The year my blog ended in June.

Wow, my lack of activity is depressing. Not real-life activity; that's what's been distracting me. Taking Media Studies, making Art Design difficult for oneself, and sorting out one's future seem to drain you of any will to live. This will however, is easily replenished by playing video games. So basically that's where all my attention has been going.

I kept seeing my blog and feeling a twinge of sadness at how bare it's becoming, but the promise of playing MAG after so much stress from education lured me elsewhere. So basically, June flew by without a single update. So I'm making this post now to make sure the blog doesn't die. There's not really been anything exciting to update on - I've decided to stay in school, MW2's awesomeness faded away dramatically and The Ghost Inside remain at the forefront of my charts. Besides them, sanity-keeping artists are as follows...

Those of you who aren't hardcore savvy won't have noticed this post's nod to Misery Signals through it's title. Though my level of interest in them comes and goes, I never forget how much of a complete hardcore/metal masterpiece their album Controller is. I just don't get how their earlier material is so widely-praised over this album. Unlike the previous two, it's the only album of theirs I believe to be consistent, with each song playing a vital part to the album as a whole. It's one of the only albums I can claim to be perfect from start to end. An atmospheric journey of sorts, from the chaotic prog-metal laden beginning all the way to the beautiful, crushing end. Everything they do with metalcore is so original, they manage to take such a bland, despised and marketable genre and perform it with a hugely creative flair, reaching artistic levels unmatched in the hardcore/metal scene.

A great find recently has been Periphery, new to the metal scene with their debut self-titled being a month or so old. They made their name on guitar forums and are one of the bands to pioneer the genre of "Djent", a term given to the technical and complex style of metal they play. Perhaps not one for the true metal fans; they do tend to throw in a bit of metalcore chug and the clean vocals have been slandered left, right and centre. Though adding a feeling of accessibility for non-metal fans, I think these aspects perfectly compliment their music, never throwing it's progressive nature off-balance.

Another great find, and possibly one of the greatest I will ever document, is that of Counterparts and their new album Prophets. Donning the 2-step-posi-brocore-style hardcore/metal banner, they proceed to wave it upon the pole of melodic beauty. It's kind of like that A Day to Remember gimmick of "hey, let's get cliche chugga-chugga hardcore and make it melodic and catchy" except the Counterparts method isn't a complete disaster, it's the opposite - impressively fresh and wildly successful. They're a newcomer in that circle of melodic hardcore, housing bands such The Ghost Inside, For the Fallen Dreams and Misery Signals, and just like the Canadians they are they had to go and, dare I say, beat the Americans at their own game of being awesome.

Gaming wise, I totally dropped Modern Warfare 2. That game is absolutely awful. Everything is overpowered to combat something else that's overpowered. And you don't even get the overpowered stuff unless you grind your way through agonizing matches for hours. Don't get me wrong; Campaign mode was actually pretty good, and I've heard the co-op mode is better. But Multiplayer... what a disaster. 3/4 times I was killed, it was either some guy zipping around at the speed of light blasting me in the face wielding DUAL SHOTGUNS (seem unlikely to anybody else?), some guy camping in a corner or on a roof with a heartbeat sensor, waiting for people to run by so as he could kill them with the cheapest Assault Rifle, or the best yet - some guy's Helicopter or Harrier raining missiles and turret fire upon my head (these are Killstreak rewards - given to people kicking your ass to help them kick your ass even harder). Everything in this game is ass-backwards and hardly agreeable for an FPS game.

And so I gladly returned to waste away hours of my life playing MAG - which, by the way, has had it's first DLC released by Zipper. Some heavier armor (that's saved my skin numerous times) and a new game mode, Interdiction. Sadly, not many people have bought it yet/play it so I've only managed to squeeze in several games of the newly abbreviated "Int", and after long queue waits too. I must say though, Interdiction is some of the most chaotic fun I've ever had in gaming. Sovot Motorway, my personal preference of the 3 maps, is probably my favorite MAG map to date. You'll find yourself zipping in-and-out of bombed-out apartment blocks and scaling your way around the motorway itself in a dusty, arid middle-eastern style setting. These maps are not small either - if you lose your APC it can be a lengthy half-a-kilometer sprint to your objective. Well done Zipper, a little late and unsuccessful delivering to the community but I know myself and many others appreciate it.

I've also recently gotten SOCOM Confrontation, but I don't have a mic and as a result haven't experienced it to it's fullest, so I won't say anything yet. I've been spending spare time at school on the computers, regularly checking The Oatmeal and Ctrl+Alt+Del, good for a laugh and to pass the time. Sorry to all the readers *cough* who are disappointed in a lack of updates. This ramble hopefully makes up for it.