I've arrived at two realizations: one, that I own a large number of games I will likely never find time to play, and two, that I can preview games for their gameplay using basics like Youtube.

As a result, I've gone through my list of games and decided which ones I can officially cross-off my list of games I'm likely going to play:

1. Alpha Protocol
2. Bionic Commando
3. Deadly Premonition
4. Deus Ex: Invisible War
5. The Longest Journey
6. Dreamfall
7. Project: Snowblind
8. Singularity
9. Trauma
10. Bulletstorm
11. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
12. Red Alert
13. Red Alert 2
14. Condemned 2
15. Cursed Mountain
16. Gears of War 2
17. Silent Hill: Homecoming
18. Guild Wars
19. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess...

I can't believe how badly this went after experiencing how amazing the original game was. If the game can't handle dual screens, that's fine. But it seems the game can't even handle two screens being active. I have to disable one of my two monitors every time I want to play the game.

The controls feel less fluid and more delayed (which may be an issue with vsync, I'll have to keep checking), and the keyboard-mapped controls feel like they were setup by somebody with a twisted, mutated hand.

Save points? Really? Save points?

The story is not pulling me in like the original did. I have been playing this game for some time, and still don't know what the hell is going on

So far, too dumbed-down for my tastes.

UPDATE: Printing out the controls and discovering quick-saves allowed the slow-ass prologue to finish faster. The game began getting amazing, like its predecessor, in Chapter 1.

SOE successfully launched their first optimization patch (Operation Make Faster Game 1) to Planetside 2 yesterday during the wee hours. Amazingly, it actually works really well, as the game's current performance is like a night and day difference from a few days ago.

As a result, there were hundreds to thousands of people online last night, slugging it out over three continents. More people makes for a bigger war, which in-turn makes for a better experience.

I still can't believe I went five hours straight.

Test in the sense that this is the first Gamespot 2.0 blog post.

I have about $80 in birthday money, and for once I own every game and piece of hardware that I want and that is within a modest budget.

What to buy?

So I love Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels; especially the descriptive military action sequences.  But reading "Dead or Alive," I can't get 3 pages without him talking about what a shitty President Kealty is, due to his left-wing policies...  how the president (in the book) doesn't know what he's doing, how he reversed all the greatness of his predecessor, etc...  and the book was written in 2010.  

Transparent much, Tom?

A minor gripe when playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II: piloting the aircraft at the end was difficult when chasing down the drones unless you turned up the mouse sensitivity.  That's not huge, though, because I could work around it.

What I found unforgivable was the multi-minute intro to not only each campaign level, but often the beginning of each section of the campaign level.  The insult to this injury was the several cinematic portions where you lost control.  Games should always have skippable cut-scenes and sections when gameplay is gone.  I shouldn't have to wait until a minute (or more) into the cut-scene.

Here comes the STEAM summer sale...

I get Battlefield 1942.  It was the beginning, set in World War II.

I get Battlefield Vietnam.  Even the Vietnam setting, including a fast-forward of a few decades forward in time.

I get Battlefield 2.  Modern-day settings.

I get Battlefield 2142.  Future setting.

I did not fully get Battlefield 3.  Modern-day setting again, but at least a nice graphics and physics engine.

I don't get Battlefield 4 at all.  The graphical updates are subtle enough that many people cannot tell the difference between it and its predecessor.  I see threads on forums of people getting excited about this game and what are they discussing?  ...what guns will be carried over from Battlefield 3 to Battlefield 4.  Or, in other words, what parts of the new game will be almost exactly like the "old" game.

I don't get it.

1. Leading people who won't listen to tactical orders or who give you a hard time and being burdened by overbearing leads of your own
2. Following shitty leaders because you stopped leading due to number 1

1. Person loves to play games on his/her Xbox 360 or PS3.  "Wow, look at the graphics!  I am all about Oblivion right now."

2. Person has every console made from 1990 to present known to mankind, having spent thousands of dollars on them, accumulatively.  Person may also own several copies of the same console because he/she is too lazy to dust and thus the consoloes accumulate dust, choke on the dust, and then die due to overheating.  "What can you do?"  He/she says.  "Sometimes they just die."  Total amount of money spent on consoles and their games this generation alone: $2,000.

3. Person has a crappy 5 year-old computer with integrated graphics.  Person never cleans computer, much less runs the antivirus or anti-malware software his friend told him to get.  "But it's cool because I totally have the main one set to auto-update.  My friend told me to also download and use Firefox because IE is so slow, LOL.  My friend is just really into computers so he knows."

4. Person hears me rave about the awesome games, graphics, PhysX, larger population multiplayer games, amazingly-cheap prices of PC games due to STEAM sales, and options in PC gaming.  "Yeah, but my computer is such a piece of shit.  I need to get a new one."

5. Years go by and person decides he needs a new computer.  While he has spent thousands on his consoles and their games (which are usually priced at $10 more than the PC versions), he suddenly only has $500-600 for this computer that should last him at least one console generation.

6. I provide person with a slew of options that will maximize his budget, be upgradable, and have a reputable company to stand behind the warranty.  I warn person to not, under any circumstances, buy a laptop on sale at a big retailer.  It will likely not work well for gaming, it is not upgradable, its sale price will be tempting, and no, you will likely rarely ever bring your new computer to your friends' places.

7. Person buys a laptop because it was on sale for $100 less than his maximum budget, and because his/her friend said one component was good, and because now he/she can take his laptop to his friends' places.  "I totally bring this laptop everywhere so I'm glad I got it (you were wrong)."  Six months later and the laptop has not moved in weeks and thus becomes a proxy desktop.

8. Person discovers laptop can't play any games and decides to go back to the console.  "Wow, Skyrim is amazing!  I'm so glad my console is so easy; it just works," he/she says as he/she uses his/her second current-gen console; the first one having overheated due to dust.

9. Three years go by: "My computer is such a piece of shit.  I need to get a new one."

Note: other variation on this theme include the person buying the parts for the computer, I tell him/her to call me when they arrive and I will put it together...  2 years go by and person calls me over.  One main component doesn't work, and has been out of warranty for 15 months.  As it has been so long, a replacement part is now 50% more expensive.  "I'll just use my console; these things are such a headache."