Here's my review if anyone of you feel like reading it.

I'm not the type of person to start a game again that I've beaten a year ago. So why am I starting Grand Theft Auto IV over again? Well, when The Ballad of Gay Tony was released, I decided to download it, but before I would start it, I still need to start Lost and the Damned. When I put Grand Theft Auto IV in again, I was expecting to be prompted to start Lost and the Damned, but it gave me a prompt to start Gay Tony instead. I declined, and was waiting to be given the option of starting Lost and the Damned, but it never did. It went straight to the beginning of GTA IV.

And then I remembered, "****! I deleted my save file!" Yep, I had to reformat my HDD earlier this year when I installed FFXI (don't ask) again, and a glitch caused by the most recent dashboard update at the time caused the eight gigs of game data to be corrupted. Since you couldn't find the game file in your memory management and my 360 wouldn't read the disc (which is what the glitch was doing), I had no way of uninstalling it. Thusly, I had to reformat my entire HDD to get back those eight gigs of memory (I only have a 20 gig drive).

So that sucks.

When I let the game start over again, one thing I forgot is that there's no title screen. I was trying to figure out how to start Lost and the Damned, and I decided to play a bit until I figured out it. I thought maybe it was an option on the cellular phone, so I played a few missions until I got it. I checked the phone, but there was no option, and then I found myself playing a few more missions. I finally learned that you start the Lost and the Damn under the new game option in the pause menu. Instead, I played a few more GTA IV missions.

That's when I realized I was starting the game over again with the intent of playing it through a second time. This isn't a simple under 10 hour action game. This is a long time that took me more than a month on and off to finish last year. One thing I have to ask myself is, do I really have the time? Shouldn't I just go straight to Lost and the Damned instead of wasting my time playing GTA IV again? Then I asked myself another question: am I really wasting my time playing GTA IV again? I'm not sure.

I have a lousy memory. So, playing this game again is almost like playing it for the first time, but I wish I did remember some of the more important choices. Did I kill this guy or let him live? Part of my memory still works, because I remember some brutally challenging missions, like the bank robbery. I do'nt know if I want to live through that again. But as I continue to play through GTA IV, I find it hard to really put it down and jump into the Lost and the Damned, because ultimately, I want to relive this epic game. The story is engrossing and you actually get attached to the characters.

I will say this, though. I am just not happy with the graphics. I'm one of those HDTV owners that has such a hard time getting my display settings perfect. I'm tired of tweaking these settings. "It's too dark here, and now too bright there." Some times of the day, the game is gorgerous, but other times, it's pretty damn ugly. I remember putting up with this when I first played it, and now I have to go through it again, which I'm not thrilled about.

So yeah, that's what I'm currently doing. Spending a big chunck of time on a game I already beat when I could be using this time instead to beat two DLC episodes and probably another 360 game in the same span of time. Why am I doing this again? I guess the bottom line is... the game's just that damn good.

No, this isn't about my Xbox 360 failing for the fifth time. Rather this about this:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6238637.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;3

How much did MS buy Rare for again? Wasn't it somewhere around TWO BILLION dollars? And what has Rare yieldedyou? Perfect Dark and Kameo? Some Grabbed by the Ghoulies game on the Xbox? Yeah, I know Kameo 2 didn't sell too well at launch, but that's because your user installed base wasn't that big at at the time. This was only complicated by the fact that no one could find any 360s to buy because you gave TOO MANY AWAY TO CELEBRITIES! Oh yeah, and how about the thousands of 360 owners who didn't have their systems to play on because they were always being shipped off to be repaired?

Rare is doing what you paid forthem to do, and that's make a game. Kameo 2, once I heard about it, is one of the games I was actually looking forward to from Rare. The first wasn't amazing, but it was an overall solid and fun game. I'm sure the sequel would have been much better, but now I'll probably never know. So now you cancel Kameo 2 to have a company who takes years to make one game develop something for Project Natal? You've given this company brand new technology to work with, and you except them to make something grand? Well,youcan betmyass that whatever they'll make for it won't be anything more remarkable than shovelware found all over the Wii.

Before anyone tells me I'm taking this too seriously, remember, this is only a rant. Who knows what Rare will come up on Natal. Maybe Kameo 2 wasn't shaing up that well and MS decided it wasn't worth continuing.I don't know, this whole Rare situation has just really left a bitter taste in my mouth ever since MS purchased them from Nintendo. Talk about one of the biggest blunders of the video game industry. Ok, Rare, you got a fresh slate to work from now. Better do it right, and stop embarassing MS for purchasing your worthless ass.

The Ultimate Union for UCBs and Unions, or 4U for short. I had an idea a while back to form a union whose main purpose is to help raise awareness of other UCBs and unions that people have on GameSpot. I'm hoping this union will grow and fulfill what I've set forth to accomplish. The union is open to everyone, and you don't have to run a UCB or union to join. The union board will be sorta of like an off-topic styIe forum, so don't feel like you have to talk about unions and UCBs there. I hope to see a lot of you join and be active at my new union. It would be great.

Once again, I am behind, so there are six games to talk about it. The first four will be XBLA games, and the last two will be 360 demos.

Inferno Pool

This arcade version of pool has you going head to head with an AI or human player, each with your own pool tables, and the object is to clear your table before the other one does. When you sink balls, your dump extra balls on your opponent's table. It's not really that exciting, and I would have just assumed play normal pool. The presentation isn't really all that great, too. The setting is a beat down pool hall, with no flash or style or anything noteworthy. I'd definitely say pass on this.

Panzer General Allied Assault

This is a seriously deep card-based strategy game that I just don't have the patience to learn right now. There's all sorts of preparation you have to do before the first battle even starts. I tried to do what I thought was benefitting me, but yet it turned out I didn't hurt the opponent at all. The presentation is simple, but it is a card game, so not much can be expected. If you love card-based strategy games, then you might want to try this one. But if not, stay far away from it.

Rainbow Islands Towering Adventure

You are some boy who wields the magic of rainbows! Rainbow are powerful things, don't you know? You cast them and they destroy any bad guys who don't like rainbows, becaues it wouldn't make sense if they did; you'd only be doing them a favor. So, these rainbows also serve as temporary platforms that you can use to reach new heights. The game starts out with the evil Dr. Crescent (such a scary name, right?), and for some reason he wants to kill you with a giant machine. Maybe he's jealous of your rainbow casting abilities, so as the machine's rising up to drill really large holes into your soft body, you have to keep ascending the level. You have a timer that counts down in seconds, and every time you're hit, you lose a good chuck of time. You can gain more time by collecting jewels from fallen enemies, and you can also get power ups that extend the range of your rainbows, more speed, etc. The level doesn't seem to end, so I'm assuming this is a game that you play over and over to see how far you can make it. I'm not particulary thrilled with it, and it's very cheesy, so I'm going to end up passing.

Tower Bloxx

Hmm... this is an interesting game. The premise is extremely simple. Build a tower as high as you can. Your XBL avatar takes on the role of a crane operator, and you're swinging segments of a residential tower back and forth. The aim is to place the segments as dead on top of each other as you can. If you do, you'll build up a combo multiplier, but if you don't, then the tower starts swaying. It will sway more depending on how off-center you continue to place them. The demo really cuts you off short in the basic marathon stage, so you have no idea how high you can really go. There's also a mode called City Build that has you building a metropolis one tower at a time. I wanted to keep playing that mode, but the demo put a cap on the number of different types of towers I could build. This is the perfect game for 400 points, but unfortunately, it's twice as high, so I'm passing.

Now on to the 360 demos.

CSI: Deadly Intent

This point and clicker I can see appealing to fans of the TV series only. It was a rather boring demo to me, and what made it less exciting is how bland the graphics were. I know it's a licensed game, but even for licensed game standards, it's pretty abysmal. The forensics seem like they may be interesting, but you'll have to go through a good bit of drudgery to get to them. Like I said, only consider giving this game a try if you're a real fan of the show.

Dragonball Raging Blast

So... I never played a Dragonball game before, and thanks to Raging Blast, I never want to play another one again. For one, I know barely anything about the anime, so there's no fanfare to appeal to me, and two, it just plays like complete crap. I love how the camera just doesn't stay on the enemy. I will say it looks decent. The characters are cel-shaded well, and the environments look pretty big. I've heard die hard fans will play abysmal games because they love Dragonball so much, and I guess it would be safe to say in that instance, they'll have fun with this. *shrugs*

"If I can just move and shoot... I wouldn't be pissing my pants!"

That's what Chris Redfield said one time. I guess he's one of those types that just can't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. Leon must have gone through the same thing. Sure, he may have won the R.C.P.D. marksmanship tournament, but that's because he was standing still, his feet planted firmly on the ground. Had he been required to run and shoot instead, I'm pretty sure that the only safe place to avoid his wild shots would be standing right behind any one of the targets.

So what brings this blog about? Resident Evil 5. Spazzx625 and I both came to an agreement rather quickly: we want to run and shoot. We've both been spoiled by the excellent survival horror control system that is Dead Space. Now, you Resident Evil hardcore fans, before you even open your foaming mouths, allowing you to run and gun will NOT change the feel of Resident Evil. Resident Evil 5 already screwed that up enough with its horrible inventory system, partner reliance and daytime setting.

"If you run and gun, then it's not scary because you won't feel pressured to shoot before the enemy closes in you." Yep, someone made this arguement. I guess they never played Dead Space. You can run and shoot, and there sure as heck was pressure. There definitely was tension. There were a lot of "HOLY CRAP I'M GOING TO DIE!" moments.I don't understand why some of you RE fans don't want to see this franchise evolve in the terms of controls, because why would you not want PROGRESS? Why do you want to be stuck with the same archaic control scheme you had to put up with in 1996?

When I first started RE4 on the GameCube, I felt pretty much the same. Having to stand still and shoot is getting old. I lost interest in the game after the second disc, because I was getting fed up with the controls. It was just too sluggish, and the part where you had to shoot so many of those Luminatos or whatever they were while Ashley had to operate the cranks is what I think did it. It just frustrated me to no end. The funny thing is, I decided to get the game for the Wii, and it was a world of difference. Istill had to stand still to shoot, but aiming was so much easier, and it made it a lot more fun to play.

Now back to RE5, and I feel like it's RE4 on the GameCube again. I really don't like it. I swear to God, this needs to change with the next Resident Evil. I'm so glad I onlypaid 20 dollar for this title. If I paid full price for the game, I would have really been pissed off. If Capcom's so adamant in reinventing and improving their franchise, why on earth can't they do that with the controls as well? Because inhibited freedom of movement is supposed scare me?Naw, it only annoys the **** out of me. Please, don't use that arguement with me anymore, people. Quit denying progress.