Greetings one and all, long time no blog. In fact I haven't blogged in over a month now, it just seems that there have been oh so many distractions. For one thing it seems like I have stumbled back into the addictive realms of World of Warcraft again. I originally just returned to the game to enjoy the thanksgiving event, but after experiencing the instant gratification of my few days on there I couldn't help but be sucked back in. I now seem to be leveling more effectively than before and I'm even trying to get into raiding now which is something I shyed away from quite a bit before, partly because of how much time it consumed and partly because of how seriously some players seemed to take it, while I lagged behind constantly wondering whether I was "doin' it rite" or not. However, I have had to limit myself in my intake of WoW as I still have university work on my hands and coming up to the end of the firstsemester the pressure is on more than ever.

My first semester of university officially ends next week but what's it like to be a student who is just finishing their first three months of a computer games programming degree? Well, it's definitely been an interesting experience. The highlight of it all has definitely been learning about video games themselves and although a lot of the things that came up in the lectures on video games, I was already aware of it was great to have it all presented back to me along with new information. The coursework for that area of the studies also gave me something that was very fun to do and I'm even confident about the module exam. The low point for me has been the maths module which they introduced to the course this year. We have literally had to try and learn the equivalent of an A level in maths in the last 3 months and it feels as though the whole process has been very rushed and I've felt consistently confused as I struggled with everything being taught. As for the rest of the course I still don't think my essay writing is up to scratch with university standards yet but that's something that will probably come with practice. Learning about computer architecture has been cool and learning new programming code has been a good experience as well. Right now however it's crunch time and my sleep pattern will have to suffer some more so I can get an essay and four programming exercises handed in for next week as well as revising for a test.

The 18th December will see me speeding back to my family's home for the Christmas holidays and for a whole variety of reasons it will be good to be back. Naturally as a student I haven't had the cash to purchase a lot of the games I've wanted over the past few months, so I thought this would be an opportune time to share with you my Christmas wishlist of video games; Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands andDragon Age: Origins are my big four but given the chance I wouldn't mind getting my hands on League of Legends,Modern Warfare 2 or New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I'll just be happy to be in a nice big house with my mum's cooking for Christmas though.However, althoughthe Christmas holidays would usually last until 25th Januaryall computer games programming students have to be back in university for the week starting the 4th January which is a bit of a bummer.

This weekend there is an awesome event just around the corner though. While I'm sure it holds no major significance for many I'm personally pretty stoked about Bungie's world premiere of Halo: Reach at the Spike TV VGA awards. With so little known about the game it will be great to finally get a look at what will be the last of the Halo games (at least for now) and Bungie sure know how to dazzle a crowd. This week there's also a pretty awesome and rather unique event happening on Team Fortress 2. The soldier and demoman updates will soon be hitting everyones' PCs bringing with them new weapons and achievements but not only will each cl*ss receive 3 unlockable weapons but they are also both in the running for a secret seventh weapon. Valve have challenged the demoman cl*ss to get as many kills on the soldier cl*ss as possible over the next 7 days, while the soldiers are doing the opposite and trying to kill the demomen. Whichever cl*ss can kill more of the opposing cl*ss by the time our time is up gets that extra seventh weapon. It's exciting stuff and should I get any free time to participate in the conflict I'll be playing on the side of soldier as frankly I suck with the demoman.

Well, I guess that's what a months worth a backed up blog looks like. Hopefully I'll drop my next little bundle of blogging fun after returning home next Saturday. Until then I hope you all enjoy yourselves and I'll leave you with one of my favourite pictures of November 2009.

-Gamer_152

It is currently Monday 9th November and I'd hoped to have this blog up over the weekend but things were a bit... Busy. Tomorrow is the big release of Modern Warfare 2 and I must say with all the hype surrounding the game I occasionally feel a little bit like a stranger in the world of gaming. Not only is the internet abuzz with talk of Infinity Ward's next great game but even people around my university are constantly questioning who is and isn't getting the game on launch day and most of the time I don't seem to be met with much understanding when I tell people I never really got into the Call of Duty franchise. Still, gaming goes on and I'm happy for all those who are super-expectant of the game's release.

This week I've managed to get myself hooked back on World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2. Considering the addictive nature of WoW I thankfully haven't got too obsessed with it this time round but it's been nice to do a few quests and participate in the odd battleground match, although it might be nicer if the Alliance won more often. I also did experience a very odd glitch the other day where I was standing at the end of the pier on Booty Bay when the ship arrived and my character seemed to get stuck on a bit of the ship's outer geometry and it started pushing me along. This was kind of cool so I just let it run its course but when the ship sailed off for faraway lands my client refused to load the next area, forcing me to log out and in again. When I logged back in my character appeared to be underneath the game world, falling downwards and after a minute or so he just dropped out of view, lost all his health and the game asked me if I wanted to resurrect. When I did I ended up in the Hillsbrad Foothills, a ridiculous distance north from where I started. It really was the weirdest glitch I'd ever experienced in the game.

On Team Fortress 2 I've been trying my luck with the Sniper this week which has been a bit of a daring move as I have a bit of a history with just plain sucking at sniping in shooters. However, even if I may still not be that good I'm surprised by how much I've improved in such a short space of time, practice really does do wonders. Now if only I could do a half-decent job with the Spy and the Scout.

As promised last week I did upload my review of indie game Osmos to Giant Bomb this Tuesday and I've also filled out the Geometry Wars 2 review on Giant Bomb which was lost in a posting glitch a while back. I may have more reviews on the way in the near future and I look forward to any writing I get the time for. That wraps up this (relatively) short blog for this week. I will leave you all with a video that brought me great amusement. May I proudly present Laddergoat.

-Gamer_152

It is currently Saturday October 31st, All Hallow's Eve and I'm in pretty high spirits on this cool autumn evening. Unfortunately I have been suffering a little from the flu this week and while it's not been as bad as it could have been it has cut down my gaming time. I've been playing more of Brutal Legend this week though and have found all the motor forges, collected all the solos and unlocked a bunch more achievements. I have a bit of a dream of going after 100% completion on that game but I'm not sure I'll ever reach that. It doesn't matter though, I still stand by what I said last week; I think it's a great game. It's only two months now though until Assassin's Creed 2 hits which looks like another very well-made action-adventure game but I guess I'll have to add that to the pile of things I wish I could buy next to Borderlands, Arkham Asylum and The Ballad of Gay Tony.

This week one of my university assignments did require me to download a game off the internet which my parents courteously paid for. Our task was to play and review an indie game we'd never played before and I was excited about my assignment and don't think I did a bad job. My review for indie title Osmos is already written but I'm not uploading it until Tuesday, sometime after midday, for fear that otherwise my lecturer will believe I have simply ripped it from the internet. I also downloaded League of Legends this week as the open beta went live on Monday, but whadda ya know? Another game my university internet connection is blocking the ports for. At this point I'm a little bummed out with this whole port blocking thing because even after I've registered my Xbox 360 with them they're still restricting my connection with that too.

But this is the week of Halloween and what does that mean? That's right, in-game events! Valve pulled off a great and unexpected Halloween event by putting out a new map, two new hats and five new achievements. The new map was actually a modification of a community map by the name of Harvest. Valve took it and added a more halloweeny environment, a ghost which randomly appears and scares characters into not being able to use their weapons, changed the health packs into sweets, added special pumpkin powerups that give you a crit on your next shot and generally made the map great fun to play on. I've also had a bit of an excuse to play World of Warcraft again, given that it's All Hallow's End in the world of Azeroth. I've got up to level 46, spent some time in Warsong Gulch and run back and forth across the world collecting Halloween treats. I even now have my Steam and WoW accounts synched with Giant Bomb so everybody can see how badly I'm doing with my achievements as well.

But, I think that's enough of a catch up for this week. I hope you're all having an awesome time and I'll leave you with what Giant Bomb aptly called the craziest GTA trailer ever (viewer discretion is advised).

-Gamer_152

It is currently Sunday 25th October and I did cave this week and get Brütal Legend. What do I think of it? In one word: Brilliant. Maybe it's best I back up for a moment. You see last week I was rather unconfident that this game would actually have any solid gameplay and wondered if the whole problem of the game trying to blend RTS and action-adventure elements or the numerous side missions would get in the way of me having fun. Despite this I scooped the game up without a second thought at the first opportunity I got and was only too eager to experience what the game had in store as I played for the first time. I'd played through the demo before and seen more of the game from video of it that Double Fine had released, but I played through the first 15-30 minutes content enough. From then on my excitement began to grow and a few missions later I was already enjoying the game greatly. After a fair amount of time with the game I turned off my 360 believing that although I'd had an enjoyable time with the game I wasn't that desperate to go back and play any more of it. Oh, how wrong I was. Absolutely itching to play more of the sweet metally goodness I jumped back on my console the next day, played all the way up to the final mission and loved every minute of it. After completing the game I still wanted more and have spent this weekend glued to my TV, going after every achievement, unlockable and hidden item I can get.

So what did I find so unbelievably amazing about Brütal Legend? I'm not sure I can entirely put my finger on it right now. The game seems almost greater than the sum of its parts. Of course the characters, environments, lore and general aesthetics of the game are extremely well done and though it has been criticised I thought the main story was compelling as well. The voice acting was not only great due to the personalities from the world of rock they had cast in this game, but was also very well-delivered and made all the more effective by the body animations and facial movements of the character models in-game. Although I wasn't overly-enthusiastic about the soundtrack it was still a great compilation of metal classics and the original music score for the game was a solid component as well.

Now we get to the gameplay and while I can wrap every other aspect of the game up in a neat little bow, this is the part I find really hard to assess. I can pick out various small grievances I have with the game such as technical issues with the checkpoint races or how you can't set your destination marker to anywhere on the world map but that's not to say that the gameplay as a whole is some kind of perfect blend of elements. There is nothing that original about the side missions or extra collectibles or even the action-adventure side of the game in general, the strategy portions of the game don't control too well on a console and the game is a tad on the short side. Now I'm not a big lover of side missions; when playing Red Faction: Guerrilla I found that after a while they could get quite tedious and the checkpoint driving missions in that game became almost torturous. I'm also not too much of a fan of collectibles; I don't usually go that far out of my way to get them and I don't think I've ever come close to 100% completion on any game before. However my completion rate is already sitting at 83% and I'm ravenous for more. Maybe the world of Brütal Legend really is enough to make me forget about anything else, maybe I've suffered some kind of fatal mental damage from listening to too much of the in-game radio, but whatever the case I love this game and think Schafer has done a brilliant job.

This week I've also become a part of the preview programme for the new Xbox 360 update and from what I've experienced it has its ups and downs. Just trying to remap the navigation and use of a system that would usually be handled by a keyboard to a controller is not a process that you can expect to go smoothly in the first place, but the main problem seems to be with Microsoft trying to cram the existing features of the websites they're working with into UIs that are just plain unsuitable. The worst of the social networking tools seems to be Facebook which has been warped from its simple and compact browser-based version into the NXE user interface that is used on the rest of the Xbox's menus. The Twitter system also seems somewhat lacklustre in relation to its browser-based parent but the difference between the Twitter and Facebook UIs does beg the question, if they created a new interface for Twitter why didn't they do the same thing for Facebook? Last.fm doesn't seem to have come out of this whole thing too bad, probably because although they have once again tried to cram the whole thing into the NXE panels it still does what it was meant to do pretty proficiently: Play music. The branding of the new video marketplace place as the Zune marketplace feels very tacked on as it actually doesn't have anything at this time to do with Zune, but although I haven't experienced the 1080p video streaming myself they do seem to be running a very good service there. All in all the navigation of the new features of the 360 update are a bit of a shamble and I can't imagine who at all would want to use the social networking features, but as far as streaming media goes the console so far has been doing a good job of it.

That's gonna be it for this blog. I'm going to try and somehow resist the urge to buy Borderlands over the coming weeks (as I just can't afford it) and get back to playing more of Brütal Legend. I'll leave you with this little trailer from the rock gods themselves.

-Gamer_152

It is currently Tuesday 20th October and Brütal Legend has finally hit shelves. It's a game I've been excited about for a long time and I've loved everything that I've seen of it. The game's been getting some good reactions from critics, with the lowest review score I've seen so far being a 3/5 from Giant Bomb and even that isn't that low. Although I must admit my expectations for the game have been skewed by the Giant Bomb review a little, I don't want them to be but despite what everyone else is saying, after hearing Ryan Davis talk about how flawed the gameplay of Brütal Legend is, it has pulled my confidence in the gameplay of the game down a bit. That might not be a bad thing though, with my lowered expectations it may mean I enjoy the gameplay all that much more and whatever the quality of the rest of the game the art style and general atmosphere of the game are looking as thrilling as they ever did. So you may be wondering if I'm so hyped for the game, why don't I have it yet? Well I'm still waiting for my university maintenance grant etc. to come through and so I've been trying to keep costs down and considered buying Brütal Legend too much of a luxury, however I think I may just reach a point where I really do want this game badly enough to pay all that money for it even under current circumstances.

I haven't played a whole lot of games this week, mainly because I've had university work for a considerable portion of the week, my sleep pattern has been all over the place and Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent either making the journey back to my family's home, staying there or making the journey back. Getting to and from there cost a total of £53 and took over 12 hours but it was very well worth it to celebrate the 18th birthday of my mind-blowingly awesome friend xCompanionxCubex.

Getting back on topic I did play quite a few game demos last week which I didn't write about in my blog because there wasn't realistically enough space but now that I have plenty of room to fill let me regale you with tales of my time trialing Xbox 360 titles. I was expecting brilliant things from the Batman: Arkham Asylum demo and even then it delivered more than I was expecting, the combat, stealth, environments, voice work, graphics and characters in that game are all brilliant and it's just a shame that's yet another game I can't afford to be buying right now. One game that did surprise me was WET because I hadn't heard a great deal of positivity towards that game so I didn't presume I would find the demo that enjoyable, but I was won over by its sty*e, music and general madness. I have heard however that the demo is not entirely representative of the full game and for this reason I'm assuming that if I actually did play the full version I'd probably run into a lot of the flaws people have been describing, which didn't seem so distinguished in the demo. Then there was South Park Let's Go Tower Defence Play! which definitely had some great South Park humour in the enemies, achievement names etc. but even in that short demo I kept hearing voice clips taken from the show repeated too many times and there's not really anything which can disguise the fact that this is just another in a stupidly long line of tower defence games already created. Lastly there was of course the Brütal Legend demo which I strongly encourage you to try if you have any interest at all in the game.

And that's all folks. Thanks for reading, keep playing those games and I'll leave you with this breath-taking display of DDR skill. Peace out.

-Gamer_152

It is currently Tuesday 13th October and my course in computer games programming continues, as does my gaming itself. The programming on my course is pretty much still all stuff I already know but I don't mind. In my ludology class I've been given a 10 hour assignment to create a simple video game using GameMaker and I don't think I've done a bad job; my game involves moving a bullet-firing mouse around space and destroying the various enemies flying around the screen. The one thing I cannot get my head around though is the maths. I think we're a long way from applying the maths we've learnt to any actual programming but I cannot for the life of me understand some of the mathematical concepts we're being taught. Maybe it will all become clear eventually.

I have finally got my games consoles set up and working though. This week I've been playing Fable 2 which I've picked up some nice new achievements on and Burnout Paradise which is still great fun. But of course being the Halo nut I am, the highlight of my week has been finally being able to play Halo 3: ODST and the new Halo 3 multiplayer maps. I don't think that ODST is as good as any of the games in the Halo trilogy but you know what? It's still awesome! The game is good-looking and I thought the lighting was especially good. The setting was one of my favourite things about ODST and it was great to see the whole thing play out in the huge, dark city of New Mombasa. The new SMG and pistol were weapons that I thought were very well integrated into the game, it was great to headshot a few grunts at a time with the pistol or unload a stream of bullets into the nearby enemies with the SMG. The limited stamina and health of the ODSTs also did make for an experience where it felt like you were much more vulnerable and had to be more cautious in the way you approached fights and I do think that ODST was harder than any of the games in the trilogy. I thought the story held up well and one thing that I think has been overlooked greatly in the game is Sadie's Story, the story told via the audio logs; I thought it was great to have a story told in that form and it was a nice little throwback to I Love Bees. One of the most interesting observations I've seen about this story though was from a thread on the Bungie.net forums and compared the story of ODST to Dante's Divine Comedy. It sounds like an insane theory at first but if you actually take a look at the things said in the thread (warning: contains spoilers) it starts to make sense.

Firefight has been pretty cool as well but I think it'll be better once I have the chance to play it with some friends. One major complaint I know a lot of people have had about the game is that the campaign was too short and that they don't think they got the amount of content that they paid for. It's interesting to see how many people are measuring whether they got what they paid for by amount of content and not by the quality of that content but I understand their complaints. It's also interesting to see how many people are willing to trade the game in for a fraction of their money back and forgoing having free access to the Halo: Reach beta next year but if that's what people wanna do they might as well go for it. I'm not gonna pretend the campaign wasn't quite short because it was but I knew what I was getting going into this game and I was impressed with all of it. Oh and one more thing I feel I have to say before I move off of the subject of ODST: There were points in the game where I just could not ignore the fact that Dare's face looked freaking weird. All the other characters looked and sounded good, but Dare? I tried to ignore it at points and just go with it, but even if only a trivial matter it was something that stood out for me.

I think Bungie have done as good a job as ever on the new maps for Halo 3. My favourite map at the moment is Longshore but they're each great in their own way. The only problem is that I have a strict NAT and it has been seemingly impossible to play Halo 3 online with friends. This is almost certainly being caused by all the ports that are blocked on my university connection. I have a very strong suspicion that this is gonna be a problem for all my 360 games and if it is that really sucks. In fact the number of ports they have blocked has already meant that I can't log onto my old puzzle-based MMO Puzzle Pirates or update my Champions Online character editor to use that. What is life if I can't have virtual pirates?

But I think that about does it this week. This weekend I'm going to be going back home to celebrate the 18th birthday of a very special friend which is gonna cost me about £50 and take over 8 and a half hours to get there and back but it's gonna be well worth it. I hope everybody reading this is having a great week and I'll leave you with the very final episode in this series of Giant Bomb's video game movie review show TANG.

-Gamer_152

It is currently Monday 5th October and I have now completed my first week of education in computer games programming. It's been a pretty interesting week and for the most part I've enjoyed it. At the moment my timetable consists of five classes: computer environments which deals with how to properly communicate with other people about computers both in a verbal and written manner, software development 1 which deals with the basics of computer programming, ludology which is basically the study of video games, computer architecture which deals with how computers work and basic maths tech which deals with all the basic mathematics required for computer programming.

Computer architecture and software development have really so far only been going over what I already know but I still enjoy even simple programming and it's always good to refresh your knowledge of things. Computer environments is a class I really wasn't expecting and I don't quite know how they've built an entire module around it but I can see why it's there and if it's what is necessary to learn how to be a good games programmer then I'm all for it. Basic maths tech has definitely been the most difficult so far as I was expecting a simple slow-paced introductory lecture but they threw us right in at the deep end with a two hour lecture on powers, algorithms and algebra and while I did manage to understand all of this it very much suggests that this is going to be a very hard subject. For one thing they are trying to pack an entire a-level maths course into one semester of my CGP course. My best lesson so far has been ludology where our main assignment has been to produce a three minute presentation on one obscure video game and while I'm not the first to jump at a chance for public speaking in front of a bunch of strangers, making a presentation on Geometry Wars has actually been the most fun part about my course so far. I look forward to next week.

One notable thing about my experience at university so far is that my sleeping pattern is all over the place. Maybe it will regulate itself eventually but I will fall asleep or wake up pretty much any time of the day, regardless of when it is or what my sleeping pattern for the day before was. For most of the week university can start at any time from 9:00 to 12:00 and finish at any time from 12:00 to 16:00. But the thing that really throws me is on Wednesdays, right in the middle of the week, I have a single lesson from 19:00 to 20:00. It also doesn't help that as I live in the university halls of residence, loud music can come blaring through the walls at almost any time. I guess this is just something I'm going to have to live with.

As for playing video games there hasn't actually been a whole ton of that going on this week. I hoped to have completed Halo 3: ODST by now but things haven't quite gone according to plan. I'd like to thank my parents very much for bringing up my Wii and Xbox 360 but when I went to set up my brand new TV I discovered the manufacturers hadn't put in the power cable they should have and so for the past week I've still had to stick to PC and DS gaming. I'm getting a replacement cable mailed to me which should arrive tomorrow which I'm very excited and very relieved about.

Thanks to all of you who have been reading. This week I'll leave you with what is, in my opinion, one of the funniest Giant Bomb quick looks so far, this quick look at Darkest of Days. Enjoy your gaming everybody.

-Gamer_152

It is currently Saturday 26th September and I have now been living in my university halls of residence for a whole week. It's still very strange here and while my computer games programming course doesn't start until Monday it's been good to know that I'll actually be around large groups of people I can have a really intelligent discussion about video games with. So I'm eagerly awaiting 11:00 Monday morning when I will get my first official practical lesson in computer environments. Of course I could go on about the university and the course itself endlessly... So let's do that.

I've been very impressed by what I've been told about the course. My university has direct links both with Microsoft and Sony and my lecturers have even seen secret Microsoft and Sony tech which they are not legally allowed to talk about. In fact these guys knew about the Natal even before its announcement at E3 09. More than one of the people in the computing department here has worked with Codemasters and others have worked on games such as Motorstorm, Need for Speed: Underground and one the people teaching computer games programming was even an AI programmer for Fable. They have been emphasising that the course itself is extremely hard though. There are about 94 people on the course and these have been selected from over 450 applicants and the course is so intimidating for some there is also a 10% drop-out rate before it even starts. We will be working more than 40 hours a week in the first year and overall the course is considered to be about the hardest course out of the hundreds taught here. The overall dropout rate is over 50% and the last group of 74 programmers has dropped down to about 30 programmers. I'm raring to go and willing to put in every bit of effort it takes to get this qualification though.

I haven't been playing many video games themselves this week. I've played a bit of Zoo Keeper, Tetris DS and Microsoft Pinball but that's really it. But today I picked up Halo 3: ODST and tomorrow I will be back in possession of my gaming mouse, my Xbox 360 and my Wii. It's gonna be one hell of a Sunday! However, as a student buying games is pretty much entirely off my agenda until I get a part time job and earn a fair amount of cash. In other news I was disappointed this week to find out about the various problems people have found with Scribblenauts. From the sounds of things the game has serious problems with controls, the way in which the objects interact with each other, physics and just how easy the levels are to complete (e.g. Entering "Cthulhu" and "Wings" seems to be able to get you past just about anything). I'm still going to buy the game but with such glaring faults I still feel like the game isn't going to be the full experience it could have been.

I think that's everything for this week and stay tuned for thoughts on my first days getting a degree in computer games programming and my opinions on Halo 3: ODST in the near future. This week I'll leave you with this ****c trailer for Chu Chu Rocket on the Dreamcast. Peace out.

-Gamer_152

It is currently Sunday 20th September and this week things have been very different for me. For a while now the plan had been that on September 20th I was gonna be moving half way across the country to finally start university and begin my work towards a bachelors degree in computer games programming. However the past week has been very hectic and I had all sorts of financial problems. Everything seemed to be going wrong and it looked like I wasn't going to be able to start my course on time. This was some bad news but out of all of the chaos there was one small upside; with me getting to university late it seemed things were perfect for me to attend my local midnight launch of Halo 3: ODST. So I pre-ordered the game and was all prepared to get that little bit of experience with the Rookie and his lost squad before I headed off to university.

2 days ago I was contacting the university again about my financial situation as I'd had no reply from them in 2 days and wasn't expecting an answer back any time soon. However I got an immediate response saying that emergency accommodation had been arranged for me and I was in an absolute panic about my impending 150 mile trip to start a life-changing four years. My family in a rush, we managed to collect together what we could and less than 24 hours later I was standing in the university reception filling out an accommodation booking form. I quickly ended up in the halls of residence, living on my own for the first time and I was feeling very lost in the world. I've acclimatised a little more since then but it's still a very strange experience as people who have been in my position will surely know.

As far as games go I didn't have time for much more than a few plays of Super Smash Bros. Brawl before I left and I don't have a 360 or a Wii up here so I am restricted to DS and PC gaming but I have some enjoyable things I can play. The real bummer is that Halo 3: ODST comes out in 2 days and I'm going to have no way to start playing Bungie's excellent-looking shooter. From what I have seen of the game the environments, graphics and characters look great and I like the new gameplay styles which push the player into being more careful and calculating about the way they take down their enemies. I have also seen the demo of Brutal Legend and I was excited about that game before but now I just can't get over how well-styled the game is. The environments, cinematics, character animations and general world that Brutal Legend take place in seem enough reason alone to buy this game. It's a bit unlikely I'll have a 360 by Rocktober 13th but I sure hope I do.

Induction for my course starts at 9:30 tomorrow and hopefully it'll be the start of something awesome. If anything especially interesting happens within the week I will report back, but in general over the new few years I hope to give the people reading this blog an idea of what it's like to be a student studying video games programming in the UK.

All that remains is to say thanks for reading, thanks to the people around me who helped me get to university and I'll leave you guys with the awesome intro to Brutal Legend.

-Gamer_152

It is currently Sunday 13th September and it's been a bit of a long week for me, rushing around trying to prepare everything before I get off to university. Hopefully once I'm there I can use this blog to give you a little bit of a look at some of the more interesting points of education in video game development. Until then things are continuing pretty much as normal. I must say I haven't really been enthused enough to continue my playthrough of Saint's Row this week, I think systematically building up my respect over and over and working my way through the stronghold missions, deprived of anything in the main storyline has put me off the game a bit. Most of my gaming time this week has been spent on Super Smash Bros. Brawl which is still an awesome game.

But moving on to main events, this week saw the passing of the date which I think can only be described as a product marketer's dream, 09/09/09. Set for release on this date were The Beatles: Rock Band, Modern Warfare 2 and the slightly more obscure Bob's Game. The Beatles: Rock Band looks like the ideal rhythm game for any Beatles fan and a great game in general for anyone who likes Rock Band, but I don't think this game is for me. I'm just not into the music of The Beatles enough or all that interested in the Beatles-ish style the whole game is presented in. None the less Harmonix seems to have done an outstanding job with it. Then there's Modern Warfare 2 which I know a lot of people are hyped about but I didn't really get into Call of Duty and in general more realistically themed first-person shooters don't seem as enticing to me as sci-fi shooters. This may have been a game I bought in the great drought of releases in the middle of the year but with me off to university and a whole bunch of great looking games on the horizon it seems like I could make purchases now that I'd get a lot more out of.

Then we come to Bob's Game, the adventure game solely developed over five years by one Robert Pelloni. Unfortunately Bob's Game could not be released on 09/09/09 and it wasn't until a few days later that anyone really got word of what was going on with Bob. As it is now, it seems that testing for the final version of the game is underway and he has released a new demo of the game to the public. Maybe it's because I'm interested in video game development myself but it definitely feels cooler playing a game when you know what you're playing is entirely the work of one person. The game has a very nice retro charm to it, from its pixel-sty*e artwork to its little nods to video game cl*ssics. The parts of the game that don't see the protagonist, Yuu, adventuring around his little world to the pleasant sound of 8-bit music involve small minigames based on the great video games of yesteryear. For example a Tetris-like puzzle game called Tetrid which is played in the same sty*e as Tetris but involves completely unconventional pieces. There are a couple of other clever little games that appear in the demo but I won't give them away. Overall I think the game has come across quite well, but the difficulty level of this demo has been excruciatingly hard. Even from the very early stages of the game you will really find that you'll have had to have mastered certain retro games if you wish to have any chance of completely Bob's unforgiving minigames. For anybody who is playing themselves, I'm stuck on the second one. As for what full games I am actually getting next ODST will be at the absolute top of my list, followed by Batman: Arkham Asylum and Brutal Legend.

One of my good friends, Ninja Duckie, has also recently started up a new blog where in every edition he looks at and gives his opinion on a chosen experimental or original video game. He's a great writer and takes a pretty extensive look at his chosen games so I recommend him to anyone who's interested. You can find Ninja Duckie's Experimental Game Journal here. Also congratulations to my best friend xCompanionxCubex who got a shiny new DS Lite this week. That's it for another week and this time I'll leave you with one of the best trailers I've ever seen, this live-action trailer for Halo 3: ODST. Prepare to drop.

-Gamer_152