So there's been not much happening as of late, but I am going to do my best to pile the scraps of information into one acceptable blog, instead of one of those blogs that fill the void with irrelevant subjects and, "uh, what do I talk about now?" Okay, so it won't... it will be one of those blogs. I've just done a History essay so my hands are aching from typing... so I'll do my best to keep this short. Not promising anything, tho. ;)

And I guess the first event that springs to mind was the intense practice the BlackOwl clan had yesterday in Unreal Tournament 2004. Well, I had a blast, and I hate Onslaught (yeah, thats the gametype we played) I guess I was falsely judging a gametype that is usually full of hackers, sore losers, and the type of scrawny noobs that like nothing better than to say "i'm using a crappy mouse. If I had my 1337 wireless gaming optical thingamajiga, you wouldn't have won." Thankfully, the BlackOwl Clan are no such people, we are all good people inside that like nothing more tahn to have fun and socialise... with a few guns and lots of blood chucked in for good measure. :twisted: Some of the combat we had was pretty damn hot, waht with aircraft, hovercraft and tanks all colliding at one node and unleashing all hell at each other, fighting for control of that particular chokepoint. Very nice hour of gameplay packed in there, got to be said. :)
We also started gaming with the BHC Clan, who I have played in the past, and yeah, they haven't changed at all - they're still crazy deathmatchers, what with lots of dodging and jumping around. Yeah, they definitely strike me as the agile type, and they kicked us BKO folk around like a football in a playground. Some pretty fun gaming had there too, but nowhere near as competitive as the Onslaught. And I got some of it captured on video, I hope to upload it once this tidal wave of glitches subsides. :P

I still ahven't got around to those reviews I've been talking about, or at least posting them. I've got four different Half-Life 2 review drafts, and unfortunately I'm not content with any of the four, so i'm going to write another one when I get a bit of spare time around here, and then disappointment will likely swell with that one... at the moment, I've got no real scheduled date for this HL2 review; I'm adopting a sorta "it'll be done when its done" attitude and sticking to it. And then there's that damned Worms 4 review that got removed, which I have promised to write again, twice as offensively and intensely, outling my views in fire and enforcing in great detail how awkward the Worms franchise is in 3D. Damn those people who don't agree with me... aren't reviews MEANT to be about expressing opinion? You don't see me going to delete reviews that give Big Rigs a 10 (and thats a helluva lot, it seems to be a good joke here on gamespot to call Big Rigs a good game, hoping to fool t3h n00bs into buying the game...)

Okay, rant over. Nice to see you all again.

So its been a long time since I written a blog here in the dusty depths of Showbiz. Namely, my excuse for this is - not much has happened in the last few days, there's been a lot of schoolwork to be catching up on and a few random games of Unreal Tournament 2004, but thats essentially it. And oh yeah, I completed Half-Life 2 (PC) finally, in a grand Xfire total of 14 hours. Well, you may call that slow (or not) but lets just say there were a lot of physics experimenting going on and thats not including the random hacking of corpses with crowbars and the precious minutes wasted attempting to shoot down seagulls and stray pigeons with my crossbow. And the pheropods too. Oh yeah, and the shotgun can lead to some pretty nice moments. And the RPG, I was enthralled at guiding missiles through the air with my laser sight... okay, lets not drag on here, I'll cut short and to the point - Half-Life 2 is absolutely incredible, the best game I've played this year bar none. Yes, that means Unreal Tournament 2004 as well. Yes it does... although the online play in Funhouse does come close, I'll admit.
So with all that stuff, I haven't had much time to do extensive forum posting and blog commenting, and I apologise for that. My internet connection, which has a reputation for acting up and spontaneously switching itself off at the wrong moments, has improved a little bit, but its still quite slow and posting in forums is a real drag because of it. I hope to return a bit more... uh, what shall we say, wholesomely, soon.

On another subject, I'm aiming to start completing a few games in my collection that I haven't got around to, i.e. forgotten about. The first of these is the little-known shooter Chrome, that I found in my local independent games store, for guess what - £2.99. I began it a while back and played for about half an hour, and was thoroughly unimpressed - well, maybe unimpressed is a harsh word. Its one of those games that are distinctly average. Games like Chrome get the basic elements right, but they don't add anything to enhance the experience, or include any innovation. Its like bread without butter, or milk without the chocolate. That said, I need a break from all the HL2... though giving up UT to play Chrome is going to be a difficult one. I can't fall behind on t3h Deathmatch 1337 skillz...

Also, expect reviews of HL2, and that rewritten Worms 4, shortly. Maybe over the weekend. Lets celebrate two days of freedom.

Au revoir.

(Gamespot mysteriously took my blog down for two hours. scared the crap out of me.)

So the school week begins, and I have it easy, it seems. Today has been a pretty good day, and judging by tomorrow's schedule, its likely to be bearable too. Following the events of some very interesting breakfast cereal me and some friends made, and some equally perplexing French profiles of Yoda, I'm home again... with no homework to speak of, and eight hours of wonderful free time. Now, waht to do with this time... pretty obvious, methinks. :P

And following all that work I put into the previous blog, detailing the anticipation for the clan match... the opposition did not turn up. The funny thing is, their leader joined in our Capture the Flag game about half an hour before the match, before mysteriously vanishing into subspace. (Not a very good CTF game... if you know how annoying botters and hackers are, then you'll understand the irritation i went through. I left in disgust after ten minutes... teh h4x0r!) and then of course Anti TCC, which is like a WebAdmin, is convinced I'm a hacker and kicks me off another server. Just because I got a faulty file download because of my crappy connection, they think its a pirated file and they kick me off the game. Nice. Now I can't go near an Anti TCC server, I don't think. Which relegates me to dodgy independent servers... me likes?

I've also started playing a lot more Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, I'm surprisingly decent for a n00b. Literally my first time playing, and I got a positive KTD ratio... 16 frags to 15 deaths. I was pretty proud in the end... but oh well, its still not as good as UT Deathmatch, I'm sorry to say. My first impressions of HL2 DM are actually pretty average, there are a lot of annoying cheaters and gravgun hogs who like nothing more to chuck tables at walls rather than to kill the opposition. Half-Life 2's formula just isn't meant for crazy deathmatch, I don't think, a slow or methodical gametype would be better suited to HL2. Which leads me to CounterStrike Source, which I doubt I will touch yet.

So what else is there to talk about? Not much. There's been a lot of playing of Animal Crossing Wild World on this end... my hair is now bright blue and spiked to the match, like Matthew Bellamy in his Origin of Symmetry days (yeah, you don't care who that is if you're not a Muse-ite.) better metaphor for next time. Due to a lack of interest for the game when I bought it or around that time, I still havent upgraded my house to the max but its pretty darn close. The ground floor is pretty big, the second is cramped and claustrophobic, and the attic is the bedroom of course... and I need 590,000 Bells for the next upgrade. I don't like paying mortgage, I prefer interchangeable furniture.

Anyways, thats all to say for now.

Goodbye.

So, unless something gets in the way again, BlackOwl's second UT2004 clan match against XL is tonight, where the clans shall shake hands, wish each other luck, and blow the hell out of each other repeatedly. And again, just like two weeks ago, I and NeoJedi shall be locking and loading against the two representatives of XL, Satan and FlySwatter.

Actually, I'm pretty confident about this one. Exactly two weeks ago, after much looking for servers, the two clans faced each other and BlackOwl prevailed, due to I and NeoJedi's simply 1337 skillz... and I'm sure we can do it again later. I'm not much of an analytical person but I'm pretty sure what tactics and strategies the other two use and they both strike me as jumpy, agile players, who like to dodge flak only to find a shrapnel bomb heading towards their face anyway. Luckily, I'm exactly the same, so this leads to many fledgling firefights with lots of ballerina-esque leaping and bullet-avoiding that usually result in all players running out of ammunition and resulting to the assault rifle's final few grenades to try and make the opposition trip up. And apparently, I'm meant to "carry NeoJedi's @$$" again... I call it underestimation of one's skills, but okay, so be it. Sure, let Psycho do all the work.

Unfortunately, Psycho can't do all the work, at least not yet. If you check my Xfire profile at this moment in time, I have less than 1 hour counted this week, and I had just about no hours the week before that. So I am extremely low on skills at the moment... and Half-Life 2's aiming system really doesn't help now that its branded into my brain. Garry's Mod is also making me press Q to spawn stuff mid-game, greeting me with the sight of my translocator. How nice. So straight after this blog, I'm off to take to the servers and blow up some fellow Deathmatchers. Yummy.

And hopefully, TH3 FRANCH1SE Productions (read: AndyWilliams24) will be capturing it all on video and narration will follow in the form of Ezra1, using his recently acquired headset to give commentary when needed, without annoying the four noble warriors shooting the f**k out of each other. Or at least, I hope he won't annoy the four noble warriors shooting the f**k out of each other... will you, Ezra? No, I didn't think so. :twisted:

Thank you for reading this pre-match rant.
- scott

(Yup, still song-lyric-influenced title.)

Well, I think my connection is back... but only just. Just browsing GameSpot is sluggish, slow, and sometimes downright annoying... I guess the glitches and slow internet combined are enough to make me go psycho. Well, as if that doesn't happen everyday... well yes, I guess I'm back, better than ever, well rested, and head full of one of the greatest songs ever, Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve. That song has been uplifting to me since I was about ten, and I still ain't overlistened it. How great! I'm a million different people from one day to the next... I think?

Well anyway, here's a more prolonged update on just whats been happening in Psychoville. Alright, today at school, we had a sponsored walk... up and around a mountain called... actually I won't even give you the name of said mountain because its Welsh and I don't know anybody on here who knows Welsh... other than people I know in real life, like Andy (thats andywilliams24), Dan (danny204), Chris (chrisfoulkes4) and Tom (toms115)... for example. Well the mountain is pretty tall and we went on a 6-mile hike around the surrounding countryside, through forest and countless clumps of foliage, up winding cliffside roads and finally up a precariously steep stone footpath lined with numerous heather bushes. Rather fun, actually... well watching fellow classmates struggle up the mountain while I gloat at the top eating a casual sandwich was fun, anyways. There's sadistic humour for you, eh? Me, I ran up it. :D

Oh, and guess what I've been doing in my spare time? Oh yeah, you're good at guessing. Skatepark this, skatepark that, skatepark everywhere, scott goes crazy. I reckon if real life had an hour count (a la Xfire) I would have... wait... lets just say one hell of a lot of hours spent at the skatepark. I'm not there as frequently as some people I know, but I'm still there one hell of a lot, with MP3 player in hand and a can of Pepsi in the other. You can't argue with a store that sells Pepsi cans for a majestic 22p... its cheapo heaven, but its worth it. They're not refrigerated, but for 22p, you just can't refuse, especially when neighbouring shops have them for 60p. :P

I did have something else to talk about too. But I forgot about it. Oh yeah, I guess I'm going to have to re-write that Worms 4 review, but I'm not going to word my views any less... offensively as last time. Okay, some idiot might go and report me for likening the worms to Crazy Frog and so on, but the gameplay was annoyingly designed, and the whole experience just felt wrong. Worms just don't belong in 3D, and its about time some people learned that. Worms 4 failed, and with good reason, in my opinion... and the review will prove that yet again. And this time, its saving on Microsoft Word time as well. So you will never be able to stop me.

Um, waht else... I can't think of anything, so i guess I'll end it there. Sorry things have been so turbulent on this end, I'll try blogging more now. Haha, I am back, I guess.

Ciao.

 Well, it certainly has been a long while since I've updated.

 You may have noticed my complete lack of forum posting, blogging, and perhaps more obviously, the lack of an Online Now message underneath a post... well thats because I genuinely don't have time to spend on Gamespot right now, my schedule is pretty hectic right now. I have homework, the skatepark ( ;) ) and other assorted time-sapping things to be getting on with, and my computer is undergoing heavy maintenance too (i just installed a new Thermaltake cooler, and a new CPU and motherboard are going in tomorrow). Also my upstairs internet connection has mysteriously vanished, (that is why I missed practice on Sunday, to members of BKO) and I am typing this on my mum's computer downstairs, where time is always scarce. so I apologise to the leaders of the unions I'm in and of course to the people at AAG for my absence, really sorry about that.

 Its been three days since I've touched Gamespot, actually. And to prove other facts, I also have the No Games Played message on teh Xfire. Ouch. Psycho has vanished. Its just been skateboarding down here really, and homework, and the odd bit of Animal Crossing: Wild World. But I DO have an interesting story to tell you all... I got moderated.

 As soon as I logged on today, I find 6 messages, most of them uninteresting (union invites, so-and-so has enlisted in AAG) but one of them catches my eye instantaneously, and its a TOS violation. Intrigued, I look inside to see that my Worms 4 Mayhem review has been removed, with the message "solely intent on annoying or offending fellow users." A few weeks back I got a PM from a user I've never seen in my life, saying "don't go hating on Worms just because you can't get used to the controls." Now I understand the review may have been lavished with intense views, but it was at the end of the day quite a well-written review and its a bit of a bummer to see taht its been deleted. The game was just naturally horrible in my eyes, and just because some user doesn't agree with my opinion (or at least, tahts what I'm assuming) really p****s me off.

 Anyways sorry for my absence, I'll be back on the weekend.

(Same rules as before. Title is derived from a certain song lyric.)

Words cannot convey how glad I am that it is Friday night.

This is my first "real" weekend (i mean, real two-day break from school, and no Blackpool involved) since, oh... mid-July. So understandably I'm looking forward to come waht may. Especially the whole staying-in-bed-until-eleven malarkey, with a book, a DS, and a chockfull MP3 player (yup, all 512MB is now used up with countless Muse, Radiohead, Ash, Blur, The White Stripes, Arctics, etc.) So I intend on late night tonight, late getting up tomorrow, I don't care if the Shreddies are calling me, I'll just stay in bed with Animal Crossing: Wild World for a while. (Weirdly, i'm still addicted, and a re-review will hopefully be coming this weekend, as well as a review for Half-Life 2 PC, which is incredible)

Hmm, so waht is there to talk about? First off, I won a match with a dude called Satan yesterday... he is the leader of a rival clan xL, and, good news, is... Psycho prevailed. It was a match where we both had our fair share of the leading position but I did pull ahead. I can't believe I won, because I thought (and still do, to be honest) that he is the superior player, and I think we are rematching this weekend. Stay tuned, I guess? And also on the subject of Unreal Tournament 2004, i think BlackOwl continue its three rounds against the xL clan this Sunday, although on specific game details, Psycho has no clue. Could someone please help poor Psycho out here?

I've also been playing some completely insane Garry's Mod banters with ntwrock and AcousticToad, which have been rather fun. Throwing 200 feet tall chimneys into each other just plain rocks, and making each other fly by getting inside dumpsters and flicking them around is awkwardly satisfying.

I've also noticed that usually within Showbiz I don't know waht to write about these days. Can you give me some ideas of waht to publish here in this dusty journal? Editorials, columns, opinions on things, even full freaking novels, just please anything, becuase I'm rather low on ideas here and writing about my daily activites seriously grates and requires no creativity whatever. I'm not doing poetry though, just no poetry please, I've had enough to last me a lifetime just in one weeks' worth of English classes. And NO, no video blogs, I think i'm done on that subject. No more video blogs.

Thank you for reading this substandard update. You may now leave.

(Note: the title of this blog, and all forthcoming blogs from Showbiz, will be lyrics from completely random songs. This is due to me not having enough imagination to create increasingly innovative titles, I guess. If you want, you can even guess the song that the lyrics refer to. With Google around, I guess its pretty easy to guess. I'm also pretty predictable anyway in terms of music.)

Well I guess this is another conventional (read: very long) blog from me, so welcome to it. There's nothing like writing immense amounts of journalistic material after being confined at school all day being forced to refine examination results and all that assorted doodah you always do at the start of an academic year. Wait there were a lot of syllables in that last sentence, and i need to lay off them. Thats right, as simple as possible.

I'd like to begin by reciting a euphoric victory speech. Thats right - UT2004-related - BlackOwl won the clan match against XL, after many interruptions and diversions, we eventually got a server and played a very intense 2-on-2 Deathmatch. 'Twas I, and my fellow comrade NeoJedi aka Denis, versus two complete strangers, known only as Satan and Flyswatter. It was a very close shave, with the winning team varying throughout the entire game. We pulled ahead at the end to win by seven frags I believe, and you should keep your eyes open for gameplay footage from the event direct from a source known as AndyWilliams24. I'll blog that video, I guess, so it gets even more publicity, recommendations, and hopefully pull BlackOwl some new recruits. Teh hallelujahz.

I'm also playing two games above even Unreal Tournament 2004. They are Half-Life 2 (PC), and amidst many gasps, Animal Crossing: Wild World has returned to my agenda. Both games completely rock my socks, well, Half-Life 2 does, Animal Crossing Wild World isn't actually that much good of a game, its just infernally addictive. Its simply unputdownable, as many optimistic publishing critics would say, and speaking of publishing, I've started reading the book Eldest, second in The Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini. Pretty good alternative to Lord of the Rings, I'd say, plus there is a game and film of the first book, Eragon, due out soon, look it up on Gamespot.

Surprisingly, Gamespot-related matters are here to be discussed in Showbiz. I haven't posted too much recently, except for in All-Around Gaming and the Surrounding Force Union, two unions I have been a representative of for months and two unions I have never lost faith in. I guess I have a debt to owe to other excellent unions I am a part of, for instance PC Central, All About Life, and last but not least Community Contributions, a union I haven't been participating in for a helluva long time. I don't know where things stand right now, what with school and all that, so thats why you ahven't seen much of me here on your resident Showbiz.

And flowing from one subject to another, I think I'm going to making a return to reviewing. I now have a few games I have enough experience of to review, for instance Half-Life 2 on PC seems a safe bet for my next piece of work, and maybe I'll re-review Animal Crossing. My last review didn't do it much justice, and maybe even the score needs upping a little bit. Maybe I just wasn't fair to Tom Nook and friends. And also maybe Neverwinter Nights will get the judgement, although some people (read: almost all) would argue that I didn't spend enough time with the uber-RPG to give it a fair judgement. Look at my Xfire to see my short affair with the game, I just didn't get into it.

And also, I'm not going to be reviewing only games. My MP3.com profile has been dormant for some time, and apart from some Muse reviews on there, I haven't contributed much. I have a few albums I would like to review, for instance OK Computer (Radiohead), Meltdown (Ash), Whatever People Say I Am, Thats What I'm Not (Arctic Monkeys), and lastly, Elephant (The White Stripes). I guess I could churn all those out with generally positive scores, all of them are exceptional albums, especially OKC and WPSIATWIM (holy crap thats a mouthful)

I guess thats all I have to say for now, thanks for tuning in.

And P.S., I have a new video coming up. I'm not saying what it is for now, and I can assure you, no, they're not speed runs and commercials that nobody cares about except for the emblems. Its something of the quality of past videos (?) and I'm sure it'll be at least decent.

The End.

 Hi guys.

 You may have noticed my halt of forum posting and blogging over the past few days - at present I'm in Blackpool, the UK's most popular holiday resort in all probability, and I have the privilege of free internet access. I'm just not using it much, which explains the absence away, I guess.

 I'm about to go watch the sunset with a cold Irn-Bru. Sweet bliss is another term for that, I guess. Nicest thing I'm going to get here, I'm afraid, I'm too young for beer unfortunately. ;)

 I'll be back tomorrow, on top form. Just in time for the clan match, BlackOwl vs. Xl, I guess. Unless its been cancelled or something, could you guys confirm that for me?

 Have a nice day, people. (Or night, as may be the case.)