So a few of you know, a couple months ago I gave in and bought a Nintendo Wii. Along with it I purchased Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Both great games in their own right, with Galaxy being an absolute superb platformer. Along with those games there are a handful of other good games out for the Wii; some of which I still intend to purchase. But unlike the Xbox 360 and even the PS3, I had took a keen notice that the Wii really had nothing exciting waiting for it in the near future. I was hoping that would change today at E3 with the Nintendo Press Conference. After the press conference I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, with the lack of ANY exciting news coming from the conference.

As stated before, the Wii has some great titles out for it. But a dozen or so good games can't make a console great. The reason the 360 is doing so well is because they have a library of great games combined with a lot of things to look forward to. But it seems like Nintendo has run into a brick wall, just as they did with the Gamecube. I was hoping the most for a new Zelda game, but was offered nothing even close. Instead the Wii seems to want to sit upon their throne that sits on a huge landfill of garbage third party titles, and the worst part about it, is they sit there with an ignorant oblivious smile on their face, pointing constantly to numbers and sales and having nothing to say about quality.

After todays conference I really regreted making my spur of the moment purchase of the Wii, and would have much rather put that towards a PS3, or something else that has a legitimate future. While Nintendo always seems to do great coming out of the gate, they always seem to finish with no style. Does this mean that the Wii isn't coming out with anything in the next couple years? No. But I'm afraid this year looks horrible for the Wii. Hopefully they have learned something this time around, and next year at E3 we can have some good surprises.

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Off the subject here... I still haven't recieved any messages regarding my last blog. I'm still looking for some help with a makeover for my page, so if you think you can help me, or know someone who might let me know.

So as you have noticed my banner and avatar on my blog here are *bleh*. I'm really horrible with any sort of graphic design. Whether it be photoshop or something as simple as resizing a photo. That's why my Zelda banner doesn't fully stretch across lol. I don't really know that many people here on Gamespot... or should I say "Not many people know me." which is understandable, because my blogs aren't really captivating, and I'm not as active in the community as I would like to be. But anyway, I was wondering if there is anyone that reads my blog could help me out with a makeover for my page. Just a new banner, header image, and avatar. Or even a reference to someone who might be willing to help me out would be cool too. Just comment, or leave me a message if you think you can help!

Well I'll chit chat with you all later, off to watch the Home Run Derby until I get bored of it and then I'll probably be playing some Bad Company online; if anyone wants to join, hit me up!

P.S. Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the 360.... I'M PSYCHED!!!

My blog title has really nothing to do with this blog, it's actually just a lyric from the song Critical Acclaim by Avenged Sevenfold, which I really dig. It's available for purchase on Rock Band also, which is kick ass! Speaking of Rock Band, I saw that they are releasing a Rush pack this weekend, which includes two songs: Closer to the Heart and Working Man. This is great and all, because I love Rush, but does anyone see a problem with one of those songs on that list? If you haven't figured it out already, Working Man is already available for download, and has been for several months now, infact I own it and have played it dozens of times; so why is it being released again? Has the Rock Band team lost track of what songs they released, was this a mistake and they meant to put in another song, or is this supposed to be an authentic version of the song? And if that's the case, then I could honestly care less, because I can barely tell when it's authentic or when it's a cover anyway.

But anyway, if you can't tell this is just a standard blog. I haven't really had anything to talk about since the release of Diablo III. Which I am even more excited for after reading and watching everything that surrounds the game. The game looks nothing short of spectacular, and we've only seen the first level, and only 2 classes, which only makes me think that this game is going to be extraordinary, and will really be something special, even more so than it's predecessors.

But until Diablo III, I'm stuck playing my Xbox 360, which isn't really such a bad thing :) The other day I finished Condemned 2: Bloodshot. Overall it was a very good game, with an astounding atmosphere. I found the game to be a little less frightening as I progressed. Either the environments got less creepy, or I just got used the game, one of the two. The Doll Factory was beyond the worst, and still gives me the chills when I think about it. Most critics and fellow gamers say that the game was too short, but honestly by the time it ended I was ready for it to be over with anyway. I had pretty much figured out the story half way through, and the gameplay wasn't as fresh as it was in the beginning (obviously) so I was satisfied when it ended, and didn't find myself saying "Man that was a short game."

I'm not sure if this would be considered a spoiler for Condemned 2 or not, but if you don't want to take a chance, don't read any further. I really hate using game guides to progress through games, I like to figure things out on my own, and feel that when I can't figure it out on my own that I'm somewhat of a feeble minded person, but I was forced to use Gamefaqs during the Magic Man boss fight towards the end of Condemned 2. I ran around almost a good hour trying everything I could think of, enduring an extremely long annoying session where I had to listen to the piercing sound of the sonic waves and listen to Ethan Thomas groan and grunt. After dying about 4 times and getting absolutely pissed when I heard the sonic waves I went to Gamefaqs.com and found out that all I had to do was throw the bottles of liquor that were laying around the stage at him. I started busting up laughing, because I didn't even know that you could use the liquor bottles as weapons, I thought you could only drink them; meaning that if I hadn't gone to gamefaqs I would probably have never figured out how to beat him.

But anyway the game is finished now, and I can move on to my two newer games full time now. Last week I bought Battlefield Bad Company and bare with me here.... yes I bought Dragonball Z: Burst Limit.

First let me start off with DBZ. Back when i was in highschool during the beginning of the 21st century, I was addicted to Dragonball Z. I watched it religiously along with a couple of my friends everyday after school on Cartoon Network. I ended up growing out of it, and even found myself making fun of it a lot as I got older. I hadn't played any DBZ video games except fot the first Budokai game on the PS2. And I hadn't really planned on buying this either. But for some reason after watching the video review here on Gamespot I felt compelled to pick it up. I guess I was just feeling a little nostalgic. So far the game is pretty decent. It's not a complicated fighting game at all, infact every character controls the same. I actually like this, because I find it extremely tedious to memorize combinations for each fighter, and a lot of times that's what will turn me off about fighting games. But lack of combinations means an abundance of button mashing. You can get through pretty much every single player fight, and most online fights by just repeatedly hitting the X and Y buttons (for you 360 folk). Special moves are simple to pull off also and only requires you to hit two buttons at the same time. For hardcore fighting fans this is probably a huge disappointment, and I even find myself saying "Wow this is easy" at some points, but it really makes the game accessible to anyone, which means I can play against some of my friends without them having to worry about not knowing how to play. The game does bring back some good memories from when I used to watch the Anime, and is a nice change of pace from the other games I've been playing as of late, but there's just not enough there to keep me coming back for a long time, so it will probably be shelved once I'm done with the Z Chronicles story mode.

Now onto Bad Company. It's a pretty fun game, I've only played through the first 2 missions so far. It's fun to be able to blow pretty much anything up, but beyond that it's just a pretty generic shooter. Regardless I'm sure I will still complete the single player campaign. I haven't touched the multiplayer yet for some reason, but plan on doing that in the near future, so if you wanna play hit me up. Hopefully the multiplayer is more fun than the singleplayer.

I've actually played my Wii this past week, and progressed through another Galaxy on Super Mario Galaxy. As I've said in previous blogs, this game is spectacular, it's the perfect platformer. I don't know why I keep ignoring it and putting it off to the side, because it deserves to be beaten. Also while on the subject of the Wii, nostalgia has hit me again, and I will probably be purchasing The Ocarina of Time on the virtual console sometime soon. It's my favorite console game of all time, and I just have a really strong urge to play through it lately.

And last but not least, I'm pretty much done with Age of Conan. I don't know why I keep buying MMORPG's because I play and enjoy them for about 2 weeks but after that I get down right bored with them. And the same thing has happened with AOC. It's a good game, but I just didn't find much entertainment in it after 30 levels. I haven't canceled my subscription yet, and still might give it a shot, but for right now it looks like it's not going to happen. I guess no MMORPG will ever capture the magic that Everquest had.

But I guess that's it for now. Thank you all for reading. Hopefully I'll have some more interesting things to write about here in the near future, so keep your eyes open. And to all of you participating in the Retro Revival Week good luck! Wish I could participate with you, but unfortunately my classic title collection is very dry, with the exception of a few PSX titles. But I will definitely be keeping up with all of you who are participating and will definitely enjoy watching and reading your experiences.

So when I loaded up Gamespot today I saw the best homepage news that I've seen in a LONG time. Diablo III has been announced! I have never reacted to any other game announcment as I did with that. To say I cannot wait is an understatement.

I adored the original Diablo, Diablo II, and The Lord of Destruction expansion. I played the original with mostly hacks and cheats, but still had a great time online. The second game just improved everything and offered up one of the most addicting gaming periods of my life. Hell (no pun intended) even my name is derived from Diablo II. If you remember Hephasto was the armorer on the IV act in hell. I just changed the 'E' to an 'A' :)

The Lord of Destrctuion, the expansion to Diablo II was one of the best expansions to ever be released in my opinion, only matched by it's Blizzard counterpart Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It offered everything an expansion pack should offer. New classes, new abilities, a new chapter, and improved gameplay.

Diablo II was so wildly popular you can still find a large population still playing to this very day. I've tried playing it a few times in the past couple of years, but couldn't get back into it. I've seen everything there is to see in that game 100 times over, which is why I've been ready for the third game to be announced for years.

I'm very interested to see how they improve on Diablo II's flawless execution. Is it going to be just a graphical upgrade to Diablo II or is it going to be a gaming revolution, or at the very least a PC gaming revolution? Blizzard is one of my most respected gaming companies, and there is barely a doubt in my mind that this is going to be nothing short of remarkable. PC gaming almost seems to be at the mercy of Blizzard now-a-days, with it's prestige franchises. With World of Warcraft still leading the pack of MMORPG's, even 4 years after it's release, Warcraft III I believe is still the top online real time strategy, Starcraft II is on it's way and now the announcement of Diablo III... Blizzard is sitting high right now, and will be for a very long time.

So as mentioned in my previous blog, I made a pretty random gaming purchase the other day when I bought Condemned 2: Bloodshot. I did not play Condemned: Criminal Origins so I honestly don't know what compeled me to buy this game, I guess nothing else really stuck out. But regardless it now sits in my gaming collection. I wanted to buy the first one, but Best Buy didn't carry, just like they don't carry most older games, which aggrivates me sometimes, because I HATE going to Gamestop and EB Games. But I'll save that subject for another time, because I'm going off on a tangent.

Before I started the game I went to Wikipedia and read up on the story of the first game so that I wouldn't be lost. The story was pretty easy to comprehend via the plot summary on Wikipedia, and I felt that I was caught up enough to be able to enjoy the story in the second game.

Now first and foremost, before I get to my impressions, I'll straight up admit, I'm a coward when it comes to horror-based video games. Horror movies give me no problems, but something about controlling a character in a frightening environment makes me jittery.

The Resident Evil series used to give me the chills when I was younger, and still to this day I feel a little fear inside me when I play the older style Resident Evils, despite the cheesy dialogue that came from the characters mouths. Resident Evil 4 didn't give me the same horror the other games did, even though it was a far superior game than it's predecessors. I guess the 'behind the back' gameplay took something away.

I found the Silent Hill series downright horrifying, I could never drive myself to finish those games because they disturbed me so much. Even when I would watch friends play the games I would find myself frightened. But as with the older Resident Evil was a lot younger when they came out. Other than those two franchises I never layed my hands on any other horror games, because I had trouble completing them. Some people enjoy the feel of being frightened or scared, but I find it to be a downright uncomfortable feeling.

I heard that Condemned 2 was a scary game, but I figured with it being in first person mode, that it would take away some of the scare factor from the game... Oh was I ever wrong. This is without a doubt the scariest game I have ever played, and I was convinced nothing could top Silent Hill until now.

I believe the first person view makes this game all the more frightening, because you find yourself having to constantly turn around and check your back. The environment is what really sets the atmosphere for this game. I'm only on the third level, but so far every place I've walked into has me taking tiptoes. There is one part that stands out, is in the 3rd level at the very beginning, manaquens start appearing out of no where. Just thinking about it makes me shiver. I only imagine the environments getting more terrifying as I progress.

The enemies are pretty scary themselves. Most of the enemies thus far have just been psychopath human beings, but they still offer up just as much of a scare as a zombie or demon would. Just hearing their psychotic laughs, and moans in the backround is enough to send you running for the hills. What makes it even worst is they can come out of no where, when you least expect it, which makes me jump out of my seat most of the time. The black ooze covered enemies are the worst because they are the hardest to see, and can sneak up on you and start wailing on you without you even knowing they were there. Fortunately they only take one swing to kill.

For not playing the first game, I understand the story fairly well, and it's a good one so far. I'm very interested in what happens to Ethan Thomas, and what is the main cause for all of this craziness and terror. I'm also curious to find out who the hooded character is that you see throughout the game. If anyone knows, should I know who he is? Is he from the first game, or will I find out as I go through the game?

The gameplay is fun, but I find it difficult too. I'm playing on the normal difficulty and find myself getting my ass kicked a majority of the time. The biggest problem is I have a hard time timing my blocks, which causes me to lose good chunks of my health. The assortment of items you can use as weapons is very cool, nothing like brutally beating a man with a toilet seat or a prosthetic leg. The environmental kills are neat also, but I haven't been in a situation for a really cool one yet. I think the coolest one I've done was send a guys head through a TV screen.

One thing I don't like is the fact that you can't carry any extra ammo. It's a little funny when I can find 3 guns of the same type but can't take ammo from 2 of them, and am forced to only stick with the 6 or so bullets from the gun I'm holding. What is stopping him from dumping the bullets out from the other guns and storing them for later use?

The investigations give the game a nice twist, and a good change of pace. I think the system was put together fairly well, and really puts you into a CSI mode at some points. There's some parts that require you to really think. I never thought I'd have to determine what kind of pattern a bloodstain was in.

Overall I think the game does what it intends to do to a 'T'. I'm enjoying myself, but am ashamed to admit that it creeps me out. Hopefully that wont stop me from completing the game. The biggest reason I rarely complete horror games, is because I progress through them so slowly. I move through the levels like a snail because I'm always turning around to check my back, checking out every doorway, and hallway making sure nothing jumps out and scares the living bejesus out of me. And it comes to a point where I just want the game to be over with, but know it's going to take me forever so I just end up putting the game away all together.

But I guess we'll find out what direction I'm headed in the days to come. For a spur of the moment game purchase, I'm really pleased. I'll keep you updated!

It's been a little over a week since I've done a blog, so I thought I'd just make a quick update.

For one I'm discontinuing my 'MMORPG Experiences' blog. Originally when I thought of it, I thought it would be really neat, and would give me an opportunity to reflect on the great experiences MMORPG's have brought me through my past. But after being sorely disappointed in my first 2 blogs, especially the one about Everquest, I've decided to throw in the towel on that little diddy. The problem is there is just too much to write about, and I can't fit all I want to type about into a blog. Not that I wouldn't find it interesting, but I know the few people that do read my blogs wouldn't really find any entertainment in it. Also the fact that the remaining MMORPG's, with the exception of World of Warcraft, I wouldn't have had much fun writing about, because I either didn't get that far into them, or it's been so long that I forgot a lot of stuff. So that's that. Neat idea, bad outcome.

Moving on though... So lately I've been regretting my purchase of the Nintendo Wii. I've turned it on once in the past 2 weeks. I don't know why I've been playing so little, I mean Super Mario Galaxy is a great freaking! game, but for some reason I always want to play a 360 game instead, I do need to get back into it though, because it is an amazingly fun game and doesn't deserve to be pushed off to the side like this.

As far as Super Smash Bros. Brawl goes... well I hate to say it, but it's just not for me. I really don't get that much enjoyment out of playing it. For one I suck at it, and I don't understand why, because I know 10 year-olds who have mastered this game. The second reason is, the Adventure Mode is downright repetitive and boring. I've played it a handful of times, and just find myself getting more bored as it goes on. And the last reason is, the game is fun when playing with friends, but when you don't have friends who want to play it, it doesn't matter. I honestly don't get why this game got a 9.5 here on Gamespot.

So maybe I need a new game right? Well everytime I go the Best Buy, or Gamestop and browse the Wii section, nothing captures my interest. I've thought about Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, but figure that I've beat the game on the GameCube half a dozen times already, and a little Wii-mote action probably wont compel me to beat the game all over again. I've thought about getting Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, but refuse to pay $50.00 for a rail shooter. Twilight Princess has caught my eye, but I find myself getting bored of every Zelda game I've played since Ocarina of Time. Even recently the Phantom Hourglass has found itself unbeaten after getting about half way through it. I've heard about No More Heroes, but when I watch the gameplay footage, it just seems like it would get repetitive after awhile. Hell I don't even know what is coming out for the Wii anymore, seems like all of their big launches are done. I don't know, I'm just in a big bind with the Wii right now. Waste of over $200? Possibly.

Yesterday I went to Best Buy to buy The Sopranos season 2, and decided that I needed a new game to play. After browsing the Wii section, and finding absolutely nothing interesting, I went to the 360 section. It took me like 30 minutes to decide what to get. First I had picked up Lost Odyssee, and almost walked to the register with it, but then I thought back to the last JRPG I played, that being Final Fantasy XII and how I only played the first few hours of that game before leaving it to rot. So I went back and put it on the shelf. Then I contimplated Ninja Gaiden II. But all of the problems that Kevin Van Ord mentioned on his video review started nagging at me, so I put that back down. Then I grabbed Condemned 2: Bloodshot. I never played the first one, and I don't like playing sequels to games I haven't played before. It's like seeing a seuquel to a movie without seeing the first. So I almost walked out of Best Buy with just my DVD, but something made me go back, and grab Condemned 2. I hope that I can enjoy it without having played the first. I actually wanted to buy the first one, but Best Buy didn't carry it, not even in the Platinum Hits section (which I hate buying for some reason) I haven't played it yet, but will give some impressions once I do.

Last, but not least. I've still been playing Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. I'm a level 27 Aquilion Ranger, and am still having fun. I even convinced my brother to play with me, so it should be even more fun to play with him once he catches up. What makes this game the most fun is the combat, it's unlike any other MMORPG which gives it a well needed change of pace.

Well that's all for now. I will probably wait till it's dark out to get the most out of Condemned 2. Until then I need to find something to keep me busy!

So long!

I just got done watching the video review for the Bourne Conspiracy and I can safely say it is the absolute worst video review I have ever watched on Gamespot. Chris Watters just gets down right annoying, and tells you almost nothing about the games strong points or its weak points, he just continually makes commentary on the scenes that are being shown in the review with obnoxious and cheesy lines... Just watch it for yourself ... UGH!

Also I'll be doing a blog about my MMORPG experience #3 which will cover Final Fantasy XI once I feel up to it, which should be within the next couple days.

Sorry it took me so long to get to this. I said I was going to be doing this in simultanious days, but I just couldn't find the motivation to write another one over the weekend, mostly do to the fact that I was disappointed with my first blog about Everquest. I felt that it deserved a better write-up than that considering it is my favorite game of all time. There was just so much I wanted to write that it would have been far too long, and it was hard for me to put it in a shorter version. But moving on past Everquest, we now move into what was my second MMORPG, Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided

Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (2003)

During my already long tenure with Everquest, I had really no interest in any other MMORPGs. Everquest was all that I needed. That was until I heard about Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts teaming up together to bring us an MMORPG set in the Star Wars universe. I absolutely LOVE Star Wars, and to imagine a game like Everquest set in a galaxy far far away made me extremely excited.

The game was set somewhere in between episode IV and V. Thankfully so, because I would have been disappointed if it were set during the newer movies, which I'm surprised they didn't go with considering this was released during the time frame those movies were coming out. All of the major characters from the movie were in the game also, and you could run into them and recieve quests and interact with them.

On the day of release I made sure I picked the game up. After a very lengthy install I created my account and began my life in the Star Wars universe. The first thing I got into, as with every MMORPG, was character creation. There were many races to choose from, many of which are pretty recognizable to any Star Wars fan. The races to select from were Humans, Bothans, Twi'leks, Mon Calamari, Trandoshans, Rodians, Wookies, and Zabraks.

The character creation system was probably one of the best at the time. You were able to change anything, from height to the size of your cheek bones. This was remarkable compared to Everquest, where all you could do was select from half a dozen pre rendered faces. So already this game started off on the good side. Once your character was created, you were thrown into some simple tutorial to teach you how to play the game, and then you were thrown into the city of Mos Eisley on the planet of Tatooine along with every other character, no matter what your race. It was definitely the most recognizable city in the Star Wars universe, and everything that was in the movies you could find here, even the Mos Eisley Cantina

Star Wars Galaxies was really different compared to other MMORPGs. You didn't really level your character up, instead you selected from a huge list of professions, from scouts to musicians. Some professions required you to take on lesser professions at first, and then you had to earn your way up to them, such as the bounty hunter profession. You were also able to undertake several professions at once, that way you weren't stuck with one class your whole career. And you were even given the option to erase your professions and select from new ones at any given time. It was a great idea, and left so many options open to every player.

The advancement worked in the form of a tree. You started off at the bottom, and the more you did things that your profession specialized in, the more branches of the tree you would unlock. So for instance, if you were a musician, the more you entertained people, and the more you played your instruments the more songs you would unlock, all the way up until you earned the 'Master Musician' title.

Of course one of the professions that people wanted the most was the Jedi class. This became the first problem with the game, as becoming a Jedi was an extremely long and tedious task. It was also extremely unclear as to how you were supposed to become a Jedi, and even to this day I couldn't tell you. All I know is that after you mastered a couple professions you started to feel the force within you, then you had to search for some crystals, wait for hours for some guy in some planet to come speak with you... and after that I have no idea. Rarely did you see a Jedi in the game because nobody really knew how the hell to do it. So most people just stuck with more generic professions, and this led to a lot of frustration among the community.

Galaxies also introduced the housing system. This is what was more exciting, is that you actually had the opportunity to build your own living and breathing city. Even if you didn't want to go that far, just having your own little house on Naboo was cool enough. In this house you were able to decorate it with all sorts of furniture, paintings, and other misc. things that you collected throughout your adventures.

Also you were able to choose to be a rebel or an imperial. Once you selected which you were going to be in allegiance with, you could work your way up the ranks of the military which would unlock titles for you, such as 'Major' or 'Lieutenant' and also opened up rewards to you such as armor and weapons. This also was supposed to have some PVP influence too, much like the Horde and the Alliance in World of Warcraft. But the PVP was so horrid that no one really participated in it.

The biggest problem with Galaxies is that there really was no objective in the game. Sure you could become a master bounty hunter, but once you were there what was the point? The PVP was severely broken to the point that no one did it. There was no end game content that required you to play with anyone else. Infact there was no point in grouping or interacting with anyone consdering everything could be done by yourself. Also the difficulty level was so low that you could kill things 10x stronger than you as long as you had the right weapons. I guess the main goal was for people to get together and build their own communities, and create their own story in the Star Wars Universe, but it just didn't play out that way. On the other hand other people had goals to become a Jedi like myself, but were left sorely disappointed at the whole concept of it.

Star Wars Galaxies released several expansions. Jump to Lightspeed which introduced space combat, and actually played out like an actual space flight simulator, and was very fun to play, and also gave you the option to customize and build your own ships. If it was your dream to fly the Millennium Falcon, then you could with enough hardwork, and enough grinding.

The second expansion was Episode III Rage of the Wookies which opened up the planet of Kashyyyk, home of the wookies. And also let the players participate in the Kashyyyk story line from Episode III.

The third expansion was Trials of Obi-Wan I never played this expansion, and really don't know much about it, except that it was set on the planet of Mustafar, which was the lava planet where Obi-Wan battled Anikan at the end of Episode III. And it opened up a quest line that let you follow Obi-Wans adventures through that planet.

After the expansions a major update was done on the game that basically revamped the whole system. Now you were able to choose from several major professions right from the beginning. If you want to be a Jedi form the start you can. The whole combat interface was changed... basically everything. But still the game feels pointless to play, and still lacks a strong goal.

Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided could have been the perfect MMORPG, as it was set in the perfect setting. The Star Wars universe is so open ended, and has such a wide audience that it was pretty much a perfect setting. Lucas Arts and SOE dropped the ball on this game, and even after a desperate attempt to save it in the end, it still ended up being mediocore at best. Hopefully someone else will take this idea and improve upon it, because it could be something extraordinary.

With my recent purchase of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures I thought it would be neat to go over my MMORPG career. I've been at it for awhile now, but had taken a break recently. As a matter of fact the six months I just went without playing a MMORPG are the longest I've gone since I first purchased Everquest in 1999. Looking back to almost 10 years ago it's really amazing how far this genre has come.

I'm going to be doing this in seperate blogs, each blog will contain a write-up about one or maybe two MMO's. Because if I did this all in one blog, it would be VERY long and tedious to read.

The list of MMORPG's I'm going to be covering are

Everquest
Star Wars Galaxies
Final Fantasy XI
Everquest II
World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
City of Heroes
Vanguard: Sage of Heroes
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Everquest (1999)

Everquest was a MMORPG made by the company Verant. It was set in the fantasy world known as Norrath. It was one of the first MMORPGs to be released, and definitely became the most popular in it's time frame, all the way up until 2004 when World of Warcraft was released. You were able to choose from many different races ranging from Dark Elves to Dwarves, and had many professions to choose from, most of them being well known D&D influenced professions such as Wizards and Paladins.

After selecting your Race, profession and Deity you were thrown into this magical world of Norrath and that's where your adventure began. Every race had their own unique area they started in, each holding it's own wonderful story and look. From there the world branched off into many zones. Your goal was basically to make your character powerful enough with levels, armor, weapons, and spells to continue to adventure from lower level zones to higher level zones. Sounds simple enough, but it was so much more than that. Being that it was the first time I had ever played a game like this, it was a complete adventure, and that's what made it so addicting. You actually connected with the world, your character, and the community, which was like any console game I had ever played.

Everquest was an extremely time demanding game, and almost required you to play in large time sessions if you wanted to accomplish anything. I remember playing anywhere from 8 - 12 hours a day on weekdays, and sometimes pushing over 24+ hour sessions on the weekends. I could sit here for hours and hours telling you why Everquest demanded so much time, but there are so many reasons that it would by tiring just to type them all out. I can just summarize it up by saying "Everquest didn't have a lot of the conveniences that it has today, and that other MMORPGS have introduced. It was a time sink plain and simple, everything demanded hefty amounts of time, and if you didn't have the time to devote then it wasn't even worth playing.

Everquest expanded greatly, and is still expanding to this very day with over a dozen expanions in it's arsenal. The first 2 expansions; Ruins of Kunark and Scars of Velious were undoubtly the best. After Scars of Velious is when Verant turned over Everquest to Sony Online Entertainment, and that's when the game started to go downhill. It was still a fantastic game, but SOE wasn't able to capture the sense of magic and adventure that Verant delivered. It's not the same game today as it was almost 10 years ago, and I wouldn't imagine it appealing at all to new comers. But for me it was without a shadow of a doubt the greatest game I have ever played. I ended up finishing Everquest with a level 72 Dark Elf Necromancer. It is also the only MMORPG that I had ever reached the top level in (when level 65 was the top level) and actually got to see the end game content.

I could probably type a book about my adventures in Everquest, but this blog is already long enough, so I'll end it there. Tomorrow I'll be covering Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided so stay tuned!

A very short blog here. Just wanted to say that for the first time I beat a GTA game. After 31:13:11 Grand Theft Auto IV is finished, just barely missing my 'Complete the story in under 30 hours' achievement. I chose the path of revenge in the end, and the last mission was really crazy! The ending was so-so, but overall I enjoyed my time in Liberty City. I don't see myself playing through a second time though, atleast not anytime in the near future.

I had planned on playing some Age of Conan tonight, but I wasn't as close to the end of GTA as I had thought. I wanted to make sure I finished it before I got sucked into my new MMORPG and abandoned it just like I had Vice City and San Andreas.

Yesterday Rock Band released a 3 song pack from Disturbed, all of the songs which are featured on their brand new album Indestructible . I really liked all 3 songs, and will definitely be looking to pick up the actual album shortly. Also just to note that the cover art for the album is pretty damn cool!

That's all for now. I'm going to get to bed a little early. I have the next couple days off finally after working 6 days straight and a total of 78 hours in my work week, so I'm exhausted to say the least.

Also I plan on doing a blog about MMORPG's tomorrow... basically just a timeline summarizing my experience with all of the various MMO's I've played all the way up to AoC. A little change of pace from my standard blogs!