Had a little bit better luck this week (despite my big disappointment at Toy's R Us which I will get to a little later, that was, of course, my fault ) than last week finding deals, though still nothing too great, still finding stuff, just nothing that great in price or that I'm interested in. I've finally got over the excitement and I'm only getting the games I'm actually interested in, so that definitely has helped limit my purchases.

On Tuesday I went to the mall, so I got to check Toy's R Us, Best Buy, Sear's, Game Stop and F.Y.E. found a couple good things, but nothing I really wanted and the things I actually wanted was gone. I received my $20 gift card for F.Y.E. so I'm trying to decide what I will burn that on My Toy's R Us had the deal on all the live stuff making it $10 off. I decided not to get it when I was there (or take advantage of the Buy One Get One $5 off $19.99 and under games, nothing was cheap enough or anything I wanted bad enough, so I didn't...

Let me set the record straight. If some of the same people dissing Kanye West for those who wouldnt run to your defense if it was the opposite way around.
Some of the same people booing him, are the same ones, calling us everything out the book. Remember that!!


Well first off, Most wonder why I just said kiss my %#&@$! to Hello Beautiful. You took my response down to your article on Kanye West actions last night to who Taylor Swift. Well I'm putting up my response to it anyway regardless. To all those that jumped on Kanye West back really need to check themselves and what is in the heartz of men to apologize to Taylor Swift for his actions. Are you that much of a kiss ass online. I swear %#&@$! does come from more than a woman. Have any of you been to a town hall, have any of you wrote or said anything against S.C Joe Wilson, or have any of you said anything about writing %#&@$! on a Air Force 1 plane. Now lets put you back into reality. You...

[B] [URL="http://superphillipcentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/metal-gear-solid-4-guns-of-patriots-ps3.html"]Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) Guest Review- ORIGINAL REVIEW HERE[/URL] [/B]

One of my biggest problems with the Metal Gear Solid franchise is its attempt to mimic Hollywood. Games are games-- not movies. Having to sit for twenty minutes watching a scene after only playing the game for five minutes is not good pacing. Don't get me started on the plot either. Regardless, that's why I didn't bother reviewing the following game-- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Instead, here's a guest review. How well did it stack up to its predecessors?

[CENTER][B]"Did You Rike It?"[/B]


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[/CENTER]
Back in 1998, Konami released Metal Gear Solid on the Sony Playstation. At that time, there hadn’t been any game quite like it. While the action-stealth gameplay was fun, it was the movie-like presentation that really brought that title to a different level. When the series landed on the PS2 a few years later, the visuals were given an overhaul helping both the gameplay and cinematic experiences further. Some would argue that this caused the decline of the series as you spent more time watching the game than actually playing, especially by the time the third installment rolled around. I was one of those people. Whereas MGS2 only became imbalanced near the very end, MGS3 had 10-15 minute cutscenes frequently throughout the course of the game. It wasn’t until a month or so ago that I saw that I missed out on a lot of fun stuff just because I didn’t give the game a chance. That’s the main reason why I tried to get back into the series by reviewing Portable Ops earlier this summer, and it’s also why it’s finally time for my review of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

It’s been a long while since gamers have been able to play as Solid Snake, and a lot has changed for our hero since then. Thanks to his imperfect cloning technology, his body is rapidly deteriorating before everyone’s eyes. There doesn’t appear to be much time left for Snake, but there’s still one last piece of business to finally take care of. . .his own brother, Liquid Ocelot. When gamers first take control of the aging hero and his quest, they’ll notice that it’s not just the hero that’s changed. You’re placed out in the middle of a desert city. This isn’t exactly the best place for a stealth mission, but you’re going to have to make the best of it. Luckily, you have a new suit referred to as OctoCamo. This device allows you to instantly blend into your surroundings just by leaning up against a wall or pressing your body along the floor.

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[B]War has changed. So has the battlefield.
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Of course, that new camouflage technology isn’t going to do you much good if an enemy spots you, now is it? Well, that’s not as bad as it would seem as you have multiple options for taking them out in this game. As usual, you’ll eventually earn both a regular and tranquilizer pistol. Well, those are only two of the near 70 weapons you can unlock over the course of your game. Some of these can actually be purchased off of a man named Drebin, but only if you earn enough points. Taking care of non-human targets, not using healing items, that sort of thing. It works out well when you tie it into how you can use these weapons. Because of the huge arsenal that you can acquire, you can literally tear through the enemy army should you so choose to. Even if you create the dreaded Alert phase, you actually have a chance to fight out of it. That said, I chose to take the more stealthy approach just to keep up with the tradition. It works both ways, although the rewards are more generous if you don’t harm anyone as usual.

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[B]Guns are unlocked for use once Snake earns enough points.
[/B][/CENTER]

The choices don’t stop there either. In the first couple of the game’s five acts, there are actually two armies fighting it out against each other. It’s your call as to whether or not you want to get Snake involved. If you do decide to play the hero and help out the local militia, then they’ll react more positively to his presence, letting him move around freely in their bases and even giving him items on occasion. Even better, if the enemy can be driven out altogether, then you are free to move about the area without any chance of causing an Alert. This is one of the things that make this opening part of the game so much fun. There’s just so many ways to go about completing the task at hand, and it makes for a great experience.

It’s just a shame that the whole game couldn’t be like that. For whatever reason, the game becomes much more linear once you start Act 3. While I don’t have any issue with playing the game, I do have a major issue with how little playing you actually get to do here. This act took me over two hours to complete, yet only around a half hour of it was spent playing. You don’t have to be a major in mathematics to realize that it’s just way too imbalanced. Worse, the scenes that you do see feel the need to explain the same thing that they had already told you just a few minutes earlier. I guess Konami knew that this part was going to be so boring that they tried to hammer the plot into your brain. Another thing that takes you out of the experience are the installation screens that the game throws at you six times through the course of the game. They only last for a few minutes, but every time you want to play through the game, you’re going to have to go over those screens again and again.

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[B]That would be funny if I didn’t have to look[/B]
[B]at the same installation screen for 20 minutes.[/B]
[/CENTER]
Another detriment to the game are the actual bosses. While these encounters are somewhat fun, they sure aren’t Liquid’s men from MGS, Dead Cell from MGS2, or even the Cobras from the third game. To be quite frank, the bosses in this game come off as filler villains. You’ll see them, they’ll spew some random sentences, beat them, and then hear their backstories through a quick post-battle codec call. It’s only when you meet up with past familiar faces do these foes get interesting. The final fight of Act 4 is one of the most fun, if out of place battles in the entire game. Even if you aren’t able to get much out of the story, I think you’ll also feel by the time you’ve finished the final battle that this was a fitting end to Solid Snake’s journey.

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[B]This game is absolutely gorgeous.[/B]

[/CENTER]
Metal Gear Solid 4 arguably could have been the best in the series. There are so many options, and many of them are easily accessible even to newcomers. The problem with this game comes from when the action is taken out of your hands and you’re forced to sift through a boring 20+ minute dialogue sequence that could have been taken care of in less than half that time. I still wound up enjoying the plot for the most part, but I still can’t shake the feeling that this game really tried to wrap things up as quickly as it could with those large chunks of text instead of just letting the player do so themselves. As a result, Guns of the Patriots doesn’t quite reach the level of its predecessors, but I still found this game to be an overall solid experience.

[B][SIZE=4][Overall: 8.75/10][/SIZE][/B]...

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I'm just dropping a short note on a strange phenomenon surround The Beatles: Rock Band. The retailers around me are filing them all under "R" for Rock Band. The Beatles brand was put first for a reason, and I'm guessing it's to differentiate it from other Rock Band games. Unfortunately, if the retailers don't comply and put it where people will be able to find it easily, that pretty much cancels that type of marketing out.

Last night I played a lot of Call of Duty: World at War with some fellow CAGs. Interestingly enough, we'd see from our chat party the little speakers going off when a map pack 1, 2, or 3 map would appear. People would vote to skip, not get it and the match would start. When me and my friends (who all own all the map packs) started playing the match the other team wasn't there, and would win via forfeit.



This happened about 5-7 times during the night. Once or twice it would even go from a skipped Map pack 1 map to a map pack 2 map and everyone on the other team would get dumped out and would score a hollow victory. Treyarch has a problem here. If you ask me, they should sell a bundle with all the maps for $19.99 or $14.99 in stores and on Xbox Live. Just slap on a nazi zombie on it and you'd sell it easily. That way we can all play on newer maps that...

Over the past few years I have built up my gaming collection dramatically. I usually play a game to completion and decide if I'm going to keep the game or sell it on Ebay. I usually sell the game unless the replay value is high or if I love the game. The problem is that I am buying alot more games than I am playing.

Currently I own the following number of games for the systems below:
Xbox 360: 79
PS3: 10
PS2: 123
PSP: 44
PS1: 37
Xbox: 148
Mame / Emulators: 1000s of games for arcade, NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbo 16, GBA, N64


I have now run into dilemmas as to which games I will play next due to the volume of games I own. I have come with with a priorty system / queue on an excel spreadsheet to assist with what I will play next.

I add games to the queue if I feel like its a priority to play this specific game. My criteria for adding games to the queue is as follows:

1. Friends...

The goal was to get this up a week ago. But that was before PAXflu struck. I'm still not sure if I have actual H1N1 flu or just the seasonal variety since my Doctor's office won't see anyone with flu-like symptoms unless it's really serious (3 days running a high temp), so I'm just sticking it out with soup, OJ and plenty of rest.

Last year I attended my first PAX. I was there for one day, the final day. It was enough to convince me to attend all three days for this year. And what a PAX it was, PAXflu notwithstanding. My goals for this year were: To play more games, attend more panels, and bring home more swag. I hit up just about every booth I could in search of swag, but some things did deter me, like the return of the insane L4D lines.

The KING of LINES was once again the Left for Dead 2 line. Upholding the proud tradition of the Left for Dead line from last year. It wasn't the length of the line, but how long people had been in it and not moved an inch....

Today, I took a little shopping trip to Best Buy to spend a gift card (that they sent me for being a crappy company that doesn't honor its policies) that was burning a hole in my pocket. I go over to the video game section and start looking around. Time to make a choice. Do I get Little Big Planet or The Beatles:RB for 360? I just got the new PS3 Slim and don't have any games for it yet so LBP was my choice but since I only had one controller and me and my girlfriend wanted something that we could play together we ended up getting The Beatles:RB. I was a little apprehensive about getting it because I knew it had only 45 songs compared to 80-90 songs on other music games. But I figured that this game was going to hold it value because of the Beatles name and I could get LBP cheaper on CAG so it was a better choice.

We get home and after a couple of hours of waiting we got around to playing The Beatles:RB. So I load the game onto my hard drive because I like how it is quieter...

Recently I bought a Dell Laptop, and I must say that I am amazed. I did not know that it would be widescreen, but that was a nice surprise. Since I ordered it directly from dell I got Windows Vista Home Basic, I didn't think I needed anything above Basic but unfortuantley I learned later that you can only upgrade to Windows 7 for free if you have a better edition. This kind of pisses me off because all versions are just as broken as each other. Yet only the higher ones get free upgrades. Oh well though....

So I wanted to know what kind of computers you guys had? Do you have Vista or XP? If so which versions?

[IMG-C=146]9194[/IMG-C]On the cover of the game You see the hulk on the right

But the only way to get to play as the hulk is if you pre-order from Best Buy

And in the gamestop ad where the fight for juggernaut at one point the say "you can have hulk"

NO YOU CANT HAVE HULK IF YOU GET THE GAME FROM GAMESTOP

Everyone was really helpful in helping me making the decision of what to do with the games I want. So, I thought I would turn to my fellow CAG's one more time. I find myself with yet another dilemma. This time, it involves when to get some games I want and from where. If you don't know already, I joined CAG to reduce the money I'm spending on games. Well, in a way I did, but I've really not been spending less, per game, yes I'm not spending as much, but overall I'm spending as much because I have bought so many games and things. So, I'm trying to decide what to do. Here are my options:

Option 1:
Toy's R Us Tuesday

Scribblenauts $29.99 with $15 giftcard
Mario and Luigi Bowser's Inside Story: $34.99 with $10 giftcard (would like to get the extra $5 but can't get over to Toy's R Us today to get the coupon)
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box: $29.99 and pay for it with the $25 in giftcards.

Total with tax: $76.14 (using $25 in...

Its been a month since my last blog and a good bit has happened. I survived the hectic summer semester that had me worried, particularly since I was required to read about 40 books in a 6 week period and I was not a big reader. Now I'm about to start the fourth week of my senior year in college!

I celebrated my 26th birthday last month and got together with some close friends to spend a day relaxing, socializing and playing video games. Plus, there was an ice cream cake surprise at the end. The day was spent between Halo 3, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: World at War, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Lips. Now that I think about it I'm surprised we were able to fit all of that in. My buddies all chipped in and got me a 100lb punching bag...

Think of how many headaches we've had since video games have been put on CD/DVD.

How many times have you scratched a game, even by accedent? Maybe it wasn't sitting in the tray just right, and it got scraped as the tray tried closing.

How oftan have you gone to trade in games, and the guy says, I can't take this one, its scratched.

In rare cases, some of us have broken the disc just getting it out of the damn case! You look and see a little crack near the inside whole, and then one day, it spreads out.

How many times have you been sitting there looking at a friggin' loading screen?

How many fingerprints have you cleaned off a disc?

How many times have you lent a game to someone, and when you got it back, you looked at the disc and thought, what the HELL did they do to this thing?!?

How many time have you brought a game to a friends how to play it, only to realize you forgot to bring...

i know i don't blog too much on here but i thought today was a good enough time. It's been a dream of mines to fly to Japan and take the country by storm. Anyways, with the little money i had, i booked a trip to Japan. Since arriving to Japan, i have to say it's a great place and i have a feeling i don't want to come back home. J/K The arcades, food and people are very outstanding. I have to say people are very nice out here and are very understanding by helping me around the city. They are very patience trying to understand me with the very minor japanese phrase i do know. Since i'm new to the country i want to know if any CAGS want to meet up and show me around Tokyo. I have a few days open and i thought it won't be a bad idea to hitting fellow CAGS. I'm currently staying in Shinjuku and hope to see more of the local districts in Tokyo. Anyways, i hope someone answers the call and help me out. Trust me, i'll remember to pay back the favor by showing you around in San diego, Orange, and...

thought you all might enjoy this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pOoS...layer_embedded

All games are for Xbox 360 unless otherwise specified:

Amazon.com:

Batman Arkham Asylum: New 52.99 w/ free shipping and a $10.00 cupoun to use on a future game purchase
Lego Batman: New $10.00
Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga: New $10.00
Okami: PS2 / New: $14.99
Powerstone Collection PSP New $12.99
Strategy Guides: $12 each for Halo Wars and King of Fighters XII
Amazon is also running a special for video game magazines. If you buy any game you get a video game magazine for 1 year half off and and extra $5.00 off. I got the Xbox magazine for 6.40 for the year and the Playstation magazine for 4.35 for the year!

Best Buy:

I got all of of these games in the sale bins / clearance tables:

King of Fighters XII New $10.00 (Yea this just came out a month or so ago)
Guilty Gear 2 Overture New $5.00
Battlefield Bad Company new $5.00
Don King Prize Fighter Boxing new $5.00...

Today was the Gamecrazy Game Fair in my small city, and DJ Hero was playable to the public for the first time. I had a few goes at it, and thought I would post my impressions.

Gameplay (have no idea if this has been covered or not on other professional impressions posts, so please forgive me). The core parts of DJ Hero are three buttons, green, blue, and red on a turntable, and a slider switch. Options buttons include a music effects knob to change the sound of the music during certain part of the songs and another button for star power, caled euphoria.

The layout of the buttons (from left right) is green, red, and blue, which form a constant line which shows which buttons to hit. On the turn table, you either have to simply press a button when the game says to, or hold down the button while spinning the turntable back and forth. The slider is used with the green and blue lines;...