Alright. I don't have a specific topic to rant on and on about, but no one seems to be responding on Facebook chat and it's a Monday night at Uni, so here I go. 
 
My first subject: how much changes in a year. My friends used to sit around and talk about things that we used to do, and then look at each other in amazement as we realized Dude, that was almost/over a year ago! A year doesn't seem like that much time. I've been alive for 18 of them, and the realization of how fast they go is vaguely unsettling. I don't know how comfortable I am that I'm halfway to what pre-teen me considered "old".  
 
But that's not the point. The point is that my girlfriend, of almost a year, always used to make fun of me for my Xbox habits. Hell, she saw me on this earlier and told her friend that I was "busy being a nerd" The teasing is all in good fun. But now I have a little bit of comeback. I'm sitting here watching her play the Sims on her new 250Gb 360 S that she just got. And i'm the nerd. The point is, this year has completely changed both her and I. She has the xbox, and I have the capability of matching my clothing. I guess everyone wins. Off topic, is anyone familiar with good anniversary presents? I was going to buy her a year of Xbox Live, but she beat me to it. 
 
My second subject: Halloween Candy. 
This has nothing to with almost anything, except for the fact that I bought a big bag of halloween candy on sale last night, and am now balls deep in butterfingers, baby ruths, and crunch bars. Between that and my girlfriends recent acceptance of and fascination with gamerscore, I don't think i could be much happier. Except for my third topic. 
 
My third subject: University. 
I think this is going to be my last topic, because people are finally starting to respond to me on chat. I'm a freshman at Uni this year, and it's been pretty simple too far. But as finals week is bearing down on me, life's getting hectic. I'm working almost full time, I go to school full time, and everything I've been putting off since the beginning of the quarter really needs attending to. And yet I'm on here. Plus getting Black Ops tomorrow isn't going to help anything.  Finals week should be hell, but after that, three weeks of glorious vacation, with nothing to do but video games.  Okay, I lied. One more subject. 
 
My fourth subject: Black Ops 
People are going crazy. I have friends that have been in line for over two hours now, and still aren't close to the front. Mine's coming via Amazon tomorrow, and quite frankly, I vaguely considered canceling it, before Amazon informed me it had already been shipped. I'm just not psyched. I got talked into it for the sake of playing with my long lost friends from high school, as well as the 20$ promo credit Amazon is throwing my way. But still, I can't match the general excitement, and I feel like Black Ops will just be another game on my shelf by the time NFS and Brotherhood come out next week. 
 
Okay, that really is all. I'm done typing random things you don't care about. Have a good night!

Alright, I'm bored and the football game is a blowout, so that means blog time! 
 
So, like I said, the Giants game is a blowout, so I decided to power up my xbox until the game I actually cared about came on TV. In the interest of erasing my backlog, I popped in Alan Wake, as I remembered most people said it was pretty short, and I didn't want to start a game that would take forever with Black Ops coming out next week, and Brotherhood and NFS coming out the week after. I figured I might be able to knock it out before Black Ops, or at least most of it so I could finish it up real quick in my free time.  
 
So I put it in. Immediately, I get a Condemned vibe from the game, mainly due to the dark nature where it makes it hard to even see two feet in front of my face. The beginning, supernatural sequence almost immediately turned me off, but I kept going. There's no way I'm turning off a game within the training sequence. But it didn't get better. It took me back to the "real world" where this sort of cheezy life as a famous author again seemed a bit weird, but it threw me back into that dark surreal world. I just feel like the seriousness, or "mystery" the game goes for comes off as sort of a cartoon-y effect. I in essence stopped playing after half an hour or so. The game isn't ruined for me or anything, it just made my head literally hurt to keep playing for any longer. Maybe it'll be better if I pick it up when I actually get enough sleep. 
 
I know this is the point where both fanboys and completionists start the moaning about me giving up so early in the game. And I know, I need to press on if I had any intention of being engulfed in the game like I know a lot of people were. Unfortunately, I've also heard that Alan Wake is "hit or miss" with a lot of gamers, and I'm just afraid I'm one of the "missers" I hate not being able to enjoy a game other people did, it makes me feel like I'm missing something. 
 
But that's it. People are knocking on the door, so I might actually go find something productive to do. Who knows. 
 
 
Edit: 
 Some more of my insight into the game pre-purchase 

I have one friend whose opinion on games I (generally) trust. If he likes a game, it generally does well. Having said that, I often enjoy games he doesn't, but then again, I willingly played the Saboteur over New Vegas. He loved Alan Wake, but I think his love was for the story, and quite frankly, I can't get into the story. So, who knows, this is a rare case. 
 
My hope for the game comes from another kid I know who claims that Alan Wake is his game of the year. He, however, has a rather horrible taste in games, and seems to enjoy rhythm games and wrestling games, and Madden, but not too much inbetween. My hope was that if someone as uninterested in story as he could like the game, my general interest in playing actual games might give me even more enjoyment out of it.    

 Well, here I go. 
 
I just finished two games within the last two days, New Vegas and the Saboteur. If I had known I was so close to the ending in them, I probably wouldn't have spent so much time in Reach multiplayer, but that's not the point. Also recently finished Fable III
 
All three of these games had underwhelming, on the verge of terrible endings.  
 
New Vegas: 
 

Alright. Let me start out with a few introductory matters. I'm a first year University student who is working to be able to afford bills and get things I want. Surprisingly, I'm relatively well off financially, so that's not really a factor. What this school+work factor gives me a lack of is time. Yessir, I'm saying it, I'm running out of time for games. 
 
Since I've been here, (September 19th, for reference) I've found this charming, yet slightly sketchy, used game store that just happens to be en route to one of my favorite destinations: my girlfriend's dorm. So I found myself their alot. The prices are alright, pretty comparable with Amazon when you add in the shipping, and decently cheaper than Gamestop or some other game store. The tempting part, however, was that they run a near constant "buy two get one free" sale on used games, and they accept the "University Money" on our ID cards that comes with our meal plans. In other words, the cash isn't coming straight from my bank account. So, I may have gotten a few games. Some may say bad ones. but I'll leave those opinions to you. These are those: 
 
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 
The Saboteur 
Deadly Premonition 
Resident Evil 5 
Mirror's Edge 
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 
 
So a pretty hefty list of games to start out with, considering this was a two week period. But there's more. I have tons of games already, I think after those 6 I'm touching the 100 360 Games mark, if not slightly over. Some of which I never touched, never beat, or I'm not content with the amount of time I've put into them. But that's not the point of this. I happened to have a 10$ online WalMart gift card to waste, so I went to their used games section to see what I could come up with. 
 
And ta-da, SoulCalibur IV ends up in my mailbox a few days later. 
 
At this point, I've only gotten a chance to play TFU, so that makes a six game backlog in barely three weeks, and I'm not even anywhere near beating TFU. In fact, I'm sort of stuck. But, of course, there's more. Woo! It was my birthday last week. So, a $50 Amazon gift card made it's way into my inbox, as some of you may remember from my post then. Not wanting to give into the temptation of buying Def Jam Rapstar (which would go horribly, horribly wrong and probably irritate my whole floor), I quickly bought games to take away the temptation. 3 days later, and two games appear in my stack that weren't there. 
 
Critically, this is the best batch of games I've bought, containing both Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption. I know, not a bad thing. And, as of now, I've temporarily abandoned my quest on TFU and started the Saboteur, which I'm surprisingly enjoying, despite no one else seeming to. I'd like to keep playing, as it was one of the original 3 (from the original 6 mentioned) that I bought, so I could try to worth through these games chronologically. And here comes the real issue. 
 
Tuesday, 2 more games are coming: DJ Hero 2 and Fallout: New Vegas. I know I'll spend ridiculous hours in new Vegas, and the original DJ hero is one of my favorite games, so I know I won't put that down for a good while. the next week brings more problems. Fable III is also reserved. So that'll make 12 games in just over 6 or 7 weeks. I'm sure just the last three will occupy me until November. 
 
November starts a whole other beast. The 16th (?) brings both Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, so again, I'll be marred down in the vast amount of games I have. It's just a lot of time, and I feel bad that I can't devote more time to them. 
 
This blog is pointless, designed to kill time while my laundry finishes drying. But, if you made it this far, thank you. Comments, compliments, and even criticisms are taken with happiness, and it'd be cool to know someones right along the same problem that I am. Until then, I have to keep praying that I can finish a majority, or at least a sizeable minority, of these games over winter break. Thanks for reading!

Well, I guess this is something to write about, and it's the first thing suggested, and I just wanted to write. I'll apologize in advance for two blog posts so close in a row. But here I go. 
 
Dead Rising 
Yeah, I know the games old. Really old, I guess. But Dead Rising 2 is coming out (relatively) soon, and so is Case Zero, for anyone that cares about that. I "work" for a small locally run games website, and I wanted to at least play through Dead Rising before I covered the second one. But quite frankly, I can't. Maybe it's because I wasn't running on a whole lot of sleep when I tried playing it a couple nights ago, but I just couldn't get into it. I prefer games with straight objectives, and the wandering around aimlessly until someone gave me an objective sort of rubbed me the wrong way. I don't know, I'll be back into it soon, but the game just gave me a headache, and it wasn't exactly the zombie killing fiesta that I had pictured when everyone had told me about the game. I really hope the second one is better, because otherwise, it could be a tough game to cover. 
 
The Deadliest Warrior 
You know, I probably wouldn't have downloaded this game if I had to pay the 800 MSP for it, but review codes come in handy sometimes. I only got to play it for a couple hours today, but it still looked really cool. I've never been very good at fighting games, but the ancient warrior motif was enough to get me interested to play this arcade title. Frankly, I'm still in the "mash x" stage of fighting skills, but I'm learning combos and strategies, and the different styles of warriors are throwing me for a turn. I'm usually a straight up sword guy- rush in, slash, rush out. But the ninja class, among some others, are actually catching my intention. They of course, rely more on speed, and they don't have the armor to withstand a lot of close combat. I'm glad I'm being semi-forced to play the game, because it's actually pretty tight. Eventually, I'll get good, I hope. Someone let me know if you wanna play some online tournaments or something. 
  
NCAA Football 2011 

I actually don't have this game, my friend bought it and we also received a review copy, which was nice. I love football, I really do, and as of this fall, will be attending one of the biggest football Universities in the nation. (Ohio State, if you care). But it's not really different enough from any other sports game I've ever played- I'm done buying EA football games in general, because there's not that much difference from 2011 to the 07 copy I bought for 2 bucks last summer. I guess if it's your thing, it's your thing, but it's not mine. The only cool thing I really liked was the Mascot games, because there's nothing funnier than the VT Hokiebird mascot intercept a pass from a giant tree from Stanford. I guess the team creator was pretty cool too, if you have the time to put into it. 
 
Limbo 
I just watched a coworker play this game. But it looks ballin, so when it comes out in a few weeks, I'm anticipating it selling well, and I'll be playing it. 
 
Well, that's all. It kept me entertained for awhile. Thanks for the suggest.

I like writing, and especially blogs at that.  
 
However, I'm completely out of ideas, and bored. That's a terribly deadly combination, because I want to write a blog right now, but it's gonna be full of complete nonsensical bullshit, much like this one is. So, someone. Give me something to write about, because quite frankly, I have no idea.

My gaming shelf is huge. I'm not talking like 20 games huge, I'm talking 100  games huge. 
 
That's at least 5, if not 10 times the collection of most of my friends, and most rational people that just seem to want to rent games. I guess my issue is I like owning what I play- I'm not a fan of borrowing or renting, when it could just be...mine. 
 
My friends think it's funny. There's games on my shelf I haven't even started, and there's games on my shelf that they've played more than I have, simply because I devote my time to so many games and rarely make my way all the way through them. But my main issue (or fear, I guess) is the games that I haven't touched yet. I'm talking the Army of Two and Dead Rising I bought off my best friend, and the Ninja Gaiden 2 I bought off Amazon, because they took the backburner to the Fallout 3's and Assassin's Creed 2's in my collection that I bought at the same time. 
 
I guess my issue is that once I have games for so long without playing them, I don't want to- like there's some sort of stigma associated with those games- like they're the rejects of my collection because they were second best to some other game. But I need to get over that stigma, because there's a lot of good games still sitting on my shelf, unplayed, and it's really a shame. (Borderlands comes to mind immediately, but there's others). 
 
So. I guess the point is. What can I do to beat this problem?   I'm still looking to buy games from friends, and it's like I can't stop myself, particularly when it's a good deal, even when I know I won't play them. Justifying the game is always the cost, and in my mind, a good cost means a good buy.  Please, help me, before I buy Street Fighter IV, and play one match before I stick it on my shelf to collect dust. Please. 
 
 
(Sorry if you read this far, it's moronic rambling, I get it)

It's a travesty really. I happened to be on Amazon today, and I directed myself towards the trade in prices for used games. Going up and down the list, I realized I had enough games on that list to buy RDR, Alan Wake, and Split/Second brand new if I wanted to. The one that stuck out was Modern Warfare 2- I beat the campaign, and haven't touched it again, save a few games of multiplayer on release night. It would've netted me something ridiculous, like $32, enough to pick up most of Alan Wake's tab. I went to click the button, and, well I couldn't. That's when I realized that I have a problem. 
 
I'm too attached to my game shelf. It's almost a hundred games, including more than enough that I've never played, or played long enough to die a few times and shut it ff, without giving the game a fair shake. It's almost embarrassing. Some of my friends have more gamerscore in my games than I do, and that's just from borrowing them for a week or even a marathon run during an all night gaming session. So why, exactly, can't I trade them in and use that money to buy games I actually want to play. (Or the new shiny Xbox 360 Slim)  I'll tell you why. I just can't give up on my games. 
 
Take Dead Space for example. Three missions in, I missed the instructions somewhere, and was hopelessly lost. Didn't touch it for six months. Then, January 26, 2010 rolls around. I woke up all excited to pick up my preorder of Mass Effect 2, and then I realized...Gamestop doesn't open until 10:30. (Or so I thought, it was apparently earlier.)  So I go through my game shelf, looking for something to occupy me until I can leave and get my (other) space game. And there it was. Dead Space.   I told myself what the hell, and put it in. Some 5 hours later, I'm watching the end credits, and realized that Gamestop had been open for awhile now, and my shrinkwrapped Mass Effect 2 was just sitting on a shelf, begging to be played. That's when I realized why I kept my games for so long, even if I didn't play them, or am constantly buying new ones. I hold out hope that even one of those games has the possibility to be my next Dead Space, and I don't want to ruin my chance to enjoy a good game simply because I hadn't played it in awhile. 
 
Quite frankly, I don't know if this gets posted in a forum or not. This is my first time really trying to post a serious blog that wasn't about a quest. I guess I'll find out when I hit submit. For anyone reading this, I apologize, I'm sure you don't really care. But I got to thinking, so I got to typing. Thanks for reading.

Games I Own

These are the games I own (so far)  What are suggestions for new games to get/huge holes in my collection? 
 
(p.s.), they're all 360 games, unless noted.

	1. Army of Two
	2. Assassin's Creed
	3. Assassin's Creed II
	4. Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth
	5. Battlefield: Bad Company
	6. Battlefield: Bad Company 2
	7. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
	8. Big Bumpin'
	9. BioShock
	10. BioShock 2
	11. Borderlands
	12. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway
	13. Brütal Legend
	14. Burnout Paradise
	15. Burnout Revenge
	16. Call of Duty 2
	17. Call of Duty 3
	18. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
	19. Call of Duty: World at War
	20. Modern Warfare 2
	21. Disney/Pixar Cars (original xbox)
	22. Condemned: Criminal Origins
	23. Condemned 2: Bloodshot
	24. Counter-Strike (original xbox)
	25. Crackdown
	26. Devil May Cry 4
	27. Dead Rising
	28. Dead Space
	29. Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires
	30. Enchanted Arms
	31. Tom Clancy's EndWar
	32. Fable II
	33. Final Fantasy XIII
	34. Forza Motorsport 2
	35. Gears of War
	36. Gears of War 2
	37. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
	38. Grand Theft Auto IV
	39. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
	40. Guitar Hero World Tour
	41. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
	42. Halo: Combat Evolved (original xbox)
	43. Halo 2 (original xbox)
	44. Halo 3
	45. Halo 3: ODST
	46. Halo Wars
	47. Left 4 Dead
	48. Left 4 Dead 2
	49. Madden NFL 06
	50. Madden NFL 07
	51. Mass Effect
	52. Mass Effect 2
	53. Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
	54. NBA 2K6
	55. NBA Live 07
	56. NBA Street Homecourt
	57. NCAA Football 07
	58. Need for Speed: Most Wanted
	59. NFL Street (original xbox)
	60. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
	61. The Orange Box
	62. Perfect Dark Zero
	63. Pocketbike Racer
	64. Prey
	65. Project Gotham Racing 3
	66. Prototype
	67. Rock Band
	68. Rock Band 2
	69. The Beatles: Rock Band
	70. Rock Revolution
	71. Shadowrun
	72. skate.
	73. Sneak King
	74. Star Wars: Battlefront II (original xbox)
	75. Xbox LIVE Arcade Compilation Disc
	76. inFAMOUS (ps3)
	77. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (ps3)