Yesterday I wrote "I expect to hit 10,000 pretty soon." A few hours after writing that, I got three more Assassin's Creed achievements worth 60 points, ending up at exactly 10K!
Oh, thank you, thank you! Really, the thundering applause is too much. I'm so, uh, proud.
Seriously, though, considering how long it took me to get to 5,000, I didn't think I'd make 10K in a year and a half (got my 360 in May 2006). But since August this year the points have been ticking in like nobody's business. Buying lots of games helps a lot, of course, but a lot of them have had fairly easy achievements, so I've definitely been lucky.
Next points milestone at... let's say 50,000. That'll take a while.
While I generally like sandbox games like Grand Theft Auto, the freedom they provide can often distract me to the point where I forget about the main storyline. In Assassin's Creed, however, Ubisoft have found a perfect balance between sandbox and hand-holding, and I'm having a wonderful time playing the game.
The game does become a bit repetitive after a while - gather information about your victims, kill, rinse, repeat - but I'm still hooked, for some reason. And climbing to the highest points in each area is amazing. I've played many games where I've been disappointed, because there's no way to reach the rooftops or mountains with the best views, and welcome games like Oblivion and Assassin's Creed where those spots are indeed (mostly) available to satisfy my climbing needs.
I've never been good at sneak-'em-ups - I'm almost always detected - so Assassin's Creed is great in that it's very forgiving when I'm having one of my less than subtle moments. Fight off the guards, or simply just run for it. Or both.
Before I got Assassin's Creed, I got Call of Duty 4. I wasn't able to finish the single player campaign before the assassin demanded attention, and I'm not sure when I'll get the time to do so, because now there's this other game I've been waiting for for a long time that's finally arriving. Earlier today, I got the email I've been waiting for: My copy of Mass Effect Limited Edition is in the mail. I'll have it on Friday or Saturday, then.
It's a good thing I'm going to take three weeks off from work in December/January. Even though I'm skipping a few games at this time, I'm going to be spending a lot of time playing games for the remainder of the year.
Before I finish, a short Gamerpoints update: Yesterday, while playing Assassin's Creed, my achievement number 500 ticked in. It was "The Blood of a Liege-Lord" and earned me 25 points. My total points stand at 9940, and I expect to hit 10,000 pretty soon. Yay me.
Actually, what I jokingly refer to as a "World Tour" ended in October, and I am as usually a bit slow in posting updates.
The Ptosis Chronicles stumble onward
My long-awaited visit to the hospital in Tromsų was on October 11th. I got the whole day off from work to fly north, see the doctor for about 20 minutes, then wait five hours for my return flight. The doctor, a tiny woman and possibly the cutest doctor I've ever had, was nice enough to say what no other doctor I've seen has been willing to say: My eyelids will never be completely normal. I will always have drooping eyelids. Furthermore, because the left eyelid doesn't close completely when I sleep (which is why my left eye is always very dry when I wake up), surgically raising it will only worsen the problem. I will have surgery on the right eyelid, which should help a little. No word on exactly when this will be, only that it'll be sometime next year.
What a Rush
I will always remember October 26th 2007. On that day I saw the greatest Canadian rock trio of all time perform live in Oslo Spektrum. This was my second Rush concert. Me and a few friends had seats on the tenth row over to the left - a great view of guitarist and funnyman extraordinaire Alex Lifeson. The setlist was a terrific mix of old and new, the new videos were great (the intro to "Tom Sawyer" in particular), and both the audience and the band were on fire that night.
'Tis the season
'Tis the season for games, of course! Let's see, I got Halo 3, loved it, got Eternal Sonata and The Orange Box, and I've hardly scratched the surface on those two. Call of Duty 4 arrived only two days before Assassin's Creed - and we now have less than a week to go before the arrival of Mass Effect. I've also bought a few Xbox Live Arcade titles. Needless to say, I have a lot of half-finished games lying around right now. Some of these will have to wait until next year, I think. As soon as I get my hands on Mass Effect, the rest will probably be left to gather dust for the rest of the year.
