And I'm spent...

It seems fitting that the game to push my gamerscore over the 10,000 mark was Halo 3.


Fantastic game, even though I've completed the single player campaign on heroic difficulty (I normally plump for normal difficulty on these sort of games as I'm a bit crap at first person shooters, but I got shamed into playing through on a harder level as heroic was described very firmly by the developers as the way Halo is meant to be played) I'm yet to try any of the multi player modes.

One mode I really liked was the theater mode. Every action you perform is recorded and you can go back and watch yourself play through the whole game if you like. Not only does it provide evidence about how much I suck, it also lets you take really pretty screen shots and upload them to the bungie website. Pictures like this:

Anyhoo, thats one game down - now I just have to somehow cope with the next couple of months. The videogame release schedule gets really silly during October & November, I've managed to get my wishlist down to 9 games during October & November - and by god that's making a few sacrifices (goodbye Eternal Sonata, farewell Skate I just can't see how I can fit you in). I'm such an addict aren't I?

Geek with game - a self portrait

Me, about to finish the fight.

I wasn't sad enough to attend any midnight release parties, but I am sad enough to take 3 days off work to spend some quality time with Master Chief.

You know you have been playing too many video games when...

...you get a receipt like this:

...and your first reaction is "Fuck yes I am!" (it's a video game thing - lets allow Wikipedia to explain the significance of the number)

Another sign that you are playing too many games could be when you start using game controllers as paper weights...

Speaking of games I've changed the banner for a brief time to reflect my current obsession with Forza MotorSport 2. If you have been anywhere near a PlayStation you may of heard of Gran Turismo: the petrolheads game of choice, Forza is Microsoft's attempt to woo this demographic.

The game has hundreds of cars modelled to a frightening level of detail - you can turn on a telemetry system and see exactly how much pressure is being put on each individual tyre as you go screaming round each and every corner. You can play it online (I haven't tried that yet, I get scared off by the whole social interaction thing), you can tune the cars to your hearts content by fiddling with things like gear ratios and what not, and if you are really patient you can create some very nice custom paint jobs.

I like to look at it as a little bit more than a game; the never ending slog to acquire as many cars as possible, the fruitless attempts at being creative with the paint jobs, all punctuated by a fair few disastrous crashes as you attempt to take corners too fast ending up with you limping home as everyone one else overtakes your shattered vehicle... If that's not one big old metaphor on life I don't know what is!

BTW, the car in the banner is my 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z28, I think it is my favourite as it is easily the loudest car in my collection.