Now, let me get one thing straight before I start randomly moaning about how life can be rubbish - I understand University isn’t meant to be easy. I understand you have to put a lot of time and effort in. And I understand there’s a lot of material to get through in a small period of time.

But, come on, does that really justify putting 4 essay deadlines within the space of a month of each other?

I kid you not, I have to tackle that problem at the moment, with the first essay in on the 17th November and the final one in on the 8th December. It’s led to a situation where there’s a mountain of textbooks in my room that comes dangerously close to toppling every time I breathe on it, odd scraps of paper littering themselves about the place, and several synapses in my brain have become all annoyed with me and resigned. It’s not just the essays as well - I have to prepare two to three seminar pieces a week, and each of them can take an hour or so, and hours aren’t in constant supply when you’re in University and work quite a lot.

The thing is, I’m not whining just because I want everyone to think poor me, although I could probably find an aspect of that if I squinted a little and realised that last paragraph sounds like a three year old. No, I’m saying that it doesn’t make sense. In the space of next year - All seven to eight months of it - There’s three essays. Max. Granted, there’s exams at the end of that, but three? That’s less then I have to finish in a month! I somehow get the feeling someone was drafting up the deadlines, but then went slowly insane as the coloured balls started approachi… Oh sorry, lost track of myself there. I hope you get my point, though… It could be planned out so much better.

I sympathize with all the others who have to suffer at the hands of this, though, because at the moment I’m sort of getting ahead of it all. First draft of one essay already done, plans for the other forming, seminar work tidied away - It’s not bad, but I’m not jumping all over myself and celebrating just yet. Which is a shame, considering there’s a deluge of awesome games coming out right now… I had to resist buying Fable 2 the other day, because I’d spend too many hours just kicking chickens and not enough hours doing work. The allure of Gears of War 2 will probably be too strong though, and I’m even thinking of defecting to the dark side and buying Guitar Hero World Tour… *Shudder*

Oh, and just before I head off and frown at a textbook for a bit, the writing works page has had its first update. Huzzah! It’s just my stuff from the awesome site that is Ubercharged at the moment, but it’s a start. Go ahead and check it out, and them laugh at me because I put a comma out of place. I mean, it’s not like I’m busy with other writing…

It’s not a secret that the Xbox 360 is a console that is notorious for breaking at any given moment. Therefore, I wasn’t really surprised when my second one bit the dust recently, even if it wasn’t by a glorious ring of death, and rather more of a graphics chip explosion. Or something. Anyway, I realised that ringing Microsoft support would prove awkward, considering the last time I tried them it ended up in a shouting match, so I decided to pick up an arcade console instead. Bit more expensive than the repair fee, I know, but at least I get some cool stuff - Another joypad! A memory card! A reliable warranty! Oh, and free arcade games, of course… One of them being a little thing called Luxor 2.

Allow me to quickly explain Luxor 2 to you. A load of balls appear on the screen and roll towards your base. You fire other balls at the existing balls to create a line of three of more balls, at which point those balls explode. New balls take their place, and you fire more balls to clear them. Each stage offers new directions for the balls to travel in, and power-ups can remove balls or alter the balls.

As you’ve probably guessed by now, there’s a load of balls involved. It also leads to one of the most frustratingly tedious games I’ve ever played.

The thing about it is this - That little description of the gameplay up there? That’s it. That’s all there is to the game. I know that it is meant to be a casual game, don’t get me wrong, but it’s far too simple to be any real fun. Add this to the fact that each level of this can last up to 5 minutes, and there’s 88 levels in total, and you’ll soon begin to grow mad at the sight of even more damn balls… Especially when you start getting screwed over because the aiming cursor completely lies and screws everything up for you. Six times in a row.

You may wonder, then why I persist in playing it… I like to think the main reason is to restore the status quo of my gamerscore, because Luxor 2 has to be a complete pain and not score the achievements so they all end in 5 or 0. This leads to stupid dorky scores like 12,507, and such a score is neither pleasing to look at or any fun to brag about. The only way to rectify the problem? Complete the game. Seriously, I swear it’s all a ploy to get perfectionists like me to watse hours of their lives matching balls. Ugh.

Sadly, though, I think there’s something deeper than that. As much as I try to hate the game, and as much as I curse my luck and the stupid aiming system, I keep on playing. I’ve just got to get a little further… Shoot a few more balls… I’ve just spent over three hours plugging away through the game, and I’ve now got balls on my mind so much I’m beginning to question my sexuality. So… I’m worried about my state of mind, I’m losing time I could spend doing something constructive, my gamerscore is screwed up, and I willingly yet glumly sit through yet more hours of ball-based torture.

God damn you, Luxor 2.

So, I’m back from my 3 month around-the-world tour. It was good fun. I fought ninjas, nearly got killed by a bunch of ravenous bears, and formed the first ever barbershop quartet that also incorporated ballet and juggling. Yet that’s a period of my life that has long since passed, so let’s not bring it up again, yeah? I mean, I’ve explained everything, so don’t make me do it again.

Anyway, it seems that my holiday hasn’t stopped the action here. I’ve been getting lots of new user registrations, but I’m afraid to say a lot of them make me a tiny bit suspicious, so I’ve deleted most of them. But hey, if your name is actually “fjjjujjnk”, I do offer you my sincerest apologies. Perhaps you were checking out the shiny new about page? Or maybe the page that’s all about my writing works? Hotbeds of activity, let me tell you that.

Speaking of hotbeds of activity, it seems my life has now been cruelly ripped away from the comfort zone where I could play games for 6 hours flat without concern. My second year at University has begun, and with it comes seminar work that is on a weekly basis and can take over two hours to complete. Not bad, but then consider there’s essays to be done as well. With the deadlines merging together into one big mess where you’d better have a total of 5,000 words written or your whole future is screwed. You can presume there’s free time, but then you can learn I also netted myself a job (Insane, I know!) and that disappears as well. I suppose the advantages are money and knowing that you won’t work in a greasy spoon for the rest of your life, but it doesn’t stop it being mildly depressing.

Anyway, since there’s no more planned round-the-world trips, things should perk up here again. I’ll probably start throwing things in that aren’t vblog posts about my life or other ramblings, but I am wary that I don’t want to end up like one of those sites that steal content and pass it off as their own. With that said, here’s an awesome video I made! *cough*

Oh yeah, and God Hand is awesome.

Now, perhaps this post is up a little later than I would of liked. Perhaps you’re rolling your eyes at the fact that the words “Update” and “Frequently” constantly seem to elude me. But hey, give me a break, the whole of my life is being sapped away. By Rock Band. And the drums.

Now, I’ve spoken about the glory of this game in my previous post, but I cannot praise it enough, especially now I’m drumming my way into the stuff of legend. Seriously, there’s something distinctly appealing about having the drums set up, towering over everything with their majesty. Actually hitting them is fun enough. Hitting them in a way that Makes music? It’s enough to melt your brain. Maybe.

The odd thing was, I hated them for the first hour or so. I blamed my lack of experience and awful playing style (Hunched up to a set that was too high up to be comfortable) on the kit, thinking it was just as defective as everyone says they can be. Listening to all these stories of pad misses and broken pedals just gave me a dangerous sense of paranoid, with every pedal squeak panicked me and every miss was accompanied by a scream of frustration. So, some advice - Don’t listen to the problems. Just buy them. Enjoy them for the epic fun they can give you once you get the hang of them in a way that lets you easily 5* “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. And just keep on playing.

Oh, and did I mention the masses of potential DLC? Some of which I have? No? Well, that makes it even better. It even makes the total price of £130 seem fair!

In other news that’s actually related to real life, my exam results came in, and they’re pretty awesome. One high the highest grade of a 1st, and the other three scraping the top of the second highest level of 2:1. In other words, I’m a brainy clever clogs at Law and you can’t argue with that because I could sue you.

Now the only thing left to complete life awesomeness is a job, and with a little luck I may strike good there too. Had a job interview for a clothing store (Gah) the other day, and while it could of gone better, they could be desperate. Even though a job would sap my life… So if I don’t post in a while, I got it. Or I’m playing the drums again.

Well, would you look at that. A blog post within a reasonable amount of time since the last one. I was toying with the idea of updating fortnightly, but since I’ve made such false promises before and my life doesn’t always remain interesting… Well, I wouldn’t count on that. I’m mainly here to heap piles of adoring love on what is rapidly becoming one of my favourite games of all time - Rock Band.

Now, when I first played Guitar Hero 3 I knew part of me was going to be bitterly disappointed with it. The odd art style and attitude that showed it wanted to be a cool rock star yet would always fall short of the mark. The completely bullshit note charts which added in about 50 notes in a random order when there should of been a simple chord. The frankly uninspired setlist which only had a few songs I wanted to play over and over. Rock Band, on the other hand, is a game I knew I would love from the second I started.

Sure, the note charts are easier. Sure, I’m a loner playing what is technically a party game. Yet there’s just something to it that makes it such a fun game to play, even if you aren’t fancily rocking out on the drums or getting drunk with friends while playing it. It counters everything that is wrong with GH3 with superb finesse - Creating your own character and then seeing them and other band members playing rock in the way you’d expect them to play, acting insane and jumping about at all the right moments in some cool arenas. The note charts mix challenge and fun perfectly. Even the songs I dislike are ones I would still happily play if they appeared randomly or I wanted to improve my scores. And I’m only talking about guitar here.

The vocals are odd in the way it’s only really a test of pitch, so you can hum them all quite easily, but the real charm comes from when you go online and start belting out “Run to the Hills” as the other players rock out with you. There’s also a charm in singing and playing guitar at the same time as well, and when you take that into the band world tour and see there’s hundreds of setlists to complete… Well, happily, the challenge is endless. My joy at completing the endless setlist of 58 songs by myself on expert is one thing that will stick with me for a while yet.

When the drums fall into my possession I’ll happily clock hundreds of hours with them as well, so it’s not like I’m getting bored yet. Heck, I’m toying with the idea of going for the full 1,000 gamerscore, which would be immensely tricky to do. I’ll continue on the world tour when I return to my 360 after a hiatus.

…Wait, I hear you say. A hiatus from games? Well, yes, and the reason is twofold. The first reason is a simple bet - Go without them until next week and I’ll end that week considerably richer. The second reason is down to the fact I need to focus on getting a job right now - A pile of CV’s, application forms and telephone numbers litter my desk as place after place completely reject me. Not only do I need the experience, I need the money! Well, no, I don’t NEED the money, but I’m not going to lie and say that wouldn’t be nice.

Anyway, my cat is pestering me for food and I fear he may start shitting all over the place if I don’t give him some soon, so I’ll stop wittering on now. That does mean you can stop reading and go out to buy Rock Band, doesn’t it? No, seriously, buy it. Then come back here and rave about it while reading my next update. Which will occur before the next ice age.

No, don’t panic! I know it looks like the sky is falling and the world is coming to an end, but this is just a blog update! I know, rare event. I’ve been telling myself to update it for weeks now, but every time something comes up - Mainly pure laziness. The actual catalyst for this blog post comes from my good friend Kapkyle’s blog, where his comments made me want to prove him wrong and scream “HA! IN YOUR FACE!” as a result. So Hoo-rah for him for making this post occur.

Anyway, since it’s been over a month and a half since my last update, a rather substantial amount has happened. Let’s start with the Brussels trip I mentioned way back when… It was awesome. A sheer visceral mess of laughs and awesomeness, where the only actual boring bits came from the entire reason we went there - That is, to study EU law. Indeed, the only thing I learnt is that I can play “Play your cards right” while talking to someone who is unaware of the game on the phone. Also, if you ever want to go there to see the Manneken Pis, don’t bother. It’s laughably small and rather rubbish.

Secondly, my first year at University is over and I’m in a long hiatus between years, only marred by the facts my parents are trying to push me into getting a job. No, scrap that, they’re practically shoving me along while I scream for mercy. I’d also speak about the exams that occurred at the end of what was rather a hectic year, but since I don’t know the results yet, all I’d end up doing is freaking myself out and making myself think I’d failed. So if you have some sort of twisted fascination about the exam questions other people anyway, go and satisfy that urge somewhere else.

What else? Oooh, why don’t I mention what video games I’ve been playing, because that’s really interesting. First up is GTA4, which is as good as most people say but far from perfect. I love the world Rockstar created, and the sheer amount of stuff to do is immense, but that doesn’t mean I can ignore a few things… First, pop-up is nasty at points. You can leave buildings and be plunged into darkness for a few seconds whilst the world loads, ruining the atmosphere. Secondly, too many missions are simply “Go here and shoot people” affairs, which after the variety of San Andreas is even more depressing. Thirdly, online tries to be too fancy and fails on the basis of too many options and human stupidity. But I still love it… Maybe I’m just looking for an indignant person to start swearing at me in the comments.

Second is Rock Band, which is awesome, but there’s a wall of text already so I’ll say I’ll speak about that soon. No, really, I will. I vow for weekly updates or something, man, because I want to bore people with details of my life. So check back more. Seriously. Otherwise I’ll gouge your eyes out with sticks.

So it’s been a long while since the last blog update, and in that time a hell of a lot has occurred. The only reason there hasn’t been blog posts on it is because I’m really lazy and also slightly worried that Microsoft would destroy my ass. Because yes, my Xbox 360 broke and yes, Microsoft decided to be sheer idiots about it.

The full story is perhaps too long and complicated, being more suited to an article that would take an eternity to write correctly, but the basics of it are probably enough to get you enraged on my behalf. Basically, my 360 decided to brick it with only one red light, meaning I did not have the pleasure of an extended warranty. Which is a big deal, since after trying everything to fix it and then ringing customer support revealed that it was one day out of the warranty. One day! Microsoft could look at the play history and see when it died, or just accept the truthful facts for what they were, but they decided not to and tried to charge me £60 for a repair.

Now, it’s not really this which is the truly annoying factor… They had a legal right to do such a thing, after all. However, the way they acted in getting their own way was uncalled for. I’m not kidding when I say at one point they shouted at my parents, said Microsoft was “A paperless organisation” and and stated that we had no right to complain. I know the name who the person who was stubborn enough to do this, but I won’t post it on the basis it wouldn’t be fair. After all, the attack from my Mother especially should have been enough to make him bite his tongue.

Still, I have the 360 back now, due to the unexpected generosity of “Game”, a retailer in the UK. Even though my only proof of purchase was a reward card and I was out of warranty, they give me a shiny new 360 and everyone was happy. Just in time for the new Halo map pack too, so hooray!

My birthday also occurred in this hiatus, but there was nothing truly mind-blowing to say about that. I had a great day despite having to go into University, we went out for a meal at night, and a HD television entered my room and promptly made my eyes begin to bleed. Seriously, I couldn’t live without it now, even though I could live without the strange sense of actually feeling older.

Anyway, I’ll end this blog post now, because tomorrow I head to Brussels and promptly get myself shot by the international police for generally being an idiot. There should be much more to talk about then, including how my University work is finally reaching a chaotic first year conclusion, and perhaps it won’t take me three weeks to write about it. Perhaps.

Yes, hello, actually taking time to write blog post instead of glossing it over for doing such things as eating, or shooting people in the head. I actually have a post in draft form that I meant to finish a while ago, but you’ll have to wait for that until another day. For now, be content with pointless pieces of news about my life!

First up is the small matter of my 19th birthday, with April 3rd heading my way fast. There’s only two things I know are going to happen for sure on that date, though - I’m getting a re-subscription to Xbox Live, and I have to go into University and learn. Gah. Anyway, when it comes to other presents I’m pretty much unsure… I have ideas though, with the most childish yet awesome one being to get Tails and Knuckles plushies to join my currently existing Sonic one on my bed. It did strike me that after more than ten years there’s still bits of Sonic that make me act like a kid to a massive extent. Nothing wrong with that though… Just because it’s my 19th birthday doesn’t necessarily mean I have to grow up.

Studies are going… Very slowly. I normally end up saying “I’ll do it tomorrow” and then repeating that action the next day, but fragments continue to get done. I’ll truly hit the books when I return on Monday, and even though I might have to do a little more than I thought I won’t be truly screwed. The only thing that concerns me is my oral presentation - Not only do I have very little idea on what I’m going to say, I have little idea how I’ll cope when it comes to saying it. I’m also losing time on working on it because of my birthday and the Brussels trip coming up, and… I’m just going to stop talking about that because it’s getting me worried.

One final thought concerns the matter of the amount on Internet idiots recently. You may have heard of the story of the guy who stole an Xbox but then stupidly bragged about it. This is idiotic on its own, but the attitude of everyone who went “Let’s harass him lololol” just to get it back… It leaves me uneasy. I know the kid deserved to be punished in some way and forced to return the goods, but making his life a misery via many methods isn’t necessarily the right way. When the harassers finally won out and the goods were returned, the display of glee by them again sort of sickened and annoyed me. Coupled with general teabagging, boasting, swearing idiots on most games and… Well, it’s not a pretty sight to see me yelling at my TV screen, put it that way.

As a soothing finale, though, have this awesome picture…

Yes, awesomeness indeed.

So it’s finally done. At 4:45pm GMT on Wednesday 5th March, my Xbox 360 gamerscore finally hit the five digit mark. I’ve been shamelessly delaying a blog post and working quite hard on reaching this for about a week, and it does strike me that quite a lot of people simply won’t care, but to me it’s genuinely a happy moment. It’s the bonus payoff for playing more of some games I normally wouldn’t, getting seriously angry at times, and enjoying what I think is an almost perfect rewards system. To sound incredibly stupid, part of me doesn’t see it as a number, but a collection of memories and challenges leading up to it, and the idea of many more to come (After I’ve left it alone and bathed in its glory for a while). While you laugh at that, here’s a bunch of random facts and figures surrounding the score…

575 = The number of achievements themselves, each with their own totals that lead up to the final result. Without The Orange Box that number would be seriously lower, though, but I wouldn’t change the amount of 5-point tasks in that game anyway.
Take me to your supply point = The name of my first achievement, on Crackdown, for 10 points. I didn’t even think that much of the achievement system back then, to be honest.
Paradise won = The name of the last achievement for the 10,000, on Burnout Paradise, worth 60 points. I find the name and the sheer nature of the achievement (The idea you’re one of the best drivers in the city) rather apt…
3,050 = The score after receiving the 150 point achievement that was “Street Racer Elite” on Crackdown. I still think this was perhaps the most difficult thing I’ve achieved yet, if only because of the unfair catch-up system the other drivers worked on and the fact your car flipped if someone did as much as sneezed on it. I learnt days afterwards that there were so many ways to “Cheat” the achievement as well. I was rather annoyed I didn’t learn them sooner, but whatever.
3rd April = My birthday, the date last year I got my 360, and the “Deadline” I sort of set myself for the score. Smashed it, of course, so now I have a year and just under a month to get 20,000…

Anyway, enough of what basically comes down to constant gloating and self hi-fives. In other news, I’m going to be best man at my sister’s wedding! Yes, only I could put that after video games. It’s kind of exciting to be in that position, but also kind of terrifying on the basis I’ve got to stand up in front of a ton of people and say important things. I’ve also got to think up the lamest jokes or worst puns possible and see if they raise a laugh. Which, knowing me, they probably won’t… But hey! If all else fails, I’ll pretend to faint and steal all the glory and attention!

Finally, the work quota from University is sneaking back up on me, and I’m getting ready with a shotgun and a brain full of facts to try and take it down before it consumes my life again. Even though after tomorrow I have just over three weeks off, my mindset has already adjusted to the fact that even when the work slows down it never really stops. Instead, it’s a constant battle to stay sane and look extremely brainy in the process. Judging by exam and essay results I’m content that I’m winning that war, but I suppose that doesn’t mean much when it’s only just begun…

Last Friday, it was with a sense of joy and relief that I handed in my last piece of work and finally broke free of the flood that had been swamping me for so long. The fact that I consider that time to be so badly planned (The largest pieces of group work yet in the same week as the creation of a 2,500 word essay?) and rather wearisome near the end didn’t change the fact I thought it was high time for celebration! So, it was off with a friend to see Cloverfield and also to pick up some gaming greatness.

Now, Cloverfield has been gaining a sort of mixed response from people, but the sheer novelty of the idea has me interested in seeing it. Not overly hyped like my friend was, just interested. As a result of this, I was pleasantly surprised to end up finding it to be a rather excellent movie. I’d spout stuff about it perfectly capturing the “Youtube generation”, with one touch I found pretty neat being that you sometimes saw glimpses of other people recording the event, or I could state that the characters were generally likable and the kind you sort of worried for. Heck, I could even try my hand at describing the excellent special effects and brilliant art design. That wouldn’t change the fact that it made me keep stupidly swearing under my breath, nearly falling off the edge of my seat and generally sitting their wide-eyed and completely forgetting I had a bag of epically tasting sweets in front of me. Trust me, to distract me from tasty food is a accomplishment in itself.

Saying that, it wasn’t flawless. I’ll try to avoid giving too much stuff away, but the whole “We’re going back into almost certain death to save someone!” thing really grates on me in any movie. Also, the fact everyone involved was able to take a startling amount of damage or capture the perfect shot when the need arose sort of trashed the illusion a bit. My friend also said the ending was rubbish, but I really liked it. I’d say why, but that would probably make it so I had to put a big red “SPOILER” sign at the top of the page that would make your eyes bleed.

On the gaming side of things, Call of Duty 4 and Burnout Paradise have joined my collection. I’m not going to say as much about these, as my detailed first hours/impressions are now up on ABXY here and here. Suffice to say, though, they’re both great games. Burnout Paradise has a few tiny flaws, such as a pathetically bad new crash mode and the fact it’s far too easy to crash full stop, but that doesn’t stop the sheer fun of speeding down a highway and then jumping off a cliff. “Freeburning” online is also - Dare I say it? - One of the best implementations of an online system I’ve seen. I can’t flaw it.

Call of Duty 4, though, is the game that has surprised me. I was looking forward to it in a casual manner, not expecting anything spectacular, but “Spectacular” is what I constantly keep getting. Again, not giving away any spoilers away here, but any game that literally gets my adrenaline pumping is good enough for me. The online mode is also superb in its execution, but due to the fact that I completely fail at it right now due to the lack of map knowledge or any real skill, anything I say would probably end up in a swearing rant. Which would be bad, considering it turns out my parents are reading this blog. Eep.

Anyway, since the length of this post is now so large it could possibly leap off the page and devour me whole, I’ll stop it there. The next post should occur when something interesting occurs that is worth writing about, and not tomorrow or something, like a few people have suggested I do, those ignorant little bast - Oh, wait…