I have now upgraded San Andreas from 640x480x16 to 1600x1200x32 with full anti-aliasing, and it is pretty. I've been playing it a little bit and am now about 10 missions in, running around in a green hoodie, camo trousers and a leopard-skin cowboy hat.

I'm not a fan of playing until I am done and then saving - if I die or am arrested, I will reload my saved game and continue; as we all know, freedom comes at a price (God Bless America and all who sail under her, by the way), and I don't like losing all my guns. However, the problem is that the first time you are killed or arrested, you have to sit through a long un-skippable explanation of what just happened. So, anyway, to avoid losing all the weapons I will pick up on my way through, I decided around mission 5 to let myself get arrested and killed. I feel dirty.

And it's a bit of ridiculous game, too. You have to dress and feed your player, work out at the gym to build your muscles, and get a haircut and tatoos. That's nice, but I think it's taking the interaction to a bit of an extreme. In a way I'm playing a game to escape the mundane day to day things of real life, and have a bit of fun driving around doing missions and having shoot-outs with police. If I wanted a real-life simulator, I'd buy the sims. But then Rockstar do have a habit of encorporating other games into the GTA range just for the hell of it - that taxi game, Dance Dance Revolution, and I'm guessing I'll come across some more swallowed games as I play on through. Having said all of that, it is a lot of fun.

Back in the real world, I can't figure out what to buy. I want some neato shiny goodness. I am thinking perhaps a video camera and editing software, or maybe audio sampling software, but then I don't have time to do my work, let alone start a new time-consuming hobby. So perhaps I should just get the replacement servers I've been meaning to get for ages. If you have any suggestions, let me know!

Ooh, only 192 days until Christmas!