I'm very pleased with my newest acquisition - Terraria! My friend and I were playing Minecraft the other day and got inscrutably bored (Minecraft, after a while, has a way of doing that) so he decided to buy me Terraria. It was quite a pleasant suprise to be honest. We proceeded to start playing. I've noted the inherent similarities with Minecraft, but I actually may prefer Terraria more due to the 8 bit, cooler armors, bosses, more combat, etc. It really is a fun game.

I find myself really enjoying it, though probably because we cheated pretty bad. My friend gave me full shadow armor, a Muramasa, and a ton of great accessories. After we went on a rampage and killed the Eye of Cthulu (mostly him, I just stood there stuck in a hole, trying to lob shurikens) and the Devourer of Worlds (I actually did help that time) he bought me a minishark, so I began stockpiling musket balls for no real reason. ("You've got over 6000 shots and you call ME a HAXX0R?")

We managed to take out Skeletron pretty easily, but we messed up the Wall of Flesh - I accidentally shot a monster carrying the guide doll and spawned him (soooo...). I got ahold of some necro armor, and we found the guy who reforges gear (so I got some rocket boots!). My friend spent over 700 gold reforging his accessories while I only reforged my Minishark and Cloud in a Bottle (Now it's a "Demonic Minishark" because I got the random bonus on top of the reforge, pretty cool). So, I'm really enjoying it and I've already played about 15 hours in the few days I've had it. I'm looking forward to killing more bosses here shortly. Thanks for reading!

-Trey

After shuffling around on my computer desk and not being able to find my ancient copy of Jane's WWII Fighters flight simulator, I decided to purchase IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 on Steam. After an overnight download wait and some graphics issues which I managed to fix very easily, I began to play. I had a huge amount of difficulty just maneuvaring the plane!

I've decided I need to buy a decent joystick for combat and commercial sims. Does anyone know of a good joystick $150 or below that isn't super complex (but still complex enough that it has enjoyable realism), works well, and is compatible with both Microsoft Flight Simulator X AND old flight games?

I've heard Saitek is pretty good...

Well, I finally caved in and chose Tails instead of Luigi/Yoshi in my all-time sidekicks bracket. I just think that Tails is the much cooler sidekick and has a fair chance at winning, despite the fact that Mario addicts are infesting reality. I honestly really like Sonic (and Mario) and think that Tails deserves to win more than Yoshi or Luigi. I mean, c'mon, who doesn't like Tails?

I just had a thought... why wasn't Pikachu a choice on the bracket? He can be considered a sidekick since he was in Pokemon Yellow, and he's one of the most popular video game characters around due to mainstream exposure...

So how did everyone else vote?

I'm sick and tired of what the online gaming industry is horrendously mutating into. You can't play a decent "free" or even paid subscription MMO now without some sort of money-making scheme garbage thrust upon you. Frankly, it's ruining the online gaming "scene" so to speak, and I know I'm not the only one getting tired of it.

Take shooters for example. Buy a retail, non MMO Shooter game such as Call of Duty or Battlefield and for the most part you won't be hassled to purchase stupid cosmetic or gameplay improving items. Maybe a map pack here and there for some actual content, but they don't (for the most part) sell gear that will completely ruin the game for everybody else that doesn't pay $20 to buy some pixels when they could be buying an entire game.

I've mostly been seeing this in one of my long-time favorite shooters: Battlefield Heroes. BFH used to be a really, really, really good online shooter that you could play entirely for free. EA then proceeded to introduce "uber" and "super" weapons into the game that dealt tons and tons more damage and made gameplay almost uncompetitive. Eventually so many people have bought these uber and super weapons that you literally cannot enjoy yourself without breaking down and spending $10-20 to purchase a few of these weapons. I personally have not bought any yet, and I don't plan to.

I've decided that if I want to keep my sanity and my money, I'm going to have to upgrade my computer so that I can actually play the decent shooters that I've purchased and downloaded at an acceptable performance. As I said, I'm sick and tired of the money-milking idiocy that the MMO industry has become.

My two cents have been spent.

First up, I apologize for poor formatting. The text editor is performing oddly tonight.

So I've been pretty busy for the past few weeks. School starts tomorrow and I still have pneumonia, which I've had for about two weeks. I've been to the doctor and gotten some medicine, so I'm slowly recovering, but still not fast enough. Hurricane Irene hit us last weekend with barely any damage at all, despite the doomsayers and short fuses freaking out about it. There were a few tornados a county or two north but, other than that not much.

So I bought Minecraft a few days ago after months and months of indecision, and so far I have to say I am enjoying it overall. I started off on a map that wasn't too good for me and my base and gear was eventually destroyed by creepers. I was trying to build a lookout post of sorts out of glass and i climbed up the ladder to show my sister where it came out. Turned out that a creeper was right there, and since I hadn't built the glass yet: boom, there goes my base. I got killed two or three times on the way back so I couldn't get my stuff either. I decided to just start on a new map.

So today I've managed to build myself a house, find and mine some redstone, get a full set of iron equipment, and make myself a map and compass to explore my world. I was feeling pretty accomplished until I realized that I was bored from not having much to do and playing too long. On the bright side I haven't played RuneScape in two days, which may or may not be a good thing. There's a bonus experience weekend coming up and I'm debating renewing my membership for $5.95 for a game who's owners are only interested in money. It's like Battlefield Heroes: Electronic Arts really doesn't care. If they can convince you to buy something for $10 just to improve your character without utilising any skill or practice, they're happy. Hopefully Jagex (the guys in charge of Runescape) won't do the same thing - but a lot of players are arguing that they're moving towards it.

I think I've ranted enough for now, so I'll be turning my attention to Gamespot's newest bracket-competition-thingy: The All-Time Greatest Game Sidekick! I think it should be obvious by now that the only characters that are going to get anywhere are mainstream, heavily-monoposiled, iconic characters (unless everyone realizes that Luigi is as spineless as he really is) but I'm still glad that GameSpot included some old favorites. I was really glad to see characters like Prinny (d00d!), Albert Einstein, Vivi, and even Lucca and Frog from Chrono Trigger! Choosing between Lucca and Wakka was tough, but I figured that Chrono Trigger was more shall we say... timeless? Nostalgic? Inspiring?

As usual, I set my bracket up according to which characters I thought were the most popular. I was also glad to see characters like Tails and Captain Price in the mix as they're some of my favorite video game characters. If the bracket was more like a "who do you want to see win?" kind of thing, I probably would've voted the Final Fantasy/Chrono Trigger characters up to the top (and Prinny would've probably won in the end). If any of them get high in the rankings, I will be content.

Anywho, I guess that's all I've got for tonight. I would've been asleep by now due to school tomorrow but with pneumonia there's no way I can actually attend school until I'm better. I guess I'll just sit around drinking tea, watching television, and taking my medicine until things improve. Goodnight everyone!

So I was wondering, anyone know of any good (preferably older) RTS games? I've been trying to find some more to play, as they're probably one of my favorite type of games. I loved Age of Empires/Mythology, Stronghold, Majesty, Red Alert 2, and Starcraft and I was wondering if anyone could recommend any other games to me.

Era/style does not matter, even games for $10 from the local superstore bargain shelf would sate my appetite for wargaming if they were good.

Ideas, opinions, and new games to get please! :D

For the longest time I used to play video games for fun. I would sit down, boot up my computer, and pop in Age of Empires 2 and play for literally hour sjust for the fun and enjoyment of building a city and crushing my virtual enemies. I never played online and I rarely played the campaign (at the time they were too hard for me because I was so young - I beat Joan of Arc a few years later), but I just loved to play AoE for hours and hours on end and would do it frequently.

I've played RuneScape for nearly 7 years. Now I know many of you are probably either laughing or judging me by now because "haha, Runescape is a game for kids, I stopped playing when i was 9, the community is terrible, etc., etc." And while it's true that many of the players are childish, there is a huge community of dedicated, mature people that play all the time. The graphics really aren't that bad, and the game itself is pretty fun.

Now I've noticed that slowly over time that my game style has changed. I stopped playing PC games frequently and switched mainly to RuneScape. When i first started out I would wander around and make money for fun, eventually it got to the point that I wanted to accomplish something, so I tried mastering a skill but bailed before I even got halfway due to boredom. I got really into flash games for a while due to Kongregate, went back to RS and finished all of the quests and now what do I do? I grind, all of the time.

If it's not making experience or money, I don't feel like doing it. Sitting and talking with people is a waste of time. I'm obsessed with exp and the next level, and I know many people who play MMOs or even shooter games, especially CoD, are the same way now. Where did the fun go?

What happened to the good old days when games were fun, and not just for exp, or for the next level, or for prestige, or for the new gear?

This has made me realize that I really need to sit down and play some of the classic games I used to love so much. I recently found "Majesty Gold Edition" (one of my favorite games of all time) on Steam, and I'm planning to buy and play it as much as possible fairly soon.

My point is that perhaps we need to take a deep breath, step away from the achievements and grinding and prestige, and ask ourselves "Am I really enjoying this, or am i "having fun" because I'm forcing myself to get better?"

Just consider it. You never know what you might actually think.

So i just downloaded Steam (so i could play Section 8: Prejudice) and so far I'm pretty much liking it. I've created my own profile, linked it to my Gamespot profile (shamless advertising *wink wink*), added my friend, voice chatted with him, bought a game, downloaded a free game, and explored the interface.

I really like the interface itself, the community/friends features are really great especially with the wide accessibility of groups and the ability to customize and comment on your profile and other profiles.

The only thing i can say so far that i don't like is the fact that it takes forever to install a game. Prejudice has been downloading for an hour now and it's only at about 20%. I'm sure Steam makes up for this with accessibility and (now) free games, but it still is irritating when i wanted to play my new game now, not tomorrow morning.

So I'm excited to see what Steam can do.

How have your personal experiences with it been?

It's been forever but I'm finally back with another considerate commentary on gaming. Please sit down class, today's subject will be on the current uses of the Wii.

It isn't a secret that in recent years, months, etc. the Wii has really been lagging behind. With the release of Kinect and PS3 move, Nintendo doesn't even have the motion gaming market totally cornered anymore. People argue that Wii games are only for kids, and to be honest, their arguments aren't unfounded. If you look at the list of recently released Wii games, you'll find that there really isn't much good stuff (unless you're combing WiiWare, in which case i have no idea what is going on).

It seems that the Wii has lost its momentum and its popularity. In my opinion, there are only 3 things that the Wii is good for anymore:

• An occasional beloved Nintendo title (Legend of Zelda, Mario, yadda yadda)
• WiiWare games (I mean come on, classics and indie games? Heaven.)
• Playing Call of Duty (and even then half the killstreaks aren't even in the games due to RAM limitations)

If you haven't been paying attention to the Wii recently, rumors have been going around that the Wii will be dropped $50 and then bundled with Mario Kart to improve consumer sales. This could be a good business practice (considering the current costs of other Next-Gen gaming systems - especially the new Xbox or refurbished or whatever it's called) but it could also, as people are saying, hint at the release of a new HD game system by Nintendo next year. We can only hope, right? Too bad the use life of game systems these days are terrible. I got my Wii a year and a half ago and they already aren't making great games and they're releasing a new system.

You can't blame Nintendo, seeing as they just released their 3DS and should be pouring money and ideas into it to get it off the ground, but perhaps a bit more... oomph would've helped the Wii. Better specs for the system and more third party support (not to mention cheaper games, bleck) would've helped. The main complaint i have with 'modern' gaming is game prices - $50 for what would've passed as a $30 game. Accursed high definition...

So sadly, the Wii may be close to the end of its life as a current game system. I guess the most we can do is download some more games, save them onto our SD cards and hope for reverse-compatability.

I truly love my Wii but I'm a bit disppointed with how fast it's gone down and the lack of support for low-budget and hardcore gamers. Conduit and Call of Duty were it for hardcore games, but that's okay. With the virtual armada of downloadable indie titles on the Wii shop channel, the Wii has become a respectable system in its own right. Thrown in great games like Super Mario Galaxy 2, MarioKart, and more and it's still a good all-around game system.

So there i went again, writing my random thoughts and opinions about the Wii and what it accomplished during its lifetime. Perhaps i need a bit more training in the art of making a point. At least i managed to waste a few minutes of your time with a clever evaluation of what the Wii has and hasn't done.

I have an extremely limited budget when it comes to video games. Actually, I don't have any budget for video games. It seems like the only time i ever get or buy a game is major holidays and occasionally if we take a trip to GameStop, and even then i tend to buy older, used games - not the fancy and expensive $50 console games, but a quaint $10 PS2 title. Sounds bad right?

Well it's not as bad as you think.

As i said, i have a limited budget. I also have a passion for old games. I've got a working PS2 and GameCube hooked up in my room (and a Wii downstairs, but that's newish) and a shelf full of games for them (and my DS and PC). I only have 9 Wii games, right? Two of them are downloaded, one was a gift, and two of them were bought dirt cheap and used.

So what am i getting at here?

Games don't have to be expensive to be good. People keep saying that "PS2 is dead", "GameCube is a dinosaur, man", etc, etc. Most people don't take into account the hundreds of used games sitting in every GameStop for both of these systems.

The simple truth of the matter is this: games don't have to be new or expensive to be fun.

I almost never buy a "new" game, and when i do it's usually for my DS. I don't even have Black Ops yet, and I probably won't get it until June, if then. I'm not even getting the new Pokemon games for a few months, but i'm not too disappointed. I've got an entire list of PS2 titles that i need to purchase, ranging from FFXII to We Love Katamari, both of which were hailed as great games on at least one "top PS2 games of all time" lists, and both are from a "dead" system: the PS2. Hey, i haven't even bought Section 8 yet and it's only like $15 for PC now, and it has a sequel on the way.

You don't need a "new" console or "new" games to enjoy gaming or have a good time. In fact, you don't even need to get a new game every few weeks to enjoy gaming. The last time i got a new game was Christmas, and i'm still pleasantly enjoying Final Fantasy X (which i believe i got two years ago) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 despite the fact that you could consider both of them (especially Final Fantasy) old at this point.

I'm what you might call a "Used Gamer": I enjoy playing old and worn games. Where many people would go "PS2? Ick, why don't you just have an Xbox?" I say "Sweet!".

"Used Gamers" like myself get to enjoy the cream of the crop from the last generation of gaming while everyone else is busy buying expensive and short titles for their nex-gen consoles. One of the best parts about "Used Gaming" is that i can buy three or four games for the price of one new Wii game.

Perhaps i'm just rambling, but it's important that cheap and used games aren't just discarded and disregarded. They could be considered as the staging grounds, the ancestors, the precursors to modern games. They're important and fun in their own right, and deserve to be recognized.

Did i also mention that i'm a fan of WiiWare?