Humans have been known to complain about my undying love for Outrun 2 and its voluble and constant expression. It’s no secret that I always seem to have at least two pound coins in my pocket at all times and a haunted look when walking past one of Londons many arcades in case they have a machine. I am not alone. Thankfully.The main problem, as ever at this time of year is trying to find the momney to buy and time to paly all these amazing games. For example my list of must get stuff before Christmas sits at: Halo 2 (already preordered in the shiny box), Pro Evolution Soccer 4, Fable, Prince Of Persia 2, Football Manager 2005 and Outrun 2. Now that’s a lot of games, even taking into account that I won’t buy a game for more than £30 (against the industry standard £40 for a new game). I’m lucky (!) that Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords (most overblown title ever) has slipped to early 2005. Because quite frankly I just simply don’t have the best part of £200 to spend on gaming this Christmas, not as well as buying presents, going on Holiday and generally making merry anyway.

This is genuine crazyness from the games industry but almost to be expected in a hit driven economy like games publishing. I suppose I’ll just have to do what I did this year and pick up all the great games really cheap second hand or in bargain bins when they don’t sell, which is really sad for the publishers and pretty sad for me. Because games like Outrun 2, where every pixel is lovingly crafted and cared for by a team of software artisans are too good not to reward. I mean check out the video of what the Flag Waving Man does after you blast off. That my friends is due care and attention.

If this were a newspaper it’d have ‘Nick Richards has Splash Wave as his ringtone.’ here. But it isn’t, so it doesn’t.

Update: Well, emotion got the better of me and I bought OutRun2. It makes me smile.