Yea, so Christmas has come and gone, and the new year has rung in. Once again, it's been a long time since I posted anything or shown any activity whatsoever and this has mostly to do with the fact that I'm married and now have to do a lot of traveling for the holidays, and thus don't have much time to surf the interwebs. So I think I have the right to make a bit longer post :D

Well, how was everyone's Christmas? New Years? Anyone get anything good?

Well I got a few things that basically are turning my 360 experience around for the better...not that it was bad to begin with.

1. 120gb HDD
2. Wireless Headset
3. Logitech Harmony Remote for the 360
4. Quick Charge Kit

I got some other stuff for Christmas but I'm just gonna keep it videogame related.

1. The 120 gb HDD has been amazing. I know many people just think it's a waste of money, I'm really enjoying it. Installing my games has been great because I can no longer hear the disc spinning (and boy is there really a difference!). Not sure if this process reduces the heat that the 360 generates, but if so that's just icing on the cake. In addition, I can pack-rat as many videos and demos as I want now! It's great! I grew so tired of always having to delete favorites just to make room for new stuff. And now I can store some TV shows as well.

2. The wireless headset started off a bit iffy. It didn't fit properly on my right ear and was entirely too uncomfortable for the pricetag. Yes, I've been using the wired headset for the last three years straight, only ever broke one. So it was sure a change for me getting a wireless one! Thankfully for some reason the wireless fits pretty comfy on my left ear as opposed to my right O.o
The quality of the headset is great and the intuitiveness of it is stunning. I also think it's cool how it charges through the 360. Now if only I could get used to not carrying my controller around with me everytime I stand up...

3. Well, I haven't actually gotten the Logitech Harmony remote yet. Ordered it by mail from Amazon (I found it for $50 at the time! The price has gone back up to $80+ since last week unless you buy from a different seller x.x). I'll give my impressions once I get to play with it.

4. The quickcharge kit was necessary. I've had the same rechargeable battery for as long as I can remember. It got to the point where I was lucky if I didn't have to charge it every day. Now that I have a new battery and a quickcharger, My battery lasts for days! How did I live without it! I did originally have a play and charge, but the wire that connects it to my 360 is juuussst shy of reaching comfortably all the way to my couch. No longer must I be inconvenienced :D.

Anyways, on a related note, I borrowed a few games from my cousin while visiting home. I picked up Oblivion, Mass Effect, and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. Now, I've already beaten Mass Effect. I just need to go through it two more times for the achievements x.x
The other two, now, I actually want to play.
That's all for now. Hope everyone had a happy holiday!

Wellll yea it sure has been a while but now I'm finally done with my fall semester at school :D
Just finished my last final of the week! It feels great to finally be done. One step closer to the end.

Well, gaming wise I've been hitting up Left 4 Dead like nobody's business. I've got all but two achievements (The 53,000+ kills and beating all campaigns on Expert) and I've been working on em for a while, mostly the first one. The first campaign in expert took me and my friends between 5 and 6 hours and we haven't started the other three. Definitely getting my money's worth out of this game! It's great fun and the versus mode keeps me coming back for more.

As for my other games, I've gotten all 1000/1000 points in Call of Duty: World at War and my friends have stopped playing multiplayer so I think I'm going to sell it. I can still get most of my money back. Rock Band 2 has hit the backburner but I'm definitely going to start hitting it up more over break. I've been going back to Gears of War 2 as well trying to pick up some more achievements in multiplayer. They're pretty beastly hard.

Sooner or later I'm going to come back around to Assassin's Creed and finish up the stupid flag collecting on that, and I plan on getting Saints Row 2 and maybe Banjo Kazooie: N&B around Christmas.

Oh yea, and I'm selling my Wii and Wii Fit and everything I have related to them. Didn't take long after getting Wii Fit, eh? It's just not getting used enough. Anyways. Not doing a GotY list or anything like that. I think it's a waste of time to do it by oneself. A group is best because not everyone can play every game.

Alrighty, until next time! Laters.

So yea. Getting Rock Band 2, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty: WaW, and Gears 2 all in the same month was a bad idea.

I'm pretty much addicted.

Problem is there's still 15 or so games that I have a hankerin to play. It never ends! Good thing Christmas and the Christmas break is right around the corner. That means lots more free time :D

I'm probably playing CoD the most, trying to finish up the campaign on veteran and pick up all the achievements along the way. I'd also like to Prestige once in the multiplayer versus mode. The games fun but it really feels quite empty. There's just a glaring lack of "wow" moments to give the game oomph in the campaign.

Left 4 Dead is amazing I just don't play it as frequently because I only play when I can play with a squad of three of my friends. Playing lone wolf gets rather dull in that game. But in co-op it is by far the most enjoyable.

Rock Band 2 is everything I thought it would be. Having a blast with it but I haven't been playing it as much as i would like to.

And Gears of War 2, while great, has lost my attention temporarily. I am for sure going to return to it though to complete the Insane campaign difficulty. The multiplayer versus in GoW2 is rather lackluster for me unless I'm playing with a squad of friends, so I kind of shy away from it unless others are playing.

On another note, I purchased the pilot episode to Crusoe, the new NBC (I think) show. I watched it tonight on high def thanks to the oh-so-wonderful Xbox Live marketplace and thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend it and hope to see great things out of it in the future. Anyone else seen it? They have an awesome cast and great editing. Also, the location they film at is incredible.

Well, that about sums everything up! Been a lot going on in the past week. My wife's car was killed a few days ago. Waiting on insurance... Long story. In summation: there is another dead deer somewhere on the highway. x.x

It's great. It's delicious. So is Sweet Potato Pie/Sweet Potato Casserole.
Wellll I'm on Thanksgiving break and have been since last Friday. Been pretty sweet not having to go to school everyday! Really been enjoying the relaxation and chillness.

Since I've been here, couldn't help but buy Call of Duty: WoW and Left 4 Dead. My friends got it.,....soooo peer pressure is pretty much why I shelled out the cash x.x
I may be poorer but these games are pretty freakin fun. Pretty much hooked on Cod:WoW multiplayer. It's oh so addicting.

Left 4 Dead is fun as well but it's been frustrating as both of the campaigns I've played so far in 4-player coop, I've died at the "Finale" when you escape temporarily. So it didn't count as me beating either campaign. Just minor frustrations I guess but still.

Watched American Gangster. Amazing movie. I don't think it got as muchcredit as it deserved when it was released. It was excruciatingly long but satisfying in conclusion. Next movie on my list is Cloverfield.

Still hitting up Rock Band 2 and Gears 2 even amidst the two new games :D
Finally unlocked all the Rock Band 2 songs as well! Now I gotta do all the regular tour :D

Well before I get to the main topic, lemme just say I rented Mirror's Edge finally and must admit I'm a little let down. They really had the potential for a lot more BAMF moments but fell really short in that department. It's immersive and I love the way the game feels but the demo was misleading to me. I don't like being on this leash but I still love the game, however painfully short it may be.

Also, finally saw 3:10 to Yuma. Good movie. Not great, but very good. Awesome acting with some bad plot holes kinda sums it up for me. Nice camerawork and amazing locations, to boot.

As for the big news, my lovely wife and I have been doing early Christmas gifts for each other. She got Wii Fit, as previously mentioned, and for some reason she decided to surprise me today with Rock Band 2! So now I have a music game for the first time ever, getting used to the instruments and whatnot. About mastered Drums on Easy and getting the hand of Guitar on Medium, and steadily progressing.

The best part of it all: She actually plays with me! We take turns on the different peripherals. Sometimes she sings, plays drums, and even guitar. I prefer the drums but have been playing the guitar to get better and to try and appreciate it more. All in all, awesome surprise and best of all we are playing together! It's great.

Anywho, that's all :D

Started Gears 2 on Insane.

Got into top 100 ranked for one of the two Mirror's Edge Demo time trials.

Got a lot of crappy homework.

Been too distracted with videogames and a few TV shows (Life on Mars, My Own Worst Enemy) and forgot about blogging.

Have mixed reactions on Left 4 Dead.

Wish Marcus Fenix was a character and not just a player skin like he seems to be (based on the lack of backstory in the game).

Getting a new hand-me-down car to replace one that just broke down for good.

Now, to bed.

Finished up Dead Space despite buying Gears 2 somehow. The ending of Dead Space was pretty epic, but the game as a whole wasn't very appealing to me. I can see how a lot of people like it a ton though. Very polished and shiny to boot. Hopefully I'll find the time to crank these reviews out. Which means I'll be keeping them shorter :D

Anyways, like everyone else is saying, Gears 2 is pretty much amazing. It's blowing my mind. Rocking the Horde mode and Co-op. Story is awesomely cinematic.  Just loving it all around. The new additions to the game are actually meaningful, and it manages to not just be a rehash of Gears 1. And no, unlike Jeff says, you don't have to have recently played the first game to appreciate the second's addons. It's apparent, to me at least.

Hoping to somehow acquire a Mirror's Edge rental when Tuesday rolls around, but we'll see how that goes...Dunno if I'll have time for it x.x

Well...I do. But that's besides the point. Well, maybe it isn't. On a short tangent rant, school is broken and has become useless. Example: I took a test in Elementary Statistics. Apparently I failed to notice four questions on the back page of the test. As such I left them blank, and obviously was counted off for not answering them. Despite the fact that I got 15/16 of the ones I did answer correct, I still only got a C on the exam. This completely defeats the purpose of the "test" which is meant to test my knowledge and understanding of the material, as I knew how to do the remaining problems but simply erred and did not complete them by accident. I'm not saying it isn't "fair," just that the system is broken.

Anyyyways...to my main point.
For my English class I am currently doing research and writing a rough draft for a research paper on the effects of playing violent videogames. Yes, I get to make an argument for why research that states that playing violent videogames can stimulate violent behavior is false. I must say it's much more fun to get to research something I'm interested in. I'm learning a lot on the subject, to boot. If anyone is interested, I may post my paper here upon completion in some form or fashion. If not, I didn't really expect you to anyways. It's a friggin research paper, for crying out loud.

In related school news, I get to do an informative speech in my Speech class. The upside is I am doing it over videogames, which means I get to bring my 360 in for show-and-tell. I've already decided on using Mirror's Edge as my example game, but I'm trying to figure out a specific topic. The only idea that has come to mind is doing an informative speech that has something to do with the fact that this game goes against the mold of violence (yes I'm aware of the irony) in favor of avoiding combat. Sure, you can shoot a dude, but the game encourages you not to. Anyone have any ideas on what I can do with this opportunity to expose my class to videogames? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks guys and once again thanks for reading and responding if you choose to do so :D

Just finished Spiderman: Web of Shadows a lot sooner than I thought I would. Now I have nothing to play until Friday. I feel like a hopeless addict who needs a gaming fix. x.x
I'm gonna rerent Dead Space tomorrow if I can find it and finish up that campaign mode and see what it has to offer me. If all goes well, I should finish it before Gears 2 comes out and all will be right with the world.

Spiderman sure did make for a fun change of pace. The game is really well made and put together. Sure, it gets repetitive and a bit boring the longer it drags on, but overall never did I think a game could so accurately recreate Spiderman. The game feels very fluid. Definitely recommend playing it somehow. Hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised. The ending(s) really seemed to suck though. I left wanting something more from it. I picked both of the "good" conclusions (there are also two other "evil" ones). They just seemed...really tacked on. Dunno.

Hopefully have a Mass Effect review out soon just for the heck of it. Hopefully some parts of it will be a bit funny :D. Then I'm gonna try and review Mercs 2, Fable II, and Spiderman: WoS in that order. Should be fun.

Can't stop playing Mirror's Edge demo. I think I'm actually looking forward to that game more than Gears. Go ahead, flame me. I dare you.