But, I was feeling pre-underwhelmed.  I haven’t played a strategy game that really grabbed me in a while, maybe since Civ 3 or something… and even that was mostly just the “1 more turn!!” addiction.  Also, Blizzard’s whole bizarre/stupid privacy changes (saying they were going to force people to use their real names on the forums, then kinda going back on it), integrating battle.net & SC2 with Facebook… all things to make me cringe.

But, you can ignore those things and just play the game.  I think.  It does make me sign into battle.net before it even lets me play the single player campaign (which is 7 kinds of stupid)… I guess this is so you can use the in-game messenger thing (yes, it has an in-game messenger, but so far you can very easily not look at it) to nag your FB friends to play with you or buy the game.  Or something.

Also, playing the beta may have burned me on the game because it was multi-player only, and MP was only a portion of what I loved about SC.  Certainly it’s not where I expect to spend most of my time.  I kind of figure that once I finish the campaign I’ll only play online as a lark – League of Legends covers my online/pvp/multiplayer needs quite well.

Anyway, I just went and played the game.  League of Legends was down anyway, so might as well.

And I had a lot of fun.  Went through maybe 5 missions.

• The between-mission spaceship/prep scenery where you can talk to the characters is actually pretty cool.
• I really like the special tech you can unlock via Zerg/Protoss research.  I like that you have to make choices there, and can’t get every option.
• I like the rate at which new units are coming, usually 1 per mission and on a mission kind of keyed to that unit so you can see their strengths.
• I love the research and mercenary options. I thought it (research done outside missions) would be annoying, but I love it.  It adds … something to the game.  Makes it more rp-like, maybe?
• The units look good, and seem quite varied.

Some weird/negatives:

• It doesn’t run as well as I think it should on my (still pretty good) laptop.
• It doesn’t recognize my video card… which seems insane as it’s an Nvidia card with pretty new drivers.  maybe because I’m using the beta drivers?
• I had to turn down the detail, which is really frustrating as it looks pretty damn good with stuff turned up.
• It tends to kind of crunchlag during some of the cutscenes – mostly just when the big convict guy is talking, but occasionally in game as well – usually when someone is talking over the action.  I don’t see why this is at all because, while the game is good looking, frankly I don’t see how it’s anything that should be pushing a decent graphics card  – even one from last year.
• The install is 12 gigs!!  (I’m sure 80% of that is the movies)

I need to see if I can play without the disk… I have a feeling I can’t because I heard it spinning up and down, but maybe if there’s a way to trick it and put all the data on disk that will help a bit.

A brief recap:

species 1: hunts sentients

species 2: plays total dick-ass holosuite games that are a) more powerful tech than anything the Federation has and b) totally stupid.  Also has the most annoying laugh ever.  And are total dicks.

species 3: kills the family of one who is declared an “enemy of the state” (or something like that), but not the person himself.  And also doesn’t have to prove anything before said execution.

So, I get what they’re going for with all the gamma quadrant species being “inhuman” in addition to “unhuman”… but the fact that they all speak English kinda screws with that.

Also, wow but this episode may have set some records for stupidest Star Trek extras/species yet.  The main alien dude had a really weird man-woman body (which I think was,unfortunately 70% just the actors body and 30% weird prop clothes)… worse than a Cardassian’s, and the backup alien dudes trying to kill him just looked kinda silly.  Not like that is anything new.

• Odo quotes Morn, kinda.  Morn waves his arms around and again, says nothing.
• Odo centric episode in general, with the first hints about his species.
• Random dumb things:  Sisko is totally cool with taking himself (THE SENIOR OFFICER) and one other in a tiny ship to a possibly alien planet to tell them that one of theirs just murdered someone on the station?  How is that in any way following a protocol.  Delegate man, delegate!
• Speaking of delegating, in either this episode or the last one, Sisko tells Kira about some problem and she says “I’ll have Odo blah blah blah.”  Dude.  Lady.  If he wanted Odo to do something he would have just tapped that stupid little triangle thing and said “Hey Odo, do some shit with this shit.”  But no, he told YOU.  In PERSON.  Not the time to delegate.  *Knows who’s not getting an xmas bonus!*
• Odo gets the closing… “unknowing” smile I guess you’d call it.

See what I did there?  I went back to the 90s with my verbiage, just like I’m doing with my sci-fi TV!    Wee.

No, I didn’t laugh at that.  My jokes are so bad even I don’t laugh.

Let’s run em down (the dots):

• Quark tells Morn a joke, then later runs him out of the bar.  Like a jackass.  Note that Morn shakes his arms around like he’s mad, but doesn’t utter so much as a grunt.
• The dude from the Princess Bride that everyone quotes (“Inconceivable!”) played the (a?) head Ferengi type that showed up do some Ferengi politicking.
• Which means Quark got more screen time than the “cast”.  Which makes me wonder if his name is in the credits?  Need to check that tomorrow.
• Dax is in there for like half a second, and still manages to be my favorite cast member (as usual).  I don’t think Kira even had any lines.  Bashir said something or other at one point.
• Sisko and son experience teenager + father friction.  Believable and a good addition/facet for the show to have IMHO.
• O’Brien is back from Earth and subbing for his wife’s class.  I like that even though it has no bearing on the overall wormhole/Dominion arc we get these notes about that to establish  a direct sequence of events chronology.  True, Star Trek always has the stardates… but a tangible reminder that things are actually connected to one another is always nice.  Can’t remember in TNG did this or not, but I don’t think the original ST did.
• Quark’s brother is the most idiotic, annoying, unlikable character I can recall from a ST series.  I remembered this from my initial watchings, but this episode was a good reminder.
• Sisko gets the closing knowing smile, as he watches his son go off and play with his weird-ear-dressed little friend whom he now knows is being taught by Jake to read in secret.

• PS:  How is it NOT PROFITABLE TO KNOW HOW TO READ?  That is the dumbest thing I have heard in the universe of Star Trek.  Ever.  Ever.  Ever.  Ever.  I refuse to believe that even in make believe land Ferengi can be that stupid and not have blown themselves the fuck up centuries ago.
• Plus how hard is it to pronounce “Human” and “Klingon” properly when you say every other fucking word in perfect TERRAN ENGLISH? Ehh, probably just another means of displaying Ferengi douchery.  It’s working.

So I finished this like a week ago but I’ve been putting of writing a review because a) I’m not sure what to say b) there’s too much to say and c) I don’t have the energy to try and say it all.  So this will be about 10% as long as it should be.

First:

Every US citizen should be obligated to read this book, probably senior year of high school.  I would say first year of college, but so many don’t make it to college that I think HS has to be the place for it.  Of course, a 900 page history book is probably a pretty epic undertaking for many HS students soo…. I dunno.  A semester long class on it?  Is that too much to ask?  I mean, I had to take a (somewhat pointless) quarter long class called “California Today” that was ostensibly some kind of history class but I don’t remember jack shit of it.  I guarantee you that if I had a class on this book, I’d remember some of it.

Second:

The above is obviously not going to happen, so instead I’ll say that anyone with a serious interest in a) current politics b) race relations in this country or c) how the hell we got to be the way we are (see, I’m on a 3 point list thing today!) really should read this book.  It is not at all boring.  It is the most engrossing, interesting history book I have ever read, and the prose is better than a decent portion of the fiction I’ve read.  Even though it took me a while to read, I still moved through it like I would a good novel – excepting that I needed more time to process a lot of the stuff in there.

Third:

I can’t make anyone read this book.  But seriously, if you’re (as an American, primarily) going to read one history book in your life, make it this one.  a) I’m sure there must be a better history book out there but b) I haven’t seen it yet and c) if I do, I will most certainly tell you about it but d) I kinda doubt I’ll run into such a thing.  The subject matter and quality of scholarship and writing here are just well, good.

Hah!  Confused you with that 4 part list there eh?  Thought I was going to do a three-quence of threes didn’t you?  Well.

FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS

What else is there to say?  To list the number of “new” things I encountered in this book that I was previously unaware of would be like forcing you to watch a movie of me sleeping on a night when I have bad gas.

For Civil War aficionados, this is maybe not the the same kind of mind-blowing history that it was for me, as a historical novice.  So my recommendation is primarily for folks like me with a passing interest in history, and a  more consuming interest in modern race relations and the like.

Don’t you hate it when some alien race does something totally douchey that makes you fear for your life and think all your friends are dead?  But then they just get to walk away from it because it’s a new species and a misunderstanding and uh, you don’t have a big fucking knife to stab them with, or something?

• Awkward teenager (?) vs. father conversations about girls: evidently young
• That guy.  From the last episode.  The starfleet security guy IS STILL AROUND.  Has there ever been a named “extra” crew member that appeared in more than 1 episode in Star Trek before?  I really don’t know that they are/were going for here.  Was/is he supposed to be an actual crew member?  My current theory is that he’s been set up as the most delayed red-shirt ever:  “What?  This guy is totally a cast member.   We’re not gonna ki—  oh snap!”
• Oh, and this was another “first contact” type episode with another species from the gamma quadrant.  Just as “douchey” and “different” as the last one (in Captive Pursuit).  Aren’t they all dominated by the Dominion or something?  I guess that’s much later.  We’ll see what happens in the season finale (halfway there!), as I seem to recall it coming along fairly early.
• Kira had a weird wide-open-gaping-mouth->into-half-amused-knowing-smile for the closer.  BUT THEN: A spaceship upstaged her.  Which cannot smile.  Man, those gaming-gamma-aliens are total douches.  First they scare everyone half to death, then they steal the closing knowing smile with a big hunk of metal.  Jackasses.

Oh, and random Starfleet security officer?  I’m not sure why you needed to be in this episode, but I’m pretty sure we’ll never see you again.

So, on with the breakdown:

• Odo and Quark have another moment.  I’m starting to get that this might be a “thing”.
• Bashir is like, a total dick, yo?  Not only a lech, but way full of himself.  Does he grow out of this?  I forget.
• O’Brien is still on vacation?  This seems weird for a show to have a cast member go awol for multiple episodes so early into its life.
• A time limit was introduced.  OK, no, there were two.  I just noticed that this is a regular thing.  Going on the checklist/drinking game list!
• We’ve got a 2.5 way knowing smile with a handoff in the closing : Sisko to Dax & Bashir.  CRAZY!

Oh, and some dude transferred his brain into Bashir and shot some guy and yawn.

Quality+timing-bullshit = profit!

So, onward and into the Daxness

• Morn carries a barrel in the background.  Fuck but that guy is crazy.
• Quark and Odo have another moment not possible to undercut with homoerotic tension because Odo is not male…
• Kira does a good job of looking pixie-ishly tomboyish.
• Godhawtdamn doctor, can you stop with the lechery? Oh wait, your lechery almost/kindof/yeahitidid save the day this time.  O….K.  Carry on then.
• Instead of trying to force O’Brien into this plot, they just wrote him out entirely on a trip to Earth.  Smart!
• Dax gets the final closing/knowing smile (2 in a row!).

This was one of the better episodes so far, I think.  I mean it was a pretty standard “honorable guy does the honorable thing and protects the memory of his douchey friend”, but the added angle of the Trilliness of Dax and the continuing examination of Sisko and Dax’s old vs. new relationship made it good TV.

Jen mentioned at the end that every episode ends with someone making a knowing smile… and I think she’s probably right.  I’m going to have to watch for it now.

So, in this episode:

• The doctor continues to be a semi-creepy lech.  Can you not hit on everything with a vagina, please?  I guess it was how they gave him something to do in this episode, since I really didn’t see the reasoning for calling him over to help with the jammed door in the beginning.
• A groovy space-ray from the gamma quadrant hatches and almost destroys the station
• Morn appears
• Dax has the closing knowing smile
• Sisko punches Q in a mustache.
• Quark gets rubbed off.  His ears, he gets them rubbed.  Which I’m pretty sure is the same thing as masturbating a human.  But less messy?  You know, I don’t think I want to know the answer to that.
• Odo and Quark have another moment of character contrast that draws them unknowingly closer together.
• Everyone almost dies, yet survives, with less than 10 minutes between them and SPACE DESTRUCTION!

Oh, and I’m going to try not to bring this up very often… but the fact that 98% of the species a) is humanoid and b) speaks English is… highly amusing?  A useful plot conceit?  Friendly to the budget?

The species happened to be one who breeds sentient beings to be hunted, and those beings apparently want to be hunted, and to die in the hunt – to be captured is a horrible dishonor.  So, of course the Federation kind of captures him, then O’brien feels bad for him but he doesn’t want to be protected he wants to die in the hunt, yada yada. So, O’brien helps him escape and “the hunt continues” or some junk.

O’Brien had the lions hare of screen time, with a good size chunk for Sisko, minor stuff for Odo and a word or two for the rest.

Of course, having a vague inkling of what happened later on, I just wanted Odo to show the Gamma dudes his shapeshifting… because I think he’s related to the race that rules the quadrant.  Or some junk.  I COULD BE COMPLETELY WRONG BUT DON’T TELL ME.  I’m enjoying my ignorance.

Oh, and I didn’t see Norm (HOLY SHIT!  I’ve just been calling him “Norm” because I remembered that he was in like almost every damn bar scene… and then it turns out that his name was “Morn” and intentionally made an anagram of NORM oh Gawd I kill myself! OK I gottaSTOPGOOGLINGbeforeISPOIL IT!)  in the bar scene, so I was sad.

The show is supposed to be the goriest thing ever, as far as TV shows go.  I’m not a big fan of gore at all, but the comic series is interesting enough to make me wonder about the TV version.  I mean, depressing, bleak, & macabre all seem to be in as far as TV goes these days (Oz, 6″ Under, The Wire, some aspects of True Blood, etc.)… so it should fit right in.

I thought this dude (Lennie James?) was playing him?  In the comics, Morgan was one of the first people he met, and I thought I saw that the TV pilot was going to go that route as well.  So…

a) Does Morgan play such an inconsequential role in the series that he’s not worth putting on the poster? (In the comics, he is what, like the 3rd longest lived character outside of Rick & son?).
b) Does he not show up until later?
c) Does he die right off the bat?
d)Is there some other reason for not putting him (and his son) in the cast photo?

I can’t believe that they would cut his arc out, as what he went through with his son was one of the most depressing, painful things I have seen in a comic.  And TV writers love that shit, right?