So I'm running around Ravenholm now in Half-Life 2. If I remember the chapter list from a few year back correctly, then I think I am about one forth to one third of the way into the game. To be honest, I thought that hovercraft part was never going to end. I was pretty fun for a while, but I couldn't help but feel that I was just riding around in circles with the occasional obstacle to overcome (like a floodgate). I got stuck again for about 5 minutes in Ravenholm so I turned off the 360. I'll give it another go today most likely.

Well, for the past couple weeks, I've been missing out on some DrumMania action. It seems that between Church, school (plus homework), and other family responsibilities, I can't get over to the arcade anymore. This kinda sucks. I hope I don't suck too much when I head over there next Saturday. :(

Now I can have a sig!

So a day has passed, I know I had enough activity to merit leveling up to level 3. The problem right now is that it isn't showing that I got any higher in my level yet, and it is late morning now. Lame.

Well, I just spend about 40 minutes re-cataloging all my games onto this account. That took a lot longer than I thought, but it was also nice to recollect what I've played through over the past few years. I forgot that I had so many Final Fantasy games! As it turns out, I have all of them except for the old school spin-offs and the Crystal Chronicles on the GCN. Well, I guess as soon as I hit level 3, I'll be totally back to normal on this account now.

I've finally gotten my hands on a working version of Half-Life 2. I had it for a while on PC, but unfortunately, my laptop's specs weren't quite up to snuff to run Half-Life 2 to my liking, so I postponed the play through until Orange Box arrived. Since I just finished Portal, I can now dedicate all my game time to Half-Life 2, and I must say that I'm really impressed with what I've seen so far. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the graphics have aged well, and are still comparable to the graphical quality of more recent games such as Halo 3 and BioShock. I would even say that the character modeling in Half-Life 2 surpasses what we get with BioShock and Halo 3 actually. Well, some modeling in Halo 3 (such as the Chief and key Covenant models) look better, but for the most part, Half-Life 2 has the upper hand in my book. I really enjoy the lengths Valve went through to make the movements, the environments, and even the sound as believable as possible. I can tell that they were really going for true-to-life realism. The walking, and simple gestures each of the characters do seem so fluid and natural, I wonder why other games can't look as good. The water effects are also among the best I've seen so far. I hope the action kicks up a bit though. After playing through BioShock, I'm itching for more shooting, and less talking.

Well, I beat the story part. There is still the advanced setting to go through, but I don't think I'm going to do that since... I might get owned and I want to end my Portal experience on a high note. Anyhow, Portal probably the most innovative game released this entire year, no other game comes close. The concept was well executed, the mechanics flawless (simplicity of the controls combined with the complexity physics), and the story turned out to be more than you'd expect. The game length is perfect as well. Since I wouldn't consider this game to be a full, game, it is tough to give this a rating, but in terms of the quality of satisfaction and enjoyment per hour, this game is ranked among the best.

Well, I have one of the "old" Xbox 360s without an HDMI port. I got it during Fall of 06. With the release of the Elite that included an HDMI port, I felt kinda bad that I got my 360 too early. Then Microsoft started shipping the premium packages with HDMI ports.... that got to me even more. Now, the "Jasper" is soon to come that is a lot quieter from what I hear. I have both the old 90nm CPU and GPU. The CPU is already replaced by the 65nm, now the GPU will be replaced by the end of next year. Teh lame. I'll still be stuck with the old ass 360 that has no special innards and no HDMI port. :(

I played the demo for Project Gotham Racing 4 the other night. What stands out the most to me are the visuals. From the visual effects, to the car modeling, to the background modeling.... everything seems to be just perfect. I liked the combination of racing sim physics and arcade racing mechanics. It seems like this racer really hit the sweet spot in terms of keeping all types of racing fans happy. The addition of motorcycles is also a big plus. I personally had a hard time getting used to riding one because I usually use the bumper cam view, so the titling screen really threw me off in my timing for each corner. It turns out that the demo keeps track of all your records for each course and matches your best scores/times with your friends on your own leaderboard. It seems the developer went to great lengths to integrate online capabilities. Even racers where it is just you against the computer racers gets tracked on put on its own respective leaderboard. It is a really nice touch. I might actually pick this game up later this year depending on my gaming budget.

So the demo for Virtua Fighter 5 hit Xbox Live earlier this morning, so I nonetheless was able to give it a try in the comfort of my own home. We were limited to only four characters (which is to be expected), but each character plays do differently, it was a joy to try out each one. I haven't played a Virtua Fighter game in a while, so it was nice to get back into it if only for about a half an hour. The graphics were phenomenal. The facial expressions/animations seemed to be top notch to me, and the backgrounds were borderline photo realistic (which is good!). The gameplay was hard to judge since I had no one to play with and the demo only gives you nub CPUs to play around with. I saw though that the gameplay was just as deep as the past games, and it really enjoyable to see the realism in each of the character's respective fighting discipline. I couldn't get over how shiny a lot of the textures seemed to be though. That was the only part of the visuals that I had a little problem with. Also, the characters seem really floaty, more floaty than usual. Sarah Bryant seems to have an invisible parachute as she does her aerials. It could be though I'm just too used to Tekken 5 right now. All in all, I think I am just satisfied with playing the demo. I'm not a big Virtua Fighter fan, so I don't think I'll purchase this one since it is really just more of the same of Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution. I highly recommend the demo to everyone who has a 360 though, it's a blast to play.