I saved the galaxy last night
Malak is dead. I tried to "save him", but he refused to give in, so we fought to the death. I ran around and destroyed all the cylinders so he wouldn't have a way to heal himself. It was a rough battle, but I prevailed. I was decorated with a medal, and we had a big crowd to celebrate. I started a new game, this time with a female. I picked a portrait of an older asian woman that has a hard look to her. As I become evil, she will look even more menacing. I went through the tutorial so that I would be able to start in on the action once I go back to it. I am now on "star wars vacation". I will wait 2 or 3 weeks before I start playing again. I don't want to get burned out. So this blog will be vacant the next couple of weeks. C U.

The final battle
I have finally fought past all the dark jedi and elite troopers. I encountered bastilla, and after fighting her a few times and talking to her, she has come back to the light. Malak showed up, and said he would let the star forge kill me. I was locked in a room with 6 droids and 6 generators so that when I killed one, it created another. No big deal, each generator had a computer that I hacked into and shut down the generators. Next was malak. He will be quite a challenge. He's not that tough, it's just that he has about 10 jedi in stasis fields that he can feed off of when he needs hit points. But if I get to them first and destroy the chambers, the jedi are "set free" and my force points recharge. So it's only a matter of time before I figure out the right combination of defensive and offensive tactics to beat him. Hopefully tonight. I will then take a two week vacation from star wars so I don't get burned out. Then I will star my path down the dark side. Being evil will be a lot more fun, I think.

Wierd Al
We went to the Wierd Al concert saturday, and it was great. He had so many costume changes, I lost count after 15 or so. It was a 2 hour concert, and he finished the show with "The Saga Begins" and an extended version of "Yoda". Seeing him and his band in jedi robes just wanted me to play star wars even more...

Sunday, August 03, 2003
Time played: 3 hours

I fight my way through the temple. Lots of droids and dark jedi. I work my way to the top,
and find bastilla waiting for me. She of course has turned to the dark side while being
captured. I try to convince her to come back to the light, blah, blah, blah, she tells me how
weak I am, blah, blah, blah.

She takes off in a spaceship towards the star forge. I chase after her. I get a message from the
republic fleet that they cannot destroy the star forge because the defenses are too good. Carth
explains that bastilla has turned, and that she is now using the battle mediation against the
republic fleet. They of course tell me to go to the star forge and stop her.

I fight my way through the star forge, section by section. Each section has TONS of droids trying to kill me. Since I have crafted a special double bladed light saber with the sole purpose of destroying droids, I cut through them like butter.

Since that didn’t work, Darth Malak has unleashed both the elite guards and the dark jedi against me. I have probably killed at least 50 of them so far, with no end in site. I kill one wave, and the
next comes after me. I saved the game in a “safe” place, so tomorrow I can continue the wanton
slaughter of the evil jedi.

I fully expect to meet Malak in a final battle tomorrow night. This means that it will have taken me a little under 50 hours to beat the game. It will also means that it has taken me nearly a month of hardcore gaming to beat it. Quite a hefty game, and I will be only have done, because next is the
fun part. Playing Dark, and becoming a Sith badass! I can hardly wait. This goody, hippie, light jedi stuff is making my trigger finger itch…

Saturday, August 03, 2003
Time Played: 3 hours

I hunt around for some spare parts for my ship, because my hyperdrive is busted. I find them and
fix it, but I can’t leave yet because I need to shut down a disruptor field, which is coming from a
temple.

So, I have to get into this temple, but there is a forcefield preventing me. I go to a villiage of natives, and they tell me that the “elders” know how to get in. They tell me to raid their villiage,
kill everyone, and bring back a book they can translate. I instead tell the elders of the other
village’s plans, and they tell me if I rescue one of their friends from them, they will let me in
the temple. So I go back to the first villiage, slaughter everyone there (all in the name of
good, wink) and rescue the guy the elders are looking for.

The elders let me in the temple, and I am prepared for a big battle. Ha! Little did I know what
awaited me later in the star forge…

Friday, August 1st, 2am
Time played: 5 hours
Planets visited: Kashyyyk, Mannan, Korriban, Unknown

I finally found the space suits. Walking on the deck of the battlecruiser, staring out
into space was an interesting experience. It reminded me how we are still stuck in
the stone age. We haven't even made an orbiting space station worth anything,
colonized the moon, or mars. At this rate, it will be the year 2200 before the first
humans "step foot" outside our own solar system. Pathetic. But I digress...

I got onto the bridge and killed everyone there (self defense, of course). I managed
to unseal the cargo bay doors, so we could leave. However, we had to get there first.
Of course Darth Malak shows up at just the right time to thwart our plans. I fight him
for a bit, and he runs away after a while. Ha! Sith Lord my ass!

Somehow Bastilla manages to find him and says she'll hold him off while we escape.
I think she just has a thing for bald men with decaying flesh. Anyway, she seals herself
in a room with him while we escape.

I go off to kashyyyk to finish up some loose ends, then off to mannan to collect some money.
I then go to korriban to do some tomb raiding. I raid all three tombs (the fourth is sealed), and
return to the sith academy dean to say I am ready for my final test. I just want to get in there
to get the star map, so I play along with the graduation ceremony. I pass the test, then have
the dean and his right hand girl stand before me. Earlier, she said she wanted my help to betray
the dean and kill him. When she said "let's go", I said no. The dean asked who my loyalties were
with, and I told him "for the republic for which it stands", or something like that. I had to fight both
of them at the same time. Nasty.

I prevailed, and now had to hack and slash my way through the entire academy to get back to the
ebon hawk. I showed those sith recruits the true power of the force. With me and jolee with double lightsabres, they didn't stand a chance.

Now that I have the final location of the star forge, I fly off to see it. It is the immense space station that syphons off energy from a star to mass produce giant battle fleets in record time. I let the republic fleet know where the star forge is, and then my engines go out. Carth manages to have a rough landing on the only planet in this star system, and now I have to go out and scavenge spare parts to fix the ship.

Oh, and did I mention that there is a disruptor field coming out of an old temple, and I have to go there to destory the field to save the republic fleet from a trap, rescue bastilla, and defeat malak?
A good jedi's day never ends. I want to play more, but it is past 2am, and my force powers are fading.

The agony and the ecstasy
Time played: 0

Last night we (my wife and I) went to the Blue Man Group concert. It was worth the wait, but we had to go through hell to get to it. The concert started at 8, but the blue headed gentlemen did not get on stage until 9:45. What pray tell took up the 1:45 until then?

Really, really BAD opening acts. There were two. The first was some woman who was a typical vanilla pop junk "artist" whos music would be perfect for the
crappy WB network shows filled with teenage angst. She sang about 4 songs, then when she said this was
her last song, the crowd cheered the hardest. If I
knew what was to come, I would have demanded that she
sing more.

The group was called "venushum", and they were the personification of eurotrash electronica with vocals from someone who sounded like enya on crack. She had a booming, powerfull voice, but you couldn't make out a word she was saying. It took me 4 songs to figure out she was actually singing in english. She played a cruel trick on us, because she sang a song that had the chorus "In a minute, I'll be leaving" but stood around for one more song. She wore a granny nightgown, and kind of bobbed around the stage like an extacy junkie looking for her next fix.

After that was done, we had a nice 45 minutes to wait for the real concert to finally start. At least they entertained us during that time with 2 electronic signs. On was on the right of the stage, and the other was on the left. The sign on the right was saying things like "use this time to use the restrooms, or buy a cold beverage", while the sign on the left was saying "It's time to go pee, or buy an overpriced soda". The right sign was giving random statistics, and telling people to turn off their cell phones and pagers, while the left sign was making fun of the right sign and telling people to go ahead and leave your phones on pagers on.

Both signs eventually asked the audience to shout out in favor of one or the other, and they started to insult eachother. It at least gave us something to do while waiting.

The concert started by having a sheet in front of the stage, so that you could only see the silhouettes
of the three. They then dropped the sheet, and stood before us. In the center of the stage was an elaborate array of PVC pipe, arranged in different shapes and lengths. Behind that were 5 drummers, 2 guitarists, 1 base guitarist, and a keyboardist /vocalist. Arranged around them were small digital screens that would display different things during the concert. Above them was a huge digital display.

The concert was a perfect mix of percussion music, rock music, and technology. There were so many digital displays, lights, and tricks played on stage, it was a tech geeks wet dream.

The blue men themselves were very energetic, and fun to watch. They acted like aliens in a way, unsure of what to do at times. The entire concept of the concert was that there was an announcer that would exlain to the blue men what made a good rock concert. It would state a rule, then the blue men would do it. It was like watching an infomercial on speed.

I don't know how long it lasted, but it made up for the agony we had to go through to get there. Once it was over, it took us a while to find our car. I then stopped by taco bell on the way home. I didn't eat anything at the concert because I didn't feel like paying $5 for a pretzel, or $7 for a hamburger. Seeing that lit taco bell sign in the distance was like seeing the light of the holy grail after a long crusade to find it.

I even got the tacos for free, because they have a "35th customer after midnight" thing where the 35th customer gets their order free. They of course don't tell you this until after you order, so you don't walk away with $500 in tacos.

After going back to Tracie's work to get my car, fighting construction traffic, and going to taco bell, we didn't get to bed until after 1 am. So LOTS of mountain dew for me today.

If you have the hideous amount of money to see the blue man group (I got the tickets for free), I highly suggest you see them. They are grrrrrrreat!

A day in the desert, followed by a night on the sith flagship
Time played: 2 hours
Planets visited: Tatooine

Oh how I have strayed. As I was wondering the desert
looking for Bastilla's father's holocron, I encountered another one of the marks of the secret society. I resisted the urge to kill him for about 5 seconds. At least I only got one dark point this time instead of two. I did receive a light point in anchorhead a short time afterwords, so it kind of balanced out.

I found the cave with the krayt dragon, and managed to kill it. I now had all the star maps leading me to the star forge. And who should be waiting for me outside the cave? None other than Darth Bandon himself. After a fierce fight I managed to kill him. That's right, only one encounter with the bad-add apprentice. It reminds me of Darth Maul.
All posture, and no skills. Another light sabre for me. I have so many in surplus, I could open my own store.

I had some unfinished business with kashyyyk, so I
took off for it. The leviathan was waiting for me with a tractor beam. Welcome to the detention cell. We all decided it would be best if mission would cause enough trouble to get put into a cell by herself. She has the stealth skill, so I did some solid snake action to bust everyone out.

We had to fight our way to the bridge past lots of soldiers and even some dark jedi, but we prevailed. We got to the bridge doors, but they were sealed. It looks like I will have to find some space suits and walk to the bridge on the outside of the ship. Giddyup!

Purple power
Also last night I finally got a purple crystal, so now I have green and purple light sabres equipped on my character. Dual blading is the only way to go...

Tuesday night
Play time: 2 hours
Planets visited: Mannan, Dantooine, Tatooine

I encountered a fellow who is from an ancient (5,000 years before the republic, which is 15,000 years old)secret society of bounty hunters that use their services to change and control the political climate of the universe. They claim to support the republic, and that everyone they kill are bad people that need to die in order to preserve the republic.
I figured I would give them a try, but the first mark I killed for them gave me 2 dark points. I'm going to have to work my jedi ass off to recover from that mistake, since light points are few and far between. They have lots of work, and reward you with tons of cash and decent items, but I guess being a good jedi I can't pick a fight with anyone. Even if I kill an evil person, it's still killing. I can only kill in self defense. There are so many choices I have that would easily lead me to the dark side, I have to watch my step. If I am to defeat malak and save the republic, I must walk on eggshells. Speaking of Darth Malak, he has learned that I have killed the bounty hunter he sent for me on Korriban. In response, he has sent his apprentice, Darth Bandon to hunt for me. Well, not me specifically, but Bastilla. Malak fears her battle meditation abilities, and will stop at nothing to get her. Everytime I leave a planet, I expect to see his flagship the Leviathon waiting for me. As I was on Dantooine looking for my bounty, I encountered a jedi twi'lek investigating a crime scene. He had 2 suspects in custody, and wanted me to solve the crime. He claimed that it would be good for my training, but I suspect that he was inept and wanted me to save his rep with the jedi council. I solved the crime, and went on my merry way. Between the trial where I had to defend myself, the trial where I had to defend a murder suspect, and this crime scene, I'm starting to feel like an interplanetary perry mason. I only hope I don't become fat like him, because using the light sabre will become overly difficult. I finally met missions brother in tatooine, to give him the animal gland he needed. He promised me 3000 credits a while ago, said I would get it when I gave him the gland. I gave it to him, and he asked me for a 200 credits. He claims that it is an investment, so that he can start to produce the turisian ale. If I wasn't such a good jedi, I would do bad things to him. Since I'm a good jedi, I gave him the 200, and hoped for the best. I guess I'll find out tonight.