So I've had some time to let the news (if it's legit, and it sure does look like it *sigh*) sink in and I have some a lot of thoughts about it. Minor spoilers and s4 casting news under the cut. Why, Glee, why.

Oooh, I got a little rage-y there by the end.

( Take something you like, hand it to RIB+, get the exact opposite of what you wanted backCollapse )

walloftext.jpg I salute whoever made it through all that :D

Games have no right being this much fun.

( Moar. Contains spoilersCollapse )

( Aanaaand some screeniesCollapse )

A.k.a. I talk about games in this entry.

So over the past couple of months I've been poking and prodding at other MMOs besides Guild Wars (my crack of choice; I've been playing it for a little over three years now) to see if any caught my fancy. The two big ones I gave a shot were World of Warcraft, of course, the reigning king of the MMO genre, and one of the newest arrivals on the scene, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (from hereon out referred to as WAR).

I honestly expected to like World of Warcraft a lot, but it was mostly very, very mediocre. The graphics were--actually, let me just go off on a slight tangent here and say that I think Guild Wars has spoiled me. The game prides itself on not having (much of a) grind, on having excellent graphics, on taking out a lot of tedious, boring and annoying things that pervade other MMOs (loot-stealing, spawn camping, endless walking/traveling to get from A to B, "kill ten boars and bring me their bling" type of quests, an endless struggle to get better gear solely to stay competetive, and so on, and so on), and on focusing on being fun--

so with that said, WoW's graphics were kind of meh. I suppose I'd have gotten used to the cartoon-y style as a while, but as a personal preference, I just like GW's semi-realistic, fantasy style better.

Now, I didn't play WoW for very long, probably around six hours total (out of a ten-day trial), and here's why: the quests were boring. One quest chain I started went from "kill 10 Kobold Vermin" to "kill 10 Kobold Workers" to "kill 10 Kobold Laborers". Really? And that wasn't the only "kill x whatevers" quest I came across. So I pretty much gave up around there. It's possible I'm missing out on Awesome Stuff(tm) that happens later on, when you're a higher level, but I don't see any reason why early stuff shouldn't be fun either. One of the early GW missions involves fleeing a giant horde of Charr (an enemy race) while a timer ticks down. I distinctly remember having a "HOLY FUCK" reaction the first time I did that and it's still fun three years later (though of course less so, because I'm all jaded now ;P).

( WAR was a lot better - cutting for lengthCollapse )

( General thoughts on various things like persistent vs instanced worlds, henchmen etcCollapse )

Overall, WAR was fun to play for a while, WoW kind of blows, and I just can't seem to let go of GW.

* Guild Wars @ Wikipedia
* World of Warcraft @ Wikipedia
* Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning @ Wikipedia

So did you know the Egyptian pyramids are landing platforms for alien spaceships? If the answer to this question is "no", then you've never seen Stargate. Or haven't seen enough of it. Either way, I'm here to tell you a little bit about a show that's been my favorite thing to watch when bored or sad, or just in the mood for some pretty, big explosions, sci-fi and slightly over-the-top alien bad guys (in a good way!)

Stargate SG-1 is a (recently canceled) television series that ran for ten years, making it one of the longest running sci-fi series of all times. The canon also includes two direct-to-DVD movies, "The Ark of Truth" and "Continuum", and may or may not include the 1994 feature film "Stargate". The show "Stargate SG-1" is based on the movie "Stargate", but only in the sense that it took some elements from the movie and made it their own. Two two main characters of the movie, Jack O'Neil (Kurt Russell) and Daniel Jackson (James Spader), were also recast (Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks, respectively).

It is not necessary to have seen the "Stargate" film prior to watching the series. I didn't see the movie until way, way later and I could follow the series just fine. The series' pilot episode, "Children of the Gods" does a great job in world-building and set-up, and is damn fine entertainment to boot.

( Cut for longCollapse )

"Stargate SG-1" is a very fun and likeable show. While it does have overarching plots, most episodes can be watched without the context of the series as a whole. It does comedy well, drama well and brings us quite a bit of pretty and just plain fun. It's not above making fun of itself and everyone in it, and has one of the best, most cohesive casts I've seen in quite a while. Like I mentioned in the cut, it also has a stellar support/recurring cast, with many characters who evolve just as much as the regulars do (Major Davis, Maybourne, Jacob Carter, to name just a few).

I highly recommend people check it out. As this is the internet, it shouldn't be hard to... locate... episodes. If the idea of watching ten seasons and two movies worth of canon is freaking you out, a little, just pretend there's only three seasons and no movies :P

My show, I loves it so <3