My blogs have been dead since the Halo 3 one because I have been playing so many cool games instead opf writing about them. I was going to do a whole "Game of the Year" post, but it proved to be too much work (and I accidentally deleted it). Instead, I am just going to write the stuff here. As far as games go, 2007 was an awesome year. I'd have to say that it was year of the PS3, mainly because I played a lot of awesome PS3 games and there are still more that I want to get my hands on. My favorite games this year were, in no particular order:

• God of War II (PS2)
• Pokemon Diamond (DS)
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All (DS)
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations (DS)
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
• The Witcher (PC)
• Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma (PS3)
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)
• The Orange Box (Multi)
• Call of Duty 4 (Multi)
• Rock Band (Multi)
• Guitar Hero 2 (Multi)

All of those games were awesome, and I am sure that I am forgetting some. Out of all of those, I would have to say that Rock Band is my favorite. It's just so much fun, even after playing it for months. As far as technical favorites go, I'd say Crysis had the best graphics, while Team Fortress 2 had my favorite art style. Rock Band had the best multiplayer and music, while I felt that Bioshock had the most original concept. The two Ace Attorney games had the best stories and the best writing, and the award for most value goes to the Orange Box (six awesome games for $45?).

There were some disappointments last year, however. Both The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption failed to live up to their pedigree. The delay of Super Smash Bros Brawl and Metal Gear Solid 4 also sucked. Halo 3 was overhyped, but was still a good game, while Assassin's Creed was overhyped and turned out to be a mediocre game.

That was certainly easier than what I was going to do before. Looking back, 2007 was a great year, and 2008 looks to be even better. I can't wait for all of the awesome games coming out! The one last acknowledgment that I would like to make is the coolest character of 2007. The guy to the right is Godot, the coffee-loving prosecutor from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. He was an awesome character from the moment he was introduced to the last part of the game. His calm and cool demeanor and witty dialogue made him the star of the third installment. His unique appearance and his coolness even influenced another new character of the past year...

This Tuesday, Halo 3 will start being sold in stores. It's going to be huge, and the game is undoubtedly going to be really fun. I'm looking forward to playing and trying out all of the new stuff, like the Forge map editor and the movie function, plus all of the new weapons, levels, and equipment. I think that, while the campaign will be cool to play through once or twice, the multiplayer will follow in Halo 2's footsteps and become the game to play online and LAN. I don't think that the Halo games deserve all of the hype that they receive, but I do think that Bungie is a great company that continues to push the boundaries of what can be done in a console shooter (think about it- has any other console game had as good of an online setup as Halo 2 did four years ago?). Halo is one of those games that is just fun to play with other people- any person that is familiar with games can pick up a controller and join in on the fun. It does not have an amazing storyline like Metal Gear, the gameplay is not as refined as Zelda's, the music is not on the same level as Shadow of the Colossus, and the graphics aren't as technically-proficient as Crysis', but there's just something extremely fun about playing a Slayer match with your family and killing each other.

The great year of gaming continues this week with two more games that I am getting. The first game is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Supposedly the last game in the Prime series, Corruption once again has Samus (probably) taking care of Space Pirates and (most likely) getting a bunch of cool upgrades to her suit. I also think that I might have some of the story figured out (Warning: Major Spoilers Ahead!):

[spoiler] Samus, starting off with all of her upgrades from the previous Metroids, will be stripped of everything but her basic suit and power beam in the first 30 minutes of the game. [/spoiler]

This Prime is going to be really fun with the new Wii controls. I have tons of faith in the talented crew at Retro Studios, so I'm pretty sure that the controls will be top-notch. They will also do a fine job with the graphics. Although it would have been awesome to see what could have been done with Metroid through the power of the PS3 or the 360, Retro will most likely use the majority of the Wii's graphics potential in Corruption.

Warhawk also looks really good. It's a multiplayer-only game, but with 32 player online and splitscreen play, is that really a bad thing? The premise is much like the Battlefield games (at least I think it is): you start as an infantry guy, walking around using various weapons to fight off the opposing army. You can then commandeer any vehicle, ranging from jeeps to tanks to the eponymous (thanks, AP English 11!)flying machines themselves.

I'm hoping that this game is going to be a lot of fun. I like how that art design is cartoony, and the third-person perspective corrects one of my gripes about the Battlefield games. It also comes with a free headset that will be fun to use for about three minutes. I heard that you unlock different pieces to customize your soldier and Warhawk with, so that will add to the fun.

These are just two more examples of why 2007 is going to be an awesome year for games. Now that I have more money, I can buy these cool games. I have a feeling that one of the two games that I'm getting this week will be amazing, probably ending up being one of my favorite games. The other game, however, will also be really cool, but not as awesome as the other one. I'll let you decide which one is which.

... or maybe I'll be wrong and they'll both suck.

I'm excited because Bioshock comes out next Tuesday. I really liked the demo on the 360, but I am looking forward to the PC demo to see how it will run on my system (seeing as how that's the version that I'm getting). I think that the game was a lot of fun to play, and the good graphics and sound added to the whole experience. It was fun to experiment with the different magic (sorry, "plasmids") against the enemies. I also like how you can upgrade your guns and customize what passive plasmids that your character equips. It was also pretty fun shooting people in the face and seeing a bunch of blood come out and then proceed to beat their corpse with your wrench (the physics are good for having fun like this).Since I got my job at Gamestop, I decided to splurge for the Limited Edition. Luckliy, I was able to preorder the last one today, which means that I will be getting my Big Daddy figure (along with the soundtrack and bonus disk) when I go to pick it up next week.

Today was the 20th anniversary celebration for Metal Gear. New stuff was shown, including Metal Gear Online (I signed up for the beta), Metal Gear Solid Mobile (looks lame), and new info on the Metal Gear PSP expansion, Portable Ops +. While that was all nice, the best thing was the presentation for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

First of all, Eva was revealed to be featured in this installment. Since this game takes place 50 years after Snake Eater, she looks a lot older. I wonder if her and Old Snake will be friends or enemies. Guess I'll have to wait to find out.

At the event, Kojima showed off 15 minutes of himself playing the game. Needless to say, I thought that it looked amazing. If I didn't, why would I be writing this blog? And although my opinion is quite biased because I am a fan of the series (and because I love Kojima's boogers), I think it looks cool any way you look at it. The camera is awesome- a fully controllable 3rd person camera, with over-the-shoulder or first-person aiming, will let people play the way that they want to. Everything looks extremely sharp, with awesome realistic effects such as depth-of-field (like the blur when you zoom in and out really fast) and the screen shaking with explosions. The sound is also top-notch, with bullets whizzing past your head and bombs that sound like they blew up right in your face.

Snake has a lot of cool new techniques, like rolling sideways, throwing things behind him, new CQC moves, and the ability to hide in dumpsters and barrels. His sneaking animation is new, with him crouching down when he walks so nobody sees him. His Octo-Cam is also an awesome new addition- its texture changes to match that of his surroundings so that he can blend in. His arsenal seemed to be the same as always, with his MKII, Mosin Nagant, AK-47, and RPG-7 ready to use. His knife was different, however, since it had the ability to stun enemies with an elctrical shock.

I did not like two aspects of Old Snake. First, the thin white circle that surrounds him is very annoying. I don't even know what it's used for, but it bothers me. Second, I dont like how Snake's crack sticks out so much. It looks like a black strap is going through it and making his cheeks stand out. Neither of these are too important, but they kind of took away from the experience for me.

This version of Metal Gear looks like it's going to be extremely fun to play. Since it's set in the middle of a war, you can choose which side you want to assist (if any). The battles look intense, with people getting killed and explosions going off all around you. One particularly crazy scene is when pterodactyl-esque flyers come in to bomb one of the armies. A building in the distance is hit by one of their bombs and it crumbles realistically, with huge amounts of dust flying in the air from it. With details like that, the battles in Guns of the Patriots are going to be like nothing the Metal Gear series has ever seen.

I am extremely pleased after seeing this gameplay video because it reinforces my theory that Metal Gear Solid 4 will be one of the first amazing games of this generation. Everything looks so good about it: awesome graphics, superb sound, tight controls, and a (hopefully) great story. Thinking about it just makes the wait for the beginning of next year that much harder.

Since I'm level 26 and have been a member here for three years, I feel like it is my duty to write a blog. And since I'm going to write it on the first thing I look at, I guess I'll write about banners.

I like my banner. It has characters from my three favorite games, and the black-to-white gradient in the back is cool. The text of my name looks like amateur Photoshopping, which it actually is. It looks like I spent some time on mine, as opposed to just throwing any resolution picture up there and having a stretched image.

I also like Rax625's banner. It's simplistic design is just like the Final Fantasy covers that he was trying to recreate. However, his name-font also reeks of amateur Photoshopping. Very good banner, and a sign that Rax actually cares about the presentation of his profile.

In conclusion, I have to work on my Photoshop skills, so here is a funny Photoshop picture that someone else made:

[spoiler] [/spoiler]