I don't have much time to write, but I need to say that I'm shocked at Sony's lack of announcements at their press conference tonight. Everyone was expecting to hear big game announcements, info on the Playstation Network Platform (PNP), or just some footage that would awe us. NONE of that happened! With no huge announcements to speak of, I really hope the PS3 games on the show floor can hold their own.

Well, with TGS later this week, I decided to go over what I'm looking forward to and hoping to see.

1. Mobile Ops: The One Year War In case you don't know, this is the Xbox 360's most promising mech action for quite some time. Thus far, it looks excellent! The game takes battlefield style gameplay to another level with the addition of real full blown mechs. Now that, on it's own, would be cool. But the best thing about the game is that when you're piloting a mech, you are in a 1st person cockpit view. I'm a sucker for any mech games with a cockpit view! Needless to say, I really hope there's some multiplayer action setup at TGS.

2. Ace Combat X As you may or may not know, I'm a huge fan of the Ace Combat Series. And this version of the game (shrunk down on a PSP), looks like it's coming along really well. Unlike I expected, the game is getting the full Ace Combat story and musical treatment! Truth be told, I really hope this game sucks because I don't want to have to buy a PSP to play it.

3. PS3 Online Info I'm really curious to see what Sony will have to offer on the online front. Although I doubt it, hopefully it'll have features on par with Xbox Live. But even if they do have a decent online service, that can't save them from network issues causing lag. We can only hope they have a clue. :)

4. PS3 Games This will be our first chance to see exactly how good PS3 titles look. Bring it on!

5. Forza Motorsport 2 [X06 - I needed to include this in here] I'm hoping MS can bust out an actual demo rather then a cheesy trailer this time. Some demos with the MS Racing wheel wouldn't hurt either. :)

In non-TGS related news, the Xbox Live Vision Cam comes out this week! I'm not totally sure if/when I'm getting it yet though. It'll depend weather I feel like spending $30 next time I'm at Best Buy.

I leave you with some footage from one of my favorite games of all time: Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies![video=cXFgljbx5bsEvjfb]

I'm lazy, so instead of typing, I quickly put this together. [video=JHI1xmTw5bsEuTHZ]

Well, I ran home from school today to see the big Wii news, and when I got home, I'm sorry to say I was disappointed. If you've been following my blogs, you know I'm excited about the awesome possibilities the Wii brings to gameing, but I am really disappointed. Here's why: 1. $250 price tag. For the amount of power the Wii is going to offer, I'm kind of disappointed they weren't able to price the console at $199. 2. No mention of online gameplay . . . at all!. This has to be the biggest setback to me. With WiiConnect24 applications being such a prominent feature, you'd think Nintendo would set up some kind of decent online service for, if not Nintendo, 3rd parties to use. It would have been one thing if they said they were creating a lame PS2 online-like service, but there was absolutely no mention of an online service whatsoever! I've been into online games for a long time now, but lately (with the 360), it seems like playing a single player game is almost always a waste of time. At this point, I'd rather spend my money on 360 game/accessories.

In other ventures, I purchased NHL 07 yesterday, but have only gotten the chance to play it for a couple of hours so far. Subsequently, I'd like to hold off on judgment for another day. However, the one thing I will say is that EA online sucks!!! (even more then I suck at the game!)

I'm tired and don't have much time to write, but I need to express my excitement about NHL 07 coming out (hopefully) tomorrow.  You should expect my full treatment of impressions, videos, and complaints!  School and work are starting to take their toll and I'll probably have a minimal amount of time the game during the week, but this weekend should be pretty free so you can expect to see me signed into NHL 07 then. 

I challenge thee! (you know who you are)

First, I need to thank Jpmadrox, Rross9013, and NeoJedi for great games of Uno this weekend. A screenshot of the action: Yes, we used every card in the deck (without picking cards up by ourselves). It was insane! And, as you can see in the screenshot, I broke down and purchased the PGR3 Uno deck. It's ok. For some more screenshots and info on the new deck, go here. Also, Chromehounds had a bit of a revival this weekend for some reason. People in my squad were actually playing! It was kind of nice to get back in the game.

In other news, I finally got around to "repairing" my Steel Battalion controller today. I switched the brake into the slidestep pedal spot. You don't really need the brake to play, so, although I'm not at 100%, I can get back into the action! I will, however, continue to look for used copies of the game at local game stores, and harass Sega/Capcom until I get my parts.

First off, sorry about the lack of blog posts. I'm still adjusting to my new school schedule, and it's strange not writing my blog posts at 1:00 in the morning anymore.

But anyway, I've gotten the chance to play both the NHL '07 and NHL 2K7 demos. EA's NHL 07 demo is a shootout showing off their new control stick (which is very show-off-able btw), and in the NHL 2K7 demo, you get to play for about 5 minutes of a game. Firstly, I need to say that EA's control stick is awesome!! Now, instead of skating close to the goal, hitting the X button and hoping it goes in, it actually feels like you have to fight for the goal! I've never played a sports game that feels as awesome as NHL 07 does! NHL 2K7, on the other hand, is just a basic last-gen hockey game with nothing really spectacular to mention. I did kind of enjoy the cinemotion (a "soundtrack" rather then broadcast style) which Take-Two displayed on On The Spot last week, but it's attraction wore off quickly. My biggest problem with the game is that getting the puck in the goal feels like luck compared to EA's controls. I am definitely buying NHL '07 from EA. If for no other reason, I have to buy it to support innovation in games. Hopefully EA and other companies will start doing stuff like this more often.

Well, that's about all I have to write about. I still haven't heard anything from Sega or Capcom on getting Steel Battalion controller replacement blocks and I might have to start calling them up everyday. I am becoming increasingly impatient. I knew this was going to happen.

With Scramble getting pushed back a week, MS announced it would release a PGR themed deck for Uno instead. When reading this, at first I thought awesome! More content for the best game on the 360! But upon reading the next couple words: "for 100 Marketplace points ($1.25)," I was, to be frank, shocked. How does M$ think they could charge someone for this??? It's obviously a blatant promotion for PGR3, but they're charging us $1.25! It's a bit like buying a dashboard theme I guess (which is also really stupid), but worse, because you might have to buy it to play with your friends. As you've probably figured out by now, I'm a huge fan of Uno, and will probably end up being suckered into this, but I still think it's totally ridiculous. I hope nobody buys it so I don't have to either.

In other ventures, today was my first day back in school. Oh, how the horrible memories of the people I hate to see came flowing back. It wasn't all that bad though. Everyone says Senior year is the easiest year of high school, and for the first day at least, that seems to be holding true. Nothing could be worse then last year! I know the year has just started, but I can't wait to get out for good. Just a matter of time now. :)

I leave you with Forza Cat and Mouse action![video=JXNiljTx5bsKvDPc]

On Tuesday, my summer vacation finally comes to an end. I've avoided this thought all summer, but time has finally caught up with me. Between school and work, I'm not sure how much gaming time I'll have in coming days, but I know it won't be as much as I want. :(

Usually in this period of the year, when gaming time becomes less abundant, I don't buy alot of games and, for the most part, stick to my old favorites. Of course, with my Steel Battalion controller out of commission, I'm starting to look elsewhere for some good action. One of those elsewheres is Forza Motorsport. While I can't compete with most of the remaining hardcore playerbase, it's still fun to get some good races in. Tonight, after looking for a game for 20 min, I finally came across a good session and had a ton of fun in both traditional races, and Cat and Mouse. Here is some of the action: [video=J3czkzrx5bsKvzfd] I need to thank The Zerone, BRAKES, guitardude63, Tir0n3 81ggums, Karelin77, and kla197 for the fun races. I don't know if we'll ever race again in Forza, but I'm sure we'll meet sometime in Forza 2.

As I mentioned earlier in this post, my Steel Battalion controller is still broken, and I still have no word from Sega on replacement parts. With little faith that Sega will come through, I trotted off to my local game stores on a hopeless hunt from a used one. One store said they had someone try to sell them one the other day, but they didn't take it! Ahrrg!

For those who may not know. My Steel Battalion controller broke yesterday. I'm currently going through withdrawls.

I wasn't very upset yesterday when my controller broke. I figured I'd just call, buy the parts and everything would be great. This morning, however, I was a little bit more worried. I searched for Sammy's website, and soon realized they had some kind of merger with Sega and are now known as "Sega Amusements USA." Well, I called them up and was told to call Capcom. Of course, Capcom couldn't easily provide a number on their website or one of their games, so I searched for a while and finally found one. While speaking to a Capcom representative, I was told to call Sega Amusements. When I explained that I had just done that, the rep. told me to email Capcom with a parts request, and they would "try" to find the part I'm looking for IF there is still one available. Now, I'm very frustrated and worried.

This email address they gave me is one almost all Steel Battalion: Line of Contact players should be familiar with. It's the email address we've all sent dozens of complaints to, and never got a single apology or response of any kind. Many go as far to say that they automatically block your email if it has "Steel Battalion" in it. I do believe that one, but this will be the real test I suppose. That's how much faith I have that my email is being received and there is someone actually reading it. In fact, I think Capcom employees go their if they want to have a laugh about customer problems.

Now, if you know Capcom like I do, you know that everything they say is crap. So I plan on calling both Capcom and Sammy everyday to make sure they get my email, read my email, comprehend my email, and take the appropriate actions to get me my parts. The last thing I want to have to do is buy a used controller from ebay and have it break two days after I get it.

And yes, in case your wondering, I do hate Capcom with every fiber of my being. I should be shot for buying Dead Rising and SFII' HF. An actual, non-edited screenshot.