THIS BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE NEW INDIANA JONES MOVIE! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past year you would have at least heard about the fuss behind a welcome return of the wise cracking, whip wielding archaeologist to the big screen in the form of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Has the movie been worth the worn down finger nails and the agonising wait? Unfortunately no it hasn't.

The main problem in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is not the age of the main hero like a lot of people have been expecting but the fact that the movie feels rushed and incomplete. The story, now having a heavy science fiction influence, shows a lot of promise at first with Indy, now a war veteren, being pulled out of the boot of a car and forced to cooperate with evil Russians (taking the place of nazis) in finding a mysterious artifact. The mysterious artifact is a mummified alien with a skeleton of crystal. However as soon as the action sequence that kicks off as soon as this discovery has been made the movie suddenly falls flat with it rushing past anything of interest plot wise. Be it the lack of scenes exploring the emotion Indy has after discovering he is Mutt's father or the lack of history behind the artifacts and aliens. In fact you can not help but believe that the movie could have benefited from being split in to two so as to have more time to go in depth with the complicated sci-fi tale that Spielberg and co were obviously trying to tell. The rushed plot is not helped by the weak script which most notably lacks the razor sharp wit you come to expect out of the Indy series, instead we get a flurry of supposed fan pleasers like Mutt trying to save Indiana from drowning in quick sand by using a snake as rope. And the action sequences were equaly as bad when it comes to being thought out. Escaping a nucular blast would seem like an interesting obstacle to overcome however hiding in a fridge and letting the blast carry you away out of danger seems like a solution you would find in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. The cartoony feel is not helped by the ammount of lackluster CGI in the movie, the notable weak point being the chase through the jungle. However after all the bad points have been mentioned I must point out that this movie does avoid Star Wars syndrome by being cast fairly well and features acting on par with the previous movies. Even Shia LaBeouf delivers a stronger than usual performance as Mutt (but please, for the love of god, don't green light the spin off that was hinted at! I beg of you George Lucas!). Overall Crystal Skull can be summed up with the words half baked. You can't help but feel that if this movie was left in the oven for a little longer and more love was put in to writing the script and maybe even splitting the movie in to two to tell the story better then the movie could have surpassed the previous instalments. However as it is with it's weak visuals, cartoony action sequences and awfull script this movie is barely watchable. Use it to pacify a twelve year old boy but this movie does not feature an appeal to all members of the family like before. 4/10.

Anyway on to less depressing news. I have started on my draft for my SFX short story which, thanks to being pointed out by videogame_king2, was actually idea 6 not idea 3. So I have scrapped 3 and have started again with only a week and a half to go before the closing date. :? And talking of SFX entries I recieved an e-mail from the SFX office asking for my home adress to send my free book to due to getting a letter published in the June 4th issue of the magazine. Although it has ruined the surprise of opening the mag and seeing it there I guess it has saved my street from being torn down by a shocked screech.

Also I got new stuff! Forgive the use of such a word but, w00t! :D My mum gave me £20 pounds the other day to spend on Amazon.co.uk and I decided to get Mercenaries: Playground of destruction and Burnout 3 for my PS2 and more Star Wars related reading material through Republic Commando: True Colors. I'm finding both mercenaries and burnout fun to play at the moment, clocking more hours on the free form fun that is mercenaries though, and I may be inspired enough to write my first two reviews in quite a while soon :D I am also rushing through what I am reading at the moment to read Republic Commando 3 as I absolutely adore the first two.

Anyway I think that is it for this blog post. Thanks for reading!

It's been a while since my last blog post. What have I been doing all this time? I have been at my dad's flat who has taken the giant leap from the dark ages and has bought a high defination tv! He also got a playstation 2 and the new Ratchet and Clank port but the biggest thing in his arsenal, a DVD player that upscales to near Blu-Ray quality! And I must say that the hype, for once, is not just hype. HD is wonderfull to watch. And the first test disc? Why that epic, special effects laden monster of a movie, Lord of the Rings! The detail all of a sudden is even more outstanding than before and only now can I appreciate the true effort that went in to the movies. Also on the testing agenda was Planet Earth (count the feathers, fur and the *gulp* teeth.), Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy (To hell with James Bond, this is the true cold war spy game) and The Hills Have Eyes Remake (If only horror meant cliches then this movie would have been enjoyable :(). Next on the list, Star Wars episode IV!

Also on my news list is my new book, DVD and free audio book! I managed to get my hands on the recently released Tolkein manuscript The Children of Hurin! I have had a flick through and it has been beautifully illustrated by Alan Lee, the man behind the Lord of the Rings movies' concept art. I am massively looking forward to reading it! I also have The Golden Compass Special Edition. If you remember I said that I enjoyed this faithfull adaptation, I just hate the fact that the missing dark and worrying ending the book had was replaced by a happy shmultsy one. With a second disc packed full of extras including an interview with Phillip Pullman (who claims to have been inspired by Adam and Eve when starting on the books. Take that one christianity!) I won't be finished with these discs for a while. My final piece of advertising is the free audio book, Betrayal, I recieved from Starwars.com and is hosted in MP3 format or you can download the pages of the book in .PDF format. The free download is only being hosted untill May the 13th so if interested then you better be quick.

My final piece of news is that I have closed the vote on SFX storylines due to lack of activity. The winner (from my count, please correct me if I am wrong!) is my first person zombie story! I shall start writing imediately after I have finished writing the clues for the game chart in this weeks GSUK podcast! Thank you to all who voted and all who didn't, shame on you!

Well thats it for this blog. Thanks for reading!

EDIT: I found a way of recording PS2 gameplay and I have uploaded a speed run of the final MGS3 boss fight. The picture qaulity isn't that great but I think you can see what is going on! Enjoy!

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Okay this is it guys (and girls), my choice of career lies in your hands. If I get a runners up place in this competition then I will get such a great confidence boost that will boost me to finishing my book. If I don't I will assume my story is bad and I will just become a trolly boy down at the local Asda. Please decide on my very brief and vague explanations of my ideas and also on the rules and recomendations set which can be found here. I have some time so I will be shutting this vote off in a month, so you have untill the 16th of may if my PC clock is correct. I have also provided a score based on my thoughts on the ideas but please advise on alterations on originality if need be as I am not all wise and have not seen everything the world has to offer!

Idea 6 is a description of the last thoughts of a man trapped in a dark room, huddled over a candle to protect himself from whatever lurks in the darkness, only for the reader to find out the fear is of the darkness itself! The idea would be that shadow is now absorbing everything and that this man is not in a room but outside, it's just darkness has engulfed everything! I take inspiration from my childhood fear of the dark itself, not monsters that lurk among it.

Originality factor: 4/5

Easiness to write: 3/5

Feelings for idea:4/5

Overall score for idea: 4/5

I may add more through the gift of edit post so check back often in case you want to change your vote. :D Untill then though thats it for this blog post. Thanks for reading!

Roll up, roll up! If you need a kidney you can have it! Want a liver? I guess I will not get drunk out of my skull on my 18th birthday! You see for £180 I'll even throw in the scalpel, I'm that desperate! Let me tell you why...

I have a dream plan for when I move out of this house and in to my own flat. A life size Boba Fett Statuete in one corner of the room, my book and DVD shelves in the other and the centrepiece, the TV screen with my PS2 connected up to it. And what's connected to the ps2? Why Rock Band of course! With me on drums, my flatmate on guitar and my girlfriend to be (even though she does not know it) Emma Watson on vocals we would rock on untill we could rock no more (I then wake up at this point). Now my dream plan has hit a little snag, the pricing of Rock Band. Which is why I have now set my kidneys up for sale. So please, please purchase my guts! Or you could be even kinder and sign this petition for lowering the R.R.P and save me from carving up my stomach!

Anyway on to more cheerfull subjects (like I promised previously) I am still trying to find inspiration for my entry to Pulp Idol. It's harder than it sounds. I am trying to write something that isn't too cliched but something that does not leave me too exhausted so as I can keep writing the Imperfect Assassin (now in it's third draft with some big plot changes) and I have come up with ideas ranging from what happens to the human part of the pshyche in a zombie through a first person perspective to a mass migration to Alaska due to climate change and the tribalism that ensues. I will post in my next blog my final few ideas and let you vote the best idea as I need to get this written quite quickly now.

Now to round this blog post off I would like to thank everyone for their kind hearted comments in my blog I posted a couple of weeks back. While reading it I started whistling 'allways look on the bright side of life' which actually went in to a full chorus, so thankyou for helping lift my mood!

Anyway thats it for now! Thanks for reading!

Now I had no idea of this so tagging has come as a surprise to me. However I have had this tagging torch handed to me by RatherDashing so here I go...

1.I have hinted at this one but I think this counts. I was five when I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. I have been in and out of clinics and hospitals because of this all through my childhood. This is where one of the reasons I love Star Wars and video games, they were my comfort in being forced in to this bigger, scarier world because the school system needed to know.

2.I am 16 in two months, had 1 person I count as a girlfriend but I still have not had my first kiss. :oops: The only reason why I count this girl as a girlfriend is because I genuinely fell in love with her. I may have to change this one very soon though ;)

3.As a toddler I nearly drowned myself twice, once falling in to a swimming pool and once where I wouldn't stop walking deeper in to the sea because I was trying to catch fish with my bucket and spade.

4.I used to pride myself on being an Episode 1: Phantom Menace Anakin Skywalker look alike.

5.I have been on a Newbury local radio station when I kayaked for children in need and I have been in a newspaper standing next to the original darth vader suit and got tremendously pissed off when it said in the image's caption that I was being introduced to him.

So that's my five things you didn't know about me. So who do I tag now? *evil laugh* I pick Chimera, Playfulparasite, Jack_Force, Fastpunk and Hiccup.

Anyone who read the Gamespot UK board in the forums last week will know I have not been having a very good time recently. From bad movies to bad news my life has been as near as it can be to a living hell. I have been planning on blogging about it over the week but I have been putting it off, more scared about the damage it would do me to read the end results rather than the damage it would do to regular readers of my blog as for only the second time in my so far short life have felt pure anguish. Pouring that kind of emotion in to a blog just didn't appeal to me but now I feel a tad calmer I think I will share what had happened to me through my blog.

It all started off the Thursday before last when I went to the cinema to watch a movie. Be Kind Rewind to be precise. I have been looking forward to it for months with the interesting concept of a magnetised man walking in to a video store and erasing all the tapes plus it has Jack Black in it, who added an interesting wackiness to what would have otherwise been a mediocre School of Rock. That is one of the points where this movie fails, Jack Black is not let off of the leash to do his thing. He just reads from the script instead of having any fun with it leaving just an actor in the role, not Jack Black. The movie was also very boring. It is advertised as a comedy but unless some occasional moments of crudity makes you laugh then you will be falling asleep towards the middle of the film. However what ticked me off the most (although a lot of people will disagree) is the way the movie changed the history of the great jazz legend, and one of my musical heroes, Fats Waller. Credit where credit is due it was nice to hear his music played at moments in the movie but that is not enough to make me forgive altering Fats' history and then pretty much saying, 'Hey it's our movie, we can do what we want!' I myself would have rather have seen a movie about Fats' real history as he had such an amazing story. As an example, like how he was kidnapped by Al Cappone to play at his daughters wedding and Fats was payed a lot of money for it! Overall the movie was really disappointing.

So at this point in my blog you are probably thinking that so far my tale does not sound that bad and that I should not be whinging, but it gets worse...

So I'm on the final leg of my journy home from the cinema, thoroughly disappointed and wanting to get home as soon as possible so I was minding my own business. The problem is a group of youths thought I was up for a game of chase! So instead of leading them straight to my door so they knew where I was if they wanted round two I had to run around the block to lose them. It was an unwelcome adrenaline rush but I hated to know what would have happened if they caught up with me, hearing stories of how gangs of rowdey kids have charged people and killed them with fists and feet or knives if the poor person was lucky. Even if they didn't want to gut me like a fish they were definately wanting to put me through some kind of pain so I kept on running. In the end they gave up and I hope they didn't see my face as I'm not up for a rematch. The chase has certainly changed my view of yob culture being overblown.

So now we fast forward to last Monday. I was starting to get over the pursuit and I was heading off to my Dad's flat for the first of my three day visit. I was reading my book and listening to the Star Wars soundtack that he purchased for me on his face melting stereo system when my Dad let the major blow land. A long time family friend and a woman I had been brought up to believe in as a grandmother was moving up to Scotland to live with her family after her husband died two years ago. I was rather distraught and am still on the verge of tears about it even as I type now. Monday was the last opportunity I would get to see her again so we went to visit her only to find that she had gone. We waited for two hours but she still did not arive home and her son went to look for her. Like I have said I have not recovered from the blow yet but the pain is starting to ease now.

So now to the next day. I went on to the internet at home as my Dad had to work on the tuesday due to a new shift pattern. So to get my fill of movie news I went to www.IGN.co.uk only to find that Metal Gear Solid the movie had a popcorn munching director behind the helm and the live action Star Wars tv series had been delayed to 2010! Not as bad as the news I had the day before but it was bad news all the same :(

Anyway thats it. I have got my inner demons out. So now it's all over all I have to say to balance the mood see saw is Happy Easter! A time to think about bunnies and chocolate and....crucifiction :? So I hope you had a great easter and take care of yourselves!

Thanks for reading my rather depressng blog. I will make it up for you with my next one, promise! :)

Ah back in the comforting glow of good old gamespot. Yep I have been absent for a week but with good reason! My mum and her new boyfriend split up last week and she was really depressed so she sent me to live at my dads for a week with nothing but a book, her laptop and a change of clothing. Now I love my dad so I am not slagging him off but I must say he would be living in the dark ages if it was not for his state of the art stereo system. So I had to live off of a few choice DVDs, one PC game and my book. My choice of PC game you ask? Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Its a fun game with a different kind of lightsaber swinging mechanic (when you get your hands on it) to what you usually get in games but its sometimes rather unclear puzzles do cause frustration and a further pining for my friends, online and off, so I could gloat about victories and get my mind off of the game when I needed to. So a miserable week last week.

However things are on the up! My mum is finally booking my GCSEs! On Tuesday I will be going to the university where I will be taking the tests (because I am home educated they must be taken at a university so as to have the correct supervision and not have some over protective parents do the tests for the child) to book them for september, giving me plenty of revision time! However its not a time for relaxing. Algebra still confuses me and my hand writing is atrocious! That time will be used to its fullest. Yep I am saying that long absences from Gamespot are going to become more and more regular unfortunately, but for a noble cause!

The final piece of news I wish to share is that I am looking for a collaborator on a piece of art that should take some time to complete. Its a matter of testing to see whether or not two reletively rubbish artists can collaborate over the period of a year and eventually come up with some really good pieces of art. The person I need to work with must not be too good at art and have the basic essentials (pencil, a decent inking pen/s and paper) If interested then PM me as I would like to work with someone to fill in gaps in my life of Gamespot, exams and story writing (yes I am still writing the Imperfect Assassin and planning for the SFX competition!)

Anyway thats it for now. Thanks for reading!

As anyone who listened to the gamespot UK podcast knows I didn't get my poem read out due to the fact that I had typed a little to much. However I won a copy of Pirates of the Burning sea, the MMORPG with 'realistic' ship to ship combat, later on in the podcast. Unfortunately when I got my hands on my prize the other day I was upset to find out that it was a game where I had to pay monthly for the honour to play. That was an automatic no in my parents book so I am not allowed to install the game. Now I have considered trading it in for cash or to obtain Sam And Max season 1 but somehow the packaging has got torn up in the post and that is bound to have a negative effect on the money I would get out of it. So I'm stuck with two useless discs. Maybe they can act as comemmorative cheese knives?

However on a lighter side I also got my hands on four PS2 games in that sweet 4 for £20 offer in gamestation. How did I get my hands on £20? A bribe from my mum to be a good boy around her new boyfriend who we were meeting on the day I got them. As if I would have acted nasty towards him :twisted: So I got my hands on Alien Hominid (maybe you remember me ranting on about the flash version on Newgrounds.com?), Broken Sword Sleeping Dragon, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and Final Fantasy X. A nice little haul would be an understatement I think. :D In fact the guy at the till was so impressed with my purchases that, not only did he comment on my taste in games, but he also stuck the collecters DVD in my copy of Final Fantasy X even though I only picked up the single disc edition which was the one in the offer!

I am now also excited about something that will involve the creative side of my imagination. I have started my entry for the not yet announced competition that is hosted by magazine SFX every year, Pulp Idol. It's an opportunity to get my writing in print as the prize for the winners is to have their story published in a book that gets released with the magazine! I will give more information on that as and when it pops up!

Anyway I think thats about it for this blog post. Thanks for reading!

Last week I finaly got my Playstation 2 online by plugging the ethernet cable from the back of my BT vision freeview box in to the back of my PS2 and the first game I popped in to my disc tray was Battlefield 2: Modern Combat after hearing it was a great online experience. Within the hour I was a raving, adrenaline high lunatic. It's an addictive experience even though my on screen character constantly bites the dust. The addiction comes from the rank mechanism and as everyone is aiming to get medals or ribbons or the points to go up a rank, no one goes easy on you. Thats where the frustration kicks in. You die a lot and every time you die you have to wait 15 seconds before being let back in to the fray. Might not sound like a lot but trust me when you are in the middle of an adrenaline rush it feels like an hour. So all I can say is this, I hope all online console games are like this!

Also my (FICTIONAL!) love poem to Meryl Silverburgh is finished and sent off to the podcast web adress and I must say it was the hardest thing I have ever done. Writing a love poem to someone you don't actualy love and the fact that it's a fictional person constantly drums about in your head saying 'It's just not right!' So I kept it short at a paragraph long and here is hoping it gets read out!

Yep, I am doing the nerdiest thing possible. I am writing a valentines poem to a fictional character! :oops: But not because I am in love with this character but because its a joke on the Gamespot UK podcast (well I think it was a joke :?) that I have taken to be a challenge. So who have I decided to pick to be my fictional sweetheart? Well its Meryl from MGS1. Now I know that you are thinking in your head 'Meryl? Are you mad man? You should be writing about Eva!' Well so you know I was considering Eva untill I took into consideration how she abandoned snake in MGS3. Would you really pick looks over commitment? What the hell do you mean by 'yes'?

And while on the subject of creativeness I think I might abandon GSUK: Legends like the sinking ship it has become. I am sorry to admit that I never planned the thing through and I want to apologise to everyone who signed on. I am moving onto write my own original material that wont get a lawyer on my hide. So if there are any budding authors who want to continue it then PM me and I will give you certain details to aid you in writing it. If not it will just remain in some god forsaken corner of cyberspace gathering the internet equilevent of dust.

Oh and also another little announcement. I have picked the subjects for my editorials. They are going to be:

• The Five Movie to game adaptations I want to see.
• What makes video game characters popular.

So keep an eye out for those!