And that viewpoint is. It's either good or bad, not inbetween. Hate, bashing and such are review factors. As CNET's Review Background policy reads, they are not permitted to bash a game. I on the other hand, can say whatever the hell I want. So, incase you think I can't be trusted this way, I am here for the truth. Not soppy crap about stuff like "Neat graphics will care for the crappy gameplay."

I'm a racer-fan to the core. Along with action, it's my favorite genre. So, basicly I know what I'm yammering about.

PGR4. The highly anticipated game by Bizzare and MSG. Will that hype turn into something good? Perhaps. A short sum-up by this amateur overly-honest reviewer.

- Graphical: Top effin' notch. No questions asked. Cars are more detailed than ever.
- Gameplay wise: Deep. Alot deeper than Forza 2. But, as that game was as shallow as an empty glass of coke, this still has a bit of lacking options.
- Sound: A sh*tload of music. All genres are in. Cars sound awesome, and the bikes are extremely awesome when it comes to sound.
- Sequel-wise: Improved. But missing alot from other games and it's history.
- Value: Deep.

So, I'm planning on doing a somewhat deep review. And I will bash ALOT of things. So, if you're a fanboy, I will dare you to say I am a pr*ck. I will only enjoy it. Either way, PGR4 is a great game overall. If you're into car collecting. That is. PGR4 has the best graphics out of any vehicle game. Period.

Cars look great from outside, and also inside. Indepth, and everything works like it should on the dashboard. The bikes have the same, just plain terrific. The driver animations look pretty damn sweet, tough they are a bit choppy and laggy every now and then. Mechanical wise, framerate hasn't dropped on me once in these past two days. The weather effects have alot of effect on the handling. Also, the vehicle physics like suspension act pretty realistic and the bike physics like weight shift and such are damn well made

Graphic-wise, this game has peaked. But, in games of this era, graphics tend to eat gameplay. The better graphics, the less gameplay value. In PGR4's case, it's suprising how much has been spared from that evil curse. Still, I've been greatly dissapointed of the number of cars.

Like, they've wasted alot of licencing money on buying the '81 Pontiac Firebird. That's one of the worst editions of that car. Also, there's a '69 GT500, where's the '07? Replaced with a '66 Ford Mustang. They took an GMC Syclone, overall a pretty ugly truck. They took several bad BMW's instead of the good ones. The DeLorean DMC has no power whatsoever, and is barely used throughout the game. The game misses out on alot of great cars and bikes. For instance the 2002 Chevy Corvette. 2004 Ford Mustang. Ducati 999R. 1972 Chevy Corvette. 2005 Chrysler 300C. 2005 Chrysler ME4/12. Alot of the great cars have been wasted on somewhat sloppy ones. There's almost no German cars. The french have been abandoned and the US vehicles pretty much suck. The worst thing about it is only one pick up truck. Finally, I thought. A game where trucks make an apearance. Sadly, only the Syclone was given an chance.

I've been forced to use many of the cars I pretty much don't like. I do love the Buick GNX, but I am ordered to use a differentclas.sed car at almost any time. In the end, the game completely forgets about the less-powerfull cars.

So, qua vehicles, the game is pretty downright sad. About tracks, simply said: Best ever made. The weather effects are awesome. And with every different effect, the whole theme has changed. Buildings become white, when snowing. Roads become tracked and slippery with snow. Pools of ice appear before difficult apex's. The windscreenwhipers turn on, and rain starts to effect the cars look. Slides of water flow from front to back. Graphic wise, it looks amazing.

With snow, your car slowly turns white.

Sound wise, it's simply said awesome. Everything sounds awesome. The music list is just too large to recall, and bikes sound better than they do in real life. I'm not going indept with sounds, cause if they aren't bad. They are good. 'Nuff said.

Onto the value. It's pretty deep. With Forza 2, I had to rely on the achievements to keep me motivated enough to play. PGR4 isn't that shallow at all, it's great fun. Online it's even better. Only thing bothering me greatly is the lack of good cars. Also, the achievements are INCREDIBLY easy to earn. It took me only 1,5 days to get 600+ gamerscore. So, in the end, the achievements seem shallow, but the game sure as hell ain't.

The kudo system brings in some more value. The kudos you earn while racing, you use them to buy new car packs, track packs, cheats etc. Also, a 1 million kudos gamerpicture. Which costs, 1 million kudos. Showing the world that you're hooked.

PGR isn't a Forza game, being simulation-realistic. it's an arcade racer to the core, and it's doing damn well at that. And I'm being very honest when I say, this is the best game of the year. The best racer game, that is.

Rental, buy. I don't care. It's awesome.

Usuaully, I'm not much of a game basher... But this is my review system:

- Graphics: What the hell?
- Gameplay: 1984.
- Value: Asprine.
- Achievements: Big Rigs.
- Cost: Advertisements.

If it took you longer than 5 minutes to figure out what I ment with those five cryptic ratings...
[spoiler] ...You, sadly enough aren't good with riddles... Either way:
- "What the hell" - Remember those N64 games? Not exactly clas.sic, but not great either. So, if it's in the middle, there ain't no excuse to make up for it.
- "1984" - The year when ATARI went bankrupt, and the videogame industry hit a new low.
- "Asprine" - By the time you're playing ten minutes, you're begging for one of these.
- "Big Rigs" - Half of the achievements are beyond easy, others require too much that it enters the zone of "Screw it", just like playing BROTRR. Sometimes you get "You're Winner" at the start, other times you're glitching like a madman. Toyota is obviously new to these.
- "Advertisements" - Well, in 15 minutes I came across "This product is licensed by Toyota Motor Company" or "Toyota" for more than 600 times, explaining why it's free and how it's being funded. I am most definatly not buying a Yaris ANYTIME soon. [/spoiler]

The free Toyota gamerpicture on the other hand, was kinda making up for the horrible failure. Oh, and I downloaded Aegis Wing while I was at it. Arcade-clas.sic. Period. Toyota on the other hand, even for an Arcade attempt, it was pretty downright sad.

On this map called "Sandtrap" in Halo 3, there's two massive tanks called "Eliphants', that I always assumed to be scenery. But after the notification of a friend, we loaded it up with a s**tload of junk in the back, I build a pile of 7 Antenna's, 20 crates, 5 oil cans and 30 small crates, and I took it up the road. My friend, did the same. Only he loaded it up with about 50 guns.

"I'm ridin' a tank that's eleven times the size of a Scorpion. 'Fraid yet?"

Well, the point was to crash head on, which was virtually impossible, those massive things only went about 4MPH. Either way, something went a bit wrong:

"Seems like loading it up with just too much crap did pay off eventually."

When I hit him head on, everything just slammed out. And I mean, everything. And by the time he was pulling a wheelie with a thing that weights as much as the entire Grand Central Station, we were yelling "Holy sh*t!".

He jumped out as soon as that thing started to hit the 90 degree angle. And on the video he sent me after, I noticed that he lost half of his health by weapons plunging down from the tilting mass of steel. Pretty awesome eh? I almost killed him by letting unused weapons bombard him. He started to yell something like "Hold Rb to flip, wait what? How did you do that?". I asked what the hell he was talking about, so I jumped out, and checked it out for myself...

"And now, the international moment of zen; The day that gravity, damage modeling and eye-opening sequences are abused to the extreme, that Bungie even can't believe it. We rock!".

I couldn't stop laughing. "Wait, what? How did you do that?". We just abused every single physical element that keeps us alive. Weight, Gravity and Misshaping. And, I flipped over an entire tank of the same size and weight, it went up to 90 degrees without even giving any forceback and it didn't get any damage whatsoever.

"Whothe hell needs killing sprees, wins and ownages when you have stuff like this. When you accomplish stuff like this, you know you kick ass."

I recorded it, and my friend Chaozfury, he did it also. So, ifyou want video material straight on your Halo 3 game; Hit this link for my viewpoint(slot 2), and hit this link to get Chaozfury's side(Slot one, and beware he has a strange sense of humor). Just download them, no need to rate.

This, is my best moment ever in video gaming since the "CJ, WHAT IN THE HELL!!??" from a recruited gang member when I ran over a hooker in GTA: San Andreas.

I'm still working my ass off scripting Drive or Die's engine, and while my boss is sitting in the room next to mewhich window barricaded by seventytwo pages of clas.sic Playboy's, Top Gear Magazines and Sports Weekly, that'll keep his attention off me. So, I dumped all of the data on a USB stick, and I continue it overhere on work, cause staring at those Black 'n White TV's is useless, and I've done all the bookmaking already. Anyway, another one of the X words...

Janco Partners Analyst: GTAIV can outsell Halo 3 with five million copies in the first week, after analysing the hype, sales of San Andreas and sales of Halo 3.
Winston Partners Analyst: It's the element of suprise that keeps Grand Theft Auto so high in the air.
Jack Thompson: *trows a brick through the front door window, and rushes in after it* VIOLENCE! BOYCOTT! MATURE!
Janco Partners Analyst: We forgot to mention, everytime somebody buys a copy of GTA, they smack Thompson in the face.
Jack Thompson: Who slapped me!?
Janco Partners Analyst: See?
Winston Partners Analyst: No, he's just senile.
Janco Partners Analyst: Oh right? And what if I trow a pair of flowers at him, will it make him go insane? *laughs*
Jack Thompson: FLOWERS FOR JACK? SUED!!!! YOU'RE SUED! I DON'T NEED THESE SIGNS OF SARCASTIC HATRED!
Winston Partners Analyst: We'll see you in Tampa, Jack. Anyway, Mike, it's the senile halfassed world around Grand Theft Auto that makes it worth buying. It's a liberal smack against the cheek with every purchase. Like, Alabama. Houser hasn't got a thing to do with the hype.
Jack Thompson:HOUSER? SUED!
Janco Partners Analyst: *shrugs* So, marketing campaign on Canal St, element of suprise, and being as liberal as it gets? Phil, my rival analyst; Halo's dust n' bones compared to GTA.
Jack Thompson: DUST AND BONES!? POLICE MURDER?
Winston Partners Analyst: *gives Jack the finger* Gold.

Liberal. Cop Killing. Jack Thompson. Grand Theft Auto has no chance of losing.

Sorry, but I am enjoying writing these just too much. I've been writing GameID's for Drive or Die for about five days now, and I've got about any achievement script and about half of the mission trigger script written. That's sadly enough, not even 2% of what I have to script... So, deal with it.

SONY PR: Look at these ratings!
SONY Console Gaming Chief: Look at my face, do I look like I give a damn?
SONY PR: No, but that face'sa true expression of stupidity.
SONY Console Gaming Chief: How so?
SONY PR: Cause, when you mentioned that dropping the prices of the 60 gigabyte models, and inmediatly discontinueing the model line with it, along with introducing a still-at-600-bucks 80 gigabyte model, you said and I quote "These dumbasses will love us all... And we still get our money... EAT THAT GATES!". Along with that spooky Frankenstein's evil "Bwah Bwah Bwah" tune running on an old 8-track on the background.
SONY Console Gaming Chief: Sh*t.
SONY PR: Also, this red arrow going down is the interest of the gamer into the PS3, and this green, yellow and white arrow that's going up is the X360.
SONY Console Gaming Chief: Oh sh*tties.
SONY PR: In your words; Evil mastermind billionaire Gates is kicking our asses.
SONY Console Gaming Chief: DROP THEM PRICES! WE SHALL RULE THIS WORLD.
SONY PR: And, I forgot to mention. Our previous Customer Interest slash Public Relations guy, y'know, that dude who checked up on rival consoles prices, interest and sales,Pogo-The-Monkey, he's fired.
SONY Console Gaming Chief: Well goddamnit! He was a helluva' chimpanzee, you know!

After four screw ups, they finally realised that their lame marketing strategies were as obvious as a slap in the face. And yes, I am working on Drive or Die's Mechanical Script; Good stuffz...

I've been photographic simply too much on Forza Motorsport 2. And, seeing that you can actually submit them pictures for "webpage" showcasing, I figured might aswell scramble a few of 'em together, and along with some new ones aswell. And, like usual... My gem the Buick GNX Regal from 1988, has the honor.

Honestly, a Yellow Cab on 43rd St, midtown New York. What the hell are those ads doing everywhere?

FedEx Kinko's on the background... On 43rd St. What the hell?

And since just about the whole 43rd St has been patched up with ads, might aswell just park it on New Yorks' 2nd most crowded street, eh?

A sunset going between Times Sq's 7th St and Broadway. What happened to about 30 blocks worth of 20 story buildings standing inbetween the sunset and Times Sq? D'oh..

Is it me, or are those trees from Central Park just huge? I can seem them from here!

Say, which one do you think has most potential when it comes to have a little bit of chance? Just, name one of them. Either way, since I don't know where to send them into yet, might aswell figure out which one I should sent in.

Microsoft Game Studios Chief: "So yeah, the Halo hype's over. And uhh... Well, y'know. ...Fred, you do the word!"
Microsoft Game Studios Employee: "Ehh, about Halo... We, eh, Us, eh, All of us...."
Bungie Chairman: "Get to the point, jackass."
Microsoft Game Studios Bookmarker: "It's done! Game over! Case closed! Comprendé! Capiche!? No habla ingles!?!? *rips contract apart*"
Bungie Chairman: "Get the **** outta here..."

*MSG guys run away, but make a halt at the coffee machine, and highjack it, and then they run like there's no tomorrow for their Bentleys, Benz's and BMW's.*

Some people can't learn at all. Others just think of Bungie as god and Microsoft as that bastard with money. Others don't even know em, and care for Halo only. And people like me, understand that Halo's financial feedback's about as gone as JFK.

You've got to admit, Bungie jumping ship from Microsoft? That's like saying "Nah, I'm wealthy as it is" to the 64 million lottery you've just won. Bungie is keeping something from us, misleading the media as if they're going back to indepent roots. Going back to indepent roots is going back to mediocre sales, and bad software. As, Microsoftpurchased all rights for developer tools, not Bungie. I smell a conspiracy.

Forza Motorsport 2, why has thou forsaken me? Being a time-taking rewardless track lacking racer is acceptable, but letting my little Buick crash on the final part on one of the hardest tracks ever made by mankind? And with letting it crash, I will ask Satan personally to damn the scripted AI.

So, asking Satan to damn the AI seems harsh. But, not when I tell you the background of these 14 damned minutes.

I started the final event of the Semi-Pro series, which also has a 2-lap Nürburgring Norschleife. And, since it's race requirements is a 800HP maximum tied to it. My little Yellow Cab Buick Regal GNX from '88 was the best car I had for it. Taking a muscle car up against two Enzo's, a handfull of the worlds best supercars and along with the McLaren F1...

The first lap went pretty well, with only about 2 seconds penalty time and no damage at all. I personally love the Nürburgring, ever since Gran Turismo. It never gets old, and it's the only track in Forza 2 I really digg.

Either way, the first lap and the second one's half went fine. Untill I had to pass the slowest AI car of the bunch. The Mercedes Benz CLK-GTR fell behind, and it looked bashed up when I overtook it. Then, a pretty beaten up Enzo Ferrari went into the S turn called "Wehrsiefen", I overtook it on the small straight right after the Wehrsiefen turn. And all of the sudden my rear flipped over, and I hit the fall with my front at 150MPH. My engine was orange, and most of the body work was hellish red on the damage icon.

It was the Enzo that tapped me into the walls. Seems like the crap about AI being heavily scripted when you outlap them is true afterall. Their response towarths you is exactly like you aren't there once you outlap them. There was no PIT before the finish line to patch my car up to get atleast some money from that heavy cash-penalty. So, I just moved on as my timer just clocked 15 minutes at that point. Would've been a lot of wasted time.

My car was still able to shift cause the drivetrain wasn't damaged, but the steering was near impossible and it took the Buick to get from 0 to 60 in somewhat less than a minute instead of a few seconds. And when I finally got a decent speed of err... 115MPH, all of the sudden at the Ex-Müle turn, I get bashed off the road. Crushing my drivetrain, springs of the rear wheels, brakes of my RWD Buick and the entire body was now 100% damaged.

Looking backwarths, I slowly see that damned CLK-GTR pull off. Like a grandpa at the age of 110 without his walking-aid, trying to speed away from a bank robbery.

Well, creative excutive of FM2Dan Greenwald was right aboutif your engine's crapped, and the drivetrain is dead. It's game over. I already have a hard time getting myself to actually race, and then I would have to redo an entire 16-minute race.

Anyway, who said that the AI wasn't scripted? That jackass needs to be burned.

Rest in peace, my fellow 1988-born badass. Did I just call myself badass? Now that's badass.

Went with a friend to 67th Ave,North-Brooklyn, this morning to get myself a second-hand cellphone as mine acient Nokia died on me yesterday. It survived nearly four years of agressive trowing around, careless falls and "aye, I stepped on it". Either way, that guy lived on 67th Avenue, and I didn't felt like catching the Subway from 220th to Rego. Taking the Dodge through morning traffic and trying to get past the Queensboro Bridge was not worth a 25 dollar cell phone in time and gas money, so I asked my friend to take me.

He did bring me there, atleast.

I brought 25 dollar in cash, and left my wallet home. So, I left with him with only 25 dollar in cash and my door keys. He dropped me off and he should've waited outside while I gone inside and swapped the 25 bucks for a decent phone. Nice sweet little purple/black Nokia, same model too. So, I went outside again and I saw that a black minivan took my friends spot at the side of the road.

Hoping that my friend turned intoa female soccermom all of the sudden... Seems like my friend bailed on me. I had a battery-loader, a Nokia cell phone who's battery was about as empty as an anorexic-chicks stumach and a handfull of keys. So, I had to walk for about 5 miles home.

I'm not exactly a hiker, cause there's too much opertunity of transportation. I wanted to freeride a subway, but realised that would be asking for trouble and after a nightshift of about six hours and no sleep and my morning coffee. I'd rather stay out of it. My reputation would hit rock bottom with the Yellow Cab of NY when I'd freeride on of those. So, last way to actually get home was either to hitch-hike, or just walk.

Took me four hours to get home.

And lemme tell you, that cheap brand coffee never tasted this good... And revenge will be sweeter than sugar when I find the perfect oppertunity to bail out on him.

Again, Microsoft intended to shove their marketing strategies inthere. Hit that spoiler thingy underneath here to get some details. Oh, and if you nailed that button without wanting to know it. Too bad, it was you who did it. Dumbass. It's a helluva' story in that spoiler. So, well... Click it if you care. [spoiler] Well, the ending of Halo 2 was a cliffhanger to the extremes. The intro doesn't make much sense other than "Wow, he's alive. What a frickin' suprise.". The storyline is pretty basic afterall, laid out in a few sequences: Get up, and disable those towers. But before we do, try to save Cortana. That annoying broad who constantly slows down the gameplay to say "Was it worth it to leave me to die?". For so far, I would've said "Too bad you ain't dead yet. Now STFU!". In the meantime, the big-boss gets owned. The mystic "Flood" betrays you. And in the end, you are a tombstone. You lose about any ally you've had, and Cortana sadly enough stays alive. So yeah, The Chief's dead. I already hear half of the world yelling "IMPOSSIBLE! NAO! NEIN!". Exactly, you're right. Since you've already tagged this spoiler thing, I can spoil just about any ending without caution. Cause this whole thing's a friggin' spoiler on it's own. So, Saints Row. That's the next ending that will be spoiled legally. There's your caution. Anyway, Saints Row ending was a simple case of betrayal with conspiracy. Allies are enemies. Sh*t like that. A few main characters appeared at the scene of the cliffhanger. Giving us, the players enough brain-train to hold out 'til a sign of a sequel. Conspiracy or no conspiracy, it's enough room for the players to think up tons of situations. Same stuff with Halo 2. It took them three years to bring up Halo 3. In the meantime, it looked like Cortana was lost and Master Chief became a Space Flambé. Well, the sequel intro to Halo 3 was the intro basicly anyone would've expected. Master Chief's a hero, and he'll survive a tiny fall from about 5 miles high easily. Did you just shrug out of uninterest? I did. Either way, like I said. It was alot more basic than I expected it to be. I expected these "Oh snap" kinda plot-twists. And for some reason, I expected it to end the way it ended. A huge vehicle scene, on a hot location. Along with the horrific Flood to be my enemy. I figured that out by the first time I came across the Flood. All games end on a location you don't want to be at, at that time. The vehicle-system of Halo 3 was pretty tweaked, and a basic shoot-'round final mission wouldn't do. The Flood is the toughest enemy in the game, using a zombie-way to infest the entire universe. So, uh-oh-location + driving mission + Flood = Awesome. Right? Now, Microsofts' signature move in games is a ending no-one'd like. Just like Saints Row, it feeds the players just information to create somekind of situation. Well, also just like in Saints Row. The main character gets grilled in the end aswell. For our mute buddy in SR, no funural. For our badass friend Master Chief in H3, he got a funeral, along with all fallen soldiers and higher-ranked. "I can't believe he's gone.". That's just sooo epic... C'mon, it's a smack-in-the-face for just about any gamer who has played EA and/or Microsoft games. It's a smack in your face saying "Wake up, dumbass! There's a sequel waitin' to pop up!". Just like SR, how in the world can a normal dude of about 5"9' survive a massive ball of fire, that's the size of a cruise ship? Well, apperiantly, he survived. And if Master Chief can survive a fall from outerspace, 5-6 miles high. He can survive a bit of eye-bleed, RIGHT!? This. Is. Sparta. This. Is. Marketing Strategy to the ultimate. Halo 3 was a massive hit. Selling over a million on day one. That's one million times 65 dollar. 65.000.000$, atleast. Comparing it to an soap-opera. 1 million people watch one episode on Pay-per-view. And, soap-opera's are famous for "Cliffhanger" endings. Leaving the people behind with a boiling-point. So, since about anyone wants an awnser to a question, they don't wait and watch the awnsering-episode on Pay-per-view. Basic. Marketing. Easy cash. BME. And Microsoft is using that BME to the core. Preparing it fully with marketing, advertising and hitting people on the right nerve with stuff they really want. The budget of Halo 3 was pretty much infinite, making this a win-win situation from the start. Still, a cliffhanger ending for the extra-extra-extra-bonus cash. Before I totally go off-topic. Halo's storyline is awesome, in the sense of action and in the way of how it's blended in with gunfire, driving and strategy. The only problems I have aren't gamebreaking, nor are they actually affecting the gameplay at all. And if you still don't get my point, or disagree with me saying "It's fun!". Either read it again, or get your butt out of that basement. Critize their marketing st.yle instead, not what I'm saying about the gameplay. [/spoiler] That is all.