I had meant to blog more frequently than twice over the holiday period. It's not that I haven't been up to much, just that I haven't really had much to say about it, and a combination of T4 in the morning and the neighbours/simpsons/hollyoaks combo in the evening leaves little time in the day.
It's the day before Christmas Eve and I'm not really feeling festive at all, maybe a bit stressed out with assignments and revision. I had intended to have my assignments finished today but that was wishful thinking and I am about 60% done, so will have to keep going during the Christmas – New Year period which wont be much fun.
As for what I want for Christmas, or am hoping for, there isn't really a lot. I was fortunate enough to obtain a premium Xbox 360 last week, which would have made an awsome present, along with a few other gadgets that were completely unneccessary yet had to be bought. I quite fancy a HDTV and came within a mouseclick of buying one, but it's not like when I was younger and wanted transformers or turtles figures and was genuinely excited at receiving them, and couldn't otherwise obtain them.
On to the 360, it's a wonderful piece of machinery and I particuarly enjoy the wireless remote control, which can turn the system on, so no more getting up from the sofa to play pro, as well as the much improved media functionality, I particuarly like being able to plug my mp3 player in and using the dashboard to play the music instead of the game's, without having to create playlists and such as used to be the case.
My biggest dissappointment was the realisation that there wasn't any real need to have the much sought after console. The games at the minute don't make the system worth buying, the line up is a bit poor. I have NFS: Most wanted, and it's good, but none of the other games really tempted me. I need HALO or a new Splinter Cell, the upcoming Gears of War looks good but wont be out until February. PGR3 is meant to be good, but PGR2 was pretty much the same as PGR and having played the founding stone for the series, Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast I've earned enough Kudos for a lifetime
The one game that I kind of bought the 360 for, as I bought a Gamecube for, never materialised, at least in a form I'm happy with. Perfect Dark Zero is apparantly a bit iffy at best. I know that new converts to the world of console gaming will disagree, but Goldeneye and the follow up Perfect Dark on the N64 were simply amazing, the best fps until probably Halo on the Xbox. Half Life was good but it didn't really suck me in and trap me until I had completed all of the levels on all of the settings and played it multiplayer until my eyes bled. Rare, the developer of the games, was bought out by Microsoft just as the Gamecube was released. The game they had developed, along with others was never seen. Perfect Dark on the Xbox never happened and a hastily made launch title for the 360 is not what I have been waiting for for the best part of six years.
On to less computer related issues, alcohol and the dangers therein. On Wednesday Kiran was the only one to come down for what was intended as a repeat of a great night out in Kingston with everyone from uni. It was still great, although I fear only because I drank so much that I'm not 100% what happened. Special 'bonus rounds' and shots which came from nowhere can't have helped, and yet the biggest worry is that next day I was tired but otherwise well. Why wasn't my body screaming at me? Hating me and saying never again? I had well over a couple of weeks intake and yet wasn't really any worse for wear. Either I'm invincible or my body has given up trying, the sensors in my liver having long since dissappeared.
The next major outing will be Cardiff for New Years. I'm looking forward to it, but know that Alex has a big bottle of Absynthe, and that if he has it at home it's going to be dangerous. I can at least feel secure that Rob and the other Alex will be there, who have been blamed for my alcohol fueled shenanigans in the past and hopefully will be again.