As promised, here is my huge blog. The mother of all blogs. I expect this to be my largest blog of the forever. So let's get started.

This blog is dedicated to AfterBurner, who just recently got the ban hammer :( May he rest in peace.

Playlist:

Karma - Alicia Keys

This Velvet Glove - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Would? - Alice in Chains

Restless Heart Syndrome - Green Day

Table of Contents:

1. Top 25 Games (Part 1)
2. Vanquish Demo
3. Green Day concert
4. Upcoming Games
5. Company of Heroes
6. Now Playing
7. Help me buy a new console

Top 25 games of all time (25-21):

So I figured I'd do one of these.

DISCLAIMER: This list will likely be subject to change in a few weeks, so don't kill me if I contradict anything on my list. This list also does not completely go by my 'Top 10 of this gen' list I did a month ago.

With that said, let's start the list:

25. Half-Life 2 (PC)

Half Life 2 is one of those games that showed that single player shooters don't have to be bad. Despite how much I knock it for it's horrible shooting mechanics, unnecessary vehicle sections, and mind dumbing puzzles, Half-Life 2 masters the art of pacing and does a great job of immersing you into its world. I didn't find the story to be as good as people say, but it kept my going until the end. Overall, Half Life 2 is a game that everyone should definitely experience.

24. Fire Emblem 7 (GBA)

I got this game purely out of instinct, and it was SO worth it. It was my first Fire Emblem game. But I felt at home when playing it. The gameplay is satisfying, especially when you get critical hits. The gameplay maintains enough strategy to it to make sure it doesn't get overly easy, while still not overwhelming you with difficulty. It uses a rock-paper-scissors mechanic and it works perfectly.

23. Super Mario Bros. (NES)

Did anyone expect this to be omitted from the list? :P Super Mario Bros. is easily one of the greatest games I've played of all time. It opened me up to platformers. It's simplistic story and focus on gameplay made it easy to pick up and play, and allowed to player to put it down and go back at any time without feeling like they missed out or forgot something important.

22. Crysis (PC)

Screw the graphics. That's not what makes this game. It's the gameplay. If you think Crysis is all graphics, then you seriously need to play this gem. The fantastic gunplay and its ability to let the player play it however he or she wants is definitely a strength. Crysis' use of suit powers forces you to adjust your styIe of play to the situation. It works perfectly. Great AI and fantastic atmosphere make this game a definite must play. This is game that you will want a high end PC for. If you ever can afford to build a high end PC, definitely check out Crysis. I can guarantee that it's an excellent game.

21. Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon (PlayStation)

This was one of my childhood favorites, and it holds up well today. This is the 3D platformer that I judge all others based on, mainly since it was the first masterful 3D platformer I've played. Spyro 3 is the pinnacle of Insomniac Games' greatness. To this day, none of their games come close to touching Spyro 3. From exciting and fun gameplay to a variety of mini games that you can waste hours of your life on, to a great cast of characters, most of which are playable, Spyro 3 is an excellent 3D platformer that easily ranks up with the best of the genre, and it surprisingly holds up well to this day.

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Vanquish Demo:

So as you may know, Vanquish is one of my most anticipated games for the rest of the year. I thought it looked quite bad ass and over the top as far as gameplay goes, when I initially saw it. Fortunately, it's safe to say that I was correct. The game plays exactly like I thought it would. A cover shooter at heart with some unique gameplay elements that heighten the pace.

For example, you take cover behind objects and can pop out to take your shots like you would in Gears of War or Uncharted. You can also vault over cover by pressing the Square button. While in midair, you can activate the Augmented Reality System by pressing L1 (Aim). What this does is it slows down time, allowing you to line up your shots. It looks bad ass and stays that way for the entire demo.

Another key element of Vanquish is speed. You can use your boost ability to boost around the map at free will, by holding the L2 button, and navigating with the analog sticks. The X button serves as a dodge maneuver. Combining dodge and aim will let you use the ARS at free will. The game also automatically engages ARS when your suit senses that you are about to be obliterated into shreds.

Then there was the boss fight. It left a good taste in my mouth. It starts out as this spider thing, where you shoot the legs to paralyze it, and then you can fire at the weak core to do massive damage. It wasn't very tricky or mind boggling, but it was still a fun fight that allowed the player to toy around with the different weapons and suit abilities. When the core is pretty much destroyed, the spider mech thing turned into a human-shaped mech, where you had to do the same thing: shoot at arms/legs to paralyze it and make it expose its weak point, giving you time to shoot the living hell out of it.

The demo was fairly easy but still offered some challenge and it gave me an idea of what to expect in harder difficulties. I'm guessing that the final game will offer more depth as far as weapon and suit upgrades go, adding more replay value to it. I'll be satisfied with a juicy 10-12 hour single player. I really hope this sells well. Platinum games deserves more than what they get. Sega, please market this game well.

Green Day - Live at Mountain View, California:

I went to Green Day's live show at Mountain View, California. It was the last, and easily the best show they played in the entire North American tour. Opening for them was AFI. They weren't too horrible. I've seen them play worse. They had a few decent songs, but the meat of the show was obviously Green Day.

From what I can remember, this was the set list:

1. 21st Century Breakdown
2. Know Your Enemy
3. East Jesus Nowhere
4. Murder City
5. Holiday
6. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
7. St. Jimmy
8. Geek Stink Breath
9. 2000 Light Years Away
10. Coming Clean
11. Going to Pasalacqua
12. When I Come Around
13. Hitchin' A Ride
14. Brain Stew
15. Iron Man - Rock n Roll
16. Sweet Child o' Mine (cover of Guns n Roses)
17. Basket Case
18. American Idiot
19. Jesus of Suburbia
20. 21 Guns
21. American Eulogy
22. Wake Me Up When September Ends
23. Good Riddance

So as you can see, they played A LOT of songs. I'm pretty sure I left out a good chunk of songs they played, since I can't remember all of them off the top of my head. But they put on a great show. I lost my voice for a few days due to excessive screaming. Overall, this was the best performance by them that I have seen. Better than Woodstock 94, better than Milton Keynes, everything. The best part is that they're making a live Record of the tour, and most of the stuff is going to be from the Bay Area, California.

I can't wait for their next show, which is unfortunately going to be a long time from now.

Upcoming Games:

As you can see from above, I'm really excited for Vanquish. I'm also excited for Little Big Planet 2. It's shaping up to be quite fantastic. I didn't get a Beta invite, but I can hardly wait for the full game. The original is one of my favorites this generation, and for good reason. It's simply put, fun. I've had so much fun playing it with my closest bro's. Be it, screwing around in the Pod, slapping each other, killing each other but grabbing on when someone starts to make a long leap, it's all just fun.I don't care if the platforming is floaty. It works fine and it adds to the fun since the levels are physics based, however unrealistic they are.

I was originally a bit skeptical as to how the game creator would turn out, but now that I've seen more about it, I'm pretty excited. The bulk of levels I play will likely be platforming levels and some deathmatch levels with friends :P .

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Gran Turismo 5 is shaping up quite well. I'm not a big car person, but I tend to have fun with racing sims. Forza 3 was fun, GT4 is fun, and the GT5 time trial was fun. I'm not sure if I'll get this at launch or not. I'll probably end up getting it later this year or some time next year.

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And finally, who can forget about Steam sales? Steam is probably going to have another killer sale this holiday and I can't wait for it. My wallet will probably bleed from it, but it'll be well worth it.

Company of Heroes:

Picked this bad boy up for the low price of $2.50. Yes. $2.50. I was planning on buying it for $10 anyway, and conveniently the sale came the next weekend. I've only played for about 5 hours or so, but it is very fun! If you know me at all, you'll know that I'm not big on RTS games at all, but this one might change my feelings about the genre. The micromanaging is still a bit overwhelming, but I think I'll get the hang of it with practice. The tutorials have been very helpful so far.

Now Playing:

I've currently been playing some Wind Waker and Company of Heroes, with Call of Duty 4 and Left 4 Dead 2 for my multiplayer fixes. It's worked out well so far. I'll get to my second playthrough of Assassin's Creed II later this month.

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As for fillms, in Film cIass we finished watching Chaplin (1992) starring Robert Downey Jr. I LOVED this film. I didn't think I'd enjoy it nearly as much as I did. It really informed me a lot about Charlie Chaplin and the silent era of film. Although, I still have unconditional dislike for silent films :P What can I say? They just find a way to bore me.

I'd give the film an 8/10.

Then we watched a documentary about Lon Chaney (Phantom of the Opera). It was meh. I didn't care for it much, but it did a good job of informing me about Lon Chaney, and I thoroughly appreciate him for his legendary works in the silent era.

Now, we're watching Tarzan: The Ape Man (1932) starring Johnny Weismuller. This film is excellent so far. I think I found another one of my favorite films. I loved Disney's Tarzan as a kid, and I like this even more. It's funny at times to look back at the funny effects that they used, and some of the artificial and poor acting, but in general, it's a great film. Just got to the part where Tarzan takes Jane up to the trees, to his house.

Another console?

I've been thinking about getting another console. I've narrowed it down to 3 choices:

• Wii
• Xbox 360
• Nintendo 3DS

I'm leaning towards the Nintendo systems right now, but Reach has got me into wanting a 360. Not sure what to do, since I will likely only purchase one of these. We're nearing what I would like to think as the last few years of this gen. Is it foolish to buy a current generation console when there will likely be new consoles in 2-3 years? Should I stick with the handheld? But doing that will mean missing out on Super Mario Galaxy 1/2, Zelda, and Metroid series on consoles.

I really want Reach, but that will likely be the only game I buy for the system, maybe along with Gears of War 3. I'm just not interested in the 360 games that I currently can't play on PC/PS3. HELP ME OUT!

That's all for now.

PS: Anyone who reads the whole blog gets an e-cookie :3

Hello, this blog is just here to indicate that I will post a huge blog sometime on Tuesday. I'd do it right now, but I feel extremely lazy at the moment. So expect a blog on Tuesday or at the latest, Saturday.

Let's start with "other stuff".

I recently recorded this video and decided to post it :3 . It's not the best, and I didn't play the solo, but eh, it's not bad. Any feedback would be appreciated :oops:

In other news, I almost got banned yesterday :P You see, there was this thread about Bayonetta vs God of War vs Heavenly Sword, and some one was being a total dumb **** so me and champ decided to just mess with him. I started posting some gifs, and they were all clean. But one gif, I forgot the rehost it since I got it from that site that shall not be named since it does horrible things to people and creates internet memes and funnies at the cost of human beings. That said, I'm still alive, escaping the thread unscathed (well, I did get 2 moderations. 1 warning and 1 points loss) but not for the thing that almost got me banned :P

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As far as gaming is concerned, I have been playing Uncharted 2 multipalyer almost every day now, with people from GUFU. It's extremely fun when you get a full party of 5 going, since we dominate almost every team on psn. Yea, most of the people on Uncharted 2 suck since they're generally the action/adventure crowd who don't play online shooters much, if at all.

But today was a special occasion. People involved:

• Buzzz
• fabz
• myself

We beat Uncharted 2 gold rush mode on all 10 rounds :) It was awesome since Fabz generally had problems connecting with friends in uncharted 2 and he finally got it to work, and this was our first game together. I'm totally saving that replay :) . We got so lucky many times. I delivered the treasure, barely alive, with both Bzz and fabz dead, a few times. Getting shot one more time would have meant game over :P Round 1-6 was cakewalk. Round 7 was slightly challenging. 8-10 was a **** though. But yea, it was a load of fun, even though Buzz didn't have a mic :x

I also picked up Borderlands on Steam last week. A few friends and I split the 4-pack. It's a great game with friends, and I have a lot of friends to play with. Yoshi and I played for around 3 hours one night and it was very fun and addictive. Add my on steam (SilverChimera) if you have Borderlands on PC. My gamespy account name is xSilverChimera, so add that too if you play Borderlands.

Some single player games I've been playing include STALKER, Wind Waker, and I've been getting closer to getting that platinum trophy in Uncharted 2. I just need 26 more treasures, then around 200 kills with the GAU machine gun. Shouldn't take long at all. Also been replaying Assassin's Creed 2 for some stuff that I missed.

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As for upcoming games, I'm mainly interested in Vanquish, Little Big Planet 2, and Gran Turismo 5. For financial purposes, I'd like to limit my purchases to those 3. However, knowing Valve, they'll have a few massive blowout sales, forcing the better part of my conscience to give in and just buy the damn games that I can run :P . I'm excited for the winter sale this year. Last year's was amazing. I got a bunch of games. (Off the top of my head, I got Orange Box, Braid, Counter Strike Source, STALKER, and Mass Effect). This year's should be great as well, even if I only get older games :P

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I got my school schedule for this year. Nothing really hard except for Calculus

1. Film in the 20th century
2. California History
3. English
4. Creative Writing (Dropping this course)
5. AP Economics/AP Government (I'm dropping this as well)
6. AP Calculus

so I want my main focus to be on AP Calculus and I guess on learning how to program :P

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Anyway, that's about it. See ya!

Yea, it's the imported Japanese version, but it's all in English. I played it for a few minutes, and I'm installing it now (shorter load times). It better be awesome because Champ ****rides this game to hell and back :x

Wasn't too bad at all. In fact, it was quite awesome. I'm too lazy to type it all up again, so I'll just copy/paste from my Tumblr.

Today was great. I got farther in Final Fantasy 13. Got to Chapter 12 and it is indeed awesome.

Later, me and the bros went and saw The Expendables, aka most badass film. Ever. It was ****ing amazing from start to finish. Loved every minute of it, mainly since it was never trying to be too series. It didn't try to tell a story. It just did. No questions left unanswered, and everything was crystal clear. Oh, and Jet Li is badass. So are all the other characters =)

Go see it now.

blog

Okay, I thought I'd make a few "Best of" lists: Best of 2010, and best of this generation. Both lists are only games that have released up to today.

Top 5 of 2010:

5) Pokemon Soul Silver

Pokemon Soul Silver is an excellent remake of the best Pokemon game of all time, Pokemon Silver. The remake for the Nintendo DS is well welcomed and it's absolutely worth checking out for everyone.

4) Final Fantasy XIII

The latest Final Fantasy may not be the greatest, but it does boast incredible visuals, a fantastic soundtrack, and the best battle system in the series. It's a great game that just has problems with pacing, storytelling, and character development.

3) Shatter

Shatter was released last year on PSN, but this year on PC, so I'll treat it as a 2010 title :P . Shatter is a beautiful, colorful, explosive, and addictive arcade title. The explosions and special effects are a treat to look at, and the game does a nice job of improving on the basics of brick breaker. The suck-and-blow concepts make the game much more interesting and give you more control of the ball. However, the main complaint is that the game is simply put, too easy. The only loss you'll probably face is when you quit the game.

2) Mass Effect 2

This is easily contender for Most Improved sequel. Mass Effect 2 improves on everything from the predecessor, except the story. Everything is more fluid and makes more sense. There's an ammo system instead of the overheat system. The bad vehicle sections are gone, clunky combat is replaced with a more fluid one, albeit less strategic. The major complaint is that most of the game is spent searching for party members for your crew. Another complaint is that the universe feels less expansive, due to less exploration missions. However, Mass Effect 2 has masterful storytelling and and great improvements on the first game, which make these letdowns a little more forgivable.

1) Super Mario Galaxy 2

Surprise, surprise! Sorry if I made the #1 choice a bit too obvious :P It's simply put, the best game this year. Nothing has come close to the amount of fun that is to be seen in Super Mario Galaxy 2. The levels are made with such creativity, that you'll come to expect this sort of design out of all other platformers. The power-ups are equally as good, enhancing the gameplay even further. Then there's Yoshi. I don't even have to explain this part, as it's quite self explanatory as to how good Yoshi levels tend to be.

That's it!

Let's move on to the top 10 of this generation.

10) Mass Effect 2

This is easily contender for Most Improved sequel. Mass Effect 2 improves on everything from the predecessor, except the story. Everything is more fluid and makes more sense. There's an ammo system instead of the overheat system. The bad vehicle sections are gone, clunky combat is replaced with a more fluid one, albeit less strategic. The major complaint is that most of the game is spent searching for party members for your crew. Another complaint is that the universe feels less expansive, due to less exploration missions. However, Mass Effect 2 has masterful storytelling and and great improvements on the first game, which make these letdowns a little more forgivable.

9) Bioshock

Bioshock is one of the best single player shooters I've played. It's got the perfect atmosphere, an excellent story, and great characters. The Plasmid power ups are also very fun to use. The big drawback with Bioshock was in its final third. It just went completely downhill, with a poor final boss, and some poor missions.

8) Killzone 2

For what it was hyped to be, its a pretty damn big achievement what Geurilla has done with Killzone 2. It's not anything revolutionary like Half-Life, but it does set high standards for console multiplayer shooters. The campaign in Killzone 2 is a little underwhelming. The story isn't very interesting either. What makes the game fun is the amazing gunplay and feedback. The AI is very good as well. The graphics also add to the game's gritty and dark atmosphere. It may not be as pretty as Crysis or Uncharted 2, but Killzone 2 is a technical masterpiece on its own. Where the game truly shines is in multiplayer. It's excellent use of sound and visuals truly create an enormous battle field on any map. The map layout is also fantastic. Each map is excellent to play any mode on. The multiplayer layout is genius. Each game mode is set as a mission type, so you can play deathmatch, CTF, HQ, Assassination, and more all in one match.

7) Assassin's Creed 2

While the first Assassin's Creed was underwhelming and simply put, boring, Assassin's Creed 2 takes everything that worked from the first, and improves upon almost everything that didn't. The missions are far more interesting, and the gameplay is much deeper than before. Just like the first one, AC2 truly shines in it's gorgeous open world. Italy seems to be the perfect setting for an open world game, and every city in the game is fully detailed and well crafted.

6) Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Solid Snake's outing on the PS3 has received mixed feelings from critics and gamers alike. On the surface, it looks like something that's half movie/half game. However, when playing the game, it feels like 1 mixed experience. Most of the cutscenes are interesting, but a few of them draw out for simply too long. Kojima could use some new writers. However, the game is amazing. On the easy and normal difficulties, it's easy to pick and choose whether to play the game as a stealth game or a shooter. Shooting mechanics work like a third person shooter, and you can buy weapons and ammo on the fly. If it weren't for an extremely disappointing final conclusion (there are 2 conclusions, the amazing one, then the long and boring one), this game would be a lot higher on the list.

5) Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Uncharted 2 is a complete game. It does almost everything, and it does all of them extremely well. A masterful single player campaign with perfect pacing, and great characters, to a robust and addicting competitive multiplayer, and many different co-op modes. Uncharted 2 is a game that you can spend anywhere from 10 to 100 hours on. It's a must buy for any PS3 owner, and is definitely worth buying the system for.

4) Braid

Braid is a game that I simply did not see coming. But when I did play it, it became an instant masterpiece. Braid masterfully combines gameplay and storytelling into one short but sweet package. The gameplay is comprised of platforming and time based puzzles, while the story is told through books at the start of each chapter. Braid's genius plot will have you mind****ed by the end, an ending which you do not see coming the entire way through. And that ending is enough reason for it to be #4 on this list.

3) Little Big Planet

My thoughts when I first saw LBP: "Who would want to sit down and create a level? BORING. I'll pass on this one." Then, my friend got me the game a few months later for my birthday. Saying I was wrong about the game initially would be an understatement. LBP's focus is just total fun. Everything in the game is total fun. And it's more fun with friends. From dressing up your sack-person, to ****slapping your friends, to putting stickers where they don't belong, to just totally ****ing around in every level. LBP is fun. Fun fun fun. That's why it's #3. Oh, and it's also got a neat little level creator and awesome local+online multiplayer. Must buy!

2) Super Mario Galaxy 2

It's simply put, the best game this year. Nothing has come close to the amount of fun that is to be seen in Super Mario Galaxy 2. The levels are made with such creativity, that you'll come to expect this sort of design out of all other platformers. The power-ups are equally as good, enhancing the gameplay even further. Then there's Yoshi. I don't even have to explain this part, as it's quite self explanatory as to how good Yoshi levels tend to be.

1) Demon's Souls

Surprised? I was. I bought this game because someone told me it would kick my ass more than most other games out there, and I didn't think so. Well, I was mostly right. It's not as hard as people like to make it seem. If you're watchful, active, and know how to dodge (do a barrel roll), you'll do fine. If you die in Demon's Souls, it's your fault. If you kill a monster, it's because of your skill. That being said, Demon's Souls is the perfect RPG. It's got a well realized world with top notch atmosphere, and the best combat scheme in an RPG. On top of it all, it's got some genius multiplayer intergration with a nice help-system that can be a bit comical as well. It's a punishing game, but never is it cheap. Never really does it focus on storytelling. It always puts you in the action. Demon's Souls' fantastic combat, atmosphere, excellent level design, and genius multiplayer layout rightfully earn it the number 1 spot. Well done From Software!

Wooh, so I got suspended. Long story short:

• Halo Reach hype thread
• We (gufu) derailed
• TreyOfTheDead comes in, posting random ass gifs
• I reply with "gtfo TrollOfTheDead"

1 day later....

"TOU VIOLATION - SUSPENSION"

Me: :cry:

anyway, here's this music game that everyone's playing. Guess I'll do it too.

The game goes like this:

1. Put Your iTunes (or other music player) on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds!
4. Put any comments in brackets after the song name.
5. Tag at least 10 friends.
6. Anyone tagged has to do the same, because fun pointlessness spreads like a virus.

Song Name - Artist

1. If someone says, "Is this okay?" You say
Kiss and Control - AFI

2. How would you describe yourself?
Mr. Man - Alicia Keys

3. What do you like in a guy/girl?
Warning - Green Day

4. How do you feel today?
Doesn't Mean Anything - Alicia Keys


5. What is your life's purpose?
Run to the Hills - Iron Maiden


6. What is your motto?
Outsider - The Ramones


7. What do your friends think of you?
My Friends - Red Hot Chili Peppers


8. What do you think of your parents?
Barrett's Theme - Nobuo Uematsu
(WTF??)

9. What do you think about very often?
You're Not Alone - Nobuo Uematsu

10. What is 2 + 2?
Six - All That Remains
(Math fail)

11. What do you think of your best friend?
Killboy Powerhead - The Offspring

12. What do you think of the person you like?
Prelude To A Kiss - Alicia Keys

13. What is your life story?
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

14. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Teeth The Size of Piano Keys - Chiodos

15. What do you think of when you see the person you like?
The Promise - Masashi Hamauzu
&hearts

16. What will you dance to at your wedding?
Hard To Concentrate - Red Hot Chili Peppers

17. What will they play at your funeral?
Kuja's Theme - Nobuo Uematsu

18. What is your hobby/interest?
Paint It Black - Rolling Stones

19. What is your biggest fear?
Boring - blink182

20. What is your biggest secret?
If I Cut My Hair, Hawaii Will Sink - Chiodos

21. What do you think of your friends?
Flesh, Bone, and Weakness - Parkway Drive

22. What will you put as the title?
Hallowed Be Thy Name - Iron Maiden
(YES! BEST SONG EVER!)

I'm far too lazy to tag anyone, so if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged.

Yep, 46 blogs already. Thanks to each an every one of you who have read/commented on them. It's kept me going this far. I apologize for not commenting on everyones blogs =(. I'm sorry. I do read them. I just don't comment on them, which is a habbit that I need to break :P . Anyway, here's the contents of this blog:

• Fallout 3 review
• updated Mass Effect review
• Top 5 bands
• My backlog
• Sports
• Blazblue

Fallout 3 Review

Score: 9.5/10

Updated Mass Effect review

Some of you may have noticed that I updated my Mass Effect review. The initial review had a different "review deck" summary to it, and was rated 8/10. After updating it, the score is now a 7/10, with a slightly different review deck. Does this mean I like the game any less? Nope. I love the game the same as I always have. I just changed my rating scale a bit now. The game is still a good game and it's worth playing :)

Top 5 Bands

• Iron Maiden (Metal)
• Nirvana (Grunge)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers (Rock/Indie)
• Green Day (Punk/Alternative)
• Metallica (Metal)

Talk about brief :P But yea, those are generally my favorite bands. No order, for I'm incapable of ordering them. I love them all the same. So, what are you favorite bands/artists? Do we share any in common?

Worthy mentions: (Didn't make my top 5, but are still excellent bands)

• Alice In Chains (Grunge)
• Guns N' Roses (Hard Rock)
• Coheed and Cambria (Progressive)
• The Strokes (Rock/Indie)
• U2 (Rock)

My Backlog:

Not HUGE, but still fairly lengthy:

• Demon's Souls
• Valkyria Chronicles
• Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction
• Comet Crash
• Fat Princess
• Final Fantasy XIII
• God of War II
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma
  
• Star Wars: KOTOR
• The Witcher - Enhanced Edition
  
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
• DiRT2
• STALKER: SoC
• Shatter
• Final Fantasy I
• Final Fantasy II
• Final Fantasy III
• Final Fantasy IV
• Final Fantasy V
• Final Fantasy VI
• Final Fantasy VII
• Final Fantasy VIII
• Final Fantasy IX
• Zelda: Wind Waker
• Metroid Prime
  

(I'm doing an FF marathon: FF1-9 )

Sports

• Wimbledon: Federrer is out :) . He's an amazing player, but I want Novak Djokovic to win, so should be easier for Novak now :P. Nadal is still there too.
• Natwest: England raped Australia 3-1, with still 1 game to go in the 5 match series. The funny thing is that England won the series the same day that their soccer team got knocked out of the World Cup :P
• World Cup: USA flopped :P . Argentina v. Germany match should be amazing :o . I want either Argentina or Germany to win. I hope The Netherlands win today :3 .

BlazBlue & Females

I've always liked the game, don't get me wrong. I just have a reason to keep it now, since the woman just told me that she loves Guilty Gear and she now wants to come over to play BlazBlue. On top of that, she also wants to come over and play FF13 (she's an FF fan :) ) and LittleBigPlanet (since Sackboy is cute, and all :P )

That is all =] . Have a nice summer!

Link for the thumbs upping

Space. Where aliens hate humans but speak our language. Space. Where there are no children. Space. The setting for an epic adventure. (With a few bumps along the way).

Welcome to Mass Effect, Bioware's sci-fi epic. Before I get into the "bad", let's talk about Mass Effect's strong points. And there are a lot of them, as you would expect in a great game like this.

They look pretty serious.

For starters, the story is magnificent. It may seem cliche, but that is definitely not the case. You get to make choices in Mass Effect, and these choices play a massive role on the progression of the story. These aren't simple black and white choices. You're going to have to think out the consequences of each choice.

Another strength is the fantastic voice acting and cinematic presentation. Conversations are truly engaging due to the way they are presented. Every character delivers their lines with so much passion and emotion that you come to expect it out of every game you play. Even better is the fact that the option you select to say is not exactly what your character says. For example, if you select the option that says "Hello", Shepherd may instead say "Greetings, captain". This makes conversations seem more dynamic and realistic.

You play as Commander Shepherd, who can be either male or female. The character customization is excellent. Not only can you customize the visuals of the character, but also the cl@ss and the background of the character, both of which affect the progression of the game.

Would you hit that?

Mass Effect uses a morality system, but it does it in it's own way. Most Western RPGs have a meter that increases as good actions are done and decreases as bad actions are done. Mass Effect does things differently, and better. There are two bars. Paragon (Good), and Renegade (Evil). They both fill up as you do actions throughout the game, giving a new level to the morality system.

Now, let's move on to the problematic parts of Mass Effect. The combat. It's simply not engaging. It's not too fun. It plays a little bit like a third person shooter. But your weapons have infinite ammunition and to control your fire, they overheat when used in succession. This simply put, does not work well at all. I'm so glad that they fixed the issue in Mass Effect 2.

Also, you can get weapon and armor upgrades as you go through the game, but the way they are used isn't explained well at all. You might find yourself going through 20 hours or so before realizing that you can equip upgrades onto your weapons and armor.

Or would you go for this?

There are squad commands in Mass Effect, and they don't work well at all. It also doesn't help the fact that your allies' AI is horrible and sometimes doesn't even turn on due to glitches. You'll find them being dead many times in the game and you'll have to either revive them or finish the fight without them and wait for them to auto-revive.

In addition to the shooting, you also can use Biotic powers. These are pretty fun, but once again, it's one of those things that are cool but not really needed at all. You'll be able to get through many battles without using Biotic powers.

The vehicle sections here are laughably bad. You control the Mako, which is a tank that helps you get through terrain. It's a neat concept but isn't executed well. Combat on the Mako doesn't feel like it belongs in a role playing game at all, as it juts feels like a vehicle section of Halo.

Another weak point in the game is the side missions. There are many of them, but there's not much incentive to complete them as they mainly involve you, Shepherd, going to a planet and rescuing someone. The other side missions are for the most part, cookie cut.

A playthrough of Mass Effect takes around 15 hours if you just do the main quest. Doing the side missions can double that number. You get a lot of quality hours for your money here. It's a great value for $20 and you should definitely check it out if you can get it for a good price.

Overall, Mass Effect is a great game on its own, but it falls into the category of games that don't live up to their potential. I'm not just talking about hype here. Mass Effect has a lot of untapped potential. The universe is well developed, but it's not really used that well. Combat is great in theory but the overheat system is poor. Then throw in all the little glitches, and you have a beautiful diamond with many scratches on it.

8/10

In the words of Trey The Lame: "It's a goddamn novel."

-Link

Go thumbs up it my drones.

--

Without any hyperbole, let's get right into it. Uncharted 2 is a masterpiece from the opening segment of Drake clinging on for life, to the simple, yet satisfying conclusion. Naughty Dog has nailed every part of this game to near perfection.

This is pretty pretty isn't it?

What's the first thing you notice in Uncharted 2? Well, probably the visuals. Simply put, Uncharted 2 is the prettiest game on consoles. It's got highly detailed environments which are rich with color, and fantastic character models and facial animations. The game is simply pleasing to the eye. Not many parts of the game fail to impress, and unlike Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves has a vast number of locations, such as snowy mountains, jungles, villages, tombs, and a train segment. Each of these are just as impressive as the other. Drake's wet clothing as he got out of water is now complemented by frosting when he rolls around in the snow. The attention to detail is so superb, that later on in the game, there is a segment where you're simply forced to look at the scenery and witness your jaw drop.

After you get over the visuals, you realize that this is actually a game. Or is it? Uncharted 2, like Metal Gear Solid 4, is a cinematic game that uses cutscenes. However, Uncharted 2 uses cutscenes the right way. There's a total of 90 minutes of cinematics, giving just enough for the player to get a movie-like feel from it without taking them out of the experience. The cutscenes are used to tell the tale of Nathan Drake and his treasure seeking adventures.The story here is pretty basic stuff. Drake wants treasure. Evil enemy wants treasure. Treasure was pursued by ancient explorers. None were said to have found it. And the rest is blank until you progress through the story. It may seem cliche, and to a certain extent, it is. But Naughty Dog has crafted these characters so superbly, that you forget how stereotypical they may be. For newcomers to the series, Drake is a treasure hunter who is well known among his enemies. who are also thieves( hence "Among Thieves" ). Nolan North's voice work is simply put, spectacular. In fact, all the voice actors deliver their lines with such great emotion. After Drake, there's Elena, who is a cameraman. She comes across Drake in this big mess. How she does, I will not spoil for you. Sully makes a return in the sequel as well. He's a bit of a lazy old guy who's in it for the money. It's a bit disappointing that Sully is only present for a very small portion of the game. However, that's more than made up for with the inclusion of the new characters.

Chloe. Damn. This is one fine babe. Her and Nate have a history together, which is not truly explained, but its still evident. She has a thing for Drake but she goes after anything to get what she wants. She's also not afraid to use a gun, as she can easily kick your ass. Speaking of ass, damn.

Okay, back to the game. Zoran Lazaravic is the enemy here. He's after the treasure as well. I won't tell you his motives since that would be a spoiler.

That's all I will be speaking of for the story, because the game is that much more powerful when it keeps you guessing. Just know that its paced so perfectly that you'll come to expect this type of pacing from every other game you play.

While we're on the subject of pacing, I'd better go over Uncharted 2's gameplay mechanics and how they weave together. First, you've got the gunplay. This is like Gears of War. You can move around, take cover at the press of a button, peek out of cover to fire your shots, then get back under cover when you're hit. If you get hit by an enemy, you can take cover and heal up to normal health if you avoid enemy fire. On the normal difficulty, it takes around 6 well placed shots to pin you. Bump that sucker up to Crushing, and you will find yourself dead in a matter of 1 shot. It doesn't get too cheap, but like the first game, they do tend to just throw out large number of enemies at you, which does get frustrating. However, the gunplay is a lot better this time around, and it's a lot more fluid to fire from the hip, without aiming. And you'll have to do so many times in the game. Drake moves very fluidly and it's easy to just pick up the controller and move Drake and use him in combat.

Trey: "Didn't you know that when someone shoots you you can hide and heal automatically?"

The game IS about treasure hunting, so a big portion of the game is solving puzzles and finding treasures. The puzzles are for the most part easy to solve. They involve using Drake's journal and flipping to the right page which says "obvious clue is obvious" and you say "holy smokes why didn't I think of that?". Then it repeats. There are a lot less puzzles than in Drake's Fortune, but they're a lot more fun this time around. As for finding treasures, there are more treasures now, but I just didn't find the incentive to go find them all. These are all optional. You can go through the entire game without getting any treasures and you won't notice a difference in your gameplay experience.

Now, the third major gameplay mechanic is platforming. This is how you get from level to level. It's REALLY easy. Drake jumps perfectly well and it's all following a linear path. This may seem like a negative, but it ends up working in the game's favor because it paces the game perfectly. The last thing you want is to be stranded for 10 minutes trying to find out where to jump. The game does a nice job of pretty much telling you where to jump, as there are obvious protrusions from walls or the ground which you can climb up or down.

After you beat the single player campaign, which lasts around 12 hours on your first playthrough, you can play it again on harder difficulties. NOTE: To unlock the Crushing difficulty, you MUST beat it on Hard. It's a bit disappointing, but hey, if you can beat it on Crushing then you can beat it on Hard.

If replaying a game is not your thing, then you can hop online. There are a variety of modes in Uncharted 2's multiplayer experience. It's full fledged multiplayer system. There's Team Deathmatch, Plunder, Capture the Flag. Then for Co-op, there is the campaign-like co-op in which a total of 3 people can tackle on missions similar to the campaign. Then there's the horde mode-like co-op mode in which 3 people can either Survive the horde of enemies, or Capture the treasure. These modes have you playing a total of 10 rounds, with enemies getting tougher and tougher each round.

A frag fest with Chloe? Sign me up!

The multiplayer in Uncharted 2 allows you to do anything you could in the single player. Yes. You can climb up anything and use Vertical cover. It really is good.

If you skipped reading the review to this last paragraph to get quick glimpse of what I said, all I'm going to say is that Uncharted 2 is not a perfect game. It's got its flaws. However, it is a game that everyone who has a PS3 needs to own. If you don't have a PS3, it's definitely worth buying the system for this game, as you will not be disappointed. It's a full game in every way, from a meaty single player campaign, to a full fledged multiplayer experience, there's no reason to miss out on this masterpiece.

He approves of this game

10/10