This is my goodbye. I've not been the most active member of this community but I've stuck around for a few years since I really loved the guys and girls making Gamespot, one of the best sites on the net with a great community. But that has all changed.

I'm not holding anyone of the staff responsible but rather the powers behind them. The sacking of Gertsman is really the essence of what is FUC*ED UP about the gaming industry today. If the rumors about that the low scoring reviews had anything to do about him beeing sacked then I'm taking a stand as a consumer and gamer:

-WE DON'T WANT CRAPPY GAMES NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WANT US TO! -

Allthough me and Gerstman have little in common except that we play games, I've always had great respect for the fact that he and many other really tell us what they feel about the games. This is KEY to us gamers! We don't have unlimited amounts of money and time (even though you think we do), sowe really need to believe in what we hear and read and that it's the truth that is beeingportrayed by the people we actually pay to test the games for us.

You made a bad game and want everyone to like it anyways? WELL BOO-HOO! I don't want anything to do with that crap no matter how much you spend on advertisement, events and paying of sites... Jesus Christ, spend the money on making good games instead! Oh, and by the way... The game got crappy reviews from ALL the important sites out there! What are you going to do, make them all fire their staff? I don't think so...

And CNET... WTF? If you had problems with Gertsman I really hope you talked with the man on several occations and didn't just cave in to some pompus-assed jerk-off that cried likea baby that has eaten all his candy and wants more. This is REALLY bad for the industry and EVERYTHING you have done to this day will be regarded as CRAP if there is any truth to this! Think about it!

Well, that's it for me. I'll probably not become a regular on any other site soon since this really made me think about what the hell media is all about. To all the honest reviewers out there that by any chance might read this I say: Having the power of the word is a great responsibility. Don't let anyone stand in your way when you're trying to tell the truth.

razor out.

I just stopped by to write up a little about the BioShock Demo released today.

OMFG!

Until next time!

- r4z0r out

Finally took some time to finish the campaign in Crackdown and wrote a few words in a short review. I really like the game and roaming around the city. I realised too late though that I had neglected my driving skill (gotta love jumping!) and it's a pain in the ass to advance the skill once you defeat all the baddies, since there are none to run over in the streets... Other than that a kick-ass game imo, could've been a bit longer though...

I gave the Settlers 6 Beta a run to see if it was another shameful pile of bile like Settlers 5 but I really liked that they seem to be shooting for something more similar to Settlers 4. The Beta is very restricted though it seems, only a short tutorial for SP and four MP-maps. Some annoying things like not being able to disband your military (I put that into the feedback) and a few bugs but other than that it feels kinda solid. I was a Beta-tester for Settlers 3 back in the days (closed beta) and I've loved the game since the very first iteration of the Settlers on the Amiga.

About a week ago, GTA 4 got pushed into 2008 but I can't say I'm either surprised or distressed. There are so many cool games coming out this fall so I actually feel a bit relieved. Another huge title also got pushed into 2008 (around March I think), The Age of Conan. Now this is more interesting... With this delay some other MMO's might benefit. Quite a few gamers have been waiting for Conan for some time and they might look elsewhere to quench their thirst. WoW-fans get a new expansion soon, LOTRO keeps on rocking with another free chapter soon, Tabula Rasa is wowing gamers as well and is slated for release this fall.

Another game that people has been waiting to get their greasy and chubby little hands on is Warhammer Online from Mythic, who made one of my favourite MMO's to date, Dark Age of Camelot. Now this game is also due for release Q1 2008 which make me wonder if we are going to have a clash of the titans early next year. The games have little in common but having heard what friends have said and reading on boards, most people who wanted to play Warhammer was going to settle for Conan since they didn't have to wait til next year. Now the tables have turned. This could be very bad for Age of Conan in my book. Some fans might even have jumped ship already, playing LOTRO or WoW as we speak.

Also read that Spore will be playable in Leipzig! We are getting there, people, we are getting there! I (and many others) was a little put off that Spore was a no-show at E3, I even got a little nervous but it seems Will has been hard at work instead which is good for us. Can't wait to see it in action again (if even only as a video here on Gamespot...). Good times!

Enough rambling for this time. Safe travels.

- r4z0r out

Well well well, seems I got of my ass for another blog, and it didn't take a month! Well, actually, I'm still sitting but anyway...

Seeing OnTheSpot last Thursday and hearing Rich Gallup say that the next show will be his last made me really, really sad. Rich IS GameSpot for me. He is so relaxed, so down to earth and just a nice, regular guy asking the questions we all want to know about games, even the weird ones. To me he is the ultimate host and replacing him will be close toimpossible. Rich, I hope you reconsider! You rock, man! Another sad thing is that I won't be able to watch OnTheSpot this Thursday live since I'm of to a festival so I have to watch his last show on sunday... Really sucks. :(

Anyway, E3 is still over and several sites has put up their picks for Game of The Show. CoD4, LBP, Burnout Paradise and Fallout 3 seems to top most sites lists and from what I've seenI'd have to agree to all of them, (except for Fallout 3 which no-one but media got to see any actual gameplay from). One thing I keep hearing fans argue about is why Mass Effect, MGS4or Halo 3 don't win and I really can't understand why people don't get it into their heads that a trailer doesn't make a game. The game have to be playable or show quite a bit of gameplay footaget for us to really be able to see if it's going to rock or not.

I purchased Crackdown a week ago and have been playing it quite a bit. I just love it! Free-roam, co-op and super powers, you can't go wrong there! This is one of the reasons I found inFamous so interesting as well, if Sony play their cards right they might have a GTA-killer in their hands. I love GTA, make no mistake, but what I really don't like is the controlls. If Rockstarj ust fix that, throw in some cool, new features and makes the world hella big, GTA4 will own us all. If not, inFamous will, I'm sure of it...

Looks like I've gotten my Gamespot-level to 20 today, yay for me!

A reasonable size blog this time. Until next time...

r4z0r out

Well, here we go again. I always say I'm going to blog more often but I... don't. Oh well... Here goes nothing...

This years E3 is over and I really like most of what I saw. This is mainly thanks to Gamespot and their BRILLIANT coverage of the show and like a zillion stage demos. I watched everything (even though some of the live shows ended at 4:30 am here) and loved it all. THANK YOU, GS!

I love the way some games are coming along. Mass Effect, Assassins Creed and BioShock all look simply stunning, I can't believe we are going to be able to play these this year! I'm buying them day one. Fable 2 is still coming along great and is slated for release sometime next year, as is GTA IV. Nothing major news about those but at least we didn't get any bad news. I really missed Spore at the show, don't think they even showed it behind closed doors, weird...

I also found new interest in some titles that I haven't paid too much attention to before. Heavenly Sword for PS3 looked amazing, the animations and characters were mindblowing. Seems Andy Serkis did a swell job in the mo-cap-studio. I liked the idéa of LittleBigPlanet when I first saw it last year but when I saw it this year I just couldn't resist it. That game will change gaming, I'm sure of it. The only problem is that it is PS3-only, which I don't have. There are a few tight titles coming to PS3 this year and Home looks better and better so I might have to consider buying one... I'll get back to that.

We also got to see hordes of games in development and some REALLY impressed me! Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare looked AWESOME! I was blown away from the footage, simply stunning graphics and tight gameplay by the looks of it. Burnout Paradise looks cool, I like the new free-roam aspect of the game and the graphics are top notch, a must-have. Naruto - Rise of a Ninja really surprised me. It's not a beat'em'up per say, more of a free-roam between fights and more story-driven. Very nice, might pick that up. inFamous is a free-roam-type game with some really cool powers, kind of like Crackdown on drugs or something. And finally it looks like we're getting a decent Simpsons-game! Looks great, seems funny, must have.The Simpsons are going out with a bang!

On a Nintendo side of things; Mario Galaxy will rock, nuff said. Metroid Prime 3 looks good too of course but the big thing announced, and not to any ones surprise really, was Mario Kart Wii, with online play! Oh man, can't get much sweeter than that! The Wii Fit-concept really underwhelmed me... Kinda inovative but in the end it will just be a gimmick used for skate and snowboard games, which I don't play. The Wheel for Mario Kart Wii was... very plastic and "kiddy". I just can't see me buy that, or use it if bundeled with the game. The zapper looked plastic too but might be fun to use butwhere the hell is Duck Hunt Wii!?! Resident Evil - Umbrella Chronicles looked stale and boring, nothing for me, sobringon the duckies! MySims really impress me and I think it mainly got to do with it being quite a clone ofAnimal Crossing withsome bonuses. The editor in the game feels spot on and if you ignore the kiddy-like graphics and feel of the game it really looks like a great way to waste away hours. Nothing more worth mentioning from Nintendo I'm sad to say. I would really appreciate a lot of cool titles for Wii but it seems like they focus on DS more... Too bad.

So, to PS3 or not to PS3, that is the question. Sony has really pulled their sh** togheter the last 6 months or so, after Ken jumped ship. They really impress me with their vision of what Home will be like, LittleBigPlanet looks awesome andsome ofexclusive gameslook great (MGS4, KillZone 2, Heavenly Sword, inFamous) but that's not the catch... Idislike their policy regarding us european players. They repeatedly step on our fingers and treat us bad. We really should just boycott them back to the stone age until they wise up but that won't happen. Another thing is sales. PS3 isn't selling very good anywhere, at all. Does it have a future? Will developers support them enough to make exclusive titles? I got a 360 and get most of the third-party stuff through that and I will not sell it since it got so many cool exclusive titles (MS has got some issues as well, but it's not as much bad policy as it is bad hardware). I just don't know if it's worth buying a PS3 when I allready have a 360. The exclusives look cool (LittleBigPlanet is the ****, it got freaking Blu-Ray (I'm a movie-freak), the hardware rocks and supports loads of stuff; but will it last? Man, I just don't know...

Ok, that's enough rambling for this time. Loads of games I haven't mentioned that I found cool but I haven't got the time nor the will to write it down right now. I won't promise to blog more often in the future because that won't happen anyways.

Have a nice day

r4z0r out.

Something is weird with my profile... It seems my percentage is gaining in extreme fashion the last two days, I've actually gone from 16 (2%) to 16 (70%) yesterday and to 17(1%) today! That is just crazy. All I've done with the profile is add one game to the tracked-list (I won't say which since I'm not sure if this is an exploit, GS if you want info, PM me!). I've posted in the glitches-forum, let's see if GS makes something out of it.

Been a while since I last posted, again! I'm starting to see the irony in my blog-header... So what is new? Well, Saint's Row has bugged out majorly. I'm at the last mission of the Westside Rollerz-missions, I've done all Vice Kings and Los Carnales, but I can't finnish the mission. Why? Because one of the zones won't load no more! If I enter with a car, everything disaperas except the road and my character! The cars, the pedestrians, the garbagecans, everything, and then nothing happens. The character just sits there in mid-air and nothing happens. I have to reset the game to start it up again but I can never enter the zone w/o it crashing.

Now if that isn't odd enough, the same thing actually happened to me before, but in Oblivion! I played Oblivion for weeks w/o any problems at all and suddenly one day, the game froze, I got an error-message about the CD being un-readable and it won't load up the game since, no matter what save or if I start a new one. I thought my CD was destroyed by the 360 (I see tiny scratches on the surface that I have not made, the CD never left the tray) but when Saint's Row bugged out I realised that the two games had similar problems.

Now this is the interesting part: This started to happen directly or soon after I downloaded extra content for the games from Xbox 360 Live! It never happened before this. It doesn't help to remove the packs, it doesn't help to start a new game or load an older save, they are still bugged. So I tried something rash, just to see if it helps, and that was to erase ANY trace of Oblivion ever being installed on my machine. I erased all the saves and downloaded packs and started Oblivion up: It works! I can create a new game, I can load saves and play w/o any problems!

I really REALLY don't want to remove all my saves for Saint's Row but I believe that would probably solve the problem. Now, if that is the sollution, then what is the problem? Is it the updates that corrupt the game, is the 360 unable to handle them or is my HDD broken? Something is weird, I can tell you that. Maybe I should talk to MS about this, I haven't heard about this problem before...

Besides all that, I'm close to level 50 in City of Heroes (finally). Only took me like 2 years... ;) I'm at 48,6 now and I gained a good 1 level just this sunday so I'm guess ing I'll be 50 within a few days playing. I really need to get to 50 so that I can leave CoH behind me for a while til the next big thing...

I'm currently BETA-testing Lord of the Rings Online and man, is it sweet! Love the graphics, love the quests, love the atmosphere, love the hobbits etc etc. This game is a must-buy! Maybe I'll blog a little about it later this week. I've actually ordered a new gfx-card mainly for the game, a HIS X1950 PRO Turbo AGP. A monster of a card and for AGP at that which is nice since I don't wanna dish out thousands just to get my PC up to date. The P4 3GHz and 2 GB RAM should survive another year or so with the new card.

Wow, I really should blog more often, seems like I have a lot on my mind. Well, to anyone who actually read this crap: Happy gaming!

 

r4z0r out

Looong time since last blogg but there are a few things on my mind so what the heck...

First; Finally the Blog-header works! Been trying to add an image there for ages and suddenly, today, it works! Maybe it has something to do with me passing level 15? Oh well...

So, what has happened since I got that Wii like... months ago? Well, a whole lot! Zelda was definately worth the wait but since I played that through, I haven't played much Wii. I occationally play Wii Sports, which is a blast, make no misstake, but it's not really REALLY fun unless you have a bunch of people around. Wii really need some more singleplayer loving! Can't wait for Metroid Prime 3 and Mario Galaxy! Wii is still a great invention, all the channels initially declared by Ninty are up and I really like the simplicity of the Forecast- and News Channels. And who can resist all the great Virtua Console games being released? I've picked up 5 myself, including Mario 64, Zelda (1) and SMB.

On the 360 I played Viva Piñata four days in a row with some sleep in between (I was home sick and had nothing better to do) and that game totally had me buring all that time! Crazy addictive! Since I unlocked a whole bunch of the achievements I kind of lost interest,.I got most of the piñatas (including some of the "rare" ones) and when you reach that point, with a buttload och cash you can't really spend on anything, the game is pretty much over for me. Cute, addictive but short. Next!

Went back for more in Saint's Row instead (I put it aside since there was a whole bunch of other games that came about) and I'll play that through as soon as I can since the next major title is soon to be released: Mass Effect in March! That game looks totally sweet. It's like KOTOR on drugs! I'm hoping for a crazy ride around the galaxy with tons of story and action. The graphics are stunning as well, nice little bonus.

Then there is something called a PC... I had Godfather lying around and I decided to give it a go. Baaad mistake... Another game that totally consumed all my spare time! I really love the way they let you be part of the story and let you explore the things we never saw in the movies but that really could've happened. The game itself is ok, GTA-clone is written all over it but then again, every FPS can't be called a Quake- or Wolfenstein-clone so let's just call it a free-roamer.

Besides games on the PC, MS recently released Vista, and man does it look sweet! Finally we can have what Mac has had for bloody three years! I'm not saying MS did a bad thing copying everything from OS X, they really needed to do something similar to really be a contender. I look forward to see what the Games for Windows will bring to the new platform, playing games with people on 360 and PC could be really sweet if done right. And collecting Achievement points in PC-games too is just too good, it really helps to keep you (or at least me) motivated a bit longer. I'll probably pick up a new gfx-card and Vista Premium in a couple of months, I'll wait for SP1 at least.

What else... Oh yeah, H-L Episode 2 delayed.. What the hell...? Episodic content; wasn't that supposed to be all about shorter and more frequent content, not actually take LONGER than a normal game? How about dropping TF2 and Portal and just release the damn episode by it self if they are taking too long, or vice versa? I'll happily pay for TF2 as a stand-alone! Damnit...

Spore was pushed into Q3 2007 which is ok with me. There are so many cool games coming out this year so I'll have my hands full anyway. I hope well see Fable 2 this year as well, but since we're talking about Lionhead, we know that is just a dream... late 2008 more likely. Just in time for Duke Nukem Forever? Who knows... Who cares...?

Have a good one!

Finally, finally, finally! Wii is in the house!

I qued for about 9½ hours yesterday, of which 2 hours was in pouring rain, in the line for the Wii-launch here in Sweden. I was cold, I was wet and I was tired but hell, I GOT A WII!

I'm a little bumed that the component cables are a good 2 weeks away because the numbers that was delivered to the stores was minimal... But none the less, the Wii is by my TV and I love it to bits!

Wii Sports is a really great demonstration of the capabilities of this system! Even though I got home at about 2 am, I stayed up til 5 am playing the damned thing, and I even broke a sweat! I love it!

I also got Rayman and, well, Tony Hawk Downhil Jam (damned thing was bundeled with the Wii we got to buy, didn't really want to get that one). I'll give those a try today. Zelda is no where to be seen... Sold out at the store I was in line for before I got inside, and all stores are fresh out now... Oh, well, I placed an order today, hope it won't take too long.

Until then, I'll have a blast with Rayman and Wii Sports!

Later

One crappy day to go, then I'm back at work again... Another summer passed, another game-frenzy at an end... *sigh*

I've purchased Rockstar's Table Tennis and MAN, is it hard! The Easy-level I can handle w/o much problems (you can pretty much beat anyone with anyone if you play it right). Medium level takes the game to a whole new game. This is starting to be a challange, you have to know what the other players weaknesses are and exploit them to beat some opponents (I'm talking about playing the tournament, at the semi's and finals the opponents gets even harder, no matter who it is). Well, that is nothing compared to hard! Just... insane! But I'll get there! Eventually... Then there is Pro and All-star... I'll probably break something if I ever get there, I'm guessing we're talking pure frustration.

The game really rocks online too but I've decided to play through SP and unlock everything before I really get into the mix online.

Oh, I've reached level 11 today. Yay for me!

r4z0r out

This is crazy... I'm having problems putting my DS away! I recently traded my ol' silvery NDS for a beautiful, slim and black DS Lite and threw in a New Super Mario Bros. game into the mix. Man, the memories! NSMB is awesome! It collects all the previous SMB-games into a festival of great gameplay and a few new tricks! I absolutely love it!

I haven't 'touched' the DS this much since my Animal Crossing: WW frenzy a couple of months ago. DS Lite is so much sleeker and cooler than DS Fat and playing is not as tiresome as before (my arms got a bit numb after a few minutes with DS Fat). It is up to anyone to decide if that is a good or bad thing...

I also signed into my City of Heroes/Villains account again after a few months of inactivity. Man, that game still rocks! Yes, it's a very repetitive beat-em-up action game but I love the characters and the diffrent enemies. And I'm not the one to be humble about my abillities, I show them of to a newbie any time I can! The new issue also introduced a few great improvements to the Villains so it's all good!