On my way home from work yesterday, I picked up one of my most anticipated games of 2008, NHL 09. Last year's iteration was such a huge step in the right direction for the fledgling franchise that most people thought it would never be surpassed. Hell, most gaming publications named it the best sports game of 2007, beating out behemoths like Madden and NBA Live. While NHL 08 set a new standard in hockey video games, fans of the franchise were worried that this year's entry wouldn't live up to it's predecessor's newly established high standards.

To be honest, I've been worried about the same thing for the past couple of months. Thankfully, my worries were all for not. NHL 09 is, in one word, fantastic. As soon as I popped in the game, I was prompted to create my own hockey player, which would eventually be used in the brand new Be A Pro and EA Sports Hockey League modes. The create-a-player is quite robust and offers a good selection of options, especially for your hockey equipment, which now comes with stats tied to them by the way. When I got done creating a player, I took myself for a test drive on the ice. The controls are still amazingly fluid, allowing a new sense of depth with the defensive stick options, it really seems like the guys at EA Vancouver have tweaked the controls to perfection.

After I was done shooting pucks around, I jumped into the Be A Pro mode. Once in there, I got to choose for which team I wanted to play so, naturally, I chose the Montreal Canadiens. You don't start off in the NHL right away however, as you need to make your mark in the minors (the AHL) before graduating to the big time. Since you're a top prospect within the team, you get to play on the 3rd line of offense or defense and will get plenty of ice time. As I started the mode, the game prompted me to give my player some attribute points from the XP I already had in stock. You earn XP by performing well and by accomplishing goals established for you by your coach and management. After getting some words of encouragement from both sides, and upgrading my player a bit, I was ready to hit the ice for my first career match as a pro.

Now, if you're like me and you've thought of playing in the NHL at one time or another in your life, but couldn't do so for one reason or another, this game provides a very good substitute for your dreams. One thing I noticed straight off the bat is that the graphics are absolutely amazing. The players are extremely lifelike in their facial expressions, animation and movements, which brings a very high level of authenticity to the game. Since you're controlling only yourself on the ice in this mode, you'll also be spending some time on the bench in-between your line's shifts. That's when the coach takes the opportunity to tell you what you did right and wrong during your last shift and grades based on different categories. For example, let's say I go out and get an assist on a goal, my coach will commend me on that assist while giving me an A+ for my offensive performance. On the other hand, if I end up causing a turn over which results in a goal by the opposing team, he's scold me and give me an F for my team effort. At the end of the game, you'll be graded on your overall performance during the match and will be given XP based on what you've accomplished during the match.

Be A Pro is every wannabe hockey player's dream come true. You get a little taste of what being a professional is all about. Scoring a goal or getting an assist on a great play is really exhilarating, and hearing the play-by-play man mention my last name, which has never happened before in any sports game ever, was the icing on the cake for me. Needless to say that I absolutely love this mode and, with the opportunity to bring your created player online and play in the EASHL with friends, NHL 09 is now my favorite sports-based game of all time and has made a tremendous push towards my game of the year for 2008. If you have even the slightest interest in the game of hockey, go pick it up. EA Sports' tagline has never been so true: It's In The Game.

I have posted my review of Mercenaries 2 and it's 2 star score on Giant Bomb. I'm sure I'll get plenty of negative responses once again but, quite frankly, I don't really give a flying fuck. Last time I checked, the game had tons of bugs and glitches, was repetitive to the point of inducing nausea and didn't have much going for it.  In fact, what bothers me from some of the comments I've received on my review so far is that people are ready to accept this game for what it is because "It's fun to blow up stuff, hur hur".  Everybody's entitled to their opinion, of course, even those who work for fanboy websites such as TalkXBox.  Nonetheless, thank you to all of those who left constructive comments in yesterday's blog about the review.

Played some Spore last night for a while. The Cell Phase was a total borefest, but the Land Phase (I guess we can call it that) is quite exciting. The game runs very smoothly on my laptop, with every graphical setting on High. By the way, my species are called DaBoys if you want to try and download them. Dunno how that works exactly though, so if anyone does know, please fill me in.

As you all know, I will be getting my PlayStation 3 this weekend. My friend wrote me this morning at work to let me in on a little surprise he had for me (which doesn't make it a surprise anymore... oh well). He will give me Metal Gear Solid 4 with the PlayStaton 3. Yeah, I'm quite happy about that. I don't know when I'll have the time to play it though, with NHL 09 coming out this week, Spore keeping me busy, and Force Unleashed next week. So many games!

Last but certainly not least, last night's WWE Pay-Per-View, Unforgiven, was one of the best I've seen from the company in a very, very long time. The ending saw Chris Jericho come out of nowhere and win the World Heavyweight Championship. I'm a huge Jerichaholic and was incredibly happy that he won the belt last night. The turn of events reminded me of the good ol' WWF days. What a PPv!

Have a good one.

A short one today.

I purchased Spore via EA's digital download service today. I've yet to play it though, since I've been busy doing other stuff (as you'll see), but I've heard nothing but good things about it, and I'm finally going to put my laptop, and my XFire account, to good use.

I spent the day writing a review for Mercenaries 2, which can be found on EndSights. I warned you about the score in my video blog, so don't fall off your chair when you see the end result. I did enjoy some co-op action last night with fellow EndSighter Nate (frogsoblivion21), but it still does not take away from the fact that the game is horrendously broken. The review will be posted on here tomorrow.

That's it. I'm off to play Spore!

I'm spending the day at work today, since I need the money to buy gifts for my Godson's birthday in October, my brother-in-law's birthday in November, and the holidays and my mother's birthday in December. I don't really mind, since I had Friday off and that I'm paid 2 and a half times my hourly salary. Let's say I make $20 an hour, well today my hourly rate is $45 an hour. Pays the bills rather well and it's really quiet on holidays anyway.

The big gaming season kicked off yesterday with the launch of Mercenaries 2. I should be able to get my hands on it tomorrow, since I didn't really feel like going out yesterday and that everything is closed today. I've seen a couple of reviews for it and they were pretty favorable, so I'm anticipating it's purchase. I have to write a review of the game for EndSights, so I'll need to play some online, either co-op or else, with some of you guys out there. So, if you want to jump into a couple of games with me, let me know. You'll be contributing to the review in your own way!

I played some local co-op on Castle Crashers yesterday with my nephew. He needed his own gamertag to play so I created one for him: TristanDK. No, the DK doesn't stand for Donkey Kong; it's his middle initial, which is actually my name, and his last name, which is King. Cool thing is that he got one month of Gold free with his subscription. Anyway, we played for a good while and I really enjoyed the co-op aspect of the game a whole lot more than the single player. Even though I had to revive him quite often (he's only 4), we had great fun. He found the part in the forest when the animals soil themselves quite funny and even put his Knight "in harm's way" on more than one occasion, gleefully laughing as he did so. I got my Red Knight up to level 28 and he got his Yellow Knight up to level 16.

As September begins, it also means that the new hockey season is only one short month away. This season, my hockey team (yes, mine, not yours), the Montreal Canadiens, will celebrate their 100th anniversary. It goes without saying that they are the oldest hockey franchise in the NHL, and also the most successful one, with 24 Stanley Cups to their credit. This season will be special because they will be retiring surprise players' numbers (I'm guessing one of them is Patrick Roy), they'll be playing some games with old jerseys, and the All-Star Game and 2009 Entry Draft will be held at the Bell Center. Many sports insiders predict that the Canadiens will finish first in the Eastern Conference this year. I'm not going to make such a bold prediction myself, but I will definitely be trying to get some tickets to the games and the All-Star weekend.

I saw The Clone Wars last weekend and it has to be the single worse Star Wars movie I've ever seen in my life. Worse than Phantom Menace. Worse than that Christmas Special they did a couple of years back. Hell, I think it's even worse than that stupid Ewok special. It brought nothing to the plot which unfolded between Episodes II and III. They changed a lot of the soundtrack to include some pop-metal crap music which, to me, does not represent Star Wars at all. I'd rather listen to the masterful John Williams' music instead of that garbage. Now, I know this movie was primarily aimed towards children, but holy George Lucas was it horrible. I don't even think my nephew would enjoy it. If you've seen the Cartoon Network's rendition of The Clone Wars, which was brilliant, you'd be better off skipping this entry entirely, and this is coming from a huge Star Wars fan too.

Alright, I've bothered you guys long enough. See you on Mercs 2!