Whew. The show hasn't even started yet and I'm already in overdrive. So much new stuff, so many surprises, so many letdowns. Let's get started:

Sony: Going in, this was the press conference that I was the least excited about. I've never been a real big Sony fan, so I was just watching it to see more stuff about the PS3 and finally see it in action. Sony let me down. Sure, they showed a bunch of demos of supposedly live gameplay running on supposedly final dev kits, but there's no way to know if that's really true. As the capstone of their PS3 showcase, Sony showed off a rehashed version of GT4, dubbed GT HD. This would have been impressive it was wasn't for the fact that there were no real time shadows, and it wasn't even being played! It was just yet another boring demo.

Meh, at least they announced a few cool things. MSG4 is looking better and better every time we get a look at it. Legacy PS1 support for the PSP? That's a pretty nifty idea. PS3 will support all previous media formats? No surprise there. And finally, the long awaited launch date and pricing point(s). November 17 is unsurprisingly the big day, and Sony seems to be following Microsoft's marketing strategy by releasing two versions of their platform, one with a 20GB HDD for $499 (Called it) and one with a larger HDD for a hundred more (called at again). I think Sony is shooting themselves in the foot with this one. But then again, what do I know? Only time will tell.

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Nintendo: Now THAT'S a press conference. No concrete release date for pricing point for the Wii, but who cares? This one got me really pumped up. So many cool games in development and coming out soon for the DS, the DS Lite, and all the cool Wii stuff they showed and... Oh my God.. actually played? Yes, that's right, they actually PLAYED (Take that, Sony) numerous Wii games right there on the show floor. It was amazing to say the least.

While it has been a bumpy road along the way, I think Nintendo is finally getting it right. Adhering to this generation's strategy of mass market appeal, Nintendo stands quite a chance to gain back all the ground they lost in the last console cycle, provided they play their cards right. but they have been around for ages, so they know what they're doing. Hear hear!

Current winner: Nintendo.

Check back after the Microsoft press conference for my impressions of that one. See you then!

It's about damn time! I'm looking forward to seeing stuff on FFIII for the DS and what's coming to the PC this year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I recently picked up Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow for the DS. I'm a newcomer to the Castlevania series, and this game really makes a great impression on me. I've been playing for about  seven hours now, and I've revealed 87% of the map, and I'm almost finished with the story. Look for a full review from me as soon as I've finished the game. Well, back to it!

In short, I like it. More to come soon.

After an involuntary... uhh... break from GameSpot, and quite a bit of MegaMan Battle Network, I'm back. Hooray.

Wow. I thought that the downtime would just be small and insignificant. Boy was i wrong. When things came back up GameSpot was in chaos. Tech Support exploded with threads reporting all kinds of glitches. I've spent about 6 or 7 hours straight here today (sad, I know). On top of that, I started getting flamed for helping (of all things) by three irrational people with nothing better to do. meh, it's just a side effect of being helpful. There's always people who don't appreciate the work you do to make things better. Man, I really need to sleep. Hopefully things will be back to normal tomorrow.

I cannot, for the life of me, beat the frigging last boss of Perfect Dark. He's impossible, and yes, I know the little "stun him and shoot the statue thingie" trick, but that's not the problem. There aren't any Shields that I know of in that level. Plus, even if I do get to him with full health, he just shoots a rocket at me and I'm dead. On top of that, regular Skedar spawn spontaneously and beat the crap out of me. And if you die, YOU HAVE TO GO ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE FRIGGING START OF THE LEVEL. IT'S IMPOSSIBLE! (And I'm playing on Agent). I need to find a GameShark, that's all there is to it.

And so yet another school year is coming to a close. I've got four days left after today, two of which are just finals. After I get out, I'll have even MORE time to spend on my Internet dealings: Data Analysis and KGB on GameFAQs, SE=F and Tech Support here on GameSpot, finally get a move on on my own site, get the new board for MBH Social up, and even more. Plus, I have to raise money for my trip to Chicago, get ready for Blowout Camp in August, and much more. Summer is a time of rest? HAH! There's a lot of stuff I need to get accomplished. I'll probably send in a mod application submission to Bethany once I hit level 10. Really the only reason I want to be a GameSpot mod is to be able to better help people in the Tech Support and SE+F forums. I'll probably also apply on GameFAQs this summer. Hopefully I won't come back empty-handed from both. Well, that's all for now. I don't know when I'll update this next, so don't wait up.

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