Heyzors

Recently, games-wise, i have been very, very busy. Exams are over, and in the aftermath people are unwinding. This for me and many friends (including big pimpin 99 and... ed) has involved 3 hours or more of Gears every night this week, with an amazing amount of violence and sustained banter. Basically, school, although lasting another week, is simply going through the motions and obliged to fill in term time with videos and hangman, meaning that no-one has any homework or obligation to be particularly sharp at school the nect day, leading to long nights of n00bp00nage.

The mode we've been playing is execution, with 5 second bleed out, meaning that all the politeness of 'by all means, take the kill' has been destroyed, leaving brutal, bloody violence abounding. I personally have been honing my skills with the sniper rifle, and have consistently racked up 20 to 30 headshots a night. The fact that the mode is execution gives these skull breaking shots more of a reason than just pride, as taking the head off an enemy is the one sure way to take him down at range. The fact that Gears of War moves so elegantly between the tactical and the frantic. One minute, you and a teammate (ie ed) may be sniping and spotting, using a machine gun and voice to mark out targets for the sniper to take out (it just takes one ill judged lean), and then the next your enemy has advanced using smoke and covering fire and you find yourselves engulfed in a fast-paced melee of shotgun and chainsaw. Brilliant.

My top 3 moments on this week's Gears have been:

3) 4 chainsaw kills in a round. You should have been there.

2) Trying to fight the Tyro Station train with my team (lol)

1)Saving a downed teamate from certain death by sniping and removing the brains of an enemy who was IN THE PROCESS of curb-stomping him. The X button had been pressed and in a split second the massive foot would have rendered my teammate's face into meatballs. It was an amazing shot

That was the moment i got the shot. Exactly.

I also picked up The Darkness yesterday, and finished it just now. It is an amazing game, and would normally not be my thing but on playing it I am very glad I did. Fantastic stuff.

In the real world, and new Prime Minister Brown has had one of the hardest first weeks in history. As he came in Britain was flooded, and now Britain seems to be in the start of a summer offensive by terrorists. Two massive car bombs were found in London and yesterday, a flaming Jeep Cherokee rammed the main terminal at Glasgow Airport, gutting it. The country's on critical alert, the highest threat level, meaning that an imminent attack is expected, and these attacks may only be the harbingers of an offensive not seen since the IRA in the 70s and 80s. In many ways it is similair. The terrorists do not HAVE to kill people, only to frighten and disrupt them, something which they have done. Central London is closed off, Glasgow is in chaos and every strategic point in the country has increased security (Newcastle airport, for example has erected armed roadblocks to stop acces in cars to the terminal building). There have been controlled explosions and bomb threats all over not just Britain but the world (NY JFK was evacuated after a hoax yesterday). The terrorists are doing everything right. They need only bomb, or have viable devices found occasionally to keep the threat there, and let hoaxes and confusion do the rest.

On a personal level, I have had a fantastic week, as Ialways do. Plenty of Gears and amazing exam results, as well as anticipation of the summer have kept spirits high. I am especially looking forward to Summer Camp, and the ability to run around in the dark with a gun like the one at the top of the page.with some good friends for a week. After that, Spain, Italy and Elba. Genius.

Au revoir