Despite the use of 'Rarrgh!' usually meaning something bad has happened, such as surprise sugar in your gas tank, I use this as the expression of THE BEST PORTABLE GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED.

For those unaware, Metal Gear Solid : Peace Walker is the sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3 : Snake Eater, as well as the previous sequel to MGS3 and other portable MGS title, the aptly named Metal Gear Solid : Portable Ops. Peace Walker was developed in whole by Hideo Kojima, despite his 2008 talk of retiring from the MGS scene, and leaving it to his staff to take the helm. Since then, he's announced this title and another, Metal Gear Solid : Rising. It appears that 20 some years of working on the same thing hasn't gotten old yet, and thank god for that.

For not only is PW directed, written, and produced by Mr. Kojima, but also developed by his Metal Gear Solid 4 team. That's right, THE WHOLE TEAM FROM MGS4 MADE PW. And it shows.

PW does the amazing by not only giving us the best looking graphics the PSP has seen in quite some time, but also an amazingly well written story involving Cold War-era drama and politics as well as action. But what good is an action game if the controls suck, right? Well, they don't. I had played the demo, and was surprised at the control scheme. Moving the camera with the Face buttons (Circle, Triangle, Square, and X if you aren't aware)? It didn't seem right, but I stuck through it. After 4 hours of play today, I have to say I wouldn't want it any other way.

This is just a preliminary review, but needless to say, Peace Walker KICKS ASS. Go and buy it if you haven't already!

I'm just wondering if anyone gives a damn about my opinion.

Whatever. For the sake of my ego, I'm posting something anyway.

Being a PS3 owner and it being my only 7th Gen console, I picked up Bayonetta for it. Apparently, everyone hates this version. My friend has the 360 edition and says there are no flaws, something confirmed by just about every reviewer out there. But fans of Platinum Games and Hideki Kamiya in general fear not! While the 360 version is better, the PS3 one is still very playable and very fun.

I've been playing for 4-5 hours now, and the only complaint I have is the menu taking a bit to load. It's not earth shatteringly terrible to the point you want to scream, just a small annoyance, one that is easily forgotten in the following 15 seconds of angel murdering frenzy. I can understand people being upset that one works better than the other, but relax. I'm sure they will patch any errors in the future, and if anything it's not so bad. Really. If you only own a PS3 and you liked/loved Devil May Cry, then BUY BAYONETTA! It is amazingly awesome in every way, shape and form! To be frank, I think she is cooler than Dante can or ever will be. And that's only 4-5 hours in! Granted, if you own both consoles, then get the 360 version. Why put up with minor annoyances if you don't have to right?

Also, Dante's Inferno. The demo shows that Visceral Studios really loves God of War. It's blatantly obvious to anyone who's ever seen GoW played. But that's not a bad thing at all. I've read the Divine Comedy, and played the God of War series in its entirety. So far, they have captured both beautifully. Granted, they can't just make the Divine Comedy into a game, it would beexcruciatinglyboring. Believe me. No one wants to play a man walking through Hell, then Purgatory, then Heaven just to talk to God and learn a life lesson. That's lame. The story is that of Dante (go figure), a Crusader who has fought and killed for his Pope and God. Unfortunately, s*** goes down, you have to fight some Arab warriors, gets stabbed, and Death comes to greet you. He informs you that you have sinned a wee too much, and you get to go to hell. Well, that's not for Dante, so he kicks Death's floating robed ass and steals his scythe (because if you are going to go to the trouble to kill Death, you might as well), and then you go home. You come home to find your friends and wife dead. This sucks, and he is very saddened...By her death at least. Her soul floats up and smiles before being pulled away to the temple off in the distance. You run after, killing the skeletons that rose up for no other reason than to annoy you. You get there, and find her pulled to Hell for your sin....Supposedly infidelity in the Middle East. Either way, you decide to man up and stop this injustice, so you hurry off to slaughter more scythe fodder and meet Vergil, the man(?) who will take you through the nine circles of Hell. Dante agrees to, to save his wife from her fate.

For those of you who are fans of literature, you can see this isn't exactly a direct script of the story. But like I said before, it would be boring as a game. It would be as bad as Lord of The Rings, just walking. Bit of action, walking...repeat. So, Visceral Studios made a story that would make some sense in context, and it works. Not the most original, but it works. The gameplay is just as good as God of War, just as fun, and the context button mashing works just as well....Overall, not a bad copy. They have proven themselves to me, and I daresay it would be worth buying. If you are a 360 owner, or own both, I'd say get it for 360 because God of War III comes out in late March early April.

After beating the game, I posted my review of Resident Evil 5 on the PS3 page. For those who didn't catch it, here's the gist :

When did Resident Evil die?

The action and gameplay in 5 are solid, and everything works well, and you get used to it quickly, but seriously. Why doesn't story matter anymore?

I know that titles evolve, writers come and go, but I can't honestly believe that Capcom made that story professionally. It's spastic, haphazard, and just god awful. I mean really. Resident Evil is not Metal Gear. It doesn't need complex story arcs and plots that took 20 years to complete. Resident Evil is 13 years old, and it needs to shape up or just die. Capcom needs to smack the writers and inform them that 'Tense' and 'Scary' are two different concepts, just as 'good story' and 'bad **** idea' are different.

Resident Evil was stale, we all know that. After 3, I didn't care. Code Veronica was ok, but even then I was getting tired of running through 'dynamic' camera angles, zombies slowly shambling, etc. I think we all agree that Resident Evil 4 kicked ass, and was awesome.

5 obviously keeps it the same, but changed up the story for....not story.

I don't know what needs to be done exactly to make it good again, other than a good underlying plotline that doesn't involve stupid crap.

Got back from the midnight launch with RE5 (collector's edition. I'm a whore for these things), and so far, 3 sub-chapters in, so good. It's sweet, action-y, and resident **** evil all the way...At least since RE4. My girlfriend and I agree, however, that while co-op is fun, it ruins the 'scary' atmosphere.

More on this later.

So after much deliberation, I have picked my number one game.

Number One : Final Fantasy X

I don't know how to tell you how good this game is. I just can't. You have to experience it. Whether or not you're a final fantasy fan matters not, this is one game you have to play. Love it, hate it, I don't care, just play it.

It's just too good to miss for any reason.

I got my copy of Fallout 3 collector's edition (I got a lunch box! Yeah!) on Wednesday night, and I haven't played any other games. At all. Period. Unless you count the Mirror's Edge demo, which I don't. It's a demo.

The point is that Bethesda finally made something I could get into. I've played Oblivion, and I hated it.

Let me rephrase : I played it on PS3, 360, and PC. PC is by far the best choice, and was enjoyable, if a little too big. The console versions just...sucked. I don't know what it was : lack of hotkeys, draw distance, general glitches, etc. I don't know what made it blow, but they did.

I like fantasy games, so I have no problem with the story and gameplay. Well, ok, I do have a beef with the gameplay, but the subject of the gameplay is just fine.

Fallout has always been fun for me. I love the sense of humor, the open adventure, the traits/perks... I have yet to find one thing that I didn't like about the Fallout series (1 and 2 ONLY, Tactics and Brotherhood of Steel can go die, they aren't real Fallout games). When I heard 3 was being released, I was surprised that it's been 11 years, and also very excited. I read up on it, and was a little scared that Bethesda was making it. I mean, I like Star Trek, and those Bethesda games were a punch to the nuts for fans. Not only that, but with my only good experience with them being on PC, of which I am currently out of, freaked me out. But, by the week before it released, I was excited. I wanted to see what they could do with the Fallout story, as well as quirkiness. Come midnight launch, I had it. I had to work the next morning, ironically at the very place I had been at midnight the night before (or morning, I don't know how you judge midnight). After work, I went home. I opened my lunch box, took out all the goodies, only to put a few back in for safety, got the game out, and put it in my PS3.

I didn't stop for 10 hours. I went to bed. I woke up, and played it again. And again.

I'm addicted to this game for whatever reason. Fallout 3 is just plain awesome. Like really awesome. I can't thank Bethesda enough for protectiing what I know of Fallout, and adding their own touches to it. It works so well. I love Fallout. If it were a woman, I'd marry it and call her Suzy.

Fallout 3 is my game of the year. It's that good.

I have never truly made a definitive list of my top ten favorite games, usually because when I feel like I could get around to it, I either put too many of one genre, making it a top ten rpg list or something. So now, I am making one. This covers anything and everything I have ever played in my time on this fair little world.

Let's begin.

10. Yes, I'm going in decending order, although I'm not sure anyone reads these blogs, so whatever. Anyway.

10. Final Fantasy VII

I played the ever loving **** out of this game, twice. Not to mention the mass collection of excellent music I've acquired because of it. It's an amazing game, and it certainly has earned it's place here on the list.

9. Star Trek Armada II

Threw you for a loop with that one, huh? If you like star trek, and RTS's, you can't go wrong with armada II. I spent endless hours destroying borg and conquering the known galaxy (or at least the parts you can play) instead of doing homework or sleeping a healthy amount.

8. Super Metroid

Sheer Godliness is what makes this a great game.

7. Star Wars : Knights of The Old Republic

It's funny how the best Star Wars games are not made by Lucasarts. Bioware is king of making an incredible RPG while filling it with enough things to geek on to make you wish the world would go away for about 50 hours.

6. Metal Gear Solid

Classic, cool, Solid Snake.

5. Resident Evil 3

Some prefer 4's new camera/control system, but I still think that 3 psychologically scarred me the most.

4. Okami

Art in its best form.

3. Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of Time

It was a tough call between OoT, Majora's mask, Twilight Princess and Link to the Past. But, for now, I'll go with Ocarina. All amazing though.

2. Portal

While The Orange Box has a lot to offer, it's that gem that makes you speechless. Portal is too much fun to be legal.

and number one....

The number one game of all my days as a gamer....

I'll get back to you on that...

Recently (ok, like a month ago), I reviewed Final Fantasy VII. While many probably didn't notice, I'm sure someone did. To those who read it, my deepest apologies.

I wrote the review under a personal bias and lack of recent play, a bad combination to review a game with. I have changed its score to its earned 10.

My bias was, and is, that while VII is a great game, it doesn't alone deserve the attention it's received. Final Fantasy as a whole has captured our hearts and minds, so why single out one game?

I believe it may be simply for nostalgia's sake. We remember games like Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda fondly (or badly, it depends) because we grew up with them. They were a right of passage almost, from childhood into semi-adulthood. Everyone wants to relive their past experiences that brought them so much joy, but we can't. It's a part of being human, and growing up. Not necessarily from childhood, but as adults. We all enjoy things, but they do have to end sometime. That's why we remember them, and enjoy remembering them.

I think gamers and developers as a whole needs to...well, move on. Many great games have come, and many more are coming on the horizon. It's not a bad thing to go back and enjoy a game that made you happy, but we shouldn't focus on just that game. There are plenty of other games that we can enjoy, and maybe one day pine for like we do VII.

Seeing as Crisis Core : Final Fantasy VII is on it's way, and a remake for PS3 is too (Trust me, they won't let it get away, Square Enix isn't dumb enough to let that kind of cash cow slip away. It'll come, be patient), VII is still kicking pretty hard. But while I will enjoy CC and the inevitable remake, I, as a gamer and human being, must lay VII down in the water to rest forever, much like Aerith. I will always enjoy playing VII, but it's time to say goodbye. It's time to let VII die, not with a whimper, but a powerful battlecry that says "I've been around 11 years, and enjoyed by millions! I am VII, and I was here!!"

To a game that has captured my imagination and heart, I bid you a sweet goodbye.