Congratulations, I hate you! :)

Just because I have other things to do and can't make it to a midnight launch for GTAIV must I really be punished for that? I go to bed around 11:30pm and can't sleep, but it's not because I'm thinking about how much I want to play GTAIV. I was quietly laying in bed thinking about PAX 2008 and a woman dressed as Wonder Woman randomly handing out rubber vaginas! Why you ask? I have no idea, but I was cracking myself up at the time. I thought about how much fun it would be to take a box of rubber vaginas and advertise for allgames by writing, "Allgames.com...It's better to be in than out". I would then take these rubbery vaginal pieces awkwardness and throw them at the unaware faces or people walking around the shindig.

I did eventually fall asleep; only to wake up a few hours later with the hunger of a fat kid who hasn't eaten anything consisting of carbs, sugars or fats. So I have to get up and get some cereal to quench this burning desire to eat like Oprah while depressed. After doing all that I find myself here, awake at 4:10 in the morning. I am wide awake and won't be getting sleep anytime soon. I do not have a copy of GTAIV, yet I see friends online at xbox.com "Playing GTA IV" and hope they all RROD (not really...well maybe a little). I hate you sleep. I hate you rubber vagina. I hate you fat kid hunger. I hate you Oprah. Most importantly I hate you agn because as of this writing you are playing GTAIV, "First Date - Attempts 1", and I am sadly here, writing this garbage and contemplating what I'm going to do until this afternoon. So yes everyone, I hate you!

GTAIV: The wait is almost over

I am more excited for this game than any game to ever come out before it! I will sadly have to pick it up on Tuesday because I will not be able to make it to the midnight launch (makes me a sad panda). I just wanted to make a post about the game that will consume my life and post some pics of my personal favorite GTA collector's items...my GTA3/VC Kubrick sets! They are awesome and I love them :D

GTAIV = Pie...I prefer cake, but since the cake is a lie I really don't want GTAIV to be cake...and it's a PS360 pie so go to hell all you bitch ass fanboys (I hate you)!

I love these sets...I just wish they made one for San Andreas...and GTAIV (Come on...you know we want them!)

I am the Champion

"CONGRATULATIONS! We are pleased to announce that you are one of the Reward Winners in the Old Spice® Experience Challenge sponsored by The Pocter & Gamble Distributing LLC. Enclosed is your Reward of a $100 Best Buy™ Gift Card. Terms and conditions on gift cards/gift certificated apply.

On behalf of our client, we thank you for participating in their promotion and hope you will enjoy your Reward.

D.L. BLAIR, INC.

Sweepstakes Administrators"

I finally received my winnings from the Old Spice tournament and I was originally planning to purchase a Nintendo DS with the winnings, but my plans have changed. I started to think about the extra expenses that would come with a DS, basically just another system with more games to buy. As of right now I will likely use the card to purchase my PS3 version of GTAIV and some other crap. I am just happy (and surprised) that I received it so fast! :)

...I've also toyed around with the thought of picking up Guitar Hero 3 for the 360, but I'm not sure about that...

Half-Life 2 done...only took me a few years

Well I recently decided to pop The Orange Box into my 360 because I have owned it since it was released and never actually finished Half-Life 2. I mean the first game (not the episodes)...I haven't even finished Portal! Though now I can finally say, "Yes! I have beaten Half-Life 2", and I really don't know what took me so long. For one I'll say that the story and atmosphere are great, but it is obvious that this is a PC game first (I really wish my PC was working at times like this). The game does control adequately on the 360, but when you look at other shooters on the market it just feels a bit stiff.

My end time was just under 10hrs, but it was a very enjoyable 10hrs and I have to say near the end you are given a weapon that makes you feel like one hell of a badass. It was a great ride while it lasted (too bad it was so short)! My one complaint is that I really like the character of Alex and just wish she had more screen time (I've been told you see a lot more of her in EP1). Also I just want to say that my friend (let's call him EltonJ) said that he didn't like Alex and thought she was unattractive. I think that is ridiculous because for one she is a real character and on a physical aspect I think she's much more attractive than most female characters! Not to mention she is just frickin' awesome! Though I must say I didn't like the fact that she kept on leaving me, it left me some serious abandonment issues. You fail EltonJ, you fail big time! Why don't you just ride your rocket to the moon rocketman (and don't forget your shades).

I will hopefully post a review soon for HL2 and I am currently playing through EP1. I hope to get reviews of HL2 and both episodes in the coming week (before GTAIV arrives).

Sausage Out!

GTAIV game-play footage this Sunday

*EDIT* Why wait until Sunday when you can get crap loads of leaked footage on Youtube (which are taken down after an hour and then reposted etc), or just watch a marathon of game-play footage on JTV (YOU SUCK JTV!) ...you bunch of impatient bastards!

For all of you who have been dying to see some actual game-play footage of GTAIV; you need only wait until this upcoming Sunday! G4 will have an exclusive sneak peak of the game at 12PM ET and it will be shown commercial free. I'm sure plenty of people will be excited to hear about this, but I am not happy at all. I really wish that everyone could have just gone into the game with fresh eyes and without ever seeing actual game-play. A gift for impatient gamers everywhere!

I personally will not be watching this and I find people who need to watch it crazy. The fact that the game will be coming out a few days after the footage is released makes me wonder why anyone would even care (really, Really!?). I'm sure all the people who watch G4 regularly will go bananas over this (yea, I said bananas), but I think people who are really looking forward to this game won't care at all. At least I hope I'm not the only one choosing not to watch this...

You can find the official info on G4's website here

Home = WTF Sony

Well it seems like all PS3 owners will be homeless for a little bit longer (or forever, who knows). Though I am not at all surprised by the delay, I really wish that Sony would just release a patch that gives us some new features. I am optimistic for Home and I understand that they want to make sure the "world" is fully functional when it goes live, but with every delay I care less and less. If they just gave me some of the simplest functionality that is in XBL; I wouldn't care how long they spent on refining Home.

I really do want Home to be good, though I can't help but laugh at these circumstances. I hate hearing all the PS3 fanboys (and girls) acting like Home is the PS3's killer AP and will take down XBL. Home is a very ambitious project, but the truth is we haven't had any experience with the software and all these delays aren't exactly good signs.

Even though I am disappointed with the delay...I think it's best that we all stand up and point at every single fanboy and laugh! HAHA...I hate you guys.

Battlefield: Bad Company (360) Impressions

*Remember that these impressions are from a beta and in no way reflect the final game, or what it will be like when it's shipped.*

I must say that the Battlefield: Bad Company beta has to be the most issue-packed beta I've ever be a part of, and I've been in quite a few. The game is filled with problems, both cosmetic and gameplay-wise. I recently starting playing some more to see how (and if) the game changed at all. The game has seemed to change in a negative way sadly.

I'll start off with the cosmetic issues I have with the game. The first is something so pathetic, something so obviously wrong that I can't believe it will ever find it's way into the final game. There is no ladder animation at all (think Shadowrun); you basically just fly up the ladder with one leg/arm raised on one side, "Up, up and away!". It may seem like a little grudge, but it is extremely distracting every time you see it happen, are we all superman here? The destruction system is impressive, but if you pay attention you'll notice that every house blows up in the same way. While much of the world is destructable, you'll soon see that most explosions are pretty much the same. The game does look rather nice, but I did experience some screen-tearing at times.

The rest of the problems are mostly tech-based, or just bad design choices. One issue I find ridiculous is the fact that you can't open a door. I know that the game is about destruction and they want to show it off, but honestly why would I blow a hole in a building when I can just as easily open a door. They may think that's cool, but I personally think it's an absolute horrible design choice. The destruction aspects of the game are a bit inconsistent as well. A grenade launcher can blow a huge hole in a wall, but a thrown grenade doesn't do a thing. I did experience one situation where a thrown grenade blew up an entire fence and house which shocked the hell out of me (though this only happened once and never again). I don't find it hard to believe that a grenade being propelled through a nade-laucher would be more powerful than a thrown grenade, but the level of difference seems to be a bit much.

I have to say that when the beta initially went up it ran smooth and I rarely ever experienced lag, but now the beta seems to be full of lag half of the time (especially with a full room). I doubt this will be much of a problem when the game ships because Modern Combat ran really smooth. Speaking of the last game; Bad Company has one of the worst issues from the previous game; no voice chat. I sometimes see a mic pop-up on screen that says someone is talking, but I never hear a thing. I even played with Major Nelson at times and either voice chat doesn't work, or he is one quiet guy. I also found that the hit-detection isn't always perfect, but is in no means horrible (just a little tweaking and it should be good).

For the most part every gripe I have with the game is definitely fixable and I don't think that EA will ship the game with all of these issues. You do have to remember that this is still a Battlefield game. So many game-play issues that plagued previous games still plague Bad Company like spawn camping and the lack of respawn invulnerability. I've always been a fan of the Battlefield series (even the console version), but if the issues aren't fixed then I will have no desire to play the retail version. I'm hopeful that these issues will get fixed, but right now I can't help but be worried.

Iron Man (360) Demo

For those of you who don't know, the Iron Man demo is up on XBL for your playing pleasure (note: sarcasm). I honestly never had high hopes for this game, but from what I've played in the demo... it is one janky mess.

If I had to give a brief description I would say that it plays like a prettier version of Superman Returns while actually controlling worse. The games looks alright, but it wouldn't stand out in a crowd (even a crowd of movie-liscensed games). The real issue with the game is how horrible it controls. I managed just fine due to the fact that your projectiles just automatically hit an enemy if fired in their general direction, but I can't say it's much fun. There's no enjoyment in flying around (absolutely no sense of speed) and it just gets worse on land. I really found no redeeming qualities in the demo, except the fact that it was just a demo and therefore I didn't spend any money on it.

I know a few weeks back there was an article saying that the GTAIV release may hurt ticket sales for the Iron Man movie, but I think this game will have the problem; not because of GTAIV, but because this game sucks hard from what I've played and I doubt it will be getting any better in under a month. So once again we get a crappy movie-licensed game...what a surprise!

Rockstar Social Club pre-registration

Starts today! As of right now it hasn't officially gone up, but just keep going back and eventually it will be working (Most likely by this afternoon). If you're a bit curious about what the Social Club actually is you can check out my previous post here.

http://rockstargames.com/socialclub

Death of CGW/GFW...mag going online only

I will write more about this tomorrow, but I just wanted to let people know if they don't already. It happened early today and they posted GFW Radio today as well. I find this to be a very sad moment. I've fallen out of PC gaming a while ago, but I really loved this mag and still read it even though I haven't played a PC game in ages. I wish all the guys the best as well as the ones who were laid off because of this...I hope everything ends up positive down the road for everyone.

There will still be a GFW in a sense. They will still post articles etc online and as of right now the podcast will still be going strong. You can find more on this news by listening to the latest episode of GFW Radio or by checking out these few links...

Jeff Green's Blog

"GFW Magazine Moves Online"