Numa extraordinária tarde de praia de Junho, virados uns ao mar, outros ao sol, dissertávamos sobre a profícua proliferação de portais, quando resolvemos sacar dos portáteis. Depois de alguns minutos em que cada um viu se tinha e-mail, ordenou os bookmarks, ou simplesmente limpou o recycle bin, lembrei-me que tinha na mala um shoot'em up que alguém me gravara na própria multinacional que o vendia aos milhões. Instalei e passei. Todos o instalaram. A mãe de alguém instalou o mínimo, com a versão a correr sem vídeo. O pai de outrem demorou tempo demais a ler o License agreement e já não entrou no combate. E começámos a jogar Half-Life, the best PC game at E3 this year. Um environment com formas de vida intensamente reais, que pode ir até aos 32 jogadores em multiplayer. It will take a fast trigger finger and a faster mind to survive, as not every monster is your enemy and not everything is as it seems. The game begins just after the initial explosion that has allowed creatures to come across. You chose to play as one of 3 possible characters and from that point the game progresses in 3D, first-person perspective. Your job is to explore your world, solve puzzles and interact with monsters and other characters in an attempt to survive, and ultimately, save the world from nuclear destruction that you, yourself, have set in motion. Looking for more maps, skins and models to brighten up your Half-Life deathmatches? check out our http://www.sierra-online.co.uk/games/halflife/ to satisfy your download cravings.. Um de nós, menos à vontade nas teclas, a morrer mal se levantava, desistiu cedo e resolveu jogar batalha naval com alguém que conhecia na República Democrática do Congo, através do Iridium do pai que o tinha recebido da ONU, para que logisticamente, ajudasse refugiados pelo mundo fora. Depois de alguém ter feito pause, antes do primeiro banho do ano em água salgada, combinámos uma jogada de xadrez que esperávamos, ajudasse a empalar definitivamente a mente distorcida de Karpov, que, volta e meia, luta contra o mundo inteiro. Na água, enquanto brincávamos nas ondas, a conversa girava à volta dos preços altíssimos dos novos ecrãs da Sony em óculos escuros. Fora de pé, a boiar, criávamos ansiedade para experimentar o download de um freeware que aplicava fractais ao índice Dow Jones, em tempo real. Isso lembrou-me que tinha de me ligar ao banco para fazer uma transferência, se quisesse ter dinheiro no cartão para pagar o jantar dessa noite. O sol estava quente e sentia-me estupidamente mole. Resolvi espreguiçar-me com a ajuda de uma mensagem que foi direitinha ao satélite que estava mais próximo de nós e foi remetida à pessoa que estava ao meu lado, antes que eu tivesse acabado o bocejo. Dizia: "Vamos ao banho?". O segundo banho deu-nos vontade de jogarmos polo-aquático, real ou virtual. Qualquer um servia. De qualquer maneira não tínhamos uma bola nem jogo à altura. Voltamos para os banhos de sol e fiquei a observar as fotos das explosões solares, no site da Nasa, enquanto nos besuntávamos de protector solar e falávamos de radiações. Fossem elas quais fossem. Antes de irmos embora ainda brincámos com o meu cão e o software que tinha sido oferecido com o implante do biochip. Podíamos seguir o animal por GPS e divididos em grupos, escondiamo-nos, mais o cão e tentávamos distorcer as coordenadas aos adversários. Uma correria pela areia que nos deixou os músculos desejosos de bebidas energéticas e outras substâncias. Enfim, um dos melhores dias de praia dos últimos tempos. Mário Cameira

It's a wonderful June afternoon at the beach, some of us splashing in the waves, others bathing under the sun, but all rambling about the preposterous proliferation of portals. Suddenly, everyone draws his own portables, After a few minutes to check new messages, put some order into the bookmarks, and empty the recycle bin, I remembered I had in the bag a shoot'em up that some friend of mine copied in the same multinational company that was releasing it for millions of bucks. I installed it and passed it on. Everyone did the same. The mother of one of us run it at the minimum, missing the video version. The father of another one spent too many time reading the whole License agreement and missed the opportunity to combat with us. So we started Half-Life, the best PC game at E3 this year. An environment with intensely real life forms, that can go up to 32 players in the multiplayer mode. It will take a fast trigger finger and a faster mind to survive, as not every monster is your enemy and not everything is as it seems. The game begins just after the initial explosion that has allowed creatures to come across. You chose to play as one of 3 possible characters and from that point the game progresses in 3D, first-person perspective. Your job is to explore your world, solve puzzles and interact with monsters and other characters in an attempt to survive, and ultimately, save the world from nuclear destruction that you, yourself, have set in motion. Looking for more maps, skins and models to brighten up your Half-Life deathmatches? check out our http://www.sierra-online.co.uk/games/halflife/ to satisfy your download cravings. A guy, not as used to the keyboards as us, died the same minute as he got up, so he quit and played battleship combat with some cognisance from the Democratic republic of Congo, via his father's Iridium, given by UNO to help logistically refugees all over the globe. After someone paused the game, and before the first season salt water bath, we were thinking up a chess move to finally trap Karpov's twisted mind, which now and then plays against the whole world. At the water, while playing with the waves, the conversation was focused on the high prices of the new Sony sunglasses computerised screens. Floating a little away from the shore, we were all anxious to download a freeware that applied, real-time, fractals to the Dow Jones index. That reminded me I had to hyperlink the bank for a transfer, if I wanted money to pay dinner. The sun was hot and I felt stupidly indolent. I had to move my butt. I beamed up a message that went straight up to the nearest satellite and bounced back to the person next to me before I finished to yawn. It said: «wanna go for a bath?». The second bath made us want to play water-polo, real or virtual, whatever. Anyway, we didn't had a ball, a game, nothing. We went back to fry a little bit more under the sun, and I stared for minutes at the sun eruption pictures available at the Nasa site, while everyone put on some sun protector cream and talked about radiation. Of every kind. Before leaving we played around a bit with my dog and the software that comes with the biochip implant. We could follow the pet through GPS and, in small groups, we hide ourselves with the dog and tried to scramble the adversaries' coordinates. We run so much along the beach that our bodies were soaking wet in sweat and tired and thirsty for energetic drinks and other substances. Yep, this was one of the best days at the beach in the last couple of months.