Just as I was noticing that the days are finally getting longer again and thinking Spring is just around the corner, I woke up today to find a blanket of snow (outside, not on the bed!). I was thoroughly confused, Znuggles above the Arctic Circle complaining of rain and me with a couple of centimetres of snow in Holland, with more forecast, that can't be right! Obviously someone was reading the road map upside down! (Mr.Snow, that's straight to the North from the English Channel, not take a right turn!) :)

Yes....Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 finished! Definitely worth a 8.8 - my only minus point was that it was very linear, but there was plenty of action, good graphics, and quests. I also seemed to accumulate a lot of cash, I never had a problem paying the workshop for upgrades, and managed to acquire some fantastic weapons, armour and rings. I added a cold damage gem to my sword and it almost made it too easy! I played as a dwarf rogue, but to be honest this felt more like a fighter class. I would definitely try a spellcaster next time to compare the experience. In fact if I can find a vict...ermmm...family member to play this would be fun to try as 2 player as well. I managed to track down and order a copy of the first Dark Alliance game (thanks for the info tinoshke! :) ), and when it arrives I think it will be jumping to the head of my 'games to play' queue! Now onto Bloodlines, just a few more days play I think...... :P

It will take me a little longer to deliver my final verdict on Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines, as I was not happy with my character. I determined the clan and character I would be playing by answering the games questionnaire and while I was prepared to play Tremere I wasn't happy with the automatic skill point allocation after a while. I decided the only solution was to start over with a new character. I did this yesterday, and while I still chose Tremere, it really suits my style of play better to put extra skill points in hacking and lockpicking, which I have now done. Even though I restarted, I am very happy with my progress, and hope to reach the point where I stopped in the first game later today. Although this is an RPG in a modern setting, it still is an RPG, with good graphics, good story and quests and I think, great atmosphere. To be concluded.....

Just a few more of those student (wrong) answers, in case anyone else would like a laugh! == In Christianity a man can only have one wife. This is called Monotony. == Budda is worshipped chiefly in Budda Pest. == Paraffin is the next order of angels above seraphims. == A poetic licence is a licence you get from the Post Office to keep poets. You also need one if you want to keep a dog, but this is called a dog licence. == An interval in music is the distance from one piano to the next. ===== Enjoy your day! :)

I have been concentrating the last few days on Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance, what a great game this is. Black Isle haven't let me down. Although so totally different in content than the BG series for the PC, this really is a wonderful game in itself and (sorry to disappoint you Javier!) but it really is impossible, and therefore unfair to even attempt to compare the two! I find myself at the stage of "just finish this part....oh, well perhaps I'll just do this quest as well before I finish for now....", in other words a real old-fashioned, addicting, dungeon crawler (my favourite). I am gradually compiling a list of older PS games which I haven't been able to find here yet (ordering online would make them rather expensive). As we don't exactly live in a thriving metropolis, or in fact anywhere close to one, I'm hoping for a trip to one of the larger towns sometime soon, or failing that, I'll have to wait until my next visit to UK. I don't know if it is just here or in general that PS2 games are about 30% more expensive that their PC equivalents. I am at a loss to understand why? Back to Baldur's Gate DA, just a few more quests and dungeons I want to finish today.....and tomorrow.....and the day after......:P

This was going to be just a quote from William Shakespeare, until I started thinking..... "[size=14]All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances"...[/size] (from "As You Like It") So the big question is.. Who's left in the audience?

Just a couple of quick updates for the games I'm playing. Kingdom Hearts - I am still trying to break the speed record for those d*** barrels! Practice makes perfect, so I'll just have to keep on practicing! BG: Dark Alliance - This is going so much faster than on the PC - in fact it is a completely different game to any of the BG PC games, so it wouldn't be fair to compare them. I think if present progress is an indication, then I will be finishing this quickly, maybe even next week. Vampire Bloodlines - Again, another one going rather more quickly than I had anticipated. This is just so much better both for graphics and gameplay than Redemption and while not for the faint-hearted and definitely aimed at the "Mature" gamer, an interesting journey. More progress later.... :)

For those who don't already know. I reserved a copy of WoW last November, but the salesperson in the store said they had so many people on the waiting list he didn't anticipate they would be receiving enough copies for everyone on their list! I am usually quite a patient person, but when the NA version was released and the forums were flooded with all the fantastic screen shots and (drooling) stories of time spent in Azeroth, I confess to feeling green with envy. Now the European Beta has opened and it's deja vu all over again! I can't remember ever anticipating a game being released as much as WoW, not even....shhhh! (looks around nervously).. Kotor 2 ( :shock: ). I had already made the necessary preparations for disappearing from civilisation for an extended period, (you know, the usual things, local takeaways on speed-dial, stocking up the freezer with pizzas), and now I don't even know if I will be one of the lucky ones to get a copy of WoW on the Dutch release date. After all the problems with the NA release because of the unexpected rush on the servers, I am expecting the same thing to happen in Europe. This may mean before all the necessary servers are up and running that it may even be April or May before I can enter the Azeroth realm. Just in case I may be spending my summer holidays in Azeroth I've already found the perfect postcard :P

***[color=yellow]POSSIBLE SPOILERS[/color]*** Kingdom Hearts I have been playing quite a bit of Kingdom Hearts these past few days, and after being in Traverse Town I travelled to aptly-named Wonderland for some more fun and games. I thought I was doing rather well, my fighting skills have really improved beyond recognition and I was feeling rather pleased with myself. Unfortunately, pride as they say, comes before a fall and having completed Wonderland as far as I could at this point I travelled to the Colliseum for what would appear to be a series of tests in the arena. Thus, came my downfall, the first of these tests anyway is a speed test.....grrr.... This probably means however quickly I level up Sora is not going to increase in speed and it is all down to me and my 'finger exercises' on the controls. I think we may be in for a hitch..... ! Hopefully, to be continued soon.....

Except for ice skating, biathlon and a couple of other 'winter' pursuits, I am not exactly sport 'savvy' so it seems only fair to warn my friends of my encyclopedic knowledge of other sports (this is the shortest book ever published). I don't want to bore you, so just a few entries:- Soccer: Team game played with a ball Rugby: Team game played with oval ball Cricket: Team game played with hard balls Tennis: Two people with racquets and balls Javelin: People throwing long sticks far away == I think you probably get the idea. In other words, I am a hopeless case! == That's all, I think you have suffered long enough! :)