Damn, what do I even say? Cav Scout Training complete! The past 17 weeks have been rough. The culmination of homesickness and physical and mental fatigue surly takes its toll almost immediately. I'm not going to make this too long, just ask me any questions you have. It's time for some R & R before my Airborne training.

Now its time for a cold beverage, some Modern Warfare, and catch up on some Zs'   

So quick blog. I've completed Army Cavalry Scout Basic Training. I'm on Family weekend were I'm allowed off Basic until Sunday evening, my God i'm eating tons of snacks and doing other things I wouldn't dream about in Basic. Lord, I'm sitting on a coach for the first time in 3 months!  
 
So game stuff...Well, haven't played anything since Battlefield 1943 came out and I'm spending the weekend with my girlfriend. I went to the Best buy and i was shocked at stuff you guys would consider old news. Slim PS3's, Elite 360s' at $300, Red and Blue Dual Shock 3s, and tons more!  Can you guys update me on more? 
 
So Basic Training, well, here i go... 
 
Vinny wrote me a letter, that was cool. 
I shot M203 Grenade Launchers, AT-4 Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher, and .50 cal. Honestly, you'd be surprised that larger weapons are easier to shoot (in my opinion) than smaller weapons like the M4. Like the .50 cal has nearly no recoil.  
 
-Urban Ops is fun. Room clearing, town invasions, and so on.  
 -Lack of snacks will do weird shit to you, but the Army does feed you well 
-Yes, Basic is hard as shit.   
 
But other than that, I suggest it to anyone who needs something to do, and isn't afraid of bullets. Our Sergeants have all been shot, and blown up by IEDs multiple times. They just tell us the only way to survive as Cavalry is to say "Fuck dying, I don't care" It's some real shit.  
 
I haven't watched the news for the past 10 weeks, but hopefully the media is being honest about this war...we're losing, badly. A lot of my battle buddies are dying and getting hurt out there. The General in charge of Afghanistan told Obama last week that we already lost, and anyone that can shoot needs to be on the battlefield yesterday. So i should deploy soon.  
 
But I'll survive, no problem. My fucking armor can stop an AK47 so I just gotta stay away from explosions. I mean, it's weird talking about it lightly but It's now my job to go out and kill the enemy. Also, I have to return to become a videogame journalist. That's half the reason i joined, I just need to get an English major first.  
 
Please feel free to ask about anything involving training, Scouts, military, or whatever and I'll answer it to the best of my ability. I know a lot of you were debating on joining. Just know what you're getting into if you wanted to be combat arms.  I graduate November 12th, two days after Modern Warfare 2. I'll update asap! Now back to Kotaku to update myself on what the hell been going on the last few weeks. 
 
If anything I'm more afraid of the extreme heat... 
 
Steven 

Preparing to dedicate your life to videogames is insane and probably considered a “waste of time” by the average person. Frankly, I don't know if I would be happy doing anything but. I've always wanted to be in the games business professionally since I was very young, but never really wanted to make games. Since watching Judgment Day on G4, and reading my first GamePro (RE3 cover) when I was about 12 I figured “why not talk about games for a living?”

Ever since, I've been listening to podcasts, reading reviews, and gathering all the information I can about the field. My family has been very supportive (my mom is playing Bioshock downstairs as I write this), but that doesn't take away from the reality that the industry is fucking hard to get in. My next step is building a plan, and well, here it is...

Play games, bro!

I wanted to play almost everything that comes out. I want to establish a good frame of reference on what games are, and what separates the good and bad ones. Getting a job at Gamestop assisted both this, and in teaching me about how average people thinks about games. But I don't work for Satin anymore, so that's over.

Spend the last 2 years of High School in Tech School

I was very fortunate to get into a local trade school which also serves as a high school. I attended their Broadcasting program, and tried to learn the fundamentals of Final Cut Pro and green screen. Unfortunately, I had a very unqualified teacher. In short, this step was a fail.

Write Reviews

I've written about 100 reviews in all, and while non are professional quality, I feel I'm getting there.

College

The goal here to to obtain a bachelor's in a Broadcasting and English course. I can also take classes in media criticism, and Japanese for possible translations in the future.

There's a major problem with my last step...college is fucking expensive! Going to the school of my choice, while taking classes that are necessary will cost over $40,000. What the fuck!? Relying on average minimum-wage jobs in this day and age is a bad mistake. What if the pay isn't good? What if I do something stupid by mistake and get fired? I'm also not relying on some middle-aged asshole to give me an appropriate amount of hours, also I want to go out and have a beer once in awhile. I can't be blamed for that, can I?

I'm sitting at school one day, and a recruiter comes in for the Marines. I talked with him and was disappointed by the low-amount of money they make and the lack of college/GI money. Fuck that. An Army recruiter comes a week later, and I'm just thinking “God wants me to join the military, doesn't he?” This recruiter makes me insane promises of tuition being payed for by Uncle Sam. I spend two days checking this stuff out, and less than a week later I'm taking the oath.

I decided to be a Calvary Scout (description video in link if you're curious), and get the sweet $20,000 enlistment bonus...that'll get taxed to hell, but whatever. I also already have a deployment, March 5 2010. However, that's in the air unfortunately. I really want to be deployed fresh out of training while I'm in the best shape, and have it not interfere with future schooling. Curiosity of modern combat also played a role in my job choice, and hey, if I'm going to be writing at a desk for the rest of my life, I should do something a little more active first.

After my training ends in November, I'll look into Airborne training if I qualify. An extra $3,000 and the excitement of jumping out of a plane sounds awesome. That's

 probably the 15 year old kid inside me, but whatever. Training only takes three weeks!

Being a videogame journalist is the only thing I want to do professionally, however, I have to live in reality and understand it's a hard job to get. If it truly never works out, I'll always have a job in the Army. Maybe I can save some lives while I'm at it, who knows? Hopefully I can be on the other side of the fence one day and serving you guys news and reviews.

I'm leaving Monday for Fort Knox and will be there until Thanksgiving. The crappy part is little outside contact, meaning no Internet, no Giantbomb. Maybe one of you can collect important news and review scores for me? I'll have a lot to catch up on later this year. I'll miss out on a lot of great games coming out, I'm probably going to spend three weeks in a dark room playing catch-up early December. A teacher asked me, "is videogame journalism THAT important!?". I replied, "Of course, besides I'll hopefully live a exciting life while I'm at it." 

San Francisco is a fantastic city, and after my week in the bay area I felt like I saw a good portion of what the city has to offer and walked away with a good impression. While ultimately a tourist experience (aquarium, tours, bike rides, Alcatraz) I thought a visit before I moved to the city would do my girlfriend and I a great service. We stayed at the Radison hotel in Fisherman's Wharf, and spent the first two days merely walking around town and understanding how the city worked. After we got ahold of the cable car system, we explored the majority of the majors sections of town. Day 3-5 mainly revolved tourist deals. I did enjoy it, however. 

I have little right to tell others how to write, considering I have yet to obtain an English major. However, the typical user reviews are less desirable, and the good ones are too long. The problem is a lot user reviews fail due to easily fixable problems.

1. Avoid repetition of simple wording, or phrases.

Too many times I see people constantly throwing out phrases like “good graphics”, and “innovative”. Without elaborating on what that actually means.

2. No referencing other users, sites, and so on.

Some people may disagree, but it's ok to (if you minimize your usage of this) quote a professional reviewer. Quite possibly one of the most annoying bad habits in user reviews is people saying things like “OMG, Ign gave this game a horrible score of 7.5, tat is sooo wrong!!” Reviews aren't the venue for criticism of individuals whom have nothing to do with the game you're writing about. Some case by case bases may provide an opportunity to being up scores from other outlets, but typically it's a big no-no.

3. Avoid using a lot of Personal Pronouns.

“You should buy this game because I enjoyed it, and Snake is awesome” can be reworded. The use of personal pronouns is a current controversy in gaming journalism, but is slowly being killed off. Publications like Nintendo Power and OXM use them, but still manage to write about the game efficiently. You could argue ether side regarding the use of “I” or “you”, and while they do have their use people tend to overuse them. Try not to sound like a robot, throw in some personality constructively. 

4. You're not a professional/Length Issues

A lot of talented community reviewers fall into the trap of explaining the entire game, giving out information that's common knowledge, and writing a 1,500 word review. Garnett Lee (1up.com) talks a lot about the “1 paragraph review future”, while that may be extreme 1up.com nails the length of a review. It's not laziness, I merely don't have time to read a 7 page review from Ign.

5. Spelling

Everyone has spell check, use it. Write your review in a word processor such as Office, or Word. Firefox is a free browser that has a automatic spell check that'll also help in forums. 

6. Closing

This is a personal beef. Stop beginning your last paragraph with "Overall", or "at the end of the day". Don't rely on specific phrases for closure, just write a closing paragraph summarizing your overall opinion. 

I write my reviews assuming the reader knows about the game's basics. I rarely write beyond 600 words, in order to stay concise, and not to waste your time. I quickly get through the game's main strengths and weaknesses, and once I let the reader know if I thought the game was good or bad, I explain the main problem with the game in more detail, or the major strength if I recommend the title. Ultimately I'm answering a yes or no question, should I buy this game? People would rather spend time playing games than reading about them. Remember, you're not curing cancer, you're review a product that's supposed to be fun. Don't get artsy, write a novel to use those skills, and you're not starting a system wars argument, go to another sites forums for that.