I know there are probably a lot of blogs at the moment, but I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everybody that looks at my blog since I won't be able to get on here tomorrow (technically later today).
So, Merry Christmas everybody!
Have a good one!
Caddy.
Before I reveal to you the games I got, I just want to list certain types of games I got:
1 Fighter
1 Platformer
1 First person action adventure
1 WRPG
I will post pics tomorrow though, and celebrate the day too. Wow, that's a good amount of variety, no 2 games are the same, and no shooters, because I need a break from them.
All games are from current gen too, no last gen games.
My thoughts on the Wii
Personally, I don't think it's as good as Nintendo's previous systems, but this gen is far from over so it could surpass some of them. While friend codes and the online is nothing to brag about, along with missing multiplats from the HD systems, heck, I only have one multiplat on it, it has a great amount of exclusives I've enjoyed and the variety is great for it. It also has the Virtual Console to let you download and play old games from the past, huge plus since I still play old games too. Wiiware isn't as good as XBLA or PSN, but it has some great games on there like the Lost Winds games and World of Goo for example. The Wii is decent but my least played of the 3.
My thoughts on the PS3
This system has come a LONG way. I mean, in 2006 and 2007, to me it wasn't worth it with few good exclusives and many inferior multiplats, but 2008 changed all that and now 2009 has proved that the PS3 is worth owning for this gen. Nearly every game I played on the PS3 is an exclusive, and I liked most of them. The online is good too, though it's still no Xbox Live. So far it's a pretty great console now.
My thoughts on the 360
If you can get the RROD(which I had 2) and some questionable priced accessories, the 360 is one of the best this gen. It has a huge library of games that actually surpass the other systems in games rated 7.0+, but then again, it came out earlier. Xbox Live is even better than last gen, thanks to new features added to the service, and the steady number of XBLA games keeps coming with quality. A lot more higher rated exclusives and some more variety would help, but the 360 is my 1st and most played system this gen.
But 2010 looks to be a great year for all 3 systems, more about 2010 next year of course.
I'm not doing one for PC because it's already better than the other systems, LOL.
Be sure to check tommorrow's blog for the games I got too.
Merry Xmas one and all!, I hope you all have a great day tomorrow - good presents .
I thought it would be wise to get this in early I've had fun today , I made a great lunch earlier, it was a mix of Chinese and Italian. I made a proper Peking duck, made entirely by my good self. I had to pump the thing up this morning with a bicycle pump!, lol. That was after marinading it for a day. ( lol - fresh orange juice, shaosing wine, star anise, elderflower honey, and Oolong tea, to smoke the honey before roasting it 
. - It tasted amazing,and it looked awesome. To finish we had a Lemon pannacotta made with Sicilian lemons. Then we drank Vin-sante, with Amaretto biscotti to dip into it, which is the done thing in Italy this time of year.
I've also drank lots of dark cuban rum, and smoked one cigar, so I am pretty happy people. I've got that feeling you get when your perfectly content and lazy eyed. I cannot move now,, I feel like sleeping here on the carpet, beneath the revellers lol. I've started to stroke it like Linus strokes his blankee...The carpet.
Take care all, and have a great day,
Linky
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I might as well do it since I have the time now and there's no alcohol in my system yet. I don't like saying Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka or any of the 'Christmas' greetings so I'll just leave 2 pics. Enjoy the holidays people.
Title: GTA: Chinatown Wars
Developer: Rockstar Leeds
Release Date: March 17th, 2009
While graphics and size are not synonyms for greatness some games seem to seriously need those two qualities in order to be successful in their premise. The Grand Theft Auto series certainly looked like a part of that group, especially because the franchise only achieved major success once it went from a top-down view to a third-person 3-D perspective. So it was only natural that the initial announcement of the series' first portable installment would be met with a lot of criticism and questioning, after all besides featuring an isometric view the game would also be developed for the weakest hardware-wise portable in the market.
Time would prove all doubters wrong, though, as Chinatown Wars delivered what could possibly be the most fun Grand Theft Auto game up to date. The game's cell-shaded visuals brought great results as Liberty City was almost fully ported to a tiny cartridge, the more cartoonish landscape also allowed developers to go completely over-the-top with some missions and sidequests that would have never taken place in the otherwise real setting of the other GTA games. Chinatown Wars made fantastic use of the touch screen for some mini-games that were naturally inserted into the package, the same touch screen that allowed quick access into excellent menus and a GPS that allowed players to trace different paths through the city by simply touching a desired destination.
Aside from the improvements supported by the system's controls there were also one or two new features added to the series with the highlight going to the drug dealing system. It acted as an effective, dangerous and addictive – in a good way – path to make money and buy the many goods scattered all across Liberty City. Chinatown Wars may not unanimously be the greatest game to ever hit the system, but it is undeniable that it is the biggest one, a major technological achievement by Rockstar, an ambitious project that packs many hours of fun sandbox gameplay.
First of all, I would like to explain the title before it enters the disruptive posting field. Feliz Natal= Merry Christmas.
I would like to wish to my GameSpot family a vey happy Chirstmas and a great 2010.
Some things are bound to happen at every family Christmas gathering: Grandma will complain that you don't call her enough; one of your uncles will have too much to drink and tell embarrassing stories about you to the person your dating; somebody's going to break outRock Band. That's when thingsreallyget interesting.
Old people and Rock Band are an odd mix. They're always curious about what the heck is happening, but because they're old, one of two things always seems to happen: They refuse to play because technology scares the hell out of them, or they decide to give the game a shot and you spend the next hour yelling at people to stop hitting buttons so you can navigate the menus.
I wanted to find out if there was any way to make the inevitable old people/Rock Band scenario less of a debacle, so I turned to the foremost expert on the subject: Alex Navarro.Alex is a publicist for Harmonix, and one of the primary duties of his job involves going to media events, bars, and even concerts to show off Rock Band to the -- gasp --general public. The man is a wizard; he could go to the Vatican and get them rocking in a matter of minutes.
Hit up Bitmob.com for Alex's expert advice on how to get your non-gaming, musically-challenged family members rocking:
I would write about my gaming goings on here but there really isn't very much to say. Playing through the Pirate of the Caribbean DLC on LittleBigPlanet is about all I've done.
. Pretty good by the way, the last level in particular is a highlight. So yeah...nothing much to report...err...look a festive cat!
Don't think Kat has used that one yet
Anyway, Merry Christmas!
It's Christmas Eve at last. Tomorrow it'll be Christmas Day, and 2009 will be almost over.Also if you haven't noticed already, I changedmy blog pic. It's me and my 3 nieces in South Park form. I just love that show.
Anyway, Happy Holidays everybody!
I can't believe I'm actually beating ImaginaryFriend to this, but GameFly is having yet another used games sale, and it pretty much seems to be focused on Xbox 360, as there are 104 titles under 20 bucks, while there were only 15 PS3 games under that price. I'm not going to list all the sales, though, so if you want to know what's cheap, just go over there and browse like I did. I will instead list what I just ordered.
- Afro Samurai - $9.99
- Wanted - $9.99
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine - $9.99
These are three games that I've wanted, waiting for the price to come down like I pretty much do with everything else, and and $9.99 is the perfect price! I was even willing to pay 30 for Wolverine! Oh, by the way, there is currently free shipping on ALL used games, and you don't even need to be a member to take advantage of it!
Happy shopping everyone!
One question. Who do you think will give you the present you will appreciate
most, not counting gf/bf, wife/husband?
Finished up Valkyria Chronicles the other night. After making my way through about 3/4s of the game, I was getting a little weary of the tactical part of the game. VC has a ton of charm though. I couldn't just give up on it, so I just used a guide to help out, which was probably the first game I willfully used a guide to help me get through the game in over a year at least. Was proud of that. The reason I didn't try to gut it out mainly stems from my dislike of tactical strategy games. Whatever it is, I just don't understand them. I get the concepts and whatnot, but when it comes to the battles, and using those concepts to your advantage, I don't see it at all. And since VC is so charmful (the "sound" effects, the graphics, the fantasy WW2 story), I wanted to see it to the end. Definitely a very good game, so long as you enjoy that type of game. I really enjoyed it for about half the game, until my embarassing tactics impeded progress. Still, I was glad to have gotten through it.
Its just about that time of year once again, as Christmas nears, and GameSpot's Game of the Year announcement approaches, that I begin preparations for my own Top Games of the year, coming up on year 6 now. I have a few days off upcoming, so I will probably try to get it typed up over the weekend. 2009 was an interesting gaming year. I feel it was better than last year in terms of high end games, but much weaker when it comes to depth. When I started brainstorming my top games list, the first 6 or 7 came easy, but after that it was pretty tough. It will be interesting to see what I come up with.
I've finally gotten back to playing Dragon Age: Origins, only after a 6+ week break, whatwith Assassin's Creed 2 coming out, and finishing Valkyra as well. Forgoing my original thought to play the 6 origins, I started a new character (Human Noble Warrior), and just started playing. I just finished off my first boss last night, so I'm making some progress. These days off will help that, and seeing as I have 4 weeks until Mass Effect 2, that hopefully should be enough time to polish off Dragon Age.
Avatar sucked. I was disappointed coming out of the cinema.
Bear in mind, I went into this movie completely fresh. NO REVIEWS, NOTHING OUTSIDE OF THE TRAILERS.
Saw it in 3D, but not IMAX.
Ok, time for pretentious opinions.
$500 million won't buy you an interesting alien world. It won't buy you interesting characters. It won't buy you an interesting script, plot, or story.
Pandora, the world itself, is bereft of creativity. There's hardly a single sci-fi concept here that's kinda new here. It's all prehistoric animals, and blue aliens. And the only blue alien race I care about is this:
Asaris > Navis
Avatar won't be remembered for anything than its visuals. And that's too bad. Because we all used to love James Cameron, no matter how pretentious he has become now.
What did I not like?
This is James Cameron's worst film to date. I know that's easy to say, because all of his films are great. If this was George Lucas, I'd say it's a step up from the prequels. But seriously, what makes James Cameron's sci-fi films stand out? Because they have cool characters and drama to go along with the cool sci-fi concepts and ideas.
My problem with the amazing graphics is (just like Star Wars prequels), if you don't have characters or a story worth investing in, it feels like you're watching a very long videogame cutscene. I was genuinely bored through a good portion of this movie. That's worrying for a film with a world so colourful and dripping in details.
The plot. Why tell Jake Sully to learn how to acclimate to the Navi culture when the military will swoop in anyway when the plan fails? No need for 90 minutes of Jake Sully. When I can predict every single minute of a film, that's just depressing. Jake Sully had a great backstory, with being paraplegic, replacing his dead twin bro. Aaaaaaaand, that's about it. The villain in the film, like really? Even Guile (Street Fighter) looks less stupid! I don't care about any of these characters. The only character worth a damn, even if she's part of the predictable parade, is the Neytiri blue Navi chick. There's some excellent mo-cap work done for her. When she's crying, you feel it.
The Navis. Replace them with Africans, Native Americans, Pocahontas, or any other marginalised tribe, and you've got these aliens figured out. They have a chief, the jockey, the comic relief, the disapproving dad and his hot daughter. It's as generic as it gets.
The sci-fi in this film is just insulting. "Unobtanium", honestly? At least Star Trek tried, with the red matter. You won't even explain how humans jack into the Avatars? Oh yeah, show a generic multi-coloured tunnel. Even the Matrix bothered to show a needle. Ghost in the Shell, a wire. How do the mountains float? I'll admit though, the hair connecting to every living thing was pretty cool.
The mechs? Done way better some years ago, with Matrix Revolutions. Done way better many years ago with Neon Genesis Evangelion.
This is Cameron's Disney movie. In a bad way. The plot, characters, and story are a joke. Good sci-fi films are not good because of their cool ideas or concepts. They're good because there is human drama around the ideas, so we can be attached to the weird stuff. Go watch Solaris, because the idea for it is so weird, and without great characters, story, or drama, that movie would have failed. James Cameron even admits in the Solaris commentary, that he'd never be able to make such a subtle and deeply profound sci-fi film such as it. Oh, how dangerous those words would come to be.
What did I like?
The Navi chick.
The vistas.
Jake's training scenes. The "run, Forrest, RUN!" scene is great.
The 3D. Even though it's not convincing me that all movies need to be in 3D.
Teh graphixxz!
Disappointments of the Year
Aside from the visuals, this is another disappointing blockbuster to add onto the list of 2009. Public Enemies, Wolverine, Watchmen, Transformers 2, Terminator Salvation (I liked it quite a bit), Star Trek (yeah I'm one of those), and now Avatar.
For the people that liked it
Don't watch it again. I don't want you to see the problems with the film, second time round. I don't want my review to ruin the good time you had with the film. You had a great night out with your friends, I don't want to spoil that.
If you enjoyed it, good for you.
I'm already trying to forget this movie, and it's working. Just another forgettable disappointment. Moving on.
This is not me trying to ruin your parade. Honestly, you're the one doing that the second you click on this blog with such a header title like "Avatar - what a disappointment".
What's the sci-fi action film of this year worth watching?
Go buy the District 9 DVD now. It's out!
What else?
Go watch the " 70 Minute review of Star Wars: Phantom Menace". I died in laughter!
Yes, the title says it all. No, I'm not gonna be one of those people who are quitting Gamespot altogether because I'll still be around to comment, look on forums, read reviews, etc.
But I'm going to finish blogging here as there is not much purpose for me here anymore since most of my friends have left and it's getting rather boring around here. So this will be the last one I'll make. I'm sorry to disappoint everyone but I know that I've had some good times here making these blogs no matter how good or bad they were and my fellow readers commenting them.
Well, it's the end of the line for me. But if you want to keep up to date with me, check me out on Twitter and Facebook if you wish.
My blogs will now be on my Wordpress account and I've just made a few end of the year blogs that I wish for all of you to check out:
- Part One: The Bad Stuff
- Part Two: The Good Stuff (Various things + Movies)
- Part Three: The Good Stuff (Anime)
- Part Four: The Good Stuff (Video Games + Conclusion)
So that's about it other than I hope you all have a happy holiday and I'll see you all later.
This is Matty saying... Goodbye.
(This blog is dedicated to my readers and friends who gave me support and enjoyment on this website for the past few years.)
He just digs a little Maoon his tree.
ok there are things i like about this year's genre awards. mostly the racing game forza 3 which is by far the best racing game ever created. i own this game now and i love it. it starts out kinda weak because you only get a few cars to chose from. my choice was the ford fiesta. in the old days, you could pick any car you want and race on any track you want. then they came up with this crazy idea of unlockables. i don't know who thought of this but it is retarded. i remember playing need for speed hot pursuit and racing with any car i want. the good thing about forza 3 is you can chose the car you want in multi-player. i was racing with a ferrari f40 today and driving 170 mph down the road. you need to know how to drive to play this game. not recomended for children
as far as the shooter awards. i was very disappointed that killzone 2 won the award. i think modern warfare 2 is a better game.
by the way.. i won a free turkey today! my apartment manager just gave it to me today. i had to guess how many skittles were in the jar and i guessed it right !in case were were wondering, the correct answer is 1,200. it is a butterball and about 15 pounds. we are having turkey for christmas!!! yay!
I swear, I'll soon get around to posting a blog about the various games I've been playing over the holiday break. It'll be a bit of a departure from my usual Been Playing list considering I've only brought portable systems with me on this trip back home to Washington.
In the meantime, though, I wanted to share a few excerpts from another, far more interesting blog than my own. Joe Posnanski is quite possible the best sports wirter in existence right now, and I love reading his personal blog for all the leftover thoughts that don't make it into his SI columns. He recently watched the new George Clooney movie Up in the Air and, as someone who travels a lot for his job, this sparked Posnanski to write about his own experiences with travel. I'm someone who also spends a lot of time on the road for my 9 to 5, and since I'll never be the writer Posnanski is, I thought I'd share a few excerpts from his essay. The extent to which these thoughts reflect my own is pretty startling. Hopefully, this will give you guys a little insight into what my job is like beyond what you read here on GameSpot. Here are a couple excperts:
- Travel sucks. Only it doesn't. And that's pretty much the everything I can say about it.
- You learn miles and points and clubs and programs … not at all for the large perks they provide — the free trip to Hawaii — but for the small conveniences, the early boarding, the negligible upgrades, the free water, the warm welcome, the name on the electronic board, the smaller lines, the spare moments saved. It doesn't seem like much, and it often isn't much, but the road is for small victories, tiny triumphs over the indignities, the occasional opportunity to say: "That unexpected layover in Indianapolis when my flight got canceled was not in vain."
- I beeped when going through the security X-Ray machine a few weeks ago. ... It's hard to explain, but I felt strangely humiliated. The whole thing took only a few seconds, and I went back through the X-Ray and I did not beep this time, and I wanted to shout: "It was YOUR mistake! See?" But there was no such admission. And I thought about it way too much the rest of the day.
- I worry before every trip, a wordless worry that taunts: This will be the trip where the energy does not come, the trip that leaves you staggered and tired and discouraged. But, the energy always comes. And on the other end, there's a clean hotel room and a pretty good restaurant reservation and an exciting new story to write. So far, anyway.
You may not believe this but just about every item you all received was thanks to the GS editorial and GS Live Production staff. While the last 5 blogs are deleted to clean up my profile, majority of the items you may recall seeing came from them.
Feel free to use this blog to check in with a huge thanks to them! All of them have contributed in some way, and obviously we wouldn't have had some of them items if it wasn't for publishers and developers continuing to make awesome schwag for their partners and fans. While I might have done the grunt work to packaging, here is our awesome crew worth applauding for their donations!
Editorial/News
Shaun McInnis
Ricardo Torres
Andrew Park
Justin Calvert
Brendan Sinclair
Brian Ekberg
Chris Walters
Tor Thorsen
Sophia Tong
Kevin VanOrd
Lark Anderson
Stanley Lin
Thomas Magrino
Giancarlo Varanini
Bethany Massimilla (former staff who donated Blizzcon goodies)
Video Production
Ryan MacDonald
Frank Adams
Dan Mihoerck
Homer Rabara
Takeshi Hiraoka
Jim Maybury
Tyler Winegarner
Justin Porter
Anthony Errisuriz
Last but not least, I wouldn't have been able to do any of the packaging without Charles Harrington's effort to round up boxes, packaging, and tape (difficult to get in the office!).
Feel free to use my blog to post your pics if you have any worth sharing of your game rooms or decorations.
1. Uncharted 2
2. Batman Arkham Asylum
3. Infamous
And my top 3 games I want next year
1. F'n Mass Effect 2
2. Splinter Cell Conviction
3. Bioshock 2
Oh and this because I hate that show and it's funny as hell.
