• 10Aug 08

  It's my two-year GS anniversary! *cue fireworks*

  Two years ago today I registered at Gamespot.
  
  
  
  See? I told you there'd be fireworks.
  
  Thank you all for making my experience on Gamespot a great one. With everyone combined I got to read things such as interesting polls, hilarious analyses of ridiculous subjects (that's you, 31160618), intellectual rants, thorough reviews, humorous forum posts, and much more. I appreciate all your comments on my pointless blogs, as I hope you appreciate mine. So again, thanks to you guys for making my time here enjoyable.
  
  Lastly, here are my two-year stats (as of the time of this post).
  
  ~ Profile views: 1268 (although this hasn't updated in a while)
  ~ Friends: 32
  ~ People Tracking Me: 32
  ~ Games in Collection: 89
  ~ Forum Posts: 877 (I don't even remember posting that much:shock
  ~ Comments: 283 (had to go over to GS wide for that:p)
  ~ Blog Posts: 18 (that's inaccurate, it's only 16)
  ~ Union Blog Posts: 0
  ~ Written Reviews: 8 (thank you to all who read and recommended them!)
  ~ Rated Games: 97
  ~ Videos Uploaded: 0
  ~ Images Uploaded: 0
  ~ Digg Referals: 3 (not exactly sure what these are; I don't use Digg)
  ~ Tags: 1636 (and still only a Leader - I've seen Kings with only 1200!)
  
  Here's hoping for more good years to come! Take care everybody.
  
  ~towelie892

  • Posted Aug 10, 2008 11:24 am PT
  • Category: Other
  • 12 Comments
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• 28Jul 08

  The way I see it I have three options...

  Damn console exclusives! Thanks to you I am having a hard time finding a way to play the games I want to! Having recently completed and immensely enjoyed the first three Metal Gear Solid games, I absolutely must play Metal Gear Solid 4. Unfortunately, I don't have a PS3 and that's obviously a bit of a problem. I also want to play it as soon as possible, due to one of my friends constantly telling me how good it is, while unintentionally revealing plot points which I have done my best to ignore. The way I see it there are three possible options for playing MGS4.
  
  
  
  Option #1 - Buy a PS3
  I sort of want a PS3. But $400 is a lot of money to spend on something I "sort of" want. I think I've unintentionally begun convincing myself I want certain games more than I actually do, in order to justify a PS3 purchase. There are a few games I need to have, a few I really want, and a few a sort of want. I need to get MGS4 obviously, but Kingdom Hearts III, God of War III and Ico III (yay Roman numerals!) are must-haves as well. Kingdom Hearts III hasn't been announced, and I'm starting to think it won't be, what with the very conclusive ending of KH2 and the creator's assurance that Kingdom Hearts is "Sora's story". I also want Ratchet & Clank Future, Bioshock, Assassin's Creed, echochrome, and LittleBigPlanet. I sort of want Call of Duty 4 and the Orange Box (if only when it's really cheap and pretty much just for Portal, which my PC can't run). So, I think I want a PS3, but am of course hesitant about spending so much money on something I'm only somewhat sure I want.
  
  Option #2 - Rent a PS3
  I have been scouring the internet for PS3 renting options, but have yet to find just about any place. Rent-a-Center rents them, but those are rent to own, which doesn't work because the reason I'm thinking of renting a PS3 is so I don't have to buy one. I remember Blockbuster used to rent systems, but I don't think they do anymore. If you know of any place online that will rent a PS3 somewhat cheaply, or a place in or around Cleveland that will, please tell me!
  
  Option #3 - Borrow a PS3
  This would have worked very nicely. One of my best friends has a PS3 and MGS4, lives close by, and was going on vacation for a week. Sounds perfect right? Wrong. For reasons I have yet to understand, he wouldn't let me borrow it, despite the fact that I've lent him over a half-dozen games in the past month. I have one other PS3-owning friend, but he plays Call of Duty 4 just about every day, so I can't see him letting me borrow it for awhile. I also don't think he's going on vacation anytime soon, but if he did I'm sure he'd let me borrow it (he's very reasonable). So, this is probably not going to work, although I'll keep my hopes up.
  
  
  Well, what do you guys suggest? Have I forgotten any possible opportunities? As you can see I'm hell-bent on playing this game! If you have any ideas or comments, you know where to leave 'em.
  
  ~towelie892
  • Posted Jul 28, 2008 9:38 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 15Jul 08

  E3 '08 Summary & Impressions (a completely original idea)

  After watching all three press conferences (despite what my emblem may say), I must say I'm quite disappointed. Some parts were awful, some parts were embarrassing, some parts hit a high point at mediocre. If you don't feel like readin the following, my opinion is this: Microsoft copies some stuff and bored me to death, Nintendo unveiled no games that I want and was embarrassing to watch, and Sony told us that most good games are later in the PS3's life. But, I'll break it down further and be more specific, so here are summaries and analyses of the conferences.
  
  
  
  Microsoft
  
  Overall, Microsoft did a decent job. They showed some games (such as Gears of War 2, Fable 2, and Banjo-Kazooie), and announced that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to 360 as well. These are all games that I personally don't care about but am sure many do. Overall they told us that the games we knew were going to be released were indeed going to be released, and were not just a giant hoax. The new interface for Live is not very aesthetically pleasing nor interesting, and the new avatars can be politely described as "very similar to Miis" and impolitely described as "crappy and unnecessary Mii rip-offs with hideous faces". Unfortunately, every single Microsoft speaker was incredibly boring to listen to, and they all seemed to clap for each other despite the fact that no one else was.
  
  
  Nintendo
  
  As a Nintendo fan, I am embarrassed. Their conference was downright bad. They told us that games to satisfy the hardcore gamer were going to be announced. Unfortunately, unless you consider Animal Crossing hardcore, they lied. There was no Zelda. There was no Metroid. There was no Star Fox. There was a Pokemon spin-off, Wii Sports Resort (which should instead be titled "Wii Sports: Not Actual Sports"), there was GTA DS with no footage, a GH DS sequel, Animal Crossing: City Folk with a non-headset microphone called Wii Speak, and Wii Music, which plays all the notes for you and only responds to your lack of rhythm. Why they think anyone would pick that over Rock Band or Guitar Hero is beyond me. There were also at least as many charts of Nintendo's success as there were games. Wii Motion Plus looks great however, and looks like it will vastly improve motion control games. In a way though, Nintendo is ackknowledging that their motion controls could have been better, which I find funny. Lastly, there was a very annoying woman announcing things, and several overenthusiastic people demonstrating them.
  
  
  Sony
  
  Sony's conference basically boiled down to telling us that the game we want will come later in the PS3's life, which means that until then you have a machine that can play multiplatform games, Metal Gear Solid 4, and Blu-ray movies. Yay? God of War III had a short trailer showcasing no gameplay, LittleBigPlanet was used to show off Sony's sales, Resistance 2 I must admit looks pretty cool, and some new uninteresting PSP stuff was announced. There was also MAG (Massive Action Game), which supports two 128-player teams in a gigantic fight, which also sounds pretty cool. Sony also showed off that you can buy movies on PSN, which really isn't that useful because the PS3 is a Blu-ray player and you'll probably try to get your money's worth by using Blu-ray movies. Home looks interesting, but that's it. Killzone 2, Kingdom Hearts III, and Ico III were nowhere to be found, which is disappointing because the last two were the two games that would finally force me to buy a PS3.
  
  
  
  Well, that's it. I really didn't like any of them, but if I had to pick a winner, it'd be Sony. While they were far from good, they kept me interested, and didn't embarrass themselves (for the most part). So congrats, Sony! You win my "E3 '08: Not the Worst!" award. Here's hoping things will improve next year!
  
  ~towelie892
  • Posted Jul 15, 2008 8:03 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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