The first African-American President, news on one of the most highly-rated anticpated RPGs of last year, and uncertainty in a universe far, far away,

On the 20th January, 2009, at around 12:07 in the United States, Barack Obama - a man originally viewed as an outsider - took centre stage as George Bush handed over his presidency.

"Yes we Can" was the slogan that empitomised Obama throughout his election campaign, and it was this belief that ultimately caused him to succeed. From the young boy who witnessed the breaking up of two families, to the Harvard-based student, to the President we see today. Barack Obama really was a unique candidate.

As I watched from my northern home in the Britain, as a 17-year-old, I realised something about this man. He wasn't just a President, he wasn't just someone who made "false promises", he was a man who believed and knew that he had the ability to bring change to America.

For the first time, I genuinely became excited and absorbed in Obama and his ideals. For all of my life I have had no interest in non-domestic politics, and little in our own, but that changed throughout the latter half of 2008 and in this opening period of 2009. There's so much I admire about the States: the involvement, the passion and the genuine care for who they are voting for. As a citizen of the United Kingdom, that is what we lack and what we need. Whereas in the US you will see everyone, young and old, participating and enjoying themselves, Britain and the UK lack the support of the younger generation. This is incredibly important, as a waining support means a waning government. That is something we do not want.

In gaming news, it was discovered recently that Mass Effect - the bioware Role-Playing game that was one of the biggest hits of 2008 - is set to be followed up with two sequels and more importantly those that could make the journey over the Playstation 3. There will still be Xbox 360 support, but EA's grip has meant that this series is now taking more a commerical route.

What does this spell for Mass Effect? Ultimately, little. Bioware are still going to be pulling the strings in their trilogy, though for the X360 this meant they have lost an exclusive game to a rival that is mounting them up. Final Fantasy is, indeed, making its way to the Xbox also but games like Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Patriots are those that may not even be rivalled by the infamous Gears of War series.

Other news? It isn't exactly the biggest, but there has been more regarding the status of Star Wars Battlefront III.

It appears that on YouTube a video was leaked of actual, in-game footage of the game itself. This raises questions of the games state of development on two levels: is/was the game in such a far state of development that there are plans for it to be ressurected, or is the game's development dead that footage was leaked because there was no more news to give? In the wake of Mass Effect going non-exclusive, this is something that Microsoft could really benefit from.

Hey there folks.

When the hell was my last blog post? It seems so long since I did my last one...

Anyway, I've been playing a lot of Fable II recently and I have to say that this game is one that is really worth considering. From around 30 hours of personal gameplay, I've really enjoyed the variety and depth that this sequel has offered when compared to the original. Yeah it is a bit repetive at points, and the storyline isn't exactly Oblvion-esque, but it's still great fun. Letting my uncontrollable urge to shoot a villager take over me provided lots of laughs, though the game punished me later by fining me. Though even after that, I continued to do many-a-thing that weren't exactly respectable.

It also seems, that, for once, EA have actually released a game that has genuine quality (and fits in with its release period, too). Of course, I'm talking about Dead Space. Initally this game, at least to me, seemed to be destined to just to float into the abyss and stay there forevermore. It wasn't shown at E3 (to my recollection) and there have been minimal previews before that. However, this seems to be the dark horse of this year as reviews worldwide seems to have credited it for what it is: an exiciting, engrossing horror game that has originality and flair. For the words Electronic and Arts and to be linked to this game is pretty incredibly, and might actually be an indication that EA is good at doing something! I may get this... as soon as I have enough money.

Indeed, Barack Obama and John McCain are going to face off next week for the White House but they probably have no idea on how Bethesda has portrayed their potential base in Fallout 3.

Unless you're unfortunate enough to be limited to the bug-filled PS3 version, this game is one worth picking up very soon. Even though it may not have the depth of Oblivion, it certainly has a better tempo to it and provides more of an impact. The combat is a little clunky, yes, but this game is another that provides complete originality and continue to advance an exisiting series in new and interesting ways. As seems to be the case with most game nowdays, FO3 also plays on the idea of making choices and feeling the consequences. So much so, that even shooting your gun could have a negative impact upon your world. The game isn't simply that straightforward, as players know that their decisions are shaping what Washington is going to look like in the future.

I also played Rare's Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts demo yesterday on Xbox Live, and this is one game that is HUGE! The demo lasted me well over an hour, probably approaching two, and the game made the one world that you could visit seem incredibly charming and incredibly exciting. I really don't understand why people aren't talking about this; it's brilliant. Whether your played the original Banjo game on the N64, like me, or not this game is really something for any RPG/Adventure/Platform lovers out there.

And I so wish Christmas would arrive soon... I simply cannot wait.

Well I've finally found some free time to do this, so I thought I'd grasp the opportunity and get something solid down.

As those in the Temple have undobtedly realised,I seriously have not been posting all that much. Why? Well, of my new-found lifestyle. Even though there isn't a 50-foot pile of homework to do, I'm finding myself being caught up with other things outside of college - related or not.

For exampl, I've met four friends at college. Two of which are really nice people. On the Friday just gone, five of us went to a local circus. This was very, very enjoyable and I've never experienced anything like that with friends before. Similarly, we're all (hopefully) going to a restaurant next Monday for my birthday which means another day is going to be taken up completely.

These kind of things, plus homework, mean it's hard to actually juggle everything successfully. I will still be posting in the Temple, but bare in mind that I won't be that active for the majority of the time.

I'm still pushing through Puzzle Quest, which is probably one of the best arcade games I've played. I'm not sure how long this actually is, but I'm guessing it's pretty long? I certainly hope so.

I've been particuarly intriuged by the Fifa '09 demo. I'm a pretty big fan of football/soccer, and I felt it really simple to use and it was fun to test different team formations and playing styles. I've been finding it hard to score, though that seems to be sorting itself out gradually.

I also downloaded the new Dragonforce album, which is very good. Guitars going at insane speeds is an incredible thing.

Hopefully everyone out there is okay. I wouldn't like to think otherwise.

Oh crap! Where have I been? I was supposed to be posting every -

- oh, what the heck.

I've never been one for arcade gaming, but recently I've had an invasion of old-school classics: Geometery Wars 2, the Fable 2 Pub Games, Braid and Bionic Commando: Rearmed. All have managed to find their way into my Xbox.

Not that I'm complaining - they're all great fun. Even if Geometery Wars 2 practically causes your TV to blow up because of the sheer amount of colours, it's still fun to fly around and blow stuff up; even though you can glitch your way to a billionaire the Pub Games still have some appeal as, simply put, the more money the better; Braid is simply outstanding as everything from the environment to the storyline is simply beautiful; and even though Bionic Commando's introduction of the top-down view isn't exactly brilliant, overall it's a challenging game that is quit a lot of fun.

And because all these games are all rather good, expect more (yes, more) reviews being posted up soon.

The finance for the plethora of arcading is due to the trade in of Soulcalibur IV, at least for Braid and Commando.

I'm not going to rant about it, I don't even think it's worth that much. The game was average, at best, and it had so many good and bad points intertwining it was simply too frustrating to play anymore. Fortunately, some other sucker will pick up my copy and hopefully be punished for eternity.

I have my GCSE results back this Thursday, which are basically end-of-school exams. Hopefully I'll be taking English Language, Literature and History which will leave me (apparently) with lots of free periods. I think we all know what that means...

Well, I wish. In-fact my results are so essay-heavy that I'm going to have to be using these periods to get as much work done as possible, which will hopefully work in my favour in relation to other people who are taking more subjects.

I'm also still thinking about getting a PS3 by the end of this year, so if anyone knows of any good stores that deliver to the UK - and offer fair prices - then let me know ASAP.

And finally, I'd like to say thank-you to Ron and everyone else in the RPG Temple for making it such an inviting and relaxing place to be. I'm really, really enjoying it.

Have you ever heard, read or just seen something and been amazed? You thought it was amazing, out of this world, and you wanted it. You would try to utmost to get it, because you thought it was so impressive. That's what happened to me this week, in particular with Soul Caliber IV. Unfortunately, as Jeff said, it is continually pushing and pulling me towards and away from it.

This game was quite strange really, as it just appeared out of almost nowhere. I knew it was coming out but, strangely, I knew almost nothing about it until around a week before release (maybe even a little later). The Gamespot UK Podcast got me intially interested, and the GS review made it more interesting, but it was only until I played the demo in my local GAME - with a friend of mine - that I brought the game.

The thing about the fourth installment of SC is that it looks, and feels, amazing from the start. The graphics are top-notch, and the gameplay is smooth and easy to pick up, but once you start to explore the other elements of the game problems being to surface.

For example, the Story of Soul Caliber is completely pathetic. Even if there are around 25-30 characters, you only do five mission (or possibly six in some cases). These take around, at the most, ten minutes and a really easy even on Hard. You are introduced with a wall of text at the beginning, and then there are annoying cutscenes put in before the most important fight(s). Unofortunately, you don't really need to see these as there are no spoken words in them until the end-of-fights cutscene. This leaves you with a somewhat anti-climatic feel, and will probably you off playing through the other characters.

But it does include the Tower os Lost Souls mode, which is basically a survival mode. You can work you way up through the floors of the towers, and down through it. The good thing about these is that they're quit challenging, and give a lot of replay value to the game.

But the flipside is that the biggest incentive to play SC IV over and over again - the Tower of the Lost Souls - is that it can become very difficult. You are only often allowed to choose a character or two, and have to face up to 11 characters where you health isn't restored after each set of fighters!

Character customization is also cool, and you can unlock so much equipment and chop and change it to build up stats to use skills and therefore become more effective in battle. It's really nice, since all characters - online and off - can look completely different to each other and play completely differently too.

I'm not going to trade this in, though I can't see myself playing it for much longer, and others games are going to grab my interest relatively soon anyway. I'm not particuarly happy about paying £40 for it as I honestly don't think that this game is worth a full retail price, purely on the basis that it is incredibly frustrating at times.