This is going to be an amazing year for the DS, when I see the lineup that has evolved over the last couple of months I can`t se how the DS can fail. With online titles coming from Nintendo (some titles sadly lack this even though they should have it) it`s only a matter of time before third party games start to jump the Wifi train to. This is confirming my suspicions of the DS becoming a first class multiplayer console. I recently ordered Poyo Pop Fever from an import site in Asia, seeing as it`s going to be forever until the game hits the shelves of Norway I decided to import (also the dollar exhange value is very in my favor), this will be my first import game and if the time delay continues and dollar value stays it won`t be the last.

Soon I will be leaving the Royal Norwegian Air Defence and maybe then I will get my old life back, this year still feels like a great waste to me but hopefully I will look back on it and see that I learned eh, well that I learned something at all. The end of my career in the military will be the start of my academic career and this summer before that starts I`m giving myself the promise of FINALLY completing a huge list of AAA games that have been on my to do list for quite some time.

So until til next time, may you play som great games!

Ok I`m just getting some of the next gen info into my brain and it`s going to overload any minute now. To me the specs for ps3 and 360 seem insane, I don`t even know how to comprehend the power of these consoles. But when I read the Nintendo press conference I was again impressed with Nintendos approach to next gen gaming. Since they have decided not to give away any specs they instead say what they want with the Revolution and what they want I`m finding to be very interesting. They want to make great games for everyone, including the hardcore gamer, they also want to explore new ways of gaming, altough no one knows what that is... yet. The DS games are coming and they seem to be coming faster, better, harder and stronger then I`d hoped. Suddenly I ses screens of Black and White Ds, Mario Kart is online, Splinter Cell looks amazing, and those are the god old types of games. For now I don`t really now what to make of the gaming industry, only thing I`m sure of is that I`m confident that my next gen console will not be coming from either Sony or Microsoft.

So we finally managed to play some Splinter Cell Chaos Theory - Versus again this weekend. Needles to say it was fun beyond any known scale, however there where some adjustments to our style of play. We are all newbies in the game and this time on of us found out that the backpack equipment for the mercenary alows for many more mines to be placed. This resulted in hopeless times for the spy that would run past the merc just to be blown up for the tenth or so time because he didn`t have time to find or remove the mine. But humans adapt quickly and soon we discovered new ways to deal with the mines (yes I know this may be common knowledge but we are newbies inside a barrack with little to no internet acces). Soon the gameplay evolved into a even more hectic/strategic/sneaky versus sessions. The point being that the game made us evolve to new heights of style and preference. Also I more distiinctly noticed how different levels had different styles of play, one level made for a more rush style of play, others resulted in serius sneaking and stealth, others we just insane on all acounts.

The whole session was played with four laptopps on one just large enough table and againg the tension and excitement in the room was imense. The next day I managed to join a game of eight player Halo 2 on a local LAN, again the expierence of kicking the guy who sits besides you in deathmatch and getting that direct response just ads to the gameplay in ways that you can`t really get in any other way than actually being in the same room with other real people. Multiplayer with people that are actually there is a social activity that one really has to do as often as possible. It`s amazing fun and you are making real life friends while you do it, not just showing of sniper skills on Xbox live to people that live far far away that you will never meet.

Multiplayer gaming may just be THE ultimate gaming expierence

So the PSP is launched stateside and Europe and presumably Norway is stil "waiting" for the little gem to arrive. While im not actually waiting for the PSP I am waiting for some killer games for the DS. With weird games like Electroplankton and Pac Pix getting my attention and more normal games like Mario Kart and Golden Eye coming some day in the future, I really wonder how this war is going to end. The console wars are coming and they are coming big time. It`s just speculation but this might be the world war 3 of gaming industry. E3 is going to be a look into the the battlefield of the future. The war has moved to both regular consoles and handhelds. Nintendo is possibly going to end up like Sega, and Microsoft might end up as the new Nintendo.

-Are these the end of gaming days?

Just read the IGN preview of the Japanes release of Nintendogs and Electroplankton. Both of these games are similiar in the fact that they aren`t traditional games. Electroplankton is about making music and art, nintendogs is about walking your dog and playing with it using touch and voice. Now what`s scaring me most about these games is that I`m really tempted to buy them both (if they ever se a Europe release). Im soon going to be twenty years of age and im excited about a game that let`s you do nothing more or nothing less than make weird music or play with a digital dog! Damn you nintendo for leting me play with my inner child out in public!

Ps. I do enjoy violent games and spending time at the shooting range with my automatic rifle or the platoons machine gun so I`m still a man.

The last months of duty are coming up, im now a fully trained and aproved air defence soldier (it`s not as cool as it sound). The thing is that we still have loads of time left and there is nothing more to learn, no more fake war to play. This leaves a lot of free time on our hands, gaming to to the rescue to save my remaining sanity. Fallout 2, Advance Wars, Generals, Splinter Cell, Mario 64 DS, are all my shrinks in this wasteland of the north. Can`t wait to get home now to finally begin my epic journy into the world of warcraft. Pluss I will finally be able to play some Half Life 2 and Doom on PCs with greater framerate than my age.
Really starting to hate this place now, can`t wait to get back to a normal gaming life.

We managed to play a session of Chaos Theory Versus this weekend with four laptopps linked by wifi, I must admit I have never played any Splinter Cell multiplayer before, just heard that it`s amazing. After finally getting a fourth person I saw the light, this game is frigging fantastic. Probably the best fps multiplayer game I`ve played in years, with all four players in one small room you could cut the tension with a knife. Some of the maps don`t play as well as others though, like when the guards kan just camp besides the objectives that are placed to close and with few entry points. But if the level is good, then the gameplay is incredible, I know some people just play it like another fps game or that they ditch out when it`s time to play as guards, this doesn`t happen when all players are in the same room (altough revealing yourself becomes very easy). When played with a little entusiasm and effort, this game is a totally different multiplayer expierence in it`s own right. Don`t miss out on this feature, you really can`t afford to.

Playing Fallout 2 now, proboably the best post nuclear rpg that is. This game is friggin old and still has gameplay elements that are unseen to this day (in rpgs anyway). If they manage to get some of that same magic going for Fallout 3 (wich I asume will come out sooner or later) it will be a fantastic game!

Finally some confirmed screens and even video from Rogue Agent for the DS, it looks amazing even with such outdated graphics and with 8 player single card multiplayer this game may well be the killer game for the ds, at least for fps gamers. I`m hoping it will have internett play also but reading the interview im not so sure, internet play is something I would boast pretty heavy when I had the chance. Think im gonna import Yoshi Touch and Go as the title looks like some sort of "things to come" for the ds in a hasty but impressive package.

Ok that was a lame title, but it`s remarkable how windy this northern city is! Anyway, just saw the latest pics from Rogue Agent for the DS and I just can`t wait until it comes out! That statement also goes for alot of coming DS games like: Metroid Hunters, Mario Kart, Meteos. The thing about Rogue Agent is that it maybe think about the PSP, the graphics on RA is not amazing, it looks kinda like fps on the 64, so then you can imagine how fps is going to look on the PSP. That poses the quiestion of wich console will be best for fps games and why? My guess is that with the touchscreen mouse like style of control the ds is going to shatter the PSP in control gameplay. How it finally goes down will be decided in the upcoming months.

I was just relieved off guard duty. Guard duty in Bodin means 24 hours on duty, six of those hours are spent sitting inside a small shed and waiting for cars to arrive, when a car arrives you go outside and open a large metal stick and the car drives in or out of the base. In the middle of the night there tends to be fewer (read: none) cars, meaning you sit inside this terrible small room just watching time slowly pass by, this is the worst kind of duty that exists in Bodin (in these times of peace anyway) but with a little game called Advance Wars those hours just flew away like feathers on a speeding car. Thank you Advance Wars for saving the little sanity I have left.