Hope you guys and gals had a Happy Christmas Eve last night as well. Lots of spending time with the family and all, eating food, relaxing, all that stuff. Then comes presents, whether you're exchanging yours and opening the ones you received. Ah, Christmas, such a lovely time of the year. And a lovely time to end the year 2009.

What's left now is New Year's Eve, and I'm telling you it's right around the corner. I'm sure you've made your New Year's Resolution, but I don't think I'm going to have a big list of it. We'll see though. That being said, the first quarter of 2010 is going to be an explosive start for next year. Lots of major game titles coming out in the months of January through March, it's going to be crazy. Hopefully the gaming industry finally picks up and make money instead of losing profit like this year.

I don't really have much to say at this point, other than greeting ya'll a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See ya'll when 2010 comes around. Cheers and whazzup to all

oh goodness. My family and I opened up our presents tonight and it was just so funny.

My mom cracks me up. First off, she got me a Snuggy. XD Shemade me LOL. And she also got one of these little contraptions called a "Zhu Zhu Pet".

They're so kyoot! Basically, if you can't tell, they are little hamsters and they crawl along the floor and make little mousey noises, etc. And OMG. My dog was ALL OVER IT!

We used to have a hamster when I was in 6th grade (her name was Yuna, but my parents called her "Baby" because they didn't like calling her Yuna LOL), and my dog would try and lick herwhen she was out of the cage and what not...

And she was treating the Zuh Zuh Pet like it was Yuna/Baby! It was just hilarious. So, instead of keeping it in it's box and selling it on eBay for $90, I took the little guy out of the box and let my dog play with it.

After a while we wanted her to stop sniffing and licking the thing, so my dad held onto the ZZP while we watched The Hangover and she was waiting and whining all night to play with it more.

Ahhh..... What an adorable Christmas moment. These are the things I love about Christmas-- the little moments.

~~~

Oh, I also want to mention I beat Assassin's Creed today. Plot was good, but the game was waaaay to easy.

I might as well do it since I have the time now and there's no alcohol in my system yet. I don't like saying Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka or any of the 'Christmas' greetings so I'll just leave 2 pics. Enjoy the holidays people.

why was it lame. well for one thing the games with the highest % of the vote didn't win. How does that work? pointless to vote it seems. not impressed.

My Gamertag is GoldenJiggies G, but I will change it to GoldenJiggies X when I get 800 Gamerscore which is stupid i even need it to change it...

As i probably won't be on again until the 26th or later, i just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas... or whatever you celebrate...

And to get you in the holiday spirit, here's one of my favorite holiday songs. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W49uoIVIW44

In other news, I'm trying to make up for my lack of video game playing lately by playing many games at the same time.. today i'm switching off between Persona 3 FES (wow i hadn't played this in like... a long time) and Banjo Kazooie (I'm in the cavern place... I HATE levels where it's like all swimming -.-)

Then the other games i've been playing lately.

Donkey Kong 64 (Gloomy Galleon... Dang water levels! what the heck?), Zelda OoT (Favorite game of all time- my bro and i are randomly switching off and beating it together, and i want him to beat the fire temple cuz it's definitely not my fave, but he's been busy, so...)

And Zelda Twilight Princess- i haven't played this since last Monday cuz i had to put away the Gamecube temporarily. Plus I hate Lakebed temple.

I just noticed that in the majority of those games i'm in the very thing i despise... WATER LEVELS. They are out to get me T_T I love the water temple in Ocarina of time, but i'm not there yet in my rebeating of awesome.

I am not good at the whole swimming thing... And I just got the hiccups. BLEH!

Anyway, YAY CHRISTMAS!!!! I must now go wrap presents for Kayleigh because i'm a nice sister... plus i just like wrapping things.

Then I'm going back to Persona. MUST. LEVEL. UP! Justin should be back soon with CHipotle. I haven't had anything to eat yet today so YAY FOOD.

Goodbye small children!

So some of you may remember me posting a blog like this early but this time its different I've put more thought into it tried a Western Style RPG which I'm starting to like quite a bit and had many of you give me my inspiration through comments you've made.

So lets start off by sharing the definition of a RPG (Role Playing Game) this came directly from Dictionary.com.a game in which participants adopt the roles of imaginary characters in an adventure under the direction of a Game Master. After some reseach not many other sites explained it much differently. So be thinking as you read my opinion what an RPG is. so keep this in mind I want to offend you make you question what you think. so sorry if it upsets you.

First I want to start off by saying that there needs to be a line drawn between4 major Genre's The4 Genre's are. Western RPG (Dragon Age Origins, Knights of the Old Republic), Strategy RPG (Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics) Turn-based RPG (Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger) Action RPG (Star Ocean, Rogue Galaxy) Alright now when I look for an RPG it reads RPG and only RPG. it rarely says Action Strategy or Western. To me an RPG is something that you take the role of a fictional character and battle your way through enemies to reach the end. I feel more comfortable with Japanese RPG's rather than Western. Either way you look at it if your playing Final Fantasy X or Dragon Age Origins your playing an RPG. I've got a freind who will not call Dragon Age an RPG but a hack n slash. Sorry dude pressing the X button and watching your character attack is not a hack n slash. Yet he considers Final Fantasy XII an RPG and its got less button pressing than Dragon Age. Now I've estabilished what I think an RPG is.

To me there are to many games that could be classified as an RPG. so for begginers som call Too Human (Avoid at all costs just a warning.) an RPG but it feels and plays much like a Hack n Slash or action, so your telling me that any amount of customization makes a game an RPG. Other traits do this, So your telling me that I can choose to be good or evil in a game and because of that I'm assuming the role of character and make there choices. Dragon Age uses a feature like this where you can make your Party members hate you by choosing our actions. Now here is what bugs me We've got what some refer to as a First Person Shooter Role Playing Game Hybrid (Whoa hoa what) Definition of Hybridanything derived from heterogeneous sources, or composed of elements of different or incongruous kinds. So basically it's saying it mixes elements of both a First Person Shooter and a Role Playing Game. I still can't see how Fallout Series, or Borderlands is an RPG. Final Fantasy Fans do you consider Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII an RPG. I sure don't it has a couple of RPG Elements in customization but it plays like a Third Person Shooter. If that is the case that because games have customization why can't I call Ratchet and Clank an RPG I'm able to obtain new weapons and use them at my disposal, its an Element of Customization though very limited. Until recently I din't even know that Zelda was consider an RPG. Wait what did I just say. Yeah According to the Genre that Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time Falls under action adventure, and Role Playing. Sorry Zelda fans (I'm one too) but its a freaking Action adventure with some platform elements.

So lets talk about the definition of Role Playing. your assume the role of a fictition character. weather it be Cloud, Tidus, or The Character From Fable. Is an RPG really just a game where you assume the role of a imaginary character. if that is the case why are games like Mario and Star Fox not considered RPG. Is it possible that any game is consider to be a Role Playing Game. How far does the Words RPG go before we stop and question if it is or not. Valkyria Chronicles is an RPG but has Elements of a Third Person Shooter and elements of an RTS, but its not called an Thrid Person Shooter, or RTS. why is it that Fallout 3 and borderlands have Role Playing in there name but they have more FPS elements than that of a RPG. So why doesn't Persona 3 and 4 be called an RPG, Dating Sim, cause thats what you do Arugue the same with Dragon Age. Your getting my point I hope. A game genre needs to be called what it focuses on most, Fallout is more of a First Person Shooter though it might have RPG Elements, Persona 3 may have Dating Sim Elements but its Got more of an RPG than dating sim.

So what do you think how far must the line be drawn in order to be called an RPG. clearly the dictionary term means any game can be.

Żeby karp był doskonały
i pierogi smakowaly.
Dużo szczescia i radosci,
w tym dniu samych pomyslnosci.
Prezentów i humoru dobrego,
wszystkiego najlepszego!

Remember, You`re special, you`re unique. May your Christmas be also as special and unique as you are. Merry Christmas!

Christmas kitty wallpaper. Click on image.

Something for my Polish friends.

Cos dla moich Polskich znajomych.

23 December - my birthday ( 28 ). Moje 28e urodziny.

24 December - Wigilia u brata. Christmas Eve in my brother`s house.

25 December - rodzinka u mnie w domu. All family will spend holidays at my home.

26 December - swieta swieta i po swietach. I think there`s no translation. I guess it would be: Christmas... Christmas.. and... after Christmas.

So, I didn't bother to watch the "VGAs" on Spike the other nite, but I just so happened to be clicking around the internet on various new sites when I noticed a little news bit that made me screech like a little school girl While not totally surprising, it's still nice to have confermation and hard proof that (brace yourself)

Batman: Arkham Asylum is getting a sequel

Being done by the same team who brought us the first game, facts weren't dolled out. All we got was a teaser trailer for the new game in which Harley and Joker show up to water out mouths From the sounds of it, Mark Hammel will reprise his role of the Joker and I hope the rest of the team (Kevin Conroy for batman, Arlene Sorkin for Harley etc) make it into the upcoming game. Also hope we get to see some of the other villians who were only mentioned in the first title. Villians like Catwoman, Clayface, Riddler, Two Face and the list goes on.

---

That aside, I've been doing quite a bit of gaming lately. I've decided to give my 360 some more love, both in picking up some titles for it and using it more. My bro and I played the hell out of the original Gauntlet the other day, I've recently picked up Fable 2 and Too Human, both of which seem pretty fun. I've started yet another file in Mass Effect (this will be my 4th play through) and I even tried to get through some more DukeNukem3D... tho I still keep getting lost .

Many thanks to all who offered ideas for the name of my new site, much appreciated, tho none were chosen I do have a name picked out tho and a logo made for said name, there's still work to do tho, I will blog about it once I open the place up.

Why is there bacon in the soap?

If you know the correct answer, and thus the refference, you get a cookie.

Short pointless blogs are fun

Yep, that took forever. If I had kept at it like I had and not dropped off I could be level 58 at least. (Judging from the fact 2ndwonder passed me in the upper 40s and he's 56 now. >_>) (And dropped a couple levels from mods. >________>)

Anyway that's fine. I have actually started to be here more, but just in Decker's UCB mostly. OT is pretty tough going these days, I try to show up in the regular forum and RC there, but like I said it's tough these days. >__> So that's pretty much it, glad you people still read this.

Yes yes Cc is here and still kicking ~ Last we spoke I was awaiting my boyfriends arrival to visit me here in Dallas ~ The moment I pulled up to pick him up at the airport I felt this spark inside of me that I thought when other people spoke of they just imagined it, now I know what they are talking about ~ As soon as I could I hopped out of the SUV and ran over to hug him (fudge the people in line behind me they could go around) and couldn't help but land a big kiss teehe then I was surprised when he replied with let's no make a scene for the people at the airport lol ~ We continued ontop gamestop then my apartment where we spent most of our time & it was an amazing week that flew by way too fast ~ I wouldn't trade it for anything and I can't wait to see him again ~ I have never felt so connected to someone before ~ He changed me from a kinda whatever yea sure that's my bf blah blah who cares, to a mushy head over heal giggly girl ~ Takes a pretty special guy to do that ~ Brad/GamaK I love you

On the gaming front ~ Boy I'm gonna be broke next month so many titles I want badly all within a few weeks of each other ~ L4D2(#1 out of them all), COD:MW2, Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed II Discovery(DSi), Mario & Luigi, Dragon Age, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles

Other games I'm curious about for November are Shaun White World Stage ~ I enjoyed the first Shaun White Snowboarding game but it had no replay value whatsoever and when played with the wii remotes instead of the balance board I was bored to tears so at least this is one game I can rent instead of feel the need to buy it

Fairytale Fights look like a fun game but defiantly doesn't look like it's worth the full 59.99 price tag so that is another definite rent ~

Uncharted 2 not a November release I know still want it lol & I'll have to play on someone else's until I finally get my PS3 which prob wont be til late next month or dec. ~

Blur looks like a lot of fun once again gonna be a rent & then a maybe a buy ~

I would like to try wii Yoga & Your Shape w/ Camera but probably will end up using them for a couple weeks then never touch 'em again (like I did with similar titles EA sports, Wii Fit, etc.) ~

Band Hero looks more like a chick game I mean come on Taylor Swift GAG LOL ~

So that is what is going on in my mind at the moment I hope everyone is doing well and I hope to hear from you all soon ~

I want to add one more thing I'm going to be working on a website & pod/vidcast very soon about achievement whoring and will also include game reviews/news ~ If anyone has any ideas or suggestions let me know ~

sAssy Cc

OMG NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!! MY PSP GOT BROKEN!!!!!! I don't know how all i know its fall from a top of my desk and broke. OMG WHY!!!?? Its acutlly works, but the only thing its broken and the most improtant its Laser, IT CAN'T READ UMD'S NOW!!!! Why this have to hopend when i got FF Dissidia.DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARN IT!!!

DAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMM IIIIIIIIITT!!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhh, well i just call Micro PLay, its a store similar to EBGAMES, and i told them what my PSP has, and they tell me we can fix it, but it will take 3 weeks, can u belive this 3 WEEEEEEEKS. If i got extra 200$ i will got buy a new PSP the same day, but i just don't have extra ones.

Ohhh man, well look's like i don't have other choice sice i already give them the PSP, so looks like i will need to wait three weeks. My Dissidia will be dead for tree weeks.

Well il end it here, i am pissed i have headache and i am tired, laters.

No, the sad face isn't to insult the UK, its rather that I don't want to go. I wanna stay in Japan

Im not only upset about going to a country where they drive on the wrong side of the road though, Im also upset that I'll have to redo all my college courses. Just when I thought school was out of my life...

Needless to say, on the 14th I won't be able to come on Gamespot as I will have no internet. Good times

Sorry about the misery guys, I dislike complaining about my life when there are so many others who suffer far worse.

Bye x

Right now I have been playing Earthworm Jim, Megaman 2 and Kirby's Dream Land 3 for the Virtual Console and Pokemon Battle Revolution for the Wii. Pokemon Battle Revolution definitely isn't bad as people say. The online actually works quite well. My only gripe is... there's just not much to do, especially in comparison to Pokemon Stadium. The next Wii Pokemon game needs moar rentals and mini-games. Battle Revolution isn't bad, but at 50 bucks, it's not worth it unless you're a die hard Pokemon fan.

Okay then! None of ya will be hearing from me for the next two years. I'll be in Florida proselyting and serving the people...in Spanish. I still have about a week or so before I go, but that's it. Yep!

So my current plan as far as gaming goes is to wait before I situate myself with school, work, etc., then then I'll see what I can do about an HDTV. Then I'll get an Xbox 360 and a Wii and some essential games. But that's about it. I hope I can rely on somebody here to bring me up to speed in late 2010/early 2011. Okay?

See you all later!

Safe Mode With Networking

First of all you need to go into 'Safe Mode With Networking' in order to maximise your chances of finding something nasty. To do this restart your PC and keep hitting F8 until your are presented with some options on your screen, then with your keyboard select 'Safe Mode With Networking' and hit the Enter button on your keyboard to select it. The difference between Safe Mode and Safe Mode With Networking is that the latter will still allow you to surf the web while the prior wont. Please note that if you happen to restart your PC by accident during this clean up make sure you go back in Safe Mode With Networking until all of the steps I give have been completed.

MSConfig

Now when you are in Safe Mode With Networking click on your Windows icon at the bottom of the screen and the select 'Run'. Once the box opens type MSCONFIG into it and click OK. A new System Configuration box should now open up, go onto 'StartUp' and there you will see a list of programs that automatically start running in the background every time you start Windows…I bet your surprised how long it is aren't you Now because your PC is running slow or is infected we want to reduce the amount of programs that start up automatically because some of them could be Virus's/Spyware or they could just be system hogs. So click on 'Disable All' to begin with and you will see that all of the programs are de-selected to auto start with Windows. Now we want to make sure that your anti-virus program starts with Windows because that is probably the only essential program on there so try to locate it and re-enter the little tick into the box next to it, also if there are others you NEED then you can also turn them back on. Now once you have done that click the 'Apply' button and then click the 'OK' button to finish. It will now ask if you want to restart your PC, select No because we have some other tasks to do.

CCleaner

Now before we start scanning for Virus's and Spyware we should really delete all of your old temporary Internet files and other unnecessary things. This will have two benefits, firstly it will help speed up your PC a little bit and secondly it will speed up the security scans which we will be doing in a little while because there will be less files for it to look through. So to begin with download the latest version of a program called CCleaner. Now once you have installed it open the program and click the 'Run Cleaner' button, this will now take a minute or so to delete all of your junk files. Once the program has finished close CCleaner down.

Malware Bytes

So now we begin looking for little gremlins in your PC, namely Malware also known as Spyware and Adware. Download the latest version of a brilliant little program that's saved my bacon many a time called Malware Bytes. Now once you have installed the program its important to update its database to maximise your chances of detecting Malware, you can do this by selecting the 'Update' tab and then clicking 'Check For Updates'. Once your program is up to date then go back onto the 'Scanner' tab and click either 'Perform Quick Scan' or 'Perform Full Scan' depending on how much time you have to spare. Once it has finished scanning you may find that it found some nasties which it would have highlighted in bold red for you. Our next job is to remove them so click the button to permanently remove them. If it prompts you saying "the program needs to restart in order to delete the Malware" select 'OK' to restart, make sure that when your PC does restart you go back into 'Safe Mode With Networking'.

Spybot S&D

Now its time for our second scan to delete malicious programs. We are going to download the latest version of a program called Spybot Search & Destroy. Now when you are installing Spybot make sure to de-select 'Use system settings protection (Tea Timer)' as this feature is extremely annoying at times and isn't particularly essential for keeping your PC safe. Once you finish the installation you need to once again download the latest updates in order to maximise your chances of having a squeaky clean PC. Now before we start scanning you need to 'Immunize' your system from getting infected in the future, select the 'Immunize' tab on the side and then once it has gathered a list of all the protected and unprotected files you should click the green 'Immunize' button to perform the action. When that is finished it's once again time to scan for malicious programs hiding in your PC, so go onto the 'Search & Destroy' tab on the left hand side and then click the 'Check For Problems' button to begin scanning. Once it has finished finding problems click the 'Fix Selected Problems' button in order to delete them.

Anti-Virus

So iam sure you have heard on an anti-virus program before, everyone seems to have a different opinion on which is the best but iam going to give you my opinion from repairing maybe 10 PC's every week for the last few years that have both Spyware and Virus infections. First of all I wholeheartedly suggest you DON'T use either McAfee or Norton to protect your system, they use an absurd amount of system resources thus slowing many peoples PC's to a crawl. Also they seem to be extremely slow at receiving updates for new threats that are circulating on the web.

Now some of the best anti-virus programs out there are completely free to use. The one I personally suggest is Avast! It is updated extremely fast to new threats and also allows you to do 'boot time scans' if you really have a bad virus infection. Apart from that I also strongly suggest AntiVir because it uses a very small amount of system resources thus helping keep your PC running fast. Like I said before these programs are completely free and never require any payment unless you want the full Internet suite (but I don't recommend you do that anyway). Also an essential rule regarding anti-virus programs is that you should NEVER have more than one installed at any given time, they get in each others way and end up making you even more vulnerable because they wont be able to do their individual jobs properly.

De-Fragmentation

For a de-fragmentation program there isn't any one that is definitively better than the rest, the one I use and suggest is Defraggler. Defragging your PC sorts all your files into an order which makes it faster for your PC to read thus speeding up your whole experience.

Web Browser

First things first,,,DON'T USE INTERNET EXPLORER! Internet Explorer is by far the worst web browser to use because everyone uses it thus when someone is making a virus to exploit a web browser they design it to attack Internet Explorer thus maximizing its chances of getting picked up, in order to stop this happening Microsoft has to put a LOT of security measures in their browser to protect people and this ends up slowing down your Internet experience greatly. In order to have a much faster, safer and all together more pleasant experience while surfing the web I suggest you use either FireFox or Google Chrome.

Computer Games

Now a lot of people dont seem to understand that your video card has drivers and sometimes newer drivers offer extra frames per second in games for free. For an example look at this comparison of an old set of video drivers compared to some more modern ones:

So if you havnt updated yours in a while then now maybe a good time to do so. Click on the correct link for either NVIDIA or ATI depending on what graphics card you are currently using and enter in the details which it asks you for, download the drivers it recommends and then follow these simple steps (dont install your new drivers just yet). Right click on 'My Computer' and then select 'Properties', now you should see a box appear this is where you need to select the 'Device Manager'. Once you are into the device manager it will list all the different hardware that is in your PC, click on the little + next to where it says 'Display Adapter' and it should then list your graphics card. Right click on your graphics card and select 'Uninstall'. It will now give you a warning message, click to select the box called 'Delete the driver software for this device' and press 'OK'. Once your PC has finished blinking the screen and generally going crazy it will prompt you to restart the machine, agree to this and restart. Once your PC has loaded back up you may notice that everything looks really big and bloated, don't worry this is natural. Now find your new video driver which you recently downloaded and install it, you are now using the latest drivers for your video card.

I got a question... what on earth has happened to all of my reviews? They're not in my profile at all.

I went to look for them by going to the games themselves and they weren't there. NO player reviews were there.

What on earth is going on? Is this normal or what?

EDIT: Okay, they're appearing now...

KISS gets a $399 Guitar Hero axe

For Guitar Hero fans who find that going Pete Townshend on a plastic toy guitar after a monster encore is a little anti-climactic, a company called Art Guitar is offering an alternative with a little more heft. The company is now taking preorders for a life-size alternative to RedOctane's official ax, the limited edition AG Riff Master Guitar Controller for the PlayStation 2.

The AG Riff Master is actually a real guitar from Peavey, but it's been heavily modified to have the standard Guitar Hero fret buttons and strum bar embedded within it. The strings have been removed so players can actually use the guitar to play the game, but the rest of the guitar--including the rosewood neck, tuning pegs, and frets--are all intact.

As for the body design, Art Guitar's first offering will feature the iconic masters of merchandizing, KISS, decked out in full stage garb and ready to rock and roll all night, with the obligatory partying every day to follow. KISS is no stranger to the series, having lent their song "Strutter" to Guitar Hero II, and having signed the aforereferenced "Rock and Roll All Nite" to appear in Guitar Hero III.

Authenticity and eye-catching novelty have a price, however. The AG Master Riff will sell for $399. And those who like the idea of the guitar but don't cotton to KISS can take heart; Art Guitar plans to announce a variety of other body designs for the AG Master Riff in the coming months.

Guitar Hero III Aspyr-ing on PC, Mac Associate producer Chance Copeland talks about the two new platforms recently added to RedOctane and Activision's setlist for GHIII. By Staff, GameSpot Posted Sep 11, 2007 1:31 pm ET

Belying its humble roots as a Kentia Hall diamond at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the Guitar Hero franchise has grown to become a pop-cultural juggernaut. That's in part due to the ever-growing reach of the game, which expanded onto the Xbox 360 with Guitar Hero II. For the third iteration in the series, RedOctane and Activision have already planned on doubling the number of platforms the series will appear on, with versions for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Wii having already been announced. (A Nintendo DS Guitar Hero game is also planned.)

Today, Aspyr Media announced a partnership with Activision and RedOctane to bring Guitar Hero III to two more platforms: the PC and Mac. While Tony Hawk studio Neversoft handles the console versions of Guitar Hero III, Aspyr will be independently developing and producing the two new editions of the game. However, the two new platforms will feature an experience similar to that described in GameSpot's coverage of the console versions, including more than 70 songs in its setlist as well as online multiplayer modes. Rated T for Teen, the PC and Mac versions of Guitar Hero III will be available this fall.

We had a chance to speak with Chance Copeland, associate producer for Aspyr Media, at this year's Austin Game Developers Conference to get more details on Guitar Hero III for the PC and Mac.

GameSpot: Tell us why Aspyr decided to make PC and Mac ports of Guitar Hero III. After all, isn't this the kind of game that's best played in the living room?

Chance Copeland: Currently, the music-game genre has very little representation on the PC and Mac platforms, and we think it's past time someone blew that wide open with a powerful franchise like Guitar Hero. Another concept we're trying to transmit to gamers is the idea of "Guitar Hero on the go." Take your laptop with you in the car or on an airplane, put on your headphones, and rock all you want using one of our keyboard configurations for the game. Consoles just aren't travel-friendly the way a good laptop is.

And I'd also like to point out that more and more people are integrating PCs into their primary entertainment system, so playing Guitar Hero III PC in your living room isn't hard to imagine.

GS: Give us an overview of what we can expect from Guitar Hero III for the PC and Mac.

CC: We'll assume that the majority of your PC gaming readers are familiar with the Guitar Hero franchise. With Guitar Hero III, the idea was to make incremental improvements that would make the gameplay better and provide an experience that gives the closest feel to playing a real guitar, without actually playing a real guitar, ever. Hammer-on and pull-off functionality has been improved. The timing window for hitting notes has also been increased slightly so there are fewer clinks when notes are missed by the smallest fractions of a second.

Of course, the one thing most people will notice is that the game looks incredible. The new engine created by Neversoft makes everything pop with tremendous detail, and this time around you'll notice that the drummer, bassist, and singer's lip-synching all match the song that is being performed. The new venues are stunning, crazy to watch, and all react uniquely and in real time to the song that is being performed.

And of course we have to talk about the music. Guitar Hero III's setlist features more master tracks than the previous iterations--more than 70 percent, in fact. These master tracks make a huge difference, and gamers will notice right off the bat when they are playing along with Metallica, the Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, or any of the other legendary acts. The songs are a great sample of almost every era of rock and are a fantastic mix of genres.

Finally, let's not forget online play, the new boss battles, and guitar battle mode. There will be so much rocking to do, gamers won't know what to do with themselves.

GS: Will the two new versions have their own unique guitar model?

CC: The PC version of Guitar Hero III will ship with a USB Guitar Hero guitar controller. We'll be able to talk more about the exact model soon.

GS: Will the game's content be essentially identical to that of the console versions? All the songs intact, for instance? Assuming Guitar Hero III for the Xbox 360 is later supplemented with downloadable songs via Xbox Live Marketplace, how will the PC/Mac versions "keep up" with content updates?

CC: We're certainly dedicated to making sure PC/Mac gamers get just as much content as the console crowd. From launch, the songs available will be identical. As for matching Xbox Live's extended content, we're exploring a few different delivery methods to access downloadable tracks for our PC/Mac guitar heroes and keep them rocking in step with console players. Stay tuned for more on that.

GS: Is there any chance of exclusive content for the PC and Mac versions, such as new or different songs?

CC: That's the first thing we started talking about internally when we got brought into the Guitar Hero family. But for now, we are only focused on delivering the absolute best PC/Mac version of Guitar Hero III possible. Including exclusive content in our version is still a very exciting idea, and something we hope to look at more once we get the game on shelves.

GS: How, if at all, will players be able to use a traditional Guitar Hero controller? For instance, will they be able to use the Xbox 360 guitar controller with a USB adapter? Are any other considerations for control schemes being made for the PC and Mac? How will people who don't own a guitar controller play the game...with their keyboard and mouse, perhaps?

CC: A USB Guitar Hero guitar controller will be included with the game, and the title will work with any USB Guitar Hero guitar controller.

Since this is a PC title, we have of course created some fun and creative keyboard and keyboard/mouse configurations. We'll have a keyboard/mouse configuration and a keyboard-only configuration as presets, but players will also have the options of binding their own keys for gameplay.

Having so much flexibility with the keyboard and keyboard/mouse lets gamers play however they would like. It also allows players to take Guitar Hero III "to go" on their laptops and play in cars, on planes, at that boring relative's house during the holidays, or wherever. In addition, it makes two-player gaming on the same PC possible if there is only one guitar controller available.

GS: Could you tell us about what plans you have for the game's multiplayer? Will it support local network play? Will the game use a third-party application for online play, or possibly Microsoft's Live Anywhere technology?

CC: For online play, we are using Demonware's networking technology. Since multiplayer features two players competing on the same screen, we didn't think a local network play option would be essential.

GS: One of the most well-known and popular advantages of the PC and Mac as game platforms is how malleable the games end up, given that enthusiastic fans create modifications and custom content to extend the life of their favorite games. Are there any plans to build in any tools to let players get creative with the PC or Mac version? Any concerns that enthusiasts might get a little too creative with the game's content, such as using the game to distribute unlicensed songs online, or posting gameplay videos with unlicensed songs to the Internet?

CC: As gamers ourselves, and a company that has roots in the Mac and PC market, we appreciate the incredible skill and creativity that gamers display when digging around inside certain titles. But right now, our only focus is porting Guitar Hero III to the PC and Mac and making sure that both meet the standards of high quality set by the franchise. We are not building any tools into the game that will allow users to mod or create tracks, and we definitely do not support any altering of the game or the songs contained within.

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