Rage Against The Machine's seminal 90's rap/metal anthem "Killing In The Name" was announced Christmas Number one here in the UK.

For those who voted, well done! I bought it three times in the last week. Not been this pleased with a result since Obama won, this is much more hilarious though!

I can't help but brag about this...

You've probably never heard of him or his music but he's my hero and in about 2 and a half weeks I'm going to be traveling down to London to meet the great man in the flesh.

I've been invited to a rather exclusive gig arranged by Steve's management and Warner Records to commemorate the release of Steve's new album- Man From Another Time. I've been a member of Steve's online community for a while now and have been invited as part of a small group to this press only concert and a wee meet and greet afterwords.

I'll be posting some pictures of the event when I get home from London on the 20th of this month so look out for them!

Can't wait folks, it's not every day that you get to meet one of your musical heroes! Hope I get to jam with him!

I mean seriously... BEER? C'mon!

What other drink makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside as it slowly rips its way through your throat? What other drink gets you so drunk that you have the guts to approach that girl at the bar... who weighs as much as the building? And even drunk enough to punch a man in the face at his wedding? And don't forget has just enough fire to it to keep away unwanted 13 year old pansies who get drunk after one WKD?

WHISKY!!!

Long live its nectar coloured glory. Without you I would not have humped my first fatty.

It got the better of me this time...

...is exactly like Gamespot WITH Total Access.

Yep, that's my Total Access account ran out for the first time in 4 years. I decided to cancel it during E3 when they decided not to implement a standard chatroom. Instead we had to rely on Jodie to set up one for us which was really cool of her.

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that the Gamespot I know is dead in the water. I'd go so far to say that this site hasn't produced anything of decent quality in well over a year. The Hotspot is boring and lifeless, the reviews are professionally written but lack the wit and humour of an Alex Navarro, Jeff Gerstmann or Greg Kasavin review, the absolute lack of any features worthy of anything more than a swift glance is appalling and of coarse the lack of both Tournaments and On The Spot is quite simply insane in my eyes.

I love hearing Gamespot talk smack about games that have been delayed then end up either not coming out at all or disappointing fans completely when they've been stuck in a similar rut for what seems like years now. There is seriously NO POINT in subscribing any more. Come to think of it I should have cancelled when they sacked Don.

I'll still be around though, using this profile to look at and post blogs but I really can't see the point in watching Gamespot for entertainment when Giantbomb has so much more content that's worth watching.

And yes, I do blame Tom McShea.

Is it just me or was the last Fallout expansion a total missed opportunity? Having seen Deliverance, Southern Comfort, The Hills Have Eyes and a number of other hillbilly freak shows I was expecting a much scarier and atmospheric environment.

The environments are dull and lack the mysterious murkiness of the country swamplands in places like Louisiana. All they needed to do was watch Angel Heart for 3 seconds to see an excellently frightening portrayal of Americas southland. The rednecks in the game should have been scary and threatening, but instead they're just mutated freaks that giggle like retards when you shoot at them. They should have made the environment and characters much more unsettling.

Also what happened to the amazing slide guitar music that was in the intro of expansion? I was all excited at the prospect of a country blues inspired soundtrack but was disappointed by its instant disappearance when the boat landed on the harbour.

It was pretty cool though, the spy quest was one of the best quests in whole game in my opinion. The main quest was pretty cool, especially the Mansion raid at the very start.

Anyways that's it. Being that I'm already half mad with it and can't be arsed with eloquence I'm calling it. See you next time folks!

EDIT: Michael Jackson is dead? I have to admit if I was doing a Dead Pool I would have never put him in it. I always imagined him dying much later in life even more obscured from the public than he is now.

RIP Jack-O.

Well, now that the dust has settled I guess I'll talk a bit about E3.

It was a great one this year I thought. Not too many amazing announcements but the gameplay shown from games like Alan Wake and Assassins Creed 2 left me excited. This year's E3 was a little weird, usually there's a plethora of surprising trailers and announcements but this year it seemed to be more about explaining the previous years big surprises. It was great to see actual gameplay from those games but a lack of surprise and woefully bad conferences this year left me uninterested for long stretches of time. Conferences are never really exciting I guess but this year they seemed to drag endlessly, especially during the Ubi conference when James Cameron explained the plot to his stupid fantasy movie that I certainly don't care about.

Biggest disappointment this year wasn't even during E3 it was before it. Whoever made the decision to axe the chat from the live coverage of E3 is either lazy or just plain moronic. This pissed me and many people off, a few of which have canceled their subscriptions, me being one of them. This decision was one in a long line of monumental cock-ups that Gamespot are guilty of; no On The Spot, no tournaments, barely any interaction with the community and an overall lack of respect for us are just a few of the things that justify this decision. Get your act together GS, you're losing all the things that make you worthwhile the stay.

Modern Warfare 2, Alan Wake, Assassins Creed 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 left me most excited in hindsight. I especially can't wait for L4D2 as it's probably the one I'll spend the most time with, the first one is one of the best games out there right now. And please lighten up PC fans, it's not Watergate it's a game. Just because you have to pay for it doesn't mean you have to soil yourself, if you so object to it don't buy it. That's your choice as a consumer, I'm sure it'll be more than worth it.

Anyways that's the E3 season over with now and I have to say I loved it; great live show this year with great guests and hosts. The stream sucked quite a lot but hey, this is the internet, whaddiya expect? And asides from spending way too much money on Whiskey and sweets I've came out of this year unharmed, well asides from the monumental hangovers. I just wanna say thanks to Jody for getting us that chat and also to the people who stuck out the 9+ hours a day marathon that is E3!

In other news Yasmina won the Apprentice this year. I thought Kate did a better job with the final task but I guess old Sugar thought she didn't kick ass enough through the whole series. It was a good one this year, first series of any reality TV show I've watched from the first to last episode. I don't know why but I find myself more and more attracted to Debra "The Ball Breaker" Barr every time I see her. Why do I find evil woman so sexy....

Love it.

Hello bored blog wanderers, it's been a while since we've spoken, hasn't it? I'm kind bored myself tonight so I figured I'd scribble some thoughts down on here for you all to read.

I've been playing the guitar now for about 5 years (not including the year I decided I was a bassist, EUGH) and I've amassed a nice collection of instruments. The style of guitars I own can play a variety of styles of music but the one I'm most interested is blues. When I first started playing the guitar I decided that I was going to be a mix between Joe Satriani and Tom Morello; that was until I first heard the haunting tones of Robert Johnson and Son House in a documentary. From then on I dedicated my guitar playing time to figuring out this amazing style of music, a tough job for a Scottish kid, after all the Blues was invented by tortured men of the Mississippi Delta, who used it as a release for all their woes.

I'd love to say I've mastered it but I have not, despite my best efforts I'm going to need a lot more time and a lot more Whisky to play like the real guys, but I guess that's the fun part of being a guitar player- you're always learning.

Anyways here's a slightly self indulgent tour of my guitars and what I think of them, starting off with my first six string guitar and my biggest mistake.

Ibanez RG370 DX

This guitar just is not for me. The super thin neck, the Edge Pro tremolo system, the tinny stock pickups all make this a woeful instrument to own and play. To use a car analogy this guitar is like a Porsche 911, only built using parts from a Nissan Micra. I bought it because it was an Ibanez and because it was a shredders guitar, I wanted to play blistering, high gain solos only this guitar wasn't capable of any kind of tone without a seriously good amp and some new pickups, neither of which I could afford.

Ibanez AEG10

After I fell in love with Delta blues I figured I'd buy myself an acoustic guitar and ditch the horrible Wanker guitar I bought the year before. Sticking with Ibanez for some reason I bought this, a fantastic guitar. I didn't know anything about acoustic guitars back then but apparently my instincts were good enough because this guitar is a wonderful box, capable of playing pretty much every kind of music imaginable. The electro acoustic pick up inside aint worth much but I never had any intention of plugging it in much anyways, piezos sound too "perfect" when they're plugged in, I like hearing the wood rattle.

Epiphone Dot.

I bought this guitar this February after a long break from playing any electric guitar. I bought it because it's a well priced, semi hollow guitar that's pretty much highly recommended by every person I see writing about it. I'm inclined to agree with these reviews myself. I've played electric guitars up into the thousands and this guitar is one of most versatile, and nicest sounding I've ever played. Stick a set of 12 Gauge strings on it and you've got an INSANE tone. Lovely guitar, wont be replacing it any time soon.

Ozark Deluxe Brass Resonator.

The resonator is probably one of the most iconic acoustic guitars , especially to blues fans. Son House and Bukka White famously used these amazing guitars and I've wanted one ever since I seen Son House playing Death Letter Blues on his old beat up 1920s National Single cone. The resonator works in the same way a regular acoustic does, but instead of the notes going from the strings into the body of the guitar and out again, they pass into an aluminum cone through a wooden "Biscuit" bridge that holds the strings in place under that bar you see in the picture. This created a clear, almost banjo like sound that makes every note sustain for seemingly endless seconds. It's a ****of guitar that was invented for Hawaiian ****players in the late 20s, basically to increase the volume a guitar was capable of punching out before the electric guitar was invented.

By far my favourite guitar, and the best guitar I've ever played. It even comes with a furry hard case... mmmmm.... furrrry. I only bought it two weeks ago though, so I'm still getting used to it but when I do man, this guitar will sing.

Anyways, that's them all. Nearly 2000 pounds worth of kit that I bought with my own, saved up scratch, and that's not including all the weird effects pedals and that bass that will never be mentioned.

I'm sure this hasn't been an interesting read to anyone who doesn't play guitar or dislikes music, but if you do play get some pics of your instruments out and write a little about them too. And no, by instruments I don't mean your co...

... never mind.

With the invention of the internet mankind was given an ideal way to unleash their opinions on a large scale. Instead of having to slave away at becoming a journalist in a newspaper we can now just jump online and type up any crap we want and hit the "post" button. This democratic empowerment has lead to one of the internets most popular features- blogging. We here at Gamespot are obsessed with it, so much so that most of us have a blog and tend to use it regularly.

I personally find blogging fascinating, in both its text based and video formats. There's a certain element of narcissism in the whole process that can't be ignored; I mean you're basically forcing your opinion on as many (mostly unwilling) readers as possible with no consent at all. As a matter of fact most of the biggest bloggers out there tend to hide the true intentions of their blogs with ingenious titles and well written first paragraphs, luring their victims into a false state of security only to realize that this seemingly innocent rant from a well known critic is actually a ******** publicity stunt for the journalists new venture. For the most part however blogging is a rather mundane habit, although I actually do think it's an important step forward in expression. Now any old Joe Bloggs can hit the web, sign up on blogger and start cramming the internet with all of his thoughts, no matter how lurid or despicable they may be.

It's fairly ironic that I am talking about this on a blog itself, but really it doesn't matter. I'm well aware that this block of text that you're reading now isn't important prose it's just a thought I had, and because of that I have full freedom to waste your time.

However, it's not blogging itself I want to talk about today it's the idea of commenting that fascinates me the most. Commenting on peoples blogs can be used to do several things- agree or disagree if the blogger is bringing a debate to the table, analyze and criticize if the blogger is posting a creative piece or just simply say hello. Most of the time a comment is used to say something like "hey dude, I totally agree and *insert in-joke*" especially here on Gamespot where tight knit groups of online buddies tend to look at each others blogs.

Tread outside Gamespot however and you'll find the wholesome atmosphere fades under a cloud of "web tough guys". YouTube is a classic example of this, look at almost ANY video and you'll find that most of the comments are usually criticism from wanna-be tough guys who think that they're opinions actually matter to the person posting it.

This is baffling to me. For a start off most videos are not open debates, and if they are they're so one sided that any attempt to change the posters stance is futile at best so why the hell bother posting some horribly written put down if it's only going to be greeted by another, equally immature counter point from another reader?

I'll tell you why- Most online readers are pent up, immature little boys who can't help but scream like babies whenever anyone says anything that they disagree with. Hell most of these little wasters are likely the product of useless, middle-class parents whos intense spoilage has resulted in the creation of a kid so in love with his own self-created image as a "bad ass" that he feels the need to spread this image in any way he can. What you'll find on closer inspection however is this- they're far from tough, and are very rarely the kind of person you'd find standing up to even their own mum when they find out that they can't get that high-tech gizmo that their "best mate Riley" has.

In other words blogging is a great, democratic way to throw your opinion out there. Commenting however is a process rendered useless by a never-ending series of little wankers who's only real experience with confrontation was when they "totally stood up to Jeff in the play ground yeah". Unfortunately with the anonymity given to us by the internet they'll always be out there, just remember people as they're typing that witty repost to your inane drivel they're probably nursing the wound given to them by the last guy they tried to stand up to.

Goodbye!

I was trying to come up with a concise way to describe my feelings on this day, the last day of Gears Of War. I couldn't think of anything to write, so I decided to let my emotions flow in video format.

In the UK that phrase suggests religious rebellion and assassination attempts, in America it might mean something quite differant after this day.

Who'd a thunk it?

It's almost the 31st of October here in the UK. That means that it's time again for creepy movies, ridiculous costumes and a crapload of very, very bad food. I have no shame in admitting that I adore Halloween and all its stupidity, as a matter of fact I'd be willing to call it my very favourite holiday of the year. And yes, I know it's not a holiday, at least not to most folks but I don't care because it's just so much damned fun. This year is no different, a slew of games are coming out (and been out), Seasick Steve has actually made my mind a better place to live and the BBC has been hit with a gigantic scandal that has the potential to ruin the station.

Halloween is actually a Scots/Irish pagan holiday celebrating the end of harvest known as "Samhain" (pronounced So-Win). Samhain was regarded as the "Celtic New Year", it was the time in which we gathered together our livestock, slaughtered them and kept their remains in storage for the cruel winter months. These ancient ancestors believed that on this day the line separating the living from the dead would be broken and the dead would escape from their prison in the afterlife causing bad problems for them. They'd throw bones into bonfires and don costumes in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits they believed were taking over the land. This is what created Halloween and many of the traditions associated with it. In other words it's a religious holiday that has no meaning what-so-ever to anyone other than Pagans, who are mostly now just a bunch of muppets in witch's uniforms who love Bela Lugosi waaay too much.

Anyways, there's your history lesson for today, now lets talk games.

Fable 2 is amazing, and by that I mean top "5 games of the year" amazing. It's an expert mix of role-playing, action, storytelling and adventure that pretty much no one should miss. It also has some pretty amazing (although glitchy) achievements that are both fun and challenging to get. I managed to get all of them in one week of very solid play but only with the help of a few folks on the friends list. Watch out though because the Completionist achievement is pretty impossible to get without you or a friend owning Pub Games. No doubt this is against Microsoft's guidelines for achievements but I really don't care, I've already got it.

Instead of scary movies and repeats of MillenniuM I'll be spending my Halloween playing one of the most anticipated games this year- Fallout 3. It took me a while to realize that this game was very much my style and I'm now eagerly awaiting buying it tomorrow morning. I've heard nothing but good things from fans but I read something in Kevin's review that made me kind of worried about its lasting value. It seems that when you finish the main quest the game ends and kicks you back to the main menu, primed to start up a new character. I really don't like the sound of this. This is a pretty standard affair with most action games and some RPGs but I kind of expected the opposite from the same company that made Oblivion. I guess they want you to play this game like you play Mass Effect- Finish the game, watch the credits then immediately start it up again in order to get the achievements and quests you missed the first time round. I don't mind that style of RPG but I'd much rather hold onto my character for a decent length of time. Ach, I guess we'll have to wait, I'm sure the main quest is about 300 hours long anyways...

And lastly I just wanted to share my opinion on a piece of legitimate controversy that is sweeping its way through the UK at the moment- the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand/Manuel scandal.

Earlier this week TV chat show host (think UK equivalent of Conan O Brien) Jonathan Ross and comedian Russell Brand played a risky prank on retired actor Andrew Sachs when he failed to show up for an interview. When he didn't show they phoned him up and when they got no answer they left several messages on his answering machine claiming that they had sex with his granddaughter. Pretty tasteless stuff, the only problem was that they did it whilst the recorders were taping the show, plus the damned thing went up, unedited for the public to hear. Soon after the crap hit the fan and Jonathan Ross (pretty much the only reason to turn on the BBC) has being suspended for 12 weeks. Now I don't really give too much of a crap about Brand or any of the other BBC employees who are being spanked for this but come on! It was tasteless, stupid and irresponsible but the fact that it was broadcasted, unedited points the blame at everyone from the lowly editor of the pod cast to the director general himself.

The only reason why this is even a big issue is that it made it onto the air. Now every moronic, teary eyed Radio 2 listener can fire at will calling for bans and firings. If it had been a personal "beef" between the presenters and the ageing waiter I would be watching Jonathan Ross interview Terry Wogan tomorrow night. Would have been an excellent way to break up what will be a marathon Fallout gaming session if the troops are too busy to paint the town blood red tomorrow night.

What do you think fellow UKers? Is this as bad a crime as it was made out to be or another example of a public outcry that didn't need to happen? Before you make your decision I suggest you check out the little minx in question because I'm fairly sure she's not the innocent bystander people seem to think she is. I don't know many girls who are currently in a burlesque dancing group known as "Satanic Sluts" that don't jump at the chance for a quickie.

... OOF!

The proof is in the montage gentlemen. And yes, it is o.k to make a YouTube account JUST to insult him, so fire at will.

I would be dishonest if I slagged him off though, because I think this is awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PregcjMj6S0

"What started as a collection of die-hard chat room fans turned into a gang of drivers who mark their Sundays with barrel rolls through suspended airplane bits, flatspins off of cliffs, and completing every challenge automotive developers can throw their way. . . All whilst discussing the finer points in life like the state of the GameSpot union, why children make messes in the living room, and why playing games with little-to-no clothing is the best/worst idea ever. Drive on my friends!"

Very cool indeed...

It's times like these that make me proud to be a Gaming obsessed, guitar pickin' layabout. Viva La Sunday Drving!

Cancer, Wow. More of my heroes seem to be dead every time I turn on the PC. I guess I should just stop enjoying old movies.

He'll be sorely missed.

"You know, when I was a kid, I always thought I'd grow up to be a hero." - Butch Cassidy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/27/paulnewman.usa

As far back as human history goes we've always been a pack animal of sorts, only without the sense of organization or socialization that say wolves or big cats have. Because of this humans are prone to arbitrarily joining forces to fight for causes that need fighting for or even just to make ourselves happy through each others company. Nothing wrong with that really, it just shows that our species enjoys spending time with each other productively. With that in mind ask yourself this: why is it that that video game clans, by in large, are made up of a bunch of arrogant, moronic, immature children who kick and scream when they don't win?

Now, if you're reading this on your $3,000 home computer/entertainment centre/gaming machine/ aid you're probably saying "HeY Diz RanDom ScRu|3 iz dissin' our ClaNn Dawg!" and that means you're a moron. Seriously, is anyone else sick of this? Is it JUST me? Or is it something only Gears Of War fans relate to?

I honestly don't see the point in "Clanning", other than a perverted video game version of Pack Mentality. What difference does it make if you're in a clan? What satisfaction do you get when you and your reprobate friends go on Live, challenge some other group of equally useless reprobates to a match with rules so close-minded that they only promote a certain style of play? You're not gaining anything other than bragging rights (at a stretch) and you're not even increasing your skill level. How can you when all you do is the same match, with the same types of people over and over and over again?

Case in point: Canals, 5 round, Execution, 15 Second bleed out, No weapons swapped.

Now go read the MLG's set up for Gears Of War clan Scrims, I think you'll notice something quite familiar.

Now watch what happens in the match:

1. The two Ego maniac "Snipers" rush the snipe bridges, weapon sliding (glitching) to get the weapon.

2. One teammate will try Torque bow, only to find that there's actually a person on the opposing team there, immediately running away after spraying a few lancer shots at him feebly.

3. The remainder of the team will fire off 6 shots out of there shotguns, ready to active re-load on the off chance that they'll get into a fight.

4. I'd bet money that the dude who went for Torque gets killed first on both teams probably by active'd sniper bullets from the opposing teams sharpshooter.

5. A shotgun fight will ensue on the high side flank but it'll will take longer than a damn John Woo movie to finish because of the excessive amount of pissing about that the shotgunners will do before eventually getting round to it. One shotgunner will get active'd by the sniper who is still waiting at the first bridge for the other sniper to pop his head out (also waiting), only to have his kill stolen.

6. The last two guys who are left are almost always the snipers. They selfishly left their team to die trying to get a "RaPe ShoTt" on the other guy. They'll take potshots, run away, and then take more, until one of them gets lucky enough to score a hit.

If you think that sounds interesting go right ahead and rename your self "FTP SiiCkShotZz" because you've got what it takes to be in the MLG!

In the real world one of the snipers would get headshotted trying to help his team at the Torque, who come across THREE people who are all trying to get that weapon because they know how useful it is. The last two people alive will be one sniper, and one shotgunner who'll probably grab the snipe from his dead teammate to compete. Time taken- 2-4 minutes.

My point is this- ANY clan guy who joins a random match of Gears almost always quits because he's not getting to kill people just the way he likes it or runs away from fights leaving his pissed off team mates do die only to watch him get stomped by the well organized opposing team. Well, that's not my point, my real point is this: In my (Gears) experience clans all suck.

They kick me from games, allow glitching, brag about lucky headshots and brutalize the shift key in ways not even the worst Keyboard molester could dream of. They should be eradicated from online game play, left to rot in their little private matches talking about bad hip hop music and how their montage is coming along great.

Talk to me people. Spread your thoughts on this menace spreading like a bad weed through our precious online community. Tell me that it's not just me and my friends who join matches only to hear "Dude, kick him he's a Random!!!" or "Dude, this is a glitching match that me and my clan are hosting, don't kill us".

If it is just me I'm stopping the Gears because I've apparently got the worst luck when it comes to wankers.

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/906/906298p1.html

Well that's the real list finally unvealed to us nerds.

Looking at the new one now I can see where the original author was coming from on many of them the estimate was correct-- about 60% of them were legit. Although alot of the names were not correct.

I'm not sure how I feel about these, they're certainly not as hard as the old ones but I'm afraid they might be a bit TOO easy to get. By the looks of it you can get most of them just playing with your mates in private matches.

It's late, I'm bored of watching Two And A Half Men so it's time to blog.

It's come to my attention in the last few days that I'm a sad bastard who spends too much time chin-wagging with other lay abouts on Xbox Live. This becomes glaringly apparent when I sit in front of this PC poised to post another scrappily written, inane blog about a gloriously unimportant topic. I often think as I write the first sentence: "What could I blog about that I haven't talked about during a Sunday driving expedition", when I asked myself that tonight I pretty much answered my own question.

What is "Sunday Night Driving"?

That's the question that I want to answer here today, we all know what it is but you may not, and that's why I'm typing this crap at 1:33am; I'm doing a service to the people!

Sunday Night Driving is a weekly routine in which me and a few of the other oh so cool Gamespot members (only time in my life I've been in the cool crowd, gimme a break) sit in front of their Xbox's and play Burnout Paradise. That sounds incredibly boring and in many ways it would be if the people on the mics weren't funny, often dysfunctional nerds who (just like me) love nothing more than spreading their nerdy brain matter around for others to enjoy.

Sounds sinister don't it? You're right on that one as well. What isn't creepy about a group of 18-X Year olds yammering on about bull**** for up to 8 hours without even a piss break? In fact I'd go so far as to say that we Sunday drivers are Gamespot's equivalent of The Freemasons or perhaps the legendary group of Yale alumni known as "Skull and Bones". We meet in a deserted place by invite only, and then proceed to hammer through a ritualistic ceremony of repetitious, hypnotic driving. Hell, the only thing we're missing is gold medallions, suits and funny monikers, unless you count our gamertags.

So yeah, that's the skinny. Sunday Night Driving is basically an updated Gamespot chat service for all the cool kidz. It's a riot though, and often leads to some of the most obscure conversations one can have.

And no, YOU'RE not invited. Only WE are.