That's right, this hot new topic of the "instant messenger" has reached even me. XD ok, so it's old, I'm old, and I used instant messengers years ago, then stopped, because I realized they're evil. But now, I remembered that I, too, am evil, so it's kinda a perfect fit :P. So, if anyone wants to message me, I'm on YIM under id: dyaballikl. Same as this one. It even works with my Macbook's built in camera, so if you wanna see me doing naughty things while I don't realize I'm being watched because I tend to have my computer muted, hit me up!

Current gamerscore stands at: 28,283
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,865

I saw the new Pirates of the Caribean a couple weeks ago. Honestly, I'm getting less and less interested in the series as it goes on. Is it just me, or are they getting very difficult to follow? The new one was more complex than the last, but was momentarily entertaining. Still, it does not get great recommendations from me.
Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End: C

I was looking to see a movie today, and looked at Evan Almighty, but the reviews looked pretty grim, mostly what they had to say about it, like that it was not funny at all. Can anyone who has seen it let me know about it?
Evan Almighty: ?

And finally, I did wind up seeing 1408 today, which turned out to be an INCREDIBLE film. Best movie I've seen all year. It went from comedy, to thriller, to psychological horror (my favorite kind!), and was top knotch in directing, writing, and acting. HIGHLY recommended! 
1408: A+

Current gamerscore stands at: 28,283
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,856

I've been playing Forza 2 pretty much nonstop for about 3 weeks since the game came out. Much of the time spent has been customizing cars, but most of it at this point has been racing. I've pretty much completed all of the first 4-5 groups of race cups, so now all the races are getting pretty tough. I've only done a few endurance races, those are truly.....enduring. Anyway, it's becoming difficult to play for many hours at a time. I really want to get the full 1,000 points on the game, but it's going to take a VERY long time. 

Also, I quit my soccer team this weekend. This dude who was (or maybe is) the captain of my team and I were standing on the sidelines talking during the game, well I was talking, mostly chatting, really. All of the sudden, out of absolutely nowhere, he turns to me and very aggressively says "Why don't you shut the **** up?" Wow, I was pretty damn shocked, so I asked him what he said, and he repeated it. I really wanted to hit him at this point, and had totally forgotten about the nice things his wife has done for me, and the fact that I coach his kids in a summer camp, and I was just so pissed at him. So, he made no effort to apologize over the next few days, so I'm done, no more. Now, I gotta look for a new league and team to play with because no other teams in my league need a goalie. Oh yeah, and the rest of the team is gonna be PISSED at him cuz they have nobody else who's a half-way decent goalie. And that's the news!

Current gamerscore stands at: 28,163
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,804

DAYYYYYUM! finally!!! Seriously, this one took forever. 26,000-27,000 took 58 hours. 27,000-28,000 took 59 days! Mostly, I blame Sony (damn FFXII and Metal Gear Ac!d). Read on:

Days since 27,000: 59 days

Forza Motorsport 2 (311 points) - A great game, through and through. Better than any Gran Turismo. And I can't rave enough about the customization system, it really lets me express my artistic side. But the racing is pretty cool, too ;).

Test Drive Unlimited (20 points) - Finally got that online trade achievement, since the trade servers were down for months. Also played through with my dyaballikl id and got all the same achievements.

Lego Star Wars II (40 points) - Meh. Didn't really do anything for me after about 30 minutes.

College Hoops 2K7 (350 points) - Not bad as a basketball game. 2k does a pretty good job at these college games, I'd put them above any of the pro games. Hoops 2k7 is a lot of hassle, though, if you're just looking for achievements. Not as easy as you'd think.

Pinball FX (0 points) - Pinball FX is ****. Ok, so, as far as pinball games go, it's ok. BUT WHO THE **** WANTS TO PLAY A VIRTUAL PINBALL GAME?! Wait, WHAT?! IT'S $10?!?!?!?! FOR A VIRTUAL PINBALL GAME?!?!?!?! Ok, count to ten, this doesn't really affect me that much, it's just a sign of the downfall of downloadable gaming and gaming itself as we know it.

Eets: Chowdown (0 points) - Grrr, all these XBLA games, I'm having trouble remembering which ones were which. I do remember this game did seem like fun, but not much like something I cared to shell out cash for. Anyway, next...

Catan (0 points) - Gabe and Tycho rave about it, but I just can't muster the motivation to get into it. Apparently, with a little imagination, it's a great game, though.

3D Ultra Minigolf (0 points) - A rather mediocre mini golf game with a $10 price tag. PASS!!!!

Jetpac Refueled (0 points) - A simple game. Could be fun, kinda reminds me of Chu Chu Rocket (having surprisingly little to do with the next game on my list), which was a very fun puzzle game for the Dreamcast. Definitely overpriced, though. I won't be buying it for that price.

Boom Boom Rocket (0 points) - A total DDR ripoff, but I'm okay with that. I really like DDR, and Boom Boom Rocket was a cool concept. If it wasn't 10 frickin bucks, I'd totally consider getting it.

Centipede and Millipede (0 points) - IMO, wasn't that great 20 years ago, why would it be great now? Dunno, just had to make sure.

Doom (0 points) - What can I say, I'm totally hooked on this game. I also got my Mom to play this. We kinda bonded over this game when it was first out, so we both have really good memories of it. Inspired Columbine, my ass!

Marble Blast Ultra (0 points) - Another game that's a lot of fun just to pick up and play sometimes. I got my Mom hooked on this game, although she can't get past about level 25.

Geometry Wars Evolved (0 points) - Can't stop picking this game up. Even though I suck at it and can't get over 140,000. Still a very fun game for all. Got my Mom to play it a bit, actually. She made it to 10,000!

Viva Pinata (40 points) - I really only got this game for my brother's step kids. They didn't really like it. I played for a bit, got a little bored with it. Not really my kinda game, although, since I bought it, I'll probably wind up playing it again, heard the achievements were easy, and the game was only $30.

Earth Defense Force 2017 (0 points) - I only got to play this game for a day because it was way over due to the video store, but it seems like a really cool arcade ****crazy Japanesey game that I could get into, if I get it again and have more time. The achievements seem way too simple, but I would enjoy picking it back up again.

Current gamerscore stands at: 28,028
Current world gamerscore rank: 5.673

A week ago, before I got Forza 2, everything was going fine with my 360, now, not so much. I've been playing it like mad for the past week, with a lot of that time spent on customization, most of the rest on racing. Now, today, my $100 wireless headset is really screwed up, and won't stay on for more than a few seconds. My Xbox 360 is acting really weird, and my Forza 2 disc now has a huge scratch in it for reason I have no idea, but am VERY pissed about. This $60 game now has several tracks I can't even access because of the scratch. I'm getting pretty mad about this ****.

Current gamerscore stands at: 27,867
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,695

HOLY CRAP, DUDE! This game's incredible!!!! I've been such a diehard Gran Turismo fan for years, since the first one, but now, it's like "Gran what now?" The game is just great, the racing engine is top knotch, the races are plentiful and diverse, and there are so rediculously many cool features, like the ability to download the tuning and parts settings of the top 50 record setters on every race, and even being able to download and watch a replay of their race, to show how great they are! Lotsa other things, like comparing races with friends, and a cool auction house system, but my new favorite feature is the car customization.

 

I just started getting into it last night, and it's the best I've ever seen. Typically, you can put like 6 vinyls on a car in NFS and other games of the like, but as far as I can tell, there is no limit in Forza, which means that, using the ****cal art rule that all images are made up of geometric shapes, you can create just about anything with enough talent and patience. So, without further ado, here are the two cars I've made so far:

 

XROX car: started working on it last night, only spent about an hour on it - Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

 

This next one is way better than the first. It's based on gamespot's partner site, gamefaqs.com. If you've ever been there, you'll recognize this car immediately. It's still a work in progress, but is about 5 hours into the making! Enjoy:
Stage 1:
Image 1
Image 2
Stage 2:
Image 3
Image 4
Stage 3 (current stage):
Image 5
Image 6

 

I'm still looking for suggestion on the gamefaqs car, i'd like to do more on it, maybe even get some recognition from the site, like having it be the official car of gamefaqs! so let the ideas flow in!

 

Current gamerscore stands at: 27,847
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,620

I apologize if the title is misleading. I don't have Forza 2, yet. But I want it extremely badly. I've saved a little money from working, but I'm hardly getting any hours. On top of this, I've got finals coming up that I really need to study for, as well as a presentation that I should've been working on all quarter, but haven't even started yet. But I'm still going to get it as soon as I have the cash.

 

But, what I want to know is what my friends and blog readers think of the game. Sure, I can read other reviews, but I'd really like to know what the people I trust have to say about the game. So, if you're reading this and you've played the game, please lemme know what you think about it!

 

Current gamerscore stands at: 27,717
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,545

Here's something I do every once in a while, although I haven't been checking much lately. Whenever there's a big game that was released on a certain day in history, I like to report on its birthday. Today's not a huge one, but we haven't had many since I have been checking over the past couple weeks, so I'll do it today. Since there's actually only one for today worth mentioning, I'll throw in something else:

 

Hitman: Blood Money (X360) - 2006 - One year ago today, this greatest Hitman game ever was released. Assloads of fun, if you haven't tried it, a really great game.

 

Death of Joan of Arc - 1431 - Like I said, there was only 1 game worth mentioning, so here's an anniversary 576 years in the making.

 

That's all for now. Oh yeah, and I've been scratching my bug bites on my feet so much that most of them are raw and bleeding. I have no self control. It really sucks.

 

Current gamerscore stands at: 27,717
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,524

I've been really lazy with blogs lately. I also haven't played Xbox 360 in weeks. Partly because I haven't had money for my rental plan due to just finally starting a new job, partly because I've been playing so much Final Fantay XII, and partly because I keep going on vacation. In fact, I just yesterday got back from New York, where I went for my grandmother's 75th birthday.

 

I was there for the Memorial Day weekend, and it was pretty hot. I spent the whole time in sandals, because of a couple soccer shoe induced blisters on my feet, and due to this, the bugs feasted on my sweet, exposed flesh! See the pic below as just an example of what I came back with, my right foot has 13 bug bites on it!!! I'm scratching myself raw right now. If that weren't bad enough, I got very sick the night before I left, and am still sick right now. I can't figure out what's wrong with me, but I'm thinking it might be because of the bug bites. Since bug bites swell because of a bit of poison from the bug, I've heard of people becoming ill because of them. And I've got about 100 bug bites on me, so it certainly is possible.

 

I should mention that I've also gotten back into Metal Gear Acid, a game, just like Final Fantasy XII, in which I didn't really like much in the beginning, but now I'm really starting to get into.

 

Current gamerscore stands at: 27,717
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,493

I know, I should've posted this about 7 1/2 months ago, but honestly, it took me this long to get into the game. I've always been a big Final Fantasy fan and dove straight into all the previous ones with no hesitation, but something about 12 just didn't strike me right. Maybe it was the fact that I'd moved far beyond my PS2 days (except of course for Guitar Hero), possibly because I was still separating myself from FFXI, or it could've been the fact that all the characters had a creepy Aryan look to them. Either way, I played about half an hour of it months ago, then put it down until about a week ago. Then, I tried playing for a few hours, but just went for the hunts, not the story, because I didn't know what I was doing. The game seemed WAY too hard and I couldn't level up for crap, so I quit until about 3 days ago when I finally figured it out. Now, I've put in about 23 hours of gameplay.

Final Fantasy XII plays brilliantly like an MMORPG. It's difficult to describe this, but if you played 11, then 12, you'd notice striking similarities in the playing **** Then you've got the gambit system which is the most brilliant thing in Final Fantasy history. The graphics (i know, I sound like a casual) do look very impressive for PS2, although the jaggies are still abundant outside the cutscenes, and the load times seem a bit harsh. So yeah, the game kicks ass, if you haven't played it yet. And it seems like I'm going to get to a good 50 hours out of it atleast, so that's definitely a plus for me.

Oh yeah, and I got a job, delivering pizza for Papa John's. The job kinda sucks, but it was easy to get and still pays pretty well.

Current gamerscore stands at: 27,717
Current world gamerscore rank: 5,166