Economics for dummies

Since Christmas coincided with my first wage packet, I spent some money. This is something that over the last 24 and a half years I have generally avoided as much as possible, but when your bank account suddenly inflates by a huge sum, you think “well maybe I could…”. I’m not sure what my net profit is. I don’t seem to have been charged any tax, which isn’t right. Also I need to deduct train fares which are a bit more than £100 per month

So I bought the 2K games pack on Steam. £39.99 for god knows how many games. The edited highlights are:
Civ III, IV, V (I have III and IV, but not V)
Bioshock I + II
Mafia I + II (I have played I but it was years ago, and it was very good)
Borderlands

And a bunch of other stuff. Those were the ones that interested me, anyway. Borderlands reminds me a bit of Fallout New Vegas. Some of the audio cues and music place you squarely back in the Mojave desert, and then there’s that little robot thing. My main complaint is that it is unaffected by your bullets.

CiV V has some terrible American accents. There is something jarring about ruling over your ancient civilization with an iron fist while “I vow to thee, my country” plays in the background (really, it does), to find the advisor pop up and declare in a casual American accent “I have some information that may be of interest to you…”. I don’t know what part of America this particular accent is from, but I also recognise it from the intro to Heroes of Might and Magic III, where it was equally out of place. Little things like that can make a big difference.

Bioshock’s writing is terrible. I wish games would have a bit of self respect. If your dialogue reads like it was rejected from a Hollywood film for being too stupid then it’s a good sign you should drop the dialogue.

Also I am considering a £4.99/month Spotify subscription so I can listen to the Beastie Boys all day at work.