So, yeah, it's been about almost 20 years since last time I wrote here. As far as I can tell I started visiting Gamespot around 2002-2003 sometime. It's been a while, probably not going to be writing here anymore. :)

I don't really like Gamespot that much anymore. I've never been a subscriber of their services so I can't really complain, just express opinions. I still haven't really gotten over the fact that they sacked Gerstmann, and then Navarro left. There's not really much here for me anymore, and the site has lost it's leading reviewers really.

The new design was a step in the wrong direction, I think Gamespot needs to reconsider their oldstyle black-layout, I prefer readability instead of flashy graphics, learn from 1UP.

I'll still lurk around though.

Not really financially supporting Gamespot since 2003.

I just recently cleared God of War II for the Playstation 2. What a perfect ending to the Playstation 2-era, I doubt there will be many that good games released for that console before Sony decides to start working on the Playstation 3 fulltime. There's probably only one game left that I really want to play and that is Manhunt 2, but if that game gets a PC-release I probably just get it for PC instead, I'll get back to that just in a minute. So yeah, it's been a while as usual. Seems like I need my six months in between every blog post, and this time I just want to write without the hassle to look up a fitting image for the blog post as I've been doing for well over two years. For all of you out there who has completed God of War II you all know that there will probably be another sequel *cough* "threequel". So yeah, kind of looking forward to that, hopefully it'll be released for Playstion 3.

Oh yeah, what's up with the gaming industry. ALL games and by that I mean probably 95% of the games out there aren't console exclusive anymore. I get that to sound like a really bad thing, and it's just what it is. Five years ago you knew if a AAA-game got released for a console it would use that console's full power (or atleast claim too) and it'd be awesome. Look at Grand Theft Auto, the three 3D-games were all PS2 exlcusives in the beginning and that ruled. What scares me with this is that games will be developed for the console with the least impressive system (this time 'round it's Xbox 360) and when the game hits the store and people go out and buy the PS3 version they get a game that could've been ten times more good looking. If the industry really is heading this way with all titles, there's no real point anymore in choosing a console that carefully (no more reading reviews and watching E3-press conferences).

What's been clogging up my mind recently other than the things I've just mentioned? Oh, yeah I've been going through my first operation (not while playing Nintendo DS or Wii) this time it was my turn to hit the table and get cut up. So while in hospital I had my Nintendo DS there and played a lot of games (bugs me that I haven't paid more attention to Hotel Dusk now that I remind myself of it). So yeah, two weeks ago (perhaps three) I went out and bought a Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector that allows me to play wireless online games of Tetris while lying in my bed, great stuff.

And oh yeah, this is probably the most exciting news of them all, just recently got an e-mail telling me that my computer that I have ordered has been sent, really looking forward to it's arrival. It's been five years since my computer was modern, and by then it wasn't the best computer around either. It's been impossible for me to play any games that have been released for the computer in the last three years. So I've got some catching up to do. I've already have gotten the following games: F.E.A.R., S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (many dots in that sentence), Oblivion, Star Wars: Empire at War, Far Cry, Prey, Just Cause and Rainbow Six: Vegas. So yeah, I've got my things to do now. Anyway, if there's anyone reading this blog thanks for tuning in.

 
Last Saturday I decided to lend all Dreamcast games that my friend owns. And so I got both Shenmue I & II. And I started playing Shenmue I right away. This game is actually the reason why I bought my two Dreamcasts to begin with. I've been reading a lot of Video Game magazines through all of my years as a gamer and I remember when this game came out. The Swedish magazine "Super Play" wrote a lot about it and praised it highly, calling it one of the best games ever and such. So my anticipations for this game was high.

Well, it's been 7 years since Shenmue saw the light for it's first time. And of course it's not as revolutionary nowadays as it was when it first came out, the Dreamcast is no longer the graphics beast it once were and my gaming experience as well as collection has grew enormously throughout all those years (by that I mean that I've experienced so many other great games). So I was a little bit afraid that I was going to be somewhat disappointed.

I've played many Dreamcast games before, and I always feel like the graphics are not that much worse than let's say Playstation 2. Some games, sure they are ugly as hell - and something that could fit onto Nintendo 64, even Playstation. I know that graphics doesn't mean everything, but I think that the time where innovative game makers could make a game that wasn't just an orgy in graphics- but really was built solely on story and gameplay, sadly are over. Everything's built nowadays to be stronger, bigger and better. And sadly I have to follow that as well, and eventhough I don't like it myself I have to come clean and say that "Yeah, I'm more picky when it comes to graphics than before" (Even though I don't own a "Nextgen" console or a PC with the latest graphics card.

Shenmue felt like a fresh wind. The seven year old graphics really impressed me, and I had no idea that the Dreamcast actually could produce such great graphics. Since I have been unemployed for a while now I had the time to play the game straight through. It took me five days, and I don't even want to know how much that is in hours.

I'm not going to sit here and write what the game is about etc. If you already own a Dreamcast you've probably played this game and it's sequel as it's viewed by many to be the best game the DC has to offer. If you don't own a Dreamcast - I don't think it would interest you to read more about it, and if so there's lots of great reviews of the game. But if you seriously think about buying an Dreamcast for this game - THINK NO FURTHER! I did, and I'm so glad that I did! I actually started playing some Shenmue II this day, and hopefully I can have as many hours of joy with it as I've just spent on it's prequel.

It's not often that I lay aside a game that I have been anticipating for a long time in order to play another game I can tell you that. Well since I haven't been writing in like... forever, I've decided to give you a brief description of what I've bought since last time. Game Boy Micro, Nintendo DS Lite (both consoles came with flashcarts making it possible for me to play both commercial roms and non-commercial roms, yeah I know I'm cheap!), Canis Canem Edit (known as Bully in the States) and Guitar Hero (getting the sequel tomorrow). And in a few hours I'm actually going down to the postal office to get my latest purchase; a second Dreamcast since the one I own now is not working properly. I actually wrote a long post (more like a novel) about the GBA back in October or something, but Gamespot was lagging out on me and 20,000+ characters went down the drain, so I didn't actually re-write the whole thing.

Well back on subject, minutes ago I actually finished Marc Ecko's Getting Up and wow am I impressed. The only graffiti based game I've played before is Jet Set Radio (which I have for my Dreamcast) and that game was so-so good. What really grabbed my attention the first time I played Getting Up, is that it's a pretty hard game, I like challenges but on the 4th level or something I was already having heaps of troubles. I talked to a friend about it and he said that he actually stopped playing the game because it was too hard. Well, I've forced my way through it and once you get pass the 8th mission or something it's not that hard anymore. Actually I feel that most of the levels in the end of the game is really easy, and some bosses are easier than the CCK gunmen.

Even though Getting Up has some issues on the Playstation 2, like flickering graphics here and there, sound issues (all fighting effects and such disappears when you get into a fight, leaving only Trane's voice and the music left) it's still a great game. I can't really understand why people have been dissing this game so much. If you like action/adventure oriented games with a twist of acrobatics this is surely the game for you! Besides it has a pretty good story and some fun graffiti moments. And it's a game that I can highly recommend to anyone looking for some 12 hours of challenging gameplay.

I'll be back as soon as I can with new posts about the Nintendo DS Lite and the Game Boy Micro etc.

It's been ages since I last made a post here, and I have no idea why. I've actually spent the summer being away a bit from gaming, so that's probably the main reason for my lack of updates. However lately I have been coming into it more and more.

So, the summer first started with me and my friends travelling to the town "Norje" in the southern parts of Sweden to visit the annual Sweden Rock Festival. I have never been to that festival before, but it was a nice festival, however it's lacking a larger variety of music. I only got to see two Death Metal bands, which kind of bummed me, but other bands like Deep Purple, Alice Cooper, Cathedral and W.A.S.P. made the trip worth it! And it sure was great to see Obituary, I've never seen them live before but I'm 100% confident that I will go see them if they ever come to Sweden again. The band Grave however disappointed me some, very boring on stage. Deep Purple was the best band, they gave it all, and with classics like "Smoke on the Water", "Lazy", "Black Night", "Highway Star" and the B-side "When a Blind Man Cries" you seriously can't go wrong.

After we returned home, I worked some on different storage warehouses in my home town till' I eventually quit my job since I found a new job at IKEA. Before that however me and some other friends went to Wacken, Germany to visit the 17th Wacken Open Air festival. It was my second time to W:O:A this year, and I must say it's probably one of the best festival experiences I've ever had. I finally got to see Six Feet Under, which I have been waiting for to see for so long. I also saw Danko Jones, Opeth, Amon Amarth, Morbid Angel, Aborted, Atheist (which was the best band I saw this year at Wacken) etc.

So then we got home.. and I quit my job and all that. In between those two jobs I actually had two weeks of unemployment which I spent on just slacking and gaming. So I finally beat The Warriors, which was a great game! I also got to try out Shadow of the Colossus some which indeed was a pleasant experience.

So now that the summer is over I'm just waiting for it to arrive again, hopefully we won't get a too cold autumn/winter in Sweden and if I'm lucky springtime will arrive sooner than expected!

So, I have gotten some days off since I last wrote a message in this blog. Well, really it's been a long time since I last posted a message so it's not that weird that I have bought three new games.

About two weeks ago I was at one of the local EB Games store's again and saw that Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was up for sale. So I grabbed a copy of the game since it's always fun with a new GTA-game. I have been playing it for about 10 hours something and I'm about 45-50% into the story of the game. I got to say that I'm not as satisfied with this one that I usually am with GTA-games, and that's because of various reasons. Some of the things that I'm not 100% satisfied with is:

• The feeling: "been there done that". Sure, I knew when I bought the game that it was going to be in Liberty City (kind of obvious too just by reading the title for the game). But I feel like they could have changed more of the city, or even made it possible to go to the nearby "Carcer City". But then again, I don't know how to make PSP-games and couldn't possible tell how much stuff they have fitted into the UMD-disc. However this is the PS2 version, please make something special.

• The frame rate. For those of you who have played San Andreas this is quite common, the Playstation 2 does not longer want to keep up with the gaming industry and when you're the owner of a PS2 you basically have to accept that the world around you evolves and grows. However this is a PSP-port, and for all I know the PS2 is much more complex than the PSP. Maybe they could have fixed the frame rate problems a little.

• The soundtrack. Usually Grand Theft Auto games have impressing soundtracks with a large variety of songs to choose from. But when I play GTA:LCS it feels like I hear the same 2-3 songs all over. Whenever I scroll by the opera station I always hear the same song. Same thing with Flashback. I'd even be glad if they had re-used some songs from GTA III because those songs were really good.

However, the game seems overall nice, and I bet that I will play the story through atleast once, although I can't see it as one of those GTA-games that you play endlessly over and over again.

Continuing, some days later I went down to the very same EB Games since me and some friends were going to have a video game night. I was looking through the preowned area, looking for a beat 'em up game (or just some multiplayer game since my stock on those is as low as it can get) and I found Breath of Fire V: Dragon's Quarter used, but in very good condition for $11. Which is a bargain if you ask me. I've heard alot of good about this game, especially from my friend who has played it and just loves it so I just had to buy it.

The very same day I was scrolling through a Swedish auction site and found a cheap copy of Mercenaries and I knew that I just had to pick that game up as well (been playing it for about two hours today and it feels really nice.) I'll have some fun hours with that game for sure!

Hopefully I can tie my fingers now and don't buy any more games this month. I have so many games that I haven't played through yet!

Me and my friends went to a local cinema the other day to go and see Silent Hill. I have always loved Video-Game based movies, even though they haven't always been that great. To tell you the truth, I've probably seen 'em all (although I have 'missed' Uve Boll's movies, since they are ought to be utter crap!). Just as it was with the Resident Evil movie, I went to the cinema with no real expectations at all. Somewhere deep inside you want the movie to be all the great things that the game/s were, but that isn't always possible (atleast I felt that with the Resident Evil movie, some months after I had seen it). However the Silent Hill movie was absolutely brilliant.

Everything that you should keep in mind when making a movie about Silent Hill was there, and the whole mystique and obscureness of it all was there. Some people may have gone to the movie expecting it to be something that scares the hell out of you, I found myself getting a movie much like the game. At some times it was hard to watch, and you get the same familiar feeling telling you: "Man, I don't wanna be a part of this anymore, turn the game off". But then you want it to continue, and you want to see what happens.

All in all; probably the best video game based movie out there.

Man, it wasn't that long ago that I started playing God of War, and I have already finished it. Ok, ok! It took me some good ol' nine hours though but still, I think I did it pretty quick. I actually even decided to write my own review for the game, so instead of sitting here and rambling about the game that I just beat, I present to you; My review of God of War. I'm definitly looking forward to playing the sequel, maybe I'll even pre-order it!

Now let's talk about something entirely different. I've seen that Gamespot has started to update news about the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV. And I read the thing that Sony wrote about "not being afraid that Grand Theft Auto IV isn't PS3 exclusive anymore". It actually made me a little bit worried. Not that I'm a fanboy or anything but closest to my heart when it comes to gaming consoles nowadays I'm all for Sony. It feels like they are one of the few companies out there that doesn't just do it for the money. They are actually pushing borders when it comes to home entertainment, and graphics of games. I belive that Microsoft should've waited some more before they released version two of their console (basicly it feels like a somewhat updated version of the older one). And it feels like Sony exactly know where they are going with their machine whereas Microsoft are just trying to get more consumers by shipping their console as early as possible (remember all those hardware malfunctions with the Xbox 360? Such things shouldn't be happening, maybe in the test lab but not on the market.)

The thing that worries me about Grand Theft Auto IV not being PS3 exclusive is that Rockstar will limit their effort of making the upcoming GTA-game something extrodinary. We don't know how much that will differ from Xbox 360 and PS3 but judging by that the Microsoft console is atleast a year older than the PS3 when the game will be out, it's obvious that there are going to be some differences. I'm not talking about things like "longer games etc, just because the Blue Ray Discs can carry more information" because there's no way in hell that developers can fill a Blue Ray Discs in the upcoming years. I'm talking about graphical improvements and things like motion sensors (that is intemplented in the PS3-controller). However I trust Rockstar to 100% when it comes to game developing as they haven't turned me down a single time yet. However it may be something to think about, and worry some. Well, forget about it! When Rockstar releases the first screenshots I'm not even going to have time to worry, I'll be all over my keyboard drooling away!

Some days ago I went to my old job to talk some with the boss there. We have had great contact since I left the place and usually our small talks are really nice and game-related. Anyway, he has previously said that God of War is a great game, and that I should get it. So last time I was there he started speaking some more about it and I said "Well sure, I'll give it a shot!" so I went to the nearest EB Games and bought it. That was saturday, now it's tuesday and I've played some 4 hours of that game. It's a brilliant game and it has actually opened my eyes up for ancient greek mythology (there's some pretty wicked things on Wikipedia to read about on greek mythology, so check it out if you're interested.) I know I usually say things like "I'm really impressed with the graphics of this game and so forth", but this time I REALLY mean it (although I have done in all other journal posts).

This game blew me away when I first started playing it! For years I haven't been playing many action oriented adventure games, but It feels really good to be back in business. I really love the brutality of the different ways to kill an enemy (the "ripping of your left wing and crack your skull with it" is the current favourite). I also love how nicely done the graphics are (has anybody except me realized that the CG-movies look worse than the game playing in real time?).

Actually I'm off to play it some more since I have a day off of work. If you've got some money to spend on a game, buy this one if you haven't already done!