So it's currently snowing in Texas (gasp!!) and not just in the panhandle where it's no surprise. It's literally been snowing nonstop today, and with temperatures not going above freezing, I get treated to a white Christmas!!

It's a rarity here, for sure. I'm sure anyone living up north is like "Meh. We get a white EVERYTHING." but you have to understand it's pretty amazing considering that yesterday, it is in the mid 70s and then it drops down to below freezing overnight. That's quite an achievement even for bipolar Texas weather. Ahh well.

Well, that's it for now... here's a pic of my car somewhat covered in snow, it may not be too impressive but the 50+ MPH wind gusts today haven't allowed much to accumulate on my car. The ground is a different story. Anyways, Merry Christmas everyone!!

The YouTube "behind-the-scenes" commentary trailer for the King of Fighters movie.

I always try to reserve judgement before seeing the final product, but after watching that trailer, well...it's like these people were trying to be as wrong as possible.

What I'm really torn about is whether I want to bother renting it when it inevitably comes rocketing to DVD. Good heavens.

1. Halo 3
2. Halo 2
3. Resident Evil 5
4. Grand Theft Auto 4
5. Super Smash Bros Brawl

So I have been looking at the line up for Nintendo systems through late 2010 and I have seen quite a few games that have caught my attention.

1. Scribblenauts
This little title for the DS seems like an amazing puzzle game and with fun mechanics and more than 200 levels to play it might end up being onw of the best games for the DS in a while

2. KH 358/2 Days
Back since Kingdom Hearts came out along time ago on the PS2, I have loved the series. Always has had great story telling and looks great, I can't wait to see what Square does espically after what they did with The World Ends With You.

3. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story
Ever since Superstar Saga I have been a huge fan of the Nintendo RPGs. Partners in Time was amazing game for the DS and I'm looking forward to another of the series.

4. New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Both me and my girlfriend enjoy Mario games and both being fans of the old school Mario games for the NES & the SNES, this title looks like an amazing game for us both to play and remember the ****cs.

5. Pokemon HG/SS
Since the release of the original R/B games I have been a Pokemon addict. With 100s of hours on just Diamond alone I can't wait for another PokeFix.

Just leveled up once agian. 4 months it took me to get to the next level. That is all.

Just got done playing the new red faction demo and i am completly speechless it's was pretty freaking sweet and i was over at one of my buds houses and got to play the guitar hero drums there nice and quite but they are very comfusing to get use to at first but for the most part i give them a 4/5

I got Animal Crossing: City Folk yesterday and it's really fun so far. I just got my friend code and here it is: 0474-1279-0433. Please add me and be sure to give me yours as well so i can add you too. THANKS

my poor alienware got hit by some virus, and i had to restore it completely... twice... spent all day yesterday, from 8am to 2 am fixing it all...

made a quick new banner... i have to re install all my texts again

anyways...

For those who play WoW, I'm on Detheroc as a 64 Troll Hunter, Crimz, and a 43 undead rogue, Crypsis. had a fun little battle at terren mill a few days ago, 2 66 druids were ganking everyone, including my rogue, so i logged on as crimz, and joind in the defence of TM i even killed a 70 dwarf hunter that joined later on

i'll post pics of my characters later, i had some prepared... then the virus...

I bought devil May cry 4 three days ago and i am playing for my second time already. I love the game and think everyone should pick it up.

Hey everyone!

FYI - I just picked up Medal of Honor : Heroes 2 for the Wii. Add em to your friends list if you have it. My persona is cdn_bacon

Cheers,

Bacon

GTA4...wow...all ya got to say.

Nothing new.

Bored, thought I'd say I'm still alive, and I do come to this site even though a lot of people have quit.

Happy Easter for all those who celebrate it. I trust everyone had a good time. Mine was pretty good. Over ate like I do every year, but it was well worth it. Caught up with the family. I slept through Church this morning oops. Oh well. What are you going to do right?

Hello guys

I found that today is my anniversary here in Gamespot. I've been here for 4 years. Actually....I find Gamespot boring. I don't know why. I used to love this place and after my break, I don't feel the magic. I would like to know what's wrong with me. I've been clubbing a lot, going to parties and concert in my holiday vacation.

This week has been incredible for me. Friday I got an invitation for an exclusive concert. The concert was awesome. It was a party held by Coors Light. They brought 3 international dj: Judge Jules, Sander Van Doorn and ATB. All of them rocked the concert! And Yesterday I went to another concert. This concert was unbelievable! They brought the #1 Dj in the World...ARMIN VAN BUUREN. I had a blast yesterday and today I woke up with a mild hangover

And finally here is cool picture of me with my eyes close from yesterday's concert :

Till next time

MAUI

Yay, new avatar! I should have gotten a Full Metal Panic one a while ago, I'll admit that some of gamespot's avatars were tempting though, especially the ones of Spore, Hotel Dusk, and Prince of Persia. This eventually won out, though, I love Sousuke's "I know exactly what I'm doing" face, it's my favorite part of the whole show, because it stands out so much in comparison to him having no clue when it comes to normal life.

Anyway, enough about Sousuke, let's go on about things that matter.

I saw Stardust, and it was awesome. It's too bad that it's probably going to utterly fail at the box office. I wanted to go see it because I had read Neil Gaiman's Sandman and thought that he was a genius, and this movie didn't disappoint me at all. The twisted sense of humor was what I wanted to see it for, and there was enough dark humor to satisfy anyone, so I was happy. I also began to read the seventh Harry Potter book...and I realized just how much I don't like Harry Potter when it takes itself seriously. I'm moving sluggishly through this book because...well...I guess I don't really like it. Despite that, though, I still want to see how it ends, so I guess I'll just have to keep reading.

Most recently, I've gone back to playing World of Warcraft, and it's just as fun as it ever was. WoW is a good game, a very good game, and anyone who says otherwise has to be incapable of enjoying mmorpgs. I don't think I'll ever get over just how powerful my mage is in Outland, it's like the game is trying to make up for all those countless times I died as a young mage. (rather painfully I might add) I know, it's common knowledge that mages are terrible at low levels and excellent at high levels, but damn it let me take this personally! I hope I can get up to 70 before the new expansion pack is realeased, yet at the same time I can't wait for the new expansion pack, because my complex mage-build requires several more talent-points to spend. By optimizing on critical hit enhancers in both frost and arcane, I am making a hybrid mage with extremely powerful critical hits. The problem is that I need more than a few more points to make it perfect. Once the new expansion pack comes out, unless they change the talents around to fit my purposes even better, I'm planning on putting several points into ice shards, artic reach, and arcane instability. If I have a lot of money in the future, I may remove the points that I put into arcane meditation, arcane mind, wand specialization, and MAYBE improved blizzard. (I rarely ever use Blizzard, anyway)

For now, though, I can't even play on my mage. I'm in Aggramar, and the server will still be down until 12:00 tonight. That really sucks...just when I got back into playing WoW, oh well. If you're also curious about my character, here is his page in the armory.

I will soon return to full leader status, Im extremely sorry for disappering, work is getting in the way as they keep on changing my hours every week, but lucky its a slow news wire for all Resident Evil news storys so I will be online this wenesday most of the day working on the site, trust me I have alot of things up my sleeve I just have to start working on them, I hate going in mia status will the union, but thats life, I will return!

just some stuff i did while i was not at GS, also some of these were made for me:

well Im back from Disney World well we woke up at 5 in the morn and packed up and was on our way o but this is the reason y we went soem of u may have heard about The Tom Joyner Family Reunion thing yes, no , maybe so but yea on the way down to tthe airport we heard that Ne-Yo (R&B Singer who sings When Your Mad, Sexy Love and So Sick) that he was gay there was a pic of him probably kissin a guy on the lips or doin soemthin else someone broke inside his sidekick or wutever but we got there about 9 somethin or 10 so we drove down on the bus had special service and everything so we went to Magic Kingdom not long after we got there my mom took some pics and we went on the Stitch's Great Escape Show Ride its liek we was the recruit concoule when he got captured so they was about to exacute him but he escaped and got on the celien spit on us and cut the power and so then he went to the control room took this aliens chillie Cheese dog and and came back to the teleportation room and breath his breath on the back of our neck and then u can smell the chillie cheese dog he ate it smelled so nasty so then after that he hot wired the teleporter and transported hisself to Orlando Florida on the Magic Castle messin wit Cinderella o yea there was alos this lil kid that was there in the thing terrified cryin and screamin it was too funny so then we went on this lil thing that took us around the part of the park that was suppose to be futuristic after that we went back to the resort for the concert and stuff they played soem music comidan Sinbad came out for an hour or so and kicked out all the kids becasue an adult party was about to go on all the kids had different parties to so I went to go check out the party for the teens come to find out stayin there for like 30 mins the party was wack went back to the room played my PS2 (Burnout Revenge was in it) and waited for my fam and not long after went to bed. woke up next mornin my mom, dad and my sisters went to the gym to work out me beein tired I didnt go after a while we was gettin ready to go to animal kingdom while watchin the Descent we went to Animal Kingdom but it was closin early closed at 5 and so said the parade that as suppose to happen there was suppost to be from 5:30 to 8 so we went back to the hotel chilled for a while and waited till the lil concert that was happenin down at MGM Studios went on where Charley Wilson, LL Cool J, Ne-Yo, and Chris Brown was suppose to perform we saw Charlie Wilson and saw Ne-yo do his performance and do all that unsisary stuff like take a towel whip himself off wit it and throw it in the crowd to the girls then he did it liek 2 more times and then took off his shirt and hat and aslo through that then he was all cool but when really he is gay casue when he threw he shirt out he was like hold did a dude just catch that then my sister was like tryin to play it off then my dad was liek yea he knwo he liked that we just busted out laughin but when Ne-Yo was performin there was this boy who had some issues u know mentally casue at first I thought he was playin and stuff liek he was actin crazy doin hand motions whiel shakin his head and then liek he was calm for the next min but was back aty it again tryin to dance wheil havin his yea got his butt on me I was about to punch him but I was like hold up there somthin wrong wit him so I stopped I said he musta be on Ridlin (spellin) I was liek if so y didnt he take it y didn his parents give it to him whiel they was standin right behind him he was like 12 or 13 but yea so then my dad my sister and me went back to the resort casue we didnt want to see them no more and plus my sister was tired specially becasue she is pregnant.  we woke up got some breakfast went to church thing to go see Kurt Franklin and stuff perform Dougie Fresh came out and did soem beat boxin and stuff a lil bit after Church was over o yea when we prayed a lil chill went through my body I felt a wind blow and then yea but after that went back to the room and a hour or 2 later went to the Dowtown Disney Shoppin Center we got there and wanted to check out the Circuis De Suol (spellin it was spelled somthin like that though) and so we walked up and we saw this lil garden wit th ebroom things from Beauty and the Beast and an idea of how she was gonna redcorate the front and back yard  (here we go again wit her ideas) so then we went in this Disney Art Store had cool paintins and Glass Statues, Plates, Vases ect. but then we left becasue my mom didnt want to shop there so we went back to the resort and caught a Taxi to this Mall Outlet didnt want to go in stores like Bebe and stuff so me and my Dad went to the Nike Outlet up the walk so then checked out the stuff the shirts and all pretty cool got me this Red and Black Sweat Shirt saw the matchin shorts my dad didnt have enough money from spendin it on food and stuff so we went to go ask my mom was there for about another 1 hour or so where my mom spent $750 Versach Coat the ppl thought she wasnt goin buy it thats y they lowered it anyway but still she did probably thought that casue she was wearin my Red and Black Jordan hat and an Adidas Coat that she bought 5 minutes ago out of the Adidas Outlet so then we looked around got a Cinnammon Pretzel wit Cream looked for about 15 mins and was ouy went back to the resort ate soem Pizza and that was it for the night packed up so we wont have to pack early and the morn and was gone at 8:45 got to the Airport about 9 somthin and caught out plane at 11:30 back to Baltimore after that we went on the Bus to the parkin lot saw these fine girls on the bus specially this one shoulda got her number and stuff but anyway got back home around 3 and told u my story lol well yea there was a lil more but I cant wtire it all down I knwo about half of u arent probably gonna read this anyway.

I'd been working for that old geezer for only 3 days.... and he was always naggin'bout everything at everyone yesterday he yelled at me for like 10 mins cos I was only 5 mins late... and then we had a "little" fight... anyway he FIRED me... I got FIRED by an old fart for saying the truth about him... for the heck of it *I guess that being bald, horribly ugly, teethless and suffering from ed is nothing to be ashamed of anyway*... then he fired another guy for the very same reason... in fact he was gonna fire almost everyone when the ppl at the store started to get pissed... then he chilled and left the place... wut should I do now ? apologize to the @sshole or never go back to his store ?

I've been thinking over the past few minutes, about a new way to rate games that I think would work better for me. I don't really follow the whole "Graphics" "Gameplay" "Sound" "Replayability" etc. Because I've recently gotten back into Quest 64, I wanted to read some old reviews to see what other people thought of the game, and to me, no one, not a single person, understood the game (allow me to clarify this past statement, when I say no one understood this game, I mean, of the 5 reviews I did read, none of them got it.) I would rate Quest 64 an 'all things considered' 5.5/10, but I would also add that it's ambition in the genre is commendable, and the freshness makes this rather lackluster game very worth playing!

Allow me to go into greater detail, you see, Quest 64, for those who haven't played it, it an RPG for the N64 (obviously) where you play Brian, a young lad setting out to save his father, who happens to be the king! There is no monetary system, and you are a party of 1. This is where the game fails, in it's simplicity, there are no weapon or armor upgrades, only 4 stats to level up (all of which happens without any incident) and no items for purchase, just items to be found. There are 4 schools of magic, and ever 5 levels or so you gain in any particular school grants you a new spell from that school. Sounds almost too simple, doesn't it?

Well, that's why it gets a 5.5/10 review from me, but it is really worth playing because of the way the game is presented. This is only the third turn based RPG I've ever played where your battles take place on the same screen where your exploration takes place (Chrono Trigger and Parasite Eve are the other two.) The world is essentially yours to explore, although it's laid out in a linear fashion, you are not forced to do anything at any particular time (like a really low scale version of Morrowind.) The world is worth exploring too, as there are a good number of nice looking scenic spots, and hidden areas, and the towns are very interesting to explore in full 3d. The battles themselves are very fast paces, although they are random and happen very often. But the best part of all is the magic system.

If you ever played Chrono Trigger, you remember that some spells or tech moves would allow you to hit multiple enemies at once, if their lined up right, unfortunately there was no way to manually select where the spell would be cast. Even if three goblins were close enough to all be hurt by fire whirl, you can't cast the spell directly between the three goblins, you have to choose one goblin to center the attack on, meaning that there is no way to hurt all three goblins at once. In Quest 64, you are given a circle in which you have free range of movement, and you line up your spell and cast. Once the boulder is flying through the air, whatever it hits gets hurt! Quest 64 really takes great advantage of this, and considering the fast pace of the battles, makes the game a lot of fun to play!

But....

Instead of the reviews I read talking about these completely unique aspects of this game, I read about how much people hated the unoriginal story, lack of monetary system, or Brian's haircut. Which made me rethink what it is that I like about games, and it's very simple, Objectivity, Believability and Creativity. Allow me to explain in further detail.

1. Objectivity
1. Is it at all times clear what me objective is? This includes the 'Myst' style gameplay where I am dropped into the world and my objective is to find the objective. I hate it, however, when I'm trying to destroy the evil emperor, and I find myself walking around a graveyard, with no clue why I'm there. Unlockables, story elements, challenge, and sidequests often help to enhance this quality.
   
2. Believablility
1. Does the game make sense? This includes a lot of elements, some more important than others. They include, but are not limited too, graphics, level design, open endedness, realism, acting, story, etc.
3. Creativity
1. Finally, and this elements hinges on the past two, because if they fail, no amount of this will save it. How different is this game than all the rest, and in what ways? Does this game takes what was good about the recent popular games and improve upon it, or is it just copy catting, or worse, is it innovative but stupid?
   

So what I'm working on is developing all the details of these three elements. I'll do a mockup review in this style of Quest 64 right now.

1. Objectivity
1. Ultimate Objective
1. The story is simple, but your ultimate goal is clear
2. Immediate Objective
1. You essentially follow the designated paths
2. Once in a new world, you don't know why you're there, but it's not hard to find things to do
   
3. Fun
1. The battles make this game very fun to play
   
4. Character Objectives
1. Leveling up is very easy to understand
5. Side Quests
1. None, but the world is cool to explore
6. Challenge
1. Vaguely challenging, depending on how much you level up of corse.
7. Unlockables
1. None that I know of
8. Replayability
1. The game is fun, but the story being so simple and essentially linear you might not want to play it again right away. it's definitly fun to go back to after some time has passed.
2. Believability
1. World
1. The world is consistant
2. Graphics
1. The graphics are sharp, clean and often fun to look at
3. Level Design
1. The worlds are almost too linear, but this doesn't detract from the enjoyability.
   
4. Open Ended
1. The world is yours to explore, but again, somewhat linear
5. Realism
1. All elements of gameplay are easily accepted
3. Creativity
1. Battles are awesome and unlike most ever played before. RPG in the 3D world is an awesome and enjoyable experiance.

In closing I'd like some feedback. What do you all think, does this make sense? Could I improve it, (which I'm sure I can) and in what ways can I? What kinds of elements go into each category, how specific should I get with each element? Should there be details that only appear in certain genres? I think this is a useful step in the right direction to understanding why some games are more fun than others, but this idea needs some work!

i need to go outside more ugh....