Monday, February 11, 2008

What I'm Playing

I originally intended the What I'm Playing entries to be weekly, detailing what I was playing for that week and also offering thoughts on a few things. Obviously, it hasn't been a weekly entry and I apologise for that, but I do still intend on keeping it a regular thing and here's hoping I can find a way to balance my time so that it can be a regular piece.

Anyway, this week I have been playing the following:

Burnout Paradise

Picked this up on Friday night and according to the in-game timer, have already played it for over 25 hours. See what I mean about time getting away from me easily?
Anyway, I have been playing it so much because it's just so damn awesome. Whether it is doing the races, Road Rages, Marked Man challenges or Stunt Runs; Or whether it is mucking around online with friends, Paradise is an absolute blast to play and I look forward to playing it some more in this coming week.

Mass Effect

I have returned to this game after a short break, this time playing through it for the second time. I decided to re-use my character from the first run although this time I'm being a bit more of an arsehole while I go for the Renegade achievement. I'm also going to try some other options in the game but I won't detail them here to save for spoilers. It's still a brilliant game though and it actually feels weird seeing different things happen in the game knowing that it was different the first time.

Undertow

I finished this in Co-Op with my friend a few weeks ago but I am still playing this gradually because I am an achievement whore and only need one achievement to 200/200 the game. The final achievement is 10,000 kills although thankfully it is nowhere near as hard as the 10,000 kills achievement (Seriously...) from Gears of War. I won't be dedicating 8 months of my gaming life to Undertow, put it that way.

Forza 2

I will always be playing this. At least, until either Forza 3 releases or I get a PS3 and Gran Turismo 5. I'm still setting various lap times for various reasons and I am also still playing it online every now and then. I just recently purchased some Microsoft Points too, so next time I fire up the game I will be buying the two DLC tracks - Motegi and Road America - and setting lap times on those as well.

Rez HD

As I mentioned above, I picked up some MS Points recently and there is just no way in hell I was going to pass up on the opportunity to finally play this game. I have been wanting to do so ever since learning about original version and I now finally have the chance to experience it for myself. Awesome times ahead!

In other news, I just recently finished my second play through of BioShock and despite having finished it once, I was still blown away by just how real Rapture feels and how immersive the game is. So expect a post on that (I suppose it was only a matter of time considering this blog is inspired by the game...) in the near future. You can also expect one on Mass Effect, Burnout Paradise and possibly even Rez.

And those are just the posts on particular games...

Zooming By...

No I'm not here to talk about the cars from Burnout Paradise zooming by, nor am I here to imply that I'm zooming by in a car from any game or perhaps even real life.

No, I am just referring to time and how it continues to zoom on by regardless of whether I want it to or not. So why am I writing about time passing and furthermore, why am I caring? Well, frankly it is the excuse that I am using with regards to the lack of entries here.

I have many ideas for this blog and do intend on getting them posted when I can, but because time goes by so quickly, or rather, easily, I have found it very hard recently to be able to write anything here. Whether I am spending more time in gaming than I intend to every night or I'm getting distracted by reading articles and watching videos while I'm online - time just seems to go out the door and it's actually starting to get annoying. Trying to formulate a plan and sticking to it doesn't help, as there will always be something that I get distracted with. I could be on MSN and a friend could link me to a video - there's a few minutes gone. I could be playing a game and realise that I'm close to an achievement - there goes more time as I attempt to obtain the achievement. It can be anything and everything; there is just far too much entertainment content (and indeed non-entertainment content) out there for us to get distracted with these days.

But at the end of the day, it's a poor excuse. If I just try a little harder, maybe I could manage my time better and finally get things done. Or maybe I shouldn't have to try harder. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter and is irrelevant to anyone who may be reading this.

So, what's the point of this entry then? Well, other than to rant about a pathetic topic, I'm also writing it to say this: I do have ideas for this blog and I do intend on getting them posted at some point. If by chance there are any readers of this thing out there, then please bear with me while I try and allocate some time to get these ideas into proper entries. The pedantic idiot that I am will see me edit and proof-read an entry until I feel it communicates the point/s I'm trying to make and as such, it could take me up to a week to write just the one entry. So yeah, bear with me and hopefully when I finally do get these entries up, they will make you think about the subject or just entertain you for a minute or three.