This Week In School: Peace And Lobe

UPDATE: Yes I know I'm nearly three Weeks late on this one, it was almost finished before Halloween and I kind of just forgot about it til' now. So in the Blog when I say 'last Week' I'm actually referring to the School Week that was the 17th-21st of October. Now I'm finally back in School normal Blogging will resume.. 

I found last Week a bit boring and dull to be honest. But it was the last Week before the Halloween Holidays so no wonder I was having a bit of ‘Can it just END already?’ syndrome. It’s been a long few months, but at least I can finally lie in Bed looking at the fruit of my labours:

Nice looking report card isn’t it? Mostly brilliant, with the exception of Maths of course. I don’t think I’ve seen French Results that good in all my life, but then again that’s thanks to the numerous knowledge Tests we’ve had were you just learn a page of stuff and recite it off by heart onto a piece of paper the following morning. Don’t look at it like ‘Wow Tim has a real nack for French’ just more like ‘Wow, Tim surely works his ass off revising’ because at the end of the day (and I can say this for both History as Science as well) all I‘m really doing is learning a few paragraphs of text and writing them down. It’s not really that difficult but it is time consuming (and boring). Still I’m not complaining, the Results are what matter in the end, and this early Report just certifies what I already know: I’m NOT going to fail this Year, for the simple reason that I know that if I work hard enough I can obtain the best Result possible. As long as the subject isn’t Maths or French anyway…

Sport: After the Cross Country Race the previous Friday, I only had two days rest before I was again jogging endlessly around that bloody football field. Still at least it was to be the last time before the Holidays (I get spared for three Weeks!), and as far as I was concerned that was the only thing that kept me going for most of the time. Just one last lap Tim, just one last lap… I should also mention that my performance in Endurance has been really good so far, and my lap times always clock in at around 2 minutes which means that despite almost dying in the process, I’m very consistent and regular in my rhythm. The whole idea of Endurance is about maintaining the same speed for a long period of time, so while I might not be the fastest guy out there (think slow) I can certainly keep up the pace. Even if ‘keeping up the pace’ for me means nearly passing out from exhaustion near the end…

History: We finished Civic Education last Week and started a new chapter on the URSS and Stalin. Should be a fun chapter, and I can already see the perfect Test score on the horizon. I think 3eme will be a blast on the History side of things, the 19th Century is probably the era that I specialize in the most, and I can say that with confidence because most of the stuff that we’ve done in Class so far is stuff that I already know anyway. Thursday was the Civic Education Test on all things to do with Democracy and Liberty ect… and judging from my past efforts (there rarely has been a Test in this subject were I’ve obtained a score below 15/20 in about oooh three years) I think it went really well. 

English: Climate change last Week, and the Class was showed many a BBC news report on how Global Warming was effecting the Arctic and we all should stop polluting. I sleeped through most of it to be honest, seeing the same report repeated over and over again got very tiring very quickly. English has and never will pose a challenge for me, walking into this lesson is the equivalent of enduring a one hour pre-school lesson and even if it's nice knowing that there's at least ONE lesson that I'm sure to get full marks in every-time it does become a tad tedious after a while. I could sleep through most of these lessons and it would probably have the same effect as when I'm awake. Still it's nice seeing that barrage of excellent Results on my report card.  

German: It’s surprising how little we’ve done or accomplished in German so far this Year: It’s taken us a whole two Weeks now just to learn how to say the Weather and name the different clothes you have to wear for each occasion. I thought things would be at least a little more challenging by now, we have been studying the subject for a Year by now and I don’t recall having learnt anything substantial. It’s bare bones at best, and last Week I was still bored to buggery by it. Then again for all I know the difficulty curve could suddenly be bumped up and in a few Weeks time I could be crying over how difficult German has got but I won’t, this Teacher (although very nice, almost TOO nice) doesn’t seem to have any intention of speeding things up.  

Science: Another lesson that just seems easy to the point of boredom now. Hopefully the new Chapter on gravity, solar systems and the inner workings of the universe can inject life into proceedings after the Holiday. At least it’s something I’m partially interested about. I know I'm moaning a lot now about how easy and tedious the lessons have become, but that is NOT really a negative. I'd rather it be stinking easy than stinking hard, it's just that when it's stinking hard I tend to wake up a bit.

S.V.T: Speaking of stinking hard, S.V.T this Week was probably the ONLY lesson last Week that I had some difficulty with understanding. While the chromosome experiment a few Weeks back and the happy-go-lucky attitude of Mme. Gandon did inject some life into proceedings (and didn't really represent anything at all complex) this Week was just one BIG Mind-F*ck (if you pardon the language). I suppose it was down to a mixture of complicated words, baffling exercises and rubbish thought-processing on my part (it WAS pretty early in the morning). Still, the Test is coming straight after the Hols, so I'd best re-look at what we've done and get my head round it pretty quickly or I'll be beside myself in the Test.  

D.V.3: One lesson this Week due to the Teacher being ill, basically after the holidays I’ve chosen to do a diaporama on a job from the ‘Information Industry’ (I.E Web Site creators, computer technicians ect…) so I can participate in an online contest or whatever. It’s a bit more complex than that, but I’ll explain fully in a few Weeks time. 

French: I fear the worst for the text comprehension Test we had last Thursday. Oooh boy: The questions were a bit too wordy for me and to be honest I didn’t really understand the text either! Again I feel that my weakness lies in the fact that I’m simply not at all that fluent in the French language, even after five years of being in this country. A lot of it I’ve picked up just from listening to my Class day in, day out but if no one in my Class (for example) says the word ‘Plane’ in French and points to a picture of a plane then how can I know what the word is in French? Maybe one day I’ll be able to read a French book and understand it just as much as the English version, but for now I can just get by and do my best. Anyway unless I break open a dictionary and start learning every single word in the French language I’m doomed to fail in Tests like these. I suppose it's just something you accumulate over time. The rest of the time this Week was spent on another looong and boring study of grammar and as usual I felt both bored to death and overwhelmed all at the same time. We also took a look into the realm of uninteresting autobiographies again, this time to make sure we know the difference between the narrator talking in the present and the narrator talking in the past. Yes, very boring.

Music: Last Week was mainly around modern music again, and we heard a track from Kayne West called 'Power'. Basically it was the Teacher showing us how a lot of modern music is stitched together from old music, the track we listened to featured several tunes/beats from old songs that the composer had just tweaked a little so as not to make it that noticeable. Oh yeah and the Teacher went onto this massive rant about how Auto-Tune is the most disgraceful thing that has plagued new music and how in the good old days performers had to live without that crap ect... It was nice to see a Teacher that isn't so damn neutral about anything, and I like his method of teaching were he basically goes kinda geeky on a few topics. And by 'geeky' I mean he is rather indulgent when discussing modern music techniques to us. He even gave us a quick list of songs that he deemed to be (rough translation) 'technoey crap' and 'wonderfully inventive'.   

                    

Maths: Ah Maths, Maths, Maths, how I despise you so. I'm a treat with you in Class, but when the Test beckons it all falls apart...Going into the Maths Test we had two Wednesdays ago I felt fairly confident that I'd get top marks, simply because this Chapter hasn't posed ANY major problems in Class whatsoever and I'd learnt all the different methods down to a tea just by the sheer rinse and repeat nature of the BILLION monotonous exercises I'd had suffered through. It had all the makings of a winner. And what happened? Well I was pretty chuffed about how well it went...at first but the Teacher then decided to read us the correct answers out-loud afterwards (just so we could get a good idea of our overall score) and judging from that I'd wager that the majority of my answers were dead wrong. Which was surprising considering that it was the EXACT same thing we did in Class, so therefore the EXACT same thing that I got Top marks in every single time. I have only one explanation so far: A demon must have possessed me 'Exorcist' style during the Test and made me write down all the incorrect answers, it's the ONLY logical thing that could have happened in my mind. Well either that or I have a split personality: One that is really bad in Maths and the other that's Top Of The Class. What's worse is the fact that I WAS SO GOD-DAMNED SURE OF MYSELF, I even rechecked my answers several times before handing in the Test papers (I am known for making loads of simple mistakes in these Tests, so I'm always extra prudent), and I STILL cocked up big-time, even though I took every possible precaution so as to NOT F*UCK UP! ARRGHHH! So Maths is frustrating in the sense that no matter how good I am at any one subject in Maths, I always manage to eff' it up one way or another in the Test. I'm seriously starting to think I'm cursed, I just CAN'T have failed that Test, the clouds must have been aligned against me or something that day. 

Technology: We finished our diagramme on the 'panel project' last Week, and you can see the efforts of both me and my comrades here: 

We also had a Test on that exact same type of diagramme, just with a different object instead of 'panels'. No, this Test was on a scooter/moped and we had to do a list of all it's functions and guidelines (ex: MUST MAKE IT SAFE TO DRIVE, AVOID ACCIDENTS ECT...) just like before and represent them exactly like the thing above ^. It went well (I think), but my wording was a bit off due to my limited vocabulary. Unfortunately I forgot what the  French word for 'movement' was (it's 'deplacement') so I handicapped my way through the entire Test trying not to use that word on an object that is clearly meant for moving from place A to place B in a manner that is both effective, safe and simple. Problem is I had no idea how to spell that out clearly in French for the Test. Hopefully the Test went well, but if the Result is more on the sour side then I can direct 100% of the blame onto my ability to correctly word things in French. *SIGH* You know sometimes I wish I was French because it would make life over here so much easier for me. 

Peace and Lobe: So judging from this Blog's title you're all wondering what the hell 'Peace and Lobe' is, aren't you? Well Peace and Lobe is sort of like this weird concert mixed in with an educational lesson about our hearing and how we perceive sound. It took up the best part of Monday afternoon and we shared the concert hall with the other College from Mohon (who in all seriousness looked like they could beat the living sh*t out of my school, they literally towered above my lot) although it was undoubtedly better than the alternative (Maths, History and D.V.3) I felt really bored (well there's a surpriseduring the last half when they started explaining the inner functions of our hearing. One thing I will say though is that the group performing this act was quite entertaining, especially the leader of the band who pretended he was a famous rockstar for most of it, and actually leaped into the crowd at one point. They also performed several different  ear-pain-inducing songs, and I couldn't tell if they were either really bad or doing it on purpose most of the time! But Overall it was an interesting way of spending an Afternoon I guess.                

So I could some up last Week in School in one word it would be 'boring', but it was a nice break from the over excessive amount of Homework we've been getting recently. This Week was just another hurdle to overcome before the lovely reward: now I can now finally relax in the comfort of my Bed for good two Weeks! Long may the holidays reign, I say! Oh yes, and I almost forget to say HAPPY HALLOWEEN!  

This Week In School: Cross Country Race 2011

So another long and tiring Week is finally over, thank heavens. Last Week I suffered through two endurance Tests (one of them being the big Cross Country Race of course), a weird French Breakfast with the school and amongst other things a lecture in front of my entire year. So without further ado, let me begin:

English: I got a lot of recognition last Week for my fake article on 'Muse'. You basically had to make the document look like a fake Blog Post and describe a night you had going to one of the band's concerts with a few of your mates. I leaped at the chance to write it of course, I always feel like my inner-writing talent in this School is wasted on countless grammatically flawed essays in French. Naturally my work got a flawless 20/20 and the Teacher even said that I should be a journalist, so try that on for size. She was so impressed with my article describing 'a night out with Muse' that I was allowed to do my Homework for the remainder of my lesson, which is quite literally the equivalent of winning the lottery right now. Unfortunately I had to hand my precious work of art back to the Teacher so it could be hung up on the wall of my Class, so unfortunately I can't scan it and post it on here for the time being. Oh well. Shame, still my work is up there for all to admire now, not that I'm boasting or anything.

Music: Last Week we studied digital sound mixing, and how new technology has granted us the power to distort, slow-down, speed-up and just all around tamper with everyday music. We kept on hearing the same generic 80's 'disco' music over and over again but each time the Teacher would add in a new effect, like slowing down the song and putting the same sound on an endless loop which just kept droning on and on and on... The new Teach then did some weird synthesizing sh*t with the track and made the bad song even worse. Basically he was trying to show us all the different ways you can experiment with music now by altering them artificially through technology. Interesting (if very painful to the ears) stuff. 

French: You know what? I've counted the amount of Tests we've had in French vs the hours of French without a Test we've had so far, and literally EVERY OTHER LESSON is a bloomin' Test! Last Week saw another one creep up behind me and we all had to write a short story on something that scared us as a child (real or non-real). I wrote something based around Halloween, and when I was young (a fictional 'me' of course) me and a bunch of my friends decided to sneak into a local cemetery and got scared by a creepy looking statue reflected in the moonlight. Naturally my skills were hindered by a limited French vocabulary, and I can only hope for the best. The remainder of the lessons was one big Grammar orgy, which failed to spark any sense of non-boredom in me. No more Rousseau sadly, but the Teacher assured us that by the time this Trimester is over we'll all be sick of him.   

Maths: I enjoyed Maths last Week, mainly because I was so god damned good at it. At one point I was the only one to get a complex Maths calculation right. And if you want an example of these calculations we had to do then take a look at this: A= 78 x 5 x 105 x 8 x 10-7 x 100 x 10-4 . Also my Test from last Week really paid 

                                           108 x 10-5                                   off, earning me a 7,5/10 which (so far) is the only good Maths Test Result I've had! Well a long bloody time coming I say. 

Civic Education: I was the subject of much debate last Week as we mainly focused on nationality and what it means to be a European citizen. My Class all thought I was French for some reason, which to be honest doesn't surprise me one bit seen as just moments before they all thought New Zealand was a part of Europe! This lead to a half-an-hour discussion on how people from other country's can become French and what rights everyone is entitled to ect... To be honest I've found it all a bit dull this Week, hopefully we'll be getting back into World War I soon. And speaking of World War I, my Test from last Week scored an impressive 17/20 (highest in the Class, may I add...). In hindsight I wasn't at all sure on how it would do but I'm relieved with the outcome.    

Science: Because of the Cross Country Race taking up all of Friday afternoon, we only had one hour of Science this Week. We're now studying ions by the way, and how Scientists like to tamper with electrons. It was okay, we were mainly just writing down stuff so it wasn't that intellectually stimulating. Ah yes, and no 'embarrassments' last Week so that's always a plus... 

S.V.T: We're talking about DNA and genes now, and it was a  bit boring despite the Teacher's best efforts at 'waking us up'.  If you're wondering, S.V.T is normally first thing Monday morning, so we can't really be considered awake at this point in time. Heck we could be studying video games and I'd still be asleep!  

Technology: Thank god I understood something last Week! We had to define all the little details that make up our so called 'exiting' project, which ranged from determining the size of the panels to using 'natural' products that won't harm the environment. Again not really anything to with 'Technology' although we do use the computers a lot. We're basing the entire year around putting up panels around the lake and plastering information about different animals/plants  on them.   

D.V.3: Last Week had both Classes in our Year stand-up in front of everybody and present their Diploma's (research was done the Week before remember). And of course I was saved til' last, because we wouldn't want him to go first and have it all done with would they? No, let's just draw it out, save him for last so by the time he actually stands up in front on everyone he's practically crapping his pants in fear! And of course something had to go wrong...as usual. Somehow when I transferred the file from my computer to the main computer the different programs didn't really compute and as a Result my beautiful looking presentation was a scrambled mess of ugliness. Thankfully the Teacher didn't take take into account the presentation, so I didn't lose any points *THANKYOUGOD* We finally got the results from our presentation on the 'MFR' thing-y as well, despite it being nearly a whole month since we did it. I must (correction: my group must) have done well because we all scored 8,5/10.  

German:  We did crap all last Week apart from learn a silly German nursery rime and learn how to say the weather. Another bore-fest I'm afraid, and my Class must have felt the same way too because they couldn't stop talking throughout. The Teacher is still very nice, but she get's into so many arguments with the Class that it reduces the actual time she's spending 'Teaching' by almost 50%. I really don't know why the Class hates her so much, perhaps they like preying on one of the more 'less-strict' Teachers?     

Art: Our objective for the next few lessons was simply entitled 'Define Space'. What the hell does that mean you ask? Well play with the idea of space, basically. To give you an example I drew a stick figure trapped in a comic strip box who found the 'exit' door and just fell out of the square box and onto the comic below, just funny things like that I guess. Of course there are many different ways to represent space in Art, like toying with depth perception (my corridor illusion from the previous Weeks falls nicely into that category) ect... Overall I found it to be a fun lesson and to be honest it was the only thing I actually enjoyed all Week. 

Sport + Breakfast + Cross Country Race: Sport on Monday wasn't as bad as the last time we did endurance, but the temperature was a bit chilly so that would've helped. It's still a gruelling two hours though, and you feel completely wasted by the time you come home for lunch. Still, at least my legs didn't hurt as much this time, I had a hard job thawing them out of ice afterwards though. Friday was a whole other kettle of fish though, with the first hour being a an invite to a 'special' breakfast with the whole College attending and the entire afternoon was basically one big sporting event. For Breakfast I had Apple and Raisin cereal in a bowl of hot milk, an apple, a buttered bit of baguette and a glass of Orange juice so I think I made it out O.K. Some of the stuff on offer though was a bit *YEUCH!*, and most of the Frenchies had black (and I mean BLACK) coffee in their  bowls with cereal mixed in! And they didn't use the spoons a lot, they just sipped from the bowl. The fruit on offer was also a bit WTF?, I mean who has a bloody shrivelled up bit of frozen bat poo for brekkie? Unbelievable some of these French habits. Quite a few of them had plain yoghurt as well, which tastes a bit 'off' for my liking if you're wondering. The Cross Country Race was a nice way of having an afternoon, but I wasn't very fond of that darned 'running' part to be honest. And I might as well just come clean now, YES I FINISHED LAST IN MY YEAR. It's not one of my proudest achievements, but I don't really care. As I pulled my broken legs up this arduous looking hill (for the 2nd time) something in my mind just clicked you know? I came to the sudden realisation that all this effort I was exerting just to trudge up this hill wasn't at all worth the reward. After all, what do I get out of being in 24th place? A Weekend of sore legs, that's what. So basically I relaxed a little and let the few people behind overtake me, and before I knew it I was last! Or before-last anyway, the little git behind me started to run just before I crossed the finished line and beat me to it (this happens every year) so THEN I was officially last. But I don't care, I may have lost a good 5mins just walking but it saved me an entire Weekend of feeling awful just because you overworked your body. And the race wasn't as arduous as last year either, I think it was only about 2000 Meters in all.  

So another Week comes to a very sweaty close, can't say I really enjoyed it. If I'm honest Art was the only thing I really gave a damn about and even then I'm crap at drawing. Oh yes, and my report card should come soon, so hopefully that will be up next Week. Til' next time then...     

            

My Top 5 Most Anticipated Games

Man is autumn a great time to be a gaming fan. If you're not already aware, autumn is increasingly becoming the gaming equivalent of blockbuster summer movie season, and it's at this time when most of the BIG AAA titles come out, showcasing both the biggest and the best that this entertainment format has to offer. Creating a Christmas List this year will be most difficult indeed! But after this avalanche of titles to choose from, which ones come out on top? When I look at the line-up for the next three months (with one exception) of video game releases here are the Top 5 games that stick out for me (NOTE: This is based solely on Xbox 360 games):    


Number 5: Battlefield 3 / Modern Warfare 3

This autumn see's two of gaming's biggest franchises go head to head for dominion of the first person shooter's category. On one side you've got Dice's engine powerhouse that is Battlefield 3 and on the other Activision's biggest money-maker Call Of Duty. Both of these will no doubt be great games but the toughest thing for me is 'Which one to get?'

So you've got Battlefield 3, which right off the bat looks astounding in terms of graphic quality. Now don't get me wrong, Call Of Duty is no slouch when it comes to the visuals department, but Battlefield 3? People have been shown screenshot's from the game mixed in with real images and couldn't tell the difference between reality and the game. Now THAT is a brilliant feat of Technology, I mean the game just looks gorgeous! 

Pretty cool looking eh? Now add to that the immense visuals of the Frostbyte 2 engine, which can, and I quote: 


'The new engine is capable of bringing entire skyscrapers down and is so powerful that a developer was even quoted as saying if somebody took the time to design in-game the Burj Khalifa from Dubai (the world's current tallest building at almost half a mile in height) Frostbyte 2 is absolutely capable of demolishing it in real time.'


Clearly this is a game that will take a lot to beat. Even the multiplayer, which is the bread and butter for shooters, looks to take it up a notch up in almost every way. Here you can pilot tanks, jets and any manner of war vehicles to crush your team's opponents in what is (apparently) a very Team-centric experience. In COD Multiplayer you're always in it for yourself, here you must work with your Team-mates in order to survive and I think that is a most intriguing way of tackling cooperative gameplay. But what has Activision got up their sleeves for Call Of Duty? 

Well judging from that trailer, a crap ton of explosions and a global conflict on a scale that has never been seen before. The Call Of Duty franchise, one of the biggest selling franchises in video game history (for four games in a row now sales have gone past the billion dollar mark), has always prided itself for it's blockbuster set-pieces and addictive competitive multiplayer. Yes, the campaigns in Call Of Duty are short (I think that can be said for ANY first person shooter), but they're also ridiculously fun and it's clear that they throw every last possible explosion and location in there so you'll get you're money's worth. This game is set around the possibility that a Third World War could happen in our time, and will have you play many different characters in many different locales all over the world, ranging from France, Germany, England and the USA. As a franchise that has it's single player based around big, epic conflicts this game hopes to top them all in terms of scale and scope. The Multiplayer remains largely the same as all the other previous games in the franchise: it's a fast, adrenaline fuelled and extremely addicting way of playing a game. The only negative thing I can say about Modern Warfare 3 at this point is that as a franchise it hasn't really changed. Multiplayer is the same as all the previous Call Of Duty's, and the single campaign is still just a barrage of senseless explosions EXACTLY like Black Ops campaign. There's NO innovation in it whatsoever, whereas Battlefield 3 seems to be doing some really interesting things with the genre and isn't repeating the same game every year just so it can make another billion dollars. Hmmm, do I play it safe and stick with Call Of Duty (a good game, but the same GOOD game I played from last year, the formula hasn't changed) or try something new with Battlefield? I really can't make my mind up, which is why I've put both games in the number 5 spot.

   


Number 4: Saints Row: The Third

Ladies and gentlemen I present you 'Saint's Row The Third', one of the most ridiculous, over-the-top and simply bat-sh*t insane games to have come out over the past year. This a Sand-box game that basically gives players the option to do whatever ridiculously awful things they want, which range from grabbing a simple passer-by's head and smashing it into the ground (complete with hilarious 'KER-SPLAT!' sound effect), rampaging around the city in a giant tank and even beating an old grandma's head open with a giant dildo. Yes, this demented game GOES there. You can also get into a jet and just blow up half the city from the air by launching targeted laser missiles if that's to your liking. The gaming-world is your oyster as far as this game is concerned. It's ludicrously silly fun, and to me resembles like Grand Theft Auto on crack. I really don't see any cons to this game so far apart from the fact that there aren't any dragons in it. Oh wait, that's for the next game on my list. 

And yes, my generation does consider this stuff 'fun'. 


Number 3: Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Woot! Finally a massively detailed open-world fantasy game with Dragons! It's like all my dreams have come true! Skyrim is basically like Saints Row 3 just minus all the ridiculous weapons and granny trampling. In Skyrim, you can get on your horse and just ride off into the beautiful landscape and never come back, so think of it as a much more sophisticated game rather than some silly affair. The hero you portray is a Dragon-born (of any race, you can select which species you want to be, which range from Vampires to Cats to Humans!) and is tasked with reclaiming order to a land ravaged by Dragons. Or at least I think that's the plot...story isn't a heavily touted feature of this game, it's more about exploration and finding hidden the many hidden dungeons (all 300 of them) scattered around the world that unlock different ability's. One of the great things I've heard about this franchise is the fact that you can follow a simple trader from one village to next and see him sell his goods and go to bed each night. 

The World will feel so alive and detailed, and you know that the person you just passed on the road will be having an adventure all on his own even if you're not watching him at the time. A lot of these events are unscripted by the way, so if you see a Dragon pick up a giant and fling him off a cliff you won't see it happen again. In fact alot of the time the developers (the guys who make the game) see behaviours that they hadn't yet observed with the game's characters WHILE they were playing the game! So not even the developers know what's going to happen 100% of the time, which is simply amazing. The game supposedly takes 300 hours to complete, so if you can believe that then this game should set you back several months of your life. Well I hate to brake this to you, real life, but I'll be playing Skyrim. 

    


Number 2: Batman: Arkham City

'In Batman: Arkham Asylum, we really focused our effort on creating an intense, pressure-cooker atmosphere by locking Batman in the madhouse and allowing The Joker to turn up the heat.

“In Arkham City, we want to take that attitude to the next level, so we created an experience in which gamers will have a huge amount of navigational freedom, but they will also feel the extreme pressure of the challenges that they face.' Sefton Hill, Rocksteady 

After Batman: Arkham Asylum was touted as being one of the best super-hero games of all time (and rightly so) it's sequel looks like it's going to take the last game and amp it up to maximum overdrive. In Arkham City, new major Quincy Sharp has sectioned off an entire area of Gotham and dumped anyone that misbehaved into it. So all the criminals and super villains are basically locked up in this giant playground of mayhem and disaster. Add to that several turf wars by the many villains and an overarching scheme that has something to do with Doctor Hugo Strange (the guy who controls this sector) and you've got one heck of a game. One of the best things about Arkham Asylum was the fact that you really did feel like Batman, every-time you crushed someone's skull in it felt every like every punch had impact and as a result you felt extremely badass. The Sequel? Apparentely it amps the combat up to 100mph, you now have a massive arsenal of gadgets at your disposal which range from smoke pellets to remote controlled batarangs. Not to mention you have this huge area to glide around in and all of a sudden come crashing down on some of the Joker's thugs. If Arkham Asylum made you feel like Batman, then Arkham City will make you become Batman. 


Now even if you take away the immensely satisfying gameplay what have you got left? Well for starters you've got the villains. Batman has one of the best line-ups a rogues gallery could offer, and as far as I can tell, it seems like most of the really good ones have made it into this game. Every time Mark Hamill's (Mark Hamill as in THE Mark Hamill, you know, the guy who played Luke in those old Star Wars films?) portrayal of the Joker pops up on screen the game automatically becomes 10/10 for me. He even mocks you when you're dead, it's almost like the game is humiliating you for dying and I love it: 

       
The Penguin also make a return, except this time with a cockney British accent. You're laughing at first, but then he blows a guy's head off...
The Riddler in Arkham Asylum was a mere annoyance, he would give you a few clues and you'd find the hidden trophy pretty easily. Here? You better damn well solve those riddles, because he's captured people and put them in Saw-like death traps, each one harder than the last and all of them having you face a ticking clock. 
Two-Face, the once prestigious Harvey Dent is now a multi-personality psychopath who likes to drop people into vats of acid. What's not to love?
And nothing can compare to Doctor Strange, who is so masterful in the art of brain deciphering that he even figured out the identity of the caped crusader himself, Batman.  

There is something so gratifying about seeing all these villains come together as a whole in the first game and I hope that this continued sense of escalation and dread you felt will also appear in it's sequel. From where I'm standing though, it looks f*cking amazing.  


Seriously, I'm at breaking point. I look at my School calender every day knowing that the game is ONE day closer to being released. I keep refreshing bloody internet pages just to see if there's any new news on the game, heck even a promotional photo is enough to get me exicted! PLEASE DON'T SUCK! PLEASE BE THE BEST GAME EVER! I NEED ARKHAM CITY NOOOOOW!  *ROCKS UP AND DOWN*


Number 1: Mass Effect 3

I made this list just so I could include Mass Effect 3 if I'm honest. For those of you that don't know, Mass Effect 2 is my favourite game of all time and Mass Effect 3 as a result is my most anticipated game of all time, which will make the wait for March 26th 2012 all the more painful. NEVER have I wanted a game (or anything apart from Doctor Who) so badly, the Mass Effect Series is one of the most personal, richly detailed and mind-numbingly epic franchises out there, and it all comes to a head in Mass Effect 3 when the entire galaxy is at risk from the Reapers and only you can stop it. 

This is it. All the choices you've made over the past two games in the franchise will effect the outcome in some way, shape or form. All your Squad mates from the previous game will return (along with all their individual plot arcs and character progression which YOU helped define), granted they lived at the end of the last one of course. Your love interest from Mass Effect 1 could damn well meet your girlfriend from  Mass Effect 2 and duke it out with each other. Or, they could get along fine together. OR, you didn't get romantic in Mass Effect 1 or 2 and everything will be fine. See? All these choices you made over the course of the last two games will impact this one in some way, and that's what so exciting: this is the grand finale to a trilogy of video games that center on how your actions affect the world around you, with a deep mythology and quite frankly some of the best characters any entertainment format has seen. At the end of Mass Effect 2, you actually give a sh*t about everyone (even if they are a robot or a green skinned lizard dude) and shed a tear when (or if) they die. In Mass Effect 3, you will feel their loss because it can effect the other characters, or even make new ones who replace the guy who died! You feel deeply attached to this universe and it's characters as a result, so when an invading armada of giant sentient beings arrive to f*ck things up, things get PERSONAL. It also helps that the combat has been refined, so now you're playing the game to have fun shooting the buggers AND enjoy the story at the same time, which is a real plus. Blowing up organic robot's the size of skyscrapers have never been this fun, and the impending sense of doom SHOULD heighten your adrenaline. 

Interesting decisions lie ahead indeed, and the dialogue tree is there at every step of the adventure to run this into the ground. So will the Quarians finally reclaim their homeworld from the Geth? Will the Krogan finally overcome the Genophage? Can Garrus refrain from letting the dark side overcome him? Will we see Tali's face? Just WHO is the Illusive Man working for? I have to wait another five months to find out, great.

So that's my Top 5, hope you enjoyed reading my favourite upcoming games. The gaming industry is reaching an all time high now with so many awesome games hitting the shelves currently, and this list was extremely hard to make. And yes, the games technically haven't come out yet, and I suppose Mass Effect 3 could completely suck balls, but judging from all the hype and promotion surrounding this game it's almost impossible to think that it could all turn out sour. Well let's just wait and see I suppose...

This Week In School: The Drug Addict And The Five Tests

My has this Week been tough: I've had endless Tests, almost passed out in Sport, encountered several embarrassments in Class and amongst other things a guy who became a drug addict at the age of 12 came in and claimed how his belief in Jesus Christ had saved him from 'The depths of Hell'. To be honest I'm just grateful that it's all over:


Civic Education: Now that we've finished our big chapter on World War I the Teacher has started us on Civic Education, a subject which mainly focuses on politics, symbolism, and the history of law. This Week we've looked at the History of all five French Republics and studied the many famous icons that symbolise this country's ideals (like Charles De Gaulle). It was very much centred on the French Revolution as well, and how the mighty French citizens beat down the walls of Louis XVI BLAH BLAH BLAH France is great BLAH BLAH BLAH. The Teacher should have just played the French national anthem at the end, that would have made it the icing on the cake as far as blatant 'country honouring' lessons go. Next was the BIIIIG History Test on World War I and despite having dedicated a good chunk of my spare time on Wednesday evening to it, I think overall the Test went a bit lukewarm. There was barely enough time to finish it all if I'm honest, my hand was just on autopilot mode the whole time trying to answer three questions at once (no kidding). Even after I rushed through it the bell rang JUST AS I WAS APPLYING THE FINISHING TOUCHES TO THE LAST QUESTION. Now that's what I call close! So yeah as far as the Test goes I have no idea whatsoever, lets hope I pull a good score out of the hat?  


D.V.3: Same stuff as last Week, although I am pretty chuffed with how snazzy my diaporama looks, all professional' like ye know? And as far as actual research goes, I do know a bit more about what will happen if I decide to go down this 'Teaching' route. Apparently you study for a few years (well duh), get an absolute Master in whatever field you want to specialise in, and they pretty much just let you freelance for a year before you're finally evaluated as a proper Teacher by an inspector who closely guards your work. 


French: Still studying autobiographies, albeit with a more boring take this time as we study a guy called Jean Jacques Rousseau (couldn't have made a more French name if they tried) and his autobiography 'The Confessions'. Here's an extract of his so called 'famous' work here, very similar to the one we studied in Class except for it being in English and not in French of course:

'I HAVE begun on a work which is without precedent, whose
accomplishment will have no imitator. I propose to set before my
fellow-mortals a man in all the truth of nature; and this man shall be
myself.
I have studied mankind and know my heart; I am not made like any one
I have been acquainted with, perhaps like no one in existence; if
not better, I at least claim originality, and whether Nature has acted
rightly or wrongly in destroying the mold in which she cast me, can
only be decided after I have been read.
I will present myself, whenever the last trumpet shall sound, before
the Sovereign Judge with this book in my hand, and loudly proclaim,
"Thus have I acted; these were my thoughts; such was I. With equal
freedom and veracity have I related what was laudable or wicked, I
have concealed no crimes, added no virtues; and if I have sometimes
introduced superfluous ornament, it was merely to occupy a void
occasioned by defect of memory: I may have supposed that certain,
which I only knew to be probable, but have never asserted as truth,
a conscious falsehood. Such as I was, I have declared myself;
sometimes vile and despicable, at others, virtuous, generous, and
sublime; even as Thou hast read my inmost soul: Power Eternal!
assemble round Thy throne an innumerable throng of my
fellow-mortals, let them listen to my confessions, let them blush at
my depravity, let them tremble at my sufferings; let each in his
turn expose with equal sincerity the failings, the wanderings of his
heart, and if he dare, aver, I was better than that man."
I was born at Geneva, in 1712, son of Isaac Rousseau and Susannah
Bernard, citizens. My father's share of a moderate competency, which
was divided among fifteen children, being very trivial, his business
of a watchmaker (in which he had the reputation of great ingenuity)
was his only dependence. My mother's circumstances were more affluent;
she was daughter of a Mons. Bernard, minister, and possessed a
considerable share of modesty and beauty; indeed, my father found some
difficulty in obtaining her hand.'

Yeah, imagine trying to comprehend that in French. Even in English it's barely understandable. Basically he was this arrogant bastard who wanted to prove all his haters wrong by creating a Book about his life. Here's a photo of the guy here:

              
Next we had to write a short paragraph about when we were first born, how did our parents name us ect... So with much agony I constructed an essay about how my Parents named me after their Dog 'Timothy', which to this day I still have no idea whether it was meant to be a reference to Indiana Jones or just a lack of originality on their part. We also had two mini-Tests on Thursday and Friday, one was on the history autobiography's and the other was on the Situation d'Enonciation which I can't for the life of me describe what the heck that means in English. 


Sport: I HATED Sport this Week. Endurance has officially become a nightmare, every Monday morning I have to painstakingly run round the football field for a few minutes, rest a bit and then do it all over again repeatedly til' you're either dehydrated or close to passing out. It really is 'Endurance' in every god damned sense of the word! Honestly I was THIS close to passing out, after ten minutes of running/fast jogging it feels like you've been hit with a hammer, your throat is sore because you've breathing out of your mouth for so long and you feel so bloody ill that you want to vomit but you can't because your heart is about to burst out of your chest and your head is just going to explode...in short it's hell on Earth. I just don't know what the School is thinking putting us through something like this! To be honest I'd rather take a bullet than go through the pain that is Endurance. Meanwhile Ping-Pong fails to capture any excitement in me whatsoever, and it still is the most rubbish sport on the Planet as far as I'n concerned. 


Maths: Not a lot of meat to Maths this Week, the Test went really, really, REALLY well in my opinion which probably just means I failed horribly (you come to expect these things after a certain time). In the meantime we're just doing revisions on stuff we did in 4eme like how -3 - (-2) = -1.


Science: It was okay this Week apart from ONE embarrassing moment that I'll get into in a minute. The good news is that the Test that I did on Thursday (that I spent two hours revising on the previous night) earned me a 17,5/20 which I think may just be the best score of the Class by a 0,5 lead! Now onto Fridays lesson, where in order to do an experiment (is water a conductor of electricity?) we had to bring in our Science coats. But apart from me and FOUR other people most of the Class didn't come with one, much to the chagrin of the Teacher who then proceeded to give them all words (to signed by both their parents and the Head). So that meant that only the four of us could do the experiment and the rest of the Class would just have to sit there watching us. The problem came when the Science Teacher asked us to put on our Science coats...and because I was was wearing a jumper at the time I obviously had to take the jumper off...which I did...and then proceeded to take my shirt underneath the jumper off as well...which then exposed my entire upper body (armpits up and all) to the Class in all it's flabby form! You think THAT was the embarrassing part don't you? No, the embarrassing part came when the shirt was plastered to my head and shoulders after I had managed to untangle the jumper effectively making me a blind, flailing flabby stomach to the Class that couldn't pull his tight shirt down from his face even if his life depended on it. I rested in this state of complete and utter humiliation for 45 seconds, much to the bemusement of my Class and even the Teacher. Thanks life! 


English: We did exercises based around the rock-band 'Muse' last Week and also learnt how to read messages from a Forum message-board. It was all pretty simple, but my Team has changed and now I'm in a group with a bunch of thick-heads...oh well. The Test on Friday, to the surprise of nobody, was of course super easy. Expect another 20/20 coming your way.  


The Drug Addict: Thanks to this guy coming in to give us a lecture, we lost out on two hours of Maths on Wednesday morning! YAY! Now let's all listen to a story of drugs, alcohol, abuse, sex and (finally) redemption! So basically this dude (I can't remember his name for the life of me) lived in a very rough area of Paris, and despite the fact that his parents were never poor and didn't abuse him AT ALL, turned to a life of drugs and alcohol at the mere age of 12. Why? Apparently he thought that nobody in his life liked him and because people kept bullying him (saying he was a nobody or something) he quickly turned into a 'nobody'. Oh yeah and he kept meeting up with coke heads on a street near to where he lived, that probably factored in to his early addiction too. So after several years of drugs and alcohol he was finally put into prison where he seriously wanted to commit suicide at one point. Now if you're like me and you're probably wondering why this guy had taken up two hours of the schools timetable just so he could recount the misery that was his life, here's the answer: turns out that while he was in prison he heard one of the in-mates muttering a prayer and apparently that 'converted' him. What followed was half an' hour of this guy explaining how religion completely changed his life, how he 'welcomed Jesus into his heart' and all that sickly religious bullcrap. So anyway he now has a wife and two children and all seems fine, 'all thanks to Jesus' he claimed. Now of course I think we can all thank his belief for getting him out of that hell, but he was a bit to pro-religious for me. The guy seemed to be truly genuine with his emotions as well, but the bit at the end when he asked us if anyone would like to buy his Book was just a tad false if you ask me!     


German: I got 8/10 in the Test this Week, and to honest the only reason I didn't get 10/10 was because I kept confusing S's with Z's in the written language. So the number twenty may be pronounced 'swanzig' but it's written 'zwanzig'! The same thing in France with their i's sounding like e's. Apart from the Test we went downstairs to the library and did some research on the country which was a nice way of passing the hour.   


Art: I had to rush a lot this Week in order to finish my work in time. I had to a) create a 3-D space, b) represent it in two different angles, c) it has to in colour, or at least one of them, d) say why I drew this, and give a few sketches on how my idea panned out and e) has to be symmetrical, with all lines converging on one point. Did I do it? Well I did a), b), half of d) and e) just fine. Here's hoping that when the Result comes round it's very good.    


Technology: I'm not very pleased with my performance in Technology this Week. So we've been researching this 'Cahier De Charges' thing (which even after researching it I'm not quite sure what it is) and one member of each team had to stand up in front of the Class and give a speech about what they found ect... The problem with my group is that they basically fooled around for a few hours without really finding anything while I was doing all the work, and all the time I was secretly crapping my pants knowing that I was probably going to be the one that stood up in front on the Class trying to explain something in my own words (and its a lot harder to explain things when using a limited vocabulary) that I didn't really understand in the first place. I then got even more scared looking at what the other teams had done, which seemed to be VASTLY different from what we were doing. Yeeks! And of course I had to be the one to stand up in front on the Class, because I was the only one to actually find anything substantial, so even though I understood completely nothing, I was still the best guy for the job! Anyway long story short, I walked up in front of the Class, mumbled some sh*t that barely resembled any language let alone French, and scurried back to my group as fast as I could. Somehow I managed to scrape a 2,5/5 and much to the amusement of my Team mates turned out to have the lowest score out of the people who presented themselves. Yeah, well guess what dumbo's? Next time you're doing all the work and YOU'RE GOING TO BE THE ONE TO GIVE A SPEECH TO THE CLASS! Oh what am I kidding, I'll probably do most of the work next time, do the best I possibly can (and hopefully understand it as well) and probably present myself to this torture all over again. And yes, this all happened just because I didn't have the confidence to say 'No' to them.   


Music: Well now that Mme Jouet has finally got a replacement, what do I think? The new Teacher (man, tall, geeky looking, mid-20's, pretends he's talking to a brick wall and not a Classroom full of kids ) is an improvement I suppose. He was rather shocked to find that the previous Teacher never actually played a live musical instrument, and then proceeded to get his electric guitar out and start a sing-along with the Class. Then he decided to give us more 'modern' music and played us several tracks off a Daft Punk album. I suppose he's rather the opposite of Mme Jouet, who got significantly less 'nice' as the years went on. I've only had one lesson with him so far though, my opinion of him could change very quickly. 


So that's pretty much it for this Week, hope you enjoyed my endless ramblings! Hopefully next Week won't be quite as cringe-worthy... Oh god, I'll never trust a Science coat agiain.