So I'm back from the spinning class, I'm now off to bury my legs...IN MY BED!

Night, blog about this and my earlier swimming tomorrow (Cause I totally decided to do an hour's swimming before spinning, ugh).

Dear Duders.

Today is the day that I start my time at my local gym, for those unaware I wrote all about this in a previous blog that you can find here. So yes today was the first class, that class was Boxercise.

So I got their about 10 minutes early, I thought it best to get their early so I had time to find the lockers, toilets and take a quick look around. Upon arrival I was greeted by a nice women behind the counter who marked me in then showed me where the lockers was. I came back to find a few other early goers, one of which was a rather large man. I felt very happy seeing this rather large man, as it meant that this wasn't going to be a room full of muscle men. Although that would have been good to look at it would have made me very nervous as they would all run rings around me.

That man even talked to me for a bit, I then got talking with his wife(?) and already I felt comfortable. As time went on people piled up and there was quite a few people here, mostly females but 2 other males, one old one large. The rest were all middle age women, a few younger ones but none as young as me, again this made me feel quite comfortable. Then the teacher walked in and we got straight into it.

I found it very hard at first, as we started off with cardio, now don't get me wrong its not the "Oh this is so much effort" part of this that I wasn't to into. It was the "Oh my god what did she say, ok so left here right, oh crap forward, wait how many punches did she say?" I eventually got into it but it defiantly was not the best part about the lesson. That was just a warm up, soon after that the real lesson started.

We were split into teams, 1 and 2. People in group 1 had to wear boxing gloves while the second group had to get pads. We then got split into pairs, the person i got paired with was very friendly, always smiling and we ended up having a good natter during the class. As I work with 100% females and have done so for 3 years I know how to talk to women. The next 10 minutes was a series is different punches in time with the music, oh yes I forgot to mention a whole mess of music was played during the course, I don't really remember to many but it was all your standard techno/pop music. So there was 8 numbers, each number had a punch attached to it, so the first one was in order (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) which had us punching from high to low to jumping punch. It was a good workout, when we switched I found it a nice break.

Next we did an obstacle course of skipping then punching then running then punching then push ups then punching then squats then punching. It was a very good workout, my right arm is killing me and I write this, but hey thats probably a good thing. It was very fun, I ended up booking for the next two following sessions because I enjoyed it so much. All of the people in the group were friendly and there was no pointing and laughing whenever mistakes were made.

Look forward to another one of these tomorrow, spinning.

Dear Duders.

Sweep posted a Tweet the other day saying he had joined a Gym, because of that I was up till 1AM laying in bed thinking about joining a gym. I though to myself, I live so close (10 mins away) and I usually have about £800 spending money as I only pay £90 a month rent and thats it. So I went there today for a look around, only to walk out with unlimited access to all the classes and the equipment + Free Swimming and other classes in a different gym in a nearby town. I'm not sure if I was taken for a ride, but i feel very good about myself. I've had GYM equipment before, but there is hardly any motivation at home, if I work out in front of others then I will feel more inclined to keep going.

So I ended up paying £20 for this month because of a deal, and the rest of the months are £32. Its not a contract so I'm not forced into a year, I can back out 30 days in advance. I'm going there tonight for a fitness test, to see where I'm at, I'm guessing it's not going to be too great. Although I'm not fat at all I'm what people call Skinny fat. I have the outside of a average duder but inside I'm guessing I'm obese. I do literally no excerise other than walking to work and I eat crap most days. Hopefully this will encourage me to eat better to so eventually I'll be a healthier guy. Tomorrow night I'm got a Boxercise class and the next night I have a spinning class, whatever the hell that is I have no idea!

What do I want out of it? I'm not really looking to loose a lot of weight, maybe loose a bit of my gut but all I really care about is being a healthier individual. So yes, thank you oh glorious Hamburger.

Smell that, it's a blog.

I'm writing this while the credits to Battlefield Bad Company are playing, that marks the 34th game I have beaten this year (If you want to see the full list you can find it here). I wish I would have played this when it was recent, cause that game was just pure awesome sauce! It was really the first Battlefield game I have played for real, I really really enjoyed that game. Cool cast of characters, guns sound amazing and hey the story was actually good and not dull go kill this bad guy because he plans to bomb the world.

A few days ago I also wrapped up the Ratchet and Clank Trilogy, I was going to write a review but the site doesn't recognise it being out yet because its only in Eurppe. I was quite disappointed with that collection, so many small problems that draw your attention from the games. Which is sad because the games themselves are some of my favourite games, Ratchet and Clank 3 especially.

I've also been going through Beat the Beat this weekend, it looks a lot harder than it is. Even from the quick look I still looked at it and thought "Oh this just looks easy, why is he sucking so bad". But man that gets hard, that Monkey Watch one is my enemy.

Aside from that not much else, been messing with the new Minecraft update but its all kind of laggy right now. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to play next, it's a toss up between Assassins Creed 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2, which one sounds better to you?

I'm off, those cookies are not going to eat themselves.

I loved physical media, in ways I still do but I used to like it a lot more than I do now. For example last summer I got Burnout Paradise for free from being a member of Playstation +, after playing it for about 10 hours and realising how awesome that game is, I went and bought a copy of it from the shop. About 4 years ago I got my first iPhone, I didn't have too many CD's but I was very happy to get rid of them, now I had all my music in one place instead of on a wall. Last Fall I got myself a Kindle, before owning one I was unsure whether I would be able to enjoy having a Kindle and not having a wall full of books. Now even though I haven't used it as much as I should be I don't think I could go back to walking into a bookstore and buying one, the Kindle just makes everything so much easier in so many ways. In January this year, Netflix was launched into the UK, this was the one I was most worried about because I had such a huge collection of DVD box sets and Blu Rays, but the first month was free so I thought why not.

8 Months later, I can happily say Netflix is one of the best purchasing decisions I have made in quite a while. I have watched some top quality shows that I never would have watched before because of the price of admission, I have also been able to clear my shelves up and sell a bunch of my old DVD's because there on Netflix. I was amazed at how quick I was to just get rid of most of my collection, since I acquired it I haven't really bought any DVD's and Blu Rays, where as before I would get at least 1 a week. So what have I been watching, well here we go!

Breaking Bad - Breaking Bad was the main reason I got Netflix in the first place, it was at the time all the rage on the Tested Podcast and on the internet in general. It was not showing on UK TV and was not in shops in the UK in disc form either. So it was the first thing I watched, at the time the first two seasons were only available, a few months ago they added the third season and I happily gobbled up that. Breaking Bad is probably the best currently airing TV show, I didn't think I'd like it as it seemed quite adult. But I quickly got over that and really enjoyed the show, I loved the character relationship between Walt and Jesse. I pity Walt and all the situations he got himself into, I liked the comedic stylings of the first season and then loved the darker shit it got into later on. The way the third season ended has left me in suspense ever since, I'm waiting for Netflix to add that so I can go and find out what happens.

Skins - After watching BB I decided I should watch something British, so I looked around and found Skins, I never caught this as I spent my TV time watching Shameless instead of Skins. I watched the entire of Skins back to back for a few months, this show was quite long and it did drag for a bit. I really didn't like Effe, she seemed to drag everything down and at a point even made me feel quite depressed, but overall a great show. Very British and had some very emotional moments, the end of the second gen actually made me tear up a bit.

Queer as Folk - Now I know what your thinking, "Oh just because he is Gay he has to go and watch a gay show!" Well thats actually what I wanted, hot gay guys! I was surprised at how this wasn't just a TV Porno, but rather a time capsule at what gay dating used to be liked before the iPhone era. It was very interesting and had a nice couple at the centre of it all.

Super Size Me - Now this was the first non TV show I watched, I watched it in one sitting and found it very interesting. I tend to avoid Fast Food now and only let myself go there monthly, this was a big eye opener.

Inbetweeners - I was never a huge TV guy so I missed a whole mess of shows, this was one of them. I did really enjoy this show though, I couldn't watch to much of this show at once (As I found out when I watched the movie) and the story never really went anywhere. But it was a funny show that I may end up watching over again.

Outnumbered - A very funny family based comedy that sadly just has one Series on Netflix, waiting for the rest to be added.

The Wizard - I was babysitting, there was nothing to do, I stuck on Netflix and found myself watching The Wizard. It was such a cheesy and stupid movie, yet I loved every part of it, recommend.

Gavin and Stacey - Another missed UK hit, this one was actually very funny though, laugh out loud parts. I even found myself stealing a few catch phrases from some of the characters in the show, despite not being Welsh.

Heroes - I have just today watched the last episode of this, out of all of the shows I have watched this I think is my favourite. It may just be because I just finished it, but i found myself glued to the screen whenever I watched this, what this show does really well is juggling multiple story lines at the same time, then getting them to seamlessly intertwine with one and other. I found myself in love with the character of Hiro almost immediately, a comic book style hero in the real world. The main villain, Slyer, was fantastic, his treachery and delivery and outright evilness was outstanding to watch througout. I really really enjoyed this show.

What to watch now? I am unsure, I was thinking of either watching an old cartoon i used to watch or if not that, jumping into another missed hit, LOST.

I came home from work in a good mood today, happy for the weekend to begin. I am getting towards the end of my current game (The Amazing Spider-Man) so am looking for a new game to play. I was about to pick a game out of my backlog but i decided first to see the perks for PS+ this month, I looked through and saw a discount from this new game called Rainbow Moon. It wasn't that big of a discount but it was enough to make me to not really think about it and go yeah why not. I knew nothing about this game and it was the first I'd even heard about it, for those unaware its a RPG that has a turn based battle system. It took a little while to download but then I was straight in, I was not expecting this game to actually be this good.

I've played it for just over an hour and I am really enjoying my time with it, they set up the story rather quickly. Your a adventurer named Baldren (Or whatever you want, like The Legend of Zelda games) and you get pushed into a portal or something by this evil dude. Once in you discover you are in Rainbow Moon, you have also unleashed a whole mess of monsters into the peaceful world, so now you need to find a way home and save Rainbow Moon. Honestly the story is not that great, but the characters I've met have been nice and well written, what you would expect a standard RPG background character to say.

So the game has two parts

• Walking around talking to people and exploring the areas.
• Turn based combat,

Now the walking around bit is what you would expect, theres no jumping or anything complicated just walking around. You can talk to NPC's who will give you quests, trade with you, heal you or just some random banter. Around the environment you will find treasure chests full of goodies and then you will find enemies, which is where the combat comes in. The combat at first is quite easy, It was just me against one or two of these flying imp creatures. As well as turn based it also works on a grid system, I haven't played anything like it but I think this is what Fire Emblem is like. For example say you have one turn, you can either move or attack or defend or use an item or escape. Where I am in the game you need to be one block away from an enemy to attack, so you need to move to get closer to an enemy and then attack. Later in the game the enemies get a lot tougher, when they introduced these bee things that took away double the damage than the imps.

Thats where the points come into play, basically when you beat enemies you will get a certain amount of these orbs. With these orbs you can dump them into certain attributes, Strength, Defence, Speed, Luck, Hit points and Mana points. Its weird how its structured though because to increase one strength you need 4 orbs but to increase one defence you need 10 orbs. The game recommends early on you increase strength and speed, I did just that and I'm very glad i did. I'm now one shotting those fucking bees! The game also has a fantastic art style, it reminded me slightly of Muramasa and an old Final Fantasy game. I think it's all hand drawn, if so it really shows. The game has an equally awesome soundtrack, the battle theme especially is just amazing and reminded me of a game I have never even played, Chrono Trigger.

So yes this game is great, it's out now in Europe and comes out in the US on the 10th? Oh and did I mention this game is £9.99, (Even cheaper with PS+ Discount!)

I was hyped for this game.

This game was announced early last year, I knew as soon as I heard about it that my 3DS would be all worth it. I'm a huge Metal Gear Solid fan, I've played all of them multiple times, I know what characters are going to say before they have even said it. So as you would get I was really interested in this game, seeing as there was nothing else out for the system I was more excited. So the months went by and then wait hold on a second, Konami announce a HD Collection that will include MGS3, MGS2 and MGSPW. Which as its a HD Collection would be cheaper than the 3DS game that only features one of them.

This seemed at the time a crazy happening in so many ways, Konami in that one second killed a lot of the sales for the 3DS game, I mean why buy a game which will not look at good and probably won't play as good for the same price as this other better looking game to play on your TV that by the way consists of three games. Now I'm not a business man, but the clever thing would have been to release the 3DS game, then a few months later announce the HD Collection. But then Konami proceeded to delay the 3DS game so it will come out after the HD Collection, by that point people who wanted to play MGS3 would have got the better version and then not really want to play it again anyway.

So at that point I decided to not get the game, even before it had come out as it got delayed until March. The HD Collection in Europe also got delayed until February, so I was at a MGS loss over here. So I enjoyed the HD Collection reliving my fond nostalgia for the games, as well as experiencing Peace Walker for the first time. March rolled around and hey guess what, it didn't get too many great reviews. Reviewers mention it had big frame rate issues, low on content in comparison to the HD Collection and the controls were fucked up without the Circle Pad Pro. All of this in combination with me just having played through the HD Collection back to back, as well as me having a huge lack of interest in the 3DS itself (Even considering selling it I did not get it.

Recently I gave my 3DS a second chance, the reason I never got into the 3DS was because there was zero games I had for it that interested me much. I beat Super Mario 3D Land and played some Mario Kart but other than that it was a wasteland. So a couple of weeks ago I bought myself Kid Icarus Uprising, the game was great and I've played a fair amount of it now. That was all it took, I then regretted not getting into the 3DS sooner, I needed more though. I went out the next day and bought myself Mario Tennis Open, enjoying that way more than other people seem to be too. I then went on the eShop and picked up Pullblox and Mighty Switch Force and Super Mario Land 2 The 6 Golden Coins.

Today is payday, I have a fat wad of cash just waiting to be spent in my bank account, I just beat Lollipop Chainsaw too so I felt I needed a treat. Next week will be a big game week though I told myself, what with a new Spider-Man, Harvest Moon and Ratchet and Clank HD Collection coming out there was nothing out this week. I looked in the sales and I saw the Snake Eater 3DS Game just sitting their, I thought what the hell not and here we go. I've played a fair amount, up until the start of Operation Snake Eater, so far it's going alright. The cutscenes look great and some parts of that game seem like they were made to be 3D, that fucking cigar comes right at you! The gameplay itself is good, I have the Analog Pro thing and I think it works fine with that. The bottom screen makes managing items easier and quicker, it can be quite finiky and sometimes too responsive but it does alright from what other reviewers said to be atrocious.

So after all this time I am happy to say its great, I know there are a lot of people who decided not to buy this because of the HD Collection and the poor reviews, but if you have the money then I recommend it. Its cheaper now and the 3D Effects work really well. Oh and I should probably say that the actual game, is fucking amazing, no shit.

I set out this year to a different goal than last year, because I didn't really have a goal last year. I just kind of played what I wanted, this time last year I had beat about 4 games as I just spent my time fucking around with Black Ops. This year I took a long hard look at the games I own, I looked at how many games I had in my collection and decided I really need to start playing some of these!

So thats what I have done, I separated my completed games from uncompleted games, so as to make myself want to complete more games so I can add them to the completed shelf. I have also not been buying every new release that came about, where as last year any game I had the slightest bit of interest in i would just buy it and then play it months later or it would just never get played. Since January I have beaten 20 games, I am very proud with my accomplishments and wish to show them off.

	1. Brütal Legend This was a fantastic first game to beat this year, I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It was sat on my shelf for a year and I finally got round to it this year, I loved the RTS style missions and the soundtrack was great. Although I had a terrible time on the last mission in the game, it took me a day to beat it which ultimately made the end experience not as good. 4/5
	2. Killzone 3 It was a fun game, it wasn't an amazing game and I didn't really touch the multiplayer, but it looks nice and plays nice. 4/5
	3. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine This was a simple weekend game, very simple mechanics but don't let that make you think it's a bad thing, loved my time with it. 4/5
	4. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection I had such a cool time with this collection. I am a huge MGS nerd and I have played MGS1, MGS2, MGS3 loads of times. So I finished MGS2 and MGS3 over the course of two weekends being reminded how awesome those games are. I had not played MGS Peace Walker before though, I was skeptical at first but ended up really enjoying my time with the game, it has a fantastic story and was the most I had been engaged with the gameplay from a MGS game before. 5/5
	5. The Darkness II I was surprised this was happening, I mean I personally enjoyed the first Darkness but I assumed nobody else did due to the lack of a sequel. But here we are 2012 and we have a Darkness game, I am happy to say I had a great time with it. It was kinda short and at times very hard, but it had a nice style and I enjoyed the gameplay and Mike Patton was back in action! 4/5
	6. 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand YO FIFTY! 3/5
	7. Journey flOw was one of the first PSN games I got, I was one of the people that liked flOw. Then Flower came out and I really liked that too and knew I had found a company I could follow. Journey came out and man it blew me away, I was speechless during the end scene and I really felt then it was one of the best games I had ever played. 5/5
	8. Mass Effect 3 I had the ending spoiled to me from my sister who beat it before me, but despite that I still was happy playing through the game and was happy with the ending. The game itself was also a blast and at times it gets very emotional. 5/5
	9. Driver: San Francisco It has a slow start but when it ramps up it ramps the fuck up, and how about that boss battle! 4/5
	10. Darksiders I've never been a huge fan of Zelda games, but Darksiders really does improve a lot of the little things that Zelda does poorly, got me excited for Darksiders 2. 4/5
	11. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Not as good as the original and it felt like nothing really happened, I don't think the first one really needed a sequel. 2/5
	12. Vanquish Another weekend game, I did burn out on the game towards the end and I really thought they could have used a few new environments but all in all nice simple game. 3/5
	13. Twisted Metal I never played the original games but was glad I took the risk as I enjoyed myself with both the single player and multiplayer. 4/5
	14. Grand Theft Auto IV So I never beat this when it came out, I spent far to much time on the multiplayer and never got past the first two missions. The driving really put me off and I just never played it. I decided I should just play through it this year because I want to play the next on, so I buckled down and spent a good few weeks playing through it. I feel bad now that I never gave it a chance before, I had a good time. 4/5
	15. Minecraft I beat that fucking dragon! 5/5
	16. Max Payne 3 Some people seem to not like this game, but screw them I really had a good time with this game. I hadn't even played any of the original games and I still loved this game. 5/5
	17. Asura's Wrath You should play this game! 5/5
	18. Syndicate Had a good time with it, liked the chip mechanics and the sound was great as were the visuals. Story didn't really grab me and I had no idea what was going on up until I met that girl at the end of the game. 4/5
	19. Sorcery A game that I really enjoyed and a game that I doubt anybody else will ever play, such a shame. 4/5
	20. Prince of Persia Totally not what I was expecting, despite a few frustrating parts was pleasantly surprised at the good mixture of combat, platforming and story. 4/5

I will show you this list again during my 2012 Awards,hopefully by then I would have completed 20 more. How many games have you beaten this year?

This month has been a crazy time for me, I did something this month which I never thought I would ever do. So I did kind of buy a Minecraft server, when I say buy I mean rent a Minecraft Server, which is just insanse. Minecraft has had such a weird effect on my life since I started playing it about a year ago, ever since then I have been playing it quite a fair bit. There would be times when whole weekends would just get lost to Minecraft, since I was just messing on single player I would spend a whole day doing something, then get bored and then feel bad that I spent all day doing pretty much nothing. I felt bad that I wasn't playing my huge backlog of games and doing something.

So yes I bought my own server this month, it has been quite a experience and a good one at that. But I feel that the server has just taken over my life, especially my internet time, I rarely go on the forums that much anymore which is sad. Something I hope to get back into as I really do miss it. I'm thinking I will be spending less time on the server, I've built enough so others can have fun building, I'll probably limit myself to checking once in the morning and evening just to make sure everything is cool.

I haven't been sitting around doing that all the time though, this month I have finished GTAIV, Max Payne 3 and Asuras Wrath. GTAIV was an amazing game, I never really liked it when it came out, but once I got over the controls I started to enjoy the game and despite it have taken 4 years I am happy to have played it. Max Payne 3 was a game I never thought I was going to get, I never planned on getting it as I had no nostalgia for the originals. In fact I was going to buy Diablo III, but that was out of stock so instead of going home with nothing I bought Max Payne 3. It is a really cool game that I really enjoyed, more than some people it seems but I really did have a good time. I even still play the multiplayer at times, which is rare for me unless its a Call of Duty game or Uncharted.

And then their is Asuras Wrath, which honestly right now is my favourite game of 2012 so far. I can't really say anything else than that game is fucking insane and off the rails and thats why I like it. I really can't recommend that game enough to you all, It is not like anything you have seen/played before and its worth a buy. It's probably a lot cheaper now anyway and all of the DLC is out so I'd go for it.

I also just ordered the GBA version of Doom, that is all.

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My Minecraft Server - http://www.giantbomb.com/minecraft/61-30475/my-minecraft-server/35-547095/

There is a cool new Giant Bomb App in the app store, the spiritual successor to the Whiskey Media Video Buddy the Giant Bomb Video Buddy is the best way to watch Giant Bomb videos on your iOS devices. It easily keeps track of what you are watching and lets you download videos for later use, please watch my video review and go and download it.

I didn't mention that soup_menu is the guy who made it.