This generation I have done over 90% of my gaming on Xbox 360.  It has been my console of choice and despite its flaws I have been very happy with it.  I came to the Xbox 360 originally because it was $200 cheaper than the PS3, Xbox Live, and its exclusive games like Gears and Halo were more interesting to me than Sony's, like Resistance.  Because of my time with Xbox 360, Xbox One was the console I was most looking forward to next generation.  I was unable to watch Microsoft's E3 Press Conference live, and by the time I started skipping through it on-demand, I had already heard about the $500 price tag. I've never bought a console at launch before, and was considering going through that experience for this upcoming generation, but the $500 put me off.   I was then happy that they began the conference talking about Xbox 360 games, because I figured the Xbox One content would not be relevant to me for a while.  My mood slowly shifted as I saw plenty of cool upcoming games for Xbone, and I began to feel that I will have to get an Xbox One sooner than I had originally planned.  Then, when I realized I could pre-order on Amazon for no charge until shipment with the possibility to cancel at anytime, and be able to take advantage of no tax and free shipping with my Amazon Prime membership (I think free shipping was offered at most places but I prefer to think that it was a special perk for Prime) I had to put in a pre-order.  

I wasn't sure if I would keep the Xbone order, but I was excited and to be honest did not care what Sony had to say, at least not enough to watch it live.  I periodically checked my Twitter and Joystiq to see what Sony was announcing while doing other things, and for most of the conference I was not getting good feedback.  I felt relatively sure Xbox One would be the system for me, despite its various flaws, just like 360.  Then came the bombshell.  $100 less.  No constant online.  No used games restrictions.  No required Kinect watching me constantly.  I was and am intrigued.  

The main points of contention

-$100 cheaper.  Obviously quite a plus for the Playstation.  Basically the same console, although I hear PS4 is a bit more powerful with better RAM.  Xbox has the Kinect but I'd rather save $100. PS4 wins here.

-No constant online.  Not a huge deal because I am online most of the time anyway.  However, last month my internet was shut down for 2 days due to a billing problem with AT&T.  Normally I play FIFA online. It sucked to not have home internet (was able to still browse the web on my phone's 3G connection) but I made do by playing offline career mode and other games.  It was actually kind of refreshing to just play games and not be distracted by everything online.  So while 99% of the time this online isn't an issue, for the times it is it would be incredibly frustrating.  I think it's more about the principle of the thing, having the freedom to do what you want.  PS4 wins here.

-No used games restrictions.  Again, more about the principle for me.  I do not buy many used games, at least not in a store like Gamestop.  I do like to rent games on Gamefly though, and will sometimes get a used game off Amazon or somewhere online if it's an old game or significantly cheaper.  I prefer to buy them new but do not want my freedom to do what I want taken away.  PS4 wins here.

-Finally, constant Kinect monitoring.  I find it wise to take a middle ground on this issue.  I do not think it will quite turn out like 1984 as some people fear.  I also don't think it's good to completely dismiss those concerned about having an extremely powerful monitoring device online in your home 24/7 as silly.  I'm not all that particular about my privacy online, I figure the government and companies will find out what they want about.  If they know I like to drink Mountain Dew, watch soccer, and frequent the occasional pornographic website a few times a week, I don't care.  But I don't like the idea of paying extra money to give them the privalege of potentially watching me.  PS4 again.

Finally, and probably most important, the games.  As of now I'd say I am more interested in the Xbox games.  But I did watch most of their conference and only saw a few clips of Sony's online to be fair. If I go PS4 I will be excited to try new franchises I've missed out on like Uncharted, but I will miss my familiar Microsoft ones.  Also very important though, I'm interested in multiplatforms like BF3, Star Wars Battlefront, and FIFA.  I want to get the more popular system because I believe you get a better multiplatform experience, like the 360 this gen.  Still way to early to tell who will win here, but based on yesterday's reaction, the PS4 is far ahead.  

If the prices and consumer policies were equal I'd definitely go with the Xbox, as they are winning in games FOR ME, and after this generation I am more comfortable with Xbox.  But as Sony is leading in both of the first departments, I'm thinking of switching.  As it stands, I have both pre-ordered on Amazon.  I may still cancel both, one of them, or none if I win the lottery.  Exciting days ahead.

As of now I think I want to start using Gamespot again.  I have 3094 forum posts which I built up many years ago and feel that is a fairly impressive, (or perhaps unfortunate) number.  It saddens me to see them go to such waste.  I miss posting on forums, having conversations with a panoply of people, asking them for help and helping others, destroying them in arguments without compunction.  All good fun, it is a predilection of mine.  Yet I am always reticent to start posting on new forums.  Nobody respects the guy with only 20 posts, you have to build up that respect.  Even though I do not post here anymore and would not be recognized, my high post count would surely garner me respect, however undeserved it may be. 

Part of what drew me to Gamespot in the first place was the launch of the last generation of consoles.  I enjoyed discussing them, and since I did not have a 360 until a year after its launch and this was well before the explosion of gaming content on Youtube, Gamestop was my place to watch videos and consume the content as best I could.  I still love video games but find myself playing fewer (besides FIFA); I grow frustrated with the industry.  I realize it is a business and the companies exist to make money, but their incessant nickle and diming and general poor treatment of the consumer makes me phlegmatic about the future.  I don't want to have to be connected online constantly, I don't want to have to have a Kinect 2.0 camera and microphone turned on in my house 24/7, I don't want my freedoms of buying and selling used games taken away.  I don't like buying games that are either broken or incomplete on day 1, and having to wait for a patch to fix them or be expected to buy the remaining content on top of the initial purchase.  I just miss the days of video games being about video games.  Yet, despite the current trend of the industry being anathema to me, I do hold curiosity and hope for the future, and I want to discuss it with my 3000 posts.  Gamestop's prodigal son returns. 

so i updated my games list

i dont really come here often anymore so it was really out of date.

i think its current now. not completely sure, it may be missing a few, but i dont really care. i got the gist of it. all the new arcade and disc games i got over the summer.

basically right now im waiting for fable 2, GOW2, and GHWT/RB2. once i get my 360 back from the shop im also looking forward to mega man 9 a bit too.

So much has happened but I rarely come here ever anymore...Perhaps I will write about it, I don't know.

In short recap, Braid is awesome, Projekt Revolution was awesome, and E74 error is most definately not awesome.

Maybe someday wehn I'm bored I'll come here and elaborate.

And for the record, I've gotten like 10 new games or something since I've last updated all my 'games' crap, so just igonroe all that, it's innacurate.

Hey everybody as you can tell I have not really been keeping up on this. After the whole Gersttmann thing I kind of stopped coming here regularly, but I think that Gamespot is past that and will now be completely better. Plus I have like 2900 something posts and don't want to throw all that away lol.

Well a lot has happened since Christmas time when I last blogged here. I got a new beastly computer back in February. My old computer was about 8 years old, still ran windows ME lol, so my dad did quite a substantial upgrade. It's a Dell XPS, wiht a nice 22inch wide moniter. I'm not going to llist all the specs and stuff but it's got a great quad core processor, 3 gigs of RAM, 8800GTX video card blah blah blah. I really only play games on 360 so it doesn't really matter. My dad just figured if he was going to have this PC for a long time he might as well go big.

Let's see, I turned 16 back in March, good time.

I have boughten a whole s***load of games recently. I have all this money and I keep finding great deals so I have to keep buying them lol. The deal I'm most proud of is Forza 2 and Marvel UA for 20 bucks used for the both of them. It was the package that they used to package in with the 360's this holiday, but any time I get 2 great games for 20 bucks that's a steal.

Let's see, GTA IV.... It's a great game and all but I must say I am actually kind of dissapointed. All I read on the net for about 2 months straight was just how great it is and how it's the greatest game ever. Great game, but nowhere near a perfect 10 in my book. I guess my main beef with the game is that there is just not as much to do in it as there was in GTA San:Andreas.
Obviously, everything abotu IV is better, graphics, gameplay, everything else, and it's just so polished; but there doesnt' seem to be a whole lot to do outside of the main story, and even though that's fantastic, I liek to go BS around...For example, I've played Oblivion about 55 hours and am only about halfway through the story.

I'll be out of school in 1 week. Tuesday, the day after Labor day. I have finals this week, off for Labor Day, and have a half day that Tuesday. Our schedule is messed up becuase we had to many snow days, and are required by law to attned school a certain amoutn. So basically we have a 3 day weekend before our final half day. Dumb.

Well that's it for now, glad to be back. Hope everyone that reads this ( about 2 maybe 3 people tops) is doing all rihgt.

And I'll finish wiht my most anticipated gmaes right now.
For arcade I'm pumped for Castle Crashers, and for disc I'm ready for Soul Calibur IV.

Time for my holiday recap.
Well, to start off, I had a great Christmas, New Year's, and overall holiday school break.

For Christmas, I got plenty of great gifts, and had a great time. I really love the Christmas time of year. The games I got were Bioshock, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4, and Guitar Hero 3 (with guitar). I actually had boughten Call of Duty about a months before hand for $40 at Circuit City, and I bought Guitar Hero 3 with my own money, but I bought it on Christmas Eve so I could have it underneath the tree. It's neat because the I have an Epiphone Les Paul, and it pretty much matches the game controller (they're both black).
I got a lot of other things besides games too. Like: Linkin Park Live in Texas, Linkin Park LPU6, Linkin Park Frat Party at the Pancake Festival, a pimpin Gator hoody, and some other crap. I had about $300 dollars in cash from relatives and such also, but I blew some of that on GH3 and other things so I only have around $100 something dollars left.

And some other good news, last night, before I wathced Conan since he's returned with new episodes, I browsed the Xbox Live Marketplace for some sweet downloads. And to my surprise, I found the Gator Boys 41-14 complete domination of Ohio State Suckeyes in the championship game last year. I never thought they'd upload that game, but I'm glad they did. My only bummer is that it's not in HD, but if it were it would probably be 5-plus GB's, so that's ok.

Well, that's about it for now. Haven't blogged here in a while, butI really don't blog anywhere that much anymore. Unfortunately I have to go back to school on Monday. I've been off since the 20th and have enjoyed my time off/ Played Mass Effect for 15 hours!!! (that's a lot for me) and I've been playing a lot of guitar, constantly improving.it'll be nice to get back into the flow of normal life again, and I'm going to start going to bed earlier during the week.

Until next time, peace.

i got halo 3 on tuesday when it came out. i got the 70 dollar limited edition one. the tin is ok i mainly wanted the bonus disk and lil book. the book is neat and the essentails disk is filled with fun crap like teh warthog luanh game and neat vids like a funny how to set up your router.
the actual game itself is sweeet and i love it. as of this writing im no level six of the campaign, and i kinda know whats goin on in the story cauese the lil booklet in kinda recaps it, but im still pretty fuzzy. but i know enough to appreciate the story and i do enjoy story in my games
the xbox live play is sploogetastic. i mianly just do social matches and im pretty good my k/d ratio was like 1.06 last time i checked this. i love to play CTF. the thing i love is just partying up with my friends and playing wiht random dudes on live. its great. i love being a d*** to poeple as well lol. as of this writing my ranked stats blow cuause i played a few with my cousin but i didnt know so theyre crappy but oh well.
the graphics are ok. lightings pretty good. some of teh textures and stuff are just ugly, but some are pretty good. the human faces look lke doodoo though.
i really love the saved films feature. i like to take pics of me tbaggin people lol.

all in all though its a great sploogetastic game

wow i havent done one of these in awhile...lemme give you all the chad self recap of my life since i last doen one of these

well skool started back on august 13th. i go to mcluer north high skool in florissant MO. im a freshman although id be a sophmore since i went to preK twice becasue of a family move
got madden back when it came out it is so sploogetastic i love it.
about a month ago the guitar i ordered came in the mail. its a epiphone les paul special II. im a beginner and its pretty nice. im taking lessons and i just enjoy playing it and rocking out and finding linkin park music on the nets to practice and play.
hmmm....what else, im not tellin my whole life story just mainly the game part since this is gamespot lol.
well my sis left for college back on august 15th, she is going to mizzou. she is in the veterinary program or somthing like that. shes basically a genius lol. she finished high skool with like a 4.7 GPA and valedictorian.and now taht shes gone i use her room to keep my guitar and lil 'studio' lol. i use her computer also since its a lot better then the one in my basement.
i have halo 3 preordered. the limited editoion one ($70). im debating whether or not to go to the midnight luanch with my friend charlie who has the legendary editon which comes with 2 dvds a replica helmet and instant lifetime virginity. (lol i kid, i kid)
id go, i mean i stay up to midnight nearly all the time, its just i really have no problem with waiting till i get home from skool to get the game im not that obbseesed with games like taht. especially halo, since i never played much of the first 2, except for bits and pieces at frinds houses. i tried going thru number 1 which my freidn let me borrow so i could catch up on the story, but i couldnt bring myself to play that when i had all this nexgen goodness to play lol.

well and thats a sorta kinda small recap on a few of the things that have happened since i last blogged. obviously im just scratching the surface.

i kinda quit using gamespot for a while, i occasionally checeked into my awesome union 'station 360' (check it out, lot of kewl people who are friednly) but with the holidays coming and stuff i figure ill be on here more often and maybe return to posting in forums like OT and things...

massive splooging time , i bought oblivion today.found it used at gamestop for 50 but got it for 45$ with the 10% discount when i bought one of those cards becsaause mine expired like last year (dont buy used much lol) and renewed my subscription to game informer cus that stopped a long time ago and i love that magazing. so i got oblivion (in near perfect condiioton) the edge card thing, and a 1 year of game informer for only 65 bucks which is what normally one new game is with tax.

and now i need to save the other 100 somthin dollars i made from fireworks city for madden and other stuff

when i first started using gamespot almost exactly 1 year ago, i thought it was awesome and it gave me a place to constantly read and be informed about my love (xbox360) lol cus i didnt have one. i posted a lot everyday usually becasue it was fun. then i got a 360 for christmas so i needed this less, and now i get pissed off to much, because if i say one little thing off topic, or try and make a point, BAM! i get moderated for the stupidest reasons.i dont really care, i dont care about my 'level' or antrhing stupid like that. and after all, its gamespots site so they can run it as they wish. but imo the state its in now is retarted, and exactly why im doing a lot of posting at xbox.com now, becasue there i dont get moderated for every little silly incident.(and xbox seems to go faster on my crappy computer) unfortunate though because the reason i posted a lot on gamespot is i like there setup, how i could just hit quick reply to stuff, and how the mods kept the ignorant d***heads away, although they go a lil to far. thats not to say i quit posting, as i do have like 2600 and i dont want to throw all my posts down the toilet,and i the station 360 union is filled with kewl people. but the moderation system is flawed when i cant tell a guy to use a period when he types a giant monograph containing ONE scnetence, which should be about 15, which makes it illegible.

end rant.