Maelstrom of thoughts

Current Song: Bear McCreary - Gaeta's Lament (BSG OST 4)

Wow, third post - I might actually be getting into this blogging lark! Not sure it'll extend into the new year, but time will tell.

Annoyingly, I had most of a post written up, but my browser cocked up and Blogspot neglected to do it's usual draft saving. Ah well, I wasn't overly happy with it anyway!

So, what's happened in the last few days? The answer is, not much. Had a relaxing (if quiet) weekend, and spent some time with El, although not as much as I would've liked - she was studying for an exam on Monday, which went pretty well. Helped her out where I could though!

We're looking to go and see Arthur Christmas at some point in the next week or so, has anyone else seen it yet? If so, is it any good?

Most of my Christmas shopping is done now, and I'm hoping to pick up the last remaining bits tonight - bit annoying, I was hoping I'd have gotten it all ironed out before now, but everything seems to have snuck up on me a little. Still have cards to write and a tree to buy!

On the gaming front, I've started a new game of Lost Odyssey, one of my favourite RPGs (and one of the few on the 360). It's partially down to a lack of games, partially down to wanting to re-experience the story, and partially to finish off the achievements list, since I missed a few the first time around. It's a great game, with a few tear jerking/emotional moments (some of the subplots especially so), some funny stuff, a pretty good plot, and good music (from the legend himself, Nobuo Uematsu). It also has an interesting system by which your character slowly recovers past memories while going through the game, which are told in the form of short stories - most of which are well worth reading through.

It's hands down the best RPG on the 360, and I really wish Mistwalker would get round to making another.

Testing this out - this should post the intro to Lost Odyssey, if you're interested. The intro proper starts at 2:00 and ends at around 5:20.



It helps wash out the taste of Duke Nukem Forever as well, which I rented from Lovefilm, and wish I hadn't. I really liked Duke Nukem 3D, but DNF's 15 years in development haven't helped it any at all. It feels disjointed, looks terrible, is packed with cliche upon cliche, has sluggish controls, and is a pale shadow of the original. It's broken up with a couple of driving and platforming sections, but even those are pretty poor, and feel stuck in for the sake of it. Not recommended at all.

On other gaming news, I'm saddened to say the studio behind the acclaimed S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, GSC Gameworld have closed their doors. The games were pretty buggy, but with some updates and community patches, they turned into incredibly immersive FPS's with RPG elements. Not many games have used the Chernobyl disaster, plant and surrounding exclusion zone (including Pripyat), but these were....well. Let's just say the series will be missed if it's dead. Considering it strayed into the realms of Scifi, it kept to the realism of the disaster very well, including the events building up to the meltdown itself.

Information on the story can be found here.


Current Song: Seidenmatt - From Hero to Zero


On a different topic, I'm testing the Adsense system, to get an idea of how it all works. If you guys have enjoyed my blog, would you mind quickly clicking one of the ads to the right (or below my posts), please? It'd be interesting to see how it all comes together.


Originally I had a different title in mind for this particular update, but given the recent events in Liege, Belgium, I felt it would be poor taste.

For those of you who haven't yet heard, here's a link to the story on BBC News. My thoughts go out to all those affected, especially this close to Christmas.

Current Song: Florence and the Machine - Howl


As I type this the Sun is peeking out from behind the clouds for the first time today, which makes a welcome change from the dark, freezing, hailstorm weather we've had so far. I hope it stays, lord knows we could all do with some cheer!

I think I'll sign off for now, with the aim to post again later in the week. Until then, take care all!