It's raining games...

Following stories that Game retailer is in deep trouble and about to go under, I went in and spent all my sizeable credit. I wasn't planning to get any games any time soon as I only just bought Batman Arkham City and Mass Effect 3 came via post few days ago. So from my two visits to games I now have

1. Driver San Francisco,
2. Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock,
3. The Elder Scrolls Oblivion 5th Anniversary Edition,
4. Top Spin 2,
5. Dues Ex: Human Revolution,
6. Rage,
7. Project Gotham Racing 4,
8. Batman Arkham City,
9. Mass Effect 3

I initially got Saints Row The Third but after reading some reviews decided it wasn't for me as I would get bored of it to quickly, so I went back and got Driver SF, Oblivion and GH Warriors of Rock for it. If I include many other games that I have played but not finished playing yet (Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3, Forza 4, and many more), that is me sorted for this decade :).

Run by Blake Crouch

Last night I finished Run by Blake Crouch. One of more difficult books I ever read.

The plot has got many holes in it but it still holds. Basically the story evolves around family of four, parents in their early 40s with a teenage daughter and small boy having to constantly run and fight for their survival against cold, hunger, thirst and savage killers. It is a horrific story that makes you think what if this could really happen. At times it got very gripping and I couldn't put the book down no matter what. Crouch shows some master skills in immersing the reader in the book, so much so that at times I had to take a brake as it was getting too difficult to detach from the horrific events.

On a negative side I did not like the way relationship evolved between husband and wife. I had a feeling that corners were cut or not enough attention was put towards this. Their relationship changes as story progresses but I as a reader did not get the true picture of their feelings as these changes happened.

I rate this book as WWR (Well Worth Reading) - 3.5 stars out of 5.

Down the memory lane

I loved  this when I first read it in high school many years ago. Today I stumbled on it and had to make a note of it here. It is an excerpt from Common Sense, written in 1776 by Thomas Paine:

“Entrepreneur’s Credo
I do not choose to be a common man,
It is my right to be uncommon … if I can,
I seek opportunity … not security.
I do not wish to be a kept citizen.
Humbled and dulled by having the
State look after me.
I want to take the calculated risk;
To dream and to build.
To fail and to succeed.
I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;
I prefer the challenges of life
To the guaranteed existence;
The thrill of fulfillment
To the stale calm of Utopia.
I will not trade freedom for beneficence
Nor my dignity for a handout
I will never cower before any master
Nor bend to any threat.
It is my heritage to stand erect.
Proud and unafraid;
To think and act for myself,
To enjoy the benefit of my creations
And to face the world boldly and say:
This, with God’s help, I have done
All this is what it means
To be an Entrepreneur.”

Removing card details from xbox.com

There are websites now up speficilly opened for hacked Xbox Live members, many claiming that their Live account has been hacked. To be honest I did not panic as I know people sometime use very simple passwords and sometime they fall for phishing sites so I thought as long as I'm careful, I should be ok. Then, I hear about some experienced gamers that their account has been hacked!!! Warning lights started to flash so I thought I better remove my credit card details from my account so at least they can't spend any more if they ever get into my account. Checked my account settings in xbox.com and there it was, my card details and the remove link. Great I thought, simple, easy and quick. But nooooooo, got the message soon as I clicked remove to say that this card is associated with one of the services so you can't remove it as long as you use that service. I was surprised to get this as all my Live is paid upfront and Autorenew is set to OFF! So got in a chat with the support guy who just said to me no, you can't remove your card details even though you do not have any bills to pay! This got me totally pissed and I wished I was a lawyer so I can sue their ass for keeping my card details against my will. In the end had to phone support and they agreed to remove my card details but stupidity does not end there. They still could not remove my card details as my latest subscription was paid using a credit card. What they did is, cancelled my account, reverted it to a silver account, and then emailed me the code to make for the months I already prepaid (minus 6 days). What a pain!

Busy

Wow it's busy (gaming-wise) at the moment!

First of all Gears 3 is just great. Whatever game I play it doesn't go long before I need to get back to Gears 3.

I pre-ordered Battlefield 3 (limited edition so I can get Back to Karkand DLC free). I finished the single player in about 5 days (hard difficulty) and hunted some achievements afterwards. As far as single player is concerned that is it. I don't think they nailed the single player yet. However multi-player will definitely keep me busy for many many months. Bit different to BC2 (can't make myself say better, even thought there are many additions on BF3). BF2 MP was just great, especially Vietnam DLC and BF3 is great on its own right too.

I also got Modern Warfare 3 on the day of the release. This game turned out to be a disappointment for me. It is the first COD game (and I played them all from COD 2 onwards) that I just could not find any enjoyment at playing the campaign. I think they have not changed it sufficiently enough to make it feel fresh for us that played previous Modern Warfare games. MP is not much different either but still feels fresher than SP. Obviously they have invested more time on the MP than SP. Can't say that for the COD Elite though. What a disgrace. Millions of gamers buy every COD game and Activision comes up with excuses that they did not expect so many users. Hopefully they will have fixed it by the time anyone reads this post.

Today I got Skyrim and Halo CE is on its way. Add Forza 4 to this plus several AAA oldies I'm yet to finish on my shelf and you can see why this post was titled busy ;).