Yesterday was Reformation Day.  It was the anniversary of Martin Luther posting the 95 Theses on the door of the church in Germany.  Those Theses were basically a bunch of topics he wanted to debate Johann Tetzel (mainly concerning indulgences). 

I celebrated by singing A Mighty Fortress is Our God.  Written by Martin Luther.  May the Gospel be proclaimed!

So, I joined a forum debating the Evolution vs. Creation debate.  When I made my first entry, I got bitten at immediately.  It was almost as if I didn't know what I was talking about.  Of course, I do.  I am a Creationist and I have thoroughly researched the issue- but my comments were misconstrued right away!  Why?  Because people are afraid to believe that maybe their world view could be wrong.  And because of such, people get very defensive because if Evolution is wrong, then maybe there's more to their world view that is wrong.  (Maybe there is a God.) 

But even with understanding that fact, I still get perturbed that people would blindly attack my statements without thinking about what I said.  But, I must have patience.  I've learned you have to keep attacking the arguement, not the person- even when they attack you... although a small jolt here and there are fun.  Heh heh.

Since having less than par games is pretty much a sin here, I took out 50 Games out of my collection list. 

Here are the games:
Big Rigs, Arthur's Quest, Paintball, Time Machine, Beachhead 2002, NAM, Atlantis, Startrek: Away Team, Triple Play 2001, Mall Tycoon, Fantasy General, Tee Golf, Civ II Test of Time, Civ 3 Play the World, Dungeon Siege: Legends of Arana, Gangsters, Wheel of Fortune, Unreal Mission Pack, Sonic 3D Blast, Beyond Atlantis, Rainbow 6: Covert Ops, WWE RAW, Industry Giant 2, Croc 2, Dracula: The Resurrection, Blade Runner, Descent 3: Mercenary, F22 Raptor, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, Crystal Key 2, Jetfighter 2015, Atari Anniversary, Enter the Matrix, Mario Kart 64, Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain, Europa Universalis: Crown of the North, Spiderman, Sanity: Aiken's Artifact, Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty, Total Annihilation: Kingdoms, Civil War Generals 2, Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2, Man of War II, Madden 2002, Gunship, Rune, Battleship, Spec Ops: Rangers Lead the Way, Anarchy Online: The Notum Wars, Tomb Raider 3, Panzer Commander, Slave Zero, Rainbow 6: Black Thorn, School Tycoon.

So, I understand that a bunch of these games are pathetic at best, but there are some good games in that list!

Sony is working hard to defend their products.  Sure, it's understandable.  You don't want people ripping off your product and distributing it to the world.  But does that mean that they can do whatever they want to protect their product? 

For instance, was is okay for Sony to place spyware in its cds to contaminate your pc?  I don't think so.  Also, the new Blue-Ray Roms are said to have the ability to permanently disable drivers if you try to rip a disk to your drive for your own personal, LEGAL use.  As much as I was looking forward to Sony's new generation media format, I will not allow Sony to abuse me as a consumer and take away my fair-use rights.  So, until then, I'll just enjoy the still handy DVD-RW.

I've been actively getting used to the gamespot community.  What I've noticed is that there are Unions that are either dying, dead, or on life support.  One of my unions is the UTFU.  It is a great union with dedicated leaders.  Since UT07 has been keeping their mouth shut, it has been difficult to discuss anything new.  You can't blame the leaders- nor can you blame the members for the game will indeed be awesome.  But if UT07 doesn't get on the stick, then it will hurt the unions dedicated to it- even if it is temporary.

I've created two reviews since I've joined.  I'm not going to spend hours preparing each review, but just one enough to give a synopsis of a synopsis.  So far, I've reviewed Unreal 2004 and Tribes Vengeance.  Both are excellent games.  Although, if I had to pick of the two, UT04 would win hands down.  Actually UT04 would beat any game except for maybe- MAYBE Half-Life 2.  In fact, my review of UT04 problably was more of a rambling its coolness level.

I hope to continue with reviews since it would then be worth looking at my profile.   We shall see.  Perhaps, I've given my last review?  Oh well, time will tell.

Unreal Tournament 2007 will be coming out sometime during Q1 2007.  While the postponed date is no problem, the fact that there is little to no updates for fans to get hyped about it is a bit disappointing.  Even bad games (or even movies for that matter) have great promotions from half way through production to the debut.  If you go to UT2007's website, you will find nothing but a wallpaper.  There isn't even a pic gallery that every fan website already has for the game. 

Perhaps that is the reason... They conserve their resources and let the fans create the media- such as videos and screen shots. 

But this still doesn't explain why there is little news out there.  It's not like they're trying to be real secretive because they have shared quite a bit of info with us.  But why not share even more of the same stuff.  Explain what has already been exposed as if it's more new features.  Show :"more of the same" screen shots.  I would venture that they may have some great surprises that they are hoping to spring at the very last moment.  If that is the case, then fine, I'll wait.  ...I hate waiting.

So, I have been playing games since the age of 7 back when Super Mario Bros was the hottest game out there.  My bro and I played NES games all the time until we got the SNES.  As soon as SNES games were in our circulation, we started to conquer every game we rented.  It was a sweet care-free time.  Later came the N64 with excellent, quality games such as: Golden Eye, Zelda and Mario 64.  We always held off on buying the newest system until prices came down and enough quality games arrived to make the system great.  When the Gamecube came around, I felt that it didn't uphold to my standards. 

In the meantime, I had already been tasting the fruit of PC games.  After getting tons of demos from a friend at EB, I began enjoying the fact that I can try before I buy.  Also, I found that because of the independent game developers competing against each other, games had to actually be quality games to do well.  Also, the computer savvy are the majority who play PC games which means the consumer is not some brain-dead idiot who wants a Playstation cause it has a bazillion mediocre to pathetic games.  -Not that there aren't plenty of stupid PC games...  Anywho, I've given up on console systems and have thoroughly enjoyed the awesome creativity of Valve, Blizzard, Epic, and EIDOS.  Even though my gaming has tapered off since adulthood, I still enjoy LAN parties and trying the newest innovation...

Game On!