New Year's Eve

So, another year draws to a close and we're all a little older and, hopefully, wiser.

The gaming industry seems to have gone a little crazy with overloaded hype that perhaps led us to believe that some new games might be a little better than they actually were. We were also shown that greed makes some ride roughshod over their employees for the sake of profit. We also saw the same company buy a large share in a rival company, which does not bode well at all. More small developers were forced out of business or had to make many of their staff redundant as they try to adjust to soaring development costs.

The world at large has seen its own share of disasters, from man-made ones in Africa and Iraq, to natural ones like the recent tidal waves around the Indian Ocean. My heart goes out to the families of those who have died and to those who have been injured, are dying, or starving as a result of the tragedies that have unfolded. With constant reminders, too, of the continued increase in global warming, I realise just how precarious our existence is at times.

Let's hope that 2005 proves to be a better year for all of mankind.