For someone as addicted to KOTOR as I am, you had to have seen this one coming! I hope you all have a happy, healthy, prosperous and generally wonderful year in 2005, or in other words:- [size=16][color=gold]MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU![/color][/size]

[size=14]"When a thing has been said well, have no scruples. Take it and copy it" [/size] Anatole France

This always seems to be the time of year for evaluating how the last year went before moving on to the new one. Sorry to disappoint anyone who might be remotely interested, but I am stating quite categorically here and now that this is not what I do. You made a mistake last February and wish you'd taken a different path? Then DON'T wait until the next January before doing something about it! You make a lot of New Year's resolutions! - DON'T - it will only mean you feel guilty and miserable when you set yourself impossible aims! You enjoy your life and try to help the people you care about enjoy theirs? GOOD - life is meant to be enjoyed, keep on doing it! (rant over - normal service!) :)

After a DVD marathon on Sunday night I didn't feel wide enough awake to tackle Vampire Bloodlines, so settled for an afternoon on the couch with the PS2 and LOTR Third Age, and I must confess I finally get what you 'fanboys' have been raving about. From the comfort of my couch, fruit juice and nibbles in hand reach, under a blanket to keep nice and cosy, and play away! This is definitely something I could get used to. Adds a whole new dimension to playing a game, for me anyway. Definitely worth repeating..... often! :D

[color=yellow]***** POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***** [/color] (LOTR TTA) Well, I am making progress with this, slowly but surely. Up until fighting the balrog I had not had any problems with fighting, but the first couple of rounds with the balrog wiped my group out mercilessly! He has some wicked, powerful fire spells and it's taken me no fewer than 5 attempts to get past him. Finally stopped trying to revive the whole party and keep everybody healthy, just kept Idrial and Gandalf alive and used Idrial to heal and protect Gandalf and herself, leaving Gandalf to do the most damage. Idrial even occasionally managed her water spell, which did a decent amount of damage as well. I'm still only at 25% of the game total, so quite a way to go yet. Haven't tried Evil Mode yet, and I am considering perhaps saving this for a second runthrough, will see how it works out. Finally out of Moria and helping the elves. I have two areas at 100% now, which pleased me no end. Still on 80% for the 2nd region though, so still have not found that elusive last runestone! I don't seem to use my Ranger much, but perhaps I'll start changing round my party a bit and see if he has any interesting higher level abilities.

Whatever your beliefs and however you choose to spend Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful time! :)

[color=gold] HAPPY CHRISTMAS

GOD YUL

FELIZ NATAL

JOYEUX NOEL

GELUKKIGE KERST

FELIZ NAVIDAD

KALA XRISTOUGENA[/color]

After playing Vampires Bloodlines for a couple of hours (it's good, BTW), I think I will leave really getting into the story until after the holidays, so any gaming time I can spare will be spent on the PS2. I have been trying to analyse (always dangerous!) just exactly what it is which makes PC gaming for me number one above consoles. I think it's because when I am playing Kingdom Hearts or LOTR Third Age, I feel I am playing (and thoroughly enjoying) a game, whereas when I am playing an RPG on my PC I feel as though I am actually in the game itself, it is somehow much more intense. Probably not making much sense, but I can't seem to describe it any other way. Probably time to stand up and say - "Hello, my name is Bam, and I am a Hermit........." :shock:

[size=14]Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right[/size]

Henry Ford.

I have to confess that no matter how much I enjoy Kingdom Hearts or LOTR Third Age on my PS2, this is just a flirtation and I will always remain a PC junkie at heart. I missed having a new RPG to play on the PC after finishing Pirates, and despite my misgivings, have decided to start a game of Vampire Bloodlines. How sad it is that players have to rely on a fan made bug fix patch (shame on you Troika!).

So I'm locked and loaded and ready to role-play. Children of the night here I come! :P:

I am making some real progress with LOTR Third Age, and am about to enter East Moria. I seem to have missed a runestone somewhere along the way, so am undecided whether to backtrack first to go and look for it, or move into the new area. As it was my last runestone of a set of 7 I will probably try to find this first just to finish off the quest. I do like the percentages shown for both areas solved and game as a whole. I'm up to 11% for the whole game so far, but almost 90% in the first area and 80% in the second. Doing some quick maths this would make this game somewhere around 100 hours plus......woah!! Guess I'll be busy for quite some time yet then.

I returned to KH yesterday afternoon as I was feeling a bit more confident of handling the controls, and I have to say I'm making progress. Strangely enough I do find this game more challenging than LOTR Third Age, which is kind of strange as I was thinking, Disney, cute characters, this will be a cinch....... but it's not! Good job I love a challenge!

To be continued.......