This Week In School: So Easy My Brain Went To Sleep...

This Week In School was fine, but there were two MAJOR slip-ups though and one embarassing job interview. But I'll get into that:

Monday, was good Overall, nothing bad really happened at all (a rarety these days, as quality School days are hard to come by now). It marked the third Week in a row for the German Teacher's abscence: alot of people think she's either a) Dead or b) Really ill but seen as she's still giving us all Homework up the bloody wazoo I doubt that she is dead. Did I mention that she is giving us all alot of Homework? Let me put the emphisis on 'ALOT'. Anyway, in a shocking twist that surprised us all, the overseeing secretary gave us all more Homework to fill in but with the sole catch being that we had to hand it in by the end of the hour COMPLETE. WTF? This stuff is again miles ahead of what we did in Class, containing words which, I repeat: WAS NEVER MENTIONED OR LOOKED AT IN CLASS, THESE WORDS ARE COMPLETELY NEW TO US! So, with it being impossible to do the job without a Dictionary, I did what any common person would do and went to pick up a Dictionary. Of course, by the time I had got there the French had already scrambled and grabbed every last Dictionary AVAILABLE. SIGH. So with the task now made impossible, I did, again, what any common person would do and try to decipher the German text using only the basic manual that all our Books contain...to no avail what-so-ever. I literally just filled it in with absolutely no idea what I was even writing, and felt pretty crap when I handed it into the Secretary at the end of the Hour. Luckily for me though, the Results were so bad (even the people WITH the Dictionarys got it all wrong) that the Teacher (wherever she may be) ultimately decided not to evaluate it. PHEW! Science was up next, and we are now currently studying Molecules and all the different types of atomes (which hasn't yet gotten too complicated, in fact its easy-peasy). The Art Teacher was off as well, so the Maths teacher took the reins and we had the Maths lesson in Advance this time (YAY). The hour of Permanence that followed was me doing what I would have done in Art anyway, applying the finishing touches to the Storyboard of the Short-Film we're going to create. Geography that followed after Lunch was preeety awful, just us copying what was being written on the board for an Hour (who knew Russia was such a boring subject?). French was just the same, but with an ample dose of Homework. 

NOTE TO SCHOOLS OUT THERE: Giving us more Homework is just stupid because a) we're more likely to rush it and do a piss poor job and b) we will just start to hate your subject not to mention c) alot of it is just the same Exercise but repeated over AND over again, but also d) why do we even have Homework, we're already in School 8 Hours a day you might as just well extend it for another two hours and do the Homework there instead!             

So, Tuesday was again fine, Maths being just a bunch of Exercises being thrown at us (practise does make perfect though, shame that you mastered it by Exercise No 2 and the rest were just monotonous drivel, or filler Exercises as I like to call them), Geography was not bad this time, we got to go on the computers and do some hard research. French was more involving, we had to create a description of a photo we found on the Internet (I chose Reaver, a bad guy in Fable 3 voiced by Stephen Fry). English was another blast, I can't believe it when the Teacher actually says something authoritive. This Week he explained how he loves putting a zero on Tests (just joking, of course), recieves an email on his phone WHILE teaching in Class (he said it was from his Brother in Brisben, Australia. Apparently things aren't going well with the flooding over there...) and then asking if anyone would like to read it, and announcing a Test, then letting us waste 15 minutes on revising for it (so, Homework WHILE in School)! I just love how none of the French understands what he's saying because he explains things all in English! God he's both the best AND worst Teacher (from a professional standpoint) in the world right now. German = more impossible homework (at least this time I had a Dictionary, but I only managed to decipher a few words). And Extra Maths by the way was just as boring as its ever been, so no change there.

Wednesday was awful, just because of French. Sport was Part 2 on the High-Jump Test, and I did preform a bit better than last Week, however I've no doubt that my Score for this Trimestre will be CRAP. Technology was us building a 3D model of the Classroom and then deciding where to put all the automatic sensors we've been studying onto it. French was abysmal, mainly because of a SURPRISE INTORROGATION! Oh crap...And its funny because I have been revising a bit every night just in case their was a surprise Test, and then the moment it came I just forgot everything out of panic. Of course the Teacher had to have interviewed me, asking me questions about what I had learnt. I got a few of them right and just completely blacked out on the rest. I was ssure he was going to give me a 'word' (to the parents) saying that I hadn't learnt my lesson correctly but seen as it WAS the first time in over two Years that I had actually slipped up on something she gave me a warning...DAMN THAT WAS CLOSE!  

It really shocked me as well, because normally things like this never happen (I'm always the 'perfect' student, never forgets Homework ect...), but that ONE time that I slip up and the Teacher's just turn into a bunch of razor tooth sharks! God I hated Wednesday...

Thursday was ok, a few tense moments though: The Maths Test went okay/well I thought, although I have NO IDEA what my score will be, and I'm also a bit concerned seen as my Classmates all thought it was easy and I didn't. Oh well we'll just have to wait and see...Sport sucked, but then why wouldn't it? I've sucked at it for AGES. The Ping-Pong Test went just as bad as I had predicted, with the only notable thing worth mentioning (aside from the fact that I was God awful) is that I'm now only the 2nd worse in my Class, not the 1st...*SARCASTIC* YAY! S.V.T was by far the hardest lesson of the day: On Thursday, we started a chapter on reproduction. R-E-P-R-O-D-U-C-T-I-O-N. God. Help. Me. And I mean an all out extravaganza of nothing but mating, mating, AAAND mating! This was the most embarassing, squirmish inducing, laugh-out-loud lesson I've EVER had to endure....and we haven't even started on Humans yet! We were forced to watch a Documentary on reproduction for ONE hour, narrated by a dubbed David Attenborough (who looks pretty young, I think the video tape is about 15 Years old!) who did not shy away from ANY of the facts. We had to watch a group of Turtles, Elephants, Fish, Mice, Worms, Snails, Wolves, Cats, and Lions all get IT on. It was H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E! The funniest one BY FAR were the Turtles (who basically just rammed into each other making disturbing sounds), and it got really gross when the Wolf couldn't get his YOU-KNOW-WHAT out of the lady wolfs YEP-YOU-GUESSED-IT!!! The Elephant one was pretty horrendous as well, it tasted the female's urine before nearly braking its back (I thought it was crushing her) and exposing poop everywere. I didn't really know whether to laugh, cry or look horrified, it was just that awful. It also marked the day where pretty much any Child-like innocence left in me was battered out by that video. R.I.P. 

German, was exactly the same as Tuesday so no change there, Extra Maths was just as boring as ITS ALWAYS BEEN and it got pretty tense in Music when I was quite literally saved by the bell, seen as I was just about to be evaluated on my terrible flute rendition of 'Les Champs Elysees'. Also, that music Test I did last Week garnered a spectacular 19,5/20, on which I congradulate myself on.

Friday was a bit two-sided, at bits it was equal parts insane, embarrassing and awful but still fun...how that came about I have no idea, perhaps it was just that end-of-the-week syndrome for my Class: It opened up to Extra, Extra Maths which again was just a bunch of Maths Exercises rinse and repeated (we have 7 Hours of Maths every Week now, and its just starting to really tire me out). Then after that we had to present to the Class the diaporama we made on what job we wanted when we (eventually) grow up...and before you ask I have still no clue what-so-ever on what I want to do in the near future, although one of them is to (quote/unquote) 'live'. Anyway my Diaporama was about being a Teacher, something which I only chose just because it was the first thing I came up with. The presentation went well, albeit if a little embarrasing, but in the end it went ok I suppose. The jobs wanted by the rest of the Class included babysitters, pet shop owners, stylists and even a guy that wanted to be a cook in a major michelin star restaurant (not to cramp his style, but REALLY?). Then we had another boring hour of Geography (my Class was uncontrollable in this may I add) followed by another pain-inducing S.V.T. The afternoon started off with the Science Test, and while I think I did well in, but I didn't have enough time to answer two questions at the end that were on big points (lets just hope I was perfect on what I did put!). The Science lesson after that was pretty fun, we where creating models of different types of atomes (using coloured balls) and putting them together to create Molecules...so in other words it was just like playing Lego! English was the lesson that hurt me the most out of everything in this Week...so there was this big Test out of 40 points and all you had to do was change the verbs from the 'Present' to the 'Past' (so 'found' becomes 'find' and so on...), simple enough don't you think? NOPE. Because the moment I handed in my Test papers the English Teacher started to correct it on-the-spot just to see if I had made any mistakes (he was basically doing it comically in front on the Class). All of sudden he shreiked and I was like 'Oh crap, what have I put?'  In short: I made four very simple mistakes. FOUR. AND I'M ENGLISH. I DON'T MAKE MISTAKES IN ENGLISH. Easy stuff like: The Telephone ringed instead of rang. He catched the ball instead of caught. Basically stuff that I would NEVER make a mistake on and yet it seemed so easy to me that my brain must have literally went to sleep! So despite getting only 36/40 (my worst Result in English out of the past 4 Years!) he rubbed it in even more by exlaiming that a FRENCHIE had got 1,5 MORE than ME! It was at that moment that I just completely felt like complete and utter SH*T. BEING BEATEN AT ENGLISH BY A FRENCHIE OF ALL PEOPLE? NO!!! THATS IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!! *FAINTS* 

          

And so, my life ended there.

R.I.P: TIMS INNOCENCE 1996-2011

       

Les Epreuves Communes Result

Here they are, 10 hours of Revision that all boiled down to this, one page full of numbers: 

 French: 10,6/20
History/Civic Education: 14,5/20
English: 20/20
Maths: 14/20
Science:15,5/20
S.V.T: 14,5/20
Technology: 19,5/20
Overall Average: 15,5/20

Comments:
Very good all together!
Big progress in French!
Continue!

Red Dead Redemption + Undead Nightmare

Red Dead Redemption. Wow. THIS GAME IS A-W-E-S-O-M-E! Well, kinda. Its AWESOME for about 75% of the game but I'll get into that: a few problems aside, Red Dead Redemption is THE Western video-game of all time. I find it hard for any other game to match the feel and setting that this game puts forward. Rockstar has overdone itself into creating an entire world based around the Western genre. From the snowy mountains of Tall Trees to the gigantic, beautiful plains of Gaptooth Ridge, from the city of Blackwater to the desert, lone cowboy feel of Mexico, its world will just sweep you into one of the best open-world games ever made. Describing it does it no justice, you can't describe the feeling you get when you see the yellow sun peeking over the horizon when riding your horse through a field of orange sand, casting shadows over the great, sculptured mountains and sizzling the green grass, making moles and nightime creatures scurry back into your burrows. It feels like your in the Wild West, immersing you in all its glory. You just feel so...free when playing it. This first struck me when I was riding on a path near a field of Cactii that seemed to just go on forever but at the horizon a small shack was visible, smock billowing out into the nightime sky. I was curious so I rode into this vast field to check out the hut. I thought that perhaps I was going to hit an invisible wall at some point, but to my surprise I could actually ride up to this shack and talk to the person that lived there in a cutscene. What I love is that if I can see it, I can go there: same thing when you manage to get to the peak of Tall Trees (the highest spot in the game) and you can see all of Mexico, the great plains and it hits you on just how MASSIVE and VASTE this games World is. And the sun illuminating this vaste world in a sea of colour makes it just look so gorgeous. A lot of gamers argue about what game has the best graphics (everything from Crysis to Call Of Duty), but to me, this game is by far the most Visually spectactular of them all. But aside from the stunning Visuals, how good is the Story?    

The Story of RDR revolves around John Marston, a guy with a past that just won't seem to leave him. John spent his younger years in the company of a group of bandits: Bill Williamson, Dutch van der Linde, Javier Escuella, and Abigail Marston (later to become his wife). Together they robbed banks, stole from rich people and murdered many people. However, it all came to an end when John was wounded and left to die after a botched robbery attempt. After barely escaping with his life, he ran away with Abigail to start a new life and putting behind him any misdeeds of his bloodshed past. Several Years later he now has a ranch and a son (Jack) and everything seems to be going well...except when the goverment turns up, taking his Family away from him and ordering him to hunt down and kill his old gang members (if he doesn't they'll murder his family, so really a bunch of %^*%$£). After Years of putting it behind him, John Marston ultimately understands that he can never escape his past. 
Well the Single Campaign will take about about 30-40 Hours to complete (one of the longest campaigns in a game I've ever seen) and it sorta plays out like a Western movie that never ends. Which is great content wise as it will take you ages to complete it but it really is just TOO LONG. Sure, the dialogue is great, the Story is great, the Characters are great but 40 Hours? And half of it feels like you're getting NOWHERE, and some serious pacing issues towards the middle. So at times the game can really drag, but then this cool setpiece comes along (like wiping out an entire Fort with a gatling gun) that just totally invigorates the whole thing again. But apart from the pacing issues, the Story is really fantastic, John Marston is now heralded as one of the best Video Game Characters of all time (heck out of 40 Hours BEING him you kinda know him inside out by the end!) in the Video game community.    

As far as gameplay goes, its pretty flawless and really puts you into the shoes of a Cowboy gunslinger. The Weapons look and sound fantastic, but the Horse riding controls do take a few hours for you to master it ("No, I said this way you stupid Horse, NOT THAT WAY!"). Being able to cut-up animals for money (so you can buy weapons and such in a shop) is a cool if morally disturbing practise and the games random encounters while you're riding about do make it all seem THAT much more believable as a World. So in summary, the game is perfect (apart from a few minor glitches, and some pacing issues): Story is top notch, Gameplay is stunning and the Visuals (in my opinion) groundbreaking not to mention the sheer amount of value that this game provides. The best thing this game has going for it though is the World of the dying Wild West, such beauty and sheer realism has never been matched: from the tons of different animals/wildlife, to the plants that grow from the ground or even the awesome sky above you, it immerses you into that Western feel. For those of you that don't see Video Games as Art first of all: SHAME ON YOU! And second: LOOK AT IT! A lot of people see games as just a distraction to kids that don't want to do their Homework, or some silly shooting game that adores violence and makes kids insensitive to all kinds of things. Well, although some games are that (Dead Rising 2, Black Ops I'm looking at you), they can also be intellectual, imagnitive and immersing all at the same time (See this and Mass Effect 2) just like Movies and T.V. Sure gaming hasn't yet reached its true potential, we're a long way off from that but just the fact alone that you can control the characters actions and mouvements makes it much, much more attachable to any other form of entertainment (which is just you staring at a screen for two hours and a half). I think these games should be seen as a benchmark for the future of gaming, the few examples of Class A entertainment.    

After the success of RDR, Rockstar put out a DLC add-on pack called Undead Nightmare for Xbox-Live. And, thankfully for me, they also released it into stores a while later for us gamers with NO Xbox-Live. Despite only costing $10 on Live, I bought it for £30 in Leclerc and I am more than happy with my purchase. Despite being an add-on pack, this is like another game altogether, packing in another Story, more weapons and yes, you guessed it: Zombies. The 'Undead' of the title. As all gamers know, Zombies and Jetpacks are the things that you add to a game to make it even more A-W-E-S-O-M-E (gosh I use that word alot)! And not just Zombies, but Zombie animals, like the Horses of the apocalypse: War, Famine, Death and  Pestilence (pictured below), Unicorns, Bigfoots and even a few Chupacabra's! So plenty of supernatural then! More of an ode to old horror movies, the game blends horror with the Western genre perfectly, and is no doubt a great addition to the RDR lore. Also, Zombies in this game are fast as hell, quite smart and can only be killed by a gunshot to the head, which makes things quite tense at times, as an army of accumulated Zombies WILL catch you and rip you limb from limb. To make matters worse, there are three types of Zombies: the Regular, fast moving ones, the big, fat Brawlers that charge and knock you over like a pack of cards, the Crawlers, a super-fast moving Zombie that runs on all fours and the Retchers, that spit green bile at you and explode when shot in the head.        

After his son and Wife gets bitten (and turned) into Zombies, John Marston locks them inside their house and is tasked with finding a cure to the undead illness. Unfortunately for him, the Undead now roam the world in their hordes and superstitions about what caused the Undead Plague are numerous: Basically thats the entire plot for RDR: UN and it will take you a good 10-15 hours to complete the Story mode. But pack in all the side-quests and just pure fun Zombie killing this game becomes far longer. Its fun to see characters show up from RDR that you know well from the main campaign and either get eaten by Zombies or just turn bat-shit insane (Seth especially). More fun than heartbraking this time, although there are a few sad moments packed in (i.e Bigfoot mission). Again Rockstar really overdid themselves with the look of the World, which is essentially the same but a lot more spookier looking.  

The gameplay is the same but with a few new mechanics thrown in. The fact that ammo is now scarce (and you'll need it to take down those Zombies) and the new weapons that can eradicate the adversary is really cool and fun to use. The Undead animals are also a cool addition (Death is my favorite horse, although Undead wolves are a pain in the ass) and really freshens things up alot. Its a massive amount of new material/content and is just as good, if not equal to the original game in my opinion. 

All in all these are some truly great, great games that deserve to be in everyones collection. Some truly AWESOME moments (there's that word again!), riding into Mexico on RDR with that song was awe-inspiring and made me really well-up with emotion for some reason (the second time I almost cried last year, the first being the end of Toy Story 3. And the I say nearly very lightly). I found this video on YouTube which basically sums up the whole experience  in one go and I strongly advise that you watch it (you might want to turn the pixel count for the video up to HD first though):   
                       
                                
                           

This Week In School: The Calm AFTER The Storm

After the big 'Test' Week, things all got back to normal this Week. Maths was difficult again, French was boring, and I sucked even harder in Sport (heck, at this point I suck even at 'sucking').

Monday, was by all accounts enjoyable. Why you ask? Well, mainly it was because there was no Tests to revise for, little Homework to do and an absence of all that stress that had been piling on top of me for the past few Weeks. The German Teacher WAS STILL absent, which of course cued another draining hour of Perm. I had my Test Result handed to me in Technology (cue the trumpets): A WHOPPING 19,75/20 (and highest in the Class, may I add)! I could scarcely believe it! I was expecting around a 14-16/20 mark but Jesus Christ was my expectations toppled! Really thrilled about that. What lost me the 0,25 you ask? I forgot to trace a line on one of the diagrammes. (basically I had drawn two points but had forgot to connect them together, OUT OF ALL THE THINGS!) Art was next, and our project from last Week was sidelined (for the time being): the new 'project' was to create a short film out of three synopsis given. The first step was to create a Storyboard of the film: the basic premise our group had chosen was the Head coming into the Classroom with a new kid (which I was later cast into that role) and being shown around the Classroom by a volonteer. Bit of a boring Storyline, it would just be a kid giving the new guy a tour of the Classroom for 5min, so I spiced it up a bit and made the new kid English, who didn't understand a word the French kid was saying and making fun of their silly names (an in-joke on my part, of course). Maths was just horrendous. The Teacher was in a bad mood and gave us a real beating (not an actual beating of course, before you start to get worked up). The learning curve went up harshly as well, miles ahead of what we were currently doing (I smell a bad Test Result over the horizon). No wonder the Teacher was in a bad mood, she had spent 8 Hours over the Weekend correcting our Tests. (really, 8 Hours?) I was quite thrilled with my Result: a 14/20. So way, way higher than anything in the first Trimestre, and another good Result in the can. The average will definitely be up this Trimestre, me thinks. 
After a nice Lunch (Mum's cooking strangely improves after a good Test Result) I walked back into School quite proud of myself. We were just finishing the chapter in Civic Education, by learning what Amnesty International is. French was sadly more planet boredom. 

Tuesday was fine, Maths becoming a mountain of numbers and calculations. (Really does your head in after a while, if I so much as see another long string of numbers I think I'll scream!) In Geography we started a new chapter on Russia (HAIL STALIN!) and I was given my Test Result for Ed-Civ and History: Overall a 29/40 (the highest Result in my Year is 30,5/40 I'm told). I am a bit dissapointed with this to be honest, mainly because I only scored a measly 14,5/20 in History (I had rushed the end a bit, not detailing a few facts enough)! But I did score high in Civic Education: 10/12 so a bit mixed overall. Nonetheless I am happy with it though. My Class was quite difficult to control in French and she of course gave us more Homework for it (bit ticked off, as I had done nothing). The Class has become a bit uncontrollable lately, for some reason...
The afternoon went well, English is still a hoot, the Teacher making  fun of both the French and the English at the same time (he found the lack of soaps in France shocking, while accusing the English of having bad music taste). I also scored 20/20 in the Test, so not too shabby! The bit that really annoyed me was the pile of work we were given in Permanence: Five pages of German exercises to do while the Teacher was still away (and they are to be marked as well)! FIVE PAGES? WTF?! COULDN'T YOU HAVE GIVEN US THIS LIKE TWO WEEKS AGO? WHY NOW! FIVE PAGES?!! THATS BULLSH*T! And its not even easy, half of the stuff is un-understandable, its gonna take four hours with a dictionary to decipher this crap! I mean sure we've been profiting from your absence with the countless hours of extra Permanence, but giving us all this at once is barbaric! YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST GIVEN THIS TO US YESTERDAY, WHEN WE HAD NOTHING TO DO WHAT-SO-EVER! Extra Maths was just as mind numbingly boring and ardous as regular Maths, so looks like my grasp over Maths has gotten ahead of me...again. 

Wednesday was just boring Rubbish. For starters, thirteen out of our Class were absent, I only got up to Level 3 on High-Jump (it was the Test after all, so my score in Sport is WAY down), French was boring and Permanence went past WAY too quickly. (And to think I now can't have enough Permanence with all this god-damn Homework!)                  


Thursday was tiring, for starters Maths and the first Hour of Sport was cancelled because we were supposed to be visited by the Army (who were job hunting). Instead we got someone from the National Departement Of Food come in and tell us how great it was to work in the Food Industry! She showed us videos of people packing up boxes of mini-cakes and saying (unenthusiastically) how great their job is. You know, applying slow motion camera tricks and hip, current pop music to your video does NOT make packing tuna seem like a cool OR interesting job! We're not idiots you know, plus were is the army? Were we just force-fed another lie (actually it turns out there was a bit of a mix up, the Year up from us got the Army)? B-O-R-I-N-G, I like food, but I definitely don't want to be packing that disgusting fish for the rest of my life! Sport was a catastrophy, seen as it was the Test on Ping-Pong (because of the Food Industry coming, the Test will now be next Week as well as this Week). Basically, for it to be as a certified win you had to beat the opponent at least twice in a row. OK, I GOT SQUASHED BY A GIRL BARELY HALF MY SIZE, I ADMIT IT! AND I MEAN FLATTENED, 12-21? I SUCK SO BADLY THAT I MIGHT AS WELL NOT BOTHER TO PICK UP THE RACKET! AND SHE BEAT ME TWICE, THE SECOND TIME WITH 13-21!!! You know, Ping-Pong has really made me re-evaluate my life...taking a bullet has never seemed so easy.  
Also, the Music Test went incredibly well, but we'll see just HOW well I have performed next Week.

Friday started off with an awful Extra Extra Maths (we get six Hours of Maths every Week), which was just headache inducing. I did get my French Result back, and it was the best I could have hoped for: 10.6/20 (the Class average was 10.5/20 by the way). I was relieved to get such a...a...crap but not wonderfully crap score! The biggest fall was the Dictaction (a gut-wrenching 0,25/4). I mean, how am I supposed to spell words that sound NOTHING like they are pronounced? Impossible. Just Impossible. Geography was alright but Maths was barely passable (I had accumulated a serious head-ache by this point).
Permenance should have been the time where I progressed on my bucketload of German Homework but the Maths Teacher had given us a massive pile of Exercises to do ON TOP OF THAT! Brain = mush. We were evaluated on them as well, so I predict a 0/10. Science was full of win, however, I garnered a good 23,5/30 in the Test (15,5/20) and we started to study molecules and what-not. Engish was again a hoot from start to finish, and I finally finished my Trip to London diaporama. So all good there then.


This Week was fine in retrospect, Maths, Sport and the colossal amount of Homework are a thorn in my side though. Hopefully next Week will be better. I'll do another Blog Post soon showcasing all my Test Results from Les Epreuves Communes. 
     

Dead Rising 2

Feel an un-dying need to slaughter thousands of the undead? Then look no further, cos' this is the game for you! Some games are dramatic, packing an emotional and deeply affecting story. Others are a high octane thrill ride that are a drug to play (COD: Black Ops). And then there are some that are just quite simply a fun ride (or, if you happen to be Mass Effect 2, you are all of these). Dead Rising 2 is this category of gaming. It may not tug at your heartstrings or send you through a wild ride but it does make you gleefully grab the controller and play more. This a game where you essentially just kill hundreds of Zombies with hundreds of different weapons. How do you like your Zombie? Cooked? Frozen? Minced? Gutted? Or how about just wearing a crazy dinosaur mask (and then blowing it to bits with a shotgun afterwards)? This game lets you decide. 

   
The story of Dead Rising 2 is about 30-year-old Chuck Greene. His daughter, Katie was bitten by a Zombie and in order to stop her from turning into one he must find or buy the drug Zombrex each day and give it to her every 24 Hours. Zombrex is expensive, so he must participate in a Reality TV show (aptly named 'Terror is Reality') and kill Zombies to earn money. Things take a turn for the worse, as someone breaks the Zombies out from their prison underneath the arena, and they spread out into Fortune City, causing yet another Zombie outbreak. Worser still, that 'someone' who had broke the Zombies out from their cells has framed Chuck for the whole thing. And with the military arriving in 72 Hours, Chuck must uncover the truth about the outbreak (while not only saving and rescuing survivors and returning them to safety) but must also keep supplying Katey with Zombrex. And when you add a time limit into the mix, things are NOT going to be easy...

 
Dead Rising 2's plot is about average, no changes-the-way-we-look-at-games praise this time. But the Story serves its purpose, and does pull a few neat twists and turns towards the end. Chuck Greene is a much more developped character than Frank West (the main hero of Dead Rising 1), who was basically a one line sprouter ('I've covered wars, you know!')  the fact that his daughter needs Zombrex every 24 Hours really ramps up the tension (I found my last Zombrex with barely ten minutes til' she turned into a Zombie! That was close!) and it does get TENSE towards the end. The time-limit is both an annoyance and a praise, and it does provide some tense last-second moments but being on time is just a pain in the butt. More killing Zombies, less time limit! Speaking of Zombies, (who's grisly/gory details are much more lovingly rendered this time around) this game has alot of them. Fat, skinny, limp, armless, bald and cool, the Romaro-type Zombies just wander round in their thousands, waiting to feast on more Human flesh. Killing them could NOT be any funner, and doesn't get old, mainly because you can kill them with just about anything that isn't bolted down. From cash registers, to lawnmowers (shredding Zombie perfection) to chainsaws, or shotguns and even a poker table, this game has the most awesome variety of weapons I've ever seen in a game. With more than 750+ weapons and an army of the walking undead you've got your work cut out for you in the next 76 hours. The new ability in Dead Rising 2 is that you can COMBINE Weapons to make an ever better one: what do you get when you combine fireworks with a lead pipe? A Rocket launcher of course (yeah, they push the realism a bit)! How about a machine gun with a Robot Teddy Bear? KILLER BEAR, thats what (I call mine Ted. Great name for a Bear). And if the Zombies are a bit boring for you after endless hours of slaughtering, then you can try your luck with a nearby physcopath! 

This guy took me ages to kill...

Physcopaths are people that have responded badly to the whole Zombie Outbreak thing. In other words, they're completely BAT-SH*T INSANE! And very hard to kill on a low level, which is what you'll be on for most of your first Playthrough, so that SUCKS. Dead Rising games start you off weak but you slowly get more powerful as you level-up. So things that you find hard to kill on Level 1 will appear easy when you're up to Level 50 (which will require at least four playthroughs of endless survivor saving to get). Physcopaths are still tough competition even when your health has increased, and the lack of automatic save spots can make for faustrating gameplay. Half the time you just want to see the cutscene, which depicts a gloryful physcotic coupled with a cool death scene: two deranged magicians who actually SAW a lady in-half and accuse me of being a critic are great examples. Both funny and horrifying at the same time. The survivor rescue missions can be a chore, just so you can level up quicker, and some of them are assholes (pay you £20,000 so I can SAVE your Ass? NO! I'LL LET THE ZOMBIES EAT YOU INSTEAD! *OPENS DOOR AND ZOMBIES RUSH IN*). 

Zombie No 6500 and still not breaking a sweat!

Overall this simply is a fun game. Sure there are a few slip-ups here-and-there but still greatly improved over Dead Rising 1. You will pick up this game, play it for a few Hours, get bored with it and switch it off.....Only to come back the following day and play the heck out of it! And the same will be said for the following Week. Its not really suited to gaming marathons but as far as relaxing Zombie killing goes, there is NOTHING better. It's a break game really, something to just relax your brain after a long (and ardous) day of School and just have fun. Its no Mass Effect 2, but I don't want it to be. I just want to have a good time playing it. Now, back to more Zombie slaying...OH HE TOTALLY HAD THAT ONE COMING! OUCH! NOW THAT WAS JUST TOO MUCH! POOR ZOMBIE...HA! DIE YOU EVIL FLESH MUNCHERS FROM HELL!!!!

           

This Week In School: Tests, Tests And More Tests!

Well, it's the end of 'Test' Week, and what a Week its been. 13 Hours of Revision (in three days), some shock surprises, an aching hand and 10 Hours of Tests later and you have this Week. Its been tough, I can tell you:

Monday wasn't a bad Day all things considered, although the German Teacher was STILL absent, so we had to endure yet ANOTHER hour of Permanence. Science was okay, a bit boring but the Teacher was kind to us and shortened our workload for the Epreuves Communes (which already was the size of a mountain). Art was fun, he showed us a movie clip of two men talking to each other on a Telephone (with the sound off) and then told us to imagine what they were saying. Next Week we're going to implement our Dialogues into the clip using some Computer mastery. Some of our imaginary conversations got really inventive (I just on-the-spot created the idea that the man was phoning the police because he had found an alligator in his back yard! Talk about random! Anything goes, I suppose), from flu-vaccines to alien invasions to murders to even world domination! Maths went really well, I got everything right and for the first time I actually enjoyed it! Who would have thunk' it? Which was a surprise, because last Week was just so, so horrible! I suppose even Maths has its days... 
The Afternoon kicked off to a boring edition of Civic Education, followed by a face-palming French and a fun edition from everyone-loves English (I think the English Teacher is just renowned for his greatness in this College now, which is a shame because M. Onno was good too). 

Tuesday was the-calm-before-the-storm day, everyone felt the oncoming blizzard of Testing. A lot of Class-top boffins came into School with bags underneath their eyes, no doubt due to late night Revising (I was still holding revision back at this moment in time, apart from a few hours I had spent on Sunday). Maths was back-to-boring (I still got everything right though), Education Civic was STILL endless drivel (it basically amounted to us writing pages and pages on freedom of rights, liberty, constitutional documents and all that boring stuff) and French was copable this time, we wrote a description about one of our Classmates (face, personality, clothes...) and then had to look up a ton of adjectives in the dictionary (definitions of stuff like 'Pacifistic', basically words which you wouldn't use in real life so a bit pointless) and draw their face. It felt more like Art to be honest. As long as the subject doesn't go back into Grammer territory I should be fine. 
English was again fun on Tuesday (just applying the finishing touches to my 'trip to London' diaporama), German was once again non-existent (I think it has been replaced by Permanence now on our planning boards) and Extra Maths was a big bore until Mme Philippe (our Head) walked into our Class with some SHOCKING news: *TAKES A DEEP BREATH* Well it turns out that all is not well in the College after all, as Mme Philippe has C-A-N-C-E-R. Yes, thats right...our Headmistress has C-A-N-C-E-R! Ouch. Never saw that coming, no wonder she's been a bit on the angry side these past few Weeks. She left our School on Tuesday night, so she could start the 'Treatment' procedure AND she has handed the keys to the School over to Mme Rouxel, my previous English Teacher (the one before M. Onno). I couldn't believe it, and the worst thing was that the French just went back to talking normally as if IT NEVER HAPPENED. Hello? Our Headmistress has just walked in saying she has a serious case of cancer and she's leaving the School due to her treatment, and she's being replaced by a Teacher?! DOESN'T THIS SHOCK YOU IN ANY WAY? YOU'RE JUST GOING TO FORGET ABOUT IT? And to make matters worse, the next Day was the start of Les Epreuves Communes, THE BIGGEST TESTING EVENT EVER APART FROM THE BREVET! AND I HADN'T REVISED FOR ANY OF IT YET! THIS IS ALMOST TOO MUCH TO TAKE IN! Tuesday night was just a blur, I think I snapped at around 7pm and just didn't stop revising til' 12:30! I actually went to sleep with the History book still clutched in my hands (I also remember dreaming about meeting Louis XIV, which was weird...he spoke in a cockney accent)! Talk about pressure, I just has to sort of 'Zone' out and 'Become One' with the lessons. Find my inner Revision 'Zen'. Probably experienced an epiphany as well. And so started my inner collapse into madness...or not.

DAY ONE:                 
      
Wednesday. The 12th. Four Subjects. Four Hours. Four Tests. My legs almost failed me walking into School. It didn't help that the day had gotten off to a bad start when I woke up with literally fithteen minutes to get to School, CRAP! Breakfast was gorged in seconds. I didn't have time to do a quick memory check (you never know, I could have forgotten everything I had learnt), and I just walked into School half-awake, half a complete and total mess. Which, wasn't really necessary, looking back at it. The first Test was History. Remember how I said that the Teacher would choose one subject (out of History and Geography) and that I would only be Tested on one of them so one would turn out to be a complete waste of Revision time? Well it turns out that she GAVE us the OPTION of which subjects I wanted to be tested on! So I only really had to Revise for one subject anyway! Of course I chose History (I would be a fool not to) and would-ya-believe-it? I DIDN'T NEED TO POSSESS ANY KNOWLEDGE PRIOR TO THIS TEST! Seriously, I had EVERYTHING I needed in the Documents that they provided. They didn't ask me ONCE whether I knew a definition/information about the subject. So I wasted SIX HOURS last night revising my ass off for NOTHING?! WTF?! I WAS TRICKED! LIED TO! THEY'VE BEEN TELLING US TO REVISE FOR EVERYTHING WE'VE DONE SO FAR AND THEY JUST ASK US DOCUMENT RELATED QUESTIONS? OHHH I COULD JUST %$£&@!!! AND CIVIC EDUCATION WAS THE SAME! THESE TESTS MADE ME NEARLY SHOOT MYSELF OVER ALL THE STRESS AND THE PRESSURE AND YOU JUST IGNORE ALL THAT? WHAT ABOUT THE MONTH ON THE RENAISSANCE? THE BIT ON VERSAILLES? ALL THOSE STUPID LAWS AND REGULATIONS YOU MADE ME REVISE FOR? SO I REVISED FOR NOTHING!!!! At least it made for easy Testing...Of course I have no idea what the score will be, but I think I did good. S.V.T went well, as you can see below: 
   

Admittedly I didn't revise much for S.V.T compared to the other subjects but, yeah I'm happy with the Result Overall. 

This was the bit that confused me a little, you had to (with the aide of these Documents below) show how the Alpes were formed. Didn't really understand what was going on:

Its the Diagramme that throws me off, especially the 2nd one that is supposed to have taken place in the Year -100 Ma. I did seem to do something right though!

I was also given the Result of my Last surprise Maths Test (that we had on Tuesday) and it went surprisingly well:

 

 DAY TWO:

After the Underwelming Wednesday, I walked into School on Thursday feeling much more confident. Sure, I was going to fail in French, but English was a sure-fire 20/20 and I had revised all last night for Science. The two Hours of French went O.K, all things considered. They had a few Grammitical exercises that I must have slipped up on, but the rest was us studying an extract from some long-ago French fable. In a perfect world, I imagine getting 10/20 at the MOST, so anything more than that will be a neat surprise. STILL no questions on what we had learnt though, ANOTHER lie the Teachers had forced down our mouths! English was my 'break' Test, insanely easy, even for the French because It was EXACTLY the same Test that we did a few months back with M. Onno! To be honest, I kinda like this mass testing thing now, at least this way don't have to suffer through another two hours of Ping-Pong! 

Science caught me off guard. This was the first to one to actually really Test us on our know-how. I got most of them right, but I think I messed up on a few of the more problematic questions posed: So you shine a coloured light onto an Orange. The orange appears Red. Out of the light filters presented here, which ones do you need to make the Orange appear Red? Yellow, Blue, Magenta, Cyan, White...and justify your choices. That one really got me. So even though Science was a bit mixed I still think that I did well. The last two hours was me practising for my Maths and attempting to play the flute in Music (playing the flute has become ANOTHER one of my personal hates). I relaxed my Revision on Thursday night, only spending an hour on Maths and two Hours on Technology.

THE FINAL DAY:

 This was the last day of Les Epreuves Communes. It wasn't at all the most stressful period of my life, far from it in fact (last Week was the most stressful period of my life) I have kinda enjoyed this Week! I mean sure I had to do alot of (pointless) Revision but the days just flew by AND we got extra playtime (over an hour more)! Plus I didn't get to do Sport, which was a big plus (next Week I've got the Test in High Jump and Ping-Pong, which is both a blessing and a curse namely because a) It will be the last I see of Ping-Pong but b) What might follow could be WORSE than Ping-Pong! I'm hoping its not Acro-gym). So the day started off with the dreaded Maths Test. Now seen as we corrected the Test only two hours later I can now say that, aside from one BIG question I got most of it right and should be expecting a 10-16/20 score (which is more than what I hoped for!). It wasn't hard, and I expect most of my Class did the same. Technology went well, it just depends on how well I did. A few rough spots here and there but I think that I could have scored highly, we'll have to wait til' next Week to get those Results though. The subjects then returned to normal after a three day halt: what followed (Maths, Civic Ed, Perm, Science and English) was just a bit trivial to be honest. And a bit boring compared to the rest of the Week. 

Well, this is the end of 'Test' Week and thankfully the School has been generous enough to NOT give us any Homework for Monday (YIPPEE!!). I've still got a German Test (if the German Teacher bothers to even show up at the School now), Music and Science Test planned for the upcoming Weeks, so alot of Revision is still cut out for me...*SIGH* They can't just leave me alone for one Week, can they? Another thing that I have rarely referenced on this Blog Post is that MME PHILIPPE IS LEAVING! I suppose compared to Les Epreuves Communes, it all seemed a bit pushed back. And she did announce it before the Bell went, so I had little time to think about it before I was thrust back into another lesson. Now, out of my Overall performance I truly do believe that, I did the BEST I could on the day. Which is what I was aiming for anyway. Now lets just hope that my best was enough because if my Results or crap then 'The Best That I Can Possibly do' means a pile a 11/20's. And that would just CRUSH me. Its weird, I kinda wish more School Weeks were like this: Bizarre, Exhilarating, Fast and not too strenuous! Bring on Les Epreuves Communes No 2!!      

  

This Week In School: The Calm Before The Storm

Wow. New Year, new start right? A chance to clean the slate, undo all of your mistakes in the past and rectify your undoings. WRONG. My School has decided to Test the living Sh*t out of us! Next Wednesday - Friday will be NOTHING but non-top testing on all the top subjects: Maths (shudders), French (dies), History or Geography, Civic Education, S.V.T, Technology and Science. This three day period will determine almost 50% of my Overall average for this Trimestre! They expect us to revise for everything! I.M.P.O.S.S.I.B.L.E! I have to basically NOW zone out and do NON STOP REVISING for a whole Week! Which is not only mentally exhausting but is just unecessary! I mean, why do we have to do it all at once? Why not split the humongus Tests (a aclumation of half a years knowledge) over several Weeks? Why all at once? And why do we need to do it in the first place? Haven't we already proved in the last Trimestre that we know our stuff? Its just a breeding ground for stressed-out kids! This Week was just full of dread. The calm before the storm, ya know? By Friday I was about to explode I was so stressed out, mainly due to the fact that I keep pushing back Revision, the Days have become just sooo tiresome, the first thing I do when I come back home now is just sleep for two Hours straight. Now, this may seem a bit cliche, but School IS killing me now:

Monday was the best Day of the Week, although I was suffering from a severe case of after-Christmas syndrome which made going back to School after the Holidays feel weird....
It was like life was happy and free and relaxing and beautiful during that blissful Christmas time period, and then you get chucked back into School half-awake and not knowing what the hell had happened to you in those past two Weeks. I was mainly yawning throughout the entire day, dreaming about what I would do when I finally got backhome. The German Teacher was off for some reason (a trend that continued for the rest of the Week), so we were treated to an Hour of permanence with no Homework to do what-so-ever. Technology was again us researching about this mouvement sensor-thingy, and Art was me applying the finishing touches to my latest masterpiece on the Computer. Maths was the lesson that really waked me up, hitting 100mph from the word 'go'. The only way to describe it is both simple and complicated at the same time, I was fine as long as I didn't wrap my head around it too much. 
After lunch was when I fully realised just exactly what next Week had in store when the History/Geography/French/Principal Teacher announced our schedule for 'Les Epreuves Communes' (Or, as I like to call it, the Brevet but a little bit less important but just as stressful...): 

Wednesday, 12th January:  

History/Geography: 8h30 - 9h30 (We have to learn both subjects, but she'll only choose one of them to Test us on so its like double the workload for nothing, because we won't be Tested on it anyway)

Civic Education: 9h30 - 10h30 (A new subject that we've just started, mainly about the History of Freedom and Liberty ect...).

S.V.T: 11h - 12h.

Nothing but revision in the afternoon, time I normally spend sleeping...

Thursday, 13th January:     


French: 8h30 - 10h30 (Bloody hell, TWO hours dedicated to French alone? Are they going to be Testing us on the entire Language or something? I'm starting to worry about how sore my hands will get...).


English: 11h - 12h (One I'm least worried about, for obvious reasons).


Science: 1h40 - 2h40 (Not really that bothered about this one, but its still ALOT to learn and remember, especially when you count in all the other subjects as well!) 


Lessons as normal from 2h40 to 4h40.

Friday, 14th January:


Maths: 8h30 - 9h30 (I imagine I'll be pretty battered down and tired at this point, having concentrated so much on School for the past few days).


Technology: 10h30 - 11h30


PAUSE 


11h45 - 4h40 lessons as normal.


Well....looks like I've got my work cut out for me then :p


Please, please God, have mercy on my soul...


French was, in short, a complete disaster. Its got to the point where I can't even keep with the French anymore, and I was seriously starting to worry about getting a HORRIFIC Result. I am DREADING next Thursday. Better get my coffin ready...I'm just lucky if I get an answer right now. At least Maths is a possible victory, I'm almost grasping it now, but I gotta say, French has no hope. 

Tuesday was when I started to really panic, I can remember waking up from a bad nightmare that night (I dreamed that I had only scored 10/20 in a History Test), and I was a bit figety all day long. Maths I had a few problems with, and I figure that if the big Test is 2X as hard as this, I'm stuffed. To make matters worse, the Teacher gave us a surprise Test, which is really faustrating for me, seen as I'm constantly preparing for a surprise Test and the ONE day when you skip it due to alot of Homework, THATS WHEN SHE GIVES YOU THE SURPRISE TEST! I knew what to do, its just that I didn't have the definition in my head. I got a 3/5. Civic Education was boring, just endless documents about how Liberty and Freedom of Speech was acheived in France, which involved alot of laws and commitees signing petitions for 200 Years. The two hours of French that followed felt like hell, I just cried when I came back home, I am just helpless now in that subject. If you showed me a future where I had a full grasp on the French Grammar, I wouldn't believe it. 
English was hands down, the most fun I've had in School for a LOOONG time. The new Teacher, who is from New Zealand (he's travelled around the world a million times over, and is a bit of a freelance guy) just knocks you out of the park. He talks in an English accent, yet he's speaking and pronouncing the French words correctly and it sounded weird. He (I don't know his name yet) explained how he proposed to his wife on the beaches of America (he's thirty-ish), which was totally off subject but made you really feel in him and therefore invest more into him as a person (I believe that the more involved with the Teacher you are, the more work and care you invest into his subject), and not just some gruff, strict Teacher that gets the job done but ultimately you know little to nothing about and forget (in the long term) his/her teachings. Notice how when you look at the past you normally focus on the good things, and not the other stuff? Its kinda like that for me with a Teacher. He has also got alot of wit about him, saying that the cassete tapes that his predessor, M. Onno had gave him, were 'For Dinosaurs'. He said that from now on we would be mostly working on Computers, which came no surprise as he carries a Apple backback to School absolutely full of Tech gadgets. Nice guy, and funny too. Think I've just found a new favorite Teacher. 

Wednesday was fine, in Sport it took me a while to get back into the rythm (I can still only last to Level 4 on the high jump, I'm just too long and heavy) and in Technology our group had to present our findings to the Class. It was alright, until French. Here it had gotten cataclysmic, to the point where if I even see another page of French grammar, I automatically feel repulsed by it. The good news is that the Teacher bothered to help me, the bad news is that she gave me 5+ pages to learn (which is just nothing but conjugated words, so really, really boring. At least in History I know that events shaped the culture and society of the World, this I feel is just pointless). I still don't know whether I should give French a go, because right now I'm thinking that the time spent on revising for those 5 pages (plus a book full of Grammar) could go to refining and polishing the revision on my other subjects. Its best to focus on your strenghs, right? And even if I do manage to learn it all off by heart, its just so god damn confusing: is Le Passe Simple the one where most of the verbs end in -ais-ais-ait-ions-iez-aient? Or is that the Conditionnel du Present? DAMN IT, WHY COULDN'T THIS BE MORE SIMPLE! I honestly don't know how the French are able to understand this mess of a language...
I also managed to put the finishing touches on my Geography project in Permanence (the one where I had to create a brochure of Europe, remember), and I printed it out (I had to give it to Teacher anyway so I scanned it into my Computer when I came home):

 

Looks good, eh? I'm mostly pleased with it, although one of the things that It will be evaluated on is the level of detail, which I think is the only thing that this is lacking (spelt a few things wrong as well, but luckily the Geography Teacher won't show this to the English Teacher...). 

Thursday, was fine...mostly. I felt really ill during Maths, I thought I was going to collapse. Talk about stress getting to your head! Sport was, again the insufferable Ping-Pong. Why god, WHY? I won once. ONCE! And I got my last Test Result in S.V.T (the one where I muddled up the two types of lava, remember?): 15/20 which was ALOT more than what I was expecting. The afternoon was *SIGH* boring: The German Teacher was still off, Extra Maths was just a bunch of more exercises and Music was just another *YAWN* fest (We've seen the Notre Dame clip a 1000 times over, quit playing it!). At least the Teacher was kind enough to not give us a Test for next Week...

Friday was again fine, although the pressure was starting to show. I muddled up in a few exercises in more Extra Maths, and yawned my way through Ed Civ. But S.V.T was surprisingly interesting for once, we were studying how all the continents separated millenia ago. The afternoon went by in a second, the only real buggering thing is that when I was putting my Books back into my bag after Science a gust of wind came and sent my papers flying EVERYWHERE! Score No 1 for mother nature, who is a complete %$£&@! English was again, a blast, and has pretty much been the highlight of the Week for me.

And so that was 'The Calm Before The Storm', the storm abviously being the swarm of extreme Tests that will be flying into my life NEXT Week! The way I see it, it could go two ways: I get good Results in most of them, par maybe Maths and French....or I will collapse under the pressure and forget everything on the Day (which right now seems the most likely) and be crap in everything...
Next Week can't come any sooner, eh?
   

 I'll rest in peace....so long as Maths exercises don't get buried with me...

   

Christmas 2010 Round-up + HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wait...WHAT? It's the New Year already? 2011? FOR HOW LONG?! Well how the time flies....Well you better make the most of this Year, seen as once 2012 hits (aka THE APOCALYPSE!) we're all going to go the way of the Dinosaurs (or so my Dad tells me). To be honest, waking up on New Year's day was hardly anything spectacular, in fact, it was JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER FRIGGING DAY! I felt cheated. Just another excuse for partying I suppose. I have no doubt that the number of Drunkards and big-bellied people roaming the streets QUADRUPLED over these past few Weeks...(not to mention the number of dead birds) nothing but party, party, party. Tut-tut. Well as you'll find out in my next Blog Post, the New Year has brought nothing but misery and depression for me (BAH-HUMBUG!). So far, so rubbish. Oh, and don't forget you're New Years Resolutions now! Make a wish, and hope to God it comes true. Just a load of FALSE HOPE if you ask me: so just do what I tend to do, and make sure you brake and forget EVERY single one of them by the end of the Year (like forgetting to write a certain Grandma a 'Thank You' card for Xmas, for example...don't worry Grandma, I'll remember to do it next Year...HONEST! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! ARGHHHHH!!!). Come on, be honest, the New Years Resolutions are all in your head, you never get to fulfill ANY of them, do you? Life always just gets in your way, spoiling it at the last moment. Now stop trying to shove New Year hope endlessly up your arse and FORGET ABOUT THEM! Even the New Year's celebrations were underwelming (The Eiffel Tower over here didn't even bother to change the colour of its lights!), and the fireworks are the same every Year, the London Eye has had the same choreographed light show for Years now! BORING! At least Christmas was just as fun, exiting and sleep-deprivating as every Year:          

It started like every Christmas starts: Kid waits in Bed on Christmas Eve night, eyes wide awake...impossible to go to sleep...just thinking about all the lovely presents that awaits them come morning. Its both the most exiting, and longest, night of the Year. He waited til' 6am then decided to wake the Parents up, who grumpily told him to go back to bed. The kid perservered though, and kept waking them up every Hour until they finally awoke from their cumbersome slumber. A lot of gasps and 'Ohhh's' and 'Ahhh's' followed: We all lie before the Christmas tree, worshipping the many presents under it. This, we all decided, was going to be a GREAT Christmas:

   

 
Look at all this cool stuff! Once again I thank my Family for the kind generosity, and the real thought that went into these Presents. One question though, who gave me the Reindeer toilet paper? Really? Was that a joke? Nevermind. Of course, every Christmas there are a few duds (Mum got me a Ping-Pong table! WTF?!), and we all have our favorites: this Year was a certified 'A' Class as far as quality of Presents go! Here are just a few (of the many) highlights from such a wonderful Xmas: 

 Well I had to include Doctor Who now, didn't I? The Christmas Special has become an annual tradition now for the show, with millions flocking to see it every Year. David Tennant's exit from the role of the Doctor in Xmas 2009 had produced some of the finest television moments ever for the show, though it did fall a bit flat due to some tiny shortcomings, mainly because it wasn't exactly the be-all-to-end-all-epic it was so hyped up to be from Day one of announcement. It focused on the 10th Doctors exit, and Christmas was in the backround, just an afterthought. Whereas this Year was Christmas to the max, utilising Doctor Who to its full potential and (dare I say it?) one of best pieces of T.V this Year. 'A Christmas Carol' was just so weird: Flying Fish that live in clouds? Shark instead of reindeer? The Doctor marrying Maryln Monroe? Absolute bonkers. It knocked it out of the park, to be honest, blending Dickens' tale perfectly with DW. The annual guest celebritys weren't just there simply to add grandeur to the special this time, and they really weaved well into the Story. Series 6 looks just as bonkers, albeit with alot of scary thrown in as well. And did we see an Ood in there somewhere? Was that a Silent pictured in the mirror ('Silents' are rumoured to be the species behind the whole 'Silence will fall' thing)? 

This is kinda of a surprise highlight for me, I didn't expect it to be THIS good, I just put it on my Top 10 wishlist because it looked kinda cool. Set in the mythical land of Albion (In short: Every fairy tale/fantasy world thrown into one) it is your job as a Prince to form a Revolution and take the throne from your tyrannical brother who has turned Albion into a pit of poverty and dispair. First of all, I was amazed at the quality of voicework: Simon Pegg, Zoe Wanamaker, Sir Ben Kingsley, Stephen Fry, John Cleese, Jonathan Ross, Michael Fassbender, Naomie Harris, Nicholas Hoult, Sean Pertwee and Bernard Hill (you'll know him from the Lord Of The Rings films as the King of Rohan) all lend their voices to the very funny and likable characters, who can be checked out here. The game is a hoot, the first half being funny, relaxing and time-stealing while the second half takes a much more dramatic and dark turn of events. Games are now (financially) the biggest entertainment industry out there, and seem to be braking new gounds year-on-year. Mass Effect 2 aside, this is one game were I felt that my actions would truly effect both the outcome and the world as the game progresses. Interesting moral choices will present themselves, that really makes this game standout from the rest like no other: King Logan is about to take care of a band of Protesters that are amassing outside his castle when you interrupt him and tell him to stop this madness once and for all. The King is digusted by your lack of authority, and presents you with a sticky situation...In order to show you how hard being a King can be, he gives you 5 seconds to decide whether he should sentence to death either the protesters, or your girlfriend. Such a situation has no right or wrong answer, and it really makes you think. I personally chose the protesters, as the death of one human is smaller than the deaths of at least a dozen people. A video showcases this choice here. What amazed me the most was how the game continues even after you've claimed the throne, which in a normal game would be where it ends. As King, you have to decide between punishing the kingdom for its own good to raise 6,5 million gold (to raise an army to protect Albion) or restoring the kingdom but at the cost of 6,5 million lives (the number of people in Albion). Its a cruel choice to make, one that actually lingers on your conscience. Very, very interesting indeed. And terribly immersive, Albion just sucks you into a realm unlike no other.

 
This is blockbuster gaming at its finest. The best selling game of all time (it sold 5,6 million copies on it first day, each priced at £60-70  each!), this is the most polished and action packed game you can get. Taking place mostly in the Cold War era, its a game about Russian sleeper agents, toxic gas, World War II experiments, Vietnam, conspiracys and Zombies all thrown into one. In short, its the greatest action movie...turned into a game. From start to finish it just doesn't stop with the explosions, set pieces and breathtakingly beautiful environments. The story is probably the best in the franchise as well. With more gigantic, leg shearing weapons than ever before, this game is the (*Non Censored Version*) SHIT*!

Well I wasn't expecting this, thats for sure! This boxset is amazing, totally cool and by far one of my cherished Blu-Ray Collections. It really complements the mindblowingly awesome film that messes with your head more than the Matrix (So they're in a dream within another dream, within yet another dream within in a dream? And they all have to die at exactly the same time in each dream for it to work? DAMN!)! Add to that stunning action sequences: Car chases, Avalanches, Explosions and a zero gravity fight scene and you've got one hell of a movie! The second Blu-Ray has a neat Documentary on dreams which is really thought provoking as well, so add another bonus!

 
How could I not include Toy Story 3? Its one of the best movies of the Year! Watching this movie brought back all the nostalgia of my (not long ago) childhood. It really was like meeting old friends again. It just produces a sense of emotion that is unparalleled in my opinion (well, okay, Bambi's Mum getting shot is THE tear jerker), the end just had me well up with tears, and I don't know why? It just unlocks something inside of you. Pixar ARE the best company out there in terms of storytelling, they almost feel wasted because of all the beautifully crafted children movies they make! How would they fare in a Live-action movie? The Blu-Ray is one of the best out there in terms of picture and sound quality, a real MUST-BUY if you have a Blu-Ray player. The bonus features are nothing to scoff at either, and make you really feel like you're been taken on a guided tour of Pixars finest.

I was trying to eat it....

Well those were my absolutely 10/10 highlights for this Xmas. Honourary mentions include Dead Rising 2, Can't be Arsed (a book which is just soooo me), Harry Potter 1-5 Blu-Ray and Green and Blacks Chocolate (GET ME MORE!). Yes Grandma, I love your gifts, and yes, I forgot to write you a 'Thank you' card, but that will be corrected next Year, I promise. - Signed Tim