Since I was at work for most of today and am out most of this evening I haven't had very long to write this, but seeing as it's my Birthday I thought I should write something, since it's traditional. It's my opinion that on your Birthday you should be exempt from going to work, but that's another matter. Birthdays are a curious thing in that they remind us to take stock of what has been and they encourage us to consider what is to come. I think I'm good at examining my past but I am distinctly poor at planning for the future. As Benjamin Braddock said when he was lying in the swimming pool in 'The Graduate', "I'm just drifting". I've got a job at the Council, but it isn't what I want to do and it's only short-term (about 4 months or so). But I think you are very lucky if you already have a road map planned out for the rest of your life. I'm on the motorway, but I'm not sure in which direction I should be travelling. Still fighting my way out of this labyrinth, to borrow a phrase from South American revolutionary Simón Bolívar.

Anyway, I will shoehorn my thoughts about a game quickly into this shorter-than-normal post, and if you noticed the title, silence is very common in a little old town called Silent Hill. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is the first Wii game I have bought specifically for me to play, and I very much enjoyed my first playthrough. I've never played any of the other Silent Hill games so I'm not aware of the series history or mythology, but Shattered Memories is the kind of reboot the series deserves. It takes bare essentials: A spooky town, a lost protagonist and a missing daughter, and then works upwards from there. There occult rubbish is discarded and what remains is a formless, menacing horror which freezes the world over and ceaselessly stalks you through the rest of the game. It has to be said that, for a Wii game, Shattered Memories looks great. The swirling snowfall scatters across the ground in the wind, and Harry Mason's flashlight casts a powerful beam of light whilst creating dark shadows in the surrounding gloom. Overall, it's an engaging experience, but I wouldn't ever call it downright frightening. More psychologically tense.

No time for pictorial goodness at the moment, maybe later: That's your lot for now! I'm outta here to have a meal. Help yourself to Birthday cake. :)