Ever since a seedy download on Monday the 29th, my computer has become...uterly screwed...

The file was downloaded and scanned with three trustworthy programs. AVG antivirus, Windows defender, and Tenebril Antispyware. Despite this barrage, the program's cover was not blown and I proceeded to run it. The program worked great and as soon as I was finished with it, I quickly deleted it. Still suspicious, I decided to deep scan my computer with the above mentioned programs. Please note, Zone Alarm was active and on high alert during this entire process. The search turned up nothing, Zone Alarm caught a program trying to update my IFP software (which I checked, rechecked and then warily granted access to) but other than that, my computer was clean.
What is another possibility is about a week ago when I was battling one of those viruses that just plants it's little processes all over the place, making the use of Hijack This and a friend geekier than myself an absolute must, the virus had not really dissapeared after all. Is there still some rogue process out there, opening the door into my computer for it's more harmful counterparts? Tune in tomorow during reformat for the exciting conclusion!

(Note: There's been some confusion about this, I don't actually plan to reformat. I have plenty of experience with virus fighting many friends who are even more experienced. They owe me a good turn as one of them owes his non single status to me :P If all else fails, I must, of course, reformat. But not without a fight! Remember the Alamo and the old Compaq in my basement, CHAAAARRRRGGGGEEEE!)

Ahhh, the Gamespot User Fellowship Union. Most people probably won't know what this is considering it's only a recent startup. I think I should summarize it for everyone. GREATEST. UNION. EVER.
Right, so, one nice sunny day (here in Washington at least...I know...odd...) I was bouncing along in System Wars trying to ignore the multiple threads just screaming "I'M A FANBOY! FLAME ME!" When suddenly, I see something not so new. "AK47LOVER is a dumb fanboy!"
Now this was something. An ignorant fanboy here to explain how one of SW's respected posters is a dumb fanboy. I enter the thread to find AK's memorable (and very, very cool) words, "Ahhh, publicity 8)" From then on, it was pure ownage.
So, by page fifteen or so, quite a few of us non-fanboys were sitting around discussing the end of the good ol' days in system wars. (If they ever existed.) Suddenly, someone, I forget who, comes up with an idea, an idea so great, I'm too lazy to describe it. Long story short, the Gamespot User Fellowship Union was formed and Mr. Aran became leader. (Lucky bastard, he barely beat me to create it :P)
This all happened on last Friday if I remember correctly. It is now Thursday and we have just it our 1,000th post. Now, what is a "fellowship union" anyway you might ask. Pure ownage 8)
Basically, it's our own little cool club. We let the coolest people we know from system wars and completely segregate those we dislike. Think of us like the nazi regime...without the mass jew killing...
So long system wars fanboys, I'm off to go post in the GUFU. And spend a couple more hours on the banner....

Yesterday when I awoke to three breaking news headlines bearing word of Nintendo's Wii little "publicity stunt" and a forum full of "sheep ownage", I figured it would all blow over in a couple of hours. At six o' clock that evening, I decided people needed to sleep on it in order to realise that the pee pee jokes and whatnot were not even funny.
Today, the battle is finally starting to wind down. It appears as if the mods are getting a handle on things and the sheep appear to be rallying. I've read through thread after thread of pure fanboyishness over the last twenty four hours or so, and it's amazing to think that this can really be titled "ownage". The renaming of the Revolution has brought out a side of GS I hoped I would never see. A terrible place, filled with preschool poddy jokes and rampaging cows. A place where even the mods can't keep up with things and every able fingered sheep is typing away damage control. It's like the apocolypse, for Nintendo at least....

Today I redid my banner, icon and sig with two hours of pure photoshopping.  I didn't do anything real high quality but I may put up some better stuff whenever I feel like it.  

Ahh, the havoc this morning when the true name of the Revolution was finally revealed.  This is honestly the first time when I've seen every non stickied topid on the first page of the revolution board locked.  Everybody is trying to get there two cents out there and as a result, pennies are flooding the boards leaving little space for real threads. 
     Lets look at the name itself for a moment though.  The Wii.  For anyone who doesn't actually know, it's actually prounounced We.  Now, how many American guys do you know that would go around calling their Revolution a Wii?  Poddy jokes aside, it's just, just, no.  Not happening. 
    With Nintendo already packing an overbearing "kiddy" front to most of their potential gamers today, the choice of name seems to make very little sense.  Already it's a bit embarrasing for me to ask if my friends want to come over and play Gamecube.  Actually, it's a bit more stupid than embarrasing as they laugh at my "GamePube" and we always end up playing football or airsoft instead. 
    Now, picture this.  "Hey guys, lets go play Wii!"  No.  Not a good name.  Even if real gamers can bet themselves around the whole name thing and enjoy the system for what it is, the majority of America's population are not going to be impressed.  I thought the revolution had a chance to change Nintendo's image.  It looks like my GameCube, Nintendo DS and my, erm, Wii, >_>, will never be generally accepted again.

No matter what I put down in this nifty little text box, it will come nowhere near doing justice to this game. With all the modern games we see today and all of the incredible presentation wrapped around them, X-com remains a game on its own. It has never been fully remade, and has been forgotten by most "gamers" today. This is a part of what makes this game so great.
I can't show this game to my friends and watch them get that same awe on their face that they get when playing Ghost Recon or Age of Empires III. The reaction is a bit more satisfying. They watch as my computer slips itself into dos and the game boots up with a "what in God's name is that?" look on their face. I can only keep their attention focused on the game for several minutes before they are utterly confused and turned away by the ugly graphics and sketchy sound. It's one of the greatest feelings ever to know that they will never be able to grasp the sheer awesomeness of this game.
This game really goes to show, it's not graphics, sound or even a good interface or any of these little things that really make a good game. What really makes a great game is something so simple we've nearly lost sight of it today. It's the game.
X-com marks a day that has come and gone. Back before gaming became such a valuable market and companies poured millions and millions of dollars into creating a single game. Companies were not afraid to experiment in those days. Just think about the kind of gameplay X-com has to offer. Do you see anything as "bizzare" as that anymore? We have our realtime strategy games, turn based games, first person shooters, RPGs, squad based games... Each one of the genres seems to represent a mold. Companies rarely tend to break this mold anymore. It's simply too risky. A game with the latest graphics and presentation is just too expensive to fail. Games' sheer popularity has begun to be their downfall.

Well, my finger is now healed, but I am left with a massively stiffened mess to type with.  I will probably begin keeping up with my blog and such shortly though.  Unfortunatley, no one gave me a cookie OR a get well soon card.  Heads will now roll.

During one of the most brutal wrestling practices ever last night, I hurt my hand quite badly. As a result, I will not be able to post for a couple of days at least due to my very slow typing. I'm sure everyone will miss me....

Oh yeah, one more thing, I better get a cookie when I get back...A nice get well soon card will be ok for now I guess:D

My weekend has been a trip down memory lane in the form of several excellent first person shooters. After a long break from any real gaming, I decided to break my fast this friday when I dug up Metroid Prime 2 and dusted off my GameCube for the weekend. Little did I know, this fresh reminder of what a real gaming session feels like would doom me to a week spent doing nothing but plucking my ass in a sofa and slaying countless aliens, terrorists and other baddies.
After playing through a large portion of Metroid Prime 2, I moved on to Call of Duty, Halo, Splinter Cell and to top it off, Ghost Recon 1&2. (This game should be the official greatest shooter of all time in my opinion, along with Splinter Cell...maybe...) As boring as doing nothing but staring at a TV screen all weekend would seem to all of you, (yeah right), It served as an excellent reminder of the real art in video games.
While Metroid Prime and Halo both gave a sort of all powerful feel as I blasted through hordes of covenant and space piratesit was nice to go back to the more realistic side of war with Call of Duty and Splinter Cell. Ghost Recon of course provided a nice break from mindless killing and made me think for the first time in several days. It sure was a hell of a weekend.
Despite the entertainment derived from these games however, I would have to say the highlight of my week was a simple game of airsoft. It really wasn't much. There were six of us all armed with spring pistols and rifles. The course was a public park with plenty of trees and even an old bomb shelter. It took all of about five minutes to plan and get the two teams down to the playing field and ready for some action.
The battle itself was hardly what you could call a battle simulation. With our spring guns, we never fought at a range much over one hundred feet. Even from a range of fifty feet, BBs from the less powerful of our weaponry tended to drop and twenty or thirty rounds were blown off to every actual kill for most of the players. Although youngest (and not to mention the smallest) of the group, I was chosen as first captain and designated sniper for my team.
It was one of the most entertaining experiences of my whole life to be honest. Pathetic, maybe, but there's nothing that could replace the kind of feeling I had playing that simple airsoft game. I was able to give orders to two kids older and bigger than myself. I was expected not only to arrange a battle plan and make sure that our flag was kept safe, but to perform well as my team's sniper. Once, we were all in the thick of CQB fighting at the enemy's base. Rifles had been discarded for pistols, shotguns and uzis. Suddenly, a kid on my team yelled to inform us that our flag had been taken. In a moment of panic I made my way out of the woods where I could see a player of the opposing team running accross the open field with our flag in one hand and his gas pistol in the other. In a moment of sheer desperation I unslung my rifle from my shoulder and fired five rounds in quick succession and watched with amazement as he dropped to his knees calling himself out and dropping our flag. A moment later, the frontal assault on their base finally met with success and their flag was ours.
This is a classic moment that you may see in any good game. The only difference is the fact that none of us were in any real danger, there was but little realism to the fight and the stakes were much slighter than the usual "fate of the world resting on your shoulders" and such.
There was something about this mere casual airsoft match that no video game can copy though. It was real. I'm sure any sniper that is part of a gaming team knows the feeling I'm talking about when you make an important kill. That feeling means so much more when you are holding a somewhat real gun with your team and even a few spectators watching. The responsibility of my command sunk in much more deeply too.
Games aim to and sometimes nearly do give that same sort of immersion into a false conflict. It's just so much harder to replicate when you aren't in the woods, muddy and stinging from multiple welts watching you hard earned victory slowly slip away. It can't give you that same satisfaction when you see the very real expression on an opponent's face when he is forced to lay down "dead" and drop your flag. Realism goes for a lot in a game. To me at least.

    I said I would continue tomorow, and sure enough, today is tomorow to yesterday, so there, right on schedule as usual, using plenty of commas too!
    Alright, so, last post I was filled to the...um, I was filled with praise regarding Mario Kart DS.  After an increasingly busy schedule set in however, I've found myself with less and less time to spend with the game.  My free time has been split up into little fragments in between classes and waiting for rides.  My solution?  Mobile gaming!
    Alright, I know that's the idea of a DS.  Simply put however, it's just not mobile enough for me.  My shiny new Moto RAZR is much easier to pull out and start playing simple games on right aawy rather than booting up my DS, loading Mario Kart and finally, setting up a game.  Suprisingly enough, I found that the mobile phone gaming market has evolved quite a bit in the last couple years and actually offers some relatively entertaining games at a very affordable price.
    A good example is the latest addition to my collection, Port Royale 2.  This game has provided plenty of solid entertainment in the little bits of time I have to play it.  While my busy schedule gives me little time to play my DS and even less for my Gamecube, I wonder what gaming really means to me.  Is it simply a hobby?  A little activity to fill in time between (and maybe during) class?  Something to do when I'm at home and bored?  For the sake of an extra question mark, who knows?