How's it going everyone. Hope all of you had a great Christmas. I just got home from a large gathering of family and friends. We had ham which was quite wonderful.
I got many presents, but my favorite one was a present my best bud gave me. A Gamecube. He told me he found it at Gamestop for only $30. He said he was gonna get me an Xbox 360 or something but he said it's way too expensive. I agree. I said to him "Don't worry, this is better, trust me".
I used to have a Gamecube, many years ago. I had to sell it, along with all the games I had for it, back in 2002 I believe. So I barely got to play any of the games that came after that. I've always loved the Gamecube though. I particularly love the mini disks. They're so cute. Actually, everything about the Gamecube just radiates cuteness. That may be why it didn't sell as well as its competitors, but oh well.
I got three games with my new Cube. Metroid Prime, Resident Evil Zero and WWE Day of Reckoning. I like all three.
I doubt I'll play many multiplatform games on the Gamecube. I'll probably just stick to exclusives, because I don't like the controller quite as much as the PS2's (but It's still good and I'll probably like it a lot more when I get used to it again). I've found just under 2 dozen games I'd like to eventually buy for it, nowhere near the 156 I have for the PS2, but still very good stuff.
On my next blog in the coming days, I'll talk about my strangest Christmas present, a game I bought for myself. And I'll talk about a few other things as well. Cya later, and Merry Christmas.
So, it is Christmas. Or Hanukkah. Or whatever. The point is I got new stuffs!
Dragon Age: Origins (360)
Left 4 Dead 2 (360)
Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
New speakers for my PC
Quite a few Magic cards
Some Monsterpocaylpse minis
The Return of the Black Company by Glen Cook (Third omnibus of the series)
Kill Bin Laden by "Dalton Fury"
House Season 5
The Unit Season 4 ( And the final season...
)
A good deal of money
And a lot of gift cards, most notably $120 worth in gift cards to the local hobby shop and a $50 gift card for Books-A-Million (Like I need that, I only have like 20 books I haven't read yet...I'll never get ahead in my reading!!)
Tomorrow I plan to do some damage at the hobby shop and see if anyone I know is there to play Magic, MonPoc, and L5R with. Then I think I'll spend a bit of my money to buy another new game, though I'm conflicted right now...I'm torn between Demon's Souls, Uncharted 2, Brutal Legend, and Batman: AA (PS3 version...I want to play The Joker). I'm leaning a bit more towards Demon's Souls though...And pray that the game doesn't chew me up too much like everyone says it does.
The only thing I've done much with so far is about 3 hours worth of Dragon Age. I really want to eventually get the PC version since it is so different, but my current PC really isn't up to par and I can't upgrade right now with college expenses. I'll hold out and pick up the PC version later on when I have a better PC. I heard about the graphical differences but DAMN, it is jarring to see just how bad the 360 version looks to the others. It is still shaping up to be a good RPG though. I'm going to go give R&C a try now, and probably stay up all night playing Left 4 Dead 2 online co-op.
Speaking of online, I probably need to pick up a new Live headset tomorrow...Mine has been acting up lately. Damn Microsoft and their cheap Chinese manufacturing!
So, I know you are all just dying to hear what I got for Christmas, so I will oblige. I received:
Kindle
An eBook reader. Should save me money on books/allow for more convenient tranportation. I've used it a lot already today, and I must say its fantastic! I'm going to buy a veritable mountain of books tonight...
Case for the Kindle
Self-explanatory.
Money
Self-explanatory. Most will go towards books for my Kindle, seeing as I already have all the games I want at the moment. A bit will go towards an IMAX ticket for Avatar (that's right, I'm seeing it again!), and the rest will probably be for gas/food.
Digitech XBC Bass Multi-Chorus Pedal
A chorus pedal for my bass. Not something I particularly needed, but definitely something I wanted. Can't wait to play around with it.
Clothes
I got some new clothes, mostly hooded, zipper, sweatshirts. I will be even more stylin' than before...
Avatar T-Shirt
This one is special. I will proudly don this shirt when I go see the movie for a second time (my friends will think I'm quite the nerd, but I could care less). His eyes glow too!
Also, I know I promised impressions on Avatar; I will post this later. I currently don't have the time to write the blog the movie deserves. Anyhow, if you want to know my opinion on it, it will suffice to say I loved it, its probably my favorite movie ever, 10/10, all of you go see it, etc, etc.
Anyhow, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all!
Just wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. I hope everyone got what they wanted.
Darth-Caedus, I hope you got some great CDs
sammyjenkis898, I hope you got some great movies
Nerd_Man, if there're any Pixar movies you don't already have on blu-ray, I hope you got them
I could go on, but it'd take too long to list everyone. Leave it to say I hope everyone is enjoying their day. Merry Christmas to all!
As to my own stuff, here's what I got:
Three CDs: Jeff Loomis - Zero Order Phase; Black Sabbath - Vol. 4; Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
Four Novels: Euripides - Electra and Other Plays; Aeschylus - Prometheus Bound and Other Plays; Wolfram Von Eschenbach - Parzival; Marlowe - The Complete Poems and Translations
Two Graphic Novels: Swamp Thing vol. 4: A Murder of Crows; Y: The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned
One Video Game: Batman: Arkham Asylum
Lots of candy and junk food
A $25 iTunes gift card
And, best of all, $500 cash 
The $500 cash (which my parents insist I spend) is going to go in part to getting a blu ray internal drive for my desktop (as well as a few movies) and also to getting CDs. 
Again, Merry Christmas to everyone!
#4
Grand Theft Auto 4 (PC/360/PS3)
2008
This is a game you probably hate
I played GTA 4 when the PC version came around, and I was going in with low expectations.
If you heard anything about the PC version of the game, it was a messy port in the beginning. It had a huge amount of technical issues and bugs that made the game nearly unplayable. So my enjoyment was seriously compromised, and the only way it would have been playable was if I played it on the bare minimum. So I was pretty angry, but gave the game a shot anyway.
I don't remember the last time I had so much fun before. Even with all these crushing bugs the game threw at me, I just couldn't stop playing. I was in awe for the first few hours of playing, and was even surprised on how decent the game still looked on its lowest settings.
After the ridiculous and frankly annoying San Andreas, I was craving a GTA game on a much more grounded level, so it could focus more on the core mechanics of the series instead of doing a bunch of crap at once and failing at the majority of it.
People look at it as a downgrade. The driving had a lot more weight to it than the previous games did, and it kind of actually felt you were driving a car. The combat was also a major improvement, the cutscenes and storytelling was an enormous improvement, giving what was an excellent character-driven story. It improved on the series' most important aspects, while adding in an incredibly detailed, living breathing city moreso than any sandbox game.
So people are going to say that reviewers were blinded by hype when playing the game. But I think GTA 4 deserved its praise, fully.
The greatest crime-themed game since Mafia.
Tomorrow: The final 3. I'm tired right now 
I thought I would do a little Merry Christmas to everyone..
SaintLeonidas - Hope you have a great Christmas. Enjoy watching Up in the Air tomorrow.
Nerd_Man - Hope you have a wonderful Christmas. Get anything Pixar related?
Chessmaster - I'll be surprised if you didn't get anything Eastwood related.
Robbie - I finally got your favorite show!
Samwel_X - Hope everything is well with your significant other.
MrLions - You need to post more. Merry Christmas!
Aaronmullan - Congratulations on the 30k. Hope you have a great Christmas!
Buck_Hotep - Get any more DVDs for your massive collection?
T3hrubikscube - Hope you have a great time with your family!
TreyoftheDead - Get any Roman Polanski films? You seem to like him a lot. Merry Christmas!
Toriko42 - I'll be joining you in The Wire. Merry Christmas!
Scalien - Have a good time with your grandparents. Maybe they'll sit through Avatar?
Ultrabeatdown - I'm almost done with Lost! Merry Christmas.
btaylor - Hope you have a great Christmas with your family.
I know I forgot a ton of people, and I'm sorry, but I'm kind of in a hurry. I have to go to my girlfriend's house, then my Dad's house. I had a great Christmas with my mom. I got lots of goodies.
Let's just say it was a very Hitchcock Christmas..
It's christmas day! We just got a fresh dumping of snow for the holidays. We actually got a white christmas this year!
Just got my presents opened. I got several gift cards, some cash, lots of clothing (how exciting) a calendar, and of course some gaming stuff. Strategy Guide for Modern Warfare 2 and some microsoft points. I also recieved a couple new games, Assassins Creed 2 and Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition. Once the malls open on the 27th, I'll be heading shopping, chashing my cheques and buying some new games. I know for sure I will be getting Left 4 Dead 2. I'll see what else there is.
Happy Holidays
If you recall my editorial from yesterday I covered many of the problem gifts given to gamers by well meaning but ill-informed family members. Far be it for me to expect any more from my own family, the irony stick has struck me hard as I received what can only be described as the world's worst Wii knock off.
Rather than simply dismiss this gift as a January return I decided to bust it out and give it a whirl. Here it is the offending item.
The zone 40 is a wannawii that features over 40 games ranging from fencing to a Pacman clone called cat and mouse, surprisingly its control pad is actually quite good it reacts well to motion and quickly translates the movement on screen the main problem is that the graphics in the games belong in the 16bit era and the controller only recognizes one motion "the waggle". That's right in the games you either press a button or waggle the controller so for fishing if you want to cast you waggle if you want to reel in you waggle. this thing is beyond bad!!
The worst thing is this console cost my relative almost £40!! That's a third of the price of a Wii I could get a preowned PSP or DS for this.there isn't enough exclamation marks in the world to showhow bad this is
If you also received a less than thrilling product as a Xmas gift post it below, it doesn't even have to be game related or if you have had a good year post your worst gift ever.
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.
Directed by Oxide Pang Chun and his brother Danny Pang, The Storm Warriors (Fung Wan II) is a martial arts film set in ancient China. It is a period of kung fu experts and deadly warlords. The evil warrior Lord Godless (Simon Yam) has taken a number of people, including the Emperor of China, hostage. Godless plans to break into the Emperor's tomb and rule China himself. Initially he is forced to battle a martial arts expert called Nameless (Kenny Ho) but comes out victorious, declaring himself the new ruler of China. In order to stop him, two warriors named Cloud (Aaron Kwok) and Wind (Ekin Cheng), enlist the help of the warrior Lord Wicked, who will train them quickly for a showdown with Godless. Despite knowing he could be corrupted by evil martial arts, Wind is selected for the assignment over Cloud as he is more in control of his power.
Having not seen its predecessor The Storm Riders (Fung wan: Hung ba tin ha), it is difficult to make any sense of this truly awful kung fu, special effects film. The only mildly redeeming quality about The Storm Warriors is its rather impressive visual effects. The martial arts experts in the film posses magic powers, allowing them to conduct bolts of lightning and turn droplets of water into massive balls of ice. Yet like many recent Western films, the Pang brothers have opted to over edited these fight scenes to the point where they lose any coherency and grandeur. The film also pales compared to much more visually intriguing and extravagant Asian films such as Hero and Oldboy. The computer generated backgrounds of the landscapes are a particularly painful sight. The fights are also so frequent in this film that they diminish anything that might have once resembled character, development or even just a plot. There is one particular battle that takes close to a quarter of the entire film. What remains of the story is so minimal and insignificant that some trailers would exhibit more narrative and depth. Wooden performances and amateurish expository dialogue further poison this film. However, the latter could be due to the poor translation of the subtitles from Cantonese to English. The dialogue might sound better in its native tongue. There is very little reason to see this film unless you are interested in mild visual effects, the appearance of a character that resembles Skeletor, or a credit sequence, complete with an Asian pop song, which would be more fitting in a James Bond picture.
FREEDOM
Work has finished for me this year. hooray!
I now have 3 weeks off and will go back on January 18th. It's been a pretty good year but it has moved very fast, doesn't seem that long ago that it was March really. My plans for the holidays much like last year include playing games! Not going anywhere this year either. My Christmas will be with family and will be very low key this year. Only two days left.
I got a DiRT 2 coupon with my ATI card when I upgraded, downloaded it on Steam and have been playing it for a few weeks. The graphics and driving in that game are really good, very impressed. I did work my way through it at a fairly brisk pace, and played some online. So I have completed a review for it over at New Game Network if you are interested.
dx11 Screenshots!
;
Killzone 2 also pleasantly suprised me, I haven't played many shooters on consoles but the game was actually pretty good. Actually considering the general lack of shooters on PC it was pretty close match for Bound in Blood for first person shooter of the year. Of course I'd like mouse and keyboard but exclusives are exclusive. Once again I gave it a good work out and finished up a review for it on NGN.
I've started Dragon Age and I'm pleased with the overall look of the game, the lip syncing itself is really well done considering the amount of dialogue in the game. I'm not really enjoying the combat much yet however. It seems very clunkly and not too friendly. I hope it grows on me especially by the time they let me off the leash.
I actually picked up Machinarium last week for $10 on the official site and completed it in a few days. The sale is stil valid until the 25th of December. I recommend the game. It's a crafty adventure game and lucky for me it included a walkthrough because I thought some of the puzzles were a little far fetched even though I suck at puzzle games. In any case it's pretty good value for $10.
I saw Avatar 3D last night, the cinema was packed and I thought the movie was pretty good. Yes it had its fair share of cringe worthy dialogue and I thought some of the 3D was gimmicky. However it never got boring and in fact they skipped passed sections I would have liked to have seen more of (eg training). Overall its a solid 8/10 from me, not quite topping James Cameron's "Aliens" but it had quite a unique feeling throughout.
Ill probably post up my top 10 games for 2009 in my next blog. You can be sure that Uncharted 2, Trine and Batman will feature very highly on that list. Probably 1, 2 and 3. So far I'd say that 2009 has been a little disappointing in terms of really good games. I'd be really struggling without my PS3 with Uncharted 2. The fact that we have had so many delays at the end of the year, making early next year about 11 on the crazy game scale is a little bit of a let down.
Since I probably won't blog on Christmas Day
MERRY CHRISTMAS (Agent 47 sty.le)
UPDATES
Any and all updates will be added in green.
Update 12-25-2009
Gears of War 2 ~ I cannot believe I forgot about Gears 2. I thought the campaign was better than the first (especially when it came to story and atmosphere) and the multuiplayer, with bots, was exceptionally enjoyable. The first game had its charm, but aside from some glitches (that I've only heard about and never expereinced) Gears 2 was a markedly better game.
I have decided to do my GOTY awards for 2009 a little early this year. I know it isn't over yet, and I'm expecting some games for Christmas, but it has been quite a while since I've done a meaningful blog and want to get my awards together.
A small note, I do not remember this year's games as well as last year's, but I've tried my best to remember most of the one's I've played. It also doesn't help that I really haven't played very many games at all, let alone games released in 2009.
Here is the list of games I will be working with:
Games from 2009; played and completed:
- Assassin's Creed II (360)
- Crayon Physics (PC)
- Shadow Complex (XBLA)
- The Sims 3 (PC)
Games from before 2009; played and completed:
- Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)
- Burnout Paradise (360)
- Crackdown (360)
- Devil May Cry (PS2)
- Gears of War 2 (360)
- Shivering Isles (PC)
Games from 2009: played by NOT completed:
- DJ MAX Fever (PSP)
Games from before 2009; played but NOT completed:
- Battlefield: Bad Company (360)
- Dead Space (360)
- Driv3r (PS2)
- Fuzion Frenzy (Xbox)
- Prince of Persia (360)
- Prince of Persia CIassic (XBLA)
I will make any additions as required and add an "[UPDATE]" tag to the blog title, but don't think things will really change that much.
AWARDS
There will not be an "overall" winner from me, just like last year. This is because no game is capable of being the "best" overall for a year.
Best exclusive game(s)
Crackdown, Devil May Cry, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and Shadow Complex + Gears of War 2
All these games are fantastic, all for their own reasons. It would be very difficult for me to choose a "winner" out of the four. I enjoyed them all almost equally. However, the one that stood out the most from the rest would probably be Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. It struck me as an incredibly fun game with a hugely unique concept that was really well-integrated, despite all the Banjo fan criticisms. A very solid game that was much fun to play.
Best multiplatform game
Assassin's Creed II, Burnout Paradise and Shivering Isles
Again, all these games are great, but the one game that stands out quite easily among them is the one I waited quite a while for and was completely fulfilled with. Assassin's Creed II wins for best multiplat game of the year. It is a visually stunning game with a crap-load of stuff to do. Not to mention that it built on the previous iterations formula amazingly well, and made for an amazingly improved sequel.
Best artistic graphics
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Prince of Persia and Shivering Isles
There is a clear-cut winner in this category, hands down, despite the quality of the other two nominations. Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is an artistic masterpiece, that is very bright, very pleasant to look at (especially in HD) and extraordinarily colourful, the exact opposite of most games to be released this generation; from brown town.
I would like to give an honourable mention to the other two nominations. Prince of Persia was another gem to look at, and Shivering Isles was quite unique in terms of design.
Best technical graphics
Assassin's Creed II, Dead Space and Battlefield: Bad Company
Another clear-cut winner. Assassin's Creed II. Absolutely stunning environments, animations and character models.
Most boring game
Dead Space and Driv3r
Ugh... I wish I didn't have to make this category, but it is necessary, if only to talk about the winner. Dead Space. I watched the anime, loved it, highly expected the game to be almost the same thing, but possibly even better. Then I get into playing it and ugh... repetitive level design, overly predictable scares and bleh horror elements. Granted, the game is good (in contrast to Driv3r being not good at all), but I just couldn't get into it. I'll give it another chance down the road, but only after I have nothing left to play. Definitely a hit-or-miss game. I don't "hate" it, but it definitely would benefit from some better/more-varied level design and much less predictable "jump scares" and more atmosphere. It is a lot like the first Assassin's Creed... a lot of potential, but not that well executed.
Most surprising game(s)
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Shadow Complex and Shivering Isles + Gears of War 2
Again, all the nominated games fulfill the category quite well, but there is a winner out of them all. Shadow Complex definitely takes the title as "most surprising." When I first saw Shadow Complex getting good reviews, and heard it was a 2D action-platformer "reminiscent" of Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night, I knew I had to try it. I downloaded the trial, and within 5 minutes I bought it. Absolutely fantastic game, worthy of being called a "successor" to the Metroivania/Castleroid styIe games, and very much so an "improvement" over Super Metroid. A game that definitely has more quality content than many $60 games.
I was surprised that Gears 2 multiplayer would include bots for people like me who dislike playing games online with other people and loved Timesplitters. I was even more surprised that I put in almost 100 hours into the multiplayer alone, over 350 matches.
Most mediocre/decent game
Prince of Persia and Crackdown
Both nominees are very decent, or "average." They have an air of "mediocrity" about them, while still remaining fun. There was quite a bit of room for improvement, but it remained a good idea nonetheless. Crackdown was far closer to "great" than it was to "average," but its overwhelming repetitiveness was somewhat detracting from the experience, even though it was incredibly fun to kick cars like soccer balls and do other great things. Prince of Persia however is the winner in terms of mediocrity. It was a good concept, spread out far too thin within the total length of the game (which I haven't finished yet), but still remained pretty entertaining. And also for once, chose a unique religious tradition to build off of: Zoroastrianism.
Most disappointing game(s)
Dead Space, Driv3r and DJ MAX Fever
This is a hard decision to make. But in the end Driv3r takes it. Dead Space was pretty disappointing, and DJ MAX Fever was pretty damn disappointing... but Driv3r almost ruined my love for the original Driver games on the PS. I've wanted to play Driv3r ever since it came out (2004), and only recently decided to get it because I thought that it "was about time." Boy what a mistake that was. What an incredible waste of money and time. Driver and Driver 2 were hard and were pretty broken, but had some very redeeming aspects about them, especially some of the missions. Not a single mission in Miami in Driv3r was "fun." It was a complete waste of time. The gunplay was broken and weak. The mission design was terrible. And the story was quite meh. The driving, which what the game should have been centrered around, and not remaking GTAIII, was the only good part. But unlike Driver and Driver 2 back in the day, I just couldn't get into driving around in a pretty lifeless world looking for police chases. I was very disappointed in Driv3r, especially after 5 years of wrestling with whether to get it or not. I would love to see it through to the end, just to say as a Driver fan that I did it... but **** it if I could make it through.
Most improved sequel
The Sims 3 and Assassin's Creed II + Gears of War 2
This isn't even a contest. Assassin's Creed II is the winner. The series went from "pretty good concept, lacklustre execution" to "amazing execution of an exceptional concept." Everything about II was better than the first. There was variety, depth, customizability and always something to do. Amazing game, and would definitely be a contendor for my overall "Game of the Year," but given games like Shadow Complex and Nuts & Bolts, I just couldn't make that decision.
That is my GOTY list for 2009. Hope you enjoyed it.
Braiiins....
Nah... Just messing with you guys. I am still alive and well and not yet part of the zombie horde.Yet. So, you guys may have been wonderign why I have been generally absent form the forum and not blogging, well, I am about to tell you guys exactly why right here in zis blog.
First off, there was the arrival of Dragon Age... I took you guys advice and got it for my PS3 and I have not regretted it.Mostly because I saw what my computer can not handle (which is aparrantly a lot of games). The game has occupied me for a looong time and so far I am still enjoying it. currently I am experimenting with Mage abilities and so far I have gotten some pretty interesting results with the glyph combos. (area of effect spells that are like traps)
Then there were the grueling exams. They were kinda tough but I got ok results. Except for Social Sciences. Aparrantly I got such a good grade that I got exempted from the Exam. Which I aparrantly was hard according to my cla$$mates. After that was the general post exam pre Christmas revelry. It was awesome. Met a nice girl who i like and shares interests with me so I intend on asking her out. Eventually. Hopefully.
Ah and then finally there ws the arrival of my tita (aunt). She is staying for the break here in my house and soon we are going to be spending a lot of time out of the house so i don't expect to be a regular again here in the forums till after the hollidays. Till then, I wish you guys all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!
And For those who don't celebrate either, I say, Happy hollidays!
I fell in love with a girl. we've been dating for about a year and a month now. unfortunately. it's not going well, and it doesn't appear to be getting better, but a little more time can't hurt. unfortunately i think my being here(on gamespot) is an acknowledgement of what is happening in my life. i'm taking a big step backwards and it doesn't feel good, but i know that it has to happen sometimes.
, well I'm been kinda busy lately, let me tell you what I've been doing...About 3 weeks ago I moved to another place, now I'm living with a friend, the bad thing is there's no internet connection
, so that's one of the reason I haven't been active.The semester is over, I did pretty good; some of you post your scores so I'm doing the same thing now:
The scores go from 0.0 up to 5.0
Physical Environments: 5.0
Software Architecture: 5.0
Data Mining: 4.0
Image Processing: 5.0 (I did so good, my teacher asked me to write an article about the project I made
)I'm starting my "Tesis" (Teh project of the magister), I'm so excited about it, I'll tell you later what it's about I don't want you to feel bored now
I beat MGS4 (twice), I got some emblems (can't remember which ones), but I didn't kill anyone so I got the "Bandana" (unlimited ammo
), now I'll try no alerts, it's gonna be hard but I can do it, after that I MAY try to get Big Boss Emblem, so far I think it's IMPOSIBLE, but with a lot of practice maybe I can get it .oh, and I'm getting Demon's Soul next, I want to play Uncharted 2, but before that I want to play something different (a RPG game).
I got Windows 7, it's much better than Vista, so far I can't say it's better that XP, but It's really close, it's really fast (really really fast), finnally I feel it's using fine my RAM
I guess you all have voted for "Best of 2009" here on gamespot, if not, then DO IT NOW !!!!, it was a good year for gaming
Next week I'm visiting my family (24 of december), the people of my work gave me some free days, so I'm coming back on 4 january, so........
MERRY CHRISTMAS
PD: it wasn't a long post after all, that's good
So, some of you may have noticed that have been online here virtually not at all for the past week. This is because I recently got a job! I've been working 7 AM to 3 PM this week, so when I get home, I just want to sit on the couch and relax. Over the summer, a lot of the time I spent online was when my parents weren't home, and this past week, Mom, Dad and I have been riding together to work to save gas since we all work the same shift. Next week, I'll be riding with Dad as my mother will be on a slightly different schedule.
Anyway, more details about my job. I recently was hired at Lewistown Hospital here in Lewistown (shocker...). I've put in several applications there, and was excited to hear that I had an interview. I nailed the interview (or at least I want to believe I did) and I was hired as a part-time Switchboard Operator. This means that I answer the phones for all the people calling in on the main trunk line of the hospital. Which is a lot. Add to that all of the internal requests for paging doctors. And requests for Security and Maintenance. And handling the Consent Forms, Pharmacy Charges and other miscellaneous paper work. There is a lot of responsibility with the job, but I'm actually having some fun with it. I've had three days of training so far, and it's amazing how many of the extensions that I've memorized already.
As a part-time position, it'll mostly be 3 PM to 11 PM and 11 PM to 7 AM shifts, but that's fine. There's a shift differential for 2nd and 3rd shifts, so that works out fine for me. During training, I'm working three to four days a week, but once training is over, it'll be two to three days. The problem with this is that I'm working partially to cover the student loans that have now entered repayment. The total for loans comes out to about $600 a month. Which is a large part of the reason that I'm still living at home. If I work only two or three days a week, I'm not sure how much of the loans I'll be able to pay, which puts more pressure on my parents. They've been great so far, letting me bum around the house during the grace period, but it depresses me to make them pay for some of my loans. The good thing about paying so much per month on the loans is that in 10 years, they'll all be paid off. Hopefully, before long, I might be able to go full-time or something.
On the games side of things, I finally started playing some more. I recently finished playing through Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge on the Normal setting and played through partway of a second time, enough to upgrade all of the planes. For some reason, I think my favorite plane is probably the Pirana. I'm going to start working on a review, probably, though it won't cover the online component. I finally popped in Urban Chaos: Riot Response, about which I've heard a lot of good things. I played the first level a couple of times, and it was pretty solid, pretty fun. I'm looking forward to sinking more time into it. However, there may be some trouble with that. I've had a copy of Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & IIfor probably almost two years, but I've never been able to play it as I haven't ever gotten Xbox Live on my Xbox. Friday night, a friend copied an account to my harddrive, and I've started playing PSO. Ah, so much fun. I'm currently running a RAmar, just to get back into it (I used to play with a couple of friends a couple of years ago).
So, that's most of what's up with me, and if you've read all of this, I'm impressed. You have my thanks.
Best Videogames of 2009!!!!
Here is my personal list of best games of 2009. I get alot of games/movies and rap albums for free to review and I also buy some to, so I have had a ridicolous amount of games/rap albums and movies to enjoy this year. This is just my personal opinion and nothing more so no need to get mad or angry.
TOP VIDEOGAMES OF 2009
1. Dragon Age (PC/360/ps3) and Forza3 (360) - Dragon Age on PC is simply amazing, with its great story, good vice acting and fantastic gameplay. Forza3 is the best racing game this gen and up there as the best sim racing game of all time, simply amazing gameplay, sound and physics.
2. ARMA2 (PC)- This is the years best shooter and one of the more underrated/underappreciated games of 2009. The editor is amazing, the realistic gameplay is topnotch, there is TONS of exploration and sand box gameplay. The online is also great and the graphics are very beautiful. It also runs very well now after the updates they have done to the game.
3. Dawn Of Discovery (PC)- The best strategy game in years and probably the most underrated game this year imo. Its hard to learn but once you get the hang of things ive very rewarding. Highly reccomended game right here.
4. Risen (PC) - A fantastic rpg here that really surprised me. Its by the people who made the Gothic games and its really a thing of beauty. Great gameworld, awesome voice acting, tons of exploration to be done and its just fun as heck! The game also runs very very well for a PB rpg, as they always have so much going on and huge gameworlds. Very very underrated rpg right here that more people should give a go.
5. Torchlight (PC)- A simple little action rpg from a bunch of the people behind the diablo series. Great gameplay with a fantastic loot system. Also has great music and good graphics aswell! Its a steal at $19 aswell!
6. Left4Dead2 (360 and PC) - This is the game that Left4Dead1 should have been! Its alot tougher, has more online modes (Scavenger is amazing fun with friends), longer campaigns and better death animations. The Carnivale Campaign is fantastic and reminded me of the movie Zombieland. If you play this game with friends online its extremely deep and alot of fun.
7. Uncharted 2 (ps3)- A great game that has some of the best console graphics we have ever seen (if not the best). Its also got some great action sequences aswell. Its a big improvement over the first Uncharted imo. The story is nothing to write home about but like a blockbuster movie, this game knows what its set out to do and it does it very well.
8. Demon Souls and Boderlands (PC/360/ps3) -
9. NBA2k10 and Modern Warfare 2 (Ps3/360/PC) - NBA2k10 is the best bball game ever and Modernwarfare2 is more of the same, but its still a very fun game, especially online. The onlien on Modern Warfare2 is great fun with your friends and will have you coming back for more. Sure the singleplayer is a letdown, but the online is done well and an improvement over COD4.
10. Empire Total War (PC) and Mario and Luigi: bowsers Inside Story (DS)- Empire Total War is an epic game that is very strategic and has some amazing graphics. Sure it has its problems and issues, but I still had alot of fun with this game. The new Mario and Luigi rpg on the DS is a thing of beauty and a game that I really enjoyed, it is funny, has nice graphics and has some great gameplay.
Other Notables = Killing Floor, Halo ODST, Street Fighter 4, UFC:Undisputed and Plants vs Zombies
What is this used for again??
Also I got a iPhone a week ago...
-Sam out 
Nice Where did these 5 years go?
