As the holidays approach, many of us might be considering what gifts we hope to receive from, or plan to get for, our loved ones. But as you contemplate your shopping lists, take a moment to consider budgeting in a little random kindness. There are so many less fortunate folks out there, and innumerable charitable organizations that aim to help. I'd like to make a suggestion from one gamer to another: Child's Play.

If you're not familiar, Child's Play is a charity founded in 2003 by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins- better known as Gabe & Tycho from Penny Arcade.

Child's Play exists to help children who are stuck in long term hospital care due to severe illness. Hospitals can be scary, lonesome places for adults, let alone children! Imagine spending the better part of your childhood in a place where "going out to play" means being wheeled down a sterile corridor to be shoved inside a loud, dimly-lit machine for a few hours!

Child's Play works with hospitals to raise money for the purchase of toys, games, books, movies, and other forms of entertainment. The hope is that by providing entertainment outlets, kids can forget the IV needles, machines, monitors, and tests for long enough to feel like a kid again.

Nearly 70 hospitals around the world are associated with the program. They include the US, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and even Egypt! Child's Play accepts cash donations, or donors can opt to browse one of many hospital-specific Amazon.com wish lists to purchase gifts and have them shipped directly to the hospital of choice.

Child's Play operates throughout the year but has recently launched the 2009 campaign, hoping to raise a total of $1 million in cash and/or gifts just in time for the Holidays. They're almost halfway there thanks to the generous support of corporate sponsors such as Amazon.com, Microsoft Game Studios, Sony Online Entertainment, Bungie, and Google.

So I simply ask, gamer to gamer, that you consider giving- even just a little –to a very worthy cause.

-Amo

PS- If you do choose to give, don't forget to check with your employer to see if they offer any kind of donation matching!

*Special Thanks to Brendan Sinclair and the Gamespot Hotspot podcast crew for the reminder/suggestion*

Preface

Upon hearing about the PSP Go, I was thrilled. I truly believe that out of all possible avenues through which console makers can pursue the digital-download path, the portable market is an obvious first choice. However, as the release date drew near and I learned more details, my excitement wavered, ebbed, and extinguished completely before being reborn as a fiery phoenix of righteous indignation toward the system. Now, possessing all the facts, I can't imagine why any well-informed person would want to purchase the PSP Go, excluding those who simply must have the latest-greatest stuff, in spite of logic or rational thought. What follows is a colourful literary account of a would-be PSP Go purchaser- You. As you read you may become nervous or frightened. Take solace, though, no consumers were harmed in the making of this story!

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So there you are, skipping gleefully out of your favourite video game and/or electronics boutique, shiny new PSP Go in-hand. You briefly wonder to yourself, "Was it worth it to cough up the extra cash for the PSP Go or should I have settled for the budget-buy PSP 3000?" The price difference, after all, was fairly steep. With the money you would've saved on a PSP 3000 you could have started off your game collection with two new releases.

But the doubt is fleeting, for you love how much smaller and more portable the PSP Go is compared to the PSP 3000, not to mention the futuristic gadget coolness of the sliding (albeit smaller) screen! And with digital content installed to the colossal 16 GB of built-in storage, you'll never have to carry around (or lose/have stolen) a case full of UMDs ever again. The PSP Go even grants you über-trendy Bluetooth support so that you won't have to fuss with tangled headset cables either… except on planes, that is.

No, you care not for the few extra dollars you spent on the system because you'll make it up and then some via the savings you'll accrue from discounted digital purchases. Since digital content doesn't require packaging & distribution, those savings get passed on to the consum… wait, what's that? You didn't get your discount on that first game purchase? "Well, that's just rude," you say as you turn on your heel and march back into your favourite video game and/or electronics boutique! And as the sales clerk informs you that digital games cost exactly the same as retail boxed UMDs, the fantasy world in which you are satisfied with your PSP Go purchase begins to crumble and burn.

Your brain tries to rationalize and come to terms with the explanation given to you for why prices are the same: because Sony can't risk the ire of its retail partners by enticing consumers to abandon retail products en masse. You console yourself with the idea that if Sony undercuts the middle man so dramatically while he is still necessary in other areas, they risk severe financial consequences.

This thought assuages you until further consideration of the "digital only" concept culminates in the ideological connection that the bonus of not needing to carry UMDs also brings with it a consequence: the inability to bring certain games with you at all. You unwillingly embrace the simple truth that some games that have already been released on UMD won't ever be available digitally, due to other behind-the-scenes complexities of the business side of gaming, like licensing for example.

Now you can really feel your energy being drained. And, upon thinking of energy, your mind alights on the design decision to remove the user-replaceable battery from the PSP Go. You begin to imagine yourself on an airplane with your PSP Go (unable to use a Bluetooth headset for fear of catastrophically disrupting sensitive equipment) and you're running low on power. Alas, with a PSP 3000 you could have simply saved your progress and swapped to your spare battery. Or, better yet, you could have started the trip with an extended-life battery. Unfortunately, your imagined-self is going to have to finish out the flight by watching Big Momma's House instead of playing Gran Turismo. Oh, the horror!

What else, pray tell, must you endure? What shocking new revelation will be next in line to bludgeon your soul? What other changes has Sony made in order to humiliate you, the unsuspecting consumer?

Your body falls limp and you collapse into a sobbing heap right in the middle of your favourite video game and/or electronics boutique as you come to grips with the fact that the final insult involves no change whatsoever: You never needed a PSP Go to get on the digital distribution train in the first place. What remains of your consciousness, in defiance of Sony's best marketing efforts, has just come to the realization that all of the digital content intended for the PSP Go, full games and minis alike, can be loaded onto an old fashioned, PSP 3000-compatible, Pro Duo memory stick, which sell for much, much less than the comparable PSP Go-compatible M2 micro memory cards.

But as you lie there, gasping for breath, the shop employee ready to dial 9-1-1, your mental cogs complete one last revolution- you have not yet opened the package and still have your receipt!

Quick as a fox, you leap up from the floor. With renewed vigor you set your recent purchase on the counter and request a refund in a tone so confident that Napoleon Bonaparte would have felt obliged to obey you. Fervently you scurry back to the shelf to retrieve a PSP 3000. As you make your way back toward the register your eyes meet a newly released game you wanted badly, but could not afford along with your PSP Go purchase. Cheerfully you pick up a copy, knowing that even after purchasing the PSP 3000 and a respectably sized memory stick, you will have enough credit left for the game as well.

With purchases in hand, you exit the store. The sun feels warm against your face and the air smells crisp and clean. Birds sing, flowers bloom, and the whole world seems to be in harmony as you make your way home to break open your new toy, the PSP 3000.

If God were the sort of deity to concern Himself with such worldly matters, He would have looked down upon this outcome and declared, as eye-witnesses say He did during the creation, "It is good." And after that, He likely would have smote Sony for fleecing His children. Well, and because every story needs a good smiting.

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Tall tales (and smiting) aside, the PSP Go just isn't a good value. It isn't any kind of value at all, actually. Considering that the reduction in size and addition of Bluetooth support are the only rabbits that the PSP 3000 can't pull out of its hat too, it hardly seems worth it to sacrifice the experience of playing those games that will inevitably be unavailable to the PSP Go, let alone spend an extra $80 for the privilege of that sacrifice.

Take my advice: Whether you own a PSP now or not, until Sony comes up with a UMD conversion solution and makes every UMD game available for digital download (which will never happen), pass on the PSP Go.

Ladies, Gentlemen, and small, furry creatures from Alpha Centauri, after a very long wait it is finally time for the third and final installment of my "10 Things I Hate About…" trilogy, Ten Things I Hate About the Microsoft Xbox360.

As I've said twice before, I am no fanboy. I own all three consoles and each have their unique and independent flaws. As I gamer I love all three for their unique and independent strengths, but because I love them I also feel the need to roast them.

So, without further ado, the exciting conclusion…

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10) MS Points

Does $1 really have to equal 80 points… really? So an 800 point game is really about $10 and 1600 point expansion is $20… oh, my head hurts. I work in the financial industry, which means I work with numbers all day long. But when I come home and buy something on Xbox Live I still find myself wondering "How much did I really just pay for that?" If they insist on using "points", why couldn't it at least be 1:1? And don't even get me started on the fact that I have to use points in the first place. It boggles my mind that even though I have a credit card "attached" to my account, and MS is perfectly willing to auto-charge my card each year for my Gold membership dues, they won't let me buy the content I want ala carte. Oh I get it, by forcing me to buy points Microsoft effectively gets to "keep the change". I just think that it borders on robbery to force users to do business this way, especially when they have a de facto monopoly on much of the content available on Live.

9) Networking Issues

Anyone who has ever peeked under the hood of a router knows that there is no setting for Open, Moderate, or Strict NAT. I understand that they don't want to confuse the computer-illiterate folks out there, but where are the "advanced settings"? Where can I see the nitty-gritty details I need without spending hours hunting on Google? By dumbing down the interface they make life more difficult for those of us who actually possess the skills to get the job done.

8 ) Advertising

The man who coined the phrase "AdBox360" is a genius. I don't mind seeing one or two frames to show me what's new and exciting in the world of DLC, but do we need eight or ten frames on each of eight or ten menu bars? And just in case I didn't notice that The Guild was sponsored by Sprint by the time I get to the actual download page, I get one more blurb as I start the video. I own a Verizon phone, thank you very much.

7) Cluttered Menus

In the old days of the "Blades" I always thought the Xbox360 interface was superior to the Wii or even the PS3 interfaces. Now I am not so sure. The word clunky doesn't even begin to describe the act of locating the content I want on my Xbox360. By my estimation, it takes no less than 1,738,903 clicks to launch a downloaded game like Shadow Complex. How about searching for new content? Oh, an actual search field would be too easy so instead we have pages upon pages of content buried within layers upon layers of menus. I honestly do most of my purchasing through Xbox.com specifically because there is a search bar there.

6) Ambient Volume

What was that? I couldn't hear you over the cooling fan on my Xbox360. Watch a Netflix movie? Yeah, that would be great but I'm going to have to buy a 110" TV and sit in the other room so I can actually hear it. I never imagined my neighbours would call to ask that I stop taxiing F-18's in my living room.

5) Lack of High Def Support

I understand why an Xbox360 doesn't have BluRay, in a word: Licensing. But they sure didn't go out of their way to promote HD-DVD, did they? I'm not as concerned about watching movies because anyone with a clue knows that streaming is the future. But what about storage limitations? When it was announced that Final Fantasy XIII was no longer a PlayStation exclusive, I started to get excited and then stopped, realising that it would be about 12,000 discs on Xbox360 as opposed to one BluRay disc on PS3.

4) Lack of Bluetooth Support

And while we're talking about common sense technical limitations, let's talk about Bluetooth support… or lack thereof. Why do the headsets and controllers use proprietary wireless technology? Bluetooth is a proven technology and just about everyone on the planet already has a Bluetooth headset… wait, if everyone already has a Bluetooth headset then I guess MS wouldn't have been able to charge everyone $60 for their proprietary wireless headset, huh? That leads me to…

3) Lack of Value

Where do I even begin? The wireless headset is bad, but you can get away with not having one. The wireless networking adapter is also highway robbery at MSRP $100, but again you can find cheaper ways around that problem or do without entirely. Perhaps the proprietary HDMI cable? The one that blocks the optical out port, forcing you to pay $50 for what should amount to a couple of bucks in cabling? No, not even that compares to the egregious raping of the consumer that is the 120gb hard drive! At the time of this writing Western Digital sells a 500gb external USB drive for about $70 but MS wants a whopping $149.99 for their teeny tiny little 120gb and doesn't even offer an option for anything larger. When the PS3 was still $600 MS could get away with this, but now that the PS3 is $299 MS had better make some moves in a more consumer-friendly direction.

2) Miscellaneous Hardware Issues

Anything OTHER than RRoD. My Xbox360 routinely won't eject the disc tray, which is known to be a design flaw in the drive. Plenty of people have encountered one version or another of the "Disc Read Error". Many others get system-bricking errors that MS won't fix under the extended warranty because they don't c|assify them as RRoD errors. You know something? My ten year old PS2 is still running. It's not coughing or hacking and it hasn't been sent in once. It just keeps playing games, just like it should. Unfortunately MS cut not just one too many corners, but about a hundred. You and me, Johnny and Janey consumer are left holding the bag, which leads me to the worst of the Xbox360's flaws…

1) RRoD

Need I say more?

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I really do love the Xbox360. Due to the software lineup and quality of Xbox Live it's probably my favourite out of the three, but the PS3 is a very close second. I love to chat with my friends in party chat, I love to watch movies over Netflix, and I even love the controller. But as with Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft has made some missteps and who doesn't love a Top Ten list?

But that's it, three systems, thirty complaints, seven months in the making. I hope you enjoyed this trilogy. Stay tuned for another exciting post, which I will make a sincere effort at writing in less than three months this time!

Here is the second installment in my "10 Things I Hate About..." trilogy. I had hoped to write this sooner, in order to post it shortly after my PS3 list. However some real life things came up and I'm just now getting back to it. And, as implied by my use of the word "trilogy", you can expect to see my Xbox360 list as my next blog post.

Let me start be reiterating that I'm not a fanboy. I own all three of this generation's consoles and each of them have screwed the pooch in one way or another. This is simply a list of my personal top ten...

10) Wii-mote Speaker

This is a simple case of "Good Idea, Bad Execution". The idea of the speaker in your hand was to improve your sense of immersion, but since the speaker is such a piece of junk it usually detracts from your experience instead.

9) The "Waggle"

If nothing else, the English language has a new word in the dictionary. But what I'm talking about here is the fact that while the defining characteristic of this console is novel, it is impossible to design a gameplay mechanic that requires precise movements. Anything more than pointing at a certain part of the screen or "waggling" wildly is pretty much out of reach. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm aware of the Motion Plus accessory but don't you think it might have been nice to have that built-in on day one? After all, motion-sensing is the defining characteristic of the console.

8 ) Value of the Virtual Console

This is another case of "Good Idea, Bad Execution". It sure is nostalgic to play old school games but in my humble opinion paying $5-10 per game is highway robbery. The Xbox Live Arcade has new games with current graphics and innovative game mechanics for that price! You can't convince me that porting these old games to the Wii justifies the same price to the consumer. How about a subscription model? I'd be more likely to spend $10 per month on an all-you-can-play arrangement than I would be to spend $10 once a year for a single game made more than a decade ago.

7) Storage Limitations

And while we're paying through the nose to download all of these old games, where are we going to store them? Sure, the Wii is compatible with SD cards, which are about a dime a dozen, but didn't memory cards for save games go out of fashion? And what's with some games not letting you save to an SD card? That sort of defeats the purpose of having the SD card slot, don't you think? I'm looking at you, Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

6) Lack of DVD Support

Alright, I'm going to go ahead and be OK that the Wii doesn't have a Blu-Ray drive. No argument from me there, but not even a basic DVD-ROM? This just doesn't make any sense to me. Perhaps I'm just ignorant, but I have a hard time believing that the cost difference between a CD-ROM and a DVD-ROM would have been that significant these days. Never mind the fact that Sony and Microsoft included this feature in the last generation of consoles.

5) Deluge of Accessories

The Wii has a much smaller footprint than the other consoles, but the Wii makes up for its tiny stature by littering the living room with accessories. But hey, buying all the accessories will create some space in your wallet, so I guess it evens out in the end. When I recently moved, I needed a whole box just for the Wii and its accoutrements. There are the Wii-motes, a nunchuck for each Wii-mote, classic controllers, and even the Wii-mote rubber sleeves. Don't forget about the balance board, the Zapper and a pair of wheels for Mario Kart. Soon I'll get to add to my collection when I buy the Motion Plus adapters but thankfully I don't bother with the truly superlative junk like baseball bats, tennis rackets, boxing gloves and so on.

4) Last-Gen Production Values

It's great that the Wii was innovative with its motion controls, but it seems as though this came at the expense of production values. Sure, the system doesn't have the horsepower to support graphics like those on the Xbox360 or PS3, but how many times have you seen a game made for all three platforms where the Wii version just isn't even worth playing?

3) Poor Support for Online Play

Really, Nintendo? A cryptic sixteen digit code that you must share with your friends in order to play online with them? At least there are plenty of games to make the trouble worthwhile... oh wait, no there aren't. Oh and don't even get me started about the fact that some games require another sixteen digit code to play that game. Nintendo's online support is so laughable it may as well be classified as non-existent.

2) Poor Third-Party Developer Support

Granted: Mario, Link, Samus, these are all characters whom I'd like to continue to see in games. But it's no secret that Nintendo's support for third party devs is not so hot. While there are certainly a few good Wii games produced by entities other than Nintendo, it just seems to me that innovation for the platform is unecessarily stifled, which leads to...

1) Shovelware

Obviously, the Wii was designed for the casual gamer- the person who, by definition, doesn't have a heightened awareness of all things gaming. These same people therefore become prey for the shovelware factories that have sprung up in response to the system's popularity. And for this reason I think it is borderline criminal that Nintendo stands by and lets it happen.

That's it, my top ten gripes about the Wii. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my Wii- it's great for parties and about the only thing I can get my mum to play with my brother and I. But it has its flaws and I get a kick out of pointing them out.

So tune in soon for the third and final installment of "Top Ten Things I Hate About..." where I bash on the Xbox360.

Cheers!

I'm not a fanboy for any one system or brand; I own all three of this generation's consoles. In fact, I loved the PS2 so much that I purchased more games for it than I had for all of my previous systems combined. I got so much use and enjoyment out of my PS2 that I never thought it necessary to own an original Xbox. Still, owning and playing all three consoles of this generation causes me to notice that in several ways Sony has screwed the proverbial pooch this time around and I find myself collecting more dust than games for my PS3.

Without further ado, here are the top ten things I hate about my PS3:

1) System Updates

All too frequently, Sony updates the firmware with some trivial function I won't ever use and forces me to spend an hour downloading and installing it before I can get back to enjoying my games or movies. Did I mention that the Xbox360 only updates itself about once or twice a year, with legitimate feature upgrades (like Netflix streaming) and takes only a few minutes to download and install.

2) Game Patches

Likewise, games also take an inordinate amount of time to patch. Xbox360 games, on the other hand, take only seconds and even offer the option of skipping the update (at the expense of online play) for those who just want to get gaming.

3) Lack of Voice Messages

There's no option (or if there is, it's a well-kept secret) to send a brief voice message to a friend like Xbox Live. Instead (unless you want to shell out for a keyboard peripheral) you have to hunt and peck the virtual keyboard with the joystick, a genuine exercise in frustration.

4) Controller Batteries

The controller batteries are sealed inside. This means that my rechargeable AAs, which work in just about every other piece of electronics I own, cannot be used to quickly get back up and running if a controller dies mid-gaming session. Sure, the included USB cable offers "play & charge" capability... if I want to sit ten inches away from the system, completely defeating the purpose of a wireless remote. With my Xbox360 or Wii I can just reach to my battery charger, grab a fresh set and away I go.

5) USB Ports

The USB ports are not powered when the system is off. This exacerbates the aforementioned battery issue since you can't just leave the controller plugged in between sessions, unless you want to leave the system on 24/7, which I highly recommend against. If you want to charge while the system is off, you're practically forced to purchase an after-market charger.

6) Lack of Infrared

No built-in IR (infrared) port. What difference does that make? If you went to the expense and trouble of buying a universal remote to reduce clutter and make your (or your spouse's) entertainment experience easier, you can forget about using it with your PS3 unless you plan to fork out more cash for an expensive IR to Bluetooth adapter. This item seems particularly boneheaded since one of the main selling points of the PS3 is that it serves as your Blu-Ray movie player.

7) Install-to-Hard Drive

This "feature", which supposedly reduces game load times, does little more than force you to sit around and wait before playing your latest eagerly-awaited purchase. It also has the side benefit of devouring hard drive space by installing several GBs of data for just about every game you put in the disc drive. Did I mention it's mandatory?

8 ) Multiple Users

Only one user can sign in at once. This really puts a damper on social gaming. Any user-specific abilities (preferences, unlockable game content, trophies, etc.) are null and void when playing together because only one person can actually be signed in to the same console at the same time.

9) The XMB

The XMB (Cross Media Bar) isn't accessible in-session. Wait a minute, you protest, they added that feature in one of the thousand system updates since the console was released! Not really, because while you can *access* the XMB, half of the XMB functions still require you to exit your game or movie.

10) Online Support

The Playstation Network has an archaic feature set. Sure, it may not require the insignificant three or four dollars a month that Xbox Live does, but let's face it- you get what you pay for. There's no pervasive party chat to connect you and your friends during and between games, there isn't even a decent party matchmaking system. Some games (SOCOM: Confrontation, for example) still require you to pick a specific server, make a "room" and hope all of your friends can get in before the server (or room) reaches its cap. Almost everything about the PSN is completely wonky. Even the features Sony introduced to try and stay competitive with Live, like the achievement copy-cat "trophies", are so band-aided that they appear to be little more than a cruel joke. Dear Sony: Online gaming has changed dramatically in the decade since the PS2 was released; get with the times.


Is the PS3 a good system? Sure it is and I'm not saying it's a complete waste of money. After all I'm glad I own one for a few exclusive games and Blu Ray movies but it just isn't the superior platform Sony would have you believe. Due in whole or in part to the flaws mentioned above, I own about 40 games for Xbox360, 20 for Wii, and only about 6 for PS3... and those six were all PS3 exclusives.

Recently a friend of mine mentioned that some relatives had expressed disapproval of her love of video gaming. They seemed to believe that gaming was a child's hobby and any adult who participates needs to grow up. Hearing that really got me thinking about gaming, gamers, and our place in the pecking order of society.

In our youths, gamers take an awful lot of crap; we're called geeks and the cool kids all laugh at us. Later in life things don't really change, it's just a co-worker chiding us instead of the captain of the football team.

Why, as adults, do gamers accept and endure such criticism for their hobby?

The problem is one of perception and exposure. For many, the term "Video Game" still conjures images of hoards of children huddled around Pac Man or Pole Position at the local arcade. These folks simply haven't yet been exposed to the current state of the art and are blind to gaming's evolution as an art form.

But can you blame them for the way they feel if they've never witnessed a Sci-Fi adventure like Mass Effect? How can they comprehend the tension a video game can create if they've never had the opportunity to sneak through Metal Gear Solid 4? And if they've never strapped on Guitar Hero III can you expect them to have felt the rush of the virtual crowd? So don't let those same people tell you that gaming is just for kids and don't think for one second that you are immature because you enjoy playing video games.

My advice to you is to help them experience it first-hand.

Invite them over and let them pick up a Wii remote for a few rounds of Bowling, Tennis, or Baseball and see just how realistic and addictive it can be. Then turn off all the lights and spook them with a little Silent Hill. Give them a headset and let them hear how social Call of Duty 4 or Halo 3 can be. Of course, feel free to insert some of your favourites into the mix as well.

Sure, there will always be a couple of stubborn folks who will remain satisfied in their ignorance but then again when TV first came out there were people who called it the "Boob Tube" and claimed it wouldn't survive. And now the average household in the US owns at least two TV sets and spends more than half of their leisure time watching them!

So go out there and do your best to change people's minds but down get down when you run into the occasional silly rabbit who refuses to accept that gaming isn't just for kids. After all, you game because you enjoy it. And who on this planet has the right to tell what you should and shouldn't enjoy?

I'm well overdue for another blog post. Normally, I would save a review for the reviews section, but considering that I gave Metal Gear Solid 4 a perfect score, I felt it was due special mention. (It also buys me time to write my next blog!)

Since this is technically an editorial, I think a short preface is in order...

You may or may not be a fan of the stealth genre. If you're not, you'd probably expect that locking yourself in a closet for 20-25 hours is preferable to playing a Metal Gear Solid title. However, this game manages to give you the option of going in commando if you choose, and nothing is sacrificed in the process. Yes, I am saying that even if you don't like stealth games, MGS4 may still hook you in. That alone is a spectacular accomplishment.

But even if you're still not a fan of the game's core concepts you should be able to appreciate that, as far as stealth action games go, and by Gamespot's definition (a game that is as perfect as a game can aspire to be at its time of release), this game is a perfect 10.

So, without further ado...

Since MGS4 is the culmination of a 21 year long series, a review of several paragraphs seems inadequate. My first impression of the game, on the other hand, spanned only three letters: Wow! Booting the game on my HDTV, I was greeted by a stunning rendering of Solid Snake, casually puffing a smoke as the game performed its initial install.

I have to pause here to mention that since so many PS3 games have hard drive installs, I consider it a characteristic of the platform. Therefore any praise or criticism should be paid to the system, not the individual games.

This game begins, as one would expect, with a cutscene. The cutscenes use the game's engine so I almost didn't notice when actual play began. I say almost because unlike MGS3: Snake Eater, which deposited you in an area devoid of enemies, Snake starts this chapter feet first into a war zone.

This point is subtle, but important- especially to the criticism the series has endured from people who simply aren't fans of the sneaking genre. While this game's heart still beats in tune with the stealth genre it spawned, there is plenty of action. The game's new over-the-shoulder mechanic makes this possible. Gunplay is smooth and very intuitive. Not once did I experience the frustrating, wonky alert phases of previous titles. If there is still any room for improvement, I sure don't know where it is.

The implementation of the new shooting mechanic, in turn, paved the way for other gameplay options that helped add some spice to the MGS recipe and effectively prevented monotony from rearing its ugly head. Entire sections of action, with several enemies charging a room at once felt natural and fluid. Even vehicle chases, with Snake manning the weaponry, functioned so smoothly that the player was able to be immersed in the tension of the moment.

And speaking of tension, there is no shortage here. One of my favourite levels challenged Snake to follow an NPC to his hideout, which sounds simple. Of course you must avoid being seen by the guards, but to add a layer of complexity, the NPC can't be detected either! You also can't let the NPC see you or he will be spooked and run off- possibly into the waiting arms of the enemy. So you must move through the area, incapacitating (or killing) enemy soldiers and clearing a path for the NPC, all the while staying out of his way until he eventually makes it to his hideout.

In most games, levels like the one I just described could easily drag on and on, but not in MGS4. Here, each area lasts long enough to allow you to get comfortable, but not to the point of boredom. Just when I started to feel like I was finished with an area, I was finished with that area. To have such perfect pacing was truly a refreshing feeling.

All of the game's play elements are flawless, from graphics to sound, even the new Octocamo, which automatically matches your camo to your surroundings like a chameleon. But the glue that holds it all together is the storytelling. With this game, Hideo Kojima has outdone himself. Sure, there were beautiful, moving (and long!) cutscenes but the icing on the cake was how he managed to tie the entire series together in such creative fashion. I was personally tickled by the ipod that allows you to play music from previous games instead of the normal background music. Beyond that there were flashbacks in the cutscenes, visits from familiar but forgotten characters, trips to previous locales, and even a few very satisfying surprises like... no, I won't ruin them for you.

During the 25 hours it took me to reach the end, I was so captivated that I had little desire to play anything else. The ending itself was moving and bittersweet. I found myself hoping that this was not the final chapter for Solid Snake, but it is true that all good things must come to an end- and what an end! If you have any love at all for the stealth genre or the Metal Gear series, this is an absolute must-play game. In every way, it is a perfect end to a truly outstanding series.

I feel that I must start with a disclaimer: I like GTA IV. I have fun playing it and by no means do I think it's a *bad* game. It's just not a PERFECT game, or at least not worthy of a perfect score, as many reviewers would have us believe. This is also not a commentary on reviewers or review scores and their viability in general so please, let's save that discussion for another post.

Even if you don't wholeheartedly agree with one, two, or even several of the points below, I ask that you try to find at least some measure of truth to the majority of them and recognise that the point is to demonstrate that GTA IV has flaws. Most are not serious, but all are more than trivial if one is to consider the end product a "Masterpiece" and reward it a perfect score.

And so, without further ado...

10) Character Movement/Combat
-The "new" combat system was touted and trumpeted as revolutionary. But other games have already discovered the concept of lock-on targeting and those same other games have done it better. While the new combat mechanic is certainly a step up, it feels like it's still just not quite perfected. Even basic movement in this title is still not quite right. In every single GTA since III, character movement has been a bit wonky. It's difficult to describe, but while running straight forward may be easy, it feels as though you cannot turn on a dime. There is a sort of "walk in a wide circle" that takes place. If you've played any GTA games you probably know what I'm getting at. Yes, I figure it out and get used to it, but why should I have to? How many iterations of GTA have there been? How many opportunities to get it right??

9) Car Control
-Compared to previous GTA's the cars are downright sloppy. Nevermind the fact that I hate the new default control scheme, or that switching to the old control scheme leaves the gas pedal and answering your phone mapped to the same button. In previous GTAs I could power slide, J-hook and just plain drive the snot out of each car. Obviously a "Corvette" handled a lot better than a Garbage Truck, but finesse was possible with either. This time around the gas pedal is way too sensitive, cars float all over the road, and getting through town at any speed is just a chore.

8 ) Camera
-When driving, why does the camera insist upon dropping to the pavement almost immediately after releasing the analog stick? Heaven forbid you should want to see what's ahead of you as you tear through town! I understand the need to keep a camera perspective- after-all, it would be worse if the camera didn't reset it's perspective at all. However, instead of forcing the camera back to a very strict viewpoint, why not allow the camera to right itself/face forward, but still allow you a *range* of forward view instead of a single, rigidly fixed view?

7) Maintaining Relationships
-I'd really appreciate it if game designers would respect the fact that real life has enough boring and reptitive errands. I'd love it if they would quit forcing me to spend what little gaming time I have grinding out chores to keep all of my NPC friends happy. If I wanted to spend a significant portion of my gaming experience maintaining relationships with my cyber-buddies I would play the Sims.

6) Music/Soundtrack
-GTA is well-known for its soundtracks. Previous entries in the series have really done a great job of capturing the essence of the game musically. Let's face it, this soundtrack sucks. I can only stand one station out of how many, and even that one is only tolerable about half the time. I understand that music is a huge matter of taste and I don't expect to enjoy 100% of the tunes, I'm simply stating that the previous entries did a far better job of music selection.

5) Balancing/Luck
-There is a tendency for random chance to dictate the outcome of many tasks. This is directed at multiplayer but does still apply to the single player experience. As an example, during Mafia Work an objective may spawn right next to team A while team B is halfway across the map therefore making it pretty much impossible for team B to have a snowball's chance at completing the objective first.

4) "New" Wanted System
-First of all, the so-called "new" wanted system isn't really new or innovative. The concept has been used on previous games, even in the previous generation of consoles. What makes the system frustrating is the ridiculous density of police. I'd like to know what Liberty City's law enforcement payroll looks like with a cop at every corner and a cop car every other block. After many missions I found myself spending five to ten minutes driving around in order to clear my wanted level until I finally just started letting myself get busted- at least I can get on with the game that way.

3) Auto Aim/Lock
-While on foot I have the option of locking onto a target or using free aim, but while driving free aim is the only option. Does that strike anyone else as odd? Aiming while driving is a true test of multitasking ability and seems to warrant more need for an auto-aim feature than running around on foot. The lock-on itself is flawed in several ways as well. Often times, once you've locked to a target, the game refuses to switch targets despite your best efforts. Also, while I originally thought the Crackdown-esque ability to aim at discrete parts of your target (i.e. headshots vs legs) would be an improvement, the precision required to make a headshot on a moving target leads to a lot of misses, which in turn incents me to choose quantity over quality- abandoning precision aim altogether in favour of unloading a hail of gunfire on the target's centre of mass.

2) Checkpoints, or Lack Thereof
-Most missions are activated in one area, but require you to travel to another destination before things really heat up. Why then, am I required to drive the same three minutes of map over and over every time I take an unlucky bullet to the noggin just before I complete the mission? Checkpoints are not a new concept. Why doesn't GTA IV incorporate them?

Drumroll, please...

1) Expectations
-The deepest cut of all is that the original release date was pushed, accompanied by an explanation from the developer that the game just needed a bit more polish. If this is what half a year of extra polish looks like, I cringe at the thought of what the game would have looked like if it had released on time.

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So let me summarise by reiterating that I enjoy GTA IV. It's not a bad game at all. It's exactly what one comes to expect from a sequel- the same core formula that made you love the game in the first place, with a few new additions to keep things fresh. My argument is simply that achieveing a perfect score requires more. It requires well-thought and totally fleshed out concepts. It requires a degree of polish that makes it hard to find fault. It requires innovation that redefines the very essence of gaming- it must be mindblowing. And as much fun as GTA IV may be, it is not mindblowing and therefore is not a ten.

Concerns about mature content in video games have plenty of people in an uproar and sensationalists revel in the opportunity to fan the flames. But is all of this controversy really warranted? As entertainment mediums go, is gaming so much worse than its peers? Yes, like any other medium, gaming has a few rogues who go too far with publicity stunts- and they should be appropriately punished –but on the whole the video game industry does not deserve the scrutiny it receives.

As any medium expands, those who create content attempt to push boundaries and broaden horizons. Often the forerunners are subjected to the white hot light of public scrutiny but the gaming avant garde seem to receive more than their fair share. Upon comparison, what makes a game that explores the dark side of mankind so much different than a TV show or movie?

For example, "No Country for Old Men", a movie whose story centres on a cold-blooded murderer, found its gruesome content nominated for an Academy Award. Manhunt, on the other hand, was decried as sick and repulsive. Its release spawned angry mobs eager to lynch its creators.

What exactly is the distinction between the two? After all, both carry an equivalent rating to indicate that the content is intended for mature audiences. Statistics even show that the ESRB, the group responsible for video game ratings in the US, is far more effective than its motion picture counterpart, the MPAA, in the task of ensuring that mature content only reaches mature audiences.

Some groups claim that interactivity and repetition are the keys. The argument is that watching a violent movie or TV show once or twice is nowhere near as severe as manipulating a game character to perform similar actions. The problem I have with this argument is that TV and movies offer the same kind of manipulation and repetition, but do so outside the film via toys, most of which are marketed primarily to kids. Here's a thought to try on for size: Though GI Joe does not contain explicit blood or gore, it does portray violence and (unlike an M-rated game) is unequivocally intended for children. For many years GI Joe action figures have allowed kids to wage imaginary war with all manner of miniature guns, tanks, planes, and so forth. I have nothing against GI Joe; I just can't recall the last time a parent group led a campaign against GI Joe with the level of tenacity equal to that with which they have gone after some games. So why then are games such higher priority targets?

I personally believe part of the issue revolves around the word "game." The word "game" is associated with fun and play, which are concepts heavily linked to children. The fact that many early games were targeted at children only serves to solidify that mental link. This confusion that games are, by definition, meant for children couldn't be further from the truth. We have adult games like gambling, alcohol-drinking games, war games, and even sex games for consenting adults. Nevertheless, the association between the word "game" and children is hard to shake.

Naturally, when video games began challenging the expectation of being a product for children, confusion intensified and became outrage. Going beyond simply complaining to publishers and developers, many are pushing for games with mature themes to be segregated from the regular stock. It's not sufficient that most retailers strictly enforce policies requiring photo ID or a parent to purchase M-rated games. The contention is that mature games should be treated less like movies or TV shows and more like alcohol, pornography, or my personal favourite- guns! They aim to keep mature games concealed from plain sight and under lock & key. Meanwhile, they don't seem to notice that Ratatouille may find itself partnered with Robocop two aisles over.

Beyond the prejudice of terminology is another idea that mainstream media giants like Fox, angered at losing marketshare to video games, are waging a propaganda war. They hope that by frightening parents they can keep more eyeballs firmly fixed on their programming. I'm not the first to suggest the idea, and some say it borders on paranoia but what other plausible explanation is there for Fox to broadcast a borderline soft-core porn encounter during one of their own programs and then use the term "Sex Box" to headline a news story denouncing the sexual encounter depicted in Mass Effect?

Whatever the reason, the uninformed (or at least misinformed) are easily persuaded to join the witch-hunt against mature games and those who create them. While it is undoubtedly important to protect kids from inappropriate content, it is equally important to allow content creators the freedom to tackle the tougher, deeper aspects of the human condition. To that end we, as gamers, must take care to dispel rumours, correct inaccuracies, discredit propaganda hustlers and generally serve as watchdogs for our pastime.

The rewards will be well worth the efforts.

Something occurred to me the other day while doing some online Terrorist Hunt in Rainbow Six Vegas 2: I have yet to encounter any annoying, immature players.

Now this could just be a complete coincidence- I haven't exactly done a scientific study on the matter. I'm also probably going to jinx myself by bringing it up, but so be it.

The more I think about it, though, the more I realise that the core elements of RSV2 (Terrorist Hunts specifically) are actually turn-offs to your average immature gamer, or IG for short. The game puts a priority on patience, teamwork, and strategy- three things most IGs have in very short supply, if at all.

Patience is at the top of the list.

Anyone who has played a few rounds of RSV2 knows that running into a situation blindly and with guns blazing is simply a recipe for suicide. Since IGs have the attention span of... I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention, what was I saying? Oh right, yes- since IGs can only maintain focus for extremely finite periods of time, they find themselves quickly bored by the idea of waiting behind a cover point or halting to take a peek under a door to mark enemies before storming in. They likely encounter death far too frequently and simply go back to Halo 3 or Call of Duty (both fine games in their own rights, by the way) to get their twitch fix.

Then comes Teamwork.

Patience is a prerequisite for Teamwork and it only makes sense that if an IG lacks Patience, he or she will also lack Teamwork. Since most IGs are more concerned with their own kill count and leaderboard standings, they probably aren't incredibly in love with the concept of flanking maneuvres, covering fire, or squad tactics in general. They certainly can't comprehend "taking one for the team." Now obviously the better twitch players employ teamwork, but my point is that an IG can get away with ignoring teamwork more often in Halo 3 than RSV2 and hence that's where they spend their time.

Last but not least we have Strategy.

Like Teamwork, Strategy is somewhat of a subcomponent of Patience. Some might even ask what the difference between Strategy and Teamwork is. To me Strategy stands on its own because even a single player can use Strategy, even if it does not incorporate other teammates. Strategy is methodically arranging a plan of attack and tailoring it to the challenge ahead. IGs would much rather repeat a scenario over and over again than stop and assess the situation.

Tie those three traits together and it stands to reason that while some IGs can and will be found in RSV2, the vast majority simply decide to take their business elsewhere, which is- in my opinion -a very beautiful thing indeed.