This is a long blog so I broke it into two parts, PART 1:

So my first exposure to MMORPGs was WoW (free trial), and although I thought it was fun I just didnt play enough for the $15 a month to be worth it. That was about two years ago.

Around a year ago I discovered Runes of Magic, a game like Wow, or as most gamers would call it, a "clone." Anyway I loved this game as it was f2p and the community was awesome! I maxed my character and even got to the highest level (50), a feat which I rarely achieve due to the fact that I am not really a "hardcore" gamer. Anyway I joined a guild and had tons of fun; I reckon I got at least 1200+ hours on that game, haha. But it got boring after about a year, as all games eventually seem to do, and I just stopped playing. Even with the new content that was released, I felt the game was becoming rather bland, very unbalanced, and unfair. I just kinda stopped playing, and dust slowly settled onto my account.

Anyway I didnt play any MMOs for about 3 months, until I heard about (or rather discovered) Allods online. This was merely a stroke of luck (as I would later call it) as I was simply browsing gamespot minding my own bussiness. Now the first thing that immediatly appealed to me was the f2p aspect of the game. Once I realized that the game was actually fairly decent looking, it aroused my interests. I joined closed beta 3, and soon in no time at all, I was stepping into the world of .... (forgot name of world :0) Immediatly the first thing that stood out was the shear beauty of this game, it is simply amazing, the graphics are far superior to WoW and many other p2p games that come out these days. Now, like Runes of Magic, Allods Online will immediatly appear to many as a WoW "clone." It did to me at first, but this was before I delved deeper into the game itself. Allods Online takes place in a fantasy world, shattered apart and separated into various "allods" floating throughout the Astral (space). Two factions battle each other for supremacy, the League and the Empire. Each faction contains three races, complete with 8 cla sses, and 24 archtypes. The League consists of the races, Elves (with wings), Kanians (Humans), and Gibberlings (short furry teddy bears). The Empire is broken into the Orcs (standard Orcs), a darker type of humans, and Arisen (Undead creatures brought to life by mechanical inventions.

I am now proud to say that I have been a member of gamespot for over two years!!! I still use gamespot at least twice a week to find updates and reviews on all the newest games, as well as many other things. Keep it up Gamespot! :D

Well the game developers obviously decided to cram all the good games into the last part of the year, which somewhat is sort of annoying. (To much games to play, not enought time, ect.) Anyways we got some [what looks like] GREAT new releases this month into next! Just among them are Dragon Age Origins, a [dark] fantasy RPG from Bioware, Star Wars the Force Unleashed Ultimate Sith edition, which is now coming for PC, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, FPS goodness, and Assassins Creed 2!!! As you can see, this comes to a couple hundred dollars worth of good games, and possibly more, depeding on if you get the collecters edition or not. Also Fable 3 has been confirmed and there is now a new trailer for it!! So check out the Lionhead website for that. If your like me, and you can't wait, preorder all of these or just camp the stores, or be a loser and wait until reviews/price drop. Anyway, stay tuned for my reviews of these awesome games, and make sure to at least check them out/rent them if anything. :D

The world is suffering greatly these days. Here in America the economy is at its worst and some people barely have enough money for food and lodging, let alone the games we live on. These are some of the darkest days in a long time. With numerous natural disasters around the corner, fights that break out into wars, and global climate change that will continue for a thousand years to come, ending in the death of us all. Yes my fellow gamers, these are very dark days indeed. But something keeps us going through it all, hoping for better, happier times, all while knowing none shall ever come again. You may wonder what this greater power is, and ask yourself, "What good possibly bring us up and out of this dark, dank, hole." That is where we are all wrong. The answer is before us, before our dreary eyes, waiting to be part of us, and guide us past our hardships. For those of you who are doubtful I ask you to look again, to give the soul of us all a better chance. A chance for greatness, for power, and for wisdom. This greater being is all, and it is one. It is the game. Yes, the game. No im serious, its the game. Really, the game. Thats right the very one, the game. Not only does it live inside of us all, it pulsates with the beats of our heart, gazes through our eyes, and walks with us and among us, all at once. The game is all games, and all games are the game. You play the game, you live the game, you are the game. It is all there is. The game. Without it, mountains would tremble, oceans would sink, and jungles would shake. It is the spirit, the soul, the brain and mind of everything. It pulls the very roots of life together. And in times of need, it provides. In time we shall all follow the path of the game. But for now we are nothing, we are lost. The game is waiting, and we must answer it with open arms.

The anticapation of Fable 2 has been rising dramatically over the past few weeks and Fable fans are going crazy over the game's release. I too, have been waiting, counting the days untill my adventure starts in the world of Albion. I can already picture what my character will look like and the attire he will wear across his broad shoulders and back. Everyone who knows games knows Fable, and if you don't - you might as well murder yourself. But the question is this: Will Fable 2 live up to its high expectations. This game in particular has promised a lot to the gaming world and it could go both ways in terms of making an imprint in today's games. The first Fable was a succes in its own right and evolved Role-playing games one step further. Now the sequel is upon us, but can it take another step forward and bring the RPG genre to a new level? Many games this year have promised a lot, and many of them kept those promises. Take Spore for example, its a game that was announced years ago and every year showed off something new and creative. In the end it reaced its goal, for the most part. Fable 2 has promised many things, perhaps even more than Spore did, and if it holds together it could be a great game in its own right.

Violence in video games has increased dramatically over the past half a decade or so. Whether violence is needed in a game is another question however. Dont get me wrong now though - im not trying to form a group against violence in video games and protest the subject. I must admit im an honest gamer and I do play "bloody" good games and I do have a "bloody" good time. I enjoy playing shooters like Far Cry, Crysis, and Grand Theft Auto, and love watching "ketchup" spray from the hearts of my virtual victims. But whenever ever I see an "M" I wonder what it truly means. Sure it means "Mature" and this game may contain a lot of killing, drugs, violence, and.......sexuality? But thats another topic. Anyway I wonder if games like Crysis or Farcry or GTA would have been succsuful without letting the player have a "bloody" good time. The answer is this - no. Violence is simply needed to create a game that aims to have a lot of action and nowadays has become a part of the gaming formula. As far as I can remember the last game I played that was lower than T was Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, and of course Spore. Both those games were hits with the gaming public and did quite well buisness wise. For some reason though I found myself trying to create violence in a game that didnt focus on the aspect. Something led me to the idea that it might be funny if I threw a chicken of a cliff in Zelda, and I spent a whole hour in Spore beaming up innocent citizens and then dropping them - watching them fall screaming to their deaths. For some reason humans evovled as a violent race, and when intellegent creatures are equally violent - you get violent video games. Well not quite- but you get my point. It all started about less than two decades ago when the game "Death Race" was first released in 1976. The game rewarded players for running over creatures called Gremlins in virtual cars. The game caused such an outcry it was pulled from the shelves of stores and it became illegal to own a copy. This may seem silly in comparison to today's games but it is relevent when talking about the history of the violence in video games. The same thing happened when the first GTA was released. It shocked many people and many groups were formed in protest against the selling of the game. The game itself however was not taken off store shelves. Today is a different story however. Games focus on storyline as much as action and violence and those and other key pricipals create good games. It all just comes down to one line: Violence is just becoming more and more relevent in the media today-whether protesters like it or not.