While playing Halo 3 on a lazy Saturday afternoon yesterday, something hit me. Halo 3 is an amazing game, no doubt, but it felt like there was something missing. Then I started to think about the days of last-gen gaming. Not particularly the original PlayStation games, not that long ago, but rather what may be considered the greatest years of gaming ever. I'm talking about the glory years of the PS2 days. Ratchet & Clank, the Jak series, God of War, Okami, Final Fantasy X, SSX, Prince of Persia, I can go on and on. Am I really wrong here when I say that these games possessed something that even the best games of this generation is missing? Bare with me as I may come off as a little vague here but there was just some intangible that those old games had that I feel cannot currently be duplicated.

Perhaps it is simply because they are "old games." Heck, I may say the same exact thing about the current generation of games when the next generation hits, whenever that is. Or perhaps it was just a hit of nostalgia (a very dangerous thing might I add). Whatever it was, no matter how great of a year gaming was for the next-gen in 2007, I feel the need to blow off the dust on my PS2 and just relive old memories again and perhaps make new memories with classic games that I never got around to playing. This, of course, is not limited to only PS2 games. I never owned the original Xbox and there are so many great games there that I never got to experience. And then you can go as far back as the original PlayStation days. I won't lie when I tell you how many times I've had the urge to go and play through Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX again but for whatever reason never did.

Then again, I'll bring up the fact that this may just be a temporary rush of nostalgia that'll wear off soon enough. However, the urge to jump back and play these classic games is still running in my blood. I want to make it clear that there is nothing wrong with the great current-gen games of today and that it is maybe all just in my head. Whatever the case, games of last-gen have never felt so appealing to me since the Xbox 360 and PS3 were released than it is right now. So I'm taking a leap of faith, though perhaps I should use another line seeing as how there is little risk in actually going back as I still have my PS2 and most of my games, and I'm diving back to last-gen gaming. Let's hope this feeling for those great games of our past stays with me because believe me, it is a great feeling.

As you can see, I've been real pleased with Gamefly as of late. So much in fact that I have a whole blog dedicated just for it.

So Gamefly sent out my second game today and to my surprise they actually sent out Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga which is exactly what I wanted. Boy, I can't tell you guys enough how awesome Gamefly has been. With how many times I've been mentioning them in my blogs, I may just seem like their little advertiser but how can I not praise these guys? Maybe it's because I'm a new customer that they have been sending out my games so quick as I have heard stories about how they tend to send out games slower for long-time customers but the service they have given me now is nothing short of remarkable.

My subscription is set to automatically renew on February 23, which is ironically my brother's birthday. I'm currently on the new customer subscription so it's a little less than 50% cheaper than the normal subscription price which is what I will have to pay when it does renew. I think with the way Gamefly has treated me, as a game rental service who strives to please their customers to its fullest, there seems to be little doubt that I will renew my subscription.

If you guys are looking for a flat out, bar none, amazing game rental service then by all means give Gamefly a try. They have a 10-day free trial so you really have nothing to lose. If you really are interested, help a fellow Gamespotter out and let me know first so I can send you a referral so that if you do end up signing up, you are referred under my name. If I can get five referrals then that's a free Nintendo DS Lite or 6 months of Gamefly.

So where was I? Oh yeah, sign up now!

All in all, a pretty good start. Ironically, tomorrow is the actual new year for countries in Asia. Anyway, school went by decently and a lot of people complimented me on the haircut, some even suggested it was a better look than my last hairstyle. This was coming from not only friends and other students but teachers as well. I knew the haircut would turn some heads but I didn't expect this amount of feedback from people. A girl behind me in chemistry even walked into class and kinda giggled saying it looked cute.

On to the gaming side of things, Gamefly recieved both BioShock and Skate and promptly sent out Avatar: The Burning Earth. Out of the 30 or so games on my queue, I just threw this one in there for chuckles and giggles hearing that you can easily get 1000 gamerscore points out of the game in literally less than five minutes. Might be a nice chance to have a laugh and boost up my gamerscore but you can be sure it'll be on its way out the same day I recieve it. Not a fan of the show and the game got fairly poor ratings. I still don't know what the second game Gamefly will send out is but I'm hoping it is Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga as it seems like a real fun rental that I can enjoy not only by myself but with friends or family since I hear it has a very nice co-op system.

Luckily I found out that my power supply which I have come to find out is dead is covered by Antec's three year warranty. I'm just sort of lazy to fill out the warranty form and call in to get the RMA # but hopefully I can get that done and sent out to them by the end of the week. So this leaves some $80 that I would've spent on the power supply into my Rock Band funds. That is, of course, if I don't end up blowing it off on something else like I have been for some two months now.

I've got some math analysis homework to finish up on so I'll wrap things up here. Later.

The second semester of school finally began today and I was able to keep all the same classes. Just yesterday I got a haircut, a buzzcut. It's something I've never gotten before and it was quite a shock to not only my brother and my parents but to all my friends and people at school as well since I normally had a lot of hair which also covered my forehead. Ladies and gentlemen, a new start for me has officially begun.

Yes, typically a fresh start should've come when I made my new year's resolution but it truly feels like a new beginning for me now. I'm just hoping for a good, non-stressful semester of school which I hope goes by real quick. I've planned a trip to Hawaii with a few friends for a week over the summer so I definitely can't wait for that. Did I mention that there will be no parents involved?

Aside from school, I just want to manage my time better. I really do want to get my priorities straight and really plan out my life from day to day. I would feel a lot less stressed out if I were able to master this. So here's to a new start for improved grades, a more organized lifestyle, and better gaming. Cheers.

Wow.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I just finished the game early this afternoon and while the game seemed to go by a little too fast after the first few levels, there is little doubt that this game is flat out amazing. I gave my very first impressions in my last blog post and now that I've finished the game I will be working on a full-length review.

In other news, I finally finished up the COD4 single-player campaign after holding that off for a while even though I already did finish it on the PC version that I also own. I'm still trying to find my groove in Skate as I haven't gotten into that comfort zone yet. I don't know why I can't really get into the game because as I stated in my last blog, I typically enjoy skating games. Or perhaps it is just the arcade style of the Tony Hawk games that I enjoyed. Either way, I will give it another go before I decide if I'll be sending that back to Gamefly along with BioShock tomorrow morning. The next two games on my queue are Turok and Devil May Cry 4 though I don't expect them to be shipped to me right away seeing as how the availability is currently low.

I will be ordering my power supply hopefully by tonight so it can be shipped tomorrow. I've been very eager to get back to PC gaming as I look forward to buying games like World In Conflict, Unreal Tournament III, and Team Fortress 2 or The Orange Box as I haven't decided if just Episode Two and Portal are worth the extra $20. They probably are but I'm just feeling very stingy right now.

Still at the top of my wish list for the Xbox 360 are Mass Effect and Rock Band. I definitely have the money to go buy it right now but the power supply and webcam is gonna hold me off a bit. I just don't like spending a whole load of money on a lot of different things at one time because I normally end up regretting a few of those purchases.

It is that famous national holiday today here in the U.S. known as Super Bowl Sunday and I'm watching the game in the family living room on the 42" Plasma as I type this. I should be holding off this blog post till after the game but oh well. I unfortunately have the first few assignments of the second semester of school to do due Tuesday so I figure I'll get a jump start on that tonight if I don't get too lazy and hold it off till tomorrow, which is Pupil Free Day. Suddenly I'm feeling pretty dizzy after taking down the Christmas decorations around the house after holding it off for a good month so I'm gonna go crash on the couch and enjoy what I hope is a great game. Go Giants!

...and finals are OVER! I did so-so overall, great for some classes, not so swell for some others but the semester begins anew on Tuesday. I've got some great new games that I just got in the mail from Gamefly (cheers for two-day shipping) and I'm ready to kick back and relax over the three day weekend (did I mention I have school off on Monday?).

Last weekend I rented King Kong and The Simpsons Game as my first two rentals from Gamefly. Boy, am I really impressed with Gamefly's service so far. They have always shipped out the first two games on my queue and it has taken no longer than two days to get here. Granted, their distribution center is all but maybe half an hour away from where I live. King Kong was a pretty decent experience for a launch title and probably more so as a movie based game, which let's admit, are normally mediocre at best. I gave it a 7.0 rating because it was a thrilling and often intense experience but it was much too short, linear, and I noticed quite a bit of performance hiccups and screen tearing.

The other game I rented, The Simpsons Game, was quite a treat for a huge Simpsons fan like myself. I loved the open-ended world of Springfield which is by far the most accurate depiction of the town in any video game. Each mission was diverse and different in its own right which, with the tremendous voice acting, helped overlook the very average gameplay mechanics and bad camera. It was just as short, if not shorter than King Kong but it was a great experience all the way and is a game that if I at first decided to go out and buy, would not regret doing so. Overall, I give it a solid 8.0. It was in some ways better than The Simpsons: Hit & Run which is slightly better and remains my all-time favorite Simpsons game and in some ways not. Not a rental that I regret at all. Besides, how can someone actually regret a rental?

OK, onto more current gaming news. I got my next two games in the mail the other day, BioShock and Skate. Fired up BioShock when I got home after an exhausting day at school and was pleasantly surprised. The shooting mechanic in the game is a little weak and the lack of multiplayer is disappointing but other than that, the game has been flawless. What stands out the most about the game is its amazing production value. The game just feels like I'm in a movie. The city of Rapture is well thought out and extremely original, the ambiance is spectacular, voice-acting is very convincing, and the level design is flat out awesome; it's a pretty spooky place with the dark atmosphere and dead corpses everywhere but it also feels like a place that could really exist.

I just finished the third level of the game, Medical Pavilion, and I've already seen so much. The game has 16 levels so it looks to be a lengthy and fun experience all the way. I'll keep updating you guys on my progress within the next few days, that is, if I don't get so addicted that I pull an all-nighter and finish it one night. Expect a full-length review up on Gamespot when I'm done as well and I'll tell you guys when I do that.

BioShock is no game that I want to blaze my way right through, even if it is a rental game because it is something that I truly want to take in and experience the way that it was meant to be experienced. So keeping with my word, I had to sort of force myself to pop in Skate. Starting up the tutorial, I had the absolute hardest time hitting some of the tricks. I would flick my rights tick the way it showed but I kept doing some other trick which after I would repeatedly be told by my cameraman, "Hey man that's dope and all but let's stick to the task at hand." Kind of annoying if you ask me. I didn't get too far into the game yet. In fact, I barely scratched the surface. I just finished up the tutorial and got to record and upload a few photos and demos of myself. Got a little bored after that so I turned off my 360. I know it's not becauase skating games aren't my thing because I loved the early games of the Tony Hawk series, particularly Underground which is my all-time favorite THPS game. The story mode was awesome in that game so I don't see why they can't stick with it rather than going with the same hackneyed storyline year after year. Nonetheless, I'm not going to give up Skate just yet. I'll make sure I spend some more time with it over the weekend because I definitely want to give the game a chance seeing as how I absolutely loved the demo when it came out a while back.

Aside from gaming, I've really wanted to watch Cloverfield ever since it came out something like two weeks ago. I went to the movie theatre with a buddy of mine the weekend it came out but it sold out right when I got to the cash register. That's right, exactly when I got there. Actually, they had all but one ticket left but I couldn't just leave my friend out, cause that's what buddies do, right? Was quite busy studying for finals last weekend so I couldn't go out then either. Hopefully if some of my friends haven't already seen it I can catch it sometime this weekend.

An update on my computer, it's still down. I don't want to go into detail on what I've been doing to get it to work again as I've been explaining it on various tech forums the last few days but basically when I thought for sure the problem was a dead power supply, I was told it could also be a fried CPU or perhaps a dead motherboard and the only way to know for sure was to fire up a different power supply on the computer which I don't currently have. So I'm going to take a gamble and just assume that it is the power supply and buy one off Newegg which is covered by their standard 30-day refund so I can just send it back if it ends up not being the problem which I hope is not what it has to come down to. So with that said, I unfortunately have to push back the debut of my weekly video blog since I have to spend the money that was going to go into the webcam into the new power supply.

Boy, this blog is getting really long so I should probably shut up now and go watch the second half of the Lakers game, haha. Oh and just to stay up to date with what's cool these days, feel free to leave questions about anything in the comments section below and I'll do my best to answer it in the next blog entry. Alright stay safe guys and peace.

...all that's on my mind after first day of finals. Four more tests to go! I'm actually falling asleep studying notes right now...

It's only Tuesday but so far my week has had its ups and downs. To start off on the bad side, my self-built computer of two years has recently stopped booting up. After doing a bit of research, particularly on my PSU, it seems that many people whose PSU's have died have had the same problems as me booting up the computer. What's worse is that as I was taking out all the parts of my computer last night, I accidently hit my Zalman CPU fan and knocked off the spinner and it doesn't seem to attach right back. I figure a new SLI-ready PSU will run around $70 plus an extra $20 for the fan I just broke.

Finals begin tommorow and I am dreading it. I'm only halfway through the school year and I'm already quite literally worn out. My grades have been taking a bit of a hit this quarter due to my laziness and I have little motivation to do well on finals but I guess times like this calls for a much needed grind. Tommorow I'll be taking my finals for AP U.S. History and Spanish, Trigonometry and AP English on Thursday and Design (not even going) and Chemistry on Friday. I figure I'll do OK on History, Spanish, and English but I'm a little bit lost in Chem and Trig. Whatever, I'll do my best and whatever happens happens.

On a better note, today is my mom's birthday and so my family and I will be heading out to a restaurant soon to celebrate. I'm really grateful for what she's done for me throughout my life. Not just the constant care but her confidence in me to make a lot of my own decisions in life which I think has paid off well in teaching me a valuable life lesson, self-reliance and responsbility. Should be good eatin' tonight.

That's it for now. Sorry this blog post isn't as long as usual but I have to get back to studying and get ready to go out to eat. Peace.

I haven't been this happy that it's Friday in quite a while and why not? I've been pretty sick and tired the whole week and the weather is just flat out depressing; it's been raining nonstop here in Los Angeles. Kind of odd actually seeing as how we were in one of the worst droughts in history for most of last year and now, well, now there's just too much rain. Anywho, this has actually been one of the most exhausting school weeks in quite some time despite the fact that I went to school only three days this week. Nonetheless, Friday is here and I'm just happy to stay at home, relax, and play some games.

Speaking of games, I signed up for Gamefly just two nights ago and I am already quite pleased with the service. They promptly shipped my items the next day and today I recieved my games so the total delivery time was actually only one day. How could someone not be impressed with that? Granted, their distribution center is located in L.A. but there's no denying that these guys definitely do what they can to please their customers. I added about 20 games onto my queue the first day I signed up and was happy that two games that were up on the list pretty high were sent out to me: King Kong and The Simpsons Game. I originally wanted Skate and BioShock sent out first but this will suffice. I still have a whole month to go before I decide if I want to continue to stay as a member. Currently playing through King Kong right now and I just got through what I would guess is the first chapter of the game which just netted me 100 gamerscore. I hear it's a pretty short game but that's fine seeing as how it is just a rental game and besides, I'm pretty eager to start up on The Simpsons Game.

On the less happy side of things is the fate that I hope has not come to my computer. It just won't boot anymore. I hit the power button and the fans and everything starts up for maybe 2 seconds and then shuts back off. I tried everything from turning off the power supply in the back to unplugging everything for hours but to no avail. It's probably my motherboard shorting out but man, it would really suck if I'd have to replace it seeing as how I'm currently saving up for something else. I'm actually typing this in the living room computer that my dad uses and it's not really good at all. It's about a three-year-old Compaq Presario that I owned for about two years before giving it to my dad after I built my machine. I can still play some older games like Warcraft III, Counter-Strike, The Sims 2, Diablo II, and Starcraft but that's not really important to me I guess as I just need it for the basics like checking up on my e-mail and sports scores and surfing Gamespot.

The weather is still pretty gloomy right now but I just came back from a filling lunch with my dad at Sizzler after school and found out that my game's arrived today so so far so good on what I hope will be a great weekend. I actually need to head over to Best Buy or K-Mart to pick up a 1600 Microsoft Points card if the weather calms down. Finals begins next week! You know I'm excited for that.

P.S. I've narrowed my webcam choice down to the Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 for my upcoming weekly video blog. Let me know what you think before I make the final purchase which I would hope would be by the end of the weekend. Keep checking up as the debut video blog shouldn't be too far away. Now I just need to decide on a catchy name for it...

I have been around lots of people at school who have coughed and sneezed quite nastily. I would consider myself a pretty healthy guy but my immune system does have a tendency to give up on me sometimes when it comes to a cold or infection. So I thought 2008 might be the year when I might actually be nice and healthy for a change while others are not. Turns out some things weren't meant to be. I don't know what, but I know I must've caught something yesterday as I stayed up for hours on end finishing up homework and studying for a few tests for today only to wake up in the morning feeling...a little woozy. I was experiencing most of the obvious pre-mature symptons of a fever -- cold body, dizzy, lack of energy. Yet I had no fever, not yet at least. I know most think of being sick on a school day as sort of a blessing, which I guess is a nice day off from the stresses of school. However, it only means that I have more work to pile on to my already huge list of stuff to do. This, people, is why I absolutely despise Advanced Placement (AP) classes. For those of you unaware, these are classes that are equivalent to a college-level class in high school so they practically give you three or four times the homework that the normal classes get. Comparing my sophomore year to this year, my junior year, I had all the free time in the world at that time but now I hardly have any which has taken a huge hit on the amount of time I spend playing games on weekdays which is practically zilch nowadays.

Anyway, to shift a note on the gaming side, I've been getting back to playing a lot of Oblivion lately. I hadn't touched it since maybe March, that's right, March of 2007. I had already finished the game but have been wanting to get 1,000 gamerscore on it for a while now. Starting the game up on Saturday, I still had to finish the entire Fighter's Guild and Mage's Guild questline. Around 10 hours later, I've completed the Fighter's Guild questline and have obtained the rank of Guildmaster. I'm currently a Magician in the Mage's Guild, a rank I acquired this morning while staying home from school. Hopefully I can get back to playing some more COD4 as I really hope to get to level 55 sometime in the near future and so that I can get that last half-star on my Xbox Live rep. Of course, if you guys submit a positive review about me, that'll help me that much more.:)

After watching Ish's I for an I Episode 73, which by the way I send my deepest condolences to him and his family for the loss of his cousin, I've instantly become attached to the game he praises, World In Conflict. I could pick it up on the PC right now though I'm unsure of the performance on my computer so I'm undecided on whether to wait for the Xbox 360 release or not.

I also would like to announce that I do possibly plan on getting a webcam to host weekly video blogs of my own though I'm unsure of which one is both nice and affordable so if you have some suggestions please do shoot 'em my way. So keep checking out my blog and I'll keep you guys posted on how things will turn out and develop. Now where's that Advil bottle...