GameLog 39

FM08 (16h) - Gateshead, season 2, 4th BSN - Back into Football Manager after a month or 2 hiatus after the sour taste of Gatehead's last season. The team is looking really solid now and a few more additions over the break has hardly anyone in the starting 11 ranked below Blue Square Premier ability. We're 11 games in with a 7-2-2 record to hold down 4th on the ladder. Could be a quick season.

For my birthday Sandy made a soccer cake with little dots as players in their right starting positions (albeit a 442 placement I'd been tinkering with rather than my usual 4312 tactic). The field was pretty much spot on for a copy of the game. Tasted nice too.

Figured out that the current save game has just passed 12 days. 288 hours over 3 seasons. I'm guessing others that get 20 seasons in are playing a little faster than me ...

Guitar Hero III (6h) - Andrew came up for my Birthday this weekend and after trashing consoles on Friday night, Andrew sheepishly offered a console on Saturday. Well I guess it's easy to criticize them without actually owning one, but it was just the catalyst needed to make me jump into the car as we headed off to EB to make a decision on which one to buy.

I'd rationalized it down to a PS3 pretty much purely for the Blu-ray and Gran Turismo in the future, but for now Guitar hero III and GTA4 would have to do. Even though both are available on PC, they are stalwarts of the console fanbase and should give as much chance as any for my attention.

Guitar hero III turned into a great game for a social context. Rocking out over a 4 hour session doing a song each with Andrew was a great way to play / review / learn / encourage. Definitely a game to pull out for the next LAN. I figured out that standing up helped me get into the rhythm a bit more, but it does tire you out more. 1-2 hrs of rocking out is enough when you're doing it solid.

Sins of a solar Empire (6h) - Had a LAN on the Monday with the Graham's to christen Levi's new PC. Eventually settled on Sins as a viable alternative to the other games we usually play. It was way better as a LAN game than a solo game. Very different mechanics are involved when you can collaborate together in a room instead of breaking the AI.

GTA 4 (3h) - Another one for the PS3. The violence and language means it will be only playable late at night with headphones. Sandy was unimpressed I picked it up after hearing how bad it was on GoodGame. Starting credits were straight out of a movie, and seemed appropriate as Andrew and I had jst discussed the emergence of video games as the largest grossing entertainment title ever through Halo3.

Felt a little disjointed between passive movie and active gameplay. Not sure why. I slotted back into the GTA mode pretty quickly, but I think you're supposed to progress the storyline further before jacking cars.

FuryBand (3h) - VRBones LX - persisting with the Favoured Maia Jedi build to get into the ironman version of FuryBand. I've been able to get up to level 20, but barely any depth, maybe 8 levels down. 60th variant is living well and has built up a nice rat army to swamp the enemy.

Overlord (1h) - Pulled it out for multiplayer variant to Fable for the LAN, but the multiplayer was shite. Barely lasted 2 minutes beofre dropping.