Oh hell yes. And if they're too small for you. Click the images for a bigger one.

"Exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV Character Preview, only on IGN.com"

IGN's community's rotten. The reviews are completely rigged. McDonald's advertisements literally all over the place. Badly organized Game Section. Their credibility's as great as Microsoft's Customer Support. Many developers of games that score (Metacritic) less than a 7.9 overall have a wide-open Blog on IGN.

All-in-all, Rockstar Games gave IGN their exclusive character preview. The site I just discribed in my 3 years I spend at that website. I used to have the "IGN INSIDER" subscription, from what you'd get for the money, it was a good deal. But the game guides are alwayslate, sometimes up to 2 months late, their reviews smell like suit and they stick the same advertisements litterally ALL OVER the place.

For five months I stared at "Win a 25$ game discount at BestBuy, from McDonalds!".I gave up on IGN a long time ago as their service was crappier than crap. So, back to GameSpot.

It must've been quite the stomp in the nuts that an website like IGN gains priority? Seems like in these cases money has an influence on vistors? Cause the mainstream internet media works the same as the TV media. In the end, what you can haul in for major visits is what counts.

Rockstar Games Inc. knows how to play the media. From begin to end, they spread previews over the internet like timed preformances. Just in time to not turn off the gamers, and just long enough to keep us checking the same image over and over. Over the time, we get a little bit from them. We rip the info apart like that guy from Shaun of the Dead got torn. Once we run out again, Rockstar Games gushes something new in. From a trailer, to a detailec Character preview.

You'd say, the first preview that's released to a single website - IGN's the last one you'd pick. There's 1UP.com, Kikizo, Yahoo... Okay, it's not really that GameSpot's the only one who has to feel the pain. Yet, IGN.com is at GameSpot's level. Big user base, previews, reviews, video reviews, media, the whole deal. The only big negative Gamespot'll have to deal with is their credibility of their reviews.

In the end... We're all the same. We rely on visits, and we rely on what get out of them(Visit numbers, subscriptions, advertisement-clicks etc.). With Grand Theft Auto IV, the most wanted game of (post-Sept. 25th) 2007.

And looks like IGN's got the visits.

Short version: It's good... but not worth 800 points.

Long version: The Halo 3 "Heroic" map packhas released today. And the price debate has begun. I for one say; It's good, but overpriced. Three very basic maps, 800 points. Three maps; A "roadbattle" map, a "team" map and a "Forge map". All are new, none are exact replicas from Campaign missions or such.

Foundry is the "clean" map of the stack. An big warehouse, with tons of crates, walls and such stuff. Basicly, when you empty the room like on the map(Left). You can make mazes, racetracks, King-Of-The-Hill maps. Anything that's for inside use. The map itself is pre-filled. True forge-map indeed. It's what the Halo 3 players who used the Forge tool alot, it's what they wanted.

Nice addition, at a cost.

Rat's Nest the opposite. It's a predetermined vehicle map. Two bases, six vehicles on each side. And 16 players in total. A O-shaped road around the bases. You tell me, how exactly is this not a vehicle map? Ill admit, it's awesome for a vehicle jorge like me. The thingis... Its pretty damn small. (Map right).

Still in the end, it's about time that vehicles gain a priority on a map.

Standoff is the basic Valhalla brought to an extreme. It's the same size, but is equally devided into inside-and-outside battle. This map's the one that I couldn't be bothered to review. It's just too goddamn basic. Sure, it has a great view. And that's it.

The map is like I said, alot like Valhalla. Partial inside combat, partial outside. Vehicles are great transport and there's the obvious "Haul ass for the other side and COOOMMBAAAAHHHT!!!!".

So; the sum up:
Price -
Graphic Quality -
Playability -
Microsoft-had-a-major-role-in-pricing -
OVERALL - .

Oh, and on a side note. This is the last blog for six days. I'm driving to Thunday Bay, Canada tonight. And well... I have no damn clue wether it's smart to drive off into mid-US and drive straight into Ice Hell. Well, if I don't return... Y'know what happened. Ah well, if your close and female friend wants you to come on over, I'll have to drive 1600 miles while the gas prices are ona new peak, Ice Age is taking over Oklahoma and Canadian-routes are as helping as pouring salt in the wounds.

Yay times.

An editoral to give Forza Motorsport 2 some spirit. The tiny mixture includes my personal taste of vehicles, paintjobs and my nickname shall decide the type of race you're gonna do. I'm a vehicle jorge, yes Homes225. No denying that. It gets worse, however.

Anyway, that doesn't matter now. The two-step program to blend Flatout Ultimate Carnage, your local Taxicab company and Forza Motorsport into one.

STEP ONE - Create a Vehicle that is not going to match the driving st.yle.

In my personal driving expirience, I've hit quite a few cabs. And they've hit my car quite a few times aswell. Hereby, a dedication to Buick Motor Company and the fictional Taxicab companies outthere! (P.S hit the links to view larger images)

"Details matter, I think. Ah well."

"How did the "Heroes on NBC!" survive...? Dammit!"

STEP TWO - Get a few friends, bumpers shall rain and cars shall die.

Just select the Multiplayer screen on Xbox LIVE, host a game on Road America or Sunset Infield. Host and select wether you want cosmetic, limited or full damage. Put Collisions at "On". And put it at four laps. Start the game, you'll need even-numbers. 1-1, 2-2, etc. One/two go the right way, the other one/two turn around and take the opposite way.

Halfway through, this'll happen:

"Oh, you want to check my exhaust system at 217MPH? Be my guest!"

"I can flyyyyy...!"

"100 Meters to certain death. And 100 barrel rolls."

Looking back at the replays, you'll be amazed how goddamn hard it can go, how goddamn high it can go, and how goddamn many times you can say goddamn in the same goddamn sentance. Had to say that. And there's a new sherrif in town:

Oh I bet the world is going straight to hell. Why? Cause first it was Microsoft getting kudos for once, now it's Turn 10! After countless of screw ups, they're finally getting things straight. First Microsoft giving us a quality update, now it's Turn 10 giving us affordable DLC that's worth the money for once.

The cost: December Car Pack - 400 MS Points. ROAD AMERICARace Track - 100 MS Points. The goods: 1973 Pontiac Trans AM, 1983 Audi Quattro Sport, 2008 Ferrari FFX, 1991 BMW M3 E30, 2008 Koenigsegg CCGT, 1980 Renault 5 Turbo, 2007 Renault CLIO Sport 197, 2008 Audi R8, 1998 Porsche 911 GT1, 2007Ferrari 590 GTB Fioranoand the Lamborghini Gallarado Superleggera.

The stuff that's not really what you'd want: 2007 Renault CLIO Sport 197 - Reason; You can get it for free also, 'nuff said yet?

The reason why you should buy the ROAD AMERICA track: 14 turns, left and right, with great differents in height at every turn makes this track the ultimate challenge. Go Wisconsin!! It's a Forza Motorsport clas.sic track aswell, and for 100 points it's quite a fair deal if you ask me. I think I just started to advertise it, but nontheless. It's a great track, worth the money.

The December Car pack verdict:

Reason One: Italy's awnser to Eddie Griffin.

Reason two: Weiner Snitzel Mobile in race-car version.

Reason Three: DaimlerChrysler's 1973 awnser to the GM Camaro.

What's next...? Sony actually selling something properly?

"Buy a console, plug it in, play a disk, sit your ass down and play - Furthermost, shut the hell up."
- Unknown.

"Tape an Wii remote on a X360, and tape the X360 on the PS3. Heavy weight championship, takes care of anything."
- Darrel.

"The System wars can only be won in one way. This time, we nuke China instead."
- GTA~for~l1fe

"WiiPS360 - 'Nuff said."
- Unknown.

"We all live in war now. First live wars, now system wars - Become a goddamn hippie and shut up."
- Unknown.

"If you hate a console, you seriously need to get out more often."
- FFXmaster08

"It's all about specs, right? They all play games, they all spin disks and they all make you happy. What do you want more?"
- Unknown.

"Oh just go to EB, grab a brick, walk inside, close your eyes, trow the brick at one of the console displays. Which one get's nailed is what you're gonna buy."
- Unknown.

"Stop whining. It's your father or mother who's gonna buy it anyway."
- Purplesaint402.

"If you think boomerang controllers were nuts, they're actually waving with remote controls. Reminds me of the eightees."
- Stewardcolbert2K7

"All in all, Microsoft are leeches, SONY is the king at craptastic marketing strategies and Nintendo gave us Anti-LCD projectiles as controllers - For as far as it goes; You're better off playing PC games."
- Unknown.

"The Bush council has affected the System Wars. Greatly. You know why? None of the actual consoles is winning!"
- Unknown.

Aye, I love the neutral responses towarths the System Wars. Best quote 'till today:
"The Bush council has affected the System Wars, greatly. You know why? None of the actual consoles is winning!"

As I see new Xbox LIVE Profile Bio's pop up, the sarcastic title of this blog fits the happy mood. In the world of online gaming, we're a bunch of cocky yanks and they're a handfull of wannabe Americans. If there's a fierce battle, it's the battle between American gamers and United Kingdom gamers.

We both speak english.
We both play games.
We both kill eachother.
We both race eachother.
We both have an accent that annoys the other.
We both can't deal with a loss.
We both bring "M-for-Mature" to a new level, language-wise.
We both hate the hell out of eachother.

It's easy to pick sides in the game of hatred. Brit? Go to the maties. American? Go to the dudes. Anything else? Neutral grounds are holy.

In games like Gears of War, Halo 3, Need for Speed, Call of Duty and such like games, anything with a fair deal of competition - The UK vs US battle begins. Usually, it's a comment like "Damn Yanks!" or "That ****ing snooty accent annoys the hell outta me!" that starts the war.

In the eyes of the Brits, Americans are a bunch of fat and loud ignorant idiots.
In the eyes of the Americans, Brits are a bunch ofannoying wannabe-American kids.

From the side of an American, the reason for a big ass fight would be this:
- A bunch of guys who do nothing else but insult eachother. We're loud? C'mon, the average age for a brittish kid to learn the F-word is three. The thing that pisses us off is that they are trying to be American... We don't spell anything with a Z, like "Gearz" or "Bastardzzz!". Neither do we spell like tHiS. We don't all come from the ghetto. We don't call Brits out specifically. Everytime two Brits come into a game room, you gotta watch your mouth or you're a "yank". If they know eachother, you gotta watch yourself or it's hell.

From the side of an Brit, the reason for a big ass fight would be this:
- Stereotypical, annoying, overly-agressive and ignorant. They always pick fights for no reason whatsoever. And even if they start, it's always someone elses fault. Not theirselfs. They are always agressive about our accent and call us "brits***s". It's always like this, one American is silence. Two or more is trouble.

It always ends up to be blaming the other. Brits are agressive verbally, and Americans are easily annoyed. It's always enough reason to start a fight. And, since I'm partially Dutch and partially American(I'm born Dutch, but my dad was American - Hence the last name's Taylor) - I always need to pick the American's side.

While I find it very amusing see a few guys yell at eachother, I have to admit, I do defend the US side when a fight picks up. But still, it made me think: Why do we hate eachother? Like I said, if something pisses either one of us off - Brit or American, we always blame eachother in the end.

Doesn't matter wether the fight started because someone said "Goddammit!" in a way that would be amusing(I get that alot from brits), or wether a Brit said "****ing hell!" with a deep Brittish accent - In the end, it's always the countries we're from to become the main reason of the fight.

And since the new Bio's started to rise. The sense of hatred became smelly around alot of my "friends profiles". I've got one who's list entirely relies on the so called "Yank haters". But then again, I've got one American friend who deeply hates Brits.

In the end, the fight always seems to be continueing... The question will always remain: What ignited it in the first place?

(P.S Sorry incase I offended someone called the people from the United Kingom "brits", couldn't find another word to easily phrase sentances.... Like I said, I try to be as neutral as I can.)

Something else other than the Jeff saga that'll hang for a few more weeks, but I thought I'd come back at the Xbox Live "Fall"/"December" update. It's here, for about two days now. And it's actually pretty good. But everything has flaws...

PROS:
- Marketplace is now looking organized. Atlast.
- Easier to download TV shows and such.
- Full-screen Movie/Music/TV Show previews( :D! ).
- Arcade Games are organized.
- "Bio"added, which is pretty interesting.
- "Name" added. Pointless, but a neat addition nevertheless.
- "Location" is now alot more specific than just country. I happen to come from "New York County", fancy synonym for Manhattan...
- Friends' list is looking alot better.
- Xbox Originals on the Marketplace.
- Friends can view friends' friend's lists. Pointless addition, but heck it's a "Community" afterall.
- Messages combined with Friends on the dash.
- Somesort of CNN-like News System replaced the original Messages space.
- Games Library replaced the"Demo's", "Played Games" and "Xbox LIVE Arcade" into one.

CONS:
- One extra advertisement on the Games page...
- Xbox Originals are fully advertised with the 120GB HDD which will soon become a need when you buy alot of these...
- Games Library is a little bit confusing to navigate.
- Slight delay when activating a disk, or turning off the console. Utterly useless.
- LIVE's now spelled with all capitals. Rather than just Live, don't see the need to spend time on that...
- None of the "Family" glitched have been fixed.
- Thanks to the new information Xbox LIVE has to load, friends list now load atleast a second slower before showing all information.
- Explicit language is still allowed in the Bio, location and name. Don't see why it's a con, but putting it on pro doesn't work either.

Ah well, for once it's pros outnumber the cons. Well done Microsoft.

The past week marked the end of an era at GameSpot. After over a decade in a variety of editorial roles, Jeff Gerstmann's tenure as editorial director has ended.

- Name it what you want, ended, terminated, fired. In the end, it remains foul play.

"Jeff was a central figure in the creation and evolution of GameSpot, having written hundreds of previews and reviews, and anchoring much of our multimedia content," said Ricardo Torres, editorial director of previews and events.

- Jackpot.

Due to legal constraints and the company policy of GameSpot parent CNET Networks, details of Gerstmann's departure cannot be disclosed publicly. However, contrary to widespread and unproven reports, his exit was not a result of pressure from an advertiser.

- Two words: Suit much?

"Neither CNET Networks nor GameSpot has ever allowed its advertising business to affect its editorial content," said Greg Brannan, CNET Networks Entertainment's vice president of programming. "The accusations in the media that it has done so are unsubstantiated and untrue. Jeff's departure stemmed from internal reasons unrelated to any buyer of advertising on GameSpot."

- Basicly, you're saying a copyprinter caused him to get fired? He laughed at Navarro? He parked his car on a CEO spot?A spilled mug of coffee? Seriously? Can you make any less sense Brannan? I can't.

"Though he will be missed by his colleagues, Jeff's leaving does not affect GameSpot's core mission of delivering the most timely news, video content, in-depth previews, and unbiased reviews in games journalism," said Ryan MacDonald, executive producer of GameSpot Live. "GameSpot is an institution, and its code of ethics and duty to its users remains unchanged."

- MacDonald, there's a gigantic difference between "unbiased reviews" and the traditional Jeff reviews. What it was, it used to be Jeff's unbiased review pointing the pro's out in the st.yle we gamers want it. Currently, we're at "Core Mission" IGN.

Ding dong, someone rang the bull**** bell. And I smell a conspiracy. And alot of suits.

Not ever since Stuntman I, a game has frustrated the hell outta me that it made me quit and give up. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare did get me this far. First time in two years. Perhaps somespoilers here, infact alot of spoilers... but I've made it all the way up to "All Ghilled Up" on Veteran Difficulty without alot of trouble.

Personally, I love that mission. Chernobyl is looking great, and it introduced me to some of the game's top notch elements. AI, tactical-gameplay and relying on your buddy to survive. That mission brings stealth to a new level, not to mention that the stealth-system of hiding in the grass/shades actually works in all missions.

By the time I reached the part where enemy helicopters bring in troops, and ambushes rise from all sides - I've tried all tactics to make it out alive. On veteran, it's common to get killed in two shots. Hell, the blast radius of a grenade's so huge, even sitting 15 feet away from it results in an instant kill.

The layout of the checkpoint's so that everytime I respawn, I place Claymores all over the place where the heli's will drop off infantry. Then I run towarths the bushes and take cover behind the dumpster sitting five yards from the three parked busses. I trow a bunch of C4 at the nine dudes running past the busses and blow them up. I run towarths the wall a bit to the right from the 3rd bus where I take cover and snipe the six incoming guys from behind the building. I also try to take out the four guys in the back behind the cars.

Then the dogs come in and well... I basicly kill them by snapping their necks. And if I do survive, Mac seems to get his neck eaten. If he does survive, all eight claymores I've set are blown up(and killed the jackasses who activated them)and infantry is hauling ass for my position just asI clear the entire area infront of me.

Meaning, if I leave cover now. I'll get killed in less than a second. And if I don't, an unlimited supply of grenades heads my way. And I only can trow so many back until they outnumber me. And if the grenades don't kill me yet;The unlimited number of soldiers now stand directly next to me.

So, I haul ass for the touring bus standing there. Hit B twice, and go prone.

The only way I can survive basicly. But, that doesn't seem to work either. Those ruskies trow like they're straight from the MLB. Grenades pelt the bus like they're snowballs. Some fly inside, some ricochet - Killing their fellow russians.

And if I do survive the endless supply of grenades. **** isn't over yet, the bullet-penetration system slaps me straight in the face. I can't see the enemies if I'm lying down on the floor in the front of the bus. They do spray the bus with bullets.

Usually, I swap the handgun with one of the dropped MP5's orAK47's... So, gives me the oppertunity to spray and pray back. I only seem to kill a few, before I get killed. I can't shoot and trow those incoming grenades back at the same time.

Mac isn't much of a help in this fight either. Infact, while he can take as many bullets as he wants - He's one of the worst snipers out on the face of the planet. The AI's great, but damn he's one lousy ally.

End of spoilers.

Yep, it's time to go back to MASS EFFECT.