I think a 5 month gap is a new record. I've been visiting GS less lately and been spending time on other websites like RelicNews and several Warhammer 40000 sites. Even now I only visit GS for off-topic, system wars, the Dawn of War 2 board and some unions.

My gaming tastes haven't changed a lot. Picked up the Orange Box, KOTOR 2 and STALKER: Clear Sky during the summer and still playing them. Currently looking forward to Left 4 Dead, Men of War, Empire: Total War, Dawn of War 2 and the recently announced 2nd expansion to Company of Heroes. Red Alert 3 looks very dissapointing however and I won't be buying it.

Now as a continuation of the previous blog I'll say that I did choose Physics, Chemistry, History and Latin. So far Physics has been the most difficult with Chemistry being the easiest. And here's my GCSE results which I got in late August.

• English Language - A
• English Literature - A
• Maths - A
• Chemistry - A
• Physics - A
• History - A*
• French - A (Scary...)
• Latin - A
• Classical Civilisation - A*
• Religious Studies - A

I also watched the US election and I'm glad America made the right decision, though I would have been absolutely fine with McCain as President before he picked Sarah Palin for VP. My respect for the man has also increased greatly for the man after his consolation speech in Phoenix.

I think it's time to start writting blogs again.

I finished my last GCSE exam today, Physics Paper 2 which was surprisingly easy. I think I've done pretty well in most of my exams except French, English and maybe Chemistry. Those were pretty hard which sucks since I was planning on doing Chemistry for A level. Hopefully everyone else failed hard as well and brought the grade boundries down.

My current A level choices are:

• Physics
• Chemistry
• History
• Latin

But I'm thinking about changing them to this:

• Physics
• Maths
• History
• Latin

I'm going do Physics against my better judgment but I really really do not want to do A level English which was the only other choice open apart from IT. I had my doubts about Latin as well but it's more interesting than Politics and it's been my best subject at GCSE.

Now I just need to wait until the results on the 21st of August. In mean time it's time for 24 hour gaming marathons and generally just doing nothing at all.

I've downloaded the latest version of Europa Barbarorum for Rome: Total War so that should kill a lot of time. The Dawn of War 2 beta could come out during the summer but I'm not getting my hopes up. I'll probably fuddle with the Spore creature creater as well. That's the problem with the summer, no one actually releases any decent games. They just wait until September. Oh well, until next time.

Rant mode engaged!

So I'm guessing quite a few of you heard about about EA's recent announcement. Red Alert is coming back to a hard drive near you. A year ago I would be jumping for joy and discussing how awesome this is. Chronospheres, alternate timelines, demo trucks, mammoth tanks, TESLA COILS! And then there were the giant ants, yes those were the days.

But now I find myself wondering "Is this a good thing?" I thought Tiberium Wars would awesome but I played it for about 2 weeks and then simply though "meh!" Ok, I honestly thought EA ****** up big time with C&C 3. The gameplay was mediocre and most games just turned into spam fests of Mammoth tanks, Avatars and Tripods. The story was pretty much turned on its head, the graphics were running on an engine that is now 7 years old and the Nod ending has got to be one of the most craptastic endings in RTS history, it was basically a "to be continued." And then there were the patches. No EA I don't think I will download all those 500mb patches, some of us don't have hyperdrive internet. To be honest the entire game reeked of "meh" and was a great example of EA placing profits over the wishes of the fans. I really miss Westwood now.

Now Red Alert 3. It's been anounced already and the first TW expansion isn't even out yet and the devs have already said there will be a third faction. What I see is EA trying to show us flashy features like "third faction! It's gonna be cool guys!" And then the faction turns out to be rather unimpressive and they've spent so much time on the faction that the core game suffers. At the minute all I can is EA butchering what used to be my favourite RTS series and milking it into oblivion all in the name of profit. EA will have to do a lot to get me to think otherwise, but I can't see that happening to be honest. It breaks my heart to see the C&C series sink so low.

Disengage Rant mode.

In other news, I've ordered Sins of a Solar Empire all the way from America after reading about it in PC Gamer and watching a few videos. It seems to have done very well for itself so far and I'm looking forward to playing it. Hope it comes soon. :)

This is the longest time it's ever taken me to write another blog. There are a number of reasons for that though:

• Christmas
• Being sick at Christmas (Vomiting on Christmas Day FTL)
• Revising for exams
• Doing exams
• Screwing up my leg very badly
• And just plain couldn't be bothered. :)

Anyway, now that we're here lets get down to business, starting with my Christmas gifts. I began with Company of Heroes and for the first few hours I though "This is ****, how could anyone like this?" but then I got the feel for the game and once I started playing Wehrmacht I quickly became addicted.

Sup Com: Forged Alliance was something I liked from the start though. Gigantic futuristic battles have never been simpler. It really lifted my spirits to see my 3 fatboys rolling over the hill and saving the day in the first mission, it was beautiful. *sniff*

As for Bioshock... well it was... ok I guess. To be honest though, I played it for 2 days, got bored and played Sup Com. FPS never really grab my attention I guess, RTS is where it's at for me.

However there is one awesome game out there which is not an RTS and that game is GUITAR HERO! I got Guitar Hero 3 for the PS2, completed career mode on the first day and nearly broke my fingers trying to play "Through the Fire and the Flames" at the end (thus the title of the blog). And that was only on easy :?. I suck at the game, but I still adore it.

I'll end this blog by saying that it's my birthday tomorrow. Yep I'll be 16 tomorrow. :)

Finally, I found a video that I think all the CoH players will enjoy. :wink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFjbGi0x3kg

Just a short blog to tell everyone what's on my Christmas list this year. It's pretty game heavy but then again I can't really think of anything else to spend money on (apart from upgrading my PC which would be too expensive at the minute). So I was thinking of getting:

• Company of Heroes: Gold Edition
• Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
• Bioshock
• Led Zeppelin - Mothership album

That's all I can think off now. I've got quite a lot of money to burn so feel free to suggest any games you think I should get. cheers.

This is my first blog in over a month so sorry about. It's been a combination of not having enough time and sheer laziness. That and Oblivion, which I only bought 2 weeks ago. I've finished the Eisenhorn series which is probably the greatest book series I have ever read, surpasing Ciaphas Cain, Lord of the Rings and many others with its awesomeness.

I thought Xenos got off to a slow start but later made it seem so much better. Malleus is a masterpiece from start to finish and so was Hereticus except for perhaps the brief ending (and it generally depressing). However without that depressing part of the novel (which I won't go into too much since it contains epic spoilers) made that book for me and without it, it probably would have felt like Malleus all over again. That wouldn't have been a bad thing of course but it does mean that each book is different in some way. I'm hoping the brief ending with be explained in Ravenor which I have also ordered. I couldn't get Ravenor Rogue though without having to go through a third party so I've left it for now.

After Ravenor I'm thinking Gaunt's Ghosts. I'm having a very painfull time finding all of them though. After that perhaps the new Ultramarines book which is coming out next year.

I've had a stroke of good luck! My "Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer" has come 2 weeks early! I preorderd it back in September and it wasn't supposed to come until the first week of December (or if you live in the US, January).

It's fascinating background book and since it's the Damocles Gulf edition it has the new background on the Tau. I've added an extract for your entertainment:

The Damocles Gulf Crusade

Chapter 3: Know your foe

Section 1: General Information v: Drones

Being filthy degenerate, heretical xenos scum, the tau invest much confidence in 'artifical intelligence'. A mutated perversion of our arcane and mysterious Machine Spirit - tau build machines which do not require the guiding hand of a properly trained custodian.

Tau combat robots are called 'drones' and they take the form of levitating discs armed with poorly designed pulse carbines. They are relatively slow but their small size makes them a challenging target. Stand up and take aim; their targeting systems are so woefully inaccurate that you are perfectly safe from harm.

There are several types of drone. A gun drone's purpose is to provide fire support. Sniper drones act in teams with a tau spotter controlling the drones from afar. Not like our brave sharpshooters who are not afraid to get close to the enemy to make theri kill shots!

Other drone types have been noted by High Command but their uses are unknown and unimportant.

This a very realistic background book and is written with Imperial propaganda in mind so I wouldn't believe everything said in it if I were you. :P

I mentioned earlier that I've recently bought Oblivion which is an awesome game. It's something I'll likely spend many hours on. I've already got a Combat/stealth character but I will want to make a magic based one later so there is plenty of replay value here. It's surpasses almost all games in its depth and detail and I highly recommend it.

- Commissar Otto Xavier of the Imperial Guard.

This is my first blog for quite some time. Things have been busy, mainly because of school with all the coursework I have had to do but I've finished my physics, most of my English and just have to put the finishing touches on my history. The only one that I haven't started is my chemistry but I don't have to worry about it just yet. I'm just glad I didn't do geography or I would have to prepare coursework that is over 40 pages long, or so I've heard.

I've been playing World in Conflict for nearly a month now and... it's bloody brilliant. Single player sucks when it comes to gameplay but multiplayer is just so good. All I seem to do on a Friday and Saturday night is play WiC online. It is one of the most rewarding and intense strategy games I have played for a long time. So far I've managed to get all the medals bar won and I usually manage to get into the top 3000 in the leaderboards when I've played for a generous amount of time. It is very demanding system wise but I recommend that all RTS fans try it out. It is definitely a candidate for Game ofthe Year.

I've finally finished all 5 books from the Ciaphas Cain series and they were truely awesome. I'll run through each of them in turn:

Book 1: "For the Emperor"

score: 9/10

The first novel was a great introduction to Cain and there were quite a few times were I laughed out loud. Cain's character is one of the most complex I have ever seen. He is not the gung-ho and fanatical person you would expect a commissar to be. The novel also introduces one of favourite characters of all time:Cain's personal aide Ferik Jurgen who was responsible for many of those "laugh out loud" moments. There weren't that many battles but it made up for that by providing an intriguing detective story that held me in suspense until the end. However the most important thing is that it made me want to start reading the next novel as soon as possible.

Book 2: "Caves of Ice"

score: 8/10

This novel was just as good as good as the last but I probably didn't enjoy it as much as I could have seeing as I read it all in one day.

Book 3: "The Traitor's Hand"

score: 10/10

The best novel in the series without a doubt. A great mix of humour, battles, a detective story which once again suspends you until the end and a rivalry between Cain and a fellow commissar which really pushes this book to that perfect score. It is also the first novel in the series to include the forces of chaos which, in my opinion, provide the most interesting foe in the Warhammer 40K universe.

Book 4: "Death or Glory"

score: 6/10

I didn't really enjoy this novel as much as the rest. It just didn't click with me or really excite me until I got to the last few chapters.

Book 5: "Duty Calls"

score: 10/10

It's like "The Traitors Hand" all over the again! But different! This book provides the same great formula of action, humour and detective story as well as a good mix of enemies and quite an interesting planet I must say. Can't wait to see if there will be a 6th book now.

The Ciaphas Cain series is the only one which seems to get the balance between action, gore and humour right and for this it is worth any penny. If you are fan of 40K then you should really look this series up. Your live will be poorer without it. I have just started the "Eisenhorn" series so when I have finished it I will review it. It may take a while though, it looks pretty long.

I just bought World in Conflict. Don't expect me to be around much this weekend :P. I'll tell you all about in a later blog as well as all the 40K books I've been reading. But for now it's goodbye!

must come to an end, like the Summer holidays :(. Yep, today was my first day back at school but it was sort of ok. We got a new principal, who is very dead on and knows the pupils, and a new and improved homework diary! It's got maps and stuff, lol. I got one homework for maths but it was very easy. I also got some GCSE results back and they were awesome :D:

RE - A*

Maths - B

My RE teacher said I would get a C and I ended up getting second in the class so screw you teacher! Shows how much you know about me! That's only half of my RE GCSE so I'll do the other half next year.

The reason for my B in Maths is that it was the highest possible mark (80%+ = B. No A's or A stars). I don't know why they do that but it's in a different exam board so they must do grading differently. That was worth 40% of my GCSE. Since I did so well in this exam my maths teacher has recommended me and a few others to do another paper next year apart from the one I will also get. This means that if I take this harder test (along with the normal one) the maximum grade I can achieve will be an A* whereas if I just did the normal paper on its own the maximum I could achieve is an A. I will of course be taking the harder test :D.

Yes this blog is pretty long but stay with me, you will! *waves hand about*

I've finished the first three books of the Ciaphas Cain series and have ordered the next two. I'm also considering where to go after that. So far I've narrowed it down to Eisenhorn and Gaunt's Ghosts. I thought the series was great in almost every way. The character development, comedy and violence were all perfect. The one small thing was that almost every time Cain thinks he's safe he writes something like "If had had known what we were getting into, I would have charged the tank myself." It kind of spoils it and gets a tad annoying by the third book. But it is still by the far the best series from the Black Library so far.

I also bought Total War Kingdoms, the expansion for Medieval 2 and I think it's better than the original game. Quite a lot of the bugs seem to have been fixed and the factions don't look like they are copies of each other. The only bad thing is that it was released 3 days before I had to go back to school :P.

I may write a review so stay tuned for that. :D

Just a short blog o say I'm back. I'm pretty tired at the minute so I'll do a proper blog tommorow (with pics! (hopefully T_T)). Just to cap it off, it was hot in Rome, bought another Muse album, Origin of Symmetry and took a lot of pics (at least 50). I also got an "X-trem Latin" book with many hilarious translations including 12 ways to say "go **** yourself" in latin. I'll post some of them later (but not those ones :P).

I've also ordered Warhammer 40K: Fire Warrior off amazon since I refuse to accept Gamespots low review score after seeing so many positive ones from other sources.

Like I said, I'm tired because I just got back today so I think I'll go and get some rest now (or play games. Whatever I feel like really :P).