Well I finally hit the 20,000 post mark a few days ago. It took me 3 years (maybe a little more or less) to reach 10,000 posts, and only 1 year to reach 20,000. Durring that first 10k I posted mostly at System Wars. Looking back, I now know that it was a big waste of my time and I'm glad that I left that place because it can really cloud your mind. After leaving System Wars I decided to post in Off-Topic, the PC Board, maintain my blog, and post in the few unions that interest me. The rest is history...

Participating in that "war" is futile.

A few weeks ago I was seriously considering not coming here anymore. With college and other things going on in my life it doesn't feel like the best way to spend my free time. Although I do spend a lot less time here than I did when I visited System Wars and I still do a lot of things outside of GS, it still feels like I'm here way too often. That said, I obviously decided to keep coming here.

The road ahead looks clear, but as with most things in life I really don't know how it's going to turn out. I do know that I am still going to keep posting blog entries whenever I feel like it, I'm going to post in all of the unions that I like, I'm going to finish my role in The Pixel Gallery (possibly continue with the next issue), and maybe I'll post in the PC and OT boards here and there. I'm going to do what I have essentailly been doing for my most recent 10k posts, but I am certainly not going to be coming here as often as before. I can't do it anymore.

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I need to feel like Rocky again!

So that's that. Now onto something else that has been on my mind within the past few weeks. Ever since September started I haven't been running at all. During the spring and summer I was running, jogging, or walking every day. Now I'm not doing anything. No I haven't gotten fatter; I have still been lifting weights as usual, but I really need to step it up and start getting into the whole cardio thing again. Believe it or not, I enjoy doing cardio because it constantly motivates me to take myself beyond my percieved limits. Weight Lifting does that too, but without cardio I don't feel that the equation is complete. So yeah, I really need to start running again.

Look at this nice, random, picture.

Anyway, I know this blog entry is kind of random, but whatever... Just felt like posting something.

It was early in the morning a few days ago, and I went to n4g.com. I stumbled upon a news article (link) about a Deus Ex 3 preview in PC Zone Magazine. Obviously being the fan of Deus Ex that I am, I was happy to see some news come up on this game; however, after reading the article I don't know what to think right now.

Unfortunately the screenshots and concept art scans are no longer available, but I saw them and I thought that they looked great.

Deus Ex 3 is going to be a prequel to Deus Ex, where you play the role of some guy who works at a top secret augmentation lab. One day a black-ops team comes in and slaughters your co-workers and the conspiracy, what ever it is, unfolds from there. I always said that it would be interesting if Deus Ex had a prequel where you play as Paul Denton, but that is not who you will be playing as in Deus Ex 3. They say that there will be a deep story with multiple layers and that sounds great, but some of the other information raises some questions about the game (I'll get to those questions later).

I wonder if the cool inventory system will remain...

First of all there is auto-heal in this game, much like the auto-heal that has been popularized in big-time shooters like Halo and Call of Duty 4. In the original Deus Ex game there was an augment that allowed your body to repair itself at an accelerated rate, but your health didn't just regenerate out of thin air like it does in these new games. You had to have that augment in you in order to utilize it and it depleted your Bio-Energy. I'm wondering how the auto-heal system will work in Deus Ex 3. Personally I want a good explanation as to why the player will be able to auto-heal and I also hope that this doesn't make the game too much of a shooter. Another aspect that has me sceptical was the statement that Deus Ex 3's stealth system is, "no longer based on shadows, but cover." Now that's fine and dandy, but why can't the player use a combination of both shadows and cover to remain undetected? That statement is too general so I'll wait until more info comes out before I judge it, but like the auto-heal it brings up some questions about what the game will be like.

I have been talking about these questions for some time now, so how about I ask them right now...

Will Deus Ex 3 be a 3rd person shooter? The use of cover raises this question. In a first person shooter, the player can find their own cover without the assistance of a cover system. Maybe it will be like Rainbow Six Vegas and be a combination of First Person and Third Person gameplay.

Deus Ex 2 was a major disappointment, hopefully Deus Ex 3 will not follow in its footsteps.

Is this just going to be a straight up shooter, or will the player have a say in the game and how the story unfolds? Well auto-heal points in the direction of it being a shooter, also the details on how the player participates in the story are far too vague to determine whether or not the game will have dialogue options, among some other forms of communications like the original and sequel did. I don't want Deus Ex 3 to be a pure FPS that has its story play out in a bunch of non-interactive cutscenes.

I have some more questions, but I'll just stop there because I'm tired.

I want Deus Ex 3 to be a game of choices, a game with a great story, and great gameplay. (doesn't everyone want this )

Anyway that's what has been on my mind for the past few days.

So yesterday Rk-mara, artur, fatshodan, JnWycliffe, and I came up with an idea of a union for PC games and off-topic discussion. It all started when fatshodan said that it would be a good idea if we made a union for all the "cool people" on the PC boards and eventually the idea lead to the creation of a user created board. We later decided that a UCB was too limiting, so the idea of making an actual union came into the spotlight.

The first thing we needed was a name. We went through various titles like PC Gamer Elite, something a bit different, PC snobs, The Drunken Elite PC snobs, but we finally made a decisoin based on a combination of three of the titles. Obviously the name we chose was The Drunken PC Snobs.

This is what a drunken PC snob looks like.

We all know that PC Gamers are elitists and console gamers are always a friendly bunch who do not feel any superiority over each other and as a result we decided to make union that targeted the "elite" of PC gaming. The Drunken PC Snobs is a sanctuary for the uber-elitists on the PC boards because sometimes we can't handle the ignorance of others and we need to escape! In all seriousness the real purpose is to have a place with laid-back conversations related to PC gaming and other things that are unrelated to gaming. This place is sort of like an exclusive club, not everyone can get into the union, but if you are a cool user who makes good posts then you will probably be considered. Our goal isn't to become very big, it is to have a close community.

Sorry Obama people, this picture just fits too good.

Now if you are interested, tell me and I'll see what I can do. You don't have to drink alcohol in order to become a member, but you do have to be a PC Gamer at heart.

Well it's that time of year... I'm ready to make a list of games that I'm interested in buying this year. Last year I bought a lot of games, but ended up being disappointed with the majority of the titles so I'm taking a far more cautious route this year.

Left 4 Dead

I'm not 100% sold on this game yet, but I am placing it into my guaranteed to buy list regardless. If the demo doesn't deliver the goods then I'll probably pass on this game or wait for it to go down in price.

What I like about it: I love Coop games where you kill endless hordes of baddies and Left 4 Dead is one of those games. The emphasis of the gameplay is on survival and team work. I'll admit that overtime games like Serious Sam can loose their "flame"; once you've killed countless bad guys and completed the huge maps numerous times it just isn't the same anymore, but Left 4 Dead promises to keep the experience fresh with something called the "director". This "director" will give you an entirely unique and difficult battle each time; just when things are starting to get ok a huge horde of zombies might burst outside of the door and kill you and it is this unpredictability that has me intrigued.

What I'm worried about: Although this "director" gives the game a lot of potential to be something great, I'm not sure if it is going to work as advertised. If it does than great, if it doesn't then the game might not be as fun.

Red Alert 3

I'm going to buy this one.

What I like about it: Its Command and Conquer, what's not to like? The cheesy cut scenes are very entertaining (from what I have seen), the cast is fantastic, the graphics are solid and the water and land based gameplay looks refreshing.

What I'm worried about: I'm not worried about much. I do think that it would have been nice to Kari Wuhrer back as Tanya, but overall everything looks fine to me.

Starcraft 2

If this game comes out this year then I'll buy it.

What I like about it: I'll be the first to admit that I have never been much of a Starcraft player in the past; I normally get my ass kicked be the ai . But everyone has to start somewhere and I know that I'll eventually adapt and become a decent player through time and dedication, much like I did with War Craft 3. I know that this game is influenced by Warhammer 40K, but I still enjoy the story and the universe with that in mind. I'm not really a hardcore Warhammer guy so I can have fun with these games without having a hissy fit.

What I'm worried about: Although I do like a challenge, the challenge might be too much for me to handle. People have been playing these games for ages and ages so I'm expecting to get my ass kicked, but I can't have fun if I loose every single battle that I play online.

Gears of War 2

It's on my buy list.

What I like about it: Gears of War 2 is going to be another perfect Co-op game. A lot of my friends are going to buy it and needless to say we will be playing this game online for a very, very long time.

What I'm worried about: The story. I know, Gears of War has a crappy story, but I don't think that Gears of War 2 is going to get any better with some big and random love story being shoved down our throats 24/7. I'll reserve my final judgement for when I'm finished with the game, but I just don't see myself crying about this game like the voice actors allegedly did.

Far Cry 2

Believe it or not, I'm not necessarily going to buy this game. I'm going to rent it on my Xbox 360 first.

What I like about it: The open-ended world, the dynamic do-it-yourself story, the gameplay as a whole sounds amazing on paper.

What I'm worried about: It's Ubisoft. They aren't known for creating good PC games that perform well. It's funny that Far Cry 2 was originally a PC exclusive game (for around 2 weeks), that was supposed to "establish Ubisoft as a prime PC developer", but we all know how that turned out. I'm not sure what that is going to mean for this game. Will it be a crappy port? I'm not sure so I am going to read the reviews and benchmarks for this one and I'll probably rent it on the Xbox 360.

Dead Space

Like Left 4 Dead, I really want to buy this game, but I am still a bit skeptical.

What I like about it: This game has creepy looking aliens in space. The atmosphere looks great, the real-time inventory screen is cool and tactical dismemberment sounds like a lot of fun.

What I'm worried about: This game could suck. I don't think EA has ever made one of these games before so they haven't proven themselves capable yet.

Fable 2

I'm going to rent this game and possibly buy it later.

What I like about it: If it is anything like the original Fable then it will be a simple, but fun RPG. Since I'll be really busy in the days ahead this game should be perfect.

What I'm worried about: The only thing that I'm worried about is the length of the game. The first Fable lasted only a few hours and I was still hungry for more. I want to feel satisfied by the time that I am finished with this game.

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In other news, I just got back into WoW so I might end up getting Wrath of the Lich King as well.

Lately I have been really busy so that is the main reason why I did not post a blog entry last week and I may have missed some of your entries too.

Let's face it; not all of us are fans of sports and racing games, not to mention the actual events themselves, but there are a few games within those genres which stand out from the crowd and provide a unique and extremely entertaining experience for people like me. Given my lack of interest for these events one can logically conclude that my game library isn't packed with Madden games that range from 1994-2009 nor is it overflowing with racing simulators like Grand Turismo 4 and Forza 2. However my game library does have a few racing and sports games in it, but the games are not what you would expect.

Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now is one of those games, it fits under the car-combat subgenre and I love everything about it. When you are given the ability to run over countless pedestrians which typically results in the formation of a deep red cloud of blood, gore, human/animal limbs and obliterate your fellow racers with head on collisions or any other twisted method of vehicular destruction your brain can construct it makes the racing experience a lot more intense. Hell you don't even need to complete the stupid races in order to win most missions in this game (there are two racing missions). I'm one of those guys who do not enjoy driving around in circles while admiring the pretty scenery and making sure I don't screw up a turn or else I'll end up in last place. Since the race world in Carmageddon 2, or any Carmageddon game for that matter, is open ended this problem is nonexistent. If I see an airport and I'd like to crash through it, I can. If I see some people ice skating and I want to run over them, I can. If there are people on top of a skyscraper for some strange reason, I can run over them too. The majority of the missions in Carmageddon 2 are large and overpopulated with pedestrians and animals so there is always something to do, something new to find, and something new to try. This game came out in 1998, but it has done so many things well that games these days try and fail to accomplish.

Here is a nice youtube video of Carmageddon 2

In addition to the great open-ended maps, Carmageddon 2 has another feature worth mentioning and it is one that is only now becoming more popular with games like Halo 3 and GTA: IV for the PC. The feature I'm talking about is the ability to record your races. While playing you can click the replay button (numpad 0 if I remember correctly) at any time and rewind, fast forward, pause, change camera angles, etc and record a clip of the action if you find something that you like. This feature is perfect for replaying the hilarious carnage that ensues every single time you play this game. For example, I was driving along at an extremely high speed and I picked up a power-up rightfully named Pin-Ball. As a result of picking up this power-up whenever my vehicle came into contact with a surface such as a wall, my car would be launched up and down, back and forth. Eventually I was sent soaring into the sky and when I landed, I landed on top of a skyscraper and a police officer who was conveniently standing there, his head was lobbed off and his corpse squashed against the top of the building. Of course I found this to be hilarious, I guess I'm a bit twisted for thinking so, but whatever... it was funny and since this game allows you to watch a replay I was able to see the event unfold in all of its former glory. Unfortunately I did not have the sense to record it.

If you paid attention to what I mentioned about boring genres earlier on in this entry, then you would know that the racing genre isn't the only one that I referred to as a typically boring genre (in my opinion).

The chances of you having heard of the game Deathrow (Xbox) aren't very good, so let me explain why it is one of my favorite sports games. Yes, we all know about sports like football, soccer, baseball, basketball, etc so why don't we ask for something new and different? Blitz (the sport in Deathrow) is a futuristic blood-sport. The most basic way to describe it is as UFC meets basketball without the ball. Instead the ball is a disc which can also be used as a weapon. You can pass the disc to your fellow teammates (there are 4 players on each team) and have them try to score or if you are the do-it-yourself type you can launch the disc towards the goal yourself. Another element involved with the sport is the hand to hand combat. When your fist comes into contact with the flesh of your opponent's face the chances of blood spray are good, thus the sport rightfully receives the blood-sport tag. This game is extremely intense and it is unlike any other sports game I have played. The amount of aggression involved is through the roof and I think it is mostly that element that makes it so damn fun to play. However the fast paced gameplay isn't the only thing that I enjoy in Deathrow.

Throughout the season you are faced with numerous issues and choices, a reoccurring choice is whether or not to roid up some of your team members. If you inject your players with performance enhancing drugs the effects can be rewarding, however they normally come at a price. For example a player's strength may be increased, allowing him to throw harder punches, but his cardiovascular endurance might suffer, so he will run out of energy faster. This adds yet another layer to the game. Other than the side choices you must make during the season, the actual teams themselves are very interesting, although most of them are kind of stereotypical. There are teams of convicts, ninjas, military guys, miners, etc, the list goes on. And much like the teams, the arenas are also well diversified, so you never get sick of playing in the same old arena.

Anyway the point is that Carmageddon 2 and Deathrow are awesome games. They might be racing/sports games in the most basic sense, but there are so many aspects that set them apart from the regular games in those genres that they are placed into sub-genres and it is these alternate perspectives that allow me to enjoy racing and sports games. Unfortunately the car combat and blood-sport genres aren't very popular so it isn't as if I can find myself in gaming bliss with racing and sports games very often.

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Now onto some other things that have been on my mind lately.

First of all I just completed Ninja Gaiden 2 and loved almost every second of it. It is probably the best game I have rented for the Xbox 360 so far. The action is intense, fast-paced and difficult, but rewarding. Each weapon feels like it has an impact, brains constantly being splattered onto the wall are a testament to this, and overall the game just got so many things right.

As for that Force Unleashed game, it is an utter piece of crap (I have much harsher words for it, but I don't want to be suspended from GS). The game feels so damn slow, drab, and generic. Ninja Gaiden 2 and The Force Unleashed are polar opposites in almost every aspect. I'm only on the third mission, but I'm fairly certain that I'm going to give up on it. I'll admit that the concept behind The Force Unleashed is great, but the execution is horrible. Also I must say that the physics are pretty cool, but in the end something just feels phony about them... I don't quite know what it is. And I have no idea what in the hell they were talking about when they said that this game could not be run on PCs, but I guess this game's absence on the PC is a blessing because no one can waste their money on it.