So, after a perilous journey through the turbulence of late May, June, July, and well into early August, I have finally triumphed over the ghastly metallic slime of level 20 and am now training  to become a rescue ranger, and, beyond that, a blaster master, a super bagman, and, in the near future, a long long sleep. And an invitation into the defias brotherhood and a transformation into a cyber-lip. Seriously, i can't believe i made it this far on gamespot. I've been dedicated to many a gaming site, but not like this. I've been seriously wondering: what are the reasons why I stay here on this site? Why do sites like IGN seem vastly inferior to this one? Why does Gamespot dominate usually about two hours of my time daily? Well, after much laboured thought, I've come up with some answers, and each of them are personal, so some of you might not agree with some of my suggestions. So if your eyes can be bothered to read several consecutive paragraphs, it might be in your best interests to read on through the monotony and discover why your friendly neighbourhood stevenscott14 is not leaving this wonderful site anytime soon.

 Reason #1: Blogs, just like this one. Writing my own random journal entries is cool, because I've never really had the opportunity to publish stuff like this to such a wide audience - in this case, the internet. In this amazing blog, Showbiz, I can write whatever I want, to an extent - what has been happening in my day-to-day life, what games are sapping my time, or even pointless featurettes like this one which have no real effect on me except brain straining and finger cramp. And, whats more, I get a fair few comments from the good people on my now-purified friends list, which has gone down from about 140 to a much more manageable 92. These comments spur me on to write even more blog entries so your eyes fall out with the pain! The burning pain!

 Reason #2: Reviews. In fact reviews are the only reason I really registered at this site. I had no real intention to use any other community services like forums and blogs and unions. But, hell, one thing leads to another, really. Ever since I wrote the Timesplitters: Future Perfect review here on GameSpot, i knew i'd be writing a hell of a lot more, and in fact, yesterday, I finished up my Far Cry Instincts Evolution review. Its kinda short for my standards and lacks most of the detail i've put into the rest of my reviews... but before I criticize myself further lets just say there is lots of room for improvement. I considered putting it up for critique at Community Contributions, but i look down on that system for some reason: reviews are meant to be your own work, without any influence from anyone else... and if there are flaws in your work, then so be it - i don't really want those flaws to be made right by somebody else. I want to figure them out for myself. But thats just me going off on a tangent into another subject, I'll just conclude reason #2 with the sheer, unavoidable fact that I love writing reviews.

 Reason #3: The community. Gamespot has a huge following of excellent individuals that I love to chat with on a daily basis. Again, this harks back to my 92 friends here on Gamespot - all brilliant people, every single one. After getting rid of the people I don't know, I can suitably say that I know everyone on my friends list, to an extent, sure, some more than others, but most of these people I discuss on forums with, comment in their blogs, and have a bit of friendly conversation here and there, whether its with PMs, the Xfire instant messaging system, e-mailing, and the occasional bout of MSN chat. You're all amazing people and above all you guys are the reason why I stay here on this excellent website, just to read your blogs, reviews, and forum posts. Far better people here than on sites like teamxbox, i tell you.

 Reason #4: The personalization. Your profile on gamespot is well and truly your own, and you're allowed to do whatever you want with it, free of charge. Its like your own little myspace, only free of all the immaturity. And thats what most members here will agree on - you should take your profile for granted and thank the lord that you have one. Next time you look at your profile, just marvel at the foundation you build yourself on. Its all yours! Every last detail in your profile is influenced by you, and just building the most interesting profile you can possibly imagine is a feat that you'll want to meet in your time on gamespot. I know that I can't improve beyond whats already here, but i can continue to strive to do so. And again this trails back to the subject of blogs and reviews - writing every one is a pleasure and they all link back to this very profile. Your own little hub full of wonders.

 Reason #5: Last but not least, the unions. Unions are the saviour of my post count, shall we say. ;) After the disastrous forum posting following Gamespot unfortunately has, and by this I mean the incessant fanboyism, the unions are refreshing and mature. I've joined unions that I fully believe to be the finest on Gamespot, and now that SentinelRV has presented his vision for a second version of the union system, I'm all for it. Unions' flaws are starting to show and all the problems stem back to Gamespot's dated union system. Sentinel's ideas are all vividly realized in a few concept images and just with a few Photoshopped screenshots half of Gamespot have fell in love with the guy, and countless petitions have aroused themselves throughout this site, and people have been putting "Support SentinelRV's union enhancement" in their signatures. Gamespot won't be able to turn their back on Sentinel now, and I am pretty damn sure this enhancement will come into being soon. Or half of Gamespot will be very disappointed.

 And they are the dominating five reasons why I pledge allegiance to this website. There are many, many more; countless nuances around the site which I would love to mention sadly can't because I've ranted on for far too long already. Maybe in another blog, because I would love to keep Showbiz going for as long as I can. Your friendly neighbourhood stevenscott14 ain't leaving... until either I get hit by a car and die in a freak accident, or until gamespot shuts itself down for no particular reason. And, if you'll excuse me, I have to continue with my rescue ranger duties, or i'll never become a blaster master. I'll talk to you when my training is finished.

Welcome to another war of words! I seem to be blogging less and less frequently these days, and they're always short and dull, so I thought I'd expand a little more today and write a blog that will take you a while to read, suffice it to say.

So, launching right into the grisly details that I mentioned at the beginning of my last blog; my Q & A video blog is going to be here probably tomorrow. I need to make it as quick as possible, I'm aiming for five minutes as usual so I have to answer your questions pretty darn fast. Either that, or I'll alter the speed in Windows Movie Maker. ;) But anyway, thanks for all the questions, and just mulling them all over in my head, some of them are particularly difficult to answer. Especially NeonNinja's question. :P
In a precaution, I'm also going to shut the side door so the budgies don't permeate the air with their shrieking, because I got a lot of comments about that last time. No, they weren't severe auditory hallucinations, they're just the noisiest pair of birds you could ever hope to find. :D
So here's to a much-improved instalment, just watching the last one makes me think the word "dull" over and over. Geez I don't know how you can bear to watch all five minutes of the transmission, it was like watching paint dry in my eyes. :|

I've also been contemplating the happenings in BlackOwl. The clan is going very well, I think... we have a practice tonight at 2pm EST, as far as I know, but I'm sorry guys I'm not able to go. I got a family dinner to attend, and unless you have no life, you know that family are far more important than any videogame. I haven't seen them in a while. And anyway, I think I've done my fair share of UT2004 for a while... I think I'm going to give the game a break and disappear into other games, like Halo, Fable, and Neverwinter Nights, which i reinstalled yesterday. :)
The game will always bring me back for a few half-hour sessions here and there, I don't think i'll ever completely break away from it, but I don't think prolonged sessions like the 15 hours I've packed in over the last week are in order anymore. Its getting out of hand. :twisted: Don't think you're getting rid of me at the tournaments, though... Psycho will certainly be at those to own your asses. :D

Thats basically all I have to say for now, I'll catch you later!

UPDATE: YEEEESSSS! After almost three months I am level 21! :D :D :D :D :D Holy crap that was a long trek!

Questions Needed:
I need questions.

I tried filming another video blog today, and even though in my head I knew what I was going to talk about prior to starting filming, when I actually started speaking I started trailing off at a loss for words. So thats why, guys, I need some questions to do a Q & A video blog as my third transmission. Keep 'em interesting, please.

So now thats out of the way, lets listen to stevenscott14 endlessly ramble on about nothing in particular. Thats what you all congregate here for anyway, right?

BlackOwl Related Matters:
Okay, first off, I'd like to take a moment to mention the BlackOwl clan of PC Central here on GameSpot. At the moment, due to a horrible biased nature ;) we are only seriously playing Unreal Tournament 2004, but I think that a CounterStrike: Source division is getting set up as well, along with any other popular games. The union is advancing surprisingly fast, and seeing as BlackOwl are part of the union, there's no reason why this most excellent clan shouldn't advance surprisingly fast either.
On more BlackOwl related matters, ezra1 has organized a tournament to take place sometime this week, either Wednesday or Friday. So if you own Unreal Tournament 2004, grab the game, install it (if its not installed already) roll over to PC Central and sign up for the tournament. There's more details over thataway, or at least I think there is.

Unions:
I'll be posting as soon as i've finished this blog, although its sad to say that I will be leaving three of them. I'm not mentioning which ones... it just feels like too many right now for me to go around and post in. I know I don't have to post in any unions (at least the ones i'm recruit in, anyway) but whats the point in being in a union if you don't post? Eeexactly. So thats why three of my unions I'llbe leaving, and I doubt I will be returning. I'll resign later on.

And thats all I have to say for now, I'll catch you tomorrow.
The force will be with you. Always. (watched Ep IV last night for the sixty millionth time)

-stevenscott14

I haven't had much time to update recently, so i thought i'd take a rare opportunity and do so. I've been very lethargic in all things GameSpot as of late, and I apologize to all unions I have responsibilities in; I'll be back soon enough, I promises you.

I haven't been doing too much lately, except going on the occasional biking trip with one of my best friends and going around to the cornershop frequently for a drink. You see, my house doesn't ever have any decent refreshments, so I have to make do with using some spare money to go buy milkshakes and the like.

And also I've packed in twelve hours on Unreal Tournament 2004.* I don't know whether to feel proud, ashamed, or neutral. i know my parents aren't pleased at all with the amount of time i've been spending on the game, so I'm afraid i'm going to have to abandon prolonged sessions on the game and keep it at a minimum. Don't worry, I will still play the game, just nowhere near as much. :)
You may think that twelve hours is not much, but by my standards it definitely is. Also when the weather is this good I regret what i've done with the last week, which has been basically been comprised of nothing but sitting down here and playing a random game.**
Also... my parents think its kinda worrying, the way I'm inside a lot when the weather is this good, so they've threatened to take away my internet connection... :( I didn't think i was that bad, but i guess its from their standpoint that it appears that way.
So say hello to a new and improved stevenscott14... who will be spending a decreasing amount of time on GameSpot with you guys... until he disappears forever.***

On a much lighter note before I depress you all, I'm almost out of this Level 20 hell. And thats such a relief. :)

And also, I should have a video blog forthcoming, possibly tomorrow or Tuesday, so keep your eyes peeled for that. To prevent my video blogs from becoming boring, I'm going to talk randomly instead of talking about the games I've been playing. And yes, I killed the budgies, so no background squawking. ;)

And before I leave, I got a bewildering arrangement of tracks I've been playing a lot for you all below. So I'll depart with these songs lingering in your head...

Tracks i've been playing a lot:
Radiohead - Bones, Just, Street Spirit, Creep
Muse - City Of Delusion, Starlight, Take A Bow
Snow Patrol - Spitting Games
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Ash - Orpheus, Clones, Projects
Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Desecration Smile
All American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret
Arctic Monkeys - The View From The Afternoon
Gorillaz - El Manana

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
* Unreal Tournament 2004 related happenings are as follows: basketball with ezra1, ntwrock, nodham and NeoJedi... crazy nutty demented games of Invasion with andywilliams, danny204, nodham, ezra1 and NeoJedi... the occasional game of CTF by myself... and a bombing run festival with mainly NeoJedi but also ezra1 and nodham. So quite a lot of stuff going on there, but just thought i'd mention those guys, who are all excellent at the game, much more so than I am. Quite a lot of stuff to fit into 12 hours.

** The random games in question are all mentioned in my xfire count for this week on my profile.

*** I will never disappear completely from GameSpot, its just I wanted to scare you guys.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
The title of this blog is also the name of an Ash song, and I found it to be rather fitting.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

I don't really like this video blog, but I'm going to show you guys anyway. Leave all feedback behind.
I know the sound levels arent perfect, but still, I hope you enjoy the video.
I'm still not very confident at doing this sort of thing and just watching this thing makes me spout the word "goofball"... but i'm going to stop criticizing myself and give you all the pleasure (or torture) of watching it...

[video=J3BmlzGv5bsNvDLe]

 I got a blog below this one you probably haven't read yet, as well, so check it out.

 Yesterday's entry was a little bit short and sweet, really, more of an update than a traditional stevenscott14 blog post, so i'll return to teh goodness in this one!!!111!!

 First off, i have been gaming a lot, but there's nothing eventful or interesting happening on that front, despite the amount. 3 hours on The Movies, 4 on Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, 4 on Unreal Tournament 2004, 1 on Fable: Lost Chapters, and about 15 minutes on the ol' classic Quake II. Quite the gaming, really. It surmounts up to about 12 hours on the PC side of things. And I trust you've all seen my bewildering array of screenshots? Yes! Of course! I took a few of me, ntwrock, ezra1 and nodham playing basketball on Unreal Tournament 2004 but they didn't upload, strangely. Not sure why.

 I thought I'd return to writing a bit more, as well. Its quite ironic that I came to GameSpot primarily to write reviews and maybe get a few tips and pointers from people, yet I seem to be reviewing on-and-off these days rather than the steady articles I used to pump out at my leisure. First off I think I'm going to re-review The Movies, as my original review didn't give enough detail and was only about five paragraphs of doodah. Its unlikely that the score will change much, but I still need to revise the review and generally increase the length! :D

 Also a great friend of mine here on GameSpot, MrCHUP0N, is giving the opportunity for all contributors to Trigames.net to write a few columns up at the site. Yet I have no idea what I'm going to write about. Ah well, I'll dream up something.

 I've also been reading the latest edition of the Official Nintendo Magazine, due to my newfound interest in the Wii, namely. Its got a very intriguing preview of Sonic Wild Fire in it, along with some new screenshots and information on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Unfortunately, there is no Zelda, Mario, or Red Steel anywhere to be found within the preview pages...

 In more good news, I should finally be out of Level 20 by this time next week. I should be going up to 92% today, so that leaves four or five more days of this excruciating hell! I started this level in late May, for god's sakes. Thats the fifth month of the year, damn you! We're delving into the eighth month, now! At the beginning of Rescue Ranger I think it will have been nearing two and a half months since I've levelled up here on GameSpot.

 I've also been stuck on Level 6 at MP3.com for quite a while... I should be going up to Level 7 today. I've been adding a fair few albums into my music collection over at that site, but it took me a fair old while to figure out how...

 Thats all I have to say for now, guys... I'm going for good ol' breakfast!

Appropriate title for this blog... although by my standards this will probably be more a short update than anything else.
As far as gaming goes, it seems my Xfire has tallied my Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 hours most. Not surprising, I spent the best part of yesterday evening playing the game and i think its absolutely superb.
Plus I've started to develop quite the gallery of screenshots of my new park... over at this page:

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshots/psychomode14

So take a look at the stuff I've recently posted, guys... some random screenshots taken via Xfire of some of my rollercoasters and their most climactic, heartpumping moments.

I'm also going to upload some music videos in the near future, in fact there's quite a few I'd like to show you all. So keep your eyes peeled for those...

I've also got some problems with GameSpot's message editor. Is it just me, or has it changed? I've got no weblink options, colour editing, or size options, not even as I type this blog. I can't change the type of font either. I think its some sort of glitch on my end, but still... bewildering.

Alright, guys, I'm off to play Halo for a while. Makes a change from RCT3.

July is at an end, finally, and August has arrived, bringing with it random showery weather and sudden outbursts of sunshine. Surely not right.
And unfortunately August is not really a month where you can stay inside gaming all day, but I've still managed to pack in a few hours in the evening on assorted games on random consoles. So lets go through what Scottie (cringes at Aclark24's way of addressing me) has been up to recently:

 First off
 I reinstalled The Movies. *gasps* Yeah, y'know, I didn't like The Movies at first, and vowed never to play it again for mental torture reasons, blah de blah de blah. But I did anyway! :D And this time my computer can actually run it suitably well, so i'm very pleased. And more importantly I'm finding the game mildly enjoyable, and I've packed in three hours since I reinstalled it on Sunday night. Now if you excuse me I got to go finish "Ladies Night - Interrupted By A Demented Gorilla." Haha, I really love the gorilla costume, it rawks.

 Secondly
 I had a few games of wireless Mario Kart DS last night with two friends. It was hilarious, really it was. Plenty of bashing each other about, with indignant cries of "Yoshi!" ensuing whenever Peach crashed into his bodywork. In the end it felt more like Burnout Revenge than Mario Kart, but it was still bloody good fun. I won, naturally, and in the end we ended up going on the Waluigi Pinball track and playing pinball for the whole time, ignoring the race. It was kinda fun. We also invented a Burnout-esque Crash mode on Sky Garden's ramps, but thats another story. ;)

 Lastly
 I played about 45 minutes of Unreal Tournament 2004 last night, with good sirs NeoJedi, Andywilliams, and, eventually, once he'd got off the damn phone, nodham. ;) I played rather well considering I'd been absent from the game for well over a week, finishing second on my team in the end, ten points behind Sir NeoJedi, who done a rather nice job of bossing the rest of the team around. ( We were all acting like idiots, you see. :P ) There were a lot of newbs in that game too, I saw one dude on the opposing team trying to charge up a neutral powernode (i.e. don't do it) so I laughed out loud and blew him up with a well-aimed shrapnel bomb from the trusty flak cannon. :twisted:

 And as far as gaming is concerned, that is all Scottie (cringes again) has been up to.

 On GameSpot matters, I didn't post much yesterday in any unions, but I think I might do a bit today, especially in unions I am Officer in. I owe a lot to the SFU after being absent, so I'll try my best.

 I'm also going to buy Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, so that will be a pretty cool game. Sir NeoJedi made me do it. :P

 So thats all, my friends, I'll see you tomorrow!

Well, here you are: the fourth edition of Now Playing. Its great that now I'm back home, I have the PC and the Xbox back at my leisure. In fact, it feels rather weird to be browsing GameSpot's pages, seeing as I've been absent from any computer for a week. But still, I am back, and its only fitting that I unveil the fourth edition of Now Playing.

_________________________________________________

Activity Over Past Week: Frighteningly High
Likely Activity This Week: Reasonably High
Likely Activity Next Week: Lukewarm

Well, you could say that Advance Wars: Dual Strike saved me from the confines of boredom on my holiday. Oh, come on! Its the best strategy ever made for any handheld games console, with some brainroasting tactics. I've spent 19 hours this week in the War Room trying to complete the standard 2 CO assignments, and I'm about halfway down the second page. And there's five pages. Plus, Advance Wars incorporates a nifty Medals system that can be accessed via the History pages, which shows you how much time you've spent in game, how many missions you've completed, how many of each type of unit you've destroyed and built, etc. And its very addictive to get a Gold medal in all 300 categories. So far I have 36, which is kinda pitiful, but at least I know Dual Strike has a lot of life left in it yet that I have to sap out. Its going to take a while for full completion; in fact, I don't think I'll ever complete it. Ah, well... thats life.

_______________________________________________

 Xfire Count for Past Week: <1 hour (I haven't had a PC until yesterday!)
 Likely Xfire Count for This Week: Around 4 hours
 Likely Xfire Count for Next Week: Around 4 hours

This was the first PC game I played when I got back, and I'm happy to say I've rekindled my addiction for the game in a dangerous way. Yesterday I spent about 45 minutes on it, building a huge compact inverted rollercoaster and tweaking it to get the most satisfying onboard ride while happily chatting away with Sir NeoJedi via Xfire instant messaging system. I swear, I don't know why GameSpot rated this so low (a 7.8) its a truly excellent adaptation from the ol' isometric, identikit view to full eye-scorching 3D, without losing any of the core gameplay mechanics that made the series so great in the first place. Via Xfire i'm going to be taking some screenshots and uploading them onto here, to show you some of my rollercoasters and rides in my fastdeveloping canyon park. Its a really great game and anyone whose PC can handle this game must give this game a purchase at all costs. Caution: may fragment social life.

_______________________________________________

 Xfire Count For Past Week: -
 Likely Xfire Count For This Week: Around 8 hours
 Likely Xfire Count For Next Week: Around 8 hours

 After being absent from this game for the last week, and not joining in any of the ridiculously overblown firefights that my good friends andy, nodham, and Sir NeoJedi Legendkiller have been indulging in, I'm probably a little bit rough around the edges with this game. When I go online this week, I will probably get repeatedly pwned by Wave 1 Invasion bots; for anyone who hasn't touched this game, thats little bugs to you guys. So while I've lost my former 1337 skillz, I've became teh suxx0rs at this game. Damn. Ah well, I'll still have fun riding redeemers into random people. :D

_______________________________________________

 By my standards, that was a pretty short entry, with only three games, but hey its summer and i intend to spend a lot of time outside with friends. And no, Xfire does not count those hours. :P
 I'll catch you guys later.

Cries of joy permeate the air as I ride into town on a majestic horse!
And then I wake up from my dream. But anyway, yes, the psychopathic user you all know as stevenscott14 is back, and he know has a penchant for talking in the third person.
Okay, I don't.

Hey I'm probably bewildering you right now. But hey, you know what! I'm back, comforted by the hum of my supercharged computer and wondering how I have survived the past seven days without much modern technology.
Except my lovely Nintendo DS. Without that console I wouldn't have survived, and as a matter of fact I wouldn't be writing this blog either. No, siree! I clocked in a majestic 18 hours on Advance Wars: Dual Strike, my counter tells me. And yeah, you could say, "what a waste of a holiday" but, no, you would be wrong.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike is awesome, and its far better than just simply sitting in the sun trying to get a tan.
Why do that, when you can sit in the sun trying to get a tan, while playing Advance Wars: Dual Strike?

A match made in heaven, I tell you!

Now down to more relevant matters. GameSpot, first. It seems I've missed one hell of a lot while I've been absent, especially around those new unions I told you about the last blog. PC Central especially seems to be going along exceptionally well, and have great potential at such an early stage. Brings a tear to my eye to see such communities developing so fast.

And its not just that. Its PC and Xbox gaming I've missed out on too, and I've missed it a lot. So I'll be bringing you the next Now Playing either later on tonight or possibly tomorrow, updated with the games I'm going to play for the next week. And damn you people (Andy, Nodham, Denis, I'm not looking at you at all! Feel the guilt, people!) playing lots and lots of UT2004 while I'm gone. I will resolve my absence by making you laugh at my terrible, rusty skills that all trail back to the fact that I've been shut up in a musty caravan for the last week!

And of course I need to continue my majestic quest on Fable: Lost Chapters, and bring you all the third entry.

Hell, its good to be back.