I come not to bury Gamespot, but to praise it.

Like all entities, Gamespot was defined by its personalities, the names and faces breathing life into an otherwise soulless collection of news and information. In the first few steps it took, I was a casual purveyor, still bound to the printed media I was able to take with me into the bathroom. Again and again I found myself returning, eventually becoming reliant on it for all things gaming. I became a total access subscriber the month they launched it, lauding the features and content to all my friends, watching proudly as the site grew and the faces emerged. Then the inevitable happened; the faces began disappearing. First Carrie Gouskos left, then Greg Kasavin. Wham. Bam. Luckily, some new faces arrived and all was right in the gaming world, for a while. And then Rich Gallup left, and I felt like I had lost a friend.

Then the unthinkable happened; Gamespot took a knife to its own face. The sacking of Jeff Gerstmann alone was a horrible experience, but to happen in such a seedy, "corporate politics" manner made it even worse. The way CNET handled the aftermath was abominable. And then it went from bad to OMG. All the faces started leaving.

That's when I went from sad, to putting a chip on my shoulder. I started looking for excuses to leave Gamespot. I set up an account over at 1up. That chip sat there uncontested until one day when I was perusing some old posts, and noticed that I never responded to an older forum topic. I hardly ever post. Low and behold, I received a message informing me that I had been moderated for "disruptive behavior" for reviving an old post. Now, I am no stranger to Internet etiquette, but this one was news to me. Why even keep old posts available to comment on if it's such a rotten thing to do?

Somebody had jostled my chip.

I knew right then what I had to do. It was time to commit account suicide. I went straight to the mod boards and posted a completely frivolous response to my moderating, knowing exactly what kind of fish I expected to hook. A sucker took the bait and I promptly canceled my subscription. It felt good.

It still feels good.

In 1992, several talents within the comic book industry decided they were through giving up there creations to Marvel Comics. They formed Image Comics, the fourth largest publisher in the industry today and arguably, the happiest. I feel the vibrations of a similar event happening here, today, with Ryan "Liefeld" Davis and Jeff "McFarlane" Gerstmann starting their own site, free from the trappings of marketing pressure and soulless corporate policies. That's something I want to be a part of, and I fully plan on embracing everything they have to offer.

The one I feel really bad for is Ryan MacDonald. He's like the green crystal in the Fortress of Solitude, the one with all the knowledge of a world long dead, a fraction of its power, singing with the voices of the past. Although Ryan moved away from the camera to allow Rich and Jeff the spotlight, he is the one I always associate as the heart of Gamespot. Only through him and Ricardo Torres can Gamespot recover, and I wish them the best.

It only took me three and a half years, but I finally got 100% completion for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Even using guides it's still hard for me to find all those hidden items. So what's my reward? Well, I got some stats maximized, although I'm not sure which ones, I also received a Rhino tank and a Hydra plane near my Ganton house. They put the damn plane on top of Sweet's house, and I can't get up there without a vehicle to stand on. Nice reward.

I still don't have max weapon stats, haven't done all the unique jumps, hate burglary missions and don't date any of the girls, but it's nice to know there's still stuff to do in this game. What an incredible amount of content. If GTA IV is anything close to this, I'll be thrilled beyond belief.

There is one good thing that has come out of all that's transpired over the last week. Gamespot management will never, EVER let this happen again. They know what their fans will do if they mishandle a termination of somebody that everybody likes. With that said, I'm unpacking most stuff and staying, but the boxes aren't getting folded up. I really liked Jeff Gerstmann's antics and I'm curious to see where he's headed. I'm not the only one. Be warned, Gamespot management...you are officially on probation.

OK, like a total fool I got up this morning and was waiting outside Best Buy at 4:30 in the morning, thinking I'd be first in line for Rock Band! Yep, I was first all right. As in first because there was no line. Well, what can I say, Santa Fe is a smallish town; stuff like this just doesn't escalate like it would in a larger town. In any event, I actually ended up getting it at the Target across the parking lot since they opened up two hours earlier. The employees were so nice to me. Once they saw I was standing outside, they went in the back, grabbed a bundle for me and left it at the customer service counter in front. I didn't even ask them to do that for me. By the time the doors opened, I was the only person there to get one. Talk about overkill on the early bird idea.

So if anyone else had a horror story about getting (or not getting) Rock Band...come to Santa Fe for all your stress-free gaming needs!

I have to admit, knowing that all of the creative team behind the original Starcraft had left Blizzard, and considering the aborted attempt at Starcraft: Ghost, I didn't think they could pull it off. Now that I've seen the trailers and gameplay footage, I couldn't be more ecstatic! It's designed EXACTLY as I hoped it would be. Not radically different, pure RTS, extremely well-balanced and a graphically updated version of the original. New units, new gameplay mechanics, new strategies and a new story, but so familiar to the fans that it will fit like a pair of comfortable shoes. The only dissapointment I expect is to find out it won't be available for three years! That's Blizzard.

Although I was highly anticipating it, the truth is it just doesn't play right to me without a proper fighting joystick. Most of my memories come not from the arcade, but from sitting in the EW shack with my Navy bud's, playing SF II on the SNES with two $80.00 Capcom Street Fighter fighting joysticks. So you can understand, a joypad just doesn't cut it. And neither does the current MadCat offering.

Well, it took Sony too damn long to release the PS3, and now it's  looking too expensive for me to buy. Oh sure, back when I was still saving up for the house and had all the money in the world, all I could think about was my game room filled with every gaming platform known to man. This is just a guess, but as I see it, to walk away from the store with an online playable PS3, a wireless headset, one game and a rechargeable controller, people are going to weigh $800 less when they exit. And why? Because Sony is betting the farm on Blu-Ray. And I am convinced Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are going to die horrible, screaming early deaths. Maybe if technologies like HVD and Tapestry Media had not already been announced as being around the corner, maybe these new HD formats would have a chance. To me, they're both DVD 1.1, not worthy of an upgrade in my library. I can't be the only one who thinks this. Many of us just want a game machine, not to be used as CANNON FODDER for a format that may or may not win consumers. I was blown away by the Killzone and Unreal footage from E3 2005. I wanted to believe. Unless Daddy Warbucks answers my page...I'll be getting a PS3 when the PS4 debuts.

Wow, the game is finally fun after beating the stuffing out of my futon with the controller all through the first 72 hour mode. How was I supposed to know you aren't expected to do everything the first time you play? I was about to write this game off as horrible until I read forum posts talking about going through it over and over and keeping all the experience you gain. Still, it kinda sucks to have a game designed for you to fail at parts of it from the get-go. Well, that's all in the past now that I am level 40 and in overtime mode on my second run through.

The convergence on my rear-projection TV went haywire, so I couldn't play games or watch my TV DVD's until it was fixed. The guy came out today and replaced a couple of IC chips for the red and blue colors. Thank the stars I paid for the extended warranty plan; he fixed it for free.

Now to finally inhale Street Fighter II and Pac Man.

Last night I just happened to peruse the Xbox Marketplace, and I just happened to check out all new game download stuff. Boy, did my eyes pop when I saw Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting listed. As I did mental backflips, I clicked the link, only to see four theme and picture pack downloads. Argh! Well, it was still cool, so I downloaded one of them. Say hello to my leetle Blanka!