Its that time again, been very busy and barely browsed GameSpot hence why I haven't been commenting on anyone's blogs or posting that many messages over the past few months.

So where do I start, had my exams back in May and early June, they went superbly and now I am on track for a merit... Assuming I get a good mark in my dissertation that is which is due in less than 3 weeks and I barely started it, 15000 words by the way so I better get cracking.

BUT

I'm getting a PS3 tomorrow and with that a few games to get me started. My PS2 gaming has slowed down considerably even though I still have some unplayed games, so I thought I need a refresh to get me going again. Either way I got Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Elder Scrolls Oblivion GOTY, Metal Gear Solid 4, Heavenly Sword, Uncharted Drake's Fortune and Lair (this one came with a package that was priced nicely, so I couldn't say no to it, still worth a shot) All in all the games came to £135 which is not a bad deal at all here in the UK. Still, I better put it to the side somehow and work my butt off to finish my dissertation.

In other news my fiance came over to visit me for 2 weeks and it was a blast, walked all over the place and sampled as many restaurants as we can cram in a day, with an added 5kgs to weight to top it all off. Soon afterwards I went on holiday to Switzerland for a week visiting Geneva and Lausanne in the process, the latter is a nicer city but no one speaks English there, thankfully I still remember some French so I managed to get by.

This kinda sums up the last few months, so until the next blog take care everyone.

Now this would have looked nice in the previous blog post, but I only got the news today and its superb!

To make things short, I'm the chairman of my hall of residence and we started a campaign demanding compensation for the poor living conditions in this hall. The campaign has been running since November, we met up with managers from around the university to no avail. I managed to set up a meeting with one of the university's senior directors and last week the committee, some residents and myself expressed our concerns to him.

Well here is the news, today we got the response and they offered us almost £200 (almost $400) each, multiply that by the number of students here (300) and we got ourselves £60,000 ($120,000) compensation. Now how is that for a talking point during a job interview?

I'm glad it ended this way, if only for the monumental effort we put in to get this compensation. Needless to say, I will be drinking excessive amounts of beer today and organizing a party for the hall sometime soon! :D

1) As of Jan 08, I am now engaged to my girlfriend of 8 years. :D

2) In 2003 went for 2 weeks without sunlight since I played all night and slept all day. :o

3) I didnt eat or leave my room for 3 days while playing FFX. :shock:

4) Incredibly cynical with an acid tongue for humor. :P

5) Will finish my Masters degree in Engineering Project Management in 3-4 months:)

Here is a freebie outside the top 5, I hate email forwards and the lot and the only reason I am doing this is because ali_kerem tagged me! To that end I shall be boring and won't tag anyone in my place!

Well, a list of games that I have beaten or played extensively.

PSX/PS2/Xbox

Ace Combat 4
Black
Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter
Burnout Revenge
Dark Cloud 2
Dead or Alive Ultimate
Digital Devil Saga I
Disgaea
Dragon Quest VIII
Fable
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy I
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XII
Forza Motorsport
Gladius
God of War
Grandia III
GrimGrimoire
Growlanser II
Halo
Halo 2
Jade Empire
Jedi Academy
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts II
Knights of the Old Republic
Okami
Pro Evolution Soccer 4
Rainbow Six 3
Rogue Galaxy
Romance of Three kingdoms XI
Shadow Hearts Covenant
Shadow of the Colossus
Soul Calibur II
Soul Nomad
Spinter Cell Double Agent
Splinter Cell
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Stella Deus
Suikoden III
Suikoden V
Tales of Legendia
Tekken 5
Unreal Championship Liandri Conflict
Xenogears
Xenosaga
Xenosaga II
Xenosaga III

Well that sums up the ones I have here that I can remember. Cant remember too many from the PSX era but there were quite a few. I'll sort them alphabetically later on.

Four months on the dot since my last post, really needed to put one down.

I have finally finished my BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and so glad its over, didnt enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Applied for a MSc in Project Management and now studying at the highest ranked Civil Engineering school in the UK, does wonders for my self-confidence, having done really badly at some point in my BSc and transferring from one university to another that ranked quite low. New course is going great, tough challenge and I am keeping myself busy with all the volunteering work, I work better when I am under pressure so I dont mind being busy all the time. It is a good challenege and the material is really interesting, fingers crossed it leads to a good job later on.

On the gaming front I have been played so many games for the past 4 months that I dont really remember which I have beaten. Suffice to say I still play often and looking at buying a PS3 for Christmas or Easter after this recent price drop. Still lacking in games but hopefully it will all pick up in the upcoming 6 months. Last thing I would want is to be stranded with a console no publisher supports, though being Sony this is unlikely to happen. Still looking at buying some oldies but I am trying to save up for next-gen so I have to balance the act.

There might be some announcement to make in around a month or so, so wish me luck!

So Manhunt was banned in the UK, given an AO in NA and finally banned by the console manufacturers.

I have never been a fan of censorship, and it has affected me in some capacity as the different Xenosaga games had certain content removed which proved quite an irritation for me.

Within the context of games violence is not a modern concept. It is a fact of modern games and it does provide an additional level of realism and entertainment which could not be achieved otherwise. The way I see it violence should be incorporated as an element within the game, like God of War. Spartan warrior fighting to get to the God of War so on so forth, violence is expected in a game like this but it still has much to offer besides that. On the other hand a game like Manhunt seems to offer nothing but violence as content and whichever way I look at it as an open minded individual, a game involving creative methods of killing is disturbing.

This is not an issue with the games industry anymore, it has permeated the media as well. Compare the news headlines of old to now. Shock value seems to be everything for the average reader/viewer who has been exposed to so much that very little can move them now, except shock stories and the methods the media follows these days.

Rockstar has sunk to a new low for me, and the more I hear about their releases, the more I find myself beginning to side with the censors and yes, the infamous Jack Thompson. Rockstar's handling of new projects is disgusting and if this is the kind of games we have come to expect from them, then I would rather see them shutdown. The argument about people knowing what is good and bad for them is fine, but there are plenty of people out there who are addicted to drugs or alcohol, know that it is bad for them and still can not stop. There are people with vulnerabilities out there and giving them games like this could trigger something we do not want to see the consequences of on the 8 o'clock news.

Well I had my first exam today, it is my toughest module and the lecturer brought the one topic i didn't touch, typical... Thankfully I think I can pass it but it really has not been my day. A few minutes before the exam someone stole my phone.

 After the exam finished I went to see different security points around university asking if there is anything reported in to which they said no. I was told by a lecturer that I can ask them to check CCTV footage from the room to see what happened, since it was 3 other guys in the room at that time and no one else got in, hardly a large choice. Of course this being England no one likes to claim responsibility for anything so I kept getting transferred from office to office asking about CCTV and back to offices I had already been to. Not until my 4th visit to one of those damn offices did the guy tell me there is no camera in the room anyway. Well thank you very much, you could have saved me the time and told me from the first time I asked you imbecile. Police say little chance of finding it and my provider used the chance to try to dump a refurbished handset on me, at a price of course, which I declined, plenty of phones around here at home.

 Sorry this has been pissing me off all day, and I had to let some steam out...

Talk about a busy time, beat quite a few games over the past few months though I have to say I cant recall which ones beyond Okami, Splinter Cell DA and Dragon Quest VIII.

Shopping spree mood is back, in the past 2 months I got: Splinter Cell DA, Okami, Valkyrie profile 2, Final Fantasy XII, Xenosaga III, Rogue Galaxy and Persona 2.

Of those I have only beaten Okami and Splinter Cell so far, playing FFXII which seems to be alright so far and a far lot better than Tales of Legendia which I was playing earlier, though I still plan to go back and beat it at one point.

Very tired these days, gave in my final project for university and should be graduating soon after exams. Can't help playing more when I am stressed, though a bit of studying should be a wise decision!

I'll keep you all up to date.

Are endings important for games? A sport's game has little need for a plot and consequently an ending besides the matter that you have come top of everyone else so clearly an ending is hardly needed there. A FPS can do with a sketchy plot and ending since the fun is in the shooting.

RPGs on the other hand are a completely different beast. Plots are central to our enjoyment of RPGs because they are mostly very similar in gameplay and other areas. There are not many cases where a RPG is considered good when it did not have a good plot, Grandia III comes to mind with its great battle system. Due to the large number of plots and threads in a typical RPG that are intertwined one way or the other an ending is needed to tie everything off.

I consider endings important because it feels like the crowning achievment of playing through the countless hours. Yes there is a sense of achievment at stats and levels no denying that but it is certainly not the reason we play games. In two games I played recently, both ended with hero marries heroine completely disregarding the actual plot. Seems like a really cheap way out and I feel cheated when this happens. Surely the end of the world did not hinge on two characters getting hitched.

Final Fantasy games always had fleshed out endings, not that they covered everything but you get enough out of it to feel the reward. I did not enjoy chugging through FFIX but once the ending CGI was out I thought well you know what, maybe it was worth it afterall. Endings are just that, the last thing you see when you finish the game, if there really is any replayability besides multiple paths, please make it satisfying to get there.

Did anyone ever think "Bummer, that's all?" about any game before?

Been a long time again, so I thought I can finally update to let everyone know what I have been up to. My last blog was right before my semester started and this one is right after it ended. As you can all see I have been quite busy in the meantime but it doesn't mean there was no gaming involved!
For starters a few games in the backlog have been completed, Kingdom Hearts CoM, New Super Mario Bros, Grandia III, Shadow Hearts Covenant and Digital Devil Saga.

Currently playing Suikoden V since I was already into the game when it was left over summer while I was away. 30 hours in and its looking like a strong title. I have more to elaborate on Suikoden in a bit, great news which I have to share with all of you :D

Now where would a blog post of mine be without the mention of a newly (12 hours) acquired gem, or in this case, two of them. On eBay I managed to nab Suikoden 1,2,4 and Tactics for $240 though $300 in effect thanks to customs and insurance. Like new condition, as if I took the packaging off myself. In this condition 1 and 2 would be much more expensive that my price so very pleased there.

So this was more a rant than a discussion based blog. My next blog within a few days will contain a more mature article, all about game endings, based on a few disappointing ones I have had over the years. Hope you'll enjoy reading it once its out.