Thursday, March 30, 2006

Oblivion arrives, quality Lost returns, and my struggle to end boredom continues...

You may be under the impression that since I haven't blogged everyday during this break that I may have escaped my prison of boredom. Untrue. It only means that I am lazy.
This break hasn't been all bad though. I hung out with some high school friends, watched a few movies (V for Vendetta and Jet Li's new movie Fearless - some of his best work i'd say), and played card games. I had fun committing suicide in Mafia just to throw people off.
... I think they hate me now. :(
In other news, The Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion has been widely acclaimed as one of the most impressive games of the year and a definite contender for Game of the Year by several gaming sites (including gamespot.com, ign.com, and gamespy.com). Gamespot even goes so far as to say "[Oblivion] is simply one of the best role-playing games ever made."
Oblivion is the sequel to the 2002 Bethesda production Elderscrolls III: Morrowind. Along with impressive graphics and audio, the series features a unique roleplaying style where you don't get experience points. Instead, the more you do a certain type of activity, the better you get at it. For example, the more you fight enemies with swords, the better your "Blades" skill gets. The more you sneak around, the better your "Sneak" skill gets. Oblivion has improved and expanded upon this idea by setting tiers within each skill. When reached, each tier grants the player with new, more powerful abilities.
Featuring an impressive cast of characters (voices include Jean Luc Picard/Professor Xavier and Boromir from Lord of the Rings), Oblivion is also the first game in the series to feature full voice-overs for all dialogue (although, this is somewhat expected of a game of this type now, thanks to Bioware's KotOR and Jade Empire). The music is suitably epic - I already own the soundtrack and I haven't even played the game. Composed by Jeremy Soule, Oblivion's soundtrack alternates between sweeping melodies and heart-pounding scores.
Anyway, enough about that. How was last night's LOST. Did you see that? Because if you didn't and you plan to, you probably shouldn't read on. Because I'm going to ruin it. I'll ruin it good. Stay away.
...stop reading dammit!

Meet Henry, Lost's resident prisoner/beat-up guy.

In my opinion, last night's episode "Lockdown" was probably one of the season's best. Sharon's death was...not that tragic in my opinion, and for the most part this season has been full of filler. Even Claire's adventure into the jungle was kind of disappointing - nothing happened.
Finally, something's happening.
Last night's episode was another Locke-centric episode... maybe they should have called it "Locke-down" Haha. ha...ha. I have to admit I could barely stand to watch the flashback parts of this episode because SOOO much crap has happened to the poor guy already. Poor Locke. Poor, crazy, Locke.
The real meat of the episode occurrs on the island. A lockdown procedure is initiated without warning, trapping Locke and prisoner Henry Gale inside the hatch. Meanwhile, Jack and company manage to find not one, but two balloons. Sayid finds Henry's wife's grave and his balloon, just where Henry said it would be. But another balloon (was it a balloon? maybe it wasn't...) pops up out of nowhere with a bunch of food and supplies...how the heck did it get there? Who the heck sent it? More unsolved mysteries! Bah.
As Locke and Henry are trying to pry open the blast doors, Locke becomes trapped underneath one ( a relatively stupid move). Bad timing results in the computer alarm sounding. Locke is forced to ask Henry to push in the code. And then all we see is Locke trapped and him yelling "Henry!" Oh, that and a mysterious map apparently written by Desmond only visible under a blacklight on one of the doors. Yay...more...dangling...mystery...
...yay for suspense.
So it turns out Henry did push in the code, and comes back to rescue Locke. The lockdown is mysteriously deactivated, and Locke is freed. Yay! Happy ending.
Until Sayid and company march back into the hatch that is. Apparently Sayid dug up Henry's wife's grave (Oh Sayid...*pat pat*) and did not find Henry's wife in the grave. No, he found Henry. Henry Gale. Yea, he found him in the grave, dead and...black?

Maybe he went on that new "Black & White" show - you know, the one where people switch races o_O. And then went on "The Biggest Loser." And then went on "Survivor - Lost Island." You never know! That could be the case!
...yea. Finally something significant happens. Hurrah!
Looking back on what I wrote, if you havent been keeping up with Lost, then you'll have no idea what I'm talking about...and if you have...then you probably watched the episode already, and didn't need the episode summary. Yay for uselessness.
Ok, I'm bored now. Bye!

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