Right,

So after a while off the gamespot blog one loses touch a little. I have found much gameing goodness in the last few months. Where to start?

My DS remains my personal favourite little console and recent gaming radar has included Geometry Wars, The Worls is Yours and Final Fantasy XII. All great games with merits and moments of genius galore. I am currently enjoying Ninja Gaiden: DS and loving Professor Leyton.

I went in for HD/Next Gen gaming big time when GTA hit and bought a nice LCD TV (Sony Bravia) and a PS3. Really really excited and worth it for a gamer. I have done some online gaming and the bluetooth headset is on the way. It's a wonder that I have and friends/family/girlfriend left in the aftermath - as such I have not had enough time to fully play and utilise the technology but I'm not letting it go to waste either.

Looking forward to more gaming in the future now with the rest of GTA, MGS on the horizon ect.

A quick note on Wii Fit - lovely little game really, done a couple of sessions so far, need to get the gf/housemates involved a little. Time will tell ultimately with this one.

Have nice days people.

Now, I swore I wouldn't be writing any more blogs until I got a comment so I have allowed this one to sneak out because of my one comment. It seems that if you refer to your blog in the forums someone is much more likely to find it and comment.

I managed to acquire tons of DS games of the festive season.. amongst the best so far are: PRISM: light the way, Bleach: Blade of Fate, Dementium: The Ward and Metroid Prime Pinball. I've got tons of DS gaming to be done so pushing ahead with it all at the moment.

I had a few mates around before Christmas for a session of Pro Evo 2008 on PS2 which was good and we managed to fit in some Tiger Woods 2005 which I have not played before and quite liked.There were three of us so while two were playing Pro Evo one was playing Crysis on the PC which I have gotten into a little in the last few days. I really need better PC to get it working properly and at this stage since I have started work again I probably won't get around to playing it until I do have better hardware.

I am quite looking forward to the new year as it may potentially bring a new TV and console sometime.

Happy New Year all.. enjoy it!

So here we go again..

Ha.. If someone doesn't read these little bites soon I'm going to have to reveal them to my friends, family and GASP - my girlfriend. Please don't let this happen people and leave me some commentry. :o

News of the week is that I won a Gamespot Competition and received my copy of Folklore yesterday - Now I just wish I had a PS3 to try it out on. I have subsequently lent it to my mate. Coincidentally I entered the FUSE 08 compo for London and did win, but I only checked my mail two days after they let me know which was a night after the event. Just my luck.. good and bad :)

On the gaming front.. the little tyrant ds is getting a good run when it has time to during my commutes. I'm creeping through stamp mode in 42 all time classics and am now on President which has to be the worst card game ever invented.

Mario Galaxy has been spinning in the Wii along side my newly acquired Super Mario Bros. 3 and Mii voting channels. I'm not very far but will hopefully get in a few hours this coming weekend. Then there is TF2, Super Metriod, quake wars.

So much to do so little time..

I went to oxford street on the way home from work and lo and behold the rumours were true.. they were indeed selling Mario Galaxy a day before release. I waited in the queue whcih was fun - as there were some very enthusiastic punters with happy geeky commentry. I decided that I wasn't going to queue for an autograph by the chap who does Mario's voice.. I did get a picture with the Mario suited guy and my game - which my girlfriend commented was extremely geekily pathetic. I think she was just grumpy and is jealous of my hobby :)

Looking forward to getting some time to play Galaxy this weekend. I did make a start last night - but really only half an hour - in which time I made my Mii a planet which was pretty cool. did the first little scene and proceeded to kill myself until I lost all my lives on the first level just for fun and to see what it would do. I wasn't disapponted as the Game Over screen was accompanied by the usual Mario death jingle which in itself is delightful.

Onward weekend. Onward Galaxy.

I have been considering writing much better, more in depth reviews and blogs and when I can find the time I plan to do things properly in the future and also when I know someone actually reads what I write here then the quality will be stepped up. I've always wanted to write about games so this could be my starting palette. If you are reading this please drop me a comment and up the quality :)

On to the DS news. Loving the little blighter right now. Really clever bit of kit.. really.. really (Yes 3!!). I have procured far too much to get through as usual in a frankly gluttonous spree. I now own and have tried in addition to my earlier mentions - Castlevania: POR, 42 All-Time Classics and Final Fantasy 3. Reviews should be forthcoming when I have played everything through.

I also managed to get my grubbies on Pro Evo 2008 for PS2 which I have been putting through the usual paces and seems good so far - not a vast improvement, but enough. I love Pro Evo and hopefully will get some time and mates around to make a full go of it. I have also been greedily eying Metroid Prime: Corruption and Super Paper Mario to give the Wii a bit of a kick but I am going to stick to the DS as it is the new child and everyone knows that the youger child gets more spoilt and pampered than the older kids.

Orange Box and Crysis are on my PC radar but until I get my breadband sorted out at home they are taking a back seat.

I really need to quit my job so I can have the time to do all these glorious games justice. (If only!)

Well with the new little baby in the house I have had hardly any time to spend with the older bigger kids (Bioshock, ET:QW, Zelda:WW, Metroid Prime).

I trained my brain daily and had a bash ot the odd sudoku from Dr. Kawashoma last week. It wasn;t particularly invigorating butfun and intuitive. It's something that is easily accessible enough to have the casual go on during a commute which is ideal for me.

Elite Beat Agents was a must buy according to many reviewers and thus was my first purchase with my DS. I wish the shop had had Metroid Prime Hunters or maybe Phoenix Wright in stock but hey I went with EBA and... I am actually quite disappointed. The songs are mostly rubbish - there are less than 15 of them (to my count). The gameplay is repetitive - there are three little things to do and that's it. The stories are your generic manga-esque fare. So for now still a bad buy from my perspective. It'll get a few more runs and hopefully become more addictive. Then it's the swap store for you - and I never trade in my games because I grow to love them. We'll see.

And then we have Zelda - probably the determining factor in me buying a DS and wow really excellent. A top notch game so far (still in progress) and highly recommended. A full report comming soon but most definitely Phantom Hourglass is a winner. I look forward to the comming weeks :)

Ooo.. I am so excited to get home tonight and try out my new baby. Since it was my Birthday yesterday and my folks gave me some money and I decided to get a DS which I have been looking at for some time now. I'd still love to have a PSP for Pro Evo and the like but I am really happy I decided to go with the DS - hopefully it'll make a great partner for my Wii. Zelda is coming to Uk retail in a few days - so it's really a decent time to buy. I snagged Brain Training and Elite Beat Agents.. looking to grab Final Fantasy and Metroid Prime Hunters soonis. More to follow about the DS experience. I have so much gaming to do and so little time. The usual - my lovely girlfriend is going to kill me some more.. oh well.:oops:

Not that gaining a gamespot level means much to me as my years of service vs levels is only about 3 to one.. but I am feeling slightly better after being royally messed about by the GS level glitch a couple of weeks back. I am becoming more active by the day and hopefully in time I will be able to build some sort of rep. with the community.

It's my birthday this weekend - having a big party saturday and watching Rugby! Hopefully I will be able to find some time to game in between all of this and nursing my hangover. Had a little jam with MGS: snake eater, dragon quest 8 and sega collection on my PS2 which still stands above the Wii as my most beloved console. Maybe my girlfriend will give me a ds maybe she won't I wouldn;t mind anything gaming related to be honest but she doesn't see value in such things.. oh well. I think the PC might get a run this weekend with ET:QW pulling me back at every oppertunity. I might download the COD4 and World in Conflict demos to see if they are worth it games. Saw WiC special edition big box in the shop the other weekend and it comes with a bit of the Berlin wall - something to keep in mind. Nice.

So I folded and went out and bought this lovely gane last week figuring I have spent more time playing the Demo and RTCW:ET than any other game in the last year or so.. and I am not disappointed at all. It's great to support Splash Damage as well.. really appreciate what this company did with ET - I wish we could all get ET:QW for free too.

I am still comming to terms with all the new maps and it's going to take hours to learn all the intricacies of each one. I have also had a go with a few more classes recently and enjoy the aggressor from my Quake 3 days - just charge in blasting. I have two days off this week (thank God!) and so hopefully I'll have some time to get more hands-on. As with any of these sorts of games I just hate snipers. If you are a sniper and are reading this.. go away now or I will hunt you down.. etc.

Anyway all-in all a fantastic update and I really would love to see more Enemy Territory in the future.

I am probably biassed and I definitely have a very soft spot for Splash Damage off the back of Enemy Territory but this game simply is one of the most intense and great gaming experiances I have had and continue to enjoy - long may it last!

I have been playing lots of the ET: QW Demo since it came out a couple of weeks back as ET is still one of my all-time favourite games. The good news is that many of the gameplay mechanics which are so important to ET and make it unique have trasitioned over well. The limbo menu, the classes, the choke points on the maps. All seems to be pretty much the same with some new very glossy paint. All that I love and so won't comment too much about it. The map included with the Demo - Valley is a very well thought - out and designed map although I'm not too sure I like the later 1/3 of it.. but getting there is awesome. My preferred class is engineer - and the main difference in QW is that they can now use deployables. So basically you can lay down (only in certian locations) either an anti-personel, anti-tank or anti-artillery turret to sit there and surpress the enemy. Against a very good team these become slightly less effective but I have seen many a tank and soldier being mown by my turret - they are simply the best static defenders.

The second big change is the inclusion of vehicles - both drivable and flyable. These work much the same as battlefield and similar games - some you can be the driver and the gunner and some you need a separate gunner. I found the GDF Helicopter/Gunship almost impossible to control - but i'm sure with some practice this would get a lot easier.

I still find the feild-ops class to be often a bit too powerful and if you have a few good field-ops on your team it makes a huge difference.

It seems the game has been geared toward a larger scale and outdoor envornments this time around as well.

I am looking forward to this weekend as I may be able to get my hands on a copy of the final game and give a full capeign a whizz.

These are my initial thoughts - can;t wait to get my hands on ET:QW now that I think about it..