So I came across a blog today and well the stuff I read, makes you wonder why the heck a person like this is not sitting in jail. With the fact that in today's day and age there are over 6 billion people on the planet, the number of nut jobs, whack jobs, and plain old crazies are more prevalent, face the fact the more people you have, the more crazies you get.

So I came across a blog where a person was ranting and raving about how they were playing Xbox Live and someone came into a game room and start mouthing off, acting like a gangster and all the filth one can spew from their mouth. Now as long as it's not your first time playing on XBL, I think all of us can safely say, we have run into a foul mouthed, moron on more than one occasion.

Most people take the high road and either ignore the person or mute them. Sometimes, I even like to toss back a few key words of trash talk, I think we all have done it at least once. Naturally does telling them to "shut up" or the "go **** yourself" ever work, no. It just fuels their fire and gives them the reaction they want. Well you have to read a few of these blog comments to fully understand the point I want to make here:

"out of nowhere he comes out and says shut the * up **** and just play. Now at this time I was not on my meds and we went from there. Bottom line is after a few minutes I was tired of his mouth and exited the match. I then did a little bit of research and found out that this so called thu lived in Miami and I was actually able to find out where and name. Dont ask im just saying I can find out when I want. Anyways I get a harrassing message. I turn around and say you know what you just messed with the wrong dude. You dont know what youve done."

So I think at one point and time, anyone who has over heard a XBL trash talk fight have heard things like this from time to time. The "you don't know who you are messing with" line is always classic and is taken with a grain of salt, and that's where it usually ends or continues more just trash talk, well this individual went about handling it differently and its borderline stalker on what he/she did next:

"Anyways I booked the flight told him I was coming and he can bring his stupid possey, in my head I was honestly going to jail. I was not on my meds and my past was really shining. Then I get a message saying that he was sorry. I was like what the hell. I invited to private chat, this all happened the day before I flew out. The person I was talking to in private chat ended up being someone else. I was like who the hell are you. The dude said im the punks father and apologize for all of this. I responded what are you talking about. Turns out that it was infact a stupid teenage kid who was 14 acting out on xbox live."

This person actually booked an flight to kick the crap out of a 14 year old kid(not that he knew, but does it really make it that much better), but with the "not taking my meds" part, i swear this guy/gal is probably unstable enough to actually commit a crime. Plain and simple, booking a flight and saying you are coming for someone is AGAINST THE LAW. Plain and simple. The fact that this person let a moron on XBL get under their skin enough to book a flight to another part of the country to fight them, scream PSYCHO, and needs to be committed. People like this are a danger to themselves and a danger to society.

I have had my share of fights with an idiot on XBL, did I ever book a flight or plan a trip to kick their @$$? NO! That's just CRAZY TALK and will end you up in jail. So what it comes down to, don't play games with Psychos and if they threaten to show up at your house and mean it, call the cops and do everyone else a favor and have them locked up, but also...don't be an idiot and pick on the crazies, it's just not good. Picking on crazy people is like seeing the sign "Don't Feed the Bears". You feed them, and they will never leave you alone.

So it's that time of season, the conventions are over and the Democrats and Republicans have their hopeful President and VP choices. So ever since Sarah Palin has taken stage as the GOP Vice President, there has been nothing but Buzz through the media. Conservative News organizations like Fox (Mr. Bill O'Reilly) are criticizing "Left Wing" media groups for attacking Palin's inexperience, pregnant daughter, "Hickish" life and more.

EDIT FROM MODERATOR: IMAGE REMOVED DUE TO CENSOR BYPASS

Now Bill O'Reillly has come out saying that the pregnant daughter should not be an issue, nor is it an issue. This coming from the man who criticized Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy and even said, "Blame should be put on the parents". It's amazing how opinions change in less than a year, or when you are just a right wing machine and you wouldn't dare say anything bad about a fellow GOP member.

See O'Reilly being Hypocritical!

Also what is interesting about these Right Wing media groups is they sat there months ago bashing and picking on Hillary Clinton when she was running for the Democratic ticket. Some even had the audacity to say things about how Hillary is complaining that people are picking on her, and then said in retaliation, what is she going to do if the Big Boys in the Middle East, Russia, or Asia pick on her? Should Hillary call them out for picking on her which doesn't help her case and back into a corner like she does from time to time? Well why is it not OK for Hillary to get upset about being bullied, but when the other media groups get up and pick on Sarah Palin, her friends at Fox say people are being sexist and unfair with Sarah Palin. Yet these are the same thing Bill O'Reilly and friends did to Clinton, talk about double standard.

Republicans want to talk about Obama being a junior senator and not having experience. Let's look at Palin, she has been a Governor of Alaska (population 600k, that is less than even New Hampshire - 1 million) for only 2 years, not even a full term. Sure she was Mayor of the 4th largest city in Alaska...that doesn't say a lot with a population of 7k.

Palin and McCain on Change!?!?!

So how does Palin and McCain represent change? I mean they are republican. As Peter Griffin (cartoon character) once said, "Hey Louis, look. I am the icon of republicans. A fat white guy, on top of an elephant who fears change." How do they even say they want change. Palin is Pro-Life and a bible thumper who has referenced on numerous occasions that something is being done because that is what god wants. Check this little tid bit out:

In June 2008, Palin spoke at her former church. On the topic of Iraq, she asked that people pray for the soldiers and that "there is a plan and that that plan is God's plan." In regards to a proposed natural-gas pipeline she said, "I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built."

Change?!?!?! Sounds like the change she wants is back in the days of the Crusades!

Change on oil, no way...she wants to go into the Alaskan refuge to find oil, yet at the same time she also supports new offshore drilling, so what is going to be? Offshore or go after what organizations like Greenpeace keep trying to preserve.

Palin has strongly promoted oil and natural gas resource development in Alaska, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). She has opposed federal listing of the polar bear as an endangered species warning that it would adversely affect energy development in Alaska. Palin does not believe that global warming is human-caused.

Change, sure they may want some change, but its not for the better. Thanks for reading and remember, research your politicians!

So it's very rare I want to focus on rants, raves, or blogs on one particular product, but my old friend, who brought us such classics as Alpha Centauri and Pirates. How can we forget though, Civilization? This games has sucked away many many hours of my time and is one of those few games you can start playing at 8pm, and in the blink of an eye its 4am the next morning! So months and months ago Firaxis and friends said Civ was coming to consoles, and yet i was highly skeptic.

Look at the PC to N64 port of StarCraft...well it was fun, unless you had played it on a PC, you were screaming to hook up your mouse and keyboard to that N64! Typically PC RTS ports to Consoles are not too thrilling or are horrible when compared to their PC counter part. So Civ Revolution gave us a sneak peak when they dropped the demo on the XBLA and I had to try it, after playing the demo, i knew this game was going to be big on the consoles and I was right. Though Civ Rev is not selling to the extent of say a Halo or GTA game, its still doing well and long and behold, people are actually online and playing this game too.

If you have not played this, bought it, or at the very least rent it, DO SO! This will get you opened up to the greatness that is playing Civ and the console port, will make it so anyone can pick it up and learn how to play it very easily. It's time to conquer, it's time for the REVOLUTION!

So i watched E3s Press Confrences of each of the 3 major powers, well watched what i could of the Microsoft before the site crashed and burned! Man did I see a lot of unexpected and amazing things come out of E3. First I want to mention MAG (Massive Action Game), and despite this is a PS3 exclusive, it looks amazing. Battlefield style games are starting to get to the point of blending in, so what can you do to make a new game to set them apart, add more players, doesn't seem too revolutionary, but this kind of game, it could be a help. Well i think Zipper took the idea of more players, and then took some steroids, because 64 players...not enough, 128, eh, closer, but man 256 people converging on one battlefield, AWESOME! This game could be a driving force to get a PS3 in my household, because 256 people, thats one big battle.

So I was curious to see what Nintendo had whipped up, and well Nintendo i would say is my loser of E3. Sure the new WiiMote adapter to make the remote more percise is cool, but its hardware, i already thought the hardware was cool, now wheres the games? You need games for hardware and so far Nintendo has been thin on games in my opinion. They do have more exclusives than Sony and better exclusives, but the rest of their market is a sea of kiddie crap that would even drive Bert and Ernie to suicide. I mean the new Animal Crossing, could be cool, if I was 8 again. Nintendo though, will make it through fine in 2008 and 2009 because they have invaded the casual market, who honestly, buy a lot of crap games because they don't know any better yet, they are relatively new gamers or are only after certain games.

The winner, hey you should have seen this coming, the Xbox 360. Microsoft came out punching, and we knew they would. First of all, the big news is that MS stole away a very important IP from Sony, and that was Final Fantasy. Yes, that is right, FF13 will be launching the same day for the 360 as it will for the PS3, this could be a crippling loss to Sony as they are already struggling in the exclusives market. After Heavenly Sword and Ratchet and Clank were disappointments, sales wise, and didn't drive systems, MGS came and saved the day, but is this all Sony has left. Resistance 2 has promise, but will not beat out FPS like Halo 3 and CoD4. Then there was the epic failure of Haze, which promised to be a Halo killer and Sony dumped some big bucks into Ubisoft to make it a Sony exclusive, where it was originally going to be a 360, PS3 and PC release. So Sony lsses FF13 exclusiveness. Now look at the line up MS has coming out....Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Too Human, Halo Wars, and lets not forget the extra content for GTA4, which sold more on the 360 than the PS3, another IP that used to come out first on Sony consoles.

All said and done, it looks like another great year to be a 360 owner with great titles on the way. Nintendo will continue to do well and sell well to the casual markets, Sony though, is going to continue to struggle compared to the other systems. One point to make, any FF fans that were on the fences about gettin a 360 or a PS3, might be getting those 300 dollar Xbox 360s now and pre-ordering FF13, another blow to Sony.

So some may know from past posts that I work with an IT company and work directly with small businesses. So a new client of mine is run by a couple of former MS and FASA guys, the key note here is the Founder was the former founder of FASA Studio. I am very excited to be working with these guys as the CEO was behind the company that gave me some insane favorites on the Xbox - MechAssault 1 and 2 and Crimson Skis. Anyone who has not had the prvilage to play Crimson Skies really should, it is a fun alternate reality air assault game. As for getting info out of me on their current projects, sorry to say I don't know, nor can I tell you, but there is a lot of exciting stuff to come from these guys. Personally, my fingures are criossed for seeing the Mech Warrior/Assault universe to make a come back. Stay tuned.

So I wanted to talk about a company who in the video game world, is the Evil Empire, or at least getting closer to being there by the day. They continue to buy up more publisher, studios, community web sites, and deals with sports leagues to monoplize the sport. They continue to release the same recycled games year, after year, after year and even new games they release are sub-par at best, yet will sell well, not review well. EA has left the realm of mmaking good games, and join the realm of having a great marketing team. We do have to give EA credit where it is deserved, their marketing team could sell a ketchup pop cicle to a lady in a white dress. Their marketing team goes out to the bars on saturday nights, and yes they can pick up any woman or man they want! I swear these this marketing team is all former tobacco lobyists! So what is the solution from keeping these smooth talking people from convincing you from buying the steam pile of poop, that some how they make look like a golden egg? Very simple, boycott EA.

For every 1 good game EA may put out, they release 20 recycled trash titles that sucker you into opening your wallet. EA is honestly the Evil Empire of the gaming industry, they do not care about the gamers, only money, greed and power. When EA signed with the NFL to bring NFL games exclusive to EA studios, what has happened in the past 3 years, the rating 06, 07, and 08 all got were below the higher standards that 04 and 05 recieved. (05 and 05 scored 9 or higher in most reviews, where as 06, 07, 08 have all scored below 8.5 and even below 8.0). When people complain saying a game is not much different than a past version or looks recycled, EA is the king at doing it and continues to do it. They want to maxamize profits and don't care how crappy their games are, as long as their marketing teams sucker people into keep buying their games, nothing will change. Lets look at Army of 2, by most standards not a good game. Too many flaws in that game made it review and play poorly, yet some how EA sold a lot of copies, despite the negative reviews and opinions, because the marketed the crap out of the game (told you that marketing team would get into your pants!). For the first month or so that Army of 2 came out, there were TV ads, internet ads all over the place, they marketed the game to hell, and because of it, despite being a poor game, people bought it. Do you still see them playing it on XBL or PS Online much anymore, barely. People picked up a blockbuster of a release that came out (GTA 4) and now no one plays Army of 2, was it really worth the 60 bucks?

If you think EA is going to put out a game you might like, boycott it anyway. Make EA see their ways of business are wrong, maybe this will cause them to change, you know, make a good game or too. heck, make an epic game, rather than try and buy one, and impress the crap out of us! Until they change, make them squirm! I am not endorsing an all out ban, but I would like to see EA's wallet hurt a bit and cause them to see the error in their ways, will it change, maybe. Is it probable? Not likely.

Well folks, it has been a while since i posted a blog. I feel it was in due time too! 8)

So I picked up GTA 4 and despite the lack of time due to WoW, Work and Finals, I have not put in as much time as I would have liked, so no, the review is not ready. So far GTA 4 is, well, a masterpiece. The game screams perfection, despite a few jagged edges here and there. The stroy is lush and rich and makes you feel like your in Libery City and a part of the action. For those of us who have been to New York City, I think we can all agree that sometimes driving around, I feel like I am in New York and it just gives this game an incredible experiance. If you have in anyway enjoyed the past GTAs, you have to play this game. It is just one of those games you can't pass up to try, but really you need to buy this.

So people are ranting and raving overall about Mario Kart on the Wii, and honestly, I am completely disappointed. Mario Kart is one of my favotire racing games, steming back to Mario Kart on the SNES. I thought Mario Kart was just a franchise that could never be botched, I was wrong. Mario Kart on the Wii comes out offering much of what we are used too, and more. The controller scheme witht he wheel, is awesome. It responds well, and makes it a smooth experiance and makes you feel like you are absorbed into the Mario Kart universe a little more. What kills Mario Kart is well, the fact you can be too good at it. Yeah i sait it, you can be too good. How is that? Well if you are like me and been playing Mario Kart games since you were about 8-10 years old, you kind of have a natural knack for Mario Kart. Never ever, in past Mario Karts have i ever on the last lap, been in 1st place uncontested and then been hit with wave, after wave, after wave of power up attacks. So on the last lap, you can go from 1st place, to last place and its pretty much game over. Unless you get a Bullet Bill, or maybe a Gold Mushroom, you are no retaking the lead. I find this to be bull****! I am sorry, I can understand the game maybe trying to make the gap between 1st place (you) and 2nd place (the 1st loser) smaller and making the home stretch of the race more interesting, but this game totally and utterly takes you out of first place, and give you almost no chance for recovery. I was playing this just the other day and was about 50 feet from the finish line, got bombarded with shells and more, and i finished in 7th place. Had nothing hit me, i would have had to drive for 5 seconds more to win, but the game felt I should not win and made sure of that. Sorry, that is a crooked game and in no way is any sort of balancing feature. Mario Kart on the Wii is just bad when playing the CPU, with friends, the game is great and a lot of fun. In fact, since you play against other people in mulitplayer, there is non of that relentless bombardments 1 after another when playing multiplayer, don't get me wrong, you friends are still going to try and hti you, but there is more randomness is people's power ups, where as when playing the CPU, it seems at the final stretch, every AI character is loaded with a shell or bullet bill. Mario Kart on the Wii gets a 6/10 Score. Sorry, but no game that is "only fun" when playing with people/friends deserves a high score. The point of a video game to be good is it has to be fun both in single and mulitplayer (unless it is a strictly single player game stricly mulitplayer game with no choice of the opposite), not fun with 1 and crap with the other. Sorry Nintendo, you let a Mario Kart fan down. Actually, CEO of Nintendo, you call me up and say sorry for such a foul up!

Cheers folks! :D

Well folks, it happened to me finally. Yes my Xbox 360 has joined the ranks of many others and has the notorious "Red Ring of Death" . So out goes the 360 for a little while, back to heavy amounts of World of WarCraft and testing out my new iMac. For any of those who know me well, I am a stout Microsoft Windows user and for years trashed on Mac.

Why did I trash on Mac and now own one you may ask, well its simple economics and business. These days I work for a leading IT reseller (kinda like a CDW, but in the Northeast), and what do I sell tons of....iPods. Yup thats where i make my money iPods. Now you are sitting there and thinking, oh man...iPods...yeah good luck making money in that. Well true in normal circumstances, where my fellow co-workers sell computers and other IT products to businesses (and yes, I only work with Business normally), I sell 1 company iPods and lots of them. So when a company is giving you more money than your own employer does for selling their products, you kinda soften up. So i broke down and got a Mac, no worries Bill....my Mac has Windows Vista! :-)

So first impressions of a Mac vs a PC. I have to say, the Mac is fast, its sleek and man is it shiney. The mighty mouse, could use some imporvements. Other than that, Leopard is slick and has a lot to offer. Would i go Leopard over Vista or XP, still a giant HECK NO! As neat as Leopard is, the fact a Mac out of the box still does not come with a 2 button mouse is VERY pitiful.So far the one thing I am also noticing, and I am not 100% if this is a Mac problem of a VMware Fusion problem, but Windows updates take forEVER to finish.

As for a Mac with gaming, haven't tested, but you will see more Blog posts on Mac vs PC, Gamer Edition! Stay tuned for more.

Well its tough to argue, but Rock Band seems to be the King of song Downloads compared to Guitar Hero. Still don't get this wrong, when we say King, we are purely talking about people Buying Downloads, free downloads for extra song content goes to Guitar Hero (free is not a bad thing, check out the Dropkick Murphy's free Song pack, it rocks!). The thing was Rock Band came out and said before launch that this game would have massive music download options, and it has. Now hitting Xbox Live, just like the Big Pack of Greatful Dead, we have another big 6 song pack hitting the market, but this time it is a GREAT rock band, the boys of "Boston". For the lost cost of 800 points or 160 per single song downloads, you can rock out with your co*k out and hang out with your wang out! Boston is a great rock band and anyone owning Rock Band need to get this so you and your buddies can continue to have great fun with Rock Band.

Now does this justify no "The Who" full album pack that we were promised? No, but these 6 song big packs are a start in the right direction. Grateful Dead I would not throw in there as a Rock Band, they are more of a Jam Band, but hey for some people that works! The Boston pack is out, so grab your guitars, grab a beer or a double shot of something strong, and get ready to rock the crowd out, its Boston time!

So I work for a IT reseller that competes directly with companies like CDW, PC Mall, TigerDirect, ect. Anyway, we have a pretty tight business partnership with Microsoft. So as I am walking in this morning, to my desk, I see one of the MS guys wearing a Celtics jersey, and reconize its one of the MS guys. So i go to vendor row, see what goodies MS has for us, since they always come in with free stuff, plus ways to win prizes. When i get there, what do i see, yes....Xbox 360, HD TV and Guitar Hero 3, and oh yes...we are allowed to play it. One of my corprate division bosses comes over as I am playing, so in panik i miss a few notes expecting to be yelled at. What happens, "Don't play too much...yes Jay, i'll be over to play a song or 2 later". Oh joy, no being yelled at and I can keep rocking..... I