It’s been a slow build up, but I’m now officially knee-deep in an obsessive relationship with Elite: Dangerous.

I don’t know if I’ve written about this before, but I have a repeating pattern when it come to games that stretches all the way back to the first computer games I played in the 80s. I become obsessed by them. Not by playing them, you understand, although that does come later on for some games, but rather by the anticipation of playing them. Once I fall for the premiss of a game I can’t get it out of my head. Every waking moment is governed by thoughts of it, dreams become haunted by it, conversations hijacked by it, family & friends bored with it.

Now in the dim and distant past I had to work hard to desperately try and sate this ultimately insatiable beast but, as with many things, the internet has made this so much easier, providing me with podcasts, previews, developer dairies, youtube footage and even, if I’m really desperate, forums (shudder). And, dear reader, it is in precisely this state you now find me in relation to Frontier Developments upcoming release of the much anticipated Elite 4, or Elite Dangerous (I still hate that bloody name! It’s meaningless! Elite Forever would have been far better, or Elite Eternal, but not Elite Dangerous!).

Ever since they released the Capital Shop Battle video I knew the beast inside was going to rise again but it really wasn’t until I caught up on the podcasts and youtube videos covering the first Alpha release that I felt it wake up and sharpen its claws – thank Cthulhu I didn’t do this until after the Xmas and New Year break otherwise the good lady Antfarm would have divorced me!

So, here I am, eating, sleeping, dreaming ED and do you know what? I bloody love it! If only the games I become obsessed about could live up to and match the perfect image I create for them. Most don’t but I have a sneaky feeling that ED may come the closest so far 😀