Bonk...

I had a really bad spell at work over the past week so I've been taking it easy.  There isn't anything like having someone release new software on a remote site, not tell you about it, not give you any release/change info, then the new software effectively crashes the remote site on a Friday night. It only took 26 hours to convince the software group to do a rollback and 2 hours to get the system back to normal. Guess I should be glad I managed to get 4 hours of sleep in there, but damn, that was nasty.

I finished playing Quake 4. I can see why this game isn't very popular. Extremely long level load times, balance issues and a really poor multiplayer setup. I was going to keep the game around longer to review the multiplayer, but I couldn't tell if I was creating a host, joining a game, or what was happening. It didn't help that I couldn't even find a handful of players. Only played a few rounds with some chap from the UK.

Started playing Halo 2. All I can say is wow - what a difference between xbox and xbox 360 games. Comparing the visuals of GoW, Q4, Fear vs Halo 2 is like comparing a WWI battlefield to a sanitized cafeteria. I guess the original xbox has a cheap 2D graphics card & software 3D rendering whereas the 360 has a 3D graphics card and good cpu to feed it. Halo 2 is a popular title, so I'll stick with it and see what the game can give me. So far I'm playing the enemy Arbiter stage hunting a heretic leader. Maybe the game will get back to the war at some point.

Pocket movie reviews...

Flyboys - Action/adventure/drama movie set in France during World War 1. Actually a very good movie if you are interested in war history and aviation. As usual with Hollywood, it is best to suspend reality and watch the spectacle, but there are some historical accuracies around if you watch for them. Also, as a Hollywood film, the primary language is English, so no need to worry about reading subtitles for two hours. I recommend giving it a viewing.

Open Season - Children's animated adventure movie. Maybe I wasn't in the best mood when I watched this movie, but it felt pretty flat to me. I could tell there was humor being bandied about, but none of it seemed to really give me a tickle. I don't know, maybe timmies and young children will get a kick out of it. Pass on this unless you are in a really good mood, smoking some really good stuff, or have young children (or timmies) around.