I love my job.

I mean, really. Love. My. Job. Not only do I get to sell people games that can entertain for hours on end, but I get to act like a kid in a candy store every day. But of course, I'm preaching to the choir right now. It's also fantastic as I have been brought into the current generation of consoles.

Back in February I recieved my own Xbox 360 courtesy of my workplace and I have fallen in love with the immense amount of features and games I had been messing with. However, this has had an adverse effect on my playing habits. If you were to look at my achievments you'll see I've 100%ed two titles, Assassin's Creed and SW: The Force Unleashed. Before hand, there are some achievments I never would've attempted, such as TFU's cheevo that has you moving an orb and not having it turn red. I'm playing all aspects of a game and working to meet special conditions to increase a special number that, in the end, has no purpose.

And I love it.

It's so rewarding to get confirmation and show-off to people saying "Yea, I got a 300 streak on expert difficulty in DJ Hero. Wikka-wikka." And feel like I'm part of an elite group knowing it's one of the harder cheevos to obtain.

Have any of you noticed this in your playing habits? Working to 100% a game just to boast? Do you now play EVERY game mode or play a game more than you would've?

No, this isn't about anything new or recent, so if you're expecting something related to the upcoming Playstation 3 game, too bad.

I'm playing through the first Metal Gear out of curiosity beset by Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I just defeated Revolver Ocelot (the first boss) and in the impending cinematic, in the dialogue, the game wants me to look at the back cover for the radio frequency to a character. I had to pause the game for just a moment and soak this up. At this moment, I think the story is very much something that is do-able in other mediums, but because of the interactive qualities of gaming, is made all the more suspenseful.

But with this frequency thing, I'm left wondering if Kojima is crazy or just a genius in disguise. I'm sure I'll figure that out eventually, but to those that have played this: what was your first reaction?

Is it strange for one to be so rooted in traditional styles of gameplay, that they don't want to play a more recent version?

I'm facing something like that now, with my boyfriend, and his unwillingness to play any Metroid Prime title or Zelda on the Wii. What I find most... disturbing are his reasons for not playing either. For Metroid, he claims it should never have been brought to 3D and should've kept it's 2D roots. (I don't know if he's played any of them before, mind you.). For Zelda, he says he doesn't want to touch it because Link has always been left-handed. Yep... He doesn't want to play based on what hand the weapon is held in. I completely understand from a character design perspective, but in this case, it may not be the same Link as others, and therefore any easy excuse can be made for such a change in design.

Has anyone encountered another person whose had such... unique excuses for not playing a game?

For the longest time I've been playing SSBM with my brother for kicks. He'd almost always use Falco or Sheik and I'd at least change characters every stage. In using his two characters, he had two strategies for them, back me up against a wall and use fast attacks, and over-use certain moves to inflict damage.

I had thought his tactics were rare and that most players would be well versed in using dodges, various attacks, and (for example) Mario's Cape at the right moments. Alas, I was dead wrong.

This past weekend I participated in a Brawl tournament held at a Family Fun Center, that was cosponsored by GameStop. It was a double elimination, certain stage, 3 stock, 8 min. time limit no items kinda tourney. My first match pitted my Samus up against a Sheik and I lost handidly, however I changed tactics, went with Toon Link and clobbered him well enough to win the round. Next up was a very good Fox player. He knew what to do and when to do it even with my character changes, and so I don't feel bad in any sense about losing to him.

Next up I faced a guy I practiced with before hand, and so it was somewhat unfair, but I beat him a little too easy. I honestly think I brought shame and dishonor upon him and his Klingon family. Anyways, The fourth round comes along (yay semi-quarter finals!) and I come upon a Lucario player. Who only uses his neutral B move. For those that don't know, Lucario's neutral B is essentialy Mewtwo's Shadow Ball move from Melee. Also, as you hurt Lucario he becomes stronger with each hit. Despite my best efforts to dodge the blasts, and to land succesive hits, the guy won. Simply because he only used the one move and the occasional smash attack.

These are the kind of people that should not do tournaments. Why? Because I felt as though all of the work and training I put before hand had been for nought, and that my tactics were put to waste by the simplest of tactics that can be traced to the first Mortal Kombat. (Don't even get me started on Sub-Zero). Now, had I lost to say, a good Marth player, I wouldn't be upset since I'd feel like my fight had been worthwhile and that I had fun doing it. This one-move style of gameplay makes me feel cheated and completely undermines any work I had done towards becoming a better player.

Anyone else come across such a player?

I don't how I do it... but there are now 72 reviews written by yours truly including the mot recent SingStar Pop on PS2 and Sonic Rivals 2 on PSP.

Otherwise, keep an eye on my site over the next week. In that time, I expect to be finished with a massive update to the gaming section that's taken more than a month to do, as well as new thoughts on a few albums and movies.

I am so pleased now. My wories have been put to rest. Samus is unchanged from Melee. I don't know anything about Zero Suit as I only got one Smash Ball at the time I was at Gamestop and had to go :-(

I'm not sure why, but it seems like I'm completing games left and right this month. I've got reviews up for Super Paper Mario, Super Mario 64 DS, Star Fox Command, and now up today, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. Go on take a look, and look at all of my sixty some-odd reviews!

So today I got myself an original Xbox and 5 games from a friend. I quickly went out and grabbed MechAssault, a title I've waited too long to play. Not a bad haul, but I was forced to get a dance pad for it... since half of those games were DDR titles o.O Does this mean I'll be playing Xbox more than anything? Meh, who knows. But this is my first (read as by me, not the parents) home console acquistion, hopefully with many more (NES anyone?) to come.

By the way, does anyone know if it's worth connecting an original XBox or has most of the online commune abandoned using the original's online capabilities?

Hey there ho there, finally have a new review up (seems ages since I did Metroid), but I now have Super Mario Galaxy reviewed and completed. Has it lived up to the hype in my eyes? Or does it suffer the same fate as our previous tropical themed adventure? Click down below for the review.

Like them or not the Rabbids made popular by last year's Wii launch title, Rayman Raving Rabbids, are back, hopefully better then ever. And accompanying the release of both the Wii and DS version of the game is a new trailer available here on gamespot.com. I think it's a really clever spot, better then some other ones (Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition anyone?) Just thought some of you might want to take a look at it.