Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is the best game I've played in a long time. Laura Croft is no longer tits with a gun. She is a character I could sympathize with and a character I cared about by the end of the story. It also went a long way toward explaining the kick ass killing machine we all know from other games. I think my favorite aspect of the game is you can watch her character growth from a naive young girl and at each challenge when she is pushed a little farther she becomes a bit more bad ass. My only real grip is I plowed through the plot in 12 hours. I loved the story and the ending but because of that I dedicated some time and beat it in about three days with 75% completion. I  will be going back for my nicnacks to get closer to 90% completion. I will also be looking into the multi player option once my better half gets done beating the game. He's a couple hours behind me at this point. I'd hate for something to get ruined because we were romping through the multi-player. I haven't really decided if I'm going for the DLC. I want to research it a bit first. Overall, buy it. It's a great game. Loads of fun. My better half hated the previous Tomb Raider games and he is having a lot of fun. I loved the previous Tomb Raider games and I loved it.

Corset running after nick-knacks
Signing off

Oz the Great and Powerful: Short Opinion

So I went to see the new Oz movie last weekend and I loved it. I'll try and do this as spoiler free as I can but beware they may happen. Let me start by saying that I saw the movie in 2D but it just screams watch me in 3D. So unless you have the headache problem that plagues some people, I think it would be worth it. I'm going to see it again next weekend in 3D and, if someone reminds me, I'll tell you if it makes it better.

Continuing with the visual effects I love the opening sequence and how the story is introduced. The shift from black and white to colour was not perfect and felt a little abrupt to me but I'm glad they tried to keep some of the original feel of switching from one world to the next in that fashion.

One thing I was sad about was I felt they pulled the China Girl too early. I wish she had been a companion of his for a while. Had broken her legs and then he corrected it. I felt like it would have had a greater impact that way and made him wait a little for a reward. On the same note, neither of the two side kicks were really integral to the story and that made me sad. They each offer him things through out however if you removed them completely very little would have changed except for some cute comic relief.

I also didn't appreciate the second climax of the story with Glinda's personal fight. It was not needed and the story flowed a lot better if that scene wasn't there. The thing it theoretically adds you would never know you missed. That's just me. Maybe someone felt jipped about their screen time?

Overall I think the movie was beautifully done. I enjoyed myself and I loved the transformations that various characters under go. I will say they did leave it open to create a second one that could occur between this and The Wizard of Oz. I'm crossing my fingers they don't do that but the universe is actually quite large with quite a few books so we will see what happens and if they do it right.

Corset signing off.

Playing With Paint

Hey guys. Yes I finished AC3. No I won't talk about it. I mean damn. It was almost as bad as Pokemon trying to murder my childhood. I'll get to all that another day.  Today I'm talking about paint. I like to paint. However I really don't know how so I am going to start the tedious (but cheap) process of teaching myself how to paint. So if you see a picture up here feel free to comment (using specifics) about things you see me doing wrong and how to improve them. This is a work in progress I am flailing at.

Look it's a Tree!

Corset signing off.

Assassins Creed 3 Short Opinion

So far I am up to sequence 5 in AC3 and I really feel like this game doesn't know what it wants. I spent sequence 1-3 bored out of my mind until they threw me for a loop with a spoiler. The surprise at the end of three kept me moving forward when four would have otherwise been droll. I don't like having a tutorial twice in a game. Give me controls. Make then consistent or at least give me the option to skip the babysitting scene. Anywho. If you made it past all that the game actually starts to pick up and in sequence 5 I feel like I am playing an AC game for the first time. I'm stealth killing with my hidden blades, bribing people to stop gossiping, and improving my little slice of the universe so I can get bigger better things. Given all the hype about this game I'll admit I was a quite disappointed with the beginning but the longer I play the more it seems to pick up steam. So far I've put less than 4 hours into the game so I'm a bit concerned it will be short but there is an open world aspect I haven't played with too much yet so we will see where it goes. When I finish the game I'll come back and give a full opinion.

Corset going back to AC3
-signing off

Sugar Cookies

So I know I said I would start posting again on a schedule and I lied. So here is a picture of some Christmas cookies as an apology. They are generic sugar cookies whose recipe I got off the side of the sugar bag. They took maybe 15 minutes to decorate with a 4 pack of decorating frosting and I was pleased with the results. It's a good project to do with the kids as the cookies are cheep and easy to make so even if they get burned or destroyed by some mishap you're only out about $5. My recipe made 5 dozen cookies. I only frosted the ones on the plate. However if I had to chose a favorite sugar cookie recipe go with this one: 

(courtesy of http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-sugar-cookies/) 

INGREDIENTS:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2.	In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and place onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Corset signing off.