Awesome Valentine card created by Alexandria Neonakis (thanks to Shaunmc for the find)

This week's Community Game Night with Burnout Paradise had a really weird affect on me. Besides having problems figuring out how to break park, the Billboards were hard to find in some areas. When it was required for a challenge, that's when they were even harder to find. If I did find them there were cracks where I would fall in.

But you know.. I had this urge to sing and even started singing this on the XBL headset. I don't think everyone noticed but they will now...

As you may know, we plan to have a game night with Burnout Paradise tonight at 7pm PT. I plan to try out the game during tonight's get together... any tips I should be aware of? Maybe I'll record some footage of me getting wooped. *ponders*

Thanks to Sidburn19's talent of creating a .gif. I thought I would share his image with everyone. If you don't know what show this happened on... shame on you!

Anthony Roman also created a HulaGirl image. :D

This weekend marked the second time I've played Paintball. The coolest part was playing with a bunch of GameSpot staff; mainly from GameSpot Live and the Data team. I think the Editorial team chickened out because they didn't go. The first time I played paintball was in 2001 with some people who worked for Activision, Pandemic Studios, GameSpy (who I worked for at the time). I didn't take any pictures because I was so nervous playing Paintball for my first time. The war wound I had at the time were 14 bruises, 8 welts and muscle strain on my legs. I couldn't walk for three days from crouching so much, and the bruises and welts didn't hurt anything like my legs.

On Saturday, the first time I played on the field was pretty exciting. I was one of the two last people standing and I got some headshots. However, I found out that 90% of the people that we played with were Paintball newbies.

It was like playing Quake with a bunch of newbies on the server. In those circumstances I loved that I had a high frag count but at the same time I knew I wouldn't be on the top any longer if a pro-gamer joined the server. Back in the day I also was told by some friends that I shouldn't hang out on a FFA server that had at lot of newbs because it ruins your aim. You can get sloppy with the splash damage of the rocket launcher too.

So.. after the second time playing in the field I was the last person standing and you know... I did get sloppy. Yes, I put my guard down thinking I was awesome from playing with a bunch of first time Paintball players. I stuck only my hand and gun out there and started shooting everywhere. Someone targeted my hand (I didn't have a glove on) and they hit my hand pretty hard in between my ring and middle finger. I looked down and saw blood spots. It was hurting pretty bad but all I could feel was it feeling like my hand was really cold so I didn't know how hurt I was. I thought I would sit out for a while. But ChrisW gave me some hand wrap and I went back in the field about 10 mins later.

The most exciting part of all was to see KimC in a Rambo action scene. On the drive to the Paintball place he had mentioned that he was new to Paintball and I scared him about how much the paintballs hurt when you get hit. I talked about the welts and bruises from the last time I played. His first time playing he loved it so I think he started realizing that the Paintball hurts but having so much fun makes up for it! In the third time we played in the field, about five of us were aiming at people in front of us. KimC comes from the side of us and he aims at my side. He hits me five times (NOT ONCE! FIVE shots in the same side, yes I have big bruise there now). Then he aims at my teammates. While I was walking off the field with my hands up in the air, I look over and notice that he represented the spirit Rambo; one of the people he shot down happened to be Ryan MacDonald. KimC showed me that a Newbie can be excellent; all they have to do is have the courage to be sly. After we all got off the field I told him that he was like the Spy in Team Fortress 2. I looked over and thought wait, he almost seems that he's on my team but wait...NO! He's shooting me!

I'd like to thank Dave Toister, a former GameSpot staff member, who organized the event.

Sweet video created by UpinFlames.

I have been playing Gears of War again; trying to get through the campaign. The issue I am having is trying to jump out of the way but I think another part is that the Berserker is totally freaking me out in a scary way. I think it's the way it comes at me. I have tried to get through the third door for about 10 times now by reloading the last checkpoint but I seem to be getting worse the more I try. I read the game guide on this site and it gave directions but is it just me or is it really that difficult? I know that it can't be too difficult to play casual mode or many other people would have given up on it. You know, I have to admit; when I usually get stuck on a level I am used to asking my brother or my boyfriend to help me pass it.

Thanks for everyone's game recommendations. I put a variety of them in my queue to check out. Blue Dragon and Two Worlds are the first two games I gave a try. Two Worlds wasn't that bad but I had the desire to give Oblivion a try on the 360 after playing it for about 10 minutes. I need to give it another try though.

I think Blue Dragon's graphics style is what I was looking for the most (thanks to ZimpanX' recommendation). At first it did seem a little kiddy but after I passed the first 30 minutes of the game I found it quite entertaining. I think turn-based role playing games are too slow so I usually return a game after noticing that it's mainly turn-based. Although, I was surprised at how fast this game felt when attacking. Now that I have went through a few hours of the game I am getting better about hating that kind of RPG style, and anticipating the next creature I'll have to attack. I also like how the game doesn't show me that a rock, tree or anything around me has something that will have an item. Although, I do wish that the bushes would allow me to searchto find something in them.

I wonder if I'll start liking turn-based RPG and strategy games after this game. I usually like fast paced action and turn-based never worked even for turn-based Strategy games. I'd like to play Civilization 4 but after finding that it was turn-based (as the others were) I decided to avoid it, even if it is beautiful. If you're wondering why I hate turn-based strategy games, I used to be a volunteer beta tester for Mplayer before I became employed with them. I spent many hours on those types of games, and I hated waiting for my opponent to make their next move only to find out that they were making a sandwich, watching a TV show or doing something other than figuring out their next move. There were times I used to wait 15-20 minutes for a move. After a while I would get fed up with someone not being focused on playing the game. :/

I've been pretty busy lately with work, traveling for the holidays, and I recently went back to college. The last game I played for enjoyment was Team Fortress 2 on the PC and Puzzle Fighter on the 360. I am looking for some Xbox 360 games to check out. Do any of you have any recommendations? I am craving something that wont give me motion sickness. Bioshock was awesome but I kept getting sick and would have to stop for a while. What I could definitely use right now is Beyond Good and Evil game on the 360.

I am catching up on my personal emails and noticed I had an email about this article entitled, "Female Gamers get their bling." I think I would need to see it in person to know if I really would wear it. If it's bigger than 2 inches thick I am sure I wouldn't wear it.