This is meant to be where I talk about what we played this week, but instead all I've got is a story about how I didn't play FIFA 12 because our ad man Andy Spenceley decided getting a free pair of shoes was more important than the happiness of the entire office!
Right, so we'd agreed to play FIFA at lunch. It was set in stone - the kind of arrangement you can't break. Lunch rolled round, I nipped out to buy a chicken wrap, headed back, sat in the gaming room and waited. Spenceley had decided he had to use a deal through his phone provider to nab a free pair of summer shoes - things weren't looking good for FIFA at lunch, or FIFAAL as I will now call it.
He'd be right back for FIFAAL, or so he believed. 45 minutes later, at 1:50 pm, he returns, crap-looking 50p shoes in one hand. He wants to start FIFAAL now but even a 5-minute game would take too long. I sit slumped in my chair, once again disappointed that Andy 'Smiler' Spenceley decided to put his happiness above my own. The FIFAAL dream is over.
Yay! Regular readers of this weekly featurette are no doubt delighted to see me go back to Skyrim. Blame Dawnguard, if you must - it put me back on the mountain path, and Shadowmere and I are happy to climb it near-vertically. I'm actually heading back onto the main questline now, having exhausted the four main factions, and I figure it's finally time to knock off Alduin.
It really is a wonderful game, and while I am sympathetic to those who've had their experiences tarnished by nasty bugs I have (touch wood) managed to get by pretty scot free. I've certainly had a less painful experience than with Oblivion, which routinely forced me to flush my Xbox 360 cache for some reason that I never quite understood.
One thing that struck me this week is that many are quick to criticise Bethesda for its storytelling. While I wouldn't say plot and character have ever been Bethesda's strongest areas, there's plenty of rich ambient narrative here for those willing to find it. For instance, I am particularly fascinated by the relationship between the daedric princes and mortals and how such a religious, supernatural world seems unnaturally devoid of any nice deities. Basically, nothing good ever seems to happen to anyone in Skyrim.
I've been desperately trying to get back into Battlefield 3 this week, eagerly looking for reasons to justify shelling out nigh on £40 for its DLC. But every time I try, I'm put off by the unbalanced carnage provoked by the arrival of private servers.
300% tickets? Snipers only? What is this - a late 90s PC shooter? But, to the game's detriment, that's exactly how Battlefield 3 feels at the moment - a disappointing reality to someone who just wants to play a 'normal' game of Rush.
EA, give me back some official servers and maybe then I'll think about laying down the cash for Premium.
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