Alright, TECHNICALLY - I'm still not finished. BUT I'm on the last battle.

Rogue Galaxy has been to where I've directed as much of my gaming time as I can, but given my work schedule, and my obligatory drinking binges, it often falls down my list of priorites. Undeservedly so, as it's a great game in my opinon... what can I say? I loves the booze. Anyways, over this weekend, as I recovered from my birthday alcohol indulgences, I picked it up again determined to finish this thing once and for all... the main story anyways, I'll have to go back through at the endgame to get 100% completion, but likely after a RG break.

So this last boss is ab*tch and a half... my first time through, I was like yeah! YEAH! ... ... OH NOES!

You see, in true animefashion the main evil boss is seemingly easy as hell, and got me thinking, SWEET all those hours wasted leveling my weapons to max, and all the sidequests, and blah blah blah were all worth it. And they were. Of course... I was focused primarily on my main character. So he's badass. Everyone else is a level of suck that no man dare tread. It's woked out to now because my main guy was always in the party and I'd have it all over and done with so fast that I really never thought much of the other characters in terms of skills and abilities. Sure,I leveled them, and kept them as much on par with me as I could, but I never really did the weapon alchemy or anything. So..... they all suck more than a prostitute on coupon day. This became apparent as said boss transformed into a giant demon/boat/crab looking thing and proceeded to rip said sub characters new .... earholes.

Now I have to back track and make sure everyone can handle fighting all by their lonesome.

Next on deck will be DragonQuest VIII. Which I was about halfway through with when I kicked my last girlfriend out of my place... she took one of my Silent Hill games and MY ONLY MEMORY CARD that contained my guitar hero, dragonquest, Final Fantasy, and God of War saves.

"That evil, evil whore."

^ My current girlfriends words, not mine.

This is actually something that was sparked by SteelAttack's most recent entry. So let the non-sequitur rants begin!

Video games often come under fire for various content found in them. That has been the hot topic the last several months in our beloved industry, hitting the high temperatures particularly with the 'hot coffee' incident.

Personally, I agree that there isn't anything that shouldn't ever be approached in a video game. We have a whole rating system in place for just this sort of thing: to apply the appropriate tag per the games content. Which is what my oncoming blurb is mainly about, stay tuned. To ban one thing opens the door to ban another and another, thus negating the purpose of these ratings. There are people out there that push for censorship of things that simply don't need it. I won't get too much into that, but I've seen a documentary where the breasts of nude marble statues were blurred out. I'm sorry, but that is ridiculously oversensitive. It's a statue, part of history. Not a stripper.

(Granted strippers have their place in history too, I suppose)

Now, that said - I'm not saying there should be games made that GLORIFY certain things, i.e. rape, or child molestation, etc. So obviously there is a line somewhere that shouldn't be crossed. Just as in the movie industry. While those acts are still committed, they are by a villain or a character designed to be hated, and these scenes are rarely shown in much detail. Just enough to make you hate whomever is doing it, and make you root for the hero that much more when they finally meet. Incidentally, a movie with such scenes and tones will be rated 'R'. A game would be rated M or AO. I don't see why getting an AO rating is such a big deal. Other than most of the uninformed consider gaming to be strictly child's play, and will never see it as a medium that caters to all ages. It's not like we have some other kind of crazy form of entertainment out there that covers everything from Sesame Street, to Disney, to Dark Comedy, to Action, to flat out Hardcore Pr0n.

Oh wait. That'd be the movie industry again. It has ratings that denote which movies cater to what audience, just as the gaming industry does. G and PG are movies mostly geared towards children, and pre teens. That is not to say an adult couldn't enjoy them if they choose to do so. That same adult can also go to another room and watch House of 1000 Corpses, or have a Soprano's marathon, leaving the kids to watch The Little Mermaid. Very little is said about a movie getting an R rating, and the inevitable 'unrated' version that will eventually follow its home format release. So again, I must ask - why is it so bad for a game to receive the AO on the front of the box? Some people make it sound like it's the death knell for the game. If anything - I'd say it's a good thing. That tells me this game is pushing the boundaries of what is generally "acceptable" and thus, opening an avenue to encourage others to do the same. Provided the game is not an unplayable bug nest, contains a good story, and characters that evoke emotion over plot twists and developments from the player: I would happily applaud the developers who created it. So there's the possibility of a most likely very mild sex scene in Mass Effect. So what? If anything, have a laugh that someone was paid to animate it.

We are a diverse bunch, gamers. We come from all walks of life, backgrounds, careers, and we all have different prefereances. Some of us have started with the NES. Some of us have been at it since Pong. Some of us didn't ever touch a controller until the 64bit era, and still others are picking up a Wii-mote for the first time today. That encompasses ages roughly 4-75. There are sections of games designed to accommodate almost everyone. A large portion of us ARE adults, by virtue of which gives us instant access to any game of our choosing regardless of it's rating. Developers shouldn't be afraid of making an AO game. I know publishers reasons are more monetary than simply "pushing boundaries" in that an AO rating would, in theory, limit the games purchase to literally 'Adults Only' - but that's how it should be. Just as games intended for ages 4-7 are just that. There are few games that are really geared towards 'everyone' - Including games that receive that particular rating. Sports games are geared for Sports Fans. They're not for everyone, and nor is Barbie's Pony Parade or whatever it was. I'm not saying there should be a giant shift to AO themes only - but sometimes a story requires somebody to get whacked with a golf club and set on fire inside a church.

I'm fine with that.

YAY BOOZE!

*jumps in the air*

*....waits for 80's gradual clap*

It's actually been a couple weeks since I got my GI07-07, but the cover story for it was a game called 'Prototype' - that article seems to have the most information available on it. I've searched all over but there is next to nothing else around for it. Wondering if any of you guys saw/read it also?

I don't have it with me right at this second, but from what I remember off the top of my head is it sets you up by waking up in a lab, no memory/past, blah blah blah. What's cool though is every NPC this character kills gets absorbed, and all the skills, knowledge, and even the physical image of them becomes available. Meaning, you can take on the form of anyone you kill. I.E. You kill a helicopter pilot, then not only can change yourself to look like him, but also you immediately learn how to fly the helicopter. Also as this "biomass" becomes more dense, you gain abilities like making your skin into an impenetrable shield, or from some of the screens I saw turning your arms into these hulking demonic looking arm things. There are I think 2 or 3 "factions" alien vs humans, etc.which using the aforementioned mechanics you can turn them on each other and at times on themselves. The example given if I remember correctly was something like 'killing a general on the human side, attacking another human soldier, making everyone think he's the imposter/prototype, then as everyone is distracted, go into the base and aim missles at the alien 'hive' which causes the aliens to attack the humans, and so on.

The world itself is completely open ala Crackdown complete with superpowered jumping abilities along with whatever else they give you, but set completely in New York City. There are supposedly weeks worth of fully fleshed out, scheduled days. Complete with day/night cycles and weather. By the time the days repeat, there are enough to where you probably won't notice.

I can't for the life of me find any other information on this game but it's being developed by Radical Entertainment and here's a link to the cover : http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200707/N07.0709.1006.14113.htm

I know what you're thinking, "Oh what does Valek hate NOW?"

Well, the short answer is 'everything.' However, I'm hungover in my office, and while I did spend part of this morning thinking about all the things I hate about Valentines Day, I decided to go a different route in order to avoid making anyloud noises and/or sudden movements that may cause my hangover to become angry and attack me.Plus, I'm bored.I'll leave my thoughts on V-day to the day itself. That way I'll have something to do. It's good to plan ahead for these kinds of things. In the meantime, I decided to be completely creative and do something that hasNEVER been done before. I'm going to force information about myself on you like a priest at church camp. Thus chronicling my personal gaming history. It's a mighty wall of text so strap in like A Clockwork Orange and prepare to be mild and pleasant for the rest of your life.

First,I'll grant you the basics:

My name is Aaron, I'm 25, 26 in August. I currently reside in Houston Texas and I'm an accountant for BP. I got my bachelors degree in business (finance) from the University of Houston. For those of you who want a face to go with the name, somewhere around here there's a link to myspace.I can tell you right now, I look nothing like the little green 'x' found next to my screen name on here. So having said that, don't get your hopes up if consonant letters are your thing. We can't all be green and fabulous.

I'm pretty reserved for the most part, always sarcastic, and VERY cynical. Despite all this and the fact I've seemingly given up all hope in humankind as a whole,I am generally upbeat in person. Particularly when I'mdrunk.Which is more often than I care to admit. I contradict myself a lot, too. I have a girlfriend, but we frequently have conflicting work schedules, so I spend most of my spare time gaming, and making a nuisance of myself via text messages to her while she's trying to save someones life in the ER. (she's a trauma nurse) My first game system, if you could call it that, was the Atari 2600, a crippled survivor of the 1983 "crash".

Nonetheless, Iwas hooked. To this day, no one knows how I got that 2600.. Thegenerally accepted explanationis that my mom bought it at a garage sale one afternoon. She denies it though. I think she just doesn't want the blame for my inhuman ability to both slack off and be moderately productive at the same time. For example, as I write this, I'm also balancing a cash account.

It's an exciting life I lead.

I got my NESonxmas 1985, I was one of 2 kids in the neighborhood that managed to get one -mymom, once again,somehowcame into possession of oneby some unknown force. Bear in mind that at that point Nintendo was purely on limited release, and I believe only on the east and west coasts. Whereas I amin Texas, which as far as I know remains somewhere thats not anywhereclose toeither of the aforementioned shorelines.It's as if it were destiny. (!) I was already obsessed withplaying asteroids, pacman, and god help me, pongon my Atari. I also owned E.T. believe it or not... and yes, it was just as bad as everyone says it was. Even at a young age, I could rant about how much something sucked..and believe me, I did.Even my MOM thought it was the most ridiculous thing ever. This also explains how I got it for a quarter.

So the NES just blew me away. You guys know what I'm talking about, and probably shared similar experiences of euphoria as you opened up your own NES' for the first time.I remember just staring in awe at the box after I got thexmas wrapping off. I didn't really know what it was, foreign markets were obviously lost on me at that age.All I knew about Nintendo was thatit's the name written all over the 'Donkey Kong' arcade machine my friends dad had in their rec room. I'm an only child,and my family had the foresight to wait until later in the evening after everyone had eaten, andopened all thegifts before presenting me with this machine that wouldgive me the ravenous thirst for gaming I have to this day. The Atari was dead in the water by then, so if thats all I had, and Nintendo never came along, I know I would have lost interest eventually. So I credit NES.

Needless to say, I stepped on goombas pretty much non stop until I had to go back to that box where they made me color inside the lines and write stuff withthosegiant novelty pencils on specially lined paper. Or was that just me?

After the nationwide release, my allowance was literally paid to me in games. If I did ALL my chores, then every month I could have a new game.At some point in the late 80's I had passed up new game goodness to save up for a Powerglove. In hindsight.. bad idea.. but c'mon. It was a GLOVE. It was the 80's! Everyone was wearing only one glove anyways. It worked out since in the end all you could really do with the powerglove was make an obscene fashion statement. The Wizard was full of lies and broken dreams. You all saw it.

It was also about this time I began encountering my first console malfunctions,one of which beingthe precursor to the Red Ring of Death. That's right. That round blinky thing on your xbox? Not new. It happened on the Nintendo first. It was an authentication "10NES"chip malfunction that caused the red power light to blink, and the system would just turn itself off and on. Of course it was a significantly easier fix.. Just time it right, and you're good to go. If that didn't work then it was time to resort to blowing into the cartridge and sometimes the console itself. We all had our own techniques. Hey.. did anyone think to just blow in the 360? Should have thought to try that when I had the chance.

At some point the flaw was apparently fixed, but I didn't hear about it until like.. 2001. A little late.

When the next gen rolled out, I had pretty much had my fill of Mario by then, so I went for the newcomer, Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm glad I did, even now, those high speed side scrolling platformers are still some of my favorites.Now going back to play them they actually feel kind of slow, but still fun.I also frequented a nearby arcade that was a quick bike ride away on the weekends with a friend, but I should point out I went mostly against my will. I much prefer to play on my own. Competitive play, multi player, and all that jazz has never much suited me. Not with strangers anyways.

(Incidentally I found out many years later I'm quite obsessive compulsive, and along with my absolute NEED to count seconds, and have the dishwasher loaded a certain way, I am not at all a fan of being near strangers. You can imagine how well my stint in the service and retail industries went in my high school and college years. :roll: It's amazing what you'll put up with when you need the money so badly a 3 dollar tip is often the difference between making it home on fumes and pushing your crap box car to somewhere it won't be towed for the next couple of nights.)

In the meantime I finally ended up with a computer that was functional enough to run more than Simcity with all the "graphics" turned off. My first computer was a hand me down from my grandfathers office, it had just enough power to maintain a C prompt on the screen and tell me "bad command or file name" whenever I typed anything. Simcity worked, and sometimes Commander Keen. HA.Shades of green.. the ultimate in grfx!

Anyways, once I had a "real" computer, one of the first games I played on that thing was Wolfenstein. Followed shortly thereafter byDOOM, and naturally DOOM2. The big daddy. I thoughtthat was just awesome.Whenevermy friend and I death matched, I remember the frustration we had trying to get ourmodems to link.. at that point we had dedicated phone lines for the computers so we could still scream ateach other over speaker phone. Good times.Then I discovered the world of RPGs. Quest for Glory, back then known as 'Hero Quest' was the first one I bought, and it was based solely on the box art. By the way, that's usually a very bad idea. It turned out that it was actually a remake of a much older game that wasn't nearly as user friendly. Anyways, Sierra had the market kind of cornered on that point and click interface. Kings Quest V and VI were a couple others from that same era I enjoyed, as well as Quest for Glory III, granted the KQ series wasn't actuallya role playing game. Adventure would better suitthose games for a genre.Good fun anywaysthough.

Then a company that was primarily known for a little gamecalled Warcraft came out with Diablo. I playedit and beat it in probably3 days.Non stop playing. I remember there being an online play or sorts,Blizzards own battle.net, which was used, I think, mostly for Warcraft, I never got much into that though.The lag was often unbearable, probably by today's standards it'd be considered an outlawed form of torture.

My focus shifted a lot, but I was becoming more and more drawn to the most complex games I could find,borrowed a friends Super Nintendo for the express purpose of playing Final Fantasy II and III, I couldn't for the life of me findtheoriginalfor the NES anywhere.I still playedDoom2 a lot, I also dabbled in Quake, Hexen, Rise of the Triadanda number of othernow long lost shooters....Of course anyone who has read anything I've written for more than a week knows I now hate FPS with all the rage and fury of athousandsuns. Just know there was a time we were happy together.....but I digress. My consoles were shelved at long last, and the PC took the crown.

During my freshman year in high school, I decided that when the new Nintendo hit the market, I was going to be all over it. For one thing,NES and Sega had long since finished putting out new games forMY systems, and two, and probably more importantly,I had begunblacking out whiletrying to get my NES to function, and yes. I argued that in the interest of my health, my xmas present should be the new Nintendo. It worked! So dawned the era of 3D platforming. Mario64, it was really surreal at the time, seeing how far we had come at that point, and reaffirmed the fact that I have the greatest hobby in the world. Ocarina of Time, which I obviously didn't get until it came out a year or twolater was really the only game besides Mario I had worth mentioning. I never owned more than 5 or 6 games on that system. I got distracted by the ill fatedDreamcast though. Skies of Arcadia, Shenmue, Crazy Taxi, not to mention controllers bigger than my head with removable VMUs that sometimes had mini games associated with the save file per game! I still don't know what Sega did to screw that up so bad. I loved that system. Sadly it went the way of the dinosaur... not that it went extinct for me, but the similarity was more in the way it was destroyed. I'll spare you the details... suffice to say, keeping your electronics in a cardboard box is a bad idea. Mostly because cardboard is flammable and a rogue match can do some serious damage if it hits an unglossedgame manual first. RIP lil guy.

PlayStation also made it's debut,and I wanted one, but at the same time, I didn't.I wanted my A's and B's where they had X's and O's! It was madness! It's funny, even now, I still have to look on the controller to see where that stupid square is. That elusive little monkey. I suppose I should have gone ahead and gotten one, as I missed out on Final Fantasy VII... which I desperately wanted to play... I skipped out on console gaming for awhile and went back to PC gaming almost exclusively. Command & Conquer : Red Alert, Warcraft II, Dungeon Keeper, Dark Reign, Starcraft..I was a total RTS slutbag. Not to mention X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter, and countless other simulators and god knows how many RPGs.

By that point in time, like most of us I'd imagine, I could build my own computer blindfolded. It seemed like such a mighty feat. This triumph of engineering I assembled and made function all on my own. Like some kind of electrified deity, creating something from nothingness! In reality, wejust buy the components, and those components can really only fit together properlyin one way... and it's just not all that impressive.

For awhile there, it seemed impossible to keep up with the requirements games demanded. One after another, they seemed to be getting bigger and better than the last. I stuck together the best computer I could afford to stick together my sophomore or junior year - A Pentium II I think.. and right after I built it, out come the games that REQUIRE a top of the line graphics card. Which back then, the cheapest you could find would be around 200 bucks, and I'm pretty sure it retained the right to set your family on fire after installation. I can only guess, as I scrounged for 2 months at my crappy waiter job saving the 400 up for a Voodoo card... which was then promptly outdateda month after my purchase. Go figure. I stuck with it though, upgrading my computer pereach games requirements that were beyond what I already had, like a good little monkey.

MyN64 had a relativelyshortshelf lifewhen compared tothe NES which I had obviously dragged kickingand screaming into the years well beyond it's intended life span. Every now and then I still go resuscitate it and make it entertain me. As such, my N64 failed to hold my interest and after OoT, I went back to the PC without missing a beat. I picked up a game here and there, but it just didn't do it for me. I quit upgrading my computer too. For one thing I had pretty much maxed it out, and short of a new build, there was very little I could do to get any more performance out of the thing, from there I really just kind of rode out the rest of that gen on replay value from games I already owned.

After high schoolgraduation, I had all but quit gaming. I'd always look at what was available, but nothing ever grabbed my attention. One of the first things I did when I moved into my craptastic apartment after high school was build a brand new computer. I picked up the PC version of Final Fantasy VII, and also my first (and ONLY) mmoRPG Asheron's Call. So a mere 3 years later, I was finally catching up with the recently redesigned PSone, and all the rumors of the PS2 were floating around, I felt like it was about time something happened to get the blood flowing again. FFVII was awesome - I loved it, and I made sure to pick up every story line I could. Asheron's Call... I like the idea behind the mmo's. However I am NOT a fan of the pay to play. I know it's a necessary evil - but it's just not for me. I can't get past paying to play a game I just dropped 50 bucks on. So that lasted all of 3 months before I just couldn't justify it. Especially since my income back then didn't really allow for such things. Oops.

The PS2 came out, and I was working for Best Buy at the time. It was total madness, and I didn't get it. I skipped it. I just casually gamed on my PC for awhile, Black & White, I tried out whatever the latest version of Quake was, but was unimpressed. I had pretty much degenerated to playing solitaire at that point just to pass the time. It was also about this time I discovered the many wonders of booze, why I put off partaking in such a thing for so long has no legitimate excuse. I've more than made up for lost time though. :twisted:

That is a different story altogether though.

XBOX. I got it for myself right after Knights of the Old Republic dropped. The reason I bought it though was for a game called Project Ego. My friend showed me this site dedicated to the game and I was completely amazed. It was the RPG I had been holding out for, and I bought into every single word of the hype. I fully expected my xbox to spit 20 dollar bills at me for every enemy I killed by the time I had it in my hands. We all know how that turned out. Once 'Fable' was in my hands and I had played at beaten it... I resolved to never again follow a game so closely. It makes for a much more enjoyable experience in the end.

I alsofinally picked up the PS2, and boughtFinal Fantasy X, which I kept trying to play, but school and or work would keep preventing such things. At some point Iended up having to sell off my PS2trying to scrounge money up to pay my tuition. :roll:

Some time later, 2006, X06 was going on from Microsoft. I had decided I would wait until June 2007 or so to buy a 360.. but the games. Assassins Creed, Mass Effect, The Darkness, and several other titles were shown. I couldn't stand it. I ran out and bought one a couple of days later. I served me well up until the red light incident that my compatriots here may remember reading about. I still say it was possessed. Before then though, I had really been getting into the sandbox open world games. Saints Row, and Crackdown especially are amoung my favorites. Also when the original Guitar Hero came out, I grabbed that up the PS2 again, this time having funds to buy more than one game for it. I also got Dragon Quest 8, Silent Hill 2, 3 & 4, as well as Final Fantasy X again, with intent to finish this time. (still havn't) Now I'm on the verge of a NEW 360, in the interest of purchasing Overlord, and The Darkness for my gaming enjoyment.

Also, as of now, I no longer have a soul thanks to GodMode. :evil:

oh, and no crotch grabbing SteelAttack! Yours or anyone elses! :evil: :evil:

......

::asplodes::

I'm looking at you, SteelAttack. :evil:

So over the weekend, I decided that I would get rid of my boredom by downloading the PC demo of Overlord.

So I did. It was fun... however it handles a bit like a crack addict in search of a fix. I can imagine though, that the game controls much better on a console. A console that has since been sent to the 10th red ring of hell by yours truly. It has always been my intention to buy a new one - as I stated in my previous blog/rant that you may or may not have read. Incidentally, if you did,and didn't leave a comment, shame on you! I award Smerlus 50 cool points!

The rest of you get old crusty socks. Enjoy.

Anyways, it seems I am going to have to hurry up and get a new 360 before I die of withdrawl. I want to play Overlord, and - in an effort to reawaken a long dead desire to run and gun, I want to pick up The Darkness... because I have heard nothing but good things about it from friends whom, like me, detest the genre from which it hails.

On a note about E3... I was really hoping to see something big from Sony. In terms of gaming I mean. Not this ongoing balancing of console price vs. actual value. I thought that surely at E3 I would see that 'must play' game that would push to to really look at the console, but still they hold nothing that appeals to me. I mean Heavenly Sword looks good, but it's far from being a big enough draw for me to drop the cash. The Xbox got me with Fable and KotOR, not to mention several other titles that came out afterwards that were a lot of fun as well. The 360 got meat X06 where I learned about Mass Effect and Assassins Creed. (Not to mention a massive selection of just awesome games that are out currently) The PS2 was added to my collection for Final Fantasy X, DragonQuest 8, and god knows how many other RPGs I've hammered out on that thing. For the Wii, I want to play the new Zelda, and the party games never fail to amuse. The only thing that hold me back is that, clearly, the Wii doesn't really exist. I can't find it, therefore everyone is lying. There is no Wii. Not unlikethe Spoon in The Matrix.The PS3 though... I just want to go over to Sony developers and shake them until they wake up. I want ALL the systems to do well this gen, because that means more (good) games for me. The better the system does, the better the games will be.

I will now send you on an infinite loop from which you shan't ever return!
(evil laughing and thunder)

The following statement is true:

The above sentence is false.

It's time for another installment of my incoherent rants! Hooray!

Sometimes I read things that make me want to track the person down and slap them with a fish. When I see a veritable list of candidates for said fish slappings, I tend to get that vein popping thing going on my forehead, and it's all I can do to respond before I suffer an aneurysm and pass out. This was initially a general response I was sending to the rampant stupidity appearing in the comments of 'E3 07: Analysts Expect 360 Price Drop' ... instead of focusing on what the article is actually about, predictably, the page is saturated with typical fanboy propaganda for one system or another, why PS3 has "lost" or why the 360 doesn't wear pants, etc. etc. I had intended to just tell everyone that they're stupid and the call it a day, but I can't ever be that concise. So I ended up on a soap box. In lieu of posting this there and potentially being flooded by angry messages from 14 year old's on summer break between their 2nd and 3rd year in fifth grade, I decided to copy and paste this to update my blog since few things get me going like outright dum-bassedness, it seemed just the thing to bring me back to the top of your tracked lists.

I will never understand the rampant murmuring going back and forth between self-proclaimed "hardcore gamers" that babble on and on about which system is better, and for what reason. Everyone trying to have the last word in a futile, yet ongoing argument. So I'll just go ahead and throw my own ramblings into the mix.

My 360 died. It was out of warranty, and I didn't have the foresight to just hold on to it, a regret, given their new 3 year warranty which is retroactive for the entire generation. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say. Regardless, I had already made the decision to re-purchase one when the new chips come out. It has nothing to do with some lofty premise of "loyalty" to Microsoft or being a biased 'fanboy' of the 360. Nor to any console and/or it's manufacturer for that matter. I could care less about the system. A gamers loyalty is fickle at best. We only want the games. If I want to play Gears of War, I'll turn on my 360. If I want to trek around in DQ8, then I'll play my PS2. I'll point and click with Warcraft for hours on my PC, and if I could FIND a Wii, then I'd definitely spend some time playing Zelda. When PS3 gets it's library built up, and has a few games that I want to play? Well then I'll buy one and play that. To argue over which console 'pwnz' the other is juvenile at best, and completely contradicts what a gamer really is.

By the way, a public service announcement : NEVER pronounce 'pwnz', 'pwnt' 'pwn' or any other variation of that word, nor any other from the already far too extensive "733t gamerz" lexicon out loud, unless you want to be mercilessly 'pwnt' yourself out of sheer principle by someone with skill far superior to your own simply for being that stupid. With a brick. The brick of linguistic justice. I'm looking at you, every 15 year old and younger ever. Stop it. You have been warned.

Now here comes Captain Obvious : Price cuts happen every generation. We all know this. They usually come from a combination of competition and the integration of smaller/cheaper and/or more efficient components as they're developed. Thats just business, and it's in the nature of the industry. Our technology is ever changing and evolving, and tweaks are made throughout each consoles lifespan, some even WAY beyond that. Top loading NES anyone? It happens. The drawback is that you can't just upgrade as you go along like a PC. Welcome to the world of console gaming. Play nice or we'll kill you.

The only fault I can find in the way things currently are is having all these different skus for one system. Core, Premium and Elite versions of Xbox, and the 60 and 80 gigabyte versions of the PS3 seem to have varying features as well. I may be wrong there now since they're dropping the low end model. Nonetheless,all these skus can cause a lot of consumer confusion to the uninformed, speaking mostly in reference to those that purchase the systems as gifts. I don't much know about the PS3 myself, as no games have yet enticed me to seek one out. I can only imagine what someones grandmother is thinking when she's confronted with "Well THIS one comes with HDMI, and you can upscale to 1080i, and has 120 gig hard drive, while THIS one only has 20, and no HDMI.. BUT, over here, THIS system has 80 gigabytes and has a Blu-Ray drive built in. Or you can get this version of that system which has 60 gigabytes. Oh by the way there is another version of that other console which doesn't come with hard drive, or HDMI, but you can purchase it all separately as you go.. except for HDMI. It does 720p though which is great if you don't have an HDTV. Oh by the way, you can also get an HD-DVD add-on too"All these initials and it starts sounding like you're talking about some terminal disease you catch from a public toilet. If granny knows exactly what little Timmy wants for his birthday, great, and if she knows what the heck HDMI and a gigabyte is, more power to her. Thats one hip g-ma.

I'm leaving Nintendo out of this little love sonnet because this ridiculous game of badminton is between you 'all or nothing' people in the 360 and PS3 camps. Grow up. If you like the 360 better, thats fine. Go play it, and quit hounding the ones that prefer the PS3. If you spend your hours gaming away by hammering on the x's and o's, fine. Shut up and go play. If you play Atari...well then you had better be a retro-enthusiast or a time traveler.

Oh, also be quiet and go play.

Another round of FPS games is upon us.

It seems everywhere I look I see Halo 3 this and Halo 3 that. Then to a slightly lesser extent there are a number of other upcoming FPS' making themselves known.

Yes, it's Halo 3, and I know it's a huge deal to just about everyone except me. Seriously though. Why? It's Halo 2 with an extra number and some upgraded graphics. Just as Halo 2 was to Halo, and Doom 2 was to the orginal Doom. (I'll leave Doom 3 alone since there was a pretty significant time period between it, and its predecessor) Sure it will be good, it's so anticipated that its initial sales will likely through it into the stratosphere of gaming records once again. It did it the first couple of times around, thats WHY theres a third one. I just cannot, for the life of me, fathom why all this hype is generated for this game. What is it doing that is so innovative and exciting? Will there finally be a bit of character development? Does the story promise to have depth and meaning to it? So far, it's all graphics graphics graphics. I think it's sad that gaming is becoming mostly about who has the prettiest shinys. While characters, storylines, and everything the game supposedly revolves around takes a back seat. Or, in many cases, just gets shoved in the trunk as an afterthought. I'm leaving out gameplay since there is really nothing to be added to it. It hasn't really changed much since Wolfenstein really. Aside from adding 'strafe' in at some point. Or maybe it was already in there. I can't remember. The weapons change, occasionally you get a BFG 9000, or a Gravity gun, but even then, it's still all run, strafe, shoot, run, strafe, shoot, run, strafe, shoot, JUMP, miss, fall, die, respawn, run, strafe, shoot, and so on and so on et cetera.

Then there is the ever present mass of tool bags on XBL. Self-Professed 'hardcore' gamers (that couldn't define strategy for you with a dictionary opened to the visibly hilighted term itself.) With their ever endearing 'Take No Prisoners' attitude towards everything. Or so they'd have you think. What they won't tell you is that, despite their extremely high pitched, and might I add, obnoxious voices, they're actually male, and they're not supposed to be playing right then, as mommy grounded them for bad grades in math. So confident in their abilities to 'pwn' you and everyone else that ever existed within the next 15 minutes before said parental figure returns home to find this putrid waste of bandwidth doing just that. They will sit there shooting wildly at everything, should a hit or god forbid, a kill, occur from this, they will immediately let you know all about their 'skillz' and that these alleged 'skillz' are in fact, quite 'mad'. The worst part of all this, as well as the saddest is: it's not just the 7-13 crowd doing this, there are full grown men that act this very same way online.

It is this group of gamers that make me hate online multiplayer. Specifically FPS such as Halo, as thats where they are concentrated most of the time. Sure you'll find them in all genres of gaming if there is an online mode availble. I don't know why they stick predominantly to the likes of the FPS, maybe it's the simplistic gameplay. Thats who the industry seems to cater to mostly these days. As long as games like Fire Emblem, Ninja Gaiden, and really just any game that will totally kick your ass unless you learn to be absolutely precise, and think about your every move - I'll be fine. More of that please. Knock it off with all this Halo crap.

....aaand breathe.

Item #1 - The American Legal System. I thought this was a broken system, having had my run ins with it, beaten mercilessly by crooked cops TWICE now, as well those within in it openly stating that they not only abuse their power, but LOVE to abuse said power. However..... Paris Hilton is going to jail. Now THAT is hot.

Gas Prices - I hate them. I work FOR one of these oil companies, and the profit margins for all of these companies are through the roof. The truth of the matter is, they're going to push higher and higher. Always. As soon as the market gets used to paying the higher prices,  they're going up again. They're going to make you pine for the days of paying only a mere 3.15 per gallon. Then they'll let them dip down to $3.20 and start raising them all over again. It's the apparent nature of the beast. The filthy bastards.

Airplane Tickets - The airlines have evolved a system that ensures that 1) no two people paid the same price. 2) everyone paid less than you. (both of those are from Dennis Miller, I think - correct me if I'm wrong)  3) You have to sit next to the fat sweaty person with the drooling problem. How can you avoid such things? Drop an extra 500 to a solid k down and travel first class. If I could afford it, I'd do it everytime. How is it that no matter where I'm sitting, I end up crowded into a corner where I can't even look out the window unless I break the chair and dispose of the back? The seat is rougly 8 inches across, and the person next to me is taking up most of it. It it really so inefficient to remove a couple rows of seats for the sake of comfort? ...and no, those styrofoam pillows don't count.

Children in Resturaunts - This one is more of a pet peeve than anything. Okay I *get* that kids have to eat or whatever. I'll even concede that they must be fed daily, and occasionally go out with the parents. However, if this is the case, why is it so difficult to summon the common sense to NOT take them to a place that is costing everyone there 70 to 100 bucks per table? This happens to me everytime I go out, I somehow end up sitting near a table with small children running all about, making a huge mess on the floor and being loud and obnoxious. The resturaunt I'm specifically referring to use to have a strict policy of no children under the age of 12. No exceptions. This was amoung many reasons I enjoyed going there. It's pricey, but the atmosphere is nice and quiet, with few distractions. Thanks to this increasingly sensetive and politically correct society though, such rules are now looked upon with disgust. How dare anyone discriminate against the children!? What about the children!? Screw the children. If I'm dropping more than 50 bucks on a meal, is it so much to ask that I don't confuse my location with a Chuck E. Cheese?

I havn't been posting much recently, but I assure you, fellow delinquents, I am alive and well - I've simply been distracted by breasts, having recently found a new girlfriend and rediscovering life outside of my cave. Plus my 360 is completely dead. It sucks, but such is life I suppose. I'm going to put my 360 repurchasing in an indefinite holding pattern until the new hardware is released and proven to solve the 360s more severe flaws. Assuming the rumors of an upgraded chip that would solve the over heating problems, and huge technical errors are true. At which point, I'll happily grab an Elite and just be done with it. Two. That is my absolute limit for buying a next gen system. After that, I'll just ebay for it when the Xbox 720 or whatever comes out. In the meantime, I still possess my beloved PS2, which will keep me warm and safe. Also my girlfriend. :D

Now, in an effort to make this blog seem longer than it really is, I shall copy and paste what happens to people on my messenger list that are 'away' for extended periods of time. My friend Karen leaves little messages for her boyfriend from time to time : however I'M the one that responds. A quick disclaimer : I'm not actually this stupid, just really... REALLY bored. I should also mention that Strong Bad is my hero. Thankyou.

Valek1394: there it is again!
Valek1394: ilu!
Auto response from Karen:  ilu.

Valek1394: yes. thats what I said. ilu.
Valek1394: now I have to sit here and have a discussion with your away message about itself
Valek1394: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SIR!?
Valek1394: is it hawaiian speak for fish sandwich!?
Valek1394: or, as I may have said earlier - is it some kind of robot?
Valek1394: I hope it's a robot.
Valek1394: does it use it's powers for good, or for awesome?
Valek1394: What if the fish sandwich has powers?
Valek1394: who the hell would even WANT a fish sandwich, anyways?
Valek1394: that sounds kind of gross
Valek1394: I like the robot idea.
Valek1394: lets focus on the robots.
Valek1394: a robot called 'Ilu"
Valek1394: He is a feisty robot.
Valek1394: and always presses his underwear.
Valek1394: because it is his firm belief, and in the guidelines of his meticulous programming that one should always be in possession of clean and well pressed panties.
Valek1394: Don't tell him I called them panties. He's prefers to call them boxers.
Valek1394: but I mean...
Valek1394: they're LACE
Valek1394: Robots dont' wear LACE!
Valek1394: it's madness!
Valek1394: jeeze.
Valek1394: that crazy Robot.