It's been a long time since I've visited Gamespot. Left for Giant Bomb once Gertsmann got canned. However, after hearing that Giant Bomb was rejoining Gamespot, I decided to pop in over here and see if my old profile still existed. To my amazement, it still does. Also to my amazement is the number of old blog post I had here. After reading through a few of them, I am actually too embarrased to continue reading older blog post. It really is amazing to see how much you've changed throughout the years. And here were only talking a span of 5 years. I don't even remeber writing half of these things. Oh well, maybe someday I'll get the courage to read through the rest of my old blog post.

I was reading over Alex Navarro's blog at http://www.theheadofalfredogarcia.com/ where he had uncovered a pretty sweet game. Here are the rules:

1. Go to the Wikipedia random article page. Whatever the title of the article is, that's your band name.

2. Check out random quotations. Go to the very last quote on the page. The last four words of that last quote are your album title.

3. Hit up Flickr's "interesting photos from the last seven days" section. The third picture on the page, no matter what it is, is your album cover.

4. Use Photoshop to combine all these things into something coherent looking.

With those rules in mind, I made a few of my own albums. Check them out below, or you can head over to Alex's blog and check out the ones he made.

Oh and by the way, all of these band names / album names are copyrighted so by some chance I start a band one day.

Been a while since I've updated my blog here. Anyways, if you haven't heard, Alex is leaving Gamespot due to the somewhat recent events of Jeff getting fired, which is still messed up. As far as I'm concerned, Gamespot just doesn't have a personallity right now. Sure they still have Ryan, Shoemaker, and Vinny, but they've really lost some of the biggest faces of Gamespot. I think now I'll use Gamespot as a news site and check out they're reviews, but I think I'm pretty much done watching any of they're productions. Hotspot with Jeff Gerstmann was one of the funniest and informative podcast ever. In fact, it is the only podcast I've ever listened to. I doubt that Ryan will become a regular guest on there, and even if he was, without Jeff its just a lot less funny. My only hope is that Jeff and Alex will get hired at another video game site and do a podcast, bringing with it the humor that made Gamespot my all time favorite.

On another note, I have to say that I completely dissagree with Mario Galaxy taking the GotY. I mean I'm sure its good, but not the best. This year has been absolutely amazing for games. Bioshock was great, CoD4 was amazing, Crysis raised the bar on FPS, Halo 3 gave me that Halo high that the original managed to create, Rock Band is just flat out awesome, Guitar Hero III was great, Skate brought a breath of fresh air to the skating genre, and WoW:BC is still a game that just as fun as ever. I started playing Mass Effect about a week ago and I must say I'm enjoying it. The game has some very serious frame-rate issues at time, but so far it looks promising in its story.

Lastly, I'd like to throw out my nomination for the GotY. Now I haven't finished it yet and I will probably hold off in doing so, but I'm going to have to give GotY to Crysis. This game has taken in-game physics and intractability with the environment to a whole new level. Graphically, the game is a masterpiece. It almost looks perfect. The reason I'm holding off in finishing it is because I need to update my computer to run it so that it plays very well and looks as good as it can. Just the gameplay mechanics, grouped with a great environment with amazing physics and graphics just pushes this game far beyond any that I've seen to date.

Just posted my review of The Godfather for the Xbox 360. I have to be honest and say that that game was a whole lot better than I expected. It really took a unique approach on its combat controls and it really paid off. Also, just the feel of the game and how you can whack people in all these gruesome manners is a blast. This is one of those games I put in the same category as some of the Western games such as Red Dead Revolver. It may not be the perfect, but just the genre itself makes it worth playing. (That genre being mob games.) Deserves a rent at least. Read the review for the whole story.

Ok, I know, I'm like way late on this one. But having recently gotten a PS3, I rented a copy of Resistance. I finished playing it about two weeks ago and just posted my review on it. Be sure to check it out and recommend it or not. Definitely not a reason to go out and buy a PS3, but if you have a PS3, I'd check it out.

Well, it comes that time again when someone just has to move on. And this time, its GameSpots' own Rich Gallup. Many consider this man to be one of GameSpots' biggest faces. Having hosted the weekly pod-cast "The Hotspot" and "On the Spot", as well as others such as "Button Mashers", Rich has shown up in most of GameSpots videos. And while some may have taken him for granted, as just being another face that introduced and hosted these events, he was much more than that. He kept a lot of the editors and such on track during the show. He was also a very charismatic host and has always done an awesome job with events such as E3 and the other weekly events. Things just won't be the same without him. Anyway, farewell Rich, you will be missed and best of luck to you wherever it is life takes you. Just one last request Rich, hit us with it one more time on the Hotspot.

So Nintendo just finished off their press conference. And with me being the kind of person who doesn't like handhelds or mini-games for the Wii, I must say that I'm not too impressed. I mean, yeah like everyone is starting to say, the Wii was cool for the first month it was out. Now it is just getting boring with all the lame puzzle and movie game tie-ins. So yeah, wasn't thrilled about all that nonsense handheld gaming stuff. And I could really care less about statistics. SMB looks like it will be pretty good, but I'd much rather play it with the ol' Cube controller than the Wiimote. Same thing applies to Super Mario Galaxies as well. And then they brought out the "Wii bathroom scale" controller and Wii Fit. At first I was just like, "Ok, seriously Nintendo, this is way lame." I almost got mad for some reason. But then I stopped and thought about it for a second. A spark of hope caught my eye. Not in the game of Wii Fit, but in the controller board. Don't get me wrong, I totally think that Wii Fit will be lame, but the controller has great potential. I'll put it like this, what is the one genre that everybody (or maybe just me) wants to see come to the Wii? There has only been one Wii title in this genre so far. I'll give you a hint, it sucked.

Of course you're thinking Redsteel now. Yeah, that's it, a good FPS. This bathroom scale has great potential in making a FPS for the Wii that much more amazing. Just think of the possibilities it could be used for. One amazing use of the bathroom scale would be using it to allow players to lean around corners in FPS. Another way, and a whole lot more obscure and more difficult to do, is to possibly use the scale as a means of running. Those are two things that came to mind when I saw it. I'm not quite sure exactly how the latter recommendation would turn out working, but hey, its worth a shot. So yeah, I must say that I'm pretty excited to see if and how this new controller scale will be used in other games. However, I'm still a bit disappointed that there haven't really been any types of games that fit my playing **** I want new games, not sequels to Nintendo's early 90's hits. Give me a good FPS or something for the Wii. Then I might consider getting one. Also, on a few other notes, Halo 3's campaign is looking pretty sweet. Assassin's Creed still looks amazing. Rockband is going to be awesome. CoD4 looks better than I ever imagined. And congrats to Guerilla for actually living up to their promises and making Killzone 2 look breathtaking.

EDIT: I'm at work so I missed the first 20 mintues of the press conference. But I've just caught glimps of the Zapper. Now thats what I'm talking about. I'll have to see some footage of the MoH actually using it.

Just posted a review of Just Cause. At most I'd recommend a rental. Read the review if you'd like, or don't. All I know is that it has been a long while since my last review.

$250. Sold! Thats right, I now own a PS3. Why you might ask? Because I needed it to play all the washed up ports from the 360? Nah. Because it was only $250 and came with the 60GB HDD, wireless controller, Tiger Woods 07, and the HDMI cables? Yeah, thats more like it. So my brother has a rich friend who likes to blow money. The dude got the PS3 at launch and didn't play it much. He told my bro he'd sell it to him for $250 cash. Now I don't care if I ever wanted a PS3 or not (but I do because I know Sony will get their act together sooner or later and MGS4), but when you can get something valued at $700 for $250, you'd be crazy to pass up it up. I mean, I got a PS3 with a game (one that I won't play) for the same price as a Wii!!! The Blu-Ray player alone is worth $250. It just blows my mind that these things at launch were selling for $700-$1000 and after waiting a while, I got one for $250. I'm sure that pisses a lot of people off. Now I just need Resistance and another controller and I'll be set. Oh, and I must mention that it was the most shady transaction ever. We pulled up in a gas station parking lot and waited in the car for the kid. He pulls up and we get out. He hands the PS3 over and I pull out $250 straight cash. Man I felt shady.

Not according to Square Enix's CEO Yoichi Wada. In a recent story, Wada talks up the DS and Wii while downplaying the PS3 and Xbox 360 as being "over-engineered" and "mismatched." Basically, he says that there are way too many specs that go with the console and that it's confusing. But seriously, is it really that confusing? It seems like if you have enough intelligence to be able to play video games then you should realize what is going on with these consoles. But wait, you need to know what kind of TV to hook your 360 or PS3 up to so that it looks good, but how does all that work and how do I know if I'm getting the right TV?! Is this the problem that's deterring gamers from these "over-engineered",confusing systems? I know nothing about TVs, but I do know if you want it to look better, you hook it up to an HDTV. Any kind will work as far as I know. And if you don't have an HDTV, plug it into a regular TV. Some people forget those exist, but games still look nice on them. Then there is the whole confusing part about which system bundle do I get, the 360 with the 20GB HDD or the Elite? Come on people, it's the 21stcentury, if you don't know what a gigabyte is, then you shouldn't be dealing with any electronics. Is this really so complicated that everyone is completely turned off by the system and feels they must purchase a Wii for its simplicity? What can't be explained about the 360 or PS3 to a consumer in under 5 minutes that should help them make their decision on which console to purchase? Isn't that what sell reps are for? So if you are confused about either the PS3 and 360, let me put it simple. Want the picture to look sharper on your games, buy an HDTV and make sure you have the right cables. Want a console with more room to save stuff on? Buy the console that has the highest number beside the letters "GB". Don't know which console is more suited for you, look up the games that are out and that are coming out on each console and determine which games you will want to play the most. Then pick the console that has the most of those games. There, I just made someone's life easier. Now, lets stop calling video game systems complicated.

-Jared