After several years slowly burning my eyes out of thier sockets, I think maybe it's time to move on. I'm afraid recently the appeal of Gamespot has worn a little thin, even with the undeniable thrill of posting another generic comment about the person above me to bring me back each day. I've also lost interest games a lot too, which would begger the question of what point there would be in putting time into a gaming website. It's also that great part of life where I work my arse off for a bit of paper with letters (hopefully A's) on it, which isn't making things any easier round my way.

In short, ladies and gentleman, i'm getting out of here.

Since I probably won't be around to look after my unions anymore, the leaders thereof should feel to demote me, denounce my name and spam my inbox with hate mail and lewd messages also.

Anyone who wishes to can add my Facebook, even if only to laugh at my slightly tacky profile pic (it would also be nice if you sent a short message telling me who you are, although usually i'm so desperate for friends as to add pretty much anyone who sends a request my way)

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1644775138#/profile.php?id=1469783526&ref=profile

Unless I ever decide to become active again, this is probably a goodbye to a lot of you on here. Feel free to mourn my loss in the comments section and erect memorials in my name, but other than, there's not much to say but thanks for a few great years on Gamespot

"May The Lord Smile & The Devil Have Mercy"

...but a pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves!"

Happy new year everyone!

...Where I eat and drink far too much and have to spend hours to talking to my alleged relatives most of whom I generally have no recollection of ever seeing before...

Also known on some continents as Christmas

Happy Holiday

Call me a hopeless romantic, a sad looser or even a manic depressive, but I was scrolling through my unions one cold autumn morning (actually it was probably in summer but it sounds so much moe poetic this way) when something struck. I was amazed by just how many awesome people i've met on GS over the years and just how many i've totally lost contact with since. It also reminded me how many of the once vibrant unions I joined have just totally died over the years, after all the great fun I used to have messing around in them. These days I spend most of my GS time in the Black Metal Union but its sad how activity has totally dried up in my much larger unions (e.g the jgU, first union I joined). Of course, those with a semblance of normalcy (is that a real word) inside them would probably be right in telling me to get a life and some real friends, but it was just sosmething that struck me, thats all.

you may return to your puny human lives...

PS - sorry for what any dodgy spelling which is probably because of my sticky e key. And I just changed the kyboard too

What happened to GS. I just logged on and everything is new and shiny and I can't find where the hell anything is anymore. Now an update I would have apprecitated would have been the option to hide my embaressingly crap amount of emblems from view, but I guess i'll get used to it.

BTW I've been having a break from GS for a while but i've decided to come back for a bit. Sorry I didn't write tell you this earlier, but, the simple fact is, my dear and beloved friends, I couldn't be arsed

This is the first time ever i've seriously tried doing any kind of proper sig and i'd just like some feedback from all you experianced designers out there (be nice please)

http://imagecloset.com/view12/600991ed81fc8d1f7844bd3d098a715e/Mayhem%20De%20Mysteriis.png

Yes, shock horror, its a blog that actually has something in it. First things first, recently i've been going through a bit of a gaming drought, but i'm hoping I can put an end to that since I just got No More Heroes today so i'm going to go and try it out later.

Other than that, its been a pretty busy week for me since i've been doing my first Work Experiance this week. After missing two places (first becuase they double booked, second because they suddenly decided they were shutting down) I ended up a at local primary school, meaning I got to spend the week helping out various kids around the school. It might not be the most glamerous Work Experiance, but I bet my friend (who's working at a court) didn't get to spend a day helping judge the easter egg competition or writing fun easter poems. Plus all the kids in Year 6 (who I pretty much spent the whole week with) made a me card (in which my name was spelt wrong in so many ways ) and the teachers got me some chocolates. Plus i got to miss a week of school to do it! When can I go back?

And finally, i'm afraid that its goodbye for a week since tomorrow i'm going on holiday with lots of my family to Northumbria, so till then farewell I guess

So heres a new blog. Nothing in it, but at least it looks like i'm trying

Since Christmas Day will undoubtedly be very busy, I figure its probably best to write this one in advance

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

See you later

Its nearly Christmas again, and that means we've got all the chasing around before coupled with the dark and the cold and school going on right to the bitter bloody end. As such my profile is going into hibernation during this busy period, so don't expect to see me around. Occasionally I may go out and search for berries (read: makea few posts) but for most of you this a goodbye and i'll be seeing you properly in the new year

Perhaps the title is a bit overtly melancholic, but the run up to Christmas is one of my least favourite times of year. I get really tired and the lengthy school half term doesn't help matters either. Nor does all the homework I keep getting. And time seems to crawl so slowly. I can't believe we're still in bloody Novemeber. I'm positive we were in Novemeber about 12 weeks ago.

And so in times like this i'm just going to sum what would normally have thier own blogs in a quick bullet points. Read on if you're interested, if not...Get the hell outta my blog!

1 - Recently got Super Mario Galaxy. Its really great, and its brought back my faith that not all platformers are crap movie tie ins that doen't innovate even the slightest bit. I'm up to the fourth observatory dome at the moment. Otherwise i'm still waiting formy damn copy of dragon Quest Monsters: Joker to turn up in the mail, and half my DS collection has vanished. So not so great on the portable front, eh?

2 - i meant to write a blog about seeing the Black Crusade tour last week but I didn't get round to it. So i'll just sum up everything quickly now

Shadows Fall - Jesus christ! Brian Fair's hair is crazy. Its down to his knees and when he spins it around its hilarious. The sound wasn't quite right since his voice got a bit drowned out, but they were still good. Only on for 25 mins though.

Arch Enemy - Angela gossow sounds even crazier live than on the CDs. I wish they wereon for longer since they were on of my fave bands there. I'll have to see if I can go to another of their shows at some point

Dragonforce - They were totally messing around, leaping all over the stage, fighting each other mid song. And yet still they pulled it off flawlassly (or so it seemed to me). There wasan awkward bit where the ZPlet the audience sing and none of us knew the wordthough, so it all fell apart.

Trivium - Not the biggest Trivium fan, but the crowd went crazy and they played a pretty good set with songs from all thier albums. They were on for an houras well.

Machine Head -Annoyingly my train home left about 20 minutes into thier set so I onlygot to see the first 3 songs, but at least they played the song I really wanted to see(Clenching The Fists Of Dissent) and they rocked while I saw them, the crowd (me included) weregoing crazy. Needless to say I had a sore neck for a few days afterwards...

3 - No real events happened of interest on the personal front.Just feeling a bit fed up and tired, but thats it. However we may be getting our Christmas tree at weekend which might help add a bit of festive cheer to the proceedings, and slowly but surely i'm getting there, even if it doesn't feel like it.

So, now i'm off to bed to read for a while and then go to sleep (oddly enough). See you people tomorrow

From out of the dark forest wanders a lone warrior, clad in shining black leather and with long dark hair. The trees whisper his name as he strides into the cold winter night.In his right hand he carries a Wii remote, coated in blood and in desperate need of new batteries, in the other he carries his trusty DS and copy of Pokemon Pearl. As the frozen northern winds rush past him into the darkness of oblivion, he utters but two words, that echo through the unending blackness, through the great mountains and into the mists below the stary sky...

Mornin' All

So, after many blogless months I figured I might as well just kick one out to show willing. Between blogs many amazing things have happened to me that I would love to share with you, but sadly they've all happened so long ago that they've lost all relevance or i've gone and forgotten them. I've skipped blogs about new games, about opinions, I even missed the bloody birthday blog (it was 1st October BTW, so its a bit late to be wishing me anything). And, dear reader, do you know the reason for this long gap. Because every time I sat down to speak to my dear GS friends, I wrote a few sentences, read them, thought 'Oh **** it, i'll do it later' and did something else. And so it has continued for several months now. Um...sorry...

So, I leave you now with promises that I shall return soon, and with perhaps the most awesome videos known to mankind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ttRaXlnfs

Quite a sad title really when you consider this is a blog about games, but oh well. Recently I got my hands on two games i've been waiting for for quite a while. Firstly was Pokemon Pearl (yes, the pink one), which is great since i've been playing Pokemon since the days of Blue, and i've yet to tire of watching tiny pictures knocking each other out and turning into slightly tougher looking tiny pictures after a few battles. So, this is great, since this is basicallyevery Pokemon fans dream, even more monsters, a new world in 3D (sort of) and, of course, online trading, which is brill forthose ofus like me whohave friends who are *cool* andwouldn't be seen deadplaying Pokemon (and incidently use about 3 tubs of gel on thier hair each morning, but that doesn't really have anything todo with this,eh?). So, a few nights ago I did my first online trade, and i'm now the proud owner of an Alakazam, a Pokemon who I could previously only dream of owning (for those of you who don't know your 'Mon, you can only get Alakazam through trading).Right now i'm plodding through slowly but surely, training up my party (currently consisting of Alakazam, Machop, Luxio, Staravia, Prinplup & Ghastly), but recently i've put it all to one side because Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition came out and I snapped it up on launch day, eager to relive the saga I have completed time and time again. Yes,the Wii controls make itmuch better, and when Ifinish the main story I get access to all those juicy PS2 extra we GC owners missed out on. So, i've spent much of the day playing through that. And thatsall basically. Apologies to all those who may have wanted another rant, or even that basic flourish of the English language known as paragraphs, but this is going to be short and sweet, since i'm pretty sure my Dad is going to kick me off the computer in a minute...

R3V out

Well, this certainly wasn't the blog I was intending to write this morning. In fact, I was originally going to write a rather cheery blog about my copy of Pokemon Pearl arriving in the mail a few days ago, and my first steps into the great wild world with my Piplup (nicknamed Ihsahn). But then something on the BBC news section caught my eye. 'Censors Ban Brutal Video Game' was the headline I found nestling away amongst the Entertainment section (although I didn't personally find any great entertainment when I read the news). One thing I did find though, was that I knew what the 'Brutal Video Game' was going to be, even before I read the story. I was pretty certain Manhunt 2 was going to cause some trouble, ecspecially after all the controvery the last one had. But banning in completely in the land of the free we call the UK. Well, that prompted me to write this lengthy rant, because this has to be one of the most, well, sillydecisions ever made.

It seems that people have got into thier heads that there issomething about games thats a lot worse than all the other forms of violent media. We can watch films that display all sorts of colourful gore and language, and have Sex Scenes that quite often border on the downright pornographic. And yet when a game comes out thats only half as sick, suddenly its treated much worse. A great case in point is thenon interactivesex scene in Killer7, it was unbelievably mild (both the participants were fully clothed for a start), and you could have easily got away with it in a 15, hell, maybe even a 12 in a film, but no, we had good old Jack Thompson yelling out for AO rating. If you look back at the old Hot Coffee scandal in GTA San Andreas, the few screenshots still floating around on the web show that everyone's cloths are still firmly animated on thier bodies,but we can all look back and laugh (well, probably not Take Two) about all the madness that went on around that. Maybe it was interactive, but moving a joystick isn't really anything like the real thing (or at least, at my age, I presume it isn't).

Somehow its worse in a game if all the above happen, because we gamers are actually 'doing the things on screen'. Somehow if we press a button to kill off a fictional game character, then we're 'murdering' the person. There are a3 problems there. For staters, we aren't murdering anything, we're juststopping a bunch ofpolygons from wandering aroundthe level anymore. 2, those polygons certainly aren't a person. And 3, we certainly aren't killing them, we're pressing a few buttons.To be quite honest, I think you'd have to be horribly deranged to get confused between pressinga button and actually killing someone. Even with the Wiimote, we're not killing people even then, we're just waving a game controller around. And yet all those years back, Manhunt was being blamed for encouraging murder. Because we all know that pressing a button to cave someones head in with a baseball bat is just like doing it in real life...

The parents of the victim, I do feel sorry for, and yet I feel that instead of taking up the hostile stance, balming violent video games (which I doubt they know much about), they could have tried to educate parents about letting thier children play violent games. Because I don't think very young children should be able to play games like this. But there are many of us who are most certainly mature enough to understand Manhunt at an age below 18, and the parents should have not only realised this, but also that many people who wanted to play it were old enough anyway, and instead try to discourage parents from buying the game for thier children unless they were sure it would be taken the right way. But then everybody seems to take a hostile stance against games. Just look at the Church vs Sony row, instead of politly asking Sony to apologise for using the Cathedral, and make a little conpensatory donation, it was 'disgrace' this, 'donate' that and 'ban' the other. Somehow, games, just another form of media, are treated worse than everything else.

I do think there are people out there who shouldn't be allowed to play these sorts of games, but its up to these peoples parents or friends to make sure they're fine, not the game company. Thats like blaming Knife manufacturers for the increasing number of knife crimes. Nowhere are they encouraging you to kill anyone in real life, and its very unfair to take them away from everyone who might want to use them because of a few loons hanging around.

And yet thats just whats happend with Manhunt 2. And i'll tell you right right now, I wanted to play that game. Not because i'm a sick freak who likes mutilating video game characters, neither because i'm a crazy person who trains on games before going out for my nightly killing spree. I wanted to play it because it was a stealth game, I enjoy stealth games and they are quite hard to get hold of on Ninty consoles. Thats what everyone seems to be forgetting here. The vast majority of gamers play a game depending on how fun it is, not how gorey it is. But in this case it is clear the gore adds to the fun, but thats not the sole reason we're buying it. We're buying it for enjoyment. Not so we can practise murder. But no, we in the UK aren't going to be able to play it, and I suspect quite a few other countries will be banning it to. Because of some Censors whove decided that because of the few crazy people who would take it the wrong way, nobody is fit to play it. Cheers guys. It saddens me how people who make decisions like that can get payed so very very much...

What an uneventful week. Since we finished our SATS 2 weeks ago, we've been in a sort of 'limbo' at school, where we've basically finished all the work we need to do, the teachers don't want us to move onto the next topic since it's only 2 weeks before the next holiday (which we're at now (yay)), but they don't want to let us mess around since we're still supposed to learning, so over the course of the week we've had some bizarre lessons (including English, where we were put in groups and had a few lessons to do an entire presentation on the 1980's (which basically boiled down to my group standing holding up a half finished poster while I tried to talk through it with some pretty dodgy notes) and science, where amongst other educational lessons we've made parachutes for eggs, paper gliders and towers out of straws. I guess you never know when that will come in handy)

Something else that seems to have slowed right down is unions. Like a plague, my presence seems to have destroyed activity anywhere I am present. The JGU is struggling along slowly but surely, my union is dead, The Killer7 union isn't exactly very active right now (though I have been slacking off around there) and Cons fanfic union would be doing so much better if other people actually tried writing a fanfic (my mind has been totally blank for ages, i'll have to write something tonight). The only place that is doing OK is The Splinter Cells in Training Union, which is doing great thanks to all the new SC5 info (a game i'll never be able to play )

Its not that i'm getting bored of posting, on the contrary, i'm enjoying it more than I have for ages, but maybe after a while posting in the same topics in a union it gets a bit dull, which is why i've started posting in the Killer7 boards, cause theres lots of new topics on a subject I can talk about.

My gaming life has also been pretty slow recently, mainly because of some ebay problems where the guy I bought a copy of Sonic Wii off turned out to be a crook and never posted the item (he's since been kicked off). After a few weeks of not recieving the game in the mail, I checked his account and found this out, since his feedback had divebombed under a wave of negative comments. Since then i've bought the game elsewhere (for a higher price than is available on ebay mind) and I have to say its pretty fun, although the controls seem a bit hit and miss to me. Oh, and i've lost my copy of MP:H on DS, bring my game count on the portable down to 1. Which may be why I haven't been playing it that much.

Well, its the half term holiday now, so I guarentee life will speed right up until the night before I go back. Oh well, got to enjoy the free time while I can. Off to Wii (so to speak). R3V out

Yes, I supose I should have replaced the blog saying I was away a while back, but well, I couldn't be bothered. And I figured if you still thought I was away, then you couldn't know me very well since i've been posting a fair bit since i've been back. As for what happened on the holiday, well, we visited a few castles and villages, went to a beach where the only way to get on and off was to cross near verticle sand dunes, went on a very chilly boat trip and stayed in a little cottage on a farm where the sheepdog kept wandering into the living room and going to sleep in front of fire, which i'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to do. Oh well, it was a good time.

As for other 'interesting' news, i'm learning to play the guitar. I've wanted one for a while now, but I didn't think i'd be able to afford one for a while. Lucky for me my mum and dad were nice enough to buy it for me (although I did have to pay for the amp we got with it). Its early days yet, practising chords etc, but i'll try and get a bit further with it this weekend. Playing an intrument properly is something i've always fancied, but I have a kind of bad record for sticking at things (tried samba drums at school, gave up, bought expensive harmonica, couldn't even play simple tunes, gave up, tried the family keyboard, couldn't get my left arm to play differant things to my right, gave up, you get the picture). And I can't read music. Other than that, i'm off to a flying start

Oh, and i've become the leader of a union again (not the one I origianally intended, but oh well). Since coolcon couldn't carry on leading my old union, somehow i've ended up back as leader again (despite leaving the whole union once and just joined again to add a few topics). So, guess i'll be trying to jump start the old thing again, and this obviously puts any other unions plans into limbo. However, if anyone wants any images for a heavy metal union, you know where to come...

Other than that, yay, its weekend and we get Monday off because its a bank holiday, and slightly less yay, we have SATS when we get back, though i'm pretty sure i'm going to do OK. I'm one of those people who does well in test conditions. So, until the next blog, R3V out.  

Just a quick blog to say tomorrow I will be heading off for a week on a holiday to Northumberland in North East England with a load of my family and for obvious reasons I won't be Posting, commenting, blogging, you get the picture. Hope to see you all when I get back

Yup, the last few blogs I was all enthusiastic about new unions, and I was posting in the union forums as best I could with reasonable results. Then I guess pretty much all my activity dried up and there wasn't any more blogs about anything. So then, where was I?

The primary reason I haven't been around is that this has been a pretty chaotic term at school. It is in this term that we pick our options for what we want to do in Year 10 and onwards. I had pretty much decided before they even gave me the booklets out (History and Drama alongside the core subjects for me), but they were intent on us not 'rushing into descisions', and so there have been numerous attempts to help by arranging meetings to discuss our futures, most of which ended up confusing me even more by adding even more choices, many of which i'd never even heard of (Equine Studies?), and generally just taking up time.

Also, as I am in the top set in art and am generally pretty good at it, they decided to enter me and a few other people into what was apparently a short GCSE course, meaning that we do half a GCSE in year 9, so that even if we don't carry on with art, we've still got something to show off. Unfortunatly I happened to miss quite a few art lessons and so I didn't learn this till quite a while after everyone else, meaning I had only a few days to complete the monsterous amount of work I had to do in order to be selected. I've done it now, and whether i'll get through or not I have no idea, the only comment I got about my finished piece was it was 'differant' o_0

And just to top it all off, i've been taking part in a competition where the school has to put together a team where we take on the roles of members of a court room and argue a case with other schools. It's harder than it sound here, but since last year our team ended up at the national finals everone was all eager to go again. This time we didn't even get past round 1  

Although in a way I am glad quite a lot of this is over now, since it means I get more time to come here. That means I can hopefully start messing around with unions again, and posting in more blogs. So there you have it, i'm not dead. I'm just busy

If you're wondering why I haven't been posting much these last few days, and why anything regarding a new union has been non existant, then thats because i've had a nasty bug the last few days that amongst other things has given me terrible headaches and frequent dizzyness. Everyone in my house ended up with it as well, but I think i'm starting to get better now, even if I still have a bit of a headache.

Anyway, apart from that I haven't done much. I've been trying out new icons now we can have them bigger (yes, I am that sad), messed around with Lunar Knights a bit, and thats pretty cool, and i've slowly been plowing my way through NFS Carbon. I really wish I could buy a new game soon, but I have no money at all. Personally I think Sonic & The Secret Rings looks pretty nifty, so next time I get some cash i'll see if I can get my hands on that.

---

And for those of you who care about my union plans, then obviously they've been delayed a bit, although I don't see any point in rushing things myself. I've had the banner and tags for a while, so its just the icon I need now (as well as some charter members, obviously, but I want to get all the images sorted first). Just a note, when i'm picking i'm obviously not going to send out random invites, i'll only send them to people who I know like heavy metal music and will have pmed in advance to make sure they're happy to charter. Obviously if you're interested tell me, otherwise wish me luck. R3V out. 

Progress is starting to move forward now. In preperation, I have resigned from an awful lot of unions. If I left your union, then its nothing personnal against you or the quality of your union, its more my fault for not being active at all there and not wanting to have to bother worrying about posting. I really want to make sure the union is a success, and if that means leaving every union I am a member of, then very well. I ain't kiddin' around

Infact I am now a member of only 4 unions, and i'll explain here why I chose to stay at each of them.

The Judging Gamers Union - The largest union I am an officer in, and one I would definantly intending to stay in as long as possible. The community is great, and it was the first union I ever joined. Ironically, when many unions have been deleted to save time, this one without a doubt is where I have been spending the most time by far.

Smith Syndicate: Killer7 Union - Union for my favourite game, and because of that somewhere i'd like to stay (and post more, i've been horribly neglecting my duties there)

Splinter Cells in Training Union - The most recent union I have become an officer in, and one I feel it would be unfair to leave during its early stage of life after I agreed to be an officer there.

There is also a designs union that made my new profile banner I am staying in for whenever I need to make requests.

As for actual developments, then I now have a union banner (it is indentical to my new profile banner except with the unions name on it, obviously), and am going to try sorting out icons and sigs soon. For those of you interested, my new union is called The Heavy Metal Gods Union. I know what you're thinking, there are 2 metal unions already. The differance is I intend to make sure this union focusses on only the biggest bands around, and will have more features and games rather than news in the updates and topics.

Stay tuned for more updates as soon as I get round to making them. R3V out.