Wow amazing right? I mean they never do anything good! Today the announced that all those Gold Member only features on all Games for Windows LIVE titles would be made avalabile starting today for free! Well with Gears of War and Halo 2 in my collection I was pretty excited for it! That's right I can play multiplayer games and get achievements for them for free on my PC. It's about time Microsoft got up and realized that PC owners only pay for MMOs. Sure enough as soon as I boot up Halo I go into the LIVE menu and I don't get the stupid "You're not Gold so you get no achievements" message. It makes me wish I saved my free months of Gold for when I get a 360 but oh well. I got the Killing Spree achievement and my gamerscore is an astoundingly underwhelming 1180. And they announced DirectX 11 which is kinda sad for me cause I'm still using 9 but I need to upgrade. Now we just need more Games for Windows LIVE titles. We're getting our own Marketplace soon so I'm looking forward to that.

In other PC news from me I downloaded the map pack from the flash version of Portal in the real version of Portal and it is much much harder than the original game is. When I get a 360 I'll have to get Portal: Still Alive which is the original game and the flash game's map pack and I'll get achievements for it. Yay! Now I just need a 360...I guess I should look for a job...well I'm off to do other things cya guys later.

See you there...

Well I went to see a certain movie that seems to be pretty popular these days. I believe a few people heard of it. Maybe you have to. Does The Dark Knight ring any bells? Well the movie was amazing. There were a ton of twists and shake ups throughout. I would compare the story to the excellence of Metal Gear Solid or even Death Note. It was great but it did feel a little rushed. There were very quick scene changes and if you didn't know better you could blink and all the characters would be standing in a totally different location. That's the only little thing I can complain about. Everything else about the movie was real top notch quality. The best parts were invloving the Joker and his INSANE SADISTIC HUMOR! One memorable moment featured him, a pencil, and a room of thugs. If you haven't seen it yet you have to. Seriously the rest of my blog can wait just go now!

Well assuming you took my advice and went to see The Dark Knight here's how the rest of my day has been. I went to GameStop after the movie and dinner. I took the six bucks in my pocket and pre-ordered Madworld whose humor is about as sadistic as The Joker's. So come later this year I'll be smashing traffic signs through the faces of countless enemies. Also while I was there I signed up for a Gears of War tournament. I don't think the tournament is national like the Smash Bros. one was but I'll be happy to try and beat everyone. Well I better get to practicing even if I don't have a 360 controller to practice with I got the next best thing: A mouse and keyboard.

And I mean recently. Like 2005 recent. That's when I first got into Resident Evil 4. Then I hated them for the PS2 and PC versions...but when they made the Wii version all was forgiven. Then they give us Zack and Wiki which I regret to not own yet but money's tight for me...and then we get Okami once again the money thing...

But now I am in love with Capcom! They're bringing one of my favorite 360 games to Wii. Yep you guessed it. Dead Rising is on Wii. I can't wait. I'm so happy I can't sleep. It's 4 AM and I can't sleep because Dead Rising is coming to Wii! Too bad I won't get achievements but that's just nitpicking. I can see this working well and the screens look really good. Not as polished as the 360 version but definately up there. If they charge a full 50 for the game I hope we get some bonus content or a lower price tag but this is the one game I can think of that I actually want to pre order.

So as it turns out that press confrence didn't ruin the day after all. First Miyamoto hints at Kid Icarus, Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros. 2, and Pikmin 3 plus talking about how a new Zelda is underway. Looking back though at Nintendo's E3 policy, they don't show games that they don't feel are ready to be shown yet so I suppose that not seeing a game that I wouldn't be able to buy until much later anyways is better than being teased by it. Still more than three titles would of been nice. And how about that Grand Theft Auto? Looking forward to see what they're gonna do there. I'm thinking Hot Coffee Touch! Well I'm gonna try to keep still long enough to go to sleep but you know...DEAD RISING!

BTW anyone know why I'm not getting the Sony and Nintendo emblems? I watched both of them live on Gamespot and I got only the Microsoft one which I got to work only after most of it went by and I watched it all on G4 before they moved the channel. I guess they're just a little slow.

Well to start out I'd like to thank Comcast for switching G4 to a Digital Cable only channel. so yeah thanks a lot I had to watch the laggy flash player off of Gamespot. Well it wasn't too bad I guess but still...

Anyways they kick off the confrence with the new woman who I believe took Perrin Kaplan's place. Well she's not funny and I really don't like her. Everytime she talked I had to stab myself to wake up. It might of been she was nervous or something but I'd recomend to her to get some public speeking lessons. If by now you can't tell I was disapointed with Nintendo's E3 Confrence because we got very few announcements from it and the shows' biggest surprises had already been blown by Nintendo already in the form of their press release yesterday and their UK mag spilling the beans on Animal Crossing City Folk. Though the new Wii Speak accessory is a welcome addition and provides hope for future games such as The Conduit whose developers have expressed interest in using voice chat. Though not a headset it does fit on top of the Wii sensor bar but if the cord isn't long enough then you're gonna have to find some other way to plug it into its USB port. The surprise announcement of Grand Theft Auto of DS took me by shock for a moment and I can't wait to see more of that. The demo of the Wii MotionPlus attachment was pretty good even if it's just with a Wii Sports sequel but the game does hold some promise and is worth getting if not just for Wii MotionPlus which will come free with the game. There was also the announcement of a new Pokemon Ranger game for DS which makes me sad that Pokemon Platnium wasn't announced. There was an impressive looking demo for Shaun White's Snowboarding and trailers for Rayman raving Rabids, and two other titles that I cannot seem to remember at this time probably cause the Sony confrence is fresh in my head. To wrap things up the confrence was unimpressive, nothing incredibly exciting was shown and the only new games from Nintendo were Animal Crossing City Folk, Wii Sports Resort, and Wii Music which looks fun enough and looks to come packed with tons of classic Nintendo melodies.

Grade: C+

Moment of the show: Animal Crossing and the Wii Speak's Debut / When it ended.

Now the Sony confrence on the other hand blew my mind away. This was the best congfrence of the show and I am really psyched for some of the stuff coming out on PS3 and PSP. They started off by talking about PS3 and titles like Resistance 2. The demo looked amazing and the boss fight against the Leviathan promises to be one of the most epic moments in gaming history. While talking about Little Big Planet the showed off their sales figures using the game which is a move greatly appreciated by all who watched. Using the game they announced their Greatest Hits Lineup which would include first party titles like Resistance: Fall of Man, Warhawk, and Motorstorm. Third party titles were introduced as well including Need for Speed Carbon, and Assassin's Creed just to name a few. Then they got to the PS2 which they announced a new $150 bundle that comes with a PS2 Slim, Lego Batman, and that new Justice League movie. We then had a little romp with the PlayStation Network. They announced that their new video store will be up and running tonight. It looks promising with plenty of titles coming out. They showed off a new Ratchet and Clank game called Ratchet and Clank Future Quest For Booty which looks well done for a 15 dollar game. The also showed off the new Pain expansion as well as other PSN titles. They then jumped shift over to the PSP by talking about a new game in the Resitance series, Resistance: Retribution. The game looks promising and looks to be one of the better shooters on the PSP. Unlike its console predecessors it takes place in Europe not the US and is a third person game rather than a FPS. They talked about the PSP bundle with Madden coming out later on with a blue PSP and the new silver bundle which I assume will replace the Daxter bundle, it will retail for $200 and come with Ratchet and Clank Size Matters and a copy of National Treasure 2 on UMD with a 1 GB Memory Stick to store things on and has a voucher for a free copy of Echochrome. Not a bad deal if I say so myself. After a little PSP talk they moved to PS3 again.Big surprise was God of War III and by big surprise I mean we already knew about it. But the trailer was breathtaking with some of the finest graphics ever seen in a game and good beat out the visuals of Metal Gear Solid 4 with little problem. There was also a trailer for SOCOM Confrontation and Home the latter of which I didn't see as I was too busy contemplating the steadyness of triangles in home architecture. Honest. Anyways they showed off DC Universe Online which has me excited just at the thought of helping the Joker and those other villans kill Superman! I mean come on what else would you want to do in a video game besides watch Superman die? I can't wait. The also talked about inFamous from Sucker Punch games which has great appeal for anyone who has played Fable, KotOR, or Mass Effect. Then they debuted a game that I thought could only exist in my dreams, but now it exists on PS3. MAG which stands for Massive Action Game is just that. It's a 256 player game that splits you up into one of 32 squads of 8 players and you earn ranks depending on how good you are and it basically comes down to a virtual military simulat but with more fun. This game isn't due out until 2009 and I cannot wait for it. The also announced the 80 GB model of the PS3 coming down to the $400 price tag which is great news for everyone without a PS3. Jack Tretton, the speaker, said that it would have all the functionality of the current 40 GB model but was unclear whether it would support PS2 playback or not but it can be assumed that yes it will because he mentioned it is a good way for PS2 owners to upgrade and then with the comment about the functionality of the 40 GB version we can assume that it won't. Either way this is a deal that gamers cannot pass up. This confrence was great from start to finish even though the PS2 segment was a little bland. They didn't bore us with their numbers but instead entertained us and proved that they're not out of this yet.

Grade: A-

Moment of the show: MAG's debut, 256 players online at once!

Sony concluded E3's confrences with great excitement and now we play the waiting game and wait for their games to come out. Now I am left with a decision on whether to get a PS3 or 360 in October. This decision will not be made lightly and no matter what I pick now I will have to get the other eventually. Microsoft and Sony stole the show from market leader Nintendo in their confrences but perhaps there is hope yet that the big N will reveal something tonight as they did with Smash Bros. Brawl so many years ago. With no real details on their Q4 schedule we can expect more from them later on and hopefully some news on the projects that the Mario and Zelda teams are hard at work on. Animal Crossing is good but it can't hold us forever. Only a year or two...or three...

I got bored so I'm gonna review the Microsoft E3 Press Confrence with as little bias as I can manage.

Well they started the show off with quite the bang, the bang in question being the shell of the fat boy gun in Fallout 3. I was impressed with Fallout 3 but overall I think the demo, like most of the demos on the show, felt rushed and forced but that didn't take away form the experience. The demo for Gears of War 2 has me ecstatic. If I don't have a 360 by November 7th. The Fable demo was actually fairly unimpressive which is a shame because I am sure this will be one of the great games on the system. Though I must admit being able to see what you're friends are doing and where is a great idea. You just gotta meet up at a city and then you can go exploring together, and metting each other should be fairly easy considering the teleporting system of the last game. I was absolutely disapointed with Rare's showing although the remake of the first Banjo and Kazooie game has me tickled pink with joy. The movie and TV announcements were allright but this gives people like me with the attention span of a rodent on crack the ability to catch up with the rest of the world on shows like Heroes which I've heard nothing but great things from. The Scene It game disgusts me. Why release a full game? Why not an expansion pack through LIVE? This boggles my mind that if I would have to buy the game and an extra 4 controllers for it if I already have the first one. Well I don't really care for the game but the 10 casual gamers with an Xbox out there might. Speaking of the casuals, their portion in this thing was really bad. First there was the sleep inducing You're In The Movies demo which has potential but I can't see myself buying that if not just for the camera. Lips reminds me of a certain PlayStation franchise and with good reason becuase it's the same thing! Though the ability to use a Zune or iPod (they acknowledged an Apple product?) to sing along with any song you got is pretty cool and something that Rock Band and Guitar Hero developers should pay attention to. When they debuted the new dashboard I have to admit there were two questions going through my mind: What about gamer pics? and Can I switch back to the blade interface if I want? These questions need to be answered because some of you guys have spent good money on these pictures, and now they're just gonna take them away? Knowing Microsoft don't be expecting a refund. 1 Vs 100 looks promising and the whole party interface with picture and video sharing are welcome additions assuming you can voice or text chat while doing it. One question about the video: If I'm watching Superbad in HD and my friend in my party wants to watch with me, will the HD picture get scaled down for his TV? I hope so cause I got a nice little VGA box to get HD picture and I'm not going back just because my friends haven't upgraded yet. The avatars are clear rip offs of Miis and it's no surprise that Rare is developing them. The art style looks like something they would do. Still they're just Mii rip offs with more customization, that doesn't make them bad or good, but I think I'd rather have a 3D model of Razputin from Psychonauts represent me instead. Still though I wish they weren't just blatently copying the Mii idea just to try and gain customers who own Wiis. The Square Emix segment was rather enjoyable with The Last Remnant looking good. The announcement of The Last Remnant appearing on Games For Windows was welcome as it was one of only two Games For Windows titles announced (the other being Fallout 3.)I couldn't help but notice how theytried to pretend they were winning the console war by announcing their US install base was the highest out of all three consoles which isn't a huge achievement considering the year's head start but those numbers went by rather quickly presumbably due to the Wii's number being a mere 100,000 units behind 360. In a month the Wii will overtake the 360's install base but now I'm starting to annoy myself with my fanboyish talk so lemme say somethings I thought they were missing. For starters there was no motion controller announced. This was a huge plus for me showing that they aren't completely trying to rip off the Wii. Though it is early into E3 and they can make an announcement at anytime. One thing that I am very very disapointed about is the lack of Games for Windows and GFW LIVE titles at the show. You would think after forming this PC Gaming Alliance with so many companies that Microsoft, one of the Alliance's biggest contributors, would have something to announce on that front. Other things that impressed me was the nice variety in LIVE Arcade titles like Galaga, Geometry Wars, Portal, Uno Rush, oh and PORTAL!!!! The sequel of the greatest Puzzle game of this millenium is coming exclusivly to 360 via LIVE arcade. Consider me a Xbox 360 owner this October around my birthday if not just for Portal. Microsoft that is how you get the PC crowd in on your system. Oh and Resident Evil 5 had a great showing since they debuted the online co-op mode. I am more excited than ever for a 360 but perhaps the biggest surprise to all was given at the end with the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII was losing it's PS3 exclusivity. I doubt that I will want to get the 360 version which will likely be on multiple DVDs when I can get it how it was originally meant to be played on one Blu Ray disc. Overall it was a good show and I was watching it on G4 while waiting for the traffic to ease up here on GameSpot and Marcus let slip a swear by the censors who silenced the next several seconds of the Gears 2 demo. But the only bad part was the casual games which I was hoping and praying that they wouldn't demo because I honestly didn't care for them.

Grade: B+

Moment of the show: Marcus's potty mouth / "If they can ride it so can we" line refrencing a nearly slain Brumak. November 7th can't come soon enough.