I installed the PC demo of Kingdoms of Amalur from Origin, but it's totally unplayable. I got the latest Catalyst drivers, but I don't see any in-game footage. Although I do see the character creator.
The sounds of the intro video often overlap the voice of the narrator, so you can hardly hear a thing she's saying. I have turned the subtitles on, but they don't show.
Also, when I open the in-game options, they don't fade out when you return to the game. So now you see both the options and the HUD. And some of the text light up like a neon sign.

I was looking forward to this, but this isn't a good first impression. I'm not going to buy a game that is cleary still in beta.

Last month it was a year ago that I had quit smoking. So for a while I have been pondering what reward I should give myself. As I was also affected by the hype, the iPad has crossed my mind, but instead I've settled for a DSi XL.



I still remember envying my schoolmates, when they showed me their Donkey Kong hand-held. Which was luxury beyond my means. But now (twenty-seven years later), I have set the record straight. With my first owned portable system from Nintendo.

Because it has opened the gates to bargain heaven and I am finally able to afford stuff that was previously unattainable for me. For the past year I have been paying attention to the special offers, hording loot left and right. And now at long last I own a home theater setup, including a full hd plasma, surround sound and a blu-ray. And just today I topped off the cake with a nice X360 Elite cherry.

I stumbled upon this bizarre trailer for Kokoro Scan (or Heart Scan). Which is a DS game that enables you to use the build-in voice recorder of the DS as an emotion sensor. Although I wouldn't have guessed it by watching the trailer. It has a catchy tune, but it's extremely weird. Enjoy!

[video=dnFixTqs5b8OuT_c]

I spend last week on the south-east coast of England. The weather was miserable for the most part, but on the first day the clouds broke, I was foolishly persuaded to ride one of these:



And there I was, on the top of Devils Dyke near Brighton, wondering what the hell I got myself into. I had watched the run before mine and it had seemed pretty harmless. I was comforting myself with these thoughts. Boy was I wrong. Due to the wet grass and stiff breeze at our back, we covered the one and a half mile track in less than a minute. I tried to focus on the air above, but it went so fast it only made me nauseas. And the bouncing of the ball, whenever there was a bump in the road, didn't help either. But at-least I had a good laugh about the gentleman who accompanied me on the way down, he had his eyes closed and was screaming like a little girl the whole time. Normally I'm a sucker for roller-coaster rides, but I'll pass on the next occasion.

It's not in my nature to brag about it, but in this case I make an exception. A year ago I noticed to my dismay, that although I'd been a Gamespot member for almost four years, I was only level 11. And left and right of me I saw people, who had practically just joined, with much higher levels. Having played muds en mmorpgs for the past 15 years, I was still sensitive to the power of the number. So I decided it was time to level up. Since than I've made a habit of visiting Gamespot each day, carefully spreading my activity over the entire week. So doing I've grown into a genuine level wh0re, which has almost become an addiction. I need Gamespot for my everyday percentual fix.

The older I get, the more grumpier I become, it seems one of those fundamental laws of physics. There is one word that really ticks off my grumpiness, when ever it is uttered. I am aware of the fact that it has been around for ages. As it was first introduced as slang for the British colonial dandy, back in the nineteenth century. But when ever somebody says dude, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I´m tempted to shoot that someone. Other words that also fall into this category and tricker my kill on sight (preferably slow & painful), are ownage and the ever popular noob. Is it just me and should I go see a shrink or are there other geezers out there with similar issues?

Once every decade this day arises: the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year. And as I proudly carry his symbol, it is an honour to point this out to you. On this day thousands of believers world wide gather in prayer, with the misguided intention to avert his work. As they forget that the one can't exist with out the other. I'll bet they feel good about themselves in doing so. To quote Al Pacino in the Devil's Advocate "Vanity is my favorite Sin".

but instead I spend a similar amount on a new processor and video card. Those releases on the x360 which I´m looking foward too, are still a long way off. There are how ever several on the pc, now and in the near future, for which I am going to need an upgrade, if I want to enjoy them at full graphical settings, Oblivion being on of them.

As there is not much sense in buying a dual processor for games, I went for an Athlon 3700+ (San Diego core). Which is supposedly a good overclocker. And with the introduction of ATI´s new Radeon X1900 GT, it´s former flagship the X1800XT is being sold for bulk prices. So I also picked up one of those.