No, that's not a typo, I love Microsoft!

It's not a favorable or popular opinion in most circles, but I'm fine with that. My two favorite gaming systems are the Xbox 360 and my PC which runs Microsoft Windows Vista. Is this an attempt at gaining MS's favor and perhaps getting some freebies, no (though anything sent my way I won't reject )

I came to this realization yesterday after having finally got past a super easy boss in Star Wars Force Unleashed, for some reason I was completely stuck at this point for a long time and I'm still kinda unsure as to why, then I completed 6 levels last night and earned 12 more Achievements... and here's where the love was realized.

After having played Mass Effect a while back, discovering and loving the Achievement system I bought a new PC with Vista, and after getting used to the constant prompts for security I really like the layout, the ALT+Tab view options, navigation, heck even the backgrounds that came with the system. I especially enjoy how my old games look refreshed and renewed, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic looks better and plays better today then it did a few years ago when I first played (of course that's my processor and graphics card more than anything). But I put the 360 on the backburner so to speak, because I had this new gaming rig to play with.

Having finally surpassed this ridiculously easy boss in SW Force Unleashed and finally moving on (and not falling off bridges etc) as the Achievements started to pour in I started to enjoy the game more and more. As you all are well aware, when you get really stuck in game, it's not fun, it's frustrating... I already had the game on my To-Sell list for Ebay! Believe me! But the Achievements brought me back in. I really am terribly addicted to them. It's sad, isn't it?

This brings me back to the topic of this blog post, I really do love Microsoft. Yeah they may be a greedy, manipulative, bazillion-dollar monopoly who crushes their competitors without even the slightest blink, but hey, they do make some fun and very useful products. (there go my freebies)

Now just add Achievements to the Xbox Originals and you're GOLDEN! (Really just Dreamfall and Jade Empire, maybe Destroy All Humans? )

Today is our One Week Anniversary! The Elders Union is truckin' along. Come in and check us out. We currently have 28 Members and close to 200 Posts moving in our Union Board.

Hooray! The Elders Union is now in exsistance! Come on by and say Hello!

The Elders Union

We're slim pickin's right now but the Home Page and Forum will be spiffier by the end of the week! (Yes, I said spiffy, I'm old, remember?)

Hey All,

I've decided after several years of being on GameSpot and formerly having a UCB when I had a subscriber account that I'd create my own Union. The Union is currently awaiting 2 more Charter Members to accept the invitation *fingers crossed*. This Union will be a place to find other gamers of the older pursusian to play online with, review games, share opinions and just chat about the day-to-day in a (hopefully) mature manner.

The union will be called The Elders Union (like you didn't figure that out already from the title of this blog post) and will consist mainly of 22+ year old GameSpot regulars, however, everyone is welcome to post. The basic principles of the union are simple, no fanboyisms, no spam posting and trying to maintain a place where us older gamers can find others around our same age to talk with and play games with. (And yes, I know there are 17 year olds that are more mature than I (PMAC) and 40 year olds that are childish (not naming anyone here, lol), that's why the age rule isn't really a rule, just kind of a guideline of sorts.

Hope we make it! Come on Charter Members... Let's go!!!

Started Alone in the Dark last night for a few hours (wish I didn't work so I could be home playing it right now... )
It's good so far, but man I can't believe how many times I died in this game already and I'm only on Episode 2...

Here are some examples:
I set myself on fire and died
I stood in one place trying to figure out what to do so long that I died
I let go of a ledge and fell into flames and died
I got hit by an exploding car 3 times and died
I put out a bunch of fire around me but not the patch of fire I was standing on and died
I fell out a window and died
When I encountered the first enemy I couldn't figure out what to do and died
When swinging on a cable near an electrical outlet I touched it and died
While rappelling down the side of a building I stayed in one place too long and got hit with crumbling debris and died
I broke into a car and couldn't figure out how to start the engine so an enemy pulled me out of the car through the window and guess what... I died.

I unlocked 2 Achievements so far, one being the Blackout Achievement, apparently you can go through Episodes without encountering all sequences? How is that possible and why would you do that? Odd.

Hey Peoples,

It's been WAY too long since I've blogged!

I haven't moved, just expanded out to MySpace finally! http://www.myspace.com/suzabbe That's only taken like FOREVER! I'll still be here to track my games and friends on GameSpot of course.

Game Update:
I've finished 8 games, yes 8 so far in 2008!!!
1) Mass Effect
2) Resident Evil 4
3) Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles
4) Brain Age (finished all the Sudoku levels so I count this as a finish!)
5) Barrow Hill
6) The Simpsons Game
7) Next Life
8 ) Shadow of Destiny

It's been what seems like forever since I last blogged, 4th quarter is super busy for me at work and at home, with family and get-togethers like every weekend, holiday parties and shopping/wrapping gifts... Oy! It's pretty much over for now (minus the New Year's Partay this evening) I didn't meet my 4th quarter gaming goal (though I met them throughout the rest of the year) because I not only didn't finish 3 games this quarter, I didn't finish ANY! I played a few though.

Friday, December 28th I hit the mall and picked up an Xbox 360, added to my Wii, I'm now 2/3 of the way through the Next Generation, I figure I'll need a better TV for the PS3 and can't get myself to spend the doh on that particular system just yet. I picked up and so far love Dead Rising... how awesome is it to run through a line of moaning zombies with a lawn mower?! Or run them down in a car?! SWEET!

The games I've been playing (not finishing) are Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (I'm stuck on Talos' second form... ARGH! Yes, the last boss in his Last form!!!), Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, The Simpsons Game, Resident Evil 4 (picked this up again and have gotten to Krauser...annoying!), Brain Age, Dementium: The Ward and some of the 360 Arcade.

That's the update for now... have a Happy New Year all!

LOL Stuff...

Resident Evil: Extinction (3) is coming out on September 21st, who's going to go see it? I'll be there on opening day, even though it doesn't follow RE3 AT ALL... (Las Vegas vs. London, eh?)

Gaming Goals 3rd Quarter Update:

1. Titan Quest (PC)
2. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (PC)
3. Syberia (PC)
4. Keepsake (PC)

I've also successfully completed my 3rd quarter gaming goals with almost a whole month to spare! Yay me!

Just finished the Dark Side of KOTOR II...

***SPOILERS***

Ok, KOTOR was one of, if not my favorite game of all time... it was the perfect length, loved the characters, the story, the design, the maps... everything. KOTOR II... was a little too long (felt like I was running a marathon from place to place and back again) and HK-47 what happened to you?! You were so awesome in the first one... sadness. I found Kreia more irritating than Bastilla, and that's saying a lot.

Overall the design, maps, characters and story were all good, and you can't beat the sound (love that lightsaber sound!) just felt it was too much of "ok... now that you have *insert item* let's go back to *insert planet* and talk to *insert character* again!" It was like an RE game that lasted 50 hours.

Glitches - Oy! There were a few little glitches, encountered here and there where my character would get stuck in a spot or stand by a Metal Box spazzing out... no problem. But one HUGE glitch made me face the Beast guarding the Throne Room in the Palace on Onderon 3 times!!! I killed the beast and headed for the Throne Room, only to be bumped back again and again with the "You cannot leave this battle yet" line hovering above my head. The only thing I could do was load a previous save and try again. When this didn't work I had to delete the last two saves, work my way through the Palace once more, defeat the beast and was finally able to enter the throne room... ugh.

Kreia - Damn Old Windbag - she was hard... what's with the lightsabers floating in air?

Hum... the ending was a little anti-climatic. I noticed I missed unlocking 3 movies (Battle Circle on Dxun was one mission I didn't do and when I went back to do it, Dxun was cleared out all except 2-3 Mandalorians) but I'm thinking these may be Light-Side movies I'll get when I replay this on the Light Side.

***SPOILERS***

Gaming Goals 3rd Quarter Update:

1. Titan Quest (PC)
2. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (PC)
3.
4.

I'm so not-creative that I couldn't come up with a blog title...

Anywho, I picked up some new games from Ebay the other day and they arrived, safely and as described (Joy) Bloodrayne (PC), Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition (PC), Onimusha 3 (PC). With this shipment I got a bonus of Star Wars Best of the PC (includes Knights of the Old Republic, Jedi Outcast II, Republic Commando, Empire at War and Battlefront) sadly these are all games I already own... Why couldn't there have been like a Beta copy of Umbrella Chronicles in there or something!?

**RE4 SPOILERS***

I started to play Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition and was completely frustrated. I played about 2 hours of it and kept dying in Pueblo!!!! Yes PUEBLO! I couldn't get past the FIRST group of villagers in town (guy throwing knives from the roof, villagers running out of buildings and from bonfire)... So frustrating! I had made it through the NGC version to Bitores Mendes without any real issue... and made it into the Water Room after that. So I put down my Wiimote and picked up my NGC and played for a few hours (liking it better than last time)... I'm now on the part after you're first introduced to Krauser (past Vertugo (sp?!?) and past the Dos Gigantes. Had to witness Luis' death... that's tragic and annoying,I liked that character! The Wii version is so much harder! ARGH!

***RE4 SPOILERS***

Other than my annoyances at RE4: Wii Edition, I've been playing Bloodrayne, which is very uneventful... it's ok, but just ok. I plan on playing more Bloodrayne and hope that it gets a tad better... than moving back to one of the Star Wars games I loved but never finished... KOTOR II or Republic Commando...

That's all for now.

Hooray I purchased a Wii and have played a few hours on it already... love it! I've been only playing Wii Sports (which I played before on a friend's system) and of course, creating Mii's (why is this so addicting?)also picked up Ultimate Alliance to play co-op, and Resident Evil 4 to see if I like it better with the Wii controls. I'm looking forward to Umbrella Chronicles and playing RE co-op... (why did it take so long to get this?!)

3rd Quarter Gaming Goals Update:

I finished Titan Quest Single Player Campaign on Normal, which has unlocked Epic Level... not sure if I'll play that just yet, but the online co-op games I've got to get myself into.

1. Titan Quest (PC)
2.
3.
4.

I've been consumed by Titan Quest for the past week... I started playing it on Friday and have since played WAY too much! I've forced myself NOT to play when I get home from work and force myself NOT to play past 11pm...

For anyone who has played the game before, I'm in Egypt and on my way to get the Hand of Balance from the Great Sphinx. I'd say 65-70% complete? I've done all Side Quests along the way as well.

I noticed the game features a Multi-player co-op *drools* one of my favorite things in the world. Has anyone played the Titan Quest multiplayer co-op? Is it like Champions of Norrath, Alien Swarmor Hunter the Reckoning co-ops? I feel we should get a game going if it is...

1. Hunter The Reckoning (GC)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (PC)
3. Secrets of the Ark - A Broken Sword Game (PC)
4. Still Life (PC)

Just finished Still Life, which I found very easy in the puzzle department after playing Broken Sword (man those puzzles were difficult). So I finished my 2nd Quarter Gaming Goals with 2 days to spare! LOL

3rd Quarter here I come! I'm thinking: Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Grim Fandango, Broken Sword: Sleeping Dragon or Smoking Mirror and Silent Hill 3? Don't quote me on those! LOL

1. Hunter The Reckoning (GC)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (PC)
3. Secrets of the Ark - A Broken Sword Game (PC)
4.

One more to go with 1 week left in the quarter!

2nd Quarter keeps truckin on... I'm halfway there...

2nd Quarter Complete Games:

1. Hunter The Reckoning (GC)
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (PC) - Completed the Main Missions, 70% of the Challange Missions and 60% Sub Missions. The game isn't that great (no more than a 5.0)though so I'm not feelin' finishing all these Challenge and Dual missions.
3.
4.

A few months ago I opened a GameTap subscription (to play URU Online mainly), started the interface, found it easy to navigate and found a lot of titles I thought were interesting and I'd get to playing someday (Was saddened to see Xfire supported GameTap but didn't track specific games within it). 

Needless to say after about 3 hours of URU when it was first released, I hadn't turned on GameTap again.  A few days ago I decided to get into it and play some Tomb Raider Anniversary (possibly download it from GameTap).  The program wouldn't run, don't know why, just would start up and end... I'm a sucker for packaging so I decided to just purchase TR: Anniversary instead (need that manual!) And given that I hadn't used GameTap in a few months I decided to just cancel my subscription.  Went to GameTap's website, cancelled subscription via Live Chat.  Today I was checking my bank balance and noticed a $9.95 charge to my account from GameTap.  This charged was posted to my account the day after I cancelled my subscription.  So I go to GameTap's website again, via Live Chat and start the following conversation (I'm so annoyed it's not even funny):

I am CUS, the GT Rep is CSR (I cut out personal information for obvious reasons and things in parathesis are my comments post-convo, merely for entertainment purposes here on GS)

06/07/2007 10:55:57PM  Session Accepted CSR (Annah)
06/07/2007 10:55:57PM  Enter Session CSR (Annah)
06/07/2007 10:55:57PM  Message Sent CUS "I cancelled my account on June 5th, was charged on June 6."
06/07/2007 10:56:02PM  Message Sent CSR "Thank you for contacting GameTap Customer Support. My name is Annah. How may I assist you today?"
06/07/2007 10:56:20PM  Message Sent CSR "I am sorry to hear this happened."
06/07/2007 10:56:34PM  Message Sent CSR "What is your e-mail so I can pull up your account?"
06/07/2007 10:56:42PM  Message Sent CUS (EMAIL SUPPLIED)
06/07/2007 10:57:20PM  Message Sent CSR "May I ask what your method of cancellation was?"
06/07/2007 10:58:00PM  Message Sent CUS "Via this chat program"
06/07/2007 10:58:14PM  Message Sent CUS "I have the full chat in an email"
06/07/2007 10:58:25PM  Message Sent CSR "Okay."
06/07/2007 10:58:36PM  Message Sent CSR "What is your Tap ID?"
06/07/2007 10:58:40PM  Message Sent CUS "suzabbe"
06/07/2007 11:01:19PM  Message Sent CSR "This account is not active" (Stupid Comment #1!)
06/07/2007 11:01:48PM  Message Sent CUS "It should have been cancelled on June 5th"
06/07/2007 11:01:52PM  Message Sent CSR "It says here that you were charged on the 5th"
06/07/2007 11:01:58PM  Message Sent CSR "at 8:13 pm"
06/07/2007 11:02:05PM  Message Sent CUS "But I was charged for subscription on June 6th"
06/07/2007 11:02:12PM  Message Sent CUS "My statement shows the 6th" (This is stupid statement by ME #1, lol)
06/07/2007 11:02:25PM  Message Sent CSR "That's when it came out of your account, but we requested it on the 5th"
06/07/2007 11:02:43PM  Message Sent CUS "So this amount will not be refunded?"
06/07/2007 11:02:55PM  Message Sent CSR "No, I apologize."
06/07/2007 11:03:05PM  Message Sent CSR "I see in the notes here that you cancelled at 9:00 pm"
06/07/2007 11:03:12PM  Message Sent CUS "That's terrible Customer Service."
06/07/2007 11:03:14PM  Message Sent CSR "so the charge was before that."
06/07/2007 11:03:40PM  Message Sent CUS "I've cancelled with Netflix 3 days into a subscription and they've refunded."
06/07/2007 11:04:01PM  Message Sent CSR "I apologize, but we cannot refund this."
06/07/2007 11:04:29PM  Message Sent CUS "That's fantastic, I'll let all my online contacts know that."
06/07/2007 11:04:50PM  Message Sent CSR "I'm sorry you feel you have to do that."
06/07/2007 11:05:21PM  Message Sent CUS "It's ridiculous to not be refunded for what, 47 minutes?"
06/07/2007 11:05:55PM  Message Sent CSR "29 minutes." (Stupid Statement #2, Why is she correcting me making MY case better and making it clear she can't do math!)
06/07/2007 11:06:13PM  Message Sent CUS "You said I was charged at 8:13"
06/07/2007 11:06:34PM  Message Sent CUS "Account cancelled at 9pm"
06/07/2007 11:06:45PM  Message Sent CSR "Right, sorry"
06/07/2007 11:07:39PM  Message Sent CSR "I am sorry that I cannot refund the charge."
06/07/2007 11:07:45PM  Message Sent CSR "Is there anything else I can assist you with today?"
06/07/2007 11:08:00PM  Message Sent CUS "I'd like to escalate this request"
06/07/2007 11:08:11PM  Message Sent CSR "I cannot do that."
06/07/2007 11:08:36PM  Message Sent CSR "You do not fit the criteria for an escalation." (Stupid Statement #3, here I wondered if I was talking to a computer or a person!)
06/07/2007 11:08:47PM  Message Sent CSR "I know you don't want to hear that." (Stupid Statement #4, um yeah, you shouldn't have SAID that idiot!)
06/07/2007 11:09:09PM  Message Sent CUS "Really... what's the criteria?  What software developer do I work for?" (Which I do, but that doesn't really matter, lol)
06/07/2007 11:09:34PM  Message Sent CSR "The criteria is that you cancel before you are charged."
06/07/2007 11:09:56PM  Message Sent CSR "If we charge you by accident or GameTap does not work on your machine, then we can refund your money." (If only I had told them the program didn't work the day before... sigh... couldn't say it NOW... it would seem like a lie)
06/07/2007 11:11:55PM  Message Sent CUS "Thanks, consider this posted for public consumption."
06/07/2007 11:12:00PM  Message Sent CSR "Again, I apologize for the inconvenience. If there was anything I could do about this, I would, but I cannot."
06/07/2007 11:12:13PM  Leave Session                     CSR (Annah)
06/07/2007 11:12:13PM  Leave Session                     CUS
06/07/2007 11:12:13PM  Session Ended   

LAME-O!  Netflix rocks by the way!  Their Customer Service is awesome!                  

So the 2nd Quarter of 2007 is quickly coming to a close and I've barely played any games to fruition.

2nd Quarter Gaming Goals:

1. Hunter The Reckoning (GC)
2.
3.
4.

I have, however, seen over 30 movies in the past few months, having joined Netflix again, the most recent Peter Jackson's Dead Alive (lol) hilarious! I've got a little more than a month to finish 3 more games.  Yikes!  Where did the time go?!  I've been playing Pirates of the Caribbean At World's End, but I'm at the part where Movie 3 begins and I don't want to spoil the movie for myself... decisions decisions...

That's all for now.