I just finished playing through TimeShift, which all in all is a pretty ok shooter. The time manipulation lends itself to some very clever puzzles and allows you to become fairly inventive in the disposal of foes.

The story line though was pretty lacking, not going to drop any spoilers here, but don't get your hopes up for anything too gripping. It draws a few parallels to Half Life in a sense, "silent scientific protagonist attains powerful suit, ass kickery ensues". What it lacks in story it makes up for in an amazing art style and flaming bullets. Yes, flaming bullets, the gun in question has earned itself a spot in my heart for it's ingenuity, destructive prowess, and general radness.

Normally I don't like to write on my thoughts about a game, because I for one, don't usually trust other peoples judgement when it comes to games and like to find out for myself, but when I got to the ending I knew I had to speak my mind. I have not seen a game end this poorly in the past half-decade, words cannot fully describe the sense of anti-climax and general bed shittery that overwhelmed me when the credits began to roll. Once again, no spoilers, so I wont delve too deep, but I have come to expect at least a tiny level of story telling in this latest generation of games. To me, it seems as if the game's ending was actually the second last mission and they either ran out of funds, time, or ideas and decided to end it then and there.

For that fact alone I decree this game to be rent-worthy and not belonging on the game shelves of the tasteful.

Also, the multiplayer is meh. I guess that adds to the rental only factor as well.

For anyone who has, or is planning on purchasing Guitar Hero 3 for the 360. I strongly suggest holding on to your receipt. Upon setting it up and sitting down for a few songs I noticed something. The "Green" button was entirely unresponsive, couldn't get a response to save my life. So, I called the store to get them to secure me a replacement, and I was informed that this seems to be a fairly common issue. I was the 3rd person to claim a defective guitar today. So, if you've got Model #: 95123 805 keep an eye on the little bastard, it just may stop loving you sooner than you think.

Luckily I've still got my GH2 Guitar.

This came to me over coffee this morning. I feel that all of the GH2 DLC that one purchases of XBL should, in time, be useable with GH3. I'm not sure how coding and all that nonsense works so I don't know if it's entirely feasible. But I do know that the phantom pains where the arm and leg that I severed to pay for said DLC would be eased slightly if I were to say, be able to play those songs on GH3 at some point in the future without having to repurchase them. Just a thought.

I just got home from trading in a total of 139 original XBOX games. Not because I wanted to, not because I needed money, but because my work and school allow me little to no time to revisit these games anymore, and for the past year they've sat on my shelf collecting dust. After days of deliberation, I finally admitted to myself that these gems could find a better, more loving home that would give them the attention they deserved. Keep in mind these aren't games like Max Payne, or Brute Force. Since the launch of the XBOX I had only collected the creme de la creme, so I was letting go games such as Steel Battalion (with the mech controls) and House of the Dead 3 (with both blasters). Games of that calibre couldn't just spend the rest of their days sitting on my shelf, they had to be played. So my wall is looking a little empty, and I'm kinda sad about never playing them again.

There was a silver lining though, my nemesis at EB Games looked like he wanted to attempt a murder/suicide when he saw me walk in with my bounty, and I'm pretty sure I ruined his day, I suppose that was a bonus. Hate that fucker.

Also, kept my Haloz.

I was looking forward to seeing people CREATE entries for this contest, not find the stupidest shit possible on youtube and post the link. I could pretty much say that the entries so far are akin to my version of hell. Please, no more random youtubes that had "hell" in the tagline. Myself, I could care less about this game so I wont be doing anything for it. But fuck, I was looking forward to a little creativity and entertainment, transcendant fail thus far.

I would like to start off by saying that this is not about who's got the best gamer swag. It's about why we have it. There.

I started mulling this over the other day when my parents came to Edmonton for a few days to visit and see my new house. As I was giving them the grand tour they spotted my Halo 3: Legendary Edition, and my mother exclaimed "What the fuck is that thing?". I went on to explain to her that it was a case for a game and it set me back about $160 (Canadian).

Now, I spent a fair amount of time working at EB Games, and in that time I amassed a veritable "booty" of swag, hell I've even got those fucking plush Elebits kicking around somewhere. So as the tour progressed my parents saw more and more swag, and asked more and more "What the fuck is that thing?" related questions. After they left I started to wonder why it was that I kept all of this stuff around. (No one really has a use for a 4 foot neon Xbox 360 sign) Most of it is far from aesthetically pleasing, unless of course you're a gamer, and the majority of the people who come to my house are non-gamers.

Personally, I like having it around, maybe because it's a constant reminder that life doesn't always have to be serious. Or, maybe it's because it reminds me of my childhood. I can't say for certain why I have it, I just know that it's not going into storage any time soon.

So what I'm asking is, why do you keep your gamer swag long after the novelty of the related game has worn off? I know I'm not the only one who does. Hopefully you can bring some insight to this.