Army Break 7: Enough is enough.

Just a lovely Grim Fandango video for you luvs. We'll soon be talking about armies, games and, err, stuff though.

Army Break 6: Ahh, yes, the army. And PC Zone.

It occurred to me that, well, I haven't really mentioned anything regarding my time spent in the army, which frankly is kinda weird. I am after all boring everyone to death about the subject. Seems to be the only thing on my mind lately, exactly as people had foretold. Then again this is -supposedly- a gaming blog, and surely you lovable lot wouldn't care for crude jokes that don't make sense outside a military camp, nor would it be normal for you to be interested in my ridiculously long list of petty and not so petty complaints.

So, let me just say that the whole experience has so far been far more tiring than expected, feels outrageously pointless and really isn't that much fun. On the other hand, a rare moment of army induced boredom, coupled with a bit of free time, led me to paying for a ridiculously overpriced issue of PC Zone UK. And then to promptly and quite obviously reading it. PC Zone, you see, had always been my fav PC gaming magazine ever since I laid hands (ages ago) on its jaw-dropping issue 4. And yes, even though I am no longer a regular reader, I was quite aware of the fact that the mag had changed hands and that things aren't up to old times standards.

Still, I was expecting a good, rich and well-written issue. Despite the ridiculously cheap and thin paper the mag was printed on and the impressively uninspired cover. Sadly, I was quite disappointed.

The mag felt painfully small, heavily focused on mainstream gaming and lacked the variety of articles, humorous bits, features, reviews and previews that made it what I used to enjoy. Granted, most parts were actually well written and the humour -where present- was generally good, but I just couldn't help but feel annoyed at some really silly and sub-par reviews that judged games solely on genre. Or the fact that half of the issue covered, in what can only be described as excited fanboy tones, dull FPS offerings. Or that the retro section was incredibly poor. Or that PC Zone completely failed to offer something other than what can readily be accessed in your average gaming site. Or that the DVD was filled with demos. Or that the number of reviews was shockingly low.

Oh well, at least there's still Retro Gamer to provide me with analog reading fun...

Army Break 5: Spanking Death

Don't quite know why but it felt oddly appropriate.

UPDATE: Just got myself a twitter thingy! Hoorah! Now, time to return to them desolate border island and torment myself.

Army Break 4: Off to the borders

Well, as I only have another couple of hours in Athens, thought I'd let you know that a) I'll be off very soon to serve on a certain island and b) that I really need some sleep. Should be back after a few months or -provided I get really lucky- some weeks.

Cheers and take care everyone!

Army Break 3: Games for men

Surely most wont be surprised, but the people (involuntarily) serving the Greek army are indeed men. Men coming from all classes, of all educational levels and generally between their late teens and early thirties. Men, one would say, that are what video game demographers would describe as the gaming's hardcore audience. So, this being a gaming blog and me having understood that people not in the army don't find army jokes and funny situations particularly amusing, let me talk about what these men play. Oh, and please don't expect any sort of sociological insight and/or analysis. The army does after all rot ones brain. Severely.

Anyway, in their vast majority soldiers tend to enjoy Pro Evolution Soccer on either the PS2 or the PS3. Shockingly even sheepherders (a certain sheepherder actually) that can't read or write also play and love it, as do most officers. Football Manager on the PC sits firmly in the second place, closely followed by the collective forces of console-based fighting and driving games. World of Warcraft and Street Fighter are also among the more popular titles, unlike all things Wii. Nintnendo's ultra-popular family oriented beast is, it seems, considered an obscure kids console that can't even play porn DVDs.

As for handhelds the PSP is by far the more popular. The iPhone comes a distant second and I've yet to see a Nintendo DS.

Oh, and on an unexpected note, adventure games are actually popular among us grunts. Especially Monkey Island and Gabriel Knight it seems, though Grim Fandango has more than a few admirers itself.

Cheers for now. Gotta sleep some more. Last night's 14 hours were apparently not enough...

Army Break 2: The Indie Rox (and military blues)

I really don't feel like discussing the army or anything related to it. I'll just mention the general lack of sleep it seems to impose on people and the fact that I never thought I could lose that much weight that fast. Oh, and it's dreadfully stupid, paranoid, tiring and boring. Right. Now I'll move on to something more game related. A list of interesting things that seem to have happened while I was guarding obsolete stuff nobody would ever want to steal anyway:

• Rox -the brand new Atari ST game- got itself released.
• Time Gentlemen, Please is here AND so is the interview with its creators.
• Super Mario Bros. X can nowadays make our PCs happy.
• Frantic Franko Demoooooooo!
• The Adult/Educational compo has began.