Like i promised in the last blog, i finally beat call of duty 3. i know its been 2 weeks since i posted the blog, but i really don't have time to play as much as i did, plus i've been having steady internet connections so i've been playing a lot of call of duty 4.

Call of Duty 3- well nothing really changed with my impression of this game. last time i stopped playing, i had about 4 stages left to finish before the end of the game. The story telling here really got stale. Jumping from one army/company scenario did not make it apparent that they had a collective effort. The british/french missions felt stupid. The Canadian/Polish missions at the end made a connection with the U.S. missions, but only at the very end. The stages didn't feel any different from the first. the chaos associated with ending or final stages wasn't apparent in this game. The intense action of the last stage happened for 2 minutes. The rest of the time i unknowingly stumbled upon checkpoints without encountering much action. I liked the little ending, though it may be a bit cliche. All in all, i give it a solid 7. Despite all its flaws and mediocrity, i love ww2 shooters. though this is more of the bottom rung, i couldve done worse. hope cod:worlds at war would be a better paced game. More action and more connected story (though i doubt it since its not all in the pacific theatre)

Tekken 6- I know there hasn't been any announcement of this game coming to the ps3 nor is it supposed to be out in north american arcade, but fortunately for me, the arcade next to my college has it. I went in thinking im going to play some t5:dr but instead saw tekken 6. Well from the $3 worth of coins i spent, this game is going to be awesome. This might not get the 9.0 score because it plays the same as the previous games (retraction, pls see edit). The tweeks you might notice comes from char specific. didn't really get to try out the new guys since i played 2 other guys. from what i can tell you though is leo and miguel (esp miguel) are pretty bad ass characters. juggles are still there and ive only tried a couple of juggles from christy and dragunov. The graphics weren't what i expected. The backgrounds were gorgeous but the character models lacked detail. They looked too plastic like. Comparing it to the skin textures of vf5, i'd still say vf5 is better. sound is still familiar, and the background music was forgettable for me anyway. all in all a good game. its one i'm going to be looking forward 2. hope they announce something soon.

edit: while i was writing this down i couldn't help but be bugged about my opponent who used miguel. he juggled me to death but while i was on the floor, he hit me and continued his juggle. i thought it was odd but figured it was just specific to his character making him easily top tier. BUT I WAS WRONG. with further investigation to tekkenzaibatsu.com (the best tekken site ever) there are 2 new major gameplay additions. the bound and rage system. bound system is what i was talking about with the miguel opponent. its a move someone can do that will cause a person to be slammed to the ground and bounce up, which means it continues the juggle and ups the damage. the other is rage system. its a balance tweak to make matches more exciting. When a person is near defeat (5% life bar ) where the character gets red shadows,which make his attacks (Except for throws and wall hits and some other things) more damaging. these 2 new additions really adds a great deal to the mix so i retract anything i said above that involves gameplay.

Tekken 5:dark resurection ps3- i coincidentally bought this game a couple of days before i played tekken 6, which kind of helped with my rust. graphics are ugly. i don't think this is a perfect port of the arcade version and i thought the original t5 looked better. the gameplay felt familiar and it is balanced. the online matches i had were unstable and the main reason why i lost twice. its solid and worth the bargain price.

college hoops 2k8-i had a high expectation from this game based on nba2k8, but i was seriouslly wrong here. this game is nowhere near its nba2k8 bretherein. the graphics look soo much worse than 2k8. I'm not talking about the faces, which i thought were better than the nba2k8 created players, but the whole graphics looked dull. the animations were spot on, but it really looked muddled. I know the college game plays differently from the nba game, but this is ridiculous. The standard set zone coupled with the cheesy cpu ai, where centers can guard pg's, made penetrating damn near impossible. I couldnt drive and kick in this game. The ratings of even the guards from arizona wildcats made me feel like i was controlling a bench warmer. The user team's defensive ai is laughable. I don't know how many times my players got mixed up in rotating a zone. its like they didn't know what a zone is. This lead to many open 3's for the cpu since my guys don't stay in their zone or simply gave too much cushion to people i wanted guarded tightly. The legacy mode is 2 daunting and i'm not sure how to get the most out of my recruitment chores. I haven't given up on this game, but it really is an unpolished game imo.

i'm going to put gta4 back in rotation and hopefully get somewhere with the og mgs game on ps1.

so after kingdom hearts 2 i decided to finally immerse myself in gta 4, and i tried out a couple of my newly purchased ps3 games.

gta4-i've finally unlocked the 2nd city. The missions have been suprisingly action packed. some missions have really good action sequences due to the new gun fighting mechanics. its not gears of war, but its a great evolution. some characters are off the wall funny. i love the dynamic of nikko and brucie. im not quite hooked yet, but its getting there. One downside is that the character names don't quite fit the character. it puts me off, but other than that, gta4 is a great game.

call of duty 3- played a couple of missions and its not great, but it was better than i anticipated. the dialogues don't seem convincing enough for me, but its a good try. Better dialogue or better delivery from the voice acting may spice it up a bit, but for now its really forgettable. missions are standard and feel easy. the level design's are pretty standard and nothing new was really brought to the table from its predecessors (not comparing it do cod4). its a really solid game and treyarch did an admirable job. they are no infinity ward, but they didn't make a dissapointing game.

virtua fighters5- i've gotten the last three games but i seriously am still a noob at this game. its still a stiff learning curve. a lack of different modes make this game less fun for me. its not a bad game, but it really is a hard game to master. the only strategy i can see is get the quickest fighter and try to outpunch or outjab the opponent. i know theres more to it than that but its the only thing thats worked for me soo far. i'm more of a tekken player so maybe i play too much tekken to be a good judge of this game. the graphics are really sweet and the animation is as fluid as ever. this is probably going to be my last vf purchase unless my playing skills get an epiphany.

elder scrolls oblivion-i didn't have enough time to get a really good impression of the gameplay but it plays much better than morrowind because it feels more accesible. the graphics are gorgeous and the story is more intriguing.

i'm probably going to finish cod3 hopefully before my next blog post and hopefully get more things accomplished with gta4. til next time folks

ok so im not going to talk about anything other than kingdom hearts 2. this isn't a review (been laggin on a new format) but my final impressions of a game without spoilers.

i ended up finishing the game with 85% completition. it really surprised me since it wasn't my plan to complete a lot of side quests. so im guessing that there isnt as many side quest stuff to deal with. leveling up was a breeze, and i got to level 50 without even trying hard to grind,which was good. in the end sora felt like a really good hero, which i thought didn't happen in kh1.

the end really was abrupt. it didn't have the same challenge, or even the same feel. i don't know if that was just me,but i expected a little bit more content before the end.

the last couple of boss fights were cheesy. since the combat was soo easy, there were 2 or 3 minutes where the bosses couldn't get hit whatsoever. it was a compensation and it felt they were milking it before the inevitabie defeat they were going to face. all this is weird because it really wasn't that difficult so i have to wonder why they couldn't have tweeked it in the middle.

the story finally tied things up, though i don't think it even compared to one of the chapters in hollow bastion. it isn't to say that the ending was bad, because it actually was pretty good, but the story couldn't have gotten better without getting more epic and tacking on more things to the story. the story just isn't as tight as it was in kh1.

there were a lot of positives to get out of this game, but it would have been better if kh2 story really stayed up to par with the other improvements. of the top of my head, this would fall under 7.5-8.3. man i have soo many reviews i want to write. but i'm 2 busy for em. oh well i'll get to it eventually.

so now im going try to start with the mgs series. also need to get crackin with gta4. i'm purposely taking my time. there is something about that game thats missing for me. i'm not hooked yet. its fun but its not wow. but then again gta:sa was the only gta that gave me the wow factor. til next time

ok so ive been working a lot lately. i havent really had a chance to spend a lot of times gaming because construction is very tiring. i havent really been spending either. i want to go back to school so ive been saving for tuition and my previous debt. but once i get that cleared away im going to save on stuff that i want to buy. so god willing, i hope to give myself some things. most are gaming related, others arent. so for now i have a preliminary list of what i want. i could add and subtract.

a gaming pc worthy of crysis

40+ inch lcd tv

psp

ipod

camcorder so i can do vidblogs

xbox360

games

AND A CAR

so i said i was going to slow down in buying games after i picked up god of war 2, but in reality, ive actually bought more. i bought all hd gen games, which is good, but i promised myself i was going to hold of on gta4 and assasins creed. i have soo many games to finish, and i'm finding that i'm pilling my games up again. but there are soo many games that i want to purchase. so i'm just going to just narrow it down. unless i find an n64,snes or genesis at a cheap price, i'm going to stick to these games. i know its hipocritical cuz i said i could move on to collect only current games, i still find myself looking back so i'm going to narrow it down to these old,current, and future release games. if any other games come out im going to add, but it would have to be really good.

• metal gear solid 4
• star wars: forced unleashed
• farcry2
• little big planet
• killzone2
• heavenly sword
• devil may cry 4
• uncharted:drakes fortune
• elder scrolls oblivion
• fight night round 4
• battlefield:bad company
• crysis
• world in conflict
• company of heroes
• final fantasy chronicles
• legend of zelda:twilight princess-gc

the 2nd part of this is finishing games. as a collector, ive let that side of me hinder my gamer side. i try a game out, then move back. sometimes i just want to play casually and i dont want to advance in a game when i'm in that mode because i'm robbing myself of great moments because i lack the enthusiasm cuz of my casual gaming mood. but i'm going to start a list of games that i have to finish and i'm going to put this in order. the organization might help me be more dedicated.

• kingdom hearts 2
• crysis core
• gta4
• metal gear solid essentials

ok so ive been purchasing some games lately and tried to prioritize which games i should play in what order. so god of war 2 has to be put aside, and cod4 has to be played in spurts. i got a job now so i cant play 5 games in one day. i have to kind of focus on one or 2 at a time.but here are my gaming impressions for this week

kingdom hearts 2- ok after experiencing some exciting story plot moments, it went back to uncovering more worlds, basically it fun leveled off. the story isnt holding up as well as i want it to be because its involving world specific plots, with little or no advancement to the bigger plot. plus i had to re-visit a couple of worlds, which i wasnt to fond off because they werent really essential to the story. you didn't have to go back twice. havent played it in a week. will give more impressions when i pick up the game again.

crisis core:final fantasy 7- wow! the visuals are amazing. i don't a psp and im not really big on handhelds but being a ff7 fan i borrowed it, and its made me a believer of the psp. its trully stuning. the story is griping. there are new characters, and so far all of them fit in quite nicely. zack is what tidus should have been in ffx. on the downside, the battle system is meh. the dmw (slots) is cool but i hate how its the only way i can level up, through chance, and not through results of battles. sure the more enemies you face and defeat, the more chances you get to level up, or get some cool attack, but when facing tough foes, dmw has becomes somewhat of a chance that i dont like relying on. other than that, the game is cool. maybe the dmw can offer up more things later on, but as of right now its the only downer for me.

gta4- ok so i havent finished gta3 or vice city but i had to get this after seing the review, and gamestop deal. you know what, it deserves that score. i picked it up after the patch so there isnt any crashing here. the city feels organic. very alive. niko, the main character, is flat out hillarious, and a pretty likable guy. characters are funny, and the missions are still fun. its better organized, and the best feature i think is the fact that the missions are carried out through cell phones, and you can disable any storyline mission calls if you want to raise hell. i don't know about the online yet, but everything else ive experienced soo far has been awesome.

assasins creed-ok so i checked it out after purchasing it on sale for $30. well another amazing world. i like how it feels busy and massive. the main character altair is a bit of a shmuck, arrogant, and too bloodthirsty to be an assasin, but the premise is interesting enough, even though i hate the sci fi twist to it. combat is a little clunky for me, especially when battling more than one guy. i need to spend more time than this, but its good soo far.

this hd era of gaming is crazy! the worlds and size of these games are truly a blessing for us gamers, now if they only made it cheaper to game, i would be buying more games. til next time