Life is complicated, especially as you grow older, this is something I'm beginning to have to face. Playing games is something I used to be able to do hours on end, but now...I'm lucky to get a few hours in a week and that's after making accomidation schedule changes.

When time is of the essence, which it is, what games do I play and what games do I invest in? Before I ever had to really worry about time (the life killer) a game was a game and it didn't matter which game I ever played. Now, I buy very few games and make sure these games are all superb and will last me a long time. At least we wizen up as we age.

I bought MP2 Echoes last week, it's been total bliss. So far, i'm about 40% complete, the game has offered everything I wanted from it, good graphics, music, superb gameplay and a sci-fi story. From my playing experience it has delivered all this in spads. Great job Retro, I think you've done it again.

I also bought HL2 last week, now I'm really tight on $$$, and I haven't really played it. Yeah, this may sound absolutely crazy and in a way I sorta think so too, but I do have legitimate reasons though. First off, I'm having trouble playing it because of frame rate issues. The frames take an enormous dive everytime I turn sharply or switch weapons or change areas. My current rig is nothing too pathetic and this should never happen while i'm playing even when playing on low settings and a low resolution. All this has detracted from the overall gaming experience, I hear though that VALVe is working on a patch, for I'm not the only one having this problem. Secondly, I've so totally engrossed be MP2 I really haven't given any other game much thought. Lastly, time. When do I ever have time to play games to my hearts content? NEVER, grrrr.

I couldn't fit this into the last paragraph, so here are my current computer specs:

Intel P4 2.4GHz processor 533MHz FSB

512MB PC-2100 memory

ATi 9800se AGP8X graphics card

80GB ATA hardrive

Not the most impressive technical piece of hardwar, but good enough current gaming and definitely good enough to deliver better then abysmal performance in HL2. Enough of my ranting. This has been a good first journal entry, I think, I hope I can keep this up, the journal stuff that is.