It's a weird thing, I'm what some would consider a hardcore gamer, most of you probably just see me as just a gamer. I've owned every console since the NES/Master System, before that I owned a Commodore 64 and all that has been missing was a Playstation 3, here is what is weird, it wasn't until last week that I finally got to play on one, none of my friends or family own one, except for a friend of mine who recently bought 1.
He bought his PS3 a few weeks ago with CoD4, excellent game, played it quite a lot on the 360, so I figured let's try it on the PS3, now seeing as I just bought a PS3 you must be thinking I loved it, well you couldn't be wrong, seriously that controller is 1 piece of shit for shooters compared to the 360 controller, not only is the controller outdated and the position of the thumbstick is wrong, but the whole controller is just too damn small for my hands, and sprinting felt annoying because my fingers were sliding over the thumbstick. Obviously if you get used to it (again) then it will be different, but as a long time PSX/PS2 player, you would think it would feel better then that, but it seems I've been spoiled with the 360 controller.
 
So why did I buy a PS3 you might wonder, well simply put, I got a deal of a lifetime. The new slim models cost 300 euro, they been selling the old model for say 250, 1 store on the other hand went completely nuts and sold 5 different PS3 packages a while ago for 180 euro, yesterday they sold their last package deal, it was with Infamous, a game that I've been tracking since the 2007 E3, while the box might be damaged (last ones in the stores?), for 180 euro you simply can't complain, the game alone costs 45 euro at the cheapest webshop with, 135 euro for a PS3, how shit that controller might be, and how much Sony screwed us by removing any support for PS2 games, that's just not a deal I can pass up.
 
In a few days I will finally own all the current gen consoles and handheld add to that my gaming rig (Phenom II x3, Radeon 4890, 4 gig, 24 inch screen etc), there is finally no game that can escape me, beginning with Infamous which has been the number 1 game I had to have that I could not play yet.

So as some might know (and with some I mean like 1.2 person) I've been putting a complete new PC together, I ordered it all on Saturday with 4 different webshop (cheapest), I got some of it in on Tuesday (was given to a neighbor), I got my case on Wednesday and another package yesterday. Now yesterday I called about my videocard which had a 2 day delivery date which it still had on Wednesday, so I figured I'd call on when I would receive it, they told me it would hopefully be in this month... right like I want to wait weeks for my videocard, I mean it's my videocard, I can't do shit without it because my old videocard is still a AGP card. So I changed my order from a overclocked MSI to a overclocked Asus, I prefered the MSI, but figured it wasn't worth the wait, so they send it yesterday, so I just got home and found a note that they were here and they will try again tomorrow... why didn't they just give it to a neighbour damnit... I want my videocard! :P
 
Anyway my new PC specs are:
 
AMD Phenom II x3 710
ATI/Asus Radeon 4890 OC at 900/4000
4GB OCZ High performance DDR3
MSI 770-C45 mainboard 
BenQ G2400WD (24inch @ 1920x1200)
Logitech G11 keyboard
Logitech MX revolution mouse
Samsung DVD Drive
Corsair power supply
NZXT Alpha case
 
I didn't really plan to get a new PC, but with the 360 and PS3 living a lot longer then I would like (I don't mind spending money every 4 years for a new console) I figured a PC should do, besides games such a TF2 that heavily relies on constant updates and community stuff, a PC is simply a must. Add to that that LCD panels are extremely cheap these days and they make your desk look clean, I simply had to get a new PC. ;)
Btw I normally use a laptop (Turion 64 x2 CPU/2 gig memory, so it still has plenty of power for regular stuff), and I will continue to use it for everything but games and video, that way I will keep this PC clean. My old PC was a AMD Athlon XP 2500+ with 1 gig memory and a Geforce 6800GT, so I just couldn't do anything with that anymore, the mouse is 7 years old (still use it for my laptop because it still works great for regular stuff), the keyboard used to belong to my grandfather and has lots of burned plastic from his ciggarettes and the monitor also used to belong to him which is a 17inch CRT, so yeah, I had to get a complete new system. ;)
 
Now if only I had my videocard... on the plus side I am using my monitor, G11 and MX revolution. ;)
Oh and incase anyone wonders about the price, it was about 930 euro, ofcourse if you were to buy this from a regular vendor already built you are probably looking at 1500 atleast.

Just got in my new screen, the BenQ G2400WD 1920x1200. Apparently they are stopping with the 16:10 screens, which is fine, except that the resolution doesn't go up unless you go way bigger. Anyway this screen is great, my brother has had it for well over a year and with my buying a new PC (mainly used a laptop the past 1,5 year with my 360 for games) I figured it was time to get a nice big screen (my old was a 17 inch CRT).
But seriously... this is still fucking huge...
 
Not sure what kind of components I will use, but I will be getting a Ati 4890, probably a triple core, 4 gigs, G11 keyboard, not sure about the mouse, and some other bits and pieces.

For a few years now the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchise is extremely popular, sales are through the roof, everyone has heard about it and many have played it, it's a great thing really, because those games are not only just fun, but you also find out about more cool music.

Having played most of the songs in these games I've played many of my favorites, but I've also got new favorites through it, in some cases I loved it so much that i got the album, but in most cases it just stays with that single song, so like many people I visit Youtube regularly and look up those songs, while I usually don't bother to read the comments as the average mental age must below 13, I sometimes catch a glimp of it when I scroll down and there is the weirdest part.

A lot of people hate it that "their" band is found out by lots of "n00bs" who only like the song because it's in 1 of these games... I simply don't get that, sure people are ignorant, sure people are stupid, sure people always try to annoy others, but common, this is just so extremely stupid, I mean whether we find music through radio, MTV (and the likes), a friend, a movie, a commercial, at a music event or in this case a game, does it really matter? For some reason people feel elite when they like music not many people know about, I once read this message from a kid on a video from Dragonforce claiming everyone else was just fake because they only liked them because they had the hardest song on GH3 and that he was a real fan who liked them a longtime before that, now while I personally don't care about Dragonforce much (especially since they stink live - go look them up if you don't believe me), the simple fact was that most people never heard of them before that time, whereas most bands songs tenfold or even hundredfold in sales on iTunes, Dragonforce was selling thousands of times more then a few weeks before, GH3 made them famous. But how is that any different then getting discovered by a big music company, or a popular radio DJ who keeps playing your songs.

Still there is even worse then those people, and that's musicians who claim that these games are killing the industry, besides the fact that every single song on those games seen a huge increase in sales including complete albums, it is in fact making rock and metal more popular, more and more people get exposed to it and enjoy it, a friend of mine didn't like the music at all, but he liked the games, he now listens to these genre's all the time. How can anyone say it's killing anything at all.
Even when they argue that it prevents people from really playing a instrument, I still think they're wrong, yes the guitar is as fake as it gets, but it does get some people in actually playing a guitar and in the case of drums and singing, well people who do the singing just enjoy it and I guess if they are good someone will hear them someday, and with the drums, well it obviously can't match up with real drums, but I like to believe that someone that is experienced with these drums actually has a advantage over a completely new player, after all there is quite a bit of skill required to play them on expert which can be used on real drums, there is after all a reason why real guitar players are crap at the game guitar while the best game drummers are usually people who actually play the drums.

All in all I think these games have contributed a lot to the popularity of rock and metal, made a whole bunch of bands popular (again), got people to play instruments and most important of all, have enjoyed playing them. I'd say everyone should be happy with that.