Okay, I admit it. Sometimes, when I walk into a games store/store that, er, sells games, I just can't resist finding a good, cheap buy for a critically acclaimed game. A while ago, I found Black and White 2 for £10, and that, my friends, was an awesome bargain. (pity the game didn't work) And then one time, I found Quake II for £1.99, yeah, that was an incredible buy, even though it was probably about the fourth time I'd purchased the game due to copies getting lost over the years. Yesterday, due to my being off school for reasons I'm not going into right now (it would take too long, trust me, I'll get round to it soon, though) I went into ASDA with my dad and sister and immediately shot off to the media section of the supermarket, ignoring any suspicion that could have been thrown my way (i.e. WTF is that kid doing out of school and in ASDA)

And I found a game that yes, I already had in my collection, but no, I didn't know where the hell it was in the depths of my bedroom, I hadn't seen it for months because obviously I was very very stupid and thought game in question could work on my computer. (this computer was, at the time, a 1.6GhZ CPU holding back an aging Radeon 7000 and 512MB RAM) And then in ASDA on that fateful day (yesterday) I found the game again, for a pretty darn good price.

Game in question: *drum roll* Far Cry.

Price in question: *drum roll* £9.99.

I mean, how awesome is that? Yeah, I have enough on my plate with gaming at the moment; Star Wars Empire At War, Garry's Mod, UT2004, Animal Crossing, the original Rollercoaster Tycoon... I mean, you can't leave it in the shops when its such a great price as taht.

So yesa, I have installed-a-it, and I have played a fair bit of it too. I was in the mood for a challenge, shall we say, and I set the game on Hard difficulty, and boy was I in for that challenge I wanted. I mean, its almost like Rainbow Six, you get hit three times, you die. Which means lots of taking cover and leaning right to get a splitsecond headshot for taking cover again as a hail of bullets meets metal and richochets off. All in all, not quite what I expected after coming headlong from the explosive Instincts, really, but I didn't say it was a change for the worse. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but whatever this change in scope and feel is, it sure is different. Its still a free-roaming game of sorts and yes, the setting and even storyline is similar to Instincts, so I guess there is a bit of familiarity in this game, but its an entirely reworked formula.

The graphics in the game - well, I can't properly comment on this for a bevy of complicated reasons. The first time I knew something was wrong was when the AutoDetect master automatically set everything to Low. My graphics card is a cut above the recommended card on the back of the box. The recommended video card is some NVidia card, and then in the ATI section it says Radeon 9500. I have the 9550, which is almost like a rarer version of the same card.

Anyhow, mine is still 256MB, and its more than enough to handle better than Low. Then when I set it to Medium (testing out the waters, I assure you) I play for about half an hour and then the game freezes for half a minute maybe, and then goes to my wonderful desktop with a big bold messages saying "VGU Recover has reset your graphics accelerators as they were no longer responding to the drivers' commands." I read the message, I register what it is saying, and then I brush it away, procrastinating as is my custom. Ordinarily, yes, I should be sorting out the drivers' problem or whatever the hell it is, but hey, Far Cry is still running! And yes, when I start palying the game, its back to normal. About ten minutes later, the exact same thing happens. Thats when I realise there really IS something wrong with my drivers... but again, Far Cry beckons, and I continue my procrastination. Yay me. Well, at least the game looks genuinely nice, if a little bit fuzzy-looking, in the thirty minute periods I can actually play the game without it crashing on me.

Enough talk about Far Cry now, I have a few other things to talk about before I leave.

Well, today I finished The Amber Spyglass for the umpteenth time. For those who don't know, The Amber Spyglass is the third and final volume in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, and yes, it is a book. Whats more, its a trilogy I have finished countless times, and I fully believe they are the best three books I have ever read in my life. Even after finishing the trilogy for the millionth time it never gets old, and if you don't know the books, don't own them, or haven't read them, get on teh case, right now, if you have even the slightest interest in fantasy, Oxford, unbelievable writing, or elementary particles, quantum physics, and metaphysical speculation. (yeah, just ignore that last part.) Well, if you don't have the slightest interest in any of the above.

I also have a new Gamespot signature in the works. At the moment I have got five designs I'm finishing up then I'm going to choose one to represent me underneath any message in any forum. I figured that the Link one was getting old. Also if you are a good observer, you may have noticed the absence of Yoda and my blog header at the top of this page, thats because I have a pretty cool blog header in the works that will probably get scrapped and replaced with an idea I just thought up RIGHT NOW.

Also, expect a video blog tomorrow. Thats right. Me. In a video blog. I hear gasps of astonishment. Don't get your hopes up for a GOOD video blog, just know that there will be a video blog, yes there will, you can count on it.

Thats enough typing, I think. Thank you for reading, and goodnight.