I have never looked into it until recently, but today I noticed that you can have your very own blog here at GameSpot. Blogs, blogs, everywhere; the latest craze on the net. Being a long time video game nerd (admittedly so), I was joyed to find a place to just 'jot' down my praises and rants involving video games. Will anyone here actually read this; probably not... but it will be fun to get the thoughts out of my head.

Most of the games I've been playing lately have been PC oriented. F.E.A.R., Civ IV, NFS:MW, and UT 2004 have been in heavy rotation, but online Texas hold-em has also been a part of my gaming diet. I haven't played console games for a stint, but I'm back to playing some x-box, ps2, and gamecube. X-box has been churning out multitudes of NCAA Football 06 games, along with Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. PS2 has been nothing but Guitar Hero... talk about a great game loaded with fun and challenge. That game is also my cup of tea because I'm a musician. Gamecube has been Resident Evil 4 for the most part. I've seen RE4 on ps2, but it just slightly falls short of the cube version... graphics are a bit more polished on the cube and it seems to flow better as far as controls in my opinion.

Any gripes I have with gaming right now would just basically the MMORPG games as of late. WoW is decent, but the rest I've played just don't do it for me. I know tons of people enjoy them and that's great. However the downfall of these games in my opinion are the monthly payments. I do understand that it takes some $$$ to keep servers up and running and what not... but to charge gamers $50+ for the game... then tag them with a $10-$20 monthly fee just seems steep. What happened to the days of just playing games and not having to worry about $$ after you purchase the game. Kudos to Guild Wars on the free service.

On another gripe note, I'm a bit divided on the whole ordeal advertising in some games. I do feel it adds a sort of realism to the atmosphere, however it is adding real world entities in what many people prefer to have as an escape from exactly that, that real world. I've come to feel and understand where the protests are coming from. I'm playing a racing game and I see an ad for McDonald's. Why advertise food in a racing game? I guess they're targeting those poor saps that don't stop playing games to eat or have a personal life. Hey goobers... put down the controller and take a break from time to time. Grab a bite to eat. Go out with some friends (if you have any). Get off your asses so we don't have to see Mickie D's or BK advertising in a game that's completely irrelevant to food. Thank you, drive through.