LOTR: The Third Age

So, I bought this for $6.00 on a splurge of boredom over the weekend:



It's pretty insulting to the films, even more so to Tolkien's work, but it's mostly entertaining. In this linear-as-a-line RPG, a second fellowship follows the path of that of the original one, fighting most of the same baddies and really just making more or less of the same comments that Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, or Boromir might've made. The battle system is similar to Final Fantasy X, with characters taking turns based on actions, and the leveling up system is tediously mediocre. You gain a level, you get two points, you assign them to whatever attributes you desire. Rinse, lather, repeat.

And repetition is key here. I'm not even out of Moria yet and I've fallen comfortably into using the same battle tactics to defeat goblins and trolls. So I do that, gain a level, go to the new battle, gain a level. There's no towns to wander and shop in (isn't that, um, consider a sin in an RPG?), and everytihng is loosely tied in by cinematic movie montages narrated by Gandalf. Which, I'll admit, are nice to listen to.

I guess I'll be fighting the Balrog soon. Yeah, you know...the one that fell down the chasm. I wonder how'll EA will work that into the second fellowship's journey into sore losership.

So, $6.00 well spent? Probably not. But it gives me something to do when I don't want to do one of my 7 billion others things needing finishing.

The Hobbit, 70 years ago

Seventy years ago, The Hobbit was published.

I've loved this story since I first read it back in my freshman year of high school. The adventure, the setting, the colorful and beyond dynamic characters--even now, after devouring Lord of the Rings many a times, I still find The Hobbit to be both Tolkien's great and most accessible creation. The sense of wonder that encompasses the book is, well, magical, and there's something about the chapter Riddles in the Dark that compels me to re-read it every now and then. Who ever knew that the plain ring young Bilbo stole from the cave freak Gollum would come to be such a pivotal item in the future? One wonders if Tolkien even suspected it then.

Currently, I have two copies of the book--one is a mass market paperback, but the other is by far one of my favorite things and I'm really not materialistic at all. A few Christmases ago my sister D got me this, a collector's edition:



I also have a graphic novel adaption of the story, as well as that bad-ish yet somewhat comforting animated movie. Yeah, I like The Hobbit. Well, love could actually be used it. It inspired me greatly, continues to do so, and is always a joy to go back and experience. Roads go ever ever on...