Hacked games are games that are changed from their originally programming in some way. This can range from changing character sprites to completely changing the game. Though most of you probably don't play hacked games, here are some of my recommendations.

1. Pokemon Identity (GBA)

Now this game easily has one of the best story lines of all time period. And that is saying something especially since this was created by a small group. Though the game is notfinished yet, you can play through part one of the story that is done. You wake up one day to find yourself in what seems to be a research facility and break out thanks to the help of a mysterious girl. You choose a starter and go through a really interesting tale. You still train and catch Pokemon like all the other game but this one just really draws you in. You can tell time and love was put into this thing.

2. Legend of Zelda the Omega (SNES)

This one is a complete overhaul of the game also. You can tell by the picture above that Link's sprite is different but thats not all. Though I have not finished the game, I do have to say it is well created and good. I wish they didn't place some of the boss battles were they did, but this game feels new and I love it. The dungeon layouts are well designed and are not completely impossible like Legend of Zelda: Parrallel Worlds.

3. Brutal Mario (SNES)

Now this game is renound for its boss battles that include characters from other games like Donkey Kong Country. This game's difficulty is fair despite what the title may make you believe and the level design is great. The maker was creative and knew what he was doing. This is the Super Mario World you loved but with a little bit more flavor.

Have developers gotten lazy or what? There has been barely any new IPs. They just keep making the same game with one or two new things in it. I can't even think of a recent hit that didn't have a predecessor. I like my sequels and all, but developers don't even seem to be trying to improve games at this point almost.

Fallout 3: New Vegas (the expansion pack)

Developers stop mooching off your Call of Duty, Halo, Assassin Creed, Fallout, and James Bond games.I was looking foward to your games until I played them.Let us start with a game that I personally looked fowarded to: Fallout New Vegas. The game is the exact same thing as Fallout 3 but with a worse main story line. You developers need to understand that if I play a game, I don't expect your sequel to be the same game with different box art. And Assassin Creed: Brotherhood, adding a single new feature that is really uneccissary is not improvement. Developers please give me something good and new. I am tired of playing the same game with new paint.

I am sure all of you have noticed how Gamestop has been pushing pre-ordering games and bonuses received for doing so. They have commercials on tv and posters all inside their stores just trying to persuade you to put $5 down for an upcoming game. Though they seem to be trying really hard I still find myself ignoring the option for a couple of reasons.

1. Bonuses have not been enticing. Giving me an extra multilayer character is not what I call persuasive pre-order strategy. Just because my character looks like some angry fisherman (Bioshock 2) does not make me want to get the game any more than I did before.

A fat fisherman and some woman, how wacky

2. They always overstock the inventory of a big upcoming game. I can safely say that if you I want to get a Halo, Fallout, or Call of Duty game the day it comes out, there is going to be 50 extra copies at least left over sitting on the shelf by the end of the day. There is no worry of not getting a game in our modern economy where we mass produce everything.

3. Some game pre-orders have very stupid ways of letting you have your bonus. I pre-ordered Mass Effect 2 and received at Gamestop a little plastic paper telling me how to get my extra content. Apparently I first have to sign up at their website and make an account so I can put the code on the back of the plastic paper into their website so they can send me the bonus (which I never received).While they could have easily used XboxLive "redeem code". I also pre-ordered God of War 3 and they gave me pretty much the same deal where I have to go to a website but at least they emailed me the code I would use in PSN. But they could have just given me the PSN code from the very beginning.

I cant have it

Start giving me worth while bonus Gamestop! Don't give me stupid codes I have to use at some website first! Stop pretending you don't have enough copies!

So last year, I bought Final Fantasy 7 off the PSN store and I played the game religiously for months. I received all the ultimate weapons for my characters and did a majority of the side quests. I reached the final battle with Sepiroth only to get my ass kicked by him. And afterwards, I just stopped playing the game without seeing the ending. I felt I had thoroughly enjoyed the game without seeing the ending. Well I came back tothe game last month and leveled my main three characters (Cloud, Yuffie, and Vincent) all to level 70. I was able to beat the game and reflecting on it, it was one of the greatest gaming experiences of all time. The game was beautifully crafted and really holds a place in your heart. I feel this is the greatest RPG of all time and the only Final Fantasy game anyone needs to play.

You Die

One of the things that really gave me the urge to finish the game was Final Fantasy 7: Crisis Core. That game made me want to play the original so much because of how the game stayed true to original. I can safely say that this game is not over-hyped, at least in my opinion.

Last Saturday I decided to go out and buy a PSP or morespecifically Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker PSP bundle. After about searching through four different stores, I finally found a store that had it. I threw down the $200 and went home. Now the joy of getting a new console is always a great feeling. It is always intresting to turn on your new console and see its technological capabilities. Well after putting in basic information into the PSP I popped in....

Metal Gear

Since that Saturday I have played the game for over nine hours and I am only half way done with it. This by far is the greatest portable game of all time. It is currently my second favorite Metal Gear Solid game after Metal Gear Solid 4. There are a ton off gameplay elements added like being able to recruit soilders, develop your own Metal Gear, and co-op. The game is very fleshed out and I am loving it.

I am also going to need to go buy...

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep

So far I am enjoying my PSP and I hope it will be worth its price tag.

Hey everybody! So anyways my birthday was last Monday and I celebrated it yesterday. Three of my freinds and I went bowling, lazer tag, and billards together and it was great. We also had some fun with Mario Kart Wii afterwards. But most importantly are the presents.....

Alan Wake

$170

A bucket with candy and money

I definately wasn't expecting the last one but Ryan was tired of me stealing his candy when I went to band practice at his house so it makes sense. Anyways, I am 16 now and am going to go get my driving test on Monday so wish me luck.

This is a response to "I watched an anime and actually liked it" blog. Well a little while back THE_DRUGGIE put on a blog about an anime that he really liked called "When They Cry" so I thought, "Hey I will give it a shot". I put the show on a to-do list and finally watched it. I just finished watching both seasons and have to agree on how good it was.

It contains very non-linear type of storytelling. The events that happen after every 5 or so episodes reset and no matter what happend and who died, everybody comes back alive and normal. There are constant story elements that are repeated in each story arc and you recieve information slowly but steadily about the overall picture. Story pieces are put in piece by piece and in the end, everything comes together. I was dissapionted in the second season's lack of gruesome bloody moments but they did do a great job of ansewering all the questions. The animation is good quality and even though at fist some of the story arcs seem pointless, in the end you realise how nothing revealed went to waste. I recommend it to all, no excuses, I don't care if the first season's bloody moments made you faint or whatever, just watch it.

NOTE: DO NOT WATCH ENGLISH DUBBED VERSION, IT HAS TERRIBLE VOICE ACTING

WATCH IT SUBBED

So if anybody has been wondering where I have been, well Hawii. I had a great vacation and am glad to be back. So before I left, there was a Buy 2 Used Get 1 free deal and so I got myself some games.

Final Fantasy IV

Ninja Gaiden 2

Soulcalibur IV

Valkyaria Chronicles

I haven't beaten any of these yet but I will give you my impressions from what I have played so far. So starting from the top..

Since I played Final Fantasy III for the DS, I thought I knew what was in store for this remake. Well I wasn't. They made even more improvements than before. Now they have voice acting and cutscenes added in, which greatly help the story telling. The game has the time based system and is very fun. The thing that hit me like a rock was just how hard the bosses were. Almost all the bosses require several attempts to beat and are powerful. Frustration never kicks in though, it always fun finding a strategy to beat them. So the game is looking very promising so far.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is a game I wasn't really planning on picking up but am glad I did so far. This game improves so many of the things that annoyed me in the original. I hated in the first game the amount of backtracking required but this game removes all that for an even more linear adventure which may sound bad but is what this game needs.The game is also extremely bloody and violent so it gets a million points right there. The game looks good and runs smooth as always. They put in a new life system which works a lot better. So it is better than the original in every way so far.

Soulcalibur IV so far is pretty dry. I was a huge fan of Soulcalibur II because of its story/mission type mode that branched in several directions and had different challenges. This game does have a mode where you ascend and fight challengers but it is not as captivating. The fighting itself is fine but nothing spectacular. The game so far isn't showing much promise but I will have to play it more to see if anything really grabs me in.

Valykaria Chronicles so far is pretty fun. It has a combination of turn based and real time action gameplay that I have not experienced before. The story is also done well and quite interesting. I really have to play it more to give you an overview but it is looking really good. The art direction is nice and the game just has a certain charm to it.

Well since I just did an overview on the Metal Gear Solid seriesI decided that I would do an overview of another highly recognized series, Devil May Cry. Devil May Cry is a series of "stylish" hack and slash action gamesrevolving around a half demon and half human man named Dante. The game was originally intended to be a sequel to Resident Evil but took on such radical changes that they made it into its own series. And now that you have a basic background of the games, time for the reviews...

Devil May Cry was possibly the first game to introduce gameplay so smooth and well made that had you dodging and attacking without any problems. The frame rates at the time were amazing and the gameplay was fun. The story was ok and was put in as an excuse to kill baddies. The game will never win any awards on storytelling but it was fine. The game was tough and a lot of casual gamers had frustrations with it but I didn't have any issuses. So this was a promising start for a series.

But then the sequel was released and it was just terrible. It fell flat in every way. The game wasn't fun and story was terrible. Any fan or reviewer will tell you the same thing, skip it. The game was also very easy and just was a drag. The great gameplay became diminsihed and really lacking personality. Dante lost his personality and was just unintresting. The game also came with a second disc so you could play as another character. After playing this game once, I was more than done with it, why on earth would I play it again as some girl? So it was huge disappointment not worthy of anyone's time.

Devil May Cry 3 came along and redeemed the series. The game was a prequel and had a great story. It developed the story well and explained some things about the first game. The gameplay was also at its peak. It was smooth, fun, and more varied. This is my favorite of the whole series and was most enjoyable. You gained many weapons along the way and had a blast trying them all out and you had different areas where you could specialise in different things. The game also had some good extras and I replayed it a couple of times.

Devil May Cry 4 was the first game on the next generation consoles and was ok. You had a new protaginist, Nero who had a very unusual and fun arm that could grab onto enemies and pull them towards you. The game looked beautiful and ran great. There were a handful of problems though. The game had many sections where you would be just walking around while the game showed off how good it looked. I'm pretty sure the developers said, "This game looks good and I want people to know so make sure to put a bunch of scenic sections to show off the graphics". Also half way into the game, you gain control of Dante and do the whole game over again except backwards. This is what I call lazy design. They didn't want to make new areas so you did the same ones all over again.

I have just starting this week played pretty much through the whole series of Metal Gear Solid. This game as you probably know is a highly acclaimed stealth/action game by Hideo Kojima. Well now that I have beat the series in sequence within ashort amount of time I would like to give you my impression of each of the games.

Well starting with where it all began, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. By the way I just recently got my hands on this version, I have beaten the original ps1 version already. The Twin Snakes is a great game and in my opinion better than the original ps1 version. People complained because of the reworked cutscenes where they added Matrix-like action. Well I had to say these slow-mo over the top cutscenes are way cooler and more badass than the original. Some people complained because they made the game easier, WTF???? the game was harder with the enemies being able to communicate and call ininfinite reinforcements with shields! Also the game had plenty of difficulty settings so if you want a challenge turn off the radar and put the game on the hardest difficulty. The game in reality wasn't that long but it was fun and had a story that kept you engaged. The boss fights were very fun and I had a great experience with the game.

The sequel to the original was still a great game though I didn't like it as much as the original. The game was a lot more stealth focused and had about 10 times more areas that required you to sneak around than the first. This game was also a lot longer than the first and you played as a new protagonist, Raiden. I found Raiden to be as likable as Snake and had no issues with him at all. The gameplay was also much improved with the addition of many new systems. The bad news was the setting wasn't as good as the first and caused the game not to be as varied. The story this time around went insane-o and became very very very very very very ridiculous.

The third game, which truthfully I haven't completed yet, so far is great. I like it better than the second one but I miss the radar from the previous games. The story is good and keeps you engaged and the gameplay is just as good as the previous. They did add a system of when injured, you would have to cure yourself by applying certain things. It was interesting but not my cup of tea. I am not going to say too much sinceI haven't fully completed it yet.

And now the holy grail in the series, Metal Gear Solid 4. This in my opinion is one of the greatest games of all time and by far the best game in the series. You can play the game as a stealth of shooter and be fully rewarded and have a great time either way. I played it as a shooter and had an amazing time with it. The only real issue with the game are that some of the cutscenes are way toooooooo long. Some of them are hours long but after you beat the game once and have watched them, there is no need to see them again. The story ends great and I loved every moment. I replayed the game several time and would recommend to all.