So, it's been a super long time again, won't deny it. Mainly, it's cuz stuff has been dumb, aka, finals, my PS3 dying, and the internet connection at school being so slow that it's unusable. But now finals are over and Christmas break has begun, so I'm at home and have an internet connection now.

Unfortunately, my faithful PS3 has died... it got the YLOD a week or two ago. Admittedly, I've been more of a computer gamer since we got our laptop upgrades, but I've been wanting to play FF13 and Demon's Souls in particular, which I obviously wont be able to do on computer. So, me and my brother are going to have to get a new one over the break.

Its even more annoying because my parents have decided to move to a town called Oxford, which is only about 15 miles from where I go to school, but it is totally out in the boonies. The town's total population might be about 1000, and it covers less than one square mile- they dont even have a grocery store. It's so far out of the way that I probably would have to quit my job if it was more than once a week, but I just got a bunch of new hours from my boss so I'm not going to give it up that easily.

That being said, my game library has fluctuated significantly since September- i've traded in a lot of games, but got new ones too. My most notable additions have been Call of Duty Black Ops, Alan Wake, Fallout New Vegas, a nd Battlefield Bad Company 2. I also just got Singularity off of Steam yesterday, but it looks like I need an administrator password to play it, and yesterday was the first day of Christmas break. That means I have to wait three and a half weeks before I go back to school and can play it. very annoying.

So, anyway, my most recent gaming adventures have been into Oblivion GOTY. I had it on PS3, it was one of the first games I bought for it, but I haven't played it in a year or two and eventually traded the game back just a few weeks ago. Oblivion on PC, however, just seems to be a way better fit for me, and I've been playing it like crazy. I've also been introduced to the immersive world of Oblivion mods, which has defintiely spiced things up. I haveta admit, one of the mods I've used most is one that makes the female characters look a lot sexier(they're pretty bland as is), but I've also been using mods that give me new armor and weapons, like Cloud's First Tsurugi sword from Advent Children.I've been looking at a few game mods like one that turns it into LOTR, but I havent tried any of those yet.

And so it is that this year is drawing to a close and 2011 is looking like its going to be a huge year for games. Gears of War 3, Deus Ex, Parasite Eve, Mass Effect 3, Resistance 3, Uncharted 3, FF versus 13, etc, etc. Not to mention Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which I will be watching closely- hopefully it wont be so graphically advanced that I can still get it for my computer.

Finally, it's still hot, but starting to reach a level where it's jsut uncomfortable instead of your eyes melting out of your head. And finally, finally, I got my computer upgrade! It's better than I was expecting, they found a new model after having the 'new' model for jsut a year, but I guess they were breaking a bunch so they had to find a different model. Anyway, we ended up with a Dell Latitude E6510- I guess it's more of a model designed for business purposes, but I dont really care too much. It has an i5 processor for one, dedicated graphics card, though i forget the exact specs, and at least 4 gigs of RAM. It can run the things I couldn't before, Left 4 Dead in particular runs as smooth as silk. The only thing that I'm not liking about it is that the admin restrictions are very strict. I can't install anything without an admin password, which is different from the password on the old computers, so right now I'm at the mercy of the computer center people. I got Steam on and it can run all of my Valve games, but anything else is a hit and miss because it wants to install a "winbot slave" thing. I think if I go up there one more time for a password for a game they might ban me from that place forever...

So, PC gaming has broken wide open for me, for the most part. I would like this computer even better if it was a bit more powerful- thus far, all of the games I have work, but some of the newer ones give me a little trouble in the same old places, namely areas that have fog and smoke, and/or a ton of of particle effects, like glowing shimmering forcefield kind of things, for example. Borderlands works great at full spec, but Mass Effect 2 jitters just a tiny bit in areas that has a lot of smoke or light beams. Fallout 3 has the same problem, usually if you go inside there are light beams coming in through chinks in the walls, and it doesnt like those a lot. So, nothing game-breaking, but it's still an annoying thing you don't have to deal with usually on a console.Right now, I'm really wrestling with whether or not to get Fallout New Vegas for my computer or PS3- they haven't released offical system requirements yet, but if you ask me, it almost doesn't look quite as good as 3. So, I gotta make up my mind in the next week or so, so i can pre-order on Steam.

So yes... school started back up and I've been distracted for quite a while, hence my taking forever to get back... Primary elections are over, crazy storms we usually get at the end of summer are rolling in, and we got into the first accident in our car! Well, my bro was driving, so thankfully he's stuck with the ticket and not me. It was pretty minor, it just broke our headlight cover out and bent a plastic panel on the other person's car- we were only goin like 5 miles an hour when it happened.

I managed to get my mits on Halo: Reach- my friend went to the midnight premier to get her pre-ordered 360slim bundle, and she hadn't even unwrapped the game. She's weird like that, way too much money to spend. But anyway, I defintiely liked Reach a lot better than ODST, especially the fact that you could customize your Spartan- I made a female one since we've never seen a female spartan before. It was still a little shorter than I would have liked, and I didn't like the ending much, but it was what it was. The combat was pretty good, though once again there was no dual-wield, which doesn't make me pleased.

And Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep! I can't believe how amazing it looks, with all the settings turned up, I really can't tell the difference between it and KH2, which is a pretty amazing achievement on PSP, if you ask me. I haven't got too far yet though, cuz I started a file with Terra on "Proud" mode since that was the difficulty I always played KH2 on, but Birth by Sleep is a lot more balanced than KH2 was, so I was getting my butt kicked on that difficulty. So, I started a new file on normal with Aqua, and it seems much more reasonable- it's actually challenging without seeming cheap.

Right now though, I'm playing this gem I got on Steam called World in Conflict- I never recall it coming out even though it was 2007, and it was allegedly the best strategy game of that year. Basically, the Soviets attack the U.S. in 1989, so you're trying to fight them off on your home turf- it's cool how you're using old National Guard equipment and tanks in the early levels when your still reeling from the intial assault, instead of the Army just instantly counter-attacking with hordes of M1A1 Abrams and all the latest gear. I was slightly leary at first since there is no base construction, which usually means you have a set number of units to complete a mission, but instead, you have reinforcement points and call in reinforcements by having them air-dropped by the national guard right on top of your position, ready to go. That means it's basically all combat and no down-time, which I can defintiely appreciate.

been a super long time again. Me an distractions, fun fun. Summer keeps dragging on, but I guess each day that goes by is one more closer to fall. Albeit, in Kansas, there really isn't such a thing as spring and fall. it pretty much is either super cold in the winter, then a few weeks of mild weather, then straight into super hot, super humid summer, then a few weeks of mild weather, adn back into winter. School starts back up again soon, which I'm actually redy for, except for my gen ed math class I've been putting off. Mainly though, I'm uber pumped for my computer upgrade, I FINALLY get it in slightly less than two weeks now. Can't wait to try out some newer games, like Company of Heroes and NacroVision.

I'm actually surprisied with Trauma Team, they're carrying it in Wal-Mart and stuff, and most of the time the only place that carries Atlus games is Gamestop or other game stores, but not traditional retail stores. It seems to be doing well for itself. There's been a durge of Wii games again, except there's Ar Rise Fantasia that just came out that could be itneresting, since it looks quite similar to the Tales series. I'll obviously be getting Goldeneye for Wii when that comes out thsi winter, but other than that, no big plans for the Wii. I have seriously contemplated trading it in, but my parents use it for Wii fit and stuff, so I'm hanging on to it for now anyway.

Yup, XIII wasn't bad. I got the Lightning theme during that boss fight, but I forget what exactly the requirements were to get it- I also have the Sazh one, and another I think but can't remember which. My bro, still stuck on Barthandelus, he hasn't tried again in a long time. He seems to be casting doom on him, which I never remember him casting on me, which is why he keeps losing. The ending was good, but I think I still like FFVIII's the best, XII's is ok too. Now, I'm really impatient for FF versus XIII. It looks totally awesome, but still, we're just not getting any info on it, just a few new pictures here and there- but, thankfully, if I remember right, versus XIII is now Nomura's current project since he has finished the recent Kingdom Hearts games.

The one part i Liked in particular about Alan Wake was the weird clinic lodge place. It had a very 'not quite right' feel to it like you get in silent hill, and the two old guy rock stars were amusing- then when it gets taken by the darkness, it gets even more awesome. Definitely an excellent scene in that game. I did kind of wonder what the deal was with regular batteries and lithium batteries, it seems like there shoauld be a difference of some kind, but if there was, I didn't notice.

yeah, speaking of silent hill, I went out and shelled out $30 for a new copy of Shattered Memories since they didn't have a used copy, and it was a total waste. Never before have I been so vastly disappointed in a game- shattered memories was utter rubbish as far as I was concerned. No combat was one of the biggest issues, just running away from the same enemies in the same-looking locations every time turned into a drag really fast. the story was even more convuluted than typical SH and in the end, individual events madevery little sense to me, like Lisa randomly dying and weird stuff. It's like they took the original SH and threw everything out the window except the names of characters, everything was changed. And it was super short too, and ultimately forgetable. I would have much prefered a simpleHD remake of the original SH versus a "re-invisioning". Hopefully they wont be makign the same mistakes with this new one.

Yeah, I've been thinking of popping ME2 back in, it was so good, maybe with a slightly different character, maybe something with biotics, cuz I never used biotics. I haven't really heard any flak about it, but I think the final boss totally looked like a Terminator. Defintiely made for a better fight though than fighting weird robot zombie Saren though. But yeah, I never used Jacob, cuz he was just forgetable, and never used Jack, she reminded me of some of the foul-mouthed angsty people I knew in high school, heh heh. Except at the very end, Legion got killed! He was one of my favorites, even if he did show near the very end. I think the only guys that died were Legion and Mordrid, but I guess you can have like, everybody die and fail the mission and stuff too, which would be lame after all that work.

Yeah, they had an Otacon here a couple weeks ago, I would have gone but was totally broke, but some of my other friends went all cosplay, msotly as Bleach characters. I'd like to go to one to get Final Fantasy stuff if I could, since you cant' really find that kinda stuff except online.

Oh yeah, Demon Soul's has been challenging, for sure. I defeated armored arachnid and have been giving it a bit of a break. I started as a wanderer but quickly made a knight and have been doing a lot better.

Of course, now that Starcraft II has come out, people are going crazy. My computer is too old to run it, but I did get the original starcraft battlechest just for the hey of it. Man, 12 years defintiely hasn't been kind on it though, the graphics are butt ugly and I can't even turn up the resolution.

Ah, so it's been another month. Seems like I've been busy doing nothing in particular, if that makes sense. Though I was on vacation for a whole week two weeks ago, went to this giant lake that's a couple states away from Kansas, I've been there a lot over the years, but at least i got out of the house. Though, once again, it comes back to unbearable heat. Too bad I'm not at my dorm at school now, cuz if I was I could crank down the AC as low as I want.

Yeah, me and my bro have played horde mode quite a bit, and it's pretty fun, kinda like nazi zombies where it's basically jsut wave defense until you die. I like the level in the city with the crater in the middle- there were elevated position ringing the sides, so I usually sit there with my sniper rifle while my brother uses the boom shield. Now, give me a mortar though and i can pop them from the opposite side of the map, I'm really good with it. Well, COG stands for 'Coalition of Ordered Governments". I'm sure they just call them gears because it is a play on words with 'cog' and fenix and crew are just 'gears' in the war machine. my guess, anyhow.

Yeah, so if you're interested in Trauma Team, you probably shoud just give it a rent. In fact, there aren't any special powers or the like at all in trauma team, so you don't have to worry about fighting undefeatable odds and not being able to win if you run out of slow down time. I haveta admit, the surgery isn't particularly hard, the msot frantic part of that game is the first-response with Maria, because you are constantly having to treat multiple patients, watch their vital signs, stabilize, swap patients, etc.

Well, I can't say I was particularly fond of the weapon levelling system in XIII, but what I would do is just only level up the weapons of my main battle party and more or less ignore the characters I don't use, and I used most of the money i earned to buy components from the garage to upgrade them more. my brother is still hopelessly stuck on barthandelus, i dunno what he's doing wrong, i didn't have that much trouble with him.

hmm... I might end up buying alan wake when it gets cheaper, but I just wasnt ready to shell out 60 bucks for it. I hate endings like that, but hopefully that means there will be another game. Did you see in the E3 stuff that a new Silent Hill has been announced? I don't really get the hate over Homecoming, I thought it was good and plenty scary, so hopefully this new one will be even better. so that makes it thus far the only Silent Hill I havent beat yet is SH4. I've put a little more stock in Silent Hill recently since, even though I really enjoy Resident Evil, it has strayed very far from its survival horror roots and is now merely another action game. Then again, a new Resident Evil has been announced for the 3DS, so that might shake things up too.

Valkyrie Profile defintiely seems unfair with its ending, but I was careful and got it- you just have to keep the steps in mind and you can do it without too much difficulty. Even so, it seems unfair that it would be an incredible amount of blind luck to happen across the good ending by chance.

If you don't want to spend the money, you could always try a PS2 emulator, so you can pop your ps2 games in your computer and play them right there. I'm hoping the computer upgrade i'm getting will be powerful enough to run it, cuz the one i have now can only run it at about 50% of the framerate.

Yup, red dead was good, but... I already traded it in. For me, it just seemed like one of those games that I wasn't going to play again once I beat it, and I was not impressed with the multiplayer at all, so... that was that. Not to say it was a bad game though, cuz it certainly wasn't.

Haha, now I did just get Mass Effect 2 and No More Heroes 2 as well. Haven't had a chance to get to NMH2 yet, butI jsut beat Mass Effect 2 the other day, using the character that I imported from Mass Effect 1- i don't have that game anymore, but I kept the data. 2 now, I will keep, because it seems a vast improvement over the original, particularly the combat is much better done, and I actuallyprefer the traditional ammo system versus the infinite ammo but guns overheat thing of the original. The final boss was pretty crazy though, not exactly what I was expecting at all, but then again, there wasn't really anything else I had in mind that could be the final boss. The ending though defintiely makes it look like the galazy is screwed now, so I'm defintiely looking forward to 3. I didn't know that Garrus was a returning party character though, so I was glad to see him, I kept him in my party at all times.

I've got a number of other games recently as well, namely, I got Hexyz Force and MGS Peacewalker for my PSP. Atlus definitely seems to be busy recently, and Hexyz Force seems to be one of their better games as well, it's a classic old school type RPG, the overall battle and gameplay system is similar to FFX's, andn the fact that there are two seperate stories to play adds extra value in my book, not to metion the reduced price that is typical to Atlus games. They were all sold out at my local store though, surprisingly, so I ended up just getting it off the PSN since the download size really isnt that big. Peacewalker is great too, defintiely a huge improvement over Portable Ops. It is a little strange that there isn't a unit like the B&B or FOXHOUND to fight, but they make up for it with the crazy metal gears you get to fight.

now, of course, I can barely stand the wait any longer for Persona 3 Portable, it comes out a week from tuesday, which is too far away for me! I've already paid for about half of it on reserve, so I'm just waiting for it to come out so I can get it right away.

Yeah, summer is just starting and I can't stand it, we have a tropic summer basically, so it's super hot and humid, so it's pretty oppresive. The new laptops we're supposed to get from the school are Dell Studio laptops with GD screens and video cards, which is nice, it's more or less current. One of my friends says it runs Fallout 3 full-spec, so that's encouraging. STALKER I actually haven't had too much trouble with. the main problem I have with it is that the quest system is kinda broken and doesn't work so great, like missing items and people and stuff. not to mention the instructions indicate that the developer's first language defintiely wasn't english, it's not extremely coherent. What you can do is go to the site "Mod DB" they have mods for pretty much every game in existance, and they have some good "complete" patches for Stalker that make it very stable.

Oh yeah, me and my bro have played the horde mode on 2 quite a bit, and we're pretty good at it. Mostly we play the one where there's the huge crater in the center of the town and you fight in the streets and buildings around it. I usually pick up a mortar and drop shells right on top of their heads- i've gotten to near precision accuracy with that thing. And did you see those new mech power suit things for 3? those look like they could cause some damage.

No, there's no GUILT in Trauma Team, thankfully, but there is a new disease that's kinda crazy but it's not like GUILT or anything, it just serves as a device to add tension, more or less. the diagnostic and autopsy jobs defintiely form most of the meat of the game though, as the other four jobs you will breeze through fairly quickly in comparison, whilst the latter two professions take about an hour or so to complete for each episode, sometimes longer. i've kinduv realized though, however, that those two, while the most compelling, will have the least replay value because once ytou've done them, you'll know how to do them and it won't be much fun anymore. there is an increased difficulty once you beat the game but difficulty does not apply to diagnosing and forensics.

Yup, I beat XIII, bout a month ago now. Once you get off of Gran Pulse and return to cocoon, the game picks up the pace towards the end of the game. I beat the final boss on the second try, not to say that it's easy, but i discovered the secret to the fight- the stinking final boss isn't immune to poison! So, it takes some time, but keep that status on it and it'll go down eventually. and the final boss fight is a three stage fight, but thankfully, if you mess up on the second or third stage, you can restart the fight without starting from the very beginning again! I really appreciated that, especially since boss fights take time in XIII compared to other FF games

Well, Alan Wake did seem a bit longer than the standard survival horror experience, and it was well executed. The ending was stupid in my opinion but it could just be me, I hate endings like that. some of the story points were a little unclear to me, but oh well. I thoguht it was funny though, all the references to Max Payne games in there, some of them were direct lines cut and lifted right from those games.

Silent Hill 3 was good, but the voice acting was sketchy and i beat it in slightly under jsut five hours, which is pretty darn short. You get an Uzi in that game too, and i was like, sweet! SMG! but i only ever picked up one clip of ammo for it in the entire game, whhich is beyond lamesauce. I did also just beat Silent Hill 1, but I unfortunately got the Bad+ ending, apparently i didn't do the Kauffman sidequest...lame.

Sounds like you need to get a new PS2 then. I defintiely like Persona 4 better than 3, just the fact that your characcter doesn't die at the end is a big up, but it's also a bit irksome that the true ending is concealed, and you have to make careful decisions at two different points in the game if you want to get it right. My life would probably be complete though if they made a portable version of it liek they're doing with 3.

Oh ho, Red Dead Redemption, without a doubt, is a must buy. I wasn't planning on getting it at all, but I traded in a bunch of games the other day and got a lot of credit, so I was like "what the heck" and got it. the game is amazing, simply put. I don't know what the rest of the world thinks of the American West, but it's an itneresting and unexplored genre, and lends itself well to the whole sandbox gameplay style. I've never been interested in GTA either, and i don't think this game is too much like those. The character is actually pretty likeable and not jsut some criminal. So, whenever it arrives over there, i say get it, without hesitation.

Been a while again, I must just be feeling lazy. Semester ended about a week ago now, so I'm back home for the summer. Not doing much besides sleeping in till 11, which is nice. However, I am a bit excited because now that the summer has started, i'm just a couple months away from finally getting a lap top upgrade! I'll finally be able to play all the games I got on Steam that don't work on this computer or run really bad if they do. Namely, I want to play STALKER and Company of Heroes.

I get the gameinformer magazine and they had a pretty big article in it about Gears 3- it looks like it will be good. there are a lot of new weapons and things like these turrets that you can clip different weapons into so it's pretty modifiable. and it looks like there will be some new playable characters and stuff, so it looks to have potential, though, we can't sya much this far out obviously.

Finally! got a decent new game for my Wii! Trauma Team is proving thus far to be pretty fun. I've played as everybody but the forensics thus far. The characters are defintiely weird and amusing, something I've come to expect from Atlus games. It hasn't proven to be particularly difficult yet though, which is slightly out of chcaracter for Atlus, but it has proven to be pretty enjoyable over-all. i'm having a little trouble with some of the more delicate stuff due to my shaky hands, but im managing

Yeah, it's hard for me to talk bad about FF, but XIII wasn't exactly what i was hoping for for the next one. then again, i had always lumped more favor on FF versus XIII but we have just heard jack diddly about it, even though it looks like total awesomeness from the trailers and pictures.

Yeah, resonance... i got to the part with the chick you were talking about, where vashyron goes a little crazy there for a minute. sometimes japanese games are so bizarre... Then i did a chapter where we had to get medicine for Leanne, and there was a weird cutscene where there was subject 20 or something but she sounded and looked like leanne with black hair- i'll admit it's kinda confusing... I'm a little disappointed with how few guns there are though. I thought the game was going to be gun crazy but i still only have one other pistol besides my starting weapons. the customization for them is pretty crazy though, i jsut wish you could see SOME of it, but noo...

yeah, i would team up with ya for borderlands but i cant seem to catch you anymore, maybe bcuz im sleeping in so late, you'd have to stay up really late- but the reverse is the same, for me to catch you at a decent time i have to stay up real late, you're 13 hours ahead of me in australia.

I'm watching my bro play Alan wake right now, since he cant seem to beat Barthadelus in FFXIII. it seems to be a pretty decednt game, albeit, it isnt particularly scary. kinda like Alone in the Dark but actually pretty decent overall.

Heh, i DID finally get abck into my pile of PS2 games and beat Silent Hill 3. That was kinda scary- but I haveta say, you're "god" is pretty pathetic if it can be killed by a teenage girl with a pistol and about 90 rounds for it. I almost didn't beat it though cuz all i had left at that poitn was a few ampoules

not to much on the game list for this summer though, there really isnt anything comng out that im interested in, except for Persona 3 portable obviously, which i'm pumped over. I think I'll save a bit and get a nice airsoft gun, me and my brothers have kinda got into that recently and have been having battles in the front yard with a bunch of cover we set up, like old tires and trashcans.

Well, it's been a month, I have no real excuse. lots of things since then.

It's on the mind for me, the new Gears of War 3 slated for release a year from now. I rebought gears 1 and got gears 2 as well. I beat Gears 2 just last week, and I frankly dont see myself playing the original again after playing Gears 2. 2 is just so much better in so many ways. I like the fact that it actually has a present story, albeit its no pulitzer prize stuff like you've said. But the minor tweaks to the gameplay and the improved graphics and balancing just make it a far superior package. I'm hoping that Gears 3 will be the zenith of the series, and go out with a bang rather than a whimper, since it's supposed to conclude the series. I don't know if you've seen the release trailer- I recognize everybody,but I'm quite surprised to see that Anya is fighting now, she looks pretty cool, but different. Though I'd want to hear the logic behind why she's fighting now. I defintiely approve of all of the character's new looks though, it defintiely seems to reflect the apocalyptic, desperate tone that the trailer seems to be aiming for.

my Wii... seems to be having a problem. I tried to play it the other night, and it's acting like it has no power. So... not sure if its just my power cord or something wrong with the Wii itself, which would be a pretty big issue. So, getting Trauma Team is debateable.

I think i got way too many RPGs than I will be able to handle for a while during spring break, ended up with FFXIII, Resonance of Fate, Infinite Space, and Guild Wars, in about two weeks, so I've hit a pretty huge back log. I'm feeling a little defensive about Resonance of Fate, since I've been keeping track of it for a while, but reviews are all over the place, from mediocre to awesome. I don't see any problem with it besides the somewhat stiff difficulty, and it seems a little unfair that some people are coming down on it despite its lack of fanfare upon release.

ah, you got the secret armory of general knoww DLC? I played it quite a bit with my friend over spring break, but practically havent touched it since then. I really approve of the Monster though, i'd take it over the regular runner car any day.

yeah, people go up and down about how they think FEAR1 was way scarier than FEAR2, but I think it's the exxact opposite, there seemed to be just a handful of momnets like that in 1, whereas 2 defintiely went the distance, especically with the parts where Alma jumps you. I saw they have an article for FEAR3 in my bro's game informer magazine, but i didnt get a chance to read it- I did see a picture of a very angry, very ugly looking pregnant Alma though, which i still don't understand since Alma doesnt seemt o have a body anymore, so how could she be pregnant, yada yada, it got weird there at the end of 2. either way, i'll be glad when my school computer gets upgraded in a few months and i can play fear 2 on a system that can actually handle it.

yeah I didn't buy heavy rain, but i borrowed it from a guy a few dorms down and beat it a few weeks ago now. I defintiely thought it was pretty cool, especically how your interactions effected the story. I ended up doing all of the trials except the last two, so i didnt kill the drug dealer and i didnt take the poison, but i was able to put the clues together at the end so that i still found where shawn was. I really didnt see shelby being the killer coming at all, and it especially felt low that I played him as a good guy and did all the good things i could when i used him, like helping lauren and stuff.

i beat Halo 3 the other day too, it was kinda weird, i got the game for free because this microsoft rep guy came with free goodies and that game was left over so i got it. I've only palyed halo 1 a little bit and havent played halo 2 at all, so i really didnt have much of an idea of what was going on really. the ending seemed kinda 'meh' to me, but then again, im not some crazy halo fanboy, so what do i know?

Oh yeah, and I've been kicking it old school too. I got Max Payne and Max Payne 2 off of Steam the other day, and I'm not regretting it. Max Payne may have come out in 2001, but it's still a heck of a lot of fun nine years later, it's hard to believe I never played it until now. sure, bigger and better things have been done with bullet time since then, like Stranglehold and FEAR, but Max Payne is still the original gangster, and going The Matrix on a bunch of druggies is pretty awesome. Now I can look in on Max Payne 3, whenever that decides to come out

Ah...well, sorry, it's been a long time. I've been fighting sickness for more than a month now, off and on, several doctor trips, blah, blah, they can't seem to figure out what is wrong. It's been very disruptive for my class scheduleand stuff- but there's no point in complaining.

Yeah, like I said, with the Bioshock 2. Nothing wrong with it, in my eyes. It just couldn't quite live up to the reputation of its predecessor in my mind's eye. Like the general consensus, it didn't really seem to get awesome until the last two chapters, which is unfortunate. And yeah, you play as a big daddy, but I didn't feel like a big daddy until I was tearing guys to pieces in the last two chapters or so. I felt like I was even less durable than Jack in 1 was, even though they tried to push the point that Bioshock 2 played as a Big Daddy because Jack wouldn't be able to survive. I was a little dissapointed with how little air time Tennenbaum got; Iliked how she looked a lot better, and I thought she was supposed to be pretty important character in 2, but I guess not.So yeah, in the end, I still prefer Bioshock 1 much more than Bioshock 2, which I feel kinda bad about because it looked like 2 had such great potential. Who knows if there will be another Bioshock? I would like that, but there's the question of whether it will be good or not. I got it on my 360 though, so I haven't played the multiplayer yet.

Yeah, I beat Assassin's Creed II. It is, without a doubt, a vast improvement over the original. The story is much, much larger, easier to udnerstand, and while the ending still leaves you with a sensation that things are far from over, it wasn't such a cliff-hanger like 1's ending was. Now, the gun, it's not what you think. You don't get it till the latter third or so of the game, and there's only one guy you're recquired to whack with it. It has its ups and downs. It only comes with 6 shots, it takes a long time to fire accurately, and the noise increases your notoriety. However, it's always a one shot kill , whereas throwing knives can take two hits, you can intimidate enemies with it, and it has longer range than knives, so u just have to balance it tactically and decide if that's what you want to go with. The ending of the game though... well, maybe I should have expected it, maybe not, but it definitely brings in an itneresting twist. And with your complaint with the real world stuff, you really only see the real world at the beginning and end, andn a small part in the middle or so, and u can do muchh more than walk arond. You can punch people and stuff, and in the end u fight a big pack of templars, though it's weird that they don't have guns.

yup, I've spent at least 150 hours on one playthrough of FFXII. I hope I can get that kind of playability out of XIII. my gameinformer magazine already ahs a review on it, they gave it a 9.25. They complained about the characters, that they didn't have as much dimension, but they seem alright to me, from what I've seen. Lightning especially looks like she should be cool. I mean, come on, I obviously want a decent story and characters, but I think reviewers whine too much. You can't expect every game out there to have the action of a big budget hollywood movie and the story and character of a new york times bestseller. I just like to enjoy games- isn't that what they're made for? It seems that people have strayed away from that these days and focusing more on the business aspect. Well, either way, I'm ranting. I'm getting FFXIII when it comes out next week ragardless- I'm making sure to get my huge research paper done so it will not get in the way of my Final Fantasy bliss.

yeah, the "Awakening" DLC has been released for Dragon Age but it's 40 stinking dollars! It's supposed to be a great add-on, but that's just a ridiculous price, so I won't be getting it anytime soon, unfortunately.

Yup, I'm enjoying my iPod. I got Plants vs Zombies for it, which is an absolutely great port. Now, they just released FFI and FFII for it, but it's $9 and I cant spend that kinda money on it right now, but I'll get them eventually. They look like the PSP remakes but with touch controls, so that's cool.

Ah, so you got L4D then? Is it an uncensored version? I have L4D off of steam as well, but like you, my laptop can't really handle it, so if we want to play it online, it'll have to wait till august when I finally get my laptop upgrade from the school.

I just beat Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days last night. The ending was pretty good, I think, and I'm ready for Birth by Sleep now.

Oh yeah! I got my paws on FEAR and FEAR 2 as well. I beat FEAR, and it runs great on my computer. now, FEAR 2, I'm surprised it runs, since it came out jsut last year, but it does, and I think it's scarier than the first one.

There's a lot of games coming out soon that I want though- XIII obviously, but also Infinite Space, Resonance of Fate are must buys for certain. Then there's Trauma Team later I'd like, Metro 2033, Dead Space 2, etc... so, my birthday is this month, so I'll be getting some money, I'll jsut have to carefully decide what to get.

ah Australia Day...I remember, that gave me a great deal of trouble in Bioshock, because this guy had set the combination to his office door's lock for Australia day and I had nooo idea what it was so I had to look it up on wikipedia. except, after i did that, i found a random room that had a big poster "Australia Day!" Very helpful. sounds like the 4th of July, where our chinese made american flags are everywhere...oh, the irony.

Well maybe you've seen more stuff since then, but you're a bit off there. Bioshock 2 takes place ten years AFTER, not before, the original Bioshock. So there's no ryan, but allegedly more background info will be revealed. tenenbaum will be returning though. From what I've seen it looks like Delta moves plenty fast, especially since he seems much taller and less bulky than a standard daddy. the launch trailer that came out the other day was pretty sweet, especially the part at the very end where delta and the big sister charge each other...pretty epic! IGN already has a review out, and they gave it a 9 something. basically, they say that it's less mysterious since Rapture is a place we've been to before, but the gameplay is more polished and the sotry more focused. so, that defintiely solidifies my resolution to get it. unfortunately, I wont be able to get it tomorrow when it comes out, because I have no money. ill have to wait until next monday when my paycheck comes in.

i've been keeping myself busy with assassin's creed 2 in the mean time. that's part of the reason i have no money, but it was on sale for $35 vs $60, so i couldn't pass it up. I am definitely much more impressed with it compared to the original. it's all bigger and badder, better graphics, a better realized and more beautiful world, more weapons and equipment, a more intersting and fleshed out main character; there really isnt much i can complain about in this game. I'm very close to finding all the pieces of the 'truth' that everybody talks about. I still dont have the gun though, i want the gun...

yeah, I don't really get it, I love FFXII, i've spent more than a 150 hours on it with one playthrough. it's great stuff, and there's so much to do, especially with the hunts. hopefully XIII will have just as much content, and vs XIII looks even cooler but there's practically no info out there about it, which is rather diappointing.

I beat Dragon Age. it's pretty good, took me 55 hours and i didn't do all the sidequests and stuff, but i felt like it could have been lon ger. i hear there's some "awakening" version or dlc or something for it coming, and there's already some dlc out there, so ill hang on to this game for certain.

the game ive been playing most recently, however is on my ipod. finally got it, and got some games and stuff and documents so i can work on my writing with it, so it's a pretty decent package. but yeah, tere's this game i downloaded called "Blade Master: Prelude to Destruction" for only $1.99. it's acrtually a pretty fun action rpg, where you can use a variety of weapons and skills, and it seems to have decent length to it as well. that being said...the Engrish is some of the worst I've ever seen, probably THE worst I've ever seen. Engrish is becoming more and more a thing of the past, so it's kinda strange but funny that it's so bad with this game.

oh, Kansas... I don't know about aussie-land, but Kansas is well known as afreak when it comes to our weather. It can go from sunny to cloudy in minutes, be hot then cold the next, and we just had a thunderstorm yeaterday, a thunderstorm in the middle of january! and it wasn't a little rumble of thunder here and there, but a full-blown storm with plenty of lightning and thunder and rain. never get bored living here, tell ya what...

this is true with bioshock... i understand there are some fears that it might jsut be 'more of the same' but im hopeful, anyway. I'd get it just for the new story, and i am planning on getting it when it comes out, but ill check some reviews first just to be extra sure.

yeah, i like fable 2, but now that it's over, i don't see particularly massive reason to go back and play it again, so it may end up going for trade-in credit, for what it's worth. it just doesn't have the playability of Oblivion or something like it.

as a total FF fanatic, I'm of course totally pumped about FFXIII in march, screw the whiners out there, I'm still getting it. I've waited four years now for a fresh taste of main series FF, and I will not be denied. I guess the problem is that people have extremely high expectations of Square for the FF franchise, prolly more than any other series out there, and it is difficult to live up to it, I'm sure. That being said, I am still, I think, more interested in FF versus XIII, but there is an awful lack of information otu there about it, which is really quite madenning, because the trailers we've seen thus far look extremely impressive.

yeah, i got sapphire and plenair, both of whom are lvl 100, which is way over powered for me right now, since my characters have yet to reach lvl 15 average level yet. how on earth do you get to such astronomical high levels anyway? at the rate I'm going, I would be doubtful if I was level 50 by the time I reached end game. so, most of the levels must come from after stuff, huh?

PSN... um, try acount management, then account infomration under the PSN tab, I think you can edit that stuff there

but, yeah, I finally got my mits on Dragon Age: Origins. needless to say, it is almost impossible to stop playing once you've started, and I've found myself sorely tempted to skip class so I can play it instead this week. It's not so free-roaming as Oblivion, but it's a HUGE game, I've played for more than 30 hours now and I'm not even close to ha;fway done, it looks like. I like the way the armor looks a lot better in this game than oblivion, not to mention there's a lot more variety. Also, there's the 'persistent gore' which is kinda something you wouldn't necessarily think about, but fighting with a sword is messy business after all, so you get all splattered with blood in battle, and it stays on when you run around and for cutscenes, which is a nice, gory, tocuh in my book. You can defintiely see the KOTOR influences in it, like skill mapping and healing, but thankfully it's not just KOTOR set in a fantasy setting. I guess it's called 'origins' so I asusme there are more games in this series, but if there are i've never heard of them. I say get it, if you haven't, and I doubt you'll be disappointed.