10:35

The two medical checkups didn't provide any huge surprises. My weight has remained more or less the same for the last two years, but then again I haven't really taken serious measures to lose it. I am eating healthier than I was 12 months ago, but then again I was the health fanatic's worst nightmare back then. Going cold turkey off all my habits is something I most likely couldn't do even if I tried, so I'm dropping lethal stuff off my menu gradually.
In other "news", my blood pressure is still a bit high, but nothing too alarming. Thankfully the best doctor in the house wasn't on vacation, and she even got me an appointment for my left knee I busted up over an year ago playing badminton. The line for getting it examined - without handing all your over to a private practice - is only 18 months for non-emergency cases. So, kids.. When you wreck a part of your body, bust it up good.

More after lunch...


12:13

Hell has apparently frozen over, because Max Payne has actually hit the shelves. This is a product people have joked more about than Pyramid 3D and Glaze 3D put together, and I seriously douted it would get released in my lifetime.
After "quickly testing" it for 5 hours straight last night, my verdict is that the game is exactly what I excepted. Your basic Guage™ with a few gimmicks thrown in to make it look new and exciting. Still, with all the cliches and lack of big new innovations it has proven to be quite an enjoyable experience so far. It's also top-notch technically, but what else can you expect from a Finnish software house? :) More variation to the repetitive levels and a plot which wouldn't seem as it was written by a 10-year-old, and you'd have a winner.
Financially speaking, Max already is one. Apparently pre-orders alone sold twice as many copies Remedy & 3D Realms needed to sell in order to break even. Go Finland!
I was originally intending to write something in the Max Payne -node, but this is where subjective crap belongs in.