Ok, to start with, I've put the title in the wrong way around, but I'll keep it for now

Well, its been quitea few months! And I've also seemed to be off school awaiting exam results for twice as long. I hope I do well in these, without some good results I wont get into the next level of education (but I pretty much know I've got there really.. )

I hope everyone is a-ok, I havn't "spoke" with you all in ages and I hope all your families are well

Now, my birthday! I'm excited about this more than last year because (hopefully) I'm getting some Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 4's, a.k.a. computer speakers for my laptop

They are very high quality, and I'm looking forwards to pumping out some choons with them! I'm hoping to add a separate Bose subwoofer for some extra "oomph" if they are not that bassy.

Anyway, a bit of catching up in short then i guess.

I visited some realtives in Canada over the summer, which has to have been one of my all time favourite holidays, it was magic meeting my two older cousins again, and we had such a laugh, including a drunken poker escapde in which I won in my first ever game of poker, netting $40 Canadian!

All sorts has happened basically, and there are 3 games squarely, completely glueded onto my radar:

a) Gran Turismo 5
b) Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2
c) God of War III

I hope all you guys see this, and thanksfor reading as always, Matt

As you might well have guessed from the title, this is going to be a busy blog. Settle down, folks...

First off, my new piece of awesome-ness

This is my Logitech Driving Force GT, a PS3 (and particularly Gran Turismo) compatible steering wheel. I had never used and Steering Wheel peripheral before "The Gadget Show Live" where I tried the big brother of this, the Logi' G25.

Well having got the wheel on Wednesday, I can safely say that it is absolutely awesome. Combines with the vehicle interior view of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, this wheel is just amazing. The thing that takes this wheel and the G25 apart from most other wheels is that they have Force Feedback. This is where, say for example, you go across some grass the wheel vibrates furiosly, and wheel powersliding it feels like the front wheels are fighting you when you opposite lock it and correct it our of the curve.

This is now the reason that my PS3 comment has changed to "I Can't Wait for GT5!" because I reall, really can't. I own nearly all of the cars that Prologue has to offer now, so it is beginning to get a bit boring, hence two new purchases that I have actually paid for

The first piece of DLC for Killzone 2, one of my favourite games of all time, was always going to be a purchase option. There are two new online maps for the fairl extortionate price of near-enough £5. I do think they could give them away for about £3 because 5 is a tad steep, but nonetheless it was worth it in the end.

There was also an update for it, which provides new ranks. Oh yes. Seeeing as nearly everyone was a General, the highest atttainable rank, Guerilla Games have upped the amount of XP for the highest rank from 2800 to an incredible 100,000! This will surely take nigh-on forever, and only 87 people in the world currently have that rank. I like to think that one day I'll reach the heady height of that rank, and maybe I shall!

The maps, though are both great, and one of them is based on the Cruiser level of the Story mode, which I always personally thought would make a good map. So I shall be playing Killzone 2 more and more again soon, along with...

...that, which I bought brand new for the budget price of £20 (about... $32)! I was very happy with this because I was a big fan of the origional Motorstorm. Well, for me at least it has certainly delivered. It has the same great gameplay as the origional with Monster Trucks and elemental effects thrown in!

The graphics, if anything, have been improved, and after I have played it a bit more I will fully review it for anyone who fancies a read of that.

Yup, its exam time.

The GCSE's are some of the most important bit's or writing I'll do in my life, so naturally over the next week (which is all I've got until my first exam! A FEGGING WEEK!) games will be taking a backseat, along with eating, drinking and sleeping. I have some good grades already, such as an A in the table I made in Woodwork, alongwith an A for the accompanying folder, an A in English Language and an A* in my Geography coursework.

I'm really hoping to do OK in all my final exams, but I am beginning to feel the pressure, especially from my Brother's result page - at GCSE there were 8 A*'s, 2 A's and a B and then at A level he got 5 A's... Hmm...

Also, a sorry for all the blogs that I have missed in the past week or so and that I will be missing in the foreseeable month.

Hope you all enjoy the warm ish weather that'll be rolling in over the next through months!

Matt

Hi everyone, first off I hope that everyone is ok and enjoyed their Easter period (no, not that period...).

Part 1: The Holiday

Well, from Easter Sunday to Thursday I enjoyed myself thoroughly inBarcalona, the second largest City in Spain, and often mistake for the capital. The city is alive seemingly 24/7, and our Hotel, the Avenida Palace (seen here if you want a look: http://www.avenidapalace.com/en/ ) certainly made the stay all the better.

It was located on one of Barcalona's main boulevards, of which there are about 8. These massive, dead straight roads are tree-lined and simply huge, it was really nice to be so central. We were also on one of the cities most expensive streets by the looks of the shops we saw, with Gucci, Marlboro Cl@ssics, Levi's, Prada, Emporio Armani, Dolche and Gabana, I could go on - there were litterally hundreds of the overpriced buggers!

We took in some awesome sights while on the holiday as well. Park Guell, with all its Architecture done by a bloke called "Gaudi" who seemingly designs a lot of stuff in Barcalona. We also visited his most famous work - The Sagrada Familia - or "Holy Family" in english.

One of the tallest buildings in the entire city and still under construction despite Gaudi's death nearly a century ago, the Cathedral is so finely detailed that it isn't a suprise that it isn't going to be completed until(an estimated) 2022. You can take a lift up one of the spires as well to have an epic view over the city, which we took, despite most of us feeling a little odd to be so darn high.

The last thing I'll tell you about so as not to bore you is this:

That is, of course, the Nou Camp, or "Camp Now" as thelocals say it. Seating nearly 100,000 and with a Capacity of over 122,000 when standing room was still allowed, the Stadium is a truly epic piece of work. The size of it can't really be described until your there, so I'm not going to try and explain, Ill just leave that picture up there

Part 2: The Gadget Show Live

The Gadget Show is a program on Channel 5 here in the UK which is all about technology and stuff! It's a really good program, with all the presenters matching up and gelling really well with one another and making a really good program that is very enjoyable to watch.

So, naturally, when I got a ticket to it, and so did my dad and my brother all from my tech-loving Uncle, I was very happy to slog all the way up to Birmingham to see it (no sarcasm, but it was a long drive...).

Well boy was it worth the drive. The main show was like an expo, with all sorts of comsumer stands with rows and rows of stuff to buy, it was so tempting at every corner! I really liked seeing the little dancing robot things, and some of the TV's had a simply incredible picture.

It was then that I noticed a stand that stood out to me. What with my new found obsession with Gran Turismo back in full swing, I noticed the "Vision Racer" stand. This family run business have made a matel frame with a racing bucket seat, and a logitech-built steering wheel/gearstick/foot pedals combo, along with a TV mounted right infront of your with a PS3 rigged up behind.

And they had a competition. The prizes were ran daily over the three-day event, and the overall fastest time won a different prize. The daily winner won this (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/playstation_3/all/devices/4172&cl=gb,en) and the overall winner won this (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/playstation_3/all/devices/131&cl=gb,en). So even though it was the seats that the company made, you could still win either of the brilliant Logitech Driving wheels.

The person who sets the fastest time of that day wins the daily winner prize (see link) and the daily winner with the best time of everyone over the whole 3-day event won the overall winner prize, worth £270!

Now I like to think that I'm good at shooting games, and I'm not bad, but racing games - especially GT - are my real forte. I have never raced someone and lost at Gran Turismo, which says something. Anyway, seeing GT5 there I promtly queued up for my turn. I suppose the queue took about 20 minutes to get through. It was the Ferrari F1 2007 which I would be driving, a car that I have not yet unlocked on GT5, and I'd be using the wheel, which sadly I've never had the chance to use.

The best time of the day so far was 1:55.72. Not bad for 2 laps of the High Speed ring, and at that point I thought "Hmm. I don't think this'll go well." And it didn't go brilliantly, my first go was a 1:56.56, and then I realised that I could do this. Me and my brother are both avid GT fans, and we both kept queueing up, knowing that is one of us got the fastest time we'd have won it and it would be in out house. The next go my brother, Rob, did a 1:54.6, with me (racing alongside slightly after he started) hitting a 1:54.7. We'd done it, and if for the remaining 3 and a half hours of the show that stayed the same we'd have the daily prize.

Well, I didn't like that "3 and a half hours for someone to come along and beat you" bit, so I queued up twice more, the first was a 2:02 disaster but then - I did a 1:53.7! YES! I have the prize secured! Didn't I? I headed into the live how area where lots of very impressive stuff was done on stage by the team, and some clever competitions involving ringing a number before everyone else was there.

When we emerged from the stage it was 5pm, the time that the expo part closes, so we wern't allowed back in, but of course I'd "Left my wallet in the Vision Racer stand, please let me find it, all my money is in there *soppy eyes, sighing*". "Oh go on then - but be quick!" Step 1 complete! hey really keep security tight here

I arrived back at the stand and there two people left queueing, and one of them was a guy in a red-striped jumper who the people running the stand - who me and my brother were now quite friendly with -informed me that he keeps setting times very near to mine. I watched as he stepped into the seat and did a lapthat was eight-hundreths of a second slower than mine. It took a second, but then I realised, I'd actually WON!

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/gaming/playstation_3/all/devices/4172&cl=gb,en

That little baby should be here by Wednesday! I'll take some pictures of it when it arrives and try to put them up here, but if I can't figure that out then I'll tell you guys all about it.

Sorry that this has been so long, and good-bye!