Merry Christmas

Skyrim Soundtrack

Well, it finally arrived! I got my Skyrim soundtrack in the mail yesterday, and it's been on repeat in my car ever since. I'll provide a review of the soundtrack in an upcoming post when I review Skyrim as a whole, but I had a few observations about it I wanted to share.

Mass Effect 3 Score

Crazy story for you. I was happily sleeping. It was the first day of my vacation, and I was going to enjoy the luxury of being able to sleep in a few minutes before getting up to help my mother car shop (a trip that turned out to be more driving than actual shopping). Somewhere subconsciously, I heard my room mate get up and start getting ready to go to work, and I distinctly remember thinking ha ha. So, I wasn't necessarily sleeping, but somewhere between blissful sleep and waking up.

Then, I sat bolt upright, suddenly certain that Jack Wall wasn't doing the score for Mass Effect 3.

A Random Update

So, I'm sitting here at work, waiting for the printer to finish printing the giant posters I've been working on all day. Sadly, I didn't have much of a chance to work on any of the things I need to get done this week to go on vacation at the end of the week. Everybody's priorities are more important than mine. Eh, such is life.

I'm listening to Dream Theater's Ocatavarium right now. Not the whole album, just the song. The song, however, is long enough to be a whole album (by modern album-length standards). If you consider that the average song produced nowadays is about 4 minutes long, a song that is 23:58 is rather incredible. And that's not even their longest song!

You may be wondering why on earth I'm not listening to Chevelle's new album, and the answer is that the album sucks ass.

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Just kidding!

Lulu

Well, I'd call this post a review, but it isn't. I can't bring myself to even listen to most of the songs all the way through. This is just bad.

So, I've long been a Metallica fan. My first album was Reload, then I went back to Load, then was S&M, before I finally dove back into the discography. I'll be frank, I think S&M is Metallica's crowning achievement. I like Load and ReLoad better than any of their older albums. Master of Puppets was my favorite album of the "hair" era. Then Garage, Inc. hit, which had a few neat songs on it (Turn the Page, Whiskey in the Jar), but most of the dual CD outing was trash. Then St. Anger, which, to this day, is the only album I've ever thrown away the same day I bought it. If Garage, Inc. was trash, then St. Anger was the burning pit of talentless hell. I'd equate that CD to listening to a toddler beat on his mommy's pots. Death Magnetic was better than the previous two, but it still couldn't hold a candle to their pre-Garage days.

So, I'm already so-so on this Lulu album, which is Metallica instruments backing the vocals of Lou Reed, whose non-Metallica music I am wholly unfamiliar with. Hit the music.... and if I'd purchased this album, I'd have snapped it over my leg before throwing it away. As it is, I'm considering burning the album to a disc before deleting it so I can break it anyway.

Let it Snow...

It's been snowing here all weekend. All weekend. And the air is chilly; just looking outside makes me want to bundle up and forget about the world. What can be done about it?

Anyway, it's been a very uneventful weekend, and I blame the weather mostly. It's hard to motivate myself to go outside when everything is so miserable looking. Plus the slippery roads don't help much either.

So... this weekend has mostly been Skyrim, lots and lots of Skyrim. Hard to believe that it's 7 already, and I'm still playing this game. Suffice it to say, it's a little addicting. Plus, it's much more fun to adventure outside in the fake snow than it is to do anything outside in the real snow.

In any case, I'm booking through the game as quickly as possible to try to get a review in for it. Plus I wasn't to have it beaten at least once by Christmas so I can devote ample time to the games I'm going to get that day.

There's my update, see you tomorrow.

A Couple More Preliminary Thoughts on Skyrim

I continue to dump an inordinate amount of time into Skyrim. That game is a little like a drug. Super addicting, crazy fun while it lasts, but you have a tendency to look back on it and wonder if you're sane for even doing it.

That, however, does not stop me from cracking out on my rogue, power leveling him through pickpocketing, lock picking, and sneaking around.

Bow and arrow? Check.
Double dagger awesomeness? Check.
Chest full of stolen goodies at my house? Check.
Badass thieves guild armor? Double check.

Morals? ...missing entirely. My rogue is a thief and a selfish bastard. I just started one quest line where, to initiate it, I had to lead a follower up to a certain god's shrine and kill him. Then I had to kill all the rest of the followers at the shrine. Now I have to kill the god's previous champion and the people with him. Lots of death and other ways to make myself obscenely rich.

Winning.

Did I mention that I am also a werewolf?

Tonight, I'd like to share a few thoughts on Skyrim, as posed by the fine, creative, and funny folks over at Penny Arcade.