In other gaming news, I recently bought Spirit Tracks from Amazon for the great price of $25 during their DS best-sellers sale a few days ago. It should arrive by sometime after Christmas, so that'll be my present to myself. I still have to buy presents for Mom and my sister, though, so my shopping isn't over yet.
Finally, I know some of you have been wondering where I've been, since I haven't been posting as much lately. I just finished my fall semester of school, so I'll have more time now. I have been doing other things in my spare time, such as playing games and watching Netflix DVD's, so that explains my lack of activity. I'm gonna try and bring it back up, but that also depends on you people who post in OT RC as well as the OCC... I hardly find time to post when those places are active anymore.
I got a message saying I was nominated for "Gamespotter of the Year". Considering that I hadn't really been churning out content over 09', I was a bit surprised, but I know now that there is only one thing to do. Promote myself! Maybe this is the motivation I needed to get back into blogging.
In all seriousness, this idea of having a "Gamespotter of the Year" is perhaps a bit silly. After all, I know that there are many users who've made some fantastic contributions to the site who aren't on the list.
At least for me though, it's fun to vie for meaningless internet titles, because what else do I have to vie for in old trivial reality.
I really do encourage you to look over this list below and vote (for whomever you like). Even if you don't vote, why not look at some profiles, there are lots of cool users with lots of interesting things to say. Check em' out and be part of the democratic process online.
The following is copied straight from the Gamespot community blog.
How to Vote:
1) Review the list of usernames below. Check to see the reason that the user was the member spotlight and consider if that user is actively blogging!
2) Send a private message to our staff account. In your message, add the username in the subject field and add a period in the message field. Here is an example of what the private message should look like before you send it to our staff.
Please don't add anything but the username in the subject title field so we can insert your username and the person you voted for into a spreadsheet.
Note: The 2009 member spotlights are not eligible to vote in this little activity, but they can notify their friends about it.
Please check each user profile to see if the user is an active contributor and check to see why the user received the member spotlight.
Here are the member spotlights of 2009!
Voting ends January 2, 2010!
P.S. Wootex here, first off, I would have loved to put the links for the other users here, but that didn't seem to work right, so I just had to link you back to the community blog.
Second, I'm well aware that since I marked this as an editorial it will appear on the soapbox, which seems kind of petty since it's mostly just me promoting something I have an active interest in. Well... I would never claim not to be petty.
Hey all!
Before anyone asks, I'm all right. After I had made the Thanksgiving blog, I rode with a friend up to ETSU and let's just say the experience wasn't fun at all.
We left town around 4 in the afternoon, and we hit some pretty nasty traffic about 97 miles away from Knoxville. An hour later the traffic had already cleared, and I was starting to get hungry. We pulled at a Pilot gas station which had a Wendy's and ate before heading onto the interstate. We were about 20 miles away from Knoxville when I noticed a Chevy Impala in front of us slowed down abruptly. I tried warning my friend to slow down which he did but not in time to avoid hitting the car. It was a hard impact, and we were fortunate that the air bags went off. My ears were ringing after the hit, and I noticed that another car in front of the Impala swerved into the median of the interstate. You can guess how that happened. 
So we got out of the car and checked to see if everyone else was okay. Fortunately, we were. The person driving the Impala looked like he was almost in his middle ages, and the other one, driving a Charger if I'm not mistaken, seemed fairly young. The latter had a wife who was seven months pregnant, but we heard she was okay. After police cars and ambulances showed up, we all gave each of our story, and it seems that my friend was technically the cause of the accident even though the cars in front of us slowed down. Then again, he was going at least 5 - 10 mph above the speed limit and was texting the entire time.
After filling out forms, his car ended up getting towed, but we were thankful that one of our friends, who was stuck in the traffic we caused, came by to give us a lift. In the end, it was our first time to have been in a car wreck, and we were thankful to have survived such an impact. Saturn may be defunct, but at least they built a pretty sturdy car. 
Anyway, I just thought I'd share this not-so-fun experience with you all. I'm sure some of you have had a similar experience like my friend and I encountered on our way back to ETSU.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time! 
A music composer has seemingly revealed Rockstar's secret in-development Bully sequel (that's 'Canis Canem Edit' in Europe).
Shawn Lee, who worked on the music for the first PS2, PC, Wii and 360 playground-em-up, said in an interview, "It looks like I will be doing the soundtrack for Bully 2 in the not so distant future." Hopefully he still will, after Rockstar goes mental that he's gone and announced its game
And i got my first beer at a bar too!
So...I got the SF4 Collector's Edition...twice! Yeah, I first bought from Capcom but they had it in backorder so I tried to cancel and went to a store and picked it up. The next day they emailed me say that the order had been shipped. So now I have two copys of SF4. I will see if I can sale it on ebay or something...
Anyways, I have be playing it every chance I get. Its so fun and online battle are great...even though I lose about 85% of the time. So after I get sick of losing a bunch, I switch to COD4 and start kicking but which makes me feel better.
My charater I have been trying to master is C. Viper. I just think she is so cool and classy. Besides her, I will just switch off charaters and get the basic of all the others. My skills with Ryu, Sakura, and of course Dan are getting there...but I STILL CAN'T DO SHORUKEN! I just can't get the concept of forward, down, lower corner.
I like the stuff that came with the Collector's Edition. It came with the soundtrack (the cool themes), the anime (good dubbing but they didn't even try lipsyncing, also you get more story in it than the whole game), and the figure (C.Viper: Small but can go along side my Street Fighter Energy Drink with Ken on the cover!)
Finally...Street Fighter: The Legend Of Chun-Li. Its okay...but the movie industry thinks that they must add some wierd stuff to make it true to the video game (In this movie it was mostly just the lame M.Bison origins). Okay first! Chun-Li was a interpol agent in the game and here she is a pianist....you know what? I am just going to rundown all the things quickly, just like ripping a bandade off: M. Bision is Irish, Balrog doesn't wear boxing gloves, Vega has a retarded mask, Rose is Bision's daughter?, Nash Charlie is an Interpol agent that is horny and doesn't fight, and the actor that plays Gen was Lu Kang from the original Mortal Kombat movies (I just thought that was funny!). So the movie was okay...but it was as okay as Max Payne.
And finally: Cammy in her alternate costume from Street Fighter 4! Yes, even my new drawing is Street Fighter related.
I will be using the same type of awards as the Gamespot crew if that's ok? Though I will using far from all of them, as I simply have not played enough games to fill each category. So if you guys would wanna help me out with the awards I missed that would be great, or you simply just want to disagree you're free to that as well.
Well then off we go!
Best Story
Lost Odyssey
Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Dead Space
Valkyria Chronicles
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Graphics, Technical
GRID
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Crysis Warhead
Dead Space
Gears of War 2
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Graphics, Artistic
Fable II
Little Big Planet
Valkyria Chronicles
Mirror's Edge
Prince of Persia
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Atmosphere
Grand Theft Auto IV
Dead Space
Fable II
Fallout 3
Left 4 Dead
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Original Music
Lost Odyssey
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Fable II
Mirror's Edge
Prince of Persia
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Sound Design
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Battlefield: Bad Company
Dead Space
Fallout 3
Left 4 Dead
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Voice Acting
No More Heroes
Grand Theft Auto IV
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Dead Space
Fable II
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Cooperative Multiplayer
NHL 09
Little Big Planet
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
Left 4 Dead
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Competitive Multiplayer
Burnout Paradise
Sins of a Solar Empire
Grand Theft Auto IV
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Most Improved Sequel
Saints Row 2
Fable II
Fallout 3
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
Best Original IP
No More Heroes
Lost Odyssey
Dead Space
Valkyria Chronicles
Left 4 Dead
And the winner is...
***SPOILER***
I will post part 2 by the end of the week were I discuss a few disappointments of mine and also hand out the bigger awards.
And I aplogize before hand of possible grammar issues, I'm posting this right before I'm going to sleep lol.
//ZimpanX
I'll set up a proper website at some point. But in the meantime you can check me out at:
http://hyperboledrive.blogspot.com/
A year(ish) ago I made my first ever public New Year's resolution, to play more games (specifically anything scoring 8.5 or higher on GameSpot). Twelve of the best months in gaming for a long time later, and I'm not surprised to report I have fallen woefully short. I started off strong, but it all started to go downhill when Pokemon Diamond got a high enough score to mean I had to play it. I just really couldn't bring myself to play a Pokemon game. Partially because it's Pokemon and, you know, Pokemon, but mostly because I don't ever want to be able to talk with any level of expertise about Pokemon, a man's got to have some standards after all. Pokemon Diamond, of course, was not one of the games of the year so I might be able to let it slide. Not really, let's have a quick run through the GOTY nominees to see how many good games I missed out on this year.
Bioshock - I played the demo when it came out on Xbox Live, but that's it. My excuse? Absolutely none whatsoever. I wanted to play it, had the opportunity and time to play it, but just never played it. Chalk up another game for me to play when it gets a price drop.
Call of Duty 4 - Played through the single player on PC, yet to get into the multiplayer. Very good game, but I felt that the relentless forward motion normally required in Call of Duty games didn't sit so well in a modern setting. Nevertheless the Chernobyl and AC-130 missions are two of the best individual levels I have played for a long time.
Crysis - I have purchased, installed and started playing Crysis. I also spent nigh on $3000 buying a new PC to play it on, including SLI 8800GTs. Just to let you know, that's not enough, you still have to mess around with the settings an awful lot to get the framerate at an acceptable number. Besides that, I haven't played enough of it to form a serious opinion of the game, except to say that the first hour or so is pretty underwhelming.
Forza 2 - Haven't been near it, not interested. I really don't do racing games.
God of War 2 - I've given my thoughts on God of War 2 previously, but here's a summary: Bigger and more impressive than the first, with some truly epic boss fights. The story and atmosphere of the sequel, however, is a long way short of the original. Probably one of the best games to come out on the PS2.
Halo 3 - I've played through the single player campaign in co-op about one and a half times. To be honest, I lost track of the Halo story about halfway through Halo 2, so I have nothing to say about it as a concluding chapter. I also think that changing the primary enemy from elites to brutes changed the dynamic of the game for the worse. Because the brutes do not have recharging shields the player is no longer required to play in a run-and-gun style, which turns Halo 3 into a much more standard shooter in which you sit behind cover taking pot shots at enemies until they die. Multiplayer-wise, Bungie continue to set the mark for online community features with the replay features, improved stat-tracking and so forth. Regardless of whether or not you like Halo's multiplayer, the quality of the features surrounding it is unmatched.
Rock Band - Wouldn't know, it's not out in Australia yet, and in fact it still doesn't even have a solid release date here.
Super Mario Galaxy - I've played a fair amount of Galaxy and I have to say that it hasn't impressed me a whole lot. Rather than repeat someone else's words, check out the Zero Punctuation review of the game. It's worth noting that this was definitely the best Wii game to come out in 2007, but that's really a feat on the order of winning a fist fight against Stephen Hawking.
The Orange Box - From a GOTY perspective, we have to ignore Half-Life 2 and Episode 1, which just leaves Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal. For my money, Portal is close to being a GOTY contender by itself. Add in Team Fortress 2, which I haven't played but has caused sleepless nights among quite a few people at my work, and you need a very good reason to not make The Orange Box Game of The Year.
World In Conflict - I have bought this game, but not yet played it, so that's probably all I can say about that.
So of the nine nominees, I've played 3 enough that I feel fully qualified to talk about them, and another 3 a bit. Maybe I'll do better next year. It's probably best not to bother with a resolution though, try and keep the amount of self-inflicted failures for the year to a minium.
On an entirely unrelated note, I spent a few days over the Christmas break coding and putting up a blog at http://stripeshop.metagnome.net mostly as a coding project because that's the kind of totally not-nerdy-at-all thing I do when I'm on holiday. Anyway, it's going to be serving as a place for my musings on more esoteric and technical game design stuff, including board games, card games, any games I can get my hands on really and whatever I get up to with the XNA toolkit. GameSpot is staying as my usual outlet for rants and comments on computer gamery and other random stuff, but if you don't get enough metagnome with my sporadic GameSpot updates, feel free to check out the Stripe Shop.
You guys must have see the "THE FUTURE IS BLU" ads on Gamespot...
Man I see them everywhere 
Whenever I click on a thread or something, it just shows up which is not cool..
**Wonder if Gamespot only has one ad***
Later from Perfection..
| kcpp2b wrote: |
| Post your bets! We now have Single Bets, Duel Bets & Group Bets! If you want to see the old thread click this link here: System Wars Bets Thread: Version 1.0 HALL OF SHAME TrueReligion_: Said he would Leave GS Forever if MP3 didn't get AAA Leegar88: Lost MP3 bet saying he would sell his copy of MP2 on Ebay but didn't and lied about doing it. No_submission: "If Heavenly Sword scores less than 9.0 then I will leave gamespot." (Refused to leave then got banned) Kittykatz5k: "If any of the next 5 sonic games score AA or higher, I will eat one of my sandels." He also said he would do a make up bet which had him sing a love song to Casey but backed out of it after pretending he would do it the night before. Why_Me-: Refused to admit he lost and acted as if he won. Refused to wear the sig and resorted to trash talking. Slothboyadvance: "If Metroid Prime 3 scores less than a 9, I will post a video of myself eating a cheeseburger and I will recite a line from the movie "Pulp Fiction." (Didn't do it and rather be in the Hall of Shame) Juanfraino: "If MP3 scores under 9.0, I will buy a psp" (Never got back to us) JLuke360: "I bet that if Halo 3 recieves a score of 9.0 or above, I will document my adventures at a retailer's midnight launch of the game." (Claimed he won his bet) Krazy_duck: "If ANY GAME coming out in the remainder of this year scores 9.5 or higher,I will leave GS FOREVER" (Said he would leave and lied) Choga: "If Halo 3 scores AAA+, I will make a video of me and my friends rocking out while playing Guitar Hero 2 multiplayer." willem199: ''I bet that Quake Wars will score 9.0 or higher, and I'll buy Battlefield 2142 Northern Strike if it doesn't." (Wouldn't respond to any PM's) Rikusaki: Lost his SMG/R&C Group Bet and refused to simply post in praise of SMG as the stipulation said. ------------------------------------------ *Below this is the LOST BETS section, HALL OF FAME and then the BET LIST. If you can't find certain old Bets they most likely have been moved to the PAST BETS section which is below the BET LIST.... |
This what happens when GS gets extremely Dull, I ended up on System Warsbets hall of shame. I am not really praising myself for this I just sort of think its funny that this place can get so boringit might evencause someone like me to try trolling. No one on system wars really cares except the guys who take care of the thread. Nothing against them but they are a little serious about it.
I had completly forgot that I was on the Shame wall, I made a thread asking if anyone had any SW bets they regret(I was bored today and wanted to see if someone would bring it up). The Bets thread leader came in and brought up my bet.
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26048913
The moral of this story is don't let GS get boring again and I won't get in trouble. But I doubt I will troll SW again it is to easy and trolls just make the place worse.
After playing Halo 3 practically none stop, all be it the little pause of two weeks it took for my 360 to get back from repair, I have finally got all 1000/1000 achievements from this game, now im no achievement junkie but as im a die hard Halo fan I wanted this for a number of reasons, firstly just as its Halo 3 and I like the game that much and secondly because of this new armor I got. How freakin cool is this, ever since seeing the security armour I have wanted it and finally got it, and without cheating or boosting my achievementsI may add, which I hate when I go into a game and theres always some ten year old kid going "Anyone want the Overkill achievement".
Anyhow I have also purchased COD 4 and I may add that both single player and multi player of this game are amazing, the multiplayer is stunning and the single player is easilly its strongest point, big dramatic fire fights, amazing scrpted sequences, great weapon balancing audio and characters, it is a amazing game, that i highly reccomend.
And finally if you get the time or even get the chance to read this check out myfile shareif you can please download and comment a few of my videos, clips and images and rate please, thats it for now see you all on Halo. Just search me in bungie.net and type in Duality90, I did put a link but Gamespot wouldent allow it to work due to some error.
meaning my board will go. so anyone related to it in any way (which you probably arent, theres only about 5), i'll still post blogs occasionally (maybe), and if anyone still wants to stay in contact over msn or email, then just ask for my adress.
its been fun, thanks.
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/unions/home.php?union_id=SWAPMEET
But I get paid $6.15 p/h. Not too too bad considering I am only 16. But I get 15% off of everything except consoles. Plus i get 30% off of everything at Barnes and Noble. Then i can take out any game for 4 days as long as i bring it back for free!!!!
Well so much for not feeling like typing them but yea. It is actually a really cool job. I already love it.
The Ice Dragon
