This update will just be a really quick one so here I go ; first about my exams. This was my Math exam and to my surprise I got a 90% on it, which translates to a 4. This surprised even me because I am awful when it comes to taking math tests....usually get an 80% or 85% if im lucky. I guess multiple choice is easier compared to showing youar work.

The next update is that my controller for the Xbox 360 went out a while ago so I guess there go my summer plans. I don't have the money to buy a new one, I don't know if im working this summer, my parents would love nothing better than to drive a silver steak through my hardrive, and none of my friends are willing to lend me theirs for the summer. With that being said don't expect to see me on Xbox Live playing Call of Duty 4 or any of the other awesome games I just got.... ohh what irony.

With my Xbox being done with for a few weeks at least, I turn to my PC for an unlikely source of inspiration. If you know me in real life I kicked the addiction to World of Warcraft, and im not going to play it again. Instead I started looking for a free MMORPG... and don't even tell me to check out Runescape. Instead I found this game known as Tales of Pirates. It is quite fun, a little bit addictive, and not too competitive. Its a very good game and as of right now its satisfying my gaming needs. If you want to kill some time than go ahead and download this game. It is an average MMORPG experience but probably the best free MMORPG I have ever played.

P.S.: I recently played Condemded 2: Bloodshot (its good to have friends) and the game is amazing. Great close combat, scariest game I have ever played by far, and it puts you in this mood. We had fun playing with the volume on high at 1 A.M with no one home... yeah.... I don't advise it.

To whom it may concern; I haven't been on lately but hopefully I will become a lot more active in the next few weeks. This week I finished most of my exams, except one which I am taking this Wednsday. I also have a end-of-year project on Thursday which is a big deal. It counts about 15% of my grade in 4 of my classes so don't expect to see me on Gamespot until next Friday or so.

In other news I finally got my hands on GTA IV... err well if you want to call it that. I played about 30 minutes into the story mode and so far I am seeing good things. The only thing that is weird is adjusting to the driving. The zooming in, out, and around can really get annoying. Hopefully I will purchase GTA IV for good sometime next week.

Finally best news of the day: My brother is leaving for college and I "inherited" most of his Xbox 360 games, even though about 40% of them were arcade games. I got some classics like GRAW and Forza Motorsport 2... but im not really playing them. Right now my focus is Call of Duty 4, and until I get GTA or hit the last prestige im afraid im not going to touch the 30 or more games that I just got. So I guess thats all that I can say. If you want to play on Xbox Live than just message me and I will give you my gamertag.

First things first, if you don't know who Jack Thompson is than this is the time to learn. He is a attorney and an activist who hates most forms of rock and rap music, and has a very strong hate for video games. Every crime can be pinpointed to a false cause. I clearly remember a group of children that committed suicide after listening to Judas Priest. That ruined the bands reputation forever. Just because something takes place before a crime doesn't make it the cause. I am probably getting a head of myself. Let me track back a little bit.

First of all you might be thinking; "Moroes why are you bugging ole' Jack, he hasn't done anything big in the past couple of months."

This might be true, but notice the word "big in that sentence. This guy is always spreading awareness on how games ruin the youth of America. Although in some way this is true, it doesn't mean that everyone who purchases a game is going to get out of shape, addicted, and ruin his own life. Most of us are casual gamers that play just to get our mind off of school or work. Its kind of ironic that an attorney is behind all of this, and the scary thing is that many conservative Christians are jumping on the video game bashing bandwagon.

Lets put a magnifying glass on some of the things that Jack has linked together in the past:

February 2003: Jack vs. GTA A teenager named Justin Lynch murders JoLynn Mishne. Happens that Jack was the attorney facing this young man. Before the trial was over, he boldly told the judge about Grand Theft Auto. It seems Dustin was addicted with GTA. Okay I see where your getting at..... but then again you think that's the motive behind all this? Drugs? Alcohol? Revenge? Nope we choose video games. Its absolutely impossible that Lynch had a drinking problem, or was a drug addict? Hell looking at the statistics now, more than 30% of 16 year olds drank or smoked marijuana. I think its more in the 50% range. I mean what would GTA teach this kid that's new? How to shoot a gun? Give an AK-47 to a monkey and I am sure that even a chimpanzee can figure it out. Making false assumptions and lying... the secret of the courtroom.

There are multiple cases where Jack linked a murder or crime to Grand Theft Auto or Rockstar games. He claims that the series influenced these murders. Sounds like he's using this as a tool for money instead of good.

2005: Jack vs. Bully Seems that we have a pattern here. Rockstar seems to be the scapegoat err.. uhmmm I mean target. He had a major dispute over whether Bully should be released or not. "This game shows you - by bullying - how to take over your school." Its a game. What where games originally made for? To allow us to get in a world where we can do things that we can't in real life.... well most games. If a person takes this out of context it isn't the company's fault for making the game, its the persons fault for being below the average IQ level. Common sense tells you that you can't run around for hours going on sprees of killing or beating people up. If you do than you either need an Institute or Prison.

I am going to have to cut it there because I have so much to say about this man that I can't list it all... an yes some of it is against the Terms of Service. I hope the next time you see him on television you think about what he really is saying and decide on which side you agree with the most. To help you understand who this man is and what he stands for, I have linked a couple videos. It seems like hes making most of his stuff up as he goes. Thanks for reading!

Jack vs. San Andreas

Jack vs. Halo

Jack Thompson's Opinion of Virginia Tech.

As you all know this was one of the most anticipated weeks in the gaming world. Of course I am talking about the release of GTA IV. Since everyone has been making some sort of blog about this, I guess I will too. If you have played any of the previous Grand Theft Auto games, than you know that this franchise set a standard for future games of this genre (True Crime, Saints Row, Etc.). I can remember when the franchise started off with a third person maze world. Although it was more of an arcade game than a shooter, it was just plain fun. In 2002, Rockstar Games really started making a name for themselves with the release of Grand Theft Auto III. Saying that this changed everything is an understatement. Following its release, Rockstar tried to preserve its franchise releasing Grand Theft Auto games. Although Vice City and San Andreas were successful, Liberty City Stories was an average game. What happened is that GTA had gained a massive amount of respect and people expected the most out of the new releases. Now that you are familiar with the history, lets start to talking about the real deal.

Now if you own a next gen console than you know all about this game and how much anxiety it caused this year. Simply put it is the most awaited game this year, well I guess you can say it was the most awaited game. No, I have not bought it yet, but from what I have been hearing it has delivered every inch of what was expected from it. Usually when a game has this much hype, people forget how good it is and focus on the bad points. Surprisingly, all of this game's flaws were overlooked. Why? Was it the gameplay? Online mode? Or is it just that damn good? It looks like its a little bit of all three mixed in it.

Here is where the controversy kicks in. Gamespot hasn't had a perfect game rating in seven years. Does it really take that long to make a perfect game, or have expectations sky rocketed in the new era. From what I see the citizens of Gamespot have drawn a line. Two sides are formed and they either hate it or love it, most being on the "love it" side. Some people blog about this game being overrated, and others say that Justin hit the nail on the head. Well lets see what makes a perfect score, shall we?

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 : I guess if you keep remaking a game and adding more details and features, eventually you are going to get the perfect game. Luckily for Activision, they got the job done after only a few attempts. I must be pretty bold when I say this, but I never noticed a difference between any of the Tony Hawk games. Although the Underground series lunges the series into a whole different era of skating games, that's just it... its a skating game. If I want to have street races I can buy Need for Speed. Trying to hard, maybe?

Soul Calibur : Unlike Pro Skater 3, I have few bad things to say about this game. I knew people who purchased a Dreamcast just to own this game. You can almost say that this as a legend, or a messiah of the fighting genre. For the time the graphics were very good, and its one of those games that you just play with a friend for hours and hours without getting bored. I must be crazy saying I like the Gamecube version better, but then again if it wasn't for Soul Calibur, there wouldn't be Soul Calibur II.

The Legend Of Zelda Ocarina of Time : Recently I visited my younger cousins, 13 and 12 years of age. They have a Playstation 2, N64, Gamecube, and a Wii. They aren't serious gamers to say the least. They are Nintendo Fanyboys though. If the game doesn't have Mario, Link, or Sonic than they don't play it. You can easily tell that they aren't desperate enough to resort playing the older consoles, yet they still played Ocarina of Time constantly. Why exactly? I don't know the reason. The only thing I know is that the game must be extremely good to keep two Nintendo Fanboys addicted to it... right?

The last game in the "perfect" category is Chrono Cross, which sadly I have never played so I cannot shed light on the subject.

Cheers to Grand Theft Auto IV for joining this elite group. Whether it deserved this or not will be never known because the word has been said... but I am defiantly looking forward to checking out the game. So kids, the morale of the story is don't always trust reviews. Renting is the way to go.

Today when I sat down to play some Xbox with a couple of friends I was expecting to have some fun, busting some caps. Instead my controller kept turning off in the middle of the game. Now if you don't know, my controller is screwed up beyond all recognition. When it has all but one if its bars, it starts turning itself on and off like it has almost no battery power left. You think thats bad enough? Theres more. My wired microphone doesn't work with the controller. I have tried to buy a new one, but I don't exactly have enough money to just go on shopping sprees for things I can survive without. You can at least let me play my game, but no, no, no, no ,no. This controller has been bothering me for the past couple of weeks, and I have had enough.

Later in the afternoon I rolled by Gamestop to finally get rid of those days were I scavenger the house for spare batteries. I was going to buy the rechargeable battery pack for $20.00. I went in, said "hi" to the clerk, and browsed for a couple of games that I would want to rent or buy later. After about ten minutes in the store I finally found what I came for, and immediatly went to the register. The man up there seemed polite, maybe in his late twenties or early thirties. Knowing me, as soon as I what I needed, I rushed out of the store and was getting ready to enjoy playing full games without being interrupted. For some reason, when I hit the car I viewed the check. Oddly enough, I payed 30 dollars for a 20 dollar item. Mixed in with the tax, it was about 22 dollars, but what about the other 8 dollars. I sprinted back to the store and started raising hell at the register. The poor cashier had no option but to give me the money back. So kids, the moral of this story is... don't shop at Gamestop.

NOTICE: This blog was written on April 6th and posted April 8th due to horrible Tech Support at Bellsouth. Well either way that is a story for another time so here is the blog that should have been posted two days ago.

First of all I would like to mention that this is a response to Draqq_Zyxorian's blog about Rock Band online. Even though I don't really play Rock Band, I know how it feels to get screwed out of a kill on first person shooters. You get that feeling in your stomach, and your mind tells you to turn on your microphone and just blast that sorry loser out. Unfortunately, on most online games there is some form of punishment for bad behavior, whether its bad reputation or a suspension. Perhaps you end up taking your anger out on your controller (keyboard, joystick, etc), or just bottle it, up but its still in the back of your mind. Here are some things that piss me off on Xbox Live and PC shooters.

1. Stealing Kills (Especially when your sniping) - This applies mostly to Call of Duty 4, considering it introduces the "Last Stand" perk. So you found your perfect spot, and you have a tango(enemy) in sight that isn't moving... camping perhaps. You take the shot... and score! +10 right? Nope, it seems he was shot down in last stand by a nearby ally... who you might have saved by the way. Now this might not seem like a big deal at first, but most of the time this occurs multiple times in a single match. Sometimes by the exact player. At the end of the day you take a backseat with eight kills, while this ninja looted up three of your kills and got twenty eight overall. What are you going to do now? Are you going to leave or are you just going to hope this doesn't happen again. Ninjas, be sure to talk to your teammates about the kills you are going to steal because it might not be alright with everyone else.

2. Trash Talk - We all know that there are some players out there that are just really good at a certain game. They are used to the controls, they get the most kills and points, and are usually the highest rank. Now most of those players deserve bragging rights because they did play the game a long time and got better at it as time passed. Just because you got 45 kills and poor Joe over there got only 12 doesn't mean that you can start talking about how bad he is. I respect that you are a good player, but no one needs to hear crap about them being a noob, or something alone those lines. I bet if you were playing a different kind of match Joe would destroy you at it, and wouldn't call you out too boot. If you are one of those people that can't hold back, by all means keep talking. I found that 40% of the time those so called "leet" players end up at the bottom of the list the next match. Then your publicly exposed as the jerk you are, which is more the reason not to talk trash, unless you can back it up of course.

3. Clans/Guilds - Probably one of my favorite features in online gaming, role-playing and shooters is the ability to start and join clans, in which a group of gamers train together, have a good time, and eventually battle other clans. Sometimes you have a clan that has an ego. They are such great campers in whatnot, killing you where you spawn and making gaming a living hell altogether. I am not saying all clans are like this, most of them just like to have a good time. There are the occasional competitive groups that are all business, but they usually don't waste time in Public Matches. If you are a member or leader of a clan, please remember your values and that your playing this for fun. I have seen numerous clans get nasty towards newer players just because they aren't as good. I bet if you look back to when you first started playing that game online, you weren't much better than him. Keep the ego down and enjoy yourself instead of making enemies online.

4. Traitors - The most annoying part of an online shooter is that on rare occasions you have a player that is trigger happy. Sometimes this eager teammate kills you accidentally, but you can tell when they are killing their allies on purpose. I have a simple question for these kind of players. Why? Why do it? You lose points, you probably lose reputation, and eventually everyone will leave the game. Is it fun ruining people's matches to you? I mean it just doesn't make any sense to me. In most games, when you kill someone on your side you have a penalty. If you are just messing around and the people you are playing with are just having a good time killing each other, than by all means join in. Those people who just join a game and kill all of their teammates are in my mind the scum of the world... or the Internet or whatever your playing the game on.

So bottom line is that online gaming can be fun and enjoyable if you don't your not playing with the kind of people that love ruining people's days or are just too full of themselves to realize that they aren't the best. If you happen to be one of the geniuses that figures out that camping gets you more kills, or that betraying is amusing than please refrain from Public games and contact with the gaming society. Thank you.