Gadetry

Windows 7 Gadgets (and possibly Windows Vista Gadgets as well) are broken. I like to put the default analogue clock, calendar, weather, and CPU meter (and somtimes a newsfeed) on there, but they're nothing I can't do without. While the only issues I ever had in Vista were with online feeds not synching, the weather gadget in 7 stopped working, and so all gadgets stopped working. When I tried to open the gadget menu to remove the weather gadget, it tried to open the gadgets first, which, since they weren't working, would cause the entire gadget engine to crash. I had to remove the wetaher gadget's folder from the Program Files folder to even access the gadget setup menu, so I just turned them all off and left it at that... Until today, when the weather gadget was suddently back, all by itself. Rather than bring them all back, I've opted to keep them all off.

My little brother surprised me with Assassin's Creed II and Modern Warfare 2 for XBOX 360 for Chirstmas, and so all else (including sleep) has been put on hold while I plough through Assassin's Creed II. Three gaming sessions in, and the end is in sight; I'm about two thirds through the story proper, and I've finished the majority of the side missions and collectible treasure hunts. The storytelling in this sequel is still a little off in terms of pacing and dialogue, but the gameplay is much more streamlined than it was in the first game. All of the repetitive missions that a lot of people complained about in Assassin's Creed are now completely optional, and the story progresses much more cohesively. If you're like me and enjoyed completing every last (seemingly meaningless) mission in the first game, don't worry; you can still do that here, and then some... Yeah, the amount of stuff to do is overwhelming, to say the least. Hunting down treasure chests, eagle feathers, statuettes, codex pages, and glyphs, solving brain-teasers, buying art, designing our outfit, reading about the places you've visited, checking out vistas, or just bombing around... You often don't need to go anywhere near the main story for hours. I'm loving the game so far, and I think just about anyone can find something fun to do in there.

Ooh, and I bought the Eidos Collector Pack (Batman: Arkham Asylum, Deus Ex 1 and 2, Hitman 1 to 3, Just Cause, Kane And Lynch, Mini Ninjas, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Tomb Raider: Legend and Underworld, and eight more Eidos games) and the Telltale Everything Pack (every Bone, Sam & Max, Strong Bad, Tales Of Monkey Island, and Wallace & Gromit game by Telltale) on Steam for $100... Individually, all of those games would cost over $450... I love holiday sales :)