Sigh, it's time to go back to being a Graydian in the inky establishment called school (tomorrow), but at least I won't have to worry about that colorful distraction whilst there.

The distraction I'm talking about is de Blob, and I've left it to collect dust ever since November-ish. And why distraction? Because every time I was not playing de Blob, I would start day-dreaming about it and how much I crave to play it. And yes, it almost threw me off during the Finals.

So imagine my joy when I finally had the time to get back to it- which was a while ago, and yep, I finished it too, secret missions and all.

I don't know what aspect of it makes it so addicting, but it just is. I started playing it 1PM, and I just finished it a while ago (which was 8:30PM); it's utterly time-consuming.

Every level would probably last about more than an hour or so (but never 2), and I would sit there trying to get 100% of Chroma City painted (to no avail). Finally, when the boss level came, I was all confident and ready and seriously not expecting anything like... like that. It was significantly harder than I would have imagined given the leisurely pace you're able to go at in all the platforming levels (which were easy), and I was just caught off-guard.

But the point is that I finally finished it! No more distractions!

Still, I have to finish a few more games before I can truly be able to concentrate for school which starts tomorrow namely, No More Heroes where I am STILL Rank 6 despite the fact that it has been months since I bought it, Chrono Trigger DS, Sonic Rush Adventure (I already finished Sonic Rush), Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (of which I already forgot the mission objectives; thank God for Astrid) and Bioshock. It would take me several more vacations to get to them (and glasses too, probably)!

It's been a long while since a real Sonic platform game has reached the formidable DS, but I haven't even played the previous two, so I thought about buying them and now, I'm addicted.

I have to confess: Sonic Rush is the first Sonic game I've enjoyed in years. I love the 2D adrenaline pumping speed and the dash and trick mechanics!

So far, I gotta rate Sonic Rush a 9. It's awesome. I found the music to be a bit annoying, though.

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone. Plain and simple. Let us all use this day wisely to appreciate its true meaning by thanking God. (I'm Catholic, so don't be offended if you're of another religion.)

Just a tip: Don't shorten Christmas. If you use X-Mas, you "X" out Christ!

:) Hope your gifts are nice, your family is safe, and the next year is prosperous. -tips wine glass-

I'm not an expert, I don't own a PS3, I haven't played nor touched one, but I keep myself up to date with it. Why? Because at heart, the PlayStation brand is just the brand that started it all for me in gaming (don't tell Nintendo), and I'm making sure that the baby I left behind has really come out of its shell this year.

Of course, that's also because fanboys (and plenty others, actually) prophesied that this year was it's breakout year. Yeah, like the two year span (approximately) it took the PS2 to actually take off into a modern chunk of what will be gaming history.

Now, I'm only gonna talk about the software because it was what the PS3 lacked the past two years, so yup, nothing technical like that format war- it's all about the games. The exclusive ones.

So the question now begs to be asked: "Was 2008 really the year of the PS3?"

The answer is a big no. And like any answer, this one has its own due justification.

Let's make one thing clear first: I had a few expectations at the end of 2007- which was in itself a year that owned.

In my mind, I thought "For sure the blockbusters were coming. I mean, Metal Gear Solid 4, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 2, Gran Turismo, maybe even Home! 2008 is seriously gonna be the PS3's breakout year.," but at that time, most of my expectations were channeled onto Metal Gear Solid 4.

God, how I remember a few E3's ago when a trailer depicting a ravaged Snake who looks as if wanting to kill himself was shown... the production values of that cinematic alone indicated something... something really awesome. And by God, awesome it delivered. Impressive cut scenes, a theatrical score, a 10 from GameSpot; I thought that it was finally gonna be the killer app Sony was waiting for; it would the green light of all the other killer products that were solely exclusive to PS3 owners for them to lap up.

Unfortunately, I was mostly wrong.

Fast-forward to the disappointing event that was E3. Although there were also quite a lot of major previews (God of War 3! How we have missed you!), there was just something in the air that was unsettling. What I'm talking about is Microsoft stealing Sony's thunder by nabbing Final Fantasy XIII and gaining a few new 360 exclusives to boot (to appeal to the Japanese gamer)! Granted, The Last Remnant wasn't that hot, but it didn't help Sony's lack of exclusives any more.

Later into the year, LittleBigPlanet came out, it didn't make a big splash in terms of sales, SOCOM: Confrontation, based on some research, was far from perfect, Qore was not exactly keeping its promises, Home kept delaying but had the problem of pervs when the beta came out.

On the bright side though, Resistance 2, LittleBigPlanet (and a few more) were all extremely nice games.

Simply put, the year was simply underwhelming for the PS3 when you look at it, thus not making 2008 the breakout year for the PS3. Back in 2007, one would be flamed were he to say this, and that one would still be flamed now. But seriously, look at the library of AAA exclusives for the PS3 right now. If there's a factor that goes to the breakout of a console in a specific year, it's the number of AAA exclusives that come out within that year. And so far, the number is kind of unexpectedly low. (Take note that I'm talking about "breakout", not the overall quality of the console.)

Of course, PS3 owners will defend the argument by saying that games like Dead Space, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Call of Duty: World at War are also onboard the PS3, but that wouldn't give the console an edge. It would just make the point of the proclamation entirely moot. Otherwise, they would bash other consoles, Wii specifically. Technically, Wii wasn't even marketed as a competitor to the PS3 nor 360, so that argument would still be up for debate. Additionally, the Wii has already had its breakout year last year, and may have another one next year by way of third-party games.

To be fair, even the Wii is in the same situation this year. Seriously, Brawl and No More Heroes are probably the only AAA exclusives available that are worth playing that were released this year (maybe with special mention of de Blob; and World of Goo is not Wii-exclusive), but I'll elaborate on that another day.

The PS3 ended 2008 on a bit of a high note with regards to game quality, but the prophesied "breakout"? Nope. Not yet, at least.

For two straight days in a row, GOOD Wii games have been coming out. Yesterday, I lauded Treyarch for their nice port for Call of Duty 5: World at War, and now we have -surprise, surprise-, Shaun White Snowboarding.

I'll say it again to let it wash down.

Shaun White Snowboarding.

While its PS3 and XBox 360 counterparts were downright laughable attempts slammed by critics, reviewer Tom McShea gave it a nicer grade of 7.5, citing great motion controls, great visuals, and excellent multiplayer.

Of course, I'm looking for second opinions as of now, but the review has made me want to buy both CoD5 and yup, Shaun White Snowboarding.

Time to shred... or something.

Oh, and one more thing: IGN has reviewed Rock Band 2 for Wii.

And while I am in doubt since this is another one of them "timed exclusives", the feature list stated in their review is more than enough to make up for my rage at Harmonix's decision in the first Wii port. Features-wise, every single feature you'd find on a 360 or PS3 Rock Band game is on Wii. Serious ownage. I love you again, Harmonix.

I subscribe to the GameSpot newsletter, and at the top of the list was the Wii version of the World War II game Call of Duty: World at War. Now, I have been wanting to play the PC version since I don't have the 360 nor the PS3 for some time now, but I found out that the reviewer, Chris Watters, actually likes it, thus the relatively high score of 8.5.

I usually don't like Treyarch very much, but at least they made a great game to add for the increasingly better third-party Wii games. And I actually didn't expect for that to happen.

Thank you Treyarch. Now I'm going to buy Call of Duty: World at War.

See you in online multiplayer! (When Christmas vacation comes. Right now, we're going through finals, and I just got through the worst of it. Yep, Chemistry.)

Ever since Grand Theft Auto 4 got released on consoles, I have been craving to get it on PC since I don't have either consoles. Now that the PC version is released, I've been wanting to go straight to the retailer untilthiscame along.

Now I have to wait even longer. Hopefully a month, tops. It's been months, and I just can't seem to wait any longer. Really pitiful for Rockstar to have such an epic game ported so badly. I mean, if the article seems to imply that even computers that can run Crysis seem to have a hard time with Grand Theft Auto 4, then what about mine?

Another thing to think about: SecuROM. It's probably the worst DRM mechanism EVER and wants to make me pirate the game when a patch comes along.

It's a big shame, especially for someone like Rockstar. But I still can't wait to get it, along with Prince of Persia (of which needs no introduction as to how much I want it).

And now, I wait.

What a stressful week.

But usually, it's during this time that we go through the hardest part of the year, not to mention the most irritating. That's right, projects. Teachers swamp us with projects like no tomorrow and, well, teach some more.

My Chinese classes aren't very kind either. We don't have a finals exam for this subject for this quarter/term, but that gives them all the more reason to make life harder for us, and it's laughable how they would use that excuse, really. Please, I don't want to memorize the Pythagorean Theorem when the name is harder to memorize than the formula itself.

The worst part about this year is that it's unlike every other year I've studied, and that's because we get our Christmas vacation exactly 5 days, 13 hours and 50 minutes before Christmas. 

I don't know, I'm just letting off some steam to calm myself, although I'm usually OK under stress.

Thank God I can game for the 3-day weekend to come. We have Bonifacio Day (he's a hero who died in that day, ironically by a past president and hero) on a Sunday, so the Monday is affected by way of it being a non-working holiday as well.

I guess that's all. Nothing's changed much from my gaming habits, especially since I haven't touched a full-fledged gaming console in weeks. Fortunately, that's gonna change. 

P.S., Happy Thanksgiving to you all in the States (and such). 

It just so happened that my dad's office monitor broke down so he took my old LCD Asus monitor and we purchased a Samsung monitor. Picture below.

And even though I'm more of a Mac than a PC, I still use my PC for gaming purposes... and Google Chrome. Normally, I don't blog about these kinds of acquisitions, but I just fell in love with this monitor! God, it looks like one of them sexy TV's I've been looking at.

Additionally, I've also watched Quantum of Solace and Burn After Reading, and I've got to say that the former was definitely excellent- worth the wait- and the latter is... weird. Seriously, Quantum will get your adrenaline pumping even if it's not as good as say, Casino Royale. Go watch it, now.

Oh my Lord, I've become absent so many, many times that I might as well be Duke Nukem who rears his head from time to time.

Jokes(?) aside, here's a status report if so ever you cared to read it:

I've finished Apollo Justice, as evidenced by my review, and I've bought the extremely addictive and fun de Blob. I've also acquired Okami for the Wii and Wario Land: Shake It but I have yet to try them. Ironically, Boom Blox was out of stock, which was disappointing. And adding more to the irony, our Wii games have decreased in price despite the economic downturn!

But I'm not exactly NOT visiting GameSpot once in a while during my absence, I'm stoked to get Dead Space, Far Cry and I'm waiting- agonizingly- for the eventual PC port! EVENTUALLY! (shakes fist)

However, I'm having this itch to play retro games. I don't have the usual classic consoles like the FamiCom (weeeell, technically I have one but I never realized it nor do I have any games) or the Genesis, but that's what emulators are for. OK, I know, copyright infringement, but I couldn't resist. I haven't downloaded one in years!

Anyway, I've been playing Super Mario World, which is kinda frustrating but addictive nonetheless, as well as Super Mario All-Stars (I don't like SMB2 very much). Ahhh, clas*ic sidescrolling Mario! Love it.

I also plan to try to play GoldenEye in a Nintendo 64 emulator, but I'm not sure how the buttons will be map since... you know, the controller.

And in that note, I'm also hoping to catch Quantum of Solace in the theaters because it will be awesome!

So, how are you people doing right now?