Ugggh – having some difficulties this morning. Wasn’t feeling too lively this weekend so after Friday night upstairs at The Chandos (which was crowded beyond the dreams of man) I decided to hole up for the rest of the weekend and do . . . nothing. Should have been Christmas shopping, but hey! Would have been a good idea too if I hadn’t been so incredibly inspired in my choice of video game entertainment.

OK – sounds lame but I was on my own in Blockbuster on Saturday evening (and getting lamer) and I felt a sudden urge to twiddle some buttons. One rental of Dredd vs Death for xbox later I’m sat at home thinking I’ll maybe play it for an hour or 2, watch a movie, go to bed.

Cue 9.30am Sunday morning. My thumbs are randomly twirling on their own, I’m jumpy, wired, sudden noises make my trigger finger contract spasmodically. Out of the corner of my eye I keep seeing Vampires & Death Cult Guards popping up to blow me away. Sheesh – maybe I should have paid some attention to the bit they always have in the instructions about taking regular breaks. What makes it so engrossing for an fps is that you can’t just shoot everyone. If you shoot the innocent big trouble starts, and often the bad guys will surrender – can’t shoot them either. It’s what makes it so twitch inducing – you can’t just merrily blast your way through the game – so you’re constantly trying to double guess each tiny movement – is it an ‘innocent’ citizen, an evil cultist, or one of a whole range in between.

So grab a few hours sleep and take up the trusty handset again about 4pm and get another 8 hours in – talk about a lost weekend! End result is that I had some very weird and gory dreams indeed and can definitely remember waking up feeling convinced that the streets outside my flat were crawling with the denizens of the undead and the criminally minded, all itching to get me.

It’s been years since I’ve been so engrossed in a game – perhaps I’m not past it yet after all, maybe I’ve just been playing the wrong kind of games. After all, while the odd God Sim is cool, nothing ever matches up to that original Sim City head rush, tho doubtless some will claim that Civ is in fact the ultimate God Sim.

Guess I could add this to my list of good things about being single :-

26) No-one to moan at you for playing ultra violent / incomprehensibly involved video games for 48 hours solid, neglecting to eat, sleep or an any way ablute during said period.