I have been without broadband for a while now and just this week i got a 6mb connection and started playing online again.

While I love playing online i cannot stand it when somebody disconnects from a game because they are losing. These people are the lowest of the lowest and in my book cannot be consider a gamer. A true gamer has some amount of respect for his opponent and if you are taking a beating have the courtesy to do it with dignity. last night i was playing FIFA 08 online and 3 times in a row the other guy disconnects from the game in the last minute because they are losing. If you cannot accept the fact that losing is part and parcel of online game then stay away from xbox live and psn and the rest, we do not want your kind ruining the experience of competitive multiplayer for the rest of us.

This is such a big problem with online games today that i think the game companies need to be tougher on this issue and while i understand some of them dont want to get involved and monitor their servers to that extent, at least give us the tools to try and avoid this yourself. the perfect example of this happened the day i got my new connection installed , i booted up Tekken 5 DR and was playing away and my housemate was fiddling with the router and disconnected me. When i reconnected to the service i got a very stern message that i disconnected from my match and that this was not acceptable. and then when you look at the aforementioned FIFA 08 there are no such attempts at scolding these morons. For a game like FIFA where it is one on one , if one player disconnects then you should win by default, no questions asked. if the other guy legitamitely lost his connection then so be it, that is a rare occurance compared to someone deliberately exiting the game. i played well in those 3 matches and deserved my win and increase in online rankings but i ended up with jack squat.

Since the explosion of online console gaming the random or quick session option has become quite popular, and while it is good to be able to log on to the service and jump straight into a game you should still be able to see some stats on your opponent before commencing a match, disconnect rate, and quality of connection are a must. some games have it and some don't but it should be standard. FIFA does have an option to set the maximum dnf% allowed if you create the session and while its good thats there its not enough. We also need the ability to report these people and name and shame them and if the powers that be look at their account and see a high disconnect rate then they should be banned or at least suspended.

for my first blog post i am just going to post some thoughts on what i am currently playing

shin Megami tensei: persona 3

This is a very good rpg but i think it is slightly over-rated. the social link stuff is more of means to an end , you do it so you can gain more exp for your personas but the process itself is boring , you just have conversations with people and choose the answer they want to hear. some of the characters are ok but its easy to know which choice to pick and the plot of each social link is predictable. what makes the rpg good though is the amount of customization and freedom you have when creating personas . much like pokemon you need to build a balanced team with a good mix of skills . the battles themselves are ok but only having control over the main character is annoying, the AI for your teammates is competent but at times they screw up. Tartarus itself is kind of boring and there is not enough variety in the different sections. this could be truly great and i cant wait to see what a next gen rpg from atlus could achieve

Call of Duty 4

Nothing i can say that has not been said. single player while short is rewarding and the multiplayer is fantastic

The Elder scrolls iv: Oblivion

Being a long time rpg gamer i always preferred the turn based ones and never really played the pc type rpgs so i was a bit skeptical about oblivion but after a few days on rental i went out and bought it. This game is amazing. you can truly lose yourself for hours on end in this game

FIFA 08

easily the best in the series and if they can improve on a few areas it could well take the footy crown back from Konami

Uncharted Drakes Fortune

Really fun game. Great characters and great combat, the hand to hand stuff is a bit meh! but the gunplay is of the highest standard and for an action adventure title the cover system and adaptive enemy ai really stand out. the pace is somewhat unbalanced as sometimes you feel like you are just going from one insane gun battle to the next and wish it would relent for a few minutes.