It was more then 3 months since I made a Monthly Blog and it was almost 2 months since I made a blog and posted in unions. Well I found some time and started to read friends blogs again but still haven't posted in unions. I didn't knew what to blog about so I decided to make a monthly blog. Aside of 22 games that I got in the last 3 months, one expansion and 4 DLC's, I also have spend a great amount time with my friends but also with gaming but only a little time was found for internet :P. Well I hope that changes now so that I again can post in unions :D. Well we should leave the introduction behind and start the monthly blog. Since I got a great number of games I will only divide them through months but unlike other my Monthly blogs I will not write down their names and scores from gamespot and all games are for PC:P Also this time the blog is in two part and the link to the second part is on the bottom so don't forget two visit part 2 and you don't need to comment this, part 1, just part 2 ;). So let's start.

New Adquisitions

May

Fallout 3 The Pitt DLC

June

Fallout 3 Broken Steel DLC

July

Fallout 3 Point Lookout DLC
Fallout 3 Mothership Zeta DLC

New Magazines

GamePlay No. 78
GamePlay No.80

GamePlay No. 81

*link to part 2*

*link to part 1*

Progress

Stats progress
(this time no pics)

Level 23 at 43% (went up by 144%)
Profile views 3737 (went up by 1019)
Friends 137 (went up by 7)
People tracking me 160 (went up by 13)
Games in collection 326 (went up by 25)
Forum posts 4237 (went up by 451)
Comments 785 (went up by 202)
My blog posts 47 (went up by 7)
Union blog posts 78 (went up by 2)
Written reviews 7 (went up by 4)
Rated games 187 (went up by 6)
Videos Uploaded 1 (none activity)
Images uploaded 0 (none activity)
Digg referrals 0 (none activity)
Tags 636 (went up by 27)
Emblems 20 (went up by 4)

It's all because of you!

GameSpot stamped me as remarkable!

The great rebellion of human vs robot has begun!

Virtually There: E3 2009 Microsoft Conference
I've watched Sony and Nintendo but since I'm 16 I wasn't able to watch it while looged in :(:P.

Blogs written since last monthly blog:
6th monthly blog, April edition(May 2) - 26 comments
Constructive gaming(May 14) - 23 comments
So young and died, may he R.I.P.(May 20) - 25 comments
E3 - Microsoft, Electronics Arts & Ubisoft(June 2) - 17 comments
E3 - Nintendo & Sony(June 17) - 0 comments
It passed some time...(June 17) - 15 comments
Professional gamer(June 18 )- 24 comments

Gaming Progress

Games I played since last Monthly blog:

Half-Life: Counter-Strike

Played some 15 Hours Counter-Strike over net with friends.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3

Have spend some 5 hours in the campaign mode, finishing the soviet campaign and comming to half of the allies campaign.

X-Blades

Have played an hour and half of this bad game.

Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason

This slow-paced game deserves to be played but when you have time, I played only 3:37 hours, so I still have a long way to go.

Left 4 Dead

Played some 5 hours of this shooter.

Worms 2

Have played about 10 hours of this brilliant game, of course multyplayer :D

And Yet It Moves

Have played this game more then an hour before I have encounterd an error.

The Sims 3

Unlike my sister and cousin who together have spend more then 60 hours on this game, I only played this game 10 hours.

Overlord II

Only played a bit to see the atmosphere of the game which is great and deserves to be played. I played 2:36 hours

Sniper Elite

A great game which I played on the PS2, but I found a copy of it for PC and bought it and again I'm enjoying it. Played about 6-7 hours.

Ceville

A great point&click adventure game, which can match up to Monkey Island. If you like the genre this is an apsolute must have (the game isn't out anywhere outside of Europe). I played some 3:50 hours. Still have a long way to go.

Games I finished since my last monthly blog:

Final Fantasy II(aka Final Fantasy IV)

Have beat the game
Time played: 25:02 hours
My score: 9.0

Chrono Trigger

Have beat the game 3 times
First Walkthough - Time played: 33:46 hours, original ending
Second Walkthough - Time played: 29:05 hours, Resurection ending
Third Walkthough - Time played: about 40 minutes, Programers Room ending
My score: 10

Fallout 3

Have complitely beated the game, 100% along with Operation Anchorage and The Pitt. That would be as a Platinum Trophie on PS3 or 1000/1000 archievements in X360 (+ 2 DLC's) :).
Time played: 147.25.30 hours (on which OA about 5 hours, TP about 7 hours)
My score: 9.5

World of Goo

Have beat thisexcellent game.
Time played: 8.34.06 hours
My score: 9.5

Monkey Island: Special

The all time c1assic hit from 1990 form Lucas Arts got a remake, and what a remake it is. A game which is made by a legend, Tim Shefer, is a must have for any adventure fan. Have beat the game.
Time played: 8.53.45 hours
My score: 9.0

Tom Clancy's HAWX

Unlike many, I really enjoyed this arcade flight game, made by Ubisoft Romania. Have beat the game.
Time played: 8-10 hours
My score: 8.5

AnelZukic's Monthly Awards

May
June
July &
4 games this time in this section :lol:

Obviusly I couldn't just pick one :lol: C & C Red Alert always knew who to pick up :P

My name is Guybrush Threepwood and want to be a pirate :P

Planes from Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

Lavos from Chrono Trigger

Transformer 2 Revenge of the fallen isn't a movie which will be rememberd but it was the best I watched since I watch a low number of movies per month

I watched again the first 3 session (I still watch the 3rd one), and I still love it like in the past :)

Hide away, the squirels are comming :o :| :P

Dragon Quest IX gets a perfect 40 from Japanise gaming magazine Famitsu.

Starcraft II delayed for the first half of 2010 :(

AnelZukic - I love your very long comments. Too bad this isn't very long. I love Kingdom Hearts, and you sure are one amazing dude. Wait, you are a dude, right? Because I have a habit of thinking Kingdom Hearts fans are guys and then finding out that they are women.

In Bioshockraptor's "Blog #100: The Best Blog of Them All"

Steven Spielberg directing the Halo movie???

My summer holiday which was full of fun and joy, but it's ending on, probably, September 1.

Would you like to see a new generation of home consoles, but the price of games would be raised to $100, or would you like that this generation lives until 2015 and the prices stay the same (although I heard that Modern Warfare 2 will cost £55 in UK, a raise of £10, which is almost $120)

This is all for this monthly blog :) and if you want to visit the other monthly blog visit this link.

When the first human throw the first stone, the second tried to throw further and thereby gain the attention of females, respect of the tribe and a better place near the fire. Since then and up to the competition of hairdressers, every human activity is a subject that its participants are trying to improve and make it more significant so that a victory brings more - fame, money, bloody mammoth meat or roller. Video Games are basically just a new medium for old types of competition in reflexes, skills or intelligence, and it is quite natural to serve as an arena for battles. In this blog you'll learn how much that competition has the character of "professionalism", ie can the competitive playing of video games anywhere in the world be called a job.

Professional gamer
Can video games be a professional sport?

Emphasizing that it is "pro" by itself turns light for warning because, when you need to highlight that something you're doing is professional, is already a sign that the professionalism in that activity isn't included by itself. A combination of "progaming" is even stranger because it connects the label of professionalism, something you're doing as a profession, ie a job, with the word "gaming" that stands for something that is done for fun. Or, in short, games are by their nature activity's for fun and rarely someone will pay someone else to have fun. Sports like football, tennis, basketball, and others have the advantage that many viewers are enjoying while they watch and are ready to pay for it. But watching someone play video games is not particularly attractive - or at least not enough for a large number of spectators, which would showing video games make more profitable. What does remain? Of course, advertising, as one of the main drivers of the majority of media products in the world. In short, gaming is professional as long as it serves for advertisers.

How much money is that? Awards may sound big, but there are problems with payments and the money will receive only the first three places, which is not easy to win

Pay me to play

We should not ignore the fact that a large number of "real" sports would not survive without advertisers, so that video games are not special by that characteristic. However, tracking the players of video games and competitions in them are only in the begins. And that makes video games as a professional activity highly dependent on the marketing plans of companies that want to connect their products to this activity. Such are, for example, manufacturers of computer hardware, or telecommunications companies. On the other hand, players are mostly youngboys from 15 to 20 years, who love playing video games even if they are not payed, but a chance to make some money on there hobby would certainly not be rejected. Power of players is measured in APM (actions per minute) and that is why in this work you are going in the retirement very early. As we getting older, our APM fall down and we barely have a APM of 180 if not lower, while the champions, for example, in Starcraft have an APM of 460, about four and half hits per second. These three elements: the dependence on the good will of advertisers, a large number of players who are ready and wants to play for small money and lack of audience that would rate the quality of what is and what they like to watch - those are the key elements for observation of the professional sphere of competition in video games. Organizations that deal with the preparation of competition in video games are spending most of their time on attracting advertisers, because they know that there will always be gamers - and they are ready to play for relatively small money. There are a lot such organizations - especially in the U.S.. Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) and Major League Gaming (MLG) are companies that currently are organizing the most popular league and bringing together individual players and clans on the tournament, whose maintenance and rewards are mostly payed by sponsors - advertisers.

Two is Two No, even pro gamer does not need two pairs of headphones, but any opportunity to show the product of sponsor is always good

You need to know how to earn

One of the few examples of western pro gamers who managed to turn his love for video games (and skill in them) into a profitable business is Johnathan Wendel, better known as Fatal1ty. With victories in tournaments, which were mostly organized by CPL, he earned more than $500,000.00 in cash and other prizes, managed to make sponsorship agreements with various hardware manufactures and now under his own name, he is selling specially designed PC hardware. Good management of its name and character led him to the pages of many magazines and brought him appearance in various TV shows - and Fatal1ty know how to cash it by the sponsors. While some admire his skills in FPS, the other murmur against him, saying that he went in the commercional waters, forgetting that playing at the professional level means exactly - playing for money.

Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel According to many commercially the most successful player in the world, he plays good as well as he finds sponsors with whose products he binds his name

Korean Big Brother

Even further competition in video games has gone in South Korea, where digital conflicts are transferred on specialized TV channels and watched by over thousands of fans. However, even there it all depends on the money for advertise so the best players aim to join clans which are sponsored by the largest telecommunication companies which are making from that something like a "Big Brother". Those clans then are accommodated in houses equipped with computers on which they constantly play and prepare for the tournament, while their faces and the successes (along with sponsors logos) are pumped to fans from which one half are teenage girl that are easy to impress, and the other half are teenage boys who themselves want be "pro-gamers". But such glory is fleeting, and it's possible to count on fingers those who for their path in a demanding and highly competitive environment earn substantial sums of money. However, only a few such "heroes" is enough that many young boys (and some girls) conceive reverie that they can earn for life by holding the mouse or controller in there hand.

Is there discrimination? Although there is no reason that girls are worse gamers than men, usually the competition are divided by gender

Evolution of professionalism

But even football players didn't always earned millions. Korean StarCraft-heroes are one example of the possibilities of profit on video games, while in Europe and U.S. we have Quakers and Counter-Strikers. Neither one nor the other nor the third have many pro gamers, but every year there is more. However, there are not many large tournaments so that hundredths of players could live from the reward fund, and companies that are organizing them are notorious for delay of payment or even complete non-payment. But most large companies such as Intel, Samsung, or nVidia have teams or individuals that are sponsored by them to compete. And not only that they give them a computer, equipment and nice uniform, but they also (more or less) regularly pay them for gaming. The second half of the puzzle are competitions that are organized by software manufacturers themself such as Electronic Arts, Konami, or Blizzard. Competition in the games like FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer, or Warcraft, which are organized by the publishers, often does not carry great financial rewards, but for the sponsors of teams and individuals, there are an excellent opportunity for promotion. All this is, however, is short-lived because the sponsorship contracts for players and teams are rarely made for a period longer than one year, so you can hardly say about competitive gaming as a profession. Only few players manage to penetrate to the place where with they hobby can earn a little, and even less of those who succeed to earn big money. There are estimates that throughout the world from competitive playing of video games currently live (ie earning for life) only somewhat more than 1000 games. And again - it is much more than a few years ago. Or, more graphical, about ten years ago to earn enough money for a car playing video games was equal to get the biggest prize on the lotto, but now this is about as you hit 10 doubles in the bookmaker. After ten years, perhaps playing video games get possible earnings similar to popular sports today - in which, remember, only a small number of participants earn, while stars, same as in any activity, are extremely rare.

Rare among the rare Women are not common in the pro-gamer circles, although in fact, there is no reason why in games they would be worse than men's

When it all boils down...

Now would be the turn to respond to the question which every gamer asked themself: "Can I earn enough by winning other people in this in what I am so good?". Because when we defeat artificial intelligence, we all tend to think for ourself that we are the best in the world. And the answer is: harder than some other activity. Penetrate to a position where someone will sponsor you and pay monthly to play, requires time and energy and has a small chance for success, and going to tournaments without sponsors is expensive so you would have to win a lot to manage to live from that money. Of course, if you happen to win in WorldWideWeb Games, then you won one million dollars in one turn from which you sure can live. But such reward, so far, is paid only once. So evaluate your chances. But before I end this attractive theme, we should look into the future - does video game have a chance to become an electronic sports and by paying of players stand side by side with "real" sports? I do not have a crystal ball, but considering that more and more people play video games and concern for them, the interest is bigger, so it is not impossible that - just as in Korea on TV where they transmit StarCraft matches or in Germany Counter-Strike and Call of Duty - that soon everywhere we are going to see competition in digital football or fight of virtual boxer or a race where a car collision only result with bunch of scattered pixels. And those who will manage the digital football players, fighters and cars will be that, now rare in the future maybe wide scattered type - Pro Gamers.

Anel Zukic
_____________________
in the hope for better times...

It passed some time since I was on GS. Summer holiday already started (June 9th) all way to September 1st. I enjoyed the warm weather, went on walks and trips with my friends played a lot of Fallout 3 and Sims 3. But the reason for this blog is that I'm kinda back, but I'm going again sometimes soon, don't know when. June was always hectic for me. The end of May, when I took this short break wasn't special either, aside of Eurovision song contest nothing interesting was going on. The spotlight right now is going to FIFA confederation cup.

E3 passed, showed us some great things. I did got just the Microsoft emblem, and the reason is that I was underaged for watching Nintendo and Sony live (you need to be 17+ and I need 4 months for that :P), so I needed to log out to watch. Again I didn't posted a monthly blog, so I'm again going to fuse two months in one the next I post a MB.

I did already posted a blog today, but that one doesn't matter, mostly to finish the last one by adding my opinion of Nintendo's and Sony's conference (couldn't edit that one, since it would have over 20K characters, over the allowed limit). After posting this blog I'm probably going to read friends blog's and post a bit in the unions.I'm already planing to post a blog (editorial) tomorrow.

So till then have fun and see ya ;).

Nintendo

"Nintendo? Bah, I hate them, they have forget the core gamers. Went too much to casual."This was the reason why I couldn't wait for the conference. And it started with a new Mario game!! And it's for Wii, entitled New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It will allow 4 players at the same time to play it and it looked like a lot of fun. GameSpot provided us some hands-on impression of the game so go and check it out.

After that, we saw something that many have feared. Wii fit is going to have an expansion called Wii fit plus. Nintendo spoke big words about Wii Fit, and that some analysts are even considering it as a console for himself, with more then 20 millions unit sold.

Wii Motion plus is finally coming out and that with Wii sport resort. We all hope that the expansion for the Wii remote will really allow a lot of more freedom by moving the remote controller. It's coming out at the end of Juny.

Now 4 RPG games are coming.

The first was the long anticipated Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for Wii entitled FF CC Crystal Barriers and it looks like a lot of fun. The graphics are great what is normal for Square Enix. I was really happy to know that the game is finally coming, after a long time in silence.

The long anticipated game from Square Enix for Nintendo DS, and the game which will explain more about the daily life of Organization. After Chains of Memories, the next Kingdom Hearts game is coming to the Nintendo handheld console. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days is set between KH I and KH II and will have Roxas as the main character. The game looks fantastic and it's coming out on my birthday this year, on September 29 2009.

We are going inside, in Bowsers inside in the new Mario & Luigi RPG game, called Mario & Luigi Bowsers Inside Story where Mario and Luigi are going to be sucked inside of Bowser and will probably try to find the Princess which is also sucked in and then try to escape from there and this adventure will finally come to us in fall 2009.

After some years in silence, Golden Sun is finally coming back to Nintendo in the new game Golden Sun DS. We are finally going to have some more adventure in this great RPG saga.

What would be Nintendo without a bit of casual. Women's Murder Club Games of Passion will try to bring something like poesy to the gaming culture, but doesn't we, the gamers, taking games as art. After that game, Cop: The Recruit has been showed. Guess that Nintendo wants good connection to the police department.

After those two games, Nintendo showed us 4 games which will get use of DSi new features. Sty1e Savvy is a game, that according to them, made people to sty1e there buotique and shops after it. Mario vs. Donkey Kong is coming back in Minis March again. This time you will be able to create your own levels in it. And who rather prefer already made levels will be happy with the next game.

The legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is again be set in the word of Wind Waker with cell-shade graphics and hopefully a good and entertaining story and gameplay.

Finally Iwata showed on the stage and stated some statistics, like that there are 295 million of active gamers in the USA, Japan and 6 countries in Europa and that there are some 149, some that means half of the active numbers, would maybe play games. And after a little talk he presented Wii vitality sensor. For what we will use it, I don't have an idea.

Super Mario Galaxy was great and even won the award for the game of the year on GS for the year 2007 and now it's getting a sequal entitled the same just with a 2 on the end. Super Mario Galaxy 2 will hopefully provide some more features and entertaining then the first one and hopefully will even be better.

"When people wants more then that means some third party games." a sentences said by Nintendo thereself. First game which was showed was the soon released shooter from Sega called The Conduit. After him we saw Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles, now how will this game look like. And if you want to find more about Dead Space, you will need to get a Wii and the game Dead Space Extraction, which will be set before the settings of Dead Space, the critical very good game from EA's Redwood shores studio. Metriod is finally getting a new adventure after the set of all 3 game from Metriod trilogy is coming in one set. Metroid: Other M is coming in 2010 and will probably try to be better then the before ones.

Sony

My expections were the highest for Sony and the presentation was fairly great. Sony's first game on the stage, after a talk, was the game from Naughty Dog and the sequal to one of the best games for PlayStation 3, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. They showed us a fairly big part for a presentation, as Drake is trying to escape from a helicopter chase.

256 reasons to own a PS3 is the next game called MAG (Masive Action Game). They showed us a real time battle between 256 peoples. The game looks great and big, a normal battle will probably take something like an hour.

After those two great games, Sony started to present the new version of PSP, called PSP Go!. It say goodbye to the UMD drive and that's the reason why it won't replace the PSP 3000. It's going to have a 16GB of internal flash memory, built in Wi-Fi, and it's on slide. The start price is going to be the same as when the PSP came out, so that means $249,99/€249,99. And every new game that comes out on a UMD will also be able to be downloaded.

The first game showed for it was Gran Tourismo which will provide over 800 cars, 35 tracks, 60 layouts of those tracks and the best part is that it's coming out on October 1.

Kojima is coming to the stage, and of course he speaks on Japanise. But whats more important is, that he has a new game to present and it's coming out for the PSP called Metal Gear Solid Piecewalker. Kojima say that it's not a spin-off or an enchanched title, it's a part of the main series. It's set 10 years after the happenings of MGS 3 and will fill the gap.

After that a commercial for the PSP/PSP Go! was showed on which you can see games like Resident Evil, LittleBigPlanet, Mottorstorm, Harry Potter, Monster Hunter, Jak & Dexter, SoulCalibur, some sport games, Unpluged, Assassin's Creed Blood Lines, all games which are already on or are soon coming to PSP.

PSN already have 24 millions of registered users and over 475 millions of downloads. Even FF VII is coming to the PSN which created a loud wave of "oooooooo" and "juuuuuuuhuuuuuuuu". Home, the interactive PSN game which allows you to creat your own character and live with other players ahs already 6.5 millions of user and 85% of them are returning users.

Then we saw a PS3 montage and games like Uncharted 2, InFamous, Madden NFL 10, FF XIII, Batman Arkham Asylum, Brutal Legend, White Knight Chronicles, Dirt 2, Ghostbusters, Ninja Gaiden II: It's Sigma time, Mafia II, Buzz Quiz World, God of War III, Dark Void, Modern Warfare 2, Lost Planet 2, etc, all games which are coming to PS3 soon.

Sony spoke big words about the PS3 and exclusive games for it like Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet and saying that the mark "Only on PS3" doesn't just show us that the publishers are taking the best partner, it also means that the game is of high quality that only can be run on PS3 as it has the best hardware. They said that many franchises started on the PS, or at least got a great popularity, like Rockstar's GTA, Square's Final Fantasy, Gran Tourismo.

Agent, a PS3 exclusive game from Rockstar, is going to show us, as Sony say, what you can do with the PS3. After it, we saw again a demo of Assassin's Creed II, as the new main character is going to get help of Leonardo da Vinci and the story will be set in the Renaissance Italy when the modern world is been created. Again the cities are full of peoples, what is an important part of the game. next game is Final Fantasy XIII and one more trailer was shown and once again they said that the game is coming out in Spring 2010. While introducing the next game, Sony said that the next game from Square Enix is going to be a PS3 exclusive again and it's Final Fantasy XIV andeveryone was excited. After some incredible landscapes were shown and as it is usually for Square Enix, great graphics, everybody was probably even more excited and as the trailer ends while some people with chrocobo stand at the endof a cliff, the name of the game shows and it contains online and probably everyones excting fall down. After, on Square Enix conference, they said that the game is comingalso for the PC and maybe for X360.

"The best kept secret of E3", as Sony said, came to the stage. PlayStation 3, after the Sixaxis and Dualshock 3, is getting one more controller and the one they showed us is a prototype which looks like a stick with a sphere on top of it. The guy who used it, Anton, was a great choice since he was a bit funny. Unlike what Microsoft said, better say Steven Spilerberg: "It's not about reinventing the wheel. It's about no wheel at all!!!" Sony said: "Can you imagine playing some games without any buttons, I can't." After presenting the controller they moved forward.

Mod Nation Racers, is an arcade driving game in which you can create your own track with easy and the upload it to PSN and letother people play it.

ICO finally presented a new game. The Last Guardian looks great, and as many I myself can't wait for it anymore. It feature something older same boy and a young griphon and the boy fed him with barrelsfull with food. Anyway the great looked great.

Gran Tourismo taking the stage, as the best game driving simulator. I don't think I need to talk a lot about since anyone who can't wait it anymore will need to wait a bit more and I just hope not too much more.

And the final game is the game that I, along with Final Fantasy XIII and FF Versus XIII, am awaiting for some time and can't wait anymore. I'm talking about God of War III, one more PS3 exclusive game, which looks great, and Kratos still know show to kill on an intresting way. The game is coming out in March 2010.

Microsoft

It's not about reinventing the wheel! It's about no wheel at all!!!"Steven Spielberg

Many of you know that I had very low predictions for Microsoft ad that I'm not a fan of them but Microsoft had a great, incredible, awesome presentation, which will be hard to surpass. There it was and it's gone now, the Microsoft E3 presentation. My own prediction were low for them but they went beyond my imagination. I knew that they had a big line of games to announce but a total of 10 games, never thought about that, and a motion sensing controller but never were expecting "Project Natal". The start was spectacular. Then the bodyguards came, and finally then the first game. The Beatles: Rock Band presented by the members of Beatles. The game looks good and by the number of Beatles follower it's probably going to be sold in good amount. Not a bad move.

After that one of my idols came in, Tony Hawk himself, and was that a skateboard in his hand? Yes, it was, and one who will be your controller. The presentation of the game looked good and since it will be available for try I hope GameSpot is going to provide some of there hands-on impressions.

Climbing a gletcher which is trembling and then the tremor of the sounds wave of a nearby airplane makes it trembling even more, isn't that atmosphere at max. Modern Warfare 2 looks good and have good chance to surpass the first one, and the snowmobile race was just awesome.

A game that I anticipate from fall 2007 took the show. Two of my favorite people got have put there feet on the stage. And then a demo of the X360 version of Final Fantasy XIII showed up. The fight was great and some more info's are always welcome. Expect the game to hit the stores sometimes in spring 2010.

"We are going to present 10 world premiers for games just for Microsoft", and all my doubt that Microsoft is going to be quite this year fall in the water. I couldn't wait anymore and then the first game went to the big screen.

Shadow Complex, a 3D side-scrolling action-adventure for X-box arcade. 10 hours for an arcade game is real good and the gameplay, much focused on boss fights, looked great. Release this summer so not to much for wait.

Joy Ride, a game which will get use of the avy that you create on your X-box 360. It looked hilarious and full of fun, hopefully it will be that way when it comes out on X-box live this fall.

Crackedown 2 and my eyes got wide open as a man starts to jump over buildings like an animal and jumping as monkey with cool voice cover. The first big game out of the 10 and it looks amazing.

"...and when you get out of ammo *sounds of chainsaw appears* you'll use this" and then some fast zombies came running towards 4 people and a familiar sounds of Valve was in background and I knew, it's going to be Left 4 Dead 2. The first one was full of fun and this one better should be also great.

Fisher speaking and looks different, and I said: "Finally Splinter Cell: Conviction is coming". There were also a playable demo and from what we saw Fishers biggest friend will be the dark and sneak attacks from it, but he is also good in frontal were he is using good cover system.

After I heard the familiar sound of a car engine running, and some good racing going on the screen, I said that the man who is going to present the game should have a car on the stage and it was so. Forza Motorsport 3 looks amazing, much better then number 2. Big words were spoken to create a good community and presenting people who got there inspiration to make a car in RL from Forza.

The game who is number one sold game on the X360 and which broke many selling records is getting finally it's next game. Halo 3 ODST, which story is set before Halo 3, showed some great graphics and the New Mombasa looks also great. I'm hoping just that this game will not break records about hyping, because Halo 3 is number 1 hyped game of all time by many critics.

Bungie said that they were working in secret on a new title which will be showed now, and there it was, Halo Reach, which is set for release in 2010 and not much information's were given out.

My most anticipated game for 360 came to the screen. The writer, Alan Wake, were walking through the dark, in searching for Rusty who have some important scripts which could lead our main character to his missing wife. The game still looks great and finally we got our release date which is sometimes in spring 2010.

After all this game, Microsoft showed us some of there new partnerships. The new partners were last.fm, Netflix, Sky TV, Live Party, Facebook and Twitter. Those are real great news which could bring to higher sells of the 360 and maybe make the consoles as usually as computers.

"One more big franchise is still not on X360, which one do you think it is?", this question was asked to the audience, and in the background I saw Hideo Kojima, the creator of Metal Gear Solid franchise and announced that it's coming to Microsoft in there new game called Metal Gear Solid: Rising, but the main character is not going to be Snake, it's Raiden.

Project Natal

„People ask me if we could make a motion sensing controller, and I say them yes" this was the sentence which was spoken before presenting Project Natal, a camera based device and the controller are no less then YOU yourself. It looked incredible when I first saw it but then they showed us a small video for the device and it looked great. It can recognize many polygons, is fast enough when it comes to encoding your movement in the console to show you on the screen and it has voice recognition. The vice-president of Microsoft said that the only barrier between the gaming and other entertainings is the thing that we hold in the hand aka controller and that they want to break that barrier. The first game that they showed us was a game which required us to hit some balls to break blocks, and I said that the controller are you, so that means you need to use your hands, feets and head to hit the balls. The next game was Paint party and I was thinking it's hardly gonna impress me, but he showed us what we can we do with Project Natal I was astonished. The game is simple but it's great, people who have 30 years can have fun with it but also children which have 3 years can use it without problems (if they know English). And as the Microsoft presentation was coming to it's end, Peter Molyneux from Lionhead Studios came to the stage. I immediately wanted to see what he is going to present us. „Milo", which is also the name of the kid which is presented in the game. You can talk with him, play with him, you can write something on a piece of paper and then hold it near the camera of Natal and it will be recognize and just some seconds later Milo will hold a piece of paper. Milo will sometimes throw something „towards" you and as you natural instinct is, you will try to catch that. You can even „touch" the watter just by bringing your hand more closer to the camera and then moving them. The technology looks great and it's supposed to come this fall and since then it will be shipped with every X-box 360.

Electronic Arts

As Microsoft presentation ended I couldn't wait EA presentation to start. My most anticipated games on it were Brutal Legend, something new from Crytek and of course, Dante's Inferno. And how did the presentation started. With a footage of Dante's Inferno. The main character was battling what to me looked like a boss and after a little fight he was able to see his girlfriend, the reason why he went to hell was to rescue her and what did she said: „You broke our promise" and he fall down and started to battle some normal sized demos. What a great start. After that Sims 3 showed. The best life simulator till now and EA is hooping for big success from it. As always the game looked great and fun. And after those 2 great games, 2 games for little girl came. Little Pet Shop, which has 2 million of people playing it, is getting some more games just as Charme Girls Club.

And then a great game showed up which didn't had a great presentation. Need for Speed Shift, one of three NFS games which are coming this year. This one wants to simulate the race as much as possible, and what they showed us looked great. I always was a fan of racing games which had a city and good landscape, where you drive through the nature and city's, but this one looked like it's going to be on a racing track, but it doesn't matter, I just hope it's going to be great.

The next game was a game which should have been released on the PC sometimes in March but was delayed to October 20, on the same date when the console version are also coming out. And you got it, I'm talking about Dragon Age: Origins, a game from Bioware and as they said this Dragon Age has a mature look and is more brutal then the one before. My hopes are big.

General Shepard isn't dead, he survived and now again he has a small chance to survive this mission as he says that himself. The first exclusive trailer looked great, and the people from Bioware said this thereself: „We are sure that Mass Effect 2 will be able to surpass Mass Effect 1", and that's why I'm hoping the same.

And now, we welcome EA sports to the stage.

The first game that was showed to us from EA sports was the long anticipated game Fight Night Round 4 which is now coming a week earlier. The box simulator looked great. The fight between Mohammed Ali and Mak Tayson looked great and it has a good chance to surpass Round 3.

„We are launching in 2010 a new big franchise" and it was EA sports MMA. We haven't saw anything from the game but they spoke some big words and if we can trust them it's going to be big.

After those 2 game. 3 online things came. The first was Tiger Woods PGA tour Online and it looked promising. After that we NCAA football 10 Team Builder was showed and at the end we saw Madden NFL 10 online.

The presenter then showed us EA sports Active, and a video in which 3 womens say that they lost up to 25 pounds with EA Sports Active. And it's for Wii.

The long awaited Tennis game from EA sports for Wii is been showed. It was Grand Slam Tennis. It looked like you can have fun with it but I never was a fan of game where you don't run yourself.

The setting is set sometimes when the Nazis occupied Paris and you have to sabotuer many of there plans. Yes I'm talking about The Saboteur. The game is gonna use a Black and With tone at most, but the other colors are also in. We saw a demo of the game and it looks promising.

LET'S ROCK. The most noises game of all showed up. Brutal Legend still looks great and Tim said that this is his most personal game which he made. It's coming out on Roctober 13 on PS3 and X360.

After that I saw a familiar logo of Crytek and I couldn't wait anymore what they will show us. And it was Crysis 2 and it's coming to PC and the two console for the first time so finally even more people will be able to see Crysis in action all thanks to Crytek engine 3.

Many of you heard about APB and it still is great. But the best intro had one other game and it was Star Wars: The old Republic, the game which will bring Star Wars MMO, and will let you to choose if you going to be on the evil side or on the good one. The whole main quest will be able to be played without th help of clans which are formed in the MMO's, they even say up to 95% of the game is going to be able to be done on that way. And after 19 great games EA finished there show and then we had to wait for Ubisoft.

Ubisoft

Haven't watched it and I don't intend to watch it.

A good friend of my here on GameSpot and a fellow GameSpot user, Omnislash667 (former account Omnislash666), died 2 weeks ago from internal bleeding. His mother wrote a blog and if you have time I would like to please you to give him in this blog your last words of respect and condolences to his family. He was a great friend, cheer-full, full of ideas, creativity. He liked Cloud like no else, anyone who would insult Cloud, he would be insulted by Omni, but always on a funny way.I just wanted to give him a sort of respect with this blog like many other users aka his friends. He was young, about 16 years and to loose anybody at that age is very hard, not to talk to loose a son. The Final Fantasy & Kingdom Hearts Union, a union in which he was an officer, made an update to give him the last words of respect.

May he R.I.P. :(

(memberthirteen's forum signature)

Why are most games based on destruction
and violence? Is it really true that we are
more prone to destruction than to creation?

Constructive gaming

Is it true that we are more prone to destruction then to construction?
Why is it so?

Who hasn't wanted to, if not in fact make a whole game, then at least change or add something that already exist in some games, mostly to some bad games or to those that particularly have grown near our heart. In the early time of home gaming, in the early eighties of the twentieth century, the consoles were almost not even present in the homes of players, because the possibilities (especially the graphics and sound) of home computers, such as the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrada (Schneider) 464 or 664 were much larger than from the existing consoles only designed for playing. Each of the home computer, by switching on, were immediately offering possibilities of programming in the BASIC programming language, so that most players of that time, have at least tested themself in the first steps of programming. However, the arrival of newer machines, such as the Atari ST and Amiga, things got more complicate because the installation of such a programming language as a basic operating system would be a step backward, so they gave the computer menus, so-called disk operating system, like Amiga DOS and Atari TOS. Since almost till the mid-nineties the PC computers, with cards that supported a maximum of 16 colors, were graphical completely useless, but also multiple expensive than the Atari ST or Amiga, so that they weren't interesting for an investigation of creativity in designing new or modifying existing games.

The Commodore 64, people who were using computers in that time probably have experience with the first steps of programming.

Since programming is not so easy that anyone could catch him without hard time, especially on modern systems, whose structure is becoming more complex, many companies were searching for ways to bring the creative dimension of videogames to a wider circle of people/consumers. One of the first widely accepted commercial tools for home use was Adventure Construction Set, which enabled graphical adventure with a view from a bird's perspective, and went out in 1985. for the Apple II and Commodore 64, one year later for the Amiga. DOS version (for PC computers) came in 1987. Another tool worth mentioning is the Sensible Software SEUCK (Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit), which were released in 1987. for the Commodore 64, Atari ST and Amiga, and as his name suggests, he allowed the creation of various types of shooters, and because of his diversity received very good critics. Since at that time the Internet was just in the form of U.S. military networks, and was not yet even considered for public use, the game made with these tools were distributed by various specialized magazines on a disk that were a special attachment, which later became a CD and DVDs, or BBS's, systems that are accessed directly through modem, something like today's web sites, but completely independent and isolated computer systems.

"Do we always have to obey to the wishes of the original game creators? Why don't we sometimes wake the little spark of creation and creativity who live in each of us?"

These tools are, even when they came with examples of games, only tools, and like so, were very interesting only to a narrow gaming audience, because the tool is not part of the game, but the game is a product of the utilization of that/those tools. It is Jeff Tunnell and his team who understood that, and in 1995. in his sequel to the game The Incredible Machine he added the possibility to the costumers to create their own mechanisms (levels) in the game, and in the third part that mechanism had been improved so much that it has become as fun making your own mechanisms and sharing them with you friends and let them solve them as it was playing the levels that have been made by the game creators themself.

The incredible machine, the game that fused tools and entertaining.

From the current view it is clear that the possibility of using such concepts nowadays is much better, but it took really a lot of time to game manufacturers begin to apply these concepts, especially in games on consoles. It is clear that all these options fully opened only when the connection to the Internet has become an integral part of every console, not just an additional option. One of the first examples of the participation of players in the creation of content for games is the online competition in Burnout Paradise, of which some of the most interesting is even included in the official list of the online challenges. However, the biggest step has been made by the company Media Molecule and there fantastic game LittleBigPlanet, in which is making your own levels and share them with other players around the world become more important and fun then the levels made by the creators of the game itself. The approaching to the level creator is so easy and fun that it would be a shame for every owner of this game not to, at least, play a few levels that are created by other players, and their diversity will undoubtedly encourage anybody in who can be found the smallest spark of creativity to try to make there own vision of a platform games, and perhaps even some other genre, because among the user works there, there are even some level of full-blood shooters. The interesting part of this project is the evidenced of the large number of levels that have been made by users, somewhere is even mentioned a number which is greater than eighty-five thousand, only two weeks after the official release of the game on the market. We hope that more and more publishers are going to follow the example of LittleBigPlanet, and that they will include as many players possible in the creation and life of their games. Why, for example, we might not in the near future create ourselves multiplayer levels for FPS's, perhaps new adventures of Lara Croft or tracks on which we will race and compete in some newer generations of games?

Anel Zukic
______________________________
In the flame of creativity...

***If you haven't already entered that way, click on the title or this link and then read ;)***

I didn't made one the last month, I really didn't had time and it was kinda dumb to post in middle of the month :P. In this one I will show the purchase and gaming progress of the last two months(the purchase aren't fused together). Hope you have fun (or at least not bored) while you read/look this blog. Also yesterday we had Labor day like in most of Europa and I wasn't at home, I had some fun with my friends outside the city. I wanted to post the blog on April 31 but I dumb error showed up and I didn't had time so I just saved the blog and corrected it a bit.Well see ya on the boards and blogs.

New adquisitions

April

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009

GS score: --

March

Empire: Total War---------Age of Empires II: Gold Edition------Tom Clancy's EndWar--------------
GS score: 8.5GS score: 9.1GS score: 6.0

The Lord of the Rings: Conquest---Grand Theft Auto IV-----------Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
GS score: -- GS score: 9.0GS score: 9.0

April

FO3-Operation Anchorage-----------Braid--------------------------Dawn of War II-------------------

GS score: -- GS score: -- GS score: 8.5

March

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars-----Big Bang Mini---------------------------
GS score: 9.5GS score: 9.0

New magazine

GamePlay No.77

Progress

Profile Progress
Begin of March---------------------------------------------------------------End of April
--------------------------------------------------
(the stat pic's are bad this month :( screw it :P)

Participant in 2008 Readers' Choice Awards.

FIRST in 2009!

Blogs written in this month:
February Monthly Blog(March 3) - 34 comments
ReFuture - One console?(March 16) - 35 comments
I've been tagged + more informations and reasons of my inactivity(March 29) - 18 comments
Delivery immediately(April 18 ) - 22 comments
Did you know?(April 23) - 22 comments

Gaming Progress

Games I played:

Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories

I just have beat the game in Riku's story.

Fallout 3

Have played some 30 hours of it this month

Final Fantasy II(IV because it's the SNES version)

Some 13 hours in it at the part where (*spoiler*) I need to stop Golbez so
that he don't get the last crystal (dark crystal in the undergound).

Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

Bean playing to recall times when I was a freak for this game and to remember
the previous RTS games because I bought 3 more :D

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

The game is just awesome, one more great RTS :D

Empire: Total War

One more great RTS for the PC :D

Tom Clancy's EndWar

Again a RTS but this one isn't that great, maybe on the
console where there isn't such a strong competition

Braid

The game is just awesome :D.

Big Bang Mini

The game is fun and full of content.

Games I finished:

Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories

The game isn't something special, but me as a big KH fan it was a good story connector even after I played KH: CoM for GBA, but if you new to the series I don't recommend you this one 'cause the battle system is different then from the main series.
My score: 8.0
Sora story: about 40 hours
Riku story: about15 hours
Overall: 55 hours

Braid

Haven't played such a good 2D platform for long time :D. I really recommend you to play it if you able but be aware for me it was a bit short 'cause puzzle games and games which are connected to puzzlesare my strenght :P I beat them always very quickly and without a walkthrough.
My score: 9.5
Played: about 5 hours

AnelZukic's April Awards

Fallout 3

I had fun at most with this game this month.

Rydia from FF IV gets this award this month

&

Cecil from FF IV :D

Riku's keyblade "Souleater"

Golbez from FF IV (till now)

Hey, let the nose go :lol: :P

What else, I knew it is great but I was sceptic when GS
gave it so much awards but it really deserve them :D.

Why didn't FF XIII demo came out in Europa or at least NA
(I know that it is comming but why not in the same time)

"U don't blog too often, but when u do its always a great read :D"
Hey Nicholai, thanks ;)

Square Enix (developer and publisher of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and other great game) finally bought Eidos the developer of Tomb Raider and Hitman games (and some other of course).

Final Fantasy
The demo came out and this word was the word that I said at most, in real life and on interent.

What was April like for you?

So that's all for this month and see ya ;). And it's here where you can find the other monthly blogs from other people.

Did you know that a world without wars, plunder, hungry
and weak one is possible, only that we are
learned wrong? Let us educate!

Did you know?

And Mark Twain said it right: There are lies, damn lie and statistics. In the case of Karl Fisch and Scotts McLeod who have fun studying globalization and information era, featuring the results on YouTube, statistics and data can be entertaining, provocative and inspiring. This whole text is mostly just transcribed from youtube and movies "Did you know" which are yearly updated with new informations. So if you still have not seen it, at least read it in this short text:

- if you are one of the millions Chinese, there are 1300 people in China who are very, very similar to you.
- China will soon become the first country in the world with most people who speak English
- 25% of the population of India with the highest IQ is more than the overall U.S. population
- translation (for U.S. teachers): India has more advanced children of the total number of children in the U.S.
- top 10 most wanted jobs of 2010. didn't even existed in 2004.
- currently we are receiving students for jobs which still don't exist
- so that they can use technologies which still aren't invented
- and solve problems that we aren't yet capable of naming
- Ministry of Labor of the United States predicates that today's students will change 10-14 jobs until they reach 38 years
- 1 of 4 workers spent with their employer less than a year
- 1 of 2 spent less then 5 years
- 1 of 8 couples married last year in the United States met them over the Internet
- worldwide there are over 200 million registered users of MySpace
- if MySpace would be a state, it would be the fifth in the row by the number of inhabitants, between Indonesia and Brazil
- the first state by the number of broadband and fastest clicks on the Internet is Bermuda, U.S. nineteen, Japan twenty-two
- we live in exponential times
- Google marks 31 billion average monthly searches
- for the whole 2006. that number was 2.7 billion
- and to whom will they apply life in the era B.G.
- Before Google
- first commercial SMS was sent in December 1992.
- today the number of sent and received SMS per day exceeds the number of the people on our planet
- years and technologies that are required that with marketing we reach the number of 50 million potentially customers:
-with radio 38 years
-with TV 13 years
-with internet 4 years
-with iPod 3 years
-with Facebook 2 years
- in 1984. there were about 1,000 (thousand) devices that were able to interact with the Internet (or any kind of that-time cyberspace)
- in 1992. that number climbed to 1,000,000 (million)
- in 2008. that number was 1,000,000,000 (billion)
- currently there are 540,000 words in the English language
- about 5 times more than it was in Shakespear's time
- daily in the world, about 3000 books are published
- it is estimated that New York Times in seven days contain more information than an average man in the 18th century could collect for his whole life
- it is estimated that about 4 Exabyte (4 x 10^19) of unique information will be created just in this year
- that is more than it was created in the past 5000 years
- amount of new technical information doubles every two years
- for students that are starting a four-year technical education means:
- that half of what they learn in the first year of study will be outdated by the third year of study (a good reason for not studying, just we don't know which half)
- Japanese NTT has successfully tried optic cable, which can pass 14 trillion bits per second on each optical fibber cable
- this is the amount of information sufficient to fill 2660 CD's, or 210 million phone calls, and that just in one second, through a fibber thick as hair
- when cables are placed, the amount of fibber in them is not changing, only the speed improves on the contacts at the ends, so no extra costs exist
- amount of this information is being tripled every six months, and the same growth is been expected in the next 20 years
- until 2013. year there will be a computer that will outpace the overall capacity of the human brain
- it is been predicted that until 2049. a computer which costs 1000 dollarswill be capable of overhaul the whole capacity of the human race

Data for the Minister of Education and Science, and the entire short-sighted idiots who are not embarrassed to spend hours and days in discussion about their wages in the Parliament (referring to my politicians):

- Nintendo only in 2002. have invested more than 140 million dollars in research and development
- U.S. government has spent less than half that amount on research and innovation in education
- Bosnian government, after the first of this year's adjusted budget took from the Ministry of Education and Sports something less than 150 million euro, and after measures for savings, money for professional training fell on 0 euro, and something like a program for research and innovation in education, I was afraid even to seek in the budget for 2009. It isn't even existing. I hope that I certainly didn't searched right.

But for the end, something more brighter:

- while you read this (a youtube presentation is about 5 minutes long) 67 babies have been born in U.S.
- 274 babies were born in China
- and 395 in India
- and 694000 songs have been downloaded, illegal

And what does all this mean, asks us at the end this nice movie? Well if nothing else, you're always welcome in the IT (InformaTics) revolution. In it will always be room for a true salad of data, calculation and statistics, and it is on us to enjoy.

Anel Zukic
_________________________
surely a cursed liar