Dude #1: Yeah, the gameplay is really cool, and in the endgame there’s this crazy big monster. And if you get the expansion pack, there are these awesome extra units …

Dude #2: Um … I’ve got an assignment to do …!

I am sitting in one of the laptop areas in the Reid, and someone behind me appears to have stolen (ahem, “borrowed”) his friend’s clearly gruntier laptop to perform a demo of a game.

Speaking of gamers, there’s an amusing kerfuffle over the planned closure (ahem, “scaling back”) of E3, the big and expensive trade show in Los Angeles that generated mindlessly gushing reviews of new games in the tech media every year.

At first I was mildly shocked to hear the news, but then I learnt the perfectly reasonable commercial reasons for calling it a day. And on second thought, perhaps this will help the gaming industry grow some much-needed maturity — blowing your marketing budget by pandering to fanboys is hardly a good way to convince customers that you have strong gameplay or kick-ass technology. Worse, it creates the impression that all the industry does is pander to fanboys, which IMHO is a big part of why the gaming biz is having trouble entering the ‘mainstream’.

To summarise the last week or so of Hourann-ness, one might be tempted to write thusly:

• Half-Life 2 is awesome. Like, mate, fully sick. Even on an ancient & dodgy box like mine, it actually runs smoothly (albeit at lowest quality), which makes it quite possibly the only recent and cool game that my computer is able to run. Mmmmm, headcrab …
• I have managed to brainwash enough of the right people into thinking that I’m cool, that I’ve been invited to do honours in stuff! This is amazing … although it’d be a tad more amazing if I’d actually finished my degree and was able to do honours. Still, receiving a (personally signed!) letter from the head of Maths was a rather momentous event.
• While I’m being self-congratulatory … OMG I GOT 85 IN 3P7! That little bribe *ahem* positive incentive, er, must have worked. (If you know anything about 3P7 Rings and Number Theory, you know why this counts as a Major Achievement.)
• There is (egad!) photographic evidence that I did, in fact, work at the ASCILITE conference, and I did, in fact, receive free alcohol as a result.
• Big Man Cam is back from Florida, so all is well with the Universe again.
• I am a slack bastard, particularly when it comes to birthday presents. This is not a reference to anyone in particular. No. Of course not!