A Random Monii

Hey everyone! I’m back from my trip overseas with a bunch of games, thanks to the generous donations of my family. Today I’m going to be looking at Battlefront II.

I’ll be the first to admit that I enjoyed Battlefront I. It was tons of fun, mowing down droids (or clones, if that was your flavour) and racing to capture checkpoints. The only experience I’d had with Battlefront games was 1942, and only in limited amounts. So SW Battlefront was a refreshing experience, and I even completed all of the modes. I’m notorious for not finishing games, and SW Battlefront was one I’m proud to say I finished.

But onto Battlefront II. What’s changed? Well, you don’t need to tell me that. IGN has detailed hands-on reviews from 2005- click here for first impressions or second impressions by the IGN crew. In my opinion, it’s essentially the same game with an added sugar rush. The graphics are shinier (so be careful you low-end computer owners), the gameplay is faster and the storyline in single-player works much better. I’m not a big fan of the vehicular/space sections, but even I can admit that the space battles look very authentic and are probably fun for those folk who can manage to pilot the darn things. For the other people who also get spacesick, like me, you can always fly your craft into the belly of the enemy ship and cause sabotage on foot. Wicked.

The AI seems to have been boosted, too. The snipers on both sides hit their marks much more, and many a time my plans have been thwarted by an NPC simply ducking or diving out of the way of my explosions. A sprint button has been added, which is invaluable. But the best new feature, in my opinion, has to be the squad commands. It’s not any Republic Commando (which I still haven’t played…yet) by a long shot, but it’s always good to have extra firepower at your back when facing a snail tank droid or a Jedi.

In short, it’s an awesome play. The only real problem I found was that my conscious started twinging when I was told to slaughter Jedi padawans in the Temple.

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Now playing: RENT - Another Day
via FoxyTunes

Today in class there were three people reading Potter, with two books between them. They were all at different places in the story, and the sight made me smile. People don’t read any books in my school apart from setwork, one guy even admitted that the Potter books are the only ones he’s ever read in his life.

Rowling has done wonders for the world’s literacy, I’m sure.

1. PotterPotterPotterPotterPotterPotterPotterPotter
2. PromPromPromPromPromPromPromPromProm

Eeek!

So it’s just over a month and a half until my next set of exams. Then about a month after that to my final ever high school exams. Wow. And hopefully after that I’ll never have to put up with all this school stress.

Unless university is just as bad.

One mark off an A in both of my English papers and my term mark? Sigh. I hope this third term is a good one, that’s all I’m sayin’.

I heard that Deathly Hallows has been leaked on the ‘net already. Yikes. At least a big chunk of it, with more to follow. Like someone on LJ said, it’s nearly safer in the fandom than out in the streets, where people are conspiring to ruin the ending of the book publicly. People like that don’t deserve to live in regular society with us normal folks.

But then again, what’s normal?

So. The Order of the Phoenix movie.

I loved it. All of it. Of course, I’d read a few reviews beforehand, so I was mostly picking up on what other people noticed. But I still loved it.

I loved:

• The educational decrees all on one wall (then later falling off).
• The awesome… set design? I’m not sure how to say it. I liked the Department of Mysteries, all shiny and stuff. Umbridge’s magical announcer-megaphones reminded me of Brave New World, as did the huge Fudge poster in the MoM.
• The Sirius-Harry relationship. So sad. All the hugging and angst and Harry’s question over whether he’s a bad person. He’s such a woobie.
• The fact that Rupert, Dan and Emma have improved in leaps and bounds, acting-wise. Their little laughing scene after Harry’s kiss seemed really natural and unscripted.
• Someone else pointed out Aberforth and his goat, Ron and Hermione dressing in stripes, and Minerva stealing every scene she was in…but I loved those bits too.
• I was sad like whoa for poor Trelawney. They did it so well, I wanted to hug the poor lady.
• I loved Harry teaching DADA. So awesome.
• LUNA. Loved Luna to bits <3
• The Snarky Snape… “I may vomit.” After the Worst Memory he was all angry and sad and just… awww.

And about a bazillion things more. The only things off the top of my head that I didn’t love was the fact that Snape’s Worst Memory was way way too short. And… did I hear the Half-Blood Prince’s spells being used in Harry’s DADA lessons? Confused much?

I wanna go see it again.

For the first time since Episode III, I finally got around to watching the Phantom Menace again. This time around I found myself actually liking Jake Lloyd’s version of Anakin. I saw plenty of the familar whining and bravado we later see in Ep II.

There’s lots of little details I just love about the SW universe. The hovercams in the senate, Ani and Watto speaking Huttese, even the Naboo Guard being called volunteers rather than anything more… military-sounding. The Nemodians’ accent still really bugs me though, for some reason.

I really feel for Obi-Wan in this movie. When Qui-Gon says to the Council that he will take Anakin as his padawan… you see Kenobi’s face for a second and he looks absolutely devastated. Yet a minute later he is stepping forward and backing up his master 100%. Such a good Jedi, even though he probably feels like Qui-Gon had just ditched him for a little kid.

Yeah, I’m more an Obi-Wan than a Qui-Gon. How can you tell? >_> Qui-Gon is still awesome, though.

Jar-Jar was still a waste of screen-time. Darn Qui-Gon and his rescuing pathetic lifeforms.