So almost immediately after I wrote the blog about King Bomb, I decided to go after a mark (which is a notorious monster you can hunt for some loot) before I went to bed. His name, Roblon. His location, the Nabreus Deadlands. I checked out the guide to make sure the boss was at least doable, and it seemed so... But, knowing Square-Enix, what you may think is doable... is more like a do you over in the ass. So here goes...

Nabreus Deadlands is a wasteland, populated by Dead Bones, a nasty variant of a skeleton, and they spawn as different classes, such as warriors and mages. They're pretty easy for me just one or two at a time, and I can get away with three, and if I'm extremely lucky, four. So, trecking through the Nabreus Deadlands, the Dead Bones were in plain sight, and spread out. I picked them off one by one, occasionally being surprised by the aptly titled slime Foobar. I'm thinking, "Well, this won't be that bad."

In order to reach the the quardrant where Roblon resides, I had to find a secret path leading to it. I found the path, fighting another Foobar along the way, and then entered the Roblon's domain. The path curves upwards until it reaches a small plateu, and I saw his giant red beacon on my radar. The moment I started trekking up the path, one, two, three, FOUR Dead Bones popped. I fought what I could, and then zoned (which is fled back to the previous area), healed up and went back, and finished off what was left.

Now it's time to play it slow and cautious. I took baby steps, and stopped when a Dead Bones popped. I waited for it to attack me, then pulled back a bit and engaged. I did this about halfway up the path, when more Dead Bones started spawnign behind me, flanking me from all sides. I zoned, healed, came back and finished them off. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Finally, I've made it up the plateau, and there's Roblon, sitting atop his throne with a "What the **** you gonna do, ****?" look on his face. I'm like, "I dunno, kick your ass?" Well, as I approached, yet MORE Dead Bones! Jesus H. Christ! Zone, heal, fight. This goes on and on for about an hour.

Now it seems they've stopped spawning, so I finally engage Roblon. Seems pretty easy enough. He has 178k HP but he's not hitting me that hard. It's just going to take a while to wear him down when. I get him down to about three fourths, and you guessed it... MORE DEAD BONES! Now I'm screwed because everyone's casting -aga spells. Two people go down, and I swap two more in. Then I go down, and I swapped in another. I then zone, spend a crapload of time bringing everyone back and up to speed, and then I go back in and get me some getback on the leftover Dead Bones.

At this point, it's approaching two in the morning, and I'm exhausted. I did some research online, and to my delight, I found that the Dead Bones are finite. They'll eventually stop spawning, so now it comes down to a case of endurance. I'm looking at finishing this in the morning, or sticking through and getting it over with that very night. I chose the latter.

I go back in, and engage Roblon again, after killing some more Dead Bones. Finally, FINALLY! No more are spawning! Less than 50 percent done... and MOTHER ****ER!! Two more pop, and it's back to zoning. By now, it's seriously getting old, but I stick with it, and come back like an abused puppy that just doesn't know any better.

After the last Dead Bones crumbles, I got a gut feeling that there's no more left, so I engage Roblon yet again (by the way, he gets his health back whenever I zone). I make sure I'm buffed up with Haste, and I make sure I keep it up, and then it's time for the last dance. The battle's going good so far, but he's casting a serious amount of magic. He also has a move called Fear, which takes a way a ton of my MP, so I'm constantly charging it back up.

It's down to about 1/4 left, and still no Dead Bones. This is it! The battle's gone on so long now that Roblon's run out of MP and is resorting to Triple Attacks that inflict Slow on me each time. At this point, I don't want the other characters attacking. I want to make sure they keep casting Haste on me to get rid of Slow, and keep me healed. Everyone's in great shape so far, and then with a great big sigh of relief, I land the killing blow! Roblon defeated!!

What a nightmare... But you know something, I almost died getting back out. It was so late, around 2:30 am by the time I finished, that I just wanted to run back to the save point instead of battling my way to it. So I was running and running and running (in Forest Gump voice) but then I forgot where the secret path was, and got corned by all the mobs I aggroed. Two more people got killed, so now I'm hauling ass back to the previous zone. I get everyone back in shape, and it's attempt number two to escape. I found it this time, headed to the save point, saved, turned of the PS3 and collapsed!

And to think... this isn't even the hardest that this game has to offer at all... There's an enemy named Yiazmat that has over 50,000,000 HP....

Yeah, I have no idea what that means either...

I've been playing the latest DS Zelda game for a little while, maybe 2 weeks or so, and I finally just beat the first dungeon...And I'm pretty nonplussed by the whole experience.

For starters, I don't like the control scheme. I'm all for utilizing the DS's touch screen, but not for every single bit of Link's movement and attacking. Having the option to use a regular ol' control scheme would have definitely helped me out. I don't know if I'm just getting old but I keep getting hit needlessly and have a hard time attacking enemies in the right direction. Note that I didn't play Phantom Hourglass, and I doubt I will after this experience.

Next up is the train segments. To get from A to B you have to drive your train along the tracks...And boy is that about as fun as it sounds. There's no way to fast travel or anything, and it's just slightly better than the ocean mechanics of Wind Waker in that they give you stuff to do like shooting rocks. Yeah, you read that right.

I dunno, I'm gonna stick with it a little longer, but I just picked up GTA: Chinatown Wars and I rencetly bought The World Ends With You and Final Fantasy 4. There has to be a time when I'm either done with Zelda for good or just give it up to play one of those games instead. And no, I can't play more than one game at a time for the DS, I play it in such short bursts that I would never get anything done.

Let's start this blog off the right way. Happy New Year to everybody out there. Hope you get everything you desire, and more.

All right, with that out of the way, let's talk games. On "that site that I write for", we did our Best & Worst of 2009 awards thingy. If you guys are interested, go check it out and tell me what you think. If I had to round out my top 3 games of the year, they would be MLB 09 in third, Batman: Arkham Asylum in second and Assassin's Creed II in first. So I guess that means Assassin's Creed II is my Game of the Year, eh? Deservedly so. Such a wonderful game and a huge step up from its predecessor. Don't get me wrong however, Batman and MLB 09 are both incredible games in their own right, and both are games that I never expected to like, but there can only be one. As for 2010, well the list is quite long of titles I am looking forward to. However, I modeled my GameSpot user page with my top 3 most anticipated of the new year. Can you guess what they are? (Yeah, I know, it's easy.)

Lately, I've been playing Borderlands. I got it right before New Year's and have been enjoying it ever since. Although the story and ambiance can't compare to Fallout 3, which is my favorite RPG of all time, it is quite good at what it does. The shooting mechanic is quite satisfying, as there are literally a bazillion types of guns to choose from, with different statistics and colors. I am currently a level 26 soldier, for those interested in knowing that fact. Also, on Monday, I should receive 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand in the mail (hooray for snail mail during the Holidays!). I decided to get that one after GameSpot named it their Most Surprisingly Good Game of 2009, and also because some of my buddies got it and said it was quite good. We'll see. I completely stopped playing Red Faction: Guerrilla's single player a while back, since I found it to be annoyingly repetitive and bland. Played a chunk of the multiplayer and found it quite fun though.

I guess that's it for now. I'll see you guys when I see you. Take care.

sup

How many times have you had a Democrat say, "Well, Bush did it too" while attempting to defend Obama? I've seen it happen too many times to count. But isn't that a lot like saying, "Ooops, I gave you HIV, but the last girl gave you herpes"? It's funny to hear Democrats use the man that many of them considered evil incarnate to buoy the guy they elected to be the anti-Bush, no?

Bush left the country (and the office) in shambles, that's pretty much a given. But let me ask you this: If you hired a guy to come in and fix someone else's screwups, would you still be buying the "dang, it's his fault" line every time somethingwent wrong a year later? Why didn't we just let Bush serve a third term if that's going to be the case? I mean, we're still in Iraq and Afghanistan. The economy is worse; we've lost 5 million jobs since Obama took office. Nobody outside of government is hiring. The Patriot Act (which the libs hated under Bush) is still in effect but now they're oddly quiet about it -- hmmmmmm......

And then every thing that goes wrong is still a Bush problem according to Obama. Did we not elect this guy to fix the economy? It sure looked that way, because prior to Bush cornholing the economy, the polls between Cadaver McCain and Obama were pretty close. I'm an instant results kind of guy, and the wave of insanity that this clown rode into office guaranteed I was going to be even more so (not since Episode I have I seen such a huge flop of unjustified hype), but I mean, come on, surely you have to eventually lead on something, right?

Actually, yes, you do. Obama at one point a few months ago, called this "his economy." But I think he meant that only when there was good news. When it's bad, it's still all Bush's fault. Terrorist incident? Bush's fault. We've seen evidence of Obama's political immaturity evidenced by his vacillations on spending(unsustanainable path/let'sspendour way out/fiscal accountability/trillion dollar year one deficit),and he seems just as bi-polar about terrorism. I mean, he can't even refer to a guy who lit his panties on fire trying to ignite explosives a terrorist, he calls him an'alleged extremist.' Obama points to plans implemented under Bush as the problem (two of the planners of this attack were terrorists released from none other than Gitmo, the evil, un-needed site that shames America according to liberals), yet Obama's response to that was to release another 6 Gitmo detainees back to (yep, you guessed it) Yemen. I don't think the country elected someone to constantly hear he or she pass the buck -- they elected them to get results. And so far, the results under Obama have been no better than they were under Bush. In fact, they're worse. Hope anyone?

Hearing Obama (and his Democrat constituents) use Bush to justify his failings just shows how bad things really are. Can someone please step and lead for 2012 so we can ditch the Empty Suit and his Merry Band of Tax and Spenders? Polling is showing (and has been for sometime) Obama that his policies are unpopular (look at Senator Ben Nelson's approval rating -- down 30 points since voting on ObamaCare) but it's obvious he'll just keep what didn't work under Bush in place and mess up things better left alone until better times by using another common Bush tactic -- fear. Remember how angry Democrats got that Bush told them we HAD to go to Iraq right now, no waiting, they had WMDs? Remember how he told us that we needed to pass TARP RIGHT THIS MINUTE OR THE ECONOMY WOULD COLLAPSE? Obama's doing the same thing -- he did it with his stimulus (which worked about as well as Bush's TARP), he did it with the automaker bailouts, and now he's trying to do it with health care.

Maybe the left loved Bush all along and just never realized it. Still, when you've got a group that points to failure as a means to justify more failure, it makes you wonder if they realize anything at all.

When 2000 started, the Y2K was over all with already, lol. The doomnaysers were owned...typical. But that's another story. Instead, I will tell you story of my life during this/that sluggish decade for my last blog of the year and decade. This is the story of magiciandude in the 00's decade

Early 2000: Magiciandude was still living in New Jersey, his birthplace, when the millenium started. he was finishing up his 3rd grade year.

Mid 2000: Intially, magiciandude was going to move to his homeland of Puerto Rico. However, after some complications, magiciandude ended up moving in Florida.

Late 2000-Early 2003: When magiciandude moved to Florida, he temporarily lived with a friend of his aunt's. Then, his family moved to an apartment and lived there for two years. The apartment was okay until the community got worse. Eventually, magiciandude's family finally got a house for the first time. Also worth mentioning is that his younger brother was born during this time. Magiciandude finished up his elementary school years.

Late 2003-Mid 2006: Magiciandude's most hated part of his teenage years. This is the start of secondary school commonly known as...middle school. The worst offender of this part of life was in 8th grade when it drove him crazy to the point he contemplated suicide. What good that came out of this part was that magiciandude discovered GameSpot and has been a member ever since. He still remembers the old GS when it used to be an awesome site.

Late 2006-Early 2007: The beginnings of high school as a freshman. Magiciandude loves this part of his life because of how awesome the school was. Sometimes he wants to retrace his beginnings of being a freshman as he can recall those days.

Mid 2007-Mid 2008: Another unhappy part of magiciandude's life when he transfered schools. on his sophomore year. He felt lonely and unaccepted especially when a girl made him feel miserable.

Late 2008-Late 2009: Of course, since magiciandude didn't like the school, he moved back to his old one and made him feel wonderful again. He got superb grades and a social life in the old school of his. It still continues on during his first part of his senior year.

So yeah, that's my life during the decade in a nutshell. In all honesty, I wasn't too fond of this decade, but who am I to critize a decade? That's life anywhere in the world.

To me, 2009 was a mixed bag. It was certainly better than last year as I posted hatred for that year. The year started out great. I wasn't having any trouble at all. Then summer came and got boring there. My school overwent a change that I didn't like where the number of ****s a day was increased. Seeing as how I'm a senior now, it doesn't matter anymore though I hate the block schedule. The schedule sickly reminds me of that school I was in during my sophomore year. Then there were celebrity deaths that kept on piling up. Geez, MJ, Billy Mays, and even Lou Albano. Also in terms of gaming, it was very disappointing. I did get a Xbox360 early this year (it was a used 20gb for $200, you think I'd be crazy to turn that down?) I still play with my Wii more though. My favorite union, Nintendo Dream Union, was underwent changes too. Kansas, the original leader, left the union due to his busy life. Can't blame him though. Also my dear friend Willy105 was banned by GS. As if that wasn't a problem enough, SW set the bar even lower to the point it's beyond hope of being revitilized. It's not the same SW as I used to remember years ago. On a positive note, I got Student of the Month in my school which is a first since I've never received recognition before in a school. Also, Obama seems to be doing a fine job so far despite what the critics have to say. Not to mention that I started my "Baka-Magician" series which I seen from the comments have been positive and is enough for me to continue, though, my school life has been keeping me busy.

Here are the games I got for the Wii:

• Klonoa
• Punch Out!!
• Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
• New Super Mario Bros Wii

Here are the Xbox/Xbox 360 games I got:

• Halo 1-3
• Halo Wars
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance
• Sonic Ultimate Genesis Collection
• Soulcalibur IV
• Virtua Fighter 5
• Fable

Well then, with all that said and done, that's what 2009 has been to me. There are already countries in the year 2010, but who knows what tomorrow will bring? My song of the year happens to be about that. My song of the year is called "Yo No Se Maņana" which means "I Don't Know Tomorrow" in Spanish and is by Luis Enrique. To put it simply, I want to dedicate that song to show that we don't know whether we will live or die tomorrow. If we will continue to love or hate each other. The one thing is for sure:

There is hope.

Our good friend Dan Amrich of Pallet Swap Ninja nicely sums up my opinion of many forum posters. Yes, I'm looking at YOU, System Wars forum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHysmKGGLA8

Sorry for taking so long to finish up this list. But here is my favorite game of the decade. First off, a recap of 10-2:

10. Metal Gear Solid 4
9. Call of Duty 4
8. World of Goo
7. Grand Theft Auto IV
6. Valkyria Chronicles
5. God of War II
4. Mass Effect
3. Uncharted 2
2. Chrono Cross

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1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

As stated in my thoughts on Mass Effect, Bioware are master storytellers. Take that talent and add in the Star Wars universe and you have KOTOR. But what's so great about the game is that you don't have to be a Star Wars fan to enjoy it. It's a well-crafted RPG with a riveting plot, an excellent cast of characters, and a fun combat system. Being a big Star Wars fan certainly doesn't hurt though. Using force powers and wielding a lightsaber is easily one of the most thrilling things I've ever done in a video game.

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Hope you enjoyed taking a look at my favorite video games of the decade. Happy holidays everyone!

So no mentions of it. I normally see a floated thread making mentions of it.Does that mean its dead? Or just the users that normally run it are no longer with us? Or has the board spiraled so far down into the gutter that it no longer has any relevance? Not that it had any to begin with but it was an interesting little tradition that was always happen since I've been here. Perhaps it is for the best though. The board has really taken a nose dive this year in quality. I mean I've seen it bad but its so boringgggggggggggggg now. Oh well. Just a thought that breezed into my mind.

As some of you may know very well, I love my Zune. My Ugly Little Zune 30 (Well it had a 100 GB drive in there...) dieda couple of weeksago which made way for my Zune HD to get some more attention. And as a current iPhone owner, I can't wait for Microsoft to turn the HD into a full fledged phone. The UI is more fluid and honestly makes more sense than anything Apple has been doing. Plus the sound quality of the Zune HD is even better than previous Zune hardware. To add insult to injury about Apple, the Zune 30's sound quality is still superior to anything Apple has out now. Another great thing about using my Zune is how I don't have to use iTunes. The only reason I have iTunes is to back up my phone and install updates (Which are incredibily painful to do). I hate to sound like I am bashing Apple, but I can't understand how a product with better software and hardware still can't take marketshare away from Apple which it's only saving grace is that it's a Brand name.

Since I have been using my Zune HD more often, more and more people have been noticing it when I break it out. And most people that have toyed with mine are considering it or bought one. Only big thing the unit is missing is Apps. Which I can live with. I don't get to play too many on my iPhone because the battery life is awful. Any other Zune users out there?

The first time I saw Arrested Development was probably in the early part of 2008 thanks to Hulu having all of the seasons at the time. After seeing it, I thought it was really good -- probably a 9.5/10. That said, I still didn't think it was worthy of all the praise it got (tons of people calling it the best sitcom ever, being possibly the highest rated show on IMDB tied with The Wire, etc).

But then about two months ago, I decided to get the DVDs for all 3 seasons. I wasn't really dying to see them again, but Amazon had them for $13 each and I figured they would be nice to have in my DVD collection. Then a couple weeks later, I was bored so decided to pop in Season 1...I was hooked, even though I saw the show before and generally knew what was going to happen. I couldn't stop watching episode after episode. I burned through the whole series in about a week, and instead of putting it away I just went back to the pilot and started watching it all over again.

The first time around, you miss so many subtle jokes and some hints as to what happens later in the show...
***SPOILER***

Another thing about this show that makes it great is how it mixes so many different kinds of humor. There's something for everyone in Arrested Development. There's obvious humor that even braindead people can enjoy (Gob's chicken dance), there's raunchy humor (Tobias), there's a lot of dry humor that Brits can appreciate, and there are many references to pop culture -- these range from the "Girls With Low Self Esteem" videos which are obviously a spoof of Girls Gone Wild to one episode that references the hell out of Charlie Brown (believe me, it's better than it sounds).

The casting directors for this show are geniuses. Except for The Wire, I've never seen a cast this good. David Cross, Will Arnett, and Tony Hale without a doubt stand out as the funniest main characters on the show. But, the rest of the major characters (counting the three I mentioned, there are nine of them) are all exceptional except for maybe Portia de Rossi as Lindsay. And it doesn't stop there; just about all of the minor characters are hilarious...Barry Zuckerkorn, Bob Loblaw, the Surrogate, Annyong, and even White Power Bill provide some of the funniest moments in the show.

I might be preaching to the choir here, but if you have never seen this show you owe it to yourself to see it somehow (for the rest of the year, hulu has season 1 up for Americans). If you don't like it after the Pilot, don't give up -- give it at least three or four episodes since it takes a while to warm up to the characters.

Arrested Development debuted around the same time as Two and a Half Men. AD has been gone for years, but Two and a Half Men is still going strong. There's something seriously wrong about that.

N64-

Zelda: Ocarina Of Time, Guantlet Legends ( 3 times ), WWF No Mercy, WWF Wrestlemania, WCW Revenge, WCW/NWO World Tour

PS-

Final Fantasy Tactics ( 8 times )

PS2-

Disgaea (4 times), Final Fantasy X ( 2 times ), Resident Evil 4 ( 3 times ), Lego Star Wars ( 2 times ), Lego Star Wars II, Def Jam Vendetta, Def Jam Fight For NY, Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age ( 2 times ), Shining Force: Neo, God Of War, Freedom Fighters, Harvest Moon: Save The Homeland ( 2 times ), Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, GTA: Vice City, GTA: San Andreas, WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2006, God Of War II, The Bards Tale, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Guitar Hero: Encore Rocks The 80's, Mortal Kombat: Armaggedon, Final Fantasy XII

PS3-

Fight Night: Round 3, Resistence: Fall Of Man, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots ( 5 Times ), Spider Man: Web Of Shadows

XBOX-

Fable, The Godfather, Time Splitters: Future Perfect, Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

XBOX 360-

Saints Row, Aegis Wing ( 2 times ), Halo 3 ( 4 times ), Smash T.V. ( 4 times ), Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock, Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Assassins Creed, Def Jam: Icon, TMNT: Arcade, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Army Of Two ( 3 times ), Fight Night Round 3, Burnout Paradise, Viking: Battle For Asgard, Forza Motorsport 2,BattleField: Bad Company (2 Times ), Castle Crashers ( 19 times ), Saint Row 2 ( 3 Times ), Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Fable II ( 2 times ), Left For Dead, GTA IV, GTA IV: The Lost And Damned, Resident Evil 5, Gears Of War ( 2 times ), Midnight Club: LA: South Central, Mass Effect ( 3 times ), Mass Effect: Bring Down The Sky ( 3 Times ), Saints Row 2: Ultor Exposed ( 2 Times ), Saints Row 2: Corprate Warfare ( 2 times ), Dead Space ( 2 Times ), Fable II: Knothole Island, Fable II: See The Future, Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station, Strangle Hold, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 ( 3 Times ), Borderlands ( 2 Times ), Dragon Age: Origins, Modern Warfare 2

Hope everyone has a safe and festive Thanksgiving.

Today was the day that I beat Borderlands. It was a bit bitter sweet, I got the satisfaction of knowing that I did it all by myself, but I was bitter about the fact that my friend who moved to New York has become a total douche and refused to respond to my messages to play. What can I do though?

The game itself was solid, but the GS review was dead on, it gets lonely alone. The gameplay was much like fallout 3, but it had a personality all its own, and I think thats really what sucked me in. The robots, all of them named "clap trap" (what does that mean? Sounds like that girl I was with tonight.) were probably my favorite characters. They were goofy, they danced and honesly you will probably wish they were real just so you could hug one. The other characters are more or less the cookie cutter models. You have the mad doctor Zed, the sleezy gun merch and a couple of hicks in between there.

Anyways, it was good, you should check it out if you get the chance. Next was Uncharted 2, and just like the first I was absolutely stunned. It was beautiful, it was fun, and the story was great. The game did a really good job of sucking me in. I literally couldn't put the controller down, so I ended up beating it in 2 sittings or so, but I'll tell you first hand it was worth every dollar. It took me about 11 hours to beat it on very hard, which may not be a really long game, but there are tons of goodies to go back and earn (cheats, models, videos, tweaks, etc.)

Third, Ratchet and Clank: Search for Booty is very meh. I love ratchet and clank, its honestly been one of my favorite franchises since I first played it the Christmas it came out (and took me completely by surprise). However, this was obviously a cheap sony cash in. The last game, Future, ended in a cliff hanger, and the only way to find out what happens is to play this expansion type thing. Its honesly boring, I am trying to finish it to be prepared for CIT but its really hard. It all seems to take place on one planet, and its all very linear. You also get your guns, rather than buying them.

Finally, I am a huge supporter of this game, for the love of god get demons souls, I payed $70 for it and let me tell you it was the best $70 I've ever put on a counter. The game is beautiful in every sense, and completely unforgettable. Nintendo and Konami should take some notes on this one, because I'll never see games like this the same way again, so if the next Zelda and Castlevania games aren't this incredible, I'll feel a bit jaded. All I can do is ask that you please try this game, but it really might change your view on the industry as well, this is what an incredible game looks and plays like.

So there are my quick reviews. To conclude:

Borderlands - buy

Uncharted 2 - buy

Ratchet and Clank: Search for Booty - I'll say pass, but I haven't completed it yet.

Demons souls - GOD DAMN IT BUY THIS GAME!

I wish I could write a lengthy thought provoking article about the following subject, but I just don't think it is within my literal capacity to achieve. So I will keep this short.

There is a lot of banter between video game fans now about what is and isn't acceptable to play without the attached stigma of it being "for kids". A term which is becoming more and more contradictory of itself, I mean exactly how do you measure the so called childish factor of a game. It is be difficulty, body/blood count, the ability to stab people, the ESRB rating? I'm not sure about you guys but I'm a 23 year old IT tech and my work colleagues don't exactly sit around all day discussing the best way to rip off a human head. What I'm getting at is as much as you may like to think it, that chainsaw wielding, macho dismemberment fest of a game you are playing isn't really considered cultured adult entrainment.

While the 14-18 years olds blow up people and cut off heads talking about how "not for kids this is", their parents are down stairs playing Brain Age and Wii Fit.

To be perfectly honest if video game were ever to become a more acceptable form of entertainment for adults, I would stop playing them. Gamers, all gamers, at heart are just big kids regardless of age. The more seasoned of us started back in the NES and Atari years, were there was no blood or gore or any of the other element that go into making so called adult games. But we still played them, and they were just as enjoyable then as modern games are now.

I guess what I am saying is that next time you try to utter "the Wii is for Kids" or try to decide just how "kiddie" a game is, give yourself a damn good slap in the face, because at the end of the day all games are.

Sorry about the huge gap in between emblem uploads. I got distracted by Comic-Con work but I just finished up a batch of E3 emblem assignments.

We see it all to often. Sequels that don't live up to the original. Developers forgetting to fix fundamental flaws that the first game had. Or being too ambitious with what the second game is looking to become. I can think back to Halo 2. The memory that sticks with me from experiencing Halo: Combat Evolved is the smooth framerate, and the excellent controls. But there were problems with Halo. I know, it's a crazy thought! Something wrong with HALO!? Yeah, like the complicated level design where every corridor looked exactly the same as the last one. I spent plenty of time fumbling around. When Halo 2 came out I found myself frustrated with the same poor level design. Sequels don't just have to live up to what made the original good, but have to improve.

Two of the biggest sequels that I'm looking forward to are Mass Effect 2 and Assassin's Creed 2. Both successful games, both original IP's and both filled to the brim with potential. Potential to become better games. I love Mass Effect and I'm actually replaying it for a third time right now. But there are numerous apparent flaws. The first that comes to mind is the interface with exploration of planets. Side quests are a pain because there is nothing that tells you where you've already been until after you land on the planet, going through several loading screens.

Assassin's Creed on the other hand struggles with variety of available tasks. Whether you're in Jerusalem or Damascus you'll be doing the same three or four tasks over and over, until you reach a main story assassination mission. Then you do the same thing in the next district. It wouldn't be as apparent a problem if the A.I. reacted differently. But people only walk around the city. They very rarely ever DO anything of any interest. And this just makes each city feel like the last all that much more.

So this post about some of the negative aspects of a couple of great games is about a hope that BioWare and Ubisoft don't mess up the opportunities they have with these new franchises. Don't forget to correct the little problems, don't get too ambitious with the new ideas. Give the fans what they want by making a better game!

Alright, I'm done.