I'm purchasing the game today. I sure hope it's good. No reviews have gone up so I'm not sure what to expect, based on the previews it seems like something I'd like. Anyway I'll post my impressions on the game in a week.

So over the weekend I played through the main story line of Mass Effect and Stalker. Mass Effect had some nice graphic sex, yeah not really, if you've been keeping up to date with gaming news you'll know what I'm refering to, anyway Mass Effect got much better towards the middle/end of the game. The choices you made seemed to have more of an effect on the game. I don't want to give any spoilers so I'm not going to give any examples, but I'll give a cloudy example I guess. Basically the part were you had to choose a squad member (you'll probably only know what I'm talking about if you played it), this choice was probably one of the few hard choices in the game. After playing through the entire game I'd say I'd up the score I'd give it to 8-9. I also finished Stalker. That was fun. I can't wait for the expansion. I'm probably going to go back and explore the world. I found exploring to be the best part of the game. I'll probably do some side quest and buy stuff. It's a very fun game. I've really enjoyed it.

We'll that's all for now. Check back later.

So I bought Rez HD yesterday on xbla. I never played the original Rez and didn't think I'd be interested, but I tried this out. It is amazing. It's by far the best xbla game I've played by far. It's so amazing. I played it for about 5 hours yesterday (not a very busy day) and it was very fun.

Also I've just noticed Sins of a Solar Empire. Why am I just now learning about this game. It comes out tommrrow and I just now heard about it. It sounds like something I would enjoy. I will probably purchase it this weekend.

So I've gone back to some older stuff this week. I went back to play stalker alll the way through and I have to say that is an amazing game, I'm not completely finished but the game is just so great. I'm not really sure why but it's just really fun, I can't wait for stalker clear sky. I've also played some more World in Conflict. Also very fun, lots of pretty explosions. I wanted to have some rts action so went to it, oh and I also played a round of Company of Heroes against one of my xbox360 fanboy friend and totally anihalted him. I captured all the points around him, and then built 10 shermans, fully upgraded them and just had them wait around the base, then I put barbed wire around his base, bombed his base, used the straffing run too, it was fun, he's not much of an rts player so he didn't really know what to do. I think he still had fun though. He thought it was a pretty cool game. Also been playing TF2. Very fun haven't played the new map yet but I want to try it out. I've gotten back into World of Warcraft again. I played with some friends I haven't seen or talked to in awhile so it's been fun. I got my lvl25 hunter to 42, i've been going about 1 to 2 lvls a day, lvling has been made much easier with the new patch(one reason I wanted to try it again) also my brother got into it so i've been helping him out. I still have my lvl45 warrior but i've just kind of stopped playing him, forgot why though, I might go back to him later. Anyway last game I've been playing is a game I got in from gamefly, which is Mass Effect, It's a decent game, not amazing but fun, so far I'd give it a score around 7.5-8.5. I would have prefered a KOTOR 3 but oh well. Not Bioware's greatest but certainly a good game. The coverage it got on Fox news about was lame. If you haven't heard about it Fox basically claimed the game had full "graphic sex" which is not true, just watch it, do a search mass effect vs. fox news, you should get it.

Anyway thats all for now, had to write that up real quick, I hate that it's so short, anyway check back later.

Found this software yesterday, it's pretty cool. If you have Rock Band you might want to check it out.

http://andrewrudson.com/main.php

I haven't posted a blog in awhile so felt like I should now, I'm not really doing anything, it's actually snowing today for the second time this week which is unusual for Georgia, but it's really cool. Anyway so I finished stuntman: ignition and Dark Messiah not too long ago, they were both pretty fun. Not amazing but, you know ok. If I were to give them number scores both would be somewhere between 7 and 8. Also played some stalker, hadn't played that game in awhile so that was fun. And I saw Cloverfield and I thought it was absolutely amazing. The movie seemed like a giant prequel to something much bigger, I'm expecting sequels, most likely. Very good movie though, I reccomend it. Well anyway thats all for now.

So throughout the end of 2007 I started to notice that gaming was becoming more mainstream, I would hear people that would normally never talk about games talking about guitar hero, the wii, rockband, halo 3, or call of duty 4. Gaming seems to be on the way to being mainstream, I think Rock Band and the wii are a big help to that. I've had friends play Rock Band that would normally never touch a game, and they just get into it, and the wii is liked by non gamers too, because of it's simplicity and unique controls it attracts the less hardcore. Personally I would like if gaming became a more mainstream, I know many others would disagree, but the hardcore would still exist. Although gaming becoming more mainstream might lead to less of a drive to make "hardcore" games. I'm a little on both sides, but I think I would prefer if it was mainstream. I'm not going to make this a long post with statistics and different facts to support that gaming is becoming mainstream, but I just wanted to put this out there. Here are some questions I have about the mainstreamanization (i know that's not a word) of gaming.

1,What do you guys think about gaming becoming more mainstream, or do you disagree and think it's not becoming mainstream?

2.What are some other games/consoles/software that you think will attract the "non-gamers"?

3.Do you want gaming to become Mainstream?

I'd like you guys to respond to the questions in a comment to this blog post

So today someone with the steam ID Bot_3902 tried to get my password from me by saying someone else was logged into my account. I almost gave it to him but then I realized wait steam wouldn't ask me for my password and I noticed he had the steam icon as his avatar but you can get those from anywhere. Then I went into his Steam ID profile and I noticed he was in one of my friend's clans. I then knew it was a trick. Anyway this is how the thing went:

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Never tell your password to anyone.

Bot_3902 : This message was sent to you because you have two (or more) persons using this account. To verify that you are the owner of this account and to continue playing please verify that you are the rightful owner by typing your username and password (Username/password). If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour you will be disabled until we resolve this problem. Resolving this problem may take up to a month. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Bot_3902 : If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour your account will be disabled until these problems are solved.

Scorch: what

Bot_3902 : This message was sent to you because you have two (or more) persons using this account. To verify that you are the owner of this account and to continue playing please verify that you are the rightful owner by typing your username and password (Username/password). If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour you will be disabled until we resolve this problem. Resolving this problem may take up to a month. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Scorch: i thought i wasn't to be asked for my password

Bot_3902 : This message was sent to you because you have two (or more) persons using this account. To verify that you are the owner of this account and to continue playing please verify that you are the rightful owner by typing your username and password (Username/password). If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour you will be disabled until we resolve this problem. Resolving this problem may take up to a month. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Scorch: i thought i wasn't to be asked for my password
Bot_3902 : This message was sent to you because you have two (or more) persons using this account. To verify that you are the owner of this account and to continue playing please verify that you are the rightful owner by typing your username and password (Username/password). If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour you will be disabled until we resolve this problem. Resolving this problem may take up to a month. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Bot_3902 : If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour your account will be disabled until these problems are solved.

Scorch: not giving my password sorry

Bot_3902 : This message was sent to you because you have two (or more) persons using this account. To verify that you are the owner of this account and to continue playing please verify that you are the rightful owner by typing your username and password (Username/password). If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour you will be disabled until we resolve this problem. Resolving this problem may take up to a month. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Scorch: I'm looking at your profile right now
Scorch: it doesn't look like your with steam

Bot_3902 : This message was sent to you because you have two (or more) persons using this account. To verify that you are the owner of this account and to continue playing please verify that you are the rightful owner by typing your username and password (Username/password). If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour you will be disabled until we resolve this problem. Resolving this problem may take up to a month. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Scorch: and you have some people I know in your groups
Bot_3902 : This message was sent to you because you have two (or more) persons using this account. To verify that you are the owner of this account and to continue playing please verify that you are the rightful owner by typing your username and password (Username/password). If you do not respond to this message within 1 hour you will be disabled until we resolve this problem. Resolving this problem may take up to a month. Thank you and sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Scorch: nice try go find another idiot
Scorch: i almost fell for it though

Bot_3902 is now Offline.

---------------------------------------------------

I'd like to thank steam for putting that "never tell your password to anyone" whenever a chat is started, it saved me. The end of chat was satisfying "Bot_3902 is now offline" Pwn3d

also my account was not disabled, so I was right about not giving him my password

I'd like to wish everyone a happy new year and I'll start it off with my choices for game of the year. Oh and Ifinished Mario Galaxy at12:1001/01/08 I'm just going to make it simple and copy gamespot's format, so here it goes, also two games I haven't played that could possibly be considered for some of my choices are Mass Effect and Assasins Creed,I'll correct myself after playing these games in a later post if I'm wrong. Well here it goes. Btw I will be considering the Orange Box as 3 seperate games also I skipped some categories.

My Choice for Special Achievements:

Best Original Music - Portal

Runner Up - Super Mario Galaxy

Best Story - BioShock (if you forget the last bit of the game)

Runner Up - Half Life 2Episode 2

Best Graphics Technical - Crysis

Runner Up - none

Best Graphics Artistic - Team Fortress 2

Runner Up - Super Mario Galaxy

Best Multiplayer Game - Team Fortress 2

Runner Up - Rock Band

Best Expansion - Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Runner Up - Burning Crusade

Best Original Game Mechanic - Portal

Best Downloadable Console Game - Puzzle Quest

Runner Up - WarHawk

Most Improved Sequel - Team Fortress 2

Runner Up - Half Life 2 episode 2

Best Gaming Hardware - 8800 ultra

Runner up - 8800 gt

Most Innovative Game - portal

runner up - legend of zelda phantom hour glass

best control scheme - legend of zelda phantom hour glass

runner up - super mario galaxy

best atmosphere - stalker

runner up - bioshock

Dubious Honors:

most dissapointing game - Lair

runner up - Peggle (heard the PC gamer hype, played it all the way through, didn't care for it much)

Most Dissapointing Delay - Spore

Runner Up - GTA 4

GenreAwards:

Best Shooter - Crysis

Runner up - Call of Duty 4

Best Platformer - super mario galaxy

Best Driving - Forza 2

Runner up - Dirt

Best Puzzle Game - Portal

Runner Up - Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass

Best Rythem game - Rock Band

Runner Up - Guitar Hero 3

Best Strategy Game - World in Conflict

Runner Up - Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Platform Awards:

Best DS game - Legend of Zelda Phantom Hour Glass

Runner Up - Puzzle Quest

Best 360 Game - Call of Duty 4

Runner Up - Rock Band

Best Wii Game - Super Mario Galaxy

Best PC Game - Orange Box

Runner Up - Crysis

My Game of

theYear:

Runner Ups -

Call of Duty 4

Crysis

World in Conflict

Rock Band

BioShock

Stalker

Super Mario Galaxy

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hour Glass

Winner - Orange Box

So the gamespot game of the year choice was kind of surprising. I totally agree with them though I just didn't expect Gamespot to pick Mario. They seemed more focused on CoD 4 so I was sure it was going to win although I didn't feel it deserved it. CoD 4 is great and I love it but out of all the great games released this year it's not the best. I'm glad gamespot chose Mario. It's kind of cool.

The following are some of my views on the other awards:

Special Achievements:

I thought the best graphics (technical) award was kind of funny. They really only needed one nominee for that one.

I surprised about their choice for best multiplayer game (Rock Band). Although once again I agree with them.I've enjoyed playing Rock Band with my friends a lot. It's very fun.

I didn't feel best expansion was necessary. I agreed with there choice though. The other expansions really weren't that great. I guess there weren't many good expansions this year. It's good that they choose that came out at the begining of the year though. A lot of times those are forgotten or left out.

Best gaming hardware was not a great choice. Because the 8800GT is much more worthy of that award. It has close to as much power as a gtx but it's much smaller. It's much more revolutionary. The only new thing on the rock band instruments were the drums and they're fun, just not very revolutionary. Also the guitar feels cheap.

Dubios Honors:

I don't agree most disapointing game (tiger woodspga tour 08because I don't think many people had much expectatioins for that game. The real disapointment was lair that game was way hyped up and failed to deliver. So tiger woods wasn't disapointing. It was just bad like it was expected to be, at least by me. Oh and of course everyone is voting for Kane and Lynch because of "gerstmangate" thats kind of lame.

I wasn't aware that no one played puzzle quest

Most disapointing delay: personally for me it was spore but I guess for most it was gta4

Genre Awards:

Best Shooter: awesome and totally unexpected, once again I expected gamespot to choose CoD4

Platform Awards:

hehe only one PS3 exclusive and it wasn't the winner

I agree with all the awards pretty good choices

My guess at some possible nominees for 2008 game of the year

(btw I know I'm leaving stuff out I can't remeber all the games that are coming out next year)

• Fallout 3
• Spore
• Starcraft 2(if it is released by then)
• Left 4 Dead
• Little Big Planet
• Battlefield Bad Company
• Super Smash Brother's Brawl
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Killzone 2 (meh looks like all hype but maybe)
• Stalker: Clear Sky
• Dukenukem Forever(haha yeah right)
• Wrath of the Litch King (I guess if it comes out, maybe best expansion)
• World of Diablo(haha yeah right but maybe, Blizzard did say they were going to make a next gen MMO, ya know world of starcraft would be cool too)
• World of Starcraft
• Half-life: episode 3
• Portal 2 (I hope so)
• Crysis 2???
• oh yeah Far Cry 2!
• uhh
• I'm going blank
• I know I'm leaving so many things out
• I'll just make some more things up
• Halo 4
• Call of Duty 5: Future Warfare
• Battlefield 3 (I really want this game I didn't like 2142)
• SuperMario Universe

Predictions for 2008:

• Blizzard will make a new MMO
• Guitar Hero 4 will feature World of Warcraft characters (vivendi activision merger)
• there will be billions of the sims expansions
• cell phone games will still suck
• there will be even more lame games for the wii, hopefully some great games will come too though like smash bros
• maybe games for windows - will become usefull
• Cross platform games will be released and PC gamers around the world will own all the people playing RTSs and shooters with a game pad
• PS3 will finally start to become successful
• a game we all have great hopes for will fail miserably
• we will all become a year older
• Dukenukem will probably suck but we will all play it
• Most PC games will include dx10
• more people will begin the move to Vista
• Jeff Gerstmann will rise again! (http://blog.jeffgerstmann.net/)

Well those are just a few predictions I have for 2008

So Check back sometime in January and I'll have my game of the year choices for 2007

Oh and I played some of the new Katamari Damacy and omg that game makes me feel gay It's too bright and colorful, and it's just weird. I enjoyed the first one. It was something new. They've all pretty much been the same thing nowthough. Except you go in space, which is kind of cool. It's just to weird for me now though. I think I'm done with that series.

Later guys, check back next time.