Just a quick update of what's been going on since the last time I wrote. What's been going on you ask? Games, I say! (also work) I've been playing alot of quality titles this summer so heres a short summary of what I've been playing on what console:

Xbox360- Forza Motorsport 2 has made me the most addicted I have ever been to a racing game. Ever. I skipped the first entry into the series because I decided that I was going to try to just stick with the PGR series, but once I read the review and watched a bunch of gameplay videos, I knew I had to give it a chance. I've put a good amount of hours into this game - currently around level 34. I didn't think I was ever going to slow down on the game until The Darkness came out.

I picked up The Darkness the day it came out and I can honestly say it is easily my favourite game to come out this year thus far. I beat the singeplayer 3 times the first week I had it, and I'm still not bored of it yet. It's a little on the short side, but I like it that way because it warrants multiple playthroughs. The multiplayer really has a lot of potentional but the only thing really holding it back in my opinion is lag issues. A definate must play, even if it's just a rental.

I was going to buy Rockstars Table Tennis when it came out but decided to wait until the price dropped a bit - and drop it did. When I picked up The Darkness, my local EB had new copies of Table Tennis going for $20 CDN (They say it's been discontinued). This is the game I am currently playing on my Xbox 360, and I really enjoy it. The mechanics are simple, yet strangely addictive. The characters are probably one of my favourite aspects of the game. My girlfriend will probably go crazy if she has to hear me same the name "Liu Ping" one more time and I don't know what it is about Jesper, but something about him makes me want to cause him serious bodily harm.

Wii- My Wii has kind of been collecting dust lately (yes, I'm talking about the console). I haven't played Super Paper Mario at all since the first week I bought it. Besides a couple Wii Sports sessions with the GF, I haven't touched the system at all.

Nintendo DS- After crushing Pokemon Diamond, I continued back on the trail of getting through Custom Robo. I got even closer to the climax before I picked upPuzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. Now, I'm not usually one for these types of puzzle games but I have fallen into some kind of addiction for this game. I'm going to blame it on the RPG elements because I don't really have any other excuses. My girlfriend on the other hand, really enjoys the "match 3" type puzzle games, so quite naturually she has been putting in tons of hours into this title also. I'm at about level 40, so I think I'm getting pretty close to finishing up the main quest, then I can finally get back to Custom Robo.

PS2- lol

Work has kept me very, very busy for the last few months but that hasn't stopped me from getting as much gaming done as possible.  I'm just going to give an update on what games I've been playing/completed for each system.

Xbox 360- A lot of games have gone through my 360 since I last wrote, but there is still a few that I really need to finish up.   I must say, Crackdown was well worth the money paid for it.  I've been playing alot of the Halo 3 beta and I have never been more excited for a Halo game since.....ever.  On top of that, Crackdown is just a really, really fun game that I enjoyed from start to finish. 

Some superb games that I've completed since I last wrote include:  Call of Duty 3, Rainbow 6 Vegas, Gears of War, Lost Planet and Alien Hominid.  The games I still need to beat are:  Dead Rising, Viva Pinata and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. 

Wii- I played alot of Wii Sports around the time I got my Wii.  I also flew through Zelda: Twilight Princess and Warioware: Smooth Moves.  I loved Twilight Princess so much that I grabbed A Link to the Past off of the Virtual console.  Having never played through LLTP in it's entirety, I was in for a real treat as it is probably as good or better than Ocarina of Time.  I have a few days left in Rayman Raving Rabbids and I recently put a few hours into Super Paper Mario.  Super Paper Mario is a great game, and one that I look forward to playing more of when things get less crazy.

Nintendo DS- About a month before Pokemon came out I was playing Custom Robo.  I wanted a game that would hold me over until Pokemon released that could also be played on the train for 40 minute sessions.  Custom Robo was a good choice.  It's a fun and lengthy adventure that kept me busy on those boring commutes to and from work.  There are countless battles in Custom Robo however they are a little on the easy side.  I was very close to the end of this game before Pokemon put it on a brief hiatus. 

I picked up Pokemon Diamond when it came out and I've been playing the hell out of it since.  I haven't played a Pokemon game since Blue/Red so I thought it was about time to see what I've missed.  The game came to me naturally as it really isn't too different from the original games and I'm starting my way down victory road after playing for a little over 30 hours.   Despite not bringing anything new to the table, Pokemon D/P is a superb game that I look forward to completing.  When it's done I plan to finish up Custom Robo.

I also thought it was worth mentioning that I beat Elite Beat Agents on the hardest difficulty.  This is easily my favourite DS title right now and I really look forward to the sequel.  I also ran through Yoshis Island DS, which was a fun platformer that made the train rides fly by.

PS2- Not much is up on the PS2 front.  I have been playing God of War 2 on and off since it came out.  It's more GoW - which is a good thing, and I'm not going to retire my PS2 system until I get through this one.  I've also been playing alot of Guitar Hero 1 and 2.  I really wish I waited for Guitar Hero 2 on the X360 because the game definately doesn't warrant being purchased on two consoles.  I also bought a copy of Rez off eBay, but that was really one of those game I bought just so I could say I own it.

Finally found a Wii after some extremely bad luck following the launch of the system (waited in line all night to be the first person not to get one).  Wii is everything I expected and is an amazing secondary console to the 360.  I didn't need to pick up any games since I already had Twilight Princess, Rayman Raving Rabbids and Warioware since they came out, but I would enjoy a nunchuck for my second controller but those things are damn near impossible to find.

Since my last entry I've picked up a ton of Xbox 360 and DS games.  Some worth mentioning are Gears of War, Rainbow 6 Vegas, Call of Duty 3, Viva Pinata,  Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Lost Planet, Elite Beat Agents, Yoshis Island DS and Okami.  It's great to see so many quality titles being released on the 360, I just wish I had more time to play them all. 

Since my last entry I've picked up Meteos, Kirby Canvas Curse, Mario Kart DS and Advance Wars: Dual Strike.  I have completed New Super Mario Bros. and Kirby Canvas Curse as well as played a whole lot of Meteos.  I still have a couple of 150 cc cups to finish on Mario Kart and earlier this week I started the Advance Wars campaign.  I can not stress how satisfied I am with the handheld and all of the games I have played for it.  The train ride to and from downtown used to be an annoyance but now I find myself wishing the trip was a little longer so I could finish up that Advance Wars mission or squeeze in another race.  In the next few weeks I'm going to buy Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows.

When I'm at home and I'm not playing DS, all of my spare time (not much) goes towards leveling my new WoW character.  I have rolled a Night Elf Rogue on Altar of Storms.  Matrox is currently level 32 and I got up to a corporal rank after one day of strictly BG'ing it up.   If I could go back I probably would have rolled a Human Mage as my new main, but I am very happy with the Rogue and I simply don't have the time to start all over again right now.

The last few weeks I've just been throwing money at gaming ware of both soft and hard variations.  Since my last entry I picked up Half-Life 2: Episode 1, New Super Mario Bros. and a Nintendo DS Lite.  On top of that I also spent a nice chunk on a new, super-pimp gaming PC setup complete with a new mouse/keyboard, 19 inch LCD Monitor, wireless router, as well as a sweet set of cold cathodes and LED fans.  My basic specs are a gig of OCZ RAM, Athlon 3700+ CPU and a Radeon x800 GTO2, so I should be fine for another couple of weeks before I have to start with the upgrades. 

The time has come for me to start saving for the HD plunge.  Besides Rockstar's Table Tennis, Mario Kart DS and Advance Wars DS, I don't plan on buying anything I don't really need between now and Q4.  Just in time for the launch of Gears of War I'm going to be picking up a 32 inch Samsung LCD HDTV to I can enjoy the game in all it's true glory.

On the gameplay front, I got all of the Oblivion achievments like I said I would.  I also completed Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Half-Life 2: Episode 1 and probably one or two others I can't quite remember at this time.  I'm currently playing Prince of Persia:  The Two Thrones, New Super Mario Bros., and starting tonight - World of Warcraft.  I took a break from WoW for a few months but I pretty much bought my new computer so I would be able to run the game better than my outdated rig that I started the game on.

As far as the DS Lite goes, I am very, very impressed thus far.  Even though I only have one game, the DS Lite has definitely given me the best handheld experience possible.  I love playing the Mario mini-games when I want to get in a couple minutes of quick gaming, and the singe player mode all kinds of nostalgic fun.  Money well spent.

Every weekend I seem to be getting closer and closer to clearing out my wish list.  Since I've been receiving a pay check I've spent hundreds of dollars on video games and now I have less than $200 worth of games left to complete my collection (until more games that I want get released). 

A day or two after my last entry I fully splurged, picking up Guitar Hero and Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition.  I've yet to play DMC3 but Guitar Hero is everything I thought it would be - and more.  As addicting as it is I've decided to take a short break before finishing up that hard mode to try and reduce the list of games I own but haven't completed yet. 

Last weekend I made some more great purchases, knocking Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, Shadow of the Colossus and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey off of my wishlist.  I plan on picking up Ninja Gaiden Black and Dead or Alive 4 sometime soon so that I can start to save money for a DS Lite and Wii.

Yesterday I played God of War pretty much all day and I should be finishing off Ares within the next couple of days.  God of War is such a great game I could have just bought it alone and been satisfied with the PS2 purchase.  After God of War is complete I plan to finish up Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter before diving into the numerous games I have yet to play.

There just aren’t enough hours in the day.  Before I got a job I was logging up to ten hours a day on World of Warcraft and now it seems I'm hard-pressed to find a couple hours to spend on games during a weeknight.  I guess that is the trade-off though, and I would much rather have a large selection of titles that take a few weeks to beat than play through a game in a single sitting and not have the cash to buy another one.

I've been slashing away at Olivion since it was released and yesterday reached the 50 hour mark.  I bought it for the 360 and fully intend to unlock all of the gamerpoints, which I keep getting closer to accomplishing.  After I finish the Ultimate heist in the Thieves Guild, I have the Mages Guild quests as well as the last third of the main quest to secure the full 1000 points. 

Since I recently secured employment, I have decided it was time to pick up the last few games on my Xbox wishlist.  Last weekend I picked up Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, leaving just Ninja Gaiden Black and a new edition of Dreamfall: The Longest Journey as the final two games I will be adding to my Xbox collection. 

I picked up a PS2 yesterday along with a memory card and God of War.  It is my first time ever owning a Sony console and aside from what I find to be horrible analog stick placement, I am enjoying playing on the system so far.  Next time I get paid I plan on picking up Shadow of the Colossus and Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence.  Somewhere down the line I also plan on shelling out the cash for the game that made me want to get a PS2 - Guitar Hero.

After beating all of my 360 games a couple of times I decided to pick up WoW to hold me over until the next batch of games I decide to buy.  WoW is easily the most addictive gaming experience I have ever been a part of and I put in over 100 hours in a little over a month to get beyond level 40.  The sad thing is the game isn't very graphic intensive yet my computer still has a ton of trouble running it. So, I have decided that this weekend I'm going to buy new parts and put together a new rig from scratch. 

Besides just playing WoW I also plan to pick up F.E.A.R. because I've wanted to play it but would never think of installing it on my outdated PC.  After I get settled in with the computer I plan to pick up Dead or Alive 4, Fight Night Round 3, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and of course Oblivion.  Also I am also looking forward to picking up Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones if it ever becomes playable on the 360. For anyone that wants to know, my character is a Tauren Druid on Dark Iron.

After completing virtually every game in my collection I decided to pick up some newer titles to hold me over until Xbox 360.  I ended up buying Farcry Instincts, Indigo Prophecy, SSX On Tour and Brothers in Arms: Earned In Blood.  (Thanks to xelle for BIA: EIB)  So far I've beaten Indigo Prophecy twice and Farcry once.  I'm halfway through SSX On Tour and just started Brothers In Arms earlier this week.  I can honestly say I'm very pleased with all of these games. 

Farcry: Instincts wasn't quite as good as I had hoped for, but still an awesome game none the less.  Indigo Prophecy was the breath of fresh air I was looking for in a game, and it is easily one of my favourite titles of 2005.  I've put SSX On Tour on hold until I beat BIA, but I'm still looking forward to playing it until I'm ranked number 1 as it is a very fun game that I can play in quick bursts or sink a few hours into.  BIA is more of the same BIA - but that's exactly what I wanted of the game because the original owned hard. 

Looks like my new title will be Super Bagman for a while as I got a level up today.

Since my last entry I've beaten Prince of Persia 2: Warrior Within and with my birthday around the corner I'm ready to take on a bunch of new games. This time around in POP2 I managed to bypass the end portal glitch by following an e-mail I received from a Ubi-Soft employee, pretty much telling me to save after going through time portals and never before. I followed the guidelines and managed to beat the game on both endings, defeating the two different bosses. How the game managed to get released with glitches as major as the end portal glitch I'll never know, but I don't really have to worry about it anymore since I probably won't be playing through the game any time soon. Besides the glitches (the audio was quite buggy as well) POP2 was a great game. The combat was really improved upon compared to The Sands of Time but it just didn't have the same feeling and seemed like they were trying to make the Prince a little too hardcore. 8.8/10

WIth only a couple of months left before the release of the Xbox 360, I still have numerous games I plan on buying and completing - Burnout Revenge, Republic Commando, Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood, Indigo Prophecy, Ninja Gaiden Black and possibly Farcry: Instincts.

17:28 elapsed, 99% completion.

If you liked Metroid Prime then you'll love Echoes. The two are very similar but this time they've changed the three alternate weapons as well as added some really cool maneuvers such as the screw attack. This adventure also has you switching between two different worlds, Aether and Dark Aether, to stop the evil Ing by restoring the energy to the Aether temples by taking it from the dark ones. Echoes has Samus exploring four different regions, all of which have dark counterparts, to not only restore the temple energy but also to find all of the weapons and moves she was robbed of at the beginning of the game.

Echoes looks and sounds identical to the previous installment and still has you scanning tons of objects as well as backtracking around the entire map a few times to access areas that you couldn't earlier in the game. Some people were opposed to the scanning and backtracking but I didn't mind at all. Play this game. 9.4/10

Hit the four thousand mark today, bringing me one small step closer to the coveted ten thousand post count. I'll probably hit 5000 around December since I don't post as often during school but I'm finished in October so I will probably get some spam in there.

Still hacking away at finishing up Metroid Prime 2 currently. I put 11 hours into the game and I'm up to 60% so I should be done this week or the next. I'll post my impressions when I'm done but so far the game looks to have taken the KOTOR 2 approach by not fixing what wasn't broken as the game is very similar to it's predecessor - Metroid Prime.

Edit: Played for 3 hours and got up to 76% of the game done. Should finish this up later in the week or early next week.

Half-Life 2 was an awesome game, even on a computer as out-dated as mine with a leet GeForce 2 video card. With all the settings at the lowest the game still looked great and besides occasional slow down it ran fairly smoothly. Half-Life 2 really puts you into the game and makes it seem as though you are the main character battling through one long level divided by 5 minute loading times (on my computer). The sound effects in the game were also top-notch and the gravity gun really brings something new to the FPS table. While I won't be getting a new rig any time soon, I'm certainly still looking forward to HL2: Aftermath. 9.4/10

Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords takes everything that made the original KOTOR own so much, and advances the story line a few years. Although the actual story itself may not be as solid as the original, KOTOR II still has an interesting plot and characters. You'll even be talking with characters from the original as well as visiting some of the places you've been before in the previous installment to see how things have changed since Revan made his/her great journey. If you liked KOTOR as much as I did then you'll like KOTOR II simply because the games are so similar. 9.4/10

With those games out of the way I can continue to beat the other games I've neglected in the past few months. I played Metroid Prime 2: Echoes yesterday for a few hours, getting up to the 20% mark of the game. After Metroid is done I'm going to play through Prince of Persia: Warrior Within again, and hopefully I can get to the end boss this time without the fatal glitching. More updates on Metroid Prime 2 when I reach 4000 posts.

Well it took a rather long time but I've finally reached level 22, and shall endure the title of "Blaster Master" yet again.

A couple weeks ago I started up a game on Crimson Skies that my girlfriend gave me and finished it off on Monday. I've yet to log too many hour on-line with the game, but the single player was a solid and fun experience. The planes controls are very responsive and just feel right for all the different types of planes you can fly. I give the game a 9/10.

After I watched the Crimson Skies credits I decided to finish up another game so I loaded up my Half-Life 2 saved game on "Entanglement" that I haven't played since last year. I started Half-Life 2 when it came out but my computer is so out-dated it was really taking away from the experience so I decided to just stop playing and pick up the Xbox version like I did with Doom 3. Well, I decided I can't wait for the console version so I'm going to just start where I left off and beat the game on this POS rig. It's actually not running as bad as I remember, I must have gotten used to the slowdown or something. I just got to "Follow Freeman" so I should be done soon. The game is pretty damn good; I'm not done yet but I'd give it around a 9.4/10.

After I knock this game off, I have to finish up on a KOTOR 2 game which is a little over halfway done, then work on beating Metroid Prime 2 from the beginning. I'll be busy for a while.

One of the weirdest games of the year also happens to be one of the best games of the year. Killer7 is a first person shooter/action game that gives you an arsenal of characters that you can switch between at any time. Apparently, the characters are all personalities of the leader of the group, Harman Smith. There is the revolver wielding Hellion named Dan, Mask De Smith who sports twin grenade launchers, Con Smith who may be blind but can still take down enemies with dual automatic pistols, and four more characters.

The enemies, the Heaven Smiles, are pretty fun to kill because the majority of them have a small weak spot on their body that if shot, results in an instant kill and lots of blood. Collecting blood goes towards upgrading your characters power, accuracy, etc, but also unlocks special abilities. The best special ability being critical lock-on which upon scanning the camouflaged Heaven Smiles, automatically locks on to their weak-spot for the instant kill. There are also some other cool special abilities like the power up shots that use vials of blood to perform devastating blasts. (Mask De Smith can use a five vial charge shot after a certain point in the game, and it looks awesome). The characters can also only move along a set path by holding down a run button, and when you get to an intersection you can select which way you want to go. I'm still not sure if I liked this or if I hated it. When your characters dies, you will be transported back to the last TV you used to save or upgrade and you will have to select Garcian. Garcian is the only character that can revive the others but if Garcian dies, it's game over. After collecting the dead personalities head, you can revive them on the TV by rapidly tapping a button, which is easy enough.

The art style is the game is beautiful, everything is done in a refreshing cel-shaded style with some anime cut-scenes thrown in for good measure. The characters and environments look awesome and original. The levels consist of a few puzzles (most of them are fairly easy but some can be challenging), some collecting, killing as many Smiles as possible, trading in blood for serum to upgrade your characters on the TV in Harman's Room (also the save point), and getting past the gate keeper to reach the final boss. The levels in the game are kind of short, save for the levels with two parts, and the final product could have been a tad longer, but it was a great experience none-the-less.

While some aspects of the story may be hard to understand, Killer7 still delivers an awesome, weird little action experience. 8.7/10

My friend let me borrow this game last week and I played the hell out of it. All I can say is this game is truly awesome and probably the second best console game of 2005 thus far, re4 being first. I've beaten the game twice already (it's not too lengthy, but not too short) and still feel compelled to play through again on the unlocked authentic difficulty mode.

The gameplay is probably my favourite aspect of the game. Like in Full Spectrum Warrior, the enemies will hide behind cover and you can use your teams to suppress them while flanking them for the kill, or just send in one of the other teams to do the dirty work. However, unlike in Full Spectrum Warrior you can actually pick off the enemies when they peak above the cover to shoot at you. The aiming is also very well done and realistic as you can either fire from the hip with no cross-hair (you can turn it on if you're a noob) or stare down the iron side of the gun.

Brothers in Arms also has very impressive visuals, well-written dialogue and story (based on true story) as well as a superb musical score. In fact, just writing about the game is giving me an itch to kill some WW2 German soldiers so I think I'm going to get back to that. Can't wait for Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood! 9.3/10

Note: Impressions based on Xbox version of the game.

Yep, I saw Star Wars Episode III last night at 12:01 am, and it was an awesome movie. Though the original Star Wars trilogy has not been bested, Episode III is clearly the better show out of the newer episodes. The CG was just amazing as expected and the General was a pretty badass character design. Lightsaber battles were pretty well-done this time around and the only gripe I really had with the movie was some of the dialogue.

I also hit the 3000 post mark recently and although it isn't really that high of a count, I still thought that I would mention it. I would also like to say that Gears of War is looking like an excellent game that I can't wait to start hyping. After all, it is going to be better than anything on that horrible looking PS3 console.

Psychonauts was just an overall superb gaming experience. I give the game a score of 9.4 out of 10; you may not have as much fun as I did with Psychonauts, but something would have to be wrong with you not to enjoy the time spent playing.

Being a completionist, I opted to collect everything possible in the game and reach the highest rank possible, which turned out to be rank 101, not 100. Achieving this rank took me about 18 hours to do on a game that would otherwise be approximately 12 hours. You can spend a couple hours just wandering around the summer camp just talking to people and checking out the world. The thing that makes the playing time so long is collecting all of the figments within the levels. There are usually hundreds of figments per level and since they are semi-transparent, they can be hard to find when up against a colourful backdrop, resulting in spending hours looking for the last two or three of them.

The psychic abilities really add to the fun of the gameplay--especially the levitate power. levitate allows you to summon and ball like object constructed of psychic energy that you can stand on or use like a balloon to hover. Standing on the levitate ball allows you to run faster and jump higher, which means like any other platform game, you can't collect some objects or enter certain levels without the appropriate psychic power.

The settings, characters and music are also high points in the game. All of the characters are unique and give off a cool Tim Burton vibe. The psychic summer camp is just a brilliant idea for a setting, and combined with the actual levels being the mind of another character make for a original experience in platforming. The music, combined with a couple other aspects of the game, reminds me of classic platform genre music, which is a great thing as it really adds to the atmosphere. If you enjoy video games, Psychonauts should not disappoint you.