I finished Crysis for the first time less than a week ago, and Crysis is a great game, I mean it, it's a first person shooter focused on stealthy and I love these kinds of games. I was skeptical at first, I was having some problems on running it on my PC, it wasn't being a pleasant experience, but then I found what the problem was, I turned the Anti-Aliasing on, minimum or not, the AA turned on makes Crysis rape the GPU, so after turning it off, I had the game running smoothly with rare slowdowns and decent frame rate.

After finishing it for the first time, I was already in love with this great game, so it demanded a second playthrough, since the first time I played on easy, and I was already confident with my Crysis skills, I decided to go for a hard run, and I did it, it's a lot more difficult, if you get caught in a mess with lots of soldiers, chances are high that you're gonna die, but really fun anyway, I could notice that you can't use the machine gun in the cars you get in, sometimes it helps, not that necessary though.

When the hard mode was completed, I was in for the last difficulty, delta! I started and went through the game rapidly, the main problem is that the crosshair is gone, good thing is that some guns still have the red laser to be activated, and the grenades which are thrown at your direction doesn't have the indicator. This time, I had to have a different approach on some of the chapters to evade imminent death.

My favorite parts of the game are the part with that ship, where you need to sink it, it's cool to eliminate everyone in the place, don't leave a living soul to tell the story, and the part where you need to secure the area with lots of those weird scary nano-suited Koreans with machine guns, there you need to defeat all of them, those machine guns guys really take quite an amount of shots to fall, just after this part, where you need to get into the mine is cool too, I had trouble at this part on hard because I always arrived shooting like a mad man, on Delta I took some guys out with the sniper at the entrance of the mine to make my life easier, the camp itself went ok, and it's fun too.

After the first time through, I was already addicted, so the hard and delta runs took one day each to complete.

So in the end, awesome game, and looking forward for Crysis Warhead!

The time has come, I've watched the whole show yet and especially the press conferences which were what we all had been waiting for, here's some thoughts:

And the Show Starts!

Microsoft Conference

It was pretty decent, they showed some really interesting games, a fantastic gameplay video of Resident Evil 5, yes it was brief, but at the same time it left us urging for more, and that's a good thing in most cases.
There's a new feature that creates avatars, pretty much look like Nintendo's mii, but since miis are crap, this tends to be uninteresting too.
The break of exclusivity from Final Fantasy kinda make me reminisce, about when I was a Nintendo Fanboy and first heard that Resident Evil 4 wasn't going to be exclusive to GameCube, I flipped and went overboard with flames on the Capcom message board, emailing and everything alike. But you got to do what you got to do and the faster Sony fans accept it, the better for them.

6/10

Nintendo Conference

This is the topic I want to get deeper, even though I kinda lost too much faith on Nintendo, and humanity, after the Wii came out, I still consider myself being a huge Nintendo fan and unfortunately that's not gonna change so soon.
What the hell was that? I mean it!

It started with a woman so annoying that she defies any limit of annoyance and excel many levels in being irritating, like "I love smiling, and Nintendo makes me smile, I want to keep smiling lalala", come on, put up someone serious enough to present the conference, or at least someone who's not gonna talk like someone who's talking to 10 year old boys.
Host aside, the conference sucked, but it sucked in so many levels!
First, what was the deal of that drummer? Also what was the deal of that wii music concert? I felt ashamed just to look at that, it's embarrassing and plain stupid.

The games, now where's the new Zelda, because all we have right now is a GameCube port, it's been two years and not even the official name yet. How about F-Zero? It can be for Wii or Ds, would be good if it was for both and with some kind of connectivity between them, it was released three F-Zero games for the GBA and none for the DS, and it's about time for the Wii to receive the franchise, since not even Wave Race we had at launch, and while I'm at it, how about Wave Race? It sure could result in some really innovative game if the new functions of the wii controller were implemented.

Pikmin 3 would be good too, it's a series born in the GameCube era that had its success spread in so small amount of time. What about Kid Icarus? I'm gonna go ahead and say that I'm really looking forward to a new Ice Climbers game, they were in Melee, which was released in 2001, and since then, they only returned in Brawl, and that's a shame.

And what the hell is that snowboard game? That sucks! What about 1080°? It doesn't even need to use that balance board, that thing feels too gimmicky for my taste, let that for the casuals to play Wii Fit, or any other Wii something.

Kirby is needing a game too, the ones on the DS are quite nice, and something alike could be done on the Wii and its controller, it could turn out huge! How about Donkey Kong? No bongo crap, just good old platforming fun, to compete with the excellence of Banjo-Kazooie 3. How about a sequence of Donkey Kong Country for the DS? Donkey Kong Country is one of the most glorious franchises ever, you can't go wrong! Also, Star Fox is a franchise that should be brought to Wii too, and fast!

One of the dumbest things of all is that Wii Speak (why does it have to be wii everything?), the sound is recognized at the whole room, with the sound of the TV along and everything that may go with it, come on Nintendo, sometimes innovation isn't better than what we already have, implement the goddamn headset and done, no need to reinvent every single thing in the universe, and worse, take steps back while doing so.

And what was the deal of all that bullcrap about how much the wii is selling and how much women are now on gaming? I'll tell you something, we don't care!! Better yet, "Wii Don't Care" for your pattern.

Animal Crossing was almost mandatory, and it's a very casual game too, it's not as casual as Wii Sports or Wii Fit, but still is a more or less casual game. Sure this game can turn out good and I might get it, but this was the good thing about their conference.

Before the Animal Crossing announcement, Satoru Iwata came and talked, about how they want to break paradigms and all that crap, told us how games like Brain Age and the likes are selling, even though they don't have quality. After the announcement, Reggie came, and guess what, he talked, talked about how great the video game is selling, how good software are selling, and how they want to reach everyone in the industry, and how they satisfies both casual and hardcore games, he could had saved that. Then three trailers, like 30 seconds each, and the host woman is back to talk even more about sales! I thought it was a joke.

Two "Wii Something" titles? That's great, Wii Music, a title where you play instruments, playing piano?! Wow that must be really "accurate". Wii Sports Resort, because no one should miss an exciting, and insanely fun, good old frisbee launching game!! It's almost surreal!!

The only "wow" of the morning belongs to GTA for Nintendo DS, I don't know how this gonna be turn out, but I didn't see that one coming. The thing is, they spent like 10 seconds saying "GTA is coming to DS, now lets talk about how to use the DS at the airport!", come on, I wanna hear about the games, now how the DS is gonna teach me how to cook!

1/10

Sony Conference

It was the best, it started bad, kinda boring, then they started talking about sales and presented them in a very interesting manner, then talked about how they, at Sony, are visionaries and how they launched a product looking forward to the future. After some time the games started to pop up and things got better, also some nice stuff for PSP.

One thing interesting about Sony's conference, is that they said they would start doing business in South America! Yes that mean that I'm on Sony's map! Microsoft started business here like a year or a little more ago, and it's been great, always evolving and bringing games at the same time as USA, now Sony will too, I hope it turns out good.

The end was epic, they started talking about a new game and I was like "now is the time!", and they present a trailer with a massive war and tell us that 256 players are gonna be online per match! It's MAG! Massive Action Game, and massive indeed!

Some times I like to think about a good game that could be made, and I always imagined how would be like a war with like thousands of players simultaneously, and this is the closest right now.

Also, the guy presenting was the best of all three, he did a good job.

8.5/10

With new PC, new horizons are opened for me, and I better act together and not let it goo, I used to be a pretty blind fanboy, nothing non-nintendo would do for me, now, more mature, I allow myself to taste and experience new things gaming wise, and not stick blindly to a company, with that said, I decided to venture myself into the new and fascinating world of PC gaming, I had played one or two games before, like Counter-Strike, but it was more because at the time it was like the latest fashion, everyone was playing it, so I should too.

After getting my PC, the first game I was willing to play was Crysis, but I had a hard time getting it, so the very first was Assassins Creed, after that Bioshock, which was one of the games I almost went crazy when got released, then finally Crysis, then an almost nothing of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, then Call of Duty 4, and for now that's it, I'm planning on getting the Trackmania Nations Forever, the first one was pretty good and the best part is that it's free!

Here's what I thought about these games, at least the ones I could really play:

Assassins Creed - Wow! Is it a good game, hell it's one of the best gaming experiences I've had for quite some time! The graphics are perfect, with so many little details, it's astonishing! Some say the game is repetitive, I say so too, but it's great that way, I mean the guy is doing his job, assassinating people, and that's pretty fun! The controls are perfect for a PC (one of the main reasons I never wanted to get into PC gaming, I couldn't stand the keyboard+mouse controls for games that are not FPSs) and the story is very well made. I've finished it, such amazing game!

Bioshock - The game I was dying to play, and when finally played, I found nothing really spectacular about it, I mean it's a great game, but my hopes were too high, but the thing is, I couldn't really play too much of it yet, and the concept is very innovative, a FPS with some intuitive touches, leading to a great gaming experience!

Crysis - The graphics are insanely detailed with big sceneries and great atmosphere, I mean, if you look at the grass movement, it's almost real, all following a complex pattern. When it comes to FPS, I have never been a fan of it, but now I'm kinda liking it, and among the FPSs the style of my choice are the stealthy ones, so at least for the first part of the game, I'm pretty well served!

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - I'll just say that this game seems fun, the controls seems decent, and I'm really looking forward in getting this game to work, because I couldn't! I run it and the background just gets screwed, the stairs are gone and then out of nowhere they appear again, the sky is flicking endlessly and enemies shoot at me while I can't even spot them, a shame.

Call of Duty 4 - Just played a little bit of it today, just the first mission, looks pretty fun and the multiplayer seems promising, gonna have to play more to really have an opinion.

Those were my first steps out of nintendo's influence and I'm loving it, oh yeah, my wii is fixed, the insurance let me raise the reading range for free, so I could be able to play Super Smash Bros Brawl, and I've been playing Brawl, nothing spectacular, I felt like playing Melee 1.1, a good game though, no internet gameplay for me yet.

I've been off GameSpot, and not only GameSpot, for some time, my old PC just broke and I stayed for like 2 weeks without internet access, now it's been like a week that I have this new PC, which is way ahead of the old one, I've had the other one for almost 3 years and not even a single upgrade had been made, it was still a Pentium 4 and it turned out to not worth to just change the parts with problems, at first was only the cooler, but then the motherboard was malfunctioning and the cooler of my good old FX5200 was in bad shape too, so the situation called a brand new PC.
I've chosen a pretty good PC, I can do anything I couldn't with the other now, mostly related to graphical power and space, here's what I got:

* Pentium Core 2 Duo E6750
* Motherboard Striker Extreme
* Geforce 8800GT
* Memory: 2 GB, Kingston
* Hard Drive : 500 GB

I was pretty accurate to what I really wanted, I actually wanted a better processor, and E8400, still core duo, no Core 2 Quad yet, when the ones with 45 nm become cheaper or at least with a reasonable price then maybe yes, and as I said I didn't want this one, but it was the best Core 2 Duo the guy had, so it's it for now. The motherboard I wanted was a more modest one too, but the guy didn't had any, but it turned out good because now I can have a plan to the future, and I do have! The graphics card is pretty much the one with better performance and price altogether, the memory is dual and to run vista is mandatory, and the hard drive allows me to download music, films and series like mad! and better, all in 720P, running smoothly!

Yesterday I went to one of the biggest, and most luxurious shopping centers of my city and country, there I once encountered the dream machine, yes I'm talking about the arcade F-Zero AX, nothing short of perfect! But I had a pretty cool first time playing it, I remember like it was yesterday...

It happened last year, when I went with my father and sister to buy something to my sister, so we spent a little time walking through the playing center, all those arcades and stuff, when my sister decided to play something, I, looking all those arcades, remembered of my dream machine, the F-Zero AX, then I decided to seek for the F-Zero AX machine, I didn't even know it existed in my country, I just suddenly had a feeling that I should go after it, and I did! I made just a turn around the corner and kept straight through the corridor, and there it was, sitting majestically in the room, my eyes couldn't believe in what I was staring at, it was there and I could finally play it, what a dream coming true!

From that day on I played 3 times already, I spent more than a thousand on that machine only, and will continue doing so because it's the perfection of gaming! I always go there and forget the digital camera, someday I'll take some photos of the machine!

Yesterday it was in a different place, right at the entrance! I played some time until my eyes caught a very surprising and amazing sight, the Mario Kart Arcade GP! I decided to not spend all my money on F-Zero AX and decided to play it a little, and it was very good actually, still fail in capturing a true essence of speed, but good fun!

Then I found a Star Wars Racer machine, actually I knew about it, but never was up to play, and it turned out really good, just like I imagined, but the feeling of speed is not that prominent than it was in the console version. still great!

And since I'm at it let me say that I made another review, the game is Dementium: The Ward, and check it if you feel like it!

Okay, I just finished The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, that's right, after all this time I really got into the game, and if my first impression wasn't so great, my last impressions, and decisive impressions couldn't be better. I loved the game, at first I wasn't really managing to enjoy it, but I was sure, I just needed time.

I was a little disappointed about this game at the beginning, but not because it didn't have mirror shield or the fact it didn't have an musical instrument or didn't have the green special bar, or masks, or anything like it, I tend not to look at a game as a shadow of another. I just wasn't ready to play it, I started playing but without any will, and I was starting to feel really bored because I was playing miserably, and at the same time, I didn't want the game to end, because deep inside I knew I was playing a great game, but I wasn't ready to accept it, six months after (1 week and half ago) I decided to go back and now I see the greatness of this game! Another thing that hyped it down for me was that "Wii and GameCube" launch, I didn't have a Wii at the time, and the Wii version seemed to be the best, but if I play the GC version I'll lose the opportunity to play the best version, and then my mind wrapped up and I ended up not playing it at the time.

Another thing I'm trying to get out is the feeling of "I need to make it last" I usually get when I buy a game, I spend so much money, that I want and try to get everything I can from it, and make it last the longest I can. But it can be deceiving, because I was so trying to make it last, that it turned out to be frustrating, like when I get in the castle town, I know I need to talk to one person, and I know this person is not anyone walking in the street, and sometimes I even know where the person is exactly, but I still talk to everybody just gain some time, and make the game last longer, but even taking longer to finish, I'm not having fun, because I don't concentrate on the game, I concentrate on making it not finish, and finishing should be the definitive task that a gamer should aspire. I've been like it since a little while, and maybe it's because now I'm older, and I give so much more value to money than when I did when I was younger, that I feel sorry to spend so much in a game and be through in one week maximum.

Now enough with my psychic instabilities, onto the game. I, as always, finished the game without any outside help, and I even tried to get all items without the help of that fortune teller, and I almost did, I was with 54 poul souls and 3 heart pieces away from glory, but I succumbed upon the immenseness of the in game world, I went after the fortune teller, and not a surprise, the last heart pieces were stupid easy, one of them I did know where it was, it was in the Bridge of Eldin, but I was in pain trying to figure out how to get it, I thought, somehow, that I needed to make Midna teleport the lost part of the bridge, so I could reach the room with the stairs, but no, I needed to use the Dominion Rod in the statue the other side of the bridge, and bring it there, how painful, another one was at that shrine inside Lake Hylia, in the mini room at the end of it, by the time I got there the first time, I collected the ruppees at the chests and went off, in my mind that place was done, how wrong was I, I completely ignored the two fireplaces. And the other one was in the Twilight, after the second "Sol", running away from the hand, the last room before freedom, and I could use my sword, now all shiny, to reap away darkness and use the elevator leading to a heart piece. Aside from these three I got all, even some difficulty ones, like the one at Kakariko Village, the one in the field floating over the trees (I was searching for the Golden Bug when I found it!) and the one floating at the fishing hole.

The last 6 Poe souls I have no idea where they are, external help necessary, but I've found some interesting ones, like the hidden in the suits of armor at the beginning of Snowpeak Ruins, and so on.

To finish up I'm gonna say that the Cave of Ordeals was good challenge, not something I would expect from a Zelda game, so good thing, and that's it, 3 game bought, 3 games beaten, 3 games enjoyed, that means I'm ready for Brawl!