Here is a quick blog to share whats up.

I have been really busy with life and haven't been able to play many games lately. The most recent game I played was the new SimCity. I was really excited about it and I knew what I was getting myself into with the always online DRM. But my experience with SimCity was so bad I returned it back to Amazon. Thankfully enough they were more then glad to help me out with the return and I will be receiving all my money back for EA's monstrosity they call SimCity (2013). Where do I begin!?!?!

For one the always online DRM wasn't necessary, it was just another way for EA to control us gamer's, and the pirates? But really... If companies concentrate on making a great product instead of a standard non-linear product. People would buy it. Sure it will still be pirated because there are those people who can't either shell out $60 for a new game every time or the people who just don't want to pay for games (hate them!). But seriously, companies should work on making the best product with a fair price. Honestly $60 is to steap. Call me old fashioned, but I grew up with games when they cost $50 new. There was no DLC, we had something we called expansion packs that had loads more content then what companies are now calling "DLC". Stop holding back content from us for your selfish greed!

Okay so that went a bit all over the place. But this isn't just about SimCity, it's about games in general. I for one am going to be choosing my games very wisely now. Since I can't afford $60 games every time something new comes out. (No I do not pirate and I do not support piracy. I despise pirates!!!)

Companies say that development has gotten more expensive. Let's go back to the basics then.

Stop worrying about graphics so much and concentrate about the gameplay. Look at Minecraft. It's not graphically complicated, but yet it's a major success because of it's gameplay. I would rather buy a game that is fun, over a game that is graphicly intense.

I am gonna stick with my 3 favorite companies.

Blizzard

Rockstar Games

&

Valve

All make very quality games, and don't release products every year but on a good timely schedulle. Unlike say EA or Activision. I remember waiting years and years for an amazing game, and when it finally came out, it was everything I thought it was going to be. Let's go back to those times. They were fun. You got hyped up for an awesome game, and then get to enjoy it.

Alright this blog/rant went all over the place. But it covers what I have been wanting to say for awhile.

Take care every one. And I am wanting to see what you guys have to say about this.

Please leave practical comments. Don't start a war. That wasn't the point of this blog/rant. The point was to state my opinion. So let's keep it calm and professional please.

Thank you!

5. Diablo 3

If you've been a fan of Diablo since the start, you might be a little disapointed. As Diablo 3 changes a lot since Diablo 2. The questing is different, it's more going from point A to point B. There is no more mana potions, portal scrolls, and identify scrolls. The PVP has also changed, no more people randomly joining your game and making you hostile. Coming sometime eventually Blizzard will be adding the PVP arena's. There is even a freaking auction house now! All and all though, I enjoyed Diablo 3. Sure it doesn't feel like Diablo 2, but I still liked playing it with friends. The loot is still impressive and finding items is some what easier. Item drops are now bound to each player instead of everyone grabbing the same loot. The graphics style is charming and great to look at. And finally the game will make you want to keep playing as the story is enjoyable and you will be surprised what happens.

4. Halo 4

Master Chief is back! And he's better then ever. Halo 4 doesn't disappoint. The story is great and the single player will keep you entertained through out. The visuals are extremely impressive on the 360 and pushes it to it's limits. The multiplayer is probably the best I've seen in years. I like the new features 343 added, like a perk like system and air drops. Getting your friends together locally or on Xbox Live is a lot of fun. Maps are big and full of rich detail and pretty spacious to explore. If you're a Halo fan and been needing an excuse to get an Xbox 360, or to get back into Halo, Halo 4 is the game for you. You don't want to miss this epic adventure.

3. Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is a very fun and thrilling + charming MMO. It redefines MMO's (besides the original) by letting you buy the game and then just play. No monthly fees, no insane setup. You just install it, create your account, and then play. No hassle what so ever. Guild Wars 2 is my favorite MMO besides World of Warcraft, I love the graphics style in it and I absolutely love that there is never ending content to make you feel very immersed into this living world. There is never nothing you can't do, There will always be a quest or event for you to do, and if you want take a break from that, you could always do some small platforming mini games to explore and impress yourself with the amazing and mind blowing scenery. If you've been on the verge about getting Guild Wars 2, ignore the hate and buy it! I truely recomend it for any fan of MMO's or someone who is looking for a game that will last you for years.

2. Counter-Strike Global Offensive

I have been a fan of Counter-Strike since it was a mod for Half-Life. When I heard Valve was releasing a new Counter-Strike I was super excited! The reason this game makes #2 on my list is it's Counter-Strike, nothing more, nothing less. Valve took CS:GO back to the original roots of Counter-Strike. The aiming and hitboxes are 100x better then when Valve released it's patch to Counter-Strike Source that changed the way the guns fealt for me and of course adding in the useless achivements. Valve released some new game modes and maps which makes the game feel fresh and new. Some of the older maps that have been tweaked still feel like their original counter parts, but also improving them with some new places to hide, a new route to take and so one. Counter-Strike Global Offensive is a breath of fresh air over the normal FPS's, it's a game that is actually tactical and you have to work as a team to achive victory. If you're looking for a new FPS to play, Counter-Strike Global Offensive would be the game to play, or if you're a Counter-Strike veteran and wanting an excuse to play some CS again, then pick up Counter-Strike Global Offensive. You wont be disapointed!

1. Dark Souls Prepare to Die Edition

Nothing can't be said about Dark Souls that hasn't already been said... It's by far the best RPG I have ever played and it deserves my #1 slot as (Best game of the year) I will warn you though, this game is HARD! You will die A LOT! That is a fact. Dying has always been a bad thing in video games, but in Dark Souls it's nothing more then a gameplay mechanic. You will die... A LOT! But it's apart of the game and that will only make you want to change your strategy. Sure Dark Souls has a steep learning curve, but once you start playing you wont want to stop. Enemies may seem harmless but you will soon find out that they are really deadly, even in the second area you will venture to. The areas are big and the visuals + scenery are beautiful. The bosses are HARD!!! But all is rewarding when taking them down, trust me it is worth the time patience and frustration you will go through. Nothing is more satisfying then seeing "Victory Achived" on screen when defeating a really hard boss. Final verdict is... Go and buy Dark Souls you wont be disapointed. Though I do warn you as the PC controls aren't perfect and you will need a 3rd party mod to make it playable. Get a controller and have a blast.

There you have it folks. My top 5 best games of 2012 leading up to my Game of the Year. Hope you enjoyed as I have enjoyed playing all of them.

Finally rank 54! Only 10 more levels till I get to one of my favorite numbers and to me one of the best consoles ever created.

Take care everyone!

And happy gaming. =)

Today I have turned 21. The difference between my 21st birthday and others... Is I'll be able to remember what I did today the day afterwords.

Please trash Fuse as I can't check my updates without having to wait 15 minutes for the page to "try" and load. The same goes for my profile, it takes FOREVER to load. It's very frustrating and doesn't make me feel very good about Gamespot anymore. =(

Who needs a worthless social network anyway. That's what we have Gamespot Unions for and friends lists. =/

It's also annoying seeing every little bit of activity anyone is doing. I just want to see my updates on games I am following. I don't care about what other people commented on. It's just afrustrating mess.

Thank you,

[A concerned and loyal Gamespot user.]

Haven't done this in awhile, thought I'd check in and say "I'm still alive". How are you all doing today? Steam summer has been alright, not much I've seen that truely interests me, nothing has had that effect of "must get!" I did though get Commander Keen the classic 1990's platformer. Loved the game since I was little and for $3 why not.

It's that time of the year again when I go to this Hydroplane event I work at every year. I've been doing this with my family for about 10-12 years now. This time not only am I doing my normal job, I will also be doing some video coverage this year!

Very happy about this considering I am a videographer. =)

Hope the heat hasn't gotten to a lot of you, I'm use to it, but my A/C did die in my house. =/

Been waiting to get a new one ordered, and the process so far hasn't been plesent. The communcation is pretty crappy and while I've been without A/C for about 2 weeks, this has got to end. Tons of fans running through my house currently with a portable A/C blowing through my living room at least. It's almost near impossible to edit any videos while my studio stays pretty warm and I just don't want to work in there. That and video gaming is just meh. It's been me and my 3DS.

Alright take care guys! Happy Summer!

~Josh

Here is a rant made by my friend DragonPS that talks about how the government controls the way we eat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28seVoeSQpk&feature=g-u-u

We the people should made a difference in this world and fix our food situation.

I would like to give a HUGE thanks to Gamespot and Jody Robinson for the awesome T-shirt that I was able to win! I was gonna get this blog out earlier but I have been swamped in work lately and finally since it's Friday, have the time to put up this quick thank you blog.

Also don't forget to check out E3! Live at Gamespot.com

Hey everyone! I just got a beta key for Ghost Recon Future Soldier. I don't have Xbox Live Gold so I thought I would give it out to one lucky Gamespoter!

DMWTX-7P4PM-PX6KM-RFH29-XWDJZ

https://live.xbox.com/en-US/RedeemToken

Please leave in the comments below that you have redeemed it.

Enjoy!

Did I mention that I have a Dark Soul? It's coming to my PC this Augest!

Very excited to see that Dark Souls is being ported to the PC. I've looked into the game since it came out and thought about getting it on 360, but after hearing we could get a possible PC release I held off and now today is that day!

What about you guys?

Are you excited for this?

Leave your comments and thoughts below.

Take care everyone!

Dragon makes a lot of very valid points in the gaming world every Monday and Friday. I enjoy all his videos and what he's got to say. I also love the fact that he includes the community in his videos, by getting everyones views on what they think.

This video makes a lot of valid points in which the gaming world has turned to dust and it's time for us to take a stand and undo what we started.

DRM, DLC, it needs to stop.

(DRM) Companies are spending money on useless and excessive DRM because of piracy.

(DLC) Companies think it's ok to give us a half assed game and expect us to pay for the rest.

This is just my opinon, what do you guys think?

Link to Dragons video down below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMyyOX23FJY&feature=colike

Welcome Back Jeff Gerstmann, it's been awhile since we've seen you around, and would like to formally welcome you back to the Gamespot environment. A lot has changed since you we're terminated back in 2007, but I believe you will figure everything out soon.

Ahh hell let's cut the sentimental crap, HE'S FREAKING BACK!!! With Giant Bomb on his side in the same office space as Gamespot. I am very happy to see him around again and finally glad to see that the past has been put to rest. No hard feelings right? =)

Simple and sweet welcome back blog.

Later folks.

For the past few weeks I have been enjoying the Mass Effect 3 demo, but there is one thing that annoys me with it.

This is something that Bioware should have learned from past games that failed back on the NES and SNES days.

One button, 3 different actions. I find it really annoying that the spacebar does 3 different things, the spacebar is used for sprinting, diving and taking cover. All that on one key is a problem when in heavy fire (mostly in the multiplayer). I don't know why Bioware didn't split the controls up, making it where sprint is on the shift key instead that is the menu key to look at your weapons and skills, which to be honest is pretty worthless in multiplayer.

I find myself diving instead of sprinting, taking cover instead of diving, and taking cover while trying to sprint out of an area under heavy fire.

In conclusion, why were the controls pasted from the single player, instead of tweaking them for the multiplayer?

Let me know your thoughts.

Take it easy guys.

I recently just placed an order off eBay for a PowerMac G5 Late October 2005 Model!

I am very excited for this! As I was with my purchase of Final Cut Studio 2 almost a year ago. Now instead of using my iBook G4 for working on small SD video edits, I can now harness the power of a much faster and much more powerful Mac.

I decided to go with the PowerMac G5 for several reasons; (here I will list 3 of the most important ones)

#1: Cheaper! (I didn't have the cash, nor did I want to spend $1700+ on a newer Mac)

#2: G5's are still powerful machines and still capable for video editing.

&

#3: All the applications I use don't require an Intel Mac, so there would be no point in me spending $1700+ on an Intel Mac (of course there would have been future proofing) but even then, everything I use is still on PowerPC.

Also with the lack of what I was expecting out of Final Cut Pro X, there really is no reason for me to go with an Intel Mac just quite yet.

I've been looking on eBay for a few weeks now, and finally landed on the best deal. Most of the deals I'd see, I'd wait on for a little bit and would be sold afterwords. But finally after days of research, and weeks of waiting, I found the best deal possible.

I had to make sure I wasn't getting the early 2005 models (which had liquid coolent issues) and found out that the late October 2005 models didn't have a liquid cooler, except for the late 2005 Quad Core models.

Here are the specs of my new Mac;

Processor

CPU: PowerPC 970MP "G5"

CPU Speed: 2.0GHz (dual-core)

CPU Cores: 2

FPU: integrated

Bus Speed: 1.0 GHz

Register Width: 64-bit

Data Bus Width: 64-bit

Address Bus Width: 64-bit

ROM: 1 MB ROM + 3 MB toolbox ROM loaded into RAM

RAM Type: PC4200 DDR

Minimum RAM Speed: 533 MHz

Onboard RAM: 0 MB 1gb

RAM slots: 8

Maximum RAM: 16.0 GB

Level 1 Cache: 32 kB data, 64 kB instruction

Level 2 Cache: 1 MB per-core (2 MB total)

Expansion Slots: 2x 4-lane, 2x 8-lane PCI Express

Video

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE with 128MB of GDDR SDRAM

Video Out: DVI

Storage

Hard Drive: 160 GB 7200 RPM

ATA Bus: Serial-ATA

Optical Drive: 32x/24x/20x/16x/16x/4x CD-RW/DVD±RW/DVD+R DL

Input/Output

USB: 4 (2.0)

Firewire: 2

Firewire800: 1

Audio Out: 2x stereo 24 bit mini, Optical S/PDIF

Audio In: stereo 24 bit mini, Optical S/PDIF

Speaker: mono

Networking

Ethernet: 10/100/1000Base-T

Miscellaneous

Power: 700 Watts

Dimensions: 20.1" H x 8.1" W x 18.7" D

Weight: 44.5 lbs.

===========================

While I will be upgrading the ram, since it is really cheap, 1 GB should do for now. The best part about this PowerMac G5 is it came with the power cord, mouse and keyboard which is a rarity.

Well that is all for now, I will be making an unboxing video of when it does arrive, so keep an eye on that on my channel.

Thanks for reading, and have an awesome week Gamespotters!

~Josh

{rant_start}

What has this world come to anymore? Besides all the other major things we've been dealing with *financhal trouble* ect... We've been having even more things going on....I.E hackers.....Last year was the worst of it, a lot of major companies getting hacked like Sony, EA, Valve, Sega, Eidos, ect.... (Add in any I missed since I probably missed some) And also, what is with email spam and cell phone text spam lately? Today and most recently I've been having to deal with a lot more of this crap, My hotmail account was disabled for spamming, obviously someone was using it for terrior and that really pissed me off, making me think, WHY THE HELL DO PEOPLE DO THIS!?!?!?! Same with my cell phone lately, I've been getting a lot of spam text messages. Can't hackers just stop and leave the world alone? I mean come on damn it, they think they are doing the world a favor, but they are really just pissing a lot of us off and causing unnecessary chaos. Hacking is cyber terriorism. In my eyes, if you're a hacker, you're a terroist. You do nothing but cause pain, unnecessary chaos, and you never prove a point. You think you are, but in reality you're just an asshat behind a desk failing to be a member of society.

What do you guys think?

Have you ever had something like this happen to you?

and How have you delt with it?

{Rant_end}

So I've been seeing a lot of these *Used game market is killing the game market* BS. Like today for example, Volition Inc. gave their 2 cents on the matter and agree that used games kills the market, and they want to see Microsoft create the new Xbox with the "Block used games feature"

I completely disagree with all of these asshats, it's not the used game markets fault for their failure in communication and their lack of creating games that are fair to the consumor.

Here's a list of what is killing the game market;

Over Obsessive DRM (We just want to play, we don't want to go through 10 differnt steps to get the game working)

Online Pass (If we're forced to buy brand new, then whats the point of buying it at all, some of us can't afford a new game every 6 months)

Requiring Constant Internet Connection (I can't stand games where you have to have a constant internet connection, maybe I want to travel with my laptop and enjoy it, but I can't since I have no internet)

Day 1 Release DLC (If the entire game isn't in the $60 package I just bought, and basicly forcing us to buy DLC that should have made it in the initial release, then no thanks, you got a deal breaker.)

5 Ticket Activation (I'm tired of some games that only let you activate it 5 or so times till you have to wait 30 days to be able to reactivate, or times when you have to activate the game, and you forget to uninstall it properly, so you lost one of your tickets.

1 Time Activation (This is actually where I hate steam, if I buy a full retail copy of a specific game, I'd expect to just to install and play, but when you have to have steam to activate, and maybe you bought it during vacation, then you have to wait to get home, or go to a friends house, or even go to your local Mcdonalds just to activate on steam and then play *which isn't safe on public wi-fi, since it has it's security flaws*)

Selling games used is good for the game market, it let's people buy games at a cheaper price if they can't afford it brand new or if you want to wait for a price drop. Most of my games I have bought either new, or used, most of my 360 collection is used, example, I bought Shadowrun on 360 for $3.50, old game, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on the game at launch, since it has very little content to offer.

Companies need to stop their b!tching and need to open their eyes for a change, they have nobody to blame but themselves.

They are the ones corrupting the game market.

They are the ones ripping the gamers off.

They are the ones forcing us to buy new, when some of us can't, or don't want to.

They are the ones making some games crappy, with little single player, and just more multiplayer, with little to no content to really offer.

Some games I am more then willing to spend the full $60 on, but not every single one since I can't afford it, so it's nice to buy it used at a cheaper price.

I will always be supporting Gamestop and Amazon for their game market, great titles at a fair price, even if I have to wait a bit to buy them.

Power to the gamers!

What are you're thoughts on the matter? As you can tell, I'm not a fan, and if this decides to be the norm, then it looks like I am out the game business.

My 3DS finally came! Still waiting for Street Fighter 4 though hopefully it comes today. But all and all, so far I love it! I have downloaded the Resident Evil Revelations demo and I gotta say....It's fantastic!!! The controls are what really takes the cake (even though we all know the cake is a lie) The graphics are very impressive for a handheld device and the sound is great as well. The 3D on the other hand...I like the capability but it gives me a headache and some eye strain after a few, probably just need to get use to it but when you do get the chance to look at it, it's very impressive (just make sure to not move around to much) So far I'm very happy with my purchase and I'm glad that I decided to buy one.

Once Street Fighter 4 is here it will be time to kick some ass and chew some bubble gum (to bad I am all out of gum though)