Grand Theft Auto 4: The Lost and Damned

There's one part in Grand Theft Auto 4 that this Jason guy reminds me of is when you go kill Mr.Faustin's (Mikhail Faustin) daughter's boyfriend, it reminded me of the mission. One part he talked about a daughter named Anna who he thinks that his daughter is turning into a whore. So when you go by Mr. Faustin's orders to kill Anna's boyfriend I remember him saying, "I'm going to get the brothers and we're gonna kick your **** ass" I killed him before he got to where ever his bike brothers were. With that said I think this exclusive downloadable pack for the XBOX 360 is almost like a prequel to Grand Theft Auto 4 because I'm pretty sure Jason (if him) was dating Mr. Faustin's daughter before Niko Bellic (you) got to Liberty City. The only other reason why this theory came to my head was the guy's voice because I thought he sounded like a punk for looking like a criminal because he needed his "brothers" lol, it was a group comment.

I stumbled upon Game Trailers when I saw the "new exclusive download" for the XBOX 360 and thought I'd check it out. I knew about this before I get my PlayStation 3 version and didn't think they could really do all that much considering not all XBOX 360s have large HDDs (Hard Drive Disks), enough is there for me to be satisfied, and plus all I could see was new missions, multiplayer modes, more city, or more customization with your online avatar. In the end I just didn't think it would be worth it and plus I'd rather play for free online even though it satisfies a lot of people I'm just use to PC gaming. After searching the internet the mission is called "No Love Lost" the nineteenth mission you go on in the game. I haven't beaten the game yet so I don't know if killing the daughter's boyfriend caused anything. Lol, most of the characters look like you (Niko Bellic).

With all that said do you think I'm right about the XBOX 360 exclusive download because I haven't been keeping up to date with things lately? Lol, I would look stupid if it was already announced and I went through all this for nothing, but things happen.

They should add bikes and skateboards to travel around and do tricks. It would be awesome if they added sports like basketball, baseball, etc. and you could make teams. There could also be a Home league for the sport and the winning team gets a Home trophy.SaucyManu

Impressions PlayStation Home

PlayStation Home is a 3D virtual community for PlayStation 3 users, it's an interactive virtual space where users meet up, hang out, and explore a connected world. It's free of charge and is available from the cross media bar (XMB). PlayStation Home is a 3D virtual community for PlayStation 3 users, it's an interactive virtual space where users meet up, hang out, and explore a connected world. It's free of charge and is available from the cross media bar (XMB). Community a group of interacting organisms sharing an environment, a group of people sharing common interests, participation, and fellowship. A group of plants and animals living and interacting with one another in a specific region under relatively similar environmental conditions or a region occupied by a group of interacting organisms. Interacting is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another.

PlayStation Home is in its open beta meaning that it isn't really the final version of Home but is still working out the kinks. I've had experienced some difficulties with Home when just entering it for the first time with the update. Once in you'll have to create your avatar that consists of three options presets, character, clothing, and load/save. Presets are exactly what you think they are with avatars already made for you. In the character option there is gender, structure, face, body shape, skin, hair, and makeup (female). With each section in the character option there will be in depth character sculpting still ultimately hard to recreate yourself in Home. You can tweak eye darkness, wrinkles, colour, the whole face structure, neck, mouth, cheeks, to body shape/height.

Once you're satisfied with that you can go into the clothing option to change/add headgear, hand accessories, torso, legs, feet, jewellery, or accessories in general. The avatars look good enough and in my opinion the best looking avatars around. Once you're done with the avatar you can save up to nine different avatar load outs.

You'll then pop into what I like to call your 3D profile since you can eventually upload if not already content from your HDD (Hard Drive Disk) to your own space. You can decorate your space in twelve categories picture frame, chairs, footstools, tables, storage, flooring, ornaments, cubes, lights, sofas, appliances, and wallpaper. Since this is a beta there are limitations to what you can do as of speaking right now so I'm hoping for more items available at launch. Of course you have a menu system that is a shape of some kind of PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and not the PlayStation Portable, odd. The personal space is designed nicely but I'm guessing the bigger estates are a lot nicer.

The menu is in a list **** with personal, locations, friends list, clubs, alerts, game launching, communication, community, help, settings, and downloads. What I like about this is that you remain in the space while looking at your PDA to me it kind of adds to the immersion. What I also like is that you can download areas for the first time in the background while you do other things. Even though for the most part the PDA is like the XMB you can still pull up the XMB which is nice, completely giving you freedom.

In the Mall you can buy bigger spaces, clothing, furniture, and play with board games. Some of the store names consist of Home threads, Home estates, and Home Stuff that ultimately just describes what they offer instead of real world names. I like how you're able to purchase items in The Mall it's simple and easy even though I haven't bought anything yet. The Home Theatre is a small place that basically is setup like a real life theatre with seats displaying one single screen. The videos that are pushed into the space is the Twilight Trailer and the music video that pertains to the movie Twilight. I'm hoping that the actual launch will have a bigger theatre and would actually simulate a theatre building and not just the theatre itself. I just find it a little too small and would add to the realism in my opinion.

In the Central Plaza you can play a game called "Saucer Pop" where the object of the game is to collect items in a flying saucer while avoiding objects. You can sit down, dance, and is pretty much boring because - PlayStation Home is a 3D virtual community for PlayStation 3 users, it's an interactive virtual space where users meet up, hang out, and explore a connected world. It's free of charge and is available from the cross media bar (XMB) - sorry about that there must be a glitch in the system. Because there is nothing else to do but look at advertisements (laughs), in my opinion this is a good thing. I say that because Sony will be advertising in the right place as well getting money for advertising other companies' products. This is what will keep it free in my opinion and ads a sense of realism with all the real world elements. This place is mainly for socializing, yes that's right fellow gamers it's time to whip out those headsets, keypads, keyboards, or virtual keyboards because this is the heart of the application.

You're able to interact with other avatars through your avatar in two ways, prefixed text (quick right) or avatar animations (emotes). With the animations there are six categories greeting, conversation, celebration, disappointment, extra, and dance. The prefixed text consist of hello, goodbye, yes, no etc giving people quick responses if you're one of those anti-social gamers. The avatar movements consist of beckon, yawn, laugh, dismissive, pose, or robot with many other things to do. You have to give it to Sony for actually making use of the avatars unlike a company that everyone loves so. The saddest thing is that most people I've encountered have no headset and sometimes will add you randomly just to run away. Honestly, I hate the stereotype that gamers are anti-social and finally Sony comes out with a - PlayStation Home is a 3D virtual community for PlayStation 3 users, it's an interactive virtual space where users meet up, hang out, and explore a connected world. It's free of charge and is available from the cross media bar (XMB) - pathetic attempt to win over gamers' hearts with a Barbie simulator.

The Bowling Alley of course has bowling, pool tables, and arcade machines with games called Ice Breaker, Echochrome, and Carriage Return. Carriage Return you line up the carriages and make sure they arrive before the time runs out. Echochrome you collect the echoes (shadows of yourself) and avoid enemies in the optical illusion stages. Ice Breaker you keep the ball bouncing and smash all of the ice blocks in order to win. By playing these games to win you'll be rewarded with outfits that pertain to the game when beating Echochrome you get the costume to look like the character you control. In this section I do wish you could watch other people play while playing any of the arcade machines. The games themselves work just as you think they would with a good level of quality that I'm impressed with.

The developer spaces that are available is Far Cry 2 and Uncharted that look pretty interesting and is unique. I say this is a good start to things and would love to see where this goes especially with exclusive titles that Sony wants you to buy. I hope eventually you'll be able to watch live or pre-recorded tournaments to talk about while you're watching it.

In the end there's nothing to do in this "PlayStation Home" Sony didn't deliver on the promise - PlayStation Home is a 3D virtual community for PlayStation 3 users, it's an interactive virtual space where users meet up, hang out, and explore a connected world. It's free of charge and is available from the cross media bar (XMB). - and just made a pathetic attempt to make me be social. I say, "Screw you Sony for trying to make gamers not anti-social and I want to continue to be that stereotype that people have over gamers." Since it's a beta and will be free and most of the time all you do is just talk, I guess it will be ok, I'll have to see. Hell, is it anything different than this website?

Defining a Gamer

Since many words come from other words it'll be natural that I use pre-existing words to define words in the gaming community. What I find with people who try to define what is casual and hardcore they don't break it down into sub-categories. Let's start with the title "Casual Gamer" is just a permissive person who plays at irregular / infrequent intervals. I would say there are two types of casual gamers the one (Neutral Gamer) that really enjoys the time playing and the other (Impulsive Gamer) who just goes with the flow seeing it as second nature. Now going to the hardcore gamers where I think many people should really use sub-categories since there are so many different levels.

As for the main category the "Hardcore Gamer" is someone who knows the basics of the industry, is an informed gamer, generally challenges themselves/sets goals, knows what they want, and strives to get it; is what centrally drives them to games. I've been searching the internet for what people thought and will put other types of gamers under the hardcore category. First up will be the cyber-athlete/professional (pro) gamer, is the type of person who plays games for money almost to the point it's like a career, or is looking for money by playing video games. Retro gamer, is a person who enjoys playing/collecting vintage games and can't live without the backwards compatibilities on consoles/emulators. Import gamer, is a person who loves playing games that aren't from their region even if it's a different language than theirs.

Elite gamer, is a person who knows a lot about their particular platform, thinks it's the best no matter what, and would rather be caught dead instead of playing games on the rival platform(s). Fanatic gamer (Fan-base), is a person who can be a follower of the numbers/sales, games (franchises, series), genres (Real Time Strategy, First Person Shooter), developer(s)/person(s), products (toys, controllers, canned beverages) and overall has an intense liking, occasionally has an overwhelming obsession. This term is altered in the gaming community for some odd reason, but I personally think it (Fan-boy/girl) should be called "Elitism" not "Fanatics'." I believe being a fanatic draws gamers together like Trekkers /Trekkies at Star Trek conventions.

As you can see being a hardcore gamer isn't defined by how much you play, but your incentive to play. With all hardcore gamers they're well informed about the gaming industry otherwise they wouldn't be able to import games knowing the names of the games they want, or even knowing how to play/purchase games from previous generations. Remember now this isn't a surgical operation where you have to meet certain criteria to be called hardcore; example playing a single game for at least 6-12 hours straight. You can also be more than one if you think you just don't fall into one type of hardcore gamer, but at least gives you an idea of where I'm heading with this.

Continued...

I want users to try to pick out the cracks in my opinion and contradict my thoughts. Even if you don't debate, do you think it's a good definition of what is a "Casual Gamer" to a "Hardcore Gamer?"

I have been playing games long enough to know what I like, and in most cases like Shamus said I hold the opinion of friends around in here in a lot higher regard than any reviewer. But nowadays you can download demos for yourself too so its a lot easier to make a buying decision.GodModeEnabled

Some good games have bad demos, in the end I just use collective info/reviews on whether I want a game or not.

If anyone is still reading / watching this forum here are a couple of games that were review to me seem wrong:

The Getaway - Game Spot 6.9/10, IGN 7/10, Total PlayStation 8/10 (Should have got anywhere under half way 5.0)

Perfect Dark Zero - Game Spot 9.0/10, IGN 8.4/10, 1Up 9/10 (It was a dated Golden Eye an average at best with buggy multiplayer)

Resident Evil: Outbreak - Game Spot 7.2/10, IGN 7.6/10, and anyone else who gave it above average (If anything you could get away with an average score 5-6/10, but this game was pretty much unplayable)

Maybe it's just me and I'm just creating something that isn't there because I'm not as an informed critic as I liked to be. I was hoping that fanatics of different kinds of games would come forth to contradict me. Since professionals and fanatics of particular series would know a lot more than me. At the same time I don't understand when a game like Ninja Gaiden doesn't get a 9.0 people start saying it sucks. At the same time X-Play would give it a 4 and everyone is happy when in reality 4 is equivalent to a 7-8 margin on a 1-10 scale. Then sometimes I agree with the score, but now how the score came to be.

Well there is a thing called "over analyzing" and I just might be taking the reviews too seriously. The Haze example to me was a pretty good one because IGN gave it a 4.5, X-Play 2 (3-4), while Game Spot a 6.0. If the controls didn't work respond properly all the time and had poor design chooses shouldn't Game Spot given it anything under 5.0? In the end I'm guessing its just opinion that drives the scores the most.

I assume that by saying critics, you're referring to website reviewers. I think for the most part they do a good job. The problem with critics is that they can only give you their opinion. Those opinions should really not be what other people go by. The other thing is that reviewers play so many games, that its easy for them to become jaded and bored by games that may appeal to people who do not play that same number of games.

One last thing to think about is the audience that reviewers are reaching out to. I'm sure reviews and opinions are written with "short attention span" teenagers in mind.

That said, I think reviewers are doing a good job these days of being as objective and as informative as possible.

Grieverr

I'm a teenager and I read reviews as well as watch them if available. Have you have thought a review of a got so high / low and wasn't justified? I also think when gaming sites have a scale of 1-10 they tend to never give a score out of the rang of 5-9 or 6-9 when I consider a 5 and up a buy. Since 5 is in the middle that would mean the game is mediocre / average which isn't a bad thing because the game isn't broken. I also find that they love to give many sports games around the same score no matter how much or little content is put in. I find most sports games around 5 because they don't really do much to differentiate themselves from others.

I find Reviews on the Run one of the few sites / shows that have a scale of one to ten to actually use their whole scale. For the most part I think the industry is a hit and miss with the critics. I can never really tell from the score if I should get a certain sports game when every version is pretty much the same score. I would have to read each one to actually determine if it's a good upgrade or not. It almost ruins the whole point of the scoring in the first place and then there are games that are over hyped with no substance to hold it down.

Generally speaking though if someone does like a product / event a lot they tend not to have much to say than if they didn't enjoy it. Now that is understandable, but that isn't the problem.

The Performances of the Critics

When going into a game I think critics should consider being observant, informed, sensitive, demanding, and articulate. Being observant is having an opened mind and is going into the game as if it's a clean slate for the developer. It'll be one thing going into a game just to say to yourself I have to sit through this garbage, you'll be surprised of the results. Being an informed critic is more on the professional side of things for the fact that not everyone will buy every single game available.

How many amateurs played every single PlayStation 2 game so that they can compare it to others? Being a sensitive critic is questing, not self-satisfied; kind, not self-absorbed; and overall understands we all need helping hands in this never-ending adventure of development. Being a demanding critic is holding the developers to its highest standards in other words don't expect a 20 person crew to create a Killzone 2 / Halo 3 killer. Lastly an articulate critic is to express one's thoughts with precision, clarity, and grace. Simply saying "I hate this" or "I love this" is just expressing ones opinion. Robert Cohen says, "Articulation means the careful building of ideas through a presentation of evidence, logic argument, the use of helpful analogy and example, and a **** of expression neither pedantically turgid nor idiosyncratically anarchic." Basically criticism should be a pleasant read and not suffocating readers with prejudices or egotistical showing of the critic.

Continued...

I just copied and pasted the one of the important parts of my blog because everyone knows gamers are avid readers, right? Anyways I posted this in the forums for people to question my thoughts so I can see how strong my points are against other gamers if they dissagree. So if you do dissagree state why in order to get something going and keep in mind I won't answer right away.