There will be Blood

So who are the Blood Knights? I'm not sure myself but at least they gave me this rather spiffy tabard:

Beyond the Stars

Well a new game in the Starcraft 2 trilogy is upon us in the form of Heart of the Swarm. And the question I want to ask is....

...what will Blizzard have Kerrigan do this time around?

I've already spoken on how I felt cheated out of victory at the end of Starcraft 1 but I have to give Blizzard credit: With Kerrigan, they created a character that made such an impression. As a result she is written about by academics, makes popular character lists and she inspires defenders who will stand by the Queen of Blades as a knight would the Holy Grail. It's such a response that most writers can only dream of but it does place the Blizzard writing staff in a rather awkward position:

What is there left for Kerrigan to do?

She destroys Arcturus' empire, brings the Protoss empire to it's knees, obliterates the UED, cons help out of the the other characters only to betray them and consolidates her position as unchallenged ruler of the Zerg. That's quite a lot but what is there to do? After declaring herself 'Queen Bitch of the Universe' it's near impossible to imagine Kerrigan doing something decent and to keep on acting as a destroyer can only last for so long - like until the destroyer runs out of things to destroy.

Personally, I see Kerrigan being in the same boats as Kratos and Lara Croft in that they are characters whom are being handled by writers who have no idea what to do with them (though to be fair the new Tomb Raider game shows some degree of writers having a clear goal in mind). If anything, I believe all three characters could benefit with a mirror character.  You know, someone who does the same things the protagonist does to ultimately confront said protagonist with their actions. How would Lara react if someone else was hoarding artifacts to prevent an apocalyptic catastrophe? How would Kratos react if some sod challenged him over the murder of the sod's wife simply because she was in Kratos' way? And how would Kerrigan react if some other force was razing empires as well as making and breaking alliances on a whim?
In addition I still think my idea of the restored Sarah Kerrigan going out of her way to revert back to her infested state still has weight. After all, how awesome would it be that Sarah resents her previous/human state so much that she would rather stamp it out of existence completely? It would go a long way because a lot of time is spent having Infested Kerriagn acting in a ruthless/smug fashion that seeing her get angry or insulted would make for a worthwhile change of pace.

But alas I don't work for Blizzard so whatever ideas I have aren't worth jack.
Oh well....

The job that will never get done

I've never understood the Garrus fans - if anything Garrus doesn't strike me as someone you'd want to hang around with.
You'd be like: "Hey Garrus! Lets go out tonight to a bar! I bet I could drink you under the table!"
To which he'd respond: "Can it wait for a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations"

Plato they say / Could stick it away

I may have returned to World of Warcraft but that doesn’t mean I can’t find the time to strike another game down from my Hall of Shame. And which title is out on their arse this time around? None other than Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis!

 As is often the case with the games I play, this is a game that I’ve waited a long time to play. I was keen on it when I first heard about in the early nineties (!!!) but it is only now that I’ve managed to sit down and have a crack at it. For a while I was beginning to worry that this game would forever be out of my reach but lo and behold it showed up on Steam (seems like signing up for it wasn’t really a bad idea).

Of course, saying I beat Fate of Atlantis doesn’t mean I am completely finished with the game itself when there are multiple paths through the game. Yes I beat the game (on the Wits path for the curious) but someday I will return to this game and try a different path. For now though there isn't much I can say about this game that hasn't already been said before: The writing is top notch and the design invested into elevates this game head and shoulders above a lot of other games in the adventure genre (seems the two years of development was truly worth it). The graphics hold up pretty well and the voice acting is great too. I went into this game with very expectations and needless to say I wasn't disappointed.

Ultimately though, this game may well be the endpoint for my interest in the LucasArts Point and Click Adventure games. I've been playing a lot of them over the past few months and I'm at a point where it may be time to try something new. Still, in my mind, playing these games have been a point of reassurance to me: For one, it proved to me that LucasArts could make something without the Star Wars brand. For two, it proved to me that LucasArts could take a risk with making a wide range of new IP. And for three, it proved to me that there certainly was a lot of creativity going on in that think-tank.
Of course, LucasArts is now owned by Disney. So not only does the House of Mouse has ownership to Star Wars but access to a incredibly rich library of games. Indeed it would be interesting to see what they will do next with it....

It's not about Tombs any more is it?

Recently I had the opportunity to try out the new Tomb Raider game. True I've never been keen on the Tomb Raider series but I was prepared to at least give this a chance. So what did I think of it?

Well I died a lot. 
Seriously I couldn't get past the one section because I kept getting killed. Maybe it's because I have a bow and arrow whilst the guys I'm trying to take out have GUNS!

Oh well....

New Blood

With my current status in WoW, I have no plans to come up with a new character. For you see I have (at last count) six characters and, as I found out, it was hard to allocate the time available between them. As such, I'm more interested in working with my veterans and getting some mileage of them.
Indeed I'm not sure how people manage to juggle more than four characters.

Still I will admit I will eventually make a up a new character and it will be most certainly be a Pandarian. If anything, I find them fascinating in a) the land they live in and b) being a force outside the Horde/Alliance conflict and thinking it all inane
Besides you can't say no to Panda:

Pachyderm heat

Oh no! I killed Babar!

(Actually no: more likely it was a malformed cousin that Celeste-ville speaks little of)