Hey all, I'm finally updating my blog today, I'll bullet point what's going on with me.

• I got a copy of Persona 4, and so far I'm really enjoying it, I just saved Kanji, and I'm waiting for the next person to disappear. I'm working on getting loads of money and buying a ton of supplies. It seems my PS2 won't be retired anytime soon XD.
• New Assassin's Creed image scans look great, and the character design looks badass! I'm already hyped for this game!
• Bioshock 2 gameplay looks interesting, but I'm not hyped, it looks too similar to Bioshock, which isnt a bad thing, it's just more of the same. Though I do hope it's got an amazing story, like the first.
• On PSU, there's an article saying that the producer of Valkyria Chronicles is considering a sequel to the game. I say HELL YES! Valkyria Chronicles was a fucking epic game, and it didn't get the attention it deserves.
• I should be getting RE5 tomorrow, so I'm planning on posting impressions once I play a bit.
• I took my project to school today, all the teachers who saw it said it was awesome, even the teacher who hated me at the start of the year! I feel all proud and happy now. Which reminds me, I need to get that evaluation done!
• I played the Red Faction: Guerrila demo, and even though it looks average graphics-wise, shooting was fun and easy, and the destruction was fucking awesome! I'm pretty sure I'll be buying this once it comes out, I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun!

Hey all, today has to be a short blog, since i can't be assed to write a lot, anyways, since last time, i've been playing though VC again on my clear save. I also got assassin's creed back from my friend,and I'm playing through that again. I've also been working on my Project(if you've read my blog early last september, you might remember me talking about a front cover and border for my file. Anyways, this is my final peice, which I'm working on finshing hopefully in the next few days.

I'm in a good mood today, having finally beaten Valkyria Chronicles, and what an epic game that is! If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'd know that I've been raving about this game since the moment I got it. Though I was very reluctant at first, since the demo didn't really show off what the game can actually do, there wasn't anything that really connected with me, since it was just a skirmish battle. It did however give me a basic idea of how the game played. I picked this up along with DeadSpace, at the time I was actually planning to get Far Cry 2, but it wasn't in the store yet, so it was pretty much an impulse purchase. I'm happy to say that this game was well worth the time and money I spent on it.

The game starts you off easy, then it slowly gets tougher and tougher, and you get used to a certain style of tactical gameplay and planning, but then, out of nowhere the game throws a spanner into the works, and you're forced to totally rethink your entire strategy and execution, a good example of this is Chapter 7, now I won't go and post any spoilers, but anyone who's gotten that far knows exactly what I'm talking about. That part threw me off so badly, that I stopped playing the game for a few weeks, but eventually I managed to get through it with a little help from a walkthrough(it's good to have one handy if you get stuck!), and I plowed through the next few chapters. Until, again, another spanner is thrown into the works, and I was forced to rethink the way I play again. It's not a bad thing actually, as it spices up the gameplay, and stops it from becoming monotonous, as some battles(especially in the later chapters) could last up to an hour or more to beat. Now don't go thinking that you can't save mid-battle, as the game doesn't actually tell you that you can save mid-battle, but you can save the game at any point during your turn in battle.

Another thing I'd like to talk about is the story and the characters. There are a few main characters like Welkin, Alicia, Largo and Rosie, which are crucial to the story's pregression and therefore will not really "die" in battle, they'd just pull out, but you won't be able to select them again, apart from that, any of the militia that you draft into your squad, after a set number of turns, or if an enemy unit touches them while they're down. They die. You won't be able to ever select them again. Now you may think "so what?" but really, if you've got a character that you've really gotten attached to, and that character kicks some serious ass, to have them die because of some stupid mistake is, well quite devastating to say the least. The story itself may start out slow, but you slowly become more attached to the main characters, they change over the course of the game, and some plot twists made my jaw drop, as I was never expecting it to happen, I was expecting something, but not what actually happened.
Now like the way the menu and chapter selection is set up like a book, and like a very good book, you can't wait to turn the page and see whats coming next, the game's personality is infectious and pretty soon you won't be able to put the game down-well until an exeptionally hard battle throws you off-but soon enough you'll be back to playing it again.

A little note though, do not expect this game to be easy, it's far from easy, in fact, it's probably one of the most challenging game's I've played this generation, and by challenging, I don't mean the "tear-you-hair-out" frustrating, you really have to plan out your moves in advance, and be very careful with how you place units. Because one tiny mistake could cost you the whole battle, and you don't want that if you've been playing for about two hours without saving-it's happened to me more than once-especially when you're so close to winning.
Now I bet that if you've seen the game in action, or seen pictures, you'd know that the game has a distinct water color artstyle, and I think that this type of artstyle is absolutely stunning, especially in some of the fancier cutscenes, some of which I think are some of the best I've ever seen-in terms of sheer artistry- as it looks like a fairytale storybook scene come to life. I love how the color bleeds out at the edges of the screen, and all that you see is the outlines of the environment, I think it's a nice, subtle touch to the visual style.

Now, would I reccomend this game to anyone? Not really, no, this game definetly isn't for everyone, but if you're looking for a long(it took me around 45 hours to finish), challenging, beautiful, addictive, and engrossing tactical JRPG, then I say that this is a definite must-buy. Even though it's a single player game, I think it's totally worth a $60 dollar price tag, and I think it's even cheaper now, this game definetly didn't get the attention it deserves, and I think that it's the biggest sleeper hit of 08, and one of the best games of this generation.
5/5 stars!!!

Hey all, just a quick blog post today, most of it about Fallout 3, which is the game that I've been playing recently. Now I know it's been months since it's been out, but it was one of the games I decided to skip, because of the bad experience I had with the PC version. Now that I've borrowed it from a friend, I decided to give it another go. I've progressed a lot, and I'm at level 12, and presumably, I'm a really evil guy, though it doesn't seem like it, but Three-Dog on GNR keeps referring to me as "the bogey man from vault 101" so I guess that's pretty evil. Anyway, apparently I beat the storyline today, though I am so not satisfied, as it was a VERY abrupt ending, I didn't even realize it was over until the slides showed up and that narrator started talking. I felt like the game was cut short, there was so much else to do! Luckily I have a save that was right before the final mission. Though the moments leading up to the end were cool, it was severely glitchy, with voices not being heard, dialogue being skipped(I wasn't pressing any buttons!) and some framerate issues.
Though I did enjoy the game, alot, I just can't LOVE it, like others may, I mean, there's so much to love, and so much to hate. For example, I love the dismemberment, but I hate the combat, aiming is retarded, and you have to rely on VATS alot, which is cool, but time consuming, and the noveltly of watching limbs fly off in slo-mo wears thin, really really fast. There were still some areas I really wanted to explore, but couldnt, due to skill limitations, but I guess I can always run through the game again. I'm guessing the game took me around 20 hours, that's a lot less than what has been hyped, as I recall, someone said "there's over 100 hours of gameplay" but I guess they didn't mean the actual storyline. For some strange reason, my absolute favourite part of this game was when I was in Tranquility Lane, that part was pure fun! With just the right amount of dark humor and charm. I would replay the game just to play through that part again, I wish I'd made a save before I started it, so i could play it again without having to slog through the first part of the game.
So if I was going to reveiw the game properly, I'd say this game doesn't live up to its full possible potential, it could've been so much more. The graphics are, well okay I guess, for an open world game, though the character animations are so bad, and the characters themselves lack any facial expression, they just look dead. The game has moments of brilliance, and moments-like all the glitches and bugs-which scream laziness! Overall I think that this is an enjoyable experience, marred by technichal glitches, lame combat, and a shit ending. It's worth a play through tho, as you probably won't find anything like it anytime soon. I'd give it 3.5/5 stars.
On a side note, I'll be getting RE5 sometime this week hopefully from my friend. That's about it folks, any comments would be appreciated.

Hey all, I recently swapped games with a friend and I snagged Fallout 3 from him, I have played it on my PC before, but I hated it, I guess my PC didn't really do the game any justice, it was constantly glitching, crashing and being retardedly slow. So I shelved the game, and basically continued to hate on it until I decided to give it one more chance-this time on my PS3. And so far, though I'm not that sure how far I am in the story line, I am really enjoying this game, despite a few setbacks. Like the constant graphical glitches, freezing and crashing, I haven't patched the game, because I've got no internet , so I'm playing without Trophies either. Gameplay is still kinda lame, and aiming feels weird, but VATS is bloody awesome.
Other than that, I also played a bit of RE5 at my friends house aswell, and just like I said about the demo, I do not like the way controls are set up, and I suck at it. So this is definetly going to be a "borrow" and not a "buy". Other than that there really hasn't been much going on, especially when it comes to games, I've yet to dive back into Killzone, or Valkyria Chronicles, both of which I intend to finish, and when I do finish VC, it'll be the very first JRPG I have ever beaten.
So thats it for now, later peeps.

Hey guys, just a quick blog today, not much has been happening lately, I've progressed a bit through Killzone 2, and though I'm taking my time, I'm really enjoying the game, I haven't really invested any time in multiplayer yet, but I will soon, I hope. Most of my gaming time has been taken up by Burnout Paradise, I've managed to get my Burnout License, though I'm still quite a way away from where I was in my very first save, I am happy that I managed to get this far in such a short time. Now all I've gotta do is work on getting my Elite License, the rest of the trophies, though I can't get ALL of them anymore, since I haven't got an EyeToy OR the Party Pack. I can still get the ones from the Legendary Pack, and the Toy Car pack, both of which I am enjoying, I'm pretty sure I'll be picking up Big Surf Island when it hits, though I reall hope it's priced fairly, if it's any higher than 12-15 bucks, I won't buy it, since Ill be paying almost as much as I did for the full game download, which when compared, is way less content for a lot of money. I probably won't be able to afford a game this month, I'll try to save up for Infamous, which looks pretty cool. My friend got Resident Evil 5 early, so I'm gonna get that off him once he's done with it, and after that I'll make up my mind about buying it, though the demo still leaves a sour taste in my mouth, I think I just need to adjust to the controls. Other than that there really hasn't been much going on, game-wise.
On the other hand, my project has been coming along pretty nicely, I've got the structure cut out and put together, and all the MDF shelves in too, I was supposed to spraypaint it first, then stick in the acrylic shelves after, but after sticking in two shelves, which took an hour of fiddling and filing and gluing, I realised that I wasn't supposed to do that, so I had to pull them out, so that was a whole hour wasted, and after this week we've only got 3 weeks left until EVERYTHING has to be 100% done. Wish me luck!

I bought burnout paradise again this week, this time off the PSN store, because it was only 19.99 and if I'd bought it at the store it would've been way more expensive. So after a 3.2 gig download, and a 300mb update(a total of 3 days of downloading stuff) I finally installed and played the game. Since my old save was from the EU version of the game, and this was the US version, my save data wasn't recognized, which sucks because I've just recently started a new save for the trophies. Its a shame to have to restart the game for the 3rd time, but it's no problem now, I'm blazing through the game now and I'm pretty close to getting my "A" class liscence. What was pretty cool is that on one of the stunt runs(I suck at them, especially the later ones, but I'm trying to practice them more) I got a 62,000 X 20 multiplier, and I ended up getting over a million points, and I got the "millionaire's club" acheivment, though there wasn't a trophy for that, which is odd, i think, though I might have gotten it before, I'm pretty sure I haven't, because I avoided stunt runs at all costs when I first played the game. My brother has also started to play burnout paradise aswell, and he hasn't really played any videogames since the days of the N64.
Oh and last week when I went to get Killzone, turns out they were selling the EU version only, and the guy at the store told me they'd have the US version by tomorrow, so I'll be getting it tomorrow hopefully, so much for getting it before everyone else XD.
I got Noby Noby Boy aswell last week, and this game is fucking demented, but at the same time strangely intriguing, you at the very least have to play it to know what I mean, just watching videos just makes you confused, though the game is just that, confusingly weird but kinda fun at the same time. It's entertaining. I tried the HAWX demo aswell, and it seems cool, I only played it for about 5 minutes, and though it does seem fun, it's not a game I see myself playing for hours on end, I don't even think I'd buy it. I managed to play the second level of the RE5 demo, the shanty town level, and I'd say that I had an easier time with the controls, though that chainsaw guy was fucking hard to kill, I mean, if I can't run that fast, and can't run while in aim mode, how do you expect me to be able to keep my partner alive, keep myself alive, fight off a horde of zombies, and keep track of how much ammo I have, all while having to constantly run away from the chainsaw dude? Anyway, enough of RE5, lets move on.
I also saw Brad's interveiw with the producer of Dante's Inferno, now I just barely remember hearing it's announcement at last years E3-or was it some other show?-and from watching the trailer and seeing the interveiw, I'm kindof interested in the premise, now I've never heard of the Divine Comedy, and I want to find out more about it, the game seems interesting, though I'd like to see some gameplay footage soon, and not some fancy CGI trailer.
I think that's all I got on my mind right now, I'll post again once I get Killzone and have some impressions. Until then, bye!

Hey all, sorry about not blogging for the past week or so, the internet got fixed-for now at least, we're changing some stuff again soon and it could get cut again- but i've managed to get quite a bit of gaming done in the past few weeks. Especially in Valkyria Chronicles, I've finally progressed past chapter 11 and I'm now quite close to the final few chapters, though I must say that when compared to the start of the game, the story is quite slow, especially when you compare it to the awesomeness that was chapter 14(or was it 13?) anyways, I'm really enjoying this game, and I can't wait to get to the end of it, because so far almost ever chapter has some plot twist at the end(chapter 11 being a real shocker!) which makes my jaw drop.

I also downloaded the Demos of Killzone 2, and Resident Evil 5, one I hated, one I liked. Let's start with the demo I didn't like...
RESIDENT EVIL 5, I know you've probably heard a million other people bitch about the controls, note that I've only had time to play it once, and I didn't enjoy what I played. I'm just not used to howthe game is played with a normal controller, and having the demo throw you into a level which clearly isn't from the begining of the game was a mistake I think. As it expects you to know the controls by then, I just got really confused, and then Sheva-that ammo stealing BITCH!-got killed by the guy with the big axe. I'm going to play it again today in co-op, and see how it goes from there. But I am not going to buy this game, though I will at the very least borrow it from a friend, because he's going to buy it.
Now onto the Killzone 2 demo, I'll admit the controls do seem a little weird at first, but after adjusting the sensitvity a bit, everything was great, I am really impressed with the game, and since they are selling it now(yes they broke the street date here!) I'm going to go buy it tonight, and I can't wait!

I also beat Saints Row 2, awesome game I think, though the last mission was slightly underwhelming, I freakin love the game! I'd also like to mention something about Flower, which I did buy a few days ago off the PS Store, though I did finish it in a few hours, the experience is mesmerising, and I loved every second of it, this game is nothing short of beautiful, and doubles as a pretty screensaver for my tv, but really, you have to experience this game, I don't think there's anything like it.
I do want to get Noby Noby Boy, but I'm still not sure, as I've only got 5 bucks in my wallet right now, if I do buy it, I'd have to go get another PSN card too. What do you think?

Also, school has been quite hectic, there have been a few issues with teachers this week, and I had some trouble with the yearbook club, someone hasn't handed out all the statement forms to all the students who are graduating, so now I have to get them printed and handed out all over again. I've also got to go to Chemistry and Literature boosters, which means I have to stay in school to 4.30 every tuesday, though I don't think Ill be going to chemistry boosters, because the teacher sucks. I'd rather go running with my buddies in running club. Other than that, I don't think there's much else I can talk about, I'll try to post my impressions of Killzone 2 once I get it-hopefully-tonight.

Hey all, I'll be keeping this blog short, as I'm shit tired and I have a fever and a massive headache. I've been kinda sick since thursday but it hasn't really affected me until tonight, which is perfect timing as I have school tomorrow. Which sucks as I have booster classes to get to and I've got some issues with a few teachers I need to sort out, but I guess I'll be home tomorrow. Thursday I was fine all day until after lunch, which was when the weirdness started to happen, I felt like I was gonna throw up, but didn't, I had to go to my friend's birthday party too, I managed to go without any incidents, and it was really fun. Yesterday was pretty much the same, but I had no internet, which wont be fixed until maybe after a few more days, but I was out all day so it wasn't as big of a deal. It wasn't until today when my gut decided to turn itself inside out, and I had to make numerous visits to the bathroom every hour or so, which was a major inconvenience, as I had to go see some buildings with my dad. It wasn't until an hour or so ago that I started feeling really cold, I checked my temp and it was 38.4 degrees, now I'm practically cooking under all these covers, I think I'll take them off now.

Gaming wise I've mostly been playing Saints Row 2's single player, I beat the Sons Of Samedi, and started out on the Ultor Missions, which seem to be getting more fun as I progress. I've also been playing around with some cheats, and some of them are really funny. Like the Itty Bitty cheat, where you get shrunk, nothing beats seeing a miniature man beating up a giant, and seeing him hold a huge gun looks really comic. I desperately need the internet! I wanna play the Killzone 2 demo, and buy Burnout Paradise off of PSN, that way I can give my old copy to my friend or something, but i'm definetly not going to sell it.
I guess that's all I got right now,  until next time!

Hey peeps, in my last blog I said I got some stuff from the PSN store, as I finally got my hands on some PSN cards, and I'm really exited to get some DLC, especially from games like Burnout, Mirror's edge, and the recently announced Prince of Persia epilogue. Now, there was one free map for Mirror's edge on the store on thursday, so I got it off the American PSN, and guess what, it didn't show up, I try downloading it 2-3 times, still nothing. Then I realise that my copy of the game is european, so when I download it of the EU store, bam! it works! Now this is NOT a good thing, because my brother got me Burnout from London, so this makes me wonder, is it only EA games that are region locked? Or is it all DLC? because pretty much half of my games are european(different stores sell different versions), plus the stores here only sell american PSN cards. I guess if it is region locked, I'll either get myself the ultimate box, or just buy it off the PSN store(it's $19.99 now!) I don't really know. I guess from now on I need to hunt down the american version of games.
Some new PSN games I'm looking forward to are Flower and Fat Princess, which both look really interesting, I've still got 15 bucks in my wallet, plus another $50 card which I haven't entered yet, if you have any suggestions please let me know.
Other than that, I've been making steady progress with saints row, I've beat The Brotherhood, and The Ronin, now I'm about to start the Sons Of Samedi missions, but I'm constantly being distracted by the activities, most of which are really fun! I especially love Trail Blazing, Crowd Control and Septic Avenger! Anyways, if you want to join a co-op game with me just PM me or add me on PSN and we'll organise a time. I need to go back to Valkyria Chronicles soon too, before I'm swept up with the release of Killzone 2. Speaking of Killzone, I saw their superbowl ad today, and I have to say that it's pretty awesome.
I've also been listening to some podcasts over the week, mainly the Sarcastic Gamer ones, which I think are pretty enjoyable, with each show clocking in at around 30 mins. I like that their shows aren't too long or too short, I've also been listening to BSHAF and Bombcast, but those take me a couple of days to completely listen to, but I find them pretty enjoyable, Distributed Failure has also been on my playlist, I like it.
I think that's all I got for today, until next time!