yeah so in the end i couldnt resist. havent broke into it yet, but i am amped. one thing i DO NOT like is the lack of GBA games support. nintendo WTF's up with that decision? well atleast i still have my old DS... for those days i get the Minish Cap itch.. anyways... heres a few snapshots.

have some interesting news today... well interesting for me at least considering i am the only one who reads these blog posts here... well i know danny reads them and the occasional gamespotter... so okay, this one is for ME and danny. you will think its cool...

anyways... was diggin thru my garage today and every other imaginable place in my house for my PSP games. when i came back from iraq i packed all my PSP and DS games away... well i found the DS games, but no luck with the PSP games. why am i in search of these you ask? because im cheap and i am going to trade in my games i dont play anymore for some store credit at GAMESTOP.. yeah i said it, store credit. some of my friends frown on this sort of behaviour but i want a new DSi.. and to fulfill that need.. imma have to hock some games. not to mention get rid of the spare PSP i have laying around. actually its my wifes, but she doesnt play it anymore... okay.. so as i was saying, in search for the games i come across these beauty -

yes my eyes lit up when i seen it. forgot i had it actually...

seeing as this game is now my most newest FAV, [spoiler] (MGS will always be my FAV) [/spoiler] it was a pleasant surprise to find this. reading the article took me back and i remember thinking what a cool ass game this is gonna be. kevin levine and his talented team certainly kept up their promise. awesome game. too bad he isnt involved in BioShock 2. i am hoping that it turns out good.

anyways, i liked BioShock so much that i decided to write a review for it here on gamespot. yes, my first review...

if you want to check it out it can found here: //MY BIOSHOCK REVIEW//. let me know what you think!!! (danny)

okay so back to the new DSi issue. i am not sure if want to do this... to be honest i am perfectly happy with my DS as it is. but i read a review over at GiantBomb.com by brad (read here) and his story is very compelling.. almost enough for me to get one. i have a ton of games to trade in plus the PSP.. so i wouldnt have to spend any real money on it. i plan on going to GAMESTOP tomorrow and seeing how much i can get for everything. MORE TO FOLLOW!!

well i do believe that is all for now... future plans include writing a MGS4 review, hopefully this weekend. im also taking my kids to see that Monsters vs. Aliens flick.. ive heard mixed reviews. i guess its all for the kids anyways. would also like to play some more BioShock this weekend and quite possible squeeze in Zelda Twilight Princess. I should be ashamed of myself for not beating that yet...

so then.. till then... peace.

Okay like a month later... here are some snapshots of my new iMac. As I said before, I stepped across to the other side and bought a Mac. I can honestly say that I like it more than my Windows based PC. It took some getting used to, but I think I got a hang of things now... anyways, here they are.

heres a shot of the front... the 24 inch screen is beautiful. Amazing 1920x1200 resolution.

heres a shot of my cool little wireless keyboard. I love the keyboard, but the lack of number keys on the side like a traditional keyboard kinda sucks.

here is the mighty mouse... its kinda funky, but i am getting used to it.

and here is a screen shot of my desktop.

Picture it… the year is 2002. I'm in the military and I am living in the military barracks. I have no roommate, so life is good. My current addiction… Final Fantasy 8. I started playing it back in early 2000, but for some reason never finished it. So I picked it back up and proceeded to destroy. Anyone that is familiar with this game will recall that it had 4 discs. After logging some serious playtime, I had put together a hella mean deck of cards for the mini card game, Triple Triad. When I first started I was not interested in the card game very much until a cool thing happened.

My friend was in my room one night watching me play the game. After much drinking and gaming I was dead tired and about to call it a night when my friend asked if he could stay over and play around with the mini card game. I said sure and crashed out. Well the next morning I wake up to realize that my friend was still there… still playing the freaking card game. He had managed to assemble an incredibly tough deck to play with. I give him props to this day for the deck he built. Anyways, the game took on a new meaning for me, since I could actually win duals now with a much stronger deck. I know it wasn't really my deck, but I was already on the 3rd disc of the game, so I thought what the hell. Anyway, so the gaming continued with the new might deck in hand.

When I say Final Fantasy 8 was my addiction, I am dead serious. For those who are not familiar with Army life allow me to explain a bit. My day officially starts at 6:30 in the A.M. So I usually get myself up about 45 minutes prior to that in order to get ready and head to our morning formations. Well it got so bad with this damn game that I would go to sleep the night before really, really late. Got to get in all the gaming I can right? I would were my clothes to bed that I had to wear for the next day… that way, when I woke up, I wouldn't have to waste time getting dressed. So I would set my alarm for about 2 hours prior and use that time to battle in the card game or just advance in the story. It was ridiculous. At one point, I swear, I was only getting about 3 hours of sleep a night. And in the middle of this all… I was dating my future wife.

I had already proposed and we were getting married very soon. She knew of my love for games, but I wasn't sure she was up on my addiction. So at this point in the game I am nearing the 4th and final disc. I can't wait to finally put this game under my belt. Then disaster strikes. I get married. Well getting married was bad, it was what would happen next that decide my fate with Final Fantasy 8. I moved out the barracks and into an apartment with my new bride. We were both happy, young and in love. After a few weeks of honey moon romance, I decided to get back to my other girl… my mistress if you will.

I begin looking through boxes to get all my stuff out and ready. Playstation One? Check… Controllers? Check… Game? Check… Memory Cards? WTF? It was in the box before… what the hell happened to it? So… this is how it ends. I searched for months and months for the memory card. I knew deep down inside that the card was gone, but I tried to keep hope. Anyone who has experienced the feeling of loosing 150 plus hours of gaming on a memory card knows what I was feeling. I thought I was going to die. How could I muster up the strength to start from the beginning? The truth is… I never did. I tried a few times, however the thought of starting fresh AND building a new deck of cards was too much to bear.

How would I go on? So that was about 8 years ago. I have moved many times in the Army since then and had almost completely forgotten about the incident. Almost. In fact, it has always remained in the back of my mind… haunting me. Knowing that I will never complete it. It was so bad that I even got the follow up games 10, 10.5 and have never had the heart to open them. I actually have those games still in the plastic because I couldn't face them knowing I had completed the other. I have this weird tick that will not allow me to finish games out of order. Don't know why, it's just something I have always done. So this past February, the Army decided to move me again. So I picked up my family and we moved to Arizona.

One day after finally getting settled in… I was in my office unpacking some boxes. That is when I noticed a older looking box. Turns out it was one the ORIGINAL boxes I used when I moved my belongings out of the barracks when I got married. So I open the box, not daring to think "it" could be in there. When I opened the box it was like when Link would open a treasure chest. Light shown from the box, music played and behold… My Playstation one memory cards were there in all their glory. It was a time to rejoice and celebrate. The missing link has been found… My Final Fantasy saga could continue. I was whole again. I couldn't believe my eyes. The feeling I had was the same feeling I had when I discovered I could float through the wall in level 1-2 in Mario Bros only to find a secret water level.

Now all I have to do is pop that bad boy into my PS2 and try and pick up where I left off. How will it feel after all these year? How much will I remember? Who the hell cares right? I am just happy that this tragic story did end with a touch of happiness. I dedicate this story to all of those who have suffered in some shape or form as I have. To all those who have little sisters or brothers who pressed the power button just before you could beat Contra. For all those who stood an hour in line to just play Street Fighter in a laundromat downtown. And finally to all of those who know deep down inside that Triple Triad is the baddest mini card game of all time.

ive been a serious windows/PC guy forever... well i decided to cross over.. i just bought my first mac. my current desktop is about 5 years old and its starting to feel its age. i have a few friends that highly recommended getting a mac, so i figured i would check into it.. i liked what i saw on the mac website and so i customized me one. it should be here tomorrow. here are a few of the specs:

MONITOR - 24 INCH
PROCESSOR - 2.8GHZ INTEL CORE 2 DUO
MEMORY - 800MHZ DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
GRAPHICS - NVIDIA GEFORCE 8800 GS W/512MB
HARD DRIVE - 1TB SERIAL ATA DRIVE

more to follow later....

I am finally settled in now in my home.. actually i have been settled in for about a week now. The Army has moved me from North Carolina to Arizona.. hell of a change, but pleasant none the least. I needed the change of scenery. I talked to my new boss at work yesterday and I got the good feeling. Completely different job here than what i was doing in NC but i am looking forward to change of pace. On the gaming front, i havent did too much. Ive been playing animal crossing a lot when i get free time. i got a nice little town built up. This game is highly addictive.. i guess i like the idea of it. i finally beat chrono trigger a few weeks ago.. and that was perfect in everyway. everything i ever wanted in a RPG is present in chrono trigger. i plan on going thru and getting all the possible endings... i also picked back up in my game of bioshock. ive already beat it multiply times but now i am trying to go thru and get all the achievements. bioshock is trully a remarkable game too. i have the 360 version but plan on getting the PS3 version sometime in the future too so i get the downloadable content.. i also plan on doing some game reviews too soon. keep an eye for them!

Well it has been over a year since my last blog post... kind of crazy, but my time in iraq got even crazier after that last post.. lets just say i had more pressing issues that required almost my constant attention... my last post briefly mentioned how i finally had recieved my copy of Bioshock. well its kind of common knowledge now how awesome that game was.. i played it and beat it to get both endings, good and bad. the game was awesome and i loved every second of its game play. it was really refreshing... but thats old news by now...

so fast foward all the crazy stuff in the last year and half.. i am finally home from iraq. i got back in late june and i have been pretty much spending all my free time with my family... and squeezing in gaming too. my wife bought me a Wii for my birthday a few months back so i finally hav the triforce completed... PS3, 360 and the Wii. havent played the Wii very much.. in fact my kids play it more than i do. i do have Zelda for it and have been patiently waiting for the right time to jump in and destroy that game since i am a huge Zelda fan.. and speaking of being a fan, my preorder for MGS4 was waiting for me here at home when i got back from iraq... that game was the best. my long time favorite game of all time was Ocarina of Time, but MGS4 easily surpassed that game as my favorite.

right now im playing a few different games... still going thru Gears 2 on insane mode.. its just that, insane. also playing some viva pinata for the DS too.. thats a fun little game. i also picked up Chrono Trigger today for the DS so i should get breaking into that game here real soon, hopefully tonight.

well thats it for now.. i plan on keeping more up to date with my blog now so stay tuned for more...

okay i know im a little late on the BIOSHOCK bandwagon but my copy finally got here. i was surprised as it usually takes mail atleast 15 days to get to where i am and gamestop had it shipped and arrived with 10. i was extremely happy to say the least.

anyways.. i got my mail right as i was going onto shift so i didnt dare start playing it yet. i get off in a few hours and then i will dive into a game that i have been following for sooooo long. i am jittering with anticipation.

more to follow......