Yes, desperately catching up on all the posts I should have made this week, but did not.
Undine Front: The Return is the second of the two episodes given you by Starfleet as you embark upon Season Two. It opens similarly to the other mission, Undine Front: Assimilation, with a sudden congregation of Borg ships causing some concern in the quadrant. Not only that, but there have been reports of non-Borg ships in the area as well. It would be terrible to lose such a fine crew, Starfleet assures us, but we need to head in and do what we can.
The USS Monterey warped in to find a Romulan science ship, the IRW Areinnye, on the losing side of a battle against some Borg spheres. The Romulan captain, Commander Taelus, does something that must have hurt her more than the Borg ever could… she calls for assistance from any nearby ships, and when we make contact, absolutely begs for Federation assistance.
Romulans are normally too proud to ever ask for help from another race, and they consider the Federation mortal enemies. What could be happening that would bring them to this end?
Tipa
Neopets wants me to solve Shapeshifter again.
I got a letter today from Neopets (remember them? Facebook for kids?) warning me my account was about to meet the Great Blindingly Pink Maker if I didn’t log in pretty soon. Talk about obsessions. Three years ago, I casually played Neopets to keep in touch with my nieces Jazzmin and Ilsa. It was fun … Read more
Frontierville: the Panorama
In these social town/farm/empire/chocolate shop building games on Facebook, it’s hard to see your entire place all at once. Even zoomed out in Frontierville, you can only see a fraction of your homestead — and that, blurredly. Enter Autostitch. I took 46 individual pictures of my homestead, cut out the UI cruft, loaded them into … Read more
Dragon Age Origins spoiler: Everyone dies.
Starting a Bioware game is deadly to your free time. To mine, anyway.
I played through Dragon Age: Origins for the first time last November, didn’t eat, drink, sleep, just kept playing until I was done. I got to the end out of breath and exhausted, but with the blood of the archdemon on my twin blades and the taint of the darkspawn simmering in my veins.
All those saved games were lost. But playing a rogue through the first time was only one story, and to get ready to play the expansion pack, Dragon Age: Awakenings (and to anticipate Dragon Age 2), I decided to replay the game and make some different choices.
Each different race/class combination has its own, semi-unique, origin story. Human and elf mages share an origin in the insular Circle of Magi, where all budding mages are sent to find their place as either the tools or the prey of the Templars. Your dwarf can either be from the underclass or of the nobility; your human can be from the slums or the castle; your elf can be from the ghetto or the forest. All stories do converge once your are pulled from your old life by Duncan, the Warden-Commander of the Gray Wardens. The Wardens are a mystically bound order tasked with defending the surface world from the depredations of the Darkspawn, twisted creatures formed, says legend, from the mortals who invaded and tainted the Golden City of the Maker. With the Maker departed, his prophet and bride Andraste long ago dead, murdered, and the land on the edge of civil war, an Arch Demon has arisen to lead the Darkspawn on a Blight — an invasion of the surface world.
Through the choices you make along the way, your adventure will bring you along roughly three different paths, once through the origin. Being helpful, kind, upholding the law and never making deals with the evil spirits of the Fade, you will follow the good path. Be self-serving and make deals to your benefit, and you follow the path of evil. Chart a middle course and nobody will really be that happy with you, but on the other hand, their expectations will be low. No matter what path you choose, your overall goal remains the same — defeat the archdemon and prevent the Blight — but your reasons may change.
Yes, I’m still alive!
My Dragon Age: origins replay has been sucking away all my free time. But, that’s done with, for now, so I just have to write about it. Also, I changed the blog theme. Not 100% sure I like it, but I knew it was time to do something. You’ll notice (perhaps) that the XFire plug … Read more