Portal is Free

I have been meaning to get my hands on this since I heard about it at the beginning of the week but never quite got round to it. I finally got round to downloading it yesterday and have been playing with it for the first time today. I remember when it first came out my friend showing me a trailer for it and actually being quite interested in a computer game for one. I could never quite commit myself to paying the £20 or whatever it was for it though so I never bothered. When I heard that it was free however, I couldn't resist - especially as I am nearing the end of the year and will be looking for a source of entertainment.

I have played about ten levels already and have only stopped because I have come to a dead end. It does actually make you use your brain a bit for problem solving which are the kind of games I like. I may find that in other levels there is a timed element to it which is where I will start to lose interest. I am useless at things that are timed because I can never quite get there - or am so far off that I am convinced I'm doing it wrong. Most of the time it requires accuracy and precision and I simply don't have the hand eye coordination for games like that.

I have also started watching the stack of films that I have built up over the dissertation period and today's choice was The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. I was intrigued by the title when I saw the trailers for it earlier in the year but had heard reviews that it was a bit too weird. Admittedly it did take me a while to work out what was going on but once I had done, it was a thoroughly enjoyable film with wonderful fantasy elements in the middle of it. I didn't even notice that the actor playing the character of Tony changed part way through the movie until he had been a different actor for a while. It was only then that I did a double take and remember hearing about the several actors drafted in to play him after the death of Heath Ledger.

Overall it was a superb movie with a perfect blend of CGI fantasy and emotional real life scenes. You can really tell it was from the pen of ex-Python Terry Gilliam because of the slightly bizzare storyline but it all comes together so beautifully I strongly suggest you rent/buy/see it if you get the chance.

Finally, the single of the week for this week comes from Sub Focus featuring Coco (off've I Blame Coco). The song is called Splash and it combines Coco's haunting vocals with an ethereal somewhat alien sounding melody. It is another drum and bass track that I have grown to like - mainly I suppose as with Pendulum's work - because of the vocals on top of the instrumental.