Well, some of you may have noticed I haven't been on in, oh, what, somehwere around forever? Yah, its been a while. So, why the hiatus? Well, mostly computer trouble. The power cord for our computer went out...yes, again. This time the aftermarket one we bought conked out. Getting a replacement from the supplier took forever (like two weeks). The day our replacement arrived, my family went to Chicago for a mini-vacation. So yah, that encompasseswhy I was away form Gamespot for so long. Well, I am back, but you might not have me back for long. You see, I very much enjoyed my time away from the computer. Honestly. No checking facebook, youtube, or gamespot messages and no time caught up stairing at a screen. Its was relaxing; a destressor. It also allowed me to rediscover exactly how much I adore reading.

I was unable to use the computer all easter break, so I turned to reading. A new Halo book had just come out: Halo Evolutions, so I started reading that. It was a collection of short stories, and it was absolutely fantastic. That book then led to Animal Farm, which I also read through quite quickly, and was also quite good (of course, I liked Orwell's 1984 as well). So, without further ado, my now reading section:

~Now Reading:

Maybe Star Wars is old and tired, but it matters not to Timothy Zahn: he breathes new life into the series. Zahn is a fantastic writer, and his "Thrawn" series are some of the most funI have had with science fiction, and are most certainly the best the Star Wars series of books have to offer. His book, Outbound Flight, is a prequel to the Thrawn series. Reading it literally gave me goos bumps as it expertly drew in the loose ends of the series. Epic.

Another Zahn work, and his only Star Wars book that is not part of the Thrawn series. I haven't gotten far enough to say what I think of it, but I am sure it will be good. This is last of Zahn's Star Wars books, so after this I will have to read some of his other, non-Star Wars works.

Wowzers, this one was a suprise. My dad noticed how quickly I was eating my other books, so he picked this one up at Borders for me. I really wasn't expecting much, but I started it on the way down to Chicago, and it is amazing. It takes a different approach to human/alien relations story, and comesout a diffinent winner. I love this book, and I am only 1/4 of the way through. Can't wait to read the next two. Oh, and they guy who wrote this book, Drew Karpyshyn, also wrote three Stars Books; looks like I will have to check those out as well.

Those are my books in progress, here are the two I just recently finished:

A collection of short stories (60-120 pages each, usually), this book is awesome. I wasn't expecting much, but they brought in some real talent for this one. Two stories that were especially excellent were: The Gravemind and The IMpossible Life and Possible Death of Preston J. Cole. The later was written by Eric Nylund (creator of the halo story), so it is no suprise it was good. The Gravemind was written by an author who name escapes me, but it was good enough that I looked here up to see what else she wrote. Guess what? She wrote a Star Wars book, lol. Looks like I will have to check that out as well.

This was pretty cool. A simple allegory, but a really interesting concept. Worth reading if you are a fan of distopias like me. Not much else to sya about it though.

So, some of you are reading this thinking, "Why so many books at once?" The simple answer is: I am weird like that. But, in all seriousness, I hate finishing a book. I like reading them so much that I don't wantit to end. So, I read multiple books at once, dragging out how long each individual book lasts. Seriously. Yah, I know, its crazy, but thats just how I do it. Works well enough for me.

Now, I didn't read the whole time, I spent a little of my spring break playing games as well. Here is my..

~Now Playing:

Okay, so I didn't buy it, not yet, that is. I rented Final Fantasy XIII (13) because I had heard sopme negative things about the game, and I wanted to try it out before I bought it (that, and I didn't have enough to buy it, lol). At first-like most-I was really thrown off. This is alot different than most final fantasy games (escpecially for people who haven't played 9-12, i.e., me). Like most everyone said, it is extrmeley linear. Dungeons point you in the direction they want you to go, you walk in a straight line and fight enemies, and eventually you encounter a boss. Basically, thats all there is too it. No side-quests (this early on), no branching paths, no hidden treasure to find, and most painfully, no towns to explore. All your shopping is done through menus. Thats right, no overworld either. It hurts, as the game losses that sense of vastness that the others always had.

The combat was quite a departure as well. At first, I was not at all a fan of it. Instead of a having a team of people to control, you can only directly control one person in your party, the rest being assigned behaviours or "roles" to fullfil. At first, this seems very limited. Furthermore, you don't really take turns anymore. Instead, everyone has an ATB Guage: a guage that slowly fills up to allow you to perform certain actions. Doing any action (casting a spell, or using any kind of physical attack) expends a portion of your ATB bar. Once empty, you must weight for it recharge before you can perform an action again. Its not to vastly different, but it still bothered me.

But, after logging nearly 25 hours on the game before having to return it, the unique battle system really grew on me. Having assigned roles in decks (or "paradigms) meant a good deal of thought before and in battle. What seemed limiting (being able to control only one character at once) at first was a blessing later on, as difficult battles become frantic races to deal damage while keeping your party alive. Furthermore, the "stagger" system (fill up a guage under an enemies health to lower its defenses) is a really interesting concept that makes combat faster-paced, challenging, and continually interesting. Obviously I am only twenty-five hours in, so I can't make any final decisions, but I can says this: The issue of linearity becomes a mute point when you get the hang of the awesome battle system and become entangled in the web of wonderful narrative. so, will I be buying FFXIII? You bet.

I can't say much, as I haven't put much time into MGS at all. From what little I have played, I haven't really liked it much. Too much time hiding, not enough time shooting. Not saying its not good, its just might not be my kind of game. I will give it a little longer though. I did download Metal Gear Online (which took all night to download! Not to mention those stupid Konami ID things...), which was fun for a while. Even still, it got old fast, and I would rather play COD: WAW for my Wii (which I did play for the first time in a while recently. Love that game).

I Finally got farther in Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor over spring break. OMG, this is the hardest game I have ever played. No joke. In fact, the boss I was stuck on (Belial) took me over two months to beat. Once again, no joke. He was the hardest boss of any video game I have ever played, and only after weeks of strategy crafting, trial and error, and strategy re-crafting, did he finally fall. The accomplishment I felt when he fell was like non other. When he died, I closed my DS and stared at it for a minute or two, revelling in what I had done, lol. Anyways, with Belial out of the way, I was able to move on. I am approaching the end of the game, and it just gets better and better. I can't wait to review this one.

So, after that long winded section, I think it is about time to wind this down. Here are my last two update sections:

~Now Watching:

ToraDora: Thanks to Hanzoadam for suggesting this one, it rox. ToraDora is kind of confusing when you write the plot out onpaper. It is about a guy and a girl whotry to help each other get these other people they know to fall in love with them, but end up falling in love with each other. I have only seen 7 episodes so far, but it is really great up to this point. Love it. It also ties in with my next section.

~Now ListeningTo:

*Motteke! Sailor Fuku Remix [Choushi Koite Gyokusai Mix]:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=lrCZkR39WYs&playnext_from=TL&videos=ERiEifqsmL4

For whatever reason, I haveve been really into Japanese music lately (even though I hated it up until this point.) This song is super crazy, but lots of fun. It is a remix of the theme song from Lucky Star.

*Pre-Parade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z3QQlGK_BA

The opening to ToraDora, I really like it.

*Ain't No Rest for the Wicked (Cage the Elephant)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBgp5aDH23g

Okay, enough of that anime music, here is a neat song some fo you boderlands players might remember.

~Now Doing:

Well, I n=have to finish up, so I can't really say all I want to in this section. Basically though, I may be purchasing a PSP. *Gasp* I know, it sounds crazy, since I always blast the littles things. But, you will see my logic in my next blog.

Oh, and Chicago was pretty cool. My feet hurt from walking around all day, four days in a row though. Anyways, good to be back and Gamespot! Thanks for reading!