... I return to the wonders of PC gaming. Back before the PS2 era, I played alot and I mean, ALOT of PC games. I've got cabinets full of 'em. Next Tuesday, my brand new kick-ass PC is going to arrive. According to the list I got from the guy who's putting it together, it's one hell of a beast. No doubt.

Processor - Intel Inside Core 2 Quad Q6600 4x2, 40GHz with 8MB Cache.
Motherboard, and related - MSI P35 Neo-F with Intel P35 Chipset.
DDR - 2GB DDR PC6400 800MHz dual-channel.
Driver - DVD-RW Nec 5200 18x Dual-Layer.
HDD - 400GB Samsung SATA2 16MB cache.
Graphics Card - Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-E.

I'm getting Windows XP Professional Edition shipped with it, I could've chosed for Vista too - But that one sucks too much power away, and I need all of it. Even at the cost of sticking with DirectX 9.0c.

And along with that, I pre-ordered some games too... And some software. So I went to BestBuy a few hours ago, and preordered a massive list of games. The ones that were available now, he would keep 'em behind for me for when I pick 'em up next Tuesday. Friends in the business, gains you favors. Anyway, the list...

Crysis.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.
Unreal Tournament III.
Far Cry 2.(Comes in somewhere this year...)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl.
World in Conflict.
And a copy of Transport Tycoon Deluxe(1995 PC game). Just to play it legit after all this time...

Also, I bought Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Flash 3.0 from the Adobe website, I'll get those any time soon. And I'm planning to buy World of Warcraft, and the Burning Crusade too... Just to go with the hype, and see how addictive it is.

Now all that remains is trying to win the auction on eBay for an 19" LG LCD Screen, I really love it. It's only 120 bucks so far...

(All that actually remains is buying a PS3 and a Wii, so no-one can call me a fanboy. Master success? Stereotypes shall eat my dust)

After viewing the interviews on Rainbow Six Vegas 2, I concluded a list of things I missed in Rainbow Six Vegas. And, they were all the simple stuff that makes a big change in gameplay. And, it almost makes me wonder wether R6V2 is going to be a full sequel, or just a sequel correcting all the stuff that went wrong in the previous one, like GRAW2.

1. An Assault Rifle resembling the M4/M16 - M468.

About damn time.

2. Persistant Elite Creation in Single Player.

About damn time.

3. An awnser to that damned cliffhanger.

Now what remains is wether we get a "My revenge is fullfilled" awnser, or the Call of Duty 4 "Damnit, we're off worse after the war, than we were before!".

4. New Weapons.

Only eleven? Cheap-o's. But hell, it's improving.

5. Alot of new MP maps.

All original R6 maps, including new ones that are in R6V2, and all multiplayer supporting. Hell. Yes!

6. AI that doesn't just walk around.

Finally, they've decided that our allies are more usefull than being a live distraction that runs through open fire all the time without returning a single damn shot.

7. Rewards for being tactical.

What took 'em so long to realise that when you create a tactical shooter game, you gotta make the players be tactical. How do you do that? Reward 'em. Simple, easy and not to mention - Fun.

8. Game will last longer than Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Okay, 6-11 hours seems somewhat short. But the R6:V1 game really impressed me, length-wise. For a shooter.

9. Indepth Character Customization.

Good, since I will NEVER buy a Xbox Vision Cam. Ever.

Things that I hope are in...

- Bullet penetration: I can't help spraying cars and walls with bullets, hoping to nail that S.O.B hiding behind it. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare really nailed that one.
- AK47u: Compact, AK, SMG - There's nothing better than this badass compact version of a badass Russian all-star.
- Airport Terminal MP Map: If there's something worth exploiting as MP map, it's this one. LVA has what R6 needs - Open terminal with nummerous of "hiding spots", and exactly what they want - It can easily be a terrorist overrun public building.
- .44 Pistol: Dirty Harry will own this planet.
- Terrorist Hunts with respawns: Cut us some slack...
- More Difficulty Settings: Normal and Realistic didnt do it for me, there must be something inbetween.

Still, I'm just happy it's released this March.

According to GamePro, UT3 and Crysis have been the least bit of help for the income of both EA and E.P.I.C. The reason, if you havn't figured it out by now... Both games require more than the above-average PC of most gamers. If you can run Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - You're above average.

If you can run Crysis and Unreal Tournament - You're above the feeling of an empty pocket, missing over 2500 dollar and sitting next to a PC with everything that's current generation technology.

Like the PS3, people don't want to spend more than what is currently morally correct... Like, 60$ for a game is already alot. 600$ for a game console is out of reach. 2100$ worth of upgrades just to play the games, that's beyond "What the hell are you guys trying to pull off!?". I might be one of the crazy guys who actually wants to spend more than 2000 bucks to upgrade my PC. But that ain't just for the games...

Developers just need current generation technology. Where do you start off building a game? On the PC. Out of all gamers, how many actually create games? 0.2%.

Long story short - People just don't want to spend that much. Not now, not tomorrow. Never.

Best thing of all, the overly-obvious Electronic Arts and the "Are you s***tting me!" E.P.I.C don't even realise that. They expected the equal or atleast 50% of what Half Life 2 made nearly three years ago.

You'd say, at an company like EA - They'd hire PR's and Marketing Personell that has an IQ above the average bimbo... Right? Stupidity of the biggest game producing company of this day. Just priceless. Better than those MasterCard advertisements...

"Buyouts... 860 million dollar. Average price for DLC... 4 dollar. Stupidity, half-assery and idiotic-ness by the biggest game company on the planet Earth - Priceless."

Okay, first things first; I seriously can't get used to the synonym for "Gigantic, overclocked, overly expansive and installed with over eight fans to cool that engine block off" -- "Rig.". So, I'll just call it an "Gigantic, overclocked, overly expansive and installed with over eight fans to cool that engine block off" computer. Hell, I'll just keep it with "Rig".

Anyway, instead of using my saved up money to move to a better place, somewhere on Long Island. I just thought; What the hell, might just buya PC, and replace anything with everything better. And have some fun while re-doing the save-the-money-idea all over again.

I've got over the 5000 dollar stored aside, and changed my mind on the moving thing completely for a few reasons:
- To play... Crysis.
- To install developer software without having to yell "OKAY! THREE HOURS OF LOADING IS ENOUGH!".
- To toy around in Crysis...
- To use the pre-packed editor that came with... Crysis.
- To have a better computer.
- To make it not so frustrating trying to start the damn thing up.
- And alot of other specific reasons...

I've also done a bit of research on what I just need to have. I'm trying to calculate off Crysis standards, as I'm aiming to have a computer that can and will run Crysis on Medium-to-High settings. That'll clear me from any soon-to-come upgrades, and just for the sake of having one helluva' PC.

So; A little list of what I'm going to shop for:
System Operator: XP Home Edition(Vista is still filled with bugs)
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX "Superclocked" 768MB.
Memory: A Samsung-something-bunch-of-letters-and-numbers 350GB HDD.
Processor thing...: IntelInside 3.0GHz Pentium D"Core 2" Dual-Core.
Useless stuff I just want: BluRay Drive, 22" LCD screen, an external 100GBHDD for backup emergencies.

...And that's... It. I still need an actual PC to transform into a monster. Need to find an, well infact - I need everything else aside from those. Suggestions on the Crysis GameFAQ's boards just lead me to the tightassed side of the world: "CONSOLE FANBOY!".

Might aswell rip a 9 year old from the streets, let him point at something random at Curcuit City and just go with it. The odds are so that I'm even better off that way. Not even the "experts" are any help; They just stack me up with a 250 page booklet about "What you should pick", with over 2000 different items that all seem equally good.

It's just too damn hard to build an 527 HEMI block-of-a-PC, or in "Rig'd Language" -- "A superb Personal Computer, above all day standards. With all the goodies required to stay out of upgrades for ninehundred-and-twentyseven days."

Hell, the putting it together is already arranged. Someone at CompAmerica would set it together for me, with warranty and everything. I've got more than enough money to put it together, the 5K is just a budget I'd like to keep it in. I'm three clicks away from ordering the Nvidia 8800 GFX Card, along with a copy of Crysis, 3DS Max, Endorphin Animation Engine and Photoshop CS3 Pro...

Any veteran PC-junkies on GameSpot who could share some information, without letting me choose between 250-equal GFX cards, without pointing me around to stuff I don't even want. Just, the above-average goods to let me spin Crysis at a steady framerate. Cause, if Crysis can run steady at 35FPS. Anything can run without a damn hitch.

Even after reading Kevin VanOrd's comments on Adam B's blog, I still don't know wether to trust the site to overcome these heavy blows that keep on coming. Beginning with the sudden firing off Jeff, blending in with Eidos and Kane & Lynch. Along with that, the outside publicity towarths GameSpot from other websites just went rotten.

Rich Gallup, Jeff Gerstmann, Greg Kasavin, Greg Mueller, Carrie Gouskos, Bob Colayco and now Alex Navarro. The Tracy's gone too. But honestly; I don't even know what he did at GameSpot other than being the coolest random guy ever.

I just remain to hope that the typical"inside job" thing that overshadowed the entire Jeff story soon enough doesn't kill GameSpot in the end. Cause that's what it remains to be; The Element of Suprise. We weren't prepared, we weren't able of taking constant blows of editor-after-editor leaving.

Sure, the quality of the reviews didn't suffer untill Jeff got fired. Then we all knew that Eidos tried to, or did affect the score with bribery. Jeff cracked down on Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. And less than a week later he was trown out. Then the Josh Larson rumour. A guy who commented on a website like he was inside GameSpot, and knew every damn thing that went on.

The remaining peopleof GameSpot did try to keep the flagpost above the water, and try to keep up the steady flow of reviews. Quality reviews. Kevin VanOrd for instance. He's gotten quite the number of bigtimers that he could review, normally a person like Jeff would do 'em.

It's clear as glass that the employees of GameSpot are busting their asses to remain high quality. Now the moral of this depressing story; Can they? Ryan MacDonald now does the live shows, covering up for Rich Gallup. Kevin VanOrd takes alot more reviews since Jeff's firing. Brian Ekberg still does his fair number of exclusive previews and reviews, along with Brad. The otherRyan, Ryan Davisis still all over the place, from reviews/previews to live shows, and the list goes on and on.

However, while they're working like hell - They're loosing men. If not; hope. They're going down faster than the site can recover. Mental pressure, work pressure... Hell, it can be anything. And I don't want to be biased, on the side or the other. I just would hate the fact that the website would sink down to IGN level.

Kevin mentioned that they're not pressured into giving a certain grade, nor has the "tone" changed... He didn't mention, wetherthe quality level would remain high. As in; They'd get overworked, and quality drops. New guys are hired, who can assure the "clas.sic st.yle of reviewing" would remain? That kind of stuff.

My faith in the employees wouldn't drop a single bit, my faith in the content over the following months on the other hand. Fifty-fifty. My faith in the current editors staying; You might aswell just pull a Vegas-sty.led betting-poule on who pulls out of the parking lot first and doesn't return...

"The good ol' days, right?"

No disrespect to those I could've forgotten, and this blog isn't a goodbye, or somesort of hateletter. Worries. That's all. Still, I want to wish Alex goodluck, whereever he's going. And the same for all the remaining employees.

If you can spot yourself who we've lost this time... You earned yourself a grade A shock.

Since December 25th, Xbox LIVE's activity's like a rocking ship. Now and then it's stable, mainly before 4PM EST. After that it's best to avoid going back to the Xbox 360 Dashboard. The Media tab will still work, but aside from that and the System blade. It's just a roating circle eager to shove a"Disconnected from Xbox Live" in your face.

After 6PM EST. It's best to sign off. Just about any mainstream media like Advertisements, Xbox Live News, Marketplace, Video Streaming, it'll all be down. Now and then working, but not for long. Nearing 7PM - The crap's gonna hit the fan. Online games will suffer, the famous "Disconnected" and "Server Error" from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, to the "Couldn't Retrieve Information from Xbox LIVE" from Halo 3. Not to mention the clas.ssic "Can't connect to EA Servers" from all EA games.

The Cause.

The cause is simple. Merry ****ing Christmas, Microsoft! Well, alot of people got theirselfs or their childeren an Xbox and hooked it up to Xbox LIVE. Microsoft didn't do anything to take care of the crapload of new players, and flooded the servers like the water rushed into New Orleans. No-one could've seen it coming, no-one could've done a damn thing. Atleast, that's what they think.

According to Microsoft. Who's playing the "Wusnt meh!" approach. We've hit the ten million a few days ago. And the servers seem to be handlin' pretty damn fine, Microsoft! We're only having a slight delay in gameplay! For gods sake, it's paid service. You'd say, there would be ANY godforsaken service at all!?

Try to call 'em. Go ahead. All you'll get is a lady who's heavily underpaid, listing to *****ing customers all day... Getting another pissed off one. She's not gonna file it, she's not gonna pay attention and you'll only hear the bull about getting an free arcade game soon.

Happy Holidays from Microsoft!

25th of December 2007, currently the 10th of January 2008. How has it been going? Sorry, that wasn't a question. It's "What hasn't been solved today?". The same issues occur, the same issues from last friggin' year. The same issues from nearly 3 weeks ago.

If you've been using the Messenger Service from Xbox LIVE, you're extra deep into the puddle. If the other problems won't screw you over, it's definatly this one. It'll continue to try and try to log your e-mail adress in, and it can't. And if it fails, it signs you out all over. And re-try, means re-doing the whole instant-fail Messenger thing.

All in all, Microsoft says they're busting their asses to fix it. And I believe it. But if you're doing something, atleast show some godforsaken progress!

Making Up, Microsoft's Way.

So, after three weeks. You've got alot of red heads. Alot of people are pretty damn pissed, their money's being abused and turned into the crappiest service in the history of Xbox LIVE. Say, buy a magazine subscription and recieve the magazines all frumbled up and torn. You won't be happy, now would you?

Well, good ol' Microsoft has figured a way to make up for it. And hell it's gonna be original this time.

It's. A. Free. Arcade. Game.

Sure it's something, but seriously. I've had it with free arcades. I couldn't care less for arcades. My Xbox Live subscriptions' costof the past thee weeks goes beyond the lousy price of an arcade.

Worst of all, we don't even know which one it's gonna be.

Many people, just like me. We want a refund. Easy as that. Fail to cater the customer, we fail to pay the check. Just write Febuary off as a free month and it's done. Score settled. Damnit Microsoft, we're the same as you. We're the same ignorant idiots who push the boundries to get what they've got the damn right for.

Appologizing is just as usefull as taking a sub-sandwitch into a warzone as weapon.

"The Ultimate Xbox LIVE Expirience!"

It's going beyond unplayable. Without a doubt. It's been like that since Christmas. It's gone far enough to actually let me play the PS2 some more. I just turned on one of the PS2's I own, and started to progress through Gran Turismo 4 a while. Then played some Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Finishing it off with a clas.sic PS2 game; Twisted Metal Black.

Then going back to the Xbox 360. Played a little bit of Halo 3. Before going back to the dashboard and getting the same issue all over again. Then I had enough, and I've been searching the internet for an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB to build up one helluva' rig for myself. (CRYSIS!!!)

I've completely had it with Xbox LIVE. I'm just going back to my roots. PS2 and PC. And just play the Xbox 360 offline, for the sake of it.

Too bad I can't cancel my subscription...

Nevertheless, enjoy the lawsuit you rip-offs. You earned it.

Burn the goddamn clock, burn Price's mustache and burn in hell path to the War Room.

The End.

Well, particly.

I basicly have a life in the States and in my homecountry - The Netherlands. Half of my family lives in the states, the other half in the Netherlands. I speak fluidly English, aswell can I speak Dutch without a single hitch. I've got an American Express registered on my American adress, and I've got an MasterCard registered on my home adress in the Netherlands.

My parents did it, and I took that similiar idea over in my life. For a few reasons like, I can easily get cheaper things from Europe rather than from here. A brand new 29" Phillips widescreen of 499€ versus the 600$ price overhere. Other reasons for the sake of when you're in the US, you don't have to keep on changing your money for those Euros they use overthere. So, you just yank out a creditcard that's usable in the European countries and leave the other one at home. I go back to my country for atleast 2 months a year.

But there's downsides to it. For instance, they use your location of payment as your "Location" for some things. I started my Gold Subscription with my European creditcard. That gave me the European Xbox LIVE dashboard update. That gave me the European advertisements. That killed my previleges as an American on Xbox LIVE. And worst of all, it refers to me as "The United Kingom Player". I've got nothing against the UK or something, it's just the fact that I get horrible lag as it ALSO MATCHES ME UP WITH THEM.

And on the other side of that coin, my IP is located in New York. Yet my connection to players from Conneticut or even from New York itself seems to be lesser than those from the UK/shoreline EU countries. But like I said, while playing with those players, my connection gets even worse.

Changing payments was the easy way out. Ofcourse, I'm not the average dumbass with a double-nationality. They've tagged me off as an "fraud". I used, like I said my Mastercard for my payment. And signed up with my US adress. Meaning they're in two different continents, different payments, different valuta, different all different. So, to bite the "fraud" back in the ass - They've stolen my abilities to buy MS Points, use MS Points, redeem MS Points and finally - I can't decline, accept or extend memberships. I've got an "infinite" Xbox LIVE Gold to say the least...

So, the strangest thing that came to me. And probally to you to now after this quite confusing story... I'm a born Dutchman, currently in the US - How am I an player from the United Kingdom then? Well, the hell should I know!? That's the point of this story.

According to Xbox LIVE, I should be playing from the UK grounds. While I'm in the US. Paying with a Dutch creditcard(The payments are always in Dutch language). And also according to them, I'm avoiding payment. While, I recieve my monthly bills from Xbox LIVE just fine. And they've all been paid correctly too. Is it an conspiract afterall? Trying to frame me, the Microsoft way? Slightly idiotic, with a hunch of jack-lé-ass? I don't know, but while my services are just crap, my so called "privileges" on Xbox LIVE been disables and my creditcard bills transferred and transactioned without any problems... There shouldn't be anything to it, right?

How strange. All of this just popped into me as I overlooked my '07 spendages.

A few things to say about a lesser NHL fan on one of the best NHL games up to today.

- I created my own team, sure. Nothing special about it. But two things came to my notice; I was passing the puck between two players. One called Taylor, after myself... One called "Wilson" for no apparent reason. The announcer's dialogue... "Oh nice wide pass right there. Wilson. (blank). Taylor. And back.". Basicly, I've created two entirely fake names, well atleast pre-programmed dialogue wise. Those two guys actually refer to my custom players as Taylor and Wilson. And a few players from the NY Rangers. Now that's what I call detailed details.

- I suck at this game, period. I've lost my first match in Dynasty Mode against Ottawa with the Rangers by 3-1. I made up for it by making it a 5-2 retrying it. But 4 of the 5 were scored late on in the game, and with more than just luck.

- The only problem I have with the game is some issues with the AI. Sometimes when I pass the puck, the AI player I aimed for just halts and the puck slides by. Probally a tiny glitch, but seriously - That is it.

- I got owned by a friend who came over today. He's a major NHL fan, but he barely plays games. I nailed the first goal after less than 21 seconds of gameplay. Then HE rushed back the score up to a whopping 2-9.

- Too. Many. EA. Logos.

- I've had it with Staal from the Hurricanes.

- 76 hits in one game, 1 goal. My aim is as good as a half-blind 90 year olds.

- Superstar Mode is pretty easy actually, for as long as you keep the defenses up... And I mean, just swing it back into the offensive zone over and over 'till you FINALLY can do the shootouts, and preform those neat tricks you've learned from the EA SkillStick tutorial and kick their ass.

- AHL teams versus NHL teams. Damn I've never had such an asswhooping.

Overall; Pretty damn fun. I settled the score with that NHL fanboy in Call of Duty 4... You can't deflect bullets by waving your gun up n' down.