You probably haven't even noticed that I've been gone, but school has just been getting to me and taking over my gaming life. Luckily i've slowly been getting back into it and relaxing a little bit more. January was somewhat of a bad month, my Xbox 360 was out of commission for most of it, two weeks for get a replacement 360 and another two weeks to get a replacement power supply. The one they sent back with the xbox 360 was faulty, so I had to pay $40 to get it back to them to have a replacement sent, in the end they sent me two power supplies but one cable to connect it to the socket. In any case, the Xbox 360 is back and enjoying its new home.

Gaming on the Wii has been somewhat lackluster, with my latest title being the extremely boring Endless Ocean. I watched videos and it seems cool, I love the ocean, but I should've just skipped on the game itself. I'm still in need of getting SSBB, but that will have to wait till the end of this month.

My girlfriend got me God of War: Chains of Olympus as an early birthday present, it's just awesome. I will try and get a review up this week and let you know what I think. Will definitely be a good way of passing the time on my way to class. If you have a PSP, this is one game you have to pick up.

On the PC, now that I got a replacement graphics card (from 7900GT to 7950GT, thanks XFX!!) I can play some 'oldies' that I used to play. CSS, STALKER, and some newer titles such as Crysis and UT3. Will also let you know my thoughts on those, though mobile and console gaming has been little easier because of my current living situation.

So what have you been up to? What games are you guys playing? Let me know!

I have been an Xbox360 gamer since launch day back in 2005. I have taken care of my 360, making sure it has good ventilation so that it won't overheat. Sure I've had my random freezes here and there, but today it just got so much worse.

I haven't played my 360 in a day or so, but I suddenly felt like rocking it out in Guitar Hero 2. Plugged in my Xplorer controller, started it up and chose my song. I decided to try out Dead! on Expert, as I was ripping away my Xbox360 froze. Now not the usual freeze where the image is still, but where I see vertical white lines and a strange sound over my speakers.

Contacting support is taking a while, I sent them an email (or ticket?) a few hours ago and I haven't heard anything. I just hope that I can send it in and get it back before May 16th.

I've been thinking of doing more late night runs, but I'm not sure what to do it on. I was hoping maybe you guys have any suggestions?

It can be either a PC or an Xbox360 game. It can either be a future release or be out already. Now post the game you want to see an LNR on in the comments!

I was just looking at my profile today and noticed something...different. Well, it's a new and pretty cool badge:

Last night I had the chance of playing: Lost Planet multiplayer, Double Agent multiplayer (full version) and Call of Duty 3.

I mainly want to talk about Call of Duty 3. When look at it, it'll remind you of CoD2, graphics wise. But when you actually start playing and using your weapon's sight. The area you're not focusing on get a nice soft blur, making it a little easier to target and hit your enemy. The overall gameplay felt much better than it did in CoD3 though. One part you even get to -drive- a jeep instead of sitting in the passenger's seat.

Lost Planet multiplayer was rather interesting. The map was the second mission in the SP demo that was released a while back. At first they had team-deathmatch, but team-mates kept shooting each other (I was killed a few times), so I suggested they change to standard deathmatch, which made it a little more enjoyable. Overall it was pretty fun, the map even had some mechs you could control. The only thing that wasn't too great was the sensitivity, the speed you turn at was just a little too slow of my liking. Maybe you'll be able to tweak it in the final build.

Double Agent multiplayer is the exact same as the demo, just a different map. So no explaining needed there.

They also had BioShock and The Darkness behind closed doors with the developers, one playing and one talking about it. All I can say at the moment, is that BioShock....is freaking awesome! The Darkness is awesome too, I'm going to type up a bit more detailed article about the two and will post it here when I'm done.

And for PS3: Full Auto 2.

Game I played (mostly) was Full Auto 2, the sequal to one of the Xbox360's launch titles, Full Auto. The gameplay was exactly the same, you had to do a race and win. Nothing much to it, on the floor they had both single player and multiplayer demos, I focused on the multiplayer because I've played Full Auto SP. Anyways, they had a nice selection of cars and weapons, so customization is pretty cool. Now to the important part, graphics. Overall it's a nice improvement on Full Auto 2, but not enough to warrant a $600 console.

Full Auto 2 also had some frame-rate issues when things get a little hectic, which worries me because we were using the final build of the game. Hopefully they might work it out between now and then.

They also had Ridge Racer and Gundam on the floor, but I didn't get to , nor want to, play any of them.

My final opinion on the console has changed though, positively. The bluetooth controller was much lighter than I originally thought it would be. The console itself is pretty large though, they had both the developer PS3 (which looks like a huge VCR) and the final hardware of the PS3.

Tonight I'll be playing Saint's Row from 12:00am to 03:00am. Will start soon!

[12:09] Just loaded my game, currently at 27% completion rate. I finished the Vice Kings mission and will now start the Los Caranales missions.

[12:12] Got to the Los Carnales mission, our plan is to highjack a truck from the Carnales gang. The bonus is that it's full of dope, but that's not the reason behind getting the truck though...so off I am going to get a truck.

[12:19] Got the truck, but I wasn't meant to drive it, one of my gang members had to. I was in charge of getting him back safely to where we're meant to drop it off. The truck almost blew up, but I got it safely to the drop off point. Wouldn't say it was the funnest mission, but wasn't too bad.

[12:23] Got a sweet car from the Los Carnales gang, named "Hollywood" if I remember corrently. Looks vintage, so cool. Game completion: 29%.

[12:26] Got a call informing me that the Carnales has started an attack on one of our controlled suburbs, no way in HELL they're taking it. Picked up a homie and am on my way to kick some ass.

[12:31] Well, was pretty...bad. I died, horribly! So I decided to reload and go and stock up on some ammo and guns.

[12:36] I got the call again after buying some ammo (different neighbourhood), as I got there it was hell. I was on an upper-ridge type platform and wanted to jump down to get to where the enemies are. As I hit the ground it said the pushback was successful, was pretty funny...

[12:44] On my way to do a drug trafficking activity (needed respect points), I picked up a CD, I haven't seen any of these around so it's pretty cool. The activity went pretty well with some extremely funny moments. We were under attack by about 4 gang members when one of their own pulled up in a car, they were going too fast and couldn't break in time an ended up running over all 4 members.

[12:49] On my away to do another Los Carnales mission.

[12:58] Completed the mission, I had to kill a lot of Carnales around the 'Rows', was pretty fun! Was pimpin' an M4 and a few homies. Also got an achievement:


Marathon Runner
Traveled 26.2 miles on foot.

[01:02] Picked up another car, this time a "Betsy", another nice vintage car. Game completion is now at 30%.

Well I'm done for tonight, I'm just a little bit too tired to continue to play. Even if I do I most likely won't even enjoy it. I have no idea when the next LNR will be though, but keep your eyes on this blog.

Thank you for reading, and Ak-47 thanks for watching a few seconds. I'll try and get a live video-feed up and running.
 

 I'll be updating this post as I play, so refresh every few minutes:

Start time in-game: Day 1 07:42PM

(real time from now on)

[12:40] I encountered some zombies on the elevator on the way back into the mall, my only weapon was an electric guitar and a jar with one of the insects. My guitar 'broke' just before I could kill all of them, so I ended up fist fighting. I accidentally used the insect though, but I killed 'em all!

[12:48] I completed part of the "Photographs" mission, was pretty fun. I have now, again, ancountered the crazy idiots on the humvee. Almost physically impossible to kill them!!!!

[12:51] Ran around them, I don't have a gun so I can't shoot them. I had a little fun with the lawnmower and a few dozen zombies....man I love the lawnmower.

[01:00] A "WTF" moment, I entered a baracade....and the guy is attacking me!! I mean wtf?!

 Current zombie kill: 331


[01:08] Met a crazy clown called Adam...tried to hit him, but he killed me in one shot...not fun. At all.

[01:22] So I tried Adam again, this time not sticking around so he can kill me. Instead I ran around looking for something to kill him, while running I found a pack of zombie police with guns. So! I just kept running around shooting Adam, going back to get a gun and kept on shooting Adam till he died. He ended up falling on his own chainsaws and killing himself. Bright huh?

[01:31] I'm currently helping an oldish guy, I have a feeling he's going to die on the way back since it's a LOOONG way. Zome kill count is now at 381.

Current zombie kill: 381 

[01:38] Helping a guy back to safety, he has a bad leg so I have to half-carry him on my shoulder. Luckily it's difficult for the zombies to grab me, so I can just RUN!

[01:45] I died....the guys on the humvee killed me, this is the end of tonight's Late Night Run, and end of Late Night runs with Dead Rising. I am officially disliking this game right now mainly because of the save system. Next LNR will be of Saint's Row.

The end, thanks for reading.

Not sure how many read part 1, but I just wanted to inform you guys that I'll be unable to do part 2 tonight since I have a long day tomorrow and have to get up early.

I promise I'll have one tomorrow night!

Welcome to part 1 of "Dead Rising Late Night Runs", this is where I'll be playing Dead Rising from 11pm to 3am for a few nights without stopping. This might not be a marathon, but it'll definitely help me get ready for the review.

Please be warned that the information I'm sharing may contain spoilers.

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The first mission I had to do with helping Brad, he found himself in a sticky situation (gun fight) and I've been asked to go and help him. This isn't the first time I tried this mission, but at least this time I found some win for health so I wouldn't die as quickly as last time. I also figured out I can get ammo from Brad. It took a while getting the guy killed, or at least injured enough so he'll run away. Everything went smoothly and I finished the mission, untill I went through the check point and the disc gave me an error. I had to do all that again, but I took some anger out by beating a few dozen zombies. I got to a save point after helping Brad, so it was all good.

I continued to follow Brad to where I first saw the old man, Brad ended up not getting the old man out of his shelter and asked me to get back to their shelter so I could tell Jessica to call HQ for backup. On my way there I decided to try out a side mission with another Photographer, he asked me to take a few shots here and there. Called me an 'old man' and all, wasn't too exciting, but pretty gun. I also learned that smacking zombies with an electric guitar makes a cool sound, you have to try it!

As I entered the warehouse to the shelter I was greeted with another cutscene, and a very strange one at that. My character, Frank, was surrounded by a few zombies (read, 12 or so), as he was trying to figure out what to do he was slightly attacked by a flying bug or 'parasite', after killing it he noticed the zombies going crazy. They fell to the floor with head bursting and the like, was pretty grose!! It seems that some zombies carry this parasite, not entirely sure what it does though, but is definitely behind the zombies.

My last few minutes was spent talking to Jessica and Brad, the only way out of the town is the helicopter ride in 72 hours.

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That's it for part 1, I'm hoping to turn these into video blogs, but I'll see what happens.

Just thought I'd tell you guys that I'll be posting my reviews for both Dead Rising and Saint's Row this weekend, together with some Gameplay footage and screenshots. Not sure about the screenshots, but I'll definitely have videos.

The Saint's Row review will be up first since I only got Dead Rising today, so look out for them this week!

No I'm not going to brag about my gamerscore, mainly because it's not high enough to brag about. I'm talking about people who brag about their gamerscore. Yes I understand you can be proud of your achievements, but please stop **** about how much you got and how much you need. We don't care.

Enough ****, I'm sorry.

I've been playing Saint's Row lately and man I'm really enjoying it. I've recorded two videos (which can bee seen in the video section of my profile), one highlights Drug Trafficking and the other Destruction Derby. Both are activities that you need to complete to get respect to continue your story mission.

I highly suggest everyone get it! Watch out for my reivew next week.

Since the release of the rather expensive Downloadable Content for Xbox360 version of Ghost Recon: AW, gamers all around the world have been complaining about the price. Then you get the gamers that actually do buy it, and try and defend it by saying "You don't have to buy it".

That is not the argument here, we know that we don't have to buy it, we know that no-one is forcing this onto us. I personally think that it is fair to pay for certain add-ons, but it has to be a fair amount. Xbox360 users have already shelved out an extra $10 for the game but now we are expected to pay a rather ridiculous for four new maps and some weapons? (relit maps don't count as 'new' for your information) While PC users can download map packs at no cost, and they saved $10.

Sure the PC version probably isn't as great or glamorous as the beloved Xbox360 version, but how does that warrant ripping console gamers off with such high prices?
I've lost a little respect for Ubi Soft.

I just had to get that out.

I recently had a very interesting discussion with a forum member on HLFallout.net. Mainly about the main differences between Single Player RPGs and MMORPGs. Surely you can state the obvious difference, one being online and the other being offline. But is the core gameplay; that being playing a role, upping your stats and working on your character, different?

This is what we discussed, but haven't really solved as of yet. In this blog post I'm going to go over a bit of what was talked about, but feel free to read the entire topic.

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Single player RPGs involve SO much more than MMOs because they center around just your character.

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I think it's the other way round. MMOs (MMORPGs) require you to work on so many things at the same time. Let's take World of WarCraft for example: Not only do you have to work on your basic skills such as defense and attack to name a few, but you'll also have to work on your profession such as fishing or herbalism. Sure there are SP RPGs that offer some of these aspect, but surely not to the extent of some MMORPGs.

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The thing with MMOs is that they've deviated from what an RPG really is. It's no longer about playing a character, its about stats and gear. Your character is just there to put them on. In a singleplayer RPG, your stats and stuff are there for your character, not the other way around. I can't get into a game in which my character is just a vehicle for stats and armor sets.

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How has MMOs deviated from the essentials of what an RPG is? In an online RPG you present yourself as an online character, may it be a Mage, Warrior or Wizard. It's basically you online. You work on your skills, you profession. You go around completing quests, killing monsters saving maidens in distress. You do the same in Single Player RPGs, do you not?

These are the two main points I wanted to talk about, the topic goes on for a few pages, very interesting. So if you want go and read the topic.

 

Today seemed to be like any other day, the normal smell of oil, and the low smog covering this small, barren city. Except, today was a bit different. I don’t remember where I am, how I got here, and what I’m doing here. There was no-one around, just a few empty beds with no covers, all the windows broken as if shot from the outside. As I move from room to room, I notice small patches of blood, spreading from the dining table to the kitchen. What happened here? I thought to myself. My head was pounding like it was hit by a truck.

There was no front door, just rusted hinges, wanting to hold something. I noticed bullet shells in the hallway, covering most of the floor. But no bodies, no blood….nothing. I looked up at a sign that pointed to the stairs, rusted, falling apart, I carefully make my way to the bottom of the building.

I finally reach the bottom, making my way through the maze of broken tables and chairs. The door of the building was broken down from the outside; it lay silently, surrounded by bullet shells. As I made my way onto the street, I noticed a few empty smoke grenade shells on the floor. Some were inside, one or two lay outside. There were two blown up vehicle wrecks, one against the wall and the other closer to the building. One was still on fire; the smell of burnt rubber filled the air, a smell that would eat at your brain after only a few minutes.

I lost my sense of direction; I have no idea where to go or who to go to. A slow wind started to pick up, leaves floating in the air like they have no care in the world. I heard a Combine helicopter in the distance; it’s definitely looking for something, it’s also coming this way. I quickly looked around me, looking for a place where I can hide. They might not be looking for me but I’m sure as hell not going to find out. I spot a dumpster about two blocks away, I decided to run. The helicopter seems to be getting closer and closer with each step I take, and with each step I take the slower I get. I kept on running, my body says no but my mind says yes. This is the part where your lungs have a small reaction with cold air and it burns, but your blood needs the oxygen so you keep breathing faster and faster. Your legs start to cramp up as they feel heavier every time your foot slams on the concrete. I wish I had proper shoes, but they are hard to find these days, so every step feels like I’m landing on the concrete from 10 feet up.

The helicopter is only a few miles away, but the sounds make it seem as if it is right behind you. I can see the dumpster’s lid is open, so all I have to do is jump and hope my aim is good. I quicken my breathing so I can somehow gather my last bit of energy to make this jump.

Only a few more feet I tell myself, I feel my legs beginning to rebel against the rest of my body. I know they don’t want to run anymore, but it’s almost over. I’m almost there. I gather my last bit of energy and take the jump, a jump that can decide my fate, whether I will either live or die. I jump, taking a small boost from a pile of bricks, not knowing that one might give away. I slip, slamming into the dumpster. It felt like I was hit by a bus, my entire right side felt numb. I lay there silently between the rubble and the dumpster. Moving only makes the pain worse. I could hear the helicopter slowly flying overhead, they obviously didn’t spot me.

I was about to try and get up when I heard the siren from one of their patrol cars. It’s the kind of sound that will give you nightmares, the kind that drives into your skull and makes you go crazy. I must be lucky today because it just drove by at about 50miles per hour. It is strange because patrols cars do exactly that, patrol the streets. There’s no way you can patrol a street at that speed, they must be looking for someone, or even some thing.

I did hear rumors that the Combine forces were experimenting with humans, trying to make them stronger, faster and better. In the end they all turn out like drones, mindlessly walking around what we call the Citadel, a tower that stretches into the heavens. No human can build such a structure, and no human did. I haven’t seen a Combine without his mask, but I know there’s nothing human under there.

The pain is rushing through my body; I start to shake, even in this hot weather. Everything seems to be blurring out, I must be going in shock, I hate darkness, it’s one of the reasons I don’t sleep. I try to stay awake, but my body won’t let me. I push myself behind the dumpster; I hold my legs in my arms. I can feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness, until finally, I pass out.

I don’t like the dark

This is strange, not sure why GameSpot would start something like this, but I do like it. New things to see, new things to explore...and new things to find out.

*thinks what to do*