So every other Friday is a sacred day for me. I get paid and I get some take out food, depending on my mood. Soon as I get my paycheck in my hand, I rush to the bank with blatant disregard for safety and walk next door to get some food. Next to the bank is a mall, a very dirty, small, shifty, run down mall, and in it is a Waldenbooks. I place my order and pay for my food at the take out place and make a beeline to waldenbooks to see what new porno mags and video game mags came out.

First thing I freaking see is the offical playstation magazine with big bold letters on it "PLAYABLE METAL GEAR SOLID 3 DEMO!!!!!". Without thinking twice I picked it up, looked at it and purchased it. It is sitting in my car as we speak and hot dame do I want to play it. I might leave work early in order to do that adn get ready for philly which leaves me to my next entry......

The title isn't supposed to make sense, it's supposed to interest you. So now i have you here I can confess to you all again that I was an Electronics Boutique ball boy for about a year and a half. In that time I saw my love for gaming swell and I also saw it almost destroyed. When I worked there I was worked like a dog even though I had some benefits and met some great people. It turned up horrible for me. They would not give me full time, more money, or benefits but expected me to close and open the store. My body was going through the grind of working my ass off and being constantly stressed out and I think it all culminated one day, when I was torn. My best friend, who worked with me at EB at the time, was telling me he was going to quit and I was debating on telling the store manager. Needless to say, I didn't and it cost me a promotion to a kid who just graduated college. I remember that day how angry I was and everybody was celebrating that someone just got promoted.

I then saw my hours take a dip to the days that neither the store manager or the newly promoted assitant manager wanted to open or close. The doors were definatley closing on my venture in the world of gaming retail (Or just retail in general). I gave up a descent paying job working for a cellular company to work for them on the promise that I would be somewhere within that company in a better position, but alas, that was not meant to be. So I found a better paying job at a shiftier company, but one that is much easier on me. So much easier, I am back up to my college weight! Anyways on to the realization.

I was dreaming the other night that I was working for EB again running my ass around and tending to every tight-ass gamer that was coming into the store. I ran around and made the company 10 grand that night. I remember getting a shinobi shirt and woke up exhausted. The line that ran out of my mouth later was perfect. "Man.... I have it easy at my job!" Then I fell back asleep realizing how much I hated EB Games.

Just about two weeks after I get a PS2 (Again, this is my forth. Someone really hates me or Sony products just suck ass) Sony makes an announcement http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/21/news_6107997.html for a new PStwo. I hate sony, those bastards. The reason I am furious?

Two weeks ago I declined on getting a network adapter for my PS2 when I got it and then put a hard drive on layaway (I am poor but not that poor, I just want to wait till I am done with Fable before I pick up a new game and $100 goes better torwards my bills) and figured I would get the network adapter when I pick the hard drive. I now have that feeling that I should just get rid of my new one (Sell it or trade it in torwards the new one) before they get rid of the network adapters.

Why the talk of network adapters? Because this new model has one included. It looks like sony finally got sick of people complaining that their damn system looks like crap and breaks within a year to six month span (If you are one of the lucky ones who's system made it past the six month to year span, drop dead). The PS2 was one of the most unreliable systems I have ever owned, along with many other people. When I worked at Electronics Boutique, I enjoyed July the most. This is mainly due to all the defective PS2's we get back and people usually want a new one or a refund. I would laugh at them and go throw their PS2 on the wall stack of them. At the end of the month we had 103 defective PS2's. Then my system broke and I decided to one up EB (Stick it to the man) and trade it in torwards a PSone with an LCD screen. Best investment I have ever made.

I have been going since July 2002 with out an PS2 and now I have one. Let the countdown begin till this one breaks!!!!!

AUGH!!! I just realized that I could have put that in as a review! Too bad I have a low level and am too poor to be a complete member. Oh well no biggie.

-Joe

I decided to take my time with Fable and enjoy what it has to offer. I, like everyone else, am kind of disappointed that it did not have what it originally promised. Later on I will elaborate on what my annoyances are with the game but as for now, it's time to show what Fable has to offer. The graphics are wonderful, all the environments within the game look painstakingly lush and wonderful. The characters are very well animated and look like they are full of life, making you feel like they are part of you. The combat system is on par and pretty basic, nothing fancy. Just a lock on button for melee/magic/ranged attacks and good implementation of an aiming system for you ranged attacks. Nothing is more satisfying than getting the drop on some bandits with a couple of well placed arrows or using your magic 'Force push' and pushing down a group of bad guys that are surrounding you.

The detail in this game astounds me. Just chasing chickens and punting them and letting people see you is amusing. From then on you are known as 'Chicken Chaser', which tended to irk me. Then came the idea "I am gonna get hitched to a chick and see what happens" and so I pursued my quest of getting a ring and lots of presents. Upon going into the woods to get some gold I encountered a gourganga of bandits and took licking (Not before beating their asses and sending all of them into the firey pits of oblivion). I got the gold and got some gifts and started to hit on the woman of my virtual dreams. She glared at me in a pixelated cold scowl and replied "I would never be able to see someone with a face so battered" (Or something to that affect, it was really late). I was saddened and replied to the TV screen "That heartless woman!" I looked into a way of getting her to be mine and gave her some gifts and she liked me but still not enough to marry me. So she followed me (Surprisingly) and I lured her into the woods. I proposed to her again in a nice wonderful field and her reply was still no. Then came the old adage "If I can't have her NO ONE CAN". And began to beat her with my fists. She fell to the ground knocked out and that is when I proceeded to thrust my sword into her belly. I looked at the ground for a minute and realized something. I got most of my gifts back that I tried giving to her. So moral to this story, you can beat women (In the virtual world of Fable) and get away with it (In the virtual world of fable). Granted my alignment of evilness went up, I was still 'Chicken Chaser'. I decided to take care of that problem too, I bought myself a name and got rid of the crappy 'Chicken Chaser' persona. It was revitalizing to go into town and say my nickname of 'Ranger'. Made me feel really bad ass.

In terms of having a world where you can go and do you own wills, really reminds me of a slightly dumbed down -yet not dumbed down- Elder Scrolls experience. Just the little details they add about making a character the way you want it to be (Pure evil incarnerate, a happy medium, or saint of the people), all the little mini games (Drinking games for gold is fun as hell), the stretches of land (Seeing some of the vistas and woods within the game are just down right jaw dropping at points) just boils down to me as a solid game for all X Box owners that have are hardcore RPG fans or just casual RPG fans. It can be a pick up and play when you want and not have to worry about going through the missions or conquer the missions, make that powerful spellcaster and then work hard as hell to marry a guy (Yes you can do that if you want, in fact you could marry a guy in one town and a girl in another).

As farm as qualms of a game goes I would have to say they will either minimal or nagging depending on your gameplay (Or if you followed Project Ego since the announcment of it). One of the things that really gets to me is how you travel from a small area into another with an semi-excessive load time (About 15 seconds to 10 seconds depending on the area) and it grates on my nerves when I am trying to get from one area to another. To get away from running to one point or another they got around this with a teleportation system that brings you from the guild to the area you were or need to be at. Also the camera gets jerky sometimes and you might not be able to see enemys too well (Which usually results in girls rejecting you because of the massive wounds on your face, that makes me a sad panda sometimes). Many of the ideas they promised in Project Ego (The children wearing your hair, every blade of grass you destroy stays that way for some time, and back from before NO LOAD TIMES) seem to be abscent. These quirks seem relatively small to me because of the size of Fable (Still not as big as Elder Scrolls but I can deal) is about (From what am hearing) either a 20 jaunt or a grueling 50 hours depending on how you play it.

To sum up, Fable is a soild game, albeit it's Project Ego without many of the things they were promising, but I can live with it. It has good action, an engaging environment and pretty good game play. I am looking forward to beating it soon and playing through with another character, maybe a powerful magic caster. One of the cool things about magic is if you tend to use it a lot, it ages your character quicker than in the normal time frame. A very nice detail for an all around fun game.

I am going on no sleep and playing FABLE!!! So broke yet I want to play it. Oh well. More later.....

--Joe

I really could not resist this time. I went ahead and splurged again just because it was payday. I really should think before I buy useless crap that I do not need. I picked up Clerks X and The Punisher at good ol' wally world yesterday and am hoping to sit at home and enjoy the weekend (Alone, *sniff* *weep*). Well time to wipe the sand out of my eyes and keep them glued to the tube. Maybe I'll take a trip down to good ol New York City and do something with my buddies. Maybe I'll get loaded at ESPN zone and walk around times square again only to end up in the UN Building talking french to one of the security guards. Ah, it looks like it's a fully loaded weekend and I am the rifle man giving it a firm squeeze.

I have been going to gamespot for a couple of years now because of my undying love for everything involving gaming and just recently got into this crazy emotional shindig called "Blogging" or "Journaling". I always write about my adventures and (Lots) of misadventures but I never thought I would be on a gaming website doing this. It's simply friggin amazing of what this little gaming site has evolved into since I have been to it numerous times. I can't wait to chronicle the detailings and on goings of many things that happen in my days on this happy-go-lucky journal.

There is a burning in my soul and the only cure right now is some Max Payne 2 or SoCom II (Maybe some ESPN 2k5 thrown in for good measure, but we all cant throw our balls around all day as much as I would like to). Time to throw some Midnight Brown on in the background and crack away in a barrage of bullets.

-Joe