Happy New Year GS from the east coast of America. Hope 2010 is 10 times better than 2009 for everybody. So far, mine is going swimingly :D

Since everybody else seems to be giving their Christmas wishes today, I thought it would be good to switch it up and celebrate Festivus for the rest of us. So for those of you that are planning on celebrating Festivus today, remember to get that aluminum pole good and shined up, make sure you get a good stretch in before you show off your strength, and have your list of grievances organized and ready to share with the ones you love. Here's hoping that we all have great Festivus miracles today!

THE MAN RULES

Finally , the guys' side of the story. (I must admit, it's pretty good.)
We always hear "the rules" From the female side.
Now here are the rules from the male side.
These are our rules!
Please note... these are all numbered "1" ON PURPOSE!

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don't hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports: It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be…

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you think you're fat, you probably are. Don't ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something Or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you have to say during commercials...

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," We will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't want an answer to, Expect an answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine... Really.

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as Football or Fishing.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.

I never thought i would see the day, but i will be working at the county fair this year in one of the food trailers. It's kind of weird to think about it, especially since i love going to the fair and eating. Now that i will be working with the food and seeing some of the behind-the-scene stuff before and after the fair closes, i'm afraid it might change my outlook on eating at the fair. Hopefully my outlook doesn't get completely screwed up -_-. I think it will be fun. 11 days of working with those wacky carnival folks; hearing all of the noises and sounds of people vomiting after they've gotten off the Tilt-a-Whirl; the creepy carnival music playing over and over in my head; the smell of burned grease in my clothes...oh yeah, this is going to be awesome :lol:

In other news, i finished playing Eternal Sonata...that was a weird game. It was fun, don't get me wrong, but i had a tough time following the story and making connections between the characters and the overall plot. It was definitely a beautiful game to play, but i see what everybody else was saying about the gameplay...it was very linear.

So with that game beaten, i decided to go back to Persona 3:FES since i was at the very end of that game. I ended up beating that one, but still need to play through the Answers to see what's up with Aigis. I'll probably move on to Persona 4 after that.

And i've also been trying to play L4D with one of my friends on expert mode...but good gracious, that thing is stupid hard! We've had a few good runs on the first episode from the first and second check point. Once we start the third area, that's where the bull crap starts to really kick in. The computer starts to send in Hunter after Smoker after Boomer after Tank after Witch and it's just mind blowing how tactical these zombies get. At one point, we nearly made it to the next check point...the "safe spot" was actually in sight. Damn the computer for giving us hope about finally passing the stage because it hurt that much more actually seeing the end. My poor television was about to catch the brunt of my frustration. Needless to say, after such a crushing defeat, we decided to take a few weeks off from the game to gather our self-esteems together again.

So that's it for now. I will be pretty scarce for the next 11 days since i will be doing a 8am - 12am shift between my day job and the fair job. So everybody stay cool ;)

So i picked up the new Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 game yesterday and spent about 7 hours or so playing it last night. So far, i am enjoying it. I did, however, have a fool hearty expectation that the programmers and developers would come up with all unique combinations of fusion powers (276 if i did my math correctly). Sad to say, this was not the case. Granted, everybody does whip out a combined super power with everybody else in the roster, but a lot of the sequences were certainly recycled. So far, i've gone back to my roots and have been spamming the hell out of Storm and Iceman because they were both invaluable assets in X-Men Legends. I was happy to see that they powered them back up from the last MUA...especially Storm. They really made her pretty much useless in that game. I haven't had a chance to try out any of the new characters yet since i'm still early in the game, so my subsequent team has consisted of Human Torch and Deadpool/Captain America. I do miss my ultimate team from the first game. They took out Moon Knight (bad ass), Dr. Strange (potential bad ass) and Nightcrawler (bad ass). Regardless, i am still enjoying it. So, if anybody else has picked it up and would like to play some co-op online then shoot me a message.

So it happened to me again. Impulse buying can really be a dangerous thing. This time, however, i made out on the better end of the situation. I was able to pick up 3 fairly high quality games for a hella discount. Let me start by saying that eBay can be a very very evil place if you aren't careful. At the same time, you can find some very good deals on there if you look hard enough and bid smart. In my case, I was neither looking hard or being smart. I just happened to take on a nonchalant attitude when searching. I ended up finding Left 4 Dead at a very reasonable price starting off...$10 i think was the starting bid. So in a ho-hum fashion, i decided to make a bid on the game and put my max bid to be $30. I felt like that was a reasonable price for a used and dated game, and if i didn't win the auction then i wouldn't be to disheartened. Besides, i had been getting outbid on everything else i was trying for so it only seemed natural to adopt a so what attitude at this point. Well, i guess the stars were lined up correctly because nobody decided to outbid me this time. I was able to pick up L4D for $30. Street Fighter 4 was the next game i picked up. This one, i just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I just happened to be looking on gamestop.com for Fable 2 prices and noticed that they had SF4 marked down...for NEW copies!!! $20 for a brand new copy of SF4? Yeah, you read correctly. I had to pick it up since i obviously was not going to find the game anywhere else new for $20. The only crap part about this purchase is that the gamestop web site is not very smart when it comes to signing up new people. I had to go through the headache of trying to differentiate my billing address from my shipping address which resulted in them taking over 2 weeks to ship my game out. Oh well, i suppose. The last game i picked up was Saint's Row 2. This was actually the best deal of the trio. Someone from work told me about a special going on at the local Movie Gallery store. They were advertising any pre-played game that was marked to be sold for $30 and under would be rung up for only $5. Sounds promising? Well yeah, but i was told the information a day before the deal was ending so it was a safe assumption that most of the games had already been picked over. Good thing curiosity got the better of me because i went to look regardless. So going up to the store and looking through all the leftover games, there wasn't much to choose from as far as good games go. They had the Halo's and the GoW and all the rest, but they were all still above the $30 mark. I was pretty certain there wouldn't be anything there, however, on my last browse of the games, i noticed that they had copies of Saint's Row 2 and they just happen to be $29. Score! I really enjoyed that game when i was renting it and to be able to buy it for less than what i rented it for was pretty sweet. So i am a happy goose right now. I have been playing the crap out of all of my purchases and have really been surprised by L4D since i'm not really a FPS player. That damn game is fun! That's all for now people ;)

Sorry, i was in the mood to do a random blog. So have you taken the time to wiggle your toes today? Make sure you get into the holiday spirit and give your toes the attention they deserve. :D

I found these pictures online and just had to share. It helped to put a smile on my face. The first one, i thought was funny not so much because of the guy getting a tire to the face, but because of the guy in the background wincing at the sight. The other one i found was just full of win. The poor girl...i guess now i have a permanent point of reference of try/fail

Well, I've had another bout of impulse buying. This time, that evil site eBay got me. I bought Left 4 Dead (used) on Friday afternoon and only paid $30 for it :shock:. I was quite proud of that purchase. I actually placed a bid on a copy of Saint's Row 2 and Fable 2 but lost those. I can't say that I'm too bothered losing those 2...although I'm upset at how much I lost Saint's Row 2 by...but it would have been nice to be able to pick them both up for super cheap. L4D should arrive either Thursday or Friday, so I'm looking forward to playing that with a few friends...but just a warning, I suck at FPS games. I did get to rent Saint's Row 2 over the weekend, and I must say it is turning out to be a lot of fun. I discovered the joy of the stun gun and did that ever open up the game for me :P. I think I still have a while to go before I finish it, but so far it has been easy to get into. I also like the character customization in the game. Right now, I have a character that looks a bit like a wuss but is a bad ass on the street. Who would have guessed? I also downloaded the Monkey Island: Special Edition from XBLA and I had no idea how funny that game is. I'm still working my way through the first part right now. It is really tough trying to figure out what you have to do at times. It took me forever to realize I needed a pot for my head to get past the circus scene. I'm looking forward to finishing it and playing through it again for the achievements. That's all for now ;)

So this month has been a bit of a blur. So many things going on. The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was back in full force this year after last year's watered down presentation and there have been a lot of announcements as far as new video games coming out over the next 12 months. For this blog, I want to discuss the three biggest announcements that have crossed my ears during this year's E3 conference.

Coming to the PS3 is the new God of War 3. It is the final chapter in the Kratos saga. Things are finally coming to a close in the story as Kratos and the titans bring the fight to Zeus and Mt. Olympus. The demo shown on the E3 floor displayed Kratos and one of the massive titans going up against Helios, the sun god, and his multitude of minions. The action and intense gore has been increased in this latest installment as Kratos eviscerates mythical creatures with no remorse. From the small Harpies to large centaurs, no one is safe from the fallen god's wrath. Mini button sequences make their way back into the game as displayed during a battle with one of the centaurs, as Kratos cuts and slashes at the beast, only to finish him off by disemboweling him. The demo ends with a high octane battle as Kratos battles fiercely with a chimera, slashing and chopping the creature apart one animal at a time. The graphics have been upgraded in a major way to take full advantage of the PS3's power, showing such details as shadows over Kratos's body, fur on the creatures and more rich and stand-out backgrounds. God of War 3 is scheduled to release March, 2010.

The biggest announcement to come out this year (to me at least) was Sony losing one of it's exclusive series to a competing console. Final Fantasy XIII was announced to be released for Xbox360 and during the conference, we got a chance to see this bad boy in action. Typically, gamers complain that all they get to see from RPG's during the conference are cut-scenes and in-game movies and typically, they are right. This year, Square-Enix decided to up their game a little and show off some actual game footage. The graphics were stunning and the flow of the battle system seemed similar to that Final Fantasy X-2 set up, only with a bit of an adrenaline boost. The demo shown during the conference was of the game's heroine, a young girl wielding what appeared to be something similar to the gun blade that was popularized in Final Fantasy VIII. She battles along side 5 teammates against a mech creature of overwhelming proportions. During the battle, they show the characters able to simultaneously attack the mech creature using a mix of physical and magical attacks. Also revealed during the battle was a familiar and welcomed face who missed out on appearing in Final Fantasy XII: the summon monster Odin. It was not stated how the summons would play a role in this particular installment of Final Fantasy, but suffice to say, we are glad to see the old crew making a return. Final Fantasy XIII is scheduled for release Spring 2010.

Finally, over in the Capcom booth, Capcom vs Tatsunoko for Nintendo Wii was revealed. The demo offered fans 20 different characters to choose from, boasting players from the Capcom world such as Ryu and Chun Li (Street Fighter), Mega Man and Roll (Mega Man), and even Batsu (Rival Schools), and characters from famous Tatsunoko shows such as Ken the Eagle and Jun the Swan (G-Force: Guardians of Space). The game play is similar to Marvel vs Capcom. Teams are constructed of two characters. Players are allowed to switch between characters during the match by "tagging" in and out. Players can perform ground combos in, what seemed to be, an easy fashion. Air combos and juggling was also displayed and all characters seem to possess at least two different ultimate special moves. The graphics are similar to the recently released Street Fighter 4 where character models are rendered in 3D but the fighting plane is on a 2D field. During the floor show, fans were given the opportunity to try out the new remote control for the game which looked similar to an arcade joystick set up. Sporting 8 buttons and a control stick, the new control made the game look to be more enjoyable than trying to use the Wiimote or cIassic controller. Release of Capcom vs Tatsunoko in America on the Wii is yet to be announced.

It is looking to be a good year for gaming and I am looking forward to adding some new and great titles to my gaming library. Until next time, stay cool everybody ;)