This week’s been busy, and next week may well be busier.

This week was all “Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be” and “Well, that won’t work, maybe this will” and “My brain can’t even cope with that” and “Sure, but who’s going to pay for it”.

Next week could be “Do we want taller?” and “Well you should have said so” and “I know, but we’ve got to get it done” and “Don’t bother me, I’m learning”.

This weekend is going to be “I can’t bowl to save my life” and “My booze tolerance is so low these days” and “Man, it feels like a week” and “At least it’s Monday tomorrow”.

In the middle of all this, I played a few games.

Finished (deep breath) Penny Arcade Adventures – On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One, which I did enjoy a lot, but didn’t love, like a long-lost relative or whatever.

It sort of felt like playing an old-school RPG with new-school gameplay right next to Gabe and Tycho – which I guess was the point, so mission accomplished, lads. I will admit I got quite excited about the ‘trailer’ for Episode Two at the end of it. I like the idea of playing new parts every few months or so, and judging by Gabe’s recent post, the second installment is well in hand.

(Also: is it wrong to really think that Paint the Line 2 would actually make an amazing movie? Not convinced of its game potential. But a movie? C’mon.)

GTA IV is starting to relinquish its stranglehold on me, so naturally the next game to drop through my post box would be another Rockstar title – Bully: Scholarship Edition. Which is basically GTA without the vehicles and extreme weaponry. So far… it’s okay, but feels a bit half-baked.

In the browser, still tinkering with Ikariam and Twilight Heroes. I also spent an interesting lunchtime playing around with GemCraft, which I’m still not sure I quite got, judging by the reviews.

Last night I played around with a whole bunch of Xbox Live Arcade games for a couple of hours, expanding my view on that service by quite a bit. Up until now I’ve just played board and puzzle games on it (I highly recommend Carcassonne – and if you’re like my wife, it’s a great board game too) so it was interesting to see exact recreations (ports?) of things like Streets of Rage 2 and Warlords, and more up-to-date things like Small Arms and Assault Heroes.

Everything seems to take inspiration from elsewhere, which is a bit depressing, but it’s great to see all these things available at a touch of a button. I must try and explore the equivalent PlayStation 3 service a bit, too.

Right! Far too much time rambling. Day’s a wastin’.