With all the great new games coming out these days, it's hard to sit down and play the older games from past generations (or hell, even from this one) when most of my gaming time is spent on the latest and greatest thing. Plus it doesn't help I have other interests besides games, and of course work always gets in the way. What follows is a list of all the games I own that I have either: A) never finished, B) never started playing or C) never even opened. As I write this introductory paragraph, I imagine the list is pretty massive as I am always picking up new games and continually just placing them on the shelf. Are you ready?

Microsoft Xbox:

• · Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (never finished it)
• · Black (still sealed)
• · Blood Omen 2 (never finished it)
• · BloodRayne 2 (still sealed; rented it a long time ago once)
• · Castlevania: Curse of Darkness (never started it)
• · Conker: Live & Reloaded (never started it)
• · Crimson Sea (hardly played it)
• · Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge (never started it)
• · Fable (never played it)
• · Far Cry Instincts (never played it)
• · Midtown Madness 3 (hardly played it)
• · Ninja Gaiden (can't beat first boss; way too **** hard)
• · Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (barely started it)
• · Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (never played it)
• · Project Gotham Racing (never finished)
• · Project Gotham Racing 2 (never finished)
• · The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (never played it)
• · Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 (never played it)
• · Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 (never played it)
• · Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow (never played it)
• · Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown (never played it)
• · Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell (barely started it)

Microsoft Xbox 360:

• · Big Bumpin' (hardly touched it)
• · Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath (still sealed)
• · Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (still sealed)
• · Condemned 2: Bloodshot (only finished 1st level)
• · Crackdown (never finished it)
• · Dead Rising (I hate the damned time system, never finished it)
• · Devil May Cry 4 (still sealed)
• · Eternal Sonata (still sealed; I want the PS3 version instead)
• · Far Cry 2 (still sealed)
• · F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin (still sealed)
• · Guitar Hero III (still sealed)
• · Hitman: Blood Money (only finished 1st level)
• · Lost Planet (only finished 1st level)
• · Need for Speed Carbon (still sealed)
• · Operation Darkness (still sealed)
• · Pocketbike Racer (barely touched it)
• · Project Gotham Racing 4 (still sealed)
• · Ridge Racer 6 (never finished)
• · Rumble Roses XX (barely touched it)
• · Silent Hill: Homecoming (still sealed)
• · Sneak King (never finished)
• · The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault of Dark Athena (still sealed)
• · WarTech: Senko no Ronde (still sealed)

Nintendo (NES):

• · After Burner (don't think I ever finished it)
• · Batman the Video Game (I could never beat the Joker at the end)
• · Batman: Return of the Joker (don't think I ever finished it)
• · Castlevania (never got to Dracula)
• · Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (never played it)
• · Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (never finished it)
• · Ducktales (never finished it)
• · Gyruss (never beat it; but got damn close!!)
• · Ninja Gaiden (never finished it)
• · Ninja Gaiden II (never finished it)
• · Snake Rattle 'n Roll (never finished it)
• · Street Fighter 2010 (never played it)
• · Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (never finished it)
• · Who Framed Roger Rabbit (never finished it)

Super Nintendo (SNES):

• · Breath of Fire (never started it)
• · Lemmings (never finished it)
• · Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (never finished it)
• · Secret of Mana (barely started it)
• · Super R-Type (never finished it)
• · U.N. Squadron (never finished it)
• · Xardion (barely started it)

Nintendo 64:

• · Ridge Racer 64 (barely started it)
• · Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (never finished it)

Nintendo GameCube:

• · Fire emblem: Path of Radiance (quit when I found out I missed something, I think. Was pretty close to the end too)
• · Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life (barely touched it)
• · The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (never finished but got really far)
• · Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (still sealed)
• · Pikmin (never finished)
• · Pikmin 2 (never finished)
• · Viewtiful Joe (never finished)

Nintendo Wii:

• · No More Heroes (never finished)
• · The Munchables (barely touched it)

Nintendo GameBoy Advance (GBA):

• · Breath of Fire II (never finished it)
• · Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (never finished it)
• · Drill Dozer (never started it, I like the rumble pack though)
• · Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls (never finished FFII)
• · Final Fantasy IV Advance (never finished it)
• · Final Fantasy V Advance (still sealed)
• · Golden Sun (got stuck, but was pretty far)
• · Golden Sun: The Lost Age (never started it)
• · Gunstar Super Heroes (never started it)
• · Justice League Heroes: The Flash (never started it)
• · Mega Man Zero 4 (never finished it)
• · Pokemon: FireRed (never finished it)
• · Sonic Advance (never finished it)
• · Super Robot Taisen D (never played it)
• · Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (never finished it)
• · X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse (never finished it)

Nintendo DS:

• · Advance Wars: Dual Strike (hardly played it)
• · Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (never played it)
• · Bangai-O Spirits (never played it)
• · Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (barely started it)
• · Final Fantasy III (never played it)
• · Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift (never finished it, too much side stuff!)
• · Front Mission (never played it)
• · Luminous Arc (never finished it but got damn far)
• · Luminous Arc 2 (never played it)
• · Lunar: Dragon Song (still sealed)
• · Magical Starsign (never played it)
• · Metroid Prime Pinball (never finished it)
• · Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (never played it)
• · Scribblenauts (never finished it)
• · Sonic Rush (never finished it)
• · Super Robot Taisen K (just started it)
• · Trauma Center: Under the Knife (never finished it)

Sega Genesis:

• · Castlevania: Bloodlines (I think I finished this, but I'm not entirely sure)
• · RoboCop vs The Terminator (never finished it)
• · Uncharted Waters (never played it)

Sega Dreamcast:

• · Phantasy Star Online (never singe player portion)
• · Sonic Adventure (never finished it)
• · Sonic Adventure 2 (never finished it)

Sony Playstation:

• · Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (never played it)
• · Breath of Fire IV (I think I finished this but I'm not entirely sure. Either way my save file is long gone!)
• · Descent (I know I've gotten pretty far but I don't think I've ever finished it)
• · Final Doom (never started it)
• · Final Fantasy Anthology (never finished FFV)
• · Final Fantasy Chronicles (never finished FFIV)
• · Front Mission 3 (I think I finished it, but I'm not sure. Either way I played the hell out of it)
• · Galerians (still sealed)
• · Resident Evil: Director's Cut (never finished it)
• · Syphon Filter 2 (still sealed)
• · Syphon Filter 3 (still sealed)

Sony Playstation 2:

• · A.C.E.: Another Century's Episode (never finished it)
• · A.C.E.: Another Century's Episode 2 (never played it)
• · Art of Fighting Anthology (still sealed)
• · Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (never started it; rented it once)
• · Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny (never played it)
• · Burnout Dominator (never finished it)
• · Capcom ****cs Collection 1 & 2 (I'd like to know someone that's finished ALL the games on these)
• · Contra: Shattered Soldier (never beat it)
• · Dark Cloud (hardly played it)
• · Devil May Cry (Never made it past the 2nd boss)
• · Dragon Quest VIII (still sealed)
• · Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Vol 1 (still sealed)
• · Final Fantasy XII (started but didn't get far)
• · Front Mission 4 (still sealed)
• · God Hand (only played a little bit)
• · Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (still sealed)
• · Growlanser: Heritage of War (still sealed)
• · Guitar Hero (unlocked most songs, never finished though)
• · King of Fighers: Maximum Impact (never got far)
• · King of Fighters 2006 (still sealed)
• · King of Fighters XI (never played it)
• · La Pucelle: Tactics (never played it)
• · Makai Kingdom (never played it)
• · Mega Man Anniversary Collection (never finished any of em)
• · Mega Man X Collection (only finished MMX)
• · Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence (not finished yet but working on it!)
• · Metal Slug Anthology (never finished a Metal Slug game before)
• · Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs Zeon (never played it)
• · MS Saga: A New Dawn (never finished but been meaning to)
• · Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (never finished it)
• · NeoGeo Battle Coliseum (never played it)
• · Odin Sphere (barely touched it)
• · Phantom Brave (barely touched it)
• · Real Robot Regiment (never played it)
• · Sega Genesis Collection (still sealed)
• · Sengoku Basara (never played it; but finished Devil Kings)
• · Shadow of the Colossus (still sealed)
• · Silent Hill 2 (never finished it)
• · Silent Hill 3 (still sealed)
• · Simple 2000 Series Vol 101: The Oneechanpon (barely played it)
• · SoulCalibur III (still sealed)
• · Star Ocean: Till the End of Time (never finished it)
• · Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity (never finished it)
• · Suikoden IV (still sealed)
• · Suikoden Tactics (still sealed)
• · Super Robot Taisen: Scramble Commander (never played it)
• · Sunrise World War (never played it)
• · Super Robot Taisen Alpha 2 (never played it)
• · Super Robot Taisen Alpha 3 (barely started it)
• · Super Robot Taisen Impact (never played it)
• · Super Robot Taisen MX (never played it)
• · Tales of Legendia (still sealed)
• · Transformers (never finished it)
• · Transformers Tataki (never finished it)
• · Trapt (still sealed)
• · Twisted Metal: Head On-Extra Twisted Edition (never finished it)
• · Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (still sealed)

Sony Playstation 3:

• · Folklore (never started it)
• · Metal Gear Solid 4 (still sealed)
• · PixelJunk Monsters (never finished it)
• · SoulCalibur IV (still sealed)
• · Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (never finished it)

Sony Playstation Portable (PSP):

• · Brave Story: New Traveler (never finished it)
• · Burnout Legends (never finished it)
• · Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles (only played it enough to unlock Symphony of the Night)
• · Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (maybe half way through. Got bored with the side stuff)
• · Daxter (came with my PSP, have no interest in it)
• · Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness (never played it)
• · Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (still sealed)
• · Gradius Collection (hardly played it)
• · Gundam: Battle Tactics (hardly played it)
• · Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure (still sealed)
• · Infected (never finished it, and never wanted to)
• · Jeanne d'Arc (never finished it)
• · LocoRoco (hardly played it)
• · Marvel Ultimate Alliance (never started this version)
• · Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (never played it)
• · Pursuit Force (never finished it)
• · Super Robot Taisen A Portable (never played it)
• · Super Robot Taisen MX Portable (never played it)
• · Ultimate Ghosts N Goblins (still sealed)
• · Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (still sealed)
• · Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (never started it)
• · X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (never played this version)

PC:

• · Age of Mythology (never played it)
• · Alien Vs Predator (never got far)
• · Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (hardly played it)
• · Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun & Tiberian Sun: Firestorm (Never finished it)
• · Diablo (hardly played it)
• · Diablo II and Lord of Destruction expansion (hardly played it)
• · Disciples II: Rise of the Elves GOLD (still sealed)
• · Emperor: Battle for Dune (hardly started it)
• · Fallout and Fallout 2 (never started; I doubt the disc I have even works on Windows XP LOL)
• · Guild Wars and all Expansions (can you even finish this game?)
• · Half-Life (never finished it; got stuck in sewers on PS2 version)
• · Hexen: Beyond Heretic (hardly played it)
• · Icewind Dale II (never started it)
• · Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns (hardly played it)
• · Lineage II (still sealed; once again, can you even finish this game?)
• · Neverwinter Nights: Diamond pack (hardly played it)
• · RF Online (still sealed; servers have been shut down L)
• · Rise of Nations: Gold Edition (never started it)
• · Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends (still sealed)
• · SimCity 3000 Unlimited (can you even finish this game?)
• · Starcraft (never finished it)
• · The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (never played it)
• · The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria (still sealed; freebie at PAX)
• · Titan Quest Gold Edition (still sealed)
• · Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (still sealed)
• · Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Platinum Edition (still sealed)
• · Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm (still sealed)

WonderSwan:

• · Final Fantasy II (still sealed)
• · Makai Toushi SaGa (still sealed)
• · Rhyme Rider Kerorican (still sealed)
• · Super Robot Taisen Compact (never played it)
• · Super Robot Taisen Compact 2 (never played it)
• · Terrors 2 (still sealed)

Wow, that is a lot. As I look over this list, I see several games I would be ok with selling off as well as several games that I simply must play as soon as possible (Metal Gear Solid 4, Shadow of the Colossus, Odin Sphere, Dragon Quest VIII, Secret of Mana). Feel free to post your comments on the games that I have never played or are still sealed. I'll do my best to explain why I haven't played these games. Also, go ahead and post your backlog list if you have one. Now if you'll excuse me, I have several games I need to get back to playing. None of which are on this list! LOL

Listen on Chirbit

http://chirb.it/Fb92nr

OR

Get the Mp3 on Mediafire

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=799006cb22005281d2db6fb9a8902bda

Let me know what you think! There are definitely issues with audio quality and levels but I'm still learning.

Let me know what you think of the audio quality on this compared to my previous recordings.

http://chirb.it/cGIB7J

I AM!

I know Mr. Wesker and Mr. N3RD Alert are going. Anyone else? I am totally f-ing psyched! I've never been on a plane before (well, not one that's flying) and I've never been outside of the Midwest. I cannot wait for this trip. Anyone know if there is a dealer's room? From what I've read, there is not. That is probably a good thing too. Spending enough money just getting there! LOL

http://chirb.it/aNG7ad

http://chirb.it/OmPbOk

Sound quality should be much better this time. Please let me know what you guys think of these audio blogs. I only received 2 or 3 comments on my last one and those came via Twitter. I'd like to hear what you guys think of these since most of you don't follow my twitter feed.

Not sure what to call this but I recorded approx. 5 minutes of an audio blog yesterday. I was going to post it on AudioBoo (since I've seen GiantBomb and CheapyD do that), but I realized that program only works with an iphone, which I do not have. Today I got a tweet from Chirbit, which is essentially Twitter in audio form. Seems pretty cool so far. Anyway, check it out and let me know what you guys think. The audio quality certainly is not the greatest, but this is sort of a trial run.

http://chirb.it/zvmKxz

http://twitpic.com/6n3ly

My 2nd Red Ring. I hope they send me a refurbished/replacement system that has an HDMI port this time.

Not sure if any of you have been following my Twitter feed, or my GiantBomb updates but I have a job now. First day is tomorrow at 9 AM. I'll post something more detailed in the next few days when I get settled in at work. Just wanted to give you guys a quick update.

Later!

At long last, I now present to you my personal best of 2008 "awards." First up, video games. 2008 was a great year for video games and saw a slew of great titles in various genres. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to play a lot of these, thanks to gamefly, and to be able to complete most if not all of them. I will mention that I have not played one of the most nominated game of the year titles, Metal Gear Solid 4. I do in fact own the game, but I haven't even opened it. Yes I'm horrible, I know. This is probably my biggest regret of the year. The reason I haven't played it yet, is because I want to play and complete MGS3 first. I own that game as well, I just haven't got around to playing it yet. Mainly because of all the other great games that have come out in the last few months. I'm also not looking forward to playing MGS3 as much as MGS4 though. I think that will be my New Years Resolution for gaming, to play MGS3 and 4. Anyway, on to the awards.

Game of the year 2008

10. LEGO Batman

The only LEGO game I've spent time playing and I really enjoyed it. Tons of stuff to unlock, great humor and a unique take on Batman.

9. Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

Rare did it again. Viva Pinata is better than it ever was and even more addicting than the original. Some people say this is just Viva Pinata 1.5. I can see their argument, but that doesn't matter to me. The game is great and I had a lot of fun with it.

8. Burnout Paradise

I was a little leary about this game when I heard about all the changes they were making from the previous incarnations. I absolutely love Burnout Revenge and I still consider it my favorite Burnout game to this day. Paradise is probably my second favorite now. Once I turned the game on for the first time, I could see why so many people enjoyed it. The graphics are amazing, the sense of speed is insane and the variety in events make this game great.

7. Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimorie of the Rift

I've put over 130 hours into this game and I STILL haven't completed the main quest. What I like most about FFTA2 would have to be the various jobs available. There close to 40 jobs in this game! The battles are as fun as ever and the characters are very interesting. I only wish they had the same death cry as in the original Final Fantasy Tactics. lol

6. Gears of War 2

Overall a huge improvement over the first in terms of story and the single player campaign. I am not a big fan of Gears of War but I really enjoyed the sequel. I hear that the multiplayer still doesn't work well though.

5. Grand Theft Auto IV

This game has been chosen as game of the year by many people and I can see why they like it so much, however I didn't enjoy this game nearly as much. I think this game's story and characters are easily the best of the year, but i found the rest of the game lacking.

4. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Sure there are some issues with this game, like that damned Star Destroyer, but other than that I love it. This is the best Star Wars game I've played since the original Knights of the Old Republic. Force powers and physics have never been so much fun.

3. Saints Row 2

I like how Volition went in the opposite direction that GTA IV did. Instead of the hyper realism they went completely over the top and made a game as fun as crazy as possible. Spraying sewage on houses, posing as a cop and committing crimes along with a COPS ****camera crew and protecting celebrities by beating fans into submission are just some of my favorite things to do. Sure the story isn't the greatest, but the large variety of activities and the deep customization system (for your character, cars and gang) more then make up for it.

2. Fallout 3

I absolutely loved this game and if it weren't for Dead Space, this would have easily gotten my Game of the Year. I was addicted to this game for all 75 hours that I played it. I loved wandering around the wasteland and discovering new places and new characters. Check out my blog post from November for more detailed thoughts.

1. Dead Space

I made a blog post back in October of 2008 about Dead Space and how much I love it. I also claimed that it was my 2008 game of the year back then as well. I have since played several other games that I have nominated for GoTY, but Dead Space retains that honor. Scroll down and read that blog if you want to know the details on why I like it. To put it simply, it is hands down the most immersive game I've played this year and the most fun.

NOTE: I also have a bunch of other non-video game "awards" that I posted over at my GiantBomb profile. I embeded a bunch of video for those, so if you'd like to see the rest, head on over to GB. I would like to also note that I posted a long blog about Fable 2 but I wasn't able to post it here because Gamespot was giving me a bunch of html errors. I posted that on GiantBomb.com if you'd like to read it. There may be other blogs in the future that I only post there and not here, so keep that in mind.

Well, the 2008 Spike TV Video Game awards aired tonight, and I watched the whole thing. Can I have my 2 hours back? Please? Yeah, it was basically a big joke, once again. The only reason I even watched any of it was to see the "world premiere" footage of God of War III and Brutal Legend. Anyway, I took some notes during the show and here are some of my thoughts on it:

- Jack Black was the host, and he did a good job whenever he was on stage. I guess he kinda has an excuse since he's a voice actor in Brutal Legend, but most of the other people they had as presenters, had no reason being on stage at all. Jack Black was only on stage like 4 or 5 times though, so he didn't even feel like the host. They just had guest presenter, after guest presenter each time. The opening to the show was really funny, but if you had shut the show off about 5 minutes in, you wouldn't have missed much. There was an interesting bit with Jerry Stiller where Jack Black said sh*t after Jerry Stiller said it, and it got by the censors. OMG I heard someone say the S-word on TV! lol I'm sure someone got in trouble. The very last bit they had with Jack Black and Tim Schaffer was awesome, mainly cause they brought out Rob freakin Halford! Plus Jack Black had a working flamethrower

- They had several musical guest performers; LL Cool J, All American Rejects, 50 Cent and Weezer. I could care less about all of those bands/people except for Weezer. Weezer "headlined" the "show" with an interesting performance complete with a choir. It was interesting but I didn't like the song much. I haven't listened to Weezer since Maladroit, and I have no idea what song they played.

- The God of War III footage was nice, but EXTREMELY short. I think they showed maybe 15 seconds of footage. I hope they show more soon.

- Peter Moore came out on stage to promote Fight Night Round 4. I could care less about the game, but seeing Peter Moore again makes me wish he still did the presentations for Microsoft at E3, TGS, GDC, etc. He has a great stage presence. They also trotted out Mike Tyson to promote the game. I couldn't believe how childish he sounds. He literally sounds like a 4 year old. I'd heard people make fun of his voice before, but I had no idea how he really sounds.

- The first award went to Gears of War 2 for Best Shooter. Big surprise there. They also said that it also won best 360 game, but they never announced the nominees. WTF?

- The second award went to World of Goo for best Indy game. This presentation had Neil Patrick Harris doing a bit with some "fan" in the crowd. The fan makes fun of Mr Harris for being Doogie Howser. Then he pulls out a fake (realistic looking) gun and "shoots" the fan. That was an extremely stupid bit, and all it really does is promote gun violence. It says to children that may be watching this program, "have a problem? Solve it by pulling out a gun and shooting someone."

- Keifer Sutherland was given an award for his work in Call of Duty: World at War. I have no idea WHY he received that award, there were no other nominees.

- I should note that after the world premiere trailers were shown, there'd be a little advertisement for GameStop that says "head to gamestop and preorder this game NOW." Enough with the f-ing pre-orders GameStop. GO AWAY.

- The next world exclusive was for Dante's Inferno. The game looks pretty interesting, but I'd like to see some gameplay footage and know what character you play as. Seems like either a survival horror game, or just a straight up action game.

- Wil Wright received a lifetime achievement award. He certainly deserves it. His speech went a little long, but I didn't care. He could talk for hours, and I would gladly listen.

- GTAIV: Lost and Damned looks like you will be riding around on Motorcycles the whole time. Great. I hate driving around in motorcycles in GTA IV. They are extremely hard to control and I crash all the time in them. Consider me not interested in this DLC. The heavy metal playing in the background in the trailer was great though. I wonder if they will release new music with the DLC?

- Best RPG went to Fallout 3. It is certainly deserving. The other nominees were Fable II, Warhammer Online (um, why?) and The World Ends With You.

- Next was an Uncharted 2 cutscene. It looked nice but I would have rather seen gameplay footage.

- Then they showed a Terminator Salvation trailer. Looks pretty good. I was getting a Gears of War vibe from it. It seemed to use a similar cover system.

- And then a Mafia II trailer - No gameplay footage again. Not interested.

- After watching Silver Dollar....wait, I mean "50 Cent" do his thing while I had the TV on mute, a Watchmen trailer was shown. The game looks alright but I don't think this game is going to turn out well. I've never read the Watchmen (shame on me, i know), but somehow I feel like that graphic novel doesn't exactly translate into a video game well.

- Next was the award for Best Music game. Rock Band 2 won, but the most shocking thing is that they nominated Wii Music. Why nominate a toy? They mentioned Rock Band 2 also won for best soundtrack, but what were the other nominees?

- Next was Studio of the Year. This award confuses me. What are the requirements for being nominated? Do you have to put out more than one game in the year? It seemed like just another game of the year award. MediaMolecule won for LittleBigPlanet. They also mentioned it won for best PS3 game. Again, WHAT THE HELL?! What were the other nominees? Where is MGS4?

- At this point in the show, they played a video montage of like 10 or 15 different awards that were apparently given out, but none of the developers were given any praise, and none of the nominees were even announced. WTF?! I saw an award for best driving game (went to Burnout Paradise), best fighting game (Soul Calibur IV) and a couple awards for best voice actor/actress, but most of them I missed. What is the point of even having an awards show when you're only going to give out 5 or 6 awards live on air, and then run a video reel of like 15 more awards?? Couldn't you have just put out a 15 minute video on your website or something? Really, really lame.

- Next was the Brutal Legend footage, and the little bit with Jack Black, Rob Halford and Tim Shaffer I mentioned earlier. The game seems like something I'd really enjoy (since I'm a big metalhead), but I'm a bit worried by the trailer. The trailer showed a LOT of driving sections in the game. Like half of it was you driving a car. I hope that is just one level and it is not representative of the whole game.

- Game of the Year went to GTAIV. Not a big surprise, but I was expecting them to give it to Gears 2. Out of the choices they had, I would have given it to Fallout 3 easily. Of course Dead Space didn't even get nominated for anything. At least not that I saw.

So yeah, overall this awards show was basically a waste of time. It's late, I need to get to bed. I'd go into more detail about this awards show and why it sucks in its current form, but I'm just too damn tired......*snore*

- I just checked my Gmail and I've been invited into the Playstation Home Beta!  Cool!  (I think?)  Haven't downloaded it yet, but I will let you all know what I think of it later.  I've heard mixed things about Home, mostly negative, but I'm looking forward to checking it out.

- Also got Left 4 Dead from Gamefly today.  So if there are any of you that didn't buy the PC version, but have the 360 one let me know.

- You may have seen me playing a lot of A Kingdom for Keflings, the latest XBL Arcade release.  Its actually a pretty neat little game.  Kinda like an RTS but without the combat, just the base building and resource management parts.  I more or less finished the game last night and got almost all of the achievements.  It was a nice change of pace from the games I've been playing recently.  It took about 10 hours to complete and obtain all the different building types.  The game also has some multiplayer modes but I haven't tried those yet.  If you have any interest, check out the demo, I was very surprised at how much fun I had with it.

Fallout 3:

For the past 2 weeks or so, I've been completely addicted to Fallout 3. Last week I finally finished the main quest line after about 75 hours of game time. I certainly could have completed the main quest long ago, but I wanted to experience as much of the Wasteland as possible, and finish as many side quests as I could before I locked myself in for the final battle. After the main quest line leads you to Megaton, I put the next step on hold and just went off exploring. I just picked a direction and thought, "I wonder what's over this way" and started walking. Most of my enjoyment of the game came from just wondering around in the Wasteland discovering new towns and locations and picking up interesting side quests along the way. Once I had discovered all the major locations in the Wasteland I continued the main quest, but you know what? I didn't want to. I wish I could have wandered around an even larger world and discovered even more interesting things. I never wanted this game to stop, but unfortunately, the main quest forces you to.

At times the main quest would be very interesting and enjoyable, but other times it was extremely disappointing and I didn't like the direction it took. I won't go into details about the main quest so that I don't spoil it for you, but overall I was disappointed with it and the ending of the game. There's a very "Star Trek II" moment in the middle of the game that was very emotional and impactful but I think it came too soon in the story. (I would go into this more, but again I don't want to spoil anything). I think the ending was anticlimactic. The final battle was awesome, but then when the action stops, and when the "boss" is defeated, all I could think was, "What?! That's it? 75 hours and this is all you give me?" You may have heard that there are hundreds of possible endings. Not really. The ending "cutscene" isn't a cutscene at all, but just a bunch of still pictures (LAME). You'll see a few different still frames depending on what you do in the main questline and some of the side quests. I saw the good ending, and then a slight variation on that when I screwed up something right at the end. You could say I pressed the wrong button on the controller, but it isn't quite like that (people that finished the game will know exactly what I mean here).

Anyway, when you see the credits roll and you see "The End" on screen, that's it. THE END. You can't continue playing the game after finishing the main questline like you can in Oblivion. The game is over no matter what choices you make at the end of the game. I suppose it's understandable considering this is Fallout and not Oblivion, but in all seriousness, this game is basically Oblivion with guns. That is both a good thing (because Oblivion is awesome) and a bad thing. The good points are obvious: the world is huge, the graphics are fantastic, the characters are all voiced well, you can be good or evil, there are many quests to complete, and cool items/weapons/armor as well as other things I can't think of right now. Fallout 3 has a lot of the same types of glitches that Oblivion has. Characters will get stuck on walls and other objects, some npcs will completely disappear and people have reported items disappearing from their storage compartments in their character's home. These glitches are all pretty minor though. I've experienced some npcs getting stuck in the geography (which allowed me to kill them easily). I've also had an important NPC die on me somehow (which really pissed me off at the time), but it was late in the game so it didn't affect me too much.

Overall, I really enjoyed Fallout 3 and I wish I didn't have to stop playing it. The disappointing ending is really the only big issue I have with the game, aside from some minor glitches and the level 20 cap which I reached extremely quickly with only 1 rank in the +10% exp perk. The highlights of Fallout 3 are the vast Wasteland and numerous places to find and side quests to complete, as well as the interesting characters you meet and neat backstory. I probably won't be playing the game again until Bethesda releases some downloadable content, because I've seen and done pretty much all there is to see and do in the game. I did start an evil character, but I'm having a hard time being an **** all the time, especially when I know the characters so well now that I've completed the game. Ah well.

Gears of War 2:

Last night I finished the single player campaign in Gears of War 2. Overall, the game is much better than the first. The story still isn't anything too special, but it is a hell of a lot better than the first game. The most important improvements are to the graphics, both technically and artistically. For one, I can actually tell what the hell I'm shooting at now. In Gears 1 you couldn't tell a Cog soldier from a Locust, they both looked a boring grey color. Now the drab grey is still there for the most part, but at least you can tell the two apart. The Cogs all have small bright blue LEDs on either their armor or weapons so this makes it extremely easy to tell if you're looking at an enemy or a friendly in the distance. Also, if you put your crosshairs over a friendly target, there will be an "X" in the circle telling you not to shoot. I found that extremely useful as I had a hard time telling friend from foe at a distance in the original game.

The most important change to the game is the addition of color. Most everything in Gears 1 was a drab, boring shade of grey (or brown). In Gears 2 there is thankfully, many more colors. This variety in color brings with it a variety of interesting levels. There are levels underground that are not only brown like you'd expect, but there are a lot of organic things that show up in some nice greens and blues. There is an outdoor level on a snowy mountain with a lot of white, blue and brown. There is a level where everything is crumbling or on fire and you get a lot of red, orange, yellow, brown and black. There is an "indoor" level with tons of shades of red and black. The addition of color immediately makes the game more interesting and grabs your attention (and looks great in HD as well).

The story is certainly better than the first one. You aren't just running around shooting Locust, there is at least some reason to it. There is even a somewhat emotional part with Dom and his wife, but that soon fades away in all the gunfire and you will more or less forget all about that part of the story as the sinking of the city becomes more important. The final boss was all too easy, and the ending wasn't as bad as Halo 2's cliffhanger, but it's obvious they are making Gears of War 3 (oh noes!).

If you know me, you'll probably know that I wasn't much of a fan of Gears of War 1. I disliked it so much at the time that I almost traded the game in to Gamestop (that's a no-no for me). I'm happy to report that you can consider me a fan of Gears of War 2. I will be glad to replay the campaign in co-op with anyone that'd like to try it on hardcore or insane. Multiplayer on the other hand, doesn't interest me as much. If you'd like to invite me to your team sometime I'll give it a go, but I've never been much of a fan of competitive multiplayer games.

On Monday night I finished Dead Space and I'm currently on my 2nd playthrough. (That for me is pretty rare, I don't often play a game more than once). I can honestly say, this is the best game I've played in quite some time and it currently gets my vote for Game of the Year 2008. If you've been living under a rock for the past few months, Dead Space is a survival horror game that takes place on a stranded spacecraft. You play as an engineer, Isaac Clarke, who is part of a rescue team sent to investigate a distress signal received by the USG Ishimura, which is a mining ship stuck in orbit over the planet Aegis 7. When you dock with the Ishimura you soon realize that things have gone horribly wrong and you spend the game fending off necromorphs while trying to figure out what the hell happened as you try and get the Ishimura up and running again.

This game is all about atmosphere. The mood, the look, the sounds, the ambience, the lighting, the interface and the graphics all come together in perfect harmony to suck you in and creep the hell out of you. This game isn't the "jump out and scare you" type of game, it's just creepy all around. If I had to compare the creepyness to another game, it would be most like Silent Hill. The sounds, music and lighting are what scare you, not monsters jumping out in front of you, although that does happen every once in awhile.

Dead Space does a great job of engrossing you in its world. Once you start up a game, you are never taken out of the world and always feel like a part of it. While there are menus in the game, they appear in the game itself. Your health bar and stasis bar are on Isaac's back. Your inventory screen, map screen and objective screens are all projected holographically by Isaac in the game. Messages from crew members will be projected in front of Isaac in the game itself. You always feel like a part of the game this way. It may seem a little weird at first, but you will quickly get used to it. I absolutely love it and it really adds to the experience.

I am always on edge while playing Dead Space and the sound is the main reason for this. You are constantly hearing strange noises while walking around the Ishimura and you always think somethings going to be around the next corner. The sound in this game is perfection. It's hard to explain sound effects in text, but you will hear rumblings in the distance, moans, screams, whispers, objects rattling and the walls creaking. The music itself also adds to the fear. It is often subtle ambience, but when a necromorph appears the music gets much louder and heightens the tension. The sound and music are really something you have to experience for yourself. I recommend you turn the volume way, way up. If Dead Space wins any awards at all, at the very least it should win an award for best sound design. It is that good.

The graphics are some of the best I've ever seen and probably the best I've experienced on my HDTV that was purchased this past summer. I highly recommend playing this game on a large TV if you have the ability to do so.

The creatures themselves are like a cross between the abominations in John Carpenter's The Thing, and the nightmarish things in Silent Hill. They are all extremely creepy and they scare the sh*t out of you when you see one coming straight for you. That's right, these things run, they don't always walk. They are not zombies or parasites, rather alien in origin. One unique thing about the creatures in Dead Space is that you can't kill them easily by just blowing their heads off, or just shooting in their direction. The quickest way to kill them is to sever their limbs. Shoot off a leg, shoot off an arm, and they go down much easier. There are some exceptions to this rule though. A few of the tougher enemies will punish you if you don't shoot in the right area. I won't spoil the fun, but just keep an eye out.

You may have heard some of the negative comments about Dead Space, but I think they are all horse sh*t. Some people have said the game is nothing more than Resident Evil 4 but in space. Whoever says this is an idiot and should be shot in the kneecaps. It is nothing like Resident Evil. Just because it is a survival horror type game and uses a similar over the shoulder camera view doesn't mean its a Resident Evil clone. Clearly these people aren't even paying attention to the game they are playing. Or they haven't even played it themselves. Other people have said Dead Space uses inventory management and lack of ammo to add to the tension. Inventory can become an issue, this is true, but I don't think it adds to the tension. If anything, running out of ammo in a firefight and spending precious seconds reloading your weapon are what really causes the tension.

Inventory can become an issue if you aren't playing the game right. In Dead Space you can carry around up to 4 weapons at a time. What will happen if you do this, is that you will begin to pick up ammo for the 1 or 2 weapons you aren't using when you really need ammo for the ones you do like using. You will naturally find a couple weapons that you like and carry a couple extra for emergency purposes. I had this issue at first, but I have a solution: I decided to carry around only 3 weapons. 2 main ones and then 1 for emergencies. Later in the game, I found I was getting tons of drops for the 1 weapon I didn't like to use much. That extra ammo fills up space I could be using for other things. Then I decided to just carry 2 weapons around (my 2 upgraded ones). This completely solved the problem and I never again had an issue with inventory management.

Aside from this one minor problem, there is nothing negative I can say about this game. Overall the game is fantastic. It's as close to perfection as you can get. I've had an absolute blast playing this game and I highly recommend it to everyone. I feel like this is 2008's BioShock, only Dead Space is suffering by being released around the time when other huge sequels are coming out like Saints Row 2, Fable 2, Fallout 3, Resistance 2, Gears of Wars 2 and several others. BioShock did it right by releasing in August when you weren't being barraged by dozens of other AAA titles. Its a shame really, because this game deserves as much attention as those other games are receiving, if not more so. Do yourself a favor and check this game out.

I finished the story portion of Saints Row 2 last night with a completion percentage of 81%. I probably did about half of the activities: I finished the Chop Shop and Hitman lists, all of the Septic Avenger, Trailblazing, Fight Club, Destruction Derby, Drug Trafficking and Insurance Fraud activities and I only did a few of the Crowd Control, FUZZ, Snatch, Escort, Mayhem and Heli Assault activities. I didn't bother doing any of the races or diversions and I never finished Zombie Uprising.

I had written out some detailed thoughts on the game but they ended up sounding like a review more than anything, so I'll spare you the torture of that and just say a few brief things. Overall SR2 is a better game than the first one because of the sheer amount of activities and customization options. The story is actually worse in this game than in the first, but the over the top attitude this game takes is what makes it shine. Saints Row 2 is to Grand Theft Auto IV like Ridge Racer is to Gran Turismo. SR2 is more like the arcade game while GTAIV is more like a sim. If you want to have fun doing random crazy sh*t, than this game is for you. If you want a serious story with great character development and realism, go with GTAIV.

Fallout 3 comes out next week and I'm sure I'm going to be hooked on that for quite some time. The week after that sees the release of Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2. Honestly, I'm a bit more excited for Resistance 2. Either way though, I'll be playing both of them so I'll let ya know which one I like more. By the way, does anyone that reads this blog own a PS3? I do not have a single friend on my Playstation friends list because I don't know anyone that owns a PS3. Just curious. It'd be nice to play some co-op Resistance, but then again I don't have a headset for the PS3.

Earlier in the week I played the first chapter of Dead Space. After that, I realized I couldn't play both Saints Row 2 and Dead Space at the same time since those are two drastically different games. I decided to finish SR2 first so I could then devote all my time to Dead Space. Even though I have only played the first chapter of Dead Space, I have to say that so far this is my game of the year. Yes it is THAT good. That could change though, but so far I'm getting a very "BioShock" vibe from this game and I'm loving every second of it. I will be sure and let you know what I think of it when I'm finished.

Have a great weekend everyone!

It has been about 2 weeks now since my employer decided to cut all employees' pay by 20% to "reduce costs" during the economic crisis, and I'm still alive. [insert Portal joke here] I've updated my resume and posted it to places like Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com, but I haven't been very diligent in seeking out a new job. From the job listings I've looked at, I'm better off staying where I am than starting a brand new job at a brand new company making less than what I normally make here. I think I'm going to stick it out where I am now and hope that come spring, the market corrects itself and banks beging to lend money again and we will see more business. Yeah the reduced pay sucks ass, and I have relatively no spending money at all, but I'm really growing fond of having an extra day off a week. Plus I'm really lucky that gas prices have gone down so much. On the way to work today I passed 3 gas stations and the price was about $2.45 at each of them. Pretty damned good considering in July we were paying $4 a gallon up here in Minnesota. That saves me about $20-$25 a tank and about $40-$50 a month. Plus I'm not driving 30 extra miles a week by not having to go to work. Lets just hope gas prices stay that low at least through winter.

Friday, October 10th was my first extra day off and I used most of that day to get all 1,000 achievement points in LEGO Batman. It's a really neat game and also the first of the LEGO games that I've played all the way through. I recommend you check it out if you have any interest in LEGOs or Batman, otherwise you probably wouldn't like it. It is pretty time consuming and you have to play through the entire game twice to get all the achievements and unlock everything there is to see, but I had the extra time so it was worth it to me. Plus the game is fun and there are loads of characters and levels to see. My second extra day off, Thursday the 16th was spent mostly playing Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. I now have 900 points in that and I've basically seen everything there is to see in that game. I even got the dinosaur Pinata (freakin awesome BTW). This week I will probably be playing Saints Row 2 and Dead Space.

Saints Row 2 arrived from Gamefly Thursday afternoon, and I've been playing that pretty much non stop since then. The game is fun as hell and I'm loving every minute of it even if there are some glitches that hamper gameplay and some of the activities can be a pain in the ass. I'm currently doing the Sons of Samedi missions, and I haven't started any of the other gangs. I've been doing a lot of the activities this time around (neglected most of them in Saints Row 1) instead of focusing on missions mainly because you unlock a lot of cool stuff that helps you out later in the game (or at least I assume they will). Some examples of things I've unlocked include: a Chainsaw, a flamethrower, increased melee damage, increased gun accuracy, increased resistance to bullets/explosions, unlimited pistol ammo, unlimited shotgun ammo and unlimited submachinegun ammo. I feel like I'm a walking death machine with all the unlimited ammo, and it's AWESOME.

Some of my favorite activities are: Zombie Apocalypse - sort of a survival mode where you face off against hordes of zombies. Its a video game you play in your crib, a game within the game. Crowd Control - you are a bodyguard for celebrities and you have to throw crazed fans into various objects to earn money and keep the celeb from being harrassed. Trailblazing - sort of a time attack mode where you are driving around on an ATV while set on fire and you blow up stuff to add seconds to your time. And Fight Club - basically like the Fight Club movie where you are fighting people with fists and melee weapons, no guns. I just finished the Chop Shop lists last night and I think I'm going to start up the Hitman lists next, can't wait for that unlimited sniper rifle ammo!

So far Saints Row 2 is like the complete opposite of GTA IV. It's a balls out, over the top, f-ing crazy good time doing fun and interesting things. Sure there is a story, but its nowhere near as serious as GTA IV is, or at least so far its not (but its not bad either). One last thing I want to mention about Saints Row 2. The first game had the huge improvement on the sandbox formula in the waypoint system where you select a location on the map and it will highlight the fastest route for you to follow. Saints Row 2's big improvement is Cruise Control. It's exactly what it sounds like. You press a button to enable cruise control on whatever vehicle you're driving, and the vehicle will stay at that speed so all you have to worry about is steering. This makes it a HELL of a lot easier to shoot things while you are driving.

I haven't been able to try co-op with anyone, mainly because no one on my friends list has the game (or at least I don't think anyone does). If you have the game and would like to try co-op, let me know.

I've noticed a lot of people on my friends list have been playing Dead Space. That game looks awesome and I'm really looking forward to playing it, I'm just too addicted to Saints Row 2 right now lol. Dead Space arrived in the mail on Saturday and I feel bad for neglecting it. I think I'll try it out tonight.