Hey guys, saw this on FEARnet.com and wanted to share. Most movie sites have their top movies of 2009 lists, but FEARnet has their top HORROR movies of '09, which I thought was pretty awesome.
And now, without further ado...
<a href="http://www.fearnet.com/news/b17709
London, Dec 25 (PTI) In yet another medical achievement, British scientists have restored eyesight of a partially blind person using pioneering stem cell treatment.
God bless us, every one.
Actually, if Downey Jr. spent the next decade just bouncing back and forth between Holmes and Stark, I'd be a happy man. :-)
- Mood:
mostly satisfied
Lawrence got "between 4 and 10 inches" -- nobody's quite sure, because 40 mph winds blew everything around, leading to areas like on our lawn where you can see patches of grass sticking up through the snow, sitting next to 4-foot-high snow drifts.
It's still snowing, and blowing. Expecting another 2 inches tonight, maybe another inch tomorrow before we're done.
Everybody here is snug and safe -- we're going to eat our WHO FEAST within an hour or so -- waiting for side dishes to finish -- Turkey(s) (not Roast Beast) are done. (We have 2 12-pounders, since the store was out of larger birds, and we have 5 hungry people here, a couple of which are teenagers.) Probably watch Doctor Who - The End of Time, Pt. 1 later this evening (Yes, I already have it -- this is me we're talking about).
Laura's family postponed Christmas gathering due to the roads -- although I'm not sure we're going to be able to dig out and go tomorrow, either (no plowing yet around us -- although Ian did a stalwart job of semi-clearing the driveway).
Anyway -- Loot summary over the next couple of days . I've got feasting to do. (Both turkey this evening, and footy tomorrow, during the Boxing Day matches!)
Gawrblezzus, evrywun.
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays
Originally uploaded by Thomas Hawk
happy newtonmass, mithrasmass, feastmass, and whatever othermass you might celebrate.
Hope you've all had a good one and also have a great New Years Eve next week!!!!!!!!!!!
Heading off to Serbia at 6am Tuesday morning (which means being at Heathrow at 4am....eeeek!) but am in the big smoke until then :)
Originally published at KIT KOW SKI. You can comment here or there.
It arrived yesterday! So last night Orie and I dug into the latest episode of the Final Fantasy franchise. Just note that in these posts I won’t be posting “spoilers”, I’ll be breaking down the basic story elements, framework, gameplay, etc.
So, last night I played for a little over 2 hours, and I still appear to be in “the prologue”. The reason I can tell this is because they have not yet introduced any XP/levelling mechanic. Because of all the other changes in the game, I thought “My god… have they actually done away with the core mechanic of every console RPG? That’s kinda scary, and a bit intriguing…” but then I looked in the instruction manual and sure enough one is there, I just haven’t gotten to when it’s introduced yet (probably pretty soon, though, given the action that’s happening in the story).
Mind you, some of the below info is going to reflect the fact that I’m only 2 hours into the game, it might change as the game goes on.
* You don’t control your party of 3 members: You only control the lead character in your party, and the others perform support roles. Also, and this is new: You can revive other characters in your party, but if your leader goes down, you cannot revive them: It’s Game Over. So you’ve got to keep the leader alive no matter what.
* Potions: Use one single potion, and everyone on your team is healed.
* Restart: If you don’t like how the battle is going, you can hit Start->Select to choose to retry the battle from the beginning. I actually did this in one mini-boss battle: I mistimed the damage my companion was taking, and he went down. I could have dropped a Phoenix Down to bring him back up, but I figured “Why waste it?” and restarted the battle.
* No XP! …at the beginning, anyway. As I mentioned above, you later get XP in the form of crystals or something as explained in the manual. But I’ve been playing for about 2 hours, and 3-4 separate characters as leaders, and I’ve been yet unassailed with levelling mechanics. Incidentally, I’ve also been able to skip a bunch of low-level fights to get to bosses by simply running past them. As having whined about the frequency of random battles and low-level grinding on previous titles, this is kinda refreshing. But I’m just probably about 20 minutes from the next section when that stuff is introduced.
* Combat Roles: Haven’t been introduced either, but will get to those when the game brings them up, again probably after not too long.
* Characters: Already more memorable than FF 12. I’ll break down previous games later, but in short FF X had memorable characters. FF 12 had totally forgettable characters, who I referred to in play as Boy, Girl, Princess, Good Twin, Han Solo and Fran. Fran is the “bunny chewbacca”, and I only remember her name because she actually had some cool backstory. Anyway, even though they go a cheesy route of naming most of the characters after English words (Lightning, Snow Hope, Vanilla(for real?), etc), the characters seem memorable enough in their own rights.
* Treasure chests are floating metal spheres with hand-recognition stuff on them.
* The story: They are doing a real job of In Media Res with the action, and the story setting/background as well. I’m not sure what the fiction writing/word is for it, when the author doesn’t introduce you to the world but rather throws you in and you pick up on the meaning of the special words/terms/etc used in the world through inferrence… This game does that in spades. I’m 2 hours in and finally getting the lay of the land as per what’s going on, and why everything is fucking exploding. But we’re still a little unclear on what Pulse (the “Underworld”/下界), Cocoon (I figure it’s the techno-world of green-and-black that the game starts in), the Falshe (ファルシ), and the Rushe (ルシ). Huh.
* The women in this game are too damn thin. Lightning and Vanilla need more meat. I’m reminded of Late Buffy’s Sarah Michelle Gellar, and I want Lightning to pop a potion and a pack of almonds or something. As the Japanese say,”gari-gari”/looks like a skeleton.
* All of the weapons fold up. A fold-up sword, fold-up huge boomerang, fold-up laser-whip-staff (!!!), etc. That’s very efficient!
* There’s a techno-magical explanation for the “1-mile anime jump/anime fall”, which was kinda cool.
* The Intro/Prelude song is really cool, too.
-Andy
Even if you don't, may all of the love and joy of the universe (that we monkeys occasionally manage to express) envelop you and give you the sort of warm fuzzies that this time of year provides when it's at its best.
We had pumpkin pie for breakfast. Because we can.
Caitlin opened presents. She gets to do that again soon when we go see
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
michaeldthomas's family. She's watching the Disney parade quite happily.- Location:big red couch
- Mood:
happy - Music:disney christmas parade
My latest column for The Escapist—“A Bunch of Characters”—just went up this morning. In this installment I discuss the process of helping Marty and his friends create their first-ever characters for our new Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I didn’t find this as easy as I thought it should be, but in the end I think Wizards got it right. Read the article to see how.
In other news, Merry Christmas! The kids got us up early this morning to see what Santa had brought, and we’ve been eating all sorts of treats and playing with toys and games ever since. Here’s hoping you have a wonderful holiday too!
- 11:38 Tonight we continue the tradition of getting Chinese food for the holidays. Love it! Merry Christmas one and all. #fb #
- 14:47 Next week we'll be releasing our first monster book for PFRPG. As a Xmas present to our fans and customers, here's... bit.ly/7SwYjH #
- 15:51 With the release of the Grinj, I'm done with SGG work for the next day or so. :) I'll take at least Xmas off. #
- 18:18 Waiting for the parental/grand-parental units and then it's time for Chinese food! Merry Christmas! #fb #
Share your own, if you dare.
-- c.
In addition to our awesome price reduction on core books we have two new PDFs and print-pre orders available for you!
Vice
Illegal is a strong word.
It means you’re doing something that the government doesn’t want you to do. You’d never do anything like that, right? Or would you?
It might be that some laws are… Misguided.
It’s civil disobedience and a moral imperative to oppose those laws.
Gandhi taught us that.
My friends and I—we’re here to help you make these difficult moral choices. We’ll even provide you with a support network, if someone objects to your strong moral compass. And, hey, if everything works out, maybe all of us might come out ahead. Don’t worry! We’ve got your back.
Vice is a sourcebook for Shadowrun, Fourth Edition. It provides a detailed look at all levels of organized crime, from the major transnational syndicates—like the Yakuza, the Triads, and the Mafia—to the smallest street gangs and specialist organizations. History, personality, and membership of these groups are provided along with suggestions on how best to use them as key players in a Shadowrun campaign. The crimes they commit, the metahumans they recruit, the law enforcement they oppose, and the shadowruns they sponsor are all in here. Whether your team of runners works in concert with the criminal underworld or tries to oppose it, Vice will offer new insights and options to your campaign.
Dawn of the Artifacts: Midnight
There are deep secrets in the Sixth World, and there are people who will do anything to uncover them. Some secrets reach into the ancient past, but they still have the power to shake the world. What they will do depends on whose hands they fall into…
Dusk was only the beginning. Jane “Frosty” Foster is back and ready to continue her artifact hunt. If they’re game, runners will join her in a chase across North America, from the frozen, bug-filled wastes of Chicago to the political hotbed of Denver to the Deep Lacuna lurking under Los Angeles.
Midnight is the second adventure in the Dawn of the Artifacts series, giving skilled runners the chance to find a second powerful artifact—and perhaps uncover clues about what makes these treasures so valuable.
'Twas the Night Before Giftmas
'Twas the night before Giftmas, and all through the lab,
not a creature was stirring, not even the hag.
All the mantraps were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that the red guy soon would be there.
The monsters were nestled, all snug in their cages
With visions of murderous psychotic rages
And the wife in her kerchief and I with my shotgun
Had just settled in for a long Giftmas snoggin'.
When out on the lawn there arose such a yell
I sprang from my bed shouting forth "Bloody Hell!"
Away to the porch I flew like a bat
Threw open the door and tripped over the mat.
The moon on the frost threw forth squamous light
Gave an unhealthy glow the unnatural sight
When what to my shocked eyeballs should appear
But hungering zombies, faces drawn drear
With a horned red driver, so mean and so quick
I knew in a moment it must be Old Nick
More rapid than humans, the corpses approached
And he whistled, and shouted, and lashed them all forth.
"Now howlers! Now demons! Now freaks, geeks, and leeches!
On bastards, on monsters, on zombies, and creatures
To the top of the porch! To the top of the stair!
Get every one of them! Leave nothing there!"
As broken bodies they crawled, dragged, and marched
As if their bodies had been all a-starched
So up to the front porch the shamblers drew
In their ragged formation, their heads all askew.
And then in a moment, I heard on the roof
The rapping and tapping of each cloven hoof
I ducked back inside and was turning around
Down the chimney the Devil arrived in a bound.
He wore not a stitch, from his head to his prick
Aside from his mustache, both pointed and thick.
A pitchfork was slung up over one shoulder
And he bore himself proud as a mad Cossack soldier
His eyes- how they burned, his teeth how they gnashed,
As I threatened to kick his most devilish ass.
His smirking mouth drew down in a sneer
And he lowered his horns like some kind of steer.
The stump of a cigar he clenched in his teeth
And the smoke of filled the room with its reek
He leveled the pitchfork at me and sighed:
"Come on, you blighter, it's time that you died."
I spoke not a word, but took careful aim
On the family jewels, the devil's own seed
And I gave him both barrels, without barely a pause
Yes, I shot the devil smack square in the balls
He sprang out the door, only limping, not dead
And took all the zombies, even the last severed head
But I heard him exclaim, ere they marched up the ave
"Merry Giftmas to all, and to all- WATCH YOUR ASS!"
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horror_movies :: jcaryn : FEAR in Review: Top 9 Movies of '09! [+0] - wickedthought : A Christmas Miracle [+1]
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