I am graduating in a week. And I will no longer be in school. I cannot believe how quickly this has come. The next step will be getting myself an actual job so I can not be poor the rest of my life. The job market at this point is of course terrible, and no one is hiring at all, but I'm hopeful. Either way, it's awfully weird to think that I'll never be in another class again. At least not for a few years. If I get bored in 5 or 6 years, who knows? I could end up in grad school or something. But right now I want nothing to do with that. I want to get a good job and get myself settled, preferably in the place where my girlfriend is. Wish me luck!

For once, I have literally no finals during finals week. I don't know how this is even possible, but it has happened. Real life is bearing down on me, and fate throws me a beneficial curveball for once. So I sit here, pretty unconcerned about everything in general. I have one "final" tomorrow...but it's in a class I don't really give a crap about, and it's only 50 minutes long. Whoop dee ding. Then all I have is a paper to write and voice juries next Tuesday and I'm home free. So pleased about that. So long story short: I should actually have some time for video games. Which is sweet. Then next semester I'm going part time, and then on to grad-jee-ay-shun and real life. Oooh boy. Now if I can just convince my girlfriend not to move to New York... :-/

I just wrote a review for Crysis. It's posted at Realm of Gaming, where I now write reviews. Please go check it out!! http://www.realmofgaming.com/reviews/pc/crysis.html

Aaaand, school's out! No more bloody finals! I will say, there's nothing more satisfying that attending less than half of your classes throughout the semester and then doing well on the final anyway. It makes for a pretty damn stressful finals week, what with reading for basically a week straight to finish up all the homework I hadn't done, but I guess that's the price you pay for not doing anything during the semester proper. Now it's a graduation party for a friend (god it's weird to know people graduating from college already), then back home for a few days to spend some time with the ex-girlfriend (long story - don't ask), play some video games, and then get to work on Thursday. The ex-gf will be out of town all summer, and all my friends are staying in Madison this summer...so it's going to be a quiet and videogame filled three months for yours truly. Oh well, I guess there's worse things in life :).

I'll be damned if every semester, the last few weeks of school don't start infringing on my gaming time! I've got these great new games, and there's even a local Brawl tournament I'd like to go to, but I don't really have time to do it. How weak is that? Can't wait till summer (my last summer before real life ?!!?!!) when I've got a little extra time to play.

Went to Toys r Us a couple weeks ago to pick up Brawl, and ended up getting Zack & Wiki for just $10 extra. Sweet deal, no? Brawl is fantastic, as I expected, although I have to say it doesn't have quite the "wow" factor that Melee had for me. Probably because Brawl essentially IS Melee, with ever so slightly updated graphics and gameplay tweaks, along with oodles of new unlockables. As for me, I thought Subspace Emissary was terrible. Literally awful. But that doesn't detract from the fact that the multiplayer is as outstanding as ever. And I must not hate it too much - I've got nearly 100 hours logged already, and I've only had for a few weeks. Zack & Wiki is a respectable puzzler, though it can be annoyingly Japanese at times. Anyone who isn't a huge fan of overtly Japanese stories and characters knows what I mean. But if you can get over that and the sometimes gimmicky motion controls, the game is solid, if a little trite. Certainly worth playing to the end. That's all for now. If I get myself motivated enough, I'll write a full review of Brawl, and perhaps of Zack & Wiki once I finish it. Until then, au revoir!

Well, I haven't written a blog post in a while, but frankly I haven't been active on this site for a while. The whole Gerstmann thing turned me off for a while...but dammit, this site just has better forums than other sites do! So...I'll be hanging out once again. The Wii has been treating me very well...I've acquired a few new games, namely Rayman: Ravin' Rabbids 2 and Link's Crossbow Training, both of which I really enjoy. I also purchased and beat Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for DS. And the Orange Box (all games) for PC. Other games I bought buy have not yet beaten: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC) Final Fantasy III (DS) I also pirated a copy of Psychonauts...and I have been loving it so much that I think I'm going to buy it purely on principle. The game is fantastic, and it's a crime that it did not sell better. Shame on all of us! Lastly, the Orange Box is fantastic. Portal was a great little surprise, nearly a perfect game. Episode 2...well, let's just say I nearly cried at the ending (literally), and that's really REALLY saying something. I really hated Episode 1, but Episode 2 is a leap forward not just for the HL series, but for gaming in general. Team Fortress 2 is blissful as well. What a great value.

I picked this game up the day it came out. Sadly, I was moving at the time and didn't have much time to play. Once I got myself all moved, I began playing, but then school started. Woe is me! Anyway, I've begun playing more regularly lately, and I've got to say - what a great game. My only question is, why do the cutscenes look so awful when the rest of the game is so pretty? It's like they tried so hard on the in-game graphics that they just decided to poop out the cutscenes in a couple days. The models are terrible, the animation is terrible, and the voice acting is mediocre at best. It's depressing, because the game is otherwise entirely enthralling and sucks you in with its awesome graphics, music, and atmosphere. The cutscenes are no deal-breaker - you should still buy and play this game. I just found it curious.

This is by no means directed at any one person...this applies to the leader of nearly every union I am in. I just want to let everyone know that there is not one single thing that could make me less likely to post in the union forums than being constantly nagged to post in the union forums. Except perhaps incessant union invitations. Some people on Gamespot really like to use unions. I find them to be inconvenient and silly. There is nothing that is ever discussed in any of the unions that I could not discuss outside of the union. I understand that there is some benefit to having a smaller community, but if you pay attention, there is realistically only perhaps 50-100 people who regularly post in any of the main boards anyway. So for God's sake, PLEASE stop messaging me to tell me to post in the union. I will actively ignore these messages. Also, please don't be upset that I reject every single one of your union invitations. I only join unions that are about something that interests me, and as much as your combination "Final Fantasy/Smash Bros./Farting/Water Polo!!" does compel me to join, I think I'd rather not. I join unions when I happen across one that I like, and I rarely, RARELY accept invitations. Sorry for ranting, it's just driving me crazy, and the messages demanding to know why I'm not posting have been getting more terse lately. G'day.

I have discovered (through a clever little site that calculates such things: http://www.twilight-calculator.us.tt/) that although I have defeated the main storyline of LoZ:TP, I am actually only 74% done with the game. That means that I have a whole ton of sheet to go back and do. Time to get at it. Poe Souls and bugs are the obvious ones, but others include Rollgoal (GAH!!! 1-7 is SO HARD) and the Cave of Ordeals (damn you nude fairies, why won't you give me some hearts?!). I've made one attempt at the Cave of Ordeals, but I was wasted on level 41 (of 50). Not bad, but I think I need to find some more heart pieces before I go attempting that again. I need to beat Rollgoal in order to get a better lure at the fishing hole so I can catch record fish and also the Hylian Loach, because - well, because it's awesome. Wish me luck...back to Zelda. Again.