(and also my second blog in one day ) Well, I may have missed the Microsoft conference, but luckily I caught it on G4 later today, and I have to say that the overall conference was quite boring. Most of the time, Microsoft just touted their lead in the current market, and if you're watching the press conferences, you probably already know they are the current juggernaut. I don't need to be convinced that Microsoft is awesome, because I already own an Xbox 360. Many of the things announced weren't very suprising or exceptional, but they have made me that much more excited for the conferences coming in the later days.

Fallout 3: Wow, I wasn't very excited about this game before, but now i'm completely hooked. This game melds so many Oblivion and Bioshock elements and appears to be the best RPG/shooter hybrid and already has my undivided attention.

Resident Evil 5: It looks just like RE4, but with co-op. Good enough for me.

Fable 2: It's Fable, with dogs, spouses, and friends. The orb concept looks really cool, but what if your friend comes into your world and steals your wife or upsets the balance in the world you have created for yourself? That alone freaks me out because i have friends who think that stealing my wife would be hillarious.

Gears of War 2: It's Gears of War, can you expect less than awesome?

New Dashboard and avatars: Hello lawsuit much? The Avatars look exactly like the miis and the dashboard design doesn't look very original either. What's wrong with the current interface on xbox live anyways?

Portal: still alve: I got incredibly excited when I heard GLADOS' voice and i'm definitely getting this. All they have to do to make Portal perfect is make it longer than 2 hours, bring back the companion cube, and have another song at the end. Done.

You're in the movies: This game looks like the most fun you can ever have while drunk. It reminds me a lot of the eyetoy games from a few years ago, that made you look like an idiot playing them at target. The movie at the end was really funny though, and I think there will be a lot of those videos on youtube. It seems like good, corny, casual fun that I may not buy myself, but will probably end up playing many times at friend's houses.

Guitar Hero World Tour, and Rock Band 2: I'm still not terribly excited about the whole band games that cost hundereds of dollars thing, but both of these games look really good. I'm not too excited about the whole guitar hero studio thing, because at this point it's simply becoming a substitute for the real instrument. I am excited about the Van Halen, AC/DC, Metallica, and Axl Rose's new song from his album that's several years in the making?

Lips: I really could care less about karaoke games, and that entire genre of games just seems like another type of drunken fun game right up there with You're in the Movies. The Ipod hookup thing does seem really cool though.

Final Fantasy 13: Wow, the Sony fanboys are going to kill us all! Sony is losing many of their exclusives and just proving that game developers are in this for the money, and are not at all interested in remaining faithful to one particular system. But as long as it's still on the Playstation, what do the Sony fanboys have to lose?

There you have it, I'll follow up in the coming days with a few more blogs, so be sure to look out for those

~James

I spent the night at a friend's house last night, and woke up late this morning and realized that I missed the entire Microsoft press conference.

So, what happened?

Happy 4th of July everyone! Right now i'm with family in Arkansas, but I still have internet which is a huge plus of being here. I also get to shoot fireworks, instead of watch them at a formal show like in the big cities. I've only ever done this a few times when i was little, so i'm really excited to finally shoot my own fireworks this time.

I'll be back at home on monday

~James

Ok, my internet problem seems to be better now, it's not perfect but it is much better than before. that said, I'll be getting back on XBL again. I also hated Mass Effect simply because it was too complicated. I couldn't keep up with all the characters, abilities, storylines, and the overall game so I just gave3 up. I have no problem with a good long game, I absolutely loved Oblivion, but Mass Effect was overall too complex of a game than I really feel like playing right now.

Many of you may be wondering where I have been for the past week, and i'm really sorry that I haven't been commenting on your blogs. I've had complete internet failure for a good part of this month and last week it finally gave way for what appears to be a long time. If you've ever played with me on xbox Live and such, you know just how laggy my connection is. It's working today, but I don't expect it to work for a while after today. I'll be playing lots of guitar...

So long Gamespot, don't you forget about me

~James

Good God that game was long, but it was one hell of a ride. I might do a review, I really don't feel like writing a review for a game with as muuch depth as GTA, but you never know. I thought of going for 100% but c'mon every pigeon?, every jump? I did every assassin mission, all Jacob's deliveries, and most of stevie's missions but I really don't want to go through every inch of the game to find all the pigeons. For now i'm only picking it up for using cheats and going on 6 star rampages.

I also borrowed Mass Effect from a friend and it seems like a decent game. RPGs are usually intinidating for me initially just becaues there's always so much depth and game concepts that I don't understand yet. I usually just jump in and regret my class choices and such later in the game, so I might restart. I also am having a lot of trouble remembering everyone's name and certain parts of the story. It's a bit overwhelming but i'll get used to it.

sorry I haven't been around much, a good friend of mine moved away recently and i've been a bit depressed. Other than that I have been plaing a lot of guitar recently, maybe i'll upload a video for you if I can find a camera around somewhere.

Later,

~James