i decided a while ago to give this board up - have now also given up on PC gaming

thanks to those who corresponded with me and were friendly - apols for anyone not mentioned who feels they should have been but i include in that nutcrackr, smokey, FS and of course artur

Just to say that typically late, i've started playing FC2 - am enjoying it so far - i like the stealth elements and the whole collecting diamonds thing

It's also scarily realistic as unlike so many games there's no map with red dots or gunsights that change colour to tell you where enemy is

The whole 'being rescued' thing every time you die is a bit wierd, and to be honest i just reload my last save when it happens

The weapons aren't bad - am using the assault rifle, the silenced pistol and i like the RPG, that's great fun

Animals spotted so far - zebra, Thompson's gazelle, wildebeest

I'm already seeing what people mean about havin g to fight your way through every road block, also how it could turn into one micro-mission after another, but as i tend to game in relatively small sections at the moment, that's not so bad

So anyway i also finished Clive Barker's Undying last night - it started well, though the attempts to make it non-linear means even after the house has been completely overrun by demons you still find the odd servant wandering around like nothing's happened

Also there's not much of an adventure-game style aspect to it, which i thought there might be

And lastly it lurches from long periods of fighting the same type of enemy to a whole series of boss fights - never my favourite pasttime, and i must admit i used a cheat to max out my health on a few occasions...

I might review it at some point, but i guess i'd give it an 8 out of 10 - if only for the many amusing ways Galloway gets killed off by the various enemies

so thought I'd update on the games I've played recently:

Thief: Deadly Shadows – I LOVED this game- so much I only played it when I could give it my full attention and preferably at night when I could get the most of the atmosphere. Truly excellent stuff – to see why read my review

Timeshift – time-travelling FPS that enables you to go back and forth in time by a few seconds – a lot of fun, and the maps looked great – was a little linear though and there wasn't enough explanation of the world you were fighting in to make it truly satisfying – I'll try and do a review of that too though - it's definitely underrated by GS

Clive Barker's Undying: another game I didn't know about until recently, but really enjoying it - good storyline, nice characterisation and genuinely challenging play – had to downgrade from the hardest level because it was so difficult. It's long too – I've put in a good few hours now and I'm only about a quarter of the way through