Hey guys,

I'm currently on my bed in a hotel in Lochaber, Scotland.

I came here on holiday with my family. We would normally just be at my Nan's near Glasgow, however me and my Dad are climbing Ben Nevis tomorow so we came here.

So far I've enjoyed it, we haven't done a huge lot, mainly travelling. However, that's just a great excuse for me to listen to lots of music on my iPod and play lots of video games on my DS :)

The main games I have been playing on my DS have been My Japanese Coach, Sudoku Ball Detective and the KORG DS-10 Synthesizer. I have been playing My Japanese Coach for ages as I want to learn Japanese to have a better career in computers when I am older, but I have only recently been getting serious with it. Sudoku Ball Detective seems pretty good, even if the music is AWFUL and the storyline's a bit naff. Most important thing is the fact that the Sudoku's are awesome. I have also owned the KORG DS-10 Synthesizer for quite a while now, however only since yesterday have I written proper music on it. I have decided to write an IDM album on the game. The only trouble with the game, is the sounds are very limited, however that isn't too much of a problem for me as it is perfect for IDM. I'm hoping to find a way to release the album on the internet, I don't know if it's possible to transfer my songs onto my computer...

Anyway, I'll be back soon, I probably won't update my blog again until Wednesday at the earliest (when I get back) so until then, enjoy this picture of what I will be seeing tomorow :)

Byee

Earlier today, I posted a blog entry about my summer Explorers camp, however I didn't make it very detailed. So here goes attempt two.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, I left my house to get to my local train station for about 10am. When everyone was there, we got a train to Wareham, where we then had to walk to a campsite, which was quite a while away. Unfortunately, we got caught trespassing private property and had to find an alternate route, which got us lost :( We ended up getting back a lot later than we were meant to, so one of our leaders Robyn cooked us chilli and rice for dinner, and we got to sleep around 12:30am.

Thursday

We all woke up at around 7:30am, ready to eat breakfast. The weather was bright and dry. Looked like it was going to be a day full of hot weather...but we were SO wrong. After we cooked breakfast (which consisted of cereal, toast, a sausage sandwich, an egg sandwich, and a bacon sandwich :P) we played some water based games on our camp field with Robyn and Dan The Man, two of our leaders. We did some relay based games, with wet twists, such as filling buckets up with cups on our heads...however they had holes in them :P

After we'd dried off from that, we headed into our tents after lunch. This is where we saw torrential rain...NON STOP from about 1pm to 6pm. It was horrendous, and we had rafting to do. So we put together a very poor raft made off a strong wooden frame with loosely tied plastic barrels to float on. Within the first 10 minutes, our waterproof coats stopped working, and we might as well have jumped in the sea...in fact, we did :lol Somehow, we still managed to win the race, which was great fun in the end. We then went back to camp where I cooked Chicken Tonight for my group. Unfortunately I sucked at cooking the vegetables which were practically raw, however the chicken was great. We then went to bed a bit earlier at 11:30pm

A lovely landscape picture I took

Friday

On Friday, we all woke up early at about 6:30am, ready for a day trip in Bournemouth. After breakfast, we had to walk to Wareham train station to get to Bournemouth. Unfortunately, our leader Dan was stupid and thought that it was too unsafe to walk across this very busy road, so we took a country route and ended up being very late. We finally got to Bournemouth at about 2pm, where we had great fun making a sand village, burying various people (including myself), swimming and having great fun shopping. We then met the leaders at 5pm for fish and chips on the beach. We then had to rush back to the train which we were going to miss...however it was delayed by an hour, so that turned out okay. We then had a nice campfire with smoarse, and got to bed around 12.

Me, buried in the sand

Saturday

On Saturday, we didn't do much at all. We went for a leisureley hike doing a few small activites. We didn't walk that far, but when we got back, we were still all knackered from all the walking back and forth the past two days. This was a fairly boring day, that was until we found out we were allowed to sleep under the stars!!!!!!!!!! :D:D:D That was so much fun, as we had a nice campfire and then slept under the beautiful sky and stars. We didn't get to bed until 3:00am as we were having so much fun looking at the sky.

Me outside my mess tent :)

Sunday

We were to leave on Sunday at around 2pm to get a train at about 4:30pm. This was to be a day of packing away the tents and clothes etc. however we still ended up fitting in tunneling in the morning, which was amazing. We cralled through tiny tubes and wet boggy stuff for 3 hours, and then left to the site again. We then had to jog to the train station, as we were late :P

There is so much more I could add, however you wouldn't understand as I could include about 10 pages of private jokes :lol:

I will leave you with a nice picture I took one night, requested by @travisstaggs and @masterbolt360

Someone I know called luke, looking good on the beach ;)

Yesterday, I got back from an Explorers summer camp, and it was truly amazing.
I got to spend 5 days with some of my best mates, as well as doing activities such as tunneling, rafting, visiting Bournemouth, and sleeping under the stars.

Short blog I know, i don't have much to say :)

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Last night, I wrote a review for Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
I've only just started the 4th volume (out of 5) however I felt that was enough to write a decent review on the game.

The review can be found here. I gave it a worthy 9.0 as this lengthy point & click adventure combined law, humour, puzzles and a large length to make this game a must have on your Nintendo DS. I suggest you buy this when you get the chance

I'm going to continue playing this until I finish it, then move onto another DS game, possibly The Simpsons Game, Flower, Sun and Rain or Drawn To Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition

Also, I am currently playing Ratatouille on the Wii which is great fun, as well as Super Mario Bros. on the NES. I may also start playing The Neverhood which I think looks awesome :)

My summer holidays have been great so far. I've met up with my friends a few times, and I've been to the cinema twice, once with my Dad to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and once with my family to see Harry Potter and the Half Blooded Prince. I thought they were both awesome, by Transformers 2 was the best, as it was absolutely AMAZING!

Enjoy your days off etc :D

Calum

Every so often, me and my mum will be alone as my sister and dad will be out, and we will end up becoming bored out of our minds. Bring out the Wii...

We always end up playing Wii Play, as that is an awesome collection of mini-games that are fun enough for me to enjoy, yet simple enough for my mum to enjoy and understand. Tonight, my Dad was at work and my Sister, who is 16, was baby-sitting some kids, so me and my mum played Wii Play, doing a bit of Shooting, Mii Spotting, Fishing and Billiards (those are my mum's favourites). We also did a bit of Cow Racing, Laser Hockey, Posing and Table Tennis, however my Mum couldn't get to grips with them :P

When my Sister got home, my Mum went off to bed (as it was approaching midnight). Me and my Sister were thinking of games we could play together (yes, my sister is more of a gamer than my mum) but suddenly I found the copy of Ratatouille on the Wii that my Sister got for her birthday last year, and only ever played once. So I made a user, and got started.

And this is were my topic title comes in. I only got to play it for for around 15 minutes as my sister got bored and decided she wanted to play it aagain. However, those 15 minutes reminded me of how much I love shovelware and movie games. Sure, movie games are more or less 'collect 'em up' games, with hardly any originality and length. And sure, 'party' games are just a way for video game companies to cash in from all the children and families who see the word 'party' and immediately think it's awesome. However, all of these games are family fun. Wii Play gave me and my Mum an hour or so to have a laugh (even if she couldn't hold the Wii Remote properly :lol: ), and Ratatouille gave me a fun, 3D Platformer experience with lots of laughs from Emile, the dopy rat. I am definitely going to start playing a few more of these games.

The thing is though, too many people immediately push these games aside. This is as critics and 'hardcore' gamers seem to think that, to be even half decent, video games must include guns, be immensely hard, be extremely long, and have decent graphics. Sure, there are a lot of great FPSs out there, but people should really check these games out every so often. Another thing is that many people automatically think that if a game doesn't have something new and original, or revolutionary to video games, then it must be rubbish. WRONG! They can be simple and predictable, yet still be enjoyable.

Tomorow, I am off to Town, as I need to buy a hoodie and some new headphones. However, I might take a de-tour and see if there are any bargains in the erm...bargain bin :P

Happy Gaming,

Calum

SCHOOL IS OVER! (well...for 6 and a half weeks)

That's right, after what seems like an EXTREMELY long year in year 9, the summer holidays are here :)

And for once, I actually have a proper summer holiday ahead of me. Normally, I would only have about 2 weeks to laze about due to holidays and what not, however this year I have one camp which is 4 days long, and a trip to Scotland with my family for 6 days, where I will visit my Grandparents and climb Ben Nevis :D

Gaming-wise, I will be playing a lot of video games for the next 6 and a half weeks. I'm still slowly getting through Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, as well as playing Super Mario Bros. on the NES, as that is such as epicly retro piece of gaming gold.

Also, a HUGE thankyou to @kasiabartek, who reminded me off one of my all time favourite childhood game, 'The Neverhood'. I'm searching for it, and will be playing it by tomorow :D

I'm also SO excited for all of the upcoming games, including Scribblenauts, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Pokémon Heart Gold & Soul Silver, and so many more. It looks to be a great second half of 2009!

Have a GREAT summer everyone :lol:

P.S Please excuse the weird layout of this blog, I don't know what's going on :?

Hey again,

I am so excited to tell you that there is only 5 and a half days (including the weekend) until I break up from school for a glorius 6 and a half weeks off :D However, until that time, my 3 and a half days of school will consist of dossy lessons where we watch DVDs and talk all lesson :)

Weekend

Last weekend wasn't as good as I expected, however it was still pretty great. I arrived at my friend Bryn's house, where I finally got a nice play on Little Big Planet, and some of the levels he made were crazy! When my other friends came round, we played a bit of Call of Duty 4 on the PS3. We also watched the comedy film 'Lesbian Vampire Killers' and horror 'Creep', which were both excellent. Sadly, Bryn's copy of GTA IV snapped when he took it out of the packet, so we ended up going to bed at the unusually early time of 3am :lol:

The next day was the first day of the music festival, and that was awesome as I got to see some very talented artists, including emo-violence band 'Mary Kelly', grime newcomer 'Chipmunk' and several excellent hip-hop artists. I ended up getting in a huge Mosh pit with a bunch of chavs in tracksuits, so that was definitely a new experience

Gaming

I haven't been gaming very much recently as I have been very busy with school and Explorers, however most nights when I have gone to bed, I've ended up enjoying a half hour or so of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. I've also started playing Mega Man X on the SNES, which is great fun.

I recently bought this months issue of ONM (Official Nintendo Magazine) and I can't wait for some of the amazing games announced at E3. Metroid? Super Mario Galaxy 2? New Super Mario Bros. Wii? Scribblenauts? A Boy And His Blob? WarioWare: DIY? YES PLEASE :D

School

As I already mentioned, school is almost finished, but not quite. I have an English essay on poem analysis to hand on Monday. Also, today I performed 'Canon Rock' on my guitar for a mock GCSE assessment, and got a borderline A, which I am very happy with judging by how much I mucked up due to nerves :P

Explorers

Explorers is almost ready to break up for the summer also, however I have got my real Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award hike this weekend which will be GREAT fun :) Also, I have a Summer camp coming up in the holidays, as well as a Caving session in Wales in October!

Life is great at the moment

Well, as my topic title states, it looks like the upcoming weekend is set to be an absolutely awesome one, filled with music, video games and mates.

Friday

Straight after school, I'm off to my best mate Dan's house, where me and 3 of my best mates will stay overnight, playing video games, watching movies, drinking energy drinks, getting stupidly large sugar rushes. We will keep that going until around 7am the next day.

Saturday

At 1pm, we will all head off to a local music festival, where some awesome acts (including 80's 2tone ska band 'The Beat') will be performing. We will meet up with a lot of other friends there. At around midnight, we will head to my house, where we will have another sleepover, doing exactly what we did the night before...all over again

Sunday

On Sunday, we will pretty much do exactly what we did the day before - go to the second day of a local music festival. That all finishes at 7:30pm, and then we'll head home

Sounds like the ultimate weekend to me :)

Basically, I FINALLY gave Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the DS a go the other day.
It is absolutely AWESOME!

The night I started playing it, I started playing the first chapter, and couldn't put it down. I spent an hour completing that chapter, but I went to bed for the night.

Then, i carried on, but at the start of chapter 2, I had to start investigating crime scene's etc. and I didn't like that much. I really enjoyed the court parts, however I wasn't as keen on these parts.

However, now that it's kicked off, I'm really enjoying it. Phoenix Wright is one of the best games I have played in a LONG time. The clever storylines. The hilarous characters. It's just such an excellent game.

Other than that, I haven't been playing much recently. I've decided I'm going to try and stick to one game at a time (well, at least one on each platform). This is as, i have previously been tackling more that one game on one platform, and I just don't enjoy the game as much like this.

Therefore, I probably won't start another for a bit.

However, after I complete Phoenix Wright, i'm planning to continue playing Flower, Sun and Rain. Although it is a bit of a bad game, something about it really keeps me interested...strange.

Games I will play through soon...

DS: Flower, Sun and Rain
Pokémon Platinum

PC: Jazz Jackrabbit 2
Tonic Trouble
8-bit Killer

As you may or may not know, i have recently been playing Chrono Trigger.However, the last week or 2, i have not played it much, as I am very stuck.But yesterday, when I come into school, my friends greet me by telling me a crucial story line in the game, ruining it a bit. I am really annoyed with them, it wasn't funny at all, but I'll continue to play it.

In othern news, I have started to play Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on my DS. Before, I'd tried it out and thought it was extremely boring. I thought that a videogame set in a court was the most boring idea ever! However, last night I started again, and I'm blown away! This is another excellent game that looks to be getting a LOT of gameplay from me. I've completed chapter 1 as it was very easy, but I'm the rest won't be so easy.

I have a school concert tonight (!!!) where I am playing 4 songs in my band, 1 song with a girl called sarah, 1 song with a guy called Ryan and 3 songs with a Jazz Band. I am very busy, but before that I have a lazy school trip to go on :)

But best of all...

SUMMER HOLIDAYS SOON!!

In about 3 or 4 weeks, my school break up! For 7 weeks! That's 1 week extra (you lucky americans, you get 12 weeks :( I plan to go out with friends a lot, as well as plenty of gaming :)

Caz