Blog FeedHow I’ll spend my Summer Vacation
I don’t really have a “Summer Vacation” per se, aside from the humidity here in central Florida, and the threat of hurricanes, perhaps the worst thing about the Summer time is that there really aren’t many big games being released. So when I’m not working, these are the things I’m going to be enjoying this summer. Some involve games, some do not.
Probably the biggest time consumer however is games, but not new games. I’ve been scouring Amazon for months working up a collection of classic games to get to. These have a few advantages over new games. First of all I already know they don’t suck, and that tends to help things along quite a bit. Second of all classic games tend to be longer and harder than a lot of the stuff put out today. This helps things along of course too as new games I have a tendency to beat in 2 or 3 days and then put up on the shelf never to come back to for months at a time. I’ve got to finish up Throne of Bhaal, then both Fallout games to get to, the X-wing & Tie Fighter Series, Neverwinter Nights and the fairly new KOTOR 2 on top of that in my backlog. I know there is the 500 pound gorilla that is Battlefield 2 but I’m not impressed with the demo. If that’s your thing then by all means frag-on.
It wouldn’t be summer without a big movie season filled with stupid action movies, and this summer is not really different. I already saw Star Wars and would like to see that one again, Mr. and Mrs. Smith looks like a fun film as does Batman Begins. Beyond that, however I’m not seeing much I want to see. King Kong however is really my favorite on the list; not because I’m a huge Kong fan but after making Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson gets a free pass to impress again. Charlie and the chocolate factory should also be amusing as Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are a “can’t miss” combination for that film even if it won’t be as cool as the original. I’m not so sold on War of the Worlds or Jamie Fox’s next picture as those seem to be really recycled ideas. I really hope that somebody comes out with a great one but I’m not sure it’s going to happen. Fantastic 4 looks like it’ll follow in the shoes of the Incredible Hulk and Daredevil for some of the worst comic book adaptations of all time.
Sometimes the books of summer are overlooked but that won’t happen this year. Harry Potter 6 is coming so brace yourselves. This one is going to be LONG if any of the tea leaves are being read correctly. I’m hoping this isn’t a ship without a mast as Ms. Rowling fired her editor. Other than that I’ve not really seen another big book coming out this summer. I’d hope to find one but that market is more touch and go than any of the entertainment markets. The book I’m really dying for isn’t due out till this fall when Wheel of Time ships the penultimate book in the series, Book 11, Knife of Dreams.
So, while their may not be a whole fleet of new games coming at me like the beginning of last spring or fall, their certainly is plenty for me to do to make it through the summer months. I think I’m probably more interested in the Potter book than the other stuff but the games will take up as much of my time as anything.
16th June | Reply
Well, even though it’s winter over here, I’ll be getting a month off (all of July). I have a fair bit of work to do, mostly making a few desired tweaks to Aelon, but I plan on doing a very, very substantial overhaul of Aelon’s forums to give them a more unique and streamlined look. Not sure how that’ll go.
I plan on seeing Batman Begins, as preliminary reports give it a big thumbs up which hasn’t happened for a Batman flick since… I can’t remember. Mr and Mrs Smith is also on my shortlist, and War of the Worlds is something I’d like to see out of personal interest, but that’s about it. I don’t plan on reading anything over the holidays, aside from road signs, food packaging, and my PC screen.
As for games, I do need to try out the BF2 demo online, and I may actually try and start Half-Life 2, now I’ve had it for ages and never really played it. However, I am a year overdue for a HDD format, and I think my PCs performance is really starting to suffer because of it, so serious gaming may have to wait until after that. And formatting won’t happen until I’m happy with my updates to this site.
So yeah, it should be a busy month, but I’ll be glad to have these cursed exams over and done with. First one is tomorrow, last one is on the 27th.
16th June | Reply
The summer games drought never really bothers me as it gives me a chance to catch up on all the games I haven’t had time to complete.
And I’m going to try very hard to do so for I am going to be faced with a bigger games drought soon (though for once publishers are not to blame).
I’m going to university in September and I’m getting a lap top but it’s not going to be capable of playing games (it’s just too expensive).
I’m considering buying a console but I have to wait for the next gen consoles to come out (The Revolution is looking likeliesdt providing that the actual revolution is worthwhile).
So there will be a period where I won’t be playing many games.
As for the rest of the summer I intend to see Hitchhiker’s Guide, Batman, War of the Worlds and League of Gentlemen Apocalypse.
There’s tons of good music coming out just now as well.
As for books, Harry Potter isn’t my cup of tea but I’m sure there iwill be plenty of books to get (and I’m still in the process of buying all of the Robert Rankin and Tom Holt books.
Other than that summer will be filled with work so that I don’t get into too much debt at Uni.
16th June | Reply
Hmm…what will I be doing?
Well im going to Malta for a week at the start of August. I probably wont watch any movies in the cinema, as I never seem to anymore, but I may watch a few of my friends DVDs of films.
As for games, I have a few I started last summer, but never got round to finishing, namely Deus Ex and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. I also need to finish Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. I may also buy Timesplitters 3, but that depends on time/money.
With books, I never tend to read any new books. I will probably just buy some well known books that I havent got round to reading yet, for example The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
The main thing I will be doing will hopefully be getting a job. At 17, I could really do with one, as I need to start saving up for University.
17th June | Reply
Summer for me is upgrading, working and just generally relaxing. I am sure there will be a “vacation” or two in there as well. However now vacations are less of a big planned family event and more of a spontaneous weekend trip to who knows where with friends.
Gaming will definitly be there. No doubt a large portion of my nights will be in front of this gorgeous screen. The Battlefield 2 demo does not dissappoint and I expect the full game shall be great fun. I can’t think of many other summer titles though. Near the end of summer and throughout the fall my PSP shall be receiving many new games.
I just saw Batman Begins tonight and it really floored me. I was actually expecting to be surprised after reading some impressions of it but the level of surprise really took me back. It is one amazing movie. Yes a great movie all on its own, not just a good comic book movie. It is really just rock solid entertainment with flawless execution.
18th June | Reply
Isn’t that the same book that labels you as a sleeping assassin or something? I seem to recall this from some movie with Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts and Patrick Stewart, although I forget the name of it…
In terms of this summer there are 2 items that feature heavily, 1 moderate, and a bunch of things that I might do if time permits. For the heavies I have a 2-week holiday with my wife and my parents on a yacht somewhere around France during which time I expect to be sick a lot, although some of that may be due to an abundance of cheap wine. The other item to feature heavily is going to be my MSc dissertation that needs to be written pretty soon, so I’m going to be spending a lot of time going over project management documentation, JSP/Servlets, and looking to implement a project blog portal for my company.
Aside from the major items I hope to be doing a lot of cycling now that (finally) my bike has arrived. Belgium is pretty great for this sort of thing and I’m in dire need of the exercise…
Beyond this I have a couple of games that I’d like to play (Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2), a shitload of books that I’ve bought over the years, and my Java skills need brushing up. I’d like to watch most of the movies that have been cited by others but we never seem to get to the cinema these days…
20th June | Reply
I just picked up George R R Martin’s “A Game of Thrones” which is part one to a yet-to-be-finished saga. Feels like Tolkien slightly but a bit less boring to read (sorry). If the rest of the saga is paced as well and as gripping as this book I will be diving into all of them this summer. A good summer series since book one weighs in at nearly 1,000 pages and the third book is over 1,500.
22nd June | Reply
My vacation will come until the last weeks of August, and will be spent back at home letting myself be spoiled by my parents. If I decide to get all productive, I’ll try to hang out with a friend of mine that has a restaurant back there and probably try to get him to work on his menu, or get a “theme” menu for a short time.