Blimey, it's Friday

Monday.. Tuesday.. Happy Days!

 

Blurry days, more like.

 

Another end of the week rolls around and I am left, and not for the first time recently, wondering where exactly the week went.  It's probably just a sign of age, but the weeks seem to be flying past at an ever increasing rate.  I feel like that bloke in the movie version of H.G. Wells' Time Machine who is sat there (in the aforementioned Time Machine") as time accelerates around him, days blur as they fly by at an accelerating pace whilst I sit there and observe their silent passage.  It's like I used to download life via a 56k modem, and now someone's upgraded me to a 8Mb broadband connection.  It's bewildering.

 

Still, it's not all work, work, work...

Last night played "Gears of War" for the first time in co-op mode.  (Co-op meaning co-operative over XBox live for the benefit of the terminally stupid).

 

Usually, in the single player version of the game you have a computer controlled colleague who assists you in killing anything that moves.. (Gears of War being a first-person shooter not unlike Doom or Halo, you see).  However the AI of the computer controlled player is, at times,  a bit rubbish, he's forever getting shot, injured, following you around like a lost puppy (as he seems to foolishly assume that I know where I'm going when invariably I'm just winging it) and just generally faffing about.  This can make progressing through the game a little on the arduous side, as you have to make up for his shortcomings.  However, when you get a friend to take on the role and you have a stab at the game online, the game take on a whole new life and actually becomes stupidly good fun.  Now this is mainly because the AI of the computer controlled player in the single player mode doesn't swear quite as much, and at no point will call you a 'throbber' for getting shot, but also at least there really does feel like there's two of you facing the unceasing onslaught of the alien hordes. 

 

Okay, so the non-computer controlled player is more likely to nick your ammo, and have moments of insanity where, acting not unlike Sylvester Stallone in a Rambo flick, all caution will be thrown to the wind and he will leg it into a warzone with the end result being he becomes instant cannon fodder, however when the two of you are stealthily making your way through a level it is really excellent. 

 

I can heartily recommend this game online (and, to be fair, in single player mode as long as you have patience) - XBox Live really does rock!