Roo’s Ramblings

I’m not a huge gamer. I like games, but I’m not very good at them and so I tend to only play them for a little while (whilst the difficulty is low!) Fortunately, my brother works for a game retailer and he sends me many of his “old” games (he’s very good gamer and finishes things within hours). Anyway, the point is that I sort of like games, but they’re not a big deal, but then I saw Spore…
Spore is essentially a game that simulates the process of evolution. You start off life as a simple cell, searching for food sources, avoiding parasites, etc and it’s all very 2D. When you reproduce, you “edit” the next generation by making changes and then moving on. Eventually you become more complex and the world becomes 3D. It all sounds a bit weird but it looks very smart.
A great presentation can be found here. There’s also a good entry already in Wikipedia, even though the game hasn’t been released.

I’m still intrigued about how they will ensure that the player remains “hooked” because it does have the potential to get a bit stale. However, I’m hugely impressed at the vision of the game and it seems like it will really pull it off.

I’m enjoying a week off at the moment. Daytime TV is so dire that you are forced to delve into your DVD collection. I have quite a few, and my collection includes all three extended editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I must be a real fan, right? Well, no, actually.

I bought the first (Fellowship) on a whim because my girlfriend thought I’d like it (for some reason she thinks that because I’m into computing, I must like sci-fi/fantasy!). The film wasn’t that good but what I enjoyed a lot was the two discs of extras which come with the extended editions. They were really great and very interesting - I personally enjoyed them more than the films, and ended up buying the other two films purely on the stength of the extras (sucker!)
Yesterday, I watched Return of the King. I saw it at the cimema when it was released, but this was the first time I watched the extended version. My gawd, is it me or did that film last for about three days?!? Yawn.

How come no ones’ facial hair gets longer throughout these films?