The sad reality is that bills are unavoidable. No matter how hard you try to hide from them they will always find you. That being said, I had to do the unthinkable. I had to sell my PlayStation 3.

It all started about three months ago. Everything was going fine. I had plenty of awesome games to play and tons of spare time to do just that. Unfortunately, I also had a large overdraft fee to pay. Strapped for cash and realizing if it wasn't paid off soon the fees would grow exponentially, I did the only thing I could at the time... I sold my PS3 along with all my games. A decision I immediately regretted, but also understood it was the mature thing to do. As corny as this sounds, I shortly fell into depression.

Perhaps it wasn't all bad, though.

A while later my uncle was kind enough to give me his old Xbox 360, and as hesitant as I was, I wholeheartedly accepted it. I'd actually had an Xbox before but was driven away by the horrible failure rate and lack of caring tech support (clearly I'm referring to the early days of the 360's life cycle). This time I decided to give it another try and I can honestly say I'm glad I did. I'd forgotten how many of my friends were on Xbox live and how fun it was to play with them.

I'm still looking forward to getting another PS3 but I'm not in any rush to do so. I'm actually quite happy with this Xbox, and that's all that matters.

Recently, I won a code to download this game. Since then I have put about 10-15 hours into it, and from what I have experienced I can proudly say it is a decent game.

When you first start playing you immediately notice the level of detail in the car models. (It's not as amazing as Gran Turismo V per-se, but pretty good for a downloadable title.) Needless to say this is a good thing, because you will be spending most of your time staring at the back of your car. The driving physics are also very solid. The various tracks look just as crisp as the cars and will never leave you bored like some other games. This is partly because you actually need to slow down around corners and can't just speed past them or drive through the sand or grass outside the track, which actually slows you down quite a bit.

There are a fair amount of drivers to choose from, each with his or her own car. Although you can't customize the appearance of these cars, you can fine-tune numerous mechanical properties. I never really felt the need to do so, but the option is there nonetheless.

Variety is key in any game, and this title offers a decent selection of modes. Quick race lets you set up a single race where you may select the track, difficulty, weather, number of laps, and starting position. This is a very effective way to earn many of the trophies the game has to offer (full set including a platinum, in case you were wondering). Training mode allows you to select a track and driver to configure a car and then take it for a spin. This is a great way to learn the tracks as you are the only racer. The next mode, Race Weekend, is basically just a time trials mode. Championship mode is just that, a championship simulator. You qualify for each race before you compete (against 17 other drivers) on a circuit of tracks where you race for points. The higher the positions you finish in, the more points you earn. At the end of the circuit, the driver with the most points wins. The last mode is my favorite. Superstars Licenses. Here you will try to complete various challenges and earn medals. Depending on how well you do in each challenge, you may earn a bronze, silver, gold or platinum medal. Types of challenges include: speed runs, car vs. car, and others. There are 20 in all and they are actually pretty fun.

Multiplayer, this game has it. Although I haven't tried it yet, it seems to function just like you would expect it to. From what I have seen, it is fairly feature rich in tracking your wins and other stats while displaying them on a leaderboard.

I only have one disappointment with this game. That being it is too freaking easy. Even on the hardest difficulty you will find yourself constantly passing opponents around corners with very little effort and resistance. Also, I did have this glitch where I didn't earn the trophy for getting all platinum medals in License Mode. Although, this was solved by resetting the game (they popped up shortly after).

In the end this is a great game for the price ($20). Sure, it's no Gran Turismo, but a wonderful game on it's own.

(Not my video, but it's fucking amazing.)

Every once in a while there comes a game that is so incredibly addicting it basically becomes the most important thing in you life at that moment. One of those games is Happy Wheels, a flash game where you take control of one out of four (more soon to come) characters and try to make it to the other side of a course. Each character has a special ability that you may use to complete your goal, whether it be the rocket on Wheelchair Guy's wheelchair, the jumping ability or the Segway Guy, Irresponsible Dad's brakes, or the Efficient Shopper's super jump.

The levels are all user created (I haven't dove into the level editor yet, so I don't know the ease of use at this moment), so you can expect some serious carnage in the way of traps. When picking a level you are able to sort though them by playable characters, rating, or play count so picking a well-made course is as easy as sorting them via rating. Although most of them are decent difficulty wise, every once in a while you will come across the impossible.

If you plan on playing this game be aware that it is pretty resource heavy, so playing it on an older computer is not recommended, but is possible if you turn off the gore, lower the video quality, and enable compressed textures via the options menu.

So what are you waiting for? Go play it already! (http://www.totaljerkface.com/happy_wheels.php)

One of the best JRPGs ever, Dark Cloud 2 (also known as Dark Chronicle) is hands-down my favorite game on the PlayStation2. When I heard that Level5 had no plans on furthering the series, I was upset. Luckily, I was searching the Dtoid archives and found an article that mentioned something along the lines of "If you want another game in the series, ask for it!" I did just that, and now I want you to do the same! (Follow the instructions on this site)

For those of you that have never played Dark Cloud 2, please allow me to show you some features the game possesses.



First off, combat. While it isn't as advanced as some later games, the combat in Dark Cloud 2 is amazingly simple to learn. You are able to equip both one short-range weapon and one long-range weapon together at a time allowing for a mix of ranged and close-combat. As you use your weapons they degrade, but you are able to repair them with Repair Powder. After killing an enemy with a weapon, ABS points (xp) are earned. You use these points to level up your weapons and further increase their effectiveness by synchronizing various elements to them. When your weapons are strong enough you are able to upgrade them into a higher form. There are two playable characters and they both have different weapons they can use.

Monica is able to use swords and magic bracelets, as seen above.



Max is able to use wrenches, hammers, and guns, as shown above.



Both characters also have a special talent they may utilize. Max posses the ability to use the Ridepod; a robot you build based on ideas you make from photos. (You will want to take photos of EVERYTHING you see for this purpose, as well as inventing weapons, clothing, items, ect.) Monica is able to transform into certain monsters in dungeons, although their power is very limited at first.



The dungeons you traverse are randomly generated, but you never seem to care as the monsters are unique and entertaining to fight. They don't really feel like dungeons because of the way they were designed to be wide-opened. (See above, some are smaller than others) When you completely clear a dungeon you are able to play Spheda on that particular level. Spheda is basically golf, but with a twist. You have a colored ball that needs to be hit into a colored portal, but the ball needs to be the opposite color (either blue or red) from the portal. Sometimes it is frustrating, but you receive better rewards on harder levels.



One of the major activities you will find yourself doing is building towns. Yup, whole towns. It's not as tedious as it seems, as this feature was superbly developed. I wont go into too much detail, but all I will say is that it is pretty fun.



Lastly, we have fishing. If you ever find yourself tired of combat or building towns, you can always kick back and relax while fishing. Not exactly required for completion, fishing is actually pretty intense and expansive once you get into it. I wont get too involved in talking about it, but it's one of the more enjoyable features.

There we have it, a pretty sparse mini-review of the game. Remember, there are A LOT of features i left out as talking about everything in this game would take ages.

TL;DR - Dark Cloud 2 is amazing and the series is definitely worth another iteration.

After a month or so without internet, I finally return! I have to tell you something, a month without internet is not a good thing. I almost went crazy, and I'm glad to be back.

A little while after the Gods graced me with the return of my net access, I picked up a copy of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for the PS3. Now, for those few who have actually visited my blog, you may remember me writing a brief review on the beta. (Found here) Now I've been playing this game every chance I get, and in just a short amount of time I have already reached level 22 (the level where you no longer receive any additional weapons beyond the character-specific unlocks) and I can tell you that I have had my fair share of aggravation with this game. Don't get me wrong, the game itself is wonderful, but there are these annoying twitches here and there that really piss me off. (Yup, rant time!)

To start off, why is it so easy to kill people on the far end of the map with guns that clearly should have a limited range? It's never fun to play as a sniper and think you have the advantage, then be killed by a shotgun from someone who is CLEARLY very far away. Another thing, the draw distance is horrible. While hiding in bushes or some type of shrubbery you would think you were obscured from view of someone far away, right? As logical as this seems, it won't help you on this game. That's because while it may look like you are in a bush to you, to someone on the other side of the map all they will see is you minus the bush... then you magically die.

Another thing that really upsets me is how easy it is to get stuck in stuff, whether it be a fence or a giant cargo ship (Yeah, the one on Atacama Desert). While playing you will come across fences that require knifing (or shooting) to break in order to proceed. Most of the time I knife them in order to conserve ammo and to stay a bit stealthy, but if you don't break them all the way you will occasionally get stuck on them. (Funny story, while playing one day this happened and some guy killed me, so I went back to show my brother and THE SAME GUY killed me in THE SAME SPOT. That was my fault though, lol.) Fences aren't the only thing you have to worry about, (besides the obvious bad guys, enemy vehicles, random mortar strikes,) no no no, you better watch out for demolished houses as well. As seemingly innocent as they look, it is VERY easy to get stuck in one.

Knifing... Well, besides the unmissable delay that occurs when pressing the button to the actual action (Realism?), there is only one thing I have to say here, and it is about accuracy. Have you ever knifed someone from behind (mostly applies with snipers for some reason) only to have them not die, then knife them a couple of more times to which they turn around and kill you? I have. This has happened so many times I stopped using my knife when sneaking up on people, as I find a single shot to the head is not only more effective, but also more satisfying.

Last, but not least, being shot through multiple walls. I mean, really? Has this ever happened to you? Just sitting behind a house, trying to heal when all of a sudden, someone on the other side of the house somehow kills you? It's very aggravating.

Ahh, I feel better. Now remember, I love this game, and I'm not putting it down or anything. These are just some things that make me mad. Even with these annoyances, the game is still great.

This is a serious issue as many games suffer from this. Take MAG for example. A while ago I was playing a match of sabotage with a bunch of moronic squad mates when one of them runs in front of me while I was shooting an opposing player. Naturally, he dies from an unfortunate headshot and then starts cursing at me calling me a team killer. Now I could have dealed with this, but a minute later he came up behind me and killed me. What the fuck does that prove? What was his logic behind this? It wasn't my fault the idiot ran in front of me while I was shooting. Apparently some people take this game way too seriously.

Another game that suffers from this is Modern Warfare 2. Have you ever noticed those guys that sit in one spot with their sensitivity all they way up and just unload randomly while spinning? Somehow I'm always the one to die from them. I mean, seriously?

I know there are many more games that have been ruined by morons, but these are the two games I play a bit and have actually noticed this in. It needs to stop.

(Also, Piggybacking ftw... Shh!)