...not a software pirate of course. I'm just referring to the nostalgia I'm currently experiencing about playing Pirates! Gold on the Amiga CD32 many a year ago. I've ordered Port Royale 2 for the PC, and that'll hopefully be arriving any day now as it was released yesterday here in the UK. I've also ordered Sid Meier's Pirates!, which looks highly promising. I hope it manages to recreate the same atmosphere and sense of adventure the previous incarnation achieved.

Well, since this is my first journal entry, I might as well cover some stuff that isn't immediately relevant, such as the relentless influx of first-person shooters that continue to flood the PC gaming market. Surely there's only so much that can be milked from the same idea. I don't dispute any claim to many of the games high playability, but it's still the same premise. It just looks a bit different. Saying that, Half-Life 2 looks more interesting, but that's mainly because of the apparent intelligence of events.

I continue to keep an eye open for PC adventure games, ones that follow in similar footsteps to The Longest Journey, or even as awe-inspiring as Grim Fandango. I miss the adventuring era, which was brought to life by the likes of The Secret of Monkey Island and Broken Sword. LucasArts, of course, covered it best, with Monkey Island 1-4, Day of the Tentacle and Grim Fandango, and newer generations of the same genre had worthy offerings. Unfortunately, adventure games nowadays are few and far between, and even those aren't particularly jaw-dropping. *sigh*

Turning to the Gamecube, there are some exciting titles of the horizon, such as the new Legend of Zelda game due next year, as well as the Gamecube-exclusive Resident Evil 4 (which seems to have caused a little inter-platform outrage due to it's exclusivity). Paper Mario 2 seems interesting, but looking at the movie clips, it may not hold my interest for too long. Hmm.. we'll have to see.

Last I heard, Sega might be re-entering the console market, which is good news. Before, Sega consoles appeared to be owned by ranty little kids who were obsessed with saying it's better than everything, that was until the Dreamcast came along, which is when Sega gained a lot of credibility amongst those who had played the highly impressive console. Unfortunately, the Dream was only Cast among a small percentage of the global population, which is a great shame. It really was a very well-made console, had a lot to offer, and loads of potential. Sega then moved on to games only, and was great to see them working with their former arch-rivals, Nintendo, creating titles such as Super Monkeyball and several Sonic The Hedgehog games. I think they're in a good position (if they can also secure a partnership with some decent hardware vendor) to get back into the market, and hopefully give the relative new-comer, Sony, a kick up the expansion port... or maybe it was just an unfounded rumour. We'll see. :)