When I first heard of the PSP years ago, my initial reaction was, "Cool, but no way am I gonna buy one." None of the games really interested me much. And even though Metal Gear Ac!d sounded and looked cool, I was not convinced it was worth the money. Not until I got done reading a hands-on report of GTA:LCS in my trusty PSM mag. today. All I needed to read to become convinced was one word--snow. Snow is going to be the new weather effect in Liberty City and I'm all for it. I've wanted snow in a GTA game since I finished GTA3. I've wanted to ride snomobiles or even ski. Snow is cool, and it will be even cooler in a GTA game. And this PSP version is said to be as streamless as any of the others. The only load times are said to those at the main menu and between the 3 islands. And probably the best thing, next to snow, is the fact that there are motorcycles in Liberty City finally. Now I can finally blast my way through Saint Marks on my sleek PSJ 600. The only question that remains in my head is--should I pay 200 bucks for a hand-held system for one game? Well, that's pretty much what I did with my GameCube just to play Resident Evil and MGS, why not here? We'll see soon enough.

When I bought this, I thought it was going to be the best thing ever. The original had great music, great voice acting, great story, and the lot. When I started playing, I noticed the voice work had been completely re-done, the music was different, and on top of all that--it was too damn easy. I mean the fight with Ocelot was pretty much useless since I could stand in one spot and shoot. The fight with Raven was the same. I could kill him with the SOCOM for cripes sake. But the two things that got me was the fact that SK traded the dramatic story for some action packed, over hauled, acrobatic cutscenes which I found too far fetched to be even the slightest bit entertaining (except for the Ninja). The second was the voice actress for Naomi. She was supposed to be such a key character with such power in her voice, but instead she sounded as bored as someone counting the pixels on a game screen. I was very disappointed.

As I said before I am a huge fan of Kain. And inspired as I was, I made some, well, lets just say I am good at art. First I hand made each of the Clan banners from SR1 out of cloth and felt. Then I made a Clan symbol for Kain as well (this was the hardest). I hung them all up around my room so it looks more like the Sanctuary of the Clans. It is pretty cool.

After that I made those cloaks that each of the Lieutenants wore--the symbol to signify the clan, and the mirrored symbol (same one, just reversed) next to it to signify the Clan leader. Made one of each of the Lieutenants and hung them on my ceiling.

After that, I was bored so I decided to make a map of Nosgoth out of construction paper and cardboard. Took me about a week to make and it wa svery painful (my back almost broke). It's about 24" x 21". Hung that up behind my computer. I also attempted to make some figures out of clay, but I found Blue Box Toys had their own, so I gave that up. I impressed myself quite a bit with all my creations. I also like to boast about them.

Oo, this was so cool. I just turned up the volume on my sub and let the blood bath begin. Starting at the Wardogs first mission. I snuck up on an unsuspecting victim and hacked off his head with a machete. Then skipping over to "Mouth of Madness", I waited for 'Grug' to walk by, then snuck up and pulled his head clean off with a rusty wire. I may be sick, but this sure released all those angry thoughts. If anyone hasn't tried it yet, I suggest you do so. It's very liberating.

Well, unable to wait for Subsistance to arrive, I found myself a website to download the original Metal Gear and Metal Gear to onto my PC. They are both from the MSX (not the cheap NES game). They were both translated pretty well, I must say. And not only that, they were extremely hard, especially Metal Gear X-55 (or whatever it was). C4 and laser guns--damn. You even need to place the C4 on Metal Gear's legs in a certain order! LRRLRLLRLRRLRLLR, or something like that. Well, it was still fun. But MG2 was so much better. It was more like the original MGS only with lousy graphics. You can duck, crawl, shoot stinger missiles, even make a home-made flamethrower. Its probably why MG2 is on par with MGS3 as being the best in the series. But it'll be a change when I can play them on my TV

As some know, capturing monsters allows the monster trainer to create new ones that are extremely tough. Well, the final monster he creates (only after defeating all the others) is called Nemesis. It looks like Omega, just gold. Well when I went in, everyone had over 32,000 health with there power at 255. I had completed the entire Sphere Grid with everyone including filling in every node. So I was pretty strong. Well I go in thinking it was going to be easy. How wrong I was. The Nemesis casts a frigin spell on my party that depleted everyone's health by 99,999. I was like, "What the Hell?!" So I go back in and cast auto-life on everyone. Then I start pummeling the beast with attacks, dealing 99,999 damage each time. I tell ypu, this went on for I'd say 30 minutes until I finally killed it. I bet you that thing had about 1,000,000,000 health. It was sick.

This was so funny when it happened. I was playing Resident Evil 2 for the original PS. I had my sound system on so every little sound was reverberated by the sub and made it even more real. Well anyway, I was at the part where I was collecting 3 seals I think it was--a jaguar, a leopard, and something else. Well, I go into the interogation room and find one of the seals. I pick it up and all of a sudden, a Licker jumps through the window. The noise was extremely loud I jumped about a foot off my bed, dropped the controller and was screaming bloody murder. It scared the frigin hell out of me. I think my heart skipped 2 beats then. I just sat there screaming for about 30 seconds. It was crazy. Later I just laughed at the thought of what happened.

Ok, this series, which has fun since '95, has the most intrigueing story I have ever experienced. I must say, I was very inspired by it after playing Soul Reaver 2 (which was the first I played), so inspired that I actually tried to talk like they did. Although it didn't work vocally, I eventually put it to use onto my Word Processor and eventually grew into a 800 page story about LOK. It is quite a big factor in my life. The characters, the story, the setting, the weapons, everything. Whoever conceived this original story was a genius.

Very few games have done this, but I will admit, there are several that do. For instance, the only game where 90% of the people who playes it couldn't help but sniffle. Final Fantasy VII--the death of Aeris. I'll admit, I was so shocked it hit me like an 18 wheeler. At first I couldn't move when I started the fight with Jenova, but I soon unbuckled. Very emotional.

Final Fantasy X's ending movie gets me every time. I start hearing the final music and my heart starts to race. Its such a tear jerker its not even funny. Although it was partially nullified by X-2's ending movie, it still gets me no matter what. Its just, I had been playing for 60+ hrs with the character that I kinda grew attached to him, even felt like I was in the game watching, so it was powerful. But thats the way I am when I play--I get sucked in so much, I feel like I'm there.

The 3rd and final tearful game would deffinately be Metal Gear Solid 3. The best game ever conceived. No question. The final movie (which is 35 minutes +) is so powerfuly done I get goosebumps everytime I watch it. And the final two scenes with Big Boss at the Presidents office and at Arlington. I mean, you can tell he is in pain by just looking into his eye. He is a shattered man. Not only the scenes, but the powerful music captivates me too. My favorite game of all time is the most powerful game of all time.

I was stupid not to play through "Normal" mode a few times and gather more Untouchables, but I didn't.I started DMD mode with only 2 stars. Used one on Nightmare fight 3 and the rest on Mundus.Oh Mundus, what a POS!. It took me 3 days to beat him! 3 Days! I would always come so close, but he would just obliterate me with his meteors. And during these 3 days I sat there fighting him and getting pist and hitting everything I could. I tore up my knuckles, bruised my arms from my wrists to my elbows, bruised my legs, knuckles, and almost put a hole through the door. I almost popped a blood vessel in my head from yelling so loud. It was bad. But I eventually beat him and shouted obscenities at the TV in joy. The hardest thing I had ever done.