So I have hit the 24 hour mark in Skyrim and I’m having a great time. I know most people seem to be putting 100+ hours into the game and I can see why, I’ve only managed 4 quests out of the main quest line, the rest of the time has been spent exploring, trying to raise some cash and bag Aela the Huntress as a wife…

Despite my huge pile of shame to deal with I’ve been pretty much hooked on this game, there is something addictive about discovering new locations, finding new quests and having random battles in the wilderness.  I still remember the first time I encountered a dragon, I just ran and luckily I was near a town where the residents helped me bring it down, now I enjoy nothing more than taking on our huge flying enemies.

I’m trying to increase my Smithing skill so that I can craft myself an amazing bow, I tend to prefer close combat but that doesn’t always work here which means adapting the way I play. I’m up to about 60 on Archery so I should be quite the arrowman soon.

I’ll no doubt double the amount of time I have played the game but beyond that who knows? Luckily things are fairly quiet in the review front, but it’s only a matter of time before that changes. Mass Effect 3 is also out at the start of next month but I think I will hold off buying it it just yet. We all know it is going to be an awesome game but I think a few shorter games need to be played first.

I shouldn’t forget about my pile of shame either. I managed to get one game out of the way whilst I haven’t been running during at work and that was 007: Blood Stone, it was actually more enjoyable than I thought it would be, the driving scenes were a bit rubbish but I’ve certainly played worse games. I may just do a random draw for my next title, then again I might just play Halo Anniversary.

Gamerpoints this month: 1,795

Running

Distnace Run: 32km

Furthest Run: 10km

iPhone 366

There is no huge headed Sonic outfit this year, as fun as it was it will be nice to do the run in something a bit lighter, which is why I have chosen a character from one of my favourite games of 2011… Batman.

If you don’t know about SpecialEffect then where have you been?

SpecialEffect is a charity dedicated to helping ALL young people with disabilities to enjoy computer games. For these children, the majority of computer games are simply too quick or too difficult to play, and we can help them and their parents to find out which games they CAN play, and how to adapt those games that they can’t.

All of us gamers are very lucky we can enjoy the games the way we want, so why not help those who can’t?

If you would like to donate I have set up a Justgiving page for people to donate on, which can be found by clicking on these letters. You can also donate by text by putting:

To: 70070
DMBM99
£1

Anything you can give will be greatley appreciated, lets raise some money!

Available on the App Store at 69p, CloudScrob updates your online profile without ever syncing to a computer. Each time you open it, CloudScrob scans your music library looking for updated play counts, then notifies you and sends them to Last.fm, perfect.

In the settings you can get CloudScrob to confirm what song will be submitted and remove songs you prefer people not to see, I have a lullaby album on my iPhone for my little boy that doesn’t need to be sent so it’s nice to remove that. You can also choose to scrobble Audiobooks and Podcasts if you wish. CloudScrob will also save your scrobbles while you are offline and submit them later for you.

You do need to make sure that you have fully listened to a song though, hopefully in the future Apple will give you the choice to specify that after a certain percentage of song has been played to register as fully played, we’ll have to wait and see about that.

That’s it! It’s a simple but very useful app for iPhone users who want to know who they listen to the most. Scrobble away….

When I haven’t been playing those I’ve been trying to improve my K/D ratio on Modern Warfare 3 as part of my review of COD Elite for xboer360.com, I’ve also been playing FIFA 12 like I always do but playing it badly, really badly. I lost 14 online games IN A ROW, I’ve never lost more than 5. I finally managed to bag a win but I still seem to be struggling, hopefully I’ll find my form soon.

One game I have had in my pile of shame is Skyrim, its been sitting there since release and I finally decided to load it up and see what all the fuss was about. It took me about 2 hours to get into it, but after defeating my first Dragon I have found an addiction! I haven’t really done anything in the game yet except explore, finding giants and running away from them but its perectly paced for me at the momemnt so I’m going to enjoy it whilst I can.

So there I was at 11:30 all kitted up and ready to go, I got outside and it was as horrible as it looked, almost immediatley rain was flying into my face and the wind felt like it was coming from everywhere, but you know what? I was quite enjoying myself. As for the GPS app, well the weathe r got the better of it, I was running a kilometer every two minutes! I already knew that the run I was on was 3km, but now all my stats on the website are going to be messed up. Will need to fix that later on.

Anyway, that’s the first run of the year out the way, hopefully the weather will be kind to me next time…

Gaming

Last year saw me play 113 games on the Xbox and amass 24,105 gamerpoints, the most in a year since I bought the 360. My completion percentage is down to 39.4% which is the lowest it has been.

My only real aim for the year is to improve that percentage and possibly beat the 24k in a year, I’m not sure that will happen though.

Photos

I’m not sure how many photos I took last year but it wasn’t many, so this year my main aim this year is to complete my iPhone 365, the first picture is already on Instagram but I’ll post it on here later on.

Running

144km last year, I wanted to hit 200 but never quite made it, no harm in trying again though! Also hoping to run for Special Effect as well in the British 10k.

First run will be on the 3rd and I’ll be starting from scratch so you’ll hear all about it on Twitter!

That’s more than enough to keep me busy this year, lets see how I get on…

Of course a New Year brings resolutions (mines 1024 x 768….. Sorry) though I see them more like challenges that I probably won’t keep. I’m going to set myself some anyway though.

Photo 365

I’ve tried this a couple of times before and failed miserably, but one of my Christmas presents has inspired me to try again. I’m going to do the whole thing using my iPhone 4s. I’ve got lots of nice apps for editing photos and I can easily post them to the site too. Hopefully I’ll get a bit further but we’ll have to see what happens.

Running

The arrival of baby Sam scuppered my running towards the end of the year, but I did manage 190km for the year, more than ever before. And this year I plan to go even further. I’m also hoping to run the British 10k for SpecialEffect again, and I have already decided I’m going as Batman. There is plenty of running before then!

Amazingly I’ve not mentioned any gaming related challenges, I’ve got a couple of things in mind but they depend on how much writing I do at xBoxer over the next year. One thing is for certain, I’m going to three star ALL of Angry Birds.

You may have also noticed a new look to the blog, I think it’s really nice and now has a custom reviews template for me to use. I’ve got a bit of work to on it but for now it’s good to go.

Sam has woken so that’s it for now. Hope you all have a fantastic 2012.

I’m starting to enjoy this writing lark. I’ve been writing for xboxer360.com since the middle of October after my little trial we decided it would be good if I carried on as a staff writer, very exciting. My Assassins Creed Revelations review went live yesterday and I’ve also had my reviews for Kinect: Disneyland Adventures and Disney Universe also go out a couple of weeks ago. Little Max and I also got to go to lauch party of Disneyland Adventures which was quite cool, there were a few ‘celebs’too. Max was happy because he got to meet Mickey & Minnie! I was named Staff member of the month which I was really pleased at and hope things at the site continue to be successful.

Somehow I’ve managed a bit of time on my own games, I finally nailed the story in Batman Arkham City, what a great game that is. Still playing plenty of FIFA 12 which is brilliant, I’m loving the online mode mainly due to the fact people arent quitting anymore. My pile of shame is still pretty high and now has Skyrim and Saints Row The Third. I’m reviewing a Kinect title at the moment but it shouldn’t take too long. I’ve decided to take Deus Ex as my next title and I’m going down the non-lethal route, let’s see how long that lasts…

Baby Sam was born, games needed to be played and I had nothing to write about. Now I do. Baby Sam is 11 weeks old now and doing really well, time is very limited at the moment but we are all doing brilliantly in the Moran household, especially Mrs M, she has been totally amaze.

As for gaming, my pile of shame is ever increasing. I’ve got FIFA 12, Battlefield 3, Batman AC, El Shaddai, Kane & Lynch, Driver SF all to play through. And I just don’t have the time! Partly because of Sam but also because I have a bit of a new job.

For the past three weeks I’ve been writing for xboxer360.com, I’m on trial for a month and as long as everyone is happy I’ll carry on writing for them. I wasn’t quite expecting things to be manic though, I need to write 5 news items a week which fairly easy and I’ve already written two reviews for them.

The first Game was Just Dance 3 on Kinect…

Just Dance 3 is a great experience overall, if you are a great dancer you’ll love pulling off all the moves, if you are an awful dancer (me) you’ll have great fun trying. The game is fun enough to keep playing on your own and no doubt will be a blast with your mates. The visuals are excellent, track list is superb and for the most part Kinect stands up to the test. The ‘Just Create’ mode is an excellent addition to the game and is perfect for some party games. Even if this isn’t your sort of game it is still worth checking out, you never know, it might surprise you.

I’ve just finished playing The Adventures of Tintin and I’m just waiting for the ok on that reivew as well. Next up is Disney Universe which already seems like a lot of fun. I’ve even been to my first event, Rocksteady Games hosted a Batman Arkham City event at the Warner Brothers HQ in Holborn, it was a good morning and I got to play gamez and got swag!

Although I’ve written a few reivews over at Midlifegamer as well, it’s been a real challenge for me. I’ve found it much easier to write reviews for Xbox games as opposed to iPhone ones but I guess as I write more often I’ll find better ways to express myself.

I promise to start writing here as well again….