Being Distracted

It feels like an eternity but I've had no internet since Wednesday last. Your net-addicted writer spent a couple of hours wondering how the hell to fill his time before settling down to actually playing games.

Without the constant desire to check email and engage in IM chat my mind was free to concentrate on a game for once. The game in question was 2005 FPS Black on the old Xbox, a game notorious for its stingy save points. You have to go a fair while before you reach a checkpoint and even then it doesn't save your position, it merely allows you to go back there if you die.

So I knuckled down and tackled the second mission. The (unskippable) cutscene before it made absolutely no sense and was ultimately pointless. You just move forward, shoot and try not to die. There are also lots of tankers, fuel dumps and the like that you can blow up, gives you a buzz.

Without the constant pull of the internet I managed to get through the lengthy second mission which, on the third try, I managed to complete on Normal. If the net had been there I'd have not stuck at it, if I'm being honest. That isn't something I'm proud to say, and it actually does worry me - how much else could I achieve if I wasn't sat on the internet all evening?

I'm not saying I want to lose my net connection, it's great to have, but it just goes to show how much it has affected how I play games.