I’m sitting here, back at home after getting soaked walking around Belfast. My ‘waterproof’ coat was completely saturated 10 minutes into a 30 minute walk to the Europa. The title may seem weird, but also familiar to those who have played Vampire Rain – the game with some of the dodgiest voice acting ever. Have a look at the video here, at about 0:59 the vampires start conversing. It’s a terrible game, and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone (though I have only played the demo, it was enough), but it is hilarious in some parts.

The week flew by, but was exhausting all the same. My brother headed off to the states, and now the three kittens we’ve had terrorising us for the last months are leaving us too, for a new home. It’ll be sad to see them go, but at the same time a bit of a relief, as they’re a lot of work and need constant attention. I managed a trip to Nerdtopia too, and played a few games of Carcassonne (which I won!) though that was our first time playing. It’s a pretty decent game, though could be slightly longer. You build roads and cities, and place followers on your property, which scores points once complete. There’s a fair bit of strategy involved, and if you aren’t careful you can get caught up in building a mega city which never gets finished. And I’m the new secretary of the Sci-Fi club, though I couldn’t get to the first committee meeting, as I was in Bangor at my GP attachment longer than usual. And of course, Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3 were released.

I didn’t end up fencing on Tuesday because I wasn’t feeling that great, but I did manage to get to the épée competition on Wednesday. I’m really glad I did make it in, it was a competition to remember. There were two poules of eight, and everyone fences everyone within their poule, so I had 7 matches. Out of 7, I won 6 and lost 1, and in overall points I was 4th. After not doing that well over the last few weeks, really pleased with the result. There’s another competition coming up in Londonderry next weekend, and I’m entertaining the idea of going to see what the level of skill would be like, because from what I’ve heard there are a lot of good fencers about. It’s managing to get up there that’s the problem, but I’ll worry about that later.

There was great excitement when I arrived home, as my package from Battle Orders arrived. Inside…my Colt Army 45 replica (one of the greatest weapons of Western times). It was a second, so a good bit cheaper, though I have no idea why. It’s in great condition, and came with six dummy shells as well. I expected something slightly more elegant, but it’s a beast, and as a result it’s fairly hefty. I’ll get some pictures up as soon as I can. Hopefully the 45 will feature in a few films, who knows where it’ll end up. Another prop for my collection.

The big news was the release of the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim today, on 11/11/11, though for some insane reason I didn’t preorder it, so I’m writing this instead of being glued to the Xbox. It’s strange; I was really looking forward to it around the time of Gamescom, but since then I’ve been too busy with other stuff to get excited about it. I really did love Oblivion, and Skyrim is getting very good write ups, but I haven’t been in any hurry to play it. Though if I did get it, that would be the end of any productive work for the duration of the game (and I’m already behind, so that wouldn’t be good). Unless my brother buys it, I’ll probably just wait until the price comes down a tad. Aside from that, and the MW3 release, I haven’t been thinking about games too much. I played Fear 3 briefly, and Mount & Blade, but as usual Mount & Blade got frustrating and I had other work to do. I played some Alan Wake last weekend, but I still can’t tell whether I like it or not; it’s definitely not the game I expected after first seeing it in the very first edition of the Xbox 360 official magazine. Yes, it really was that long in development.

Since I wasn’t gaming, I was mainly catching up on Battlestar and still reading the Song of Ice and Fire books. Battlestar Galactica is awesome! I take back anything I said about it being a tad repetitive/boring at times, it really isn’t. That was probably due to not watching the miniseries first. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it yet. I just finished a Storm of Swords too, and I’m on to a Feast for Crows. I think that’s pretty much it for now, but as always U’ll update if I think of anything else.