The other game I got for my PS3 was Oblivion, Game of the Year Edition.

If The Orange Box is big, Oblivion is gargantuan. Steve Yegge's post on Oblivion indicates just how big it feels - and I have the two expansion packs. This'll last me all year.

One problem I've often had with complex computer RPGs in the past has been with awkward control systems. No such trouble here, after a bit of slow start.

It's pretty, too, if not quite so graphically stunning as Half-Life 2. You can spend time just wandering around looking at stuff.

Still very early days - I've only just started the main quest, and I'm still mainly exploring - but it's fun so far.

I have a couple of PS3 game so far. And with all the cash I've spent over Christmas, and what with a move coming up, they'll probably be the last for a while. ;-) Luckily, they are both fab.

First up, I got the five-in-one Orange Box. So far, I've only got to Half-Life 2 and Portal out of the five.

The original Half-Life was one of my favorite FPSes of all time, along with Doom, Quake and XIII. So naturally I was really looking forward to Half-Life 2, and I've not been disappointed. It's superb. The graphics are like nothing I've ever seen. On my new telly, the picture quality is better than I get from DVDs, and far better than from TV signal. On the whole, the levels are challenging and satisfying, just as with the original. (The vehicle levels are a bit of a chore, though. Or is that just me?) I'm less than a third of the way through (with one visit to a walkthrough required so far) - and given that both the sequels are in the Orange Box too, there's plenty of gameplay here.

Portal is great - turning a 3rd person shooter with pretty realistic physics into a puzzle game was a stroke of genius. It's funny, too - very Alpha Complex. Criminally short - only 19 levels, the first dozen or so of which are pretty much tutorials. But then, I'm utterly stuck halfway through level 18 anyway, so it makes little difference to me how short it is. ;-)

So, I got myself a new telly. It's a Sharp Aquos LC-26AD5E 26" LCD. A bit bigger than I was planning on, but it was in the sales for £350, and it was very pretty.

It's got a very nice picture when watching DVDs or playing on the PS3. The downside of a big telly, though, is that non-HD TV looks really rubbish close up - there's just too much screen and not enough signal to go around. What it might look like on one of those 50" jobs I can only imagine.

And I can turn it off. ;-)

Bah - my shiny new PS3 won't work with my (admittedly antediluvian) TV. The TV just can't see the PS3 at all. Once you start upgrading...

Rant time. My TV probably could see the PS3 if I were able to fiddle with the settings, but since the remote died, 90% of the functionality has become unavailable to me. I know we live in a throw-away society, but not being able to use a TV 'cos the remote has died - what's that all about?

Hitherto that hadn't really been a big problem; I could turn it on and off, and turn the sound up and down, and that was all that I needed. Everything else was done via the DVD player or Digital TV tuner. But now...

Then again, perhaps it is time for a new TV. I say I can turn my current one on and off - in fact, the switch is broken, and I can only put it on standby. I'd been struggling with this for a while. On the one hand, leaving a TV in standby mode is a terrible waste of energy, but on the other, so is buying a new TV. Where does the balance lie there?

But now the Gordian Knot has been cut - I need a new telly. Tom recommends this. I don't watch a lot of TV, so I don't want anything too big or too expensive. Think I'll look for one of these in the new year.

I won a shiny new 60GB PS3 at the ThoughtWorks Christmas party last night. Class - well worth the hangover. Whether it's worth the memory of all that nerd-dancing, well, I'm not so sure.

Anyway, not really being much of a gamer, I need some advice. Which games should I get, and which should I avoid? I'm into FPSs, strategy games and RPGs, and I'm not into platformers or sport sims.

I've already spent £200 on games and accessories in my head...