You guys ever have a moment when you hear a theme song or a phrase and it just brings back a flood of memories? I just had one of those nostalgic moments when out of the blue I said "it's letter time" when opening the mail and the phrase sounded so familiar but I couldn't for the life of me remember why till I typed it in google and low and behold, Video and Arcade Top 10 was the second result. Damn that was the sh@t back in the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6zwtbBb-Ak

For those who aren't Canadian, this was a game show which aired on YTV that allowed young gamers to face each other by gaining a certain score or time record. I used to watch this religiously and at one point I remember mailing them some pathetic sounding letter just so I could hear him read it. The main host Nicholas Picholas had this thing where he'd shout "It's letter time, it's letter time!" just before reading a fan's letter and he said it so often that it's still engraved in my head. It really got me thinking about all those retro video game themed shows that used to air here in Canada, during a time when gaming wasn't nearly as popular.

Another one that came to mind was The Electric Playground (before G4techtv touched it); at the time this show provided me with everything visual (before the internet).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ_HNsBX9S0

It had a cast that consisted of Zoe flower, Victor Lucas, Tommy Tallarico and Kelly Benson - a wide range of personalities that fit the show well. Oh and it had one of the most epic introductions for a video game related show ever. These shows were the next best thing to owning these games for me, a glimpse into the present and future of gaming. It's a shame that with gaming becoming more popular, a lot of shows that emerged from these relics of the past are being dumbed down imo to appeal to a larger crowd as a way with competing with the beast we know as the Internet. Do you guys have any favs of your own?

So I just came back from the exclusive preview event and I'll just say that it was a great experience. I won't go over what was said, the developer present pretty much restated many of the things most of us gamers already knew but the event gave me an idea about many outlets of the Canadian press that cover videogames and how relatable we all are just as gamers. After asking the lead producer a few questions I proceeded to play the game on a setup I could only dream about and I'm definitely not used to a wheel much less one with force feedback. Had a few lengthy discussions about the state of games with a few individuals there and the general reception was that it was about time a simulation actually taught us how to play a game instead of pushing us away.

(This setup was surprisingly difficult to play with, but you get a greater sense of speed, I had an amazing time with it)

(This whole setup most likely costs as much as a car, two or three 360's, three HD screens plus the wheel and chair, but it looks oh so sexy)

Now I'm really limited in terms of the photos I could actually display; in fact I could only show you the crappy one or two selections that I have :P . Sorry if this sounded bland, I'm pretty exhausted mentally and physically bah, but I had an AMAZING time! :D

(Gotta love the perks of going to an event like this. My first free game, wee!!)

Good Night..

I wanna say thanks to the two whole people who wished me luck in a sense on Saturday:P it was appreciated. It seems like I lost a lot more readers then I thought due to my time away, ah well.

At the moment I'm reading more then I'd like to on Forza 3 just so I feel prepared, watching endless video previews, reviews and interviews to the point where I managed to make myself look forward to a simulation racing game. I haven't done that since Gran Turismo 3 on the PS2. I guess the appeal comes from Forza 3's attention to accessibility and on not making me have to run through tracks in order to gain licenses or punishing me for making slight mistakes on the road.

This is a problem that has always plagued simulation racers – where they seem to try way too hard to please the core fans without doing enough to bring in people who just happen to like cars but aren't necessarily adept gamers. In the world of racers the word simulation has become synonymous with punishing difficulties and thrown controllers so I'm glad that devs are starting to understand that it's still possible to cater to both crowds - the racing enthusiast gamer, and the general racing enthusiast.

On another note, Sony is calling me back to their ranks, I've been waiting for the perfect reason to get a PS3 and if Metal Gear Solid 4 wasn't enough for me Uncharted 2 definitely convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt that I need to get my hands on a PS3 immediately.

It has been described as an amazing cinematic experience? Are you kidding me, this game was catered to my taste for all things cinematic and epic. This console just seems to be on a role when it comes to exclusives at the moment and my increasing interest in team ICO's The Last Guardian, and Demon's Souls provides me with little doubt. I'm so looking forward to getting my hands on a slim right now.

As it turns out, my next assignment happens to involve going to an exclusive Forza 3 preview event where I'll get to interact directly with key developers from Turn 10 studios and shortly afterwards review the game along with documenting about the overall experience.

My only thought at the moment is "this really happening?":| just the other day I was posting blogs for fun and now I'm going in an event as a freaking video game journalist (it sounds so weird to me). I almost feel like I'm not worthy. I wasn't exactly an avid game reviewer yet I landed this gig somehow and while the thought of reviewing games crossed my mind growing up, I was sure I abandoned that dream when I was 15 years old. At the moment my feelings consist of extreme excitement with bouts of nervousness that simply comes from a general lack of experience and not knowing what to expect. I also wanted to post this because I know some people on my friends list have done this kind of thing before. I'd appreciate it if some of you guys could give me some advice from a gamers perspective. Everyone, wish me luck and I'll try to fill you guys in on as much as I can without breaking my contract :P

Man I feel ancient on this site, 7 years on a website is a big deal for me. I've never dedicated that much time to any online community – 2 years being the average breaking point. If anything it's a testament to how much I love this gaming community and as a result how loyal I'm willing to be to it.

I've had my fair share of temptations to leave during the whole Jeff fiasco and as a result I ended up losing a lot of great friends but I'm glad that I stuck around to see how GS might evolve from that situation and lift itself back up and it seems to be doing well thanks to all the staff and the tireless work being done behind the scenes. I won't bore you about my history on GS, I think my past posts including the second blog I ever made explained my attraction to this site pretty well. Instead I'll leave you with an imprint of my contributions (my favs), which isn't much. o_o

User Vids:

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Blog Posts:

Some of my favorite gaming moments/sequences

Rich Storytelling, A Forgotten Ingrendient

Talent Or Practice

Segregation...in 2008?!

Choice in Video Games, The Major Divide

Primitive Births: The Stealth Factor

Community Moments (favs) :

Megaton 2002 (what an anticlimatic moment for Nintendo fans, it benefited me as a Sony fan in my SW days :P )

E3 2005 (Killzone 2 demonstration had the forums in an endless and heated debate)

Zelda Twilight Princess review (what a backlash by Nintendo fans o_o, Jeff actually recieved death threats )

The moment the terms sheep, cows, and lemmings came into existing on SW (had a hand in this believe it or not

Well that's it for me, I hope to have several more great years on this site. :)

The following is purely my opinion, agree or disagree but it still stands.

Every once in a while I may stumble upon a device that makes me question how businesses make decisions. How a board room consisting of several suits with rather impressive educational backgrounds can agree upon a product so out of touch with reality – "What were you thinking?" comes to mind. The gaming industry has gone through several of these money making concepts that just seemed fated to disappoint just from a logical standpoint. Here are a few products I remember associating with the abbreviation "WT#".

Product – Steel Battalion

The Expectation$:

Release a Mech game unlike any before, with an ultimate focus on realism. It'll do much for the industry.

The Reality:

You're essentially making gamers pay 200 dollars for a game with little replay value. Gamers can buy an entire console for the same amount of greens. This won't do much if anything for the industry aside from creating an expensive cult cl@ssic and ensuring itself as a collectable rather then something practical.

Product – Virtual Boy

The Expectation$:

Virtual reality is the in thing right now. Nintendo would be the first to introduce this to a broad market; thanks to the game boy brand they have the trust of an existing fan base and the titles to back the system up. Regardless of whether or not they rush the system to the market, it'll succeed because they're Nintendo.

The Reality:

"Ahh my freakin' eyes!" - Where were the testers to let them know that this would be a problem? It used a red monochrome display which saved the big N money so it was an inevitable complaint. Our eyes are just not used to that much red. It was also rushed to the market so the games sucked for the most part. A console based around mediocre launch titles for such an experimental, yet expensive system is just plain suicide.

Product – Nokia's N-Gage

The Expectation$:

Create a product with the best of both worlds for a mobile gamer. A phone that can play games at the same time. Give it a hardware advantage over our main competitor, the GBA and we have ourselves a winner.

The Reality:

Everyone could see the inevitable doom for the N-gage because it was being marketed too much as a gaming device and not enough as a phone. Hence the immediate problems surfaced. Not enough developer support, a design that suited a phone and not a hand-held gaming system and the added fact that it was going up directly against Nintendo. It had fail written all over it from the get-go.

Those were just a couple of examples of products that I felt were going to fail before things really got started, it was that logical, stingy side of the average gamer that warned us to stay away from them for the most part. Well I have one more to add...

Product – PSP Go

The Expectation$:

Create an ultra portable version of the PSP where the focus will be on definite portability. Make all future PSPGo games purchasable on the Playstation Network so we can have ultimate control over the pricing and solve a battery life issue we may have had with the now non-existent UMD drive. Let's also create all new accessories for PSPgo owners to buy instead of it being compatible with older versions. It's a win win for us.

The Reality:

Sony controls the content; they control the online pricing so this essentially means no more room for possible discounts at the local store. No rentals, no ability to sell your own games. You're basically tied to a network in order to acquire anything new for the device. This means years down the road it'll make a great doorstop.

PSP 3000 owners need not worry because PSPGO games are completely compatible with older versions but amazingly there's no way to play your current lineup of titles on the new GO for some reason – Why should I not get a 3000 instead again?. You can also say goodbye to all those accessories you purchased for your older PSP, they won't be recognized by the Go whatsoever.

I just don't get the logic behind this device and this is not mentioning the various other flaws like a portable hand-held focused on digital distribution using an older version of 802.11b wireless interface. (This means possible hour long downloads, if you're lucky enough to keep a connection going, otherwise you'd have to start over again). In this rare case I see a device that is the victim of its older self. It offers less in terms of convenience and prices it at a steeper price.

Now some of you may be offended with the comparisons between the Go and the other products in this list but in my opinion the GO offers the same minute amount of positives as most of these other devices. I'm surprised that Sony made the decision to release this alternative. Imagine releasing a PS3 slim but with no Blu-Ray drive and a subpar wireless connection for getting games and content. It just does not make much sense in my opinion for a platform designed specifically for games.

It's been a while since I did one of these so here I go and just for your info I rarely edit these so I may ramble.

The PSP that had to GO

So it turns out that my PSP didn't please me as long as I had hoped, I ended up selling it Kijiji and the whole experience just reminded me of the uselessness of hand-held gaming, particularly for me. I'm a gamer that values atmosphere, it stems from the same reasons why I love the Metal Gear's and the Final Fantasy's and I just can't get that feeling from a hand-held. Another thing, I just don't make a habit of playing games in public which is the whole reason for having one in the first place.

This takes nothing away from the PSP as a valuable device based on its capabilities but it just isn't for me. I could hear a few people echoing I told you so right now ~_~. I guess someone with my particular tastes can only hope for a hand-held with some subtle VR glasses as a substitute, maybe I'll be able to ignore the elders that stare at me on the train wondering what strange device I'm operating, or the kid that wants to constantly peak over my shoulders while trying to guilt trip me for a try.

Netbooks vs Notebooks

As a result I ended up purchasing something a lot more practical given my situation. I recently grabbed a Acer one, 10" Netbook and I couldn't be more satisfied with this purchase. Netbook's in my opinion define portability and they end up being in my eyes what Laptops should be. A lot of notebooks today just lack identity.

They keep getting bigger when they should be smaller, the thinnest of the bunch end up being more expensive then much more powerful desktops that are intended to be the primary computing options. To top it off a lot of these same notebooks lack the battery life necessary for real travel. The obvious weak points with a Netbook are the lack of an optical drive (but who really uses one with today's externals), the obvious hardware sacrifices (although this baby flies with everything I throw at it, games excluded) and the smaller screen but it's definitely a worthy trade off. I can easily see this becoming a trend as I've already convinced a brand new condo owner (a friend of mines) to purchase one with ease.

My first review assignment….meh

So I got my first writing assignment at Urbanologymag and I ended up having to review a recently released Guitar Hero 5 for the wii ~_~. Talk about a challenge because for one I'm not a big fan of the series mostly because of the repetitive feeling I get with each new sequel and I also had to condense my thoughts to a mere 250 words.

This was a problem for me because as you can tell from this long winded blog, I enjoy rambling on and on so 1000 words fits my writing sty-le perfectly but a mere 250 means a lot of summarizing and just making sure that I include the important points while still trying to sound like I give a damn. This was more of a test then anything though since this fall I'm sure I'll be busy with a lot of the bigger titles which I'm looking forwad to trying out.

Subject Zero…really

I recently viewed the new character introduced in Mass Effect 2 and I gotta say I'm not really a fan. If the idea is to step away from the typical bimbo infused females we're used to in most Videogames then I'd suggest a personality st-yle more deserving like say The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3.

She had a certain feminine appeal, strong, independent, but at the same time she had that deadly ambiance. Sure it's apples and oranges but I thought they could of came up with something better then the whole punk rock, kill anything that moves type. Of course I have to play the game to understand how a character like Subject Zero would fit, but I'm not buying this character's edginess upon first glance.

It's amazing how a bite of success can sneak up on you like a homeless guy at a train station sometimes. As some of you guys know I applied to write for a Canadian mag by the name of Urbanology, who's primary focus is urban culture (this could mean anything from music to technology). After my pre-interview I didn't hear from them for several months so they were completely out of my mind – I figured I wasn't good enough. I have to admit to you guys that I seriously questioned my writing abilities. It's partly why I stopped blogging as often, add to that the situation I was going through.

Well it was only a couple of days ago when I received an email stating that I'd been chosen to become an intern and if my interview were successful I'd be able to write for them. I obviously jumped at the opportunity, I expressed my passion for the gaming industry and I also highlighted why I believed it was the most important medium since the modern film and as a result, starting Thursday I'll be starting my first assignment/training session and I'll likely be handling there gaming/tech coverage. I can't tell you how good I feel right now and it's really thanks to most of you guys who kept reading my material and refused to withhold your positive words that this came to be.

It seems like I only come ever couple of months to ramble about something but I couldn't resist sharing this with my fellow bloggers. Expect more updates and blog comments from here on, I mean it this time:P

So what's new? let's see, I recently had a job interview for a tech support position at TigerDirect. Like always with me and interviews I carried with me a layer of nervousness but overall I gotta say that it was one of the coolest interviews I've had regardless of whether I got the position or not. Instead of the typical "tell me about yourself" questions, I ended up feeling like I was being tested for my inner geekitude. Imagine going into an interview prepared for a professional suit only to end up being asked who your favorite super hero is, favorite movie trilogy, and about video games by a guy with a batman tattoo and another who actually knew about king's quest and police quest. If only more interviews were that fun.

Now I don't know if any of you remember the slight hint I provided you guys with about the device I just purchased to keep me sane. Well it ended up being a PSP slim which I got for a great deal on craigslist for a much lower price then it would have cost me just for the core system. Were talking about a limited edition God of War PSP slim packaged with Vice city stories, God of War Chains of Olympus, Burnout Legends, Sims 2 Castaway and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2, the Superbad UMD movie along an extra, Crisis Core.

I really have no idea why the kid wanted to get rid of the thing considering the near mint condition I received it in but I was happy to say the least. I can give you a variety of reasons why I prefer this over my DS but I'll only list a few. The games just have higher production values all around and depth (I'll get more into that in another blog), the sound output via the headphones is far superior which is important since I'm anal about sound in general, and the extra multimedia capabilities are a plus. It also seems I picked a perfect time to get one with all the titles announced for the system in the coming years which I discovered only after purchasing the thing. I have a lot of things to say about Crisis Core since I only just completed the game but I'll save it for another blog. Let me go on the record and say that many of the negatives things I've heard about the PSP are unwarranted and it's a shame. It's an amazing device.

Writing a blog on Gamespot seems so alien after a 2-3 month absence. Hell it took me a good 5 minutes just to remember my GS password. I felt it important to let the few of you guys who still remember me know that I'm not dead, not yet anyway. My predicament hasn't changed much since the last time I posted, and while I'd normally reveal all the details, instead I'd appreciate it if you guys just allowed me to keep it to myself for a little while, at least until I'm at a point where I feel open enough to talk about what got us in our current situation. I'll just give you a hint and say that I've been off the grid longer then my current sanity should allow.

I'd like to think I've changed a lot over the past few months, but the reality is that I still think about the gaming industry every now and then, just not as often. I read consistently rather then occasionally, I've familiarized myself with fiction, non-fiction and history of all kinds but even after all that I still wouldn't mind picking up a controller right about now. It proves that gaming for me is more then a hobby, it's a lifestyle just as relevant as the common book, just as rewarding. Up until now I've lent all my systems away to friends just so I wouldn't have to look at them gathering dust.

It seems like I missed E3, for me it's the equivalent of skipping out on Christmas, it just hasn't happened before. Despite my absence, you should see me blogging more often (often for me is once a week btw) thanks to the wonders of 3G technology and Rogers (Canada's premiere internet provider...blah blah). Maybe I'll leave you guys with a detailed account of what it's like to go this long without power for my next blog since the gaming content is scarce except for a little device I bought to keep myself at least a little sane (a hint, it's slim). I hope you people have been doing well even though I've noticed a general lack of the GS population around which isn't to my surprise but I hope to get familiar with you guys again. See you aroundthe blogs.