Summertime and the livin' is easy ...

In the words of Mike Skinner on the Streets album 'A Grand Don't Come For Free', today I have achieved absolutely nowt. It's my holiday and given that it is too wet to go anywhere I have been self indulgent and spent the day playing video games and blogging.

First up was Return of the King on Gameboy Advance. I got this for Christmas, but found it tough going at first until I realized the trick to playing it was to have four characters in different save games so that you can swap items between them (so Legolas gets the special bows, Gandalf the enchanted staffs and so on). Once you have completed it with one character you unlock the first of the bonus maps, which is a dungeon crawl through Moria and it is excellent for leveling up characters a notch and putting points into the skills you want to develop. The more I play this game, the more hidden depths are revealed – the character progression is more complex than a lot of rpgs with each character having a different set of active and passive skills to work on. Should Gandalf concentrate on magic or combat skills? Is Gimli best as a treasure hunter or an axe chucker?

The graphics on the GBA are simply stunning. Each character is fully animated and the weapons and shields change as you equip different items in their inventory. The backgrounds are intricately detailed with butterflies flitting round trees in Ithilien, streams and waterfalls that ripple and reflect, rain, snow and rock falls that shake the screen, and rivers of lava in Mordor. The music and sound effects are similarly good, with the rousing themes from film working surprisingly well and the noise of eating the health restoring herbs is a fantastically realistic crunching noise that makes you want to go and eat a juicy apple.

Whilst each character shares some of the levels with the others (Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas have pretty much the same quests) there are plenty of differences, and Frodo and Sam probably have the most challenging time with Shelob to fight. The landscapes range from encampments, through caves, tunnels and dungeons, to snowfields, woodlands, besieged cities and body strewn battlefields. Some of the parallax effects as you walk along narrow mountain ledges and see the ground passing below are very effective. There are unique treasures and artifacts to collect which unlock more of the bonus maps, and you can play it on multi player link up if you have two cartridges.

What more can I say? If you have any interest in Lord of the Rings or role playing games then this game is an essential purchase for the GBA.

Secondly, I've had an hour on Thief:Deadly Shadows on the x box which was about all that my nerves could take. I've been playing with head phones since our surround sound amp went on the blink and the difference is striking. I was searching a forbidden library for a map that I needed and spent a lot of the time just hugging a wall and listening to the footsteps of the patrolling guards, too frightened to make a move. This is genuinely spooky stuff and the bits of the plot line that I am unpicking from reading books and scrolls, and listening to the snatches of conversation, is really building up a fantastic atmosphere.