Howdy everyone. Well, I've got a lot to write about today, so let's not waste any time.

First off, I have a new PlayStation Network ID for those of you who have befriended me on PSN in the past. The new account that I'll be using is FearTheBeard95 instead of FlyingHellfish95. The new name is a reference to Brian Wilson, my current avatar and probably my favorite athlete ever, which leads me into...

MY PRE-SEASON PREDICTIONS FOR THE 2011 BASEBALL SEASON!

Yeah, I know most of you don't really care that much about baseball, but I'm a lifelong devotee of the sport and while I don't actually play on a team anymore, I still follow Major Leage Baseball very closely. So here are my predictions for the 2011 season...

AL EAST

1.

New York Yankees

2.

Boston Red Sox

3.

Tampa Bay Rays (my favorite team)

4.

Toronto Blue Jays

5.

Baltimore Orioles

AL CENTRAL

1.

Minnesota Twins

2.

Chicago White Sox

3.

Detroit Tigers

4.

Cleveland Indians

5.

Kansas City Royals

AL WEST

1.

Texas Rangers

2.

Los Angeles Angels

3.

Seattle Mariners

4.

Oakland Athletics

NL EAST

1.

Philadelphia Phillies

2.

Atlanta Braves

3.

New York Mets

4.

Florida Marlins

5.

Washington Nationals

NL CENTRAL

1.

Milwaukee Brewers

2.

St. Louis Cardinals

3.

Cincinnati Reds

4.

Chicago Cubs

5.

Pittsburgh Pirates (my third favorite team :()

6.

Houston Astros

NL WEST

1.

San Francisco Giants (my second favorite team)

2.

Los Angeles Dodgers

3.

Colorado Rockies

4.

Arizona Diamondbacks

5.

San Diego Padres

Wild Cards Teams:
AL - Boston Red Sox
NL - Atlanta Braves

World Series:
Philadelphia Phillies over Boston Red Sox

MVPs:
AL - Miguel Cabrera (Detroit Tigers)
NL - Hanley Ramirez (Florida Marlins)

Cy Young Award:
AL - C.C. Sabathia (New York Yankees)
NL - Tim Lincecum (San Francisco Giants)

Rookie Of The Year:
AL - Desmond Jennings (Tampa Bay Rays)
NL - Aroldis Chapman (Cincinnati Reds)

And now for the part that the majority of you actually care about :P. Well, with the release of L.A. Noire coming in less than two months, I've been thinking deeply about this and I think it's official... Rockstar Studios is the king of modern gaming. Now I'm sure that a lot of you disagree. I'm sure that a lot of want to kill me for not picking BioWare or 2Kas the best in the business, but I've decided to compile my Top 5 Reasons Why Rockstar Is The Best Publisher In The Business.

REASON #1:

SETTINGS

These days, it's not that hard to come up with the setting for a video game. Just make it some place where violence is tolerated, particularly war zones, space, or zombie infested cities. But Rockstar has a great consistency of taking interesting and somewhat risky turns with their games. Games like Bully, Red Dead Redemption, and L.A. Noire are all put in environmentsthat mostpublishersare afraidto enter. Especially with Bully and L.A. Noire, because lets face it, no one sets games inprivate schoolsor 1947 Los Angeles. It'll be interesting to see what they dowithL.A. Noire, seeing as the setting is completely new.

REASON #2:

Massive Environments

I don't think I have to go into great detail about this one. Even if you don't think that they're the best overall publisher in gaming right now, everyone should agree that they're the best with open worlds. Nothing can compare to Liberty City, San Andreas, or all three of the enormous regions of Red Dead Redemption, all of which are individually bigger than Liberty City.And rumor is that with L.A. Noire, they've created a perfect replica of 1947 Los Angeles, and if that's true, we're in for another huge world to explore.

REASON #3:

CHARACTERS

No two games have had a bigger and better cast of characters than Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar has an incredible talent for writing great characters, no matter how big or small of a part they play in the grand scheme of the story. Whether it's a steroid hungry eccentric or a swindling snake oil merchant, Rockstar can always guarantee a wide arsenal of entertaining people to assist you through your adventure.

REASON #4:

EXPANSION PACKS/DLC's

Now this pretty much only applies to Red Dead Redemption, but still, Rockstar has given us some really engaging DLC's. Whether they enhance the online experience of a game or the solo campaign, you can always find something great with their downloadable content. L.A. Noire also has a pre-order DLC called "The Naked City", which I'mthinking aboutgetting. Anyway, Red Dead Redemption's DLC really did help to pump things up, and I'm sure that Rockstar will keep going with them.

REASON #5:

L.A. NOIRE'S FACIAL ANIMATIONS

If you've seen that L.A. Noire trailers, then you know how amazing the facial animations are for this game. Rockstar created a new system that captures an actor's face from every angle possible, and they then convert it into the facial animations for the game. So technically, L.A. Noire is an interactive movie, seeing as we're getting actual performances by actors. If you haven't seen the trailer regarding that animations,you need to watch it, and you'll realize how incredible this game looks.

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Song of the Day:
deadmau5 - Some Chords
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__2ABJjxzNo

Picture of the Day: