Essays are finished! Bring on the cider!  Hey guys. It's been a while, hasn't it? Those of you who read my last entry will recall that I decided to take a break from blogging in order to focus on finishing essays and assignments for my University course. I'm happy to report that all those essays are now finished, and I'm returning to the blogosphere. The last time I updated this blog was a hefty three weeks ago, and a lot has happened since then. Giant Bomb's got its own Quest system, and the crew have embarked on a brand new Endurance Run. While I've been out of the loop when it comes to blogging, I certainly haven't been ignoring the site completely. I've been keeping up with content from both the staff and the people I follow, and I've had no shortage of awesome blogs to read during my hiatus. I'm not going to try and pick up where I left off, although I do have a lot of interesting potential blog ideas swimming around my head. instead I'm going to briefly recap the last three weeks, to try and bring you (and myself) back up to speed.
 
 What better way to celebrate freedom than to cause mayhem in a sandbox? Given my reason for not maintaining this blog for the last three weeks, you'd probably think that I haven't had the chance to play a lot of video games. I didn't think I had either, but looking back on the time that's passed, I'm surprised how much play time I actually managed to squeeze in. First up is Far Cry 2, the ever-divisive open-world FPS developed by Ubisoft. I played the game on my 360 over my Easter break, and I'm looking forward to saying a little more about my time with the game beyond my 'Good Night, Mr Singh' post.  There's also Final Fantasy XIII, which I'm aound forty hours into. I'm currently on Chapter Eleven, exploring Gran Pulse, so I think my verdict on the game won't be ready for publication just yet. I devoted a few days of my break to playing The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition on the 360, which I completed and expect to blog about fairly soon. Finally, there's Just Cause 2, which I bought over Easter. I'd been messing around with it on-and-off until now, but today finally saw me starting a proper playthrough. As with Final Fantasy XIII, I think an impressions blog is a little way off yet. 
 
I know what you're thinking - that seems like a lot of video game activity for somebody who's supposed to be focusing on essay-writing. Truth be told, though, I didn't really spend that much time playing. I only played around nine hours of Final Fantasy XIII over my Easter break, The Secret of Monkey Island only took up six hours of my time, and up until today I'd only been able to squeeze in the occasional half-hour of mayhem in Just Cause 2. Admittedly, Far Cry 2 did take up a lot of my time (close to thirty hours, if memory serves me), but at least a third of that time was clocked before my self-imposed gaming drought.
 
I genuinely don't know if I'm going to dig Mass Effect or not I seemed to compensate for not spending much time on games over the break by spending a fair amount of money on them instead. Alongside my purchase of Just Cause 2, I picked up a copy of the 2008 Prince of Persia for a mere £5. Similarly to Far Cry 2, it's an Ubisoft game that seems to have prompted a clear divide in opinion through its playerbase. I like the look of the game, though, and to be honest I think it might make a nice, relaxing experience to share with my girlfriend over the summer. As a pre-emptive reward for finishing my essays, I also ordered myself copies of Saints Row 2 and the original Mass Effect from Amazon. In spite of some niggling issues I really enjoyed the first Saints Row, so I expect to enjoy the sequel as well. As for Mass Effect, that's a somewhat strange purchase for me. I've never been struck on the whole "space-opera" vibe that it seems to give off, so I'm treating Mass Effect as a gamble. In spite of this, I'm still quite excited about giving it a try, which I guess is a good sign.
 
Worry not, I've already got my ticket back to Midgar For those of you who've no doubt been waiting very patiently, I'll use this spot to confirm that this return to the blogosphere will also equal the return of my Enduring Final Fantasy VII series. I'm aware that more than a few of you are eagerly awaiting Episode Six, so I'll dig out my notes and will hopefully have something to grace this page with before the end of the week. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your patience and your loyalty - I was honestly expecting my number of followers to deplete over my break, so it's a very pleasant surprise to see that it's actually increased. I'll do everything in my power to make sure that future instalments are worth the wait. Thanks very much for reading, guys. I'll see you around.
 
 
Dan
 
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Currently playing - Just Cause 2 (X360)