...to show you how much you suck.

I'd say that was right.
I've never really had problems playing by myself, or people around here. I do okay.
Get online and I have my ass handed too me pretty much all the time.

I do alright in Halo 2. I don't think I was ever dead last, but never really made it to the top. Best round I was like, third.
Perfect Dark I generally play teambased modes, so I feel confident that when I win it's more to do with that I'm paired up with some decent players then my own abilitys.
I can manage to get some kills typically. But with both of the above mentioned shooters people seem to see me long before I realize they're even there, so I have a severe disadvantage there.

Last night Fight Night 3 was returned to me, as I let my brothers borrow it around a week ago. So I gave that a go online.
I seldom make it past three rounds. Hell, one guy knocked me out in a single punch. I got up, of course.
But it put me in my place for sure.

If I were a more competitive person, this relevation would eat my innards, as is I'm just going to keep playing until I don't suck so bad. Even if it means I garner 1000 losses to my name in Fight Night before I get a single win.

I've heard a lot of bad things about online play.
Racist, loud, obnoxious 12 year olds who won't shut the hell up on the mic. Rampant team killers. "hax0rs".
I haven't had any problems thus far.. Until today...

Firstly, I finally downloaded all the maps I needed to play Halo 2 so off I went. I played 5 or 6 rounds without a hitch.
Then I join this one game and theres this high pitched, whiney voice who won't be quiet throughout the whole game. Every second word was a curse and he was just generally annoying.

Second, afterward I joined a game of Perfect Dark - infection, I like that mode. It's fun. But not when the majority of the players in the game are team killing a-holes. Seriously. There were perhaps me and three other guys actually playing correct. The other 17 or so odd players ran around randomly, shooting whoever - doesn't matter if you were on there team or not, if you were in there line of sight, bam! You're going down. I spent most of the match filing bloody complaints and player reviews with the hope I can avoid this in the future, but I've little hope for that.

S'pose the best I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope some of the idiots mature a little.
Or find a group of levelheaded people to play with, but I'm not much of a people person... So i'll probably keep joining random matches and getting idiots as a result.. Le sigh.

Tonight I hooked up the xbox to our network and gave Xbox Live ago, figured might as well use that free month.
And to my shock, it rounds relatively smooth.

I played a few deathmatches on Perfect Dark: Zero, and it ran smooth. It also made my oppinion of PD:Z a tad better then it was before. In online multiplayer, this game kicks ass in a zillion different ways.

Naturally, I can't download particularly quick - which is making getting this Tomb Raider demo painfully difficult, but the main thing is that the games run damn fine. And I'll probably wind up forking out a bit of cash for a yearly gold member account once the trials over.

With games like Pefect Dark: Zero, Full Auto and Fight Night 3 in my librarary and Battlefield 2, Battle for Middle Earth, Dead or Alive 4 and Smackdown VS Raw 2007 to come, this will definately be worth it. Very. Very happy.

Save for the fact that if I do get gold account, stupid parental figure is making me share it with my little brother, which sucks, much, because he could easily afford his own. Happens though, eh?

For starters... Good to see some downloadable content.
But I do have some problems with it.
First of all. I know it's cheap. But...
It's horse armor. And I remember reading in a preview or two that it was gonna be in the game. I don't remember them saying it'd be an add-on. But actually in the game. So if my memory is holding true, I'll be paying for something thats supposed to already be in there. No likey.

Second and probably my main gripe, but I guess it's not something I can hold against them - Some people lack the internet connection.
I don't do Xbox Live because I don't have Broadband and we can't get it down here yet and probably won't for awhile.
I doubt an alternate distribution system would work for something as small as a tiny bit of armor for an in-game horse, so I hope that in the future - when/if an expansion is made - that some of these little additions are included in the expansion and I can pay for it that way, as is I just can't really get it, as much as I'd like armor for my Shadowmere.

Haven't been up to much. I'm still playing Oblivion like it was air and I needed it to breathe. Very addictive game that.
Thought I'd back off a bit when I finally got Perfect Dark: Zero and while it's a good game, it's not anywhere near good enough to tear me away from Elder Scrolls.

Just read yesterday that Smackdown vs Raw would be coming to the 360 which, to me, is terrific news.
My one dislike about the Xbox was that there was never any good wrestling games on it, I have a PS2 so I can still play wrestling, no problem. But not having to worry about memory card space and the possibility of custom soundtracks, mainly for your enterance music - would've been killer.
Looks like we may get this with the 360.
Being able to grab a video file or whatever and have your own enterance Vid would be nice too, but I know not to push my luck.

Just looking at 360 games yet to be released and noticed Battle for Middleearth 2. I never played the first one. Didn't plan on playing the second.
But being able to play on the couch would be enough insentive for me to get it. It looks great. And I'd get it for the PC, but I doubt I'd run it as good as it could run.
Kinda skeptical about playing an RTS on a console though, I remember playing Starcraft 64 and I think it was Command and Conquer on the Playstation and I don't reckon it worked too well, though I dont see why not - it should - but it didn't.. Fit.
Perhaps BFME2 will work better.

Thats all from me, ciao.

And I'm lovin' it. I'll sometime get slightly more indepth then that.
I'd like to now and all but you know... Oblivion.

Edit: So far, so very very awesome. It's leaps and bounds better then Morrowind, I can be certain of that much.
Thusfar my only critisisms lie in the NPC's schedules, they're supposed to have them but I still see too many NPC's standing about during the day doing squat.

Still, when it does seem to be in effect it's a marvel. People going in and out of stores, conversations between NPC's which, though sometimes partially non-sensical - are still interesting to listen in on.
Guards releaving other guards of their duty for a bit.

Yesterday, my little brother was playing. He was running following a path and eventually he came across a Khajit lady. She didnt really have anything to say, but the fact she was on the middle of nowhere and on the move intrigued us, so we followed her awhile.

We came across a wolf and leapt to her aid, but she did fine killing it with her bare hands. We came across another wolf, and with what seemed like a swift kick to the gut, killed it.
Lastly, there was a bandit on the road, ready and waiting to kill us and loot our bodies. But before we even withdrew our sword she leapt at the bandit with a palm strike and killed him in a single blow, which left us gobsmacked.

We followed her into a town, and into the towns castle. We followed her a little further til we hit a room that was locked.
Why was she in the middle of nowhere?
I don't know.
But to follow her as she went about her buisness and killed those things were awesome.

I'll give a summary of Oblivion later, though I haven't even scratched the surface - I've spent a whole lot of time just mucking about, so I cant make comments in regard to the main quest and story.
But everything else I've tampered with has been GREAT.

Yes, will wonders never cease?
I did get my 360 today.
I expected there'd be shortages or something and I'd wind up having to wait anywhere between a week and a month before I got it, but I got it today!
I got it with Fight Night 3 and Full Auto, both of which I'll sum up later but both games kick serious arse and Fight Night's amazing graphics are even better looking close up and in person.

Tonight, hopefully, I'll be picking up my copy of Oblivion and if not tonight, tommorow.
I'm gonna have a kickass weekend.

Edit: Oblivion!.. Is not at hand.
By the time we got there, the store was closed.
If I didnt have to wait on other people, this of course wouldn't have happened - but now gotta wait til tommorow.
I've got Fight Night and Full Auto to ride the time out, but it's a major pain in the butt.

And by that, I mean tommorow is the much awaited release of the Xbox 360 downunder. And to make this day all the more sweeter, tommorow the store I've preordered from are having a sale, knocking just over $30 off 360 games tommorow only.
So this goes from around $108AUS to around $75, I believe they said. Good for me. I only hoping it isn't too packed.

Fingers crossed they have copies of Fight Night 3, Perfect Dark: Zero and Oblivion when I get there.. Eh.. I won't count so much on Oblivion, but the other two have to be there.

In the mean time, I'm happily whiling away the hours until tommorow with The Sims 2: Open For Buisness, which kicks some major ass by the way.

And chances are, ya didn't know I was gone.
But thats okay.
We shifted house recently, and I was without internet for like, over a week until they put ISDN in here.
But we got it today and I'm back.
The new house is swell.
The best parts being the SPA, and most importantly - The Game Room!
Yessum, a room. For games.
It's also a gym, but thats not important! Games!
Four TV's. Of which I have my xbox, ps2, n64 and the good ol' NES and Sega Genesis hooked up too.
Bought new lounge chairs for the room today so it's all sweet.

Recently got The Sims 2: Open For Buisness, so will get around to writing a quick summary later.

And I'm quite excited now, the Xbox 360 is due for release in 3, so if I'm lucky I can have it this Thursday.
But knowing my luck I'll be one of those who, despite having pre-ordered - won't get it due to shortages or some hoopla.
But thats just me being overly negative, 360 here I come!

As the title might indicate, I believe some people read too much into reviews.
I cite Fable as an example. It got what, 8.3 or something?
Not going to look it up.
It got something like that, now in my oppinion thats a respectable score, they could've given it a four and I'd still have bought it but 8.3 is respectable. Now when this got out, there was an outrage on the Fable forums - "An 8.3!?! Thats madness, I expected atleast a 9!" was the jist of how people came across.
Frankly those people are morons.
I dont read a review to determine if its a good game.
I read them to get the jist of what features it has and what its about, to get the reviewers oppinion and thats all.
I dont read too much into them.

But it seems many have a different oppinion.
I was talking to some people about Oblibion who seem to have a similar mindset to the mob of Fable haters - "If this game doesnt get ATLEAST a 9.5, I'll be so peeved and I R boycott bethesda and blahblahblah" - also idiots.

I'm not going to rant anymore, but will wind down by saying that its okay to read reviews to get a jist of what the games about and what the reviewer thinks of it - but the reviewer generally isnt forcing his oppinion on you - you dont have to agree with them - try the game for yourself, use your own damned brains.

I for one liked Clayfighter 63 and a 1/3, but it got terrible reviews. If you restrict yourself to buying gaames that only recieve terrific, outstanding scores from some damned reviewer then your missing out on a lot of gems that for some reason or another wasnt scored highly.

Just. Yeah. Dont be a tool.
Use your brain. Have your own oppinion.
Cheers.