I'm glad to see that there are still somewhat recent posts on the NES Legion boards. Who would've thought.

PS: GameSpot's censorship still blows.

Why 15 and not 10? Because I can't make up my mind

1

Baldurs Gate 2

Release Date: September 24, 2000

Great story, great sidequests, characters, villains, and combat (unlike Dragons Age stupid MMO sty1e gameplay). Tons of c1asses and spells to choose from. Still my favorite game of all time and fun to play now. Most of the characters that join you have great dialogue and I loved the way they often interacted with each other. Excellent mods were also released for this game, one adding Xan (who was a character that could join you in the first game) and who is probably my favorite character of all time (the mod also gives the character a lot more dialouge in the first Baldurs Gate).

First time playing it: I enjoyed the first Baldurs Gate and I think my parents bought me this for Christmas in 2001. It took a backseat to the other games I got because you start off having to fight through a dark dungeon, I always hate going through small dark areas in games. After I started playing about a month or two later I was quickly out and grew to love the game. The first disk broke somehow after a few years and I didn't own the game again until a few years later when I ordered the collection that came with the expansion off half.com

2

Resident Evil 4

Release: January 11, 2005

I love the way you control your character in RE4 and RE5, even though most people don't after the release of newer games like Deadspace. Shooing enemies is satisfying due to how they react to the shots and the melee attacks are fun to watch (suplex).

First time playing: My aunt bought it for me while I was looking at a Gamestop when we were in San Francisco for something.

3

Release: November 12, 2001

Release: November 17, 2004

Release: January 12, 2008

Metal Gear Solid Series

One of my favorite series. I've loved every entry in the series. Snake in Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 is one of my favorite characters (Big Boss in three isn't that great and Snake in four is horrible) as is Ocelot in all four games. Great gameplay and story, as well as some funny moments (one hit kill groin punches in MGS2). The second and third games also have two of the best endings I have seen in video games. Portable Ops doesn't make it just because of how annoying it is to play on the PSP.

First time I played: I played the second Metal Gear Solid the same way I played the first, my friend bought it and brought it over to play. He left the second one over at my house one of those times and never seemed to want it back, even when he was over and I told him I still had it, after three years of that I ended up keeping it. The third game I bought when it came out. The fourth I had to wait a few months to play, I bought my PS3 in August and I rented MGS4 the same day. It made some great changes to the series but because of some missed gameplay opportunities and Snake acting like a grumpy old man throughout the entire game it is my least favorite. The second is probably my favorite game of the series (that is including the first game, two MSX games, and Portable Ops).

4

Fire Emblem 7

Release: November 3, 2003

I've played all the games in the Fire Emblem series and this is my third favorite (the fourth and fifth on the Snes being my favorites). This was the first game I played in the series and the first to be released in America, even though it was the prequel to six. I loved the gameplay and the support conversations with the characters. Usually in games where you can recruit a lot of characters (Suikoden, Fire Emblem, Valkyria Chronicles) you don't get to know anything about those characters (unless the game gives you some short text bios), Fire Emblem adds a bit more personality to most of its characters. I think every character gets somewhere between three and ten other characters in your group that they can talk to during battle. Every two characters that can talk get up to three conversations throughout the game and they can each have five conversations in total. It might take awhile to have the characters stand together long enough (and a lot of playthroughs) but they add a lot of personality to the characters and whenever you do finish a conversation the game saves it under the extras menu. I've gotten every support in both Fire Emblem 7 and 8 (nine I don't own and ten took them out to replace them with a worse feature in between levels).

First time played: Parents got it for me for Christmas the same year it came out. I forgot if I read about the game on a site or in a magazine.

5

Final Fantasy 9

Release: November 13, 2000

The first entry in the Final Fantasy series that I played, it also might have been my first RPG. I think I have played all the FF in the main series, besides FF7 and FF11, and this and and FF6 are still my two favorites.

First time player: Again, I got it Christmas the year it came out. I had read about it months before in a magazine, not sure which one, the only magazines I ever remember getting was Game Informer from their 100th issue on and EGM a few years later. My parents let me open one gift on Christmas Eve and this was the one I opened. I played it all through the night and had little interest opening the rest of my presents in the morning.

6

Paper Mario

Release: February 5, 2001

My favorite Mario game, even more than Mario 3. Very funny, a battle system I can enjoy a lot more than normal turn based RPGs and great characters that join you, each with their own special abilities. I rented this game and after I bought my Wii this was one of the game I bought on the Virtual Console.

First time playing: I don't remember

7

Ogre Battles 64

Release: October 7, 2000

I love this and Ogre Battles: March of the Black Queen for the Snes and Playstation. This game has my favorite battle system of all time, having a large group of characters, customizing them, and splitting them up into multiple groups to fill out your army. The only games I know of that have a battle system like it are the two mentioned and Soul Nomad and the Wolrd Eaters. There are at least two other games in the series one for the Playstation and Knights of Lodis for the GBA but those two play like Final Fantasy Tactics, though the GBA one is still a great game (I don't have the PS one). I believe all games focus on the same continent or kingdoms at different times during their history, with OB64 being a sequel to Black Queen, even letting the main character of that game join your army in this one (now with the ability to talk). Great battles, and interesting world, tons of c1asses, and branching paths make this and Baldurs Gate 2 my two favorite games of all time.

First time played: I rented it about seven times from a gamestore. I finally bought it a few months ago when I found two copies in a pawn shop for $15 each. Much cheaper than it is online.

8

Call of Duty 4

Release: November 5, 2007

The Call of Duty series has always had my favorite FPS gameplay and Call of Duty 4 had other great features like an excellent muliplayer, exciting story and locations, surprises, the ability to shoot through walls (finally, glad pretty much all games started to do that once this came out), and likable characters (except Griggs, who sucks and died in the stupidest way possible). I can't forget to mention the fun extras like ragtime warfare and slow motion (which MW2 stupidly left out).

First time played: I got into the multiplayer beta and bought the special edition when it came out.

9

Star Wars Jedi Knight 2 Jedi Outcast

Release: March 26, 2002

The cheats, the cheats are awesome. They easily made the PC version the best. Slowing down time, going into third person with your guns and cartwheeling and back flip to avoid blaster fire while gunning down an army of stormtroopers. Controlling yourself mid roll with the game's speed set on .2 and watching all their gunfire go right in between your arm and head or in between your legs during a backwards somersault. That is my most memorable thing but the lightsaber combat and force powers were also great. This game is so much better than Force Unleashed. All they should have done was make a fourth game in this series instead of that.

First time player: We had just gotten the internet and this was the first game I ever ordered online about a month after it came out.

10

Halo

Release: November 14, 2001

The reason I loved the first Halo so much more than the others in the series was because it was the first time I got to fight with a group of allies that were not only helpful but who could actually survive throughout the level (unless you were on Legendary or fighting the flood). The marines had funny dialogue and were a joy to be around, which is odd because in just about every game or movie I can't stand marines (the rest of the Halo series takes care of my love of these marines pretty quickly though, ending with ODST where your allies would just charge through all the enemies just so they can run into a wall on the other side). The game also had great weapons and was one of the few games to introduce driving into an otherwise FPS game with great success. It is also one of the first games I played co-op in and helped to fuel my love of co-op gaming.

First played: I think it was about two years after it came out, the day that I bought my Xbox

11

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Release: July 17, 2003

A battle system that was exciting and fun to watch. Introduced a great morality system to the genre. The story was so much better than the prequel movies. I love this game like Anakin hates sand.

First Played: The day I bought my Xbox sometime in the same year

12

Phantom Dust

Release: March 15, 2005

I love card games. Phantom Dust basically gives you a card game but mixes it was an action game. You make your deck of abilities, then pick up energy and power as they appear in your spawn point, a move could be equipped to each of the four buttons (A,X,B,Y). The single player was fun and had an interesting story but it mostly served as a way to get your cards/abilities/glowing floaty balls to use in multiplayer which was excellent. One of the best and most original games I have ever played, so of course it sold poorly and has yet to have a sequel.

First Played: Bought it shortly after realease. I thought it was only out in Japan until I saw one of my Live friends playing it while I was on Halo 2, I quickly got out of that crap and bought this.

13

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

Release: March 6, 2007

A great single player game but mostly it just added on to the first games terrific multiplayer. Ignoring both of those things since Ghost Recon 2 (2, the expansion, GRAW, and GRAW 2) Ghost Recon has had some of the best co-op gameplay I have played (I never played the first game in the series). Co-Op missions that are separate from the single player story, defense missions (see if you can last an hour), assault (kill all enemies), recon (check out zones while killing enemies that get in your way), etc all allowing up to 16 people to play. Tons of maps, some that could be played day or night and map packs to add even more maps and co-op missions. No ODST did not steal it's crappy firefight mode from Left 4 Dead's crappy survival mode, which stole from GoW2's crappy horde mode, which stole from Resident Evil 4's pretty fun Mercenary mode (I'll leave COD5's zombie mode out since the whole zombie thing kind of changes the games gameplay) they all stole from Ghost Recon 2's (and maybe one) awesome 16 player co-op modes (that's modes, with an S, not just one mode like all the other games had).

First Time Played: Bought the day it came out

14

Persona 2 Eternal Punishment

Release: December 22, 2000

A great RPG, the earlier Persona games and SMT series are the only JRPGs that actually require strategy in battle and the game gives you the option to recruit enemies through different dialogue options. Making this one of the only series to do anything good with the god awful turn based JRPG battle system, it's also (along with SMT) one of the only JRPG series that is challenging. A dark an interesting story (with many censored swear words right from the get go, telling you that the game will be edgy). The conversations you can have with the demons are also pretty funny, combining certain characters lets you do anything from having the two female characters talk about cute boys to having a cop and a mobster interrogate the poor things. Depending on how they react to each conversation they can become scared, angry, or start to like you. Then can either be forced/asked to leave a fight, give you items, join you in the form of a card which you can then use to create a demon (a much better way than the idiotic ways of Persona 3 and 4 where you go around fighting stupid **** like tables and only finding demons through random minigames after a fight). Best of all, there is no ******* JPop music, only music that is actually, fitting.

First Time Played: Bought at Gamestop along with Xenogears, both for $20 on one of the last days they would sell Playstation games. Good deals

15

Deus Ex

Release: June 26, 2000

An excellent FPS with well used RPG elements (not like Bioshock) all the skills were useful there were many different weapon and ways to approach most situations (stealth, shooting, hacking, lock picking). The game also had a great story and this is still the only game that has made me feel bad about killing people, luckily a stun prod, dart gun, and crowbar...I mean police baton to the back of the head give me many nonlethal ways to take down my enemies.

First Time Played: I forgot

Almost made it

Suikoden 2

Release: August 31, 1999

Valkyria Chronicles

Release: November 4, 2008

Most hated feature of the decade

Matchmaking

I will always hate Bungie for starting this crap with Halo 2. Remember the good old days when you joined a persons match, sometimes you had a few regulars that would join the same guys game with you all the time, you could make some friends and vote about things together (or the host could decide alone) to keep everything how you wanted it. Magical times when you could do things like pick what map and gametype you wanted instead of being forced to play crap all the time (bringing up Bungie again, their idiot matchmaking game choices pretty much destroy Halo 3, at least Call of Duty 4 and MW2 give you enough options so you know what gametype you are playing).

Remember when you could play a game knowing that the host is not going to leave anytime soon because you could either ask the host in person or because the host was not there but only setting up a dedicated game for you all to enjoy (making the game run even better). Now we get to have the host randomly chosen to pretty much ensure that the games will lag and if that host should get killed or start losing he will most likely quit forcing everyone to leave the game or wait through a long loading screen to pick a new hosts, which will usually only result in us waiting to be kicked out of the game (CALL OF DUTY AND HALO and your **** communities).

Games like Left 4 Dead 2 make you have very difficult times trying to find games when you have a friend or two on, since you have no idea if it will throw you into a game that only has one person, only needs one more person, or is already in progress.

Games that don't randomly choose a host now like to use their own dedicated servers which are always horrible. I haven't been able to play Left 4 Dead 2's versus or scavenge mode for weeks (duh, being one of the most preordered games of all time gave us no indication that a lot of people would be playing and crashing our garbage servers).

Again with Halo, a game that people have made great maps and gametypes for, thanks to Bungie's matchamking crap the only way to ever enjoy any of this is to have friends on who can join you for private games. How ******* likely is it that you are going to get on Halo 2 or 3 (or any other game you want to play a private match for) have 15 friends on playing the same game as you, who are all willing to join you. It takes a pretty awesome person to get people to leave their friends, possibly real life friends who are online, to exit out of games that are in progress, to forget about anything that they had to do in real life, just to join you so you can try out your new Juggernaut gametype.

It' almost 2010 here, i just want to wish everyone a happy new year, I hope you all have some good things going your way this year!

Yup...that's right.

I'm DONE with classes and I'll be walking across the stage to get my bachelor's degree in computer science next week.

And on top of all that...I just got a job offer for a Software Developer stating January 4th.

Hooraz!

---

EDIT: Roll Tide.

As i mentioned not long ago, level 55 was an easy one. Starting at Level 44 this year, i have gone up 12 levels but next year will be slower with level 63 and level 64 taking atleast 1 year EACH (expect to be in them in all of 2011 and 2012 respectively).

Finally.

I knew I would grow tired of this place and decide to leave, or get banned without actively trying. I'm surprised I'm not banned already, but instead it has led to this. I don't want to continue doing this anymore.


I am leaving GameSpot permanently.


To put it simply, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the site telling me that it's my fault there are HTML errors. I'm sick of pointless moderations. I'm sick of the same threads being reposted every month and I'm sick of the waves of old threads being bumped.

James Kozanecki sent me a private message at the start of this month. Part of it reads:

kozanecki wrote:

We noticed that you've been moderated a fair bit lately and under the Terms of Service you're rapidly approaching a ban. You're a great forum poster and it would be a shame to lose you, so try to keep it clean and above board.

Yeah well screw that. Lose me. I don't want to be a GameSpot forum poster anymore, and I won't let moderators have the satisfaction of moderating me anymore or banning me. I am clean. I am above board, but GameSpot's moderation system is flawed and doesn't allow for the least bit of fun, joke or innuendo. I will no longer subject myself to this virtual prison.

There isn't even a reason outside of the forum to visit this website and hasn't been for years. The news is always a day late, the reviews are late and the video content is bland.

This website is no longer relevant and has no reason to be visited.


So there's my reasoning. No real surprises there, but why exactly have I chosen to leave on the 22nd of September?

Before being a regular at GameSpot I used to post very frequently on a wrestling forum at wrestling.net.au. As seen by this screenshot taken before the forum was relaunched, I made nearly 6000 posts there! However after having enough of one moderator on the team who had hated me ever since I signed up I decided I would leave. I did so, on the 22/09/2007. The exact same date I registered there in 2003. Now I'm going to do it again. Same date, same signature, and just like last time I will never return. Even after writing this the similarities continued with one of my last threads on GameSpot being closed just like on the wrestling forum.


As for where I'm going next, I don't feel like writing anything on the internet for a while. I want to sit back, wind down, reflect, forget and refresh. I want to rid my mind of the evil of the past before moving on to something better.


But it wasn't all bad. The most important part of this website for me were the same people who read my posts and blog entries throughout the years. You. Your personalities, forum posts, blog posts, Community Games Nights and Pick-up threads kept me coming back all these years and I thank all those who gave me a laugh. You all know who you are!


And... I guess that is it.

It's time for me to stop. What you're reading now is the last thing I'll ever do on GameSpot before signing out for eternity. Time to walk away from almost 100 blog entries, over 1000 users tracking me, over 11000 profile views and over 12000 posts. It may be drastic, but this is something I feel I need to do and it's in my best interests that I say... Goodbye!



And then, there was nothing.

elektrixxx.....

I hope you enjoy my epic harmonies and stuff. (sorry they are midis, not actual recordings)

Here's number 1
Here's number 2

let me know what you think of them.. I think if you're into In Flames or Iron Maiden you might like.

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

My brother got me this game a couple of days ago so we can have something els to play that was two players and wasnt called Guitar Hero. Dont get me wrong I like Guitar Hero but it kinda gets old if thats the only game you have. But anyways we were lookin for a good ten dollar game and we came to a decision of Dynasty Warriors... Or Power Rangers. Power Rangers was only one player so we got Dynasty Warriors lol. It's an okay game. It's a good time flyer, one level takes me about fourty minutes to complete. And yeah its one of those games that is button mashing and the character only does one move over and over again. But its okay when your playing co-op. But the one player mode OH MY GOSH!!! Never in my life have I plaied a game that pissed me off more. I mean God of War gets me goin on God mode but this game.... !!!!!!!. I didnt know how to block untill the third level and still yet I can only block the person that is straight ahead of me. Not slightly to the right or left. But they have to be dead on so I can block. And the difficulty jump... WOW! Each level is rated on difficulty by little flames. I think ten flames being the hardest, to one being the easiest. I started out with two flames and it was easy, but then it jumped up to three flames and OMG I CAN NOT PASS IT WITH MY LIFE!!!! I think the computers finally grew Einstines brain and disabled my blocking (Even though it dont really work anyway).I was going to throw my controller at the kitties face but it was dead across the street. jk But this game is IMPOSSIBLE! Or I just suck. Its probably I just suck. I can get further on God mode slowly but surely and I can beat Cliffs of Dover on guitar hero and get five stars on the controller but I cant efin pass this level. Well enough of me female doggin I got to go to sleep. I have nothing to do tomorrow, again. Nite ya'll

Havent been on here in a long time...

Well technically I was never gone -- I've been here the whole time, lurking about, posting from time to time and reading blogs. I was never really into posting blogs on a regular basis but geez, it's sure been a while since my last one. Anyway, it's past my bed time so I'm just going to *messily* summarize what I've been up to lately.

For starters, I bought GTA IV -- I've been massively hyped about this game since before it was even announced, which is rare for me. Anyway, to briefly sum it up, I beat it, best game I've played it a while, met all my expectations. Was it better than San Andreas? Probably though I had more fun with San Andreas. Did it deserve a 10/10? Hell no! No game does in my opinion, not even Ocarina of Time. I know that many people are saying 10 doesn't mean perfect but even with a .5 increment scoring system, 10 has to be damn close to perfect. I'd give this game oooh, I dunno ... 9.7 maybe, at best? Any game that scores above 9.0 is amazing in my books.

Online play? Could care less about it to be honest, haven't played much of it and I do not care to. Online gaming hasn't been my thing since CS 1.6 and I'm really not into console online gaming. I've played the GTA online and it's not bad but I'm gonna cancel my Xbox Live Gold none-the-less.

Rebought a copy of Final Fantasy VII from eBay yesterday which should hopefully arrive tommorrow or the day after. I only ever beat the game once and I recently felt a sudden urge to playthrough it once more. Unfortunately I sold it a while back so I had to buy it again. I paid a little more than I would have liked to for it but eh -- what the heck? It was an original copy in mint condition.

Speaking of retro games -- actually can the PS1 be classed as 'retro' just yet? Probably not, whatever -- I've decided to start rebuilding my games collection. Current generation games are too expensive for the likes of me so my money would most likely be better spent on old cheap games. I bought a megadrive from eBay as well as Sonic 2 and Aladdin, both of which are excellent games.

Uh, what else .... thinking of buying a GameCube -- I could just buy a Wii but Gamecubes are crazy cheap these days.

Saw the new Indiana Jones movie ... I wasn't too impressed but to be honest I wasn't expecting much from it either. It's an alright movie that doesn't really live up to it's predecessors. There's my impressions for you, see it if you want though I wouldn't reccommend it.

Oh and I just watched this -- Ugh ... I dunno what my thoughts are on this

Got the red ring again last night , 5th 360 is on the way.

Happy Happy Joy Joy, Happy Happy Joy Joy, Happy Happy Joy Joy!!!!

Finally, after weeks of calling countless times to many stores over the past few months, I have tracked down and bought earlier this morning a wii! While keeping my joy and delight to myself as I walked into Target, walked straight to the electronic department, and asking the salesperson for the wii all the while singing the happy happy joy joy song in my head. I also decided to pick up Smash Bros, Star Wars: Republic Commando (PC), and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (PC) while I was there. Unfortunately I am at school right now and my last class doesn't end until 4:45pm! No doubt today is gonna go awfully slow but the wait will be well worth it! Just 5 hours and 47 minutes to go.

Well, that's all. I gotta go, the teacher is looking in my direction probably wondering why I'm typing during one of her boring as hell lectures.

What would you play?

My picks:

1. Starcraft

2. Portal

3. Beyond Good & Evil

4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past

5. Secret of Mana

Looks like i'm coming and going, so i just can say, i'm back, not for long, but i'm back...
Sorry to all.

discuss

Call of duty 4, the singleplayer is not one of the longest but the online feature it offers is on the other part one of the longest!

it's just plain fun, maxing up your guns, going for special challenges and all that online!

so yoin in on COD 4 online, my nick is Heiking, so kill me before i kill you!

I return to make sudden appearance, followed by a mysterious dissappearance... seriously, hi and bye if i don't come back...It's been fun... i won't forget even if i tried...

and if you have one please add me. my psn is saoten

I finally made a banner and when i went to upload it, it said the file was too large. Yet it is smaller than the maximum size. Anybody have any ideas of how to make it work?