Recently at EB, we have been short staffed. The other girl that started with me left for Bundoora, my Manager/Boss went on sick leave due to gallstones and had an operation, and the third in charge went back to Uni and is being transferred to another EB Games due to Uni.
Basically, that left myself, the Assistant Manager, yeah thats about it, to man the store. We did hire two new trainees though, one of whom I know from working at Village.

Well, now we got the background covered, the Manager was meant to be back at work a few days ago, but due to excessive pain after her operation, she was unable to return to work. So the Assistant Manager called in another worker from another store to come in for one day to help us out.

On this particular day, it was myself, the random from another shop, and the third in charge. The third in charge was doing a split day, (start in the morning, and finish at night, having the middle of the day to sleep/relax/whatever) I was doing a full day (12-9) and the random was doing 12-5.

So I arrive, introduce myself to the random, and get to work. A lady calls in saying her Pre Owned Wii was broken, so we tell her to come in with her console, and receipt. She comes in, and I do the swap over, no hassles, no worries. Now her broken PO Wii was behind the counter, and I started serving other customers. Thats the last I remember seeing the broken Wii.

We closed shop at 9, went home, and all was dandy. I get a call the next day from the third in charge, asking if I knew where the broken Wii was, I said that I assumed the Wii was out the back with the rest of the defects. She said it wasn't and that it was missing. I told her what happened, and that I thought the other guy had taken it out the back. I guess not.

Now heres our problem, thats $350 missing, yes it's broken but it still needs to go back to head office so they can refurbish it, or use it for parts.

So she calls the other guy, and I don't know exactly what was said, all I know is when I got my call back from the third in charge, she said he sounded really dodgy, didn't want to talk to her, and was evasive.
Now I know he didn't walk out with the Wii in hand, because I saw him leave, but he knew alot of people at least 6 or 7 people came in that day that he knew. Any one of them could of hung around, while I went out the back or something, and taken the Wii from behind the counter. Now I'm not pointing fingers, as that is only one possible solution, but something more likely is that I was out the back (or he was out the back) and he, (or myself) was out the front, not behind the counter helping people. And while no one was behind the counter, someone could of easily swiped the broken Wii.

At any rate, whatever happened someone stole a broken Wii. Good luck to that idiot.

Now, on Monday I get a call from the Manager, (shes not meant to be at work till this Friday) and she was at the store trying to sort this mess out, she called to say I was suspended and that the other guy had been fired.
I find out on Tuesday what exactly is going to happen, I'm pretty certain that I'm not going to be fired, because if they were, then I would of been fired already. I know I did nothing wrong, so I'm not too worried, and my manager was pretty upset that she had to suspend me.

So what does this mean for me? With Village giving me one shift this past week, and 2 shifts next week, and my giving notice that I'm quitting in the next few days, well it's been pretty fun. I've been invited to two MMORPG beta's of which I am under NDA, I wish I could say more but I cannot.

Thats about whats been going on.
Till next time, take it easy.

Wow, almost a month has passed with no blog post. Sorry guys!

Well, so much has happened, where do I start?
I guess the biggest news is that I picked up a PSP about a week ago, and love it. Got myself the Core pack, 5 games (MGS: PO, R&C Size Matters, Mercury Meltdown, Power Stone Collection and Killzone Liberation) along with a Carry/Protector Pack (comes with a cool Leather carry pouch, screen guard and a USB connector so I can charge my PSP via PC and also hook up my PSP to my PC for data transfers) and a 2GB Sony memory stick for $577. Pretty good deal if you ask me and all bought from EB (except the mem stick, EB didn't have any 2GB).
So if anyone has MGS: PO or Killzone Liberation, post here and we can exchange whatever we need to exchange so we can play some online :).
If anyone has Lumines or knows someone with Lumines who lives in Melbourne, for the love of god let me know. (Don't tell me eBay its $60+ for a used copy!) Or at the least does anyone know if Blockbuster or such rents out PSP games?

Also got myself The Darkness on the 18th, finished the game yesterday (21st). A short, compelling singleplayer experience, and the multiplayer is pretty sub par. Going to return it back to work and put the money towards Lair, Killzone 2, and a few other PS3 games.

In the grander scope of things, it looks like I'll be getting more shifts at EB (which is good) because the Manager is in hospital due to gallstones, and one of the other workers is moving up to Ballarat.
Which leads to the next exciting part, her moving up to Ballarat means that myself and my GF might be able to just move into her place which is great, because we've been looking to move out for awhile now with no luck.

Speaking of the GF, Jess went to China for 8 days. She had a blast over there and we missed each other greatly (it is the longest we have been apart in the 3 years and 4 months of our relationship, crazy isn't it?)

Well I think I've covered just about everything.
Till next time!

"We're sad, and sorry to see you go!"
I wish Rich all the best in his new endevours.

So I just got word (SMS) that my package came in today from play-asia containing NGS and FolkSoul (Folklore).
I'll give them a whirl later today and let you all know what they are like.

But for now, I'm off to see Transformers at work (Village) GC (Gold Cl-ass):) (Free tickets really rock).

So I snatched up a copy of R6: Vegas today after work, ($99) and couldn't wait to get home. Popped it in my PS3, loaded it up. Took about 2-3mins to load some data to the HDD, and after that it was smooth sailing.

First level, Mexico. Looks fantastic on a SDTV. That said, I really wanna try this puppy at home on the 1080p TV (run it at 720p though, as Vegas only supports 720p/1080i).
No framedrops that I can see, a little in the chopper at the beginning, but after that it really is smooth. Played it for about an hour andgoing to get some more gametime in afterthis short interlude/blog post (haven't even made it to Vegas yet).

I'll be sure to make another post, or update this one with more information. Such as Online, later levels, harder difficulties, etc. But that may not occur, as NGS and FolkSoul invade my PS3 tomorrow.

We'll see how it all turns out.

So I ordered Ninja Gaiden Sigma and FolkSoul today from www.play-asia.com. So excited! Cannot wait to get them in. My manager at EB is jealous, she really wants NGS as well, and was like "No way! $150 for two PS3 games? Damn!"

Currently waiting on P-A to confirm my bank transfer and hopfully they will both be in the mail before the weekend (I know Japan has some post offices open during the weekend as well, so I hope for the best :))

Note, both games are in English (NGS all English, FolkSoul is JPN text and English voice)

Quite awhile ago, I had a exclusive Interview with Randolph here at GSAU. I also stated in a (most contriversal) blog post, that there was another Interview in the process. Well ladies and gents, it's gone missing. And with Koz on holidays now I can safely say that, that interview will never see the light of day (or PC moniters).

Sorry about that guys, but I do have a few ideas to revamp my interview process, and have my sights set on a few other staffers at CNET.com.au

Wait what did I just say? Yes folks, not just GSAU. (lets just hope I can get some to agree to do a Interview)

"Lets go party, in the city, with your momma and a white horse. With a horn out it's backside!"

So my girlfriend has been "singing" this for the past 20 minutes, and it's really quite stupid. Shes in hysterics. I'm quite worried about her mental health at the moment.

Keep posted here, I may be giving updates as time goes on.

[UPDATE] She is questioning her own "lyrics", "What sort of horse has a horn out it's backside?" I think she may be rethinking some lyrics.

[UPDATE2] She drew a picture of a horse with a horn out it's backside. Will try to get pics.

[UPDATE3] She has calmed down now, but is this only the "eye of the storm"? Who knows. Stay tuned.

Warhawk is a must have title for the PS3.

The beta is fantastic. Sure theres bugs, sure theres still issues with the game, but I can honestly say, I'm having more fun with this than I did with BF2/2142. The game mechanics are very similar, two opposing sides going at each other, different ranks, unlockables (Warhawk skins, arm patches, etc) It feels like BF2/2142, but with crazy Warhawks, it's totally a blast! Not as "real" as BF2/2142, more of a arcade feel, but man the fun makes your head explode.

Controls take a bit of getting used to (longer if you use Sixaxis) right now I'm only using the sticks, as Sixaxis takes much longer getting used to, but I can defiantly see an advantage using the Sixaxis, you get better aiming through the motion control believe it or not.

Graphics are down right spiffy. Forget the first trailer you saw, gone are the craptastic textures, ugly 2d trees, wonky character animations and down right ugly character models. The game has seen a serious overhaul, water looks Lair-esque, textures are sharp and models are very detailed and look clean.

The big decision though for me, is do I grab this when it first comes out over PS Store, or do I hold out and wait for the boxed copy with Headset? I am in need of a headset and an Official Sony one would go down nicely, but do I want to wait the extra time it takes between the PS Store release and the Retail release?
Oh well, good thing I got time to mull that thought over. About a month's worth of time to be precise, yes ladies and gents, a whole month with Warhawk lovin'. Every Monday there is an update as well (according to Warhawks MOTD) So looking forward to bug fixes and some weapon balances tomorrow night.

Seeing as how I haven't blogged in almost 10 days, I figured I would give you all a little update.

Two shifts completed at EB Games, and it's not all that bad, great pay as well, better than Village.

Oblivion is going good, got in around 17 hours worth now, done a bunch of cave/ruin crawls, bunch of quests and into the main Mage Guild quest line. Currently at the one where you gotta do 4 different spells at a giant pillar.

Waiting for later today/tonight to get 1.80 Firmware for my PS3 and the Warhawk download, yes I am in the Warhawk beta, gonna be spiffy!

That about sums stuff up.
Oh, my GF got a cat!

(Yes that is her trying to catch the Armadillo in Armadillo Run, great game guys, I recommend you try it out.)

So that's whats been going on the past few days.

Hopefully I'll get something good happening in my next blog for people to get excited about. 

Finally got a chance to sit down and put a healthy 2 hours into Oblivion for the PS3 today. What can I say, it's probably more amazing now than when I played it on my PC. "WTF OMG WHY?!?!?!!?!11111eleven" you ask? Well now little guy, I'll tell you why.

Oblivion for the PC is amazing, don't get me wrong. Access to all the games downloadable content and expansions, the mod scene. Literally infinite possibility's with the game, but for me thats where the game falls short.
For myself, a game with no limits and infinite possibility's is shooting itself in the foot. On one hand you will play the game for years and still have new things to see and do. On the other hand, you never really get to sit down and enjoy the game for what it was made for. Endlessly searching for that "something better" on the internet instead of doing what you paid your $90-$100 for, and just playing the game.

I found myself doing exactly that, I put a decent chunk of time into the game, and then went rampant on the mods. Everything to trying to make the game look even better, to adding more content, to even making my own new content for the game. I burnt myself out on trying to do more, because there was always more to do.

Which is why the PS3 game is much more appealing for me now. I get to sit down and play the game for what it was intended, no distractions of mods, no distractions of trying to tweak the game, nadda. Just the game, plain and simple.

So now what? Well I get to go to work the next few days and not even get to touch the game. Alas cruel fate, damn ye.

Speaking of work, I went to the EB interview, and it was whack. I understand it, but that doesn't stop it from being a weird interview.
There were 8 of us LFG, (ok, maybe MMO terminology shouldn't be used), and 9 interviewers [Party leaders?] (Ok, ok I just couldn't resist). First it was introductions, then it went on a spiel of different odd questions; "Why did the chicken cross the road", "What was first, the chicken or the egg" and other such questions. Then it switched from individual questions, to teamwork exercises; "Build this Lego without the instruction manual", "[split into two groups] Debate [for/against] why the Mexican Wave should be banned at the Cricket". There were a few other questions, and the interview lasted for about 90 minutes.

After all was said and done, 3 of us got chosen to come in quickly for individual interviews, (which I was chosen for), and all 8 of us got told we would be contacted in the next week.

I surprisingly got called the next day, (today), to come in to the Epping store (yes some of you can come harass me should I be chosen to work there) on a certain day/time to meet the store Manager for a more personal interview (man this is quite a process just to sell some people games).

So that about sums my past few days up. Work, interviews and sitting down with Oblivion.
Also I hope you all enjoyed my review of Linkin Park's new album. Feel free to keep commenting, I welcome your feedback.