Saturday shenanigans (now with 10% more tomfoolery)

This whole "no news is good news" (which I've always been vaguely confused by - is it implying that any sort of news is bad news or that having nothing to report is a good thing a la the curse, "May your life be eventful"/"May you live in interesting times" - I've always gone for the latter) might make for peaceful Hobbit living but fuck me running it makes for boring blogging. 

I haven't been console gaming that much lately, in part because I haven't been inspired to play anything.  Dawnguard was diverting for a bit, I never finished Witcher 2, and haven't had the extra dough to check out the arcade games.  Frankly, my XBOX is turning into something I just watch movies on which I could do with my computer any way and the XBOX Arcade games I would play end up on Steam or in the Humble bundle for next to nothing.  If it weren't for my crappy video card (GTX 460) which works just fine for most games but not for new releases I would probably cancel XBOX Live and sell my XBOX.

Been spending most nights boppin around EVE highsec, fine tuning my Ishtar, and generally staying out of trouble.  Lately I've been reading more EVE blogs and socializing with Aliastra corpmates and noticed something Mabrick (of Mabrick's Mumblings) brought up on his blog today about the "more risk more ISK" saying I've seen bandied about in chat along with decreases in profitability in highsec industrialism/manufacturing (causing a ding in his profit margins).  I've never mucked about with manufacturing so I'm not particularly concerned.  What I am interested in is the "more risk more ISK" mentality and the avarice behind it.  I've heard some players crow about their billions and pissing contest each other at how much they can make per diem and yip yip yip about nullsec and pvp.  I've also met a number of people who, like me, are pefectly content making a decent in-game living as carebears (miners, traders, missioners).  I was joking around with someone that I didn't understand what the Scrooge McDucks were doing with all their ISK.  There's a finite amount of things to buy in game and isk can be traded for PLEX which can be traded to game time so one could never have to pay for game time, okay I get that.  You can only fly one ship at a time and in theory one should "never fly more than you're willing to lose" and if you're not getting blasted every time you undock so as an individual you don't need more than a dozen ships spread across your regular business routes (though I'm gonna start leaving a Noctis in each of the primary systems I work in, but that's out of laziness).  What it comes down to is simple - I don't play EVE with the same mentality as a lot of other players (and vice versa).  For all practical purposes I am a hell of a lot nicer, friendlier, and more altruistic in EVE than I am in real life (I'm also staggeringly paranoid).  Somehow I've ended up with a decent selection of boats and gear and a bucket of ISK (since I never buy anything anymore and I just stockpile trade goods and sell when the market is good).  It's bizarre but I think my EVE experience is that of a mildly successful boring middle class capsuleer (who shoots the fuck out of NPCs with ball smashing drones of fury). 

In other news:
I've set up a facebook for hooliganyouth on the facebookery (if you're into the whole social media thing).

I want a brisket sandwich - stat.

Spicy shredded pork and stuffing is good.  Especially if you add sauteed onions and serranos to the stuffing.

Here's a picture of The Punisher at the beach.  Because I love you.

Elder Scrolls V: Dawnguard

The first DLC for Skyrim!  EEEEE...yeah...it's more Skyrim.

A majority of the reviews have been summing up Dawnguard simply as more Skyrim.  Which isn't a particularly bad thing considering how much fun I had until I discovered everything and couldn't restat my character and generally fell into boredom.  I started a new character, Crucifracture, who has turned out to be a fine character considering I know what skills I want and where to put points (I've actually been trying to save as many as possible) and what I can skimp on (and just get juiced on gear and performance enhancing drugs - e.g. Lockpicking).  I'm playing her as a summoner/destruction magic in one hand and shield in the other/heavy armor character which has been entertaining and frankly using magic in combat is a lot more natural than the suck ass melee system.

Dawnguard is centered around an infestation of vampires.  Do you join them or do you destroy them?  Does it even matter?  Fortunately there's not a lot of game breaking gear if you start a new character and begin the Dawnguard story arc.  The crossbows are pretty sweet.  You can use bows on horseback (which sounds awesome but is actually kind of lame and clunky).  There's some cool looking armor and some other gear you'll never see because you're always in first-person.  You can transform into a Vampire Lord (if you team up with the vampires) which is kind of cool and summon a gargoyle and you can force choke, sorry, use blood magic to choke enemies.  There are new enemies - I particularly like the Death Hounds.  Dawnguard is as much as an expansion as it is a new story arc.  In fact, Dawnguard might be one of my favorite Bethesda DLC (except for the fact I have problems with the whole DLC price gouging yadda yadda yadda). 

The reason why it might be my favorite is because the story is kind of awesome and there were a couple of set pieces that genuinely kicked ass.  It's much more a dark "gothic" fantasy - think Ravenloft (man, a Ravenloft game could potentially be a really good game) - and there were a number of areas that were a welcome change of pace from the now sadly over-familiar areas of Skyrim.  I finished one of the story arcs with Crucifracture.  I plan on going back and playing for the Dawnguard vampire hunters with Scoville. 

Worth $20?  Yes and no, considering the 8 to 10 hours it'll take you to get through the story (unless you're like me and have to explore everything and pick up every side quest - which put me at about twenty) and that's better than your average game length these days.  Then again for twenty bucks you could buy a whole shit ton of games during the Steam Summer Sale.  Plus, if you haven't picked up Skyrim, you can just wait until the GOTY edition comes out and save a bundle of cash.