Well, this certainly has been a long time coming. I must say that I have played far too many games in the past two years to remember everything so I wont be going back in time to review anything unless I decide to replay the game at some point. I do on the other hand plan to maintain a blog going forward and begin to once again write reviews. As for life, I don't really know where I was when I left off so I'll give a general recap: I have had many different experiences since my last few updates. I moved from my father's house to my mother's for a period of time. I spent many hours outdoors and attended a few parties. I also was promoted at my job and began making more money. I played many RPGs including FF7 (again) , Legend of Dragoon, and Legend of Mana among others. Discovered the bizarre Silent Hill, and replayed the entire Resident Evil saga from the original through 4 in order to prepare for RE5. I also went through 2 Xbox 360s and played A LOT of Street Fighter 4. Plenty more games filled the gaps here but as I mentioned, far too many to remember them all. Promoted again, I began making enough money to move into my own apartment with my [ex]girlfriend. This proved quite taxing on my gaming time, having to take care of the dogs and all. Unfortunately I fell into a somewhat droll routine: sleep, work, take care of dogs, eat, sleep, etc.. I had a few kick-ass parties but most good things come to and end and as did this crazy ride that was having my own place. As luck would have it I ended up breaking my hand and putting myself in a compromising situation that in turn helped me avoid an even worse situation (staying in that damn apartment). Turns out it was the best thing to happen, save getting my PS3, in years. The events that followed as my hand was recovering brought me much closer to my real friends and I'll never forget everything they did to help me. I moved back in with my father and reconnected with some old middle and high school friends that I didn't speak to much during my time with my ex (sorry guys!!!). Then put on a bit of weight in the months after and many days were much of the same. Skipped Otakon in 2010. Continued a normal routine of being lazy, playing games and hanging out with friends until around winter time. That was when I redesigned the basement and picked up a 56' flat screen DLP, resurrected the old school consoles on the 32' bubble, and set up a montage display of all my action figures from various anime and video games across two bookshelves. Cleaned, reorganized, the whole 9 yards. But then, disaster stuck. I began playing World of Warcraft, again. After being 4 years clean, some friends and co-workers were able to talk me into creating a new account after I was unable to reactivate my level 60 Rouge from Vanilla. I must say that not only was I sucked in all over again but I became even more lazy than when my hand was broken. Insert more weight gain. |(-_-)| Between December 2010 and April 2011, I grinded my way to level 85, maxed out my professions, got my gear score 354 and I'm all pumped up to Raid. Even built a new computer (details on that tomorrow :D)! Then Guild defects to Rift. . . WoW account has been cancelled, and I've been working out for the past 2 weeks. Now begins the next chapter of my life and I find myself trying to start over once again. I'm still working at Gamestop and I'm very happy with my life but will continue looking for the right balance. I plan on doing some light hardcore gaming (someone let me know if that's even possible) over the next few weeks as I plan my next move. I'm going to update my game library over the next two weeks (yeah, there are that many new ones) and put my first new review up by next Monday. I'll most likely be reviewing Bully: Scholarship Edition for the 360 as that is currently what is sitting in my Xbox. Going to update my review rules tomorrow as well. So for now, I'm going to put an end to this long-winded catch up post and let your eyes rest (for anyone who'll actually read this whole thing that is xD). - Until tomorrow \* Mike out.

It has been far too long since my last blog update and well, I think it is about time to reboot the whole thing. Nothing too in depth now as I plan on writing a more in depth update tonight, with my opinions about Sony and their most recent Network fiasco coming tomorrow. I have been through a lot in the past 2 years since my last update. I've grown up quite a bit and have even learned a few things along the way. I made a Facebook, played many different games [and bought even more], and even had an addiction to World of Warcraft. I'll attempt to make up for lost time here but promise nothing. I'm clearly rusty at writing now and need some time to get used to doing this whole thing again. But as I piece all my thoughts back together here and try to remember the events of the past 2 years, I'll also be posting my thoughts on current events and start to sharpen my writing skills once again. I think it's time I reboot my life, and now just this blog. - Until this evening \* Mike out.

Just a quick post to mark that I finally managed to get a PS3. It's a 60 gig that my girlfriend and I picked up for cheap. On the downside my 360 red-ringed [yet again] the day before I picked the PS3 up (Thursday night). At least I'll have some quality time to get acquainted with the new kid on the block, or rather my desktop. At any rate I'm excited about Little Big Planet and Metal Gear Solid 4! I'll most likely post one more time before Christmas and have MK vs DCU review up this Monday. Time to get some PS3 lovin'. - Rush out.

While this may be long overdue, I FINALLY have my computer back up and running. Since my baby has gone down, much has happened. I have managed to pick up over 75 titles across all platforms ranging from Ico, to Dead or Alive 4 (thanks to someone very special b(^-^)d ). But that is beside the point. With all this content and so many games I have played, I haven't reviewed squat! So here I am. I'm back and ready to go! I currently have a pretty large list of games I'm trying to get through but I will attempt to get through them and post reviews for them one at a time. I also want to get back into a routine of weekly reviews posted on Mondays. Although with it being holiday season and seeing as I may be a bit rusty, I will have to stick to bi-weekly review posts for now. Assassin's creed still holds the bar for graphics and Bioshock has my heart for gameplay, but man you gotta love that good ol' Left 4 Dead zombie killing! Gears 2's Story surprised me and I've gained an uncanny love for fighting games that I never realized I had. Yet somehow the best thing that has happened to me this year yet has been meeting my current girlfriend who has helped me realize all that gaming really is to me. It is unbelievable that we are already here in December and I still don't own a PS3! And after stating that I notice how sad it really is that I already have 4 games for it and I can't do a thing with them. Mainly due to monetary constraints it will remain on the back-burner for now but I'll get one..oh I shall get one >:o At any rate I'm trying not to make this a catch-up post, rather a reintroduction post so I'll leave on that note. This monday: N/A (too much going on with the job). Next Monday: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. - Rush out.

Still no computer. Bleh! Got Okami finally woo! Been working a lot and I've hardly played games in the past 3 weeks. raWr~ - Mike.

It figures that right when I think I'm going to have things back on track that what happens? None other than my computer going on strike. So unfortunately no reviews till I get the beast going again. At any rate, Happy New Year to everyone! CHRISTMAS UPDATE: I got a DS ^-^

So I've been WAY overdue for an update. As the title implies - when Halo 3 released on September 25th, time pretty much stopped for me. I more or less completely ignored the existence of October '07. So "Rush" you might ask, "why is it that you didn't update in November when you settled down with Halo?" Well to tell the truth the ONLY reason I stopped playing Halo 3 at all was thanks to my person favorite of 2007: Assassin's Creed. You may take notice I've posted my review for it and is so far the first 10 I've given. This wont be the case once I get through some of my other reviews for 2007 games but it will be a few weeks before I get those reviews up. Obviously it didn't take me the entire month of November to beat Assassin's Creed so some other titles I've been playing through include CoD4, God Hand, and Stuntman Ignition. I'll have reviews for all of these in the coming weeks but first I'll have to stop being lazy and start writing. My far overdue Bioshock review will be up soon as well. For now, if you haven't gone out and bought Assassin's Creed yet: wait until Christmas. If you don't get it for Christmas: go out and buy it! Enjoy the review... - Rush out.

So as I found out the other day, basically everyone who signed up for the CoD4 beta got in. Thankfully I'm one of those people because this beta is absolutely the awesome. I wanted the game before, but now I feel like November can't get here soon enough. The main reason I haven't posted in a few days is because I've been playing the aforementioned beta.
I'm not going to fully review the beta or anything but I will mention a few of the highlights. I love the perks system. It really lets you customize your soldier and makes for very unique experiences. Each perk seems to help in different situations - referring to map and objective based games that is. As you level up by getting kills and completing other objectives you gain access to new perks and weapon upgrades. Perks include: 'stopping power' which gives your bullets more strength; 'extreme conditioning' which lets your run for a greater period of time (useful in attack and defend situations when you are trying to rush the opposition); and 'last stand' gives you the ability to be downed where you can pull out your pistol and try to get a few more kills before dying. More can be learned by downloading the video that's up on XboxLive Marketplace right now. In order to customize your own perks though you first have to get to level 5 where you unlock "Create a class." Here you can select what weapons, equipment, and perks your soldier will have. Mixing and matching the different items here can give you a great advantage on the battlefield, but if done incorrectly can end up being a major hindrance. There are 3 maps available: Crash, Vacant, and Overgrown. All three maps look amazing and are all a lot of fun to play on. Overgrown gets skipped a lot though since it's mainly a sniper's map and it doesn't seem like many people enjoy it too much. The graphics are top notch though and really show what the Xbox 360 can do. Other things include the 1-hit kill knife melee, being able to throw back grenades that land near you and hoping it doesn't explode in your face, and guile suits that literally make you almost invisible when you're laying still in the grass or a bush. Every time you get 3 kills in a row without dying, you access UAV Radar that enables your whole team to see the position of the enemy on the mini-map. Five kills in a row nets you an air-strike. Seven kills in a row without getting killed lets you summon a helicopter that will fly around and shoot down anyone foolish enough to stay outside or near a window. The game has a lot going for it. As far as the beta is concerned, the level cap is only 11. Infinity Ward says they will raise the level cap but no word as to exactly when. I can't wait for it since I've been at level 11 since day 1. It didn't take long to get there so I imagine it will take a bit more to level up after this. No Bioshock review today, just haven't had the time with playing the beta and all..I'll write it up soon!

So if you don't happen know what beta I'm talking about - there is this small game Call of Duty 4 that's coming out this Fall and there just happens to be a multiplayer beta that isn't much unlike the Halo 3 beta. I got my beta token this morning and yes, I'm excited. I've downloaded the beta but I haven't had the chance to play it yet. I'll update with my experience later tonight. I also happened to beat Bioshock last night. It's excited because upon beating the game I was only missing 2 achievements and I was able to go back and get the last 2 within 15 minutes. That makes Bioshock my first retail game that I've been able to unlock all 1000 achievement points on; rightfully so. Having played through the whole game I can really say that it's one of the best games I've ever played. Deep story, great game play, and big daddies; what could be better? Seriously though I'm going to write my full review and it's definitely going to reflect my previous post. I'll have it up by Monday.

I know it's kinda late, since it hit Tuesday but my post about Bioshock explains why. But after playing the demo I really think the game is going to give the Tony Hawk series a run for it's money. This game is much more realistic and takes me back to the days of Thrasher. I always wished that game would have been a success and the same goes for this one. Tony Hawk games were fun, but "real skating" games have always been more compelling to me since I used to actually skate. Not to mention that now Tony Hawk games are just dry - trying to tack on a weak story to make you feel like the goals you are completing mean something. It seems they lost sight of what the game used to be about: game play. A skating game doesn't need a story, just really tight gameplay and I think skate. has the goods. We'll see what Neversoft has to answer with when both skate. and TH Proving Ground drop this fall.