clivemurray.com

• Dragon Age: Origins – completed
• Half Life 2: currently playing, I’m on chapter 11 of 14
• Mass Effect: евтини мебелиcompleted
• Bioshock: queued
• Halo 3: queued
• Dead Space: queued
• GTA IV: currently playing, I just got to second smaller island
• Assassin’s Creed: bought
• Crackdown: bought

Yeah, I loves me some Xbox. It may be noted that many of the games listed are pretty old, with newer versions out or imminent. Well, I tend to play a couple of years behind the trend, which means I get the same gaming experience as everyone else, for about a quarter of the price – a strategy independently featured on XKCD.

My gamer tag is Tommi Starr, by the way.

–c.

This excellent optical amplifierxkcd pretty much sums up my gaming wossname at the moment. OK, I have just dispatched Fallout 3 which came out last year, but I have replaced it with HL2 and wow, what a game that is. Mucho splendido.

Oh, and having also conquered Oblivion, that’s been replaced with Mass Effect. Looks like Bioshock and Halo 3 will have to wait until I finish one of the other two… I can only devote headspace to two major games at a time.

In other news, I still have Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2, and no-one has come knocking. My gamer tag remains Tommi Starr… look me up, yo.

–c.

I have an Xbox 360. I have Guitar Hero World Tour. I have Rock Band 2. My gamertag is Tommi Starr.

Do you want some?

–c.

You wouldn’t believe the level to which Oblivion has taken hold at Murray Mansions. No, I mean really. It’s verging on shameful.

I know I posted before about not getting much done due to playing too much Fallout, etc, but this is almost a return to my school-age complete obsession with gaming (then on my ZX Spectrum, of course). I mean, I must have put in about 6 hours on Friday, 3 or 4 on Saturday, 4 or 5 yesterday and a couple today. And that would have been more if I hadn’t been doing actual work work, too.

I find I’m starting to think about it when I’m on the train, or in a queue in a shop, or dozing off in bed. I find myself thinking about new spells to make or new ways to enchant pieces of armour to my advantage. I’m hardly even bothering with the main quest line, just nipping about working my way up in the Thieves’ Guild, the Mages’ Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. It’s bloody awesome.

BTW, tip for anyone else who plays it: if you haven’t looked into enchanting stuff using black soul gems, do so. Buy yourself a full (5 piece) set of fur armour, and get yourself 5 black soul gems* with 5 grand souls inside. Then you can go to the Arcane University and enchant your 5 bits of armour to have 20% Chameleon effect on each. Hey Presto! A complete suit of 100% invisibility with freedom to use doors and objects without revealing yourself.

To be honest, it’s a good thing Saffron’s into it as well. I think we’d have fallen out by now if she wasn’t.

–c.

* If you need a hand with how to do any of this, check out the wiki.

…and by “here”, I mean on Twitter. The recent surge in popularity of the ubiquitous micro-blogging site has meant a massive influx of users. I joined the thing years ago, though I can’t find a quick way of seeing on the site exactly when I joined.

Anyhow, the reason I mention it is that I’m going to implement one of those weeky digest Twitter posts – all the Tweets I’ve crapped out in a week, rolled up into a blog post and automatically fired up here in lieu of writing actual content. Hoorah. When would be best? I’m thinking Friday morning at the moment. I’ll do it and we’ll see.

In other news, the Xbox360 continues to dominate free time, with Fable II now completed and Fallout 3 getting a proper coat of looking at. Bioshock, Half-Life 2 and Halo 3 all sit waiting in the wings, and there is talk of a belated birthday present featuring a plastic guitar.

Musically, though, things are still gathering momentum despite this gaming frenzy. “Gunslinger” is almost finished, and is likely to enter the mixing stage some time in the next fortnight. The bassline is in from Germany for “Wonko’s Asylum”, and another bassline has been contracted out to deepest Essex.

So there you are. And there you have it. And why not?
–c.

So yeah, my wonderful, splendid, utterly gorgeous angel of a fiancée got me an Xbox360 for Christmas, so pretty much every waking moment – and even some unwaking ones – have been spent in the worlds of Fallout 3 and Fable II. Even here at work a little part of my brian is turning over what stats to work on and which perks to get next.

Some of you out there have Xboxen too, I know that much. Please feel free to add me to your friends list – my GamerTag is Tommi Starr.

See you in there,
–c.

If you follow gaming news and developments, you’ll be aware that the current generation of consoles are being convincingly led by the Xbox360. This generation consists of three machines: the aforementioned 360, the Sony PS3, and Nintendo’s Wii – though only the first two really compete head to head, as the Wii has inferior graphical capabilities and sadly that is seemingly where the big money lies. Personally I have a Wii, and love it to death. Nintendo “get it” when it comes to interaction and fun, and personally that does more for me than the staggering poly counts of which the other two machines are capable.

As I understand it the 360′s comprehensive trouncing of the PS3 thus far is down partially to the online experience – multiplayer is handled very well by the Xbox Live service – and also perhaps more significantly down to the range and quality of games available. Personally I’ve never heard or read anyone saying “Oh man, I’m so glad I got a PS3 – this game rocks my face off. I pity those Xbox suckers.”

Well that is about to change with the imminent arrival of one of the most anticipated titles in gaming history, LittleBigPlanet. If you don’t believe me, read this news post on Penny Arcade, then come back and tell me you don’t want to play it.

I fucking know I do.

–c.

PS. This post will be rendered null and void if the game is ever ported to the 360. If that happens I’ll probably buy one.

Here is the news, so pin them back:

1. If you thought that Scrabulous would win, and be allowed to stay on Facebook, you are an idiot. I mean, really.
2. If you are Hasbro/Mattel, and you didn’t just buy Scrabulous out and rebrand it, you are also an idiot.

Now can we move on?

–c.