Hi everyone, as you have seen in the previous blog post I wrote a story, well, I just started a new one, but it is very early on and I have only done one paragraph. I'm not sure how long to make it yet, or even where it is going. This is in no way related to the previous story. I need a name for the main character as well, that is why he is called X.

Here it is:

  So, what is dark nights? It is a short story that is written by me. The story is a half mystery/half adventure story with a Japanese feel. I hope you will take the time to read and enjoy it. As it is only first draft there a few things that haven't been added. And with no more delay I present my first 'proper' story:

Dark nights

   The glow of neon lights illuminated the Tokyo skyline, and made twisting patterns on the windows of houses, yet the whole city was sleeping. Everyone that is, except Ashida. He was sitting on his bed, next to a smoking plasma rifle. He laid back and cried…thoughts flashed through his mind about what had just happened.

  It all began that morning, when Ashida went for a walk…

  Walking through the dark, murky streets, he glanced to his left towards the abandoned subway. He saw three figures in the darkness. The three dark figures strolled through the dark tunnel, heading directly for Ashida. Straight away he knew who they were and that he was in trouble. As they emerged from the darkness, Ashida’s thoughts were confirmed. It was the leaders of the most feared gang in Tokyo, the Crazyfists.

  The first member to come into view was Cao, arguably the most powerful man in Japan. He strutted up to Ashida, knowing that he wouldn’t even dream of trying any Rambo stunts. As Cao walked his jet-black hair swayed in the wind, but just has he reached Ashida, the bright lights of a police patrol robot lit up the dark stairway. Ashida twisted round to see where it was; then as he turned round he caught a glimpse of one of the people who was accompanying Cao. One of them was a large bald black man, he could remember a story he had been told about him “Hacker Huang” was his nickname. Ashida didn’t fancy finding out how he got that name. Ashida turned to look for the patrol robot, but it had gone past. Ashida ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction the Crazyfists had gone. Something told him that wasn’t the last he’d seen of them.

  After about 10 minutes of running, Ashida stopped, gasping for breath. He had arrived at the headquarters of The Giants. The Giants are Ashida’s gang, bitter rivals of the crazyfists. In most people’s opinion, they were the only thing stopping the crazyfists from dominating the entire east coast of Japan. The Giants main command consists of Ashida, Zhen and Han, who is the youngest of the group at only 18 years old. Han is nicknamed “ghost” by his friends because of his quiet personality. You can usually find him wearing baggy jeans and a t-shirt that normally had a joke on it. (Whether the “joke” is funny is a whole different story.) Zhen is the third member of the group; she has known Ashida since he was 5 years old. Her nickname is “the temptress” because of her extremely good looks; she has long, blond hair and a figure that most teenage girls would kill for. Usually Zhen would wear tight leather skirts with a shirt that barely got down to her belly button.

  The Giants knew that the Crazyfists were up to something, as they had never ventured that far from their territory before. And why had they been using the old subway? They enquired into the logic book. The origin of this book is unknown, one night Han had gone out to the bar and the next morning he found an old crusty book in his pocket. When they opened the book they had found a keyboard, this searched the contents of the book which the Crazyfists found out it knew everything. The book stated that the subway had been abandoned nearly 5 years ago, in 2055. They learned the reason for this was that some of the maintenance workers disappeared around the middle of the tunnel, and then their search and rescue team also vanished. The team worked through the night, searching for a link between the Crazyfists and the disappearances. Finally they struck something, a day after the search and rescue team went down the tunnel, the three members of the Crazyfists “disappeared” for a few years. This was good. This was great. This could put them away for good! Zhen pushed the print button. The printer started to chug away. With a loud crash the door swung open…

  Thank you for reading, it would be greatly appreciated if you could add a few comments.

  So with a new union starting up next week (not mine) it's time for a change to my banner, avatar and sig. I want the union to be started soon, I'm fed up of waiting, but nothing can be done. :evil:

  As I get ready to choose my new things I need some ideas, I already have a few but what do you lot think, should I change it all?

  Anyway, there haven't been a lot going on this week, just normal life... See you tomorrow.

  Ok, I have decided on a union that I am making. Probably. Well, my decision so far is to create a football union (soccer) because as far as I am aware there is not an active one at the moment. What does everyone think about this?

  Please comment if you are interested.

  Yesterday I thought to myself am I a hardcore gamer? The answer was yes... What do I do in my spare time? I play games. What do I do with my money? I buy games. I follow gaming politics and hate Jack Thompson, and I browse and post on Gamespot for hours every day. Of course by posting I don't mean putting "cool" or "lol" on every off-topic thread they can find. Anyone else get annoyed by these conversation killers?

  So, are you a hardcore gamer? I am.

  Again plugging www.Josso.co.uk for hosting our chatshow and making the trailer!

  For a while now I have been waiting for another charter try for "the intelligent Pixelante union." We had to wait a month since some members didn't accept the charter invites. This has really annoyed me as we had to wait another month for the next attempt. Anyway, it will soon be time for another go, at the end of next week. While this has been going on I have been thinking about starting my own union, but I am not sure of what to start one about, it is defiantly not being an entirely off-topic union! It could possibly be a sniping union, but I'm not sure yet. Comments welcome!

  ~Pixelante and proud~

  Hey all, just a quick post to say in a few days there will be a few audio files on a certain website that have been made by me and 2 other friends in class, these are beta at the moment and were totally improvised. I will post the link soon. THIS IS TRUE IN-SCHOOL PRODUCTION! My MP3 was used to record this. Comment if your interested!

  P.S. Explicit words are used from the start and throughout.

  Well I said I would do it and here it is... Following yesterdays blog post about sniping I decided to start up a new series of tips blogs following how to be a sniper. If you want to know why, check the blog entry below.

  So, you have decided to become a sniper? Lets get going then! In this edition we will be looking at one of the most important bits of sniping, choosing a position and a character.

  Choosing a suitable character

  "It does not matter what your character looks like, if the colour is right you shouldn't care about anything else. You shouldn't want to be seen." Always keep this in mind when selecting a character and use a bit of common sense. By this I mean not selecting a character that has white clothes when you are playing at night. If playing in the snow choose a character in white clothes, if playing in a jungle choose a character with green clothes. "If you are a sniper, care not about appearance, care more about not being seen."

  Choosing a position

  There are a few things that can factorize your choice of position, for example you need to choose a position where your character does not stick out like a sore thumb. If you are playing a game with a radar, try to keep off the floor and into the more "obvious" spots for a sniper. (Towers, behind barrels and sandbags.) If playing a team deathmatch always keep someone behind you to watch your back, they would usually be equip with a heavy machine gun and a shotgun. However, if you are playing in a no radar deathmatch, there are infinite possibillitys in where you can setup camp. A good choice is in some foliage and pop out every 10 seconds for a quick look, then dive back into cover. This is a great option for jungles but move around every 5-10 minutes unless you want to be spotted and fired upon. When choosing a position in no radar make sure there are at least a few escape routes and run each one through at least a few times. If you aren't in a level where there is not a lot of foliage, try to find cracks and crevasses in a wall or path. Of course there is always the option of a tower or an abandoned house, but always make sure you know the escape routes and have someone with you to guard the entrances.

  Thanks for reading, I hope to see you back soon. (comments are welcome.)

  Ever played a FPS game online and one person always seems to "ruin the fun" because they grab a sniper rifle and sets up camp? I'm that person. Sometimes I wondered why they got so annoyed about it, now I know, and I will share it with you. It goes a bit like this:

  I was playing Nightfire (James Bond) with my friend on split-screen, I grabbed a covert sniper, found a nice spot on a roof, and let rip into him. After the game was over (I didn't die once!) I asked why he got annoyed with me and he responded "Because it's not fair" this made me question him. Why isn't it fair? He replied "Because I can't kill you" I then told him that if he had the sniper as his favorite weapon he too could become a great sniper. This was closely followed by me teaching him about being a sniper. This included things such as where to pick a good spot to hide, how to use the radar effectively and a whole lot of other things. I felt good after producing an apprentice sniper, this then led me on to thinking about writing a "sniper tips" series on my blog, what do you, my loyal readers think?

  Also, do you like the new italic and bold font for the start of the post?

  Replays should be in every game, I mean if you have a sweet race or a nice police chase, drift or a great touchdown/goal. For example, if you drift a corner sweetly all you have to prove it is well... You can't. Thats the reason I play Driv3r, GT4 and similar games. Why should it even matter? Well, I was watching my old replays of Driv3r, and realised that replays add so many hours to some games. Take Driv3r for example, the time it takes to get round that corner perfectly, dodge that car and maybe crash into that lampost. Anyone else feel the same... I'm off to play more Driv3r!