At last, I have finally completed listing my entire collection on GameSpot.  The only games I'm missing are the ones that were lost, stolen, or otherwise missing.  Ones I know I lost, or were in any case missing before I stored my games in my grand mother's barn, are Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES), Super Mario Allstars (SNES), Discworld II (PS1), and Mario Kart 64 (N64).  Ones I suspect my little bastard cousins of stealing and/or hiding within my grand mother's house are Belle's Quest (GEN), Fantasia (GEN), Aladdin (GEN), Toejam & Earl (GEN, those little bastards better hope I find this one), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GEN), Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES, big loss lol), and Goldeneye (N64).

I know that the first four games I will NEVER see again unless someone gives me theirs or I buy another, but I'm hoping that the remaining 7 games turn up hidden somewhere in my grand mother's house or that my dead-beat baby producing uncle takes responsibility for his damn kids and finds them for me.

I think that perhaps today I made my most foolish financial decision ever.  I work at GameStop and this lady brought in a box of PS1 and NES games.  GameStop no longer trades in either and I was getting off the clock while she was there so I told her I'd look through them and make her an offer if I saw something I liked.  Her PS1 games were nothing too interesting but she had a few gems in her NES collection.  Specifically I had my eye on 4 games, 3 for their value and one because its a fun game I didn't already have.  The one I bought was Blaster Master for $2.  The ones I passed up because I already own are Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt, Final Fantasy, and Dragon Warrior.  The lady told me straight up that she didn't know the value of them and she figured $2 each gets them out of her closet and a little money in her pocket.  Rather than buying these rare treasures and immediately putting them on eBay, I told her not to sell them cheap and the name of a used video game store exclusively in my state that took NES games last I was in one of their stores.  I figured I couldn't have gotten a lot since it was just the games and none of the packaging or peripherals and on top of that I had no way of testing to see if they still work before I bought them, but I can't help but feel I made a bad decision...

So recently I picked up the MegaMan X Collection that I waited so long for (I was one of the people that said "I wish they'd do this with MMX" when I picked up the Anniversary Collection) and played through each of the 6 games, 2-6 multiple times.  This was the beginning of an insatiable appetite for Megaman.  I went back and finally finished the Anniversary Collection as well (I had stopped at MM5) and that still wasn't enough so I went to GameStop and picked up MegaMan Zero 2, MegaMan & Bass, and MegaMan Battle Network 2.  I decided to hold off on playing the MMZ series til I can get my hands on the first one, but I played MegaMan Battle Network 2 and just beat it this morning.  I dunno why people like to say play the first and skip the rest cause this game kicked ass! Kicked so much ass that I ordered MMBN1, MMBN3 white & blue and Chip Challenge online, and I bought MMBN5 Double Team.  Though my MegaMan craze in general is far from over so I also ordered, MegaMan X7, X8, X Command Mission, and Zero 3.  All I need now to complete my collection is the 2 Legends games and the spinoff,MMBN4 red sun and blue moon, MegaMan Network Transmissions, and the ever so elusive MegaMan Zero 1 which was back ordered on both ebgames.com and gamestop.com.  I really do curse the decision I made when I moved away for college and I needed about $20 more to set my car up for the trip and of the 3 games I had purchased (MegaMan Zero, Disgaea, and .hack//mutation) that I returned MMZ...

I trudged on. Shooting Kertan frogs along the way I made it to The End. In this fight I had several objectives: 3 Kerotan Frogs to shoot, capture the Parrot, hold up The End for his camo, and capture the Tschucinko snake afterwards. I managed to complete all the objectives, but not without some 'special' moments. Moments like when I said "All right ***** if you shoot me once more I'ma eat your damn bird!" followed by a "BAM!" and a "Disgusting!" or the moment when The End was looking directly at me and I crawled up to him using Moss camo with a 100% index until I was face to face and he still did not see me. Well after the end I caught the tiny snake and went on to the greatest challenge yet: The all mighty Ladder!!! It was quite an endeavor but I managed to come out on top. I just took it one rung at a time and eventually, I was victorious. Then I discovered that to get the Ural Luminescent I needed to back track. I braved the Ladder once more and ran all the way back to the warehouse to get the mushroom. Then I went back and climbed "The Ladder" again. Not much to say about the mountain. I kept my stealth up until I got past the base of the mountain when I shot the frog with the turret. Then I killed about 20 guys that came after me. The vultures had a nice feast but I was left low on ammo. I couldn't afford anymore alerts so I carefully made my way up and eventually I found myself again the fury. It was a hot battle. One that left me quite frustrated. After many attempts I finally got off a stamina kill as well as getting the frog in that fight. I made my way through Groznyj Grad, shooting all the frogs, impersonating Raikov. I'm currently saved in the jail cell. Guess I'll get to experience the nightmare when I play again.

I managed to get off a stamina kill on The Pain, after many many tries, by using a similar strategy that I used to beat Ocelot. I equipped the grenade camo that I downloaded and I chucked grenades at him to spread the bees. Then I'd nail him with my trusty Mk22 about 3 times before his bee armor reformed. When he'd attack I'd go underwater til I had 95% camo index. I did get low on health once and I kept swimming around the center island where The Pain stood until I regained health. I got his camo, shot the froggy up top and moved on, shooting frogs as I went. Eventually I got to The Fear. This battle was fairly humorous. I was the patient tranquilizer pistol sniper. I waited til he stopped to shoot at me and I shot him once to interrupt him. When his stamina got so low that he needed food I took the berry he shot down and shot up 3 Poison Dart Frogs. While he was vomiting and climbing back up the trees I got several pot shots on him. I got a little worried because I ran out of Mk22 ammo and I couldn't see any frogs when he had a sliver of health left. He shot down another fruit and he was right next to. In a desparate attempt to beat him to it I rolled over to it, knocking his ass on the ground and winning the fight in the process. Of my food list I added the following to my collection: Tree Frog, Giant Anaconda, Milk Snake, Kenyan Mangrove Crab, Vampire Bat, Bigeye Trevally, Poison Dart Frog, Thai Cobra, Arowana, Coral Snake, Maroon Shark, Taiwanese Snake, Red Avadavat, Russian Glowcap, Fly Allargic, Baikai Mushroom, Russian False Mango, Calorie Mate, and Instant Noodles. Currently saved in the warehouse, right after the fight with The Fear.

I fired up MGS3 again today. I got myself several of the plants & animals around the beginning areas: Reticulated Python, Indian Gavial, Rat, Japanese Flying Squirrel, Green Tree Snake, King Cobra, European Rabbit, Markhor, Sunda Whistling Thrush, Russian Oyster Mushroom, Siberian Ink Cap, Golova, Yobloko Moloko, Russian Ration, and Baltic Hornet's Nest. Only 32 to go! As for camos, I've gotten the Raindrop Camo and the Zombie Face Paint. I've gotten all 5 Kerotan frogs during the Virtuous Mission and the six Kerotan Frogs in the Snake Eater mission up to the Rassvet. Saved in Chyomij Prud to take a break.

After my first two play throughs I decided to try for FOXHOUND since that seems to be the only way I'll ever get the Infinity face paint, plus it'll give me bragging rights. Here are my stats from the first 2 runs: Difficulty: Normal Play Time: 25:40:42 Save: 10 Times Continue: 55 Times Alert Mode: 112 Times Humans Killed: 32 People Seriously Injured: 196 Times Total Damage: 59 Life Bars Life Medicine Used: 3 Times Plants & Animals Captured: 31 Kinds Meals Eaten: 105 Meals Special Item: Not Used Title: Komodo Dragon Second run: Difficulty: Normal Play Time: 8:21:05 Save: 7 Times Continue: 4 Times Alert Mode: 27 Times Humans Killed: 3 People Seriously Injured: 26 Times Total Damage: 9 Life Bars Life Medicine Used: 0 Times Plants & Animals Captured: 27 Kinds Meals Eaten: 49 Meals Special Item: Not Used Title: Jaguar I've started extreme mode today. This first run is my 'preliminary run' before I start on FOXHOUND. I'm focusing mainly on hitting all those damned frogs to unlock the Stealth Unit, eating every type of plant an animal out there to unlock the EZ Gun, picking the gun on the right at the end to unlock the SAA, none which I will use anyways, and getting all the camos and face paints (excluding Infinity, of course). The Camos are most definitely the main purpose of this first run. I know for FOXHOUND that the Sneaking Suit, Moss Camo, Spirit Camo, Snake Camo, Animal Camo, and Spider Camo will be the most useful. I'm off to a good start for getting all the Camos already as I got first place on all 5 Snake Vs. Monkey levels yesterday earning me the Monkey Mask and Banana Camo. Learning how to go through the game without using the AP Sensor, Active Sonar, and Motion Detector isn't too bad for me since I didn't really use them in Normal Mode. I just hope I can get a few batteries for the IR Goggles when I go for FOXHOUND. Currently saved at the Rassavet on the Virtuous Mission.