
 
So a couple of days later, while I was continuing to work on some of my Quests, I spotted a spelling mistake, and so I fixed that as well.  As it happens, proof-reading documents was something I did quite a bit of at my previous workplace, so I was kinda already conditioned to look for spelling mistakes, typographical errors and general issues with the language or grammar of a document.  So as I've been looking through the site, I've been making tiny adjustments here and there.  None of them are significantly huge (for the most part), and none of them are earning me squillions of Wiki points, but I still have the satisfaction of knowing that in my own small way I am making Giant Bomb a better website. 
 
That's all I wanted to say.  Nothing whinge-y about bad Doctor Who episodes or comments about games I'm playing today.  Nothing that needs to go in any of the Forums or anything like that.  Just a lil' muttering into the void of my own blog.  Nothing more to see here, move along...  *grin*
3 Comments

Victory of the Blah-leks...

By WerePaladin 3 Comments


Well, it's been a few days since I watched the most recent episode of Doctor Who here in Australia, and I've thought about it long and hard...  I just don't like it. 
  
(For those of you from other parts of the world who have already watched past this, bear with me) 
 
Sunday night had "The Victory of the Daleks" played on our ABC, and I went into the episode with a mix of excitement and dread.  Excitement because it looked like the Daleks were getting themselves a reboot (like just about everything else in this latest series of Doctor Who - Doctor, TARDIS, Sonic Screwdriver, etc.), and dread because this episode wasn't written by Steven Moffatt. 
 
Unfortunately, my fears turned out to be well-founded.  The whole episode seemed to simply serve the purpose of introducing the "new' Daleks.  Daleks working with the British, under assault from the Germans during the Blitz?  A weird device that wouldn't believe that the Daleks were Daleks?  An outer space dogfight that was more than a bit reminiscent of "Star Wars"?  What? 
 
Yes, I understand the need for a bit of an introduction to the "new" Daleks (does anyone else think they look like they ate a few too many pies?  They're so FAT now!), but couldn't there have been a better story around it?  I mean, how do you take an "experimental" technology such as the Gravity Bubbles the professor had, and implement it on several Spitfires - doing all that within ten minutes?  Matt Smith's and Karen Gillan's performances seemed to take a leap back in this story, which leads me to believe they probably filmed out of sequence and that "The Eleventh Hour" was filmed later than this one.  *shrug* 
 
Now before you all say "Well if you don't like it, don't watch it", let me just say that I watch this show because I do love it.  Ever since the new series started up in 2005, I have watched each and every episode.  Some of them I have adored, and some of them I have disliked.  Some of them (such as this one) quite intensely.  The most upsetting part of it all is that I know the show can do better than this sort of sub-standard writing.  And yes, I am not a professional script-writer, and have no idea as to how difficult and complex it can be to put an episode together.  All I know is what I like and what I don't - my opinion.  And in my opinion, this was a bad episode.  :( 
 
So I'm hoping that the next couple of episodes, which I have been led to believe involve the Weeping Angels from "Blink" (another awesome episode from Series 29), are much better than the one I've just watched.  I've even watched "The Eleventh Hour" over again, just to try and get the bad thoughts from my head.  I think it's worked, so here's hoping, fingers crossed, that this weekend's episode is better. 
 
That'll do for now.  In the meantime, make sure the rest of you... 
 
GAME ON!  :)
3 Comments

Lists and Slackness...

By WerePaladin 1 Comments


I've just realised that after my mammoth effort last week in updating my XBox 360 Games List, that I've let a few of my other Lists lay idle.  I started them a while back, and just haven't gotten around to putting all my games on them yet. 
 
I know - how slack is that?  :( 
 
Might have to spend some time over the weekend getting them up to date.  It's gonna take me a while, but I'll be a happy chappy when they're all done. 
 
NEhow, just a quick message (to myself, in all likelihood) before I head off to (probably) play some Monster Hunter Tri, and then off to bed. 
 
GAME ON! :) 
 
Edit:  Just realised - I've got myself a follower!  Guess I'm not the only person reading these now.  *grin*
1 Comments

Ssssssh! Be vewy vewy quiet - I'm hunting... monsters?

By WerePaladin 1 Comments


Well, it's time for another blog post, I reckon.  This time it's about another Game I've been playing in the last day or so - Monster Hunter Tri. 
 
I must admit, I haven't gotten very far in the game at all.  I've only really played for a couple of hours, but I thought I would give my initial impressions before I get too far through it all.  I should also note that this is my first experience with any of the Monster Hunter series, so I didn't go into this expecting it to be "just like the old version", or anything like that. 
 
Given that I'm only just finishing up the "tutorial" section of the Game, my exposure to the monsters available has been fairly limited.  The ones I have seen have had a good variety of behaviours and environments they show up in.  There have also been LOTS of items to collect / harvest / mine and generally acquire.  Now some people find that sort of thing a bit tedious, but I don't.  Truth be told, I am borderline OCD and so if you give me a whole bunch of different things I can collect or find, then I'm as happy as a pig in mud (although I don't know about dressing it up in a stripey suit or NEthing). 
 
I've liked the options of renaming several of the characters on you encounter them, and that the villagers give you requests to complete as side quests to the main missions.  Exploring the world of Moga Forest has been gradual, and having the map revealed a piece at a time has given me the option of becoming more familiar with the sorts of objects / monsters in each area. 
 
I've only really tried a couple of weapon combinations so far, the Sword and Shield and the Great Sword.  It has been great to have weapons that require a lil' bit of thought in their use, rather than just simply varying the damage done but having the same animation or speed.  I'm looking forward to trying out some of the different weapon types, and can already see where some of these weapons would prove useful with different monsters.  Being able to craft your own weapons and armour is also a kewl thing, particularly given that it requires you to collect stuff before you can forge things.  I'm looking forward to creating some custom suits of armour and seeing what benefits I can gain from each. 
 
I haven't tried out the online component of the game so far.  Actually I sorta have, just not with other people.  I tried loading up the "City" section of the game, and it looks like the system of finding team mates online is FAR easier than the Wii's usual method of exchanging Friend Codes, but only when you're both online at exactly the same moment, during a blue moon, while hopping up and down on one foot.  It actually looks fairly similar to what you might find on the 360 or PS3, which is a massive improvement in my books.  I've got a couple of friends who have Wii's, and I've already made noises at them about catching up online to hunt some monsters together.

So my initial impression is definitely a positive one.  Sure, it's a VERY early impression so far, and I'm sure some of the monsters I will face in the future will drive me to distraction, but it's a thumbs up from me on this one.  If you're reading this and aren't sure about whether you wanna check it out, then hopefully my initial impressions will help in your decision. 
 
Keep up the good work out there, Giant Bombers.  Don't forget to: 
 
GAME ON!  :)
1 Comments

Gotta catch 'em all

By WerePaladin 1 Comments


Yeah, I know what that title looks like.  Looks a bit like I've been playing Pokemon games, right?  Well, as it happens - no, I haven't. 
 
I'm actually playing Fable 2 (so a bunch of you out there just got the reference *grin*) and I'm working on my very LAST achievement in the game.  The problem with it is, that it's the one you can't actually complete by yourself, and involves help from other people.  (No-Prize for the person who first names the achievement) 
 
The trick is, you need six dolls to complete this one, and as it happens I only have managed to acquire three in my Game.  The three I have in my posession are: 
 
1.  Hero doll 
2.  Hammer doll 
3.  Theresa doll 
 
Of course, that means I happen to be missing the other three dolls: 
 
4.  Garth doll 
5.  Reaver doll 
6.  Lucien doll 
 
Now I'm not usually one to ask for help with a game, but in this case I don't really have an option.  I've messaged a couple of my mates who have also played the game, but still waiting to hear back from that.  And so I turn to you - the loyal Giant Bombers out there - to see it any of you can help me.  Do any of you out there have any of my missing dolls to loan or trade with me? 
 
As it happens, my Gamertag is the same here as it is on XBox Live.  If any of you are gracious enough to assist me, either PM me here, or send me a message via XBox Live so we can sort something out. 
 
AdTHANKSvance for your help.  :) 
 
Matt 
 
Edit:  And if I had have read the Fable 2 forums before making this post, I could have simply added my name to the list in another post.  Duh!  :(
1 Comments

I can't believe I haven't done this yet...

By WerePaladin 13 Comments


Well, it's about time I made some noise here on my Giant Bomb blog-y thing.  Given that I'm feeling dreadful due to a bad case of the lurgy, this first entry will be fairly short I think. 
 
However, I wanted to put this thought out there (where no-one will ever read it).  In recent times, there have been a spate of earthquakes around the world.  Los Angeles, China, Iceland and now Adelaide.  Coincidence, or indications of some deeper conspiracy at work?  Underground nuclear testing?  The Mole Men working on a new drilling machine?  Someone ate FAR too many baked beans?  Who knows?  :)
13 Comments