... That's what she said.

No, get your minds out of the gutter... I'm referring to the size of this newspost, it's gonna be a big'un. So you TL;DRers may as well bugger off now.

First things first, I am once again going to divide this newspost into sections, each labelled with the general theme of the news in that section, making it easier for people to read what they care about and skip over anything they don't. Anywho, here we go:

March / April Metal MAC
If you haven't seen it already, I am hosting the MAC ([bi]Monthly Audio Contest) for the months of March and April under the theme of Metal... Because apparently the community thinks I'm some kind of metalhead, no idea where they got that idea.

In any case, if you're at all interested in metal, I strongly suggest you give it a look here. That link leads to the main contest thread, where all the submissions will be... well.. submitted. There is also a discussion thread for questions, WIPs, and general chatter about the contest, generally, anything that's not an actual submission goes here.

The contest is officially sponsored by Newgrounds, so there are some pretty awesome prizes to be had for those that come out on top, I hope to see a lot of awesome submissions!

Music
So, I wanna ask you guys a question. How does a "pay what you think it's worth" album release from me sound?

Why do I ask? Well, I've been getting more and more people asking for me to actually put stuff on iTunes or even just put out an actual album. And while I'm not sure there's enough interest yet to warrant an iTunes release, there is enough that I may do an independent release letting you guys pay pretty much whatever the hell you want for it.
At this point in time, I'm thinking of making it a 6 or so song EP that will feature maybe half songs from my newgrounds profile for familiarity sake (And probably polished a bit extra) as well as a couple new songs that will be exclusive to the EP.
Or I can do a full album and include all 3 of the genres I do often (Metal, Trance, Classical), mixing things up a bit, also with a ratio of old and new songs (Again, exclusive to the album).

At this point, it's just an idea... I want to get an album done either way, but I figure I'd test the interest in it first and get some feedback on how varied or large an album/EP you'd expect.

Album aside, I've released a new song that I've yet to include in a newspost, so here it is along with a few other songs I'd love to get some more feedback on:
Angel Fall (Trance)
Above It All (Feat. Bad-Man-Incorporated) (Metal)
Tick Tock (Trance)
A Taste Of... Version 4 (Orchestral Metal)
Them (Classical)
Final Flight (Updated!) (Trance)
Yin (Classical)

Gaming
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
So, I recently picked up Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning... Of which I had 0 interest in until the day of release. I looked at some of the trailers and thought, "Meh... Just another Fable disappointment."

But being the open minded person I am, I downloaded the demo to give it a go anyways. And I was pleasantly surprised by what I got... So much so that I bought it. I definitely don't regret the purchase... I've spent probably a good 50 hours in the game, and I've barely touched the main story at all (I think I'm only like 3 quests in). There's so much freaking content that it almost puts Skyrim to shame. From what I've played so far of the main story, it actually seems to have a somewhat unique plot in regards to the cliche stories you often get in RPGs now-a-days. Having tons of fun with the game, an open ended RPG with action combat and the ability to respec any time you choose (Assuming you have the cash)... It's just awesome, and any RPG (Especially action RPG) fans should definitely check it out.

Tera
I've been out of the MMO scene for a while now, having been completely burned out on the traditional mechanics... Point, click, wait, loot, repeat. And I had 1 MMO on my radar... that was Guild Wars 2.
Now I know what you're thinking, "But BFP... This part is titled 'Tera'!"
And you're completely right, it is. Hear me out. I've been looking forward to Guild Wars 2 for a long time, touting it's action based combat system and unique gameplay systems that set it apart from all the other MMOs out there... I was impatiently waiting for this game.

Then Tera jumped out in front of me out of nowhere one day, and it was also touting an action combat system... In fact, there is no targeting in the game at all (Not in the traditional sense of cycling through targets anyways)... Nor is the game "I click my skills" friendly... In fact, it's practically impossible to play without all your skills keybound or play using a plugged in controller. You have to aim your abilities, there's no RNG targeting miss or hits here... even healing has to be done by aiming at your party members.
I went ahead and preordered the game (Releasing May 1st) and got into the second beta weekend event... And it's the most fun I've had with an MMO in a long time... Combat isn't a grind, it's actually entertaining, and the more skills you get, the more awesome it gets as you start jumping, flipping, warping all over the battlefield dodging your enemies while blasting away at their health as you would in a God of War game.

I'm really looking forward to the games release now and I've pretty much all but lost interest in Guild Wars 2 as it is still far, far off. I'm hoping the game stays fresh all the way to the level cap, and PvP at end game seems like it'll be quite fun.

Battlefield 3
Not too much to say about this one... you all know what it is, so I shouldn't need to link to a game page... But I do want to say, the game is a lot more fun now that I don't suck horrendously at it.

And honestly, I would probably still suck horrendously at it if it wasn't for this guy.
He's posted a ton of tips and tricks videos for the game, and I've watched almost all of them... Before watching his videos, my average K/D in game was like 0.5 (Gross... I know). After watching, I've been averaging more around 1.5-2.0 (No joke). Surprisingly, the tip that made arguably the biggest impact on how well I play was turning my mouse sensitivity WAY down. I was always under the impression that "pro players" used high sensitivity so they could adjust quickly and pop people in the face behind them before they get a second bullet into your back. Boy, was I ever wrong. My sensitivity in game is about half of what it was prior... and now I'm picking people off like crazy. I can't turn around nearly as fast... but like RivalxFactor says in his mouse settings video... if they're behind you, you're probably already dead anyways.

Now that I don't suck so much, I'm having a blast playing the game... Although I still suck at flying jets/helicopters.

Miscellaneous
Not too much to share in this section... except this one really bad ass song I found on youtube... and immediately got into my playlist:

And just because I don't wanna leave it at just a single item in the Misc. section... Here's a cute gif for your viewing pleasure: