Chilling out

I love games.

They're complete escapism for me. Probably not good for the planet in that they're serving to distract me from the shit until I eventually die. But they're fun.

I'm playing Gears Of War 2 right now and I'm loving it. I enjoy violent games. BOOM! There goes a head. Bzzzzzzzz! Take my chainsaw, bitch. And so on. They relieve stress, provide an outlet for that daily anger and yet are free from any actual harm and, to a large extent, morality. That's a good thing.

I wonder what my life would be like if I didn't have an outlet for that anger?

Would I be more productive?

Or would I have gone postal a long time ago?

Siren

Man, this is one creepy game. Japanese horror films in general have a tendency to creep me out and this village full of happy blood-covered Japanese murderers really is the stuff of nightmares.

I wonder if that's racist?

I think it's more that the culture is a little more alien to me, and so there is less of a safety net. I am out of my own environment and it really is the unknown. Good horror, for me, relies on putting the audience at a disadvantage. And in Siren, with its poxy camera angles and fiddly controls, I really am at a disadvantage.

It's scary stuff. I used to want to go to Japan but if this is an accurate representation of the country (and I can't see why it wouldn't be), I think I'll hold off on that trip.

It's barely a game

There's so little actual game in Metal Gear Solid 4, I'm not sure why gaming sites and magazines actually reviewed it. Is it really in their juristiction? And the little game that is here is clunky, out of date and just poor, except possibly for one section which relies entirely on nostalgia to entertain.

But those cut scenes are pretty, right? Well, as it happens, most of the cut scenes are just people delivering the lines of someone who doesn't know how to edit. There's no need for these scenes of dull people talking to be half an hour long. The story is a total mess, made pointlessly messier in the last 40 minute conversation, but Metal Gear Solid has a good history so getting this final chapter and the end to the story might be enough to make just getting it done worthwhile. That finality could satisfy.

And it's not without its cool moments.

But that doesn't make it a game. I wonder if ET on the Atari was bundled with a copy of the movie, would it be remembered as a great game? That's pretty much what we have with MGS4. Although the movie bit was better in ET.

Back to the Indy Lego game I think.

Managing your working day

I'm still at work even though I'm Patient 0 with a deadly hospital superbug. That stinks. So it's important I recognise the few pleasant moments I get during those hours. However, ultimately, I'm at work to make money and pay the bills and so I'm always money-conscious. If you can mix the two, well, that's just spanky.

It makes economical sense to do your number 2s at work. This way, you get paid for it. If you can work out how much you get paid per hour, you can probably easily figure out just how much money you save by doing your business on work time.

That's money saved and therefore money you can spend elsewhere. Like on DS games, for example, to make your worktime toilet time more enjoyable.