Wolf's Den

But I'm still formulating that one in my head, so it'll come later, possibly tomorrow. After that I need to write a letter.

First, THANK YOU to the random stranger who sponsored a month of pd time on DreamWidth. That was completely unexpected and totally awesome.

Picked up my copy of Assassin's Creed: Revelations Signature Edition yesterday, 2 days after official release date. Would you believe I haven't even started it yet? Yeah. also picked up the Assassin's Creed Lineage dvd as well. Haven't watched it either.

Had to go to three different stores to find the Collector's Edition of the Official Playguide too. Some day I'll find a copy for Assassin's Creed in the Collector's Edition- that doesn't cost an arm and a leg- and have all of them that way.

I did open everything last night, though , and downloaded the Assassin's Creed: Revelations Soundtrack and the Embers animated short film. Listened to much of the soundtrack in the car last night- it makes great driving music, but isn't near long enough.}:P Haven't watched, let alone unzipped, Embers yet. The zip file is 1.9 GIGS in size, so I can only imagine how big it is unzipped. Yeah. Mark's bringing home a 4gig flashdrive to transfer it to, as he has a DVD burner at work and will unzip it there, then burn it on to a dvd so we can watch it on our big flatscreen tv instead of a dinky 17" monitor.

That's really the only complaint I have about the Signature Edition- the movie and soundtrack were downloads. I'd much rather they were on a separate disc than on the same game disc or as a download.}:/

The playguide has great artwork, just like the previous ones. And that's pretty much all I looked at in that. I've been seeing nothing but awesome and great things about the game so far too.

So. After I finish the primer coat in the kitchen, go gravehunting tomorrow, have friends over on Sunday, it looks like Monday will be when I get a chance to sit down and start Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Expect more Assassin's Creed related posts thereafter.}:P I plan to take my time with this one, but well, we all know how that goes...

I finished the story part of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Credits are, in fact, rolling behind me.

5 hours last night and I couldn't do it, I guess I was too tired (it was 230am when I quit after all). But 10 minutes this morning and done. Sheesh.

To be honest, it was... rather anticlimatic compared to being in the Animus.

Now to go finish the side missions I neglected and the downloaded content I finally got yesterday.

Gave Caena a bath. Pretty sure I rinsed a few fleas down the drain. Now we need to treat the cats and wash the bedding where she sleeps, just in case. I knew that puppy had fleas from the way he was itching, just the one night he was here. Not happy. We've never had a problem with fleas until now. And I'd like to stop them BEFORE they become a problem.

Speaking of that puppy- whose name was apparently 'Ollie'- I'm fairly certain, ok 99.9%, that the neighbors never went to the shelter to get him. Even after coming over here and raising hell 36-48 hours AFTER the fact. (the one guy came over a full 24 hours AFTER the dog was left out there and had already been taken to the shelter that morning) Seems they'd 'just gotten him', and from what they said, he was gotten from a backyard breeder. There was simply no way that puppy was nearly 3 months old. He was barely 2 months if that and I could see his ribs, for fuck's sake. Purebred Boxer puppies shouldn't weigh less than 10lbs (he was 5-6lbs at best) at nearly 3 months.

The neighbor tried telling me he hadn't been outside for the entire day, despite the fact that I was home the entire day and heard him crying up there. Then he claimed his girlfriend had come to check on him and feed him. Dude, I know what your girlfriend's vehicle looks like, my desk is right near the front door and a window that faces your house. I work from home, remember, I said that? Your girlfriend never checked on that dog. Not once.

When I asked him why in the world he would put the puppy in the farthest point from his side of the duplex, behind the empty side AND tied up with a rope around its neck, he had no answer. When I asked him why there was no food or water, he replied that his girlfriend had fed the dog at 7pm. Bullshit. There was one bowl and it was completely empty and bone dry. The dog was on my side of the fence well before that time.

He claimed he didn't know the dog could fit through the fence. He claimed all he had was papers that list the dog's parents. No shot records, nothing. Now, I may be wrong, but I'm pretty damn sure when a breeder sells a puppy, they're supposed to have at least their first shots. He asked if I knew a cheap vet. I said no, I know a good vet and that pet ownership was not cheap.

He didn't like the fact that he'd get a ticket for no city dog license. Tried to claim he wasn't from here. Yet, he's lived 2 doors down for over a year.

Yeah, I don't think he bothered to go get the dog, let alone call the shelter to say, hey, he's mine.


1.5 weeks until we go on vacation. This will be a bittersweet trip in that we won't be seeing Grandpa for the first time. The Binder Park Zoo Boo will be going on at that time. Yes, it's mostly for kids, but Mark and I intend on going, since we missed going to the Zoo the last time we went up. Not sure if the nieces and nephew will go or not. Probably not, as they'll consider themselves too old for the Zoo anymore.

Need to edit my photos for the Daring Cooks Challenge and do the Daring Bakers Challenge friday so I can get that post setup for while we're gone.

Still playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Some of the 'Full Synch' requirements are absolute bullshit. There is no way to kill 6 targets in 5 minutes when the first target never shows up until 3 minutes in and the others are scattered across the map, meaning it takes at least 15-20 seconds to get across the map to them IF you don't make a mistake, only to have the next 2 take upwards of a full minute to show up as well. And there's no way to do a Lair in 8 minutes when you have to blend your way across a room, then do a shitload of free running, chasing and climbing only to reach a dead end with absolutely no clear way through, over or around. So I gave up on getting full synchs on everything. It's simply not worth it.

But trying to toss a guard's body from the roof into a well sure is fun.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood- Memory Sequence 6 Complete.



Finally.

It took 2 tries- technically 1.5 as it restarted at the second checkpoint- but I finally did it. NOW I can have fun with my game again as the part that pissed me off to no end and made me want to quit is behind me.

And onward we go...


In other news, we finally have screen doors, front and back. They're lovely too}:P

I quit playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Ok, so I actually quit playing it on Sat.

I got to a point in the storyline where I couldn't get past it, no matter what I tried, and it was only serving to make me more and more frustrated. Which, in turn, made me take it out on Mark. The frustration, I mean.

So I quit playing. I realised that, in making me frustrated, I was no longer enjoying the game. I was only playing it to finish it and get it over with. That's no way to play a video game that's supposed to be fun.

I've already broken 2 controllers on this game series- mine directly and Mark's indirectly and was heading, rapidly, towards breaking yet another. At $55.00 each, I can't afford that.

I think a lot of my frustration towards my game and life in general also had to do with the fact that the kitchen repairs took so long, and not having a kitchen to bake or cook in as a source of stress outlet wasn't helping any. And not being able to vent the way I normally do when I get to a particularly hard spot in my game because my landlord was here nearly every day, didn't help either.

Don't get me wrong, I like my landlords, really I do. They're great people and well, they call us friends. But they are STILL just that- my landlords. So, that means there are certain things you just don't share with or do around landlords that you would anyone else who calls you friend. Ranting at your video game and calling it swear words rather loudly, is one of them.

So I quit playing.

Will I go back to it and try to get past where I'm currently stuck, which, ironically, is over 3/4s of the way through the story part of the game? Right now, I don't know. Right now, I want nothing to do with it. In fact, I was so frustrated and angry, I tried to throw the damn game away. Yes, it was in the trash can. Mark pulled it out. It's now stashed in a drawer out of sight.

In other news, I haven't had any Mountain Dew since Sat either. Mark wanted to know if I was feeling alright. Yup, once the caffeine withdrawal headaches stopped, I was. Why'd I quit ? I dunno, because I could, I guess.

Been busy here. Trying not to stress out and lose my mind over the fact I can't really DO much of anything significant in the kitchen.

Kitchen is still not done. The texture coat goes on, on Sat. THEN, maybe we'll be able to unscrew the kitchen for a month or so, until WE paint it and redo the floor- that'll take us maybe a week or so. The repairs are taking so long because it's only the landlord doing it most of the time. We offer our help and he turns us down. So, yeah.

To do dishes, for example, I have to move the buffet cabinet, then clear it off of the glass baking dishes and baking pans. Then I can do dishes. Because then, I can get to the sink. Doing this month's Daring Bakers Challenge? Was... interesting, to say the least.

Mark's a little under half way through Assassin's Creed II. He's spotted all these coded messages in the puzzles that I completely missed my first play through. Now I'm wondering if there's any in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, not that I've done many of the puzzles- I've done one so far. There's just so much other stuff to do right now, heh.

He's thoroughly enjoying this game series as much as I have. He hasn't touched any of his other PS3 games in over a week, Sundays not included as that's when Charlie comes over and we play Tekken 6 or they play Borderlands together.

I can safely say I'm not expecting to be done with Brotherhood by November 15th when Revelations comes out.}:P But that's ok, it'll give me more games to tide me over until assassin's Creed III is released- whenever that'll be. Hopefully sometime next year.

We were in our local paper this last Sunday. A photo from the Walk to End Alzheimer's was in there. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), while the article is online, the photo isn't. So I need to get another copy to send my mom.


So. Yeah.

Started Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood last night.

Made it through the prologue and memory sequence 1. This game has broken my heart already.

All that time I spent getting Altair's Armor for Ezio (he's wearing it in at the beginning of ACB), all that time I spent restoring Monteriggioni. And the damn Borgias destroyed it all.

I know it's the story (I've read the books after all.), but still, I'm sitting there during the cutscene (nekkid Ezio for the win, even if you can't really see anything, heh), and going, 'What kind of moron are you?! It's right there! No, don't run out with just the sword! Argh!'

*sigh*

I need to take more time with this game. I have a feeling there's going to be things I'll miss if I don't.

The graphics have marginally improved. Characters from ACII who really didn't appear to age, whereas Ezio did, are now age appropriate- they show that 24 years have passed since the very beginning of ACII- Ezio is now 41 yrs old, so it made no sense for HIM to age in ACII( he was 17 at the beginning) but every other semi main char NOT TO. That bugged me and bugs Mark as well.

I was glad to see, during 'present day' in the game, that the Sanctuary at Villa Auditore was, more or less, intact- the family crypt certainly isn't. So it was nice seeing the statues of the Assassin's who've gone before, complete with the Seals still , especially Altair's statue. He remains my favorite in this series so far. Heh.

In the mean time, I need to go back to ACII and do the side missions I passed on the first time through. Maybe I can get that game completion stat up to 100% from 74%. The Villa/Monteriggioni stats are at 100% across the board, same with all Collections, Armor, Weapons, Assassinations.

Oh, and total time it took to play ACII through to the end of the storyline? 54 hours.

Yeah.