I'm back! Sorry I haven't been on much lately, but it's been a few really busy weeks for me.

First of all I've been working on our semester assignment at school. Instead of an exam, we work on a project for 2 months that will determine most of our final grade. I had a lot of trouble with mine, as I worked in pair with a guy that -never- did his part. He didn't show up at school unless I called him and whined. He lived right next to the school, but it took him several hours to show up after I called as well. For a long time I couldn't do much else than just wait for him to finish his tasks so that we could compile it together into an animation. On the day we were supposed to be done I was stranded alone at school with a half finished product. That's right, he didn't even show up to explain to the teachers. I called a meeting with our teachers, where I told them what had happened and and explained how I felt that my assignment had been "sabotaged" by him. They completely agreed with me, and had noticed this themselves. Bottom line is that I sat and worked for two weeks after school had ended so I could finish the project without much of his help. I hope I never meet the guy again..

In the middle of this, me and my boyfriend have moved back to my home city, Bergen. So you can probably imagine how stressful those two weeks in June were. First I had to spend hours at school to work on the animation project, and then I went straight home to pack our stuff and wash out the appartment. On top of that, Metal Gear Solid 4 was released and I sadly got very little time with it before moving. Right now we live in an appartment with my brother while we look for jobs and a place of our own.

As soon as MGS4 was released, I stayed away from the internet. I was -that- afraid of spoilers. I didn't even stay away when I read the last Harry Potter book, but with MGS4 I wouldn't even let people talk about it near me. "Sssshhhh!! I haven't finished it yet! Shut up!" I did finish it a week ago. I'll be honest and say that I still think MGS3 is the best in the series, but MGS4 was wonderful too. And I got to see a lot to Otacon, which made me veeeeery happy (I love the guy, can't help it). I won't say anything else though. I would hate to spoil anything for people who haven't played yet (Yes, William, I'm looking at you).

After we moved to Bergen, we got the dreaded Red Ring of Death. That's right, our beloved 360 died on us. It's a first generation though, so it's a miracle that it lasted 3 years in the first place. I'm not sure what happened, but I have my theory. We rented a thingy to store all our stuff in when we moved. I honestly can't figure out an english word for it. Those thingys that you connect to your car and then you can load what you want to on it and drive it where you want. You can have a boat on some special ones for example. Get what I mean? Ayways, we rented one of those. A big closed one, as we had to drive for 8 hours and it was raining. However, water still leaked in and gave us a nasty surprise. We didn't find anything that had been damaged by the water at first sight. Most of our stuff is still in boxes though, so we haven't checked everything. The Xbox wasn't near the water itself, but maybe the humid air in there affected it? We tried to complain to the guy we rented it from, but he said that is was our fault because we probably had stored something against the doors that made them open a bit. LIES! Our stuff didn't even fill the thingy completely, so there was nothing near the door, but we have no way of proving that. Our PS3 and Wii are working fine at least.

We were lucky enough to find a special offer on a 360 Arcade. It was half price even. We already have 2 controllers and a harddisc from the busted one, so we don't need anything more. Talk about luck! We ordered it and are waiting for it to arrive. Soon I can finish Lost Odessy and play some more Mass Effect.

We also got Super Smash Bros, which was recently released in Europe. And what great fun it is! Me, Daniel and my brother have fun brawling it out for hours. One evening two of my brother's buddies came over and we played for about 7 hours! I lauged so hard I cried at one point. We have unlocked all characters now, but I haven't tried to play all of them yet. I'm going to try Toon Link, that's for sure!

Since we got to Bergen, I have been very busy with catching up with my friends and family as well as keeping an eye out for a job. I actually don't want a job in the 3D industry just yet, because that would force me to move to Oslo, our capital. I want to stay home a little while. I also want to do more studying, there is just so much I want to learn. What I want to do right now is to find some job or other, and go to an evening school so I can study Photography. First of all, I need to focus on getting a job, then an appartment, and take the rest from there. It's a very exciting time for us! Fingers crossed that it all turns out well.

I have a lot to catch up on here in GS now. I hope you have all been well during my absence. I'll check out your blogs soon!

"Finally what?" you ask?

I finally got my boyfriend to play Silent Hill! I took some time, but he finally did it.

We've been together for over a year and a half. We are both passionate gamers, which is great because we get to share our hobby. Since the beginning, I've been trying to get him to play Silent Hill. Or at least from the moment I learned that he hadn't played the games. He had actually tried a demo of the first Silent Hill back in the day, but got so freaked out by it that he never sought them out. "You should try it, they are really great!" I said over and over again.

The other day he wanted to play a game, but couldn't decide which. "Silent Hill 2!" I said, mostly as a joke. I was surprised when he actually decided to try it. He didn't play very far (we're still in the Woodside Appartments), but that's because he was freaked out, not because he didn't like it.

I can't wait to see his reactions to things later in the game. Hopefully he'll enjoy it as much as I do!

*Long post ahead, sorry!

Years ago, in my early to mid teens I was a very different person than what I am now. I'm sure many of you can remember (or are maybe going through) that time of your life when you are shaping your own personality. It's a confusing time where you hopefully end up with a sense of who you are and how you experience people and the world around you. People around you will affect who you turn out to be, for better or for worse.

During this time where adults still view you as a kid, but you firmly believe that you have a perfect idea of how the world works (how wrong I was. I smile when I think about it.), I got hurt badly. I was 16 at the time, and it changed me for the worse. I was betrayed by one of the most significant people in my life at that time. As the girl I was at the time I would cry my broken heart out, while wondering what I could have done to deserve this. I had not yet learned that some people just do bad things, and it's not necessarily my fault that I end up hurt. While some people would be able to rise up from their pain and walk on strong in life, I did the exact opposite. I stayed there as the hurt creature I was, and saw the world and it's people for the horrible beings they could be. I didn't trust anyone anymore, so of course there was no way I would talk to people about how I felt. Some tried to reach out a hand and help me, just to get bitten by my defensive fangs. I had friends, even boyfriends during this time. I never let any of them through my shield. They knew a lot about me; my interests and passions and things I disliked, but they never knew -me-. I simply didn't let them, not even how hard they tried to prove themselves as trustworthy. I was a horrible friend. I asked questions and did things simply to test their friendship. To see how much they really cared.

I was depressed a lot. I don't mean like those people who are often (and rudely) referred to as Emos. I never talked about my problems, didn't want attention and I'd get very angry if someone was pushy about having me talk about my problems. I'm amazed that my friends from that time is still around. I guess that says a lot about how much they actually cared. How can someone choose to be like this, you ask? My philosophy was very immature, but it seemed very logic to me at the time: If I never let them in, I'll never get really hurt. And by keeping myself at such a low, emotional isolated level, I would protect myself against being hurt so badly again.

This might make me sound like an emotionless robot. It's not like I was sad all the time. I could feel happiness with my friends or boyfriend. I could be in a very good mood and have a great time with friends, family or a video game. The problem was that since I kept myself so isolated, I very easily fell back to the depressed moods. I almost think I was happy there, because I felt a certain amount of "power" by simply not caring about people. I hated to cry, and almost never did. I saw it as a sign of weakness. In most cases I even saw people's sense of empathy as a weakness. I wanted to be strong, so that I would never be hurt again. I didn't want to change. Heck, I was afraid to change! What if I let people in, and got hurt? Sad excistense, right?

But I was lucky. Lucky enough to have family and friends who truly cared for me and my well being. My grandmother was the first in my family to really see the signs, thanks to a family dinner on one of my really bad days. I've always been close to her (or as close as i could be those days). Just in case you wonder how she noticed, I can tell you that a different person in our family had problems with depressions and eventually needed professional help. She told my dad about what she thought was going on. This started a chain of events that resulted in me agreeing to seek professional help. As good fortune would have it, I got a new boyfriend around that time. He taught me a lot about life. All the wonderful things that was going on! All the good madness I could be a part of. A different kind of peace with myself that I had forgotten after all those years in depression. Even if we broke up some years ago, I still see him as one of the most important people to ever have entered my life. He changed me and even if the process was slow, I learned to talk about things and to trust.

Today, I love making new friends. I was excited about attending college for the simple reason that I would get to meet new people (and other reasons ofc). I have some very close and wonderful friends that I trust and talk to about everything. I have a wonderful boyfriend who I've started to build my life together with. As I mentioned, the amazing part is that I am still friends with people from my depressed years. I'm very happy with who I am, and my life.

The reason why I'm writing this (ridiculously long) blog, is because I'm going through some things in my private life. It's not anything serious. I'm simply scared about my uncertain future. This is my last year in college, so this summer I'm moving back to my hometown. Will I be able to get a job? Where will we (me and my bf) live? What if I fail and disappoint everybody? There are so many things I'm worried about. I feel like I'm making a big step, from being a student to a worker. Suddenly I'm supposed to focus on different things in life like paying back loans, taxes and how we'll afford a decent sofa to our apartment. I know it's a fun and exciting time, but I'm scared all the same. Closing a chapter in my life an moving on to the next. I can't relax, I don't sleep well and I don't eat properly. All these thoughts crammed in my head makes me very emotional.

It makes me realize how wonderful it is to have friends by your side. I have talked to some of them about my feelings, and they all have some wonderful things to say that makes me see things from a different and positive angle. I am also lucky enough to have found that special someone that I see myself spending the rest of my life with and he repeats that no matter what happens, we will always have each other. It has made me think about the great importance of friends in life. People that connect and share good times and bad. We learn from each other. We experience together. Most importantly, we support each other. Friends makes you stronger. They will cheer on you so that you get enough strength to fight through difficulties. They share your joy, and can make good things even better. They listen to your frustrations and makes you realize that it isn't that bad after all (or they totally agree and let you release some steam by talking about it). They offer counseling and a shoulder to cry on in time of need.

It makes me relax a bit when they take their time to help me through this. It makes me realize that it isn't so bad. A lot can happen, but it will be alright in the end. Meet it with a positive attitude and it will work out. No matter what I will have still have my friends. They will always be there to support me. They won't love me less because I might have a hard time finding a job. I'm starting on "the rest of my life", and I can face it as a stronger person because they are here. The last few days has really made me see that.

There is a difference between living and simply existing. I believe that friends and family (I tend to put them in the same category, as I'm very close with my family. My mom is on of my best friends in the world) let you live. Cherish them, and tell them how much they mean to you. I don't mean to sound cocky, but I have been on both sides, and I learned a lesson in how important it is to have people close.

This blog is a tribute to my friends and family, who has made my life so much better by simply being a part of it. I want to thank them for all they have done for me and all I have learned from them. I want you to know that I can never really tell you how much I appreciate you, ever. I just hope you understand that it is a lot!

It is also a tribute to those of you that read this, that has a friend (or more) and/or a special someone. To you that has ever reached out to someone that needed it. You are cherished. I hope that by reading this, you will understand how much you mean to your friends and close ones. Don't ever take it for granted!

PS! I'm sorry for the long post again, but I really felt like writing this. I hope someone bothered to read it all, and made them think of how important they are to others.

Yepp, you know the drill. There was no escape for me either, I was eventually tagged as well. You should thank Neko and Jbot for making this blogpost possible! I don't have to write down 10 things because I was tagged by two people right? I hope not!

I usually don't reply to the typical "chain-mail" stuff, but this is a bit different. It has been fun to read what my friends at GS had to say about themselves, and I've struggled to come up with something even remotely interesting about me. So here goes: 5 things you might not know about Icebuncle!

1. I have a big problem with big dogs and spiders

This fact might be a bit standard, but.. There has only been one time in my whole life that I was absolutely sure that I was going to die, and that was when I was about 13 and was attacked by a Golden Retriever. The dog belonged to a friend of my mom, and was usually a very quiet and calm dog. It was my birthday, and I was asked to take the dog for a walk while mom prepared food and such for a small family-dinner. On our trip we walked past a garden where toys were lying all over the place (spoiled kids perhaps?) and the dog picked something up and started chewing. I thought he had found a rubber ball or something, and tried to get him to spit it out. What he had found later turned out to be a bone of some kind. His owner never gave him bones of any kind, because he would get aggressive and protective like a predator if she did. No one had shared that piece of info with me! The dog snapped when I tried to get him to spit out the "rubber ball" and jumped at me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me down to the ground. I remember thinking that the only reason why this animal hadn't bitten my throat yet was because I was too tall, and as I fell to the ground I sort of realized that I was going to die. It sounds very dramatic, I know, but for a panicked kid it seemed very logical. The dog eventually let go of my arm and went back to the bone. I still have a scar on my upper arm to show for it. One heck of a birthday present! After this incident I get all angsty whenever there are big dogs around. This Christmas my "stepbrother" brought his Rottweiler to my mom's house and I was so scared that I was hiding behind my her until they locked the animal up. Small dogs are OK, because I can just kick them away if they try anything.

I also have a serious case of arachnophobia, but there is no dramatic story to explain that.

2. That stupid cat almost gave me a brain-damage!

When my mom was about 5 months pregnant (me being the baby ofc), she tested positive for Toxoplasmosis. For those of you that doesn't know what that is, I'll give a short explanation. It's a parasitic disease which is harmless to normal healthy people. It can be dangerous for people with a weak immune-system, or for pregnant women. It's not dangerous for the woman herself, but it can affect the development of the baby, giving "light to severe damage". Cat-droppings are one of the sources of this disease, and you can get infected just by cleaning it up. My mom refused to get rid of her cat when she got pregnant, and my guess is that it was the reason why she got infected. When I was born, I was rushed away to some other doctors who did all kinds of tests on me to see if I was OK. They said I was healthy, in case you wondered. It's still a bit freaky to think about how I could have turned out. I could have gotten a brain-damage, I could have been born blind.. You name it.

3. I have no sense of smell

Or was I actually OK? My nose works in mysterious ways. Usually, I have no sense of smell at all. There are few times when I have felt the sweet smell of my mom's dinner, and random things like that. I have also heard that if you don't sense any smell at all, then you won't be able to taste things either because taste and smell are so closely linked. I'm not sure if this is true, but my tongue works just fine. I fact, a love a good meal. There was one occasion at school a few years ago when some "clever" kids decided to release a stink-bomb in the building. Everyone felt sick because of the horrible smell and moaned and complained. I actually had to ask them what was happening, because I couldn't feel it myself. In the end, I don't feel like I'm missing out on much. I mean, sure, there are probably some wonderful smells out there, but whenever I hear about smells it's usually: "Oh, this stinks!" or "Gah! What is that smell?". I never hear "Oh, that smells wonderful!" so I'm happy in my scentless existence.

On the other hand, it has made me very self-conscious about my hygiene. I know that people can smell of sweat, or smell bad if they don't shower on a regular basis. The thing is, I have no idea how that works. I don't know how strong that smell is, or how fast it will appear. This has lead to an "obsession" with showering every morning. If I oversleep and have to skip the morning shower I feel horrible. I feel like I smell a lot and make people sick with my mere presence. My boyfriend tries to calm me down by telling me that it's not nearly as horrible as I imagine it to be, but how can I be sure?

4. I have a strong feeling of empathy for fictional characters

I don't know how to say it well in English, but I'll try to explain. When I watch a TV-show, read a book or play a game I get very, very engaged in the world and it's characters. Sometimes I feel so strongly for them that they could just as well be real people. This often results in entertainment for people around me, because there is no way I'm able to just sit still and observe. Let me give some examples:

My boyfriend was watching while I was playing Mass Effect. He had already completed it, and was curious about what choices I would make and so forth. I got butterflies in my stomach while I was flirting with Kaiden, and probably smiled in a ridiculous way. Eventually I (or my character) and Kaiden are about to kiss (yay!) but in the last second, Joker calls me over the intercom and ruins the whole thing. "What?! Noo!" I yelled while striking my fist down on the sofa. My bf couldn't stop laughing. I was devastated and kept mumbling a few insults to Joker.

I often gasp loudly if something surprising happens, or if someone gets hurt. I often say (or yell) my reactions to the screen. Like when a certain character in Stargate SG-1 just about blew a mission because of personal feelings (Daniel Jackson, I'm looking at -you-) I expressed "Just what the hell are you doing?!" It doesn't have to be words either, sometimes I just cheer and/or applaud (Like when Tony in "24" appeared out of nowhere and saved poor Teri's life) or just sigh.

I also hate as strongly as I love, which means there is swearing and ill wishes involved whenever the stupid characters are about. I guess most of you have seen Heroes? I swear I'd hurt Candice if I could. She made me warm with anger. Once I threw a sweater at my TV because a stupid character made a stupid joke.

I realize that some people might find it annoying, but most of my friends find it rather charming. My best buddy is, thankfully, just like me, so you can imagine how crazy it can turn out when we watch stuff together.

This is embarra.ssing, but.. Because of these strong feelings I also have a bad habit of actually falling in love with some of these characters. Now that I'm in a serious relationship it's different, but when I'm single I'm hopeless. There is however one gamecharacter I will never get over, and my bf will just have to live with my undying love for that specific character.

5. My big dream is to publish one of my projects

Since I was very young, I have have been incredibly creative. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or anything.. Friends have told me that I'm the most creative person they have ever met, and I'm proud of that. To channel this creativity I usually write. I -love- to write! When I was in elementary school I used to sit at home and write short stories in all categories. Fantasy, horror, stories about normal kids.. You name it. My teacher was very enthusiastic about it, and so my big dream was to become a published writer. As I got older, I got less and less time to write stuff, but my brain still worked overtime. I have a few projects in the works that I hope I'll be able to get published one way or the other (be it as a book, tv-series or videogame), I just want to tell people the story and show them the worlds I created. I also had an English teacher who "discovered" me (I only write in English, because I think it's a better language to express myself in than Norwegian) and wanted me to be a part of some web-community where teachers recommended talented students. I personally think that she only wanted a piece of my "possible fame". She would say that when I became a famed writer, she would take her cla.ss to visit me and such. I guess she just wanted me to credit her for getting me published at all. I got very annoyed by the whole thing and avoided her and her whole scheme. "Why can't she just leave me alone?" The latter years I have hit a bit of a writers-block though. Not because I don't have any ideas (I can lay awake all night just designing characters and stuff), it's just because I don't have anyone to share them with. I used to have friends who was very engaged in what I made, and urged me to write more. Now I don't have that. I guess they wouldn't mind if I asked them to read, but I don't want to force it on them. And so, my inspration is currently drained, but I will get back in the game soon enough.

And that's that. I'm not going to tag anyone because I think everyone in my friendslist has been through this already. I'm sorry the post got kind of long, but that's me.. I love to write ^_^

I hope you all had a great easter!

We had last week off school because of easter, and even though I couldn't afford to travel home to friends and family I was sneaky enough to get them to visit me instead. Well, not all of them of course. A Swedish friend of mine travelled by train across the border and came to visit a few days, and my dad came over for two days. A friend of my bf's stayed with us from Friday to Sunday. It was great to see them all again!

The weather, on the other hand, decided to give us all a swift kick in the butt. At the beginning of the week it was sunny and nice. It almost seemed like spring had arrived. Thursday afternoon it suddenly started snowing like crazy and during the night we got 20cm of snow. It's been snowing ever since. Don't think that snow is all pretty and romantic like in Hollywood either. I'm not kidding when I say that it's snowing -sideways-. Today we had to fight the door a bit to get outside, only to get hit by instant snowblindness. Getting to school when you are up to your knees in snow, affected by a snowblind debuff -and- a strong wind should not be legal. Alas, I must brave the weather again today, because we need to shop food. If you don't hear from me again, you know I've been overpowered by the evil Father Winter and his various debuffs, like Snowblindness and Frostbite. I can only hope that my 22 years in this country has given me enough Frost resillience to make it there and back again.

I have to admit there is a slight positive side to this weather: It gives me a good excuse to stay in my warm livingroom. I -finally- got my hands on a copy of SMT: Persona 3 last week and I've been spending all my spare time with it since. I've been waiting for this game for a long while and last month it was finally released in EU. No stores I have been in has the game yet so I eventually had to import it from England. I really hate to be an EU gamer. Not only do we have to wait for ages for games to be localized (almost 2 years for Persona 3 and Rouge Galaxy) but our stores seems to only get in the hottest titles. I'm happy that the DS and PsP are regionfree, and I hope that all consoles may one day follow that trend. I know it's too much to hope for, but one can always dream. I don't want to sound childis, but it doesn't seem fair.

Back to the point: Persona 3 is one amazing game. Quirky with it's life-sim, but I like it. I find myself enjoying that part more than the dungeon crawling. The music sounded a bit weird at first, but it turned out to be surprisingly addictive. I've been playing for nearly 40 hours and I'm still not entirely used to see my characters shoot themselves in the head over and over. I'm on the last disc in Lost Odyssey, enjoying side quests in Rogue Galaxy and I still have to play DMC4, but I haven't felt like playing any other game since I got Persona 3.

It's like I always say: "It doesn't matter how long it takes you to beat a game, as long as you have fun while doing it." So I will take my time with Persona 3, and pick the other games up again when I feel like it, not because I "have to".

That's it for now. The sun just peeked out from behind the clouds, and that is my cue to go shopping. Wish me luck ^_^ Stay tuned for a short story about how my dad actually spent some minutes with a PS2 this holiday (you might remember how much he hates gaming). Ciao!

It's been a while since I was here. The reason was a good mix of schoolwork and good old fashioned laziness. A month ago we got a project at school that lasted 3 weeks. I usually go to GameSpot when I we have some open time at school, and this project kept me outside the classroom. When I'm home I usually just read some news when I'm on GS. After the project we had a week off, which I spent sleeping too much and travelling to visit my bf's parents for a few days. So I'm sorry that I haven't commented in blogs and such. Time just flew by.

So what is new? In my personal life, not much. It's still going well. School during the day and spending time with games and my bf during the afternoon. I do, however, miss my friends and family back home more and more. I can't wait to see them all again.

In my gaming life however, things have been busy. I have completed a few games (Assassins Creed and Heavenly Sword to mention two) and started some new ones. I have fallen completely in love with Rogue Galaxy. It is the first RPG that has made me want to complete it 100%. Don't get me wrong, there are other RPGs I love, but completing all sidequests and such seems like such a hassle. In RG I got to the final boss and thought "I don't want this to be over!" and I turned around in the door and started playing around with sidequests. There is so much to do! I'm having a great time with it though. (Neko, you know what I'm talking about)

This obsession with RG has taken it's toll on other games. I got Devil May Cry 4, but haven't been able to get past the 3 first missions. I liked it, but I just can't get myself to put down RG. I have also started Super Mario Galaxy, which is a great game so far. Those Lumas are so damn cute! On friday Persona 3 will -finally- be released in Europe and I can't wait to get my hands on it! My PS2 is in other words working overtime, while the next gens are collecting dust. (Poor babies!)

I've seen some new (in Norway anyways) movies at the cinema too. I would recommend "Cloverfield". I don't know why, but I ended up really liking it. I hope there will be a sequel with a few more answers. I also liked "Jumper", but not as much. It had some pretty awesome scenes and special effects and good entertainment value. The story wasn't very well developed though. It was a bit like the first Harry Potter book: an introduction to this new universe and the "war". It could have been a great concept for a TV show, where the story and characters could develop. I would love to see a sequel where the war goes all out. Could you imagine how cool it would be with an all out battle between Jumpers and Paladins? In the end I did enjoy the movie even if it wasn't one of the best I have seen. It is, however, a bit disturbing that nobody seems to realize that Hayden Christensen has no acting skills at all.

Lastly, I want to mention "Sweeny Todd". I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton, and I also like musicals so this movie was just about perfect. I loved the style of it, the costumes and the music. I had no idea that "Borat" himself was in it, so I got a good laugh when he showed up. I want more Burton!

So that was my month in a nutshell. How is everyone else doing? Good, I hope! I'll get around to check people's blogs and the Unions soon. Ciao!

Only a few weeks left until the release of the new Devil May Cry title! I don't think I will be able to get it at release, because Feb will be a month with very little cash for me. I have to pay my school for the spring semester, and that is a whopping 9000 USD (Unless my calculations are very wrong. It's 50k Norwegian Kroner, anyway) this month, so I have to borrow money from my parents so I can afford food and rent. And there is no way I can say to them: "Would you mind giving me some more money? Devil May Cry is out this month you see." I have so many games I need to finish anyway, that there is no point in buying a new one for a while.

Anyway! Now that I have both a PS3 and a 360, I'm wondering what version of the game I should buy. As far as I know there is no real difference between the games themselves, like different exclusives between consoles, so I have to make my pick based on other unimportant things. At fist I thought it was simple: I would buy it for my PS3! Not only do I have the three previous games for Playstation 2, but so far I only have Uncharted for PS3 so it would be nice to get a bigget collection of games for that moneydrain. But then I realized (actually my bf pointed it out): There is no achievement system on the PS3!

Some of you might think that it is no big deal to miss out in Achievements. Personally, I have been called an "Achievementwhore" (my best buddy called me that, and I can't really deny it either). When there are achievements, you bet I'll do my best to get them. (Unless they are really terrible, like the Eternal Sonata achievements). Achievements are the reason I'll be playing through Mass Effect at least 2 more times, the reason why I'll bother levling my characters to lvl 99 in Blue Dragon, the reason I let myself die 50 times in a row in Uncharted to get certain medals (I love how Naughty Dog put those "achievements" in there). Even if I don't play a game endlessly until I have all achievements, I will pick it up when I feel like it to work on achievements I have not gotten before. They are there, they need to be done.

I also checked out a pre-order of DMC4 here in Norway, and the 360 version is almost 150 NOK cheaper (27 USD) than the PS3 version. As a poor student, that is an important factor. I don't know if it will be that way in all stores here, but that particular store has the 360 version at 450 NOK, which is a bit cheap all together. Most new games cost between 500-600, depending on store and hype. They had the PS3 version at 579NOK.

The last small factor, is that I honestly think the 360 controller is more comfortable than the PS3 controller. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the Sixaxis. Well, I miss the rumble feature, but that will be returning soon. I just think the 360 controller is slightly more comfortable. So it seems that 360 is the way to go, doesn't it? I wish it was that simple. I was a bit irked when almost all my beloved game series were suddenly to be released on 360 as well as the PS3, their "proper" home. Devil May Cry, Silent Hill and Resident Evil to name some. It feels like a weird betrayal to buy those games for the 360. But then again, I'm very unhappy about the way Sony as treated Europe tha last years. Did you know that Sony has banned import of PS3's into Europe? Not only do we get less functional PS3's at a higher price than the rest of the world, but we are forbidden to buy the cheaper ones from other parts of the world. Nice going Sony.

Well, in the end this is a very irrelevant dilemma. It's not like I solve world problems by thinking about this.. But I'm still at a loss about this. I'm very happy that this is on my mind though. It just proves how good my life is, that I don't have much bigger problems on my mind. My friends and family are in good health, none of us find ourselves at a painful of desperate time in our lives. Maybe I am spoiled to have such an easy life like this now (it hasn't always been as good as this), with my love at my side. Spoiled, but very thankful.

Ok, I got a bit off track there. I'm not one of the people that has chosen a side in the console war. I see good and bad sides with all of them. It's like when my best buddy called me one day, because he wanted to buy a handheld system but didn't know which. I have both, so he figured I was the one to ask. There was no way for me to say "Pick that one!". "Well, that depends" I said, and talked about the pros and cons of both, and let him decide for himself which suited him best. Therefore, I just can't go "I'll buy the PS3 version, because I'm a Playstation fan!" I'm somewhere in the middle (a bit more to the 360 side, but as soon as PS3 get some more games and their "achievement system" in Home, I'll probably end up pretty much in the middle), which means that I will have this same dilemma about Silent Hill 5, Resident Evil 5 and others as well.

Any thoughts?

Ps. The word "Achievement" appeared 8 times in one paragraph of this post.

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! May it bring many good experiences and a lot of new great games!

I haven't been around this place much this holiday, as I have been at my family's. I am back now and ready for a new year!

And what better way to start the new year than to buy a PS3? Yup, me and Daniel went out and bought one today. Now our next-gen collection is complete! I also got Uncharted, which I've been wanting to play for some time now. I've only tried it a bit, and so far it seems great. The voice acting is superb! Feel free to recommend other PS3 games if you want. (I already have Assassins Creed and Oblivion for the Xbox)

I spent some time setting up the Playstation Network thingy, and so far I think the Xbox 360 has a better online support. I'm not complaining about the PS3 version, it just seems a tad bit more complicated. I'll get used to it eventually. I wonder if any of you PS3 owners could help me with a small issue? I just wonder if it is possible to get any new avatars for your online profile from somewhere? I didn't really like any of the default ones, so I looked around in the Playstation store, but I couldn't find anything. Is it even possible to get new ones or am I stuck with the ones that are already there?

Well, I'll go back to playing Uncharted and checking up on journals. See you later!

I read this news-article recently about how Daniel Craig doesn't want to be part of new James Bond games. It has been confirmed that he will play Bond in four new movies, and they will most likely have video-games connected to them even though Casino Royale didn't. Craig explains that he said from the very beginning that he didn't want to be involved in Bond-games, but the producers simply replied "Too bad, because you will!" (Well, not literally, but it was the message anyway ^_^)

At this point I thought that he is probably one of those people that just regard gaming as something stupid, even if they don't know much, or anything at all, about it. Like my dad, for example. But then I read on and discover that Craig does in fact have a lot of advice to Activision (who will be producing the new Bond games) on how they could make the games better. In fact, he thinks they would have to do a proper job because there are so many "trash" games out there. The article also notes that Craig games as often as he can (something his girlfriend doesn't like much) and that can turn off his phone and sit for hours with a game.

For some reason, I found this really surprising. I would never have guessed that he was into video-games. I guess I'm just used to believe that gaming is something that 40 year old's just don't care about. I know there are many gamers in that age group in the world, but I haven't met anyone personally. To me, gaming is dominated by the younger generation. My parents have -never- expressed any interest in gaming.

Well, my mom is open-minded and listens when I tell her about gaming and what I enjoy about it. My dad on the other hand, seems to think of gaming as some kind of pest. He has -never- given it a chance, and he never will. My brother has been an irresponsible gamer, and I think that has left a very bad impression with my dad. My bro is one of those people that simply forgets everything around him when he is gaming. He never does the chores my dad has asked him to for example. In addition, I think my dad is just being stubborn about it. Me and my bro can't even discuss gaming in front of my dad without being worried that he might get annoyed. You see, he has on multiple occasions in the past expressed how he was worried about what would become of me, because I love gaming and I watch anime series and such. He has this way of thinking that as soon something is cartoony or animated, it's for children to watch (like disney). I could never explain to him that "There are in fact animated series that are meant for and older audience."

Now I have chosen to study 3D Design and Animation and my dad still doesn't care about anything of the sort. Now, my dad loves me a lot and supports me and has helped me a lot so that I could go to the school I wanted. He cares about -me- and how things are going in my life. He just has no interest in the area I want to make my living. At times it can get annoying that he still doesn't want to open his mind to it, but the most important thing is that he cares about me as a person, right?

So, since I have grown up in a home (or two homes, since my parents are divorced) where the adults were anti-gamers I always find it surprising and fascinating when 40+ year olds plays games. A friend of mine plays FF XI with her mom. One day, after a hectic time at school she said: "Ah crap, my mom has out-leveled me.." What I wouldn't give to say something like that! I don't know if it's just my parents that have given me the wrong impression, or if the majority of adults (especially parents) would rather throw consoles out the window. How do you guys experience this?

On a side note: Can you imagine Daniel Craig sitting in a fancy living-room playing Mass Effect? That, my friends, is hawt! Deffinately the best looking Bond yet, in my humble opinion. And Casino Royale was awesome, so I eagerly await the new Bond movies and hope they will turn out as good as CR.

As some of you might now, there has been a delay in Scandinavia that caused SH Origins to not arrive in stores on the releasedate (Nov 16). There was no info about what caused the delay or when the game would arrive, so I've been walking around for over a week wondering when I would be able to play it.

I was very happy to learn that the game had finally arrived today and bought my copy. I turned off the lights and put on headphones and started playing. I have only played about an hour, and so far the game is stunning! I don't like the stamina addition or that all weapons have durability (they break pretty fast too!), but that is something I can live with. I remember how freaky it was to run away from the creatures in the original SH and the stamina thing adds to that fear in a way, but it also gets annoying when Travis suddenly needs to slow down.

Speaking of freaky.. I never knew a game played on such a small screen would be that freaky. The sounds and music is wonderful. That's one of the things I love about the Silent Hill series; all the freaky sounds you have no idea what is and you start imagining all kinds of scary thing. I like the graphics in Origins as well. I think it stays very true to the original game even if it's updated.

I feels really great to play a SH game again after all these years.