I just thought I'd add to the list of Gamespot bloggers talking about how great Uncharted 2 is. I really enjoyed the first game and part 2 is more of the same, but with better designed levels. That doesn't sound like much, but giving you the option to use the stealth kill and hand to hand combat abilities that were all but useless in the first game really does a good job of varying the combat and keeping it from getting stale.

There are plenty of action set piece moments in the game, and they stayed with me long after I finished them. Things like fighting your way through a moving train, trying to survive an attack from a helicopter with nothing but pistol, or escaping from a collapsing building were so much fun I wanted to play through them again as soon as I finished the game. Thankfully, you have the option to play through any chapter again after you've completed it.

All the talk in the bonus features about putting you in an "interactive action movie" got me thinking….. when was the last time I enjoyed a non-interactive action movie? The Die Hard and Lethal Weapon series fizzled out years ago. Attempted action movie revivals like Live Free or Die Hard and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull were travesties. Even the Matrix is past its tenth birthday. With crap like Transformers and G.I. Joe dominating the box office it's easy to see why I hardly ever go to the movies anymore. Video games really have become my go to medium to see stuff blow up real good.

Though it's not quite in Uncharted 2s league, I've also been enjoying Call of Juarez: Bound In Blood lately. It's a first person shooter set in the old west. With all the FPS games out there, the setting of BiB really helps it to stand out. The barren deserts, lush forests, and seedy border towns all look great and help to distinguish the game from the drab, grey war-torn setting we're used to in most modern FPS games. The selection of pistols and rifles is also a nice change of pace from the norm.You can select from one of two playable characters in most of the levels, the agile Thomas, who can use silent weapons like knives and arrows and climb up to high ledges and walkways, or the tough Ray, who has more health and can break through locked doors, duel wield pisols, and has dynamite that he can throw like a grenade. They play so differently from each other that it was fun going through the campaign a second time with the other character.

I'm sure Bound In Blood won't turn out to be as polished or intense as Modern Warfare 2, but if you're looking for something a little different from the submachine guns and sniper rifles in most FPS games, I'd give the game a shot, especially now that the price has dropped.

So now I've got a tough choice to make. I got Dragon Age in the mail yesterday, but I've also taken advantage of amazon.com's $20 gift card deal and pre-ordered Modern Warfare 2. Do I start on Dragon Age now, knowing that it will take me weeks if not months to finish? Or do I wait for MW2 to ship next week?

It's tough being a gamer in fall….

For years I have been reading complaints from Gamespot users regarding moderations or bans that they felt were excessive or unfair. While I could sympathize with those people, I could never really be sure if all those complaints about overzealous mods were genuine. I mean, there are two sides to every story, right? For all I knew the mods were being unfairly criticized for coming down on obvious offenses by users. After all, since I had never been targeted by a mod, I had no experience to draw any conclusions from.

All that changed last week.

You see, I've got this friend on Gamespot. Let's call him PMrezzy. PMrezzy has a strange disorder where he does not respond well to compliments or constructive criticism, preferring instead to be communicated to with mock insults. So when I saw a comment from PMrezzy on another friend's blog complaining about a game he was recently playing, I tried to be accommodating by suggesting that perhaps his skills weren't sufficient to appreciate the subtleties of that game. This resulted in a string of comments where we exchanged mock insults. A day or so later, it also resulted in me getting modded for the following reason:

"Intending solely to annoy and/or offend other users"

Now, while the text above is basically true, it fails to take in to account that the guy I was "intending to annoy" was a friend of mine. Is it really against the rules to tease someone on your friend's list? I would say this was BS, but I wouldn't want to get modded again for insulting the mod who modded me in the first place. Try saying that last sentence three times fast.

I understand that the mods have a tough job enforcing the rules on this site, but before having a knee jerk reaction to every post that seems offensive I wish they could take the context of those remarks into account.

After many long years of posting on Gamespot, I finally feel like I have something in common with the larger GS community. The next time I see someone complain about being unfairly modded I can say "Yeah. I've been there".

Everyone who voted for Gordon Freeman in the best video game hero competition needs to see what the world would look like without Mario.

Gamespot's voting system was flawed anyway. Instead, they should have had character vs. character smackdowns similar to this Scorpion/ Donkey Kong battle.

Mario's defeat was painful enough, but after logging in to this site for the first time in about a week I discover that not one, but two people have tagged me for one of those silly "10 facts about me" blogs. I am considering no longer speaking to those people. I'm not one to shirk my responsibilities however, so here's 10 random facts.

1)I have 5 fingers on each hand

2)I had pizza for lunch today

3)There are 206 bones in my body

4)I've been playing video games since the Atari 2600

5)I am composed of about 60% water

6)I don't like being around people

7)I have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome

8 My favorite number is 3

9)I am right handed

10)After finishing this blog, I plan on starting Uncharted 2

Enlightening, no? Hoping to put an end to this vicious cycle, I will tag no one.

Someday soon, Sandpiper121PP and Lazyhoboguy, you two will pay for what you've done. Oh yes….. you will pay….

Jane is the educator for our hospice program. It is her job to train new staff on the use of our computer system.

A pleasant woman in her late 50s/early 60s, she has an office a few feet from my desk. This makes it easy for me to approach her after I finish one of my phone conversations with staff and explain to her just how little of the training she provided to that staff member actually stuck. Readers of this blog only know a small fraction of the tales of staff idiocy that I have told to Jane over the years.

Not long ago she told me about a road trip she had just been on with her husband. She was fascinated by all the acronyms she saw on the bumper stickers of cars she passed by and provided me with her guesses as to what they stood for. Our conversation ended with this delightful exchange.

"One bumper sticker had WTF on it. Does that stand for 'what the ****'?"

"Yes"

"Really?! It does?"

"Yes"

"I only thought of that because I hear you say it to me all the time"

The moments I experience a genuine feeling of pride in this job are few and far between. This was one of those moments.

Last week I had my annual staff retreat day off. It was very relaxing.

It wasn't long after coming into work the next day that I began hearing stories of what I missed by not attending this so-called "retreat".

They had this get together on the 30th floor of a building located in downtown Manhattan. Soon after arriving, many staff couldn't help but notice the clear view this building offered of the remains of the World Trade Center, located across the street. Those staffers were noticeably uncomfortable throughout the rest of the day.

After the staff were assigned seats, they were greeted by the paid speaker for the day, who regaled them with the story of the horrible complications his wife had giving birth to their first son. This unfortunate child was terribly deformed and had to be monitored throughout his life until he passed away at 28. The speaker then moved on to his second child, who died at 2 weeks old.

One new parent in attendance broke down in tears.

The speaker then filled our lucky attendees in on the rest of his life, which apparently included a stay in a mental institution. He eventually found his true calling getting paid to unload all of his misery on to health care staff.

Staff were then separated into groups. They then spent the rest of the day drawing out the negative energy from each other and replacing it with positive energy. If I were among them, I don't think I'd have any positive energy left.

My boss tells me he "took a bullet" for me by attending this horror show. He insists that I will be going next year. I made it quite clear that I have no intention of doing so. He then remarked that he has one year to change my mind.

I wished him luck.