I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas. I sure did.

We had a family dinner on the 24th and went out to a friend's house on the 25th.

What I got:

• Fallout 3 (X360)
• Chrono Trigger (NDS)
• 60 gigabyte hard drive for my Xbox
• 12 months of LIVE package (included chatpad and PGR4)
• Two nice hoodies
• Inkdeath, the third in the Inkheart series
• A laptop bag for when I get a laptop

What I gave:

• Big Shiny Tunes 13 (Dad)
• Perfume (Mom)
• A headless turkey doll and old shoe (Sister)

UNFORTUNATELY, I have no way of transferring my data from my old hard drive to my new, so I have to go out tommorrow and buy a memory card to do that. I think I'll sell my old hard drive afterwards, so I might be able to make a profit out of this .

Once again, Happy Holidays to you all.

Week of 14-12-08 to 21-12-08
Gamerscore: 6015 (+210)
Games Played: Dash of Destruction (XBLA), Halo 3 (X360), Eternal Sonata (X360), Splinter Cell (XBOX), Call of Duty 4 (X360), Lost Odyssey (X360)

Heh. One day late. Not too bad, right?

So, yeah, I played a lot of games this week. I also picked up two new old games, if you will. There was a 2/$30 deal when my mom and I were doing some Christmas shopping at Zellers, so I grabbed Eternal Sonata and the original Splinter Cell. I think I got ripped off with Splinter Cell. It's not really my kind of game, and I probably could have got it for less used at EB Games, but that's okay.

Eternal Sonata is really good. I'm loving it so far; the graphics, story, and especially battle system. Great game, and probably worth $30 on its own (so Splinter Cell was a bit of a freebie).

I also downloaded that free advergame, Dash of Destruction. A million times better than Yaris, and an easy 200GS as well. A surprisingly good game, definitely give it a try.

My friend and I are played some Halo and are playing more tonight. I'm picking up some of the skulls and achievements for Legendary this time.

Lost Odyssey is the final game I played. The graphics still stun me every time I load it up. I'm still in the witches house. The enemies are very tough here, but I'm starting to figure out how to beat them, and made some progress.

So yeah, a good week gaming wise. If I had to complain, I'd say that I have too much to play. I think that Eternal Sonata and Lost Odyssey are going to take forefront until Thursday, when I will hopefully open up Fallout 3.

In other news, it's been frigid here, ranging between -15°C and -25°C. It's actually too cold to go outside and ski, toboggan, or anything. Hopefully it warms up enough to make going outside pleasant.

And, of course, Christmas this week. The tree looks great (especially with a multitude of presents beneath it) as does the rest of the house. We've had a couple parties here (one for my dad's work and one with our neighbours) and will be having friends over for New Year's as well.

Oh, one more thing, Things look good on the part-time job front. My friend's dad seems to have secured us positions at a nearby grocery store. The work pays well. My first purchase when I have enough money: a new video card for my computer.

Have a good Christmas!

Week of 30-11-08 to 07-12-08
Gamerscore: 5785 (+10)
Games Played: Gears of War 2 (X360), Call of Duty 4 (X360)

I got back in to Call of Duty 4 a bit. My friends and I have beenplayin. I'm heading in to second Prestige.

Gears 2, still working on Harcore. On Act 5.

I'm officialy working at GameFocus.ca. I probably get my first assignment tommorrow (hoping its Banjo-Kazooie on XBLA). If you want to make me happy (which you DO), head on over and make an account:

GameFocus.ca

Gaming Wise

Immersive? Check. Great presentation? Check. Solid gameplay? Check. Story? Check. Doggies? Check.
Sounds like the game for me.

I never played the original, but I've heard nothing but good thigns about this game. Seems like a good addition to my already-robust DS RPG library.

I want a new video card for my computer. I want something that will be able to run Company of Heroes. I know nothing about computers, though, so I need your help. Any suggestions?

Books

The conclusion to one of my favourite book trilogies of all time. Funke is an amazing author and it should be a great book. I can't wait to see how Meggie, Mo, and Dustfinger end up.

I just started reading the Discworld series over the summer. I've only read about 5 of the books (there are over 30 in the series), and they are wickedly funny, so I hope I get one... or two... or four.

---

I think that there is more, but I can't think of anything right now. There is also a distinct lack of Far Cry 2 on my wishlist, but I decided that I don't need another shooter right now.

Week of 23-11-08 to 30-11-08
Gamerscore: 5775 (+0)
Games Played: Gears of War 2 (X360)

Well, I didn't gain any Gamerscore, but then again I only played my Xbox one day this week.

I played a couple rounds of Gears yesterday, but I hit an absolute lagfest and quit. The multiplayer is marginally better after the update, but still brutally slow and frequently laggy. It's a great game, but the multiplayer is best played privately, with people who you know have good connections.

It snowed yesterday! Yay! It rained today! Yay! The snow's gone already! Yay... wait... that sucks.

The snow was beautiful. When I walk home from school I walk through a small forest that hasn't been developed. The snow was hanging off the tree branches, crystalline in the afternoon sun. I was the first to walk there, and the snow was completely undisturbed. Time almost seems to stand still after a fresh snowfall.

Now, it's all gone. The grass can be seen again and a thick slush covers the roads and sidewalks. It's gross.

I wrote two reviews this week. Read'em, ignore'em, whateva:

That's all. If you see me online this week (which you will), I'll likely be playing Lost Odyssey, The Orange Box, or Gears 2.

Oh, and two more reviews are due out this week.One for Professor Layton and the Curious Village should be done by tommorrow, and one for Halo 3 should be up by next weekend.

Merry gaming!

We got our school reports today. They were for term one, which means we are already more than a quarter of the way through the school year! Time flies.

My results were good, considering I had a slow start to the semester. I am particularly happy with my science mark, which I brought up almost 10% in the second half of the term. Anyways, here they are:

Subject - Grade (Percentage)
Science - A (96)
French - A (94)
Japanese - A (90)
Band - A (96)
Jazz - A (98}

Music was my strong point, obviously. It brought my marks up substantially.

Anyways, just excited 'cause I had a good term.

Thanks for reading.

Oh, I wrote another review. Just a short little piece on Surf's Up (the game). Scroll down if you wish to read.

And it's supposed to snow a little bit tommorrow! Fingers crossed!

Does anyone know of any (decent) sites that are looking for game reviewers?

I'm itching to do some reviewing, but can't seem to motivate myself to do so. And GameFocus... well, the admin hasn't even talked to me in a month, and I'm getting tired of waiting for him to "train" me.