Hi all...

 I've been off school today... really not feeling well at all... I won't go into the gruesome and irrelevant details here, but if the guys at school think I'm skiving off school then they can just think again. Honestly. If you take one day off school in my humble world then you are automatically thought to be faking being ill.

 So after a long night of punctured sleep and a morning's failed attempts to restore that lost sleep I am here, again, typing out a nonsenical blog that nobody should care about.

 Okay... so I entered ReviewSpotting #26 over at Community Contributions... if you haven't already joined Community Contributions and if you're serious about reviewing games and improving your writing skills also then you won't find a better place to do so. The review I entered is my most recent work, Need for Speed Underground 2. I asked for a Quick Critique prior to entering it so the review has been slightly edited and modified to ensure I get a better response.

 And then I've got something to tell you. You remember when I went off to California? And I was able to access GameSpot over there, from my account? Well, they've charged me and the rest of my family (my mum/mom has to use the Internet a lot, too, she has a lot of online friends to catch up with, and even my little sister spent her fair share of hours on the internet too) £117.

 Shouldn't AOL actually mention an additional required payment if you use the Internet abroad? There was no message that said so, so now we have to pay over a hundred pounds just for some as-yet-unkown reason. How sucky is that?

 On a brighter note... I'm still playing a lot of Unreal Tournament 2004, though strangely I can't view my statistics from the website. Every time I type in my UT2004 ID and click Search I come up with a message saying that I need to refresh the page and try again.

 What happens when I do that? Yeah, you guessed it. "The page cannot be refreshed without resending the information."

 Well, a brief guess at my stats would be in order, so I'm guessing that I've got twice as many Deaths as Frags, and my Score should be somewhat higher than both, what with all the PowerNodes I charge up. Hate to spoil my image of all-conquering awesomeness, but my statistics won't be too nice-looking at the moment.

 Ah, well. Always room for improvement. Practice makes perfect. All those stupid sayings that are meant to raise self-esteem, you can mention them all in the comments section.

 And I can't help gulping... my GameSpot teenage years are well and truly behind me now, really... I will be in the realm of Metal Slime tomorrow... oh no... this level is going to suck.

 Real badly.

 A lot to say in a blog post...

 First off, in case you haven't noticed, I've kinda neglected GameSpot recently. I've been posting in the Unions a little bit, but not much as I would have liked... this is because I'm just feeling a mite fed up of GameSpot. It's a brilliant place, and I'll never stop visiting it unless the site spontaneously combusts, but my enthusiasm has been waning a little bit for the site.

 The simple reason for my lack of enthusiasm:- the thing this site is based on.

 Games.

 Well... the weather has been off and on, and then back off again, so most of the time I've had to relegate myself to the confines of my bedroom. Sure, there has been nice weather, but whenever sunlight permeates the carpet of cloud that seems to be stuck hovering over my town (much like the Union level percentages) it doesn't last long. I've heard a lot of blogs complaining about the rain, and how much it gets them down, and I've been wondering why it's so sunny outside, and then the rain starts falling with gusto and I've had to glue my @$$ to my chairTM once again.

 So, yeah - games. I'll start off talking about Unreal Tournament 2004. To my delight, AndyWilliams24 and chrisfoulkes4 , (yeah, Chris is a bit of a GameSpot n00b, but he's a good guy) two of my best friends, have finally got the game, after endless persuasion. w00t! So I've been playing them online a little. I'm impressed with both of them, and though they're not a match for my all-conquering awesomeness (only joking, I'm not a brilliant player myself) they've still managed to stop coming in last place. And that's what counts, hm? No? Oh. Riiight.

 I seem to have started off an online PC gaming craze with my mates, and it's all because of one game... I find my neighbour raiding my room thinking that Unreal Tournament 2003 would actually run on his computer, and no matter how many times I tell him that it won't, he still persists.

 What. An. Idiot.

 So, eventually, he goes and bids on a copy of the original Unreal Tournament for £1.50. We're talking about the best game of all time here. And he's about to buy it for £1.50. That is one nice buy, and that's a game his computer will actually run.

 Time to extract myself from the lag-soaked world of online PC gaming and talk about something a little more... extra-curricular, shall we say, hm? So, regardless, I went to athletics training again today in the hope of being accepted into the next championship which takes place in early July. But after the bad weather I aforementioned, the 400m track we use was completely flooded and even the sandpit we officially use to do the Long Jump had a gigantic pool of rainwater bang in the middle.

 Of course, long-legged people like me can jump over that sort of stuff, but why do that when you can leap headlong into the puddle and scatter the younger people with muddy water?

 Funny, I tell ya.

 So, in conclusion, I'm going to try and post a little bit more and be as active as I can while I'm on the threshold of Level 20.

 Man... if I'm losing interest in GameSpot on Level 19, what will happen on the horrendously glitchy Level 20? Two months of boredom, I tell ye.

 (And, please, if somebody could post a banner for All-Around Gaming, I'd really appreciate it, guys)

http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/unions/home.php?union_id=TMA

 ^^ The link you should post your banner. I know it's out of my place to ask... but we're in need of a change.

 Without any verbal gymnastics or any attempts to be funny, I'll launch straight into it...

 Yep... I have finally found the remainder of my Saturn game collection. If you check, you'll see I was quite the gamer way back in the day. I didn't care about scores or genres back then, I was just enthralled by any type of videogame.

 I accept the fact that there some extremely bad/embarrassing games in there, but when you were little, did you care?

 Exactly.

 Ah... what has GameSpot turned me into?! I'm now a gamer who is looking back on his childhood - admittedly one of the best times of my life :P and completely stomping over the goodness I got out of those games!

 This is my gaming history I'm talking about here! I'm a monster!

 But anyway, my updated collection shows that I was one of the people who actually liked the Saturn. Sure, it was a humongous failure, but... come on... the intoxicating nostalgia I've got after finding all of these games is just there. And I don't even have a Saturn to play them on... it's probably lurking in somebody's attic hundreds of miles away... damn you eBay!

 I want my Saturn back!

 Need for Speed Underground 2: In Review

 Didn't take me long. I took a new approach in choice of words and structure, and it's also insanely long, but I'd appreciate if you took a readthrough, no matter how quick, if you have a bit of time.

 Well...

 I'm getting perturbed by a lot of people who are into the whole "video blogging" thing right now. It's really making me want to upgrade to Total Access or at least Plus, but I am going to stay true to GameSpot Basic as long as I can until my head explodes with envy and jealousy.

 Meh... I prefer typing anyway, so, um... that's that.

 And, darn... the trampoline. My friend has a pretty good one and a couple of my mates and I went down there earlier. With a camcorder. Right... that's how crazy we are. And this isn't an ordinary trampoline either. It has a hole in it, from some event where my friend attacked it. With an axe.

 Riiiiiight.

 And he also has a broken shed roof at the bottom of his garden... from when he was pretending to be a superhero. And tried to jump off. And eventually made the whole roof near enough collapse.

 Riiiiight.

 But anyway, that was pretty fun, and it took up the larger part of this conspiciously ordinary Saturday... also when I got home I found out a Vauxhall Tigra had reversed into our car... Not cool.

 But you probably don't care about everything I've just said, right? OK. So I'll just slap some sense into my brain and stop ranting about the nonsenical things that go on in my normal Saturday.

 And, so, the subject moves onto games. Games, games, games. So many of them, so little time, not enough money. At the moment I can't be bothered saving up for any game, and every time I try, I inevitably fail. So, the question is - stick to my current gaming fixations, or try to save up one last time and go out in a blaze of self-destructive glory?

 I'll pick the first option, thank you very much. As you can see by my Now Playing, my current gaming hobbies aren't too shabby. Metroid Prime Hunters and Unreal Tournament 2004 are my current favourites, and I've started neglecting the other two. Unreal Tournament 2004 is an incredibly addictive game... the Onslaught mode currently has me hooked... I played a few games recently with NeoJedi on Torlan/Primeval. I didn't realize there was a continuous loop between the two maps, and I wasn't happy, as I hate Primeval and I don't like Torlan either. I played like crap through both maps, but picked up at the end on Torlan and had a PPH of about 140 (Points Per Hour)

 I'm also starting to play a lot of Far Cry Instincts, too, and as you're reading this it's probably in my Now Playing list. Far Cry Instincts is just an incredible game all around and I give it the utmost recommendation to any Xbox owner looking for an alternative FPS to Halo 2. Far Cry is even better than Halo 2, dare I say it, but whether it lives up to the original Halo, that's a completely different question.

 So, um... the Red Hot Chillis. Stadium Arcadium. I've listened to most of it now, but my Media Player won't permit it half the time due to its nice "Shuffle" mode :D So, in between interruptions from the like of Muse, Arctic Monkeys, Gorillaz, Blur, Ash, Franz Ferdinand, Nirvana, U2, and Stereophonics, I've managed to listen to a lot of the tracks... sadly none of them have lived up to the downright funkiness of "Dani California", but some of them ("Charlie" deserves an honorable mention) come pretty damn close.

 And before my cliche conclusion, expect a new review. I'm trying to churn out as many as possible without ruining the quality levels, but nonetheless expect a review of either the original Half-Life or Alien vs. Predator 2, both on PC...

 So... that's all I have to say, pretty much. Thanks for tuning in.

 Not much to say today... really... but the weekend is finally upon us... a glorious two-day interval between work and/or school... this one sure looks to be great...

 Well... why is it going to be great? Well, Saturday is set to be plastered in Wales' obligatory rain... so that means plenty of gaming all day. I'm thinking of having a huge Unreal Tournament 2004 marathon... maybe even recording some of my online banters and uploading them to my recently created website, just so you can all view my all-conquering ownage. Muwahaha.

 And then on Sunday, it's time to film some more trampoline madness... I'll keep you informed on what bodily injuries I gain...

 And, w00t! I got Red Hot Chilli Peppers' new album today... Stadium Arcadium... I have only listened to snippets so far. It's a two-disc rock nuthouse, one disc entitled Jupiter and the other Mars. Dani California has been stuck in my head all day now, and it's hardly surprising really. It's the Chilli's best song since Under the Bridge, for heaven's sake.

 So that's pretty much all I have to say, for today at least...

 I come of age soon.

 I'm coming into realization that I will soon be past GameSpot's labouring "teens" as I hereby refer to them, and I'll be in the safety of Level 20, "Metal Slime."

 Problem is, it's going to take two long and suffering-filled months to get through Level 20. Darn.

 Meh... I don't care. I hate being a Gitaroo Man anyway.

 So, yeah, I'm not about to throw a laborious blog entry into a farty little paragraph declaring an obvious fact that "I'LL BE LEVEL 20 SOON! OMG! W00T!" You know how much I hate blogs like that? Well then. "Trigger Finger." Quite a transparent blog title today, and in it, I'll make use of what writing skills I have and I'll type out a lengthy tale of pointless nonsense instead of a meagre sentence proclaiming my proximity to Level 20. Okay?

 Trigger Finger. Who has gained any insight into the title yet? Hm? Who can tell me what gaming genre I'm likely to be talking about?

 "FPS."

 Darn. Ye know too much.

 So, seeing as you're all intelligent enough to have comprehended that much, I think I'll launch into my speech, then. If you're bothered enough about my current game habits to have looked at my Now Playing, then you'll see that there is in fact three FPS games there that are absorbing my free time.

 Halo Combat Evolved

 Well, yeah. I've finally finished the game on Normal difficulty and I'm about to start playing online, if there are any souls left shooting the brains out of everyone, and if so, then this will be a pleasant PC diversion from the usual Onslaught mode of Unreal Tournament 2004.

 I've reviewed the game now, as you already know, and a hefty (by my standards) 8.7 was awarded to it, so... yeah, it's a great game, and if you don't own an Xbox, then you really can't go wrong with experiencing an only slightly inferior version.

 Metroid Prime Hunters

 Who ever comprehended, or even thought for one moment, that a first-person shooter could turn out so well on the DS? Well, if you have randomly decided to get some sleep deprivation, then the most enjoyable way to go about this pointless task is to take Hunters to bed and play some multiplayer against the bots.

 The single-player is also a very good way to pass the time. Sure, the boss battles repeat, and there are a few flaws in the overall level design, but I find the sense of exploration to be a great addition to an otherwise painfully linear game. Yup. That's all I have to say on that one.

 Unreal Tournament 2004

 And well. Need I say more? The piece de resistance. Unreal Tournament 2004 is a tour de force in PC shooting, and there's a lot of games to choose from in that category - no mean feat.

 Seriously, the Onslaught mode can dominate your life. I'm struggling to keep the game at a minimum, so that my social life is not consumed, but it just keeps me coming back. It's crazy.

Rollercoaster Tycoon 3

 Okay. A rollercoaster simulator is hardly an FPS, but hey? Why not dig it out the FPS-smothered gaming cupboard of mine and take a nice departure from all the killing, murderizing, assaulting, and slaying?

 Needless to say, after a few hours playing, you wouldn't want to get me as a real-life rollercoaster engineer.

 Unless you want the guests' faces to get ripped off by a horrendous amount of G-Force. And even if they survive that there's always a sickeningly twisted stomach to account for, and maybe a few cracked ribs.

 And that's all I have to say, really.

 And now you know that, even if I do upgrade to LameSpot Plus, I won't do video blogs. My voice would die before I finished speaking.

 Launching back into the everyday void of school, homework, and the boring task of twiddling my thumbs and doing basically nothing, I at least have one thing to brighten me up.

 And that's my gaming rig - for those who aren't familiar with this sort of speak, that's my PC - has been slightly improved today. Instead of 512MB of RAM, I have now made the transition to the 1GB region, and now I can safely say I can tackle most of the games on the market. It's just my graphics card letting me down now, really, although it has managed to cope with reasonably high-end games such as Unreal Tournament 2004, Fable: Lost Chapters, Civilization IV, and Half-Life 2, just to name but a few.

 I also have a new monitor/screen thingy. It's big, and uncomfortably so, and it's alienating me right now. It was pretty awkward playing Unreal Tournament 2004 before on a monitor that completely stomps the crappy old thing I just scrapped. So, yay!

I'm thinking of getting a new game, too. This candidate will be either Star Wars: Empire At War or F.E.A.R; I've heard excellent things about both of these games. What do you guys think? At the moment I'm leaning towards Star Wars, but I need a second opinion.

 ^^ The Agony Of Choice ^^

 Now I gotta thank you guys for the feedback on the Halo review, it was an uncertain piece of work on my part and my first review in what seemed like an age (granted, I think I wrote my one before that in a different time zone :P ) I take it you all liked it then? Glad to have brightened up your day with an insanely long and wordy piece of literary work.

 Another thing I'd like to bring up... GameSpot Plus and Total Access. I spend a lot of time on this site, and I was just getting psyched about uploading a gameplay video that I made or something like that, and then GS goes and tells me I need to upgrade before I can access that feature.

 "You and your crappy features, LameSpot."

 Yeah, Okay, I'm considering upgrading. But, yet, where is the money going to come from?

 **anxiously looks at somebody else** "Not me."

 So, I can happily say I'm staying with GameSpot Basic. Forever, probably. Because GameSpot still haven't convinced me, despite this video-uploading incident, that I should upgrade to Plus or Total Access.

 And that's just about me exhausted of verbal rantings. I'm going to play some Unreal Tournament 2004. Good day to you.

 Fresh fire in my writing, of course. Only joking.

 http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/action/halo/player_review.html?id=311813

 Yup, that's the URL for my latest review, for the PC version of Halo. It's my first review in what seems like years, and I think I've finally wore off the slump I've been in. I still desire feedback, so if you have anything to say, then don't hesitate to mention it, whether negative or positive.

 There's been a bit of updating around my game collection as of late. Polishing off some of the old games in my attic, I've added some of them to my collection. The Sega Saturn and the ol' Genesis I played them on, though, have long since gone on eBay, so I can't experience these all again. I'm estimating 10 more games in there at least, so, should be cool. I lost the Good Taste emblem, though, and the Xbox Aficionado one. Darn.

 I don't have much to say, now, so I'll go.

 Song I'm listening to right now: The main Halo 2 theme

 So, as all three conferences close... I have to say Nintendo's was the most influential, impressive and enthralling of them all, closely followed by Microsoft's brilliant showing of Fable 2 and Halo 3 amongst other things. And to top that, I get two cheap emblems just for tuning in, and I think they are gimmicky and a waste of emblem space. And I also lost my Xbox Aficionado emblem after updating my collection a little bit; goes to show how much I am moving on in this fickle world.

 I also have athletics tomorrow at Deeside Stadium competing in the 800m, wish me luck, guys!

 But that's not the reason I'm writing this -  the thing I am getting frustrated with right now is my complete and utter silence on the reviewing front. Every time I start a review I end up abandoning them halfway through... check out this excerpt from Microsoft Word that will probably never be finished... usually it flows directly from my head onto the keyboard, but I can never think what to write and end up trailing off into a void of spelling mistakes and sentences that make no sense...

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Whatever some might say about Rollercoaster Tycoon, the fact remains that it’s a game that launches the imagination through the roof, and sets you loose on a creative management spree where you can build your own theme park like few other games can even hope to.

And even after that slightly obvious beginning, there’s still plenty more to be said about the game – not least its depth and unparalleled rollercoaster building system that occupied more minds than just mine for hours on end. The days I spent simply struggling past a particularly difficult scenario or simply building the most imaginative rollercoaster I could seem like millennia ago, but those memories will have their mark forever.

 Rollercoaster Tycoon is, first and foremost, a business simulation, but its sheer amount of appeal to casual and hardcore gamers alike is something rarely seen in games of this genre. There’s a golden quality to its Gameplay that almost anybody could dip into for varying lengths of time… a sense of freedom and a dizzying excitement… and the realization that you can really build a theme park the way you want to... (this is unfinished)

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   I won't bore you with even more reviews that I have never found the heart to complete, but it's just a little doozy that represents my flatline on the reviewing front. I have tried to polish off the review for Reviewspotting #23, but it's not really working... but anyway...

  Seeing as that magical review took up most of my space, I'll see you tomorrow, by any lengths I should have a review then.