Seven years since 9/11. I guess we all now have the "event" to which many of our lives can be compared to. That morning I was at my fairly new job which I had worked for years to get, and my blissfully unaware of life outside Arkansas wife was running a huge finance company. When she called I knew she had changed. I was always intersted in world affairs and politics, but she could care less. We came home, tried our best to explain things to my 7 year old step son. His dad would leave for Iraq in 2 years, my brother last year. My wife realized making 6 figures and working to the bone wasn't all there was in the world, and quit within a month, and volunterred almost every day at our son's elementary school across the street until he finished. We were blessed with twins in 07 that we thought we could never have, are a little closer to broke than wealthy, but life in this little bubble here is blissfull. But outside it seems to get worse daily. I won't rant on the terrible failings of the president. But all of us changed some that day. I wanted to write something last night, but my now 14 year old and I watched documenties on 9/11 as we do every year. Is it violence/horror porn? Maybe, but I will never forget it, and I want it ingrained in him never to as well. And to remember what I teach him daily to treat each person and each life with respect, we never know when it will end.

Ok so everyone has seen it now several times. No major spoilers here. I can't remember being as excited to see a movie as I was TDK in quite a long time. But after one hour in, I was wondering if the jumbled plot would ever take off. Nolan obviously tried to make it a serious crime drama type movie, and it succeeded on some levels but not on many. Plot points would just pop up, some were thought out well and ended well, others just stopped or ended without the characters hardly noticing. All in all it was a good movie, just not the greatest thing since sliced bread. To see if I was just nuts, I like everyone went again, and came to the same conclusion. On the performances, Bale was great again, the voice didn't bother me at all. Freeman and Caine did very good again in the roles they had. Oldman's performance was better with a larger role, he's going to be very good in the next 1 or more movies. Eckhart was great, I wish what happend with his character didn't would love to see more. And now to Ledger. Ledger's performance was fantastic. But I'm reminded of two other recent acting performances. His in Brokeback Mt., and Phoenix in Gladiator. Ledger was better in BM IMO, and Phoenix was in Gladiator, which he didn't win an award for. So there you have it. It's a very good movie, but probably won't crack my top 5 for the year, and will only remind us of how gifted Ledger was and how good he was becoming. Peace.

The OT has had a rash of very long topics recently on religion. Why there has to be a fight and "your nuts, no you are" is beyond me. I'm 33, have been an Atheist for 10 years or so. I go to church weekly and am involved in all of our community projects and a weekly bible study with a group. I was raised in a non-denominational church and go to one now. I've read the Bible at least 3 times fully, and the Quran once, I believe you should always keep all doors open and constantly educate yourself. Point is no one on GS knows anyone else's education level on the subject. And throwing out verses of the Bible, or pointing out they are false does no one any good. I've met some great people, especially here recently on both sides of the fence, and don't think anyone is going to change anyone's mind based on a GS forum. So try to have respect for others beliefs, or lack of beliefs, and a lack of beliefs isn't blind ignorance in most cases, just like belief in God isn't blind faith in most cases. We're all here because we have something in common, we love video games, try to remember our similarities instead of insulting our differences.

Peace, Bryan

Well 2 more games I've been anxiously awaiting came out recently Civ Revolutions, and NCAA09. Starting with Civ Rev, Civ IV was a fantastic game that my wife, son, and I have spent way to much time on. So moving the franchise to consoles seemed a tad risky, but it's been pulled off wonderfully. There are enough leaders (countries) to choose from for everyones tastes, and the parts I liked the least about the PC game, worker management, is virtually gone. Each game takes 2.5-3.5 hours, so you can finish in 1-2 sittings. I've played about 7 or 8 so far, and each has been vastly different, and with 5 difficulty settings this game should have a ton of replay value. Except for one glaring, unbelievable, to me, mistake: No multiplayer. Yes you can go online and play, works great, but I can't sit and play a two or three person game with people here at home? How does this get left out of a turn based strategy game? What would have been a great family game is now a tedious back seat driver game with anyone in the room. EA released their yearly College Football game the next week. And it looks fantastic, sounds fantastic, but....After years of keeping the game different from Madden, just as NCAA and the NFL are vastly different games, EA went and changed the gameplay to match that of their last Madden game. The running game is non-existent, (Yes I'm from the South, I like to run the ball) and 10-15 passing patterns are the best way to move down the field, taking out the funniest part of the game for me. Yes all the Dynasty modes off and online are great, but it's still all about the gameplay. So in the end I have two games I dearly love, with two massive mistakes IMO, which bring them down quite a bit. And finally on MGS4. It's been a couple of weeks now since I finished it, and after the time my mind hasn't changed. That was the best video game experience I've ever had. Yes I'm old enough to have gotten a Pong under the Christmas tree once upon a time, and MGS4 tops them all IMO. I still haven't put GTAIV back in the PS3, I will finish it at some point, but for now I can't bring myself to. I'll build cities by myself, and deal with dink-dinking the ball down the field for a few seasons, might draw it out long enough for SW The Force Unleashed. And once everyone across the pond has had a chance to see The Dark Knight I'll add my two cents on that movie, and get flamed! Peace. Bryan

Well happy 4th, to all one day late. Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th here in the states. As we all know 2 games recently received a perfect 10 according to Gamespot, and many other game sites. I'm the resident old person here usually, (33) and have been gaming as long as I remember, I got a Pong for Christmas one year, have pics at my parents house to prove it! I'll start with the one I played 1st GTAIV. GTA has always been a franchise I've loved, and GTAIV was no exception. GTAIV put a interesting character in Niko, who via great voice acting I immediately liked. Missions are typical GTA, but better, and the characters seem more fleshed out than in past versions. The thing that hit me was the mission where Roman is kidnapped I found myself driving out of control trying to get there quick enough, of course once I died a few times I realized it didn't matter, but I wanted to make sure he didn't die, and with GTA you never know, he could have been gone. That's the first time I ever remember feeling that way about a game which leads me into....Ninja Gaiden II, came out a few weeks later, loved Black and Sigma, so I thought it would be a good break from GTA to play Ninja Gaiden for a bit, and I ended up beating it twice, always have to try the hardest version....So on to MGS4, now GTA has just been sitting there for a couple of weeks when MGS4 comes out, and I just jumped right into it. First off the graphics are the best I've seen from this generation of consoles. Voice acting, perfect as always, and it begs to be played loudly on my Bose surround system. But with all the longgggg cut-scenes, I thought I would get tired of, I slowly found myself wanting a rewind button at certain points. And never one for multiple save points, I found myself saving each save at a different point. This game fundamentally changes my viewpoint of games. I play them to relax, have fun, and some characters or games I just generally like. But MGS4 is as close to an interactive movie/book as I've ever seen. Yes it's like deciphering some of the various LOTR or SW prequels in terms of what all is going on, but I had a blast with the free database, get it if you haven't already, as I went along, and epically after I finished. And as it ended, I thankfully had the house to myself for the entire last act, I paused, came outside to the office and smoked too much, thought about what I had seen, and it's just a masterpiece. If GTAIV is a 10, MGS4 is an 11. I can say for certain, after all these systems and games, I've never been more emotionally involved in a game. It is truly incredible. As someone who owns both systems, this is the game I'd buy a PS3 for, If I didn't already have it. I can't say the same for Halo 3, which I loved, but nothing compares to this game. Hope everyone who can will get their hands on a copy. I hope I can get back into GTA, but with Civ Rev coming out Tuesday, and NCAA09 next Tuesday I'm not sure when I'll finish GTA, but it's ok. I got the single most satisfing experience of my long gaming life over the past two weeks, and it gives me great hope about the future of video games. Well that's long enough, for regular readers, politics or NIN will be the focus again soon. Go to nin's website and download The Slip for free, if you've never tried NIN, why not try them for free! Can't wait till my 9th NIN concert August 15th. Peace to all, respect one another, and take care.

Bryan