With my 21st birthday rapidly approaching, my mum has agreed to put up the cash for a PS3, so I now own every current gaming system. Hooray!

Actually I don't get to open it until this weekend (when I see mum, with my actual birthday the weekend after). I've already managed to round up a bunch of games. Going through the back catalogue of PS3 games I really wanted to play was surprisingly cheap and easy, so far I've ended up with -

Metal Gear Solid 4

Killzone 2

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Ratchet & Clank Weapons Of Destruction

LittleBigPlanet

Metal Gear

HAZE

Ninja Gaiden Sigma (won here from Gamespot a while back)

HAZE was $24 so I figured why not... I was actually given a review copy by Ubisoft when it launched, but not owning a PS3 I had to pass it on to another reviewer - so it feels good to replace it. I don't like trading in or losing games once I own them :S

Motorstorm: Pacific Rift is currently 50% off ($55 AUD) at EB Games, that's what I just bought LBP at. It's quite tempting, but I've just spent a bunch of cash to make seven PS3 games before I even open it so I might just chill for now.

Can't wait to get it online.

With Christmas gone and New Years impending I've just started an eight day holiday which is most certainly welcome.

After last year of working around the public holidays this is the most significant break I've had in a while and with little plans (except for NYE and a music festival) and all my work for Animavericks and Vooks mostly done there's plenty of time for gaming and plenty of games to suit.

From the Q4 2008 line-up I've only finished Dead Space and Mirror's Edge so there's still a lot of Fallout 3, Far Cry 2, Red Alert 3, Prince Of Persia, Fable II, Banjo-Kazooie, Left 4 Dead, Gears Of War 2 and many more to get through.

Not to mention my Warlock who's still at level 68

So I better get to it!

See you around ;D

With no preconceived intentions I've been putting a lot of time into 2D side scrolling shooters lately, trying to complete Contra 4 (NDS), Commando: Steel Disaster (NDS) and the original Megaman for NES.

They're all very difficult.

I guess that's the whole idea though, at the core of most 2D shooters no matter how well designed is a limited amount of gameplay content. The hours of play you gain from a purchase are in trying over, over and over again - perfecting your skills.

Then again most modern games such as the above DS titles incorporate a form of saving progress so once I get through a few last levels I'm wondering how long they really will last.

in excrement. My parents are getting divorced, I'm losing my job, and the house I just signed a lease for (and moved in to) is going up for auction in 2 weeks, so until then I don't know if we'll continue living here after then and in the meantime 8 million people are walking through my house every day.

So I've decided I'm going to apply for University in 2009, and I've finally got around to crafting a portfolio to submit to every online and printed publication I can think of that I'd like to write for.

I have no real expertise other than my web content, but hopefully in this world's sea of media there'll be a spot for me

In the meantime, I'm a bit all over the place. I need to submit my tax return, chase down two lease bonds I'm owed, pay my father back the near 2 grand I owe him and attempt to craft anything for Space-Meat.

Currently I feel nothing but spite for my workplace, so I'll enjoy spending my lunch break at my agency's office (that's sarcasm there) looking for new work. Then after work tomorrow I get to head to my old old house (of 7 months ago) to swear, yell and threaten one of my bonds back.

Also pick up my vacuum cleaner.

Haven't posted anything for a while, have been neglecting the 'blog' side of things for the more professional (see - dressed up blog) stuff over at http://spacemeat.com.au which I of course have to mention in every post

Just been steadily reviewing things at the site, I'll upload it all on Gamespot eventually.

Most notably on the personal side of things, I'll be flying down to Sydney on Friday 06/06/08 which will be my 20th birthday, co-incidentally timed well with the touring of Armin Van Buuren who I'll be seeing record his DVD live at an Armin Only event that night.

It will be most epic, coupled with the meeting and subsequent chilling with many prominent friends and users of australiangamer.com so I'm looking forward to it a bit =D

I've just finished playing Iron Man on 360 to review, and picked up Lost : Via Domus on PC but I'm not sure if I'll make it through that. I've finished GTA IV but it's... such a mission to review. Most troubling is actually getting started.

Anyway, keep your eyes on the ski's my friends as the internet is a busy place, especially with yours truly around.

Peace

First of, level 22, cool. *bow*

Secondly, I'm kicking myself. I did a quick run through that Scavenator comp here on Gamespot AU to win an 80GB iPod, but didn't realise my first attempt is my only (my fault on that one) so I got a pretty half-arsed attempt on there.

Done at work, my first attempt got 9th place which was just bumped off the board My 2nd attempt would have put me in 4th so that's pretty lame. I really want an iPod.

Enough to kill? Perhaps.

Meanwhile Phaxx associates Niisan and Pandaman are still rockin' up there, give me your iPods. kthx.

Well, after a rigorous month of phone / internet bills, repairs, maintenance and home calls I finally have stable internet at home.

Also it turns out my wireless router is broken. Balls.

For now I'm pimping with my old 'Edimax' ADSL2+ wired router (no DS or Wii online) which is pretty lame and churning some pretty slow speeds. I'll eventually have to obtain a more substantial internet box but for now this will have to do!

All my XBOX 360 issues are resolved be they flashing or Live issues, I am 100% online and have finally been enjoying some games of Halo 3 online.

It seems in my absence, my ability to play Call Of Duty 4 MP on PC has decreased, but my Halo skillz are quite in-tact!

Anyway, expect a surge of content from me over the next few weeks, I've got a nice backlog of reviews and ranting to spew forth onto the internet so bookmark, homepage and worship the mighty http://www.spacemeat.com.au for internet love.

See you around,

Jordan.

16 days ago I moved house, and are yet to establish a working phone line

Which of course implies I have and have had no net until I get the line working. While working for Telstra has it's advantages, it's still a slow and drawn out process, especially as both Telstra technicians and my residential handyman (I live in a unit) can't seem to figure out what is wrong.

Until then it's sporadic internet time at work, leaving me a broken shell of man, suffering many internet deficiencies.

By Jordan Miller

Back in the day (a few months ago) I purchased a pre-owned XBOX 360 Premium from EB Games. A long time later I looked into the possibility of flashing (re-writing the DVD drive to run copied discs) my 360 at home with the tools I had. After many failed attempts ending in frustration and even a nice range of cuts on my hands I gave up, and decided to do it the lazy way and pay someone.

A long time later I found myself in the nice (see - horrible) rustic (run-down) suburb of Marsden, Brisbane south. Gritting the packs of rednecks and hordes of triplet-prams I made my way to Brisbane Modchips and eventually suffered a 5-6 hour $85 mission, but got my 360 flashed.

It was all good and doing what I needed to. Then after a 2 night Christmas trip away from home, I returned to find something someone might consider as karma, or act of God. Something like a storm had knocked the top wooden slant of my window (how exactly that happened I do not know), which then fell onto my nice water display on my table, knocking a small ball off the display, causing a small spurt of water. It would seem this went straight in to or on to my 360, as it was now not turning on.

What to do now? Well being the horrible consumer I am, soon later I found myself purchasing a new XBOX 360 Arcade from EB Games. It was a tough decision and the Arcade had many comparable pros and cons over another pre-owned Premium, but with no Premiums in stock I grabbed the arcade. Still having my old HDD, controllers, headset etc made this a justifiable purchase (well to me at least).

Today -

This morning I decide to pit myself through the mission again, although this time heading not so far south to the same suburb as my brother's house. After a half hour train trip and a 1hr + walk in the sun to a strangers modding house, I found myself in yet another young technicians basement. When he cracked open my 360, the preceding "Uh Oh" didn't help as a warm up to being told my 360 can't be flashed, it has what seems to be the newest drive at the moment. I had quite clearly, hell, VERY CLEARLY stressed beforehand what model my console was and when I got it, this guy obviously doesn't know as much as he claims. After getting a lift back to the train station and making another epic walk back home, I finally decide it's HALO time, to put everything behind me and set up the 360 again. When I went to power my console I found a hole where there was once no hole, formally in the shape of an eject button. It seems the wisest technician also managed to leave out my eject button when he put it back together. Great.

Now EB Games won't refund my Arcade console. There's still one alternative. I can mimic many publicised methods out there of forcing my console to get 3 red rings. If I get the great red rings of doom, I can warranty return my console (the sticker is still in-tact) resulting in a hard swap of the internal components, giving me a flashable factory BenQ drive (I was assured this is the case, I don't have any options at the moment anyway).

What's hard, is convincing M$ of my warranty when I have a missing eject button. Now I have to courier my console to the technician, have him replace the eject button (he could send it to me but I am NOT opening another 360), then he sends it back to me, I force red rings, send to M$ for warranty, then eventually send it back to him for flashing.

Could I be bothered doing this? Probably. For now I'll have to wait untli I get back from visiting family mid next week sometime

Couple all this with the ankle I twisted on Thursday (and had yesterday off work for it + a doctors trip) which made the walk quite difficult.

Also when I came home, my light bulb blew up.

December 31, a farewell to the year just passed and a welcome of one to come

How will YOU be ushering in the new year?

Myself, I will bring in the new year with controller in hand (and drink in other). At work currently, later tonight I will trek to a friends house to hang out, veg out, game out and anything else that comes my way. Perhaps not too exciting, it's still a fitting night around all the other events that have been happening lately.

So grab a drink, controller, smoke or whatever, farewell the year of CoD 4, SMG, Bioshock, God Of War 2, Crysis and so much more; and welcome in a year of prospectual Spore, GTA IV, MGS 4, DMC 4, Resident Evil 5 and so much more.

Happy Gaming!

Super Mario Galaxy

Assassin's Creed

The Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Dynasty Warriors DS: Fighter's Battle

NBA 2K8

Wow, I didn't even notice I hit 21! Not sure when that happened.

Aaah, Level 20. How I remember thee. Well known for it's unbalanced length in difficulty in levelling, I see what everyone meant now when they said you'd be stuck on 20 for a while.

I'm already a chunk through this level. Good Times.

... and it's killing me!

Call Of Duty 4, Super Mario Galaxy, Crysis, Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect. I'm not even playing all these yet!

I've actually been spending my time of late with Resident Evil : The Umbrella Chronicles for Wii. Expect a review on Space-Meat eventually.

Aside from copious amounts of gaming, I've been playing a few more games, gaming, and finding some time to work 38 hours a week around it. Perhaps this is how I'm running out of awesome things to crap on about here?

Maybe.

My Assassin's Creed review is up, and I've already finished up reviews for House Of The Dead 4 (arcade) and Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) that will go up over time

I don't have anything too intellectual to discuss here sorry, I do all that over at Space-Meat! Seriously the content hasn't stopped rolling in at the site so CHECK IT OUT!!

Woo!

Have a great Christmas all, I'll try to keep up with this crazy internet stuff a bit more

Wow, what a weekend that can only be described as epic.

I'll do a write-up on Space-Meat ASAP but in short -

it involved hanging out with a lot of AG members and two nights out drinking, playing games new and old, first interview - video with Insomniac and winning Fury in Intel's eSports booth.

In one weeks time I'll be in Melbourne to attend and cover eGames expo.

It looks to be quite a weekend, one I am really looking forward to

If anyone's available for this event I highly recommend you attend! Personally I'm making my way down the coast via plane to get there.

I'll be staying with Liam (from Space-Meat) and should hopefully be able to get some interviews with some big names, or at least get to play some of the cool stuff on show there, ranging from Assassin's Creed to Haze and many more.

Check it out here.

A lot and.. not much!

Space-Meat is still rolling along smoothly, with it's first birthday celebrated recently.

Tomorrow I will be booking my flight for eGames in Melbourne on the weekend of November 16. It's going to be a great weekend (assuming it all rolls smoothly).

I should be able to get some good coverage for Space-Meat and hopefully some interviews. I'll be seeing a lot of Brisbane chaps down there too, including some faces from the AG forums I haven't met before.

The new guys have been doing a wonderful job at upping the content on Space-Meat, so check it out!

Also, here's a review of MySims I wrote recently.

Hey guys!

My Bioshock reivew is up on Space-Meat here, and on Gamespot here.

I also did a Call of Duty 4 BETA Preview on Space-meat here.

Please do me a big favour and comment on anything you can at Space-Meat!

I've been drumming up some big support and competitions and we need to look great!

Also if anyone is interested in writing for Space-Meat, we're now hiring.

I know I'm bragging, but I can't help it!

Here's some happy snaps of my current setup -

That's a 22" Samsung Widescreen LCD 2ms 3000:1 primay monitor, with my 19" LCD off to the right on top of my amp. The PC Case is a Suprano DX. That window overlooks Brisbane City which is a very pretty sight at night

The 360 and Wii are off the left to my monitor (with a small water feature thingy there) and the TV to the far left. The PS2 is now currently on that desk too (not in photo).

Oh and another note -

My reviews for The Darkness and Elite Beat Agents are now put up on Gamespot, so please read and favour and praise and what-not in any applicable manner.

The Darkness

Elite Beat Agents