Just created 2 two threads which are Australian Game Stores and Fun Free Games Thread to help anyone in look of free games and where to buy games.

I feel that they should be stickied.

Hi All!

How are we eh? Hope you all are good and healthy gorguzz cats and dogs!

So watz the new newz with me? Well I end up doing my trip to Sydney last weekend and went to the Night In Fantasia Concert on Saturday Night! It was totally AWESOME!!!! They played a bunch of anime and game music with a huuuuge orchestra! My seating was neare the front, about ten rows back. Had a mate with me too.

Special Artists and Composers were there including:

Wataru Hokoyama (Resident Evil 5, AFKIRA)
Chris Velasco (God of War Series)
Masunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross)
Iron Zur (Fallout 3, Prince of Persia)
Kow Otani (Shadow of the Colossus)
Steve Jablonsky (Gears of War 2, Transformers 2)
Go Shiina (Tekken 5, Tales of Legendia)

The Performances were AMAZING!!! Totally wondeful and beautiful. Truly worth going and paying. They had some merchandise which I bought a poster and CD. My favorite performace was when Kow Otani himself played on the piano doing his own pieces of his shadow of the colossus. Also the last encore performance every person on stage put a bandana on and started playing the Metal Gear Solid Theme. TOTALLY EPIC!!!!!!

Here some piccies!

Stage

Show's about to begin on screen

Orchestra on stage ready to perform

Kow Otani & AIKA
I got to get their autograph and shake their hands and this photo of course!

Concert Program Booklet

Autographed Poster signed by Kow Otani!

I also took many pics of my trip up in Sydney. You can view those on my facebook page. For those who don't have me on FB, well.... find me and add me! HAHAHAHAAAA. Hope to drop around again soon! I defiantly wanna start doing some more game talk and shows on here, is the good community of Gamespot still alive? Sorry if I haven't been around to view ya blogs since I'm not on much, but DON'T WORRY I still love yaz!

Take care cool cats n' dogs,

Matty.

Oh So Many Memories.

level up ^.^

YAY level 23...super bagman!

*does a lil dance!*

im doing pretty good. been playing metal gear solid4; its actually kinda hard. other than that..sleeping, eating, partying and drinking!, drama w/ my ex!!(super fun), waking up at 3pm!, working on the weekends(kinda lame but its a chill job)...lol yup thats my life for u.

o and i was looking at a calender yesterday and i figured out that my bday is next week!!! march 2 =) its on a monday, so im gonna b partying it up on friday, saturday, and sunday! LOL...

What happened to the DS? Is it just me or has it been ages since a good game actually came out on the DS and the only game to really look forward to is Pokemon Platinum? Being a DS owner myself (got a phat and DS Lite at launch), I have really been disappointed in the system for the past year and I'm also disappointed in where it's headed.

The DS had a great 3 years since launch, even though there were a few game droughts in between. We always had something to look forward to on the DS and most games pretty much lived up to their expectations, but what do we have to look forward to now? From what I can see, there are absolutely no anticipated titles for the DS which is quite a shock. I was very shocked that at both E3 and the Nintendo Conference Nintendo hardly announced anything for the DS in terms of software. The only games that come to mind are Pokemon Platinum (same games as Diamond/Pearl with added features) and GTA: Chinatown Wars (which really doesn't seem that good).

Instead of getting more games, we are getting yet another system rehash, the DSi. The question is though, "do we really need it?". Why do we need buy another system rehash if there are no games worth getting on the DS anymore? This is all due to the fact that the DS is purely being kept alive by the casual market. It seems Nintendo have completely shifted their focus towards the casuals now, entirely leaving us hardcore gamers in the shadows.

Overall, I have been pretty disappointed in Nintendo this year. I am actually considering selling my DS soon and, if no good games are announced next year, then my Wii as well. I'm glad that Wii Music hasnt sold well, because hopefully it has made Nintendo realise that they need to put some focus back into the development of hardcore titles. Nintendo really need to keep their hardcore base as we were the ones who helped keep Nintendo alive last generation. What happens if Nintendo makes another bad move and they have no hardcore base?

For years I've contemplated giving PC gaming a go. The one thing I didn't want to do was spend a fortune on a pre-built machine. In fact, one of my main interests in having a gaming PC was the satisfaction of actually researching, purchasing, assembling, wiring and setting-up the computer myself. Well, my friends, that's exactly what I did.

Over the long Labor Day weekend, I decided to forgo the usual drinking and eating (ok I did some of that too) and spend some serious time getting this project off the ground. Being a complete and total newbie to PC gaming, I knew extensive research would be required. That ended up being an understatement. Without getting too detailed, believe me, there's a ton to consider.

After lots of research, decisions and rethinking of those decisions, I finalized my parts list and placed an order:

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Wolfdale CPU @ 3.33ghz
Motherboard - ASUS Rampage Formula X48 Mobo
Graphics Card - VisionTek Radeon HD 4870x2
RAM - 4gb Corsair Dominator 1066 DDR2 RAM (2x2gb)
Power Supply - Corsair HX 1000w Modular PSU
Hard Drive - Western Digital 500gb HDD
Optical Drive - LiteOn 20x DVD+/-RW
Case - Thermaltake Armor+ VH6000BWS case (black)
Operating System - Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Fans - 3x Thermaltake fans
Monitor - Acer 24" 1920x1200 2ms display
Keyboard - Saitek Eclipse backlit keyboard (blue backlight)
Mouse - Microsoft Habu gaming mouse with blue LED accents (2000dpi)
Mouse Pad - Razer Destructor professional gaming mat
Games - Crysis Special Edition, The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Collector's Edition, Mass Effect, BioShock, Two Worlds Collector's Edition, Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl (free with Mobo)

Approximate total for all of that - Just shy of $3,000

After an agonizing week and a half of shipping time, I was finally ready to assemble this bad boy. I'll admit that I was a bit intimidated to assemble and wire all of this up. After calming my nerves and notoriously shaky hands (there goes my career as a surgeon) , I began. Flash forward roughly two days, and I finally had my new PC assembled and wired.

Unfortunately I was in for a bad surprise. Upon powering up my PC, everything came on for about 1 second before shutting off! Long story short, after lots of trial and error troubleshooting (keep in mind I'm a newb), I found out the problem - my HDD was DOA (this was a SeaGate HDD), causing the whole system to shut down.

After a huge sigh of relief and wiping of my sweaty brow, I hauled my ass down to Circuit City and purchased a new one. Relieved to have solved this issue, I carried the very heavy case into my computer room, hooked it up, and inserted my OS disc. Much to my shock and horror, I had one last hurdle to climb - Windows Vista failed to install!

"****!", I thought, and not to myself, but aloud. Very aloud.

Without getting too technical, I'll spare the details and say that I finally resolved the issue and got Vista running.

I'll tell you, hearing your first self-built PC power up and running makes you feel good. Seeing all of the pretty blue lights emitting out of the clear side panel, hearing the hum of the fans, knowing the power inside, filled me with excitement, and most importantly, the feeling of satisfaction that came from building it from scratch.

So, how is it, you ask? Freakin' A, it's awesome. I'll admit that being a console player for over 20 years did not prepare me for the task of gaming on a PC. Switching from a controller to a keyboard and mouse was a difficult task. Not so much the mouse, but the keyboard has proven difficult. After a few days, though, I've shown remarkable improvement. I still fumble a bit with my keyboard hand in situations that require quick movements, but I'm getting there. As for the mouse, I love the precision of it. I had no clue just how much analog sticks hold you back.

I just wanted to say a few words about Crysis. I hear a lot of bashing of this game, and now that I've had the chance to spend some quality time with it, I cannot for the life of me understand why. Crysis is, in my opinion, an amazing shooter. When one devotes the time to learning the way the game is meant to be played, it's an incredible experience. You can really play how you want to play, and damn is it satisfying.

I've personally adopted the predator styIe. I lie in wait in the lush foliage, watching each and every movement of my enemies. I scour the vast amount of land in all directions looking for the best origin of attack. I usually like to lure a few enemies to me by causing some noise. As they approach, I apply the cloaking power to my suit. It's quite a joy to be standing right in front of my enemies unseen, watching as they desperately try to locate me. When they get close enough, it's equally satisfying to apply the maximum strength power to my suit, grab them, and throw their soon-to-be lifeless bodies right back where they came from, causing quite a stir back at their camp.

Oh what a game.

In other words, aside from the absolutely mind-blowing graphics, which are so far and above anything you've ever seen in a game, Crysis is also one hell of a game.

As for my PS3, 360, and Wii, I'm in no way abandoning them. However, the addition of a very powerful gaming PC has changed things around a bit. Originally, Fall standouts Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2, were destined for my PS3, but have since turned into PC pre-orders. Not only will the PC iterations look and play better, but they'll be cheaper, too. Funny how that works out. The premier version is the cheapest.

I'm not complaining.

In addition to the changing status of upcoming games, so too does the status of some of my currently played console games. Oblivion, specifically, will no longer be touched on my consoles. Oblivion on the PC is so, so much better, and with the game-changing mods available on the PC version, there's no turning back.

Before closing, I wanted to thank GameSpot user Elann2008, who provided me with invaluable tips and information that really helped make this possible. Thanks buddy. Much respect.

That about raps this blog up, my first one in nearly half a year. Yeah, I've neglected my blogging duties for some time, but hopefully that is a thing of the past. Perhaps I'll put up a proper BUI soon, detailing what I'm currently playing and the game purchases I've made in the last half year.

Hope you all are doing well, and I look forward to your comments and blogs.

- Daniel

Hello, yes, I am alive! It's been a looong time since my last blog, hasn't it? Apologies for lack of updateage and commentage, but i'll try and do more now that i've remembered this site

So, reasons for absence? There's only one, really, and her name is Anna. Most of my time is now spent with her. It's a funny thing when you find a girlfriend after 17 years of being single - ok, fine, babyhood and primary school don't count, but you know what I mean. Everything changes - you shower more, you pay attention to how you look, and you lose a hell of a lot of weight from walking to her house and backmost days. But, most disconcerting of them all, my PS2 and Wii got - *shudder* - dusty. I know, I know, but I don't regret it. Not for a second. I really couldn't ask for a better person to call my girlfriend. We get along great, we make each other laugh, and we have the same sort of interests. Apart from games. But i'm working on that.

Anyway, enough of that. Recently, the dust has been wiped from my consoles and i've been getting stuck in. I got Guitar Hero III on the Wii for christmas, and I absolutely love it. There are a good few songs i'd heard before getting the game, but more of them i'd never heard of, and a lot of them have been hunted out and downloaded. By far the best GH yet - the battles are awesome. One thing that kind of annoys me though, is the lack of downloadable content. Fair enough, the Wii only has 512 MB of internal memory, but it has USB ports. Surely the potential for an external HDD is there? Apart from GH, I got Metroid Prime 3: Corruption with some of the money I got, and last week I hunted out Mercenaries again, and Rogue Galaxy. I remembered hearing about Rogue Galaxy before, and having loved Level 5's Dragon Quest VIII, I snapped it up. Excellent stuff, my only real complaint is that a game where you travel the galaxy should not rely on corridors in all it's maps.

Anyway, must go now, the dinners ready and i'm hungry!

Well the last time I was here I remember there being a level 20 glitch. The glitch was quite disturbing. You basically went through level 20 about as slow as possible gaining about 1% of level each day. I don't know if this glitch still exists but even if it does I'll do my best to get through it.

I also would lkike to note about my blog header. Earlier this week Miguel Tejada was traded to the Astros from the Orioles. I also learned that he has been suspected of using steroids. I'm not 100% sure that he was using steroids, only he knows that but I have removed my blog header simply because I do not belive in performance enhancing drugs. Maybe when I get time I'll make a Cal Ripken Jr. blog header instead. I may also make a Marlyand Terrapins basketball one. It's been a while since I last designed anything anyway so I'll probably need to watch a few tutorials again. =]

Well, playing Corruption at the moment and loving every minute of it so far. I'm only about 7 hours into it, but what I've played has been great.

The controls were easy to get used to and prove to be much more accurate and intuitive than the control schemes of the previous Metroid Prime installments. The motion controls are alsoquite enjoyable andsatisfying.

It seems to be much more epic than the previous Prime games, owing to the much more "open" nature of the level design. Not that the rooms are much larger in this game - it's just that there's less closed in rooms and corridors, and more open-air areas with alien vistas. That's another good thing about this game - the art direction is brilliant - particularly impressive is the first time you land on Bryyo. Other than that, it seems to play much like Prime and Echoes - and that's not a bad thing!

My only negative is that sometimes the loading can get a little irksome. Sometimes when you shoot a door, you can wait outside for a full ten seconds before it opens. This is especially annoying when you're trying to get from one place to another quickly...

So yeah, brilliant game. I have to juggle between playing this and studying for my exams that are coming up at the end of the month. Usually I get my study out of the way, then play Corruption as a sort of reward. It seems to be working so far - I've been getting a few solid hours of study in every day!

I'm proud to say that my days of hard work on this union are paying off ive got a userbars for my union and my banner is being worked on as we speak. My topics in my union are coming along great and im having a reqruit contest to see who will be the next officer. And I am getting some originality for all of the people who say i copy everything so u can shut up talkin about that. And overall its goin great

Best movie of the year anyone? 

9.1!? Are you serious gamespot!?? The first wii game to break the 9.0 barrier is one of the worst i've played so far. The fact that it is still quite fun, especially with a few friends and a few drinks, says a lot for the wii... but still, this is not a 9.1 worthy game!

Basically, you'll be playing a bunch of micro games which are often imaginative, well-implemented and totally crazy. The use of the wii-mote is excellent and will certainly make you and your friends look very silly, which is great for a laugh... for about half an hour. Playing by yourself is a little more monotonous, as the game gets very very repetitive and is over in a couple of hours, giving you little reason to switch it back on again. On top of this, the story mode forces you to sit through supposedly 'charming' introductory cut-scenes which I would more aptly describe as boooooooring. I can see that they are trying really hard to be funny in that off-beat Japanese anime kind of way... but for me, it was mostly just uninspired (nothing like Elite Beat Agents for example, which really was funny in that off-beat, charming kind of way).

Don't get me wrong, my friends and I had a few great laughs playing this game, and I'm probably being a little harsh because of high expectations, but this is just not an outstanding game by any leap of the imagination.

Rent it with some friends one night but don't waste your money buying it.

7.5/10