Whoa...haven't done this in about...two years.

No matter. I am here now, and thus I shall stay. Unless I die.

Anyway, what I'm ranting about today is the fact that while Gamespot and most other game review sites offer a function for users to vote, it seems as though the average gamer has this notion that all games are at the very least, a "7" or higher.

Basically, every game is worth playing that comes out today.

While I'm not arguing against the fact that games have gotten better, that's no reason why we should leave the average at somewhere around a 7.5 or an 8. No, instead, the average should be reset to about 5 (instead of 7, it gives more room to manuever), and we should continue onward. While the older reviews would not be affected, newer games would be subject to a peer revision process.

What I mean is that each game is compared to it's modern counterparts.

Why the distinction?

Because people get nostalgia for other games. While you can love an older game, it doesn't mean that all other games must be held up to that standard and religiously picked apart as to why it's not your favorite game. Of course it's not going to hold up to your unrealistic expectations. We have his notion that the older a game is, the better it is, and the less likely it can be subject to criticism.

I'll outright say it. I enjoyed Super Mario Sunshine more than I did Super Mario 64. I enjoyed Final Fantasy XII more than I did VII (that's going to piss some people off). I enjoyed Twilight Princess more than I did Ocarina of Time. I thought the more recent incarnations were better than their older counterparts. And you know what? That's a dying breed of opinion.

Take a look at my Golden Sun review. I should probably rewrite it, however, I probably wouldn't change the score, or the main message of the review at all (considering the new and backwards review system, along with another type of review, but I can't easily convey those messages here). The fact of the matter is, I had been playing a number of much more...contemporary games, along with some older ones. I'm not a fan of the whole "Turn-based couch-potatoeing that happens so often in older RPG's. In fact, perhaps the only legitimate turn-based console RPG in my house right now is Wild ARMs 5, and even then, it's not really turn based.

The point is, I like innovation. I like taking a tried and tired idea, and turning it into something much more complex, something much more modern.

I also like bagels. But we're not talking about that right now.

Do you agree with this revamped system of reviewing? Or do you think that we should stay as we are, as people would resist the change? Sound off in the comments below.

~Lego

Since E3 is officially over and done with for another year, now it's time for all of the press and important people to go home, catch some sleep, and get back to work. But for the rest of us, we sit around, and talk about how it was, or wasn't. Welcome to the Post E3-Ownage, part one.

First of all, you can't start a wrap up without talking about all of the press conferences. Depending on how long these are, it might take multiple parts to get through them. I, currently have seen two of them (as my shiny new badge states), and I'll probably get around to seeing the third and final one this weekend, whenever I get enough time to sit down for about an hour and a half. Then I'm going to watch what I missed of the Nintendo and Microsoft pressies. Sound fair enough?

First, Microsoft. I was locked out of the site for quite some time, for whatever reason, so I missed perhaps the first 20-odd minutes (and the closer announcement, which I'm kicking myself over that), which apparently was all trailers anyways, so not like it matters, right? Anyways, I'm going to talk about something that I noticed that they missed: sales figures. I would assume that Sony talked about them, because I read the transcript, and I know that Nintendo did, but surprisingly, Microsoft didn't even touch them. Odd. Anyways, what they did talk about a lot is their new dashboard. I think it sucks. There, I said it. You want to know why? Because A. I definitely didn't pay 370-odd dollars to get a Wii, B. Sony's already got you owned there with the Home. Honestly, they look like Miis (granted, I haven't really read anything about Home, so I can't truly comment on that), except with costume changes. Bah. It really is one of those things that will take a lot of people a long time getting used to. Then again, Microsoft assumed that we were all it's b*tches, seeing as though it's held market-majority for some time, and it thought that we could take anything that it dished out. Not to downplay Microsoft or anything, but they've seemed, well, a little too high and mighty for their own good. And it was somewhat rightfully earned (figures don't lie, you know...the only profitable month for the original Xbox was the month that Halo 2 came out (sorry, but I don't have an exact reference for this, which makes it sound as if I'm lying)) due to the early success of the 360 (and the fact that Microsoft is a software skyscraper), but then again, the "other two" are catching up. No longer does Microsoft dominate the scene with first-party exclusives, rather, each are sharing their own thunder equally. Slowly, the demographic is changing. Maybe some of us can't feel it, for perhaps, the very ground that they stand on is being shaken, and instead, they go higher and higher, hoping that it'll save them from the coming storm. Others, seeing, while the tower is tall and massive, it looks the same from all viewpoints, which means that it's not terribly structurally sound. People realize that there is more than the giant tower dominating the skyline. Watch for the shift.

While that previous section may not have talked too much about the presser itself, the presser was panned, mainly because they spent a little too much time on subjects that really didn't appeal to some us out there (those same people also don't know the real name of E3 anymore, either, which, just for reference, is the E3 Media and Business Summit, not Gaming Convention or anything like that). I found it fascinating. Then again, for a 15-year old gamer to be interested in economics these days isn't exactly following the stereotype, either. Whatever.

Anyways, thanks for reading PE3-Ownage, part one. I'll try to churn out another one tomorrow.

I don't like being active in something. It makes me feel as though I have a commitment. That's a problem. Anyways, I won't be on much now that school has started again, and my internet bill is much higher than it needs to be. That's all for now. I'll add more later.

Why, hello there! Gamespot just posted a news item about the rapidly increasing PS3 sales numbers. One of the figures that stuck out to me was that the console itself had seen a 135% increase in sales, while the software only saw a 15% jump. That seems a little odd. I mean, as you sell more PS3's, you would expect to sell more games with it too, wouldn't you? After all, it's not like people are just going to sit around and look at their PS3's all day long. That would be a waste of (what is it now, $400 US? I dunno...) a lot of money, unless they all bought the games when they came out, and just wanted to wait until the price dropped on it so that they could get it for a little cheaper. I also think that the massive sales percentage increase is not just the price drop itself, after all, it doesn't take that long to raise an extra hundred dollars, with a well paying job. And if your excuse is that you need the extra money for food, so I won't get one right now, that's a load of sh*t. If you're trying to save up every penny because you need food, you should be more worried about food than a next-gen gaming console. And sorry about the tangent right there, now, back on track. The Wii and 360's slow sales have also contributed to the increase in sales. With a flurry of mediocre games being released for them over the summer (not that it's anything new, this happens every year), everyone's looking towards Sony, because they've got some good games being released soon. With Persona 3 coming out tomorrow, and Wild ARMs 5 not long after, along with a massive announcement of games at the recent E3, it was about time that sales picked up for Sony. After all, I'm a gamer first and foremost, no matter what platform or genre (although, I don't particularly care for the horror genre), so I, naturally, followed a lot of the news coming out of Santa Monica with a watchful eye. I was excited by all of the new titles that I hadn't heard about before E3 (or that I just heard about right beforehand), but, most of them aren't coming out until later this year, or even next year (i.e. Starcraft 2). But, with MP3:C coming out soon, along with SSB:B, and Halo 3 on the horizon, the market will be busy in about two to three months, just you wait and see.

~Lego out~

Well, I had just written up a truly wonderful blog post, and I clicked submit. It was a little slow, but that was probably because I'm downloading something in the background, so I wasn't worried. When the HTTP 400 Error showed up, I started to get slightly worried, but I just pushed F5 instead. It took me to a blank page. Not to be deterred, I went to my profile, and lo and behold! Nothing. Nada. Diddlysh*t. Instead of swearing loudly at the computer, I went and did my version of anger management. So I come back, thoroughly annoyed, and I post this out of sheer boredom. Thanks for your time.