Friday, 31 January 2014

Point-and-click adventure games

Today I finished The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief. It's a point-and-click adventure game and at a first glance you seem to play as a middle-aged Swiss police man trying to solve a robbery and catch a thief. The game is divided into three chapters and although it gets a bit tedious at times, the whole atmosphere of the game is like being in the middle of an Agatha Christie novel. The graphics of the game aren't the best, most noticeably so during conversations with the characters and their faces hardly move or not at all, but I do love the feeling of being the detective trying to solve a robbery. The ending is a twist (I really did not see that coming).


I had my suspicions all throughout the game who the Raven would be. But all my assumptions were wrong. Are you better at deduction than I am? ;)

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Violett is another point-and-click adventure game that I started playing back in December, but haven't really got around to continue it. The combinations with which you do stuff is kind of preposterous and several times I just feel exasperated. But at the same time I can't help but loving the graphics and the weirdness of the game. We play as Violett, a girl who has been forced to move from the city and all her friends to a big house on the countryside. She's really mad about it. Accidentally she discovers a way to a different and magical world, from which she has to escape if she ever wants to see her parents again. It also seems to be loosely based on Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I haven't finished it yet, but I'm working on it! :)


And she seems to have a magical uncle...
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Thursday, 30 January 2014

Nostalgic Harry Potter computer games

Yesterday night for some reason I became extremely nostalgic and decided to dig out my old disc of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone PC game. It was one of my favourites when I was younger and when it was originally released I did have some troubles with it. Moving platforms and jumping puzzles were complicated for a 10 year old newbie gamer :P

I was a little wary at sarting it again, because I had tried a couple of years back and back then the saving function hadn't been working on my disc. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this time it did work :D The graphics are really cute for such an old game. The only thing that actually bothers me (and I remember it bothered me when I was 10 years old too) is that none of the characters move their faces or their mouths when they talk. They just nod and move their hands while you hear them talking. It's weird. 

Another thing that I've noticed now is that this game does something that's very common among older games. Everything in the games is on one level, fairly easy and a lot of fun, then comes the boss fight at the end and the difficulty level is suddenly multiplied by 10. I know what to do at the end fight, I have finished the game about three times before. I'm just sort of annoyed when Voldemort can fire heat-seaking spells while all I can do is rotate a freakin' mirror and hope for the best. The boss fight is kind of annoying tbh, but I really enjoy everything else about the game. 

Did you know that Quirrell snaps his own neck? xD I saw that in the game and was all: O_O ...wtf?


I think I'm going to skip the boss fight of Philosopher's Stone and head on with Chamber of Secrets :)
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Sunday, 26 January 2014

I'm crazy

I'm seriously considering to buy Always Remember Me. A love sim. An otome game. A girl game. Me. A girl game. What?! But I've watched Dodger play it for several series now. The Alone series. The Lawrence series. The Eddy series. And I just want to do it by myself as well. This is how my obsession with Long Live the Queen started. I sit there going through new videos in my YouTube subscription feed every day waiting and hoping for a new episode of Always Remember Me xD Cause I just want to know what happens next so badly xD It's like I'm watching a very intriguing TV-series and have to wait for the next episode xD And everytime she gets and ending I just sit there smiling like an idiot, and when she starts to get close I get all fidgety xD Exactly like a good TV-series. I'm probably crazy. And I think it's the same for her cause when she started this game series she started the video by saying "Oh, what am I about to do (^^);"

It doesn't help that she does awesome voice-acting while playing either xD


Just cause I'll give you her first video of Long Live the Queen as well :P


But I'll try to refrain from buying Always Remember Me for a while longer and go play The Raven instead.
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Thursday, 23 January 2014

The musical year of 2013

So a bit better and earlier than last year. But still not as early as I would've liked. Obviously I need to start listen through a year's releases earlier than October. Here's 2012, and here's 2011. I'm going to do this like I did last year, cause there are way too many artists to do it like in 2011.

Group/artist name. Genre. Amount of releases. My overall grade of releases. Favourite song.
To make it easy I'll also separate Asian from Western as well as separate the Asian pop from the Asian rock.
Most anticipated releases: Avril's album, Yohio's album, The Pretty Reckless' singles, Sharan Q's single, and Morning Musume's singles. 
Best releases of the year: Avril Lavigne - "Rock n Roll", Juice=Juice - "Watashi ga Iu Mae ni Dakishimenakya ne", The Pretty Reckless - "Heaven Knows", Morning Musume - "Brainstorming", Sharan Q - "Single Bed"
Best songs all-together (most plays):
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Monday, 20 January 2014

Nerdy week

Last week I had a really nerdy week. I had a lot planned, similar to the week before, but in the end all of that went through the window. That's what happens when you get stuck in games.

Monday to Thursday I was completely stuck in Long Live The Queen. I had so much fun and I have managed 32 of 39 achievements, which means I have managed almost all scenarios the game has to offer. When the week started I was dead set on getting everything, but by Thursday I had grown sort of tired of the game and needed some change. Still Long Live The Queen is one of my current favourite games.

So to get that change I started up Akaneiro: Demon Hunters. It's a Japanese style dungeon crawler. Akaneiro is the Japanese name for The Little Red Riding Hood, and you basically play as a demon slaying girl. You kill demons from Japanese folklore with an array of Japanese style armour and weapons, while listening to Japanese style music. It's awesome. I started playing this back in October when it was still Early Access. When I started it up again on Thursday evening it was no longer Early Access and a lot of things had changed. It worked really well and I had a lot fun. For several days.

But on Saturday I had grown sort of tired of Akaneiro too and decided to start up Morrowind again. This far I'm having a lot of fun with Morrowind, though there are moments when the game drives me crazy. Like the fact that you can't always get out of water if you get in it. Mostly that happens in the sewers of Vivec City and occasional pools. But most of the time it works well. I'm getting better and I think I'm about halfway through the main quest line now, though there are loads more to do outside of the main quest line. 

Apart from the obvious with the games we also had a game night two days ago in which we played the first story from the expansion pack Forbidden Alchemy for Mansions of Madness. I was Keeper again, but this time no one won. If only one player had been a little slower I would have won, but because he wasn't no one could win this time around :/ I still had a lot of fun playing Keeper. Being the Keeper allows me to be just as mean as I want to :3

Yesterday I spent playing more Morrowind as well as watching the third and final episode of season 3 of BBC Sherlock. Ending the season with a cliffhanger ofc, and now we probably have to wait two more years for the next season T_T
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Wednesday, 15 January 2014

My childhood PC games

So CutiePieMarzia made a video talking about old PC games she played while growing up and I got so inspired to do a blog post about my own top 6 PC games from my childhood. Let's start by showing you her video:

Let's start backwards. 

Number 6 has got to be Quack Attack. I didn't have it at home but me and my sister spent countless hours playing it on my grandfather's computer. She was better at it than me (she has always been better at platformers than me). But I did have a lot of fun with it. It all disappeared when my grandfather got a new computer.

Number 5 is probably Strawberry Magic. I could only play this during recess in school and during after school activities. It took me forever to find anything about this game cause apparantly it wasn't such a big commercial success and no one I know and have talked to since has ever heard about the game. I can't find it on YouTube and these are all the pictures I could find, most of them from a Hebrew site. I did find a place to download the game in Swedish, though! It's an old DOS-based game and I don't remember much from the story other than that you're playing as a walking, talking strawberry boy who helps people.

Number 4 is Disney's Magic Artist Studio. I played this for a long time and I didn't stop until I was probably way older than the intended target audience. It's a painting game and it's a lot of fun. I still have the disc for this game somewhere. It just sucked that after Vista I could no longer make it work on my computer :( All the videos I can find on Youtube are for newer versions of the game so instead I show you some pictures I found of the version of the game that I played :)

Number 3 is Freddie the Fish. This is a sort of point-and-click adventure game and I was slightly older when I started playing this. I think I played it both in school, at a friend's house and at my grandfather's computer. It was a lot of fun and if I could get my hands on it today I think I'd still really like it :)

Number 2 is a game that I know as Flygande Start Första Klass, but that I found out is called JumpStart First Graders in English. I loved this game as a child and I continued to play it halfway through my teens on days when I was really bored. It's enjoyable and once you're older than the age the game is intended for it's quite easy. A game of a lot of easy fun. 

Number 1 is a game that I still love: the original Rayman game. I have the disc, but I can't get it to work so instead I play the GBA version on my DS :P I love Band Land. The furthest I've ever gotten is to Pen Land (don't even know if it's called that). As I said before I'm not good with platformers, but I can't help but love Rayman. This game (and how amazing it is) is the main reason why I've never liked a Rayman game since. Don't fix it if it ain't broken! -.-

Then of course there are other games I played when I was little that I really loved, but these are the main ones. 

Others are the Pippi Longstocking game I used to play at the computer at the local library, and Bubble Bobble that I used to play at a friend's place, or Super Mario that I used to play at another friend's place... Those last two were of course not PC games but console games, but still... Then there are of course games that I remember that I have played, but I have no idea what they're called and it would take forever for me to find them. I already went through that with Strawberry Magic. 
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Thursday, 9 January 2014

The Walking Dead & Game of Thrones

Yesterday Toni and I saw all released episodes of season 4 of The Walking Dead. Today we finished season 3 of Game of Thrones (almost a year too late, I know). I need to write a bit about my feelings, because OMG these shows are killing me.

[SPOILERS AHEAD! HAVE YOU NOT WATCHED UNTIL THE WALKING DEAD S04E08 AND GAME OF THRONES S03E10 DON'T READ ANY FURTHER]

The Walking Dead.
Overall I enjoyed the season, though it became painfully obvious that this new flu was created to kill off every superfluous character that arrived from Woodbury at the end of last season. I like that Carl is more grown up now and less of a crazed child. I loved the scene where the fence breaks down and Rick and Carl together fend of a horde of walkers.
When Tyreese found Karen and David burned I was seriously convinced that it was Bob who did it. I didn't trust him and I still don't. I think he's suspicious. But Toni guessed ahead that it was Carol and it turned out he was right. What Rick did to Carol I think was absolutely right, but I liked Carol a lot and I don't want to see her go.
The scene in Cellblock A when some of the flu victims turned and Hershel was there alone had me on nails. Since the stupid administrators of The Walking Dead's Facebook page had spoiled on beforehand that Hershel would die in this season I thought that this was it. When he lived I was so happy.
Then of course the Governor had to show up. Despite his "rehabilitation" playing house with a new family I knew he wasn't "cured", because if he was there'd be no story. The final fight made me cry. I cried when Hershel died. I loved Hershel, just as I loved Dale. Why do they have to kill off all the good old men in the show? :( Tara obviously wanted to join Rick's side already before the fighting started. Michonne killed the Governor. FINALLY! I thought he wouldn't die cause he'd be a part of the story in the next part of the season too. I loved how badass the children were in the final fight.
But why did the bus leave without Maggie and Beth? Sure, they said they'd leave, but they knew Maggie was on the way! I guess next part of the season will show how the different groups from the prison try to survive on they own before being rejoined at a new place to call home. Because of the stupid administrators of The Walking Dead's Facebook page I also know that baby Judith isn't dead, as Rick and Carl seemed to think in the episode. Cause they wrote "Who took baby Judith?". So there. She's taken, not dead. Lovely. Thanks. -.-
Then there's just the mystery of the rats left. I'm still saying it's Bob cause I really don't like him and I think he's suspicious. But Toni says it's Lizzie and he was right about Carol, so maybe he's right about this too.
I'll just have to wait until February to find out. It could have been worse.

Game of Thrones.
I'm so shipping Jaime with Brianne.
All that's in my head right now is Red Wedding. That bastard Walder Frye! I honestly thought Mummy Stark would live through it, and I feel so sorry for poor Arya. Due to Facebook (once again) I knew that Robb would die, but I thought Mummy Stark would survive. I hoped Robb's wife (what's her name?) would live. Walder Frye is so getting what's coming to him. And it seems like Jaqen Hgarr is returning next season, with a new face of course.
And I'm so frustrated that if only the wildlings had heard Bran and the others inside the windmill then Bran would've been reunited with Jon Snow. On the other hand maybe the fighting would've been even harder for him. I feel so sorry for Ygritte, all alone in a new country.
Then there's Sansa, married to Tyrion. I think that after his little talk with Cersei, Tyrion will probably propose giving a child to Sansa just to put a smile on her face. And before the end of the next season I think Sansa will agree. I am shipping Sansa with Tyrion and have been since Sansa found out what a bastard Joffrey is (this series is made for shipping, seriously). The Lannister weddings were quite fun, though, listening to grandmother Tyrell trying to figure out the family bonds once everyone were married. The only thing missing is her marrying Tywin xD Loras will have to hurry to get an heir from Cersei, because she's fast getting too old. If he'll even touch her seeing as he's so very very gay. Margaery will have her hands full keeping Joffrey in line. But I think once she's had a son with him, and Joffrey has grown to trust her, she'll slip him something and he'll be found dead. And she'll get to act as regent until her son, the heir, is grown.
I wonder what will happen between Cersei and Jaime now that he's returned to King's Landing.
And then there's Daenerys. I love her. Everytime she gets screentime I get goosebumps. What she did for those slaves in Yunkai... She's building an army and she's building it fast. I love her tactics. I have a slight suspicion that Daario Naharis is going to be her new man, but I'm shipping her with Ser Jorah. If someone's friendzoned then it's him.
The whole thing with Theon is getting old. Can we move on now, please?
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Saturday, 4 January 2014

Books of 2013

I love to read, and I feel that I read way too little nowadays. But I did manage a nice list of books last year and hopefully I'll read more this year.
  1. Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. Still in the same world as the rest of his books, but this time in a country we only saw a glimpse of in the first trilogy. I really liked Shy, the main character. I figured out who Lamb really was the first time he appeared in the book, and the return of Nicomo Cosca was a pleasant surprise although I really don't like him. Abercrombie has a knack for making very interesting and strong female characters, which I enjoy. In this book Shy and Lamb head out to find the children they lived with after an attack on their home. It becomes a trip where all their past unfolds and is revealed and a trip with a lot of interesting characters. 
  2. Prince of Stories by Hank Wagner, Christopher Golden & Stephen R. Bissette. It's a biography of Neil Gaiman's works. I didn't read the whole thing, because I felt it was going to spoil too much of what I hadn't yet read. However, I did enjoy what I read and once I feel I've read enough of Gaiman's works (like all of Sandman) I will probably read through the rest of the book. "Gaiman is the most famous author you've never heard of."
  3. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. What first caught my interest about this book were the old-fashioned photographs inside it and how there was something slightly wrong with each photograph. I bought it but it was only after Toni had read it and told me it was great that I read it too. It's obviously a teen novel, but it's really nicely done. Though I more than once figured out the plot before the main character did, so there was never any real surprise in it for me. I still really liked it, though, and there's supposed to be a movie and a sequel to it. I'm looking forward to both!
  4. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. Nobody Owens is a human child who grows up at a graveyard with ghosts as his only family. He's got the powers of the graveyard and he learns a lot about the supernatural plane of our world. But while he does so, he also becomes aware that whatever killed his human parents is still after him. The Graveyard Book is a children's novel, but amazingly well done with a fair few surprises in it. It's one of those books that makes you feel empty once you've finished it. It's that good. 
  5. Unnatural Creatures. This is a short story compilation compiled by Neil Gaiman, but each story is by a different writer. Each story contains some sort of unnatural creature, hence the name. My favourites were the ones by Gahan Wilson, Diana Wynne Jones, Edith Nesbit, Larry Niven, Megan Kurashige, Avram Davidson, and Peter S. Beagle. The book felt a little long at times, but mostly it was very entertaining.
  6. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. This is sort of an adult children's novel. It's really short and it's about children, but the part about children comes from a middle-aged man reminiscing. I loved this book because it told the story of a magical and yet ordinary childhood, the kind that most children wish they could have. The end had me crying and smiling at the same time. And the book itself was both heart-warming and heart-breaking. This from a book of only 178 pages. 
  7. The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. This is a comic or rather a graphic novel. I've read numbers 1-3 and there are 10 in total + some spin-offs. The series tells the story of Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, and his siblings (especially Death) features on some occasions. The story isn't told in any particular order. The first volume told the story of how Dream (Morpheus) was captured and imprisoned in the early 20th century, while in the 2nd volume Morpheus meet a man in the 13th century who thinks dying is a silly notion and he has decided not to so they decide to meet at that same place every hundred years, which they do. In the 3rd volume we meet Shakespeare and his travelling band of actors and they get to play A Midsummer Night's Dream for a very special audience ;) Ofc there's more happening in each volume and they never fail to catch my attention and making them impossible to put down. 
  8. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. This novel was amazing. I still haven't watched the TV-series, but I will. The book was fantastic. Richard is an ordinary man with an ordinary life until he stumbles upon Door. She's badly hurt and Richard brings her to his flat to try and help her. The next day when she leaves she tells him she's sorry and the day after Richard notices that no one seems to see him or hear him, and those who do don't know who he is. So he sets out to find Door again, which leads him to London Below an amazing place full of strange people and creatures. Richard gets caught up in a plot against Door and her family and soon he finds himself in a full-fledged adventure. 
  9. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling. Rowling's first novel for adults and on top of that it's general fiction. As far away from Harry Potter as possible. I don't read much general fiction and I thought it was hard to get into. I thought it didn't kick off until after Barry's funeral (about 150 pages in), but when it did I found it hard to put down. The characters and their choices and actions intrigued me and I wanted to know what would happen next. The end made me cry and I was still caught up in that book's world for days after I had finished it. 
  10. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a J.K. Rowling). Rowling's second adult novel written under pseudonym of Robert Galbraith to avoid the publicity. This is a crime novel and although I found it interesting and I really liked the main character Cormoran Strike, I did find it extremely hard to get into. To the point that I actually put it down and stopped reading it for a couple of weeks before I picked it up again and finished it. I really don't like Robin either. However I found myself smiling by the end of the book and I think I would consider reading another book with Strike and Robin, if there ever is one, although I found it a difficult book to read. 
  11. Heroes. There is a comic released alongside the four seasons of Heroes. I have read volume 1 and I also own volume 2. The stories in the comics are small stories that take place in-between the episodes of the TV-series. It also tells the complete background stories of characters that only show up briefly in the series. Like Hana Gitelman. Remember her? Didn't think so. She was in one episode in season 1 and half of the first volume is about her. I really like this comic since it provides one more layer to the already complex story of Heroes. 
  12. The Infernal City by Greg Keyes. This is the first of two novels placed within the Elder Scrolls universe. The story of the two novels takes place between the games Oblivion and Skyrim. 40 years after the Oblivion crisis. This first book, The Infernal City, was interesting but kind of slow since it was mostly about bringing the heroes together and "getting there". Though it did provide a great promise of things to come in the next book. Annaïg and Mere-Glim are best friends. They live in the south of Black Marsh and one day a flying city shows up out of nowhere killing everything in its path and creating a walking dead army in its wake. Annaïg likes to meddle with alchemy and she finds a potion that gives flight. She and Mere-Glim both end up on this flying city after trying the new flying potion, and they decide to try and bring it down before it destroys all of Tamriel.
  13. Necronomicon by H.P. Lovecraft. I have read about half of this one. It's a short story collection and it's all written in 1920's English, which makes it a very hard read. I love it though! Although I've only read half pages-wise, I've less than half of the stories left. The stories towards the end of the book are all of about 50-100 pages each. This is the author who layed the groundwork for modern horror authors. I'm not easily frightened and there's only one story so far that has scared me: The Colour Out of Space. But I did also find Herbert West - Reanimator slightly unnerving. I will finish reading this in the near future. Possibly I'll have it done before the end of the month. 
  14. Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo (Japanese the Japanese don't know) by Nagiko Amano. My teacher while studying Japanese mentioned this book and when I found it I had to buy it. It's a manga style book written by a Japanese language teacher. She works with foreign people wanting to learn Japanese and the book is about questions she receieve while working. Questions about what things are called that natives usually don't think about or questions why things are called the way they are or questions about cultural things and why they are like that. I had a lot of fun reading this book and I could easily relate to most of the situations depicted in the book. 
  15. Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman. This is a children's book with lots of pictures. However it has a very intriguing story and I finished the book with that warm feeling inside and wondered why all children's books can't be like this.
  16. Lord of Souls by Greg Keyes. The second book in the Elder Scrolls world. I've read about half of it, and I'm not seeing an ending approaching anytime soon. This will be very interesting and there's already more action than there ever was in the first book. I approve :)

And I just realised that there wasn't even a single book in Swedish last year. I should fix that this year. I really should. And I should also fix it so that I read at least 2 books a month. 16 books in a year (and some of them even comics!) isn't even near acceptable! I should read more in Japanese and French too...
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Friday, 3 January 2014

Mini board gaming night :)

Today I wanted to try out Escape and Timeline that I got from Toni for Christmas. Escape was a lot of fun although the soundtrack was somewhat confusing and we both agreed that it was more fun to play with hour glass. Escape was very stressful and being only two players it was almost mandatory to stay together while exploring so that we could help each other. Hopefully it will be easier to spread out if there are more players. I think we played five or six rounds and we only managed to win the last round.

I also thought Timeline was a lot of fun, but then I love history. Toni isn't such a big fan of history and while I knew enough to make qualified guesses of where to put my cards he only guessed. After three rounds he didn't want to play anymore :P

After that we decided to try out some more games that we had at home but hadn't tried out yet. We started with Burn in Hell. It was somewhat confusing at first trying to remember what was what and what to do and when to do, and then the calculations... xD But in the end when we got into the game it was a lot of fun and although I was points-leader the entire game Toni stole the winning title from me in the end xD

Finally we tried Once Upon a Time, but it was getting late and it was hard to think of stories. Last time I played Once Upon a Time we were four players and there was a lot more action. I think it's a game that really benefits from having more players.
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Saturday, 28 December 2013

The post of British Christmas specials

This year I had three British Christmas specials waiting for me when I got home: Downton Abbey, Doctor Who and Call the Midwife.

Downton Abbey. I love this series, which is interesting cause it's not like something else I really like. It could be because it's a costume drama or because it's British, or just because all the characters are easy to relate to. I had hoped that we'd get to see some of Edith on her trip, but the special starts off with her having just returned home from Switzerland. I don't like at all where Edith's story is going, but I suppose I understand her predicament and the actions she's forced to take to remain accepted by her part of society. I love the battle raging between Tony Gillingham and Charles Blake for Mary's affection. And although I at first disliked Lady Grantham's brother Harold I found myself liking him quite a bit towards the end. I like that Tom is beginning to fit into his new clothes. I understand his predicament of wanting to let Sibby grow up wanting for nothing, and at the same time wanting to keep his old values and raising Sibby to be Irish and Catholic. But he's starting to view the rest of the Crawleys as his family. And I loved that Mary referred to Rose as a Flapper! :D And her being presented was very pretty. I'm really looking forward to the next season and what the 20s will bring for the Crawleys. We all know of Black Thursday...


Doctor Who. After the absolutely brilliant 50th Anniversary special last month I had my hopes up high for this episode. But I though it started out sort of slow and the Siege of Trenzalore wasn't at all what I had imagined. And the Doctor doesn't remember saving Gallifrey? What?! Wasn't he supposed to be the one remembering? O_o I actually didn't start to really really enjoy the special until the moment when Clara returns to the Doctor when he has grown really really old and the Daleks break through the Siege and into Trenzalore. I did enjoy seeing all the hints to Matt Smith's tenure. The crack in the wall, the mention of River, little Amelia Pond, and the boy waiting outside his TARDIS for him to return that obviously was a reference to her. But towards the end I started to really like the episode. How Clara begged the Time Lords on the other side of the crack to help the Doctor, and in the same breath telling them off for pestering him about his real name. I loved how the crack in the wall disappeared and instead opened up in the sky providing the Doctor with a completely new set of Regenerations. When the Doctor started regenerating Toni and I were waving at the TV screen saying "Bye-bye, Matt Smith". Then Capaldi showed up and I have such huge expectation on his Doctor. I can't wait to autumn 2014 when the next season premieres! It's such a long time! One final thing that bothers me: WHY THE HELL DOESN'T CAPALDI'S DOCTOR KNOW HOW TO DRIVE THE FRIGGIN' TARDIS?!


Call the Midwife. This is another series that's a little bit off from what I usually like. I like it partly because it's a costume drama, partly because it's British and partly because I've had a weird fascination for pregnancies since I was about 10. It also makes history feels less like a story I read in a book and more like something that actually happened and not too long ago. In the last season they had TBC screenings and one of the mothers said "I'm so excited to see my baby" and I felt dumb-founded as I realised they didn't have ultra-sound. So when a girl showed up in this Christmas special who was a whole week overdue I was wondering if she'd make it and what they'd do. If they didn't have ultra-sounds could they induce labour? Then there was polio in the special, and to me growing up polio was always something they had in poor developing countries like India and Pakistan. But after finding out that my grandmother had a small bout of polio as a small child it felt much more real. Someone close to me, someone I knew, had had polio. And when one of the children ended up inside an iron lung due to polio all I could think was that that was a very weird machine to help someone breathe. It makes me appreciate how much has happened the last 60 years.

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Monday, 16 December 2013

Board games and card games ftw! :)

Last time I wrote about Mansions of Madness, Bona Dea asked about other games, which gave me the idea to blog about the ones we have. And it has become quite the collection! :P


Top shelf: I have never card game, Truth or Dare card game, Quidditch card game, "Hur fan visste du det?" card game, "Vuxenpoäng" card game, Spin the bottle quiz, 2 cups of Zombie Dice, 3 decks of common playing cards, Alias board game, spillikin, "Svarte-Petter", Cthulhu Dice, 2 expansions to Munchkin, Trivial Pursuit Nightmare Before Christmas edition, Munchkin Zombies, Spank the Monkey, Shot Roulette, Aye Dark Overlord!, Cthulhu Gloom, Gloom, Chez Geek, Chez Goth, Burn in Hell, Doctor Who card game, Once Upon a Time

Bottom shelf: Gamma world + expansion, Scrabble, Upwords, Monopoly Here and Now edition, Monopoly Nightmare Before Christmas edition, Labyrinth, Smallworld, Mansions of Madness, Lord of the Rings card game, Munchkin board game

I don't think that I need to talk about all of them. Everyone has played or heard of "I have never" and "Truth or Dare". "Hur fan visste du det?" and "Vuxenpoäng" are quiz games relating to knowing weird little things and points for adult behaviour respectively. Everyone knows "Spin the Bottle" and "Shot Roulette", and I assume that everyone knows how a common deck of cards works! "Svarte-Petter" and "spillinkin" (plockepinn) along with "Scrabble", "Quidditch" and "Labyrinth" are just games I've kept for nostalgic purposes, and we don't really play them. Then there are the games that we haven't gotten around to playing yet. Those are "Aye, Dark Overlord!", "Chez Geek", "Doctor Who card game", "Burn in Hell", "Lord of the Rings card game" and "Gamma world" (though I think the last one is in the making). "Upwords" is like "Scrabble" but in 3D so you can build words on top of each other. Everyone has heard of "Monopoly". The Nightmare Before Christmas edition is self-explanatory and the Here and Now edition uses credit cards instead of cash and has updated streets and markers. "Trivial Pursuit" is a quiz game and in this case all the questions are related to The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Alias is both a card game and a board game. It's incredibly fun if you're savvy with words. You need to be at least four playes and you need even numbers as you pair up into teams. The turn goes around clockwise and each team decides who's going to explain the word on the card and who's going to guess. You explain the word without saying the word or any part of the word. Translating the word into another language isn't allowed either. The explaining and guessing is done with an hourglass taking the time. The team does as many words as possible during that time. This game is very loud and a lot of fun. The best teams are two people who know each other and think in a similar way.

Zombie Dice is a fast game consisting of a bunch of dices with different colours and signs. There are three coulours: red, yellow and green depicting the difficulty of the dices. On the dices are three different sorts of signs: a brain, footsteps, and a shotgun. You play as a zombie and you want to get as many brains as possible (the game ends when the first person reaches 13). You scramble the dices in the cup, reach in and grab three without looking and roll all of them at the same time. The brains you save and the shotguns. The footsteps you re-roll along with a new dice to always make the number of dices rolled three. If you get three shotguns then you're shot and you're back down to zero brains. That's why you need to contemplate when to stop rolling and pass the dice cup. Then you need to remember how many brains you have. Red dices have more shotguns and green dices have more brains. Though there are all the signs on all the different dices.
Cthulhu Dice is similar but it consists of only one big dice (D20) and several markers to represent sanity. The game works like a duel. One player attacks you, then you get to retaliate, then the next player (clockwise) gets to attack someone else. The signs on the dice decide whether you lose sanity to Cthulhu, regain sanity, lose sanity to another player etc. The game ends when there's only one sane person left.

Munchkin is a card game usually (but a board game if you have that edition which we do as well). You're supposed to fight the monster, steal the treasure and stab your friends. It's really easy and a lot of fun once you've learned the rules properly.

Spank the Monkey is a crazy game to say the least. You're trying to build a tower of garbage of reach to spank the monkey. The other players are working hard to destroy your tower and be the first one to reach the monkey. The first to spank the monkey wins.
Both Gloom and Once Upon a Time are storytelling games. In Gloom you tell the story of a family and your goal is to kill off your own family in as a grisly way as possible before the other players kill their families. To prevent that you play happy cards on their family members and sad cards on your own. In Once Upon a Time you tell a story. Every player has a goal card and storytelling gards. Your job is to reach your goal before someone else reaches his/hers. You're allowed to interrupt the ongoing story if you have a card that you think fits, and thus take over the storytelling until someone else takes over or you play your goal.

Smallworld is fantastic. You choose your race and attribute and then you start conquering land. Either by taking over empty land or invading someone else's. Every area you own gives you money tokens by the end of your turn. The one with the most money wins.
Smallworld exists as a tablet game as well:
Finally, Mansions of Madness. You play as a group of investigators trying to figure out what's behind the mysterious happenings at the house. One player is the Keeper who basically plays as the house and all the monsters. The Keeper's job is to kill all the investigators or make them insane before the investigators figure out what causes the disturbances and defeat the monsters. And you build a new board each time and there's a new story each time so the game is never quite the same twice :)
There's a game similar to Mansions of Madness available for tablets:
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Sunday, 15 December 2013

Thoughts on Elder Scrolls

The more I play Skyrim, the more I want another Elder Scrolls game. And I know TESO will be released in April, but I would like an Elder Scrolls place that takes place in the 1st Era. I want a game with Dragons and a living Dragon Cult and living Dragon Priests. I want non-disappeared Dwemer and I want non-twisted not-enslaved Snow Elves (Falmer). I want Dwemer ruins and Blackreach to not be ruins, but be in their originally majestic state. Imagine how cool it would be to be able to play as a Snow Elf from before they were enslaved by the Dwemer! Imagine how cool it would be to play as a Dwemer and have one of their Dwemer cities as your home :o And since it's Dwemer the game area would reach across Skyrim and Solstheim and Morrowind and High Rock and Hammerfell...

As much as I would love a game that takes place in Black Marsh or Elsweyr or Valenwood or Summerset Isles, I would really really want a 1st Era game or a Merethic Era game. It would be cool to see if such a game could include other versions of elves like Maormer or Chimer.

It would also be cool if you could play as an Ayleid in Cyrodiil. People who say Skyrim hasn't have a good story and isn't as detailed as Morrowind and Oblivion haven't been paying attention. There's so much story in Skyrim, so much history. And it's living history. There's so much living interest in the Dwemer. And in the Dragon Cult and Dragon worshippings of the past. In Dawnguard DLC you get to know the Falmer from before they were twisted. In Oblivion all you get to know about the Ayleids is that they used to be there and now they're not. There's only one single mission where you have to go into an Ayleid ruin because the quest giver is interested in them. All other quests that involve Ayleid ruins are for completely different reasons. In Skyrim there's Calcelmo and Arniel, and Mjoll and Katria, all of whom asks the player to go into a Dwemer ruin because of the Dwemer.

So basically I would like a game that takes place all over Tamriel (as Arena did and as TESO will), but that takes place in the 1st Era. I know the 1st Era is huge, about 3000 years. But early 1st Era then, when the Dwemer were at war with the Falmer, Alessian Empire and all of that. It would be so cool. Any time in the 1st Era would be cool tbh. Merethic Era would be interesting too. The time before the people arrived to Tamriel. I want the first people. The time of elves and beastfolk. A game in the 1st Era would take place before all other games, but since that's what TESO will do, then it might not be entirely impossible? Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion takes place in the 3rd Era. Skyrim takes place in the 4th Era. TESO will take place in the 2nd Era. I would love a game in the 1st Era.

I admit I may have been nerding a bit too much Elder Scrolls lore. But I love that world.
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Thursday, 12 December 2013

Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Yesterday Toni and I went to Stockholm to see the second Hobbit movie. We had to see it on the premiere date, especially since a movie premieres earlier in Sweden for once. Premiere date in the US is the 13th I think... I feel special now :P

I really liked it, but I don't think it was as amazing as the first one.
I'm not sure about Beorn. I thought he was kind of cool, but I didn't get to see him enough to form an opinion. I'm told he features more in the next movie so I might form an opinion of him then. Then there's also the fact that the actor playing Beorn, Mikael Persbrandt, sounded so terribly Swedish in his spoken English. I did, however, love Beorn's house :)
Then the elves. I've never liked Legolas (but it may be because I've never liked Orlando Bloom) and I thought Thranduil was an ass, but I guess he's supposed to be that way. For a really long time I thought Tauriel was Arwen, but they never called her that. And finally I realised that Tauriel was a new character xD Then it bothered me for ages that I recognised the actress playing Tauriel but I didn't know from where until the credits (Evangeline Lilly from Lost!). I think the love story between Tauriel and Kili is incredibly sweet and I want it to evolve more in the next movie. If one of them dies I'll be so sad :(
Other than Kili I think Balin and Bombur are my favourite dwarves. Sure Thorin has a certain powerful aura, but he's so narrow-minded. Balin is great and Bombur is so funny! I loved Bombur's fighting scene among the orcs! And then the mention of Gimli! :D
I thought Gandalf did wrong to leave the group, but since he's in LotR it's obvious he'll survive his imprisonment. While he was snooping around Dol Guldur I just sat on the edge waiting for Sauron to appear. Cause I knew way before they said so in the movie that this growing enemy was Sauron. How wasn't it obvious?
I also like Bilbo a lot. And he's a much better main character than Frodo ever was. Bilbo grows into his role and finds his place among the dwarves and in his adventure. Frodo is just a big pouting clumsy baby throughout all of LotR.
Then of course there's Smaug. Pretty dragon :D And the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch gave me chills. I'm sure they enhanced it someway to make it grand enough for the dragon, but his voice is so amazing :3 And in the next movie he'll be both Smaug and the Necromancer! Gotta look forward to that :D
Stephen Fry was a pleasant surprise. The Master of Laketown. I had no idea Stephen Fry was going to be in this movie and seeing him was a lot of fun :) Although his moustache looked like whiskers :P
And then there's Bard. I'm totally convinced that either he or his son will be the one to defeat Smaug and regain the honour to their family lost by Girion.

The fact that Radagast is played by the 7th Doctor makes me smile every time I see him :)

I wanted to add some clips from the movie, but since it hasn't premiered in the US yet there are none on Youtube :/ Except for the trailer.

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日本人の知らない日本語

おととい新しい友達とストックホルムに会った。最初カフェに行って、ハッリポッターと他の趣味と興味について話した。とても優しい人と思う。その後、好きな本屋に行った。二人ともはファンタジ本が好きで、長い間好きな本と作家について話した。あの本屋で「日本人の知らない日本語」と言う本を見つけた。あの本について大学で一人の教師が話したと思う。そして、買った。昨日、少し読んで、すごく面白い！「はじめての人の言語学」と一緒同じように面白い。

その他、クリスマスプレゼントは今全部買った。クリスマスはもうすぐ来る！待てない！ ^_^  けど、雪が降ったクリスマスがあったら、うれしい。

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