The series is 46 years old and looks younger every day. What a long strange trip it's been!

Running Gun Studios, the makers of the Halo machinima "Spriggs" have produced a new, more serious, "Twilight Zone-esque" Fallout 3 machinima called "Tales of the Grey." The different "Tales" will illustrate life in retrofuturistic post-nuclear Baltimore.

The first episode is finally out and is about a fellow who discovers the dark secret of the Vault system he lives in.

AND I'm in it, talking in a high pitched, slightly off "hon" accent (the character is in episode 1 part b).

If you're not familiar with the Fallout series, but you want to take a gander--what you need to know is the world takes place about 150 years or so in the future, after a devastating nuclear war. Most people survived by taking shelter in massive underground Vaults, designed to house and feed humanity for decades to come. But many of the Vaults were used as experimental chambers as opposed to just protecting human beings, some of them mutating, cloning, or simply just torturing the individuals within. Others were more "normal," trying to just help humanity survive until it was safe for them to return to the surface.

In this world, technology evolved as imagined by 1950s futurologists, hence the retro look.

Episode 1, part 1 is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wufDfyfFhGg

ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery) is a game that I officially declare TOO HARD. (Or rather TOO FRUSTRATING.)

It's a roguelike game, like... well, Rogue. Or Nethack. I've won Nethack three times.

I've won Nethack three times. And no, I don't mean in Xploremode or by savescumming. People who've played Nethack know what this means. As far as I'm concerned, this earns me enough sad-obsessive-nerd-with-no-life-credits for several lifetimes.

I've seen a lot of recommendations of ADOM, but I've tried many many times over the last week and most of my characters haven't survived past first level. Usually due to being ambushed by a random encounter before getting anywhere, when I have no decent equipment whatsoever and no means of escaping. It's one thing to make things challenging, but this game has no sense of danger scale. If the random generator throws 15 barbarians at you when you're level one and armed with a rock, you have to suck it up. I can tell it has a lot of interesting characters and items, but there's no point in trying to explore farther into the game when the next step will probably be your last, because it decides to throw several poisonous creatures before you've had a chance to deal with poison. And of course if you try to experiment with what items do, you'll probably kill yourself anyway.

It's a shame because it's got a quite innovative character creation system--but it's pointless to have an innovative character creation system in a "hardcore" style game where you can't save and reuse the character of your choice. What's the point of going through this lovely, complex system of birthsigns and background and questions when you step out the door and get slaughtered and then you lose the five minutes you spent creating that character forever? I did figure out a few tactics to try and stay alive longer, but the RNG is just too bent on your destruction.

So this is me, obsessive game nerd, telling you: do not play this game, unless you get off on being frustrated and seeing your hard work go up in smoke over and over again.

Oh well, back to Nethack.

Video games, Joss Whedon, comic books and more...

• If you like fantasy games or want to waste a little time, check out Dragon Age Journeys. This is an amazingly well-designed Flash game designed as a companion to Bioware's new Dragon Age: Origins (which I'll buy when I get a new computer later this year). As Bioware RPGs go, no it's not very deep, but it's a Flash game and certainly goes farther than one would expect in that medium. Easy to learn, difficult to master, great character leveling system and what dialogue there is is entertaining. The setting is nicely fleshed out too--you'll recognize some typical fantasy tropes, but some get turned on their head (elves are a slave race, for example).


• I started thinking about it, and there are some truly bizarre yet uncanny similarities between the plot of Planescape: Torment and Revolutionary Girl Utena (think thorny witches stealing the essence of a man's soul in the name of love, said stolen essence living in a castle in another realm, etc.). Also, both have that industrial theme in their soundtrack. But which is better, pet ChuChu or pet LimLim?


• I've been watching my Dollhouse Season One DVD set--as well as the new episodes of the second season as they come out. I think the show is still compelling, but I'm not sure what to make of its developments in the new season. Some I really like, some are even too creeptastic for me.
  
  But the Season One DVD commentaries finally have revealed to me, amongst many other insights, the answer to the greatest mystery of Dollhouse--why does that jackass Ballard have such a big (and increasingly larger) role when he really mostly ruins the entire show for me? (Because everyone is supposed to make television just for me, of course.)
  
  And the answer to that is that Joss Whedon has a big gay crush on Tamoh Penikett (I'm not saying this derogatorily. I mean, I think if Whedon read this, I don't know that he'd disagree). And that apparently Ballard is his fantasy of the kind of heroic guy Whedon wants to be when he grows up he thinks there should be in action stories. No wonder I've hated almost every male protagonist in every Whedon story ever. He has a truly fucked up idea of what a male hero should be like (Hint, Mr. Whedon, even though I know you're not actually reading this: IT'S BOYD. So kill Ballard--brutally and violently as he treats other people, preferably--and let the real fucking hero step up already. Well, as much as a hero-sidekick can step up).


• Speaking of Dollhouse/characters created by Joss Whedon, I've decided that the best show EVER would be about Adelle DeWitt and Lilah Morgan joining forces to take over evil corporatedom from within (and then subsequently the world, of course). That would be awesome on a nearly orgasmic level, IMO.


• And while we're on the topic of the Whedonverse, still, I think I'm going to drop Buffy Season Eight and start collecting in TPB. It ain't bad, but it's not holding my interest like it used to (OTOH, to give up on Jo Chen's monthly covers would be sad...). Same goes for Angel actually (although the Drusilla arc was kinda neat, if very different), and moreover that because I'm sick of IDW's generally lousy production values. OTOH, though it's just a mini series, the "Only Human" miniseries KICKS ASS. Illyria and Gunn are an awesome team. How come all my favorite characters are the sidekicks?


• Are you still reading? Are you reading at all? I've neglected my full on comic reviews of late. Should I start doing them again--I mean, does ANYONE actually read them? I realize I can always continue as this blog has always been my own sounding board, just to vent when I need to, but on the other hand, if someone else is actually finding value in when I review stuff or not, it would be nice to know as far as doing something in a timely/weekly/monthly fashion. Otherwise I'll continue to talk to myself as usual whenever I feel like it.


• Bones season 5 is really good so far. Just thought I'd mention. Better than 4, again, so far.


• Pathfinder RPG is REALLY REALLY GOOD and I'm getting really excited about running it. The Bestiary just came out, and it's lovely too. Their guidelines for leveling up monsters seem pretty well thought out too.


• Just finished watching the anime Madlax. It was decent, but not what I'd hoped for, especially after Noir (same creative team) was so good. The ending was very unsatisfying in some ways, and it seems like the writers had decided to go in one direction, and then changed their mind at the last minute. But that's forgivable... I think the really disappointing thing about it was that the primary villain was just a boring, ranty piece of cardboard. After Altena was so brilliantly twisted in Noir, Friday Monday was just bleh. All he ever did was repeat the same semi-incomprehensible speech about "the Essence of Humanity" and we never really learned why, or why he thought it was so important to do what he was doing. "I want to make everyone evil because I can!" is just not a good villain motive, and I know the writers could have done way better. Also, the two best characters in the show were Elenor and Vanessa, and their potential was never fully used or realized.

You may have noticed my earlier squee about the fact that Hulu has made available several episodes of the 1975-1977 series The Bionic Woman. As I stop to think about what makes me, a woman in my 30s (albeit thoroughly geeky), take joy in such a series as much--and maybe even more--as I did when I was a child, I realize the answer is quite simple: they just don't make'em like they used to.

Not TV shows, but heroes. And specifically, heroines.

Maybe action heroes we get these days seem better, stronger, faster. But Jaime Sommers the Bionic Woman, as portrayed by Lindsay Wagner, was kinder.

When I stop and think about Wagner's Jaime, I realize that her true strengths weren't in her right arm, legs, and ear. They were, at the risk of sounding cheesy, in her heart. She was a genuinely good person. She was compassionate, and surprisingly forgiving. Although episodes of The Bionic Woman certainly had more than enough bionic running and jumping, gunfire and espionage and intrigue and even deadly fembot attacks, she often won the day with her words, either convincing a villain of their wrongdoing or earning enough allies that the enemy was outmaneuvered. She almost entirely fought defensively--despite her incredible strength (let's face it, she could have reached out and broken someone's neck in a single twist), she never attacked first, and never aimed to kill. Off the top of my head, the only time I can ever think of her outright attacking anyone was either when she was out of her mind (in the early Six Million Dollar Man episodes that introduced her) or when she attacked robots or other machines (namely, fembots and the mis-programmed computer ADAM, out to nuke the world). ( Click to continue reading my thoughts on the Bionic Woman's true strengths )

I'm incredibly glad I was able as a child to grow up watching reruns of The Bionic Woman and had that particular kind of heroine to look up to, to know that someone like Jaime is the kind of person that means "hero" to me than some badass guntoting killer mama. I can only hope that my nieces, that all members of the newest generations, are able to find similarly inspiring role models.

So the two classic Doctor Who stories I watched this week are probably about as disparate styles of DW as you can get: Image of the Fendahl, borne of the creepy mid-70s era, with bad ass Leela as companion, and Delta and the Bannerman, borne of the campy, whimsical late 80s era (before it did a backspin and tried to get almost satirically dark) with perky Mel as companion.

Both, honestly, are terrific fun in their own right. Both of course also have some dodgy issues (including both with some awful looking low budget aliens).

Delta and the Bannermen is often a cited as a low point in DW history. It's cheesy, it tries too hard to be silly, all the 50s glam is over the top. But no, I watched it, and yes, there is the greasy shiny 50s veneer, but they actually do a good job with it, and I like the rare Doctor Who stories that visit relatively recent history.( Cut for more discussion of Delta )

Image of the Fendahl is one of those great 70s DW stories combining scientific research and the supernatural--where the scientists' research uncover something that attracts the attention of the local witch cult, who then get absorbed into the evil alien plot. ( More on the Fendahl below the cut )

At last. At last at last at last. After years of various rights issues keeping it from being shown in any legal form in the U.S......

THE BIONIC WOMAN IS ON HULU.

Here: http://www.hulu.com/the-bionic-woman-classic

The one, the ONLY, the Emmy-award winning show that ran from 1976-1979 starring Lindsay Wagner, yep that one with the slow motion running and the cybernetic ear that can hear through anything except for hair.

The REAL Jaime Sommers, accept no substitutions.

It may be silly, but I'm absolutely ecstatic. I feel like one of my childhood heroes has been brought back to life.

I saw it at allah_sulu's first: A teenage boy invents an easy to install device, claiming to significantly reduce gas emissions. Why does this sound familiar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Ded9eoxIM

Did you know DeathQuaker began life as a comic character I made up*? Except, you see, there are very few DeathQuaker comics, because I am nearly incapable of finishing anything I start.

But DeathQuaker helps me show how I feel (yes, I am five), so here she is, helping show how I feel about humanity (and particularly that which participates in the Internet) today, and how I may just become a hermit in northern Maine sooner rather than later (note: was drawn quickly, edited quickly, and isn't funny at all):

http://www.angelfire.com/id/deathquaker/images/dqsad.gif

Mind, I think the more in-character thing for DeathQuaker to do would be to shoot herself in the head with her SuperSoaker, but I tried drawing that and it looked awful. So this is it for now.


* Although Bryan Lynch may claim me if he ever does get around to writing "The Adventures of the Groosalugg," in which "DeathQuaker" is supposed to co-star. Note, I'm pretty sure Bryan Lynch was joking at the time.

So, Barnes and Noble recently put several DVDs on special for $8.99 ($9.99 for nonmembers) and thus cleverly tricked me into purchasing several Doctor Who DVDs that I had put off purchasing. (I also paid closer to full price for "Image of the Fendahl" which just came out.)

One of these DVDs was The Aztecs, where FINALLY, someone recognizes Barbara for the goddess that she is.

I suppose I should write some in-depth, very thoughtful and erudite review, but I really can't get my head past THE AZTECS IS TEH AWES0M3Z0RZZZ.

It has the first Doctor flirting his head off with Cameca (the scene where the Doctor casually mentions "his fiance" to Ian and Ian's look on his face is HILARIOUS). It has Barbara being awesome, and being all, "Look how I am an expert" and all "You old rogue, you Doctor, you." It has Barbara and Ian in duelling feather headdresses. It has Ian all, "I can kick your ass, but I will be very cool about it" (how come MY science teachers in high school weren't like that?). It has Susan... well, she doesn't sprain her ankle. Good for her. It has attempts at historical accuracy, and relevant cultural commentary on human society and influence.

The middle couple episodes get a little slow, as 60s Doctor Who episodes are wont, but it still is quite good, with a lot going on, and gee, look how different subplots can be written for the Doctor and three companions completely competently. I'M LOOKING AT YOU, TERRANCE DICKS. I hate the lazy writers who say "crowded TARDIS teams can't be done," when the very pioneer episodes of the series prove exactly the opposite.