Yup, profile image posted for all you guys... great to put names to faces, hm? Sorry for the image quality, it's a bit blurred, and the lighting sucks...

 I probably look younger than you'd all transpired... but that is me. Like it or not, that's me.

 Now read the blog post below, this is just to bring awareness to my hawtness. :P

 Wow... the weather is really great down here for once, and it has been for the last two days... on Monday, yes, I was feeling a little bit depressed, but the weather seems to be sympathetic and things have lifted up a little.

 It's another typical school week, nothing eventful to speak of, except a particular scenario involving school uniform and bags stuck in trees, which was hilarious... but that's off the point.

 And, yes! GameSpot Basic members are now allowed to upload their own videos! I found the feature while reading someone's blog, who was a Basic member and who was proudly presenting their first user video... I forgot who it was now... You can expect a video blog soon, I just need to clear things up a little with my defective webcam and microphone.

 But more to the blog title's meaning; continuing where things left off. After another nothing-to-do scene after school, I got so infuriatingly bored that I suddenly got an urge to go blow stuff up in Unreal Tournament 2004. I didn't put myself through the hardship and tactics of Onslaught, and went for a few nice games of good ol' Deathmatch. Nothing too team-oriented, just a straightforward session of firing flak at strangers.

 That was the first videogame I've played since Saturday or Sunday... and it surprised me how long I can go without them! :P

 Another day gone, and what a frightfully uneventful one it has been. As I say, not much has happened; school was about as mediocre as it gets these days and I've been streaming through on quite a low note. My friends even pointed out how "down in the dumps" I was... ah well, I'm not depressed or anything. I think it's just the recent turn in the weather, which has drastically decreased in quality; it has been rainy, overcast and genuinely dull today, which sucks. I guess we're back to casual British weather. How I long for Southern California.

 Yeah, I guess it would be one of my highest priorities in life - moving to SoCal. I don't know if it will happen, but it would definitely be nice. A vast majority of my family is based over there, so I think it would be great to spend time with them on a more frequent basis rather than a spaced holiday.

 Ah, well... I can dream for now, I've still got school to go through.

 I haven't played any games at all over the last two days... quite shocking, really... I guess I'm not very enthusiastic on the gaming front. Also, it doesn't help that apart from extracurricular activities and athletics events I attend, a fair chunk of my free time is spent here on the pages of GameSpot. What an addictive website this is... sometimes I wonder if GameSpot is the dominating reason why I use the net. I seldom go on any other sites, save for IGN, Amazon, etc.

 As you can see, this blog has been a largely pointless way to spend time. Ah well, it doesn't hurt to exercise your writing skills once in a while...

 It seems to be a long time since I last done a conventional blog. The Alien Trilogy feedback station doesn't count, either. In fact, it's not just my blog - in fact I've been fairly inactive on GameSpot itself. But that's all resolved now, the weekend is over, and things are back to normal (by any lengths - how people close to me can refer to my life as "normal", I'm not sure)

 It's been fairly uneventful down here, anyway, so there's not much to say, regardless of how long I've been gone. The weather is absolutely great down here at the moment, and after a 1500m run today at school (and a time of 5 minutes, 18 seconds) I had a diabolical headache. About halfway through the run it felt like my heart was pounding in my skull.

 And, yeah, a new profile banner; Insinuendo made it, and it's top-notch stuff. I ask for a simple banner featuring Yoda, and "StevenScott14's Profile" in Star Wars lettering, and I receive a brilliant all-out Star Wars-themed berserker of an image! So I'd just like to say thanks to Insinuendo, simply awesome.

 And, thanks for the Alien Trilogy review feedback. People elsewhere have been commenting that I'm a few years late reviewing the game, but I thought of reviewing a game that not everyone knows and/or cares about, just to see if I can actually persuade somebody with a Saturn to maybe pick the game up on eBay for cheap. Hopefully it intrigued some people out there, I think I was the second person on GameSpot to review it.

 And that's about it for now, so I'll leave it there... may the Force be with you, fellow GameSpot users.

 Here you go. Leave feedback, leave criticism... whatever. It's on the long side, so only read if you have a bit of time on your hands.

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Possibly the safest way to describe this game is an FPS in its simplest form. This is a good, old-fashioned shooter from start to finish, devoid of any tactics or strategy. This game captures the very essence of run-and-gun.

Alien Trilogy is based loosely around the science-fiction masterpieces also entitled Alien, and unless my vocabulary has gone haywire, the word "Trilogy" encapsulates the fact that this game focuses on the first three movies. Basically, this captures the events that occurred before the whole series collapsed on itself.

You play as an anonymous soldier sent in, alone, to fight a guerrilla war between you and a horde of increasingly ugly xenomorphs. The opening FMV demonstrates that much, and it's as typical a science-fiction beginning as any; you get briefed on the forthcoming mission, you are sent into the sector, and cue a dramatic fight scene where the rest of your squad get murdered by some angry aliens.

Alien Trilogy keeps storyline to a bare minimum so as not to interfere with the gameplay. In fact, the whole game is glued together by the backstory you'll receive just before a mission, where you're given the necessary information in your typical sci-fi drivel-speak.

And then, beneath this, there is the actual game. Alien Trilogy's learning curve does not exist, so right from the beginning you're thrown in pretty much headlong into an alien infestation. Controls are easy to master on the Saturn's pad, thankfully, because most of the action in this game is quite intense if you are playing on the Raging Terror difficulty. (The game's difficulty is divided into three renamed versions of Easy, Normal, and Hard; in that order, they are Acid Reign, Raging Terror, and Xenomania)

You begin with a simple 9mm pistol, fending off relatively harmless face huggers, but the game throws more volatile weapons your way in a short space of time; the shotgun, the flamethrower, the pulse rifle, and, finally, the Smart Gun. You'll uncover all of the weapons in the first chapter of the game (remember, this is a trilogy) and each of them are quite satisfying to use. Every time you blast an alien you're given an unmistakable shot of adrenaline that not many games of this type deliver on the Saturn.

You'll be firing upon your standard array of aliens, and you'll find most of the lifeforms from the films featured as targets. Face huggers, drones, security guards, Synthetic soldiers, you name it, they're in the game for you to shoot down. One thing I'll mention, though, if you're looking for challenging AI, you'll find none in this game, even if you take into account the game's age. (This is a decade ago we're talking here) Most enemies will randomly stand there firing at you, hoping that their shots will hit you. Most of the time, they'll follow you slowly, leaving you to set a hasty trap. Alien follow round corner. You blast them before they get to attack. You get it?

Another thing I'll slip in; this game also features enemies which conveniently stand next to explosive barrels and crates and some of them even like to stand still behind a barricade of these dangerous objects. A quick shot from your weakest gun, and they're up in flames.

Just to lower the game's rating a little bit more, I'll talk about the level design. Unfortunately, it isn't good. Most of the game is stuck together with meagre tiles and it's hamstrung by repetition, but it still manages to make these incessantly repeating sections quite exciting with a relentless spew of alien madness.

Once you get used to the mechanics of the game, you better hold on to that expertise, nevertheless. The first chapter is deceptively easy, but after that, you really do go through hell. The second and third chapters just keep building up more and more aliens, without making them any more intelligent - in the end you're just completely overwhelmed with an unwanted gathering of ugly xenomorphs, all lined up, in position to get a shotgun shell hammered through their face.

The thing I like most about this game, though, is not the shooting. It's the sense of exploration. Level design is, as aforementioned, limited and linear, but that doesn't matter. There's a bewildering amount of nooks and crannys in this game where you can find this one last alien. This feature is made better by the fact that at the end of every mission you're given a tally of how many aliens you killed, how many secrets you found, and how many mission objectives you completed successfully. In some later missions it's nigh on impossible to get 100% of all three the first time through, and the game encourages a welcome amount of replay value in this system.

Alien Trilogy certainly delivers quite a competent integration of gameplay mechanics, and it's a key example of the expression "sum of its parts". Every single feature in this game seamlessly blends together to make a good, solid shooter that anybody could enjoy, regardless of how much they love games or how much they hate them.

But a game could not be a game without the graphics and the sound to accompany the main course. The graphics in this game were decent for its time, but in contrast to the PlayStation version the Saturn incarnation pales. The enemies are passable, and so is the FMV sequence that introduces each of the three chapters, but the environments needed a little work to stop them looking so bland. Lighting is quite poor, too. The visuals suffice, but they're nothing special. Far from it.

The sound in this game is of quite a high standard. The enemy's cries are lame, but they can sure as hell surprise you - the music is atmospheric, and while it does get recycled as the game goes on, it's comprised of some superb tunes, ranging from haunting and ambient pieces to weird electronic sounds permeating a techno beat. What little voice-overs there are in the FMV sequences are mediocre, though, and whoever spoke those lines must be a robot.

In conclusion, Alien Trilogy is an enjoyable and competent FPS that anybody would be hard pressed to call poor. It has no set-pieces, but it's quite a long game, and with all the heaps of replay value you can find in Alien Trilogy, nobody with a Sega Saturn can really go wrong.

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 It's time for another blog...

 Not much to say today, though. School was normal and relaxed; weather, which has been surprisingly good for the last week, continued its hot streak (literally) So, that was a pretty cool school day, nothing too stressful.

 After school was your typical Stevenscott14 day. Get home from school, do a routine check-in to GameSpot, go through my PM's (usually about 4 or 5) and then go out for a while with friends. Blah de blah de blah.

 Normal, huh?

 In fact, the only thing you'd even be slightly interested in, is the games I've been playing. I have been neglecting Star Wars: Empire At War, *gasp of horror* don't get me wrong though, it's a good, solid strategy game with that unmissable Star Wars magic packed in too. Just the kind of RTS I love to play; nothing too overly complicated, but nothing too basic either. You should expect some detailed first impressions once I've really started playing it.

 I haven't touched Metal Gear Solid 2 either! *gasp of horror* I love the game, I really do, but I have just been neglecting my Xbox recently. It's finally time to let go of my Xbox, I think. :cry: I have finished almost all the games I have (we're talking 50+ games here) and I'm bored with the ones I'm not done with, and that just leaves MGS2. And that isn't even my game!

 I haven't even spared a thought for my DS in weeks. :cry:

 Or the PS2. I'm considering getting Guitar Hero, now, actually, after all the good things I've heard about it. And I play a real guitar as well, too, so that should be a really good game to get my fingers tingling and stuff. If I hear one more praise dedicated to the game, I am going to go nuts, change my savings goalfrom Half-Life 2 Episode One to Guitar Hero, and I won't stop until I get that plastic Gibson SG-styled controller. 

 Guess what comes next? Exactly. You guessed it. So just lose all interest in my blogs, round about now. Yeah, even stop tracking me. I'm a jerk who likes to play Unreal Tournament 2004. That's all I am. I'm sorry about continually talking about the game in my blogs, but it's just so friggin awesome that I have to mention it. In fact, don't stop tracking me, this is the last time I will ever mention the game extensively in my blogs. Note the word "extensively." Actually, I'll just shut up.

 Look what it's reduced me to!

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 UT2004 ENTRY, LOOK AWAY!

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 I played a few games with friends from GameSpot here recently. First off was a game of Onslaught with AndyWilliams24, who is becoming quite a competent player, on the map Torlan. I gave off a decent performance, with a PPH hovering between 150 and 200 and an almost-positive kill-death ratio (21 kills and 22 deaths was my final result) Final score for me was 61, so I done Okay.

 And then I was scouting through my buddies list, and found the mad AAG resident thread-maker Nodham! Playing Invasion! I am a complete Invasion n00b so I done crap at first, but slowly picked up and done surprisingly well in the end, so I just have to say thanks to Nodham for introducing me to Invasion and its niceties.

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 YOU CAN RETURN NOW!

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 Okay, about reviewing, now. The last review, Super Smash Bros Melee, didn't go too well, so I'm thinking of reviewing a game I really am familiar with. Possibly an oldie-but-goodie, y'know? Something like Alien Trilogy on the Sega Saturn. There's a game nobody cares about, so I'll just review it so people know how great it is! First FPS I ever played, that might have been, and the entry above you ^^ is an example of what that game did to me!

 Stop reading this pointless and insanely long blog post right now.

 It goes without even saying that today has been pretty eventful. I won't bore you with all the details, it's 11pm and I'm exhausted... I also got school tomorrow, so that sucks.

  Today was the athletics championship I got accepted into a couple of days ago. My school did pretty well, we were competing against ten other schools and we won a fair few events. I came 4th in the 1500m out of about 13 people, so I was pleased with that result. They didn't reveal our times, though, which really annoyed me, although I would have estimated somewhere around the 5 minutes 45 seconds region.

 I also had to stand in for a fellow competitor who had pulled out of the 4x100m relay race about 5 minutes before it started. I don't enjoy short distance running and sprinting at all, so that has to be one of my least favourite races.

 When I got home, though, I found a bit of a surprise - an effects pedal for my guitar lying on the bedroom floor. Now that was unexpected. Ah well, I wasn't complaining... it didn't take long to figure out the system, so in a few minutes I was playing like a maniac! w00t!

 And, now, I'm going to read some Lord of the Rings. Must be the fifth time I've read Fellowship of the Ring, and the book never gets old. Inspirational, most would say.

 Well, let me just say that my resident town in North Wales does not get good weather very often. Sheets of rain, gale-force winds, and, the killer - indifferent overcast days - you name it, we receive it regularly.

 But one thing we don't get too often is the wonderful glow of incandescent sunshine. And that's exactly what's blasted the clouds away with vengeance since the weekend, and even if it is 6/6/06, apocalyptic weather doesn't seem to be on the agenda. And, even better, there has been no sign of kids called Damian. ;) (If you've seen the original Omen you'll know what I mean) :twisted:

 It's a good job my athletics championship is tomorrow rather than today, for that precise reason. I'm participating in just one event - the 1500m - so I need the best of luck wished my way for that one. I've never been too shabby at longer-distance races, so I hope I'll do well, but still, overconfidence often leads to failure. :)

 On the video blog subject, I'm sadly postponing that project. :cry: Problems with uploading are ensuing all over the place, but if I eventually overcome these glitches, then I'll let you know.

 And I still don't have Photoshop either. :(

 As for GameSpot, I'm still toiling away at Level 20, and there is no sign of prevailing soon. I entered this level what seems like months ago and I am currently 18% through; to all people who have not yet reached this level, brace yourself, because it sucks. For all people higher than Level 20, you are all too lucky for your own good and I hope you can appreciate the hardship of being a Metal Slime. ;)

 As for gaming, I haven't touched Empire At War, Metal Gear Solid 2, or War of the Ring for the last two days! I need to start playing some of all three games, but for now, one game dominates my agenda, and we all know which one that is. ;)

 I played a few games today, and they were mixed bags. I got a bit of rivalry with one player, and here's the story - he was a spectator, commenting on random stuff and genuinely being irritating, so I told him to join the game or shut the hell up. So my harsh words forced him to join in, and I punished him by firing a few rockets his way. He fired a barrage of shrapnel back.

 Secondly, a n00b joined our game! Yay! Time to poke fun at n00bs! Seriously, this guy was driving a Manta and shooting at a Red Powernode. Perfectly acceptable behaviour, yeah? Problem is, the Reds had just destroyed the Powernode we had linked to it, so for those who don't know, the link was broken and obviously the Powernode was shielded. But the n00b in question was firing at the node for a good thirty seconds before he realized we were laughing at him! :twisted: Ah, bliss. :lol:

 And then someone joined the game and got a PPH of 460. Guess how? He was using an aimbot. Basically, the lowest form of cheating. I hate guys like that.

 Just to keep your attention longer, I also finished the single-player on Skilled difficulty. Pretty hard in the final few rounds.

 And, now, I have officially ran out of things to say, so, without further ado, I'll leave you to post comments in the flimsy comments section. Like usual, hm?  

 Wow. I'm now entering my 7th month on GS. What a memorable 7 months it has been, hm? I've made so many great friends on here, way too many to name, but I'll try nontheless:- NeoJedi, Ryle_Boy, Nodham, Insinuendo, NeonNinja, Darkskyer, Stevencompton, UnlivedPhalanx, theR34p3R, Grambyte, Meggido, Guisepppe, Usagi704, Hart704, Willdyer10, MrCHUP0N, KnightsOfRound, DuffManX, ChimneySmoke, SpeedTrap, Cheesebob57, RedPanther, Andyt66, C0deZero, GadgetMan, Guuthulhu, Toms115, Nascarnetboggy, OddballTECH, soadrock2, ShenLongBo, Draqq, DrFish62, bbbourb, Thorpe89, DrummerX, Commandokiller...

 That is one long list... wow... My apologies if I missed anyone out of this list, my head is kinda blurry after all that name-reeling-off. There's even some friends in real life I introduced this site to: AndyWilliams24, ChrisFoulkes4, and RhysPrice11, all great guys, how would I get through school without you? :P

 It's been a great 7 months, and I have to thank you guys for that. Nobody else could have made my stay here more enjoyable. :)

 And oh yeah, thanks for all the feedback on the Super Smash Bros Melee review, guys!

 I also made a vblog, uploaded it, and was just about to tell you guys to come on over when I discovered it was too long. Wtf?! Crappy FreeWebs account, you deserve to die!!

 And one last thing. 6/6/06 tomorrow - the sign of the devil! So, yeah, I'm getting a bit superstitious, but still, it's pretty weird.

 Take a look!

 ^^ My 50th Review! ^^

 I also made a half-decent video blog, but I'm not ready to show you the site just yet. Trust me, you will be surprised!

 Still playing a lot of PC games, my Now Playing list explains it all. War of the Ring is my next review, so look for it in the coming days.

 And that's all. Go back to your daily activities.