Back at Uni

Well it was weird to be left at uni by my parents again. I didn't cry this time of course but still, it's odd, I didn't know how to feel. It's rather quiet here, I've only had the pleasure of bumping into Tom, Ellie's boyfriend, in the kitchen earlier (my God he made me jump) so I decided to knock on Ellie's door and say hello. We had a quick chat, so nice to see her, I've missed her. I'm going to see Lewis, Matt, Rach and Emily this evening, we're walking to Blockbuster to go and choose a film to watch together. Should be good, will be nice to see Lewis, Rachel and Matt especially, missed them so much!

Earlier, I went to Gormet burger kitchen with my parents because we had vouchers and I love it. After stuffing ourselves we went looking round the shops for a bit, they came back to mine for tea and then they left. And that's been my day really. It's so odd to be back, gotta get back into the routine which won't be much fun! Especially as I have a lesson at 9am tomorrow...groan. But then I'm free for the rest of the day after 11 so yay! Just hope other people are free tomorrow.

Hmph

Well, I woke up rather late this morning to a text from Marnie saying no one wanted to go out this weekend because people had got mixed up with it and therefore had already made other plans. 1) I am not sure how people could have got mixed up since the last time I saw Marnie was on Thursday, the day before I went to Jen's, so it couldn't have been that weekend. 2) I was sort of relieved but then realised we were just going to have a quite night in with a film...I would have actually enjoyed that. So 3) now I just feel no one can be bothered to see me before I go away. Ahh well. To be honest I know I don't make a big enough effort with people anyway. I'm just not one for arranging things I guess. I'm bad at it.

But somehow Alex has dragged me into arranging MGO for him tonight. I've managed to round up a few people but who knows who'll actually turn up. Alex better fucking turn up or I'll kill him. Today has been a bit of a shit day if I'm honest. I've basically had the place to myself but I've found myself bored all day. I miss my friends, can't wait to go back and see them. I miss my social life, ha! I'm pathetic really aren't I? I cannot cope by myself, I need people. I hate being alone. Thank Christ for my uni friends. I'd go insane without them.

Currently listening to: Champion-No heaven
"Oh lord, there ain't no heaven."
From the end credits of Borderlands. Love it.

First Platinum!

Woo! You would have thought my first plat was to be Resi 5 but ahh well! That shall be number two. It's oddly satisfying though to get a platinum and I don't just mean for the sake of having it, because I would never be one of those people *cough* Stewie *cough* who just earns them for...well the sake of it! I only want to get them for games I truly love, such as Borderlands and especially Resi. Me and Alex are so damn close now it's frustrating but it shall be done, one day! Plus when Resi evil Gold edition comes out with extra stuff...extra trophies too maybe?! It has got to be done. It's our game!

Not much to blog about really. I'm really looking forward to going back to uni, I miss my friends, I'm just not looking forward to the work. Ahh well, going to have to get used to that as that's what I've supposedly gone to uni for after all!

Brought the zombie pack for Borderlands too, me and Alex just took down Ned, twice. Shame the trophy "Ned's undead baby, Ned's undead" is a hidden one. Pulp Fiction reference ftw. Was a fun pack but unfortunately, being level 50 with uber powerful weapons did make it a bit easy, never mind, still got a few missions left to do there. And you can't argue with a few easy trophies...

Close to my first plat

Well this morning I knew I would be close to completing the game of Borderlands. I did the drying up and hoovered up to make sure I wouldn't be moaned at by my parents and therefore interrupted. It didn't take me long to complete from where I was, I won't spoil it here but it was pretty awesome though I was a little disappointed but only a little. I saved the last claptrap I'd missed, got the trophy for that, found the speedway on youtube (it was where I suspected it to be) and did that for an easy trophy. I also started a save with each different character to get the trophies for each of their abilities. Done. Killed a skag like an Italian plumber, done. Basically, I've done every single trophy (excluding the DLC ones) until I get to level 40 and then level 50. Once I reach level 50 it's platinum times! Woot! Cannot wait, I NEED one just so I can have one...if that makes sense. After that I must go back to Resi 5 with Alex and we MUST plat that together. After all, it is "our game". And Gold edition is to be coming out at some point, which is MUST HAVE!!!! Cannot. Fucking. Wait.

Jenivere's Minion Meet!

I haven't written a blog in a while and since I just had the most epic of weekends, I don't have an excuse NOT to write one really! Though, with the amount of craziness, I'm not sure I could possibly write it all down here!

Friday

I started travelling at 3:30pm where I got the train. That was not plesent really as it was ram packed and there was an annoying school kid who was being disgusting and annoying. When he was gone I was joined by a group of older teenage boys who weren't any better than the kid! Typical...Anyway I put up with until I had to get off at Southampton central. Waited for 15 minutes, I spent this texting Moo and playing games on my mobile until my train came. Again, it was packed but I managed to find a sit next to a very nice man. We both sat there and read our books for the rest of the journey although I was so excited I really didn't feel like reading.

When I got there I rang Jen. No one else had arrived yet so she and her dad came and picked me up. Typically, I was on the wrong side, d'oh! So I crossed over the bridge and met Jen in her HUGE boots! We had hugs, I chucked my stuff in Jen's dads car and it was a short ride away from Jen's. No one else but me had arrived yet so no one was waiting for us on the doorstep! Jen took me up into her room and we patiently waited for others to arrive, looking on the PS3 and having a quick chat. The Jen got a phone call from Alex and Moo who were lost and just about surviving on a dying car battery. Matt was trying to direct Alex but all me and Jen could here was Alex going absolutly mental in the background, it was so funny. Do not ever lock that man up for a couple of hours...Me and Jen went outside to flag them both down as they came down the road. It was a sad sight that mazda...only one headlamp was actually on, the other one was almost dead, they battery was definatly going! Poor car! The guys were knackered/hyper (it's not a good combo trust me!) so we had quick hugs then hurried on inside out of the cold.

Next to arrive was Iain and Holly and then Martyn was last to arrive. We ordered some Domino's pizza and walked down the shops to get stuff to drink. When we came back the pizza was there so we grabbed it and went upstairs to eat, Alex was very over-protective over our BBQ pizza...nom nom nom! After that many fighting games occured, Iain was the Tekken 6 dark horse! There was mental 7-way Bomberman all I remember hearing was "Bomber! Bomber!" over and over again in a crazy Japanese voice...as the evening drew on Martyn was falling asleep next to Alex and Moo on the bed as four of us (Me, Holly, Iain and Matt) played LBP together. I was the zebra sackboy! We played one level, again and again because it was amazing. You had to run away from sharks which burst out of the water and tried to eat you! Eventually, I completed the level as the only one left...sharks 0...zebra sackboy 1.

Eventually at about 3am ish? We all went to bed. Jen had her own bed to sleep in, me and Alex took the downstairs double airbed in a small room and the others were upstairs together. That airbed...oh dear what a fail! We stayed up for a bit chatting and listening to Jen's dads snoring in the room above us! Whilst the others upstairs said they watched Family Guy. We were lying there when we heard this hissing sound...the bed was deflating! So Alex had to get up and turn on the air pump thingy except it sounded like a fucking vacuum cleaner! We paniced, worried that it had just woken up the entire house (though I was most worried about Bruce to be honest!), he shoved a pillow over it to muffle the sound which didn't make too much difference. Oopsy! After that we tried to get to sleep but it wasn't the most comfortable nights sleep we'd ever had!

Saturday

Alex and I heard someone was up so we got up to see who it was. Matt was in Jen's room with her so we sat with them before going to sort out some breakfast. More people started coming downstairs to eat and we watched takeshi's castle and another simular show but it was more serious. Those kind of shows are too damn addictive...
After all that we went upstairs and played some Rock band which was awesome times. I sucked at drumming but I rather enjoyed playing Bass. Think I'm getting better at the old pretend guitar! Great fun! Moo did a great job at singing along on the mic and me and Martyn had a sing along too. Yeah, it didn't sound *that* good! After that was more Tekken before we popped off to lunch. We were off to meet Allan Hayes from the OPM group, he was nervous but we were excited! We all got on the bus and arrived at Poole's town centre. We went to Yate's for lunch because it was two meals for £7. Win. Allan came in and found us straight away. We all budged up and let him sit with us and he joined us for lunch which was lucky because it made things even! We had a chat and ate, twas quite nice. Allan was absolutly lovely, he didn't seem nervous at all and we had a good chat about various games. It was funny when Alex asked me if he could have a bite out of my burger, I gave him a "if you must" look and he said in return "you can have a bit of my sausage if you like", neither of us could keep a straight face and I burst out laughing and Allan remarks "Ahh it's just like the facebook group!". Made me giggle.

Afterwards some of us wanted to do some quick shopping before hitting the arcade. We went into the 99p shop and oh my God it smelt awful. Like rotten eggs. Alex wanted to go to phones 4 u to see if he could upgrade his contract so I decided to go with him as I couldn't stand the smell and didn't want to buy anything. When we got there the guy he spoke too was one of the funniest and most honest shop assistants ever! He was really nice, Alex couldn't change his contract yet, they spoke about phones for a bit and then we left to go find the others. The gate was down at the train crossing and Alex joked about me running across just to see if I make it. I didn't of course and as we crossed the bridge the train went by and I said "I think I could have made that, mind you it would have been difficult to get my leg over the gate". I suggested he did a Chris-Sheva throw but then remarked he didn't have crazy big arms like Chris. His response to that was picking me up and swinging me round in a circle! I really did think he was going to throw me for a second! We couldn't find the others where we thought we would so I rang Martyn to find out that they were at Gamestation/Game.

Then we walked to the arcade. It wasn't much but Iain and Matt amazingly won a fiver between them! After that we went for a drink in Weatherspoons and talked for hours about various things before the manager started giving us funny looks (we weren't buying enough drinks) so we thought it was best we leave before we got asked to...
We walked to the bus station, said goodbye to Allan and headed off home in search of warmth. We spent the evening gaming, mostly rock band with 4 guitars! All your bass r belong to us. Epic. Dan, Jen's partner, came round. It was great to finally meet him he's an awesome guy and I'm so happy Jen has found someone who seems to perfect for her! She deserves it. Dan joined in in some rock band and Worms which was brilliant fun.
When it got a bit late we moved things downstairs for 8 way bomberman, bishi bashi and retro street fighter, oh and I got raped by Alex and Jen...that was...interesting to say the least! Gaming was mental at that time in the morning but the turbowine kept us going (which is the best drink in the world by the way!). After that we watched the Peter Serofinowicz show, the Christmas show. I love that show and not everyone had seen it but they all seemed to love it. "Somebody call nine hundred and ninety-nine!" fucking epic times. After that we went to bed, Martyn and Iain were in the small room downstairs this time as me and Alex needed a bed to sleep on after the night befores sleeping troubles! Alex was intent on watching Family Guy before we went to sleep though so there was a bit of an epic struggle getting the PS3 set up again in Jen's room! Oh dear, 4am failure! Iain came up to join us and then headed off to bed after the first episode. Me and Alex were the only ones left awake so we watched another but I could see Alex was falling asleep by the end of it though so I switched it off and I fell asleep straight away. Was shattered.

Sunday

Woke up (at the hand of Martyn texting us all) at 11:30! Oops! Guess I wasn't going to catch that 12:30 train then! Holly told us that we were all snoring last night, Alex said I sounded like a mouse...erm okay interesting. Eventually we hauled ourselves out of bed to have breakfast with everyone else downstairs. Iain got out his furry little eyepet out again (so cute) to show Dan whilst various people, packed and left. Alex and Matt were the first to go, then Martyn, then me, Holly and Iain left together because they were kindly giving me a lift to the station to catch a 2:30 train. Unfortunatly we got a bit lost and I didn't make the 2:30 train but I didn't have to wait long for the next one so it wasn't too bad. I listened to my music all the way home so the trip didn't seem to last as long. Go the station at about 5ish and rang my dad to come and pick me up, I would have walked but I didn't think about how heavy my bag was and how cold it was. It was funny waiting for him because a chav couple of kids came and stood next to me. They were having a raging arguement. The girl wanted to be left alone but the guy wouldn't quit (yet he would fucking spit out what he wanted to say). First he said she was a slag who slept with everything then he said he loved her. She called his mum dirty because she slept with a 14 year old...erm okay...the arguement continued with lying, swearing and stupidity. I was glad to get the fuck out of there and get in my dads car. I had a roast dinner waiting for me when I got home. Good times but I miss the minions already! Can't wait until next meet!

Out with the girlies

So. For the first time in forever I was going out clubbing, with Marnie and Yaz. I thought there was going to be more people but many people couldn't or didn't want to make it, so it was just the 3 of us. We eventually decided to go to Liquid, which although the most popular club in Pompey, I've never been to. We spent forever deciding what we were going to do though and it was raining, which was not ideal. Coats over heads it was! So we quickly got pissed at Marnie's, spoke about a few things. It made me realise, as much as I love Marn and Yaz. They don't support me, not as much as my uni friends at least. Maybe it's because the situation is different or something but it makes me apprciate my uni friends, sometimes, they understand me a lot better than my old friends do. Ahh well, I spose we have different friends for different reasons. No one is perfect. Especially not me.

There was many, many giggles though. Especially when Marnie told us she didn't know what the IRA was!!!!! Where has she been?! She thought it was short for Iraq, WTF! Ahh well, blissfully ignorant I suppose...

Before going to Liquid we went to V bar and had a few shots because they're £1 and they have a HUGE selection many with rude names such as blow job, clit teaser, etc. I had a silver bullet, mainly because it had butterscotch in, it was lush. I also had a very fruity sex on the beach, nom nom! We danced for a bit until Liquid opened and we headed there. It was 2 for 1 drinks and entry so that was a pretty good deal. It's really nice in there, very cool. Marnie rushed to the loo whilst me and Yaz queued up to hand our coats in, £1.60 to store them! Outrageous! Anyway, whilst in the queue there was this horrid foreign guy behind us. He was hitting on Yaz saying "very nice", etc. I told him she had a boyfriend she thanked me for the save but he couldn't leave her alone. He was touching her hair and I swear if he'd kept it up I would have done something. It was pissing her off which made me angry. He was talking in his native tongue to his mates and pointing at her. Rude bastard. Luckily we didn't bump into him again.

We got some drinks and sat down for a bit before getting up and dancing. The music wasn't bad but V bar had better music in my opinion. After dancing Marnie wanted to buy two more drinks (2 for 1) so we sat down again for a little while. Two guys came and sat down opposite us. All I could think was, oh here we go...the confident one, who'd made the move to come over, was chatting up Yaz. Though he asked for all our names, took our hands and kissed them. He was nice but it was a bit weird/cheesy. He asked us all what we were currently doing with our lives. Yaz and Marnie are of course still at college for their 3rd year. I said I was at uni, he asked which, I said Kingston, the response? "Fuckin' hell, brainy!". He then asked what I studying, I answered and got the same response again. After that he leaned into Marnie and said "My mate here thinks you are stunning". His mate remained quiet the entire time bless him. So yet again I'm with two way too gorgeous girls (even though Marn doesn't believe she is, no matter how many men she gets hitting on her) and I, of course am just the brainy one. Okay, so it's not so bad, being called brainy but that's how I've always felt. I've been "the smart one". It was probably the alcohol but it seemed to bother me for the rest of the night. It's a stupid thing to get caught up on but (especially with girls) things are always a competition, even if none of us want to compete. We do. It's hard to explain but easy enough to relate to the animal kingdom...

We all got tired way too quickly and ended up going home at about 1:30am. We got a taxi back. It was a good night overall, I just wish the music was better, we didn't have someone trying to constantly talk to us while we were dancing (there was a bloke bothering us on the dancefloor the entire night) and that we weren't all so tired. Still, it was nice to see Yaz and Marn again, especially Yaz.

Borderlands!

^This will be me and Alex on Saturday^

At last! After one week exactly (not including sunday) Borderlands and all the other post arrived! And boy was it worth the wait...luckily for the postman I was in the shower so he avoided my violent revenge, curses!

By this time I'd luckily already had breakfast and everything so I stuck the game in the machine, waited for all the various things to install for it and got stuck in. Out of the 4 characters I chose The Siren, predictable I know being female but she's pretty kick ass and there's not *much* between the four characters except their special abilities. Most people play as the Sniper so has a pet bird which will kill enemies which is pretty cool, he seems to be the most popular character. My character goes invisible and is very fast for a few seconds then releases a shock wave that hurts nearby enemies by a small amount. It's not amazing but it's pretty cool and I can upgrade that ability as I level up. I love the game. It's so addictive doing the missions, leveling up and collecting bigger and badder weapons. I played it all the way through until lunch when I stopped to have a bacon and fried egg roll with my dad and we watched South Park together. Then I was back on it!

I'm level 13 now, trying to catch up to Alex who is level 30! We're going to try and do a bit of co-op on Saturday as he wants my help and I don't think he's tried it yet. Iain has also ordered Borderlands so hurray for 3-ways! Should be good fun but I can see my parents getting in the way. Sigh. I cannot wait to get back to uni, I'm treated like a child here.

Johnboyy is back!

Well I say back but we actually heard from him today! He hasn't been able to contact us for weeks but now he's back on his old phone number and is definatly coming to Jen's good times indeed! It really did make my day. I am so relieved he is ok, though I knew he would be. It is one stress I can put to rest. That what today was about really, de-stressing. Phew.

Although one very annoying thing is still happening. A week. A whole 7 days without post. I was walking about today (had to go to the docs) and it's just very slushy ice out there. Okay, it's not nice but as long as you have decent boots you are fine. Most people have cleared their pathways or sections of the streets anyway. In fact, this evening we got our free paper through the door. If someone can deliver that, why can't the postman deliver? I hope things are better in Kingston, my assignment are due in tomorrow morning. I hope they arrived on time. They should have. I paniced myself this afternoon, I completly forgot to submit my work electronically, d'oh! So I did that as soon as I remembered. Oh dear, scary times.

Been playing so much Modern Warefare 2 today. I've leveled up quite a bit now which is good. I'm just desperate to get Borderlands and start leveling up that character...sigh.

Day 5 without post

Sigh. I was actually feeling postive today but no, I have to be let down again. Ahh well it gives me the chance to go through and get all the treasures on Drake's fortune in the mean time and earn some more trophies. I've been playing a lot of MW2 online too but I am starting to get bored of the maps, new ones soon please! Though I was very happy when I got the callsign "Companion Crate"!

Whilst searching for treasure of Uncharted, I enjoyed messing about with the character skins you can buy. "Doughnut Drake" made me laugh so much! it's basically Drake except obese, reminded of Bob from Tekken 6. I laughed a lot, especially at his voice (it's really deep). But I kinda missed his handsomeness and switched to Chloe which just freaked me out because she of course still had Drake's voice in the cutscences...creepy!!! I then settled with Jeff, Elena's cameraman because let's face it, he rocks! Which made my sister laugh because I sung "You've got to be so macho" but replacing macho with Jeff whilst shotting henchmen and clambering all over the place. I've had that song in my head all day you see so I'd thought I'd mix it up a bit. Yeah I know, I'm mental. Ahh well, never mind.

While playing Uncharted I spoke to Lewis who was knackered after his first work out, haha! He's decided to save money by not going to the gym but instead buy dumbells to weight lift with. I think he may be aching for a while. And yet again Lewis made the conversation awkward but flattering all the same, haha! Nah who am I kidding, I don't think it's possible for me to feel awkward! Well okay that's pushing it a bit but the conversations that I've had with Lewis, Matt, Rach and Ellie, ho ho dear! Ellie also informed me on how stupid Lewis had been. For a fair while now, he'd been complaining that his window was broken (though he never actually did anything about it). He's just got back to uni and "fixed" his window. Basically, he didn't know how to shut it, it was never broken, siiiigh. The guy makes me laugh :D Gotta love my uni friends! I do miss them, will be wonderous to see them when I get back! Will make it allll worth while when I get back, I hope. Not looking foward to starting knew modules though, my Journalism course scares me. Too much of, Oh surprise you gotta go out and do this now and you have a week KTHNXGO. Ahh well, I shall have to cope!

Snow and Ice

When I came down this morning for breakfast, I told my dad about how addictive Peggle was (thanks for that one Bossman!)so my dad said I should show it to him. So of course I did. After that my mum wanted to play the Polar Panic demo. She got addicted! And, for once in a long, long time for a while, my mum was a gamer again. I got a glimpse of this the other day when playing Uncharted 2 (she was watching) and she was helping me solve a puzzle, getting involved for once. But today she really did relive the old days, even if she wasn't as good as she used to be! Her reactions were a bit slow as she tried to crush the Santa's with ice blocks! Sounds mental and it is kind of. We were all shouting "push!" at her, next door must have thought someone was giving birth, haha! Nah, we weren't quite that loud.

After that we had an hour to get ready before Kelv and Sue came round, we'd agreed to go for a walk with them. So I dressed myself in four layers and a stupid pink hat. We went for a walk across the common to duck lake which was almost completely frozen over. There was ice everywhere which I hate walking on. I thought I would be okay in my walking boots but apparently they're not very good, they had NO grip on the ice whatsoever. I was sliding along the place so I had to keep hold of my sisters hand most of the time! It was a nice walk though, we had a fun time making snowballs then throwing them so the dog chased after them! Silly dog even tried to pick them up with his mouth!

But as lovely as it was, I was glad to get home and get warm. Amy invited me out to the pub tonight but I really don't feel like it as I have a headache. It's her and Adams' birthday on the 21st and I'm so glad that Amy said she'd be going out on the Thursday because, of course, I'm going to be busy the rest of that weekend! Phew! Wouldn't have wanted to miss out on their birthday. I have no idea what I'm going to buy them though! Might just buy them a drink for convenience sake. I haven't been shopping for an age and can't see myself going soon. Even if I did, I would have no idea about what to buy. Yes, drinks will have to do.

And so we reach the 4th day without post...

Yet again, Borderlands didn't turn up, nothing turned up. It's silly. We've had no more snow but it is meant to snow lightly tonight. So I spent this morning playing little big planet with my sister, she made another level whilst I was on the phone to Alex who is not having a good week. He's been working 56 hours this week the poor guy and is very tired. He's also worried about being able to go to Jen's meet though I think it will be fine. He always has problems with the minion meet up. He has a tough life does Alex. It sometimes upsets or annoys me I cannot do anything to help. I always want to help when I can't, sigh. And I'm not very good at making people feel better, I don't know what to say or do. I'm a bit useless really! But somehow people still seem to like me so I must do something right!

I really cannot wait for Jen's, it's going to be awesome fun! I pray everyone can come because we haven't had a full minion meet up for ages! It will be especially nice to see Martyn as he couldn't come to MCM in October. Though to be fair, I always miss everyone equally for different reasons. It's funny to think we're all friends, yes we all have things in common but we're all so different. Not only in age but in personality, I think we all add something to the group. It's great to have such a variety in friends, it makes a change from my usual mates. But also it's good to have friends who have the same interests as me as my mates from home just see me as a gaming geek sometimes, haha.

Anyway, enough of that. This evening has gone incredibly slowly. It was speed up for a brief period of time when Iain introduced me to a game called Peggle on the US store. It's brilliant! I hope it comes to the UK store, I would like to buy it!

Finished!

Haven't been blogging for the past couple of days. To be honest, not much has happened except for the amazing snow and everyone is bored of that already. Especially me, I want my Borderlands and the lazy arse post-people haven't been for 3 days now. It's getting ridiculous, the snow is slowly melting here now. I've seen people walking, driving and even on their bikes so there's no fucking excuse for them not to be working. They're just lazy. And it makes me very angry.

In other news, on my forth day of playing it, I completed Drake's fortune number 2! My God the last two levels were fustrating, partically the second to last chapter. But boy was it worth all the unnecessary stress! Such a good story and game, brilliant voice acting, amazing music, what more could you want? It's like being part of a film. I really hope they make a decent Uncharted film, that game deserves it.

Now what to do? Uncharted online? Get more of the trophies? Fallout 3? The list goes on...but what I really want to do is play Borderlands. If there is no post tomorrow it really will be getting ridiculous. In fact my dad posted all my uni coursework today, it's due in this day next week, it's going by special delivery which has cost me £6 so it should be okay. Funny how I'm getting charged even though it was my dad's idea to post it because he couldn't be bothered to drive me up there. So...I'm getting charged for saving him money? Makes fucking sense don't it. Sigh. I'm not in a good mood. I can't even play PS3 all day as my mum doesn't want me to. A bit stupid really when we have 4 films to watch today (mum/dad borrowed them from the library). Okay so watching films/TV is fine but actually using my brain to play video games is bad? Adults have no fucking logic I swear.

Violence in Video games-Nasty or Necessary?

My feature article for my Journalism course. Please comment on what you think, whether you think I should change anything,etc. Would love to know your opinions! And whether you think my title is any good or if you have a better idea...haha.

The doors open, you’re in an airport, you have a gun. The people you’re with open fire on innocent people. There are screams, cries. People are clinging onto each other, trying to help each other. There is blood everywhere. But what do you do? Do you indulge on the pleasure of mowing down innocent, unarmed people? Or do you force yourself to watch but not shoot anyone?

This is the decision players of Modern Warfare 2 are given in only the third level. Even before the games release, Modern Warfare has been all over the news but people are beginning to think the controversial level was put there just for publicity as players have the chance to skip the level without missing out on much. There is no “trophy” for completing this level and it has been argued it doesn’t add much to the storyline of the game.

An article on thesixthaxis.com website reported that two weeks before the release of MW2, footage of the game was “leaked” onto youtube. It was the airport level or “No Russian” as it’s also called, that was leaked in order to build more excitement over the game. Of course, Activision’s PR department fought back against these claims:

“The leaked footage was taken from a copy of game that was obtained illegally and is not representative of the overall gameplay experience in Modern Warfare 2. The game includes a plot involving a mission carried out by a Russian villain who wants to trigger a global war. In order to defeat him, the player infiltrates his inner circle. The scene is designed to evoke the atrocities of terrorism.”

It’s true; the level does make you think about how terrible it would be to be in that situation and perhaps about how you would actually react. However, a lot of gamers have said they have laughed whilst shooting down the civilians. Is this revealing their true character or is it just that we can easily distinguish between reality and the virtual world?

An interview on gamepro.com with the script writer of Modern Warfare 2, Jesse Stern, allowed the writers of the game to give their reasons of why that particular level was in the game. Jesse Stern explained:
“People have really strong reactions to the airport scene and it's been fascinating because we all wanted to make it something that would be upsetting, disturbing, but also something people relate to -- as terrifying as it is, you want to know. And there's a part of you that wants to know what it's like to be there because this is a human experience.”

Psychologists and sociologists however, have always argued violent video games and films significantly influence society and especially young people. Stacey Osborne, a sociology lecturer at Portsmouth College, said:
“I think the violence in video games is taken too far, and does promote a more violent culture, especially among youths. Games of the past did not contain as much violence. Violent games do have an impact on society. It dehumanises violence and makes it feel like a game, a competition.”
It can be argued that video games have always been violent, it’s just now the graphics are so realistic, we think of them as being real. The same can be said for films but you can’t be a part of a film as you can a video game. It’s the fact you’re interacting with the action that seems to make the difference to sociologists. Osborne continues to explain:
“Although, I do not think they impact everyone in the same way. Some people, especially youths see them as a harmless leisure pursuit. It might be older people who do not understand them. There are also a lot of moral panics related to violent games and videos e.g. Jamie Bulgers murder, which can cause the public to overreact.
Although it might be that youths have become desensitised to films, because of movies like saw, so they look for something different, something they can get involved in; video games.”

This brings up another problem, MW2 is rated 18. Yet a lot of youths get a hold of the game one way or another, whether they order it online or get their parents to buy it for them. It seems parents have a lack of interest in their children’s hobbies and therefore do not research about these games they are buying for their children before giving it to them. So is it down to individual responsibility rather than the gaming industry?

But I think we’re missing something here, the opinions of the people who really play these sorts of games. Members of the Official Playstation Magazine forum on Facebook spoke out about what they really thought of the “No Russian” level.

Christopher McDonald, 20, said: “I felt like Infinity Ward had really but me into the shoes of someone in that situation, and was thinking to myself that I didn't need to actually shoot anyone, but would have to for the sake of the mission. Immersion and all that...
”Second time round? Nothing. The shock factor had gone, and in the end I just looked at it as shock factor. Just another level in the game, that's sole purpose if any, was to kick things off.”

Jake Newman, 17, said: “I think the way it was hyped up also made it seem worse than it really was.”

Craig Venables, 18, said: “I wasn’t bothered at all. That kind of thing could happen in real life. So it didn’t bother me in the slightest.”

Diarmuid Durnin,18, said: “When you first start the level and the civilians look at you just as you open fire, that part actually scared the hell into me…it’s the sheer brutality of it...”

So there are mixed opinions between gamers themselves. Even gamers cannot agree if violence is necessary in games or not. But it would have been a sadder thing if we were never given the choice and the level or game was censored completely. In the words of Voltaire, “Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.”

7.

Today I decided to go and visit Alex instead of doing work. Yeah, I'm not doing very well on this whole "being good" part am I? I really should start my article soon but I'm waiting for my sociology teacher to get back to me (well, ex-teacher) and I hope Borderlands comes tomorrow. The snow is so thick here that I doubt the post-people will be working though...damn. It's annoying because I played Borderlands today with Alex and it was such good fun, looks like it will be addictive. He's also bought the zombie expansion pack which I shall steals off him when I get the game. Maybe if it doesn't come tomorrow it will be a good thing, I will be forced to do work! DUN DUN DAAAAAA!

Anyways I had a fab day and got home in Pompey at about 4pm. My dad picked me up at the station as it was freezing and did not fancy walking home even though I was pretty wrapped up. My dad was meant to be working tonight but couldn't go because of the predicted snow fall. And, for once, the weather people were right! It's snowing so thickly here it's amazing! My sister is hoping school will be cancelled. I hope it will still be here tomorrow so I can go for a walk in it, it looks lovely.

Anyway that is all for today I think. I am SO tired. Won't be staying up too late. I was falling asleep on the way back on the train! I hate doing that...especially on the way to Guildford. I get afraid I will wake up in London!

Hmm

It's differcult to decide what to blog about when I don't work anymore and all I'm doing at the moment is trying to motivate myself to write my feature article. In fact, I didn't do any work today (naughty, naughty!) but I did go out to get some fresh air with mum, dad and the dog. I checked my bank account and my student loan has gone in so I needed worry about that anymore.

When I got back I decided to try Uncharted 2 while my mum was having a blood test at the hospital and therefore wouldn't mind me stealing the TV for a bit. And wow is it a good game! I think I got up to chapter 4 before I had to stop because my dad had made me a bacon sandwich to eat. Mum had come back too, she was watching me play and seemed quite interested in it. A bit too much killing for her though I think! I have also decided that because everyone seems to have a man-crush on Drake (who wouldn't, he is hot) then I have a woman-crush on Chloe. She is kick ass! Far better than Elena in my opinion. Can't wait to continue playing the story, it's so good!

Kelv and Sooty are coming round tonight. Oh joy. No doubt dad and Kelv will bugger off to the pub and we'll be stuck watching some film with Sooty or her and mum will chat for hours about something boring. Sooty is nice but she thinks she knows everything about life/history/you name it. In fact she knows very little so I wish she wouldn't lecture me so much. Sigh. I'm not sure what's the point in lecturing anyway. Anything I need to learn, I will learn by myself. That is what living life is all about. But, no matter how many times I say this, no one listens!

Ahh well, hopefully Borderlands will come tomorrow. Think Alex is desperate for us to do some co-op together so he can show me the ropes as it were. Should be good fun :)

Last day of work

Last night Bex invited me, Alice and Marnie round because Bex would be going home the next evening. We spent the evening just chatting, eating and watching Mean Girls. It was a nice relaxed evening, it's just a shame I didn't get to see her more before she had to go back. Hopefully she will come visit me in Kingston.

When I got back I'd spent a large amount of the evening texting Alex. He phoned me at what must have been at least 1am. We chatted until 2:30. He's going to moan about his phone bill again I know it, haha!

Today was the last day of work. I was knackered *cough* I blame Alex *cough* but I was positive today because I felt so damn good about life, this year and of course, it was my last day. Things will hopefully be more relaxed for now on. My dad had given me his card in order to buy him the 250GB PS3 slim we had with Uncharted 2 and an online essentials pack which includes a headset, HDMI cable and finger triggers. It's a good deal because it was £280, making the extras free (he's going to sell them as he already has U2 it's just stuck in the machine but it's easy to open the blu ray drive). Plus with my staff discount it came to about £250! Not bad. I didn't really like the look of the slim but now that I have one it's rather cute. A bit like a baby PS3. My dad was thinking of repairing the old one but to be honest he'd probably end up having to re-do it every 2-3 months and he doesn't have the time and neither of us know much about electronics.

Bonus! I got to finish 45 minutes early and got a hot chocolate for the ride home, woo! I unwrapped the slim but couldn't be bothered to set it up myself and thought I'd better leave it for my dad so mum kindly let me use the one in the front room so I could play some MW2 online with Alex for a bit.

Tomorrow I need to try and start getting on with uni work. It's going to be hard but the sooner I get it done the sooner I can chill out and play games all day and not worry about anything. Hopefully the system restore will work and I can get all of my saves back. I don't know what I will do if that doesn't work...

Weird dreams

I woke up this morning to remembering a very, very odd dream. Basically it was about me sleeping with Matt!!! (No, not you Overton). I don't know what the fuck led me to dream about such things but Matt was dating Jen (again, wtf) and he came round my house and we had sex on the sofa...luckily my mind didn't think up the saucy datails of the affair, it was more of a before and after type thing. Anyway, Matt felt really bad about it afterwards and said "why do I always do this? I always screw things up." Yeah, sounded nothing like Matt at all! But I didn't care. I felt a bit like a prostitute because the the fact I didn't care. It was like the opposite of a dream I had the other night. It was again about sex which is very, very unusual for me to dream about. Unfortunatly this again was not a good sex dream but another creepy one. I dreamt about sleeping with Ralph (if Rach is reading I have no doubt she is bursting into laughter right now). Ralph is a mate at university but I don't really hang out with him or anything. I'm guessing my brain picked him because I was talking with him on facebook before I went to bed. But yeah, basically he was really nice to me so I slept with him but afterwards I really regreted it and felt really guilty. What the fuck is my mind trying to tell me, if anything? Dreams are probably just a load of random crap anyway.

Another dream I had recently involved everyone in a theme park being naked so maybe my hormones are just going crazy at this time of the month or something?! Haha! Mental.

It's my day off today. I could have gone for a walk with my mum, dad and my boss and his wife. It's my day off, I do not want to see Kelv yet again! I need a break from him. Plus it is absolutly freezing. I would rather be lazy today thanks. My sister is currently making a LBP level on my user. Should get me some sort of trophy when she publishes it :). She is better at this stuff than me anyway.

Currently listening to: Lady Gaga-Bad romance
"I want your love, love, love, love I want your love. I want your drama, the touch of your hand, I want your leather studded kiss in the sand".