I'll probably be back around E3 - I have to admit that G$ do have some good E3 live press event coverage - I get to scorn M$, mock Ninty and cheer Sony :D . My day will truly be made.

Also, I forgot to talk about my initial reason for logging on:

NEW INSOMNIAC STUDIO!!!

This is really cool, I can't wait to see the stuff that they put out from there after they finish R2, and remember Insomniac - I will work for you one day!!!

*Spoiler*

They shot down Echo 419!!!! How could they?

The planet Halo got owned and the monitor is a t**t.

*/Spoiler*

So Halo's SP was pretty good, I have Halo 2 now, 2nd hand for £4 (:P) and I'll have a go at that. I love the fact that you can dual wield weapons, that's pretty cool. More soon, as my anger levels at Gamespot subside (the healing process takes a long time).

So news in brief:

1: I got GOW2.

2: GOW rocks.

3: I got PSP.

4: PSP also rocks.

5: Guerilla can make a good game, Killzone:Liberation is proof.

6: Gamespot is still biased and ****.

7: Hi everybody!!!

Yes, so I downloaded it, the American PSN is wacked, ands it was really fun. I'm not really in the mood right now.

So yeah, Spain was great, I had a lot of fun and went swimming every day in the communal pool, but the water was freezing, as you'd expect in October. The only bad thing was that my mum's fiancee lost his luggage on the way home, which had all his medication in, but it's OK!!! He won't die or anything, so that's alright.

It's nice being home, or at least it was until I logged on to GameSpot and found I had a message.

To my dismay it was titled: "You have lost an SW bet."

I was severely fed up of waiting for the UK PSN version of the Ratchet and Clank demo on Monday, so I decided to do something rather crazy and create an American PSN account. I now have an account named ShmenonPieUSA (it would have been America, but I couldn't fit the final 'a' in). This was an interesting and infuriating experience, as I will explain.

First of all, while I was creating the acount, I had to deal with something that I have a secret loathing for: American street adresses. I typed some random stuff in, picked the state of Washington DC, and typed in 99999 for the zipcode. This didn't work, so I tried various other random states and numbers, until I just went downstairs to my PC and found Insomniac's adress in Burbank, California. So any post for ShmenonPie USA will find its way to Insomniac's office. It felt rather symbolic, seeing as the whole point was to get my hands on the demo.

After this, I went onto the PS Store, which was fairly similar to the UK version, except for 2 noticable changes. Firstly, in the UK version, the four headers go something like this: Recent, Games, Demos, Videos. In the American store, they somehow left the Demos section out, making me scream 'WHERE ARE THE DEMOS???' at my TV, until I noticed that it was in the currently selected Most Recent category.

I'm off on my holidays to Spain now, so you may not get to hear the second half of this thrilling *ahem* tale until next Thursday!

First, let me start by saying that at the moment, with all this Europe PS3 stuff going on, I am VERY annoyed with Sony at the moment. Why do they feel the need to make everything so much worse?

So first, we get the 60 GB value pack, with 2 controllers and 2 games, just after I bought a PS3 for £400, with a free HDMI cable, and nothing else. I was happy at that time, as I had a PS3, but I felt a twinge of annoyance when I saw what I could have had if I'd have waited another month.

Next, we wait, twiddling our thumbs for a price cut, but I don't care, as I have my PS3 already.

Then, we get one: the value pack goes down to £350. This makes me happy, as it will mean better sales for Sony.

But I start hearing rumours about a 40 GB PS3, and I hope it isn't true, as that is one of the things that I dislike about the 360: it has too many SKUs, and it can easily confuse consumers.

But, the rumours are true, and to my dismay, Sony is selling 40 GB PS3s in Europe, and I feel extremely annoyed. My last hope is that Sony are actually making a profit on these, per sale.

And then what happens? the FRIGGIN VALUE PACK GETS DISCONTINUED!!!! So we Europeans don't deserve BC, a big hard drive and 4 USB slots? To be honest, if I didn't have a PS3 or a PS2 right now, in Europe at least, the Xbox 360 looks like the better option from where I'm standing.

I'll just repeat that: "To be honest, if I didn't have a PS3 or a PS2 right now, in Europe at least, the Xbox 360 looks like the better option from where I'm standing."

Yes, Sony, I really do NOT like you at the moment. So just stop the 40 gig PS3 and bring back the Value Packs. NOW!

I played Halo a few days ago, and it's fun enough in single and multiplayer, but it's seriously flawed, and definitely only worth AA, even in 2001 when it was released.

So what if I'm six years behind everyone else?

PGR2: Meh. I'd much rather be playing Motorstorm or for that matter GT4 (even though I completely suck at GT4).

Wave Race: Blue Storm: Pretty good, but I have games that I'd much rather dedicate time to.

Pikmin: Amazing. I absolutely love it, and I'll see it through to the end.

Halo: I've still managed to avoid playing it!

Anyway, in other news I'm argry, as I want to play R&CF:TOD now, especially as (apparently, I have no proof) PSM3 gave it 93 %. I WANT RATCHET NOW!!!!!

OK, I know I've spent a good number of System Wars posts saying things like 'Halo is overrated trash', but what I really meant was, Halo is overrated, but it's still a pretty good AA game, just not AAA.

The reason I'm confessing all this, is because I bought it 2 nights ago, along with a few other games. I've played it before, but I got it for a fiver, so I couldn't resist having another go and perhaps changing my Halo hating opinions.

I also rented Heavenly Sword, and it's short, yes, but it's absolutely beautiful and it has brilliant combat! If you don't want to buy it, at least give it a rental, it deserves that. But the end boss was CRAZY! Icouldn't do it... Ah well, off to play some Halo then...

If ever you have to walk 28 kilometres in 2 days, my advice to you is:

Don't. Just don't even bother. Go home instead. If you have to, hire a taxi. Just don't do this punishing feat of self inflicted torture.

Especially not when you have to carry a 70 litre rucksack filled with very heavy clothes, food, sellping bag and tent poles all the way. That's what I had to do this week. And it was, as you probably guessed, absolutely horrible.

Avoid like you would the Xbox 3-- *clears throat* erm, Superman 64, South Park the game and Big Rigs. All rolled into one.