My brain is exploding trying to think of all the things that I have done since I "retired" back in May. Hell, I haven't even really updated you technically since sometime in April. I am probably just going to separate these in to small paragraphs just to keep this from becoming insanely long. I'm going to try to recall what I did month by month so let's get started.

APRIL
In April I was still around but I was focused on bringing you NLID (Now Loading In-Depth) coverage of Phantasy Star 2 and didn't talk about the games that I had been playing much. The first was Fez and fun little puzzle platformer with some amazing secrets locked away by a cryptic code for players to decipher. Then I picked up the Witcher 2, other than the amazing graphics and interesting characters, I never found any enjoyment from the clunky combat. Lastly it was MLB 2K12 / NBA 2K12... I kind of wanted to play a baseball videogame and for $10 more I could get NBA 2K12, so I figured what the hell and tried them both out. Turns out the hitting in MLB 2K12 is just about as frustratingly difficult as it is in real-life and I don't have a clue about basketball so when the game was yelling at me for bad "transitional defense" I had no clue what that meant so I gave on both games.

MAY
May was a pretty crazy month for games and which was what partly inspired me to stop blogging. First was Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition which my friends and I proceeded to play for play for 10 hours a day for nearly a week. I have still been playing it quite a bit and it's now updated to 1.7.3 and it looks like the next update will get to be a least on par with the PC version. I picked up 7 games from the bargain bin for about $20 bucks each but I have only played 3 of them. Duke Nukem Forever is a pretty messed up game but it has some fun old school game play that I enjoyed to a certain point, gotta finish this one soon. Next was RAGE, more old school FPS action and I enjoyed the game up all the to ending, no epic final boss, no closure... the game sort of just stops... there aren't even any credits. I then played Metro 2033, this game has great atmosphere, but the feel of the weaponry just did click with me. There was something weird with the aiming and I it sucked a lot of the fun out of the game. The last game of the month was Dragon's Dogma, there is a lot to like about this game and a lot to dislike as well. Fighting epic monsters by climbing and grabbing on to the them is amazing, the pawn system is cool, but has flaws and the repetitive placement of the monsters gets pretty old... I'll have to get back in to this one and finish it off.

JUNE
June was when I actually played Rage, but the game I played the most was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. I started a new character and played almost 140 hours with it until I burned out in mid-july. I also played through the Dawnguard expansion and it was pretty good and the new weapons and armor add some fresh new flavor to the game. Other than that not too much happened.

JULY
I finished Metro 2033. The main thing I did was playthrough the entire Saints Row series. Saints Row 1 was a fun start, Saints Row 2 took that great start and made it a champion with tons of new gameplay, music and customization. Then we have Saints Row: The Third, a fun game in its own right, but as a 3rd game in series pales in comparison to the second game. The streamlining kills it, everything is menu driven and even things like clothing customization is simplified. Though on a technical note this is Volition's best game as the graphics and polish level are high. Bottomline: 2nd game is still my favorite. I played the XBLA release of Dungeon Fighter and it is a fun game with too many flaws, plus it is a pain to play multiplayer as you have to invite all your friends back to a party after every dungeon. Last new was Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD. I enjoy the fact the game goes back to the basics, but it goes a bit too far leaving out the wonderful revert from THPS 3. Plus it's a bit glitchy. I also got into Tales of Vesperia but got distracted by a game I started playing in the next month.

AUGUST
Well, this isn't the game distracted me, but I bought Deadlight at the beginning of the month and while it has enjoyable parts, it especially makes a good first impression, by the end the frustrations of trial and error sections really dragged the game down for me. The game that distracted me was one of my favorites this generation: Fallout 3, I spent another 70 hours playing a new character through the main game / broken steel and all the DLC's. I then moved on to Fallout: New Vegas, I actually discovered it is cheaper to buy the Ultimate Edition with all the DLC then it is to buy all the DLC off the store. That's right it costs more for the DLC on the marketplace then it does to buy THE GAME AND THE DLC with the Ultimate Edition. I have put over 50 hours in to my new character and have been enjoying myself and the new patches seem to have helped the game tremendously since I last played it in December 2010. Also Old World Blues is awesome.

I think that about covers it what I have been doing the last few months. I'll let this sit here for a few days and then I will post the first of the two Top 10 lists I did while I was away... My 10 favorite games of this generation. Talk to you then, Loading Complete!