I am only seventeen years of age. So I can not be so truly jaded by video games that everyone of these offerings seems to suck more balls than Bob Saggat, can I? Have games truly reached a peak, no this can't be, I will not accept that. Call me a pessimist but, this glass is not just half empty, the water tastes like shit and is full of disease. Am I being unfair? Make better games, I'm directing this to you; EA, Activision or any big budget company pumping the proverbial sequels out the corporate capitalist machine. These companies are not to blame, you want someone to blame? Of course, as humans, we need someone to cast responsibility upon, don't we? Look in the mirror you fat sack of crap, myself included, if we keep buying this absolute shit, what is to stop them from making it? This isn't to say their are no good games anymore, quite the contrary, they just seem to be few and far between as they get lost in the rubble of barbie and avatar games, only to be scraped up by the traveling achievement whore, who will cast it aside like a dirty hooker on a cold las vegas night, after collecting 1000g of course. A solid subterfuge, a pipboy parade, a chainsaw crying out in the night, these few things are the only exceptions keeping me from giving up on gaming as a whole. Whats the conclusion to all of this faux-witty bullshit? you tell me, I just love to ramble/

try harder, everyone
we need to stop consuming


stay legit
raspinudo

As I emerge from my hidden cave from which I dwell I smell a burning sensation and see the red glow amongst the forums. Seeing the tragic state of the situation I have decided to grab what I can and move out as quickly as possible. The flame war is spreading all over the forest and no amount of fireman can put this flame out. Everywhere I turn I see shrubbery ablaze with a red glow and grass burned down to the ashes. The next thing I knew the flames had engulfed me and become to close in on my and my beloved opinions. As soon as I blinked they had stripped me of all neutrality and brain washed me with chants of "RRoD" and "Lemmings". Once the flames had cleared from me, I awoke in the forest with burns the likes of which Anakin Skywalker couldn't understand.

Unable to move in this hellish place, I have come to some profound realizations I would like to share with you. As I lay here in the middle of a war zone, I will likely be captured or killed. So before they line up into cover with their flamethrowers ready, I will leave you with my dying words. I hate to ever support a theory of the controversial Denis Dyack, but truly, in losing any sense of reciprocity have we become devout of any human compassion we had left. This forum culture has taught us to embrace our fellow fans but to abuse those with a different opinion.

Are we really that different from our fellow games. while our allegiance may lie in different places, our hearts are in the same. We all love video games; whether they be old or new, innovative or a technical wonder, whether it be cooking mama or grand theft auto. It comes from every side so no one is innocent, the whole point of forums is for us to discuss, debate and enjoy the games we love, whether they be for MS, Sony, or Nintendo hardware.
This happens everyday, even the new site, giantBomb, has already become a warzone the likes of which I have not seen in some time. It has the stench of gamespot lingers amongst it, mostly because its majority of members migrated from their. I have nothing against Gamespot but the culture it brings with it is deplorable.

So as my dying wish I would call for a cease fire from all parties. Let us learn to respect one another's opinion so that another devoted member is not deprived of his personal happiness. Hopefully the gaming culture can learn to mature abit, until then sayonara.

Trophyfags, achievementwhores, boosters ect.. Call them what you will and as much as it pains me to say this I feel that I must.

These new point systems have brought such longevity to our games that we so desperately need. It forces players who prefer campaign to try out the multi-player of a game, and also extends the life of said campaign mode.

In this new era of gaming in which some games are only lasting 6-10 hours, we need something to make it last. Gamers simply can't justify shelling out 60 bucks for such a short experience.


While the boosters and junkies are annoying when they begin to alter our online experience in a negative fashion, they do have a positive outcome. In making these systems so popular they have helped game sales rise as well as bringing in new gamers to enjoy the experience.

Love em or hate em'
In the end I think they will better us as a community of gamers.

Just my short little collection of thoughts..

In a word; damn. Not pissed off, not overjoyed, not even unhappy really. Just underwhelmed; coming into this e3 I had the highest of expectations as most gamers do. I expected a dynamic duo to make their triumphant return onto Sony's black behemoth, I expected to find new waggling sensation in Microsoft's console. My childhood heroes left a hole in my heart with the worst press conference I have ever seen. Only a few big announcements even remotely grabbed my attention, with Kratos strappin' up for another go

and Final Fantasy swinging both ways now, I did have a few reasons to pay attention.
Should we just face the facts; Is e3 just not what it used to be? Or are we setting the bar impossibly high. A little bit of both in this case, the esa has scaled down the conference, but we didn't get to go anyways so it doesn't matter either way. The basement trolls inside all of us are expecting way too much out of these companies now a days'.

In the end, one thing drives consoles; software and boy is there a lot of software at this e3 thing. I will just touch on a few titles that have left me very unimpressed. Keep in mind this is just my opinion, but the Fallout 3 demonstration left a lot to be desired, it felt much too slow and very convoluted in its combat system. Everything about that game feels very unpolished and disjointed. The textures look very sloppy and while the scope of the game is impressive, GTA IV was able to do a much better job aesthetically rendering such a large world. Being a work in progress I wont knock it too hard but for now, color me unimpressed.

The big N's entire conference was terrible, but what topped it off for me was that the only hardcore game they showed was Animal Crossing, and it looked as if it had jumped straight off of the cube with no graphical changes even attempted by the development team.

I was never a fan, and Sony did nothing to change my jaded perceptions. While home does boast some interesting features and has some wonderful new ideas, I still feel that I will use it twice then it will just take up space on my precious xmb interface.

Interface seems to be critical in this generation, well that's what the "pioneers of innovation(their words not mine)" seem to think. While slightly clumsy, I generally think that the Xbox dashboard works pretty well, it could be optimized to run faster but that's a complaint for another day. Microsoft unveiled their new "original" design for the fall update which will "completely change" your Xbox.

The new interface is sleek enough to where it doesn't bother me. But these pioneers really took the cake for me when they blatantly ripped off Nintendo's Mii service. Don't believe me, take a look.

While not as cute this lack of originality in the big M's business model does bother me somewhat.

Enough griping, whining and contemplating. Their were many impressive games at e3, such as inFamous which I have come to find a new fancy in this electrifying super hero adventure which will drop onto ps3's early in spring. The game boasts some impressive visuals and some new gameplay ideas that will hopefully freshen up the sandbox genre.

The team behind this project made Sly Cooper on the playstation 2 and it was one of my absolute favorite games. I believe the expertise of this team will really begin to shine when we all get to play inFamous.

Love it or hate it, it looks drop dead gorgeous. Its on ps3. The game is of course Killzone 2.

While I can't specifically comment on the gameplay until I get some hands on time with it I will say that I do appreciate the way Guerrilla Games is handling it. They are openly admitting what was wrong with Killzone 1 and promising that they will correct it, and if Killzone:liberation was any indicator, look for this to be the dev team's breakout title.

Two more games I would like to touch on are Fable II and Resident Evil 5. They both had very impressive showings at Microsoft's conference and while Fable isn't the graphical powerhouse that RE5 is, they both share one intriguing aspect. A new found focus on cooperative play which I find to be very enticing, although my friends will probably make me be Sheva in RE5. Fables new way to invite friends is very innovative and I applaud Mr. Molyneux for his creativity.

So those are my thoughts. Sony played it safe but had an impressive line-up across three platforms, Microsoft pulled a big surprise off but only showed a couple of exciting exclusives, and Nintendo disappointed me so much that I cannot even articulate my grief to you good people.

"The Path of Life is not a hike or a race; it is a dance. And, in all dances, there will be a few steps backward.
Just remember -- the steps backward are still part of a beautiful dance. "
-Laura Teresa Marquez

On the topic of the "FFXIII Crisis" I must say, calm down everyone. Remember that we all play games to have fun, don't delve into the politics of the console war and just embrace the fact that a whole new audience will enjoy this wonderful series. If you really are feeling like your world is shattering, calm down, you still have versus, infamous, resistance 2, ratchet Online(rumor), Gran Turismo 5, LBP, Killzone 2, socom, wipeout ect....

So everyone, cant we all just be happy that we all can enjoy the most prolific RPG series in gaming?

Like a child on Christmas morning, I awoke with the highest expectations when I ran to my computer to watch the Microsoft press conference. They truly started off with a bang showing off Fallout 3, which looked a little underwhelming to be honest. Then it went on to Resident Evil 5 which looks amazing and has been taken to a new level with the online co-op mode which fits very well into the story. Peter Molyneux came out with his usual swagger but once the controller was in his hand Fable II had to do the talking for him. I believe it showed very well, while the graphics were not anything to be really amazed by but the new co-op features that the game boasts look very intriguing. CliffyB came out and showed Gears 2, which looked exactly the same as its predecessor, which trust me, is not a bad thing.

Then the conference took a dive, from a fat chick dancing on stage to a terrible singing performance. While the music games were nice,. they were still more of the same, GH World tour and Rockband 2 both boasted of their magnificent soundtracks.

Thinking I was going to leave underwhelmed and unhappy, Square came out and announced FFXIII for Xbox 360.

World Shattering.....

God Damn, that's all I can say.