Looked at the calendar this morning and realised it's now less than two weeks to the Christmas weekend. Time to get down the board games from the top of the cupboard, decorate the tree, plan a few menus, flick a duster round the house and hide the silver for the yearly invasion!

With only a few exceptions (and we forgive them readily!), we are a family who enjoys playing games, and at Christmas the Trivial Pursuit is a favourite. Everyone and anyone can play, as it's easy to form pairs or even groups to even out the levels to be fair to the Trivially challenged. Nevertheless we are quite fanatical in our pursuit of trivia, so I will be hitting the books and googling my way to Christmas. I have a championship to defend! :D

[color=yellow]***POSSIBLE SPOILERS*** (Pirates) [/color]

I have only managed a few more hours with Pirates this weekend, as it turned out unexpectedly to be one of those times when life got in the way of gaming (it does happen from time to time!).

I am making real progress with this, and in fact I think I will soon have to retire. There seems to be a built-in automatic ager! I think on my next runthrough (yes, there will definitely be more than one runthrough!), I will concentrate less on the pirating side and more on the finding relatives, hidden treasure and cities quests.

This has been, very unexpectedly, a great game, definitely destined to be a classic. Though I generally encourage friends and relatives to borrow any of my games I believe they would enjoy, I think this is one which is not going to leave our house.

A real treasure trove indeed :D

[color=yellow] ***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***[/color] (Pirates)

Well, I am definitely buckling my swash on this, climbing up the top 10 pirates list like there is no tomorrow. Found just one family member so far, though I do know where another one is, just having so much fun pirating haven't had time to go and collect them!

I'm quite a whizz with my rapier, but boy does my dancing suck! I think I've tried dancing with every Governor's daughter in the Caribbean, and still haven't got a date.....:( There are rumours of almost magic boots to assist me somewhere around, so I think I need to visit a few more taverns to see if I can find them.

In case I haven't said so already, THIS IS A FUN GAME!! :D

This is weird, never been on GS at this time before. Our dog is sick and needs to go out too often for me to go back to bed and hope I might actually get some sleep, so it seems easier to just stay awake, so Hub can at least sleep, he has to go to work in a couple of hours and I can always have a nap a bit later if I need to.

Okay time for some much needed caffeine in the form of espresso mixed with hot chocolate milk (mmm..... yummy) :)

I am not a great RTS fan, probably because I absolutely suck at strategy games! This one however sounded as though it was slightly different than the average RTS, and I have only played for a few hours, but it is FUN! It's one of those games that you think, I'll just install it and see how it is and before you know it the whole morning has practically passed by. It's also a game you can easily leave for a few days and merrily go back to, there is no great plot or quest list to keep track of, though there is a story line, it is just a game where you can very easily pick up where you left off, no matter how much time has elapsed in between sessions. In short, FUN, FUN, FUN. :lol:

"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help".

Epicurus

[color=yellow]*POSSIBLE SPOILERS* (LOTR Third Age)[/color]

I've now had a chance to really get started on LOTRTTA, so here's a first impression. I don't know if it is just this game in particular or the PS2 experience in general, but it feels like a much less 'intense' experience than on the PC. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying playing tremendously, just noticing a different 'feel' between the two.

Either I am finally coming to grips with the controls as well, or this game is a bit more user-friendly than KH!

I like being able to see what percentage of the quests/game I have actually been able to complete, 7% so far, which has taken me around 7 hours, so based on that I still have lots to do.

I'm wandering around in Moria at the moment, but need to go back I think to the first part to finish off a couple of quests, the 83% quests completed is like a red flag to a bull, and I desperately want to see 100% there!

Personally, I would like to have seen a bit more variation in the enemies I come across, but I'm hoping for new ones as I get further into the game.

I do like the visual interpretation of 'skill moves' and the equivalent of spells, and while all the film clips from LOTR may be considered by some not really relevant to this particular story, I still enjoy watching them and think they provide a nice link between the two stories.

To be continued........

Or.. the Saga of Sinterklaas (stop groaning out there, it's the last one!) - Closing Chapter! :D

You can't keep the kids believing in Sinterklaas forever, so in Holland we then move on to the next phase, 'surprises' and 'rhymes'. Surprises are presents which you wrap up (or build around actually!) to make them look as though they are something completely different. Together with the accompanying rhyme, in which a few clues are scattered, you may, or may not be able to guess the contents.

My favourite are the rhymes. This is a nice way of seeing all the stupid things you've done coming back to haunt you. All those embarrassing moments you'd hoped were forgotten, be assured they aren't, (not in our family anyway). But it's all done in a jokey way so that EVERYBODY (including the recipient) can have a good laugh and sense of 'closure', before all those skeletons are returned to the family closet.

Dear Gamespot,

Oh how you've teased us all the year
With every glitch we've shed a tear.
Journals missing, avatars double,
You've caused us no end of trouble!
Are you going to make amends
For me and all my friends?
Take heart, the new year's almost here
Turn over a new leaf please my dear
No more dreaded maintenance downs
That causes only shock and frowns!

from Sinterklaas and Rhyme Piet.

Enjoy your weekend :)

Logged on this morning only to find the "Forums temporarily down for maintenance" announcement. I have grown to dread finding this on the board. Every time this happens and I eventually can log in again GS turns into glitch hell with all kinds of weird and wonderful things happening. (I'm a regular contributor to the GS Tech Forum - oh well, it's good for my meagre post count - good job I'm an optimist!). Last weekend was by far the worst, and after (trying) to change my avatar I discoved I had different avatars on different forums - weird! :shock:

Now today I can't access (some) friends journal posts through the nifty list on the side of my own journals page.

At least I know I am never alone with all these strange happenings, the Tech forums make for interesting reading the day after the down time!

We need Fox and Mulder! :lol:

Just been reading on GS news that there is a shortage of the new slimline PS2, with people frantic to buy one for Christmas, some are going for $300 or $350! They say that in Europe it's the same with prices in UK up to $750!!

Well, I admit I had to go to a couple of stores before I found one in stock (normal price here = 149 euro), but I could have ordered it at any of them for delivery later this week.

So, folks try Buy and Fly Amsterdam for a weekend, the normal price of a PS2 plus a weekend in Amsterdam, what a bargain (bring your woollen underwear and umbrella!)! :D