all made up with nowhere to go

Still playing Lost Odyssey. On the start of disc three now. When I played before, I got part of the way through this disc, and then stopped for whatever reason, and never came back to it :(

I do know one thing that put me off ever finishing, which is that some of the EU disc fours are borked (turns out NA discs, too! Only the JP/AU discs are OK - because of storage. Ours are in paper disc holders, the JP/AU ones not. YAY!) I mean, there are fixes, and I could just get another copy and hope for the best, but I really just hope mine is OK. I'd like to finish this game, it's not long, and I'm really enjoying it.

Jansen has definitely improved. Kaim, it turns out, is a soppy ball of feels. Seth continues to be awesome. (I have no thoughts about Ming, and I only just got Sarah, so can't really say anything about her yet). I have only died once, and that was because I got a non-standard game over, because I failed to understand that when the characters said I had to knock someone out, they did not mean reduce their HP to zero; they meant put them to sleep.

Listening to the German dub track is improving my language skills, I think! Maybe next up is improving my German reading skills *sideyes Inquisition*

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BOOKS! I have all the books to read!

I am still making slowish progress with The Drawing of the Three. I seem to whip through Detta's parts, and then it slows down when I get to Eddie and Roland, because Eddie is still constantly whinging about heroin withdrawal (I get that he's just gone through the coldest of cold turkeys, but I have little to no patience for addicts). I'm finding him less annoying than I did, but right now he just makes me want to kick him.

Other stuff I have to read:

- Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor, which is the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I started reading it last night because I've been so impatient to get it, but I was so tired it annoyed me, and that made me feel sad :(

- Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, which kotetsu inadvertently reminded me about.

- The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, which I have previously rejected in the past (because Shiver did my nut), but musesfool has read this and the sequels, and fallen in love with them, and I am kind of curious to see why. (I would like to register eyerolling that the main character is called Blue, there is someone else called Gansey and I did want to say WHO THE HELL CALLS THEIR CHILD PERSEPHONE. Er, except that I know someone who did).

(I dislike this trend of picking out ~SUPER~SPECIAL~ names for characters in YA stories because...I don't know about you guys, but reading about someone with the same or similar name as me was always kind of a pull? Also giving your characters daft names wasn't a thing when I was a teenager and thus reading YA books constantly. Or if it was, I have blocked it from my memory).

- Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig, which is not fiction at all, but a book about the author's experiences with depression. It's supposed to be really good, or something.

(Not that I'm feeling suicidal, but I like reading about other people's experiences with mental illness because I find it interesting).

- And I requested Divergent by Veronica Roth, so I can see what the fuss is about?? Wonder why dystopian futures are such a thing right now? (I don't understand the attraction myself. Also I suppose I've had my fill of dystopian sci-fi already *aged sigh*)

(I didn't want The Hunger Games, and there seems to have been less flailing about Divergent (apart OMG THE MOVIE WRECKED IT! Apparently?) so ultimately, I don't know???)

~

Also, I don't write fanfic any more, but I saw a post on tumblr a while back where someone imagined an AU for Inquisition in which Anders was the Inquistor (I can't see it myself, but I have reasons for that), and the following popped into my head, and refuses to leave:

( behind a cut as it gives away a spoiler for the start of the game )

I played some more Dragon's Dogma this afternoon, and I liked it a bit better this time. I think that last time my mood wasn't brilliant (I'd been travelling a lot and so was knackered both times and I honestly can't brain when I'm that tired).

Fighting stuff all the time is annoying (I just did the escort mission to Gran Soren and NO), but I have that problem with RPGs anyway. Also more fun now I know how to use my secondary weapon (a bow and arrows). It would be more fun if the camera didn't go screwy and I had more time to aim at flying enemies/wolves but eh. That's a vague niggle, and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually (like I did with aiming guns in Mass Effect, ahahahahahahahahahaha *chokes* *falls over*).

I took some pics of my Arisen and her main pawn because I can and I'm sad, and I wanted references for if I ever draw them (I also have bad phone pics of most of my Shepards. I'm sure I'm not alone in this).

When I last left the game, Quina is missing* (I don't know if that's a main quest but I guess I'll do it anyway), and me and my guys were lost in Gran Soren because I was looking for the inn, and I don't know where it is (also because the mini-map doesn't show significant places/shops until you've discovered them yourself, which I think is really bad). Also nearly every door is locked, so I sort of got Silent Hill flashbacks ;)

*That will not stop amusing me that that is her name because I expect to see someone who looks like this, not like this. Though now I post these, I wonder if it's a shout out? *shrugs*

(probably not).

~

In other news, I accidentally found the third book in the Dark Tower series (The Waste Lands), so maybe that will spur me onto finishing The Drawing of the Three (I'm about a third of the way through, which is further than I got last time, but I haven't read any for months, and the thought of restarting AGAIN (for a THIRD time) just makes me want to groan loudly. So continuing it probably is).

I also found a game guide for Lost Odyssey and that was amazing. I didn't even know there was one! (That makes me want to replay it even more).

Also my phone is in for repairs because apparently the microphone is fucked. I have had that phone less than three months. I don't know if it's a common fault with HTC phones, but I thought they were supposed to be a good make, and I'm not very amused. (I was also not amused because I went to the nearest shop, took it in, couldn't leave it because I hadn't backed up recently and had to go back the next day). So yaaaay. The phone shop gave me a loan phone to replace my actual one, but it was the oldest Samsung I've ever seen (it didn't even have a camera!**) But I discovered I could use my old phone so that's what I'm doing.

**I've been using camera phones for ten years now. Not having one is really freaking weird.

~

Anyway, I think that's it for now. I need to go and get some sleep.

OH GOD THIS GAME.

Honestly, while Homecoming feels like better value than 0rigins, I'm glad I didn't pay the money for it either. Added to which, it's the darkest game so far - by which I mean it is hideously lit. I would ruin my eyesight playing this on my TV. Oh, and it's so full of bugs. There's at least two that can actually corrupt your save :s

Negativity aside, I do like the Hell Descent level - that's pretty cool.

Still not looking forward to the latter half of the Penitentiary, because that's where the gore/extreme violence starts picking back up, I think. Whatever, end part of the game, do not want. (Another reason I'm glad I didn't pay cash for this). I kind of want to scream at Double Helix that violence doesn't equal scary, except I know it does (the beginning of the game - Alex's hospital nightmare - is STILL keeping me awake at night, and I saw that three days and some change ago. Irrational, I know, but there's not a lot I can do about it. A similar thing stopped me sleeping a few weeks back). But it's not the sort of thing I like, as I've noted in previous entries. And I know I'm whining about this, but that's not the sort of thing I associate with Silent Hill. I see the series as having a more lingering, creepy, fridge-type horror, and I'm sure I'm not alone. And I'm not fond of having things shoved down my throat, which is what I feel a lot of more visceral horror does.

(E.G. "Here's all these bloody, butchered corpses! Those are scary! YOU! Be scared of that!" I know that's very simplistic, but that's what it feels like most of the time for me, when it's not the writer/creator/whoever trying to be "edgy").

Alex feels a bit flat - he has no personality whatsoever, but it feels like there's more to him than there was to Travis, if only because Alex exchanges more than three sentences with a variety of people (Lisa tends to talk AT Travis, rather than to/with him).

But, you know, I'm sure there's people to whom Harry comes off as flat to, so perhaps I shouldn't judge too harshly (although I am! I TOTALLY AM! Because Alex you are not what I expected! This game is not what I expected! None of this is what I expected! I don't know what I expected!)

~*~

All the above said, I've managed to get three/fifths of my sweater done while watching SH LPs. Working on the second sleeve now. Should be finished soon, anyway :)

(I had a break earlier in the evening in an attempt to finish The Gunslinger. Seriously. I have had that book for three weeks and I haven't finished it yet. Not because I don't like it - I do - but just because I don't know I'm having such a battle with books right now, and it's really annoying me. I don't know if I should blame the internet, or being self-employed (and so feeling I have to work all the time), but I feel guilty for reading and I find trying to concentrate on reading so fucking difficult sometimes. AND I REALLY FUCKING HATE THAT).

~*~

P.S. I apologise for the increase in swearing of late. I don't know why that is.

So at the moment, I am reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King, which is the first book in the Dark Tower series.

This is the first time I have tried to read one of his books since I was a teenager. When I was younger, I had absolutely no desire to read his books, and then I saw the TV version of The Stand. Aside from being the first thing I ever saw Gary Sinise in, I wanted to read the book when it finished.

It's the longest, thickest book that King ever wrote.

Have I ever mentioned the trouble I have with huge-ass books?

I got...about a third of the way through? before I finally quit. What put me off more than anything were what I did, and still do, perceive as religious, preachy tones. And I never touched another King book in my life.

Which is not to say that I've not been interested by some of his ideas. Occasionally, I'll be pootling around on TVT, and under whichever trope, it'll mention one of his books, and I'll think, "Oooh", and click the link, and read about it. I can't recall which, exactly, apart from From A Buick 8.

Then, recently, musesfool read the entire series, and she seemed to enjoy it (although I say recent, I checked her entries about it, and she started around this time last year and finished in January this year). I thought about it, but essentially shoved the thought to the back of my head. Then, a few weeks ago, I was, again, looking on TVT for tropes/information about Westerns because dang, I love Westerns and blah. So, of course, it mentions the Dark Tower books. Suddenly, I'm interested by the little information I see on some pages, so I look up the series page, and read the stuff there (without spoiling myself). And I wanted to read the books, so I requested the first one, and here we are.

It's trotting along nicely, so far. I really kind of hope they continue in this trend.

It goes without saying that please, if you've read these books, DO NOT spoil me. I know a few, but I'm hoping to forget them by the books in question, and I don't wish to know any more. Thanks. Though if you have read them, general squee is OK :)

P.S. chibichan I know I said I'd read His Dark Materials soon, but I want to check I can get through a book without becoming uninterested first :) (I couldn't finish the last book I tried to read because it had me in tears a lot, so...hopefully this will not!)