…bought Half-Life 2, not knowing how it would play on my machine, and the answer is pretty well, running the game at 1024×768 resolution with all effects on half, so I am reasonably happy, obviously I am missing the Direct X 9 effects, but I can live with that for the time being. The game itself is very good; it has all the hallmarks of the original Half-Life, great game-play, great atmosphere and sound, and being able to drive vehicles while shooting is a great addition to the game, and being able to use objects around the game as weapons with the gravity gun, and of course it has the excellent back story that you come to expect from a Half-Life game. But my big bugbear with the game is the fact that you need to be online to play the game, offline mode doesn’t work, even when I follow the offline instructions to the letter. I don’t have a problem with Steam itself, just the fact that I need to be connected to the Internet, which will be a problem when I move as the connection will be down for a few days, and I wanted to use that ‘offline’ time to play the game!
Talking of moving, I have looked at the flat that I mentioned in the previous entry, and I quite like the place, so I have decided to take it. BUT there is a problem, when they did a reference check on me, they say that I am £50 in debt, I would really like to know what that is, as I have no idea. Anyway, my Dad will have to go guarantor for me, just in case I don’t pay the rent, which I will as I don’t like moving house, its too much hassle. Hopefully I will get the call sometime during this week to come in and sign all the necessary paperwork, and pick up the keys, and then I can think about moving everything, although I am leaving a lot behind, simply as I don’t have room for it in the new flat!
In football, my team has disappointed yet again, loosing 2 – 1 away at Leicester, what’s disappointing is the fact that Argyle went ahead on 9 minutes when Tony Capaldi scored from a Micky Evans cross into the box. But that good work was undone in the space of three minutes after the interval by two Leicester headed goals, firstly from Jamie Scowcroft, and three minutes later from Dion Dublin. OK, fair enough it was an away game, but since Plymouth cant seem to win at home lately, you have to look back to 30th August to find a win at Home Park. All this means that Argyle are slowly, but surely sliding down the Championship table, currently occupying the 15th position.
In Formula One, the David Couthard saga continues, Red Bull have now done a U-turn, and said that they may be interested in Couthard’s services for next year, but just a week ago, Red Bull boss, Dietrich Mateschitz said “Coulthard is not part of our selection”. Which makes me think that he isn’t really sincere about his comments, as he is likely to have one of his many Red Bull sponsored drivers in a race seat. I think that it may be better for Couthard to take up a testing role for next year, and maybe make a move back into a race seat for 2006. There were some rumours that Ferrari (of all teams) were interested in employing Couthard as a test driver, at least he could keep his skills sharp at Ferrari.