Well, just had an interesting situation at work.

One particular suggestion comes to mind:

If you are planning on taking leave, make sure that the people who are covering for you actually know what the heck they’re doing. It doesn’t really work wonders for confidence when you ask the replacements, “Can you do (a maintenance action) for me?” and they reply, “Do you have any instructions for that?”

:(

Well, I had an amazingly shit day today, and work turned me into a mess of nerves. God, it pains me to think about it.

No matter, I got through it, and tomorrow is yet another day.

I finished Condemned 2, so I’ll put up some thoughts on that game soon. And now that I finished my brand spanking new PC build, I can look forward to a number of quality releases, not excluding Fifa 09, Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway, Red Alert 3, Fallout 3, Dead Space and Far Cry 2. That means more relevant write-ups instead of reading reviews of games that are already several months old.

So yes, I’m still alive…I’m just busy playing dead.

I haven’t been using this as an emotional outlet, but I think I’m at the all-important crossroads in my life.

I’m starting to come to terms with the idea that I have made a responsible career choice, rather than an enriching one.

I’m willing to change, but I’m not quite ready. It’s going to take a lot of preparation, commitment and patience.

I’m going to talk options through with people, but I think I know where I want to go.

I’ve stopped on the path and turned in the general direction. Now all that’s needed is a series of steps towards an overgrown, murky darkness.

This is one of the few posts where I tag as both “Work” and “Gaming”.

The Economist has an article on how gaming can be beneficial for corporate culture. However, it wasn’t just the “Captain of Industry” image that gave me the giggles (he’s probably getting a high score on his starfield screensaver).

Corporate environments are segregated enough. Teams are like little communities, and if there’s ever any need to interact with other teams it’s a tender, diplomatic situation. Trying to drive up competitiveness within a company by introducing gamer rage? I’d hate to think what would have happened if they put consoles on the Enron trading floor. “Status and friendly competition”? Have you even seen school-kids in a PC-baang?

And is providing games the best incentive to enhance productivity? There’s a reason why people embed flash games and movies in Office documents when forwarding it on to their co-workers.

There’s also a mention of “advertorial games”. I’m not sure if the writer has even tried playing the free games from Burger King and Toyota, but if you take a look on Metacritic you’ll see that they’re not exactly Top 20 material. (Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.)

Overall, I think that the link between gaming and everyday business is a tenuous one at best (unless you’re in the business of making games, of course). If this is the latest bandwagon, I’m forseeing a very awkward journey ahead.

It’s the holiest of holy grails - how can you make time for precious gaming in the face of other commitments?

It may not just be work that stops you spending time with your favourite console. Maybe you’ve got extracurricular activities, families, friends…even eating and drinking (heaven forfend).

No doubt, some people will have more practical methods of managing time. But sometimes it’s not enough. If you really can’t squeeze enough minutes out of your day to get a decent Live session, then here are some last ditch efforts:
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I’ve been very quiet lately. My excuse is that I’m normally very quiet.

The real reason is that I’m back at work and I’m actually quite engaged at the moment, so I’m a lot less available than I was. Admittedly, it’s easy to improve on doing nothing at all and jetsetting around Europa.

I’ve finished Devil May Cry 4 and a review is in the works. I’m aiming to have something out by the start of next week. I’d say Dark Sector or even GTA 4 would be coming soon afterwards.

In the meantime, you’ll have to read about someone else’s life…

It’s been pretty good fun offering my services here. It had its share of initial stress, as with most activities in a foreign environment.

Some hurdles I found particularly interesting were:

• The length of time it took sorting out bank accounts,
• The exorbitant costs of being allow to enter and work in the country in the first place,
• Accommodation hitches - even though I had it easier than most, it was a bit of a panic moment trying to find a place before we got booted out,
• Trying not to get my pants (sorry, trousers) pulled down by shifty agents, bucket shops and two-bit operations when looking for work,
• Sorting out Ltd. Company / Umbrella Company / Tax issues,
• Dealing with dodgy contracts and settling on a pay rate,
• Getting paid in the first place.

So (to steal quotes from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), it’s been…emotional.

I’ll be heading off to Bulgaria and Amsterdam next, so by the time I get back I’ll be able to say “I would like 2 Vodka Martinis” in Bulgarian and explain the subtleties between hydro and chronic.