Just got a PS3 for free as a reward from my employer. Now I get to play the few exclusives available on it!

I recently sent my broken 360 to Microsoft (took me forever, they charge you for repairs) and I got an email back saying they are sending me "a console". Makes me think they saw my console and thought 'well that one's screwed, we'll just send her another one'. I don't care which, it's just good that soon I can play again. My PS2 has served me well these many months, but I am relieved to be getting back into 'current' gaming. I still haven't even gotten a chance to play Dragon Age: Awakening!! The only good news is many games on my wishlist have become significantly cheaper since I've been away!

It happened. The dreaded Red Ring O Death showed itself yesterday. Guess all 360 games I'm playing will have to be on hold for the foreseeable future. At least I got to finish Deadly Premonition first. But I have been thinking about replaying Fatal Frame lately anyway, so I can still rely on my trusty PS2.

I have been very busy since I moved to Ohio with my bf about a month ago. We have slowly acquired furniture from the IKEA close by, and our apt is slowly starting to look like a home. I have not found a job yet, but I have been interviewing and I'm hopeful.

I have devoted much of my spare time lately to Tales of Vesperia, which, if I didn't love Symphonia so much, could totally be the best in the series. I love it so much I'll probably be reviewing it here soon.

I picked up Shadow Hearts 2 and 3 the other day for cheap. I played SH2 when it came out, and I hated it because I thought Karin was trying to move in on Yuri after what happened to Alice (Yuri & Alice are my fav couple in games & I also have a malice amulet tattoo because I love the 1st game so much) but I now know the ending and I'm going to give it another try. I hated what happened to Kato after SH1, though... and the whole thing with Princess Anastasia is so historically inaccurate (I know it's a game), and I hated Joachim when you compare him with his brother Keith from SH1. But maybe I was being overly critical since I was upset that SH1's bad ending became the canon storyline.

I have not heard much about SH3, except that it has nothing to do with the first two, which is good. My expectations are low so hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised.

My dear friend Jessica came to visit me this weekend in my new place, and she started playing Wet on my 360. I was irritated when it wanted me to do a mandatory update to be able to play the game, but I was downright angry when I saw the new 360 dashboard. It reminds me of the Wii, how you have to pick a stupid Mii avatar. I was just uttering a constant "NO", "OH NO" when I was choosing a stupid cartoony avatar of myself. I got the 360 because it's an adult system and I don't want it becoming cute and family friendly. I know this is probably really old news, but I am sooo upset about it. Apparently there is no way to downgrade, and there was no way to opt out of the update. Thanks, Microsoft. You suck.

The last bit I have to share is my Rotten Tomatoes account. If you're not aware, RT has a new beta community set up that I enjoy rating movies on. My taste is kind of strange, but if anyone wants, they can add me at http://www.rottentomatoes.com/gameslave

So I just played through Bioshock for the first time, and I was really impressed! It gave me a reason to start up my 360 again (it had been a while) and I was not disappointed. It was gorgeous, engaging, and hardly lagged ever. I just gotta say though, why the dead cats? I counted 6 of them throughout the game. I am a cat lady so of course this saddened me greatly. It was strange that there were only cats, no other dead animals throughout the game, unless fish count. Oh well, I'm hoping Bioshock 2 is equal-opportunity in its housepet-killing. LOL.

I've also been playing some games I picked up in the PS2 bargain bin lately, none of which have really held my attention. The Mark of Kri is boring and the targeting system is just horrible. I only played the first 2 missions and I have no real desire to pick it up again. Anyone think it gets better? I also picked up Extermination, which is pretty awful and hard! Stretch Panic is almost unplayable in its obtuse controls. It is funny to show people, though. Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is pretty good, I'm gonna have to force myself to pick it up again.

Really after beating Grandia III (story was HORRIBLE btw but battle system is great) and Bioshock, I have gone right back into playing FFX again. So these other games will just have to wait!

Lately I haven't really been gaming or hitting the 'nets as hard as I normally do. That's because I've been totally hooked on the Hyperion books by Dan Simmons. If you like sci fi novels at all these are a must read!! The series consists of 4 books, "Hyperion", "The Fall of Hyperion", "Endymion" & "The Rise of Endymion". I am finally making my way through book 4 and I am still hooked! These books are not new (can be found at used book shops cheap) and won awards like the Hugo and Locus awards. They are well worth your time and truly epic! /End nerdy gushing :oops:

So lately I have been taking advantage of PS2 games' plummeting prices and filling in the (few) gaps in my collection. There have been some good (Cold Fear), some mediocre (Extermination, The Thing) and one guilty pleasure (Constantine). Gaming on my PS2 also gives me more time to spend with my elderly kitty, who doesn't leave my room much and whose sister (who also lived with us) passed away the weekend before last. So some of my PC games have been put on hold for the moment, which is ok since a few of them I haven't been able to convince myself to play after the initial launching after install. Penumbra: Overture, NiBiRu, and Alone in the Dark 4 are those titles. They seem OMG awful, except for NiBiRu, which is just boring to me. It's my first "real" PC adventure after Sanitarium, which I think spoiled me. I finally got Grandia III, and it seems just as good as the first two so far. I'm being happily sucked back into JRPG world.

Wow I forgot how amazing it can be to have a veritable feast of gaming spread before you. I have been playing a bunch of different games for the PC (some lent to me by my amazing PC gamer buddy Jessica) and I love it. It's even more thrilling than when I got my 360 about a year and a half ago since there's soooo many games for PC I've never thought I would play before when I was stuck with the family computer! I left my job after finishing my apprenticeship, since it really wasn't going too well. I'm stuck in a job limbo right now since me and my bf are moving to Ohio in a few months, and it seems wrong to get a job for just that time, then leave. So I have tons of time at the moment to game, and it's great! It's like having summer vacation again. I'm replaying Summoner now, but I've only ever played it on PS2, so the PC experience is much different, sooo much smoother! The PS2 version had me taking snack and bathroom breaks during its loading screens! Ugh! Other than that I am kinda in a survival horror mode right now. I am playing Sanitarium, which is amazing. All horror enthusiasts should play it!!

I've never had a computer of my own, so I've never been much into PC games. Now that I'm working my 1st full time job and moving out of my parents' house this year, I've decided to buy one. My decision came down to the Dell Studio 17 Laptop.

I'm very excited to think of playing American McGee's Alice and Clive Barker's Undying again! It's been years!! I've added a few older PC games to my wishlist, but if anyone has suggestions, I'm open to them.

The games I've played thus far this year are:

Persona 4: IMO not nearly as good as P3, but decent

Hellboy: Science of Evil: Because I'm a fan, so I suffered thru it.

Lost Odyssey: AMAZING. Absolutely wowed me. Lots of text involved if you want to get a full backstory though.

Clive Barker's Jericho: I felt that this game got a bad rap. I loved the story & ablilities, but then I do love Clive Barker anyway. My only complaint would be that it was too short.

Fable II: easier than Fable, but still fun anyway. Pretty short as well.

Other than that I have been replaying older games. :D

So it's been a long time, and I've finally gotten myself a new console. The 360 is finally mine! :) I currently only have Fable and Kameo ( I never even had an original Xbox, so yay for backwards compatability) but I plan to get Oblivion soon, since that will keep me busy a long time. I've been in kind of a gaming rut for a while so I'm really excited now that I have such a huge library of past and present games open to me now. I'm really loving Fable, trying to be a good guy in it, but the temptation to steal from people can be a little much sometimes. I'll have to go back and be a bad guy next...