Sleep's good stuff. And I don't tend to get enough of it.

It's just gone 0305 here in Australia, and I'm still awake. Just finished writing an e-mail on a Training issue for St. John related things, and managed to update some stuff here on Gamespot. (Even managed to restrain myself and play only one or two battles in LOTR - Battle for Middle Earth as well!)

But I'm tired, and feeling all corpsey, so I guess I should get some shut-eye. Do you people sleep much in your respective parts of the world, or does the Gaming lifestyle tend to interfere with that somewhat? (And I realise that when I'm awake, you're generally all asleep - or just waking up at least - being on the other side of the planet and all). What's the verdict people?

Now, I should head off myself before I fa.... *zzzzzzzzzzzz*

*snoring sounds*

Do you know how you read the stories and articles by people who have Close Encounters? Do you recall how they all seem to mention periods of "missing time" after their encounter? Blocks of time, just GONE from their lives? Well, I've recently experienced exactly that. Let me explain...

It was Wednesday night. I had just gotten back from a couple of Divisional break-up occasions for St. John, and was a lil' drained after a long day. My VCR wasn't working (still), so I figured I would play on the PC a bit. I don't play games on here as much as I do the PS2, but given the caliber of games I've recently acquired, I'm hoping that will change. :)

Well, I sat down at my desk and FINALLY succumbed to opening a new game I had picked up only a few days earlier. Put the DVD in the tray and closed it...

The NEXT thing I knew, it was five in the morning, and I was trying to figure out where the past six or seven hours had just disappeared to. Was a bit frightening, really. Had I just had my own Close Encounter of the Ring Kind? *grin*

In all seriousness, Lord of the Rings - Battle for Middle Earth is an AWESOME game. I've had trouble stepping away from the PC since I installed it. It's a RTS game, so it basically involves gathering resources, exploring the surrounding environment, building up units and structures, and then SMASHING your opponent into a pulp. Always a satisfying experience. :)

BME is no different in that respect, except that it is set in Middle Earth, and rather than tanks and soldiers with guns, you have Trolls and mounted Horsemen with Bows. I can't get enough of forming a battalion of Rohirim, then riding down a group of Uruk-Hai and watching them fly through the air as my horses' hooves trample them to a pulp. Or watching as an Ent kicks away a group of Orcs and watching them fall like ninepins. It's KEWL!

The graphics are awesome, the gameplay is simple to pick up and addictive to play. You can build up the veterancy of your units - I currently have several battalions of mounted horsemen who just CARVE their way through the Uruk-Hai... You have heroes you can recruit, varying from Eomer to Gandalf to Saruman to Lutz (big ugly Uruk-Hai) - each with their own special abilities that can help you during your many battles.

I guess I should calm down a bit now - in fact I should prolly get around to start writing some reviews. Does NEone know the process for going through all that? The longer I stay a member of this website, the more I find to do. I've played around on the Forums, figured out how to PM, and have been writing in my Journal for a while now. I think it's about time I started reviewing games, doncha think?

NEone wanna help me out on this one?

(Oh, and if you like RTS games - GET Battle for Middle-Earth, OK? *grin*)

Well, in the spirit of other notable members of this Gaming community, I have decided to do something a lil' different from just chatting about the games I've played or my life in general.

For example, we have the lovely Vast (Bam) out there, collating her many quotes she finds of great import, and we have Mr Znuggles, with his weird and wacky game names. (If you don't know who they are, I suggest you find 'em people and have a look! *grin*) Personally, I've decided to take a different tack, and play a game with you all I used to play a LOT with friends of mine, involving figuring out WHICH movie a quote comes from...

So to begin, a couple for you to guess. People who like the same sorts of movies as me will have no trouble with these first couple...

- "They melvined me..."

- "Whether you're a king or a lil' street sweeper, sooner or later you'll dance with the Reaper"

- "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die" (EASY one...)

Bonus points for not just naming the movie, but also the character who SAID the line. Let's see how you go people, I'll add in some more when I think of some. *grin*

Good luck!

(I could just said "Clank" as a header, but that seemed too obvious to me... *grin*)

Well, I've managed to spend a few hours over the past couple of days playing a bit of the original Ratchet and Clank. VERY enjoyable game. Simple enough that you can just sit down and pick up the controller for a few hours without needing to plan millions of things in advance, but involved enough that you have to spend some time at it.

I've managed to accumulate QUITE a few weapons and gadgets in the game, and I think I must be getting close to the end of it all now. Just managed to score myself an extra-fast (and slick looking) ship with which I hope to chase down Chairman Drek and stop his dastardly schemes!

The gadgets are as much fun to play around with as the weapons are! I've managed to find an O2 mask for breathing underwater, so kewl movement upgrades for my lil' robot buddy Clank, and even some kewl boots for climbing around on metallic surfaces. How fun IS this game?

Hoping to finish it up in the nearish future - don't think I have TOO far to go now, although there's a LOT of gold bolts I have to track down - and make my way into R&C2 properly. I'm trying to resist the urge to play R&C2 or 3 at the moment, with varying degrees of success... *grin*

There will be much rejoicing when I DO finish it, as it will be the first game I've managed to complete in a lil' while. Might have to even try and get some Third Age time in if I can...

While I'm in the process of catching up on some Journal time here, I have a question for you all... Is it weird to buy a game for a console you don't own yet? Perhaps I should explain myself.

A year or two back, on a local gaming show did a review on a game called "Toejam and Earl III - Mission to Earth". After seeing the review and the game, I thought - "I HAVE to get that game". One of those impulse things. Now I've read some reviews of the game, and I know it didn't rate amazingly, but that impulse was still there.

A couple of weeks ago, I found the game going pretty cheap, and snapped it up. Picked it up new for about $30, which I thought was pretty good. Thing is though, I don't OWN an X-Box yet. Won't for about a week and a half now. (Yeah, that'd be Christmas day and all... *grin*)

So is it weird to do that sort of thing, or do you lot out there do similar sorts of things with your games and consoles?

Is a surpisingly good game. Now that I've finished my rant about Bloodlines, lemme talk a bit about the game I managed to pick up instead.

Managed to pick up another RPG called Sacred (with the special Plus pack as well). It's actually quite an enjoyable game, in the Diablo sort of style. You run around and smash evil monsters on the head with your sword, and can upgrade your abilities and skills as you gain experience. On the surface, that idea is fairly similar to a LOT of action RPGs out there, so nothing to catch your eye there.

The characters are quite interesting. You've got a Vampiress / Knight, some kind of Angel, and the standard fighter (Gladiator), Mage and a couple of elf type characters. One with a bow, one a martial artist. Bit of variety, and some interesting ideas in there. So when I traded in Bloodlines, I figured I would give this one a go.

I've managed to play it for a couple of hours since I got it, and after deciding on the Vampire / Knight, I have been having all sorts of fun trouncing brigands, and evil wolves and goblins and whatnots. Combat is easy enough, and the enemies aren't too difficult at this stage. I'm looking forward to developing some of my skills as a Knight AND a Vampire, so that I can further trounce bad people and complete more quests.

I've only managed to complete a few simple ones so far, and I've only explored a TINY fraction of the game (yes, it's one of those that tells you how much you've explored and completed) so I've got a ways to go yet. As with all games of this nature, the multiple character options mean that I'm just gonna have to play it through several times, so there's gonna be a bit of time I'll need to sink into this game. Might take me a lil' while to finish it...

(I'd still rather be playing Bloodlines, but this is good just the same... *sigh*)

More updates another time...

ARGH!

Let it be known that I don't get annoyed or upset very often. Generally. Most of the time. Except for recently.

At the end of last month, a game I was actually quite looking forward to came out. (Along with about FIFTY other games I was looking forward to, but who's counting? *grin*) Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines. Some of you may have played Redemption, and enjoyed it like I have (and continue to). Therefore I'm sure there are some of you out there who are similarly looking forward to the second game.

I mean, there are so many reasons to look forward to it! It runs using the Source Engine (same as Half Life 2), it's a RPG, it's a Vampire game, with similar dark overtones as the first game. Sounds good, right? So when it came out, I had already pre-ordered the game, and raced in to pick it up.

I had heard of it being a lil' buggy, but that was OK. Gaming companies tend to release bug fixes for PC games as soon as they can, so if the bugs aren't insurmountable, you can still enjoy the game until they fix it. Life got in the way for me for a week or so, and I didn't have the chance to install and play it right away. But hey - you buy a game, it sits there until you install it, right?

So when I had some time, I tried to install it. Note "TRIED" to install it. Couldn't get past Disc 2 before the errors started. Install program couldn't find some of the files it wanted, and kept flashing up error messages. So I took the game back, and tried to install the new copy. Same problem. In fact, even after a THIRD attempt, it still wouldn't work.

So after much swearing, cursing and gnashing of teeth, I took the game back and exchanged it for something different. My warning to those of you waiting for bug-fixes is to make sure you CAN install the game first! After chatting with the shop owner, I am not the only person who seems to have had this problem. I'm still hoping to one day get this game to work, but I might have to wait until they release an updated version or something... *sigh*

OK - finished my whinge now. Back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Lemme just say that Half-Life 2 can be a bit of a freaky game. A really really GOOD game, but freaky just the same. It's been a few years since I played the original Half-Life, and I'd forgotten how much of the time I spent running away from weird alien monster things. But that's OK - HL2 is reminding me all about it again! *grin*

I've managed to sit down at the PC a bit in recent days and actually have a fairly good bash at the game, and I must say, I'm thoroughly enjoying it! Actually I wanna say some bits and pieces, but I should flash up the following words before I do...

*Possible SPOILERS ahead*

Well, after my early problems with getting pursued by the Combine through the streets of City 17, things kinda got a bit more pear-shaped... I spent quite a while trying to escape from the City down an underground railroad for people trying to do exactly that - except that with all these nasty Combine types running around, things weren't working so well NEmore, and this supposedly "safe" escape route proved to be nothing of the sort.

*insert much running and screaming and shooting*

It's actually kinda good fun piloting around some of the vehicles you get to play with in this game - they're a LOT quicker than walking / running. Even better once they get guns on 'em. Kinda useful to shoot down some of the gunships and all. :)

Finding a safe haven was nice. Briefly. Until the bad guys showed up again, and once more I was forced to flee... Into the horrors of Ravenholme, and this is what the heading is about. This place is WRONG! Really! All sorts of atrocities committed on poor unfortunates, and the weird face hugger aliens all over the place, sitting on people's heads and generally behaving badly. I dunno HOW many times I've walked past (what I thought was) a corpse, only to have the damn thing leap up and run at me, generally freaking me out...

Now I just shoot 'em all in the head to make sure, but that wastes a bit of ammo.

And let's not mention the FASTER versions that jump around all over the place... *shivers*

Needless to say, I'm running scared right now, and hoping to make it SOMEWHERE safe. Again. For a lil' LONGER this time, please?

More another time, once I can close my eyes without screaming...

Well, it appears I am getting a bit slack in my Journalling (is that actually a WORD?) and the entries I make into it. So I figured I should sit down tonight and make an effort at updating the great wide world of Gaming about what I have been up to in general...

It's been a week or so since I last posted, and it's simply amazing as to how much can change in 7 days. For example:

1) I didn't get the full-time job I applied for in my workplace. Bit of a pain that, given how many people thought I would be an absolute shoe-in to the position... *shrug*

2) My volunteer commitments got CRAZY and I ended up visiting a Division or having some sort of meeting nearly every night

3) My VCR decided to die on me, and as such I am no longer able to tape any TV shows I am not home to watch

4) Friends of mine just gave birth, and had a healthy baby boy

So life is certainly getting to be a bit different round my way at the moment. Not all good, or bad news in there really. Some of it means I have more time to relax, or play games - which is ALWAYS nice. Hopefully things will settle down for Christmas, the New Year and then my Birthday (three weekends in a row - busy busy! *grin*). Let's see how it pans out, eh?

Well, I think it's time for another NWN update. I should put in here that I WILL be mentioning gameplay in my lil' Saga entries, so if you're not looking to find out things about the game (if you're like me, and have never played it until recently), then let me say one word...

*SPOILERS*

When we last heard from my intrepid Monk / Sorcerer - Silvanon Moonshadow - she was running into some trouble in the Beggar's Nest. Having finished off the Sword Coast Boys, I was planning on exploring the Crypts under the warehouse, and possibly infiltrating the stronghold of the Yuan-Ti (the serpent cult thing - pretty sure it's the Yuan-Ti). Both of those options proved a lil' beyond my capabilities at this time (no comments from you, Bam! :P) so I though about exploring elsewhere.

Blacklake sounded interesting, so I made my way over to No Man's Land, and wandered around there, taking on some disease-ridden types. Managed to get myself killed by Loxar (or whatever his name is), and decided to actually READ some of the quests I've been given.

After a short wander around in the Noble part of town, I decided to go back to basics, and head over to Peninsula - which is where so many of the early listed quests seem to point. I haven't started exploring there yet, but I'm hoping I get a chance to level up once or twice more - I WANNA add Red Dragon Disciple to my list of classes. *sigh*

I also carried through on an earlier threat - I now have a second character wandering around Neverwinter. Brannog - a Ranger / Druid who is currently being followed around by a Dire Wolf, and is managing to carve his way through the bad guys with a two-weapon fighting style. Looking to add Shifter to the list of classes, but that's gonna take a while. The Druid will need to have an alternate shape before I can do that, and I think that'll take me a few levels to achieve.

More updates another time...