I have been a big Playstation fan and Xbox has always been a meh console to me. I think its because the PS2 was a lot more diverse in its gaming library while Xbox was more well known for its shooters. But there was a few 360 exclusives that I really wanted to try out, so for $150, I bought a used Xbox 360 4GB slim model from my local game store. My first impression: Its actually apretty decent console with a few flaws. The menu is nice or the "Dashboard" is nice and easy to use. The downside is that as soon as I turned it on, it signed me into Xbox Live as another user. Probably the previous owner. Fortunatly, I was able to delete him and make my own. Im also not a big fan of the Avatars. They remind me so much of the Miis on the Wii. Even the music is similar. I just want to play games, not make my console into a facebook on steroids. But thats just me. I know many like the Avatar system and Im not blasting them in any way. Thats just how I feel about it. Another downside is the cost to simply play games online. I payed for the console, now I have to make additional payments just to get online? Count me out. Unless theres a game I really want to play online, then I might be tempted to throw my moneys at Microsoft, but right now, no way. But I am enjoying the exclusive 360 games I bought for it.

Ace Combat 6:

Im a fan of the Ace Combat series and Ive always wanted to play AC6 but it never arrived on PS3. So this was one of the first 360 exclusives that was on my mind when getting an Xbox 360. I finished it last night and I think it was awesome. The battlefields are bigger than before and there are a lot more targets on screen. The draw distance has improved as well. It was kind of short but it can be forgiven. The story isnt as good as AC5 or Zero but I still liked it. Im glad I picked this up.

Halo 3

Dont worry, Im not one of those crazy Halo fans. Otherwise I would have Reach by now and I would be preordering Halo 4. I think Halo is a good series but I dont think its as good as all the fans claim it to be. (Just like Black Ops, its a decent game but does not deserve to break sales records.)With me being an FPS fan. I had to try Halo someday and I did play Halo 1 and 2 on the old Xbox. I though Halo 1 was good. Halo 2 was weird and the ending left you hanging. So I got this to "finish the fight" as they say. Even though its been out for nearly 4 years. I am currently playing it for the first time. I like it so far except when Cortana gets in your face and says "I have defied gods and demons" or something like that. Just get outta my face, I want to play.

Gears of War

With all the game of the year awards, I am curious. So sice it was only $5 used at the game store, I picked it up. I like the action but Im not liking the characters. I dont know, I was never a big fan of big, buff, cursing space marines kind of characters. But using the chain saw bayonet is a thrill and overall, I like it. I just dont like it enough to be my personal game of the year.

Project Gotham Racing 3

Im a fan of arcade racers and PGR3 has been able to fulfill my inner racer. Not much else to say about this one except that its good.

Well thats what I currently own for 360 unless you count the games that were already installed which were Sonic 3, Sonic and Knuckles and Beyond Good and Evil HD. PS3 is still going to be my main console of course but Im glad that I now own both consoles so I can get 360 exclusives as well.

Xbox Live user name: thedave22

Just for the heck of it, heres my PSN user name:The_Dave07

If you do send a friend request, make sure you say your from Gamespot. I dont take random friend requests.

Since I havent posted in awhile and since I like collecting trophies on PSN, I just thought I post a blog about what games I would like to see have trophies. These are the ten I would like to see.

10. Grid

One of my favorite racing games and liked by many more and even has DLC but its lack of trophies prevented me from playing the career mode over again.

9. Brothers in Arms Hells Highway

Im a big fan of the series (wheres the next game?) but this entry lacked sales and Gearbox bailed on it almost instantly and the funny thing is that trophies were originally promised. To bad that Gearbox has moved away from it to do other non-war shooters like Borderlands. Even at the end of the game, another sequal was teased. Oh well, thats disappointing.

8. Medal of Honor Airborne

This is also one of my favorite series but Airborne was very short but I did like the air drop sequences. I wish they would add trophies to extend the playability but I dont think its gonna happen.

7. Civilization Revolution

This series is my favorite turn-based games on PC and when it arrived on colsoles, it wasnt as good as the ones on PC but it was amazing for a console.

6. Blazing Angels 2

I know this series isnt popular but Im an aviation enthusiest and I like flying games. Its fun to move in all three dimenions and knock stuff out of the sky. It would be cool to have trophies to push my flying skills even further.

5. The Orange Box

This Compilation is very popular, so I wonder why it didnt get a trophy patch. Im not a big fan of the Half-Life series but Portal was a very interesting game. I would like trophies just for that game.

4. Soul Calibur 4

Im a fan of Soul Calibur and SC4 was everything I wanted in a next-gen SC game. I know many people complained about the Star Wars characters in it but you have to admit that this is currently the best weapons based fighting game this generation.

3. Folklore

One of my favorite RPGs on PS3, this is one of the underrated gems of the early PS3 era. I know it got mixed reviews but I dont see any major issues with it. The big problem is that it was released in 2007 when there was still an anti-PS3 bias in the game media. But it has a devoted fanbase and tons of DLC but why no trophies?

2. Valkyria Chronicles

In my opinion the best tactical RPG this generation. Im not a big fan of anime but I really like its art direction and amazing cell-shaded visuals mixed with an epic story with a good balance of humor. (unlike all the endlessquirky humor of its sequal). Trophies are still possible because Ive seen articles about certain people in Sega wanting to add a trophy patch. So there is still hope.

1. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare

My favorite Call of Duty. No other Call of Duty has blown me away like the 4th entry has. I have played it over and over. I think adding trophies would be fair since the XBOX360 version has acheivements but I dont have any hope of trophies being added thanks to the reputation of Activision. But I can dream can I?

Well there you have it. But before the world caves in on itself due to the lack of Metal Gear Solid 4, this is the list of games that I have played and liked. I never really got into the MGS series but for thefans sake, I do hope that MGS4 gets trophies as well.

After my political and religious beliefs got verbally assaulted in the forums, I thought that some time away from Gamespot would do me good. I feel better now, so Im back.

As for games: I have gotten a couple of new ones: Shift 2 and Nascar 2011. I also just beat Valkyria Chronicles for the first time and I can pretty much say that its epic and the greatest tactical RPG to come out this generation. Anyway, Im back again but dont expect me to post as much.

I know its been a while since Ive been on Gamespot but Ive been playing a lot of games and thats basically taking my internet time away. So I thought Id share my thoughts on how I feel about the game industry today. Prepare for a fairly long rant.

Its disturbing to see were the current gaming trend is going. The shooter genre is the dominate force today and I believe its invading other genres. For example, The Mass Effect series is supposed to be an RPG. But it looks more like a shooter to me. Just watch the trailer for ME3 which shows the main character picking of an alien or whatever with a sniper rifle.Its the same with Borderlands, its classified as a shooter RPG. I just think shooters are too glorified. Dont get me wrong, I like shooters as well but I dont like how gamers are now demanding more dark and gritty shooters to the point were the market is saturated with them. I still have yet to enjoy a shooter as much as I did with Call of Duty 4. Now there are rehashed Call of Duty games coming out every year with little to no improvements over the previous one. I think its getting a little stale but yet Black Ops shatters sales records left and right. Is it me or is the masses moving toward this trend? Im actually starting to miss WW2 shooters. Anyway, if the masses continue with this trend, there will be no more games with originality and companies will be to scared to try out new IPs. Gamers complain that the market is lacking in new IPs but yet, when one comes out such as Mirrors Edge, Resonance of Fate and Folklore, it gets bad sales. Whats wrong with this picture?

Also, I dont like how gamers and critics are being critical over the littlest things in games. An example is Gran Turismo 5. Gran Turismo 4 was blasted for having no online multiplyer and car damage but yet when GT5 comes out with multiplayer and car damage, they still complain saying that the damage is "unappealing" and the multiplayer system "feels outdated". They should be thankful that the demands from GT4 have been met. Another example is Final Fantasy XIII. When Final Fantasy XII released, some fans complained that you spend to much time in the desert grinding and leveling up and not much story. But when Final Fantasy XIII came out, it basically solved those problems with a heavy emphasis on story and the gameplay was more streamlined to focus on the story. But fans are now complaining that they cant go out into an open world like the desert in FFXII and it has to much story. Once again, what is wrong with this picture?

I also dont like how popular digital distribution is getting. I like buying an actual physical copy of a game. Just like buying a music CD your buying a piece of art. Also, what happens if your hard drive fails and you lose all that data? You have to redownload it all over again and it can be a pain if you had a lot of games. Especially if your signed up for the Playstation Network. The PS3 tends to be very slow with downloads and intsallations. Digital distribution can also be bad for the economy. Its a danger to the physical retail stores. A big retail store called Hollywood Video and its gaming store, Game Crazy, recently bit the dust because of the popularity of digital distribution and the employees lost their jobs. Now I hear that Blockbuster is in danger. I also dont like that some PC games now require you to have a Steam account. Its almost like being chained to Steam. Some say that digital distribution is a lot more convinient but I see it more as a source for lazy gamers.

Simply put: The current state of gaming sucks and the future of gaming is not looking so bright.

As for the FFXIII union. Im sorry to say that Im still having issues trying to get it going. I get an error screen everytime I try to send out the invites. This appears to be happening to many users from what I can see in the Technical forums. So until Gamespot fixes this problem, the Union is currently in limbo. Sorry.

Seeing all the baseless hate on the internet about FFXIII is sobering. But I know that the majority of those who played it liked it. I know because the average user score on Gamespot is 8.4 and the average user score on Gametrailers is 9.3. It recieved nearly universal positive reviews from the professional critics. But the hate on the internet is louder than the majority. So Ive decided to announce that Im working for the creation of The Final Fantasy XIII Universe. This Union will be dedicated to the world of FFXIII. This will be the first union to center around the FFXIII universe. It will include all games in the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation, including the regular game, Versus, Type-0, etc. It will be for those who wish for their voice to be heard without the fear of being hounded upon or getting thumbed down. I plan on holding different kinds of contests and tournaments in the event that a FFXIII game gets multiplayer. So if anybody wishes to help me make this union a reality by becoming a charter member, let me know as soon as possible. Im looking forward to it.

Peace.

Today, I had a little extra cash on hand. So since Im a fan of the sixth generation games (the PS2, Xbox and GC period), I thought I would buy an Xbox 1 with some of its exclusives. Ive been mostly a Playstation guy since I defected from Nintendo to Sony at the end of the N64 and PS1 era, but there were some exclusives Ive been wanting to try for Xbox. Here are the games I got for it:

Project Gotham Racing

Halo 1 and 2

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Forza

Crimson Skies

With the exception of Halo 2, Ive played a little bit of each and overall,Im not disappointed. The only disappointment is that Xbox Live is no longer available for the original system. Next week, I plan on getting more. Heres what I will be looking out for:

Project Gotham Racing 2

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II

Colin Mcrae Rally 04 or 2005

Star Wars Republic Commando

Far Cry

Im also open to suggestions so feel free to recommend something.

As for Gamespots best of 2010, I have mixed feelings. Im glad that people are getting the chance to vote for their favorite game but the list on each different award should contain more games than the ones GS provided. There were a lot of good games that came out this year that I thought should be recognized and put on those lists. Also, I dont appreciate some of the comments people put such as: "That game shouldnt be there." "How is that game getting so many votes? It clearly sucked." "Hacking must be going on." "People clearly dont know what a good game is" and so on. The reason why GS has these reader awards is so people can vote for their favorite game without the fear of being demonized by the multiple trolls that prowl the forums. An example of this is in the RPG game of the year awards were FFXIII is currently in second place. When that happened, the poop hit the fan basically as it has started a firestorm in the comments. They have to learn to respect the peoples opinions and not go into a hater rage. Its one thing to hate a game, but its another thing to hate the people that liked it. I guess they dont realize that there are a lot of silent people who liked the game. The truth can hurt sometimes. So, I would like to thank GS for giving every gamer the chance to make their voices heard and may the best games win.

Merry Christmas

Since Playstation recently celebrated their 15th anniversary, I thought I would post my favorite PS1 games. Now remember, these are my favorites. They may not be the greatest game by other peoples standards.

Best RPG: Chrono Cross

Chrono Cross is the sequal to Chrono Trigger. The Final Fantasys were good but for some reason, I found Chrono Cross to be the most epic. With word that its coming to PSN, you can experience this RPG if you havent already. Its difficult to explain the story so you can check out Gamespots review and see why they gave it a perfect 10. I know many Die-hard Chrono Trigger fans didnt like it because it didnt feature much of the original characters. In fact, they are just shown in a few instances, but I found the characters of Cross to be very likeable and its story very memorible. Do keep in mind that this was never released in Europe, lets hope that it does appear on the PSN in Europe so they can enjoy of of the most epic stories of all-time. Now if they could only make a third Chrono game.Honorable mentions Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII.

Best shooter: Medal of Honor

This, according to Gamespot, is the closest thing you will get to Goldeneye on Playstation. I remember this being my first FPS after Goldeneye when I was a kid and those attack dogs always scared the crap outta me. But when I play it today, its funny to throw a grenade and have the dogs play fetch only to get blown up. I found this to be the most enjoyable shooter on PS1 and without MOHs success, as well as Goldeneye,we would not have Call of Duty or Halo. So respect your elders. Honorable mentions: Medal of Honor Underground, Star Wars Dark Forces.

Best third-person shooter: Tomb Raider 2

No it aint about the polygonal boobies. In fact, I wasnt a fan of the character itself known as Lara Croft. It was about going to exotic locations like the Great Wall and figuring out puzzles, obtaining rare treasures and shooting up things, people, animals and other creatures. All connected together by an interesting story. I still get a kick out of locking the butler in the freezer in the training level. Honorable mention: Syphon Filter.

Best Driving Game: Gran Turismo 2

I know many people put GT1 as their best racer but thatis because it was the first of its kind. Remember, these are my personal favorites. GT2 took everything about GT1 and improved them: Better graphics, great music, more cars, car companys and tracks. As well as the addition of rally. Honorable mentions: Need for Speed III Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed High Stakes, Rage Racer.

Best side-scroller: Klonoa Door to Phantomile

A fun side-scrolling adventure. Too bad it has become rare to find these days. I never played the Wii version but from what Im hearing, its not the same. Its difficult to explain the games story in a short manner but I found the gameplay to be more fun than the story. Honorable mentions: Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Toomba.

Best Fighter: Soul Blade

The game that started the Soul Caliber series. I found this fighter to be more fun than Tekken. But then again, I like the idea of weapons based combat rather than fists. Sure the announcer was cheesy but the gameplay was amazing. Great graphics and 3D environments. Honorable mentions: Tekken 3, Tobal No. 1

Other Favorites: Crash Bandicoot series

I couldnt decide which Crash game was my favorite so I will just say that I liked Crash 1, 2, and 3 equally. Crash is a funny character and the games are really fun. Back then, Nintendo had Mario and Sony had Crash Bandicoot. These two were the titans. I can still remember some of those funny Crash commercials including one were Crash was in front of the Nintendo headquarters trying to call out Mario. Thanks to the success of the Crash Bandicoot series, Naughty Dog went on to create other superb game series such as Jak and Uncharted.

Spyro series

Once again, I could not decide which one I liked so I liked Spyro 1-3 equally. Another fun adventure title were you must save your elders as well as your baby brothers and sisters in their little eggs. I still get a blast at flaming the bouncing sheep as well as the many other comical moments. It also has some great music.

Well, those are my favorite PS1 games. So many great memories with one of the greatest consoles of all time: The Playstation.

Other Honorable mentions: Ace Combat 2, Driver 1 and 2, Wipeout series, Jet Moto, Ape Escape, Twisted Metal series.

I have seen lots of hate for FFXIII and lots of myths that were made in the forums by the haters that could mislead the general gaming audience. I think this has gotta be addressed.Im going to dispel some of those myths for you right now.

1. "The whole thing is linear..." This is the most common excuse for the haters. Yes there is limited exploring in the beginning but when you get about 25 hours in, you are treated to the world of Gran Pulse. Its like the FFX Calm Lands but on a much bigger scale. I got lost my first time traveling through it. By the way, the beginning of the game is just about as linear as FFX but FFX doesnt recieve as much hate.

2. "If Sakaguchi were still with Square, it would not have been as bad." Really? Is Sakaguchi some kind of gaming god? The answer to this is that you dont know if it would have been good, because even Sakaguchi made mistakes. FFII and FFV are considered by many fans to be among the worst FFs. Lets not forget The Spirits Within movie which, though I personally liked, was considered bad overall and helped lead to the demise of the short lived Square Pictures. So in no way he was perfect.

3. "There is no character development." Another pathetic excuse. Let me name a few: Lighting turns from her selfish like attitude and cares about others overtime. Hope goes from hating Snow to wanting to murder him to learning how to forgive him. Snow goes from self-proclaimed hero to realizing hes not perfect and admits he made mistakes. Need I say more?

4. "With the exception of the Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura, none of the people from older Final Fantasies worked on it." Whoever made this statement needs to do some research. Not all but many people who worked on past FF games worked on FFXIII. The biggest of which is Yoshinori Kitase, Producer of FFXIII. He was the Directer of many past FF games, including the beloved titles such as VI and VII and others.

5. "It clearly sold well because it had the Final Fantasy name on it." Another misleading statement. It sold well because it had good trailers and advertisements. If Final Fantasy sold on name alone, their spin-offs such as Dirge of Cerberus FF7, the Advent Children movie and Final Fantasy X-2 would have been selling like hot cakes. These were not big financial successes for them.

6. "All you do is press X through the entire game to get to the end." Wrong again. When the haters use this statement, they are usually refering to the auto-battle command. The auto-battle command was designed for new players in mind. Veteran players are going to use the regular commands to fight. Also you must press L1 to paradigm shift into a position to fit the situation like if you need healing or defence buffs.

7. "Its the worst game since E.T." What are they thinking? Fortunately I have only seen a couple people on the forums use this statement. The reason why E.T. failed was because it had terrible graphics and it was a hard and tough game to play. Totally opposite of FFXIII. Plus, it ushered in the infamous crash of the video game industry. I dont think FFXIII is going to make the industry collapse.

8. "Its a sci-fi game and not a fantasy." The setting is definitely futuristic but its still a fantasy. You still use swords and magic. Not every game needs a classical setting to be a fantasy. Plus FFVII is set in a post-modern like world but yet people still gladly call it a fantasy.

9. "Its neglecting the traditions of Final Fantasy." Sure FFXIII is different but deep down, it still Final Fantasy at heart. Here are a couple elements from the past FF games that you can find in XIII: The main characters are in conflict with each other and main boss wants to destroy the world.

10. "Most confusing FF ever, I have no idea whats going on in this world. They just throw me in without knowing whats going on." Its just like many other FFs. In FFVII, your thrown into a mission and you have know idea what is going on at first. In FFVIII, It opens up in a fight between Seifer and Squall and you have no idea why this is happening. Many of these games also leave lots of unfilled gaps in the story, at least FFXIII throws in a Datalog that you can access and it fills in the gaps.

Well there you have it. I know that I usually only get 1 or 2 comments on my blog posts but I put this up anyway because just in case anybody has the curiosity to click on my name in the forums and come to my page, they can be properlly informed about this. FFXIII lovers, please take this and spread the truth. The truth will set them free. For the haters, Im open to debate. Feel free to prove me wrong.

Gran Turismo 5 and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit are my final purchases of 2010. Im a fan of both arcade racers and driving simulators and these two have satisfied my inner racer. Gran Turismo is still "The Real Driving Simulator". I only have minor gripes about GT5 and Im pleased with it overall. Hot Pursuit brings the NFS series back to its roots. No silly stories featuring hot chicks and other nonsense like there was in past NFS games. Just pure arcade racing and pursuits. This was the reason why Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 on PS2 was my favorite NFS game. Now I think that just got replaced with this new one. With 2010 pretty much complete when it comes to games, I will be looking forward to 2011. Here is my list of my most wanted games of 2011, of course these could be delayed into 2012 but Im hopeful.

Final Fantasy vs. XIII

My number 1 most wanted game right now. I loved FFXIII (Despite what some picky fanboys say) So Im definatly keeping my eye on this one. Not much is known about it with the exception of a few trailers but, Square Enix is going to hold a Fabulas Nova Crystallis conference this January. So lets hope that this conference is filled with a whole bunch of FF vs XIII goodies.

Ace Combat Assault Horizon

Ive been a fan of the Ace Combat series since playing Ace Combat 4 on the PS2 and Ive played every one of them (with the exception of AC6 due to the lack of an Xbox360). With the new destruction element, which the people at Project Aces call "Mechanical blood and gore", its looking to be a big game. At least for me.

Dirt 3

It must be wierd being an American and liking these rally games, since rallying isnt really as popular here as it is in Europe and Austrailia,but I really did enjoy Dirt 1 and 2. With added weather effects, This is one racer to look out for.

Motorstorm 3

My most anticipated racing game of 2011. The first 2 Motorstorms took you to the desert and tropics to race but now, we get an apocalyptic urban setting to race through. Its looking to be an intense racer.

Homefront

My most anticipated shooter of 2011. Im geting tired of Call of Duty to be honest and I hope this game will be a fresh break from Call of Duty. Set in the USA in the future, you must defend your nation against a Korean invasion. It sounds kinda far-fetched but its still interesting.

Well, there you have it. Reactions?

I enjoyed Black Ops. I played it through in one sitting so yes, it is just as short as MW2 but the campaign was very enjoyable. Im just getting underway with Folklore and Resonance of Fate. I got these two because Im lacking in the RPG department on my PS3. Up till now, Final Fantasy XIII was the only RPG I had for PS3. Folklore is interesting so far,with the exception of the goofy looking enemies, Im liking it. So I wonder why Gamespot gave it a 7? Probably because of the anti-PS3 media of the time. As for Resonance of Fate, its different because its the only JRPG Ive seen without swords. Its all guns and grenades but the action is very flashy and fun to watch, Im just not sure about its story. Im around an hour into the game and so far, Im doing nothing but odd jobs. There so far has been nothing to exactly pull me into the games world. I will keep going and hope the game will pick up soon. My next game purchase will most likely be Gran Turismo 5. I have been waiting a long time for it. Well, I guess thats all for now. Later then.