So, what have I been playing on the computer lately? Quite a few things it would seem, so I'm going to pull out the stuff I've been playing to some extent or another over the last couple of months when not locked in the office.

Baldur's Gate - a good old-fashioned classic, which you can pick up the set of for about a tenner if you don't already have them. I've also browsed the modding community and added various goodies to my collection and added a few extra items, adventures, NPCs and tweaks. Some of the new module content was more interesting than others as you might imagine. Tougher bad guys is always interesting in some cases - particularly as the extra adventures mean more xp and a much tougher party, one of the extra NPCs you can get (Valen - to be found in BG2 if you side with Bodhi instead of the Shadow Thieves) is potentially strong enough to solo huge parts of the game herself, but only indoors/at night. She also has a decent selection of extra banters, and will end up forcing you into fights you might otherwise have avoided. There's a few other good ones out there, and if you plan on a full install I'll point you at a few of them. I've actually been playing this on and off for a bit because, well, it's a big game even before you add to it.

Red Alert 3 - decidedly so-so offering from the Command and Conquer stable, like C&C3 it fell into the "let's add a third faction" trap, but has a much more interesting setting and is generally a better game. The poster of various young ladies from within the game didn't inspire great confidence. Co-commander is an interesting enough feature, giving you a computer ally you can offer limited orders to, and overall it's entertaining, but just not the incredible progression that you'd expect after several years. You also need to connect to the Internet to activate it, which was a bit of a faff as my primary gaming machine tends not to be Internet-connected. Enjoyable all the same though.

Worldshift - another strategy game of sorts, and it was only a fiver. Some of the missions are definitely in the annoying category, and there are lots of critters to dispatch in a few of them (not quite to the levels of genocide which is King's Bounty: The Legend, but I'll get to that later) - I completed one with the trusty "keep the technicians alive" part of the objective to find they'd made a small tweak to it in the patch - specifically giving said technicians four times as many hit points. Yes, that's right, four times as many, quite the difference there. can feel smug that I completed it anyway though. Although I have held off playing this game since others have turned up in the post. There seems to be a lot of group multiplayer extra goodies, which seem to be where a key part of the game is aimed towards.

King's Bounty: The Legend - supposedly an RPG/strategy hybrid, but unlike Heroes of Annihilated Empires (which I do recommend by the way) this is turn-based strategy, you wander around the map, do some quests, clout bad guys and so on. And you will clout a lot of bad guys indeed. I mean wiping out whole continents worth of foes. You'll also find that because the map is generated mostly randomly you may find it tough to reach certain areas early in thegame because you'll find a nigh-invincible opponent for your level in the way. It's an alright game, and one I'm happy to have played, but I'm not sure I'll play it again soon.

Secret Files: Tunguska - proper graphical adventure antics ahoy. Use the duct tape with the mobile phone and the cat, and so on. Pretty rendered in 3D, a couple of odder puzzles as you might expect, but it's broadly logical, and has an interesting enough plot. Download the update however as it has an improved ending. The sequel just arrived and this'll be played shortly.

Drakensang - RPG based on the Dark Eye system (originally German but recently translated into English), again it's 3d and pretty - even the character portraits in the party change according the equipment the party wears. Although one of the dungeons near the end has a few too many tough foes (in terms of time taken to put them down, not in terms of threat - they're not hugely dangerous, just time-consuming) it mostly avoids the trap some other games can fall into where you spend your time mindlessly cutting through swathes of foes.

Mount and Blade - open-ended sandbox game, which supposedly is a good representation of medieval combat along the way. If so, I've concluded I'm rubbish at mounted archery, moderately better unmounte, can sometimes clout people with a sword while mounted, but mostly kit the character up with a weapon and chop-down foes. It's once again pretty and 3D as so many of them are now, you can even design the facial features of your character, deepening cheekbones, raising eyebrows, etc. You can pretty much do whatever you like, wander about doing quests, sign up with a country and go to war with the enemy, trade, take prisioners, etc. I did join up with someone who had a claim to the throne and overthrew the previous king, securing a decent set of lands along the way. Unfortunately you really need to be bound to a king if you're going to hold lands as unaligned lords seem to be equal-opportunity punchbags for people you've pissed off - not to mention the country won't sue for peace with you unless you're part of a nation. Imagine Elite on horses and you have an idea of the scope of the game. Once again there's a modding community out there, though I've not studied it in detail, and I have to say, a few tweaks could really make things even more interesting - open-ended is nice, but it can feel a little too open at times.

Overlord 2 - this arrived in the post just recently, I very much enjoyed the first one for flavour and gameplay, and this is next on my "to-play" list once I complete the game below.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood - it's a western-based first-person shooter, which the added feature of quickdraw gunfights, need I say more? Watch out for the cannon in the first mission as you need to aim with the bottom point of the crosshair just above your target if you hope to hit anything (that caught me out for a bit) and you need to be fairly quick to pull your gun from the holster when in a showdown. Otherwise it's nicely storylined, you get the choice of two brothers on most missions (I'm steadily playing through as Ray and will likely do the game as Thomas another time) and does pretty much everything you might ask for in a game. Definitely recommended.

Apparently the BNP may have discriminatory membership policies - you know, I'd never have suspected otherwise...

Now, depending on if you believe "a reader sent this in" from a columnist on this site to be a credible source or not (I have to say I'm forced to believe not) this could be one of the most unfortunate choice of picture on a microwave product you'll see... Especially as the comments cite several previous sources.

Speaking of unfortunate wording - here's another.

I've also been reading Alice and Kev - an interesting experiment with homeless Sims which has actually proven to be remarkably touching in places. And has probably done wonders for additional sales of the game too.

Anyway, whilst writing this I've been remotely connected into the office and resisting the urge to cobble together my own 130MP camera for example. Though that is asking for a full-on Steapmpunk design, proper Victorian style photography in a digital age...

Still not dead, just been very busy.

I curse the postal service/customs combo once again. It seems that a DVD I ordered from the US arrived just before the 3 weeks Play require for filing a not-received claim (despite the playusa website stating two weeks) - having languished in customs for most of that time, and with a fee. The actual fee is only £4.05, but the postal service needs to charge me £8 for the pleasure of having them take my money once again. They also delivered the ship with a "today's date" of yesterday, so obviously didn't feel like delivering it then, and managed to drop it off late enough that I would have no time to go down and fetch it before they close. Remind me again why we use them? Oh, that's right, because regardless of things like gaping holes spewing personal data into the world people don't really have a choice. Well, fine, be that way, I'm going to go have a read instead.

Whilst popping into the office to fix something and waiting for a report to refresh I did a little bit of browsing on the imaginatively named "solardeathray.com" - which is a site about, well, a solar death ray. I have just about resisted cobbling together my own, much as I resisted when I read about how to build your own phaser and then found a ridiculous laser from a blu-ray player on ebay which was already capable of making people feel uncomfortably warm at a fair distance away before you crammed a few together and overpowered them - did I get around to posting that by the way?

Anyway, the death ray is basically a set of cleverly positioned mirrors designed to do what death rays do best. For your viewing pleasure there are many galleries present on the site, ranging from burning shoes though to melting lego pirate ships via such stopping points as sunglasses (which proved to be woefully ineffective under these conditions), candles and snack food to name but a few.

Must... resist... urge... to melt things...

I've been swamped with work and suchlike lately (again!) so not had much chance to write anything. Still, at least this week had a lot of non-work stuff involved too.

I could comment on Play now selling unlocked sim-free iphones but I'm sure people have already seen those. It did fuel an interesting discussion about them earlier in the week though. Someone else got one during the week from O2 only to find they couldn't use media messages (despite the claims to the contrary they'd been given) - not until the next big software update anyway. We did point out that one day it'll work like a real phone. The boy Shifty is terribly protective of his phone however and upon being told that did his usual "it's better than a real phone" only to be generally dismissed that it's a very slick interface (everyone pretty much agreed on that) but it's using dated hardware and there are some much better ones out there if you plan on using it for other purposes - e.g. camera. Apparently one of the new HTCs is very good and might actually have a better interface according to someone that was playing with it. That said, my last phone is easily the best phone phone I've ever used and was brimming in goodies. The current one is really good, but a couple of niggles mark it down from being perfect, the battery life not being over a week is one of them.

Terminator Salvation contains an interesting exploration on the nature of humanity and free will hidden inside a selection of explosions and chase scenes - including the usual vehicular one of the sort we'd expect in the film. At least, I'm convinced there's supposed to be that other layer to it anyway. John Connor doesn't really appear in the film - well, he does, but he's very much a supporting character.

Aunt Dan and Lemon is an interesting play, with Jane Horrocks and various other personages starring. There was a Q&A afterwards, which proved tat the audience had some very mixed views on the final speech, a couple of which were really angry (though not really willing to listen to the other viewpoints as much as would be ideal) - but surely the play has done what it should do and has made you think if that's the case?

Various other bits with birthdays and suchlike lately, which is all good, and tasty food at a variety of locations, including a jolly tasty Malaysian spot on Wednesday.

Lots of linky related stuff I was intending to put up at some point too, but meanwhile I just leave you with something I found on graphjam before the extent of the MP expenses really kicked in. Though the internet has naturally Americanised it and ended up in some other discussion. Didn;t read it all, but I wonder where the actual author (artist? graphist?) is from.

Tetris using people as pieces. Is it wrong to criticise his playstyle?

And even Legostar Galactica throws in a little Who reference - followed by digging at the way so much is resolved.