I was thinking 2012 would be nicer to my pocketbook than 2011. Spending all this time on Gamespot has pretty much confirmed that isn't going to happen. My list of must have games for this year is just getting longer. Thanks a lot Gamespot. ;)

Top spot on my list goes to The Last of Us. I'm a big fan of the Uncharted series and Naughty Dog has yet to disappoint for me so I'm really looking forward to a late year release of this one. Although they just might make us hold out to 2013 so I could be already starting a list for next year.Tying for first place is Bioshock Infinite. I've been looking forward to this one for over a year now and I can't wait to see what 2K Games has in store.

And in no particular order (other than alphabetical) I'm really looking forward to the following:

• Aliens: Colonial Marines
• Far Cry 3
• Final Fantasy X HD
• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Hitman Absolution
• Mass Effect 3
• Rainbow 6: Patriots
• Resident Evil 6
• Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
• Resident Evil: Revelations
• Resistance Burning Skies
• SpecOps: The Line
• Tomb Raider
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss

I might have missed something and there are a few others I've got my eye on as possibles so we'll see. I've also gots some hold overs from 2011 that I still want to pick up so I think I may have to really pace myself this year.

I got a mention on the 01/27/12 Super Start/Select for a comment I made on Resident Evil 6. And the best part is I got Seb Ford's Nod of Approval. If it were a physical award I would put it on my mantle. :cool:

[video=6349343]

First and foremost GAMES. The biggest thing that will ultimately determine the fate of the PS Vita is games. Quality games that provide the experience that the system is promoting (particularly the idea of a console in your pocket) are the key. But besides that there are features that could make or break this system. Some that it already has and some that it could desperately use.

The word is out that if you basically "jail break" your Vita you can access your library of PS3 games via the Remote Play feature. A feature that would really make the Vita a must have integral piece of hardware for gamers would be the legitimate ability to play any PS3 game while on the go. For example, if you could save your copy of Batman Arkham City on the PS3 and pick up where you left off on the Vita on the bus or on your lunch break and vice versa when you get home then you can expect gamers to be lining up at the stores.

The same could be said for future releases. If Sony were to push a policy that says developers are required to have support for their titles on both the PS3 and Vita simultaneously then it makes the portable so much more appealing. Especially if you could get that console to handheld functionality at no extra cost or for a small additional fee rather than having to shell out full price twice. This would require some serious commitment on Sony's part to really sell developers on the idea and provide a lot of support and ease in the programming department.

What do you think? What does the Vita have that makes it appealing? What does it need to really sell itself?

Capcom... WTH?!?! This is looking like the year of Resident Evil. We've got Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS, Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City and Resident Evil 6 multi-platform, Resident Evil Damnation the CGI movie direct to blu-ray and DVD, and Resident Evil Retribution in theaters (in "glorious" 3D :P). So why then do none of these look like they have anything to do with survival horror?

Has Capcom just forgotten what this series is all about? Are they that out of touch with the gaming community and the fans of their series? Or do they just not care? The films are alright for what they are but so far off from the series after the second film that I won't even talk about those. The CGI films seem to be more about the action portions of the games than the horror elements. RE Revelations looks like it might be more survival based but it'son a handheld and looks like its still more about goo monsters than the zombies and experiments gone wrong.

RE Operation Raccoon City is not supposed to be canon so you can forgive a lot. It looks like a fun cooperative game. And that brings me to RE6. I've watched the trailer several times and I've come to a few conclusions. The portions with Leon look like they may bethe survival horror of old. The portions with Chris look more like the action of RE5. So then is this game some kind of hybrid? I can safely say that I'm pretty sure that the majority of fans of this series aren't looking for that. How hard could it be to take theconcepts of RE 1 through 3 (even throw in Code Veronica) and just update with modern graphics and game mechanics?

I want to be worried about which gun I use and how I conserve my ammo. I want to deal with only being able to carry a limited amount of things forcing me to make judgement calls about what's more important. I want to worry about what's around the next corner. I want ZOMBIES. I don't want to run and gun (but I should be able to walk and shoot at the same time), I don't want to have cover mechanics (this isn't Gears of War), I don't want to see ever larger increasingly ridiculous BOWs. Hunters, Lickers, Tyrants, the Nemesis were at least somewhat believable. When the BOWs start growing to I need a boat with chainguns to take it out proportions you start getting into the realm of WTF?!?!

I think this series has reached the point where a reboot would be for the best. Stop cranking out ever more detached titles that only vaguely resemble what this series was about. But enough ranting. All this has made me hungry. I guess I'll go and get myself a Jill sandwich. :roll: Yeah I said it. I could have said something about being the "master of unlocking." Oops. :oops:

You get a game. You like the game. Then the developer starts talking about DLC. Paid DLC. And they try their best to convince you that this DLC is something you've got to have to "compliment" the experience that you've already paid for. So you buy it. Andsomewhere between $4.99 and $14.99 later you realize how little you actually use whatever it is you paid for.

Why then do we keep doing this? Why can't we just stick with the $60 worth of game that was in the box? It's like a bee hive to a bear, sticky and sweet and too attractive to ignore. 9 times out of 10 you get stung. Buyers remorse sets in at some point. But we just keep coming back to dig into our electronic wallets for more downloaded goodies that we don't need and certainly don't usually derive the kind of enjoyment that wedid from the out of the box product, certainly not for the price.

It's kind of like a convenience store at a gas station. The store makes practically nothing for the gas but that candy bar that you don't need and probably don't even really want all that much has about a 300% markup so they make a killing. I'd say about the same for DLC. Now it's not a perfect analogy because the developer should be making considerably more than practically nothing for the finished game but DLC usually requires a tiny fraction of the effort to develop that the game itself did (sometimes less if they basically just tore levels or skinsout of the finished product to sell to us a piece at a time). Which means that the markup for DLC is pretty big in comparison, which is why in recent years we've seen such an upswing in it's development.

So if 9 times out of 10 we usually feel like we aren't really getting our money's worth out of it then why do we keep paying for it? We're dumb animals I guess. We seem to always think that for just that little bit we're going to be rewarded with so much more of what we enjoyed about the product. Sometimes it happens, but I'd still say the hit to miss ratio is pretty high. So does the blame fall with developers for going with this profit driven strategy or us the gamers for falling prey so easily to it?

Prediction Time

So Sony has officially announced now that they will NOT be having a showing of the PS4 in any way at E3 this year. I'm going to say I told you so right here because I've pretty much been saying this same thing for the last two years. Sony is holding that 10 year plan up and clinging to it at the moment. Does that mean they aren't already working on the PS4? I seriously doubt it. In fact, they'd be dumb not to already have the thing in at least the design phase.

Nintendo is following their usual historically established roughly 5 year cycle and likely releasing the Wii U late this year. Microsoft (even though they refuse to comment on speculation and rumors) is likely going to reveal the NextBox at this years E3 with a launch date sometime in Q4 2013. This will get Microsoft's next gen console on the market about a year behind Nintendo. With both of their competitors having next gen consoles to market Sony isNOT going to sit on their hands for two more years before releasing a new console (however much they would like to stick to a 10 year lifecycle for the PS3). It wouldhurt marketability and relevance for their brand too much.

So I'm predicting we will see a showing from Sony at E3 2013 of the PS4 with a launch sometime 6 to 12 months after the NextBox. Right now they are going to remain focused on showing off the PS Vita. Expect a lot of talk of Vita integration with the PS4 when it's revealed in 2013, just as I expect a lot of talk of Kinect 2.0 integration out of the box with the NextBox at this years E3.

I've been playing a lot of games lately and I've noticed one thing consistently: a fecth quest is a fetch quest is a fetch quest. Someone gives you a goal and sends you from point A to B to pick up or deliversomething or to kill something/someone. Either way the end result is the same. You leave out from point A and travel to point B to get, drop off, or kill and then (most of the time) return to point A with the news of completion for your reward. And I can say that while it may deliver purpose to your actions (although not always consistently logical or relevant) it can get really old and boring pretty quickly.

When the only thing that changes is the person you're reporting to and the object your acquiring/delivering, especially if you have to constantly retread the same ground, boredom can set in no matter how enjoyable the gameplay may be. I've been recently playing Dead Island, Deus Ex Human Revolution, and Rage.You could argue correctly that these games have a lot in common when it comes to core game mechanics. They each do some things better than others. Rage is by far a better shooter than the other two. Deus Ex has more immersive story and characters. Dead Island has better melee combat and zombies... okay so it's the only game of the three that has zombies.

In the end these three games come down to the same element in both the story campaign and the sidequests: It's all about going from point A to point B and getting something, dropping something off, or killing something/someone. Is this just lack of imagination on the developers part or merely a sign of all that this type of game has to offer? They may all have different stories, characters, control schemes and art designs but in the end you can't help but shake that "I've done this already," feeling when playing them. Am I just getting that bored with gaming or have developers just stopped trying to do things different?

So this last weekend due to an unfortunate dropping of my older iPhone 3GS I had to go shell out the money for a new phone. Luckily I was "eligible" for an upgrade (meaning AT&T wants me to renew for another 2 year contract) and I was able to get a new iPhone 4S for just $199, which is actually less than I paid for my 3GS. I honestly wanted to wait until the iPhone 5 came out before I bought a newer model but fate intervened. Or maybe it was my tile floor in my kitchen.

I can say that it is a graphics leap over previous versions. The HD really shows even on just the apps screens. Colors really pop and everything looks sharp. And thank you thank you they have finally put some speakers on the thing that can really pump out the volume. Anybody who has had a previous version iPhone will know what I'm talking about. I can actually see that this thing could make a decent gaming platform if they can ever get the control mechanics figured out. I still don't see it replacing an honest handheld for serious mobile gaming but it works well for the kind of games you play when you have a few minutes to kill or are stuck somewhere for a short time.

It's baby steps toward giving us Star Trek tech within our lifetime. Now if the thing could just give me atmospheric readings and allow me to communicate with people in spaceships then we're all set. :cool:

So I've got to get through the rest of today, three more days this week and Monday and Tuesday of next week then I get a solid 13 days of no work. Time to get some game on. Recent Black Friday deals have loaded me up with a gluttony of games and I've yet to touch two of them. So looks like this holiday season I'll be juggling Dead Island, Deus Ex Human Revolution, and Rage with some likely multiplayer play of Battlefield 3 and Uncharted 3 thrown in for good measure. I'll probably try and work on my platinum trophy status for Uncharted 3 while I'm at it too.

I can't wait. It's like I used to feel about Christmas when I was little. I'm getting all antsy and excited. At least I don't have to be a good boy to play. I already bought the games for myself so I just needisthe time. And maybe a few hints to people that a copy of Skyrim would make a good present.

Finally got around to watching the finale of The Controller and all I can say is Proofy is a total little b%&#h. He darescall himself a pro gamer but then refuses to adapt to the medium or method of control... not cool. You don't get to pick the conditions in which you get to compete once you've agreed to the challenge. You don't get to bring your personal handicap device to tournaments so why would you think you could bring it on the show? Everyone is supposed to compete on equal footing otherwise there is no point. It's supposed to be a measure of skill.

It's like saying you refuse to play craps because the casinowon't let you use your own loaded dice.Or only playing cards if you can stack the deck in advance. It's called sportsmanship and Proofy showed his true colors. Any sponsors he's got should pull the plug after that performance. I wouldn't put my money behind anyone who conducted themselves that way.Not the best way to represent your products that's for sure. I think MLGshould toss him on his ear. Way to act like a five year old and give gamers a bad name.

Whew... So as you can tell I don't care much for Proofy.