I had to cancel my Game of the Year awards. No big deal because it seemed that everyone else was doing them as well so think of it as one less award blog to read about. I do want to give everyone "my" game of the year and that would have to be Bioshock. I loved that game. I loved looking for all of the hidden items in the game, the boss fights, the many different ways of defeating the bad guys, the story, the exploration and the times where you just have to stop and stare at your surroundings because it is just so cool to look at. A close, and I mean close, second place goes to COD4. The single player portion of the game had some of the most exciting levels to come around in a long time. The multiplayer portion is the new mark at which all other multiplayer games will be judged in my opinion. Third place would have to go to Halo 3. Love it or hate it you have to admit it is a big deal. The single player, while short, was good and the multiplayer, even with its rotten community, is good as well. Forge is one of the best ideas for multiplayer video games. It gives longevity to the boards as well as lets the community be as creative as the want. Also, putting stats on the internet that you can track as well as study the game by looking at the other players kill spots is genius! Stats made available for multiplayer games are a "must have" item in all multiplayer games in my opinion.

What the heck is going on with XBOX Live? The last message we got from Major Nelson on his blog was that the problems going on with XBOX Live were unacceptable and that nobody there was going home until it was fixed. Well, since that was about 3 weeks ago they must be logging in some extra overtime because except for a few hours here and there XBOX Live is pretty much useless. When did it become acceptable at Microsoft to leave their service in this condition and then announce that "not everyone is having problems" when that is a blatant lie? Is it just a coincidence that every time I get into a room everyone is amazed when the game actually connects and everyone makes it into a room? I don't think so. It looks to me like they are trying not to go into CES with XBOX Live on the crapper and doing there best to keep it under wraps but as you can tell from various websites like Kotaku.com there is definitely a problem and everyone should be aware of it.