So in my last post I mentioned that i'm renting Voodoo Vince. Well that got me thinking about platforming games: how much i like them and how little i actually play them. So, of course, I went on Gamespot and checked out what the best platformer games were for each system. The top games I saw (as most of you can probably predict) were Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank. Now neither of these games (except the first Jak and Daxter) I really thought of as platformer games because of how more adult their storylines were or cuz they were more violent than i usually associated platformers to be. Now don't get me wrong, violence in video games is nothing new to me and doesnt bother me in the least, its just that when i hear platformer games, I think of Mario, Sonic, other random games where you get 100 of some item and it gets you cool stuff and killing enemies means jumping on their heads and they dissapear.

For clarification on the two games above, Jak and Daxter's first installment is pretty little kiddish but still really fun. However the second game has Jak being tortured for years which, for all extents and purposes, drives him insane and gives him a split, dark personality. Not exactly your ideal childrens game. Ratchet and Clank is completely full of adult humor and shooting. I kind of see this as a show, not only of platforming games getting more adult based, but games in general. Look back at our gaming roots, and you see video game violence as you jump on a monsters head and he pops. Now you get games like God of War and Condemned where the gore is almost overwhelming. Now I'm not going to go Jack Thompson on anyone and start saying these are "murder simulators", I just think that it's kind of a sad show of our society that we cant have entertainment without violence. Well that was kind of a ramble. Just getting my ideas out there. Now im off to play some Half-Life =P. Peace.

Hey everyone! sorry for those of you that messaged me in the past week, I forgot to mention that i'd be gone i guess. I left to New Orleans to help with hurricane relief. Basically i got to help build a house. It was tons of fun cuz i got to meet a whole bunch of new people and I got to check out New Orleans so that was pretty tight.

In the gaming world, I just got Voodoo Vince from gamefly (perfect timing since i just got back from Louisiana, headquarters of Voodoo in the U.S.) and its pretty fun. It's a platformer game, which i like for the most part. More about that the farther I get. Well, on to the main purpose of this post. The Gamespot/EB games deal. For those of you that don't know, Gamespot recently bought out EB games which means a lot for those of us that can't buy games anywhere else. For a long time where I live, Gamespot was the only gaming store pretty much anywhere. I suppose you could go to Target but they hardly had anything so Gamespot was the place to go. this monopoly caused the prices to soar and almost no sales or deals at all. Once EB Games came in about 2 years ago, everything changed and prices went down, they have sales every week, and all that jazz. Since EB Games has now been bought out, I'm really afraid that prices are going to soar again. I've already been seeing less sales and its really bugging me. Hopefully a new company will move in soon so that they will have some competition again.

Hey everyone, although the xenosaga 3 vids actually came out yesterday, I didnt get to see them till today x_X. Anyway, I have seen them and nothing looked too exciting to me. All the cutscene vids looked really dark and I couldnt really tell what was going on. The battles look fun to play but, like most RPG's, sucky to watch. I'm still gonna get the game, of course, but I'm just saying that so far, I'm not marking the date on my calendar. FFXII on the other hand, look so freaking awesome I cant even stand it. If any game can make me want school to come, its Final Fantasy. BTW if you havent heard already, you need to check out Gamestop pretty soon since they are getting an exclusive collectors edition of FFXII that seems to be worth the xtra 10 bucks. It's so far gonna be loaded with interviews, FF pics, a history of FF video and I'd be willing to bet some cool in-game features too (can u say secret summon!). Well, I just got a whole new reason to get a job this summer. With the PS3 and the Wii coming out and now the updates on Xenosaga 3 and FFXII, I'm gonna be broke by xmas =D. Peace everyone.

Oh yeah almost forgot! For those of you that don't know, Gamestop and EB games are the same company now so you can also get the FFXII collectors edition at EB games. NEXT POST: my thoughts on the gamestop/eb games thing.

Hey everyone! This is kinda back to the whole Lost Experience thing I'm doing but a little broader. If you want a post on video games, then wait till next time.

For those of you that don't know what an ARG is, it stands for an Alternate Reality Game. So i suppose it is kind of related to video games but in a lot different way. Basically what an ARG is, is a web of fake websites, commercials, phone numbers, whatever the creator can think of, that lead up to some kind of ending, whatever the creators have in mind. The most famous one around here has to be the whole ilovebees.com thing that halo 2 did before it was released. The one i'm doing (for those of you that didnt read the posts on Lost Experience) is the lost experience which leads up to information about the TV show lost. Anyway, back to my point, i've been amazed at the level of creativity some of these creators have. The lost experience has tons of fake things floating around, most of which you have seen! even if you've never heard of Lost Experience. Those new sprite commercials with the whole sublymonal tagline thing. That website is a kind of container for lost experience clues. If you don't believe me try typing Persephone into the text box on the main page and then 108. You will get a radio broadcast from DJ Dan, an ingame radio broadcast. To me, these ARG's are like a new kind of video game. Sometimes, they get really intense and they bring games to a whole new dimension. If anyone knows of any cool ARG's that they are doing, plz leave a comment with the main site so i can check it out!

P.S. For anyone still interested in getting into the Lost Experience, check out www.insidetheexperience.com. Its kind of an in-game website (term for a fake site that holds clues) as well as a HUB for players to pass along information.

I just was watching the Sonic the Hedgehog anniversary video that gamespot has and it brought back some awesome memories. I started playin video games when I was 3 years old and the first game I ever played was Sonic the Hedgehog 2. I got every sonic game for genesis (except spinball but i REALLY wanted it) and both adventure games for the Dreamcast. There are only 2 sonic games I havent played and those are Rush and Riders. After I watched the video, I checked out the new sonic game thats coming out for the PS3 and Xbox 360 (currently just called Sonic the Hedgehog, you can search for it or just check my tracked games and its in there) and it looks amazing. In the videos section of the sonic gamespace, theres a user video that is the full trailer of the game and it is freaking incredible. Seeing how sonic evolves on the next gen's is enough to make me want to buy either system. Well, I was talking to one of my friends the other day and he was saying how he really didn't like sonic and how it just got boring after a while and that made me think: do I just like sonic because its my childhood mascot? plz comment on what you guys think of sonic. peace everyone.

So right now, im sittin in the Digital Imaging final, and my teacher is forcing Michael Jackson music on us. Pretty painful. Sorry all you Michael Jackson fans but to me, hes just a she-male pedaphile. On the plus side, we get to make a magazine cover with MJ as the main focus and that got pretty interesting =D. Easy way to make fun of MJ is to be serious about it lol. So, Im lookin at my friends list on this site and its lookin a little small =(. Come people start trackin me! If anyone needs any help or just wants someone to talk to, comment or even email me. I promise i wont ignore you ;). Cyaz all.

So I've been playin a bunch of guild wars (im up to lvl 17 now woot) and im finally starting to learn all the tricks of the trade. So a sin is basically made to create support damage and inflict status stuff such as poison or crippled. Since im subbing Monk, i can also play healer for a little while in case my health is low or i have a high death penalty. So im pretty versatile overall but one thing that i ABSOLUTELY cannot do is tank. For all you non-mmo gamers, tanking is when one person with a lot of health takes the attention of the enemies so that they can absorb damage while others with less health kill it. Well, back to the story, some people love saying "well we dont have a warrior (main tanking class) so lets just get the sin to tank for us!"... bad idea. I tanked for one mission and it did not end well X_x. So lesson learned, dont tank when you have one of the lowest health classes in the game.

So my overall opinion on guild wars so far, it's a really good pvp rpg but one thing i dont like is the armor/weapon system. It's kinda confusing as to whats good armor and what isnt. Pretty much the only difference between one set of armor and the next is the special differences (e.x. health + 25, Dmg+10% when health above 50%). Not really all that exciting. But other than that downside, the fighting is really fun and im really lookin forward to guild battles. All for now, peace out everyone.

Hey everyone! School gets out this friday for me and thats pretty awesome. Today is my last normal day (tomorrow we graduate seniors and wed - fri. we have finals) so im really freakin happy. I'll have a lot more time for lost experience and Guild Wars. So on to guild wars, im lvl 15 sin/monk and i think im pretty good so far. I've been able to do most missions with henchmen (you dont have to have played Guild Wars to know that computerized teammates are NOT GOOD) but i like doin missions with people more. Mostly im playin solo but my friend justin and his bro jon are on a lot too so ive done a couple missions with them. Justins about same lvl as me but Jon is lightyears beyond both of us. Our guild, Last of the Arcangels, is pretty tight but we need more people. We have a cape and guild hall but we hardly have any active players =(. Well that was unbelievably confusing im sure. Anyway, so I'm gonna be spending about a week in a motel room with this girl that (supposedly) likes me so thats gonna be kinda awkward. and thats all im saying on that so peace for now everyone.

My mom has recently been spazing out about me having my computer games all over the place (note that these are very old VERY CRAPPY comp games so i never move them at all) and wants me to get rid of most of them. So I'm looking through them all and I pick out some that I think would sell on ebay (classics like Myst and FFVIII) but the rest (about 60) im sellin at gamestop. I hate having to go there though cuz they rip you off SO MUCH!!! Last time i sold stuff there, i traded in about 30 DC games (before DC died of course) and even 2 or 3 xbox games and i got enough money just barely for one xbox game. How crappy is that! And thats not all! im not even getting cash for these! only store credit. Well what happens if i just want to get rid of one game huh i get .75 cents of store credit? BULLSH*T!! All im really sayin is these stores need to up their selling prices at least a little. .10 - .75 cents a game is NOT WORTH IT!! i spend more than that on gas driving there! well thats all for now. Gonna be gettin guild wars soon so hopefully i see some of ya online. peace.

so just today, Mega Man Battle Network 6 came out. I've been a fan of the series for about 4 years so im dissapointed to see it end *cry* but apparently this is one of the best in the series so im glad to see it go out with a bang. If you have a game boy advance then i HIGHLY recommend you try these games even if you arent normally an RPGer cuz these games are hella fun. Its a real time battle system too so its really action packed and you have to be skilled to win. Not just with menus.

Also, I've mentioned it before but it fits in well with the topic, .hack//G.U. came out in Japan a little while ago and has been #1 on the best sellers list for while now. I CANT FREAKIN wait for it to come out on this side of the pacific. Its supposed to be hella tight so its gonna be awesome. I think thats all for now, i gotta check out dj dans site cuz theres supposed to be a new podcast out. Cyaz.