We all have a hype o´meter regarding things we want, be it games, movies, books, music records, etc. Most of the time, we idealize this thing we want, giving it either too much praise, or picturing it as the second coming. But not all folks are the same. Some of us, actually end up liking what we get, others, just placed their minds in the whole second coming thing, and get totally dissapointed with what they get. This ideas created a lot of myths regarding what Next Gen should be, so lets point a few.

1. If one game reaches amazing graphics, all games should be able to do the same: There is a whole lot of different ways of developing games. And there are a whole lot of different genres of games. Some games are stricty linear, others give a little bit more of freedom, others have a lot of effects going on in the screen at real time at the same moment, and others give you whole places to explore. Most of the gamers know nothing about the developing process, and unlike people like myself, they didn´t even took the time to learn a little bit of how it is done (not coding, but the proccess as a whole).
   There is a big difference between developing a game like Uncharted, and doing a game as expansive as Grand Theft Auto 4, or a game with many explosions and individual AIs as in Metal Gear Solid 4.
   For starters, games as Uncharted have a lower focus on stuff as horizon, pop-up, etc. Mostly because of their lineal nature, which even if you are outside, the map is a corridor. Thats why games as Gears of War and Uncharted can reach such amazing levels of graphics.
   On the other hand, we have games as Metal Gear Solid 4, and even on a lesser extent, Resistance. Metal Gear Solid 4 uses really low res textures on the stages, as in the previous games, it sacrifices them in order to aim that power to character resolution, which is among the best in videogames, and in some points, close to a "High" setted Crysis. This games focus their power on other stuff, explosions with lots of particles (the explosion clouds on MGS4 are just amazing, specially in Act 2), the Hedgehog grenade in Resistance, which, if you take your time, is composed of individual needles, that act as single objects, not as a group.
   Finally, we have the "Sandbox" games. This games use a lot of power from the console, the constant loadings, the expansive areas, the multiple objects, and to that, they have to add the speed at which we move in that world, if we go to fast, the objects have to appear even faster. Or the distance at which they appear. I remember that I could never finish San Andreas because I was stuck in a mission, where I was asked to fly and deliver a box, but I had to go in low altitude, suddenly, I found myself near a forest, and trees would appear 10 feet in front of me, which equals death. Thats why sandbox games restrict themselves, to either less on-screen objects with no area loadings, or closed areas (Assassins Creed) with lots of object.
2. New Gen, New Game Controls: This has to be the biggest misconception ever. Old timers as myself, found that the same happened when the jump was made from PS to PS2. Its a lie, a complete lie. In fact, after 2 years, you could count the "innovative" games with one hand (ICO, Devil May Cry, Zone of the Enders, Metal Gear Solid 2, and possibly Final Fantasy X). This gen will be faced with the same. After 1 year, we had 2 games that where "different" from the rest: Dead Rising and Gears of War. after more than 2 years we now can include Metal Gear Solid 4 in the pack. But as you see, we are not that different from previous gens. It has to be understanded that it is not easy to make a new set of controls, just look at how badly received was Lair, a game that got criticized for a controller flaw (though I dont agree, and I sort of know why it got killed in the West). People is not ready for "big" jumps, and wants something more familiar. Games as ICO, Shadow of the Colossus and Okami offered great and fresh gameplay, but apparently not many cared. This gen wont be different, get ready when Heavy Rains flops in sales as Indigo Prophecy did before.
3. Innovation: The biggest discussion today in System Wars, and in gaming communities in general is in regards to Innovation. Are games as Little Big Planet and Braid actually innovating? Or are they doing what PCs have done in the past? Why is this happening? I will call it to lack of education on behalf of the ones who deny innovation. By deffinition, Innovate is "Introduce something new". In general terms, then any creator in a console is not something innovative, because it has been a feature in many PCs. But that comes from reading, and not from understanding. To understand something, one must have a certain level of "brains", and this is acquired in the school, high-school and university. If you take your time, you will notice that most games are actully innovating in some sort of way. Innovation has to be measured too. For example, Resistance is not your usual FPS, as most would believe. Why do I say this? Because Resistance innovates from other areas, something that Insomniac has always been good at: "Weapons". Most of Resistance arsennal is completely unique, from the Hedgehog grenades to the Far Eye Quick Motion skill, or a 40 player online mode, etc.
   Then we get to games as LBP and Braid. Lets start with Braid. Braid at simple sight looks like your usual platformer, but, if you actually see it, you find that it has many cool concepts, from its "bizarre" story, to its time controlling skills. Then we have LBP, a game that will allow us to create levels (for 1-4 users), monsters, bosses, and even link levels and add a story behind them. Was anything similar seen on Consoles before? Yes. Was it actually user friendly? No. Games as RPG Maker and the like offered you the possibility of creating your things, but they either lacked customization options, or a simple interface that allowed us to express our mind with no trouble.
4. Graphics have to be all amazing: There is one thing that we have lost. This one thing did not hurted last gen games, but apparently, for the media in the West countries, graphics have turned into the most important factor in a game score. What am I meaning? Games as Crysis got their scores from their beautiful graphics, yes, Crysis graphics, and effects are unrivalled, but the game has no personality. It feels like more of the same, and offers nothing actually new. All the superpowers granted by the Nano suits appeared in previous games, and the openness is not that great, considering that objectives are lineal as hell. But thats not my point. What Im going is, games as the recently released Disgaea 3 are suffering from this tendency. There is no actual need of changing the graphics, they are games, and the most important thing should be gameplay (Though I normally prefer story over gameplay). Games as Disgaea will continue to suffer from this, until one day, everything is back to 1 (yep, quoting Big Boss ). We will never go back to zero, but we can go back to 1, in terms of reviews.
5. Online mode as a must: If there is one thing that can kill many games, then thats the inclusion of online modes. For one hand, the dedication that is lost from the Single Player mode due to the inclusion of the mode, but we also have games being destroyed and cancelled due to the lack of such mode. This is not the future of gaming, yes, some games can be made to have online, but there is no need to force the mode into every game. If not, we will get things as GTA4 online mode which are completely tacked on. What happened to the lasting sp experiences? Also, online gave ways to user milking, with map packs, extra weapons, etc. In some games, such extra content (especially for games that usually work only on consoles) is not a bad thing, lets say that Square Enix releases a paid patch for Final Fantasy XIII that includes the extras of their international editions, that is something actually usefull, because, they would most likely charge less for it, but also, the gamer would not have to have 2 copies of the game.
   But other games, as Call of Duty 4, Warhawk, Halo 3, etc, should not charge for their packs, or wait a little bit and realease them as a pack. In this place, I have to save Warhawk from the list, as they actually do that, along with the new booster pack, they include the bundle, which saves you a lot, lot of money.
6. New Generation, Cheaper or equally priced games: Now this is something most here are either too young to understand, or just too stupid. Prices have increased, and its not just the oil price. As a country evolves, and grows, its workforce becomes stronger. It gets paid better, and buys more thanks to that. Because of that, developers start to charge more for their work, which in turn increases the price of the game. But that is not alone, then we have the dev-cycle. In order to keep with today standards, some companies take their time to clean the game. This does not means that after many years you will release a master piece. Mediocre games are made in a matter of months, good games normally take 1, 1.5 years at most, and great games take from 2-5 years to make (consider that such games spend a lot of time in the developing table). As previously mentioned, a long dev-cycle is not necessary implying a great game, as well as a short dev-cycle a mediocre one. But in general looks, its that way.
7. Consoles are onlyfor gaming: This could be the most "pro-Sony" point of the whole blog, but its actually something that I consider as the best thing, this new gen has brought us. Consoles are not just gaming places anymore, yes, as PCs are mostly working places, consoles are still gaming places. But, times are moving, the market is evolving, and so that you dont stay back in time, you have to move ahead of the others, and go with the flow. Adding many extra features is not a bad choice for a new gen console. Not having them is a bad idea. Just look at how many times MS had to change their offers in the 360 adapting to things Sony either included or announced.
   This is because such things are actually sought by us, the market, even if you say "I dont give a flying rat poo", the market speaks otherwise. The first thing we have to understand, (something that most of us went through when we entered in the university for the first time) is that you are nothing. You alone are worth nothing, not even your ideas. The only way to make yourself somebody, is to be able to affect something. In this case; sales. Companies move depending on what the market wants. Thats why companies do what they do. It is when they dont listen to their market that errors are commited.
   The market this time said they wanted more features in their console, Sony and MS are delivering such things. And Im loving it. Now we dont have tosit on a chair to watch our series episodes or movies in the PC, we can do so in our living rooms, or our own rooms. We can even navigate the internet, connect to other computers to share content, and even chat through our consoles whithout being tied to computers. This is the biggest advancement of this gen.

Well, Im keeping this short, since this is not going to be my "main" blog. Im still working on my actual blog post which I will most likely post next week since there are some things I want to sort out first.

Anyway, I was modded again, apparently stating your opinion in Gamespot is worthy of a 7 day suspension so whatever. Mods are the Internet Bush counterparts.

Ok people, just showing that Im alive ;D At least for the moment.

Just in case, this is my Giant Bomb username: DragoonKain1687

and this is my new GB blog: http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/DragoonKain1687/

Ok people, till next time

Its not something new to gamers, especially us hardcore gamers that PC gaming is on decline. Though Hermits (the internet slang for PC fans) may deny such decline thanks to some powerful pieces of software as Crysis, the actual PC world is dying, and rapidly. Previously PC exclusive franchises have now made their way into home consoles, with some strong examples as Half Life, Team Fortress and Battlefield.
But what is actually going on with the PC? The first thing that comes to mind, of anyone who knows the "streets" is that piracy is the main reason of this decline. Companies including Capcom (Devil May Cry 4), Crytek (Crysis) and Ubisoft (Assassins Creed) have all reported that their stellar games have suffered a lot of "torrent" downloads, making sales number decrease from their consoles counter parts in some occassions. Recently, Capcom announced a huge number for DMC 4 in terms of illegal downloads. Crysis, the so called best game on the PC only managed to get to 1 million units sold, and Crysis is not one of those niche games. Ubisoft is now suing their printing company for a related accident

This numbers are hurted even more when you see the same game on a console getting as much as double their PC sales, in 2 weeks. After all, even gaming is business, and just like many companies are abandoning exclusive deals, many companies are just jumping ship from a sinking PC. Now the question is, will PC be the next Titanic, or will it be the next hildenburg?

In a recent interview, carmack announced that recent sales of games in PC are not what they used to be, and that on the other hand, home console sales have increased exponentially. He mentiones that PCs are still exploitable, but that they are not going to focus on them anymore. They will still construct the games based on them, but PC are not their target anymore.
PC gamers though should rest at easy since Rage and Doom 4 are still coming to PC. In Carmacks words, "We have an obligation to bring Rage to PCs and I cant imagine a Doom thats not on a PC".

So, Carmacks words could be the final nails on the PC (Actually I hope not cause I used a lot of papers to buy my new rig) if the situation is not changed. Even with EAs supposedly "fail-proof" security system, nothing was attained. Its in my belief that moves as the one of EA will only hurt the industry in the future.

Well, this is going to be short, and my first, hate blog.

Thanks to Microsoft lack of care for gamers, and big pockets, Final Fantasy will be delayed. Great, now what could be a 4 months wait will most likely be a 8 to 12 months wait. Great, just simply great.

At first, I wasnt angry at FF XIII going multi. Why would I, Im still getting to play the gme, and Im as far as a fanboy as possible, even while I dont own all the consoles. But this, its the drop that breaked the glass.

In other news, I downloaded a true old gem, which means that sadly it was not in the "right" way. That Gem is Dino Crisis 2. I forgotted how much I loved it. Sadly its still too short. I thought that after all this years, I would be having a harder time with it, but gladly, the system was so great back then that it was not hard to get into it again. For those who dont know, Dino Crisis 2 is the actual father of both Devil May Cry and Resident Evil 4. It was the first Survival game to sport full action trades, as run and gun (which is extremely cool), combos, points, rewards and no set number of enemies.

Another game that I have started playing again in the PC is Halo, it was a great game back in the day, still it was hellishly overrated, especially the PC edition that should have gotten no higher that 8. Still, its strongest point is its soundtrack, which is actually the only thing I like about it.

I dont play the PC much, my forte is on consoles, so when I name a PC game, start picturing me playing it for 15 minutes and then leaving it, since I prefer to play on consoles, and its much better for my eyes since Im farther from the screen.

Yeah, apparently some stores received it earlier, or at least the distributors released it earlier. Thanks to this, my importer managed to grab a couple of copies and I bought one. Now, from what Ive heard, its safest to play until the 29 unloged just to avoid an IP ban in the console, so Im gonna be offline when I play this. Now, on my opinion of the game.

I love it. The presentation is good though it could have used a regular store instead of needing us to go to character creation to purchase the items. The SP mode has 4 modes (redundancy): Story, Tower of Souls, Arcade and Training. Story is our usual story mode, pick a character, and play through his story (5 stages only, most of the time its you against 3 to 4 enemies). Tower of Souls is a 60 floor survival battle divided into 60 events, each with its own restrictions and prizes. The first stage lets you tag team 2 characters (havent tried the upper ones) There is also the option to descend, but its locked so maybe its unlocked when you finish it.

You can customize every character, adding them some slick skills to increase stats, or gain new moves (I mean every character as in the story ones too including Vader). The gameplay is great, feels much lighter than SC 3 but at the same time has all the same old movements (cant change much on a series that is so good. The new characters (so far Ive unlocked Angol Fear and Shura) feel good, though so far Ive tried only Shura and Vader.

Shura is a great figther, she has 2 Katanas, and those familiar with japanese lore may know her also. The design was made by the Gantz team (which is why she was my most expected character). She combines Takis ninja moves with Mitsurugi moves, though she has an arsenal of herself, including a really cool move that teleports her back 2 steps, then launchs her to the enemy (its a double edge move, since you can get a ring out).

Now, the character most were expecting: Vader. Adding Star Wars to any games is sure to displease many. Why? Because even though SW is an extremely big franchise, its still a love or hate thing, thats why we will see reviewers who love this, and others who hate it. Im a SW fan since I was 4. I carry SW in my veins and I always loved the idea to have them here from day, one, though Yoda never pleased me since I dont like the new movies as much as I like the oldies.

Vader has a wide variety of moves (I just now learned to use the force). Most of his force moves involve infusing the sword with it to execute powerful moves. He also has other moves, a really strong push and the usual pull move. You can also raise enemies with the force. But, many thought that the force was going to overpower this guys. Truth is that it doesnt, it only takes 3-4 uses to deplete the bar, and you cant use them again until you have enough power. And believe me, the battle will be over before that happens. His moves are sometimes sluggish, sometimes not. He has a mix. He also has some counter moves, that protect him from back attacks, which give him an edge. His force powers though dont reach far distances, so you will need to be close to use them. His grabs are good, and really powerfull. Its good how he retains his fighting style from Return of the Jedi (that movei was first titled: Revenge of the Jedi. Funny isnt it?) so its a good character.

Ohh by the way, the install is optional, the game though needs an update as soon as you insert it 1.01. The install is more or less 2.4 gigs and the save takes 2mb. Each created character though occupies more space.

Character creation is back, this time it has been improved, now you can change the body shape and the voice pitch too. You can also use japanese voices if you want, but Vader goes to japanese too which turns into something very funny.

Havent tried the online yet, Im afraid that Im going to be banned, but Im writing an email saying Im from an Argentinean gaming magazines (have some friends in that editorial) just in case.

So far, in my book its a 9/10. The music is great as usual, combat is fluid with no FPS drop, the graphics are amazing, stages can be blasted (depending how strong you fall, you will break the floor), armors can be completely destroyed and I forgot to mention. Each main character represents an style, this styles can be leveled up to give them access to new skills. This can be done in any mode too .

Even though the E3 show of this year was, to call it in some way, "poor", especially when Miyamoto is asked what he wants to do in the next Zelda, and he says: Bring the series to more people, making it more accessible, which basically means we have to say "Bye Bye Link, been nice to beat Ganondorf and save helpless blondie Zelda".

So after the disaster that was the Nintendo conferece (how long has it been since they had a good one?) we are left with many new (rather old) games that are not only high profile, but will also give us lots of gaming hours. So if you are not one of the closed emoboys in System Wars and own 1 or more of the current gen consoles and just like games for what they are and not where they are, let me present you with my picks for 08 and 09.

Now, this games, are mostly sequels, as probed by numbers, sequels sell more than new ips, though MS has certainly had a great streak at introducing new IPs, with Halo (a series that I will already state now, "I HATE") or Gears of War. Mainly MS succeded here because unlicke Sony or Nintendo (or as I will start calling them if they dont wake up: Kidtendo) they heavily advertised them (Gears received publicity almost on launch time).

So, this are my picks for the year 08 and 09

Developer: Sony Santa Monica Studios (can you believe that someone posted that it was going to be multiplatform¡? Laugh at the stupidity of some, it helps relief stress)

Platform: PlayStation 3

Release date: 2009

What we know?: Nothing, aside from a couple of images from the trailer with Zeus remembering the Titanomachia (the fight between Titans and Gods as well as othe mythological creatures) and saying that Kratos will not only fail, but will suffer, to what Kratos answers, that in the end, there will only be chaos. Chaos, just for those who care, is also the first being, the creator in a way, also, the life cycle is ordered in Chaos then creation with chaos refering to the lack of order, life, etc.

Developer: Square-Enix

Platform: PlayStation 3; XBOX 360

Release date: TBA 2009

What we know?: Not much has been said about Final Fantasy XIII as far as gameplay goes, but we have received some background story for our new Final Fantasy world. The region where we are is called Pulse, centuries ago, the civilization created a ship thats called Cacoon (not the movie) where technology has grown exponentially too. In this world, our story will take place, not much more on the info here, the "heroine" (not confirmed to be the main character yet) is called Lightning, there will also be a partner, a blond guy with a resemblance to Seifer from Final Fantasy VIII. Summons will return, this time they will also be useable as other things, so far Shiva has been comfirmed to act as a motorcycle. The combat system is supposed to be a mix of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII.

Developer: Sega

Platform: PlayStation 3

Release date: November 2008

Famitsu Score: 34/40

What we know?: This is not a secret game, and has already been released in Japan. The story will focus on the fight between 2 kingdoms. Our main character will enlist in one, and will for and command an army. The enemies will have an special soldier called Valkyrie that also has special powers. The game is an SRPG (Strategy RPG) with an amazing artistic look. The music is done by the same stuff as Final Fantasy XII so we can expect a quality soundtrack too. The main quest is supposed to take 50-60 hours, the rules here are the same as in any SRPG (they are more similar though to Final Fantasy Tactics) where if a character dies, as long as its not a main character (which is auto Game Over) that character will die in the story too. The game will mix many ****, including traditional RPGs, Action, strategy and Third Person Shooter mechanics.

Developer: Lionhead Studios Published by Microsoft Games

Platform: XBOX 360 (with a possible PC port in the future)

Release date: October 2008.

What we know?: Fable was once released for the not so succesful XBOX. It was a different RPG where our actions changed the course of the story and how people appreciated us. It was innovative and an amazing game. Fable 2 comes from the same studio, under the hands of Mr. Molyneux. What can we expect of it? There are a lot of things that composed Fable, but Fable 2 will not only take those features, but will also add many more, expanding the experience. The artistic look is still the same, as seen in the videos of the game, this time guns will also make an appearance alongside ou blades and spells. We will be able to make a family, and have sons who will grow depending on our actions. We will have more moral choices, that will enhance our experience through the game, but not only that, the game is accompanied by some gorgeous graphics too. This is one of the most waited WRPG (Western Rol Playing Game) for this year, and it deserves that place.

Part 2 will contain:

Star Wars the Force Unleashed

Gears of War 2

Resistance 2

Heavy Rain

Wow, most of us who have seen the E3 be it live through the channels here at GS or their repetitions (some of us still have to work sadly) were presented with some shocking news.

So, we received 3 main events, one for each company with a console in the market, and I wanted to show what I thought of each event.

Lets start with the worst event.
Nintendo. As in the previous E3 event, Nintedo continues to shaft us medium to hardcore gamers and continues to focus on casual who like to play imo morronic games. I mean, we all love those games, but to kill time once in a year or to give them 5 or 10 minutes of our lifes when we dont know what to do. All in all, Nintendo focused a lot in this sort of games, with something that made me eyes bleed called WII MUSIC. Just what the Fu** was that. I mean, I dont think even Penn Jillete would be able to stress the WTF! enough to express my disgust agaisnt that.

After that pathetic thing, we also had a couple of meh announcements, as a new Pokemon, more entertainment for the Wii and possibly a "re-imagine" of the first 2 GTAs called GTA Chinatown or some crap like that. remember people, you can still get GTA and GTA2 for free from the Rockstar website.

Now lets move to one of the big guys, MS. MS held a sort of meh show, much better though than Nintendo. It showcased the games that we all already knew, but held a bomb for the very end. In terms of sales number, it was as big as a bomb as Bioshock coming for te PS3 (which should have been kept a secret till E3) but in terms of Name, and reputation it was way bigger. Im talking about the multiplatform title FF XIII which was until last week, Sony Exclusive. Other than that, (I expect the game to suffer the same fate as DMC 4 though selling more on PS3, but at least it will help double the sales of the title). Then we had more info on HAlo Wars, new info? No, just a confirmation that Master Chief wasnt going to be present in the game. More info on Fable 2, again nothing new, and then Gears of War, MS new flagship. Not much more new material, still looking good.

Finally we had the Sony event, which imo was the only one with new stuff and deserving the best press event of the E3. They talked about numbers and the GH edition for PS3, all using the LBP creation tool which shows the flexibility of the game, then they showed more games, a heavy focus on PSP titles with the main one being Resistance Retribution. More than 130 new games for the PS2 showing Sonys support for it. New PS3 titles as MAG and new trailers for Resistance 2, Motorstorm Pacific Rift, Killzone 2, etc. More info about Home and then usual multiplatform titles. Sony held imo the most charming event, especially with our new host, SackBoy

So I finished this game, and Im comfortable enough to say that this is the best piece of software my hands ever touched. Everything from beginning to end is great, the replayability is just inmense. The story unfolds perfectly and the conclusion is just great. Everything is great about it.

So, I just did the review for it, once I translate it into english I will be uploading it here. And you will be able to see a more detailed exposee.

Today or yesterday the open Beta for Spore was made available at http://www.spore.com/trial. The truth is that I wasnt looking forward for this particular game, never been fond of such games. But, against my better judgement, I decided to give it a run.

And I was wrong. Spore is an addiciting game that will let you create creatures and fight with them. the possibilities though are not unlimited, and 99% of your creatures will have cartoon like designs (which killed my idea of creating a Dragon). Apparently to create you creature you will use money to buy the pieces. By pieces I mean body parts, such as eyes, horns, faces, etc. Each piece can then be resized to fit your ugly visage to your liking. This creatures that defy nature itself can then be uploaded to be shared in the Spore Community.

Some samples of creatures:

Ok, will be experimenting a little bit more later on .

See Ya all later!

PD: added my new God of War 2 Review, you can check it here: "The End Begins: God of War 2"

Yeah, but it has nothing to do with any of you guys. Im just leaving this place till I finish MGS 4. The game should arrive next week (or since I ordered the LE maybe in 2 to 3 weeks) so during that time, I wont be coming here to avoid possible spoilers from kids. I may end up checking my blog, well, will actually keep you updated through this place most likely.

Anyway, see ya, till next time. Stay Tuned!. Always wanted to say that

Well, I was suspended for 7 days, it seems that the mods now a days consider the PS3 information as Flaming, especially when a kid posts BS and you go there and post the true.

But, leaving that crap behind, and trying not to think of my second stupid reason to be suspended for 7 days here (The first one came from a thread from someone asking what was better MGS 3 or KH 2? and me responding KH 2 is childish, get MGS 3) I have some things to say.

First, I finally managed to see indiana Jones IV, and though it has that Indy feeling, the whole plot didnt quite made it for me. Its still better than "Temple of Doom" though which is a good thing, but its nowhere near "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or "The Last Crusade". The subjects it bases of are common knowledge for those of us who had the research moments about weird old civilizations, but Im not going to say more if not, I may be spoiling the whole movie to the rest of you. One, thing though, pay close attention to the many Fan Services that the movie has, one being a really cool one 5 minutes into the movie.

Now, on second matters, Im getting some reviews done, Im going to be posting them soon. The games are going to be: God of W ar 2, Devil May Cry 4, Final Fantasy tactics and Gran Turismo 5 P. And after those I will start working on the reviews for Valkyrie Profile 2 and Lair.

I got a couple of new things too. First, Grand Theft Auto 4, nice game, though its no 10 in my book due to the many things that were removed from previous versions and the many glitches that it has (not refering to the PS3 related ones, but the general ones as slow downs, pop ups, etc).

Im doing some Old Style anime viewing lately, mostly though it has been Gundam 0079 and when I finish that I will continue with Gundam Z and ZZ. (Im trying to watch all the UC era series, and though its a lot, I found a place were to get it). Im also reading a new manga, Bleach, which many of you must know. But Im not a big fan of it still, it has many elements of previous series and the character designs look really similar, even though both series (Bleach and Samurai Deeper Kyo) are from different Mangakas. There have been some weird things going on in the other mangas Im reading. Naruto did a complete twist regarding Itachi in the past chapters, Oka, the super guy in Gantz quitted the battle and Muscle Rider is now going to fight the monster "mano a mano" literally. The other things I read was Houshin Engi (Soul Hunter for America) which ended up being far better than the anime (kinda obvious since its the general rule here) and Im reading a manga from a side universe of Evangelion which is kinda cool too. Its called Neon Genesis Evangelion: Gakuen Datenroku and its completely different from the original. On other news, Full Metal Alchemist apparently reached a season ending, the last page of the last episode had no release date for the next chapter, while past ones did, and the author (for those who dont know its a woman) is working on a different series now.

Ive also started to read Hellsing (recently published here) and Im continuing my other series which are: Saint Seiya Episode G, Sain Seiya Lost Canvas, Battle Club and Ikkitousen. I recently finished the whole Blood universe mangas that revolve around Saya (which are Blood The last vampire; Blood +; Blood + Addagio and Blood + Yakou Youshi).

Lastly, I bought the Metal Gear Solid Essential Collection and PERSONA 3 FES. Both ended up being great additions, and thanks to the fact that I had my old Subsistence copy, I still have the Disc 2 for MGS 3 .

Final Comments lol I saw both new gameplay videos in IGN regarding Soul Calibur IV exclusive characters, in other word, Yoda and Vader, and I can rest at ease, because Vader was really good. I wasnt though surprised by Yoda, he had his usual jump attacks, but they didnt used the force powers of him, which makes me thing he will only have push and heal (as usual in Jedis when in video games) while Vader used his clasic Choke moves (which are also really cool).

Now, as my closing, Gamespot did it again, a pathetic excuse for a graphic comparisson. If you are going to compare both consoles, then put them in maximum output, that means, allowing the PS 3 to use the Full White and RGB unlimited. Which for those who use it, know how much of a difference it makes.

Well, that was all, hope you enjoy the text wall.

PD: 2 weeks for Metal Gear Solid 4, cant wait!!!!

This was a questionary done by Matt-4542

This was my reply, I think its an interesting subject too.

I started at 6, with a NES.

2) How old are you now?

20 nearing 21

3) Have you noticed more agressiveness after playing these video games?

No, but I did developer higher reflexes and hand eye coordination

4) What is your stance on this subject. Do you think that video games can instill violent behavior in people?

There is a warning on the back on it, as well as there is one in the movies and explicit lyrics. The negativity is being used as a political tool, like book in the middle age and rock/metal back in the 70s/80s. The main problem comes from lack of education from both the State and the parents. Parents today barely care for what their sons are doing, and most practice the "self raising" method, which is just plain wrong. Its the parents who should teach them whats Right, and whats Wrong. The second culprit is the State. They have lightened up on the kids, especially in western countries (there is a reason why we dont see Japanese kids killing each other while we do see European or American (as the whole continent) doing so). The State in some way has to be severe, and the society has to show them the right way too. Society today is a joke in many places, people just dont respect their neighbors anymore, news channels just focus on bad stuff, movies have explicit content for people under 13, and violence is looked as a correct answer to solve problems.

But, thats not the problem. the fault is in the parents. I grew watching Saint Seiya, Predator, Lethal Weapon and many more violent movies and animes and cartoons. But Im no sociopath. Thats because my parent raised me in a proper way. They always checked that I behaved, they taught me manners for stuff as formal dinners, meeting people, and regular manners, like asking for permission or apologizing and being polite in general.

The second guilty entity here is the State. They let this stuff happen, and instead of blaming the parent, they blame the kid. But if the parents dont correct the kid, its the State the one who should do it. By the means of education. Which sadly in lets say USA, its being missused, since the "goverment" is more concerned about some stupid pride war and not his people. In other places, as Europe, the State takes care of the children, but there the fault comes from parents.

5) What do you think of activists like Thompson and Clinton?

Im not from the US, but I keep myself informed. Sadly, they are not part of the solution. They are part of the problem. Why? They encorage censorship, and they take advantage of such a popular and profitable market to make a political campaign. Organizations as Mothers Against Videogames are just plain excuses to draw goverment funds, and actually waste time. Time they could be using by actually keeping an eye on their children, and forcing the goverment to increase the education fundings and psychological support for those that are more susceptible to the influence a video game can cause. Its obvious that not everyone is imperbious to that kind of content.

And if any of you have children, would you let your children play the games you do or not, and why?

I dont have children, but I have a 4 year old cousin. I just gave her my old N64, but I told her mother what she should play, and when. Since she has a brother (my nephew) I told my aunt what games he could play too, and when. Because I had games as Doom in that collection, game I told her to keep away from them until they were 10.

A kid of 8 years, with good parenting should be able to play Doom 1, 2 and 64 as well as Duke Nukem 3D, since they are not that influencing. The solution is parenting.

As a final note, I leave this quote from "Thank you for Smoking" a killing movie about a lobbyist for the Tabbaco companies starring Aaron Eckhart

"Senator Lothridge: Now as we discussed earlier, these warning labels are not for those who know, but rather for those who don't know. What about the children?

Nick Naylor: Gentleman. It's called education. It doesn't come off the side of a cigarette carton. It comes from our teachers, and more importantly, our parents. It is the job of every parent to warn their children of all the dangers of the world including cigarettes so that one day when they get older, they can choose for themselves."

Finally it opened yesterday, which of course meant that I couldnt play it due to an excessive amout of people playing it. But today, after their night service to the server, I did play, and I played it a lot (5 hours).

So, what you may be asking right now if you were not able to get into is "How good is it? How is it?" Well, the game is really good, once you get the hang of it (I recommend doing the training first). If you try to play it as an old MGS game, you are doomed, the controls were completely changed (well, in its mayority).

The game is heavily Team Oriented, and even though you have a deathmatch, the pace of the game is a bit slower, to make it more team based. But in DMTCH its fast paced and really funny. There are only 2 maps on this Beta: Blood Bath and Groznyj Grad from MGS3.
Once you finish installing the full game, you will have to create a Konami ID, after that, you will be able to Log In into the game where you will have to create a character and give him some skills which personalices the character even more (and its a really cool feature imo).

You will have 4 kinds of matches: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Team Mission and Team Capture. The last 3 are team based, and its amazing how well the teamwork can be even without voice chat (thanks to the quick commands and the whole GENEs stuff which allows you to share info with your partners as enemies position or friendlies position)

The first thing you can forget about is getting weapons in the stage. To get weapons, you will need to score Drebin Points (DP) and then you will be able to buy different guns to use (ALA Counter Strike). You will have to choose a main gun, a secondary gun and a throwing weapon. Then you will be able to go out and fight the bad guys. One thing you must know, is that weapons are really balanced, which helps those who are not doing well or have almost no DPs get kills.

In terms of Lag, I couldt find any (my connection is DL: 3MB and UPL: 756kb) but in GS forums there are people who say there is some, though I think that they are trolls.

What you will first notice, is that you will suck at many techniques such as CQC or aiming. This can be solved depending on what you choosed as skills and then training them. A low CQC level will allow basic stuff while the higher levels allow moves such as stagger.

In terms of graphics, you can notice its no Uncharted, but it still looks good. In compensation to lack of textures, we have amazing characters, and effects, such as footprints in mud and such.

Some of the side items you will have include our friendly BOX and the newly born Drum. And you can use them too to fool an enemy, and the good thing is that there are also random boxes and drums in the map which help you disguise easier.

What I can think as the main problem people will find, is that its more slow paced than other online games. But imo, its more rewarding. Here you have to think before moving, and you have to be cautious about your actions too which forces you to be more involved in the game.

All in all, MGO is shaping to be a really great and strong team based game which will please MGS fans and strategic firing games fans.

UPDATE: MGO has been updated, with a no-download update. This new update gives us a new map (Downtown Meltdown) and a new gametype. Snake Mode.

The new mode works like Team Deathmatch. There will be 2 teams, Red and Blue, but this time, the team who kills Snake the most wins. Or the team who kills the most players wins in case of draw in Snake kills lol .

Snake is not an NPC, one of the players will be chosen to be him and he will remain as it during the match. Snake comes equipped with the OctoCamo which renders him completely invisible unless he moves or he goes into sun patches were he will cast a shadow. He also has the Solid Eye which gives him a Binocular tool and a Night Vision mode (kinda useless, but maybe in the full game there will be darker areas). He will also have his small pal MK II which can also go to invisible mode with the same defects as Snake. MK II comes with the stun tentacle as seen in trailers.

Its a good thing to note that whoever plays as Snake will have all skills most likely maxed (cause he IS a Legendary Hero) which gives the player the advantage. Snakes weapons will be obtained in the same way as with a regular character.

This goes to Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. Dont read if you havent played FFVII thus not knowing the outcome of this game

I mean, I cannot explain how good this game really is. The story the graphics, the ending its perfect. This game alone is reason enough to get a PSP.

And man the ending is heart breaking. Its so well done, and so sad. Zacks death was more powerful than that of Aerith in FF VII. I mean, wow. I cant explain it clearly, and if you playd the game you will know why. The last moments of Crisis Core were the best time Ive had as experience in a game in a long, long time.

If you played FF VII, you knew this was gonna happen, and you thougt oh well, I dont care much about it, but when you reach that point, Zack has already won you over and you want to avoid it, yet you cant. Its his unnavoidable demise that makes you feel impotent.

The game also makes you shift feelings about the Turks and Sephiroth. Especially for the Turks who wanted to actually save Zack in the end but werent able to. The final scenes are all great, that battle near the end were they make as if you were forgetting little by little, hit by hit all your memories was amazing and powerful. And when you finally forget Aerith, and you are taken to the CG video of Zack all bloodened almost dead and Cloud next to him, you cannot help but feel sad, and on the verge of crying. The last scene was really powerful, in the emotional sense.

www.bluelaguna.net has all the FMVs of the game in case you cant get it. I highly recommend them too.

"Embrace you dreams, and hold to your Honor"

Ok, in the next few days, well, actually weeks, lets say before may 10. Im going to get the following:

Condemned 2.

GTA 4

Im really looking forward to play Condemned. I really liked the demo and it was something new, but well done, something thats amazing coming from SEGA.

Now, GTA talks by himself. I guess that what has me exited the most is the possibility of split-screen co-op!!! That would make me spend hours and hours playing it. I remember whn I got San Andreas, a friend of mine who at the time had no PS2, came to my house. We spent 10 hours straight playing. Mostly we went crazy with the cheats after a while and we started blowing things up.

Later in May Haze arrives, from the hand of Free Radical.

The biggest issue that this last game finds in the online world is that many got pissed by the delasy, and now dont care about the game, so they nitpick stuff from it to have something realistic to use as foundation. The truth is that we havent seen any final build of it. But we know his pedegree: Goldenye 64; Perfect Dark 64; Timesplitters saga. What we may b receiving is an arcade style game with touches of strategy. Playing dead, and such that were seen in later picks show some of the stuff we will be able to do.

Anyway, Im really looking forward for Haze, the multiplayer in Timesplitters Future Perfect was amazing not to call it perfect. (A secret, I got into the Timesplitters games after I saw them on Shaun of the Dead )

This is for my beloved brothers in satans grace. For those of us, that as me pray to the metal gods who recide in the depths of hell!

Intro

WAR PIGS

SUICIDE SOLUTION

OZZY´S BUTT

MR CROWLEY

PARANOID

HERE FOR YOU

IRON MAN

MOMMA I´M COMING HOME

ENJOY MY ROCKING BUDDIES.

Yeah, Ive been kinda lazy this past few days, thinking, thinking. Well I wasnt thinking I was just doing nothing and polishing my left *** of so much scratching.

So, I received Reets message with the tag, and apparently SM tagged me stealthily through his blog.

So, here goes nothing I guess, so for you, ladies and gents, 5 things you may not know of me (unless you are god)

5- Every person in this world has an order of importance for their life. I guess mine differs from most males since Women are not my top priority, and not cause I want to be a priest or pope or cause Im a sissy, but because for me, there are 2 things that can deter my attention from a woman. Those things are:

-Cars: I love them, I cant live without them and even though I may not know the parts that compose an engine or how to build/repair one, I love them. Their sexy lines, the noise of the engine. The smell of oil and burning tires, the feel of the wind, their smoothness when tuned properly their everrything.

-Music: I cant live without it, and it just complements my other favourite thing. I love music, but it has to be of my liking. I dont go dancing anymore cause I cant stand the music they pass. And sometimes, I cant even stand being in some bars that use techno crap.

4-The first time I ever cried watching a movie was during the Schindlers List. And guess what, I watched it last year so I was 19. The movie is just perfect, exelent acting, music, image direction, etc. If you dont evenshed a tear at the end (starting where Schindler receives the ring and ending in his grave) then you are not human.

3- This is because I have no more ideas, so to buy time here it goes. My height is 1.7ms, my weight is 100kg, thats 200lbs, I used to play Rugby, thats why I never got to loose much weight either since all my body was turned into muscles, and if you do that from a young age, then forget about being thin. My hair is dark brown, and currently short and curly (Im letting it grow now though cause I want a metal hair style ) my eyes are brown and I like to take trips to the park ................... Joking Currently Im playing Football (soccer); Kendo and fencing. Im studying Business and Im also learning Japanese.

2- I have a dog, its a cocker spaniel and his name is Spot. He is a little baby chucky, though he is 5 years old, which mean he should be 20 humans years old. He is destructive and vengeful and at the same time a total bump that does nothing else than sleep.

1- This is going to be shameful. Yesterday I watched 10 mintes of Pokemon the series . Dont kill me !!!

Well, for those that are following this game, you may have found out a couple of months ago that for those in Japan that preordered the remaked of Star Ocean 1 and 2, they were given a DVD with the first ever trailer for Star Ocean 4, well, here is the acclaimed trailer, and dont worry, its not april fools day desease.

http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2008/03/31/star-ocean-4-trailer-feature-space-opera-battles-galore/

Enjoy as I did. Most interestingly is that this game takes place in the early SD years, compared to the other SO that were in the advanced years.

Yes, thats correct. Ive finally amde my most important dream come true: Watching Ozzy and Wylde live at 5 meters from me. Today there was this Rockfest called "Quilmes Rock" (Quilmes is a beer brand) and they do it every year and they invite bands to play. Its normally 3-4 days, and today was the opening day.

The bands that played today were BLS (Black Label Society, which is Wyldes band), Carajo (crappy argentinean band); Rata Blanca (metal band from Argentina, quite crappy too); Korn (Crap imo) and my god, Ozzy whith his soldier, Zack Wylde

Im in heaven right now, all the beating I took for getting to the fence were forgotten just by the clear sight of them, for receiving the bucket full of water and for listening to Wyldes amazing guitar solos and Ozzys amazing voice.

Im done, I can die that I wont feel bad, well, not really, I still need to see Tenacious D and Dio and Black Sabbath but Ozzy was above them. Also, I need to see Skynyrd but thats far more impossible.

Well, thats it, I finished Gears of War for the first time (never did so before cause my 360 broke for a third time, so I decided it was time to say goodbye). Now, last time I got stuck on the cave levels, but now (PC edition) I mangaed to finishe it.

So far, its a good game, not the 9.6-10 or gods gift to gaming many want to make it look. The game has a lot, and I do mean a lot of issues, the worser being BRAINDEAD AI!!!. And that gets you angry, mostly cause I played it after Uncharted which in Hard and Crushing has a really challenging AI. Here, the AI for the enemies is basically bigger HP and deadlier shots with more aim. They wont try any fancies moves, except running straight to your chainsaw or to the barrels of a shotgun. Most of the time they will stay were they appeared or near the closest cover point, and in some others, you will see a door, and it just feels like duck hunting. Do they not realise that each and every one of them that comes gets a headshot from my sniper???

Now, the other AI problem, and imo the biggest. Your partners AI. Are they braindead or what? Where they hitten on teh head with a frying pan or something? They just stand there, go in circles and get killed all the time, meaning that YOU have to turn into the one man army, which in both of the higher diffiuclties, is not the ideal thing, though doable.

The other problem is glitches, some enemies have glitches, for example, the first time I passed it, the final boss go like stucked in his place without doing anything, I felt like killing baby seals. The other is coding error with the cover system, that sometimes doesnt respond to the command, and when you are in big gunfights, not working cover equals death. The other error is that in some places, the one that bothered me the most is in the caves chapter, you can get past an invisible wall. I know, IW have existed alway, but the thing here is that if you go from one way to the object, you cant get in teh back of it; go from the other way, and voila you can. Also, in those places its common that Marcus (main character) gets stuck on one spot, meaning you have to restart the chapter.

Now, that is basically the bad about the game, not taking into consideration a couple of slowdowns that happen in isolated places (meaning that only there happens, and I tried several times on those places to check if it was my rig, but it was the game) the game is pure greatness. Well, not greatness but its really good.

Now, I have played little online, mostly cause I couldnt stand my first 20 rounds with pre-pubscent kinds cursing the hell of of everything, not that I have something against bad words, but keep them to yourself, and stop feeling like the world is You, God then everyone else. Its a game, play to enjoy it. I guess thats what I liked about Resistance and Warhawk online, most of the talkers just go about tactics and such, though its not cursing free either.

The single player is really nice, with nice sequences and cool boss fights. Fighting the big guy (expansion extra episodes) is really good, though he is terribly easy and quite stupid also. The final guys is a little bit thougher, mostly because of the Kril that he sends flying to you which means "Almost instant death". The sprint button was also something good to have, but not being able to change weapons during its execution is kinda stupid.

The gunplay works fine, no weapon has perfect aiming which is great, since nobody can hold a machine gun on a 10cm target while unloading a full clip. The weapons were good and useful, except for the Locust assault rifle which is kinda useless cause it only fires rounds of 3. Good fore precise shooting but the Lancer beats the crap of it. My favourite gun was the sniper rifle, cant beat it. 100% accuracy, 2-3 bullets to kill an enemy in Crazy or madness or whatever is the english name for the hardest difficulty (friggin game came in spanish) and the Explosive Arc is really usefull, though its kind of slow. The magnum also works, but fires really slowly. The active reload was nice, since it gave more participation during reloads.

Now, for what most people cares nowadays, graphics. For those graphics lovers, teh game offers really good graphics, very detailed especially if you can run everything on max. The shadows work well, though sometimes you can see those crazy shadows that act "un-naturally". Some pieces could have used more work though, but all in all it just looks great.

The music really fits the game atmosphere, and unlicke other games were you had to lower the FX sound to hear it(cough Halo cough), here it has more presence, even with all the gun fire noices, screams, cursing, and Locust saying "I shee you". It has some pieces that really stand out, specially the one that you hear near the ending scene that gives you a feeling of keep on fighting.

Conclution?

All in all, Gears is a great game, though it was given more laurels than it should have received, specially those regarding the story, since its just another "Summer blockbuster" story as found in other games as Lair, CoD4(though those special playable scenes make it better), Turok, Uncharted. Gears of Wars gives more power to the 3rd person shooters (TPS) which imo are much better than the FPS games. It perfects the cover system (though in Uncharted it works better, but its a year later, so its expectable) an probes to be a really exiting experience. Sometimes you will have to choose paths, which also gives you more replay time. Plus you have the online mode, which if you can get past the brats, its really good (I normally think of the Ramones song, "Hit on the Brat, hit on the brat, hit on the brat with a baseball bat oh yeah, oh yeah, ohhh")

Epic managed to pull another outsanding game, and made a really used engine. Too bad that they didnt took care of the AI, since it can turn things frustrating, specially when you are getting holed, and you see Dom or Cole or Baird running like little girls in circles. Lets hope for Gears 2 to have an improved AI aside of "nicer graphics".

SCORE: 9/10