Apologies if this blog doesn't mean anything to you. But I want @Uesugi-dono to know this face...

Despite never blogging, I just had to give a quick shout out to Xenoblade Chronicles. I've had it for a few weeks now and it just keeps blowing me away. I've rated it a perfect 10, because in my opinion it is perfect. I cannot remember the last time I enjoyed an RPG this much, it re-energises the entire genre and just succeeds on so many different levels. I don't want to go into too much detail because this game needs to be played, so if you live in Europe or Australia and you have even the slightest inclination towards RPGs then just go and buy it... right now. If you can't get hold of it then I really feel for you, because you're missing out on something special.

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

I guess that's what I'm feeling at the moment, because once again I cannot get into any of my awesome unfinished games no matter how hard I try and my backlog is seriously huge. It's a strange feeling for sure, because I really want to start some more gaming but it's a major stuggle to keep myself interested while playing...

Anyway... despite being a massive football (soccer) fan I haven't posted a single blog since the start of the World Cup. It feels like a missed opportunity so I'm gonna hand out some imaginary awards for various accomplishments:

Best Game

Japan vs. Denmark

It had to be this game, partly because neither myself, who has been following the development of the Japanese team for the past few years, nor the Japanese media had any idea that they were capable of this. For those who didn't see the match, Japan dominated against a proven European team featuring some big name players and scored 3 brilliant goals to top it off. Keisuke Honda was unbelievable, which made me less embarrassed about wearing my Japanese HONDA football shirt (which I bought last year when he wasn't even in the first team :D (it's got the number 57 on it?)). The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger even called him a genius and said he was the best player of the tournament (a possible replacement for Fabregas maybe?). This leads on to...

Best Goal

Shinji Okazaki vs Denmark

The 3rd Japanese goal against Denmark was the winner not because of the goal scorer but the set up play of Honda. Honda broke into the box before executing a beautiful turn to lose his defender, but rather than scoring (which would have put him as the World Cup's leading scorer at the time) he rolls the ball across to Okazaki who grateful tapped it home.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/matches/match_43/default.stm

Player of the Tournament

Mesut Ozil

I know that Forlan won the official award, but this guy was brilliant. He was the most expensive teenager in the history of the Bundesliga when he moved to Werder Bremen in 2008 and his performances over the past season showed off his undoubted potential, but the World Cup is a bigger stage and he looked like a world beater. His silky dribbling, threatening runs and great technical ability had him walking all over the hyped up players like Messi and Ronaldo.

Team of the Tournament

Spain

I don't want to say it... but they were the best, love them or loathe them the football that this team plays is without equal. It would be brilliant if every team could play in a similar fashion but its obviously something they are taught from a young age so teams like England would probably never come close...

Flops of the Tournament

England and Wayne Rooney

I'm rolling the worst team and worst player categories into one here because England were awful... there is just no escaping that fact. Before the World Cup every paper in England was spouting nonsense about things like who England would be playing in the final, the British media always do this and hopefully this World Cup has given them the reality check that they all need (though I doubt it). I don't want to go into detail about how it all went wrong because it will just bring back painful memories, but basically the manager picked his team on reputation rather than form and the players embarassed the country by playing with no passion, pace or indeed talent... I'm not even gonna get started on Rooney :evil:

That's all I can think of right now... At the end of the day World Cup 2010 will probably be remembered as a tournament where the big name players flopped, and the football wasn't breathtaking by any stretch of the imagination. But I thought the South Africans were great hosts, and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully you guys did aswell :D

Bring on Brazil 2014!!

With the FIFA World Cup fast approaching, I'm faced with the usual dilemma of whether or not to support England.

Now a word of warning. This blog is mainly a mixture of anti-English ranting and boring geographical and political information, so if its not your cup of tea, look away now :D

As a bit of general information, I hail from Jersey. It is a very small English speaking Island (only 9 miles by 5 miles) with a ridiculously huge population for its size of over 100,000. It is not however...

1. A country

2. Part of England

3. Part of the UK

4. Part of the EU

We are not independent. It basically works out that although we have our own government, we still have to get permission from the British government before we can do anything, even though we aren't allowed to be part of the UK or the EU. We even have our own form of currency, healthcare service etc.

We are different from the English and considered outsiders. Take Jersey's most famous football export Graeme Le Saux (the ex-Chelsea winger) as an example. He was eventually given permission to represent England only to be openly mocked and ridiculed by fans and players throughout his playing career. They even aggressively accused him of being a homosexual just because of the way we are brought up in Jersey as generally better educated and less 'laddish' in our speech and lifestyles, despite the fact that he is married with kids.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/article2419068.ece

So, where does this leave me? I guess that I'm supposed to support England but for many reasons I just can't bring myself to like them.

This year then, I think I will support Japan for the sole reason that they bring me manga and great games. Is that so wrong? :)

Okay, so its been over two months since my rising from the ashes (phoenix style!) so I thought I'd better write an actual blog entry.

First of all, my Level 8 status. Now I have to admit that I don't know how this thing works or what you need to do to level up, but I don't care because... Quad Damage!... it just sounds awesome :D why would I need to level up now? ;)

Secondly, my username sucks! If you read my first entry you will see that I came back to GS after 5 years, and I thought "Why make a new profile when I can look like a 5 year veteran!" or something like that anyway... the problem with this is the username... I don't know where in my old 16 year old mind that came from and I don't think I want to, so it kind of sucks that you can't change it.

And lastly, the games. I'm in a weird position right now in that I bought so many games last few months cause of all the great new releases, and I don't want to play them... I will just stare at the huge pile and think "I can't decide, so I guess I won't play anything :) " yeah... weird. What happened to the good old days when I would sit in front of my SNES and play one game solidly for a whole month or even a whole year! Nowadays a game has to be amazing to hold my interest, but back then I would be perfectly content playing absolutely anything.

Well that's it from me, thanks for reading. :D

Hi to anyone who reads this :D

This is my first entry, despite being a member of Gamepot for 5 years. I have been using this site for gaming news and reviews for all this time but never actually remembered to sign in... hence my low level and lack of any kind of movement. Also, I'm not planning on updating my owned games list at all, it is simply too large a task :?... But in case you are wondering, I mostly play RPG's on my Playstation's (2,3 and psp) or my DS. I do own an Xbox 360 but I rarely use it nowadays. Oh yeah, I should probably mention that I am also a huge manga and anime fan!

I know this is short, it's just a little intro in case someone does miraculously stumble across my profile page

Thanks for reading 8)