Hrm. So, I've heard a lot about the Hot Coffee scandal, as most of you probably have, as well, and I personally think that the whole thing shows how uninformed the public is and how little the media cares about informing them. I read about the scandal in the Daily News, where it said that players can unlock the features by going on the Internet and entering a code. Uh, no. First, you need to buy a GameShark -which most hardcore gamers wouldn't be caught doing anyway, and although I've never sought them out, it appears that GameSharks are becoming more scarce these days- then you need to go on the Internet, find a site with the codes on it, go into GameShark and enter in every line of code to unlock the feature, and then go through the annoying girlfriend mini-games until she likes you enough for the sequence to happen. Of course, you can cheat on that last part. What the news also fails to report is that Rockstar didn't put this in the game to tempt our nation's children with satanism- it was something that was scrapped, hidden in the code so that no one would find it, and dug up by an overly curious hacker. There wasn't a meeting at Rockstar in which they said, "Hey, let's put sex in San Andreas and hide it in a really obvious place, so we can form an army of brain-washed youngsters and RULE THE WORLD!" While we're on the topic, I have something important to say. This may offend some very hardcore GTA gamers, so those of you who will send me hate mail should leave the room. ... Now that they're gone, I need to make an important statement: For the good of the gaming industry, I hope that Rockstar never makes another Grand Theft Auto game. I know they've broken new ground in the technology and scope of games, and the games themselves are very fun, but let's face it- how many of you GTA gamers have played your beloved games and never encountered any glitches? That's right, none of you. The technology of the games is too advanced for this stage of gaming- the game worlds are barely holding together. Also, gaming does not need the controversy every single GTA game brings with it. The controversy in games would have died down long ago after everyone had come to terms with Mortal Kombat. Us gamers would have been able to go along and play our games in peace without the worry of protestors at our local EB Games (I've experienced it before, and I must say, it was actually a very halfhearted endeavor). But, and this is the biggest reason of them all, Grand Theft Auto is hindering the gaming industry in its pursuit of being recognized as a legitimate art form. Whenever I try to explain to a non-gamer how games like Metal Gear Solid can be just as brilliantly-written as a great drama, he or she can point to GTA and go, "Yeah, but what about that?" And you try getting them off the subject of GTA once that's happened.

Well. I've been playing Xbox a lot recently, because I just don't have the constitution to deal with the stress of Resident Evil 4 for much longer and whenever I break out my PS2, I try to play San Andreas. And I hate San Andreas. It's like there was a team of people at Rockstar who were awesome and a team of people who sucked, and if you've played the game, you'll know what I'm talking about. The problem with San Andreas was that, although it had many, many awesome and memorable scenes, they were the missions that you could only get to through work. You couldn't get to that mission when you went on the plane on a motorcycle, blew it up, and parachuted to the ground without going through Verdant Meadows Flight School. Here's an example (spoilers ahead, last mission from the main story): in "End of the Line", there is a timed sequence to escape from a destroyed building. But there are bad guys in there, as well. Follow my line of thinking, here: if you "die", you wind up at the hospital. So... doesn't that technically mean I made it out of the building? Mission complete, right? Wrong, for another reason I wanted to point out: there is a whole section to the level that you need to get through. And considering that Rockstar didn't implement a checkpoint system or even a restart-mission system, that usually means about twenty minutes down the drain if you fail. And, heck- it's the last mission, so of course you'll fail a few times! Ugh. Enough ranting. On to other news... As you may or may not know, I have put down a large sum of cash on an Xbox 360 already, and I couldn't be happier. I've decided that the first game I want for the system should be Gun, that spaghetti-western "simulator" by Neversoft. It so looks like Fable-meets-KotOR-meets-Old West. And that just sounds cool thinking about it. I'm also excited about MGS4 and Killzone 2, however, so I'm gonna need some more money... Now accepting donations!

I have no idea what I'm doing up at this ungodly hour. My Mac's (yeah, I'm a "Mac gamer", which has to be an oxymoron) clock says that it's 12:32 AM. That would explain the sleepiness I feel right now. Anyways. I've been looking at the newest trailer of Advent Rising, and I must say, I'm very excited about this game. I really hope it lives up to all of the promise it's showing. While I'm a huge fan of Orson Scott Card's and I do believe that story is very important to a game, I'll be the first to say that it's not everything. E3 this year was... disappointing. Aside from the announcements and all of the new consoles (more on that later), it didn't seem like there was much outside of a few half-hearted announcements (I'm looking at you, MGS4) and trailers for games that we already knew about. About the consoles... you'll hear enough about the PS3 and the Xbox 360 from gaming news sites (like this one) and G4, so I'd like to rant about Nintendo. If anyone from Nintendo is reading this (yeah, whatever), let me tell you this: LEAVE YOUR JOB NOW. This year's E3 showed me that Nintendo has put the gun in its mouth and is waiting for Sony and Microsoft to fire it. In terms of the Nintendo Revolution, all we saw was a shiny black rectangle. No specs, no screenshots, NO GAMES. The DS is just gaining a little steam that will die down when people realize how powerful the PSP is, so all of Nintendo's efforts to keep the lil' system afloat will eventually be in vain. And, for God's sake, I love my Gamecube, but would somebody please come out with something good for it that doesn't involve zombies and isn't another sequel to a series that started in the 80's? I'll let you think this over. In the meantime, I'll be yelling at cheaters and n00bs on Halo 2.