hi everyone. its been a long time since i posted anything so here we go again. this time its about the upcoming games of 2008.

im not looking to see whats in 2009 as thats quite far away but frankly its hard not to.

it seems the games industry is running out of new ideas. ill go by consoles so no-one gets confused

Xbox 360

this is the console im fearing for the least. its got a few very good games coming out but they are just that, few and far between.

ive got bad company and UT3 (thanks to a certain friend for buying it for me for my birthday)which will keep me happy for some time and with Too Human coming out on the 28th August (20 days after my birthday)ill be pretty much set for Uni if i get there. but after that the 360 will become a bit of a dust collector until november when GoW2 comes out. now i played the campaign alot, by which i mean 6-8 months playing single and co-op. it just never got boring. ever. so if Cliffy B isnt fibbing about the longer campaign, that means a year might go by without me even touching the multi. but then thats good as well so GoW2 will see me through a good long time and gears is still the only game i havent sold.

PS3

this is in the middle of the worry factor. yeah theres a few games coming out but some are rather weak. Killzone 2 i wont be buying as ill wait a while for it to become cheaper and give me chance to rent it. Resistance 2 is a buy because the co-op it somewhere between 4-6 players (sold me at 4) and the gameplay looks solid. LittleBigPlanet was also added to the list as it looks like a lot fun and the customising of levels is great. after that its a little dodgy. because i dont own my PS3 (its my dads) when i go to Uni i wont have it so i wont be inclined to buy games for it anymore. this is why the amount of games that will be bought for it will be limited to 2.

PC

the worry factor is through the roof with this one. firstly because there are only 2 games that are coming out for it that i want, Spore and DoW2, and also for the fact that what ever i seem to do, it wont work. ive got a comprimise going but its really annoying and sometimes doesnt work which is why i need a new hard drive and a copy of windows Vista or XP home. this may not seem like much to the PC people out there but to me with little to no money left, its a big one.

hopefully with a part time job at Uni i can get this fixed but for the moment, im using my dads PC.

so there you have it, the few games i want are very few and quite far between.

if anyone has any suggestions of any other games that are making up to be pretty good, please comment below and ill use the comments like a forum topic.

ta ta for now.

my Xbox is back! it came last thursday which was the same time as MGS4. which was both joyful and annoying since i wanted to just play MGS4 but with my xbox back i wanted to get into forza. so i chose snake.

MGS4 is simply the best game ive played. the story is compelling and gameplay is fantastic. its just so good!

and also i was impressed at how fast my Xbox came back from germany. it was just over one week and they said "2-3 weeks". so i give microsoft thumbs up for that. and also that they sent me my one rather than someone else's which is also a plus. the information shhet that came with it identifyed and motherboard error so i can safely say the error message you get when your xbox breaks is a pile of turd.

ive already completed MGS4 twice (on very easy and the next one up, below normal) and intend to complete on normal when my exams are over in four days time. and i must say i havent even touched MGO yet. i got the beta and leveled up quite far on it so i was depressed to see that all my skills had gone. so its back to the grind to get my assault back to level 2.

and if things couldnt get any better.....they did. my PC fixed itself..somehow.

hello everyone (or the 5 people who bother reading this blog space) i'd like to update a few things and post some notifications.

first off, and most importantly, the XBrick has now been whisked away by UPS off the frankfurt, germany no less. and all this bull that MS told me about it will be whisked away but their own private service and they'll send me a date for collection and a box was rubbish. i had to get my own box, pack it up and then set up the collection all by myself, no input from MS at all. still, as long as it works when i get it back in 2-3 weeks, along with my 1 month XBL subscription and year's free warentee, im willing to forgive.

secondly, and not so importantly, ive noticed how buggered our once proud country of Britain is. petrol prices are at their highest ever, which means everything else is at its highest and basically the government is screwing everything up. this is also hitting me as firstly, everything im buying including games is going upwards and also my driving tests (this is my third) are getting more expensive. if i fail this one, thats my lot as i cant pay for another and im off to uni as well so ll that money wasted. and we're moving house which with the credit crunch going on, its bloody aweful. so im looking foreward to my trip to france in a few weeks time (get to a country thats not so quite messed up) for a bit of fishing.

and lastly, because my Xbrick is gone and my PS3 still does not have any games for it, my PC has been my only option. and ive noticed how many decnt games ive forgotten about since my console mania of the past few months. i got back into supreme comander and STALKER and noticed i had more fun playing these online than i did with GTA4 or COD4. then i got into World in conflict for a while then my PC died. not even a hint it was going, then *poof*...small bit of smoke and a wierd noise from the CPU.

tryed to turn it back on, got as far as activating BIOS before it finally gave in. great, so now do i not have a 360 but my PC needs replacing. and that isnt cheap either since i got a quote for all the bits and pieces i need to make another one and it came to £470. it may not sound alot to people who know how much gaming PCs cost but i do not have this sort of money to fritter away as i please. so now im using my dads PC for 100% of my computing as i cant be bothered installing linux on my PS3. firstly because i dont know how and secondly im a bit aprehensive in doing so. im wondering what happens when you install it on there. does it get rid for XMB and just have a linux PC? or can i choose at the start like a normal PC? i would like to know.

anyway, thats it for now and my next post will be about my XBrick to inform you if it has risen from the dead or not. bye for now....

alas, the dreaded moment has come. my Xbox 360 has finally come of age where it must take the Trial of the Returns.

put in Forza motorsport 2 disc and played fine for about 1 hour then one red light came up with a sort of green mesh covering the screen. turned off 360 and when it turned back on it said a few simple words "system error, contact Xbox support" with a E74 error.

i know that from memory that E74 is iether of two things, Av cable failure or a GPU toastie. unfortunatly it was the fried GPU part for me.

so contacted Xbox after about 30 minutes of searching for the UK phone number (which is a bugger to find) they said that it was out of warantee so id have to pay £60 for repair. seems steep till they tell you the rest.

i get it picked up by courier from my house, then taken away in the herse to the ressurection shop then sent back to me with a month free XBL gold and another 1 year warantee all in the price.

i was dreading the time when i had to ring them up and pay the supposed £70 and pay for both trips there and back with no extras attached, but so far it seems rather promising. i have marked my Xbox though and taken down the serial number just so i can grill them if they do change it.

as im still of the age where im not quite independant from my parents, im still waiting on thier permission to send off the info and im still not sure whether or not you pay by PayPal (of which i do not have).

i will keep you informed but i do see a positive in this. as they said it will take some time before i get it back, it falls neatly into place with the release of MGS4 (of which the pre-order receipt is surgically implanted into my face) so ill get to play MGS4 for a week or so before i get my Xbox back. and its really annoying as today was when i finally gave in and bought another year's worth of XBL subscription. go microsoft.

firstly the reason why im posting this here and not in the offical review section.

basically ive posted this review about three times in the offical section and it keeps getting banned for comlpetely unknown reasons (still have not recieved email about this either) which is unusual since my review goes with what they say.

anyway review time.

i know this is game is getting on now but i still think its deserving of its 9.5 rating. its the first strategy game ive played that uses not only the points system for both buying your units and using the radio (get to that later)

the gameplay is awesome. a varied pile of units that you can buy and bring into the battlefield (which i also liked, i dont like units popping out of no where) and its basically a complicated version of rock paper scissors. every unit has strengths and weaknesses which actually can be taken advantage of. ususally in an RTS, units are "supposed" to have strengths and weaknesses but its only slight to make gameplay as balenced as trapieze artist. WiC actually makes you use units effectively, rather than building the biggest tanks and rushing. take air units for example, the heavy attack helo does massive amounts of damage to ground units but is quite fragile and can easily be taken out by even a light humvee. anti air units decimate helos but cant do anything else. artillery units can blast people away from a big hill top but need to be protected at all times. everything destorys one type of unit and get completely decimated by another. its magic to play.

story - finally, an RTS with an actual storyline that not based in the future or in a wacky parallel universe. basically its the ruskies against the good old US of A. you can also sympathise with one of the main characters (bannon) as he trys so hard but just keeps screwing up.

graphics - best ive seen on an RTS. each unit is incredibly detailed and the maps are works of art unto themselves. water effects are stunning and explosions are epic.

online- best rts for this as long as you have four friends who like this game as equally as you do. for multiplayer games, you each get a role to play, infantry, armour, air and support. you are dedicatd to each one and even though you can get some of the basic units from the other roles, they are of high cost and usually pretty ineffective in your own role. this sort of gaming requires total teamwork and co-ordination which is why im buying this for 360/PS3 (which ever i can use with a mouse and keyboard) as its easier to set up game on a console and theres less chance of a "hardware issue".

overall - a must for a dedicated RTS player an no wonder this game is used in professional competitions. 9.5 because of "hardware issues"

this whole hardcore gamer vs casual gamer... hang on, ive got a new icon on my profile.

oh cool, anyway, to the topic at hand.

right im going to have a shot at defining the two first to find out the differences between them. first, the casual gamer.

to me, a casual gamer is someone who owns maybe one or two consoles at once, doesnt play past maybe 10 at night and will always turn it off when things need doing. like the washing maybe. or going to the pub. i also see the casual gamer as being the well mannered university student. has other things to do and relaxes by either hitting the bar or playing a bit of mass effect for an hour or two before hitting the bar. he maybe an achievement junkie but wont lose sleep over getting that last achievement or rank up.

this gives a pretty clear picture of what, in my opinion, is a casual gamer.

now for the tricky part, the hardcore gamer.

a hardcore gamer devotes his life (or at least most of it) to the fine art of playing every game he owns on the hardest difficulty setting first time round and will not rest or eat until it is done. these sort of people have undeveloped social skills not because they lack metal brain capacity *cough*halo 3 junkies*hack* but because it is not necassary to complete final fantasy in 10 hours. these sort of people lose however much sleep it takes to get that last lump of gold on WoW and will happily play through GH3 on expert to limber themselves up for a good solid day of nothing but MGS2 on european extreme difficulty with nothing but the tranq gun.

i think i can make a list of requirements to see whether or not you are hardcore:

you must have:

-completed every MGS game on the hardest difficulty setting and unlocked everything thereof.

-completed GH3 "through fire and flames" on expert

-have went to a gaming convention and have had to be thrown out because you wanted to sleep there

-have sat outside a game store for exactly 4 days to get your PS3 for the sole fact that MGS4 was coming out on it.

-must own every console ever made (including the crappy ones)

-must never sell any game as it can always be completed again.

and you must also answer yes to the following questions:

-do you have a life size figurine of any game character?

-have you ever played games overnight? (from dusk till dawn and beyond)

-have you ever drunk enough caffinated drinks that your bladder begins to rupture, but you wont move because you've almost completed FF8 with nothing but the bog standard weapon?

this is a hardcore gamer in my opinion.

now to decide where you go, in the hardcore bin or the casual bin.

actually, i think its more like a spectrum. you cant just be one or the other. some of the questions i created i can say yes to so im not a total casual gamer but im not hardcore. not many people i know are hardcore and i dont think there are many people in this world that i would class as hardcore.

as to which is best. neither are in my opinion. though being a true hardcore gamer would put you almost certinaly at the bottom of my friends list, as you would not have the social capacity to communicate with ther human beings and also would certainly have lost your primal instinct of being able to pull.