Hey Gamespot, please, forgive me for my absence. I have just been absentminded with some things lately, lol. But seriously, it's just been a matter of preparing for school, attempting to get this daunting summer assignment done for AP Language, along with other things. And truthfully, my activity and interest in gaming has been real wishy-washy for the past couple of weeks. Many days I just did not feel inclined to play anything. Hell, two games I was adamant on finishing before school starts; Uncharted and Super Mario Galaxy have yet to be beat. However, I am going to make the push to beat both in this last week of summer vacation. But the reason for this lost of interest? The summer drought is one thing, the main reason that I haven't purchased any new game since GTAIV. I think the most important reason is getting into other things for the summer, enjoying the weather, advancing my artistic skill (need to get this portfolio together), etc.

But after tonight's session of GTAIV multiplayer with ShredX and Gears of War with the usual crew (it was a hell of a lot of fun guys, can't wait to kick it up a notch in Gears 2), I have a renewed inclination towards gaming. Besides, autumn is practically here, and all the big guns are starting to roll out. Speaking of which, here is my list of games that I definitely want for the remainder of this year.

Games Wishlist for Fall/Winter 2008

Fallout 3 (Xbox360) October 28th

Gears of War 2 (Xbox360) November 7th

Dead Space (Xbox360) October 31st

The Last Remnant (Xbox360) November 20th

Street Fighter IV (PS3 or Xbox360) TBA

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (PC) October 28th

Madden NFL 09 (Xbox360) Available Now

NBA2K9 (Xbox360) October 7th

Guitar Hero World Tour (Xbox360) October 27th

Rock Band 2 (Xbox360) September 14th

Little Big Planet (PS3) TBA October 21st?

Prince of Persia (Xbox360) TBA

Call of Duty: World at War (Xbox360) November 11th

Chrono Trigger (DS) November 25th

Now, I'm expecting a few of these titles to be knocked off, and I probably will just rent them granted with stick with Gamefly longer this time around.

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is what I rented out with the renewed Gamefly subscription, and while I didn't finish it, I experienced basically everything there is to do with that game. It's one of those "ultimate rentals" if you will. I dunno if you'd want to throw down $30-$40 dollars for it. The gameplay gets repetitive and it is easier than the console iterations. Overall though, it is a good DS game. Hopefully I will be able to rent Mercenaries 2 next if the timing with the return goes right. Which it doubt it will .

A few side notes:

Castle Crashers is out this week. Hope to get it.

Juno is a good movie. Its soundtrack is very good.

I can't stop listening to RadioHead.

Hopefully my senior class schedule will be easy to give me more free time for gaming and other fun stuff, as well as trying to get this college process together.

Maybe we'll see one last I4I this week before I hit the books again?

Lastly, for those who have started classes and those who are beginning this week, I wish you all the best of luck this year. Kick ass with the pencils, and if that doesn't work, do the "magic pencil trick" . Peace.

YEAH! I got the "Mother Lode" achievement in Puzzle Fighter this morning. Well earned, just two achievements left, and I can almost taste 10,000 gamerscore!

I really do need to play some FFX though...

Yesterday I did something I haven't done in quite a while. I did a gaming marathon, with only one title. That game being Super Puzzle Fighter, y'know, one of my addictions, a game that I love. Now one may ask "What was the purpose of this marathon?" And that is a totally valid question. Because, it is an arcade game which does not have an option to view high scores (or that I know of; you only see your total score when you beat Arcade mode). It only has leaderboards of those playing online. Those beautiful win/loss ratios if you will. In my case, not beautiful at all. But I was not out to get win after win after win, oh no. The more sophisticated goal only by name I was out for. An achievement.

BULLET TIME! *Pew pew*

• Just finished playing some Super Mario Galaxy. Still having a really good time with it, although, and maybe it's just me, but controlling the little plumber is sometimes difficult, more so with the swimming. But perhaps it's just the transition of using two control devices instead of one combined device. It hasn't been taking anything away from my enjoyment of the game really.
• Also played a bit more of COD4's campain on Veteran today. Finally made it through the Charlie Don't Surf level, and boy was it worth the 40 gamerscore. I'm now on the Hunted level (I saved the farmer btw, :D).
• Prior to that (like as soon as I woke up this morning), I got into some more Puzzle Fighter on XBLA. I'm attempting to unlock every achievement in the game except the win 20 ranked matches one; because XBL users are lame and nobody plays it online :P. So today, I unlocked the achievement in which you're supposed to beat the 'Y' or 'Z' mode on Hard or Expert difficulty. This mode is actually more frantically fun than the standard 'X' mode, plus the 10gamerscore helped. Hey, any achievement is a good achievement.
• Lastly, I've been reading and researching on the VGA HD/AV Cable for the 360 from Microsoft. I really want to start playing in HD, and my monitor is pretty good, plus I don't have the money to shell out for an HDTV. Plus, my PC's LCD monitor is a 20.1'', while the standard TV I've been using is a 19''. So that's one win there I guess. I use the DVI input for my PC so the VGA would be perfect to take the other port. Every piece of feedback or review I've been seeing from folks state that it's a fantastic option and it appears much more crisp than a standard TV. So, I'm going to make the jump to purchase the cable soon. I just need a way to make 40 bucks, probably along with another $20 for a 1600 marketplace points card because I want Geo Wars 2 and Castle Crashers.