Well once again, it's been quite awhile since my last blog post.  Starting to seem like a trend.  But here I am 2 months later, and felt that I would post an update.  I was thinking about beating a dead horse, and saying "I'm going to try and get on Gamespot more, and reunite with old friends and such." but I would probably be giving a false promise.

Anyway, where should I start?  Alot has happened since my last blog post.  Today I showed up late for work, because of some horrible miscommunication, but of course they didn't want to hear my side of the story, and instead just wanted to be ignorant and reem me. 

Last night I went out drinking with some of my friends.  When we got back to my complex, one of my friends starts getting belligerent with some guys down the hall.  It ended up stirring alot of commotion and the police got involved and everything.  And I woke up today with a hang over, so it deffinately wasn't the best of nights.

I turned 21 recently.  My mom came up here for the weekend to visit, so I spent my 21st with her, which is kind of lame, but all of my friends were at the Navy vs. Army football game in Philly, so if it wasn't for her I would have probably spent my 21st all alone.  We had a good time though, we ate alot, and spent more money than we probably should have.  But it was all in the name of fun.

I go home to St. Louis on leave in less than 2 weeks.  I'm really excited to see my friends and family for the holidays, and see what my hometown is like now that i'm 21.  I'm only going to be there for 9 days unfortunately, but it's going to be 9 days filled with fun and excitement i'm sure.  Which probably means it's going to go REALLY fast.

I'm doing extremely well working out at the gym.  I go about 5-6 times a week now, and am deffinately noticing the results.  I'm very proud of myself for this, because usually I procrastinate and put stuff off that is actually beneficial to me.  But surprisingly to myself I am sticking with it, and am glad I am too.

Nothing really big in movie news.  I saw Saw III when it came out.  I didn't really like it as much as the first.  And i've never seen the second.  But still I had a good time with the girl I was with, so it all ended up working out.  Then I pretty much went on a movie draught for a good month, until this past weekend when I went and saw Borat with my mom.  The movie is very funny, and shocking.  But let me be the first to tell you.  If you havn't seen the TV show 'Da Ali G Show', it's about 10x better than the movie.  The character Borat, is alot more funny in the show than he is the movie.  It almost seemed like Sacha Baron Cohen (the guy who plays Borat) was trying too hard.  And at times it didn't seem like he was as comfortable with his character as he is in the TV show.  But regardless the movie is still hillarious, and deffinately worth checking out.

AND FINALLY TO GAMING NEWS!!!!  You were probably wondering why I don't do this on Myspace or something.

Let's see.  Gaming has actually been going downhill for me as of late.  I'm losing the passion which I once had for it.  Most likely because my schedule is more hectic and socially demanding than in the past.  But that doesn't mean it's totally dead.

Lately the game i've been playing the most is Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II.  I play about every night online with my friend, and we kick some ass all over Middle-Earth.  I've beaten the campaign on both the good and evil versions.  The campaign is very short, but still pretty good.  But the online game is very addictive.  They came out with an expansion recently called "The Rise of the Witch-King" which I will probably pick up sometime soon.  It basically just adds another army to play, and an addition to the single player campaign.  But being the fan that I am, I'm sure I will enjoy it.

I don't play Everquest anymore.  I canceled my account, and am back into World of Warcraft now.  I don't really play it too much though.  Before I was posting 30-40 hour gaming sessions a week, but now i'm down to about 2-10 hours a week.  Never before have I played a MMORPG so casually.  Usually i'm hardcore, and can't seem to convince myself to stay off of the damn games, but something in me is different now.  I do have to admit though, it's actually rather enjoyable to play the game casually.  I deffinately don't get burnt out as quick, and it doesn't make it seem like the game is in control of my life.

On the console side of things.  I havn't touched my PS2 in months.  I was considering on buying FFXII, but I think i'm going to wait and see if I get it for Christmas. 

 I was playing Half-Life 2 on the original Xbox for a couple of weeks, and got maybe a quarter into the game before I drifted away.  I was enjoying myself, but got caught up in other things, and now I feel it's too late to come back to the point I was at.

I bought 2 new console games in the month of November.  Gears of War, and Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 for the Xbox360.  Let me start with Gears of War.  I just finished this game on casual last night, and all I have to say is "My god this game is good!"  It is without a doubt the number 1 game i've played on the 360.  Everything from the graphics to the gameplay is just mind riveting.  Of course the most fun part is running up to an enemy and using the chainsaw on their ugly ass.  Can't seem to get enough of that.  Now that i've finished the game by myself I will probably take it online, and do some co-op with a few of my buddies on XBL.

Now to Smackown! vs. Raw 2007.  I am a huge Smackdown fan.  I'm not so much of a WWE fan anymore, but I love the video games.  I used to be obsessed with WWE, which is how I got into these games in the first place, but I can't get back into it anymore.  But anyway, this years version is pretty much like last years version, with some few tweaks, and additions to the controls.  The game deffinately doesn't feel next gen, it's basically just a PS2 game with some shiny wrapping paper.  Still that doesn't mean this game isn't fun.  I still enjoy the game, but not as much as I have in the past.  One thing that dissapoints me the most is there is NO elimination chamber online!  My buddies and I were looking forward to playing some elmination chamber over XBL, and when we found out that there was no option to play it, we were extremely dissapointed.  It's our favorite match type ever since it was introduced a few years ago.  I remember playing elimination chamber for hours and hours on the PS2 with the 4 person control port when I lived back home.  And we were kind of hoping to relive those moments, but sadly they left it out for some unknown reason.

There are really no more games coming out in the near future that i'm really anticipating, so I will probably be stuck in a game rut for the next couple of months.  I have no desire to buy a Wii or PS3.  I'm very content with my Xbox 360, and am very glad I chose it out of the 3.  I was thinking it might go the way of the Dreamcast at first, but now that i'm seeing what the other companies have thrown out on the table, I have no worries.

But that's about it in gaming news, and for this blog in general I suppose.  I actually kind of rushed through the blog, because i'm not feeling to well, so sorry for it's slopiness.  But I would like to thank those of you who still stop by and give me a glander every now and then.  I just apologize I don't do it more to you. 

I highly doubt i'll post another blog before Christmas.  So I just want to wish everybody happy holidays.  Be safe, don't drink and drive, and enjoy your time with your family!

See you all soon hopefully!

Hey everyone. 

Of course, as usual, it's been awhile since i've done a blog.  Just can't seem to keep up with Gamespot.  I think I just get lazy.

Anyway, everythings going pretty decent on my end.  Work is still very boring of course, but other than that i'm pretty content.  The Cardinals made it to the World Series, and are winning 7 to 1 right now in game 1, which i'm extremely excited about.  The game they had versus the Mets was probably one of the best games i've ever watched, if not the best.  Hopefully the Cardinals will take it all the way to a World Series victory.  They are the underdogs though, and I have some doubts myself.

In movie news, I saw Texas Chainsaw Massacare: The Beginning a few days ago.  I thought it was pretty good.  I've never seen the original, but I did see the remake with Jessica Alba.  It was a very gory film of course, and gave me some chills.  Lee Ermey, known for his role as the drill sergent in Full Metal Jacket, played his character really well.  He was genuinely psycho.  Wasn't a grade A movie, a little short, but I enjoyed it. 

I bought Grandma's Boy, and Xmen 3 the other day.  Two personal favorites.  If you've never seen Grandma's Boy, I highly suggest it, especially if your a gamer, and if you're reading this blog I take it you are.

I'm in the process of trying to exercise and lose some weight.  Since April i've gained about 25 pounds, which is unnatural for me, because I usually have a very high metabolism.  Starting to pack on a gut, which i'm not really proud of.  Plus it's always good to stay in shape.

Now to gaming news, which I guess is what these blogs should be more about.

I'm still playing Everquest.  I quit the progression server, and went back to my regular server.  They released a new expansion recently, The Serpent Spine.  All in all it's a pretty decent expansion.  Deffinately isn't the best Everquest has seen, but it delivers some new exciting content, that should keep me occupied even longer.

I canceled my WoW account 1 day after I reactivated it back in August, but I have the urge to go back again.  Problem is, I gave my account away to a co-worker, and don't want to ask for it back since he has already payed for a 6 month subscription for it.  Once the expansion is released, which should be in a few weeks, I will probably just buy a whole new account and start over.  Then i'm hoping that will last me till January when Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is released, which i'm highly anticipating.  I'm also playing a little EQ2 with my brother, and am semi-enjoying that.  Got a dirge up to level 22, but recently have gone back to my first character who is a 29 mystic. 


I've also been playing a little Battle for Middle-Earth II online with my buddy back home.  I've had the game since it was released back in like March, but never really got into it until now.  I'm really enjoying myself.  The online game is just highly addictive, and most of all fun.  Im not as captivated by it as I was the first Battle for Middle-Earth, but it's still fun, and that's all that counts.

On the console side of things, there's really nothing to exciting to report.  I havn't bought a console game since Madden '07 when it first came out.  I was playing Madden alot, and got pretty good against the computer, but have gotten a little burnt out.  I recently stared Half-Life 2 on the Xbox.  This is the first time i've played Half-Life 2, except for the demo before the game was released on the PC.  I've never even played the original which is probably surprising to some.  Being that which it is, the story is a tiny bit confusing, but I like the game so far.

I was thinking about buying Splinter Cell double agent, as I am really thirsting for a new console game.  But I seem pretty content with Half-Life 2, so i'm hoping that will hold me out till Gears of War and/or Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007.  Both games which i'm highly anticipating.

I've finally got 2 days off tommorow and Monday.  I plan to go see a movie, probably The Prestige, which I heard is really good, and looks good too.  I'll probably also play a little Everquest, and Everquest 2, try to level my characters some.  Also I hope to make some more progress on Half-Life 2.  And maybe call this girl that gave me her number if I can build up the balls.

Only other thing I have to put out, is my 21st birthday is in almost 1 month, and i'm really excited.  Havn't decided what I want to do though.  We'll see.

In the words of my favorite cartoon pig.  "Th..th...that's all folks."  I'm not going to make any promises of future blogs to come, infact mostly likely you probably wont hear from me for another month or two, but hopefully i'll spin things around and start venturing onto Gamespot for more than just reviews.

-Haphasto (aka Matt)

Well my vacation has ended.  I now sit back in my room in Annapolis, MD feeling extremely home sick.  But it will pass in time once I get back into my old boring ass routine....errrrr!

I guess what really counts is I had alot of fun.  I drank plenty of booze, partied almost every day, and got to spend plenty of time with family and friends.  Hopefully time will go fast, and i'll be back home for the holidays before I know it.

I didn't get to do alot of what I had planned to do during my 10 days, but it still ended up working out, and I had an extraordinary time.

I didn't really play that many games while I was home.  I played a little bit of EQ and EQ2.  But most of the time I was too busy to play.  Now that i'm back home though, and have really nothing better to do, i'll be picking up the controller/keyboard again.

I'm dissapointed right now because I found out I have to work tommorow, when originally I was off.  But I came back to a changed schedule of course.  Thats what I hate about my job, nothing is ever written in stone.  Things are always changing, so you can never count on your schedule to work you the way you had planned.  I will have to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  I'll be off Monday and Tuesday, where I plan to go see a movie, and pick up Dead Rising for Xbox360.

Also I'm thinking about playing World of Warcraft again, but I havn't offically decided yet.  Also I think in a few minutes i'm going to reinstall Unreal Tournament 2K4, and play a little before I go to bed.

I suppose i'll conclude this blog at this point.  Hopefully this homesickness will go away, and i'll start off tommorow resfreshed, awake, and ready for 11 hours of work.

I'll try and post another blog during my days off, and let you know how i'm enjoying Dead Rising, and how my work weekend went.  But until then, thanks for reading, and stay safe!


-Haphasto (aka Matt)

Well in about 45 minutes I will be throwing my bags in my trunk, and heading to the airport, and flying off to St. Louis for 10 days away from the Navy.  Thank God!  It is a well needed rest for myself.  Though I don't plan on getting much rest now that I think about it.  Sleep is going to be lackluster, but 'fun' shouldn't be.

I don't plan on doing too much gaming during these 10 days as I want to spend as much time with my family and friends as possible.  Though I will probably still play a little bit of EQ, especially the first 2 nights as i'll be staying at my friends house who also plays EQ.  Once I head back to my home though things will probably start to tone down a little bit.

On Friday I plan to see Taladega Nights, starring Will Farrell.  I think he is the funniest actor since Chris Farley.  Can't wait to see it.

Other plans include going to the Zoo, some museums, Six Flags, and of course a few nights with some friends and family and a bottle in my hand. 

Well that's all for now, I may update mid-week to let you all know how my leave is so far, if not i'll post a new blog when I get back the night of the 10th, where i'm guessing i'm not going to be too thrilled to be back here.

-Haphasto

Hey everyone...if anyone still tracks or reads my blog.  Sorry i've been away from blogging and posting for almost 2 months now.  It doesn't seem like 2 months, but that just proves how fast time if flying, atleast for myself.

The last time I posted a blog I talked about the progression server on Everquest, and how I was really anticipating that.  Well tommorow will be the one month anniversary of it, and it's going pretty well.  I've been playing alot, as my Xfire friends can tell concur.  Been posting 40+ hours each week since it's been out.  I have a 36 shaman to date.  Already one expansion has been unlocked, and will be officially opened later today, at what time exactly, I don't know.  It's moving very fast, which i'm kind of unhappy with, I wanted to spend a good amount of time with each expansion, but with all of the power gamers aiming to unlock all expansions as quick as possible, it doesn't seem that I'll be able to enjoy it in that aspect.  But regardless, i'm still having fun, and it's the closest I think i'm going to get to reliving the old Everquest days.

I've been very derailed from consoles lately.  The only console games I have played in the last couple of months have been MLB 06' The Show, and a little bit of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.  It's been mostly all Everquest lately.  I've also been playing a little bit of Everquest II, and Call of Duty 2 online.

Since keeping up with a gamespot acquantence of mines blog (Neo Jedi) i've been thinking about getting back into Unreal Tournament 2K4 for ****'s and giggles.  I used to play my fair share back in the day when it first came out, so I was thinking about reinstalling it and giving it another whirl.

I've been thinking about selling my PSP and games.  I havn't played it in atleast a month, and there is nothing coming out for it that is capturing my interest.  Basically to sum it up, it was a huge waste of money.  Nothing about it strikes my interest.  I don't have any desire to watch movies on it, if I want to listen to music I have an Ipod, and the games are very lackluster.  With the exception of Lumines, Smackdown vs. Raw 2006, and Wipeout Pure, i've been thoroughly dissapointed with the titles that have came out.

In movie news, I saw Superman Returns, which I enjoyed.  It wasn't as good as Xmen 3, or Batman Begings, but I still liked it, which I found surprising since i'm not a big Superman fan.  I'll probably even pick it up when it comes out on DVD.

I've been reading the Batman Hush series of comic books, which are REALLY great.  If you like DC comics, or Batman, or anything of the sort you should read Batman Hush.  I only started reading it 2 days ago and i'm already almost finished with it.  I just can't seem to put it down. 

In other news, I go home on leave for 10 days on Monday.  Finally get a break from the Navy, which I really need.  I can't wait to see all of my family and friends, it's going to be a real blast.  Only problem is, on the 10th i'm not going to want to come back!

Other than that, I was still contimplating on getting a webcam to do videoblogs, but I don't think I have enough readers interested in my blogs to waste my time.  I've been so out of touch with Gamespot as of late, I have done no socializing here what so ever, so i'm sure I lost a good amount of my Gamespot friends.  My fault, and my fault alone.  I'm going to try and get back on the forums and reunite with some friends, and then maybe i'll start some video blogging.

But that's it for now.  Thank you for reading, those of you who still do.  And hopefully i'll post another blog very soon.

-Haphasto

Well I havn't done a blog in awhile, so I thought i'd run through my mind, and let you all know whats been going on since my last very brief blog.

For starters, Xmen The Last Stand was great. All of the critics said it was the worst out of the trilogy, but I actually thought it was the best. I still wish they would have added Gambit. Other than that though Juggernaut was a great villian as usual, though some people seem to wish he was CG like The Hulk, to make him look bigger, but I liked him the way he was.

Also in theaters I saw The Omen. This movie was horrible. Avoid it at all costs, I warn you. Except for a few cheap scares, this one is a shameful horror flick.

But enough about movies. Lets get into the games.

I quit World of Warcraft recently. It's a great game, but I felt I needed a break from it. I made it to level 45 on my rogue, so thats somewhat of an accomplishment in my opinion.

After quitting WoW I went back to not only one of my favorite online rpgs, but one of my favorite games of all time, Everquest. A couple of my friends convinced me to join them, and I couldn't resist. So far i'm having alot of fun, i'm playing my old Necromancer, who is almost level 67. I'm also playing a 70 enchanter which is fun for groups.

At the end of June they are coming out with something in Everquest called the Progression Server. It's hard to explain if you've never played Everquest before, but i'll try to sum it up the best I can. There are currently 10 expansions in Everquest (yes I know it's alot) and because of all the content that has been added, alot of the old content is completely dead, no one even goes into some of the areas anymore. So in this progression server, what they are doing is starting the server off with only the original game activated.

To unlock an expansion you have to defeat the end game content of the expansion. So for example, you are starting out with the original game, so to be able to play the second expansion your server has to defeat the end game content of the original game.

The reason i'm so psyched for this is because I have such great memories of Everquest when it was in it's original form, so i'm hoping I can relive those memories with this server.

On the console side of things, I was playing Resident Evil Code Veronica X on the PS2, but have recently stopped playing it. I've started playing MLB 06: The Show again. I decided to do a franchise as the Cincinatti Reds. I know I love my Cardinals, but i'm a Griffey Jr. fan, so I thought i'd play as the Reds. So far so good, in the season i'm 15-10.

A few days ago I bought Xmen Legends and Xmen Legends II: Rise of Apocolypse. I guess the movie sparked the Xmen craze in my brain. One bad thing though, since i'm in the Navy, I don't have any of my friends here to play Legends with, so i'm doing it solo, which I heard sucks, but i'm having fun so far.

I also bought Hitman 2, to see if I enjoy the Hitman series. If I enjoy it, I may pick up the Blood Money for the 360. Besides, it was only $5.00.

Tommorow I may be purchasing a DS lite.  Thats if they have them in stock.  I have never played a DS, but I really want one.  If I don't buy it tommorow, I deffinately will sometime soon.

Other than games, i've been reading the Ultimate Xmen comics, which i'm really enjoying. After i'm done with that i'll be reading the Batman: Hush comics.

I'm going to try and get a webcam here soon so I can start doing video blogs, and give my fingers a rest. I have a digital camera that takes video, but it kind of sucks.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll see you all again on my next blog. I'll deffinately make one on that progression server when it's released at the end of the month, and tell you all how I am enjoying it.


~Haphasto

Is there any program to seperate a video into segmants?  I have a couple of videos I want to upload, but they are all over 100 mb.  If I could just make segments out of them I could upload them. 

Most of them are just game footage, mostly a few speed runs of some of my favorite games.

If not, oh well.

Thanks :)

Well recently I bought some regular Xbox games that I hadn't played in the past but wanted to.

Fable
Half Life 2
KOTOR 2

and all 3 of them screw up when played on the 360.  They are playble, but the framerate slows way down, the sound screws up occasionally (in kotor 2, the sound screws up constantly).  Anyone else experienced this?

I recently had to get my regular Xbox hooked up just so I could play these title with everything in tact.

    So I tried doing a video blog about this....but Gamespot doesn't seem to want to upload it.  I spent about 15 minutes at the upload screen, so I just said screw it.  I'll just type about it.  Who wants to see my ugly face anyway?

Recently i've decided that PC gaming is a lost cause.  Why?   It's expensive, it's time demanding, and the quality of games just aren't that good.

With that said, i'm going to be doing pure console gaming for awhile.  Atleast until Burning Crusade, and/or Vanguard come out.

I came to this conclusion after E3.  None of the games coming out for PC really intrigued me, atleast not like the console games did.

Recently I resubscribed to EQ2, and I was getting some graphic errors.  Saying "Your graphics accelerator is not responding"  I know it's because ATI doesn't suport my brand manufactorer of PC, therefore I can't download the most up to date drivers.

After this I was thinking about getting a desktop...a good desktop, like an Alienware.  I don't have the money on me, but I could take out like a $3000 lone and get a really good gaming rig.  After E3 though, i've decided it's not worth it, i'd be wasting my money.

The future looks bright for console game, and thats where my money is going.

i'm not going to write a huge blog about each conference, it would take too much time, time that I don't want to spend typing. What i'm going to do is just summarize in a few sentences on what I thought about each conference.

Sony - Alot of talk and flash, but no substence. I didn't like how they changed their controller to be like the Wii's. I enjoyed seeing alot of the games, and i'm really looking forward to them. I'm sceptacle about the price, it is very expensive. But who am I kidding, i'm still going to buy it.

Microsoft - My god was this press conference boring. Besides a few game titles, they didn't really shock me with anything. I don't really have anything to say, probably because I was falling asleep through most of the conference.

Nintendo - By far my favorite conference. They showed alot of games, and they all looked great. I'm really psyched about this new controller, and i'm especially psyched about the new Zelda! I'm dissapointed they didn't mention a price, and they didn't talk about the backwards compatibility. But i'm really excited for the Wii, and it is probably the console i'm most looking forward too.

And the game i'm most psyched for...Twilight Princess.  At first I was sceptacle about this being on the Wii.  I didn't want it to feel too out of place with the controller.  But with the demo that I saw, the game looks incredibly fun, and still looks like it brings out the Zelda aura.

I cannot wait for this game, and I can't wait for the Wii.  And though i'm not as excited for the PS3, i'm still really looking forward to it.