Finally found time to hit the cinema and catch Dredd this past weekend and was mightily impressed by what I saw.

Sure, The Raid comparisons were unavoidable, but the movie did its best to shoulder its own gruff personality into a very similar premise. The budget may have been tight, the minute-by-minute blows between lawman and criminals not quite as dynamic or thrilling, but it was a solid effort, and I have high hopes for a grander sequel.

But what really blew me away was the soundtrack by Paul Leonard-Morgan. The kind of atmospheric industrial score that's as gritty as a cigarette burning, and roughly pulses into the ears and across the brain.

I immediately hit Spotify when home and have had the thing on repeat since, the album taking a life of its own and proving great background music for working to.

It's happening increasingly more with gaming scores as well. Some music isn't so lucky, and culled from its original surroundings looses its potency, its flavour.

But while I'm a stickler for 80s and 90s chip-tunes, standout pieces in the likes of Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Red Dead Redemption and Limbo make me actively seek out their original scores and come to enjoy them in their own right.

That said, the Catherine soundtrack just scares the shit out of me. I've had that tension-filled soundtrack on the hi-fi a grand total of once, and never again. I don't need the image of a towering killler mutant baby creeping into my evenings off.

Quieter out in Germany than it was last year. If the numbers are the same then the energy's certainly different.

Maybe looking at the event through the lens of E3 picks up a lot of repeating content, key words - the space between the two too short, beleaguered developers having to chop up yet more premium footage like sushi and polish yet another gameplay snippet to fit in with week's worth of presentations. The breath held for the next generation of console to arrive - already long come E3 - has started to turn faces blue for PR and journalist alike.

Makes the new all the more interesting though. Original IP has been held aloft and revered with an exaggeration more expected of the Messiah or a Olympian Gold Medallist. Bravo I say. Tearaway, Rain, Puppeteer, even Remember Me being given headlines that any other part of the year would be held for the next iteration of the big franchise IP (™). You could see people walking out of Sony's conference with a spring in their step, smile on their face. Words like "diversity" and "refreshing" propped up the after-show bar and crept into interview questions the day after.

So different energy. Lull before the winter storm. Means we'll be embracing these moments of inspiration and creativity all the more, and likely use them as ballast to get us through the week.

On a whim, I downloaded the free version of Minecraft Pocket Edition yesterday evening. As I battle exhaustion this morning, I really wish I hadn't. What started as brief investigation became split-level fortress building and mountain excavation to 2am.

It's likely a familiar story. I'd strictly avoided diving into the game before. It was dangerous. As much as Warcraft can become an obsession, I actively step back from games that can become a second life.

So obviously i woke up dreaming of blocks this morning.

The iOS version's control scheme is fiddly, the small virtual pad (i was playing on my iPhone) a little basic for the finesse you want to bring to your creations, leading your building to be more erratic than it would be on a control pad or keyboard version.

But I knew enough to head for the highest hill and start constructing a retreat, a fort, immediately on entering my randomly generated world. My entire focus was defence, to create a impenetrable domain. But I got to wondering, as I started to burrow into the dirt to create a basement, whether foresight had curtailed part of the game's appeal.

How did the first explorers tackle the threat of the undead the first night they spent under the blocky skies? Learning that they needed four walls around them during darkness to survive, clearly. but did initial death halt their exploration? Or make it more daring - charging around the landscape, making the most of their day before the setting sun forced them into hurried builds for protection?

I spent my first few hours not even darting out during the day. I fortified my position, any exploration made underground, guesswork trying to match an overhead image of the world to the strikes of my pickaxe to guide me through hills like a mole. Was it real interest in what I could mine that directed me, or the comfort of safety?

If Minecraft's what you make of it, then it's made me realise I've lost my sense of adventure, a realisation the scope of which took in much more than the three inches of screen in my hands. I went into the game looking for a relaxing pastime, with a worry of potential addiction. I didn't think I'd be coming out with an uncomfortable comment about my life.

The arrival of the 3DS XL in the office has led me to reappraise some of the older titles on my DS, and galvanised me into finally digging into the Ambassador titles that have sat untouched since download.

While the lot's mainly GB and GBA titles I'm familiar with, it's offered me the rare pleasure of playing a title I know next to nothing about: Kirby & The Amazing Mirror.

And I'm hooked. Bonkers music, labyrinth levels, colourful look and cool power-ups. It's pure 90s platformer, and a lot of fun.

I've only known about Nintendo's enemy-swallowing pink balloon guy in general terms before, so aside from the basics I'm having to learn as I go: sans instruction manual and tutorial, everything's a mystery. You learn the rules in the moment to moment.

And it makes me realise I miss that sense of adventure, the wonder of the unknown, the joy of surprise. As a result I've made a resolution to take more chances with the retro titles in future. Forget background research. Make a blind leap instead.

That said, I am going to look about for retro threads to at least get me started...

Given Microsoft's figures that Xbox 360 online entertainment usage was now outstripping online gaming, you'd wonder who these folk were.

I know I'm one of them.

Now the issue here isn't that entertainment has replaced gaming as my main reason for firing up the console: same way that an influx of casual gamers by way of Wii meant the death-knell for the hardcore. The gaming numbers were still there - they were just part of a much bigger pie.

Music couldn't concern me less: console and TV isn't how I consume my band fixations. Why buy music videos when YouTube does the job for free and with a lot less messing about?

But TV and movies? That's a different matter.

I'm on Sky and Netflix. About to drop LoveFilm (the b-movie trawl of the service isn't lightning my fire); since the transition my DVD/Blu-Ray purchases have dropped significantly.

I'll pick up the odd flick for the special features and director's commentaries: Fincher, Scott, Nolan and Wright all get instant buy-ins because they always add a lot more to the package. But of my entire collection, only the 1% get multiple watches. Everything else is gathering dust.

For visual crispiness, the Apps are still surprising me: I've yet the watch a film streamed that drops the ball on quality.

And while every film I'd possibly want isn't at my fingertips, the steadily rotating selection on both On Demand services means the variety of my movie choices is picking up considerably - I'm no longer stagnating, willing to try out new things, take a chance with directors that may enrich me. And if I really want a once-off watch of the latest movie, a rental on Zune is right there for me.

I know it's been easy to dismiss Microsoft and other companies strive for expanding their view beyond the gaming experience. And if it does mean a dip in quality for the core reason I buy the consoles, I'll be right alongside you complaining about a loss of direction. But with multiple devices warring for our attention, its great to have a one-stop solution for (most) of your TV needs.

Or perhaps I'm just getting lazier in my old age.