Entry 16 of Neiko Hawke. Assassins want my body.

 I figured the first thing I should do is help the assassins look for this "Zevran" that is supposed to be hiding with the Dalish. One of the Dalish approached me as I walked into the camp and greeted me with the phrase "Champion of Kirkwall". It felt a little awkward coming from a Dalish Elf, but it still had a ring to it.

Upon asking about where Zevran was, she instantly knew where he was. She told me that she was actually instructed to tell anyone who came looking for him where he was. On top of that, he was in the same cave the Varterral was in earlier. Which only has one entrance. Why would he trap himself like that?

Upon entering the cave, we had the same routine of killing a few amount of spiders, and we eventually reached the end. Where the Varterral was again. I asked why it was still here, since we already killed it once, and Merrill explained to me that he is bound to this site by a Dalish god until his purpose is served. So even if he dies, he comes back. That must suck.

After we killed the Varterral (again), Zervran came out saying he wasn't expecting to see me, he said he was expecting his clan to come by to kill him. Since him leaving them was grounds for them to kill him. Not only that though, but apparently he was supposed to kill the Gray Warden, but was unable to, which is another reason why they wanted to kill him.

He then went on about how famous I really am, and that he liked my body. I was... Uh... Yeah... I gave him a quick notion that I don't fly that way, and he accepted that. I don't have anything against it, but uh... No homo... Right? I tell him that I'd let him go, but then he told me that if I did, the crows would be after me next. So there is only one way to settle this.

I showed up at their camp, telling them I have Zevran, but I have no intention of giving him over. Their leader says he's disappointed and whatnot, but I honestly couldn't give two shits about their code. It's full of shit to me.

The fight breaks out when someone tries to jump on Zevran, but he quickly throws a dagger right into his eye as he ran at him from behind. The fight was a breeze. All these "Crows" were nothing but all talk, and Zevran was the real assassin here.

He thanks me for helping him with this task, and ends up giving me a nice pair of daggers. I didn't really have a use for them, but Isabela might, so I accepted them. He talks about how it was nice to kill his brothers for once, and that he has many more to kill at his hometown. Before he leaves though, he asks me if I would reconsider my opinion about a night with him, I again stood firm on my "No homo" deal. He shrugged it off and replied with, "If you ever change your mind, I'll be in Antiva". Ehh... <_< Sigh.

Darkspore Entry 01. SPAAAAACCCEEEE

I picked up Darkspore earlier this week, and I finally got around to playing it. Being the anti-social person I am, I'm going to be playing solo the whole way.

Since I've already played the first few areas in the beta, playing the tutorial again was REALLY boring. =/

Anyways, upon starting up, one of the first things I went to do was modify one of my favorite characters, Blitz. His original art is right below this, but I like a more poky and angry looking approach. (Hence all the spikes and red)

Blitz's original art.

I also was given a higher variant of another character just for buying the game O.o. Can't complain I guess lol. (Maldri)

The environment is one of the things I like about the game, especially little things like this. A black hole ripping parts from the station off. Oh, and the backstory of this place is something along the lines of some people deciding they want to research this black hole. So obviously build right next to it. =p

The first boss was really easy, being the first boss and all. The second boss wasn't too bad, but his attacks were really annoying. If his attack hits you, it teleports you to a random location nearby =/.

If you want to know more about a specific thing in Darkspore, just leave a comment or send me a message, and in my next update I'll try to explain what was asked the best I can.

Mortal Kombat

The new Mortal Kombat is so much fun, and I love the new Scorpion look.

I need to play more so I can unlock alt costumes and fatalities @_@

Ghetto Rigging Stuff On My Car

I spent about an hour ghetto rigging my coolant overflow cap to connect to the hoses this morning. The plastic connecting the hoses broke, so I had to find a new cap, buy a complete set (another tank and everything), or ghetto rig it.

I went to oreilly's looking for another cap. I really doubted they had one, but I figured might as well ask. I ended up finding an almost perfect fit replacement for the plastic that connected the hoses. Bought a new clamp for the outer hose and BAM. Fixed for less than 5 bucks.

Took a bit of time and creativity, but hell. Something about fixing a car like that leaves you with a feeling you don't really get anywhere else.

Here is the plastic piece that broke. I had to cut off part of the hose, I was unable to get the old piece that was stuck in it out =/

And here is the new fix I have on it. Replaced the c-clamp with a new better clamp. Freaking hate c-clamps.

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines

Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines is a great game. Patching it to 1.2 and then using wesps unoffical 7.3 patch fixes most bugs, and makes the game much more fun. I definitely recommend the game to almost anyone. It uses the source engine (but before hl2 came out), and works like dragon age with dialogue. It's great how the game gives you tons of options on how to approach almost any situation. The lore is really cool as well, I actually enjoy sitting there listening to the npcs talk away at me. This game has been doing a good job of keeping my attention off of recent things in my life.

Play it! (I played a Gangrel on my first run through. The quiz decided that was who I should be, and it was mostly correct lol. Lots of fun)

Bleh

Better to have loved and lost, then to have never loved at all...

..l..

Feels bad man.

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident

I just picked up a game on steam for 10 bucks the other day called "Nexus: The Jupiter Incident". The campaign so far is actually pretty damn fun. It has a really steep learning curve though (think eve online o.O), and a lot of things are not explained to you.

They give you the basics, but not everything is explained, and after the first two or so missions they pretty much stop helping you. They didn't even explain or help with ship customization, which is actually really important. Just as important as knowing what different weapons actually do.

After you learn most of it though, man it gets fun, and it's also quite pretty for 04. Some models are a little blocky, and a few backgrounds (I'm looking at you first missions where asteroids look pretty meh, and the asteroids in the background look like utter shit.), but effects look fantastic. Weapons look awesome, shields have a really cool effect, overall, the effects make up for some of the bad graphics.

It's weird though, your first ship looks "ok" at best, although some decently interesting things are happening to it, it's overall blocky, in a bad way. Not in the Caldari blocky way. The second ship you get though, actually looks pretty good!? I don't understand the difference in that, I guess they just half assed that ship since you only use it for a few missions.

Anyways, read an actual review on it if you're interested in mostly slow paced space rts games (it also has a pause feature by hitting space bar, like most of bioware's games), and if you like what you read/see on youtube, pick it up for 10 bucks on steam. Well worth it imo.

Also, I purchased myself a geforce 8400 low power/profile vid card to replace my dead 7900 for my second monitor. It has a large ass heatsink, but that's what you get for taking off the fan to use a little less power.

edit- here is the review that helped me decide if I wanted to buy it.
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/nexus/review.html

Super Meat Boy

All I have to say

Shit's hard yo.

Sins of a solar Empire

I was going to start a little journal on a Sins of a Solar Empire game, but apparently print screen, which is their screenshot button, doesn't work in vista/7. So I only have one of the screenshots, and I'm wondering if I should re-start, or just go with what I have now, and start it off late. I already had some epic fights, but I think I'm just going to restart. It just isn't the same starting in the middle.

Video card (again)

Ugh. My 7900 went out again after doing the oven cooking trick (http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1421792) (It worked for a few months after cooking it when it died the first time, so I can't complain lol)

I'm going to try putting in my old X300 Radeon to see if it'll work this time. I was sort of frustrated and too angry with it before to really try anything, but it wouldn't go to a high resolution, even though it's max resolution is 2048 x 1536.

Entry 15 of Neiko Hawke. Family, Friends, and Business.

 After the little verbal fight in front of the Chantry, I went towards my house to check my mail. On the way, I saw a Qunari still lingering around. He said that he has come to collect Qunari blades, and would like me to return any I found. He asked if I needed payment for finding them, but I refused a payment. I already put enough anguish on the Qunari for now.

While browsing the Hightown market, I was stopped by someone from Antiva. He said he was looking for an assassin that left "The Crows" who fled to the Dalish. Apparently "The Crows" are a reputable assassination group from Antiva, and leaving the group is grounds to be killed. He asked if I could find him and return him to their camp outside so they could punish him, but I didn't make any promises. I just said I'd keep a lookout for him.

 I found some new armor at the merchants in Hightown as well! =o

Continuing my sweep of merchants in Hightown, I found my old business partner who told me something terrible has happened at the mine in the Bone Pit. He said that his last shipment came in on a half destroyed wagon with mangled bodies and charred remains. I needed to check this out soon, to see if I could find any survivors and fix the problem.

I finally went home after visiting all the Merchants in Hightown, only to find my Mabari  barking at my armoire. There was apparently a thief in my house trying to steal from me. He just wanted to leave now, but I wasn't going to let him just leave after breaking and entering my house. I told my Mabari to go find the guards, and bring them back to arrest the robber. (Which he did)

I also found Merrill staring out of the window. She was talking about how everything seems so far away now that she's in Hightown. She then says that she needs to go to her house, and that she'd be home before dark. I asked her why she doesn't just bring her stuff to my house, but she said that some things are better off far from here. I'm guessing she was talking about her mirror.

 I was about to leave my house to go find Merrill since it was getting dark and she wasn't back yet, but Bodahn said he needed to talk to me. He was telling me about how he was starting to get old, and he needed to make sure Sandal was somewhere good, and that Sandal could move on with his life without Bodahn having to be there. I said that Sandal will always have a place here for me to make enchantments, and Bodahn thanked me for that, but he said that the Empress from the Imperial court had offered Sandal a job at enchanting there. Good for Sandal.

I went to go check on Merrill, since it was already dark and she wasn't back yet, and I found her at still at her old house. She was telling me how the Mirror still wasn't working, and she doesn't know what else to do now and that she's all alone in this. I reassured her that no matter what, she isn't alone, and I'll always be here for her.

Since I was in Lowtown, I decided to check on Gamlen. He had a note on his desk about a rare gem waiting for him. I'd have to check that out later. Gamlen goes on talking to me about how even though he doesn't agree with me, he's still glad that I'm his family. He was afraid that our family in Kirkwall would end with him, and he's glad that I'm here to bring our name out of the ground back to what it used to be.

I decided to check on Isabela in The Hanged Man after that, and she was moping around when I came up to her. She was saying that we have nothing in common anymore, and that there is no reason for her to stay around anymore. I told her that no matter what, she still came back for us in the end, and I could still use her skills.

Lol Varric.