This post has been edited to replace flagrant profanity with minor profanity.
 
Holy crap. I mean, holy freaking crap.
 
Courtesy of this week's Bonus Races, I finally hit 30 and unlocked the X2010 Challenge. I only have a DS3, no wheel, but I decided to give it a shot, despite hearing from everyone that it is near-impossible. Thinking that the 1.06 time changes would help, I began my quest.
 
Monza was alright, Bronze with a 2:16 after about 10 tries.
 
Right now, I am on the Nurburgring and shooting. I am at a 2:25 right now and need to shave off 3 seconds.
 
Wish me luck, GB community, and please offer some tips if you can. I will edit this blog to reflect how I'm doing. 
 
EDIT: Just did Suzuka, got dumped on. What the frick?! The car is so tail-happy in the Suzuka East section and the racing line is pretty much always wrong!
 
I am running:
Automatic (can't shift manually fast enough)
Driving Line (brake timing)
TCS 1
Skid Recovery Force (self explanatory)
ABS 1
Steering sensitivity -2
All other assists off

Is it pathetic that I only discovered Persona now, and due to my sentiment that nothing good is coming out in the next few months short of Gran Turismo 5? 
 
Anyway, I have Persona 3 Portable now, and I want to know, what suggestions would you give me on progressing through the game (i.e. what choices to make/links/what to do and when)? I absolutely adore this game, and it is in good contention for my favourite JRPG of all time.

Forza 3 modified and (to be honest,) ruined the brilliant formula presented in Forza 2. Now they rub salt int the wound by making us rebuy the entire game for the SLS, LFA and CCX, along with some other XBL pittances? I have no idea how they can do this without fixing the problems within the game right now. While I understand that this is largely to try and recruit as many Forza Faithful (indifferent of Top Gear affiliation) before the release of GT5, the presence of such glaring bugs within the game (broken interior dashboards, car/data disappearances, paint lighting issues, lack of drift smoke, rare graphical glitches) strongly has put myself and many others on their forums at odds with Turn10. My hope is that GT5 doesn't suffer from the same problems.

My history with Forza 3 is as follows: After the brilliance that was Forza 2, I pre-ordered and paid for the LCE. I bought the two car packs that actually interested me and then a couple of the others that went on sale as DotW. 920/1000 on the game. Then, the game steals all of my auctions and DLC cars from me one day in some freak occurrence and neither T10 nor MS could do anything about it. I lost millions as a result, losing over 10 million credits in LMP1 cars alone, not to mention my designs and storefront; everything was gone except my Season Play/Event List progress [read: I cannot get the tournament win bonuses anymore, which essentially double tournament earnings], and most non-DLC/Disc2 cars. That equated to a good 15 or so driving hours wasted, at least. This sick joke has gone on for long enough. 

I was planning to get rid of my Xbox thanks to the recent bump-up in Live and my subscription expires next March, coupled with the use of my Xbox solely for weekend MW2 with my friends and Forza 3 on occasion. This seals the deal. 

Peace, Microsoft. It's been good, from Forza 2 to MW2. You guys have just made one too many mistakes for my patronage. 

1. My Live will be up at around July of next year.
2. I am extremely frustrated with the complete butchering of the Forza Motorsport franchise with its latest installment, but GT5 has not displayed terrific promise as of late.
3. The only game that I play now on X360 is Modern Warfare 2, and my usual crew is now preoccupied and rarely can get together to play anymore, and I don't want to drop money on Black Ops until I have decided.
4. My two favorite games on X360 besides Forza Motorsport 2 and MW2 are Tales of Vesperia (which lacks an English PS3 release) and Final Fantasy XIII, both of which are available for PS3.
5. The primary reasons that I am considering the PS3 for at the moment is Gran Turismo 5 and the next Persona.
6. I do not use any of Live's bonus features (i.e. Netflix, Last.fm, ESPN, Zune, whatever).
7. My friends are heavily skewed towards X360, but a few are on PS3.
8. I have no Blu-Rays.
9. I have a quality gaming rig whose only obsolete component is a NVidia GTX260 896MB. This is what's going to be my main console in the future, so 7G may be my last console (unless a new Persona comes out).

1.  I have just recently replaced my X360 launch console with a X360S (a week after its launch).
2. I have a mediocre stack of X360 games, worth $600 and 4 XBL arcade games. I will not be selling my 2 LEs, FM3 and MW2, even though I will have no system to play them on.
3. I have 2240 MS Points currently on my account and have just realised that I can use them to buy games through Games For Windows Live.
4. I will be keeping my Gamertag for GFWL-enabled games, so in the event that I do get the next-gen Xbox or whatever, I will still theoretically keep my Arcade games and MSP.
5. There is no more PS2 support on the slim (dang, I wanted to play SSX3 and Persona 4 again!)
6. I currently have borrowed a copy of GT5 and a PS3 from a friend, and I'm finding that GT5 is very flawed in all respects short of anything related to driving physics itself, everything about the Premium Cars and trackside graphics. I am thoroughly unimpressed with Standard Cars (except how they look in photomode), loading times, challenges [licence tests, specials] and boneheaded AI.
7. What is the probability that Persona 5 is exclusive to PS3? Or will they go dual-plat like FF13 and DMC?

1. Gran Turismo 5
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops
3. Final Fantasy XIII
4. Metal Gear Solid 4
5. Uncharted 2 (maybe 1 as well)
6. Dirt 3 (undecided PC or PS3)

Well, the throes of boredom and frustration have again hit me. 
 
After upgrading to a 360S yesterday and discovering that my licence and data transfer destroyed half of my Forza 3 garage (with particulars to VIP and unique one-off cars), I've realized that I need a new 360 game. 
 
My current list, in order of  frequency of play, parentheses describe how each is played if relevant:
Final Fantasy XIII (Mission cleanup, otherwise done)
Modern Warfare 2 (Only when playing with friends, fully beaten) 
Forza Motorsport 3 (Done, as far as I care) 
Tales of Vesperia (On loan to a friend, only extra dungeon remains) 
Bayonetta (Done, as far as my skill allows)
SoulCalibur IV (Local Multiplayer only, fully beaten) 
Forza Motorsport 2 (Fully beaten)
PGR 4  (Fully beaten)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Fully beaten)
Burnout Paradise 
Mirror's Edge (Done, as far as my skill allows) 
Orange Box (Fully beaten) 
Lost Odyssey (Fully beaten) 
Left 4 Dead (Fully beaten) 
Halo 2 (Local multiplayer only) 
Halo 3 (Done, as far as I care)
 
I have a strong preference towards racing games (with preference towards simulation ones), RPGs (with preference towards Japanese ones) and FPSs.
 
Do not recommend the following, as I own them on PC: 
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Dragon Age: Origins and Awakening
TES3: Morrowind 
TES4: Oblivion  
Fallout 3 
Devil May Cry 4 
Bioshock 
Bioshock 2
Anything Codemasters Racing
Anything Valve 
 
Thanks for your help!

Well, I received my copy of FFXIII on the 12th in the mail from Amazon. This is what was inside.