Well I wanted to make this blog post way earlier but I didn't have the time. Ok so big thing just happened at Gamespot. This year there were five editors or staff members have unfortunately have left Gamespot. Well one of the biggest ones were Greg Kasavin, left for EA, and Rich Gallup, which left well to go east.

To think that Gamespot have had a huge loss this year, we, both the people at Gamespot and the community have been dropped with a huge, major bombshell. Editorial director, Jeff Gerstmann, was dismissed on the 28th November 2007 from Gamespot. Man, this really blows. When Rich left, it's was like I loss a friend, since I saw him every Thursday so yeah. Live shows never felt the same without him.

Then one of my favourite reviewer, Jeff Gerstmann, along with Greg Kasavin (also left this year a shame) and Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, Ryan Macdonald, Ricardo Torres, Alex Navarro, and basically the entire Gamespot staff. I dunno with Gamespot you kinda get the up-close and personal treatment unlike other sites where instead of just hearing their voices, you actually see them in person, which is one of the better qualities that I am very fond of Gamespot. Anyway I'm going off track here, so let's talk Jeff Gerstmann shall we?

Jeff has been in Gamespot for eleven years. That's right folks he reached the double digit, ELEVEN!!! Do I have to exaggerate it further? I mean he's a veteran for godsake, and I can believe after all he's been contributing to Gamespot, Cnet employees can just let him go like that. Sure it's like a job where sometimes you're gonna get fired, but this is Gamespot we're talking about here. Like Riccardo said on The Hotspot, they're just like a family together, which is really heartbreaking if you think about it. Man, if you look at the Gamespot video reviews and all, half the time you see Jeff's name or face printed on it. The amount of work and effort he put in this gig was mind blowing. And is just so dissapointing that it was handled properly. It's like another huge hole that needs to be patched up, especially when Rich (which I also miss really bad, one hella of a guy) just left and it was barely a year.

I mean if you think about it, Gamespot has a lot of work on their hands here. Someone needs to host OTS and The Hotspot and probably twice the reviews, I mean these guys really need Jeff here.

Okay I think that's all I wanna rant about at the current moment. All I have to say is, Jeff all the work you have done at Gamespot you'll never be forgetten. You've done a Sugar Honey Ice Tea(I trust you know what that means) load of work at Gamespot and I just can't get over the fact that you're gone. This has been one hell of a year for Gamespot, so much that it might even rival Melrose Place, lol kidding. But seriously who ever anticipated for Rich, GregK and Jeff to be leaving all in the same year. Good year for gaming, not so for the Gamespot community.

Jeff, all of the Gamespot community have seen all of your ups and downs (especially your hair, lol) and have appreciated it greatly. Jeff where ever you go or wherever your feet lands next I persoanally wish you the best of luck and thank you again for your great run here at Gamespot.

Well this week was a rather suprising week for gaming. Two hit games, one from the late 80's and the other from the early 90's, have been given a fresh revival in this generation's of gaming. These two games are course *drum roll* the popular NES game Bionic Commando and arcade and SNES game Street Fighter 2 (I'll ignore Street Fighter cause the sequel was the one that was the by far the most popular and most recognized).Just wow.

Okay first my thoughts on Bionic Commando. The game looks awesome from the concept art and the bionic arm demonstration courtesy of GameSpot. But my worries are this. Will this game be able to live up to the glory of the original game? And I'm a bit bummed out that they're changing the names of the character (Super Joe) and the Badds, just to fit the generation and considered the fact that this a remake. And wondering what wonders would the bionic arm offer our unnamed hero (sadly not Super Joe) this time around?

This time for Street Fighter IV. Looking at its past games, its amazing how many Street Fighter related games there have been and we're only up to IV. It's about time Street Fighter had a proper game after taking part in sooo many VS games like against Marvel and SNK. But its it worth the revival? I mean if they turn out to be a 3D fighter, it might turn out to be an already similar one (it's not like Capcom hasn't done it before) like oh let's say Street Fighter EX, 2, 2 Plus and 3. But I'm basing this on the fact that the trailer was presented in a 3D-ish format. Or they could just go back to 2D and be like ALPHA or 3 let's say (not saying that these games were awful). Like Bionic Commando who knows how both these two games will turn out in the near future.

Only time will tell.

The Wii is a great piece of machine that so far has proved to be successful, outselling both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. When the Wii Remote first came out I thought it was interesting and original controller plus wireless as well. Well, it wasn't that origianal since if one would turn it horizontally, it would look almost identical to the NES controller. At first it wasn't responsive to some motion controlled games but it worked as toher games came along.

But let's put that all aside.

Back at E3 2006, Nintendo announced the prototype design to the Zapper, and I thought it was pretty cool, since it was like the NES Zapper which brought back the days of playing Duck Hunt. In E3 2007, they unveiled the final design for the Zapper which was in a more comfortable position and looked like more of a submachine gun than the original shotgun design.

In the same in the E3, they unveiled another peripheral that would be packaged alongside Mario Kart Wii, which is you guessed it a wheel that would have the Wii Remote inside of it. I have to admit that it is a clever idea, which Nintendo is known for so I decided what the heck.

But now after what seemed an eternity after E3, new peripherals have been revealed by 3rd party companies like the sword for Twillight Princess, Sport Packages for Wii Sport, etc. But the most astounding one was the newly introduced Wii Tennis Racket for the unpcoming Prince of Tennis. I mean come on the Wii to me has the most number of peripherals in console gaming history! Do these actually enchance a player's gaming experience? Okay the Zapper sure and the same with the Wii Wheel too. But the rest are just a ridiculous excuse to cash in extra $$$.

Just tuned in to Gametrailers's s Bonus Round and it was interesting to see that Japan is kinda biased towards Western produced games. I mean everyone knows that the Xbox didn't do very well over there but to think that games like Halo or GTA don't work over there is kinda weird. Cause even Japanese games that do well here like "Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan" but in Japan they didn't. I don't mean to offend anyone but the Japanese gamers have really weird taste in gaming, or they're just different to mine. And a guy on the Bonus Round said that the Japanese are getting into Korean music?! Huh?! Japanese games do way better than the Western market does with Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, and the list goes on. Here's the theory for one for why it is how it is: The three R's -Rockets, meaning too much senseless and mindless killing -Realism, making everything too goddamn real -Rights, copyrighted games like movies, cartoons, etc So are these why Western games aren't succeeding in Japan? And here are the 3 F's to why Japanese games are doing the exact opposite: -Fun, self explanatory I mean why do you buy a game for? TO HAVE FUN! -Fantasy, creating a whole new world in which the player can immerse into -Freedom, have the freedom to be creative with ideas like for example, "We Love Katamari" or "Pikmin" Therefore, are Western developers suppose to learn from Japanese developers, or just stick with the way they are now?

Ok so I just watched School of Rock again for no apparent reason, hey it was a long weekend ok? While watching it brought up some great memories from the moment of picking the guitar to the moment where I was playing Guns n Roses's Sweet Child of Mine. Ahhh, those were the days.

Anyway back to the point. Still feeling a little bit weird why Activision decided to still publish Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock, eventhough Rock Band is still coming out on similar systems. And to put aside the fact that Harmonix is not developing Guitar Hero 3 anymore is something to consider. I remember only playing one Neversoft game, which if you didn't know is the developer for GH3, if memory serves me right, is The Amazing Spiderman for the Dreamcast, oh and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 for the Playstation. Those games weren't that bad, and yes unfortunately I'm not much of a skating person and I'm well aware that Gamespot gave it a perfect 10 score back in the days aka 2001.

Okay, let's quit beating around the bush. Neversoft to me is great at skating games, if you look at their "Videogameography", heck more then half their games are based upon the success on Tony Hawk. But here they are given the biggest "triquel" (ok i know thats not a word but what the heck?) of rhythm games, and it doesn't seem that they have any rhythm game experience at all. Do you think they can pull it off? I certainly hope so!

And another thing. Won't the list of songs be limited since both companies will eb companies will be competing against each other? Activision or MTV Games? Do you want to play the same game thrice or something new? Now that's the question!! Always wanted to say that, lol.

Hmmm....I find this rather odd for Nintendo not publishing their consoles to China since the Game Boy Advance. All the systems are being published by iQue or Nintendo iQue. They have published the GBA to the Nintendo DS Lite for China. Heck China doesn't even have Wii yet?! I thought China was like Japan where they're always updated with their stuff and all but no Wii?! Now there's something new to me. I really never knew that Nintendo never "supported" China with their gaming market, or maybe China doesn't have a gaming market at all.

Can someone fill me out on this?

So this year was my official year on watching the entire coverage of e3 by GameSpot. First my thoughts on the conferences.

Okay the Microsoft conference was first and I didn't expect anyting much out of it except for the obvious Halo 3. To be honest it wasn't an interesting conference at all, not saying it was bad but they just do anything exciting and by exciting I mean that they didnt unveil anything new that was unknown to the publoc before, I mean that's what's fun aobut E3 right? Knowing about the unknown. they started off with the musical performence of Halo which was to no surprise at all. Wait, hold that thought. I think the only new thing that they did show was the new RPG by Mistwalker and designed by Hironobu Sakaguchi. Really for about half the time of the conference it was all Peter Moore bragging on how market sales are more than Sony and Nintendo combined. Its not like I have anything against Peter Moore, but its pretty obvious that they should because they technically a head start on both Nintendo and Sony. This thing also happened on both Sony and Nintendo but I'll talk about those later. I mean okay, it is important to the market jargon stuff but their forgeting about why people go to these things G-A-M-E-S!!! Anyway nothing special about it, although I hoped they showed something more. I just remembered that they announced Splinter Cell will be exclusively to Xbox360 and PC, hmm weird. Last add is that the new Xbox Live service that will feature new arcade games like Golden Axe and Sonic the Hedgehog. Another new addition is the new service of downloadble movies and classic Disney movies. Really to me if these are the same price as the normal DVD's than really there's nopoint to it since DVD's offer special features, or they will too as it hasn't been announced yet, or you're just too lazy to get off your ass and walk over to your nearest store and have lots of money and a really fast internet connection.

Now for Nintendo. Again Reggie points out the obvious that the Wii was meant to make non-gamers into gamers, and yes we already know that! They already achieved that with games like Wii Sports, Brain Age games, etc. I wish they would stop pointing out the obvious. The Nintendo conference was pretty good since they unveiled the new "Wii Zapper", which will be available for an affordable price of $19.99. Another is the "Wii Wheel"which comes packaged with Mario Kart Wii. Their designs are what stand out the best, like the new design of the Wii Zapper which looks a lot like a submachine gun than the old shotgun-esque design. Also the Wii Wheel is very innovative and at the same time simple; all that is needed is to place the Wii Remote somehow into the hollow space in the Wii Wheel, or so it seemed when it was showed off. It was a bit dissapointing that the only DS game that was shown was new footage of the localized version of the new Zelda game. Also the Wii Board is like a new workout system, but to me it won't appeal to the serious gamer but then again its Nintendo's plan of making non-gamers to gamers. Oh and also the part where you step on and off the mat looks like DDR to me, only a really simple one.

Sony conference was a breath of fresh air, well kinda. The real exciting part was the unveiling of the new MGS4 trailer which to me looks great, especially the fight between Raiden and Vamp. But then again didn't unveil any new games. The new PSP to me doesn't really isn't all that great, since the new features doesn't really justify another purchase, for those of us who have one already. The Home system really to me isn't all that great either since it feels kinda forced you would say and kinda resembles the Mii's, only with less personality as they're so bland. Some features are cool like playing a trailer on a HDTV in real time. Really hope that Sonywould further improve on this. Now the ending was just awe!!! The game title that was controversial because it was meant to have possessed finally was showed off. Really by the end of the conference, I forgotten about Killzone altogether, until Phil said,"Ladies and gentlemen this is all in real time footage,". And then four Killzone masks I would say appeared on the four huge display screens and it looked great, but overall wasn't that spectacular to me, but a great way to end the conference.

Overall, all three conferences weren't all that spectacular, but it was substantial.

After watching the great coverage of E3, thanks to GameSpot, realise that there are a lot of fps games going to be released these days. Some were:

• Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
• Turok
• Medal of Honor: Airborne
• Blacksite: Area 51
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
• TimeShift
• Half-Life Episode 2
• Portal
• Team Fortress 2
• Crysis
• Bioshock
• Turning Point: Fall of Liberty
• Hellgate: London (kinda since it has some fps sequences in it)
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

I'm not saying its a bad thing, but in my opinion, fps are being released a great deal ever since the success of the Halo franchise. Like last year, we had Prey, Red Steel,Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas, Resistance: Fall of Man, etc. Aren't fps's getting a bit to popular genre that developers are developing these days. I mean in action wise, it is an advantage since the action is upclose since it obviously in first person and also immerses the player in the game by doing that. One thing that I'm wondering is that is the BattleField series having a another game this year?Oh and another thing, if people want to revive a genre, please make it the platformer!!! It has been a long while since we had a good platformer, or if I've been living under a rock lately.

yesss.... finally the school holidays are beginning! and i can finally get money to buy a nintendo ds LITE!!! i know old news but still somethin about the the Nintendo DS Lite desereves a SHOUT OUT!!!!

ok first things first...I really want to know why games are so f**king expensive these days!!!! *sorry for language* i mean cmon in the states games are $50 RRP and here its double that!!! now this makes me really not wanting to buy a PS3 not because for its price but cause of its games!!! i mean $150????!!!! you gotta be kidding us right? $50 was more than enough but now this?? and i  know i'm comparing prices with the states but they're games are $60!!! and guess what? they're complaing about a $10 increase and look at us...geeze. i am seriously pissed at the people who are deciding our country's game prices...:evil::evil: