I didn't know what hit me

It really was an instant switch. I'd changed from loving my DS to pieces to having the stark realisation that I wasn't using it for any other reason than the simple fact that it was there. I decided on the Monday morning, sold the games within two days, the DS itself within a week and then treated myself to a new monitor, something which was becoming sorely needed in the little room that the PC lives in.

So any portable games I play are now done so solely on my phone. It's something that my C500 is very good at. Whilst it can handle basic 3D very well indeed, games on the move for me have always needed to be turn-based affairs. I'm always too distracted by what's happening outside the car/train/plane/personal space to be able to get truly engrossed in games on portable systems, so something I can look away from without having to check the pause button works very well indeed. As the Windows Mobile arena is swamped with decent freeware adaptations of puzzle, board and card games, I'm very much set up for quite a while. I also have a copy of Redshift's Legacy to complete yet, so gaming on the go won't entirely fizzle out for me yet.

BIA:RTH30 really isn't getting any easier, although a restart of the troublesome level from last week cured some of my ills. It's still very good indeed, but requires more time than I'm able to give it at the moment. It's one of these titles that needs your full attention for a minimum of an hour at a time, which is something I'm only able to give once or twice a week. Progress will be made, believe me, but it may be slow.

In the meantime, quick gaming sessions are being catered for courtesy of PGR2 (still) and Need For Speed Most Wanted (which is another title I've yet to complete). As I treat racers more like sandbox titles I'm not really concerned about "completing" them, but to do so would be nice as I'm almost a month into my challenge and nothing yet's been ticked off the list (except the DS stuff, natch).

The new PC monitor has had me gaming in the box-room again. I'd let Call of Duty tail off a few months ago, with around a 50% completion ratio, but the new monitor's inspired me to get that finished. Once that's done I can get on with the job of sorting out Jack Carver's predicament in Far Cry.

The "game in the background" on the PC over the weekend has been GT Legends. This is (already) possibly my favourite serious racer ever. Effectively assembled by a team who built up their fame by modding other people's games, it takes the handling engine of FIA:GTR and wraps it round much more user friendly cars. Instead of being dumped into a turbo-nutter bastich of a race car, things start much more sedately with your first races being in Mini Coopers and progress through such beauties as Jaguar E-Types and classic Corvettes.