I don't think so mister.

Gears with the crew has consumed my life. Every free moment I have is spent online playing that game, and I'm still loving it.

I'm trying to finish up the time trials in Tomb Raider and boom, I'm hit with 34 invites. (curse this trend to overload people with invites!!) :roll: I just can't compete with that.

I don't think I could have selected a worse semester in my entire college career to pickup this infernal 360 machine. I have no desire what-so-ever to do school work. (Granted I've been lucky enough to get most of it done.. so far...)

Almost done with the Tomb Raider business though--two more levels and I will be able to move on to Oblivion and Suikoden II. Not sure if it's the best or worst timing though. Next week is our Spring Break and God of War II drops. Then the week after that is EDF.

I'll definitely be playing through GoW II ASAP, but I don't forsee it upsetting the current schedule too much. And EDF is total pick up and play, so I won't have to worry much there.

Didn't this time of the year used to be dry as a bone as far as releases? Perhaps '07 is the year publishers finally (or FINNALY!) get it together and release games year round. I wouldn't complain one bit.

*UPDATE* - Tomb Raider is officially complete - 100%, 1000 pts. all that junk. I have the necessary closure I need to move on now. :P

I've been trying to pick this bad boy up at a decent price for ages now. Turns out a friend of mine has been sitting on this one but has no desire to own it anymore. I took the opportunity to remove it from his possession. ;) (by paying for it, Jameson...)

Whew. Tomorrow marks the 3 week anniversary of "Noodle" and myself's relationship. (Yes, in the video I said her name was "Darling," but that is actually the name of my original XBOX. I didn't yet hook up the 360 to see what her factory name was. Of course I have since done that and she will now be known as "My Darling Noodle.") :roll:

I find myself still in the "Honeymoon Stage" as I still can't pry myself away from the system. So far I have:

-Played through Tomb Raider which I actually really enjoyed.

-Played through Gears twice, once on hardcore and once on Insane. (Co-op on both, I still want to run through the game alone.)

-Got all the achievements in Heavy Weapon (still super fun, especially with 4 people online, so play with us!)

-Played through Assault Heroes a couple times with different folks.

-Started Oblivion. (yes I finally made a decison on what character I wanted to use. Wound up picking a Wood Elf Ranger type.) Starting to dive into the massive world of Cyrodiil.

-Played countless hours of Gears multiplayer with some of the members of this lovely Gamespot Community. 6 hours straight just the other day. Goodness, I haven't had this much fun online in a while. Thanks to you guys for making it so rad.

I still have a lot I want to do. I have Gun and Kameo now to play. Plus Dead Rising and Viva Pinata are on the immediate "to buy" list. Plus so much more is on the verge of release such as EDF!!! and Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed and whatnot. Can't wait!

It's safe to say that I am currently ultra satisfied with my purchase. A lot of the credit must go to Live though I feel for making it so easy to play with the amazing people on this site. Of course having games worth playing helps as well. Something that I'm glad I waited a year for.

Other than that, I picked up Hotel Dusk today. Been looking forward to it for some time now, just got sidetracked with Noodle I guess.

The old Ball and Chain is calling me right now actually. Might as well give in and fire up some Oblivion. "Sweet sweetness."

360 Alert.

This one will be old news to most of you...

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Two down, one to go.

I finally got it. Yesterday Jan. 30th I picked up my 360. Been playing it. Going to play some more. Episode 7 this weekend.

Find me on Live.

Gamertag N3RD ALERT!

The impending 360 purchase is nearly here. I seriously can't remember the last time I was this excited about purchasing a console. I never really hyped up the new console launches, although I did find it interesting to see how they played out. There's just so much that I want for the 360 now, and so much stuff coming out that I couldn't put off waiting any longer.

I went ahead and cleared off a spot for it the other day.





Hopefully the unit will have the necessary breathing room and I'll be able to lay it flat. I still have yet to find a place for the games I just removed from there though, not to mention a place to put the massive amount of games I'll be purchasing in the near future.

I think part of the reason I'm getting so "giddy" is that I decided to save up for this system the old fashion way. I put aside some cash each week and just let it accumulate. When I bought the Wii it was somewhat unexpected and I just used the check card. It was still really cool and exciting setting that system up, I just think the purchase process was too sudden to feel any sort of responsibility for making the purchase. This way (just like your parents always told you) I feel more attached to the system, at the same time building valuable character!

The plan is to pick up the system Monday or Tuesday morning, hopefully filming a NERD ALERT episode in the process. Then it's game time. Sweet, sweet game time.

I hope to see some of you folks on Live soon. :D

It's been a good run, but tomorrow I head back to class. My winter break will be vanquished tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM.

Let's have a look at the goals I set at the beginning of the break to see how I did.

"1. Finish Okami." - Goal achieved. I finished it and loved it, as many of you already know.

"2. Reduce the backlog." - This is something that I will of course be actively pursuing. I took the first step by starting Psychonauts (which I am fairly far in I might add) and although that may not sound like much, I'm hoping it's a step in the right direction.

With the help of some friends, I've actually devised a bit of a system to help me with this one. Generally I don't like playing more than one high profile game at a time. I feel certain games deserve more time to be focused on instead of sharing it with 4 or 5 other titles that coule potentially create a loss of enjoyment. So, I will try to adhere to that during my peak gaming hours. Durin other times, such as between classes, or before bed I could (in theory) knock out some of the handheld backlog.

Since there are handheld games that are a little more in depth than the pick up and play Elite Beat Agents, I figure this would open up some time for me to dive into Portrait of Ruin, without detracting too much from other games I might be playing.

"3. Film a new episode of NERD ALERT." - Well.. I did not manage to accomplish this task. I was a bit busier than I thought I would be in those two weeks of no responsibility. I have a somewhat big gaming purchase coming up at the end of the month though, and I imagine that will be the subject of the next episode. Perhaps using some more advanced editing software? One can hope, I guess.

Managed a couple other small achievements too, like making Pro level in Wii Sports Golf and recording some Gamer's United episodes.

Also defended the Earth from Mile Long Centipedes in Earth Defense Force 2, where I recently made it to level 30 something.

Aaaand started the 360 collection by picking up Gears and Ridge Racer 6, the latter was on sale for $15. The actual system should follow here shortly.

More recently I've been participating in "Smash Nights" with some good friends of mine in which we play Melee with a bunch of folks. I haven't been that much into the game before this. I'm not sure why either - it's probably the one game that every Cube owner has that I don't. I'm actually having a blast playing with these fellas and I'm trying my best to get better at it. As a result, I'm really looking forward to Brawl now - I can see myself possibly obsessing over that game. ;)

I could have done worse, right? I have to say, I had an extremely enjoyable time off. I managed to game a lot more than usual, even with some of the unforseen busyness that always pops up. I hope everyone else had an enjoyable time as well, and wish you all the best this year.

So I was checking some of the upcoming games I'm looking forward to and their release dates. I come across Earth Defense Force X and what do I see?



This is quite possibly the best release date in video game history. The reason for this is that March 20th (1984) is my birthday.

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.

If you still don't know what this game is all about after I blab endlessly about it in such places such as the Gamers United podcast. In which the latest episode is our special GotY Extravaganza. You can watch the 1/4/07 episode of On the Spot.

If you want to know why I'm looking forward to this game so much you can watch the 9/15/05 episode of On the Spot (found on page 5 of the archives.) Or you can watch the second episode of my shameful video blog where I run through the first two levels.

[video=IXQ0wWSs5bsOvTHa]

I can't wait, I'm planning on picking up my 360 sometime this month. I've picked up a couple games in prepartion already, and I am now finally excited about the system. It's about time I joined the party.

Initially I was never a big fan of strategy or game guides as they've been called. I always thought they were for people who had trouble beating games.

However, when I started "seriously" collecting games a couple years ago I found that certain games almost demanded their literary counterpart. I began picking up overpriced guides along with my games.

I've cut back on collecting these days though. I really only like using guides on second playthroughs. Which means I hardly use them at all, because I have trouble even playing through my game once - let alone twice.

There's just something about seeing both game and guide together that makes it complete. Some of my favourites:

Besides looking nice though, I actually only recently found out how handy they can be when I used the Double Jump guide to get all the endings on Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Now, it seems I'm back into the guide junky stage.

So today, I was hanging out at my local gamestore (as I tend to do more often these days) and I see the Twilight Princess guide.

Complete with cloth map.

As some of you may know I'm a sucker for Collector's Edition stuff, and so it was hard to pass this one up - especially when I'm on this strategy guide kick. Luckily I got somewhat of a hookup on the price and I was then headed home with it.

Now, guides aren't the only thing that I've been desiring lately. After finishing Okami, artbooks and soundtracks are on the agenda. Who knows, maybe I'll even purchase a Halo novel or Colossus statue before too long...

Words can't even describe the love I now have for this game. It is without a doubt my favourite game I played this year. Definitely one of all time favs, right up there with Half-Life and Ocarina of Time.

I still have some stuff left to do in the game - such as collect all the stray beads and a couple extra side quests. I usually don't replay games this long, but I'm thinking of making an exception for this one.

If you have been putting off picking this one up for whatever reason, I highly highly recommend snagging this one as soon as possible. I don't see how anyone that enjoys games could possibly not have a tremendous time with Okami.