Tonight, tonight, tonight

Ever since I bought my Xbox 360, I've kept a somewhat wary eye on it. Its reputation for loudness, overheating and failure often weighed on my mind and sometimes I ask myself: Why did I buy an Xbox 360 in the first place? I now have the answer: Mass Effect.

Mass Effect is a sci-fi role playing game from Bioware, who made other excellent RPGs like the Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic series. And this game has all the hallmarks of a Bioware game. Excellent plot, interesting characters and amazing visuals. You play Commander Shepard, a human soldier trying to save the galaxy. You can customise Shepard in a myriad ways, from gender, hair, and facial structure. The combat is fun and simple, and there are plenty of quests and things that keep you busy.

I bought Mass Effect for a mere $77 and I've been playing it since Monday, racking up 30-something hours of play. I've been hooked since I started playing and already I'm thinking of playing it again a few times just to try different play styles, dialogue choices and plot options. And the times that I'm not playing Mass Effect, I'm catching up on reading. I introduced my dad to the wonders of buying stuff off the internet and while he is suspicious of eBay, he has really taken to Amazon and has already bought a swag load of books from them. The books on my list right now are:

• Secret Army Secret War: Washington's Tragic Spy Operation in North Vietnam by Sedgwick Tourison

• The Black Book of Communism by Stephane Courtois et al

• A Devil in Paradise by Henry Miller

I've only finished the first, which basically details the shitty US spy operation in North Vietnam. Basically they trained South Vietnamese soldiers to do special ops like in World War II, recruiting freedom fighters and disrupting the North Vietnamese Army by blowing up bridges and dams and etc. Pretty much all the ops were massive failures. There was no clear leadership nor goals and later when clear goals were detailed it was way too ambitious. All the parachute drops into North Vietnam basically failed. The teams were drop way off course and in most cases were captured by North Vietnamese forces within days. The VC had basically penetrated the operations centers in the South and the US were too arrogant to assume that they had been compromised. It just shows that while the US is the world's foremost superpower, it has and can be defeated in the battlefield. That's what Vietnam was. A defeat. And that's not mentioning the conspiracy theories on how the US cut deals with China to abandon Vietnam. It's an interesting but depressing read.

The two other books I haven't read yet, but I'll probably start with A Devil in Paradise, seeing that the Black Book of Communism is over 800 pages on detailing the failures and atrocities of communist regimes.

Well I guess it's back to some more Mass Effect.