I dont think I need to tell you guys again how awesome it is, you can look at my previous blog for that 
9.5 out of 10. There was a few times I wished the visuals were slightly better. Other gaming news
I am still playing forza motorsport 3. I have done 22% of the game. Just started on season 5 and have reached level 41 there. I will also start on Batman Arkham Asylum now since I have finished AC II.
PS: my brother got home on Friday and spends more time infront of the comp than I do so don't expect to see me much around until he leaves. You will see me on XBL instead
if not MS disconnects me because I "haven't payed" for my gold subscription although I have but they don't recognize it since I got a new credit/debit(could someone please tell me the differences between them?) card since last time they charged me.
I meant to post this on the 17th December, but I guess I was busy and I forgot about it. Anyway on the 17th of December marked the 2 years anniversary of me taking the leap into the current console generation with the Xbox 360.
In those 2 years never have I suffered so from much stress with a gaming console. The RRoD on my first system less than a year from purchase. My gamertag was hacked and stolen a few weeks later. Multiple game crashes, lags and save file deletion/corruption. Yes, the Xbox 360 is a system that breaks records.
The Xbox 360 is far from my favorite gaming console which is the PS2 followed by the Sega Genesis, but 2009 I did manage to put in a substantial amount of gaming that could rival that of a year on the PS2.
My first year owning a Xbox 360, I managed to rack up around 30,000 gamerscore. One of the longest games I've played that year was Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, clocking in well over 350 hours with the main game was well as all it's expansions. My second year, I managed to more than triple my gamescore crossing the 100K mark. As it stands now it's 103,202. Two of the longest games I played this year were Farcry 2 and Last Remnant both games easily crossing the 150 hours mark.
So now how will 2010 be? I don't know. If I get more problems with the system, I may just jump to the PS3 because there's a lot of great games for system now. Then there's the rise of motion control gaming with Natal and the PS3 Eye Toy & Wand. Then there's Final Fantasy XIII and a flood of other great games scheduled for 2010. Only time will tell.
I just cant believe it, My PC has broken again, iv spent more on fixing the heap of crap than if i had bought a new one, so this time i dont think im ging to bother calling out an engineer to fix it, frankly I'm sick and tired of it now.
Which now means i cant play the MMORPG's i usually play and im basically needed and relied upon to be online as i run Guids and ingame auctions on Guild Wars, also I'm the leader of the World of Warcraft union here on Gspot and if I'm not playing then i cant do much updating, its so frustrating.
I have about £300 saved in the bank but need £700+ for a basic gaming PC and its so close to x-mas, i have two children to buy for age 11 and 6, i can tell you they dont come cheap, if only it was possible to plant penny's and grow pound trees (dream on) would be nice.
So, no PC = bord+bored some more = stress - BREATH / Rant over...
If so I have Halo 3, Halo wars, cod 4 and I plan on buying more games soon. I Just sold like 60% of my games yesterday. My gamertag is CabooseIZx116. < NOT a L
Have a nice day everyone.
Battlefield: Bad Company (360): It's a decent game. 7,0.
Wanted: Weapons of Fate (360): Such a terrible game. It's by the same people who made Terminator: Salvation so I should've known what I had coming. The game is decent if you play in short bursts though. 5,5.
Open Season (360): This is my favorite casual / kids game ever. Very relaxing and fun. This was actually my second time finishing it. 6,5.
Call of Duty 3 (360): Good game overall, but has some design flaws in my opinion. 7,5.
Why am I writing this you ask ... I'm bored at tired, that's why. I could go to sleep, but I don't feel like it . So, a day in the life of me. Not really all that interesting, but here goes ...
I woke up at 7:30 this morning. Didn't have to get up until 8:30, but I can't sleep. Standard stuff in the morning (shower, clothes, bed, etc) was followed by quickly going on the net and printing off my lecture notes for the one lecture I had today (ECON101 - Macroeconomics). Eventually left the house at 9am, but not before seeing my little nephew (Rhys) for 5 or so minutes.
Half way down the road and realised I didn't have enough petrol, so I had to stop in and get some from the closest town, 15mins away. 20 mins later, and $50 lighter, I am now speeding down the road doing 100k's an hr and still getting overtaken by semi-trailers. Fast-forward until 10:10am, when I finally get into my usual carpark the 10min walk from the uni. I spend the next 10 mins walking through the wonderful botaic gardens right next to the uni before settling into my back corner of the lecture hall just before it started at 10:30.
During the lecture I organised to meet Jess for lunch at 1, so I was extremely lucky the 2hr lecture finished by 12. Quickly walked back to the car for the hour drive to Jess's house. Caught her at 1 and went for our usual Subway lunch, where we just talked. She got a new boyfriend, and apparently it isn't working out that well. I personally don't see it lasting. Anyway, finished that and went to the local shopping centre where we brought random chocolates to give to one of her friends, which we went and saw at 3:30. I also brought the 700ml bottle of Southern Comfort I'm staring at right now .
Took her home at 4:30, so I was home by 5. Started typing up the notes I took from Monday's lecture, had dinner (nice roast chicken), and finalised organisation for my party on Sat night until about 8:30 when Criminal Minds started. Watched that, then came back to this laptop and done some more notes for uni. About 10:30 went and watched the last 2 episodes of Supernatural Season 1 until around midnight. Just spent the past hour reading a backlog of blogs, and now it is 1am and am typing this.
One funny thing to end - I can fit the stereotypical Australian. I as driving home this afternoon and I had to sla on the breaks because I almost hit a kangaroo as it was crossing the road. It happens all the time
(But more about that at the end of this blog.) Like it says in the title. Warning: the results are shocking. Now then, onto the main event of the blog, and holy hell is it awesome! And by awesome, I mean big. First up is Einhander, a late 90's shooter made by Square. Square, the guys behind Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Adventure, Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest, and Final Fantasy Tactics? Yep, the very same. And since it was on the PS1, they managed to sneak in a few CGI cutscenes. Honestly, did we really need them? There are only a few, and the graphics are already good as it is (lots of detail, decent animations, unique enemy design, etc.). Maybe for the story, but that's a big maybe. You play as Einhander, a ship caught in a war between the Moon and Earth. I liked the plot, given that you're a Moon shooter fighting the evil forces of the Earthicans, but the big plot twist that the moon men are evil pisses me off. I'd dismiss it as spreading horrible and untrue propaganda, but then I remembered something: NOBODY CARES ABOUT STORY IN SHOOTERS. All that really matters is the shooting, hence the title of the genre. So how is the shooting? Good, but the full potential is not realized. You can choose between three ships, each with their own distinct advantages. I chose the one that could hold a few weapons, but was stuck with a piece of crap peashooter. On the actual weapons, you can hold several at a time, depending on your ship. You have the vulcan, the wasp, the riot, and a bunch of other useless names (the only good one being cannon). None of them have any power-ups, but they do run out of ammo over time. Yea, you pick them up with more frequency than...something with high frequency, but keep in mind that you don't get any in boss battles, leaving you with a pea-shooter against Zog, Destroyer of Worlds. The only major change from other shooters is your arm, with very conspicuous Fruedian undertones. However, this doesn't really add much to the game; in theory you're supposed to shoot things above, behind, in front, below, slightly to your side, slightly not to your side, but only about two weapons actually change their behavior when you flip them with the arm. All others are EXACTLY THE SAME. If you think I hate the game, you're wrong. I like it, but it could've been sooooo much more. There was potential for a much better shooter, but the lack of power-ups really, really hurts the game. Sure, the graphics rock, but you only see it all within a few hours, and there's not much reason to go back. All that in mind, I give it the Mein Kampf Schadenfreude Herzog Zwei Award for Excellence in Randomly Choosing German Words for Your Own Purposes. That's what I do, I give games awards and things.
But very rarely do they actually deserve the awards, given that none of my awards ever make sense ever. However, the next game actually deserves an award because of how good it is (I'll devote a section to that later). The game is, of course, Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. Now we all have best games ever and worst games ever, but not really most average games ever. I have one, and it is called Lufia & the Fortress of Doom. Absolutely nothing about this game stood out other than how amazingly average it was. Natsume discovered this, and decided to create a sequel that fixed everythiing. Thus was born Lufia Syndrome, a disorder that would later strike series such as Killzone and Breath of Fire. However, it also had a twin called Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, as I have already told you. The game starts off with the hero, Maxim, fighting monsters for pay. Lucky for him, there's an utter **** of them swarming throughout the world of Estopolis. Rather than make enough money to earn the envy of local pimps, Maxim wants to figure out why there are so many of them, roping the hero into a world saving quest. The story itself is good, but not great; I feel like it could've gone into greater detail with all the events and locations and such. However, it does have many extremely memorable moments, like the big mid-game plot twist. I could spoil it, but I'll use an analogy. Imagine the ending to FF9. Now imagine the scene where Zidane is in the play and he casts off his robe. Now imagine him calling out Freya's name, running to her and embracing her in his arms instead of the Princess (now Queen). That's pretty much the huge Lufia II plot twist. Only with Lyn instead of Freya. Plus there's a fantastic ending, giving you reason to play past what you can tolerate (I don't know that, because I don't know you). Wow, look at all the space without mentioning gameplay. The battle system is more than the turn based exterior would lead you to believe. First, you have capsule monsters, little Pokemon-esque beings that evolve to higher levels when fed weapons and the lint in your pocket. Fine, they don't add much, given how they have the bravery of dogs, but the gesture is nice. There's also an IP system, and this works much better than the capsule monsters. They're like Limit Breaks, except you get more moves. One per piece of equipment, in fact. It's very interesting to screw around with new attacks and keep those that work. Besides, if you hate the move you're stuck with, just jam the weapon down a capsule monster's throat, they'll love it. However, the major part of this game is the dungeons. Each one contains about four or five puzzles to solve, and trust me when I tell you that they can be HARD. Don't be surprised if you run to an FAQ to find out how to solve that one puzzle you're stuck on. You'll have a few tools with you to solve each puzzle, and all of them (fire arrow excluded) are put to great and creative use. In addition, there's also a reset spell that costs nothing, meaning you can try over and over until you solve the puzzle. Add in the fact that you don't fight dungeon monsters until you touch them, and I think the game is in love with me, like that needy spouse who serves you breakfast in bed on your day off. This game is the very definition of a ****c: it shows its age, but who gives a crap? That doesn't hinder it in any way, nor does it stop it from aging well. So I give it the Lower Top 20 Award. But wait, Dragon Quest IV is also there. Oh no, which gets the top spot? I know I haven't done this in a long time, but RPG BATTLE!!! First up, protagonists:
Maxim, a hardened soldier
Noname, a silent cliche
OK, Lufia wins the first round. How about most embarrassing moments, huh?
Ripping off FF5
Ouch. Again, gotta hand it to Lufia. This is getting huge. How about one DQ can win, hm? Biggest flaws:
EXTREME GRAPHICAL GLITCHINESS.
Incredibly hard final boss.
Lufia wins, 2-1! It gets the coveted #11 spot on my list. DW4, you go to 12. Now this is not the end of the blog! Oh, no, I have a bit more for you guys. You're probably wondering why I look different, don't you? Well, another makeover. Let's go into detail about each and every little change, shall we?
I'll admit, I was lazy on this one. However, it turned out really well. The center image of me is basically what I'd look like in an old school JRPG, and I have the Chaos Emeralds revolving around me for no reason . Moving on...
Now this one is weird. I've begun the policy of basing my sitework on stories I've told you before, but those were only the serious/original stories. Here's a demostration of a more jocular/ripped off story. The story of Final Fantasy that I have yet to tell. This is my party (me, Queen, Writey Guy & Shiki (dead, right)) fighting Tiamat. Obviously, we're getting Killed. Expect to see this in the future, maybe.
Ah, my favorite dialogue sequence saga of them all. This is the final battle against Thompson Claus, Satan Claus finally absorbing Jack Thompson's body. The crown hangs above him, suspended in light...of darkness! It was originally intended to be a picture of Thompson Claus killing me, but I stumbled upon the "pyramid" and immediately started this. Then I started this one later:
Funny story: this was originally my avatar, but I liked the other one better. Now this one is just me on my throne. Remember that for later.
Keeping in line with the parody thing, this is the end of my Dragon Quest IV parody. I'm in the corner doing nothing. The party consists of myself, Writey Guy, the Queen (she cast Bedragon), and Burger Fox. Wondering why Necrosaro is stained blood red? Keep in mind that in the original, Psaro took the form of Estruk after he became the Ruler of Evil, eventually becoming a warped version of his former ruler. So I did that here, but with Satan Claus. So i-Oh crap! I haven't finished the Dragon Quest thing!
| Master Dragon wrote: |
| Greetings, mortals. I am God. It is your destiny to fight Satanroth in the depths of Hell. I h- |
Yea, yea, got it: go down to Hell, beat up Satanroth.
| Queen wrote: |
| Maybe we should listen to more of what he has to say. I mean, this is God. |
We'll be fine. *group goes down to Hell, finds Satanroth*
| Satanroth wrote: |
| GWAAAAHHHH!!!!!! Fear me, for I am Satanroth, the Ruler of Monsterkind! I know now what I must do: destroy all humanity! |
| Queen wrote: |
| Be on your guard, he's gained dark p- |
OK, whatever. *slashes at Satanroth, arm falls off* What the...*laughs ass off*
| Burger Fox wrote: |
| Your hubris will eventually be your downfall. |
*slashes another arm off, laughs ass off, does so after slashing off head* Oh my God...his freaki....what the hell is going on with his stomach?
| Queen wrote: |
| You don't remember? There's more to him after the head plops off. |
Oh, right. Still, pretty damn easy. *fights some more, sees arms and legs grow back* This is getting a bit weird.
| Burger Fox wrote: |
| I warned you. *Satanroth grows other head, becomes eviler* |
*gets scared* RUN AWAY!!!! *tries to run away, fails* Oh no, we wasted a turn, we're so scr-
| Queen wrote: |
| Relax, we beat him. |
(silence) Huh? Really? Yay, we win! And no stupid alternate endings! *story ends*
Well, I ended the Dragon Quest dialogue sequence multiparter. Might as well start something else. No, not THAT. I was thinking two more video game reviews. After all, I just beat two more games. The first is Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness, because Konami thought they could make their previous N64 Castlevania better by adding werewolves. Thanks for missing the point, Konami! However, there are other changes, like being able to PLAY as a werewolf. You play as Cornell, who ties with Sephiroth for the most prominent homosexual game character in video game history. Why? Well, besides looking at him, the guy skips. I automatically win that argument. Another argument: this game is unoriginal. It rips off both Zelda and Resident Evil, taking place in a medieval mansion filled with horror movie cliches AND a stupid female character who needs to be save from an old fart who never dies. The game even goes so far as to rip off the hallway in the original RE where you saw your first Crimson Head. But this is kinda beside the point (which, as I alluded to earlier, Konami missed). How does it play? Well, there's a good game here, but it's buried under several problems. For example, the combat sucks. Unlike the Belmonts, Cornell throws energy...spikes at his foes. It works better than a whip, but perhaps a bit too well. He doesn't need his claw attack (yes, he has a claw attack) or the traditional sub-weapons, since everything dies with a few whacks of your energy spikes. And it's not even normal enemies who die that easily, as most of the bosses are pathetic. Jump around like an idiot and throw spikes at them until they die. Dracula has a bit more strategy, but he's the final boss, so why should I give a crap at this point? Speaking of enemies, why are there skeletons on motorcycles, the game is set in 1844! Back to the game, control is also a bit of an issue. In order to pick things up, you have to press a button, rather than just walk over it. Any game that commits this crime automatically gets 3 points knocked off its score, and things don't get better from there. The graphics aren't that good (as you've already seen) and the combat is imperfect (as I've already mentioned), but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Too bad you can never reach it. The point I'm trying to make is that there's a good game to be had underneath all the flaws. I can imagine having fun with this game's mechanics if not for the myriad of flaws. So I give it the Whatever the Hell the Opposite of a Polished Turd is Award.
Unfortunately, the next game does not have the benefit of being good beneath the flaws. The next game? Final Fight 2. I had a lot for this, but character limits force me to give it the Unfortunately Short Review Award and leave it to this: the game is really, really repetitive. You can see it at....you know what? Read on, you'll figure it out.
And now, the big surprise I promised you. It may come as shocking: I'm leaving GameSpot. It had to happen sometime. I mean, we all get banned, and I came close. Because of this. But that's not important. The important thing is my departue. "But wait, Vincent!", you might say, "Where are you going?" Well, I have an account set up at Giant Bomb. Besides the benefit of uncensored swearing, I also get a decent user review system, an in-depth game encyclopedia, and a create-your-own-list feature. In the face of all this, how can I possibly stay here, knowing my inevitable fate? Don't try to stop me, I've already started packing. S-
| Queen wrote: |
| No, wait! Don't leave GameSpot! |
Wait, why are you opposed to this?
| Writey Guy wrote: |
| Yea, you're coming with us. |
| Queen wrote: |
| Oh. OK, then, let's send our stuff there. |
Now then, seeing as how I have no more attatchments to this place, l-
| Don Mario wrote: |
| You know, you still have one more race in my Rigged Cup. |
Don't worry, I'll finish that up once we're settled in. I promise you, I'll find a way.
| Queen wrote: |
| But how are you going to fit in the whole Nazi Patrick thing? |
| Writey Guy wrote: |
| You know, I really don't care about him. I don't know, I don't feel the same zest and zeal writing for this villain as I did for Satan Claus. |
Yea...yea, that was a great series.
| Writey Guy wrote: |
| Eh, I could've do better. |
...........So.......I guess this is goodbye.....
| Shiki wrote: |
| No, you can't leave! You have so many friends here! You can't leave me here all alone. |
.......Yea, I'll manage.
So its been a really long time since I posted anything on gamespot with the exception of the madden 09 post and a few things on the forums, but I'm really back this time there is some people that I haven't spoken with in a while (someone owes me some leaves) I've just been really busy with work and stuff. About work I managed to get in an argument with a customer on the 9th of June (a day after I posted a blog about my friends cd )and they thought it would be a good idea to throw a slurpee in my face. Needless to say I didn't like that very much so I beat the crap out of them. I ended up fracturing my wrist in the process and got charges pressed against me. So I've been trying to take care of that, luckily since they initiated the fight with the slurpee I had the case agaisnt me dropped and I pressed charges against them. I go to court this Thursday I'll post something about the outcome Friday. But other than that life has been good I got a graphic design job at a place called Creative Signage not far from where I live. Also as most probably don't know I really have a love for music, I like a wide variety but mostly hip hop and rap. What you don't know is that I have been writing tracks in a hope to release my cd on the day of my 20th birthday December 7th. (Pending I get the collaborations done)Right now I only have one track officially done its called the Discovery of Oneself and it happens to be the intro. My cd will be titled DDEP. After its released I have alot of other projects I'm working on with other artists I know. All of them I plan on releasing in 2oo9. They are titled 2oo9, DX Dynasty, The Chronicles of Yin and Yan, and DDEP DOSE DUEX, I also have two other unamed projects I'm working on but more on that as time passes. Back to DDEP. The concept of this album is mainly about my life and the stuff I have gone through as I get closer to releasing it I will touch base on some of the songs and stuff like that. It is going to be a pretty dark cd with a lot of comedic elements I'm putting a lot of time into this thing so feedback is really encouraged. Enough on music this is a gamesite back to game Fable 2 just came out I picked it up (of course) and so far I really love it. I haven't had a lot of time to play it but maybe an hour or so but so far its seems pretty damn good. ok it's 6:15am I have to try and get a little bit of sleep check out the link ands listen to my intro Discovery of Oneself. If any one is interested in doing a song with me let me know I also produce beats too so I can give any one a beat if they need it....PEACE
ITS COMING
HTML errors all down to class
Video Blog Fifty Three
This is the second try of the previous video blog, which I redid without music.
Spoiler Alert For Firstborn
Don't worry guys, I won't take much time of yours. So, just couple of small things to read:
1. I've received this new emblem 
, that's probably because I've been tracked by a lot of people. I really like the idea of making friends in here, but if I don't know you well; please don't expect me to track you back. I'm sorry if I sound rude, but I don't want to track too many people and can't manage time to read your blogs or reviews. Don't stop tracking me, cos it looks better but do show up at my blogs on a regular basis, I'll be at yours as I've mentioned at my last blog (this part isn't for my existing friends)
2. You probably haven't seen my new blog header. So here it is. The banner's also new 
3. I'm doing night shifts at office from last week and i'm mostly at gamespot, so if you want to chat on MSN; here's my id vednor@live.com. I won't be very active at MSN though and plz don't send spams
4. Someone please help me get that damn outlier emblem…I'm dying to get that one, but it won't show up no matter what I do
(canana, Dan_Lero plz help, if you read this).
5. That's it fan fun everyone and thanks for reading
Man that episode of Atlantis, "Midway" was good. [spoilers] I thought it was intersting to see Teal'c and Ronon fighting. They would make a good team!! It was wierd seeing the Wraith on Earth. I hope thats as close as they ever come. I dont ever wanna be walking down the street and see a Wraith, lol. But all in all it was a damn good episode. Midway was destroyed, theres an easy way to piss away 2.2 billion dollars, ;( but it was intersting seeing Ronon Fight with Teal'c. [/spoilers]
So any body else watch it. It was pretty good. So anyway, gotta love a day outta school. Good ol' Presidents Day. Yep. Couldnt ask for more. Gonna watch some fireflys and some Andromeda(THE BEST SHOW EVERRRRRRR), maybe some Stargate later. Yep. So thats it for now, Hunt out.
Man, I can't believe this! I've been hacked out of my XBL has been hacked twice this week!!! First time was on Sunday and when I finally recovered my account (back to normal). Less then 5 hours later it's been hacked again!!! This is 100% bs!!!! If your on my list and if you get any weird and(/or) offensive messages, dont attack me! MS isn't doing anything about this and now I'm on my own. I went to xbox.com forums to get some possible solutions. This isn't fair 
I didn't play my xbox for a very long time and now (most possibly) I'm going to get a new account and start all over from the begining... . Man, why do people do poeple have to be rude all the time?? I don't know to what's going to happen to my acount now, but I hope to add you guys over again if I do have to change my account (and I'm not going to post my GT here on GS, so PM me when the blog of me getting a new account comes for my GT).
Hello there! For reasons that are probably obvious to most of you, I'm not going to continue posting to this blog. If you'd like to keep up with me, I can be found at the following address:
http://blog.jeffgerstmann.net/
If you are after things like "what Jeff thinks about games or music or movies or gas prices" or "points-related video," it will appear on this new personal site for now.
HoHUM.. level 23 Super Bagman....
Here is where I tell you how cool it is to have another ranking on Game$pot. Yes, Game$pot spelled like that for a reason. Apparently game reviews on this site are meaningless unless you have the MONEY to buy a good review. This will be my last posting, I will cease all payments to LAMESPOT, and end all my dealings with this MONEY for RATINGS company, I am sure out there I can find REAL game reviews, REAL UN-BIASED game reviews from a company I know I can trust, that will tell me about a game based on its merits, and not by how much money it got to review a game. I know, you guys at Game$pot are gonna laugh this off, saying oh its one person and that his input doesn't matter. Who cares if t0adphr0g leaves us, we can still get more and more money from other gamers who will pay monthly fees to watch our SKEWED REVIEWS. Yes, I won't be missed, but Game$pot... NEITHER WILL YOU!!!!!!!!!
