malkav11

Just got back from "Jet Li's Fearless", another lavishly produced, gorgeous martial arts epic. Jet Li is easily my favorite of the major martial arts stars and his movies are usually pretty spectacular, Fearless being no exception. There's two set-piece battles that were especially amazing, one set atop a platform many feet in the air, another in a ritzy multi-level restaurant. What was unusual about them is that you couldn't really root for Jet Li in them. Oh, he's the hero of the movie, no doubt about that, but the movie is in large part about his journey from arrogant bastard to humble champion of China, and the most spectacular battles are while he's still an arrogant bastard. Also notable is the mildly xenophobic subtext. Jet Li's first big movie (as far as I know) was "Once Upon a Time in China" with his martial arts schoolmaster up against the evil foreigners, and while "Fearless" tones that down somewhat (and it's not the focus of the movie), the opening and closing battles are against the champions of an evil, scheming group of foreigners (the Foreign Chamber of Commerce). It's mildly disconcerting, as a foreign viewer.

Been quiet lately because I'm just doing the same ol' same ol'.

My HTML class is easy but dull. We're learning a few things already that didn't exist back when I was learning HTML in high school, but it's mostly familiar and the general tone of the class is aimed at people with much less computer experience than I have (and that's most of the class, from what I can tell.). On the other hand, it leaves most of my Monday and Wednesday free, and that's always nice.

I've mostly switched to gaming on Wednesdays. There's less of it, but the general crowd is more my age and play the sort of games I'm into much more often. And it's about six blocks from my house, as opposed to over half an hour of bus ride from my house and closer to 2 hours from my work (and I work on Fridays this semester). Yesterday I got in on their Friday session also and played Twilight Imperium for the first time. I was rather impressed. It's an insanely long game, but there's a lot of depth and decision-making and the overall feeling of waging galactic war is very well supported by the rules. We didn't actually get to finish, as we started late and people were getting tired.

My Gamefly games at the moment: Warship Gunner 2, Conker: Live and Reloaded, and Everblue 2.

Conker's gorgeous, disgusting, and very funny, but I'm holding off because I'm not sure how badly I want to meet the Great Mightypoo.

Warship Gunner 2 has a ton of tutorials, so I've barely gotten into the main game. There looks to be a lot of depth in research and ship customization, as well as a potentially complex and rewarding main game...it may yet be possible to get through it without mastering the nuances though. Which is probably just as well, because I tend to be bad at mastering nuances. I button mash in fighting games, I charge straight ahead with my guns blazing in shooters...

Everblue 2 is pretty unique. It's kind of a scuba-diving RPG. You can take on quests, level up, and buy better equipment and potions and such...but the main gameplay, instead of involving wandering dungeons and beating on foul beasts, involves diving into the ocean and hunting for buried treasure with a multi-function sonar device, as well as exploring (and looting) shipwrecks. No combat, little danger, yet still both compelling and fun. I hear they're planning on making a sequel for the Revolution. If so, I'm there.