Headin' for the Holidays

Greetings one and all, long time no blog. In fact I haven't blogged in over a month now, it just seems that there have been oh so many distractions. For one thing it seems like I have stumbled back into the addictive realms of World of Warcraft again. I originally just returned to the game to enjoy the thanksgiving event, but after experiencing the instant gratification of my few days on there I couldn't help but be sucked back in. I now seem to be leveling more effectively than before and I'm even trying to get into raiding now which is something I shyed away from quite a bit before, partly because of how much time it consumed and partly because of how seriously some players seemed to take it, while I lagged behind constantly wondering whether I was "doin' it rite" or not. However, I have had to limit myself in my intake of WoW as I still have university work on my hands and coming up to the end of the first semester the pressure is on more than ever. 

My first semester of university officially ends next week but what's it like to be a student who is just finishing their first three months of a computer games programming degree? Well, it's definitely been an interesting experience. The highlight of it all has definitely been learning about video games themselves and although a lot of the things that came up in the lectures on video games, I was already aware of it was great to have it all presented back to me along with new information. The coursework for that area of the studies also gave me something that was very fun to do and I'm even confident about the module exam. The low point for me has been the maths module which they introduced to the course this year. We have literally had to try and learn the equivalent of an A level in maths in the last 3 months and it feels as though the whole process has been very rushed and I've felt consistently confused as I struggled with everything being taught. As for the rest of the course I still don't think my essay writing is up to scratch with university standards yet but that's something that will probably come with practice. Learning about computer architecture has been cool and learning new programming code has been a good experience as well. Right now however it's crunch time and my sleep pattern will have to suffer some more so I can get an essay and four programming exercises handed in for next week as well as revising for a test. 
 
The 18th December will see me speeding back to my family's home for the Christmas holidays and for a whole variety of reasons it will be good to be back. Naturally as a student I haven't had the cash to purchase a lot of the games I've wanted over the past few months, so I thought this would be an opportune time to share with you my Christmas wishlist of video games; Assassin's Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Borderlands and Dragon Age: Origins are my big four but given the chance I wouldn't mind getting my hands on League of Legends, Modern Warfare 2 or New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I'll just be happy to be in a nice big house with my mum's cooking for Christmas though. However, although the Christmas holidays would usually last until 25th January all computer games programming students have to be back in university for the week starting the 4th January which is a bit of a bummer.
 
This weekend there is an awesome event just around the corner though. While I'm sure it holds no major significance for many I'm personally pretty stoked about Bungie's world premiere of Halo: Reach at the Spike TV VGA awards. With so little known about the game it will be great to finally get a look at what will be the last of the Halo games (at least for now) and Bungie sure know how to dazzle a crowd. This week there's also a pretty awesome and rather unique event happening on Team Fortress 2. The soldier and demoman updates will soon be hitting everyones' PCs bringing with them new weapons and achievements but not only will each class receive 3 unlockable weapons but they are also both in the running for a secret seventh weapon. Valve have challenged the demoman class to get as many kills on the soldier class as possible over the next 7 days, while the soldiers are doing the opposite and trying to kill the demomen. Whichever class can kill more of the opposing class by the time our time is up gets that extra seventh weapon. It's exciting stuff and should I get any free time to participate in the conflict I'll be playing on the side of soldier as frankly I suck with the demoman. 
 
Well, I guess that's what a months worth a backed up blog looks like. Hopefully I'll drop my next little bundle of blogging fun after returning home next Saturday. Until then I hope you all enjoy yourselves and I'll leave you with one of my favourite pictures of November 2009. 
 
-Gamer_152