I mean, it's honestly one of the most original games this generation. The story is absolutely epic, in every sense of the word. You have some badass weapons in your arsenal, and it's actually fun traveling around New York, unlike any other sandbox game (a few games are exceptions). Some of the boss battles are insane, and you actually have to figure out how to beat them, not just attack, attack, attack. Please, if you take any advice from me, play Prototype. If you can get past the graphics, it's an absolutely stellar game.

It deserved better than what all the reviews gave it, I don't know what these guys were thinking not giving it at least a 9. I'd give it a 9.3 out of 10.

Video game addiction definitely exists, and I am victim to many of those things. To anyone that says it doesn't exist, either stop being ignorant or stop denying that you too might be addicted. Although I would say that I play a lot less than I used to with being in college and all, I still find that sometimes I go on these ridiculous runs where for weeks I will play a ton, and then the next few weeks won't play at all. I think video game addiction starts with confidence. I am one of those people where on the outside I pretend to be confident, but on the inside I truly am not. I find many problems in my social life that I simply won't acknowledge publicly, and keeping it inside doesn't help at all.

But I think all these problems start before video games. A lack of self confidence forces a person to confide in something they think they are good at, and if it's video games, something that's VERY competitive and lots of people can be good at, that's when that person is in danger of becoming addicted to games. It's the same with people who work out all the time, and even go to take steroids to get bigger. Getting bigger makes them feel stronger and more comfortable. It's the same concept, and sucks, but it happens. Video games aren't the culprit, it's the lack of self confidence that kids develop as they grow up.

EDIT: And the reason it will always be a problem is it's hands on, unlike television or the internet, and the competitive nature of people makes them want to be better. If they are better than they feel more confident, and I don't care who you are, everyone wants a sense of confidence in themselves, it just depends on how it you go about doing that. Anything in which you interact and progress in will always have this problem in one way or another, and the way society portrays gamers, as opposed to say athletes, makes the situation even worse.

Well, much has changed since then as well. One unfortunate thing seemed to happen, and that was that the Halo Union seemed to go under. That union has done so well for so long and I'm proud, but it seems everybody has given up on it, and it may be time to move on. It partially is attributed to lack of news, and thus lack to talk about. Plus the whole union aspect of Gamespot is dieing anyways, although I still believe the forums here are some of the strongest on the interwebz. I love System Wars especially, even if you know you will probably never convince anyone to see things as you do, it's always great getting into a good, well thought out argument.

The 360 has treated me well. My newest one has held up for a while, and though I may not game as much as I used to, I find the quality of my gaming experiences have improved. I try to understand stories more, and think out my approaches. I use more strategy rather than run and gun. It has come to the point where my roomate says I overemphasize situations, and that things are much simpler than I allow them to be, but what fun is not thinking about your plan of attack. My most recent game is The Orange Box, and for 20 bucks, this is a steal. 5 games in one? Check. Legendary games in that very box? Check. All PC gamers talk about is Half Life, so I figured I had to try it. It is very good, I must say, though I really don't see why it is considered to be such a good game. The physics and stuff are great, but it seems to get really boring at times. I haven't beaten it yet, so I hope it only gets better as I play on. I also beat Portal, and that was very fun, albeit a little easier than I thought it would be. People were making it out to be a little hard, but whatever, I enjoyed the 3 hours it took to beat it. I haven't played much Team Fortress 2, and the little I did play seemed real hard, but I've heard great things about it and will give it another shot, whenever that will come.

I've also played Left 4 Dead, another Valve game, and that was pretty good, and very underrated. Not many talk about it, but multiplayer is great, and it's very different from your normal FPS. You can be zombies, which is by far the coolest thing I've done in a shooter in a long time, and I actually enjoy being the zombies more than the humans, its that fun. The only thing is the campaign is very limited, both single and co-op, and that just does not justify dropping 60 bucks. I will definitely be picking this up when the price drops.

As you may have noticed, or probably not, I less inclined to pay the full price on video games anymore. Blame it on the recession, or the slight drop in interest of video games, but I just can't really justify spending 60 dollars on a video game. Even Halo Wars, which I hear is pretty good. And I'm like the ultimate Halo fanboy. I just couldn't bring myself to buy it and have told myself to wait until a price drop of at least 20 dollars before trying to get it. Yes, that means I have to wait for the Mythic Map Pack, which I want really bad, but I can wait. Speaking of Halo, my skill has dropped tremendously. I went from being a very good Halo player, with levels in the upper 30's for the MLG playlist (which is by far the hardest), to getting scraped by lower levels guys, like 30s-40s. Its embarassing, and I hate being bad at Halo. I'd sacrifice my skill at every game just to be good at Halo. That's how much I love it. And so it sucks sucking. But hey, that's what I get for not playing as much, and not having Xbox Live at college.

Since I am purchasing games a lot less, I've been planning on going back to games I haven't finished and trying to beat them. On my list to beat are Bioshock, Oblivion, Kameo, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Call of Duty: World at War, KOTOR II and GTA IV. I'm probably going to start with Oblivion, get that out of the way, and move on to KOTOR II, because KOTOR was one of my favorite games of all time. Plus those are all quality games that everyone should beat, so why not?

I'm going to give some recommendations. Play Fallout 3, instant classic right there, way better than Oblivion. Get Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, the multiplayer is amazing and underrated. And buy Banjo-Kazooie on the arcade. I haven't yet but I will. I mean that's one of the greatest games of all time, and for 15 bucks thats a great deal.

So as I continue my gaming and my college life, I wish you all the best of luck with your lives, and I hope you all continue to live happy days and achieve your goals. I have a few that I would love to achieve and am striving for. I want to get better grades so that I can transfer to UMASS: Amherst. I want to get in shape and play football for my current college next season. I want to figure out my major, one that I will be good at and happy with. And I want to improve my relationship with my family, which hasn't been so good, where we seem to always fight, and for no good reason. Remember to never forget what you are ultimately striving for, reach for the stars. Because the sky is the limit, and don't you ever forget that.

Yea, this may come as a shock to many of you, but I have decided to step down as leader of The Halo Union *gasp*. Calm down, this doesn't mean I'm leaving the union forever, just for a little bit. Truth is, I don't have as much time as I like, and time is needed in order to run such a big union. I have a 40-50 hour a week job until August 20th. August 20th is when two-a-days start for football. Football will last until Thanksgiving, and that is a long time to not be very active in this union. I thought about it, and I knew what I had to do. I had to step down, and someone else had to step into the spotlight...

Now you may be asking yourself "who, who could lead this great union and continue the legacy that you, chows, and danmorgan left?". It was not an easy decision, by all means. I thought every officer had his strong points, and if given the position, could do well. I asked the officers to vote for one another, without voting for themselves. Then I confronted the top 3 vote getters, and from there, I chose. And the person to step into my shoes was --MAV3R1CK--, a very dedicated and loyal officer to the union. I trust him with the union, and I know he will do his best to keep it in tip-top shape, and help it excel. And with Halo 3 right around the corner, he's going to have his hands full. But I know he'll be able to do it.

Last, but not least, I'd like to thank everyone for the support and dedication you've shown me throught my leadership. I'd like to thank draggoon, banshees, gazza, mav, 3eyed, bigc, expertgamerandvivalamatt. And I'd like to give a special thanks to Chows, for giving me the reins to this union, and for helping turn this union into what it is today. I'd also like tothank out to a few recruits that have been active throughout my time as leader, such as isaach, sfgiantsfan, covenant dude, darthsifh, andcoyote. You guys never gave up on the union, good job.

So thanks everyone for making my time as leader here at the Halo Union great. I will post from time to time, and visit the board when I can. Expect to see me on Halo 3 (when I skip school on September 25th) and on the board regularly after football. THANKS!!! :D

Well, it's been almost 2 months since I've really played my Xbox 360. I know what you're thinking "he must be slowly dieing inside", and yes I kind of am. I mean, I've been away from it so long, I almost have completley lost the craving of playing my 360. "Blasphemy" you gasp, but it's true. I just don't long for it like I used to. But there is a real good (well bad for me) reason why I don't have a 360, so I'll explain.

Well, my 360 wouldn't play Xbox games and some 360 games, so I decided to get it fixed. Bad decision. Well, I got it back in the mail, and my friend brought his 360 over to try and system link (yea, the horribly failed). So accidentally, we switched 360s. Well, for about a week I was playing his (thinking it was mine) when it broke. I called 1800MYXBOX, gave the guy the serial number, and he sent me a coffin. Notice he didn't say anything about the 360 not actually being mine.

So I send it in, and a week later my friend gets a call telling him that he must pay 140 bucks in order to get his 360 back. He was very confused, thinking he had his 360. He told me about it, and that's when we realized we switched. His parents became extremley mad at me (we already have a bad rep with them, in which my bro had a freak accident where he opened the door and the drive backed the door right into their SUV), so I realized it was just going to go downhill. They said I have to pay for it or they would not give me my 360 back. Now I don't know what to do....I'm 360-less. I've lost my job, and until I can get a new one, I can tell you I won't be playing 360. Sucks, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Apparantly, he broke my 360, so maybe I won't have to pay after all. I'll let you know how it develops.

During this hiatus, I visited Florida! I stayed at a resort in Daytona Beach, and it was magnificent. Great beach, and great weather. I managed to escape the Nor'easter that hit Boston, so it was all good.

I also went to Disney World in Orlando. I don't care how old you are, you can NEVER be too old for Disney World. I went to Magic Kingdom, and it was amazing. I went on Space Mountain, which is unlike and other roller-coaster I had ever been on. I went into haunted houses and all kinds of other rides and stores. At the end of the day, there was a parade, and after that some of the greatest fireworks I had ever seen! Speaking of fireworks, I bought 80 dollars worth of fireworks (for half price might I add), which are illegal in Massachusetts, but I can't WAIT to light them. You never see them around here except for on New Year's and the Fourth of July, so that should be a treat for my whole neighborhood....and the cops.

So, yes I miss my Xbox, and can't WAIT to get it back, but its not as bad as I thought it would be. I might miss the Halo 3 Beta though, and that might suck (if it happens), so I'll just have to see what everyone else thinks of the Beta. The new maps are out too, so I'll have go somehow get an old Xbox and have that hold my gaming grief until I somehow get my 360 back.

Crackdown, yes Crackdown. A very addictive sandbox game. I got it the first day. And I don't regret buying this game. I love playing co-op with all my buddies, doing whatever I want, jumping higher than life. This game is just crazy. The only problem is, it's too short, and not enough to do. Just too much potential wasted, could have been the GTA killer, and that's not even overdoing it.

I will be writing a review for it soon for all of you people questioning whether to buy it or not, so look for that soon. But I won't lie, the true reason I bought the game is for the one and only, Halo 3 Beta. I mean, without this, I would have never bought this game. Halo=life to me. Without Halo, I'm not complete. Crackdown is just another piece of me (because of the Beta invite).

Watch for the review. Hit up my profile soon.

Yea over the past few days I've been gone because I got these taken out:

Lol, what I'm referring to are my tonsils and adeniod tissue. Apparantly, they were huge, and causing me to have sleep apneia. Wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. They brought me to a room, put me to sleep, and when I woke up, my tonsils were out! My throat was very sore, but hey, at least I got to eat a lot of Ice Cream, Mac & Cheese, Chicken Noodle Soup, and Milkshakes. The only thing that sucked was doing bothin but sit in that bed all day. Couldn't even walk since I was hooked up to the IV and the other machines. The worst part was probably them puttin the IV needles in, because I hate needles, a lot. It bothered me throughout those days, but I lived.

The nurses were extremely nice, and even brought me movies and a Gameboy DS to play. Super Mario 64 was very confusing onthe DS, but at least it was something to do. Probablythe biggest plus size to this, besides the easier breathing, is the two weeks off from school. Boy, am I going to enjoy that. I'm just going to be kicking back, playing Xbox 360, surfing the net, and doing things in "The Halo Union". I'm going to try to catch up on a lot of things I said I was going to do, so that should get me on top of things.

So the next two weeks are to myself, wish me a safe healing, and congratulations to the new Halo Union officers. I hope you guys do well!

P.S.- I will try to upload photos of me in the hospital, if I figure out how to transfer it from my mom's PDA.

First off, I'd like to thank ChowsSN for doing such a great job as leader of "The Halo Union". He hes improved this union is so many ways, and for that we are all thankful. He has done so many wonderful things, and all aspects of this union have flourished under him. What he has done has been amazing, and I hope to continue his legacy as one of the best union leaders ever.

I joined this union back in March of 2005, the same time that it was created by danmorgan. He envisioned creating one of the greatest unions ever, and we have certainly not let him down. The Halo Union is one the biggest unions on Gamespot, better than anyone could have ever imagined. I was originally a member, but for my great contributions, I was promoted to officer. I put a lot into this union, introducing many new ideas to the union, such as The Weekly Newsletter, The Weekly Poll, The Bungie Wishlist (originally the Halo wishlist), and adding pictures to our bulletins, giving our homepage some pizzaz. I've also consistently posted, and I feel I have been a great asset to the community.

I plan to continue to improve this already top-quality union. I will be making a few major changes, and more subtle changes. I will organize it much more, updating many of the older threads that have invalid info, such as the stickies thread, and limit more of the unnecessary threads that very few post in, such as The Xbox Live Gamertag thread, moving that only to the stickies thread. I am going to be demoting officers that have not been active, and I will tell all the member right now, I am currently looking for new officers. I will observing all of you, and whoever I best see fit will be promoted. There will always be the chance to become officer, but as of now I'm in the immediate search of new officers. That is only a little of what I plan on doing to improve our union.

I am truly honored to become the leader of "The Halo Union", and I hope you all will embrace me as it's new leader, and help me help this union flourish. I love Halo as much as all of you guys, and I hope have this union last for a VERY long time. Please help me in my journey to make us the number one union, I hope to see you all on Halo 2, and soon, Halo 3. Thanks, from your's truly, Innocentguy757.

Yep, I did it. I was way too tempted, especially with me wanting to reserve Crackdown to guarantee a spot to the Halo 3 Beta. I preordered the legendary edition, and Crackdown.

Quality is pretty bad (only got a camera phone), but thats it. It's there. I want that helmet and all those DVD's so bad, and me being one of the biggest Halo fans out there, when I heard about this, I knew I had to get it.

I played the Crackdown demo, and I instantly fell in love. I wasn't sure if I was going to purchase this, because 60 bones just for a beta is pretty steep, so I wouldn't have bought it if the game sucked (I would have found other ways), but nope, it's amazing. If you're doubting it, play the demo. You won't be let down.

All this Halo news has gotten me hyped up for the beta, and I can't wait to kick all your butts in the beta, and in the actual game.

Yea, you're looking at pretty much everything I got for Christmas. I didn't exactly get what I asked for (I originally asked for 1 year of Xbox Live, Call of Duty 3, and a Xbox Live Vision Camera, on topof clothes), but I am still happy nonetheless. I wanted clothes the most, and I pretty much what I asked for in terms of clothes.

Here I got a very nice Nike sweater, yea that is fly as h3ll, which my father says cost A LOT of money (but he was probably stretching it). Also, you can see some nice Timberland jeans, and of course, the jersey of my favorite player, LaDanian Tomlinson. Kid is a beast, I think he has 33 TD's so far this season, destroying the old record. And the amazing thing is, he still has 1 game left.

You can also see F.E.A.R., and boy, that game is nuts. I'm scared out of my mind playing it, and I'm only on the second level. I've told myself I'm eventually going to play that in the dark, at night, alone. Yes, I am crazy.

Here you can see some Timberland sweatpants, and a jersey of my favorite receiver, Chad Johnson. He is absolutley amazing, and his touchdown celebrations never get old.

Overall, I had a pretty good Christmas, also getting $145 on top of that. I plan on getting an HDTV soon, and I'll post pics of that when I get it. (If you have any good deals, or want to recommend a good HDTV for under $500, just leave me a comment).