If I thought a pre-formatted and mangled Word document, filled with imported Excel charts was trouble, what then for a list provided to me as a series of tables?
I asked - ever the optimist - if they had a bare text version of the list, not formatted into the dozen or so individual 2-column tables. It's not as if they needed to be 2-column, even. They knew the final document would be a fairly basic list because that's what they'd asked me to provide a template for. Last year's fancy tables looked crap, after all.
But no. All I got was a rather puzzled look and confirmation that all they had was the document full of tables. That's how the list had been collated.
And, because the net result of trying to work with such tables tends to be either (a) everything but the tables gets copied into the final document or (b) everything including the tables, still in table form, gets copied into the document and so still needs to be reformatted, I opened up a new OpenOffice document and copied the tables into list form, cell by cell, eliminating sponsor logos where necessary.
Didn't take long but, boy, was I cursing...
Well, sighing. And probably tutting.
Seriously, though, why are these people so fascinated with tables? For everything?
Still, shan't complain too loudly... Since my colleague hadn't caught up to her satisfaction, I've been drafted in for one more day... There's also the small matter of a couple of guide books I've been working on that are as yet incomplete because the folks providing the content haven't yet provided all the content... so I (hopefully) get to finish them off tomorrow...
Wednesday 22 August 2012
Wednesday 15 August 2012
A Dream To (try to) Remember
I got virtually no sleep on Sunday night/Monday morning, partly due to being completely wired because I was returning to one of my 'regular' Temping employers (I say 'regular' because I've only been there twice before), and partly because of the groups of rowdy people returning home from post-Olympic revelry. That lack of sleep didn't do me much good on Monday, when I had to make a start on setting a report for which I'd made a template the last time I was there. It was one of those awkward situations were the template came together easily enough and, in theory, it looked like a simple enough job... but numerous factors outside my control made it rather more complicated than it should have been.
For example:
Seriously, people, bare text. That's all you need to provide. Charts to be represented as 'Chart X', boxouts to be bare text.
It ended up taking me two and a half days to unpick it all, get it into sensible formats, and then pull it all into InDesign to be properly laid out. The section I dealt with in the first half of today turned out to not be quite so bad as I'd expected - it was made up of nine or ten sections in which there were four subsections, each with a pie chart and some with an 'interesting fact' boxout tagged on the end.
I reasoned that, far from needing up to four pages per section, one DPS should be sufficient, with the charts laid out as consistently as possible. Varying amounts of text accompanying each one complicated the matter slightly, but I'd completed that task by noon, leaving me time to fiddle and refine my layouts elsewhere prior to getting it checked out by Editorial. Amends tomorrow, I suspect...
But! Back to Monday...
...Because I was rather surprised by a couple of things. My colleague mentioned to one of the salespeople (long since moved to a different floor) that I was back during a phone conversation, and I actually heard her enthusiastic reaction. A little later that day, one of the others - instigator of some of the strangest conversations - paid a visit in person to say hello, shake my hand, and wish me well.
Perplexing. When did I get popular?
This was evidently such a conundrum that a similar event occurred in my Monday night's dream... I was wandering around some leafy London suburb and just happened to bump into that same guy. We had an essentially similar exchange, and then went our separate ways. It gets a bit hazy after that but at some point I was assaulted by some kind of small monkey-squirrel thing and, upon capturing it in what, for all the world, looked like the sort of rigid leather case you'd use to store a telescope, I started wondering how to dispose of it.
For whatever reason, while I wanted it dead - vicious little troublemaker that it was - that wasn't an easy option... I just had to get rid of it in such a way that it wouldn't be found.
Somehow, I found myself on a cliff edge, looking down toward a rocky beach which, strangely, had a dense forest off to one side. The leather case slipped out of my hand (honest, guv'nor!), and the creature bolted from it. Reluctantly, I decided I'd have to try to recapture it... And then probably bury it - inside the case - in the sand.
Of course, climbing down the rocks wasn't as easy for me as it had been for the creature, and I ended up dislodging a bunch of box files just after starting my descent. They fell down the cliff and crashed onto the rocks below, their contents strewn everywhere.
Box files, you ask?
Yes... but, of course, it wouldn't make sense that there would be box files on a cliff. Looking down, I found I was, in fact, at the top of a ladder, looking down to the floor of my old bedroom... only much larger. The box files contained my comics. My toys were visible in cupboards nearby.
After that, I don't remember enough detail to continue... I think I just tidied up... but possibly not. Shame I didn't get round to this yesterday... it was a very entertaining dream...
In other news, in the hope that karma will see me right, I have bought a set of three paintings by one of my former staff, who's moving home at the end of the month and so auctioning off some of her old paintings. I bought one several years ago, which now occupies my lounge wall. Strangely, the sum I paid for that one painting is the same I'll be paying for the three new ones - prices have been slashed for the auction. I am fighting off the urge to splurge on other things as well, since my finances still aren't great... I've missed out on a great deal of splurging opportunities this year owing to lack of funds.
Part of me thinks I should throw caution to the wind and take that holiday I was (sort of) thinking about at the beginning of last year...
In other other news... has anyone else ever experienced that horrific moment when you realise that it feels as if there's something moving on your face because there's something moving on your face?
Anyway... best get myself to bed now...
For example:
- The report had basically been typeset - formatting, images and all - in MS Word in such a way that, upon importing the text to InDesign, significant portions were stripped
- While I'd found an 'easy' way of making use of the pre-made MS Excel pie charts and bar graphs, saving the time and effort of remaking them in Illustrator (also useful because the person who set the Word document liked those charts more than the Illustrator ones I'd made up as examples), there were about 50 pages of the bloody things
- The Word document weighed in at 88 pages... the Report was supposed to be only 60 pages
Seriously, people, bare text. That's all you need to provide. Charts to be represented as 'Chart X', boxouts to be bare text.
It ended up taking me two and a half days to unpick it all, get it into sensible formats, and then pull it all into InDesign to be properly laid out. The section I dealt with in the first half of today turned out to not be quite so bad as I'd expected - it was made up of nine or ten sections in which there were four subsections, each with a pie chart and some with an 'interesting fact' boxout tagged on the end.
I reasoned that, far from needing up to four pages per section, one DPS should be sufficient, with the charts laid out as consistently as possible. Varying amounts of text accompanying each one complicated the matter slightly, but I'd completed that task by noon, leaving me time to fiddle and refine my layouts elsewhere prior to getting it checked out by Editorial. Amends tomorrow, I suspect...
But! Back to Monday...
...Because I was rather surprised by a couple of things. My colleague mentioned to one of the salespeople (long since moved to a different floor) that I was back during a phone conversation, and I actually heard her enthusiastic reaction. A little later that day, one of the others - instigator of some of the strangest conversations - paid a visit in person to say hello, shake my hand, and wish me well.
Perplexing. When did I get popular?
This was evidently such a conundrum that a similar event occurred in my Monday night's dream... I was wandering around some leafy London suburb and just happened to bump into that same guy. We had an essentially similar exchange, and then went our separate ways. It gets a bit hazy after that but at some point I was assaulted by some kind of small monkey-squirrel thing and, upon capturing it in what, for all the world, looked like the sort of rigid leather case you'd use to store a telescope, I started wondering how to dispose of it.
For whatever reason, while I wanted it dead - vicious little troublemaker that it was - that wasn't an easy option... I just had to get rid of it in such a way that it wouldn't be found.
Somehow, I found myself on a cliff edge, looking down toward a rocky beach which, strangely, had a dense forest off to one side. The leather case slipped out of my hand (honest, guv'nor!), and the creature bolted from it. Reluctantly, I decided I'd have to try to recapture it... And then probably bury it - inside the case - in the sand.
Of course, climbing down the rocks wasn't as easy for me as it had been for the creature, and I ended up dislodging a bunch of box files just after starting my descent. They fell down the cliff and crashed onto the rocks below, their contents strewn everywhere.
Box files, you ask?
Yes... but, of course, it wouldn't make sense that there would be box files on a cliff. Looking down, I found I was, in fact, at the top of a ladder, looking down to the floor of my old bedroom... only much larger. The box files contained my comics. My toys were visible in cupboards nearby.
After that, I don't remember enough detail to continue... I think I just tidied up... but possibly not. Shame I didn't get round to this yesterday... it was a very entertaining dream...
In other news, in the hope that karma will see me right, I have bought a set of three paintings by one of my former staff, who's moving home at the end of the month and so auctioning off some of her old paintings. I bought one several years ago, which now occupies my lounge wall. Strangely, the sum I paid for that one painting is the same I'll be paying for the three new ones - prices have been slashed for the auction. I am fighting off the urge to splurge on other things as well, since my finances still aren't great... I've missed out on a great deal of splurging opportunities this year owing to lack of funds.
Part of me thinks I should throw caution to the wind and take that holiday I was (sort of) thinking about at the beginning of last year...
In other other news... has anyone else ever experienced that horrific moment when you realise that it feels as if there's something moving on your face because there's something moving on your face?
Anyway... best get myself to bed now...
Tuesday 7 August 2012
Spoke Too Soon
Xenoblade again...
OK, so beating the Apocrypha Generator is easy enough, but then you're almost immediately dumped into another battle with a powered-up Egil/Yaldabaoth in which he not only attacks by himself, but summons several different kinds of drones. His attacks against the party are pretty deadly, but about halfway down his health bar, you receive a vision of Mechonis bringing down his sword upon Bionis, literally chopping it in half (the extent of the damage is not indicated by a number, but by infinity... and it's a one-hit-game-over type attack) and are given 2 minutes to destroy three generators surrounding Yaldabaoth. That's also easy enough, even while being attacked up drones (they seem to focus on whoever's attacking their master, and will walk right by as you slice up the generators) but, once they're out of the way and you're on the home straight - boss health about about 1/4 by this point - Egil unleashes his upgraded Mechon's full potential, and some even more deadly moves are used against you.
So far, I've tried that battle two or three times, and each time it ends the same way, at more or less the same point. I know I'm missing something - probably among the Monado Arts - but it's rather frustrating to be doing so well, only to be smashed into the ground by a move that comes without warning... Or, at least, no warning I've noticed so far...
In a fit of pique, I looked up the battle online, to see if any other players had advice... and, while I didn't find what I was looking for, I did learn that Yaldabaoth is not the final boss... there are several more to come... so I'm still not quite 'nearly finished' with Xenoblade Chronicles...
In other news, with one of my anti-virus subscriptions expiring today, I took the opportunity to try something new and different... only for the installation to fail. At least, it locked up at 82% while installing one particular component that I'm unlikely to need.
Of course, having cancelled the installation, it now tries to resume every time I restart, and has decided that there's a problem with the installer, so it fails now around 10%.
Weirdly, the base program seems to have installed and appears - according to itself - to be functional... so I'm not quite sure what to make of it. At some point, I shall drop the publishers a line, and ask what's going on...
OK, so beating the Apocrypha Generator is easy enough, but then you're almost immediately dumped into another battle with a powered-up Egil/Yaldabaoth in which he not only attacks by himself, but summons several different kinds of drones. His attacks against the party are pretty deadly, but about halfway down his health bar, you receive a vision of Mechonis bringing down his sword upon Bionis, literally chopping it in half (the extent of the damage is not indicated by a number, but by infinity... and it's a one-hit-game-over type attack) and are given 2 minutes to destroy three generators surrounding Yaldabaoth. That's also easy enough, even while being attacked up drones (they seem to focus on whoever's attacking their master, and will walk right by as you slice up the generators) but, once they're out of the way and you're on the home straight - boss health about about 1/4 by this point - Egil unleashes his upgraded Mechon's full potential, and some even more deadly moves are used against you.
So far, I've tried that battle two or three times, and each time it ends the same way, at more or less the same point. I know I'm missing something - probably among the Monado Arts - but it's rather frustrating to be doing so well, only to be smashed into the ground by a move that comes without warning... Or, at least, no warning I've noticed so far...
In a fit of pique, I looked up the battle online, to see if any other players had advice... and, while I didn't find what I was looking for, I did learn that Yaldabaoth is not the final boss... there are several more to come... so I'm still not quite 'nearly finished' with Xenoblade Chronicles...
In other news, with one of my anti-virus subscriptions expiring today, I took the opportunity to try something new and different... only for the installation to fail. At least, it locked up at 82% while installing one particular component that I'm unlikely to need.
Of course, having cancelled the installation, it now tries to resume every time I restart, and has decided that there's a problem with the installer, so it fails now around 10%.
Weirdly, the base program seems to have installed and appears - according to itself - to be functional... so I'm not quite sure what to make of it. At some point, I shall drop the publishers a line, and ask what's going on...
Monday 6 August 2012
Interview Technique
Well, the interview today was rather more formal than I've ever had before - actual questions and answers, much like the kind of thing I was warned about in the employment workshops I attended in Harrow earlier in the year. All the worst imaginable questions - why do you want to work here, give us some examples of x, how would you deal with y, etc. - presented as a basic list... and the funniest thing was that the two people interviewing me seemed as uncomfortable with the procedure as I was.
I'm honestly not sure how it went... there were positive elements - when some of my responses elicited something approaching a conversation, however briefly, before the next question - and there were negative elements - mainly when I was unable to remember specifics for some of the questions. It's also quite possible that they won't be too keen to offer me a role that's significantly more junior than anything I've done in years... but I did tell them I'm proud of my work, not my job title, and the fact that I'm available immediately must surely count in my favour.
Of the two (monthly!) titles they said I'd be working on, at least one is quite high-profile... which could be fun. Of the magazines in their portfolio, neither is one I'd choose... but beggars can't be choosers, as the old saying goes.
In other news, I may well be very near the end of Xenoblade Chronicles... Mechonis is moving, and it looks as though I'm about to enter the final area... That said, some of what I've read about the game only happens after this area is cleared, so perhaps I'm not quite so near the end as I thought... Whatever happens, I'm quite looking forward to getting to the end, not least because it'll bring my total of completed Wii games up to eight (or ten, if I include the two - ridiculously easy - Gunblade games). Woot!
Not quite sure what I'll focus on next... I may try to get into The Last Story again, or spend some more time in Pandora's Tower, or get spooky with Project Zero 2... or go back to something even older. Who knows?
I'm honestly not sure how it went... there were positive elements - when some of my responses elicited something approaching a conversation, however briefly, before the next question - and there were negative elements - mainly when I was unable to remember specifics for some of the questions. It's also quite possible that they won't be too keen to offer me a role that's significantly more junior than anything I've done in years... but I did tell them I'm proud of my work, not my job title, and the fact that I'm available immediately must surely count in my favour.
Of the two (monthly!) titles they said I'd be working on, at least one is quite high-profile... which could be fun. Of the magazines in their portfolio, neither is one I'd choose... but beggars can't be choosers, as the old saying goes.
In other news, I may well be very near the end of Xenoblade Chronicles... Mechonis is moving, and it looks as though I'm about to enter the final area... That said, some of what I've read about the game only happens after this area is cleared, so perhaps I'm not quite so near the end as I thought... Whatever happens, I'm quite looking forward to getting to the end, not least because it'll bring my total of completed Wii games up to eight (or ten, if I include the two - ridiculously easy - Gunblade games). Woot!
Not quite sure what I'll focus on next... I may try to get into The Last Story again, or spend some more time in Pandora's Tower, or get spooky with Project Zero 2... or go back to something even older. Who knows?
Things Not To Do The Night Before An Interview
There are times when it seems I cannot resist the opportunity to watch terrible movies. Last night, Channel 5 served up a double whammy of unmitigated crap: Ultraviolet followed by Alien Hunter.
In the former, Milla Lubblyjubblybits supposedly plays a vampire - or haemophage, literally 'a thing that devours blood' - yet never actually consumes blood and only once displays the hint of a fang for the briefest moment. It's a sci-fi movie in the loosest sense, and seemingly purely for spectacle - high-tech gadgetry 'explaining' some of the wackier - and almost entirely computer generated - stunts. Being generous, one could give it points for originality in portraying the vampires as the rebel underclass - victims of a virus fighting for their right to existence in a world fixated on purity - but that might also be seen as adding plot where there is none. Much of the movie is made up of fight scenes, and most of the bits in between are clearly just padding... It is said that a good chunk of the movie (the alleged plot) was edited out to give the movie a PG-13 rating, and much of it was restored in the novelisation... but I'm not curious enough to read it.
The latter movie was quite bizarre, in that it really didn't seem to know what it was. Beginning like The Thing (nicking the snowy setting and the 'mysterious object dug out of the ice') it takes a full hour just to reveal the alien... and even then, there's a mixed message. The pod is giving out a signal which is eventually translated (thanks to a videogame reference) as "DO NOT OPEN", surely implying a nasty alien. Rather than being aggressive and dangerous, it's a peaceful alien that just wants to be friends with James Spader - a fatal mistake, as it turns out - only it came packaged with a flesh-eating virus which kills about half the team almost instantly (not that you'd care - there was no emotional investment in any of the characters, and their deaths are completely glossed over) while the others are just carriers/incubators and realise that they have to stay put and await destruction by Russian nuclear submarine. There's some side-story about genetically modified crops which also become victims of the alien virus, and then the survivors end up getting carted off by the aliens - a clean-up crew who were coming to collect their escape pod thing - about three seconds before the nuke hits.
Considering how much time it devoted to (attempts at) jump scares and building tension (both of which failed), it seemed quite bizarre to change tack quite so dramatically. It was like The Thing crossed with ET and The Abyss... only not as good as any of them. Spader's character was supposedly a womaniser, and yet (mercifully, perhaps) there was precious little evidence of that in the movie. The main bulk of the tension came from the debate over what the 'survivors' of the initial virus attack should do, and that was mainly accomplished through shouting.
The title of the movie seemingly comes from Spader's character - a lecturer of some kind with a sideline in looking for sentient life out in space... Very WTF?
I can honestly say that I regret staying up till after 1.30 this morning for that double-bill of dross...
In the former, Milla Lubblyjubblybits supposedly plays a vampire - or haemophage, literally 'a thing that devours blood' - yet never actually consumes blood and only once displays the hint of a fang for the briefest moment. It's a sci-fi movie in the loosest sense, and seemingly purely for spectacle - high-tech gadgetry 'explaining' some of the wackier - and almost entirely computer generated - stunts. Being generous, one could give it points for originality in portraying the vampires as the rebel underclass - victims of a virus fighting for their right to existence in a world fixated on purity - but that might also be seen as adding plot where there is none. Much of the movie is made up of fight scenes, and most of the bits in between are clearly just padding... It is said that a good chunk of the movie (the alleged plot) was edited out to give the movie a PG-13 rating, and much of it was restored in the novelisation... but I'm not curious enough to read it.
The latter movie was quite bizarre, in that it really didn't seem to know what it was. Beginning like The Thing (nicking the snowy setting and the 'mysterious object dug out of the ice') it takes a full hour just to reveal the alien... and even then, there's a mixed message. The pod is giving out a signal which is eventually translated (thanks to a videogame reference) as "DO NOT OPEN", surely implying a nasty alien. Rather than being aggressive and dangerous, it's a peaceful alien that just wants to be friends with James Spader - a fatal mistake, as it turns out - only it came packaged with a flesh-eating virus which kills about half the team almost instantly (not that you'd care - there was no emotional investment in any of the characters, and their deaths are completely glossed over) while the others are just carriers/incubators and realise that they have to stay put and await destruction by Russian nuclear submarine. There's some side-story about genetically modified crops which also become victims of the alien virus, and then the survivors end up getting carted off by the aliens - a clean-up crew who were coming to collect their escape pod thing - about three seconds before the nuke hits.
Considering how much time it devoted to (attempts at) jump scares and building tension (both of which failed), it seemed quite bizarre to change tack quite so dramatically. It was like The Thing crossed with ET and The Abyss... only not as good as any of them. Spader's character was supposedly a womaniser, and yet (mercifully, perhaps) there was precious little evidence of that in the movie. The main bulk of the tension came from the debate over what the 'survivors' of the initial virus attack should do, and that was mainly accomplished through shouting.
The title of the movie seemingly comes from Spader's character - a lecturer of some kind with a sideline in looking for sentient life out in space... Very WTF?
I can honestly say that I regret staying up till after 1.30 this morning for that double-bill of dross...
Sunday 5 August 2012
The Sky Is Falling
Or, more accurately, the paper covering on my ceilings is coming down in the hall.
So, no, not a reference to the new Bond movie...
One strip of this paper, which had been hanging down in a quite distracting manner for weeks, came down with very little effort on my part.
There's something just not right about the ceilings in my flat... either they're leaking, staining and growing mould, or they're getting so bone dry that the glue used to put the paper up there is breaking down. I suppose it doesn't help that there's about a dozen layers of paint up there, so the paper is glued to a surface that is, to some extent, inherently unstable.
In other news, I've been called in to interview for a 10-month contract job tomorrow - I'd originally suggested this last Friday, given the option, but the company decide it's Monday or nothing... Strange, but still acceptable. Their address - or, more specifically, the postcode I was given - doesn't pinpoint their location very well, so I had to traipse down there just to be sure I knew where to go tomorrow. The route is simple enough and, just for once, it's not in Zone 1, so my journey would be slightly cheaper.
Meanwhile, I've made quite a bit of progress in Xenoblade - I'm in Agniratha, and at the point where I need to face off (har har) against Jade Face. So far, he's decimated me every time... I suspect I need to sort out my equipment and gems, to optimise my characters against his attacks. That he calls in support every so often - as one of his attacks - is a real pest, because it means breaking off from attacking him to deal with his support drones, allowing him time to charge up his other attacks. I'll get there eventually, I guess... It's kind of like that earlier story battle that gave me so much trouble, right up until it didn't...
I've racked up about 150 hours so far (possibly more), having gone back to previous locations to complete some challenge quests and pick up a few new sidequests. The setup, whereby some quests only become available when you have a certain level of affinity for a location, is quite novel... but it does get a bit frustrating tracking people down, and continually adjusting the clock to get the right people in any given location, in the hope that they will be ready to give out a new quest.
A couple of quests are no longer available to me - may not become available again - because of the battle currently being waged in Sword Valley/at Galahad Fortress... Not sure they're massively important...
One thing that really bugged me about one part of the game - Valak Mountain - was that there are a couple of areas of the map that are inaccessible except through complicated aerobatics. The game isn't really designed with these in mind, which makes some locations effectively impossible to get to. I'm sure it's all intentional - less skilled players surely shouldn't be allowed to try quests that would probably kill them... But the 'Balance of Power' mission is easily opened, yet ridiculously difficult to complete.
Of course, I can't sign off without mentioning Torchwood: Children of Earth. I wrote about it back in 2009, when I first saw it on telly, and my opinions haven't changed that much. I think the biggest problem with Torchwood as a whole, writ large in CoE and Miracle Day, was that too much of it relies on elements of Captain Jack's backstory that don't come to light until quite late in the story. Some of it - his past association with Captain John Hart, or the missing brother, Grey - are largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things... But, when you have a story like Children of Earth, it's a huge mistake to make Jack's more recent family ties a crucial plot point when they've never been mentioned before. Just like Miracle Day, a previously undisclosed element of Jack's past becomes the crux, and what could have been constructive backstory ends up very obviously shoehorned in, telegraphing imminent events all too clearly.
It wouldn't be so bad if Jack's big, emotional twist at the end actually made sense (hell, if any of the story actually made sense)...
I quite liked the aliens, and the fact that they were essentially using human children as a drug... that was an original and rather chilling concept... but then, if these aliens are basically intergalactic stoners, are they really capable of destroying the world? On the whole, though, John Frobisher's reactions to everything, particularly the way he 'took care of his family', were the most believable elements of the show. Killing off Ianto was cheap and unnecessary, but it did show what a weak character Jack Harkness is - the moment he's threatened, he caves in and starts begging.
So, no, not a reference to the new Bond movie...
One strip of this paper, which had been hanging down in a quite distracting manner for weeks, came down with very little effort on my part.
There's something just not right about the ceilings in my flat... either they're leaking, staining and growing mould, or they're getting so bone dry that the glue used to put the paper up there is breaking down. I suppose it doesn't help that there's about a dozen layers of paint up there, so the paper is glued to a surface that is, to some extent, inherently unstable.
In other news, I've been called in to interview for a 10-month contract job tomorrow - I'd originally suggested this last Friday, given the option, but the company decide it's Monday or nothing... Strange, but still acceptable. Their address - or, more specifically, the postcode I was given - doesn't pinpoint their location very well, so I had to traipse down there just to be sure I knew where to go tomorrow. The route is simple enough and, just for once, it's not in Zone 1, so my journey would be slightly cheaper.
Meanwhile, I've made quite a bit of progress in Xenoblade - I'm in Agniratha, and at the point where I need to face off (har har) against Jade Face. So far, he's decimated me every time... I suspect I need to sort out my equipment and gems, to optimise my characters against his attacks. That he calls in support every so often - as one of his attacks - is a real pest, because it means breaking off from attacking him to deal with his support drones, allowing him time to charge up his other attacks. I'll get there eventually, I guess... It's kind of like that earlier story battle that gave me so much trouble, right up until it didn't...
I've racked up about 150 hours so far (possibly more), having gone back to previous locations to complete some challenge quests and pick up a few new sidequests. The setup, whereby some quests only become available when you have a certain level of affinity for a location, is quite novel... but it does get a bit frustrating tracking people down, and continually adjusting the clock to get the right people in any given location, in the hope that they will be ready to give out a new quest.
A couple of quests are no longer available to me - may not become available again - because of the battle currently being waged in Sword Valley/at Galahad Fortress... Not sure they're massively important...
One thing that really bugged me about one part of the game - Valak Mountain - was that there are a couple of areas of the map that are inaccessible except through complicated aerobatics. The game isn't really designed with these in mind, which makes some locations effectively impossible to get to. I'm sure it's all intentional - less skilled players surely shouldn't be allowed to try quests that would probably kill them... But the 'Balance of Power' mission is easily opened, yet ridiculously difficult to complete.
Of course, I can't sign off without mentioning Torchwood: Children of Earth. I wrote about it back in 2009, when I first saw it on telly, and my opinions haven't changed that much. I think the biggest problem with Torchwood as a whole, writ large in CoE and Miracle Day, was that too much of it relies on elements of Captain Jack's backstory that don't come to light until quite late in the story. Some of it - his past association with Captain John Hart, or the missing brother, Grey - are largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things... But, when you have a story like Children of Earth, it's a huge mistake to make Jack's more recent family ties a crucial plot point when they've never been mentioned before. Just like Miracle Day, a previously undisclosed element of Jack's past becomes the crux, and what could have been constructive backstory ends up very obviously shoehorned in, telegraphing imminent events all too clearly.
It wouldn't be so bad if Jack's big, emotional twist at the end actually made sense (hell, if any of the story actually made sense)...
I quite liked the aliens, and the fact that they were essentially using human children as a drug... that was an original and rather chilling concept... but then, if these aliens are basically intergalactic stoners, are they really capable of destroying the world? On the whole, though, John Frobisher's reactions to everything, particularly the way he 'took care of his family', were the most believable elements of the show. Killing off Ianto was cheap and unnecessary, but it did show what a weak character Jack Harkness is - the moment he's threatened, he caves in and starts begging.
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