I don't know if anyone else notices this, but isn't GameSpot a bit of a hassle to browse through?

I personally like GameSpot, but I noticed that opening a page on GameSpot takes longer than most game sites, and even while posting this message I notice that there is a lagging sensation when I press backspace... Trying to find previous features is also difficult and kind of demotivates searching through this site.. the broken links that exist also add to the headache.

And if anyone is reading, am I alone on the fact the new flash player sucks?

Please GameSpot, bring back the Windows Media Player, or at least allow the video to upload when it's paused.

Hey everyone, it's been a while.

I know many gamers and Wii/360 fans have already forgotten about the dark, mammoth console. Indeed, it could be said that Sony just may lose this round of console wars. With the loss of exclusive titles, and rumors of other titles moving to the 360 (eg MGS4), things are looking bleak for the PS3.

Reasons for the current situation on Sony's side is obviously due to the incompetence within Sony's ranks, with executives like Stringer being unable to coordinate the company to produce the necessary results. Kutaragi made his own mistakes like not securing GTA4 as an exclusive title for PS3 and making the system too complicated for programming and manufacture. Sony's advertising department should seriously be considered for replacement. The current advertisements for Playstation ("This is living") don't have anything to do with games and I doubt any non-gamer has any idea what those advertisements are advertising.

Even with these setbacks, the PS3 is far from dead. Of course, several changes are necessary to drive the console forward, but these are not impossible.

First, replace those bird-brains in the advertising department, and churn out proper ads with actual game footage to show off the graphical capabilities of the Playstation.

Second, secure existing exclusive titles like Final Fantasy XIII, MGS4, Tekken 6, and God of War, and continue to add more exclusive titles.

Third, get rid of the 20 gb and 60 gb versions of the PS3, and just have the 80 gb version available. The reason for this is because having the lesser versions is a waste of money for production as most people purchase the more expensive versions anyway.

The fourth change should be to replace the current 90nm chips with 65nm chips, to reduce the physical size and production values of the console. This would equal a cheaper console, which means more customers and more profit.

Other changes worth mentioning would have been to bring back controller vibration, but this seems to be underway already.

To survive, Sony needs to drop the arrogant act and start to reconnect with the game developers and customers. These are obvious facts which have been ignored for too long by Sony, and if the ignorance continues, the war will surely be lost.

I usually look up Gamespot and IGN for game reviews, and I must say something about the quality of games for the DS. Apart from major games from Nintendo or SquareEnix, many DS games are just lacking in quality.

Personally, I respect the DS and even have a DS Lite (polar white ^^), but the only game I really enjoy is Mario Kart DS... which I bought with the DS.

Before I get a game, I look at the review scores to avoid "wasting money", but there aren't many quality games for the DS at the moment. Also, the vast majority of DS games are so substandard, I can't bring myself to buy one for the Nintendo system.

The games I am looking forward to are coming out later this year. Hopefully Dragon Quest IX and Phantom Hourglass fulfil my expectations... hopefully.

Just as the title says... is it just me, or are games just plain boring?

Recently I've lost interest in modern videogames. No matter how glorified the graphics are, newer games just don't have that 'playabiliy' or 'spirit' of gaming.

When we hark back to the past, games like Doom, Duke Nukem, Starcraft, Half-Life, Civilization 2 and many other classics were fun to play and were also less complicated. Doom, for example, was just about running and gunning. Starcraft got straight to the point of creating a base then destroying the enemy. Civ2 was a complex formula, but was compacted into a streamlined interface.

Now, look at games these days.  Doom 3, doesn't have that same feeling of integrity the old game had. It just doesn't feel solid, as if the enemy is just a vacant polygon frame (yes, it is a polygon frame, but the original game gave the sense of us actually hitting the enemy... with the fist).  Sims 2 isn't as fun as the original, The Sims.  And more recently, Civilization IV is a let down because it just lacks the fast gameplay available in Civ2.

Now, those games were just PC titles... but the console titles are no different. Gran Turismo 4 is no more fun than Gran Turismo, Tekken 5 is no better than Tekken 3, Final Fantasy XII no greater than Final Fantasy VII... and the list goes on.

Sure the graphics are better these days, better AI (which is a good thing, for sure) and better other stuff. But older games were more fun. Some games these days are good, of course, but most of the sequels and new releases of today are too complicated, too objective oriented, just not enough.. fun.

Maybe I just have a case of nostagia.

I know.  You think I'm crazy.

To set things a bit straighter than you think... I like the GTA series.  I have GTA1, 2, 3, VC and SA.

Now you're thinking 'then what's wrong with you?!'.

There's nothing wrong with me. It's San Andreas. It's a s**tty game.

For those of you obsessed with the game, you don't have to read on. Go back to playing the rest of San Andreas and unlocking the Harrier jet, and finishing all the car races, plane races, spray painting, oyster collecting, and marathons.

Do you see why I don't like San Andreas?

Well, I guess I was a little off... calling SA a s**tty game is unfair... longwinded is more appropriate.

Personally, I am a simple gamer.  I enjoyed playing the quick missions in GTA3 and Vice City.  GTA3 was cool because the city wasn't too big and missions didn't take ages to finish.  Vice City was also likable as it followed the steps of its older brother.

However, I did not like the older games: GTA1 and GTA2.

The two parent games (1 & 2) were TOO open and TOO wide.

I personally had trouble finishing the missions (thanks to a wide city, and no map) and it's extreme-open-ended-ness quickly bored me.

You're wondering why.

You see, games have always had some form of authority over the gamer.  These came in the form of missions, commands and orders.  When most of us played Doom, our main satisfaction in the game came from the fact we ended the mission, or destroyed the Cyberdemon (sorry for the spoilder..).

Basically, the completion of authorised goals lead to our happiness.

However, with GTA1 and 2, there was no sense any authority.  We had missions, but there was no real satisfaction from completion.  There was no final boss.  No gratifying exploding torso of the Cyberdemon (sorry, once again).  All we got was a movie at the end, and we got there through collecting money.

Wow.

Some of you may now see a link between my annoyance of the older GTAs with San Andreas.  If you understand my annoyance, my previous hundred words were not in vain.  However, since some of you still don't understand I will go on.

Basically, the reason I don't like GTA: SA, is because it follows the gameplay of it's parents (GTA1, 2), not its brothers (GTA3, VC).  Sure, the graphics are 3D, but the missions are too longwinded.  The missions don't have any feeling of satisfaction and the goals are uninspiring.  Who really cares about spray painting in the 'hood?  Not me.  BUT, you need to spray them all to fully complete the game... and it's an objective in the game.

Also, to fully complete the game, you will need to do about a hundred more mediocre tasks.

THAT is what the game has come to.  TASKS.  It isn't fun to spray paint.  It isn't fun to collect oysters.  And it definitely isn't fun to play through the WHOLE game.  Several friends of mine stopped playing SA half-way through, simply because the missions were too overwhelming (I think it was when CJ had to drive for 5 minutes into the middle of nowhere to take photos of gangsters then drive back to his next mission... just writing it is long).

I don't know about some people, but I prefer to have fun and excitement when playing games... not do work.

Excitement from games is when you frag an enemy in Halo, when you hear that "Headshot!" in Unreal Tournament, when you hear the snap of your enemy's neck in MGS, and the adrenaline of jumping on mushrooms in Super Mario.

When I played San Andreas, there was little excitement, little adrenaline, and too many jobs to do.

These tasks in San Andreas were littered everywhere, and missions were equally boring + repetitive.

To think I was enthusiastic about the game to even have it preordered... a true gaming tragedy.

To listen to more gamer thoughts, stay tuned.