With a Silver Bow

The new Thief game (Thiaf, Thief 4, Thief (2014), etc.) came out the end of February to mixed but overall mediocre reviews from what I've seen. I don't have any intention of buying or playing it, though I'll probably watch a Let's Play at some point. It's unfortunate Fen's had health problems the past few months; I hope he's been feeling better, but I do miss his frequent Thief Let's Plays and he made my favourite comment about the new Thief in his, thus far, only Thief 4 video: "Is this a parody?" I also eagerly await Yahtzee's Zero Punctuation review, which should be out tomorrow.

The most bizarre thing about Thief 4 is that Square Enix (Thief 4's publisher) and Amazon are hosting a Thief Mod Competition. The catch? You have to mod using the Thief 1-3 level editors or The Dark Mod, a completely fan-built total conversion mod, because the new Thief isn't releasing a level editor. You also have to enter with videos of your mod, or an idea for a mod, as opposed to an actual fan mission for others to play. (Basically, you have to do a Let's Play for your own fan mission.) When I heard the news, I was sure it must be a hoax. But no, it is apparently legitimate. On one hand, it's a nice effort to reach out to the very mod-active Thief community, but how weird is it to have to rely on past games and fan efforts to promote your current game? The contest is also limited to US citizens, which is unfortunate given Thief's multinational - especially European - fanbase.

My current Thief kicks are part two of Grayman's William Steele series for The Dark Mod, which features lots of enjoyable rooftop exploration, and the hope that DrK will finally release part four of his phenomenal Night in Rocksburg series this year. I recently updated my Dark Mod mission list and there are more mission I haven't played than I realised, about 50. There's also the current 10 Rooms contest for Thief 2; sad to say I haven't played as many Thief 2 fan missions since The Dark Mod, though I downloaded all the missions.


At the end of last year, I started re-reading Stormwatch and The Authority from Warren Ellis' first Stormwatch issues. I'm currently at the end of the third Authority trade (Earth Inferno and Other Stories). To my surprise, I enjoyed the Stormwatch issues more than Ellis' Authority run. I never realised my first time through just how much Ellis focused on his own (future Authority) characters. I wonder how prior Stormwatch readers felt about that. That said, I think all the Stormwatch members Ellis retained had a chance to shine, and I still have a special fondness for Winter. It's unfortunate the series ended the way it did, and the last trade was my least favourite. (I also never cared much for the WildC.A.T.S. no matter how hard I tried.)

I disliked Mark Millar's Authority run even more than I did on prior readings and feel he negatively changed aspects of most of the characters, usually with throw-away snarky lines like Midnighter beating AIDS or Shen having a boob job. And, of course, there's the Doctor being a drug addict and general screw-up. Characters, especially antagonists, seem to have more knowledge than I feel like they should, even though The Authority interacting more with the media was a theme of Millar's run. Frank Quietly's art is not to my taste at all. One of the only redeeming factors of the third Authority trade is the excellent Angie one-shot story. The art on the first two issues of Earth Inferno is also pretty good, though it doesn't send my blood singing like Bryan Hitch's art.

I actually don't own the next Authority trade (Transfer of Power) as I hated the arc so much. I don't have any of the Robbie Morrison trades, either. His run was one of the first I read (a mistake) and I thought all but the Jenny Quantum story arc were garbage. (I still kind of want the second trade of his run just to re-read that story.)

After volume three, I've got a few single issues and Millar's Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority. After that, it's The Authority: Revolution by Ed Brubaker and Dustin Nguyen. I'm looking forward to this run as it's been a while since I've read it, but remember the writing, story, and character design being good, not to mention emotionally compelling.

When I went to bed yesterday, I discovered to my surprise that one of my amaryllis had bloomed! One they start growing, they really take off. I was afraid the stem would grow taller than my window.

( Photos under cut. )

Usually there comes a point where bands I listen to put out a new album that I don't care for. It happened with Nightwish (Dark Passion Play) and The Crüxshadows (As the Dark Against My Halo), with The Birthday Massacre (Pins and Needles) and Emilie Autumn (Fight Like a Girl). I only bought one song each off the newest Crüxshadows and Emilie Autumn albums, and it took a bit for that song to warm up to me.

The other day I was on YouTube and searched for Neuroticfish. I don't remember why; I have almost all their songs. I was scrolling through the results as usual and came across some song titles I didn't recognise. Strange, since as far as I knew Neuroticfish's last album was a compilation CD titled "A Greater Good" from 2008. Apparently, there will be a new album released this year. With some trepidation, I opened the first new song I found ("Silence"), waiting and fearing that, as with previous bands, I wouldn't like their sound as much as I used to.

My thoughts after the song? "Yup, that's Neuroticfish." Still going strong and still awesome.

It's so good to have new Neuroticfish music, and to actually be excited about a new album. This may be the first time I'll buy a whole, physical CD (and without listening to all the tracks before purchase) since The Birthday Massacre's Walking with Strangers.

Here's another of Neuroticfish's new songs: "Behaviour".

"You do ignore me
You don't listen to what I say
You do ignore me
You don't recall me
You do ignore me
A game that I won't play
You do ignore me
This isn't for me"

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

(Screencaps from The Dark Mod fan mission demo A Christmas Present 2011 by Arcturus.)

My mom came down with a very bad stomach virus over the weekend. I got it yesterday, with vomiting, diarrhea, and chills. I'm feeling a little better today, but have been eating nothing but jello, broth, and Gatorade. (It's hard to get enough calories to do much of use on that diet!) I also called out from work tomorrow for the first time. It's left me feeling restless, but without enough energy to do much -- not even the Christmas presents I'd planned on mailing out today.

Changing topic, I've been sporadically looking for a copy of System Shock 2 for several years. When I first began my search, there were no legitimate downloads; now, you can get System Shock 2 digitally on both GoG and Steam. However, I still prefer to own the physical copy. What made the search more challenging, and more expensive, was I wanted a copy with the original box, and most of the used copies are CD-only.

I happened to be on eBay earlier this month looking for presents for a friend and ran through my saved searches, including System Shock 2, while I was there. There were still a few copies with the full box, all over $60, which was more than I wanted to pay. However, I did see a listing for the CD and the manual for $25. Thinking it over, while I quite like my complete Thief Gold original box, I rarely look at it and it's not something I would pay an extra $30 for, and having the manual was good enough. So, I finally have an official, hard copy of System Shock 2. Of course, the first things I did upon acquiring it were to go over to the System Shock 2 forums to download the mods and fan missions.



The first time I started it up, I played for almost an hour straight, which is rare for me these days. I thought it might be interesting to play System Shock 2 and System Shock side-by-side based on decks, but don't think I'll have the time or energy to carry through. (Vaguely related, I finally got to the Red Forest in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, which looked completely different from what I expected. I spent most of the Red Forest sprinting past everything because I was tired of combat. I then lost interest again and haven't played for a month.)

System Shock 2 was the last computer game I had on my wish list. I've had recommendations for the Elder Scrolls series (particularly Morrowind) and a couple other games, but nothing has piqued my interest enough to buy it.

The second early Christmas present I bought myself on eBay was a pair of belly dance bracelets/anklets that look like the ones I got at a local Greek festival earlier this year. I initially ordered one pair of white anklets with silver coins and one pair red with silver coins, but the former turned out to be unavailable. (My belly dance outfit is themed black, white, and silver, but I sometimes like splashes of colour.)

In late 2003, Ion Storm released Deus Ex: Invisible War, the sequel to 2000's highly lauded Deus Ex. Five months later, Ion Storm released Thief: Deadly Shadows, the third entry in the Thief series. Both games were built on the same engine and were the first in their respective series to be released for console as well as PC. And both games have a reputation of not being very good among fans (or at least on TTLG, which is where I go for my gaming needs).

I played Deadly Shadows back in 2008. You can read my initial thoughts on it here, though I don't like it as much now; it's the only Thief game I don't have installed. I think Deadly Shadows is worth a play, but it's definitely the weakest in the series for me and the only reason I even keep my copy is if I have the urge to play the Shalebridge Cradle again. (The Shalebridge Cradle is indeed a fantastic level, but I think the effect is lessened once you know what's going to happen next and you realise it's essentially a glorified fetch quest. [So is "Return to the Haunted Cathedral" from Thief: The Dark Project, but Lauryl (Deadly Shadows) is much more tolerable than Brother Murus (The Dark Project).])

Due to some confusion on my part, I ended up buying Deus Ex: Invisible War before the first Deus Ex. It didn't matter in the end, though, as Invisible War refused to run on my older laptop despite it meeting the system requirements and Deadly Shadows running fine. I've only played Deus Ex through once - which is a bit odd as I've played The Nameless Mod (a Deus Ex game-length mod) twice - but I spent over 50 hours on my run and had an absolutely fantastic time. Together with Thief and System Shock, Deus Ex is in my personal top three games and I believe I've played every long-ish fan mission there is (The Nameless Mod, ZODIAC, 2027, Red Sun, The Cassandra Project, Burden of 80 Proof, Hotel Carone) except the most recent (Nihilum).

So much has been written about Deus Ex, including Kieron Gillen's excellent review that captures a lot of Deus Ex's strengths, that I don't feel I can add much. So, moving on to Invisible War.

I started playing Invisible War back in August when S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl's focus on shooting was driving me crazy. (I'll review Shadow of Chernobyl once I finish it, though I've been playing on and off since January, so . . . it may be a while. In short, great atmosphere and visuals, not half as much focus on exploration as what I wanted.) What a contrast that was. Moving from Shadow of Chernobyl's lack of hand-holding and difficulty (I play on the easiest setting and it still kicks my ass at times) to Invisible War's, well, we'll get to that below, was like night and day.

It took me 12 hours to play through Invisible War. 12 hours, over the course of three months, when the original took me over 50 hours over the course of less than a month. (I had more free time and was much more engaged in the game.) And yet, I feel like Invisible War overstayed its welcome by at least three hours.

Invisible War has some of the same problems Deadly Shadows, likely influenced by being released on the first-generation Xbox. Maps are relatively small and there are plentiful loading zones. No swimmable water, although Invisible War at least never draws attention to it. (Going to jail for falling in the water was one of the stupidest ideas in Deadly Shadows.) On the other hand, I thought both the player character and NPC movement was less stiff and smoother in Invisible War, though jumping and crate stacking are worse.

I started off Invisible War with the idea of playing a stealthy hacker, which, ever since Thief, tends to be my default character. The interface provoked much irritation and was clearly designed for a gamepad -- 'yes/no' prompts you have to use the mouse for; no keyboard support for custom-naming saved games, manually typing in passcodes, or writing notes in-game; no quick-save or load; no screenshot key (which is why there are no screenshots in this review, because Invisible War isn't worth the effort of using a second program); the minimum HUD is still rather invasive, and inventory management is a mess. Skill points were eliminated, as were different ammo types (yes, all firearms in the game use the same ammo, just in different amounts), the conversation log, and location-based health management. In short, the only ways to customise you character besides your play style are through your appearance, the weapons you use, and your biomods (augmentations). (I barely include dialogue choices, since there aren't very many and most don't seem to matter.) However, you can now choose to play as either a male or female.

( Much more under cut. )

In summary: Deadly Shadows may be my least favourite Thief game, but it is at the minimum a decent game and a far, far better game than Invisible War. I don't think Invisible War is completely irredeemable - I did finish playing it instead of throwing my hands up in disgust after all - but there's not much to recommend it, especially compared to its predecessor.

So, what's good about Invisible War? The voice acting's not bad. There's a good mix of male and female NPCs. Invisible War actually does reward exploration, or at least what you can do in the small maps; as in Deus Ex, you can find ammo, equipment, etc., in somewhat out of the way places (under desks, behind pipes, and so on). Trier has a surprising number of readables that are actually decent. The ApostleCorp lab was somewhat neat, except that Invisible War cannot do horror or atmosphere. The Antarctic Versalife facility was better, and even had a nice ambient track!

If anyone wants to play Deus Ex: Invisible War on the PC, I will give you my copy for only the cost of shipping. (If the shipping's less than $6, I'll even pay that, too.) I have the CDs, both in very good condition, plus the manual, hardcover box, shiny slipcase, and even the kidneythieves card. I bought it second-hand, but there are hardly any signs of wear. The edges of the slipcase are the worst part, but still in good condition. There are a few photos below.

( Deus Ex: Invisible War photos, up for sale. )

Our October was warmer than usual, but unfortunately the forecast for today is rain and clouds, wich means few trick-or-treaters.

Since the weather was better yesterday, my dad dressed up then as the Phantom (from the Phantom of the Opera) and rode his bike around playing Halloween music. (He's modified his bike a lot this year, including multiple speakers, lights, and cameras.) I can't remember the last time my dad dressed up, so this was a treat!

I did another Sylvia Ji/beautiful death-type face paint. I had a rough design sketched out based on the patterns and colours in the dress, but improvised a bit while painting. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, especially since I haven't used face paint in over a year. The paint took about two hours from start to finish.

Photos of both under the cut.

( Halloween 2013 photos. )

We've had lovely weather lately, sunny and in the high 60s to low 70s. Only a few of our trees have changed colour.

There's a squirrel family living in our backyard, about three or four in the same tree hole and at least one of them not fully grown. I've seen them tearing off leaves to carry into their home, and their various comings and going.

( A few photos behind the cut. )

As it turns out, I wrote my eulogy for the wrong vehicle.

It should have been for my dad's truck, a 1981 Ford F-150.



Our mechanic said the problem with my brakes was linked to the anti-lock braking system and fixed with one wire. The fix required disabling the anti-lock brakes, which I've never felt active as long as I've driven it.

My dad's truck, on the other hand, had a leak in the brake system that was deemed not worth fixing, in addition to having a leak in the gas tank that necessitates keeping it only half full. (It still passed state inspection, though!) The truck wasn't driven often, and had higher gas costs, but it could of course transport large items that the the Accords couldn't.

My dad is still keeping the truck for now, but had the plates and insurance taken off and transferred onto our replacement car, a 1997 Accord, that we bought less than two months ago.

It was a novel experience being able to listen to my MP3 player and use air conditioning for the one day I drove my mom's car, but the tradeoff of having none of that but a manual transmission is worth it to me, at least for shorter trips. I find I'm always learning new ways to fine-tune my clutching and driving requires more strategy than the basic stop or go of automatic transmissions, not to mention that my moods are readily apparent in how smooth my clutching is. I also miss using the power of downshifting to slow down in automatics.

I still do not anticipate my car lasting to next year, unless it's semi-retired and only driven occasionally like my dad's truck [our driveway is narrow and such that only one car can be taken in or out at a time, so the car parked last is rarely taken out unless intentionally], but it is so good to have it back again for now.

Two posts in one days after a long time of not updating, I know, but I had this drafted before the events of the other post occurred.

Fandom Update in One Minute

-I've put S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl on hiatus and am currently playing Deus Ex: Invisible War, which has many issues, but not enough for me to stop.

-I'm almost through watching FenPhoenix's Thief 2X and Thief: Deadly Shadows Let's Plays.

-My most recent library books have been about T. E. Lawrence ('Lawrence of Arabia'), Norse mythology, Egyptian mythology, and science fiction in literature and film.

-I'm still reading Thor-based fan ficion and am looking forward to Thor: The Dark World.

-I've been learning belly dance.

-My dad and I finished watching Netflix's streaming episodes of Columbo and have moved on to Through the Wormhole (a science/philosophy show narrated by Morgan Freeman) and various BBC episodes, the most recent being a series on Ancient Greek theatre.