October 2010: The State Of Play

I've been wondering how to return to the blogosphere, after a year camped out on the Mountain of Indifference, on the Isle of Sloth, in the Sea of Laziness near the shore of Torpor. Should I return with bells and whistles? Or just sneak back, like I've not just neglected my blogging duties and my good friends throughout the globe for over 12 months... I've plumped for the latter option obviously! A few of the more eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed the changes in title, colour scheme and pictures about the place...

My life has taken a few twists and turns since October 2009. There have been a few ups and quite a few downs over the last year, and I might share a few of the happier and sadder elements of that particular journey in the coming weeks and months. My weight has certainly been plummeting and I am now lighter than I have been in years! The one consistently wonderful constant is the lovely Mrs. K. Patient, calm, loving, generous , funny, beautiful.

Cyprus 2007 weighing 15 stone

Amsterdam 2010 weighing 11 stone.

but for now I just thought I'd relate my various gaming setups and console locations, plus mention a couple of the games which have grabbed my attention recently or over the last annus since my blogging absence.

OK! Down to business...

Father K in Wholesale Sellout to Sony!

It's completely true. There was a time not that long ago,in the aftermath of Sega pulling the plug on the Dreamcast, when the good Father was hugely anti-Sony. I hated them for winning the console war against the vastly superior (IMHO) Dreamcast. I wanted them to lose the console war in the current gen to Microsoft, to whom I pledged my allegiance buying no less than three of their 360s. Then, as my first one had to go back to Germany to be cured of the 'red ring of death', I put the PS2 in it's place and got to grips with a few PS2 titles I'd bought then neglected... Yakuza, GTA Vice City and San Andreas, Devil May Cry 2, Resident Evil Dead Aim and so on...

The PS2 suddenly became a vital console for me. Just as I had been able to catch up on cheap gaming treats as the Dreamcast became yesterday's news, I was now able to pick up great titles for the PS2 for very little money. I played the PS2 up in my bedroom and it got at least equal gaming time with the 360 in the downstairs in the main living room...

But recently I decided I wanted to play a couple of titles for the PS3 - Yakuza and Resistance: Fall Of Man - , so I decided to pick up a backwards compatible 'pre-owned' 60 gig edition, that would enable me to continue my PS2 odyssey at the same time! So now, in my bedroom, where I do the majority of my gaming, is my lovely and oft used PS3 which I have to admit, I can no longer imagine life without...

Now downstairs in the main living room, should be my Xbox 360 Elite Edition (bought brand new in December 2009), but that is now on it's way to (you guessed it...) Germany! No red ring of death this time, but instead it won't read any discs. Bollocks!

So there is a large gap under my huge wide screen hi def TV that I'm not trying to fill at the moment. That's because I already had my Wii hooked up to the big TV in the hopes that it might see more action in the main living room. I've played a little bit of NiGHTs Journey Of Dreams on it and I intend to re-visit the Darkside Chronicles. But I've also bought my first new Wii game in quite some time... Red Steel 2! So who knows? Maybe the absence of my Microsoft console will spark a Wii shaped revolution this time?

In the less used living room I have my Saturn hooked up for the first time in a very long time, and also my Dreamcast. This is the least likely to be used as I can't seem to locate a lead/cord that gives me a good picture. Besides, there are still too many PS2 classics to seek out and discover!

However, the game that has me currently enthralled is actually the luscious and superb Resistance Retribution on the PSP. In fact I'm enthralled by the whole Resistance world at the moment... So now I've discussed my console set up, I guess it's time to start thinking about the games I've been playing. But I'll leave that for another post!


Happy Halloween!