As for gaming, we really have been enjoying Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (phew, that's a mouthful!). The challenge seems to be just right. We're playing it co-op, giving each of us one extra life, which I think is fair, given the viciousness of the weapons. While there isn't a real "story", you do play connected maps with a thin veneer of plot, so it's good enough for us.

It's been especially nice now that we've figured out how to use the M.U.L.E., which is the flying remote control "eye in the sky". By hitting the up arrow, you tell it to go to where you are looking and by hitting the down arrow, it will come and hover over you. It marks any enemies it sees on your HUD, making it much easier. We were just moving it randomly up until a few sessions ago.

My Neverwinter Nights campaign has slowed down due to Tuesday evening commitments from both of us. But we're nearly through the first part of the game and have actually explored a few sections that C hasn't been to before, so it has been fun. We have a million outstanding quests though, so we're afraid to talk to anyone else for fear of getting Yet Another Quest!

I picked up Grand Theft Auto IV for my PS3 last week, using my "sorry you bought HD-DVD" $50 Best Buy gift card, so it cost only $2, after I included another gift certificate. I played it a bit and found it interesting, but certainly not the 99 rating as found on Metacritic. I tend to more agree with Bill Harris' GTA IV impressions. There's just some weird shit that goes on. But I hope to dedicate some time to it soon.

Well I know I haven't blogged here in a long time but I have been busy playing with the 4 new games that I bought for myself which I must say is very addictive. To afford them I had finally sold all my Xbox 360 games and some psp games that I don't play with anymore. I bought:

1. My Sims(Wii)
2. FF: Crisis Core (PSP)
3. Call of Duty 4 (again for the  PS3)
4. Patapon (PSP)

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So as soon as I read the title "PS3 update 2.17" and the one sentence out of the paragraph "this morning" I looked at the date it was posted and didn't bother to finish reading the rest and started my PS3 up. As it was downloading and installing I read the rest of the paragraph and I got excited for nothing I guess. The update was to only improve some of the online games. I'm thankful don't get me wrong but I was expecting the "In-game" XMB at least. Me expecting home would seem over the top and would me living in the dream world for it be coming out so soon.

It has been another busy week for video gaming, although I haven't played any of them that I reported on last week (typical of me). Some PS3 gaming, some computer gaming and a final stab at an Xbox game.

C and I began Chapter Two of Neverwinter Nights on Tuesday. It has been going along pretty well, although a bit of ennui has set in. It might have something to do with the fact that he had previously played the first couple of chapters of Neverwinter, so we haven't hit anything new for C. I just kind of follow along and kill things. We have a pretty long list of quests to do, but none of them are very tricky and we have had the way carefully pointed out to us in every case. Perhaps when we begin playing some parts he hasn't done already my interest will pick up.

C was pretty excited to hear I got a PS3. I think we may give Army of Two a try soon. So far I have been pretty happy with the PS3 as a game machine. It really has everything you could want in a modern console, all builtin. A hi-def DVD player, wireless (and wired!) network capability, wireless (up to 7 I think) controllers with USB cables for charging (although the one that comes with it is only good for charging, as it is only like four feet long), and HDMI. It's a little ridiculous that it only comes with a composite video cable, but the HDMI/USB cable pack wasn't too outrageously expensive.

The Elder Scrolls IV : Oblivion

I went out an bought an optical digital cable for the audio output, but was saddened to find I had already maxed out the optical digital in for my Marantz SR7001 (it has 3 optical and 3 coax inputs). I already have the Toshiba HD-DVD player, the Sony SACD player and the Xbox using the optical inputs. Of course, the Toshiba and the Xbox are obsolete, but I don't want to give up on them yet. The SACD player can use the 6 cable direct input, but it is not as flexible an input as the optical one, so I didn't want to give up on that either. Turns out, though, I didn't need to buy the optical cable, as the PS3 will do the audio directly from HDMI. It wasn't working originally on my setup, and I thought it had something to do with how the SR7001 doesn't support the latest and greatest HDMI version, but I must have had the setup wrong, as it works just fine. Sounds great too.

Oblivion looks great, too, even if it is "only" 720p. The most impressive graphic display comes when you walk backwards in shallow water. You see the wake from your legs and it fans out in an incredibly realistic fashion. I was showing it off to my co-op friend and then we saw a horse mounted guard ride by. But we uncovered a graphical glitch, as he seemed to get stuck on the side of the hill in mid-jump. It was very funny looking.

I've only played a bit more Oblivion, as I am trying to decide just how fine-tuned I want to make my character. It is an interesting skill system, where you improve in the skills you use, but you start out higher and improve faster in your 7 "major" skills. I'm not sure just how much tweaking I want to do with it.

XBox Brute Force

M and I had our weekly co-op game on Wednesday and decided to give Brute Force one last try. We have been playing it for a couple of weeks now and found it uncompelling, graphically murky and basically repetitive. But this was the first week we had all four characters, so we hoped for better.

And it didn't deliver. The level design is uninspiring and confusing. Either you are completely funneled along or it is wide open and, even with the radar, you have no idea where to go next. The weapons are boring and there seems to be no strategy, while the story is either incomprehensible or non-existent. We don't look for the height of strategy or story, but let's at least hit the Halo level (which wasn't the pinnacle of game design many think it is). So we are giving up on it, which for my friend isn't something that happens lightly. Next week, I think we are going to try Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, which finally added a co-op mode to the Splinter Cell series.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

I picked up Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare yesterday. I know I promised to not spend any more discretionary money, but I needed a 1080p game, just so I could say I had something 1080p. Played it a bit last night, and it is pretty sharp. But my Sony XBR TV said it was only in 720p, which had me confused. Using some Google-fu just now uncovered the fact that CoD4 defaults to 720p, even if 1080p (or 1080i) is available. So you have to turn off 720p in the PS3 settings before running it in order to get it to run at 1080p. I'll have to try that tonight.

That being said, the game looked great and was exciting to play. But I have to say that playing an FPS with the stock PS3 "SIXAXIS" controller is pretty bad. The Xbox controller has two triggers, but to fire a weapon using the PS3 controller, you have to press one of the shoulder buttons. It's just not as nice a feel as a trigger and I often find myself pressing the second shoulder button, which drops a grenade, much to the chagrin of my teammates.

Hardware is outstanding but I really don't see why they shouldn't. Microsoft's software expertise is great but not so much hardware. The PS3 is definitely lacking in software. With these difference why not join together to make a system. It seems silly to compete for the same goal. Games are being on Multi-platform more than ever so why have two systems even out for the same type of game play experience. I found someone who had listed a few reason why they should.

the math of consol

1. Microsoft's Xbox 360 has the most atrocious hardware in consumer electronics history. It's so bad, the company had to extend 360 warranties to three years, spending a billion dollars in the process, just to fix systems that keep breaking on a whim. I've had four systems break in only three years. They're becoming known as a lemon-maker with great games. Meanwhile, Sony makes great hardware but...

    So when I got the money from selling my Xbox 360 I used it to buy PS3 stuff. I got everything on my list except for a game I wanted which was a used Warhawk. I didn't want to buy it with the bluetooth because I already had a headset. I could had bought it off the PSN(Playstation Network) but I do not have acess to debit or credit at the moment and the PSN: Cash cards are not out yet. If you ever do get it used it will be $5 cheeper then what you will buy for if own a Edge discount card. It might not be much for some but saving is saving money no matter what.

Work hard and save your money and when you are old, you will be able to buy the things only the young can enjoy. -by: Unknown.

    Warhawk is pretty good game. It took me something to get use to because I never played a game that involves Aircrafts before. Good thing about this game your not limited to only Aircrafts. You can do other things to help your team. No air support is good without a good ground support. Ground support is just as helpful as Air support. Use tanks, ground missiles, and etc...

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