Sore throat. Ouchies. Probably not enough sleep. It got me a sickie yesterday at least.

Big Lebowski didn’t end up getting played at uni on Tuesday, they fucked up the DVD that they hired (isn’t it meant to be illegal to hire a movie out to screen publically?) and accidently got Fargo or something. Not that Fargo is a bad movie, we just didn’t feel like watching it after we spent the last week or two and the whole day getting excited about seeing it (as Lou still hasn’t)… Oh well, Saturday perhaps!

Gotta leave for uni soon. I hate early tutorials when that’s all that I have on for the day. How sucky. :< The subject's website says we have to hand some work in each tutorial, but the tutorial questions came with answers this week… ? They were also labelled "week 3" even though it's week 2… I'm so confused. At least I'll hopefully have some time now to buy my textbooks I guess, as I'll have a few hours (ie, 5) before work tonight.

Bought Doom 3 on Tuesday. As most switched-on reviewers have commented: it's an ordinary game on a terrific engine. It is basically a tribute/near-remake of Doom 1. Linear gameplay, weak story, weak characters and no real replayability. It looks beautiful though and the lighting effects are amazing. I had to crank up the gamma through the in game console to be able to see anything though… I think it's perhaps a little too dark most of the time.

The multiplayer is fun (and it feels very, very smooth) but will be short lived. I’m pretty sure the id boys concentrated all their time on making a solid engine that they knew they could license out to other developers. The hype about the singleplayer experience (whilst still a fun game, it’s AI is weaker than that of Half-Life’s and the story is even weaker) was just to make BIG dollars. It appears they’ve already released the source code to certain developers (I know Quake 4 is being made off a modified Doom 3 engine) and I think a map editor is included with the game. Mods will keep this game alive (and there will be many!).

Now we wait for Half-Life 2, which appears to have a more dynamic engine (and most likely a great storyline and experience). It’ll be tough to match the smooth movement that only id seem to be able to provide, though. Still, it’s very possible. Apparently the latest Unreal Tournament is meant to have a killer engine. Unfortunately, I’ve always had issues with the way the mouse and player movement feels in UT. Hopefully the latest one is smooth sailing.

About time I cleaned my teeth and went to uni I think. Huzzah.