Here's some short entries I wrote and never got a chance to update.

Also really quick, I now have internet! Woohooo! I'm working right now on downloading demos and ill check out SOCOM tonight. I have Fallout 3 and it is AWESOME. My next entry will likely be an in depth review of what exactly is so awesome about it as well as a few aspects that are not so awesome.

My triumphant return to the internet is here, expect much more thorough entries at much more frequent intervals.

10/15

Not having an internet connection is seriously hurting my gaming life – I guess my educational life as well but that wound doesn’t hurt nearly as much. An example you say? Well, today I bought (picked up, rather) SOCOM: Confrontation which could very well be one of the best online shooters out right now, and easily the best available on the Playstation 3. Is it? I wouldn’t know, because I can’t even install the required hard disk installation without being connected to the internet. (Or pair my nice new Bluetooth headset without downloading the new software update) Now I suppose that’s not too much to ask for an online-only game but it is frustrating. I won’t have internet setup in my room for another week or so (don’t even get me started on how ridiculous it is we have cable included in our costs but not internet; an absolute necessity as a student) I can’t even play the game for a week or so.

That is ok though, because I have just recently setup a Gamefly account over the weekend and Saints Row 2 should arrive tomorrow or maybe Friday at the latest. I am very hesitant about trying Gamefly and it has taken me quite some time to finally give in and try it. It’s really my only option at this point; there aren’t any Blockbusters in Philadelphia. I can either spend sixty dollars on every game I want to play or maybe I can rent at some obscure place around here that probably consists of close to 10 dollars per rental for maybe five days at best. After growing so accustomed to Blockbuster’s basically-two-week rental for eight dollars, I can’t step down to that. So I’m paying $8.95 this month and then something like $15.95 every month after that to have one game out at a time. I figure if I send my rentals back when I get the few new games that are absolutely worth buying (such as Farcry 2, Little Big Planet, Fallout 3) I’ll never be without something to play. Being here has made me realize even more how much I LOVE video games. It’s such a huge part of my life and it’s really hard for me to be very passionate about much else. I hope that as soon as are internet is hooked up here that not only it is very fast (for sixty bucks a month it better be) and that I can keep up with this blog frequently and consistently enough to gain some viewership. I fear that my writing abilities have seriously weakened in my time out of school and without many structured writing “projects” per say.

10/22

I got Saints Row 2 last Thursday. I've been having some fun with it but I'm sending it back already today. It is definitely fun. Pretty much anything you really wanted to do in GTA and couldn't, you can in Saints Row 2. The problem is that with that abundance of features, the overall quality of everything else drops significantly. The graphics are pretty poor overall, though they will surprise you at times and look really nice. The explosions and high speed chases in particular are nice eye candy. The ability to customize pretty much everything definitely sets it apart from the GTA series and gives the game some more longevity. The story certainly pales in comparison; in terms of originality depth, and overall quality. I really enjoyed doing things like customizing my outfit, setting my gang members to look like PMC-style soldiers or purple ninjas or stealing cars to store in my garage - which was one of the features they really nailed. At any of your "cribs" or safe houses, you'll have a driveway or parking lot and if you exit a vehicle while it's in that designated area it will be saved into your garage. You can then take it out whenever you want and I'm pretty sure it's always there even if you never bring it back. That's the best way to save cars in an open world game that I've seen. The only thing that's one notch better is in Scarface: The world is yours on ps2, you were able to purchase cars and then from anywhere, call your driver who would bring the car right up to you in a few seconds. If someone would combine those two concepts they would have the best system for saving and accessing personal cars in open world game.

I could go a little more in depth on this game, and i may later, but as fun as it could be at times, it wasn’t a very memorable experience. You may not have the same quantity of features in GTAIV that Saints Row 2 has but none of its quality is compromised for the extra quantity. I didn’t get a chance to play any of the online modes on account of my lack of internet, but I can't imagine it's better than GTAIV's. I'm sure it has some fun to it but GTAIV online is just such a massive, incredibly fun experience that would be tough to beat. All in all, Saints Row 2 is a great rental but I'm just not sure I would pay 60 dollars (65 here in philly! Ugh sales tax is horrible) for it.

Farcry 2 and Bioshock both come out today and my only class is 12:30-2:30 so I do have more than enough time to go get it. But I have an essay to write, a report to write and a project to finish all between tonight and Tuesday. So I may not even get Farcry 2 until tomorrow (my girlfriend bought it for me so I just need to pick it up, p.s. she's the best) and Bioshock I'm still very undecided on whether I should fork over the $65 for it or if I should just wait to receive it as my next gamefly rental. I did some research onmetacritic to read some critic and user reviews on it and I was convinced I should just buy it. Then the one thing that turned me off the idea was hearing about a few glitches that carried over from the 360 and PC versions. A few reviews mentioned them as being a bit of an issue, though not really hurting the overall experience and a few more said they hadn't carried over from the previous versions. I'm tempted to just buy it anyway because I've just heard so many good things about it. Well either way I'll definitely have farcry tonight or tomorrow and either have Bioshock too, or be getting it in the mail early next week. I'll update on Farcry 2 when I get it and try to put together a more formal review soon after that.

-B