I originally signed up for GameSpot 10 years ago as of yesterday. When it started I was 10 years old, and found it completely by mistake. My older brother actually wanted me to sign up for Gamespy so we could play online through Gamespy arcade, but I misheard him and instead signed up for GameSpot. And it was one of the best mistakes I ever made. From there I started using it almost daily, checking out the latest reviews on the hottest games (and ones I had never heard of), posting in forums and reading up on all the gaming news. From the forums I eventually joined a Union called PC Gaming 4 Life (I believe that was what it was called?), and there I met some great people. Smartass, Arab_Prince, LightningSun, EntwineX, and many other awesome people. I came home from school on many days and went straight to GameSpot, to check on what my friends were up to, debate about whether Duke Nukem Forever was ever coming out, and watch some of the videos from the great editors there at the time.

After most of my friends began to leave/quit logging in around 2005, I began to grow bored of GameSpot. Shortly after 'Gerstmann-gate' happened, and with it I and many others left GameSpot for a while. This led me to branch out and discovering other game sites such as Joystiq, Kotaku, and my current site-of-choice Giant Bomb. Most of the people I met here have left, and I only pop on about once a week now, but GameSpot still has a special place in my heart. This is the site that got me interested in more than just playing games, but reading about games, learning about how and who makes the games I love, and more. Through my time here there have been several staff changes and at least 3 site redesigns I can think of (with the current one being the largest ever), but the core of GameSpot has stayed the same. I planned to write a lot more about my time here but unfortunately I'm quite tired and short on time, so I'll just say that GameSpot has had a huge impact on my life and hobbies, and hopefully they only get better for the next decade.

Just finished watching the Sony conference, all I can say is wow.

Going to start off with Nintendo,. I went in not knowing what to expect. The past couple of E3's haven't been the best, so I was wary about this one. They started off with Zelda: Skyward Sword, new for the Wii. I was nervous when the actual live performence started with Shiguru Miyamoto, where the motion controls seemed very off, due to interference they said. I've checked out a few other post-show hands on and all have been positive, saying the gameplay works just fine now. After the slow start, it picked up FAST.New Kirby, Donkey Kong, Mario Sports Mix, Metroid, and others! Things went smoothly, and there were few dull moments. Then came the unveiling of the 3DS. Just... wow. The big features are motion controls, an anolog stick, 2 external cameras, and of course 3D. The biggest surprise from a hardware standpoint was that the 3DS doesn't need any glasses to work. Shortly after annoucing this, they showed Kid Icarus, which looks phenomenal, besides the voice. They showed off a list of publishers and some of the games they are making for it, including a new Resident Evil, Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive, Shin Megami Tensei, and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D. They then went around showing off to the game press the 3DS and letting them try it. Reviews seem mostly positive, you have to hold it in the right spot for it to fully work. But once you do, it's true 3D. I'm still skeptical and would like to see it for myself, but so far I'm impressed.

Next up was Sony. It started quite slow, taking about PS2 and mostly the Playstation Move and games, none of which really interest me. There was gameplay of Killzone 3 whihc looked good, maybe not as good as I'd hoped for but we'll see. Things picked up a bit when Kevin Butler came out and game a great speech, then died down again until the last 30 minutes or so of the show. This is where it REALLY picked up. God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Sly Cooper Collection, InFamous 2, Gran Turismo 5, LittleBigPlanet 2. And my personal favorite, Twisted Metal. They even had a ice cream truck with a man dressed as Sweet Tooth come out, which scared the hell outta me due to my hate of clowns. Also, Gabe Newell came out and announced Portal 2 for PS3, more Assassin's Creed Brotherhood footage, and Dead Space 2/Medal of Honor exclusive stuff. Also, TWISTED METAL!

FINAL RATINGS

Microsoft: C One new game not on Kinect? You can do better.

EA: B- Bulletstorm and Crysis 2 looked great, most of the other games looked ok. Bonus points for Joe Montana!

Ubisoft: D+ Ghost Recon and Assassin's Creed? Yes! Laser Tag and a breathing game? NO!

Nintendo: A- Tons of new games, and the 3DS looked wonderful. Loss of points for lack of Pikmin 3 and Zelda demo.

Sony: B Good games but too many montages and buisness material. Also: Agent? Last Guardian?

Day 0 is now over, E3 officially kicks off tomorrow just going to throw out a few quick impressions. Overall I've been very dissapointed at the titles. Microsoft showed off Halo: Reach and Gears of War 3 gameplay, and a quick teaser for Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and announced a new game with Crytek. Most of the rest of their press conference dealt with mostly casual-heavy fitness and sports games for Kinect. The unveiling of the new 360 model was was cool though.

Next up was EA. This was probably the best of the three, which doesn't say much unfortunately. Medal of Honor seemed very similar to Battlefield: Bad Company. I've never been much of a Need for Speed fan. They touched a little on Star Wars: The Old Republic, annoucing ships and PvP Warzones but wish there was more, though I suppose they will show more over the course of E3. Sports games and the Sims aren't a big deal to me either, though it was nice that they managed to get Joe Montana. The two most appealing titles were Crysis 2 and Bulletstorm. I enjoyed the first Crysis, though I felt it was more of a tech demo with a lot of potential than a full game. Hopefully Crysis 2 can remedy this. I know Bulletstorm has been around for a while but this was the first time I have seen anything on it, and it looks amazing. Over-the-top, gory action game? Count me in!

Ubisoft... ugh. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier looked interesting, and would like to see more on Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. There is also a new 2D Rayman game in the works, and Child of Eden, which is very similar to Rez. Other than that, there was a fitness game, the same one and same demo shown off at the Microsoft press conference, a new Driver game, something called Project Dust (looks like a god game?), Shawn White's Skatboarding, a new Raving Rabbids game, a Micheal Jackson dance game (no info on it other than it exists), a lazer tag game where you play lazer tag IRL and and get new gametypes from the PC or something, and a game where you breath. Innergy, look it up. I considered many times throughout the conference just turning it off. They also brought back Joel McHale to host the conference again. There were many unfunny "jokes", many awkward moments, and several idiotic comments.

Hopefully Nintendo and/or Sony deliver tomorrow...

Any thoughts or comments on the conferences?

Actually finished it last week but been busy with other stuff to post this. After 3 months, 70 hours of long and grueling gameplay, and multiple fake endings, I finally completed it with the True Ending! Just in time for Persona 1 for the PSP to come out. Already got it pre-ordered, along with Demon Soul for PS3.

So now I've finished Persona 3 and 4, going to work on SMT: Nocturne until Persona 1 arrives. If you have even the slightest interest in JRPGs or RPGs in general, give the Persona games a try. Evenif you hate RPGs try it. I despised RPGs, the only one I ever really got into was Fallout 3 and KOTOR.The Persona gamesare long but easily some of the best games I've played, right behind Metal Gear Solid series. It even surpasses MGS in some ways I feel. Not going to write a review on it as I don't feel I could without spoiling a lot of key things.

For those of you who have no idea what Persona is, Giant Bomb has been running a Persona 4 Edurance Run for the past couple of months and are almost finished. If you are bored watch a few episodes (watch as early as possible to avoid lots of spoilers), it shows the gameplay and is pretty funny.

• Final Playtime for Persona 4 - 68 hours 47 minutes
• Final Playtime for Persona 3 - 87 hours 26 minutes

I'll keep this one nice and short

1. Last week caved in and bought a PSP with Metal Gear: Portable Ops, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7, Guilty Gear Judgement, and Socom: Fireteam Bravo. Also got Socom 3 for the Crosstalk feature on S:FTB. Loving it, planning on getting Monster Hunter Freedom United to do some LAN with a friend.

2. Quit my job. Got accused of stealing $60 becuase the cash register was short that much. I'm only making minimum wage, I don't get paid enough to deal with this BS

3. Younger brother got a laptop. It was one we had for a while and was kinda brokenish (sceen flickers). Magically he booted it up and it worked. Parents gave it to him even though I've been asking for about a year.

Since I'm now unemployeed for the 1st time in 3 years (work during summer, school all other times [school counts as a job kinda]) just going to sit back, kick up my feet and relax until school starts later this month. Maybe it'll give me time to work through my backlog of 330+ games...

Just got done watching the major 3 atE3 on G4. No one else wants to hear me ramble about the new titles and such in real life, so I decided I'd vent on here :)

Microsoft

I did not watch all of the press conference but I did see all the major highlights from Kotaku, G4 and just what people here on Gamespot were excited for so I have a pretty good idea of what is happening.

First of all, the announcement of Metal Gear Solid: Rising was a small blow to Sony. While they still have MGS4 exclusive, having MGS:R be multiplatform is still a pretty big deal as MGS was one of Sony's Flagship titles. Rumors I've been reading are saying that this one is going to be more actiony, which is not what MGS is all about. The motto of Tactical Espionage Action has been replaced with Lightning Bolt Action to help support this rumor. The trailer was a dissapointment, however at least they announced the title.

The next big one for me was the announcement of Left 4 Dead 2, coming November 17 for 360 and PC. L4D was one of my favorite games of 2008, and I am looking foward to the next one. The inclusion of melee combat weapons is something I wanted in the first one, along with new maps and more infected. Luckily we get all of that.I don't care much for the look of the new survivors however, they just don't seem to have the same feel as Bill, Francis, Louis and Zoey do. Theough I may learn to love them later on. Also the inclusion of new boss infected is a great touch, though I wonder if this means more than 4 v 4 multiplayer? Maybe 8 v 8? Left 4 Dead 2 4*2=8?

Of course there is also the motion controls. I'll admit I'm a bit bias against Microsoft, anyone who knows me well understands that. However the camera does look to have potential, I'm mainly saying that due to them showing off "Milo", coming from the creator of Fable and Black & White. This game looks a lot like the Dreamcast title Seaman (go ahead and laugh, everyone else already has), which has intrigued me for some time. Alas I don't have a Dreamcast or the game or the microphone so that option is out there. I won't bother trying to explain it, but if you haven't looked at it you should at least do so.

Alan Wake was given more details as well and showed actual gameplay. This is made by Remedy who are famous for creating the Max Payne series (a third one was recently confirmed I believe). It looks quite good, creepy with action. Been looking foward to it for a few years now so it's nice to see some details

Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins are both made by the greats Bioware, and are looking great. Halo: Reach and Crackdown 2 were announced, and Halo: ODST was given more details as well. Twitter and Facebook is coming to 360, yay i guess?

Overall I thought Microsoft delivered fairly well HOWEVER! They did not even mention Rare working on any game? Even so, I thought they did a good job.

FINAL GRADE: B+

Sony and Nintendo Coming Soon

I'll keep this one fairly short. Last week I bought my friend's Xbox 360 off of him for $50, I'm just waiting for the hard drive to come (bought one off eBay since it didn't come with one), should be here next week. If you want to add me my Live info is on my profile, though I probably won't get internet on it until late next week.

Also went over to that friends house to play Resident Evil 5, on friday I spent all night playing co-op with him and we beat it at 4 AM. It's a blast, amazing game that I need to get the money to buy.

Finally I started driving in Driver's Ed. It's really easy, I take the test for it in a week or two. Can't legally get my license until August, I need to have my permit for 6 months and I've only had it for 2 =/ .

Anyways that is all, decided to keep this one nice and short :) .

Waiting for Noby Noby Boy to finish downloading, since I just bought it, so figured I may as well do a blog. Why not.

So I've had the PS3 since August and I still play it daily. Since November I have gotten Street Fighter 2 HD Remix, Everday Shooter, and as previously mentioned Noby Noby Boy. Been playing SF2 a lot lately, I use Zangief. He's hard to use since he moves slow and has no projectiles such as a Hadoken or Sonic Boom or others, so I kinda have to work my way over slowly. I have to jump over them, or do this one special that if I time it right lets me barely pass by them, so it's a lot slower, kinda like a cat stalking his prey I guess. Once I finally get over to them though I hurt pretty badly by piledriving them. I'm ok at the game, online I usually win at least 1 round, ever once in a while I actually beat them though it's more of an exception than the rule. Going to get SFIV once I scrap up the money, probably in March-April. Loving Everday Shooter, really relaxing with the music and such. Otherwise I've just been renting games such as Resistance 2, The Darkness, Far Cry, Mirror's Edge, etc.

In addition I've also gotten Little Big Planet and Rock Band 2. LOVE Little Big Planet, the communities' levels are usually pretty fun, and I spend hours with my friends just custamizing the Sack Boys, coming up with new designs and costumes and such. Well worth the money. Rock Band 2 is fun also, got it for PS3 so I can download songs for it. Haven't got much, so far all I've downloaded is "Toxicty" and "BYOB" by System of a Down, "Are You Dead Yet?" by Children of Bodom, the Distrubed pack, and "Skullcrusher Mountain" by Johnathan Coulton (he wrote "Still Alive"). Lots of fun, I can now drum on Hard on the majority of the songs. Poorly but still can :P

Also got an I-Pod, loaded it up with music and whatnot, and subscribed to the Hotspot here at Gamespot. I'm happy since I got mentioned on The Hotspot for the homework assignment towards the end. It's a good podcast but it kinda tweeks me how little they remember a lot of the older games. I hear people on there who forget a lot of the good games, when they talk about certain topics they don't metion them, or if they do half the people on there don't know them. I realize they have other things to do besides keeping up with every single game coming out or has came out in the past 10 years, but I'm 16 and know every one mention except maybe 1-2 and can think of others. Oh well. not a huge issue.

I also picked up Lord of the Rings Online earlier this month. Really fun game, loved the more story focus. Not as much as say Fallout or something, but moreso than many other MMO's. Also has a great community, the people will help you with quests or questions you have instead of simply flaming you (WoW...), and the chats can get to be funny (just the General channel). I haven't had to deal with trolls (execpt for 1, maybe 2) spamming, really enjoying it. I just canceled my account however, due to too many other things to do, and lack of funds, though I do start work again next month :? . Once things die down I'll more than likely start back up however :)

I've also gotten several other games I can't remember, I spluged on Black Friday (November 26th I think?), spent $100 and got about 10-11 games mostly used, some new, so I won't bother listing them. Some notables include Max Payne 2 ($5), Chrono Trigger ($40) and Guild Wars ($5). Then a few days ago I started playing Manhunt, hoping to finish this weekend :) .

And finally I hit Level 37 Heiankyo Alien. No idea what that is from but sounds kinda cool :P . So that's about all, longer than I expected. How's things going with you guys? Any cool new games, maybe a new system, or a special someone entering your life ;) ?

So it's been a few months since I've posted a blog. It's 2 AM here and I don't feel like going to bed, so I figured what the hell.

So the biggest thing is back in August I got a PS3 and a 50" Plasma TV. I have MGS4, Stranglehold, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Madden '09, Fight Night 3, MK2, and LIttlebigplanet for it. I've been playing it a lot. I also got Gamefly which lets me rent out 2 games at a time, then I ship them back and recieve a new one, so I get 6-8 games a month for $20 so I can't complain.

Also been playing the Left 4 Dead demo, have completed it 20 times thus far, enjoyed it everytime, already have it pre-ordered :D . Also tomorrow I'm going to get Animal Crossing. Kinda lame, but it's pretty addicting, at least the Gamecube version was.

Speaking of addicting, I'm starting to play World of Warcraft again since the new expansoin just came out. I don't have it yet, but my dad does (He's working on his 3rd 70 when it came out) and friends have been wanting me to for a while so figured nows the time I suppose.

Started High School, things have been going well, no problems there, just been hanging out with friends, the usual. I'm taking 2 college classes since I can take them in High School for free, so that's been keeping me busy as well.

So not much has happend since my last blog post and now. I've gotten a lot of new games, too many to list so if you really want to know you can go digging through my collection.

However, last night I did go to my first concert. I went to go see Dragonforce. If you haven't heard of them you can find them on YouTube pretty easily, they are also on Guitar Hero 3 (Through the Fire and Flames). Also playing was Powerglove (they do remixes of game music, like Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy etc.) and another band called Turisas, a band from Finland that does metalish-viking-folk music. 

It started with Powerglove, they were amazing. Their guitarist was really cool, as pauldrens he had Koopa Shells (Mario) and viking helmets, their bassist (I think?) had Leather Armor, and can't remember what the others had. They did Mortal Kombat, Mario, FFVII, Mega Man and Tetris.

Next was Turisas, the Finland band. Personally I thought they were the best of the 3. They had a guitarist, bassist, accordianist, singer, and violinist. I was really impressed with them, just bought their CD and have been listening to it, once again YouTube if interested. But man, their guitarist (bassist?) was HUGE. If any of you have seen Harry Potter he looked like a little smaller Hagrid. He was good at guitar but geez....

Finally came the reason we went there, Dragonforce. I'm not a huge fan but 2 buddies of mine that I went with were so I can along as well. I thought they were a little sloppy at parts, but that might have just been due to the stage equipment. Overall they were pretty good, they came back and did 2 encores for us, they got a little annoyed at teh 2nd one but oh well (they did Through the Fires and Flames for the 2nd encore)

Then one of my friends got in a Mosh Pit, he elbowed a few people, then got punched in the back of the neck and the back so he called it quits. So yeah it was a pretty good concert.

Anyways so as you can tell not much going on with me. How bout you guys though? Any good concerts, maybe a new system or game you haven't gotten around to blogging about? As always thanks for reading.

 EDIT: Looking back on my profile, I missed my 5 year aniversery here on Gamespot! Doesn't feel like it's been that long. I still remember back before they had the level system or emblems, when the search bar was in the middle of the page instead of at the top, when there were no wedges... i feel old giving a "back when" speech :? :P

Wooho! Finally got the Serious Collector emblem. Been waiting for it since 20 games ago.

To finally put me over the edge, I got Assassin's Creed, Star Fox 64, Rainbow SIx Vegas, Rock Band, Soul Reaver, and Advance Wars: Day or Recogning recently :)

In additon, on April 13th (day before my B-Day) my dad asked me if I wanted to go to Las Vegas. Obviously I said HELL YA! So we went and stayed there for 2 days. I went to the Bodies Exhibit (they take unclaimed Chinese corpses, and skin them so you can see the flesh, muscles, tissues, organs, and veins. They're orignial, nothing fake. Kinda creepy...), a Jousting competion, went through Caeser's Palace (REALLY nice casino), and went up in the X-Scream at the Stratosphere (it's a ride from 1,000+ ft. or 304.8m up in the air, and dips you straight over. Here's a quick pic to get the idea...

And we did a few other things that I won't bother to mention. So that's all for now. Anything good going on with you guys? Fun, new games, etc?