Life is a Mind Bending Puzzle

Just a quick post to record my current gaming diversions which are somewhat curtailed due to Summer activities. Spent a bit of time in Company of Heroes Opposing Forces add on at the beginning of June. Didn't like the single player campaign as much as the original American campaign although I was impressed by the way they differentiated the new forces. We had a couple of rainy days during two weeks on holidays in the South of France. Equipped with nothing more than a ancient Laptop I spent a few hours in Evolva dating from 2000. The game has an interesting concept of evolving your characters by adding abilities from creatures you kill. Unfortunately, just as in real life, genetic mutation in the game is highly random and I found my self spending an awful lot of time in the mutation screen rolling the genetic dice in the hope of getting some small beneficial upgrade. Now back in temperate (read rainy) Ireland I have played a few flash games (Upgrade Complete, Frantic, Red Remover a...

For me the ability to comment on other peoples blogs is a privilege which greatly enhances the whole blog reading experience. If you write something which pulls a string with me I like being able to tell you with a quick comment. I am aware however that there are limitations. In particular it seems to me that commenting works better for less popular blogs with a small numbers of readers. If you leave a comment on my blog for example I will be delighted and in reply I will certainly read it and probably reply unless you are advertising WOW gold (mind you in quiet weeks I have even been known to reply to spam bots). I have pretty much given up commenting on the big commercial blogs though like Rock Paper Shotgun. Who on earth reads all 119 comments to a post like this . I certainly don't and I doubt the authors do either. Even popular non commercial blogs have way too many comments to read. Tobold's posts often attract 100+ comments sometimes involving heated discussions. Or so...

My wife just rang me to say she had acquired two tickets for us to see U2 live on Saturday night. It is about 15 years since I was last at a rock concert and I haven't seen U2 play live since 1981. I must google for some appropriate fashion tips .

While I was away Kieron Gillen's review of Darkfall for Eurogamer came out. Some gems from the piece caught my eye. On the controversy over the original Eurogamer review: "Of course, it could just be an old technical error and the logs didn't get the times right. I'd like to think so. I don't think it's likely, but that it was no human malice here would be the best possible ending to a pretty horrible situation." Gulp, It sounds like Kieron thinks somebody is lying. "For the record: If I ever actually find out conclusively that someone was lying in this matter, I will do everything I can to destroy them." Double Gulp. On a point that Kieron considers a serious flaw in the games purport to be hard core: "This is a world where, if you're expecting trouble, it's reasonable to strip down to your pants. This is stupid beyond all mortal belief." "Characters run around, not caring about the occasional blow, more akin to a Counter-...

If ever you decide to go on vacation in France just make sure to take whatever steps are necessary to be sure that you never ever get hungry at 3pm in the afternoon. Otherwise you had best be prepared for several hours of starvation. It seems bizarre to be talking about hunger in the context of one of the great culinary centres of the world but that nation's extraordinary skill in the matter of what to eat comes hand in hand with extreme rigidity in the matter of when you can eat it. In vast swathes of the country you will search in vain to find a restaurant or other eatery which serves anything other than the meanest of snacks outside of the appointed hours for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Doctors would no doubt laud such religious adherence to a regular schedule of meals but I must protest that it is not at all friendly to the holidaymaker. When on vacation we break the normal rules. We sleep in mornings or stay up late at night. We indulge in forbidden snacks between meals. We s...