So, this summer is not looking good for my bank account, but definitely looking good for my gaming addiction. Wii Fit is coming out in May, and while I accept the fact that not even an excersize related video game is going to get me up off my fat butt and actually being healthy, I know it could possibly be a step in the right direction. June is really going to hit me hard, because not only am I moving into a new apartment at the end of the month, but I'm also stoked about Rock Band releasing for the Wii on June 22, and Guitar Hero Aerosmith as well. I'm skeptical about Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS. I think I just need to actually see what the attachment looks like for me to really grasp how the whole thing will work. Not that I need it, I'll have two versions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band by then! :)

I haven't really been playing games much lately. I've played Guitar Hero on occassion and when I was really bored. But as far as serious games, the last one I played was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which isn't a great game, I know, but I enjoy it all the same. I'm a nerd like that. I have yet to beat Super Mario Galaxy, Super Paper Mario, and Zelda: Twilight Princess (the latter of which I will eventually have to start over because it's been so long since I even played it I've forgotten the controls). I also need to beat Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS, but I got a little tired of that stupid temple after a while.

Other Wii games I'm looking foward too this year are Lego: Indiana Jones and Star Wars Force Unleashed (for some reason, I cannot wait until this game. I am not even that big of a Star Wars fan, yet this game just looks like it is going to own).

I am also stoked about the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 next week. I won't even have time to watch my brother play it more than likely, but it looks fantastic. It's been a long time since GTA3, though, I hardly remember Liberty City anymore - I just remember Vice City and San Andreas. I didn't care for San Andreas much, I liked Vice City a lot though. So far, GTA4 looks pretty sick, I'm interested to see how this new protagonist shapes up. I seem to remember the main characters in the rest as being a little more of an everyman - he had something of a backstory but you didn't know much about him really. Nikolai seems like a lot more of a developed character - maybe it's just because I don't ever rememeber the other characters having names. Maybe that's it.

All in all, it looks to be a good summer for Wii games, and games in general. We shall see, but I am definitely looking forward to the next few months.

I am amazed daily at how little adults know about the video games they let their children play. I mean, some of them come into my store and don't even know the difference in the systems. Then they let their eleven year old son rent GTA: San Andreas or something like that. Read the labels folks, kids don't need to play those games. Middle-class Housewives are the worst. They don't even know what kind of little plastic thingys go into the box with all the flashing lights, but they can sure get mad at you when it doesn't work, or when they have to pay "OMG EIGHT BUCKS" to rent a game. I love people, lemme tell you.

And it still gives me great personal enjoyment that I know more about games than half our male staff. Admittedly, my assistant manager is a girl and equally as video-game savvy as I am, but otherwise there's only one girl who plays games (She's a wiz at GHIII) and the rest are lucky to know what the names of the systems are.

I guess maybe it's just cause I'm into games, but especially for people with kids, I think it would be a good idea to remain up-to-date on what's going on in the video game world. For moments like when your son comes to you and says "Dad, I want the new ShinyBox 4.0!" and you didn't even know that there was a ShinyBox 2.0 out. People don't know anything about the differences in systems. My favorite question is "What do you think is the best gaming system out there?" I'm like, well fill out this questionnaire about your family's gaming habits, and maybe I'll be able to pick out which one is best for you I don't think it's fair to claim one system is better, because they all have strengths and weaknesses (though admittedly, some are weaker than others).

Anyway, not much new on the actual game front here. Guitar Hero III has rocked my face off, I've beaten the easy and medium tours as much as possible without trying to get 100% on every song (I do have 5-stars), and the Hard tour is kicking my butt - but I'm trying. If I wasn't broke, I would also have Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga by now, since that game is ridiculously fun and cheesy. I still need to beat Zelda, and I'm pissed off that they've pushed the release date back AGAIN for Grand Theft Auto IV. Hopefully at some point when I am not busy busy and tired, I will go back and write reviews on some of the other games I have.

So now that I've written two reviews, I thought I should share a little bit here about myself. I'm a 24 year old girl who loves video games. I'm a die-hard Nintendo user, and although I live in the same house as someone who owns a Xbox 360, I've only owned Nintendo systems myself. I love Zelda and Mario, although I have a guilty enjoyment for watching and helping (aka backseat driving) my brother as he plays Grand Theft Auto. I am currently counting down the days on my calendar until Guitar Hero 3 comes out, while I attempt to beat Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on my (pink) DS.

I also happen to work at a video store that rents movies and games, so enjoy being up-to-date on all the latest releases as far as entertainment, and pride myself on being smarter than most of the boys I work with when it comes to video games and consoles. I still laugh when teenage boys give me weird looks when I tell them how much I love playing The Godfather: The Game, or how I helped my brother beat Grand Theft Auto: Vice City in three days.

So that's me. I like talking about games, but my friends are generally more interested in hunky movie stars than the latest games, so I thought why not share my thoughts with people who will appreciate them? So here I am. A gamer girl through and through, and proud of it :)