Got to play Colin McRae 04 at the office today, and I'm now craving a good racing fix. I've already fired up Burnout 2 on the PS2 (still number one for sheer speed, and, dear God, those crashes); tomorrow, time permitting, I'll take Rallicross Challenge for another spin (it's been a while; it's a fantastic looking, but ultimately frustrating, racer) - but I'll definitely have to pick up McRae (the game, not the man) later this week. Though I played it for only a few minutes, the handling felt great, the courses appeared well designed, and the graphics were solid - and most importantly fast. There are few games that get my adrenaline pumping like a good racer.

And now for something completely different: Someone pointed out to me that in the German version of The Longest Journey - and this is all serious geek-speak reserved for the TLJ players out there, by the way - Lady Alvane, the old woman who appears at the beginning and end of the story, refers to herself as "April Ryan".

Well. Since I didn't personally do the translation or, as a matter of fact, ever play the German version of the game (my German is about as good as my Spanish: not very), I cannot verify the information. But I do know that in my version of the story - the original English one (which I obviously consider canon) - the Lady Alvane never calls herself April, and the whole question of her identity was intentionally and deliberately left unanswered. Translated interpretations aside, there are only two people who know the truth. And we're not telling. Yet.

Because it'll all be revealed eventually. When we say so.

Oh, and by the way, for those of you who wonder: I believe that time-travel is often a cheap and dirty solution to a difficult problem - a deus ex machina - and while I'm not saying there isn't time-travel in the TLJ universe; if it is, it certainly won't be cheap & dirty. And Lady Alvane's encounter with April Ryan halfway through the story isn't necessarily what it appears to be. Threads are intertwined not just across worlds, but across the ages; beginnings are sometimes endings; there are places where time does not move in a straight line - where time is irrelevant - and those places are closer than we think; and yes, this is all painfully obtuse, but, hey!, it's my journal. I get to do whatever I want to do.

Without revealing any great secrets - it's way too early for that - the TLJ saga is most definitely heading towards a grand conclusion...involving, amongst other grand and epic revelations, the Truth about Lady Alvane (which the Germans aren't privy to).

But that won't happen in the next game, because the next game is just part two, so you'll have to stay patient and stick with me. There are miles to walk yet.  ¶ 00:35