So last weekend I finally decided to play Episodes from Liberty City. Today I beat The Lost and Damned. It's a fun, decently lengthed campaigne with a sub-par plot. I enjoyed it enough to feel that the money was well spent on it.

Immediately after the completion of TLAD I started up The Ballad of Gay Tony. The first 2-3 missions of this one have been more fun than anything in TLAD. Needless to say, I'm pleasantly surprised and hope that the rest of the campaign is as exciting.

On a side note, I might be getting my hands on Super Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros Wii, two games which are supposed to be great, so I'm quite excited for that as well. Anyone have any feedback on these two?

So the games I ordered a while back have finally arrived (minus Forza 3 which won't play on my new PAL system).

I've only played a bit of all the games and so far I'm enjoying them all, except MW2, which I'm having some gripes with. There's something about the multiplayer that is just very, very odd. Within the 5 matches I've played I've already seen cheaters, but that isn't what bothered me. I think my main gripe is that it feels very arcady, which wasn't how the original MW felt. While MW1 was still fast killing and such, it wasn't as extreme as MW2 feels.

Hopefully I'll enjoy the new MP experience MW2 offers, but if not, there's still the co-op to enjoy at least.

Now that I've purchased my new xbox 360 (reparing the console wasn't going to be worth it), I've ordered some games:

-GTA4

-GTA4: Episodes From Liberty City

-Halo 3: DOST

-Forza Motorsport 3

-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

At this point I'm waiting primarly for Splinter Cell: Conviction, Alan Wake, Mass Effect 2, Halo: Reach, and possibly FF13... Can't decide if I'm excited for that game or not.

Anything else coming out within the next 6 months to look forward to that I missed my non-existant readers? =P

So my xbox 360's disc drive stopped working. My warranty expired a while back, and because I live in IL, shipping it to the US and back + repair fee is not an option (better to just by a brand new Jasper Arcade and slap on my HDD), so I decided to open up my console. I managed to get it working, but when I closed up my console it slolwy regressed to its broken state.

I found a shop that repairs x360's for anywhere between $30-100 depending on whether they need to replace the DVD-ROM, and I'm really hoping they'll fix the problem.

Assuming my XBox 360 gets fixed, there's quite a few games that I want, and I think I've narrowed it down to which I'll be getting. Out of AC2, L4D2, GTA4/Episodes, Forza 3, Halo 3: ODST, and MW2:

-GTA4+Episodes

-Forza 3

-Halo 3: ODST

-MW2

I was really torn between GTA4 + AC2 and Halo 3 + AC2, but in the end, GTA4 and ODST are two games that I can't resist the urge to get, so I gave up on AC2 for the time being. I'll probably pick up L4D2 for PC once the price drops (and I get some more cash).

On a side note, Alan Wake looks great and I'm probably going to pool cash with buddies to get the game being I dont' plan on playing it alone anyhow =P

As for Natal winning 5th place in Time magazine's list of innovative products... Well, it's hard to believe it beat out a cure to HIV (even if it only has 31% success rate). I'm hoping they know something about Natal that we don't, which hopefully means great games for us.

That was sick.

Project Natal looks incredibly interesting, to say the least.

I tried doing the towel trick once again - 2 weeks ago. My xbox has been going strong, not a single crash or freeze-up. I've probably played some 10-15 hours or so on it, so I'm quite happy :P

This is going to be a semi-quick review of the mouse:

Comfot: This mouse is incredibly comfortable. My previous mouse was the Razer Copperhead, so it took me a while to get used to the new shape, and now that I've done so, it's incredible. It just fits so perfectly in your hand and the grip is perfect. There's an on-the-fly DPI changer conviniently under the scroll wheel - I've never accidently pressed it. As a result, it has 2 additional buttons on the side of the mouse, being the Copperhead utilized those as the on-the-fly DPI changer (by default). The scroll wheel is perfect, it's not too hard to click, but doesn't click when you don't want it to, and scrolling has the perfect resistance.

Performance: Incredibly sensitive. I play at 4k DPI whilst in COD4 and my aim/accuracy has never been better. Even my friend who thinks gaming mice is a waste of money is thinking about purchasing this mouse due to how much he enjoyed playing with it. Outside of the game, I run at 2k DPI, 4k DPI is just more than I can get used to.

Looks: This mouse looks pretty sleek, but it's nothing truely awe-inspiring. It's a one-peice mouse, in the sense that the buttons are connected with the rest of the body, which is definitely a plus in looks, but besides that, the pulsating Razer emblem and lit scroll wheel are just the same as in the Copperhead (albeit slightly larger emblem).

Price: Very expensive, $80 retail - probably find it cheaper online.

Overall: This is an incredible mouse and most definitely worth the purchase.

Score: 10/10

AOC comes out in 6 days..Technically 9, but 3 day head-start ftw :P

I'm hoping that my 7600gt will be able to run this game, being I just dished out $80 for the Razer Lachesis and I don't exactly have another $200 just lying around for a new GPU. Reason for a new mouse - my current one double clicks instead of single clicks and it's bugging the hell out of me...even dragging icons has been made a challenge and even more so an annoyance. I tried reinstalling drives and what not, nothing seemed to fix it, so I made the plunge and bought another high-end mouse after having the Copperhead for some 2.5 years.

So, anyone else planning on playing AoC...well, any of you 2 bored people who read my occasional and pointless blog post? :P

being my x360 is shot and I won't be able to get it fixed and returned until the end of the summer, I won't be purchasing my copy of the awesomeness which is GTA4. At least my friend should be recieving his copy in the coming 2 weeks...I'll just move in with him for that time being :P