This bit of life sucks - that first day back at work after the summer holiday. Usually, in years gone by, that means getting back into my hobbies to take the sting out of the shock of returning to the rat race, but this year is a bit of a funny one. No airsoft, no computer games and little good news on the military hardware front (bloody recession)!

Above: Eilean Donan Castle, in the Highlands, was featured in the movie Highlander. It is the archetypal Scottish castle and American tourists love it! This was the obligatory castle visit during my Highland jaunt.

I sat at my computer desk last night completely bored with World of Tanks - it seems to have gotten to the point with that game that the only people left playing it are the crap players - and I wondered what the hell am I to do until Borderlands 2 comes out in September!

(Indecently, a note on airsoft. My having no driving licence has really put paid to a regular return as my old team mates have now moved on to game sites which are far too far away for me now. A big disappointment was the highly negative feedback over 'The Stan' - the CQB site near Leeds which I was hoping to be a local source of less hilly airsofting!)

So, with little else to do I succumbed to a whim and sparked up Bad Company 2. You will have probably have noticed with some surprise that I have not done a lot of posts about DICE's Battlefield 3 - this is because I simply did not take to it at all and found it a huge let down after all the hype. IN all honesty if I had not upgraded to Windows 7 I would have reinstalled Battlefield 2 (perhaps with one of the reality mods), BF3 really is that bad and hence my relapse into BC2.

The big surprise is how much I enjoyed playing BC2 again. I cannot put my finger on why I enjoy Bad Company 2 and not it's bigger more snazzier sister game, but it seems to have a less confined gaming experience regarding it's maps that is lacking in Battlefield 3. This is what I would deem as being a 'consolsentric' problem as the environment in BF3 seems designed to push opponents together very quickly and you are left feeling there is no safe place to catch your breath that is not under the gaze of some sneaky sniper!

Getting back on a BC2 map was a change of pace that seemed to suit my aging reflexes, as there is no doubt about it that my once quite sharp reactions is somewhat dull these days and I seem to be shank fodder for any spotty 12 year old on the map. But it's also the fact that the game doesn't take itself too seriously and proudly admits that it is a game that seems to suit my evil sense of humour. Little touches like the 1960s music playing in the 'Vietnam' mod vehicles or the flamethrower clearly defines the mood of either game.

The fact that there are still quite a few people playing BC2 - as the availability of servers testifies to - tells me that there are others like myself who did not find the transition to BF3 as satisfying as they had expected. A fact that is further supported by the rumours that a Bad Company 3 is in development, something that just simply should not be happening as it would naturally have been expected that BF3 would have killed off the Bad Company franchise had all gone well.

And so, I have a 'new' game interest to keep me going through August. I have even searched out a couple of gaming clans who still support BC2 gaming as I would like to get in some team playing with VoIP comms support.

The Commando Memorial, Lochaber, Scottish Highlands