Well, it seems that my luck with the female of the species is as awful as ever. One of these days, I'm gonna figure out that other Species that we Males share the planet Earth with, and make some sense of what they say and do. Although going on my track record, I don't think that is gonna be any time soon... :(

In recent days I have managed to (somehow) confuse a whole bunch of signals being sent at me by a certain young lady, and get rejected once more. Now, given how thoroughly she appeared to be hitting on me, I was somewhat confused by this reaction to my asking her out. As such, I sought the sagely advice of my Sister - a lady of some wisdom and knowledge in the area of Women (given that she kinda is one and all. :))

Upon discussing my situation with her, I was given the following wisdom - which I have decided to share with you all tonight. According to my Sister, there are two types of women in the world - Those Girls and These Girls. She tried to explain it to me in simple terms, but some of the specifics were a lil' garbled. It appears that Those Girls are the type of lady who wear short skirts, low cut tops that reveal various parts of their anatomies, and flirt a lot with the male of the species. Those Girls are then terribly surprised when said men hit on them, or have difficulty looking them in the eye. It seems the lady I was interested in is one of Those Girls.

These Girls seem to be different however. These Girls are the ladies who get upset at Those Girls for giving the female species a bad name. It appears that These Girls tend to say what they mean, and don't tend to flirt with a guy unless they are actually interested in him. These Girls like to be taken seriously, and supposedly try to undo the damage that Those Girls do to the male of the species. Of course, my Sister is one of These Girls. :D

The problem is that sometimes men manage to confuse These Girls and Those Girls, with usually unpleasant results for said male. Said case in point? Yours truly. You'd think after so many hassles with the ladies that I'd be getting better at recognising one of Those Girls, but it appears that I am not. Help me out here ladies - is there some signal, some tell-tale behaviour that sets you apart? Short of asking you all to carry around a card stating what type of girl you are ("Hi, my name is Liz and I'm one of Those Girls"... :P), how are we men supposed to tell the difference?

It's just one more layer of complexity that we have to try and sort through. And I honestly think you're asking a bit much of us male type people - given that we can't think on too many levels at once. We are simple creatures, who occasionally need a little help with all this stuff. Would any of you ladies like to shed some more light on this topic - scatter some more grains of wisdom out there for the terminally confused?

The worst part of all this is that I'm actually getting used to it. Not the being single part, or the feeling faintly jealous part of all my married friends. No, I'm talking about getting used to look of panic you see in their eyes when you ask them out for a drink and they realise that they have to come up with a nice way of saying NO without the whole screaming and throwing their arms in the air whilst they run away. You know when you're getting used to it when you recognise it almost instantly and can see where the conversation is headed before they even speak. It just worries me a bit, is all... :(

Somebody is going to have to stop me here. Things are getting a lil' crazy here. Those of you who pay any attention to my Games Collection have probably noticed that the number of titles contained therein have swelled in recent weeks. There's just been TOO MANY good Games coming out this past month or so. And I think some weird Alien mind control stuff has been happening whenever I go into my local Game store, as I seem to keep on buying stuff...

For example, I have managed to acquire the following Games, spread over a few dfferent Consoles:

Sacred - Underworld (PC)

Spellforce - Shadow of the Phoenix (PC)

Archer Maclean's Mercury (PSP)

Gungrave - Overdose (PS2)

Burnout - Revenge (X-Box)

Fahrenheit (X-Box)

Otogi 2 - Immortal Warriors (X-Box)

And they're ALL great games! I've actually managed to play (nearly) all of them for a lil' while at least, and I wanna play them more! I think I'm gonna have to get one of those Time-Travelling Watch things that Hermione has in The Prisoner of Azkaban - 'coz otherwise I don't think I'll ever get through all of these... :(

(Oh, and the Gaming companies are up to it again. Fahrenheit is actually a game called Indigo Prophecy here at Gamespot. Same game, different name. Just to be different. As always, not sure why it has a different name in the PAL Countries, but it does. *shrug*)

Someone take away my credit card, willya? Or STOP the Gaming companies from releasing so many good Games all at once? 'Coz there's more on their way before the end of the year. Perhaps I should just stop getting all these great Games, and concentrate on trying to finish some of them? (The astute amongst you will notice I haven't danced my Victory Dance (tm) for when I complete a Game in a while now. This has to change, and soon. :))

More another time, my friends. Game on! :D

Well, it's been a week or so and I've been kinda busy. Work mostly, but occasionally being social - which is always nice. May have some news in that area soonish - but I'll leave it at that and be deliberately cryptic. :D

I've decided that since I'm here and online it's about time for me to clear up a lil' issue that has been brought to my attention. As the name of this entry implies, respect needs to be paid to people. In a recent entry, I made a comment about a name that myself and another GS person were calling a game I had picked up over the past month or so. Let it be known that whilst I agree with the name and am quite happy to call Wipeout Pure by it's more appropriate name of Wipeout Puree, I did not originally concieve of the name myself.

That honour belongs to a funny man from the land of Norway by the name of Mr Znuggles. A man, who is creative and silly, who I swear does this sort of thing (coming up with weird names for things) for a living. After a quick look through some of his Journal entries, it should be apparent that the man's mind works on a different plane of reality to the rest of us. (If you haven't taken a wander through Znuggles' Journal, I recommend a look. *grin*) I cannot fault his genius however, and need to offer my apologies for inadvertently pilfering a joke he was planning on using himself.

Keep up the good work, mate. I take my hat off to you. :)

Now back to work you lot. There's Games to complete out there! Game on! :D

I'm sure some of you have noticed by now - but some weird seems to have happened to the Journal side of things here at Gamespot. As in, they seem to have vanished. Or at least mostly disappeared...

When I logged on today to check my various bits and pieces and update my Games Collection with a couple of new games, I realised that my Journal had been severely pruned down. To just one page, in fact. Upon checking some of my friends' Journals, it seems the same thing has happened to them.

Does NEone know what is going on here, or what? I'm a bit puzzled... :(

Well, I've had an interesting couple of days with my new handheld, the PSP. After the trauma I suffered by not being able to pick up my pre-order on the Thursday it came out, I decided when I picked it up I would get myself another game recommended to me by a mate of mine, Mr. Znuggles. :)

As such, I picked up Wipeout Puree... erm, I mean Pure. Znuggles and I are both of the opinion that it should be called Puree, 'coz that's what the game is probably going to DO to the both of us. :P

Even with that ominous prediction in mind, I got the game just the same. Now, I'm not the world's best racing gamer, but I must admit I have enjoyed Burnout 3 and Midnight Club 3 on the X-Box quite a bit, so I was willing to give this one a go, given the futuristic spin on it. I've never really played any of the previous Wipeout games, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. I shouldn't have been concerned...

Wipeout Pure is GREAT fun! I've raced around tracks, picking up various weapons and using them on unsuspecting Racers. I've sped up on speed-up pads (weird name, that... ;)) and raced around over jumps, doing barrel rolls and all sorts. I've blown up, raced prototype racers in the Zone, and attempted to beat Time Trials. I've even managed to enter (and win) a couple of Tournaments, and accumulate myself some lovely gold medals. :D

*Minor Spoilers*

Since I started playing a couple of days back, I've accumulated 11 gold medals - still a Rookie, however. I've unlocked some new Leagues - Beta and Classic - and even managed to unlock the Ascension Tournament. My favourite racer so far is the Harimau, as it handes well and is fast enough to handle most of the races quite well. I must admit though, I'm still racing in Vector Class (the easiest class), so these achievements must be taken with a pinch of salt.

I'm looking forward to hooking my PC up to ADSL2, and putting in a wireless access point so that I can start using my PSP online a bit more. There's some cool sounding downloads available for Wipeout Pure, and I'm looking to check them out when I can. Znuggles, I'll let you know when I get connected up properly, and then I'm gonna KICK your sorry butt all over the Wipeout League... :P

Game on, people! :D

What? You want me to write something right now?

No. Sorry. Can't talk today...

*time passes*

What? You're still HERE? Can't you see that I'm trying to figure out how to best wipe out some squares in Lumines here? Go away and poke some n00bs with a stick or something, willya? :P

(Yes, I have my smiley face on today... Can you guess why? :D)

It's tomorrow. I've had my sleep. I've been to work. (Fairly frantic day at work trying to race through a two day First Aid course in eight hours, but we managed). I'm home now. And I'm not a happy boy. :(

Today, I am supposed to be picking up my PSP. Those more observant among you will note the "supposed to be" part of that last sentence and realise that things have not gone to plan. I'm annoyed, and mainly at myself more than anything else...

Recently at work, I decided to jump on the Salary Sacrifice bandwagon with the rest of the staff. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, it involves putting aside some of your income into another account, and only paying tax on the remainder of your income. As such, you pay a lesser amount of tax and have a greater disposable income. Now because my workplace (St. John) is a not-for-profit, charity organization, I don't have to pay any sort of fringe benefits tax on the money put aside. (This is a good thing, of course. :))

Now the company that takes care of the money takes their cut from the funds set aside, and put the rest onto a debit card. This card can then be used to purchase various goods, but the money cannot be drawn out as cash. The fee isn't huge, as it works out to a couple of hundred dollars each year. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? And it is, don't get me wrong.

BUT... (There's always a BUT, isn't there? :()

The problem is that I haven't quite managed to finish paying off the PSP and Games. Usually, I'm pretty good with this sort of thing. Last couple of weeks have been a bit complicated however, and I haven't managed to put aside as much money to completely pay them off. Now this wasn't a big deal, as I have this nice sum of money sitting off to one side, ready to be used to sort things out, right? All I had to do was use some of the funds from my new-fangled card, and it would be all done and dusted...

The problem is that to use the debit card, you actually have to have it in your possession. And for some reason, mine hasn't arrived yet. Now, I put the paperwork in a good couple of weeks ago, and it was all processed - the money came out of my pay and was transferred to my new debit account. I've just been waiting for the past two weeks for the actual card to arrive. To top it off, I checked my snail mail when I got home today, and found a lovely thick envelope from the bank involved with all of this business. So I got a bit excited and was getting ready to race out and pick up the PSP.

Then I opened the envelope. What I found was a thick stack of pamphlettes and information booklets, explaining all the requirements for the use of my card, the fees involved, and other such legal mumbo-jumbo. But no card. There was however, a letter explaining that my card should arrive within five working days of receiving this envelope, and that should it not arrive I should contact them forthwith. But no card. :(

So now I'm sitting here, bashing away at the keyboard - annoyed at myself. It's not that big a deal, really - all I have to do is wait another couple of days until the card arrives, and pick up the PSP at that point. The annoying thing is that my next available time to go anywhere NEAR my local Gaming store is on Monday. So even if the card arrives tomorrow, I still can't pick up the console. Tonight was the planned night, as it's late-night shopping here in Adelaide.

So I just have to be patient. And I HATE having to be patient about stuff. Patience is something I do particularly badly, especially when I kinda want something. And I gotta admit, I was REALLY looking forward to checking out Lumines and Metal Gear Acid tonight. Man, I sound like a five year old, don't I? Wait a couple of minutes and I'll start holding my breath, or I'll throw myself onto the floor and kick and scream until I get my way... *sigh*

I'm annoyed. I should go get some dinner now before I rant and rave any more than I already have. OK, done now. Time to take a deep, cleansing breath and move on to some other stuff for the evening.

Rant over. Hope your day is going better than mine, people. More another time...

Well, I've been a bit slack in my Journalling again recently. So as per normal, I'll drop a couple in here for good measure and update you all about what's been going on with me in the past couple of weeks. :)

First things first... The PSP is out tomorrow! Yes, it's only one more sleep until the PSP is available in Australia, and I'm ready to go pick mine up after work tomorrow. I've managed to have a play on the instore copy and check out some cool demos, and I'm well and truly sold. It appears that we're getting the Value Pack over here, as well as the standard launch games. I've even managed to put aside a couple of those games for it as well - Lumines is looking pretty good, and Metal Gear Acid is another launch title I'll be picking up.

Now, for those of you on the other side of the Planet, I know the PSP has been out for a lil' while and you may be sitting there thinking "What's the big deal? The PSP has been out for months". This may be true for you, but for those of us in the PAL countries, things sometimes take a slightly longer time to arrive. And when they do, there is usually a bit of a rush on the first day, much like pretty much everywhere else in the world. So I've already had a call from my local Game store, asking me whether I'll be in tomorrow to pick up my console and games. (Take a guess as to what my answer was... :D)

For those of you in possession of a PSP, what other good Games are there out for Sony's handheld? I've had a look at a couple of them, and some look interesting. One thing I've already decided is that I'm not looking to pick up cut-down versions of PS2 games. The Need for Speeds and other games like it on the PSP just seem to be a similar game to the PSP's big brother, only a bit smaller. I guess I'm looking to get hold of more original or unique type games that are only available on the PSP.

Do any of you have any suggestions for me? I'm always willing to hear the opinions of others, who may be wiser than myself in the way of the PSP.

I thought it was time for a break from my Gaming updates, and I wanted to ask you all a question. In fact, it's one I think I've asked before. How does one go about making a Signature thing to attach to the bottom of all the deep and meaningful Forum posts one may make?

I've seen a few of them on various Gamespot people's posts, and wondered how to go and make one of my own. I've also got a couple of Union tags I was looking to attach to it all as well. Now, given that I'm no expert in the field of making these things, where would I need to look to find out some more information? Is there someone who can instruct in this most Arcane of the Gamespot Arts? Is there a guide, or FAQ somewhere? And why aren't I making more of an effort to find this information out myself? :P

Just the same, some help in this area would be appreciated people. A guiding light during the storm, so to speak. Any takers out there? :D

We're still talking Nintendo at the moment (I told you the 'Cube was becoming my favourite Console of the lot), but this time the update is on a Game that's actually not on my Now Playing list...

*Spoilers*

Eternal Darkness - Sanity's Requiem

I'm sorry, Tinoshke. I haven't exactly been playing this one a lot, but on the rare occasion I've picked up my Wavebird with the Eternal Darkness disk in the 'Cube, I've made a bit of progress. You may call me names now, but in my defence, I've only played it whilst at my Sister's place. I've made a bit of progress in this sanity-bending game over the past couple of months, although I'm not sure how far I am through the game at this point.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Game, it's a Horror game, based (in part) of the Cthulhu Mythos created by the great H.P. Lovecraft himself. You play Alex Roivas (let's read that last name backwards, shall we? :P), who is investigating the death of her Grandfather under mysterious circumstances in the family Mansion. I won't go into too much detail here, as I'll save that for the Review that I eventually write on the Game. Needless to say there's a solid story to the game, which is played out in various chapters.

Currently, I've spent a bit of time fighting the minions of the Ancient Ulyaoth, and am some way into the game. I've already managed to play a variety of characters from different time periods, varying from intrepid Archaeologists, to Franciscan Monks, to Roman Centurions, to Venetian Architects. In each period, I've managed to fight off the various evil beasties serving the Ancients, and in most cases die a horrible death at the end of the Chapter. What fun, eh?

At this time, I'm playing a Venetian Architect exploring some ancient (but somehow strangely familiar) ruins in the Middle East. I've discovered a whole bunch of interesting Spells, and having been working on mapping them from the 3 Point Circle of Power to the newly discovered 5 Point Circle. Basically, I'm trying to make each spell more powerful than it already is. Not all that difficult, but taking me a small amount of time just the same.

I'm not sure how many chapters there are to the Game, but given the times suggest in most Reader's Reviews, I'm about half way through the game at the 7 hour mark. Once I get into playing this one properly (as in, when I complete Metroid Prime), I'll post another update. Feel free to start playing this one at any time, Tinoshke - it'll give you a bit of a break from the Azeroth Plague. :P

And yet still there's more! Part 4 to come... :)