Update, Doctor Who, Final Fantasy and a bit of Fringe, oh my!
Holy crap one week from today I'll be in an airplane (ok more than likely I'll be sitting and waiting at JFK for my connecting flight to arrive). I need to do some serious grocery shopping this weekend. Gotta get some bits to take over for everyone as well as get some travel supplies (like toothpaste, which crazily enough hardened on me last time...literally it was like a rock). I also need to get my money crap all in order.
Before that though tomorrow I gotta take my car in for an oil change and a brake inspection, boo. At least the inspection is free and I'm hoping the grinding was nothing more than my pads being wet, but better safe than sorry.
Back to UK stuff, I picked up some games on Sunday and got my hair cut (finally, I couldn't take it any longer). Hopefully the fresh cut look will be gone by the time I head out, hell I had to go back today for them to tidy up the neck since the lady didn't cut it close enough and my hair was ALREADY sticking out. I seriously covet hair that people can actually manage. Mine has way to many whorls and shit, it's insane. Half the time I'm resolved to looking like Alfalfa's sister.
Anyway, picked up two PSP games and on UMD movie. I got a Ratchet and Clank game and the God of War prequel (so therefore I'll be all prepared to pick up God of War III once I get home *bounces around excitedly*). The movie I picked up was Jet Li's Hero, not his best movie ever but entertaining enough for 3 bucks. So between those things and a couple books I should be all set to be entertained on the plane. It'll save me from having to watch crappy movies more than once (Four Christmases I'm looking at you, I was unhappy they took Spongebob off to show that heaping pile of dung again).
I'll probably take the dog to the vet again after I get back from vacation simply because the stuff we got her for her storm anxiety just REALLY are not working. We had some bad storms the other night and she just would not relax, AT ALL. My plan that I'm going to try is pull her crate out of storage and put it in the bathroom with a blanket over the top. It's MUCH harder to hear the rain in the bathroom and she kept trying to follow me in there when I was trying to use it! Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't but there has to be a happy medium somewhere. Usually she's fine under my bed but the window and rain hitting the window was just too much for her she was just a panting, shaking mess.
Which has most wonderfully led me to be practically sleepless the last couple nights. Fun. Oh well, it could be worse I'm sure. I can be grateful to having more bed space since the dog wants to sleep half the night with me and then the other half she decides to move to a round chair I have in my room that's her new throne. She likes laying in it, so I "made it hers" by putting her blanket over the chair. I'll probably never get the chair back now without prying it out of her cold dead puppy paws.
Anyway, on to TV crap...you know the interesting stuff!
First up, Doctor Who. Could it be? Did it happen? Was this a....GOOD Doctor Who? One where I spotted we were half way through and it felt like only five minutes had passed? I haven't been this happy with an episode of Who since...well since last Series 4. I was unhappy with pretty much EVERY single David Tennant special, their stories were shit, the arc was shit, the moodiness was shit and the regeneration was shit. I was pretty much wishing for the door not to hit RTD on his way out of the writing room. I mean the four specials were less about Doctor Who and more about a David Tennant love fest written by RTD. Just eww. And sadly other than Planet of the Dead (which from this point on will be ignored from very existence) the rest had lots of potential, but I HATED that Ten pretty much became a god in like four hours. Again, eww.
But back to current Who. Matt Smith NAILED the Doctor this episode and I was thrilled that he wasn't an ass for once. He still did exclaim just how awesome he was, and how amazing Amy was but overall I believe he WAS the Doctor this episode and I have HOPE for the future. However, the writers have GOT to stop telling the audience how awesome 11 and Amy are. I can see how awesome 11 can be from episodes like this. He has personality now instead of just being a shouty, inappropriate jackass. Amy? Not seeing how super amazing she is. I liked Amy in the first episode, but in the last three she's had zero personality yet continues to stumble over the big awesome save of the day. I want to like Amy, I really do, but the only thing she has going for her right now is she's amazing to look at. And Doctor Who is usually way better than just sitting back and looking at all the pretty.
Give Amy a personality transplant ASAP. Hell just GIVE her a personality. Or if you plan on making the Companion a far more secondary character than what they have been the last 4 years, then STOP making the companion smarter and better than the fucking Doctor!
I will give Amy this, I LOVE that she wasn't super smart in this episode, just smart. First she realizes something isn't right with the angel recording and asks an appropriate question about the recording before assuming and freaking out. Then when the angel pops out of the TV in a much creepier way than Somara (sp?) she did appropriately freak out but WITHOUT forgetting what the hell she needed to do when she realized she WAS in trouble. What did she do? The one thing I kept wondering why no one did in "Blink", she closed one eye at a time! Smart girl. Then when no one could get to her she saved herself by being aware of the rules and how to find a loophole. Smart girl!
I did not need every other character bathing her compliments afterwards, since I was smart enough to SEE how smart she was. I do hope this "we are so awesome" monologues really stop and soon.
Back to episode I have to admit though I find the weeping angels creepy, they don't exactly make me run away screaming, and I honestly thing Moffat shot himself in the foot by taking some of the creepy away from the angels in this episode. I did NOT like that they were talking to the Doctor. Not only because it made everything in this episode an almost direct copy of "Silence in the Library" (which to be honest the only creepy part in that was seeing someone with MORE than one shadow and only one light source...end of creepy after that really), but because a monster is much more frightening when they can NOT be talked to and reasoned with. If you can't talk to something you are left in ignorance, you don't know the motivations, you don't know what it wants, you don't know what it needs, so you can't do ANYTHING to try to talk your way out of death. MUCH more freaky than useless fucking fangs (which I suppose is to scare someone into turning away and hence their death, but still kind of useless).
Anyway, I do wish they had left the angels communicating with the Doctor on the cutting room floor, but I did LOVE the realization of just how screwed the Doctor was once he started talking about how the whole race who built the catacombs (and the statues in their image as a homage to the dead) had TWO heads. I realized it almost the moment that the Doctor did that EVERY statue in the place had only ONE head.
Not only was it creepy because they were surrounded, it was creepy because they were decaying, and it was creepy because some were missing eyes they they had obviously gouged out themselves so they didn't have to cover their faces! I liked that.
I liked it enough that I was able to not hate that Moffat all of a sudden changed the rules surrounding the angels without much warning. Yeah the Doctor commented that ripping someone's brain out isn't the angels usual MO, but it had me kind of pissed in the beginning when the angels were breaking the already set up rules.
River Song wasn't as annoying this episode, though she was still somewhat smug. Which sucks, Alex Kingston is a great actress and they give her so little to actually work with. I swear her directions has to be "Wink and be coy here, be smug and overbearing here, be a controlling bitch here, don't worry about emoting you aren't on ER here". I would LOVE if River's big secret is something truly horrifying but I don't know if it will be, and if it is I don't know if they won't just end up retconning it later. Otherwise I'm tired of her telling the Doctor how awesome her Doctor is and how awesome they will be together.
In regards to River though, I did like the call back to "Silence in the Library" when River asked the Doctor if they'd done the crash of the Byzantium yet. Hah. Though boo cause we know the Doctor and River live no matter way. Damn.
Yeah, yeah if River dies here it would be a paradox, but by stating matter of factly they HAD done this adventure and she survived it kind of takes the wind out of the sails of the "we're totally screwed" vibe for next week. Oh well.
I laughed at the Doctor lamely parroting the TARDIS landing noise, and I laughed more when River pointed out it only did that because he always left the brakes on. Hee.
All in all, this episode reminded me why I love this series. No it still wasn't the best and the characters are still like flat paper cut outs of people, but the plot was cohesive and not made out of fucking anvils. Which is all kind of awesome in my book. Yeah there were parts that I was rolling my eyes and shouting "Really show?", but it honestly wasn't anything that hadn't been on a million other Sci Fi type shows. Even if the writers this year don't figure out how to write engaging characters that have real live emotions that they don't tell the audience they obviously have, if they keep up writing engaging and cohesive plots I'll be happy. Hopefully my hope won't be misplaced after this episode!
Moving on to Final Fantasy XIII. Now I do love me some Final Fantasy. Storywise I would have to say VII is my favourite with X a close second. To be honest for me the story of Final Fantasy is one of the best components of the series. I play the games for an engaging story that blows my mind or makes me feel something. And VII definitely blew my mind (I didn't see the twist in the story coming at all, I KNEW something was up with Cloud but I didn't see THAT as being what was up with Cloud), and X left me feeling kind of depressed (and I know X-2 was supposed to erase that, but to be honest I never finished it since the game was unfortunately too boring).
Final Fantasy XIII had potential for an AMAZING story, but the story kind of petered out in the end when the characters were literally saying the same things over and over again. Not to say the story isn't engaging but it just lacked something. I guess for me its because we kept being TOLD how these characters were becoming a new family but...I didn't really feel it. Cloud was cold and distant but the interactions with Tifa and Aerys (holy crap I can't remember how to spell that) was a big reminder that people gave a crap about him and it was a huge part of the emotions in that game. Same with Squall, he was cold and very distant but there were characters that would literally go to the ends of the earth for him which was a very grounding thing while playing the game. Tidus was a child who had an asshole for a father who ended up not only falling in love, but also finding real family he would give anything up in order to keep safe. You wanted to win so the characters could finish their story either good or bad. But this story had a disconnect. I wanted to care about the characters but they were pretty self-centered. The only one I really cared about was Fang because she was driven to find Vanille and she would do anything to keep her safe (and she did). The rest were there either by dumb luck or for some self fulfilling reason.
Which was a bit of a let down. I still enjoyed the story but there was no heart. The other bad thing is I've noticed the story is MUCH better when playing through a second time, simply becuase there's clues all over the place about all the different characters that you don't SEE first time through because you aren't looking for it. Vanille is less annoying second play through than first simply because you get why she's reacting certain ways. For instance she asks about the Primark and Sazh replies "Did you sleep through history?" and her reply is "You could say that." Something completely innocent first go around but is much deeper the second go around since, yeah, she literally DID sleep through history since she was a fucking crystal!
As fun as that is, I don't like it. It's purposely dupeing the audience to force repeat plays. Same reason why I was annoyed with Sixth Sense, yeah it's fun to go "Holy crap it's so obvious now!"...well because it IS the story and twist have been handed to you so you KNOW what to look for. I felt like it was a ploy for repeat viewings in that movie as well. I kinda like knowing there's a mystery before I'm told something was a mystery then I feel less duped. I wouldn't have minded the trick in Sixth Sense if I hadn't been tricked into believing it was just a ghost story, when it's really a ghost mystery story (which btw, I had already figured something was up with Bruce Willis' character since NO ONE but the little boy talked to him, my assumption was different than the twist but something being up with his character wasn't exactly the most unobvious thing in the world).
I'm up in the air about the battle system. I LOVED the idea of a Paradigm system because you really had to strategize ahead of time on how to make it through battles. Each character had a specific role and one wrong switch could be instant death! The downside, some battles I just sat there hitting X over and over and over again. I would have liked it better to control what the other characters were doing as well since a lot of times the AI on those characters was pretty poody. For instance I'm in the red on health and Hope gives me an Esuna instead of Curing me, leading to my death. If the AI had been a little better I might not have minded hitting X continually since I was mostly in it for the story.
Speaking of death though, one thing I really, really, REALLY hated with XIII was the "lead character dies no matter who is alive your game is OVER". It sucks. A lot. Several times all my other characters would be full health but my lead would get struck with instant fucking death (I SO hate that spell and I hated not having much defense against it) meaning the battled ended while I had two perfectly useable characters. It was frustrating as hell and would have lead to me scrambling for a new strategy once the lead fell and I LOVE doing that. I'm not sure why SquareEnix decided to do this, but I hope this is the last game they do it in, because there's nothing more frustrating than fighting for twenty minutes and having the lead killed and two characters still pretty well alive.
I LOVED the Crystarium system. Way easier than the upgrading system from XII which was really complicated and easy to screw yourself on. This one was straightforward and not at all complex. But it was also a freaking necessity. I didn't keep up with the Crystarium my first go around so some fights were really tough because I'd upgrade my Crystarium when I had a few thousand CP points. Bad idea and makes the game needlessly difficult. Otherwise keeping your Paradigms in mind upgrading Crystarium was easy and fun (it's always fun to learn new spells).
Another thing I liked was that you only had to survive each battle, afterwards you were healed completely and you'd have no negative attributes. This made battling more fun and infinitely less aggravating. There was nothing more frustrating than fighting beastie after beastie and die because you ran out of mana or phoenix downs. Sure its more challenging but I think strategizing is more fun than scrambling to stay healed and keep my mana up. Which again I liked that no mana was necessary in this game, the only thing that used point was Techniques (like Libra and Summon) something that gives the edge to you and I thought that worked out really well.
However, I usually find the Summons in all Final Fantasy games to be essential to winning. This game I RARELY used them. I generally only used the Eidolons when I was severely outnumbered. I suppose I found them useless because, unlike other games, you could only summon the Eidolon that your lead character had. Period. It didn't matter who was in your party only your lead could summon and Eidolon. And I didn't find most of them nearly as powerful as they were in other games. Hopefully they work the kinks out for Summons in the next installment because this one the Summons were lame, and I love Summons.
Last thing I wasn't keen on, was the upgrade system for weapons and accessories. This I found to be pretty tedious. Unless you spend forever and a day learning every single branch of Crystarium and really buffing the shit out of your character upgrading the weapons and stuff is necessary. I didn't find it fun, I found it to be a chore and a good bit of guess work since you didn't KNOW what was going to give you and EXP bonus or anything like that. This I think just needs to be chucked entirely from the game. I really found it to be unnecessary when the game could have given me gil and I could have strategically bought items to upgrade my character.
Oh sorry that wasn't the last thing. I really wanted a bit more free roaming and sidequests in this game. There's really only one MAJOR sideqest in this game. That's it. It's also not hard to find treasure because other than Gran Pulse everything is on one set linear path. It didn't hurt my enjoyment of the game, but it made all the cool environments a litle claustrophobic.
I did like the game, and I am playing it through a second time. Like all FF games there were some improvements, and some steps backwards. I won't fault SqareEnix for trying to keep this series fresh, and it was still an enjoyable game. I just hope they continue with their usual MO and find what works and what doesn't in this game. At least I wasn't bored to death like I was during X-2.
If you are a fan it's worth the while, but don't go in expecting it to live up to the awesomeness that was VII, VIII and X.
Last but not least, Fringe. Ok, first I was bored and then I jumped up going "HOLY CRAP SHE WAS IN GOONIES" and became nerdily excited a little about the episode.
Shut up.
Ok this story was so boring until like the last minute when my head exploded. There were some good bits, unfortunately they didn't really involve Peter.
Lets start with Peter. He's on the run and just happens his way into a murder investigation. And by happens I mean he's prime suspect for a half a minute. Stef from Goonies is pretty smart but seems to have good instincts at the beginning, seeming to believe Peter isn't involved in the murder but wise enough to know Peter ain't exactly being 100 percent with her on some things.
Then there's the hick police officer who we find out Stef is boinking but only after he's an ass to her about "Reading conspiracy books and alien crap, you just want to believe." (seriously show, you are compared to X-Files enough, don't start putting a lesser version of Mulder and Scully in the episodes) and then gets himself kidnapped.
Stef believes Peter, then doesn't believe Peter, then thinks he's awesome that he does an autopsy and knows why the girls brain is taken, then thinks Peter is involved and wants to call the FBI. Seriously that shit goes on like a 100 years. That's her character, she just waffles and it sucks cause she's played some awesomely strong characters in the past, but this woman is pretty much set dressing and useless without a man. Literally.
Peter thinks people are after him, then is convinced by Sheriff waffle that he just is being paranoid due to lack of sleep, then he's convinced people are after him again, then they find the real serial killer and he's ok, then we find out HE WAS RIGHT PEOPLE ARE AFTER HIM.
Which again, show, I've been paying attention since Season 1, you'll never convince me that the main characters are "Just Paranoid", there is no such thing in the Fringeverse. Ever.
Like I said, Peter's story was incredibly boring. I was so happy to have bits with Walter, Olivia and Astrid, even though it made me sad and want to send Walter puppies and kittens to make him feel better if I wasn't terrified he'd do something awful to the puppies and kittens. Seeing Walter just completely break down and WHIMPER in the middle of the grocery store just made me sad, even if he had the funniest line:
"Do you know what they are feeding us? Death! Delicious strawbery flavoured DEATH!"
Hee. I <3 Walter sometimes.
I also love that as angry as Olivia has been with Walter she has learned to accept that the broken man he is now is NOT the man who gave her Cortexiphan. Walter is a completely different man to who he was in his youth, and unfortunately I think it was Saint Claire's that brought that man out. Sure Walter can't take care of himself even though he's a fucking genius, but Walter in his youth didn't NEED anyone to help him or ground him and THAT is where his hubris came in. Broken Walter has no hubris, he knows he's broken, he knows he can't do things on his own and as much as it frustrates Walter, deep down I think he knows NEEDING people is what makes him a better man.
Also seeing Peter be so inept and seeing Walter collapse in the grocery just drives home the point I made last week that these people need each other. Astrid and Olivia see that Walter can't handle being on his own despite his protest and gently help him back on his feet. Even to the point that he admits he can't do it alone and is terrified of going back to the hospital. And it's OLIVIA who tells him she won't let that happen. Which says a lot since only like 5 episodes ago I felt she would have thrown him back in the hospital for what he did to her if it hadn't been for Peter. Olivia is doing what she does best, seeing something that needs fixed and fixing it. Thing is Olivia hasn't realized how much she needs Walter and Peter yet either.
As for the mind blowing part. I never doubted the bad guys really were chasing Peter, and the weird fuzzy crap on the phone and in the forest was creepy. But I NEVER guessed who the secretary was. I had thought it was Bell since last week the hand looked kind of old. When they showed it was alternate Walter I kicked myself for catching a bit of the dumb. It just never occured to me that Walternate would have the same drive ours does, only with MORE hubris and less care. I mean even though our Walter gave kids Cortexiphan as an experimental drug I always felt he cared about the kids and their well being, but also seeing the big picture blinded him. This guy is willing to tear down the lining between the multiverses just to get his son and that's more insane and careless than Walter.
Needless to say I'm excited by the next two weeks, but I'm bummed the Finale is essentially two parts! BOOOO!
SHIT I JUST REALIZED THE FINALE FOR FRINGE AIRS WHEN I AM IN ENGLAND! Damn the luck :(
Before that though tomorrow I gotta take my car in for an oil change and a brake inspection, boo. At least the inspection is free and I'm hoping the grinding was nothing more than my pads being wet, but better safe than sorry.
Back to UK stuff, I picked up some games on Sunday and got my hair cut (finally, I couldn't take it any longer). Hopefully the fresh cut look will be gone by the time I head out, hell I had to go back today for them to tidy up the neck since the lady didn't cut it close enough and my hair was ALREADY sticking out. I seriously covet hair that people can actually manage. Mine has way to many whorls and shit, it's insane. Half the time I'm resolved to looking like Alfalfa's sister.
Anyway, picked up two PSP games and on UMD movie. I got a Ratchet and Clank game and the God of War prequel (so therefore I'll be all prepared to pick up God of War III once I get home *bounces around excitedly*). The movie I picked up was Jet Li's Hero, not his best movie ever but entertaining enough for 3 bucks. So between those things and a couple books I should be all set to be entertained on the plane. It'll save me from having to watch crappy movies more than once (Four Christmases I'm looking at you, I was unhappy they took Spongebob off to show that heaping pile of dung again).
I'll probably take the dog to the vet again after I get back from vacation simply because the stuff we got her for her storm anxiety just REALLY are not working. We had some bad storms the other night and she just would not relax, AT ALL. My plan that I'm going to try is pull her crate out of storage and put it in the bathroom with a blanket over the top. It's MUCH harder to hear the rain in the bathroom and she kept trying to follow me in there when I was trying to use it! Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't but there has to be a happy medium somewhere. Usually she's fine under my bed but the window and rain hitting the window was just too much for her she was just a panting, shaking mess.
Which has most wonderfully led me to be practically sleepless the last couple nights. Fun. Oh well, it could be worse I'm sure. I can be grateful to having more bed space since the dog wants to sleep half the night with me and then the other half she decides to move to a round chair I have in my room that's her new throne. She likes laying in it, so I "made it hers" by putting her blanket over the chair. I'll probably never get the chair back now without prying it out of her cold dead puppy paws.
Anyway, on to TV crap...you know the interesting stuff!
First up, Doctor Who. Could it be? Did it happen? Was this a....GOOD Doctor Who? One where I spotted we were half way through and it felt like only five minutes had passed? I haven't been this happy with an episode of Who since...well since last Series 4. I was unhappy with pretty much EVERY single David Tennant special, their stories were shit, the arc was shit, the moodiness was shit and the regeneration was shit. I was pretty much wishing for the door not to hit RTD on his way out of the writing room. I mean the four specials were less about Doctor Who and more about a David Tennant love fest written by RTD. Just eww. And sadly other than Planet of the Dead (which from this point on will be ignored from very existence) the rest had lots of potential, but I HATED that Ten pretty much became a god in like four hours. Again, eww.
But back to current Who. Matt Smith NAILED the Doctor this episode and I was thrilled that he wasn't an ass for once. He still did exclaim just how awesome he was, and how amazing Amy was but overall I believe he WAS the Doctor this episode and I have HOPE for the future. However, the writers have GOT to stop telling the audience how awesome 11 and Amy are. I can see how awesome 11 can be from episodes like this. He has personality now instead of just being a shouty, inappropriate jackass. Amy? Not seeing how super amazing she is. I liked Amy in the first episode, but in the last three she's had zero personality yet continues to stumble over the big awesome save of the day. I want to like Amy, I really do, but the only thing she has going for her right now is she's amazing to look at. And Doctor Who is usually way better than just sitting back and looking at all the pretty.
Give Amy a personality transplant ASAP. Hell just GIVE her a personality. Or if you plan on making the Companion a far more secondary character than what they have been the last 4 years, then STOP making the companion smarter and better than the fucking Doctor!
I will give Amy this, I LOVE that she wasn't super smart in this episode, just smart. First she realizes something isn't right with the angel recording and asks an appropriate question about the recording before assuming and freaking out. Then when the angel pops out of the TV in a much creepier way than Somara (sp?) she did appropriately freak out but WITHOUT forgetting what the hell she needed to do when she realized she WAS in trouble. What did she do? The one thing I kept wondering why no one did in "Blink", she closed one eye at a time! Smart girl. Then when no one could get to her she saved herself by being aware of the rules and how to find a loophole. Smart girl!
I did not need every other character bathing her compliments afterwards, since I was smart enough to SEE how smart she was. I do hope this "we are so awesome" monologues really stop and soon.
Back to episode I have to admit though I find the weeping angels creepy, they don't exactly make me run away screaming, and I honestly thing Moffat shot himself in the foot by taking some of the creepy away from the angels in this episode. I did NOT like that they were talking to the Doctor. Not only because it made everything in this episode an almost direct copy of "Silence in the Library" (which to be honest the only creepy part in that was seeing someone with MORE than one shadow and only one light source...end of creepy after that really), but because a monster is much more frightening when they can NOT be talked to and reasoned with. If you can't talk to something you are left in ignorance, you don't know the motivations, you don't know what it wants, you don't know what it needs, so you can't do ANYTHING to try to talk your way out of death. MUCH more freaky than useless fucking fangs (which I suppose is to scare someone into turning away and hence their death, but still kind of useless).
Anyway, I do wish they had left the angels communicating with the Doctor on the cutting room floor, but I did LOVE the realization of just how screwed the Doctor was once he started talking about how the whole race who built the catacombs (and the statues in their image as a homage to the dead) had TWO heads. I realized it almost the moment that the Doctor did that EVERY statue in the place had only ONE head.
Not only was it creepy because they were surrounded, it was creepy because they were decaying, and it was creepy because some were missing eyes they they had obviously gouged out themselves so they didn't have to cover their faces! I liked that.
I liked it enough that I was able to not hate that Moffat all of a sudden changed the rules surrounding the angels without much warning. Yeah the Doctor commented that ripping someone's brain out isn't the angels usual MO, but it had me kind of pissed in the beginning when the angels were breaking the already set up rules.
River Song wasn't as annoying this episode, though she was still somewhat smug. Which sucks, Alex Kingston is a great actress and they give her so little to actually work with. I swear her directions has to be "Wink and be coy here, be smug and overbearing here, be a controlling bitch here, don't worry about emoting you aren't on ER here". I would LOVE if River's big secret is something truly horrifying but I don't know if it will be, and if it is I don't know if they won't just end up retconning it later. Otherwise I'm tired of her telling the Doctor how awesome her Doctor is and how awesome they will be together.
In regards to River though, I did like the call back to "Silence in the Library" when River asked the Doctor if they'd done the crash of the Byzantium yet. Hah. Though boo cause we know the Doctor and River live no matter way. Damn.
Yeah, yeah if River dies here it would be a paradox, but by stating matter of factly they HAD done this adventure and she survived it kind of takes the wind out of the sails of the "we're totally screwed" vibe for next week. Oh well.
I laughed at the Doctor lamely parroting the TARDIS landing noise, and I laughed more when River pointed out it only did that because he always left the brakes on. Hee.
All in all, this episode reminded me why I love this series. No it still wasn't the best and the characters are still like flat paper cut outs of people, but the plot was cohesive and not made out of fucking anvils. Which is all kind of awesome in my book. Yeah there were parts that I was rolling my eyes and shouting "Really show?", but it honestly wasn't anything that hadn't been on a million other Sci Fi type shows. Even if the writers this year don't figure out how to write engaging characters that have real live emotions that they don't tell the audience they obviously have, if they keep up writing engaging and cohesive plots I'll be happy. Hopefully my hope won't be misplaced after this episode!
Moving on to Final Fantasy XIII. Now I do love me some Final Fantasy. Storywise I would have to say VII is my favourite with X a close second. To be honest for me the story of Final Fantasy is one of the best components of the series. I play the games for an engaging story that blows my mind or makes me feel something. And VII definitely blew my mind (I didn't see the twist in the story coming at all, I KNEW something was up with Cloud but I didn't see THAT as being what was up with Cloud), and X left me feeling kind of depressed (and I know X-2 was supposed to erase that, but to be honest I never finished it since the game was unfortunately too boring).
Final Fantasy XIII had potential for an AMAZING story, but the story kind of petered out in the end when the characters were literally saying the same things over and over again. Not to say the story isn't engaging but it just lacked something. I guess for me its because we kept being TOLD how these characters were becoming a new family but...I didn't really feel it. Cloud was cold and distant but the interactions with Tifa and Aerys (holy crap I can't remember how to spell that) was a big reminder that people gave a crap about him and it was a huge part of the emotions in that game. Same with Squall, he was cold and very distant but there were characters that would literally go to the ends of the earth for him which was a very grounding thing while playing the game. Tidus was a child who had an asshole for a father who ended up not only falling in love, but also finding real family he would give anything up in order to keep safe. You wanted to win so the characters could finish their story either good or bad. But this story had a disconnect. I wanted to care about the characters but they were pretty self-centered. The only one I really cared about was Fang because she was driven to find Vanille and she would do anything to keep her safe (and she did). The rest were there either by dumb luck or for some self fulfilling reason.
Which was a bit of a let down. I still enjoyed the story but there was no heart. The other bad thing is I've noticed the story is MUCH better when playing through a second time, simply becuase there's clues all over the place about all the different characters that you don't SEE first time through because you aren't looking for it. Vanille is less annoying second play through than first simply because you get why she's reacting certain ways. For instance she asks about the Primark and Sazh replies "Did you sleep through history?" and her reply is "You could say that." Something completely innocent first go around but is much deeper the second go around since, yeah, she literally DID sleep through history since she was a fucking crystal!
As fun as that is, I don't like it. It's purposely dupeing the audience to force repeat plays. Same reason why I was annoyed with Sixth Sense, yeah it's fun to go "Holy crap it's so obvious now!"...well because it IS the story and twist have been handed to you so you KNOW what to look for. I felt like it was a ploy for repeat viewings in that movie as well. I kinda like knowing there's a mystery before I'm told something was a mystery then I feel less duped. I wouldn't have minded the trick in Sixth Sense if I hadn't been tricked into believing it was just a ghost story, when it's really a ghost mystery story (which btw, I had already figured something was up with Bruce Willis' character since NO ONE but the little boy talked to him, my assumption was different than the twist but something being up with his character wasn't exactly the most unobvious thing in the world).
I'm up in the air about the battle system. I LOVED the idea of a Paradigm system because you really had to strategize ahead of time on how to make it through battles. Each character had a specific role and one wrong switch could be instant death! The downside, some battles I just sat there hitting X over and over and over again. I would have liked it better to control what the other characters were doing as well since a lot of times the AI on those characters was pretty poody. For instance I'm in the red on health and Hope gives me an Esuna instead of Curing me, leading to my death. If the AI had been a little better I might not have minded hitting X continually since I was mostly in it for the story.
Speaking of death though, one thing I really, really, REALLY hated with XIII was the "lead character dies no matter who is alive your game is OVER". It sucks. A lot. Several times all my other characters would be full health but my lead would get struck with instant fucking death (I SO hate that spell and I hated not having much defense against it) meaning the battled ended while I had two perfectly useable characters. It was frustrating as hell and would have lead to me scrambling for a new strategy once the lead fell and I LOVE doing that. I'm not sure why SquareEnix decided to do this, but I hope this is the last game they do it in, because there's nothing more frustrating than fighting for twenty minutes and having the lead killed and two characters still pretty well alive.
I LOVED the Crystarium system. Way easier than the upgrading system from XII which was really complicated and easy to screw yourself on. This one was straightforward and not at all complex. But it was also a freaking necessity. I didn't keep up with the Crystarium my first go around so some fights were really tough because I'd upgrade my Crystarium when I had a few thousand CP points. Bad idea and makes the game needlessly difficult. Otherwise keeping your Paradigms in mind upgrading Crystarium was easy and fun (it's always fun to learn new spells).
Another thing I liked was that you only had to survive each battle, afterwards you were healed completely and you'd have no negative attributes. This made battling more fun and infinitely less aggravating. There was nothing more frustrating than fighting beastie after beastie and die because you ran out of mana or phoenix downs. Sure its more challenging but I think strategizing is more fun than scrambling to stay healed and keep my mana up. Which again I liked that no mana was necessary in this game, the only thing that used point was Techniques (like Libra and Summon) something that gives the edge to you and I thought that worked out really well.
However, I usually find the Summons in all Final Fantasy games to be essential to winning. This game I RARELY used them. I generally only used the Eidolons when I was severely outnumbered. I suppose I found them useless because, unlike other games, you could only summon the Eidolon that your lead character had. Period. It didn't matter who was in your party only your lead could summon and Eidolon. And I didn't find most of them nearly as powerful as they were in other games. Hopefully they work the kinks out for Summons in the next installment because this one the Summons were lame, and I love Summons.
Last thing I wasn't keen on, was the upgrade system for weapons and accessories. This I found to be pretty tedious. Unless you spend forever and a day learning every single branch of Crystarium and really buffing the shit out of your character upgrading the weapons and stuff is necessary. I didn't find it fun, I found it to be a chore and a good bit of guess work since you didn't KNOW what was going to give you and EXP bonus or anything like that. This I think just needs to be chucked entirely from the game. I really found it to be unnecessary when the game could have given me gil and I could have strategically bought items to upgrade my character.
Oh sorry that wasn't the last thing. I really wanted a bit more free roaming and sidequests in this game. There's really only one MAJOR sideqest in this game. That's it. It's also not hard to find treasure because other than Gran Pulse everything is on one set linear path. It didn't hurt my enjoyment of the game, but it made all the cool environments a litle claustrophobic.
I did like the game, and I am playing it through a second time. Like all FF games there were some improvements, and some steps backwards. I won't fault SqareEnix for trying to keep this series fresh, and it was still an enjoyable game. I just hope they continue with their usual MO and find what works and what doesn't in this game. At least I wasn't bored to death like I was during X-2.
If you are a fan it's worth the while, but don't go in expecting it to live up to the awesomeness that was VII, VIII and X.
Last but not least, Fringe. Ok, first I was bored and then I jumped up going "HOLY CRAP SHE WAS IN GOONIES" and became nerdily excited a little about the episode.
Shut up.
Ok this story was so boring until like the last minute when my head exploded. There were some good bits, unfortunately they didn't really involve Peter.
Lets start with Peter. He's on the run and just happens his way into a murder investigation. And by happens I mean he's prime suspect for a half a minute. Stef from Goonies is pretty smart but seems to have good instincts at the beginning, seeming to believe Peter isn't involved in the murder but wise enough to know Peter ain't exactly being 100 percent with her on some things.
Then there's the hick police officer who we find out Stef is boinking but only after he's an ass to her about "Reading conspiracy books and alien crap, you just want to believe." (seriously show, you are compared to X-Files enough, don't start putting a lesser version of Mulder and Scully in the episodes) and then gets himself kidnapped.
Stef believes Peter, then doesn't believe Peter, then thinks he's awesome that he does an autopsy and knows why the girls brain is taken, then thinks Peter is involved and wants to call the FBI. Seriously that shit goes on like a 100 years. That's her character, she just waffles and it sucks cause she's played some awesomely strong characters in the past, but this woman is pretty much set dressing and useless without a man. Literally.
Peter thinks people are after him, then is convinced by Sheriff waffle that he just is being paranoid due to lack of sleep, then he's convinced people are after him again, then they find the real serial killer and he's ok, then we find out HE WAS RIGHT PEOPLE ARE AFTER HIM.
Which again, show, I've been paying attention since Season 1, you'll never convince me that the main characters are "Just Paranoid", there is no such thing in the Fringeverse. Ever.
Like I said, Peter's story was incredibly boring. I was so happy to have bits with Walter, Olivia and Astrid, even though it made me sad and want to send Walter puppies and kittens to make him feel better if I wasn't terrified he'd do something awful to the puppies and kittens. Seeing Walter just completely break down and WHIMPER in the middle of the grocery store just made me sad, even if he had the funniest line:
"Do you know what they are feeding us? Death! Delicious strawbery flavoured DEATH!"
Hee. I <3 Walter sometimes.
I also love that as angry as Olivia has been with Walter she has learned to accept that the broken man he is now is NOT the man who gave her Cortexiphan. Walter is a completely different man to who he was in his youth, and unfortunately I think it was Saint Claire's that brought that man out. Sure Walter can't take care of himself even though he's a fucking genius, but Walter in his youth didn't NEED anyone to help him or ground him and THAT is where his hubris came in. Broken Walter has no hubris, he knows he's broken, he knows he can't do things on his own and as much as it frustrates Walter, deep down I think he knows NEEDING people is what makes him a better man.
Also seeing Peter be so inept and seeing Walter collapse in the grocery just drives home the point I made last week that these people need each other. Astrid and Olivia see that Walter can't handle being on his own despite his protest and gently help him back on his feet. Even to the point that he admits he can't do it alone and is terrified of going back to the hospital. And it's OLIVIA who tells him she won't let that happen. Which says a lot since only like 5 episodes ago I felt she would have thrown him back in the hospital for what he did to her if it hadn't been for Peter. Olivia is doing what she does best, seeing something that needs fixed and fixing it. Thing is Olivia hasn't realized how much she needs Walter and Peter yet either.
As for the mind blowing part. I never doubted the bad guys really were chasing Peter, and the weird fuzzy crap on the phone and in the forest was creepy. But I NEVER guessed who the secretary was. I had thought it was Bell since last week the hand looked kind of old. When they showed it was alternate Walter I kicked myself for catching a bit of the dumb. It just never occured to me that Walternate would have the same drive ours does, only with MORE hubris and less care. I mean even though our Walter gave kids Cortexiphan as an experimental drug I always felt he cared about the kids and their well being, but also seeing the big picture blinded him. This guy is willing to tear down the lining between the multiverses just to get his son and that's more insane and careless than Walter.
Needless to say I'm excited by the next two weeks, but I'm bummed the Finale is essentially two parts! BOOOO!
SHIT I JUST REALIZED THE FINALE FOR FRINGE AIRS WHEN I AM IN ENGLAND! Damn the luck :(