So I've decided to go for the 80GB, not only because I'll eat up that memory, especially after reading the comments, but also because as could have been expected, GameStop requires you to trade in a certain ammount of fairly recent games in order to get the 40GB at only $200. I haven't asked them myself, but a guy who lives next to the GameStop (or near) told me you had to trade in some games, and I know how they work, if the games aren't recent enough, they don't take them. So, to hell with that. I'm gonna get the MGS4/80GB PS3/DualShock 3 bundle. How am I goin' to pay for it? Simple, my friends, simple.

As you may know, I've become a Pre-Cert Tester at work, and just recently, we entered the high season. My Project Manager has received somewhere around 11 projects one shot. Unlike Functionality which pretty much everyone over at Enzyme, whatever your function is, can do over time if needed on the projects, in Pre-Cert we are 30 testers. Thing is only Pre-Cert Testers can do Pre-Cert. So Yep, you got it right, over time is a must. Starting today, all the newbs in Pre-Cert, such as me, are shifted on real projects and we'll certainly have to do some over time and work late every day, and most probably work on the weekends as well. No more training, no more formation.

Basicaly, it's going to be one hell of a summer that's going to give me plenty of money to buy that PS3 bundle! Damn, I could probably even afford to buy an X360 along with a Wii too with all of that, such a thing I will not do though, but who knows. I'll probably end up buying a Wii anyway, but only because Megaman 9, which has finally been confirmed by Capcom of Japan and Capcom of North America like one week ago, will be exclusive to WiiWare. I know, one WiiWare game means a Wii for me, it might sound kinda stupid, but I can NEVER not buy a console/handheld if a Megaman game comes out for it. That's simply how it goes. I bought my GBA because of Megaman Zero series, I bought my PSP because of Megaman Powered Up and Megaman Maverick Hunter X, I bought my DS because of Megaman ZX series. Of course, everytime I'd find other awesome games on the console/handhelds, but yeah, I do buy them depending on which one gets the Megaman games lol.

But I always want PlayStation anyway, Megaman game or not, I still always want Sony's products in gaming. But hey, I could always buy that X360 eventually as well and go on a hunt for the older Ninja Gaiden games. Mmm.. that'd be an option. And at work, our clients seems rather good at giving us a copy of the game we worked on for X360, although it was multiplatform.

Anyway, don't be alarmed there people, I'll take some time to come on GameSpot and comment on these blogs of yours, although I'll be zombified by work. Oh and, eventually I'll come up with new reviews of Silent Hill: Origins, Devil May Cry 3 and Crisis Core. The review of Silent Hill: Origins is almost done, still want to finish the game before posting it though, as I always do, although I have enough details to post it now. Anyway, when I was in functionality, it was all about "playing" the game to find bugs, so I didn't feel like playing games at home much since that was all I did all day long, but being in Pre-Cert, doing different kinds of tests that doesn't really require you playing the game will surely make me go back to gaming at home. Go Pre-Cert!

So I finally got my tattoo filled in red! We'll probably do some little touch ups here and there once it is healed, but hey, technically it's finished lol. Here's a pic:

Yep, so it's finally done if you don't count the small touch ups we'll do that you can't really see in the pic. I say: sweet!

On another note, I might get a PS3 soon. I've been working like mad crazy these weeks and yeah, that means alot of money, but I'm in some sort of dilema. 40Gb or 80Gb? Thing is, GameStop just opened over here, we never had a GameStop before, and apparently, they're holding a promotion for their opening which is all about selling 40Gb PS3's at $199 for a limited time. Is it true? I don't know, but do I want a 40Gb after this or still an 80Gb? Anybody that reads this, please leave me some comments on what you would do. If you don't know the differences between both consoles I'll list them.

Backward Compatible (can always buy a slim ps2 if my old ps2 breaks)
40Gb: NO
80Gb: YES (some games only, not all of them)

Memory Card reader (SD, whatever else) (could always transfer photos/music/whatever by usb)
40Gb: NO
80Gb: YES

USB Ports (could always use my rock band usb adapter to transform 1 port into 4 usb ports)
40Gb: 2 ports
80Gb: 4 ports

That's basically the differences excluding the 40 extra Gb's that the 80 has, which I could always, later on, buy either an external HDD or a Laptop HDD and replace it. Otherwise, both have built-in Wi-Fi, and whatever else the PS3 usually has. Give me your opinion, and be quick about it, I don't know when the promotion ends!

Before pulling out answers for all of the games, let me tell you that I'll hold a similar little thing for each of them as I go through the games.

Yep, I just went through the first Sonic the Hedgehog game for Sega Genesis again (who knows how many times I've been through that game entirely, especially that I've owned the original cartridge ever since it's initial release). Though, I didn't play it on my Genesis since the console is broken, I don't know what it has, but when you shake it you can clearly hear some parts tumbling around in there. Instead, I poped in my PS2 disc of Sonic Mega Collection +.

The reason I went through the game again is because they're holding a contest at work where you can win DS games or Rainbow Six Vegas posters, and the winners will be randomly picked out of a list, that is if you got the right answer to the following question:"What is called the first act of Sonic the hedgehog 2?". Yep, so I poped in my disc this evening and checked it out and it, obviously, made me want to play through the games again. If I ever win, well that's cool, although I don't really care for the prizes. But winning is winning, everybody likes it no matter what!

Anyway, my question, or poll if you prefer, is which Zone do you hate the most and which one do you love the most in the first Sonic the Hedgehog game? I'll give you my personal answers.

Most hated one:

It has to be Labyrinth Zone. Damn do I hate you Labyrinth Zone! This is actually the stage I hate the most out of every single Sonic game that has ever existed and that I have played. Why? I just hate the whole underwater thing and the first game (to the opposite of further games in the series) has everything to make you have a hard time down there. Spikes coming out of everywhere, monsters wandering around where the bigair bubbles are so if you jump to terminate the monster but catch an air bubble on the way you simply get damaged and lose all of your rings, etc. If there is one stage where I can constantly die, it definitely is Labyrinth Zone, though, for the first time of my life, tonight I went through it without dying once, but I sure did lose all of my rings a lot of times.

Most loved one:

Starlight Zone. I can't explain why really.. The music for the stage has a lot to do with it, and I don't know why it does. I just find the music beautiful, the stage beautiful, and it's one of the stages in Sonic that makes you feel as fast as a weird, strange blue hedgehog could ever be. here are tons of loops in it and alot of well placed pits to pop your imaginary world as you were running endlessly through the stage without any concern. Starlight Zone definitely is my favorite without hesitation. It doesn't take me long to go through all 3 acts of it (matter of a few minutes or so), but it still remains my favorite one.

That's about it! I know the pictures aren't really representative of my descriptions, but that's the best screenshots I could get off of the internet that actually looked good, but anyway. If you ever played the game, tell me which is your least favorite and which is your best, and if you haven't played it, you sure are missing out on something! Leave a comment anyway, comments are always fun :]

Now I know more what the tasks consists of, so I'll let you in on a little briefing as well as my thoughts about it.

First, directly taken from Enzyme's website (that's where I work) is their definition of Pre-Certification. If you actually go to the site, I know, it hasn't been updated in forever.

In addition to being recognized as an official "Authorized Microsoft XboxTM and Xbox360TM Games Test Vendor and certified as a video game testing and pre-certification facility on other major console platforms, Enzyme Testing Labs™ will perform pre-certification tests on your games according to the rigid standards established by the leading console manufacturers. Our privileged relationship with all the leading manufacturers ensures our specifications are always up-to-date and permits you to rapidly receive your approval rating and minimize your time-to-market.

So yeah, basicaly, every video games on the market had to pass a Certification test to be accepted by the console's company. If a company such as Capcom, konami, etc. wants to release a game on the Wii for example, well the game has to be aproved by Nintendo by passing a Certification test which requires specific criterias by Nintendo in order to pass the test. It's the same for Microsoft and Sony, xept they all have different estalished criterias to respect.

Has you might guess, being a Pre-Certification tester basicaly consist of making sure the game will pass the Certification process, that way the company creating the game can save money (it is extremly expensive to take the Certification test) and they can be sure that the game will be aproved, saving them time.. and money. I think we are one of the few, if not the only, to offer such testing.

So anyway, instead of doing like Functionality testing where I had to just free roam in a game (most of the time) and find "bugs" such as passing through walls, wrong textures, crashes, etc. I have a very specific list of criterias required by the console's company to follow and make sure it is as it should be within the game. It's alot of stuff that are directly related to the console but is caused by the game itself. Therefore, every problem that you would be ready to blame the console for it's happening is actually caused by the game, not the console.

In the end, how did I find my first day? It's pretty cool actually. You always work with the same people because in Pre-Cert there rarely is any movement in terms of people, unlike Functionality, where everyday you will probably work with different people in your team, and it sucked, especially that I was the one they would ask for training the newbies on the team. The ambience is pretty cool, and it doesn't have a choice to be cool, cause since you always work with the same people, everybody has to get along and have fun. On top of it, you always know what you did, even if you didn't enter any major bugs or any bugs at all, you just check at the list of criterias and you know what you have done. You always have something to follow instead of doing some free testing like in Functionality.

It definitely is very different, it isn't MORE fun, nor is it less fun, it's just different and brings a different state of mind. Of course, I miss Functionality testing a little bit, but that's only because I'm what you can consider a newbie in Pre-Cert, it feels like my first day ever over there lol.

So apparently, Megaman 9 was confirmed as a downloadable game for WiiWare, XBOX Live and PSN. Let's start from the beginning.

To start off with, it's good to know that Capcom left us in the dark about the classic Megaman series ever since the release of Megaman 8, something like 11 years ago. All of a sudden, some dude calling himself "Shadow", claiming to be a Beta Tester for Capcom, starts the rumors of an upcoming game named Megaman 9, which would be in 8-Bit graphics as well as a downloadable game. Fans such as me sure didn't miss the info, but none of us were believers.

The other day I go over a Megaman fan site (you can click on it to see the site) which I visit every now and then and what do I see? Nintendo Power scans confirming Megaman 9 as a WiiWare download. Then, further came saying that it would also be on 360 and PS3, not exclusive to the Wii which is overall good news on my part since I don't personally own a Wii and probably never will unless they release a Zelda game exclusive to the Wii. I'm still not decided whether I should believe it or not, although it appears in the next Nintendo Power issue, which knowing that now means I'll definately have to buy it. But hey, gives me another reason to own a PS3 other than Metal Gear Solid 4, a possible God of War 3, Heavenly Sword and a bunch of other games that aren't exclusive.

Anyway, apparently, the game doesn't develop any story that could tie in the calssic series to the X series, which while being a bit disappointing, I believe it would personally kill the magic as every series that we know ties in to another series all have really huge plot holes, leaving it up to our imagination. For those who don't know Megaman too much, my personal opinion on how they tie in one into another goes like this:

Megaman => Megaman X => Megaman Zero => Megaman ZX => Megaman Legends

Now I'll start talking about the whole timeline thing coming from my own personal opinions, since I know many would agree and many wouldn't. But anyone not interested in Megaman can always simply read all the above and take it granted as my blog lol.

That's the timeline according to me, and to alot of people as well. We know for a fact that Megaman ties in to Megaman X, thanks to Megaman 2: The Power Fighters (arcade) which contains an ending that clearly shows Dr. Wily building Zero, which is a Megaman X character. As well as Megaman X4 clearly showing Zero dreaming of his creator, which clearly is Dr. Wily from the calssic series, and many other X games have references to Dr. Wily.

Not only this, but now it is mostly based on my personal opinion, but Megaman Zero comes after Megaman X6 (some claim it is X5) because beating the game with Zero in X6 gives you an ending where Zero seals himself up in a capsul for hundreds of years, and the first Megaman Zero starts with a character named Ciel who finds Zero in a capsule and wakes him up 103 years after he has sealed himself up (the number of years may be innacurate).

Then we have Megaman ZX, which contains the "souls" of Zero, X, and the guardians of the Zero series, which basicaly would be data cells that got collected from each of them after the Ragnarok destroyed all of them at the end of Zero 4, to then be manipulated into what they call "Live Metals" in Megaman ZX.

And as to why I believe ZX ties in to Legends, despite Legends being much older than ZX, is because in ZX, Humans and Robots, or Reploids, are becoming more and more alike each other, which would take much too long to explain, just know that the way it is in Megaman Legends makes it the evolution of ZX, which barely any difference between Reploids and Humans, xept for these lost reploids in caves.

So these were my thoughts on the whole timeline, much less deeper than I could make it, but that would take you days to read lol, if you even went through it. By the way, I'm aware that I say "calssic" instead of "clas*ic" because gamespot doesn't allow this word -.-

But not really lol. The project we're currently working on at work finally added testers in their credits, which means I am now in that game's credits! Sadly I can't tell which game it is, if any of you remembers, this stuff is confiential. But hey, be sure that if you ever play the game once it is out, I'll let you know ;p

So now, it means I've got my name in two games, although I know you will never see my name in the first one since it was a kid's game, but some may see my name in the second one.

Talking about this, I might changed function at work, therefore, if I get accepted, I won't be a functionality tester anymore and will be pre-certification tester, which means I wouldn't get my name in the credits of games anymore. It is sad, cause I really liked seeing my name in a game's credits lol. But hey, it also means I'd be paid more. It's only for a 2 months contract though, if I'm good they'll keep me, if not or if I don't like the new functions, I'll go back to functionality testing. Being paid more for 2 months is better than never being paid more lol, although I received my evaluation recently and was raised decently in terms of $/hours, which is good as well. Apparently I am above average in my evaluation, which means I shouldn't have any difficulties going up in the company, which is good news to me.

Anyway, all of this to say that I won't be famous afterall, because who in here actually takes the time to watch the credits of a game other than me? Yeah, I said it, I do take the time and always have took the time to watch the credits after beating a game. I don't know why though, but nowadays it's mostly to see where the game has been tested lol.

Much like I recently found out that Silent Hill Origins was tested at Babel Media, which is in Montreal. Babel Media is a company I applied for 1 or 2 years ago for being a tester, which they refused me due to the fact that I never graduated from high school. And you know what? I am **** happy they refused me, because Silent Hill, out of every favorite games I have, is the only one I NEVER want to test, simply because it would be way too much of a spoiler. I'd love to test God of War, Devil May Cry, even Metal Gear Solid despite it's awesome story telling, without considering all of them spoiled in my face, but Silent Hill.. never. I never want to test it. Anyway how weird would it be.. everything I'd see would look like a bug lol.

I decided to make another video of F.E.A.R. that was based more on the horror found in the game, but I came accross some bugs, or glitches if you prefer, which definitely made it less scary than it should of been lol. Ah, gotta love curiosity in video games. Guess I got this curiosity from work, because back then, I would of simply tried to escape the end of the second mission instead of messing around the area. That job definitely changed the way I play video games.

Ok, I'll admit that the first time around, my first thought was "I have to get the hell out of there!" and replace/add some curse words in there, but then decided to go through a second time for a video purpose, which I'm sorry for the bad frame rate towards the end especially, which also got me to explore a bit more. Anyway, enjoy!

[video=ISAwxjT75b0JvD7a]

First of all, let's start with what is a Swap partition for those who might not know (basicaly people who show no interest in Linux). Oh and, thanks to Linux.com for providing me with an easy definition which I modified at will since copying and pasting it would make me seem lazy and also would take a hell lot of more space on the blog, but it just made it easier for me to explain what it is efficiently, simply because I didn't know how to explain it well. Yep, I'm not that good when it comes to explaining computer related stuff, although I know what it does and what it is.

Swapping consist of when you run softwares/programs that are bigger than your physical memory and your computer decides to temporarely store chunks of memory onto the hard drive while other data is moved into the physical memory space.So to start with Linux,which divides its physical RAM access into chucks of memory called pages, Linux will swap (copy) a page of memory on the pre-configured space on the hard disk, called swap space, in order to free up that page of memory. So basicaly: Physical memory + Swap space = Ammount of Virtual memory available.

Swapping is something very important in Linux as you'll learn why later in my blog, but it is because when the system requires more memory than is physically avaible, Linux will swap out some less used pages and give more to the current process that needs the memory right away. There are other reasons which I won't waste explaining as this was the main reason for having a Swap space in Linux.

The only downside with a Swap space is that memory is much faster than a disk, but hey, gotta do with what you have. There are two types of Swap space in Linux: A partition on the hard disk dedicated to swapping only, and a Swap file which resides somewhere with your system and data files. Anyway, on to the story.

Some of you may know that I recently re-installed a Dual-Boot Ubuntu/XP in order to play my recently bought PC game (F.E.A.R.) without having to struggle with Virtual Consoles in Ubuntu. All of this installation went fine and I gave my fresh install of XP a big 20GB, considering that I take videos and screenshots and that the game requires somewhere about 7GB of free space. That being done, I just knew something would have to go wrong at some point, because it's Windows XP.

As expected, Next thing I notice when booting in Ubuntu, which is something I do everyday, after a while my programs started lagging, and ended up closing by themselves or freezing. First thing I thought "WHAT THE HELL!?". Second thing I thought was more appropriate: "A bad update? or XP?"

So I spent a while on this one here, I knew it couldn't have been a bad update, that would of been a first experience on Ubuntu to receive such a bad update. So the source? It definitely was XP that had done something to my partitions.

And it did, but it mostly was caused when I resized/moved the partitionsto make some space for my fresh install of XP. Back then, my hard disk partitions were Linux => Swap space. Currently though, my partitions are as follow: Linux => Swap space => XP.

My Swap space had changed places then, instead of being at the complete end of the hard disk, it is now more at the middle of my disk, which is what caused the problem since Linux was commanded to use the Swap space situated at the end of the disk, not in the middle. Ah, found the problem, good thing I finally thought about checking out my system logs to see so many "not enough memory" errors.

I then manually redirected to the not so new Swap space and activated it and made it activate automatically at boot, which was a whole new command line for me to learn, which I won't show you because people always tell me how I give them headaches when I start talking about command lines to them lol.

Such a big story for such a small issue, yep. Isn't that great :]

Now I feel like making a new story with my tarantula Storm, but she doesn't feel like moving now though, I suspect she's going to molt soon eventually, and if she doesn't, well I'm in for worries of a dead tarantula -.- but if she does molt, I'll try to make a video of it for all of you to enjoy the amazingness of a molting tarantula.. or at least take pics. Wow, total change of subject here.

Yep! I got my first tattoo, finally. thing is my best friend started tattooing not long ago, I'm actually his third and let's say that from his point of view, it isn't his first medium sized tattoo, but rather his first big, huge sized tattoo lol.

Got it allll for free, but it isn't completed yet. We've got the borders/contour done, all that's left is the red filling inside. Anyway, take a look at how it is so far and then I'll explain the reason behind this tattoo, as I believe tattoos are meant to represent something important in your life. But that's how I see it personally.

That's the Hatchetman, and yes, it is the back of my leg in case you wondered. Not a pretty sight, but hey, don't diss me lol.

Just by pass the whole big content if you don't care for the reason, since I know some of you might not care for it.

Anyway, the Hatchetman is the logo of the record label known as Psychopathic Records. The reason behind this tattoo is mainly due to my teenage years, when life wasn't a really joyful thing most of all, in which I sort of found a family, if you want, inside Psychopathic Records. Yep, these are the guys with violent lyrics, horror stories, and what not. But it helped me in more than one way other than just taking out my anger somewhere through music. Alot of people aren't able to read in between the lines with their lyrics, but some also can, which I was part of. It actually did change me into a better person and made me appreciate life for what it was, rather than hate it for what it shouldn't be. That's not to say I don't hate the world anymore, because I still do, for many reasons, as much as I can enjoy it for many other reasons. People get moved and change in their lives due to various things. For me, that's what started all of it. The biggest thing it ever did was made me understand to be myself, rather than try and be someone I'm not. Once you got that down (and I know most of my GS friends knows that) there isn't anything to stop you.

Anyway, so much have changed since the first day I got down with the Hatchet, and even though the recent releases of Psychopathic Records kinda suck, the Hatchet itself is still there, alive as it ever could, simply because it was such a huge part of my teenage years that it can't be forgotten, especially after what it did. I know it might sound kind of stupid to alot of people that music can do such things, but these people themselves have similar things that others would judge as stupid as this right here, that's why I respect it.

I wanted to put all of this in a spoiler box, but GameSpot themselves gives me the "HTML not well formed" error when using their own spoiler codes lol.

I've got many other reasons for it as well, but that was the primary one, the other reasons are more like add-ons if you want.

Be sure to stay tuned because I'm sure this won't be my last tattoo, I've got many other plans in that department, but I won't tell you just what it is, you'll just have to be patient ;p

I'll post a newer pic whenever I get the red filling, which should be soon.

Power and influence.
Those who rank amongst this hallowed 100 greatly benefit those searching for critical information about games. These individuals' thoughtful, analytical reviews tend to be much more detailed and sophisticated than most of the so-called professional game reviews you could find elsewhere. Sure enough, the top 100 tend to be prolific writers and avid game players.

I must say I am very happy with this emblem. Looks great amongst my other emblems earned so far on GameSpot. Go emblems! I knew my reviews would give me something in the end, and that be a super cool emblem that I thought didn't even exist anymore. WOOO! I just hope this isn't a glitch lol. I'd be really sad :/