Hey guys and girls,

It's been a while since I've really posted a blog so I figured I would do one today. Nothing much has been going on really, it was my 21st not too long ago and that was pretty cool, I've been playing lots more Xbox 360 games and generally chilling out. I finished GTA IV to 100% which took me quite a while and now I'm playing a good deal of Colin McRae: DiRT which is pretty awesome.

So yeah, on another note I'm going to be spending most of my time over at GiantBomb.com, so if you want to keep up with me over there you can find me here. I'll still stick around on GameSpot and I'm not really leaving as such, but I probably won't be on the forums much (even though I'm not really anyway) anymore and I will probably continue my blog on GiantBomb.

It's been good meeting a lot of you guys and like I said I will still be here so take it easy out there.

Well, well, well here we find ourselves ranting wildly about who knows what to nobody in particular as usual.
Can't say that too much has happened lately really, but I do think that GameSpot is definitely on a downward slope, On The Spot has got a bit stale for me in weeks past. Ryan Mac is a great host but there's just not the level of comedy there was when Rich, Jeff and Ryan Davis were involved, but of course as I said before I will stick around here for the community and for some reviews.

Since I got my 360 Elite at christmas I haven't even touched my PS2 or played many PC games at all, which is quite impressive on the 360's part, I wasn't expecting to be sucked in so much, but here I am playing games like a crazy man. I've managed to rack up a Gamerscore of 7,500 points since christmas which I reckon is pretty good, and yeah, I have indeed found myself a slave to the wonders of points. It's nice to show people that you've played the crap out of certain games and I guess points are a way of showing that. I've got alot of live arcade games over the fast few weeks. I finished Puzzle Quest which I totally loved, and i've been playing alot of Rez HD (even though i've got it for the PS2) and that's a great game, highly recommended to anybody who cares about good games and games that try to raise the bar in new and interesting ways. A truly mythic game. And with the ability to have really, really creepy vibrating Rez orgies? Who could refuse.

I also managed to grab Halo 3 which is weird for me since I never really got into the Halo series like some of my friends did, I played the first nearly to the end on the PC and enjoyed it, but the universe just didn't click with me like it did with the Halo nuts out there. Regardless, I'm really enjoying Halo 3. I finished the campaign and went back for all the skulls and meta game scoring and whatnot after my initial Heroic playthrough. So much on offer to mess around with in that game, online games, forge, co-op, saved films... and they're all interconnected in wonderful ways. It's just a great package. I'm playing a hell of alot of Forza 2 at the moment as well. It was one of the games I got with my console initially and I didn't really properly delve into it, I just kind of played some arcade exhibitions and said to myself "I'll finish the arcade stuff first, then delve into the career mode". It took a good while, but after lots of arcade playing I finished all the exhibitions and time trials and right now i'm totally enjoying the career mode. I'm a big fan of Gran Turismo, and they're similar and different in alot of ways, but I think for me the racing model in Forza is vastly better. You definitely have to take into account your fellow drivers alot more, and use your opportunities to overtake and pass guys cleverly and cleanly. I do feel that there are some things that GT does better than Forza, but if you're into simulation racing you can't go wrong with either.

Anyways. That's my ranting over. I think i'm gonna get Burnout Paradise soon...
What are you guys out there playing? If you haven't played Bully when it came around on the PS2 definitely give it a look on the 360, there definitely appear to be some technical issues, but knowing the calibre of the game I'm pretty sure they will work the kinks out, and when they do it's a game definitely worth playing.

Take it easy out there.

P.S. If you hadn't heard yet, check out www.giantbomb.com. It's the new website from Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis and other such ex-GameSpotting legends. Support this website like you've never supported a website in your lives, people. I'm stoked for what it could mean in the future.

So I know there are a fair few people out there right now doing this too (or just done it) like Don and such and well, I just managed to finish Call of Duty 4 on Veteran and then finish Mile High too. Mile High must have taken me at least 15 tries, getting to the last two guys round the corner about 4 times and getting shot or running out of time, but I finally made it. Popped the hostage taker in the face and I just kinda dropped the controler in relief. Just need the 30 Intel achievement and that's all the achievements for CoD4!

How are you dudes out there faring with the Veteran campaigning? I'll be digging into some serious multiplayer now I think. I'm level 40, but I need to unlock more stuff!

Take it easy.

Howdy folks. Just a little notice to say that I haven't left, I originally intended to after my last blog post but I just couldn't deal with trying to make IGN or 1up my home, I had to stay here at GameSpot. The departure of Jeff sucked ass, but after listening to The Hotspot I really thought the guys did a great job of telling us concerned users as much as they could, and that was some comfort.

Anyways, all that silliness aside i'm glad to announce I just acquired my first next/current-gen console, an Xbox 360 Elite! Woo! I went out on boxing day and grabbed one from my local game store with Forza 2, Viva Pinata and Assassin's Creed. All great games in my opinion, and I should be getting a few more over the coming weeks. I'm still playing it on my bedroom standard definition TV though, and after seeing it in HD round friends houses and whatnot it's almost painful to play games in SD. I'm gonna try and get a reasonably priced HDTV sometime in 2008, but there's no guarantees.

Anyway, I hope all you guys out there are doing okay. I haven't been commenting on alot of blogs lately so my apologies for that. Take care, peoples.

Well as it seems to be more and more true, the departure of Mr Gerstmann has pretty much been confirmed, although the reasons for which have not. Jeff was pretty much the charisma behind GameSpot Live after the departure of Rich. He had some pretty big shoes to fill and he did his job admirably. Don't get me wrong, Ryan D, Ryan M, Brad, Aaron, Brian, Justin and all you guys behind the scenes who make GameSpot go are all fantastic, but ti was Jeff who held up the live side of things and got that charisma on camera.

Anyways, the alledged events being the case, I don't think i'll be around here anymore. For most of you this won't mean a whole lot, but for those of you guys out there who have posted on my blog and said hi occasionally (fishdalf, UpInFlames, the rest of you know who you are) I thank you dearly. I'm terminating my total access subscription and probably won't be here much anymore. I may still come back to check some things out, or just incase any amount of this mess can be undone.

Take care everyone

Hey all you gamespotters out there,

It's been a little while since my last blog so here I am again with more ramblings to melt your brains. I just got my import US copy of Manhunt 2 today which i'm pretty stoked. I bought SwapMagic 3.6 so I could play Imports and backups and so far i'm really pleased with it, although installing the little MagicKeys to get it to work was slightly hellish.

I bought Manhunt 2 for a few reasons, one because I enjoyed the last game and I really wanted to see how this one turned out, and secondly because no stupid-ass BBFC is telling me I cannot play a game. So this is a bit of a middle finger up from me to them in protest. Although that is kinda silly I did really just buy it to play it, and play it I shall.


I've also started to play a hell of alot more Okami which I bought ages ago. I'm pretty much right at the end of the game just running around collecting a few more stray beads and completing a bunch of sidequests and what not so that when I go to the end proper I can feel that i've experienced most of what the game has to offer. I've really loved every minute I have played of it. The dialog is fantastic, I can't help but love Ammy and i've even taken a shine to Issun's smart alecky wit. I'll probably play Okami again someday, simply because it is an amazing game. But even if I don't, it's definitely going to be one of the ones i'll always remember.

On a few more notes I did get The Orange Box, and I played the hell out of it. I completed Half Life 2: Episode 2 twice, and managed to get nearly all of the achievements, the only one I missed being the Neighbourhood Watch achievement. Screw that. I also played the hell out of Team Fortress 2 and Portal as i'm sure anyone else who got The Orange Box would. Awesome, awesome stuff. I'm probably going to play TF2 for quite a while to come, but I dunno if I will be going back to the others anytime soon. But still, a fantastic package and Valve are great guys for cramming that much stuff into one standard-priced retail game.

I've got alot of PC games to get this holidays. I still need to get Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War PC, but after that I think I can take a little break. Are you guys getting any game related goodness for christmas or perhaps just before/after? I'm really hoping to get a 360 Elite this christmas, but we'll see... we'll see.

Anyway i'm out for now. Going to play some Manhunt 2 and other such things.
Catch you later people.