Thanks to EA for giving me so much to write about.

Earlier this month I bought EA's Skate, which, I admit I didn't really give much thought. Since Neversoft have stopped making Tony Hawk games and instead of making a great series that went through a bad patch better, they decided to continue with Guitar Hero which has been the same since release and it absolutely woeful. I bought Skate for £20 at Game Station and when I played the sodding thing, I immediately wanted to sell it back. Instead of going back to trade it in, I decided to get my money's worth and blaze through the god awful career mode which is plagued with terrible skating dialogue like "sick and gnarly" and with annoying accents, s***e challenges to the point where I gave up to about 70% of the career mode. The things it asks you to do are unbelievable. The control system may be revolutionary but the majority of flip tricks you perform are so similar you end up doing tricks you never wanted to do or have never done before because it was by luck. One challenge asks me to do a nollie 360 flip onto a ledge, grind down and all the while get 700 points. To do an ordinary 360 flip, the right stick goes down at an angle and you flick it up at an angle. Describing it is difficult but with nollies, it's the complete reverse, upside down, horizontal, vertical side of the trick and it's just, stupidly annoying.

Grinding is also annoying. Unlike in Tony Hawk where you have a balance meter, Skate doesn't and how that's realistic I don't know. Your skater is perfectly balanced but you have to get enough speed to actually stay on whatever you're grinding on. The simplicity of grinding without balancing is great until your skater stops because he has lost all speed. At this point, he becomes confused with being stationary and has never heard of lip tricks where you remain stationary for as long as possible. When you stop grinding, your skater will prat fall to the floor and may break a bone. Realism is all jolly exciting for sport games and the like but for skating games, it has its pros and cons. The pros is that you actually feel like a skater and when you get huge air and speed, a sense of urgency takes over because you need to consider how you land, what's the ground like is there a pedestrian or a car within a meter of me. Well, this all falls flat on its face when you have a camera angle that mostly follows your board. The camera angle is meant to give you the feeling that you're being recorded constantly. Yes, when you have big air, the camera does move up but only sometimes. 90% of the time you will bail when you land big air and speed. Skate becomes confused when landing huge air and speed even if the ground's flat and you not landing side ways. It would be nice to change the camera angle so at least I could see what's to my left instead of the right all the time.

Skate does have a lot of good points, but when you get the game right and playing in Free Skate, that's when the game excels at its best. And another thing, the same song always plays when you go to the main menu. Thank god for Microsoft to add in your own music on the X360.

Don't get me wrong about Skate, what it does well is brilliant. I'm glad they made a solid attempt at the skating genre since Neversoft's games as of late haven't been as good since THUG 2 but I will be willing to play future Skate titles. As long as they make improvements. I have got my money's worth, I've played it everyday since purchasing it, I've got very far in the Career Mode but sadly, it hasn't quite made gold for me. Realism works in this, but sometimes it's way to realistic and alot of the time, players who are Tony Hawk Pro Skater veterans I guess can get way to ambitous with what you can do and what you can't do in Skate.

Next time I'll rant on about my college music video which will begin production shortly and the problems with YouTube and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

There's only four games I want this year that are going to be released this year:

• BioShock 2
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• NHL 2010
• WWE Smackdown! Vs Raw 2010

However, games that have already been released last year are:

• Call of Duty 5: World at War
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Left 4 Dead
• Gears of War 2

Music in Review 2008

2008 has been a cracking year for games and movies and also with music. I'll be exploring what have been the best song, artist, new artist, lyric, guitarist, drummer, vocalist, and album and loads more. So, here we go.

BIG AWARDS

Biggest surprise

The biggest surprise has defiantly been my sudden detour to death metal. A few blogs ago I mentioned that I discovered that I'm a keen fan of melodic death metal, or to put it plainly- In Flames. Like I also said, Guitar Hero 3 (not a good game) got me into the band and so I decided to listen to a few of their songs of YouTube before going any further. The songs: Take This Life, The Mirror's Truth, Colony and Come Clarity hooked me onto the band so I went on a downloading spree and got a load of their songs. The difference between "melodic" death metal than "death metal" is that melodic death metal has the melodic guitar riffs and more tune to the music instead of the guitar and drum madness that sound incredibly deep in death metal.

Last year, I awarded Cannibal Corpse with the "Worst Band of the Year" title. I'm about to betray my own opinion because I now like them. Not enough to go and buy their albums or download their songs. Although, I will keep up with the new album, Evisceration Plague.

Biggest News

Iron Maiden will be releasing a new album next year! J

Biggest Disappointment

Sadly, Disturbed's new album wasn't brilliant nor was it bad. Just a shame that it could have been better. What's also sad is that the two worst songs on the album are the most popular! They are: Inside the Fire and Perfect Insanity...!

Band AWARDS

Best New Band

When I say "new" band, I don't mean a group that formed this year, I mean a band that I have started listening to this year. And that band is, The Who. Yep, ****c rock at it's very best. It was either: The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd or Aerosmith. The single, Won't Get Fooled Again won it for The Who and I've been listening to it more than Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd and I've been glued to Pink Floyd for quite some time.

Worst New Band

I don't even have to think about this one, or give you an explanation: Suicide Silence.

Best Guitarist

Jimmy Page, Pete Townsend, Jesper Stromblad, Angus Young, Steve Harris? Decisions, decisions. Angus Young. Yep, lead guitarist for rock 'n' roll band, AC/DC. Is it for his "spasm" on stage, his one-hand guitar playing during the song Thunderstruck? Or is it just because he's an awesome guitarist in an awesome band and that he's 53 and still playing like a lunatic? Whichever, but all the other guitarists I mentioned are still fantastic but Angus wins.

Best Drummer

Erm, to me, drummers don't stand out as much as guitarists do but I'd have to say, In Flames' Daniel Svensson drummer is the winner.

Best Vocalist

Now, I've removed Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden out of this because he is my all-time favourite vocalist so he doesn't count. Like I said, this year has been simply staggering for music. The talent here is fantastic and choosing a winner is difficult. It's out of the following: Tim McIIrath (Rise Against), Anders Fridan (In Flames/Passenger) and Brian Johnson (AC/DC). Tim McIIrath wins. Rise Against's new album, Appeal to Reason had some amazing lyrics and songs in it which could never be covered and be better. Tim McIIrath= win.

Song and Album AWARDS

Best New Album

There have been quite a lot of new albums from my list of bands that I've bought: Disturbed: Indestructible, In Flames: A Sense of Purpose, AC/DC: Black Ice, Metallica: Death Magnetic and Rise Against: Appeal to Reason. The winner is Rise Against: Appeal to Reason. Songs like: Kotov Syndrome, Re-Education (Through Labour) and Saviour win the album for me. Rise Against: The Sufferer & the Witness is the defining album in their discography and it still hasn't been topped off. Appeal to Reason is fantastic and it's the album of the year.

Best Song

Extremely tough to decide but it has to be one song out of hundreds: My Sweet Shadow by In Flames. Every time I listen to it I never get bored of it- never.

Best Lyrics

Out of these four lyric segments, the one highlighted is the winner.

"We crawl on our knees for you
Under a sky no longer blue
We sweat all day long for you
But we sow seeds to see us through
That sometimes dreams just don't come true
We wait to reap what we are due"

Rise Against: Re-Education (Through Labour)

"Back in black
I hit the sack
It's been too long I'm glad to be back
Yes, I'm let loose
From the noose
That's kept me hanging around
I've been looking at the sky
and it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse 'cause I never die
I got nine lives
Cats eyes
Cruisin' every woman, never wonderin' why"

AC/DC: Back In Black

"Tame with confidence of a brighter future
I found a flame in the burnt out ashes... burn out, burn out

fueled these new shores burn
dark past lies cold
shadow, my sweet shadow
no one loves you"

In Flames: My Sweet Shadow

"Backstage we're having the time
Of our lives until somebody say
Forgive me if I seem out of line
Then she whipped out her gun
And tried to blow me away

(That, that) Dude looks like a lady"
(That, that) Dude looks like a lady
(That, that) Dude looks like a lady
(That, that) Dude looks like a lady"

Aerosmith: Dude (Looks like a Lady)

Artist of the Year

To finish things off, it's between two bands: In Flames and Rise Against. And I'm delighted to announce, it's In Flames!

Sadly, Rise Against didn't win it as they pretty much won last year but In Flames really got me into the death metal scene and turning my rather ignorant opinion over on Cannibal Corpse.

Just a few In Flames and Rise Against songs:

In Flames:

Come Clarity- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wAfRW_RMK4M

My Sweet Shadow- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lolM8GeGRQc

Colony- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xXxN3fuGmaU&feature=related

Clayman- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=seWG45VMy1E

Rise Against:

Prayer of the Refugee- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pOtNqDyyX2c

Saviour- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-0fZ8phFCoY&feature=related

From Heads Unworthy- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ8GJkGu7E0&feature=related

Re-Education (Through Labour)- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FHv_1Jct9NA