Hey people! For some reason GS has been on my mind for a few days now, so thought I'd pop by and see how everyone's doing! Feel like I should check it out more often, but is it worth it? Who's still about?

Anybody still around? I havent been on gamespot in so long haha

Ive been back posting regularly for just over a week now and am beginning to realise what a ghost of its former self this place is. Now this isn't a rant at the 'community' itself, more of the way things have fallen apart that supposedly held it all together and made this place great once. I now use the term 'community' loosely, and you'll notice im using apostrophes to empthasise this which you'll get sick of very quickly, unless you already have.

From what I can remember in the time Ive been a member of GS, there was only one bit I didnt like due to having a sense of a 'split community'. That was the Game Forums/Boards whatever you want to call them these days. These boards were a nightmare for me to post my opinions on as there would always be an argument, now this is common on the internet, we're surely all used to it if you've ever frequently posted on another site, but these always seemed to be worse as you'd get the GameSpot members, and then have the guys who were just using the boards. I always found true GS members to be more respectful, even if they disagree with your opinion, you'd get a good debate over whatever the subject was, nothing wrong with that. So in time I stuck to GS's features such as blogs and unions, blogs are always good, if you get a good read and usually a good debate in the comments. Unions were also fun at the time, it was the best place to go to share interests, Union boards were good to talk about subjects without getting abuse from the not-so-respectful members.

Now heres the problem, the unions are gone. Ok fair enough most were slowly dying away, but it didnt help when we had decent members of the community leaving GS because of things changing, there was no support for the unions left for the people who were desperatly trying to keep them going and there were rumours at the time going around about GS deleting the whole union feature together, which was supported by the fact the 'level up' feature for unions stopped a long time ago, and when the layout of GS changed, the unions stayed the same with some people saying they'd change at a later date, which they didnt. So the unions are long since dead, GS had then in my opinion, lost a key feature. Its something that I can look past, and move on with.

Yet now I look at blogs, it seems to me people can't talk about what they want to talk about. If they have a bit of a rant because one of their friends gets banned, they're too scared to say much about it just in case it happens to them, even the guys commenting don't want to say anything but "If I was to post my opinion, Id be banned". I dont want to have a pop at the Mods because I know 95% of them are good, down to earth guys like me and you. But since when was GS about banning people for giving their opinion? Yes its your responsibility to moderate the place and make sure everythings sticking within the rules, as its the members responsibility to stay within the rules, but it's going a little bit too far in the way I look around now and it seems to be Members Vs Mods for some people, not everyone, I know, but some. I hear of Mods arguing amongst each other, reporting each other. What on earth is going on? They're here to hold this place together. When the whole of GS falls apart, its the community that stands together, and the Mods, those who are chosen to be level-headed, well respected community members, are meant to keep this place a good place to come to. No longer do I watch 'On The Spot', no longer do I stay up until 4am to watch a press conference live at E3 on GS, no longer do I get my latest reviews or news from GS. The forums have always been a no-go zone for me personally, and unions are dead. What am I left with? The community, friends on GS that say what they want to say about anything, on their blogs, and for people to have a read, take an interest in, and debate in comments, support people in comments etc. Thats all thats left, and after this past week Ive noticed its all falling apart.

If we lose this, then its completly over, it'll get to the point where people will go elsewhere to post blogs, a lot of people already have, I remember when a wave of members decided to leave because they had enough of other things happening around GS, people aren't afraid to do it, it's almost about to happen again. The whole of GS needs to stand back and look at itself, this place used to be great, now its just another game site, just another less shiny IGN. At the heart of GS was a decent community. The Mods need to realise members dont want them around to just ban people when there's an issue, they're here to set an example by being good community members rather than being seen as this strict force that will take action immediately if they dont agree, hence the reason the most respected members of GS who take interest in being Mods are chosen, its not all on them though, other members need to stop saying Mods are power hungry, not all of them are, most are decent guys and are fair, the odd few seem to be going too far lately but everyone who actually cares just needs to get it into gear and sort this place out before it all kicks off.

Agree or disagree, its my opinion, theres probably more to it as well, more I could say personally too. Im only one member of many here, so Id like to know if you agree or not, and what your opinion is. And if a Mod was to read and felt like too much of it was aimed at them, then Id rather you had your opinion on it as it would help others understand a Mods point of view too, at the moment it seems like Mods are a totally different group to those regular members and it shouldn't be the case from whichever point of view you see it from.

Not everyone will find this subject a problem at the moment, most of the people who I regulary contribute towards don't seem to be having these issues personally, but when its when I look around GS as a whole that I notice every little rant, and a big number of blogs all point in the same direction, so if you feel it doesn't apply to you and you've read through all of this, then sorry for wasting your time.

Thanks to those who took the time to read all of this.

Im so excited, yet its months away.. yesterday the tickets and line up for the festival were released and I waited in an online queue for at least half an hour from release to finally get to 'no tickets available'. I thought to myself "damn I really wanted to go, but nevermind" then on the Radio they were announcing the line up, once I heard it, that was it. I seriously sat on here for ages to keep trying, just in case one popped up. Put it this way, the band I want to see most is a tough decision between two. Rumours had been floating around for a while that Blink-182 would be playing, maybe even headlining, and then they were announced as the headliners on the Sunday, while Gun's and Roses were to headline the Friday, and Arcade Fire (I seriously haven't heard any of their stuff, their name only just rings a bell, are they big enough to headline one of the UK's biggest festivals!?) who are headlining the Saturday. So because I couldnt get a weekend ticket I thought I may as well go for a day ticket for Sunday to see Blink at least, but there was a problem. One of my favourite bands Billy Talent were also announced, now I didnt expect this, I know they headlined the 'Lock-Up Stage' which is a smaller stage inside a tent for less well-known bands last year so I thought it was a possibility they would play this year, yet I was surprised to see that they're opening up Friday Main Stage, which is awesome. Problem was, I now needed a weekend ticket and it just wasn't going to happen. I gave up, and went to play football like I do every Monday each week, and got back around half ten, got on the laptop at about 11, and logged into Facebook where it was littered with status' about the Reading Festival and how great people thought the line up was, and friends saying they got their tickets etc. I was gutted to say the least. Come midnight I thought Id give the ticket sites another go, but now they had 'Sold Out' written next to everything in a bold red font. I was about to give up, then decided to try Ticketmaster, which doesnt state how many tickets are left or anything, you click the ticket you want, how many you want etc and it puts you in a queue, just to tell you it cant find the tickets, which I assume means theyre gone. But this is the site that had done this to me all day, so when I tried it at midnight, I was shocked to see it show the weekend tickets available, and ive never filled my details out so damn fast lol, so luckily I shall be attending Reading 2010, and it'll be the best weekend EVER. Good times :)

So boring! Urgh....

I really need to find something to do with my time. Got paid today, good times. Means i MUST buy a new game, but what to buy? I need a game to get announced that I can get hyped for, did someone say Resi 6? No?...oh.

Oh yeah another thing, Im following so many people from back in the day, i cant remember who's blogs I used to take interest in, apart from those who still comment on my blogs because theyre easy to remember ha. Really need to sort out my friends list.

Been playing quite alot of games recently, picked up Battlefield Bad Company 2, finally get my fix of online warfare without resorting to Modern Warefare 2 :roll: While I picked up Battlefield I saw the steelcase edition of Devil May Cry 4 for £9.99 pre-owned. Cant go wrong there, what a steal. That kept me occupied for a day off work! After maxing out 'Recon' on Battlefield I got a little tired of it, for now anyways, so dug out a game I never really bothered with for a second chance, so I re-tried InFamous, now i cant remember why I never really got into it the first time around, i played it for a day or two and it frustrated me, so I let a mate borrow it, didnt see it for a good 6 months or so, and since its been returned its sat on a shelf untouched. So ive spent most of today playing InFamous and am now enjoying it quite a bit now, just needed some time really. Theres still so many games I havent managed to get round to playing this month, not a big fan of God of War, the demo didnt really seem to change that view either, but I guess with all the hype Im bound to play it at some point. Still havent picked up Heavy Rain, and after smashing the demo of Just Cause 2 I know which game ill be buying at the end of this month, guess the others are just gunna have to wait... Maybe I can pick them up after some time for a bargain price like DMC4 :)

And so here I am, again. I just checked out the old unions, wow... they're dead. Ergh, anyways need a catch up! Whats happening and hows everyone?

Well Ive decided to give some time to GS, well, the people on GS cause after a while I realised I miss you guys. As I was checking unread messages, I saw one from my good old friend Tyzwain, just seeing how I was in general, but he also said "I'm also awaiting the return of your awesome Resident Evil novel;)" which made me look back and read over them from all that time ago :o it made me realise I also miss writing them, so im considering writing an all new Resi based story, but only if its wanted, because theres not much writing one for no audience :P So yeah its in your hands, and any ideas would be cool too if its to happen. Apart from that, im gunna be checking GS every now and again anyways. So catchya around.

It's been a while.

Been a good few months since my last update, and its coming up to my second year as a member of GS, i find it quite a shame that GS hasnt really kept its appeal to me, the only reason I check back is because of the friends i made on here and nothing else really, every now and again i get really bored, so do some union work, which is something i used to really enjoy... but nevermind.

Anyways, how's everyone doing? you best reply in the comments to that lol.

Ill probably update twice this month as its my 18th birthday on the 16th, and 2 years on GS on the 24th. So might have stuff to say haha.

Oh yeah, i dont think i have posted since RE5 came out, so I need to say that I loved the game, but miss the old games :(

Looking forward to news of RE6... Zombies PLEASE!

Laters