Relocation

The idea over at GamerCast Network has finally gone into motion. The first phase of the community blog is now up and I will be writing there. If you want to check it out, go to the Video Game Show site and look for the posts marked "Submitted by pherstothelee". That is all.

Relocation

Right now at the GamerCast Network forums, the mods are toying with the idea of a community blog on the site, so if this goes well, which it probably will, I will be relocating to the community blogs, and will give the address whenever I get my hands on it. Until I find out if this is going to happen, I will probably not be posting, so sucks for you readers.

A lot of stuff have piled up...

Alright, pherstothelee has undoubltly worked a lot on this blog. Just as a little poll, or whatever you may call this, email to agamerslament@gmail.com if you are a frequent reader. Just to check how many people read this blog.

Have a nice day people! I am going to China for 2 months, and hopefully bring back some games that pherstothelee can write about!

Two New Parodies!

I've been making stupid parodies with my friends in school for two or three years, so I thought it would be easy doing parodies now, but I seem to be a bit rusty. I did manage to think up two songs, one on PAL neglection, and the other on microtransactions.

PAL (A Parody of "No Roads Left" by Linkin Park)

Living in Europe with neglect-ion
How did we fall so far behind?
Why am I searching for compensation
Knowing it's something I won't find?

In their twisted minds
They haven't done nothing wrong.
All because

We're PAL
And the prices split us open.
We're PAL
And we can't take the delays
And they don't do squat
Or give us what we want.

When did we earn this pricey increase?
Can we regain the cash that's lost?
Why can't you give us good releases?
Singstar alone won't change the cost.

In their twisted minds
They haven't done nothing wrong.
All because
They haven't done wrong.
In their twisted minds

Just PAL
And the prices split us open.
We're PAL
And we can't take the delays
And they don't do squat
Or give us what we want.

In their twisted minds
They haven't done nothing wrong.
All because

We're PAL
And the prices split us open.
We're PAL
And we can't take the delays
And they don't do squat
Or give us what we want.

...and the second one...

It's Not Okay [Microtransactions] (A Parody of "I'm Not Okay" by My Chemical Romance

Well you don't want no honesty
That's all I'm gonna say.
I never want to let you down so don't you go
It's better the first way!
For all the costume packs,
Those stupid $4.99 maps,
Remember the first demo I took from your freaking awesome online store?

It's not okay,
It's not okay,
It's not okay,
To tear us down.

What will it take to show you that these aren't the way to go?
(It's not okay)
I've told you time and time again, you say you'll stop
But what d'you have to show?
(It's not okay)
To be a joke and crook,
Another page inside the book,
I played games yesterday but it may be the last time,
Take a good hard look!

It's not okay,
It's not okay,
It's not okay,
To tear us down.

Forget about the costume packs,
Those stupid $4.99 maps,
You said you'd give us some content
But it costs us an arm and a leg!

It's okay...
It's okay!
It's okay, now.
(It's okay, now.)
But you really need to listen to me,
Because I'm telling you the truth
I mean this.
It's okay!
(Trust me)

It's not okay.
It's not okay.
Well, it's not okay,
It's not o-frigging-kay!
It's not okay,
It's not okay!

Download Watch: Calling All Cars is Finally Here!

This week may have packed the best content for the PAL users that they have ever received, with Calling All Cars and a few PSOne titles coming to the European Playstation Store. While PAL users get those downloadable games, the American Playstation Store has been updated to include the Time Trial for Motorstorm, which I have already reviewed, and a video.

Calling All Cars - 10/10
I haven't had a chance to play it, but I have been waiting for Calling All Cars to come out on the European Playstation Store for a very long time now, so that gives it a ten, at least for this update. Expect a review on it shortly.

Rampage World Tour - No Score Given
Unfortunately, I have no score to give this game, because I have no intention of playing, but I sense an opportunity. Have you played Rampage World Tour? Even if you haven't, do you want to join the A Gamer's Lament crew? If you do, send an email to neopet.jarred@mac.com telling me what consoles you have access to, and how you have access to them. Please make sure that you will be able to post regularly (about once every three or four days will do) before applying.

Crash Bandicoot - 10/10
This is another big update, as three PSOne titles are brought to the European Playstation Store. I haven't played Crash Bandicoot on PS3, but I did play it many times on the PSOne and it is one of my favorite series to date.

WipeOut and Jumping Flash - No Score Given
Yet again, I haven't played or intend to play these games, so the same applies as with Rampage World Tour.

The Heartbreak Kid Trailer - 7/10
One of the only updates apart from the Motorstorm Time Trial was the trailer for the remake of The Heartbreak Kid, starring Ben Stiller. The trailer was pretty funny, but with most comedy trailers, I feel like they threw everything that was funny into the trailer just to make a good impression.

Hot Shots Golf 5 Trailer - 10/10
I love this trailer for Hot Shots Golf 5. It showed mostly the same thing that you could play in the demo, but then at the end, it showed off some of the multiplayer online, and boy did it look nice. It seems as if everyone plays at the same time, but you can see everyone as "ghosts" so to speak. It looks really promising.

So that's about it for the downloads for this week. I'll hopefully have a review of Calling All Cars and Crash Bandicoot up later, and I'll try to put up a preview of DiRT as well.

Motorstorm Time Trial Review

After about a half a year of getting hosed by Sony, the Europeans finally get something before the US in the form of a Motorstorm update, complete with an updated multiplayer and the biggest feature, a time trial. Is this compensation for the late releases, higher prices, and crappier Playstation Store? Find out in my first A Gamer's Lament branded review of the Motorstorm time trial update.

Before I start the review, I have to say that I had pretty much shelved Motorstorm at this time. After the first couple of weeks, the novelty of the utter destruction had worn off, and it was replaced with Resistance, Madden, MLB 2K7, and demos from the Playstation Store (the American one, mind you). I had thought that all hope was lost for Motorstorm until this update came back, but it did, and it saved the game in my eyes, at least for a little while.

Motorstorm was filled with both fun and frustration, among other 'f' words, and the time trial update brought even more. Flying through the level in a rally car brings the extra fun into the game, while struggling to hit everything perfectly brings the frustration, and plenty of it. If you crash, then you'll probably want to restart, since you'll never get a respectable time if you crash. If you do hit the perfect mark and get that nice time, however, there is a great sense of accomplishment when you see your name high up on the leaderboard.

Another great addition to the time trial mode is the ability to race against ghosts. You can pick from 21 ghosts, seven from your own times, seven which are entitled 'Motorstorm's best' are from the testers with the top times, and seven are free to download from the top 250 times recorded. The seven times in each category are one from each vehicle, so it's a pretty cool feature. You can race seven at one time, or race against three of the same vehicle to find out the best routes.

The only con to the update is that the leaderboard only lets you download the top 250 times, and not a one lower. What I'd like to see is being able to download times from people on your friends list, no matter what, but I haven't been able to check that out because all of my friends are in the US, where the update arrives tomorrow. It would also be nice to download multiple ghosts from the same vehicles.

I'm always happy when the PAL region gets something before the US that isn't Singstar, but this one would be acceptable even if PAL would've gotten it late. The time trial breathes new life into Motorstorm, and now I'm anxiously awaiting the next update, hoping that it might carry split-screen multiplayer (I can dream, can't I?). Is this enough compensation for all of the bad things that Sony is doing to the PAL region? Not really, but it is awfully nice of them to finally give PAL something first. 9/10

Mission Accomplished

I finally did it! With the racing truck on the Tenderizer, I have obtained 181st place in the time trials, letting people download a ghost. It took me about 30 races with the racing truck on that track to get it done, so I feel really accomplished after that. Below are some pictures to prove that I did it. If anyone wants to download my ghost or friend me on the PSN, my handle is pherstothelee.

D'OH! - OPM UK: Been There, Done That

Today marks the first edition of D'OH!, the segment that marks the biggest screw-up in video gaming every week. I had trouble finding stories to cover this week apart from the Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable episodes being exclusive to 360 and that Blu-Ray may grab the rights to the Halo movie, but I don't really care or look into Grand Theft Auto or Halo too much, so I had to pick a different one. I didn't know what to choose until my newest issue of Playstation Magazine UK with the first ever demo Blu-Ray disc. I was incredibly excited until I opened the disc and popped it into my PS3.

After I loaded the disc, I found that there were only four demos and nothing else. They have a 50GB disc and the most they put on it is 4GB!? It got worse. I found that the four demos were Resistance, F1 Championship Edition, Virtua Tennis 3, and Genji. All of these demos are available on the Playstation Store. I would have let this slide if it were just on the American store, but no. These are all available on the EUROPEAN Playstation Store, meaning that everyone who even touches this magazine, at least all of those who aren't incredibly dense, would have already downloaded these demos when they were released THREE MONTHS AGO.

I've already seen the preview for the next disc, and the big title on there is Ninja Gaiden Sigma, so I can already see where this is going. I really hope that OPM can get their stuff straight and release a disc with demos that no one has played, or at least some videos. Sorry for the yelling, but I was really looking forward to this disc, and the content, or lack of, on it was just a kick in the nads for me. I'm really hoping the next one has some new stuff on it.

Half the World Squeals With Delight: New Dissidia Trailer with GAMEPLAY!

Today was a pretty slow day for news, so I'll just make a short post about the new Dissidia trailer. This trailer was supposed to be for members of the Japanese Playstation site only but thanks to Jeux-France, we can all see this. I'm sure that you're thinking, "Why should I just watch another Final Fantasy trailer?" and I have the answer for that. This one has gameplay. That's right. Actual gameplay from the newest Final Fantasy spin off to the PSP.

The first thing that the trailer delivered was a cinematic, probably rendered in real time, which made me marvel at the fact that graphics this crisp are being displayed on a handheld. I haven't been so impressed by graphics on a handheld since I first saw Killzone: Liberation, but it wasn't the cinematic that everyone was focusing on. It was the gameplay.

I'm not sure how many details were leaked on Dissidia as I have to admit that I wasn't really keeping tabs on it too much, so I don't know what part of this is new or not. Basically, it's an action RPG, somewhat like Kingdom Hearts. In fact, it reminded me a lot of Kingdom Hearts. I couldn't see much else since the action was so fast paced. I did see, however, that during the battle, there were tiny cutscenes between the action, and by tiny, I mean five seconds or less. It looks as if it would add a bit of story during the battles, and in my opinion, the battle cutscenes are always the best.

After seeing this trailer, I've decided that Dissidia might actually be that one flagship title to the PSP. I would love to play this, possibly as a demo, but it looks very nice. Now all we need is a release date. The trailer is embedded below, courtesy of Jeux-France.

An Undeniable Truth

I would like to announce that the Nintendo Wii has taken my grandfather, a man who's closest ties to video games is Solitaire on his computer, and has drug him into Wii Sports. It's a small step, but he's on his way. He didn't use to do anything on the computer but play Solitaire, but now he's started to surf the web as well. This console has opened my grandfather's eyes to the world of the internets.

The Nintendo Wii is officially a success. There, I said it.

Dressed to Impress: Eternal Sonata and Beautiful Katamari

So, today marks the first edition of "Dressed to Impress", the new weekly feature where I highlight the videos or screenshots that caught my attention because they were, well, impressive. This week, unfortunately, was a very slow one for videos and screenshots, so I didn't have much to choose from, but I still managed to pick two games that were impressive in different ways than the normal games would be.

The first impressive video that I stumbled upon was the prologue from Eternal Sonata. This game has nothing on today's games in terms of graphics. In fact, this could probably work on the PS2, but it's not the realism that would make this game impressive anyways. Instead, it's the different approach to graphics, portraying this title as more of an art than a simulation. The cel shading looks beautiful in its own way, and I'm always happy to see that some games are trying to go elsewhere with video games.



The second impressive video also does not rely on photorealistic graphics to hold its ground, but rather the incredible scale that some of the levels are versus the small amount of space that the game will be using. As most of you know by now, Beautiful Katamari will not be released as a retail game, but rather as an XBOX Live Arcade (and hopefully and Playstation Network) title.

It's easy to see that the game looks just as good if not better than its predecessors on the PS2, but the really impressive part of the title is around the middle of the clip, where the katamari is about 5,000 kilometers long and it starts to pick up entire countries. That's right, countries! While this may not seem like a large accomplishment to most, I certainly think that this is a wonderful sight, especially when I think of the possibility of a level where you start with a 5 centimeter katamari and roll it until it reaches the 10,000 kilometer katamari, the goal at the end of the country-swallowing level. Put this all together with the fact that this game will most likely be under 1 gigabyte and the game proves to be very impressive.

Giving Christianity a Bad Name

Most of you have already heard about the controversy surrounding Insomniac's use of a war torn Manchester Cathedral in their latest title, Resistance: Fall of Man, and now we have more information on the topic. Apparently, Sony has officially apologized not for the use of the Cathedral in the game, but just as a formality if they had offended anyone, which is exactly what they should have done. Now, the Church of England has written back, and their demands are steep.

First, the letter Sony sent to the Church of England clearly stated that Resistance is a work of science fiction. They also stated that this is in an alternate time line and the battle in the level is protecting the Cathedral against the aliens that are invading it. The church was no longer used for services due to the Chimera invasion, and the building is deserted except for the occasional military occupation during this war. They offered to meet and show the Church of England the level in question to confirm these claims. Finally, they said that as with all other things that they release, Sony claimed that they obtained all needed permissions.

The letter back to Sony was very short and to the point. They thanked Sony for acknowledging that they used the Manchester Cathedral in their game and also thanked them for apologizing, but they did not feel that that was enough. They stand by their views about the gun violence portrayed in the Cathedral during that level. They have set a time to meet with Sony in Manchester for them to demo the level in question to show them that the gun violence is with science fiction weapons against science fiction enemies in a science fiction time frame. They said that in this meeting they will discuss their "outstanding demands", which will include taking the game off of store shelves and a "generous donation".

To start, this really shouldn't be as bad as it really is since most of the claims by the Church are wrong. First off, like I said above, the "gun violence" was committed by outrageously science fiction weapons against outrageously science fiction enemies in an outrageously science fiction time frame. Also, the Manchester Cathedral is old enough to be considered a national landmark, making it owned by the government, and it can be used in the media in any way, so any legal action should fall through. Finally, even if the Church of England is concerned about their so called gun crime, they should know that the person that the player is portraying is fighting off the aliens from invading the Cathedral, so the Cathedral is not shown in a negative manner anyways.

Now, the latest letter from the Church of England really made me angry, because the demands are way too steep for an 'offense' as small as this. They not only want the game to be taken off of shelves, but also a "generous donation", which pretty much means that they want Sony to pay them off to avoid legal action; legal action that would fall through anyways. If I were the Church of England, I would have just accepted the apology and stopped there, keeping the entire Christian community from looking like idiots.

Hang in there Sony. Don't give in to their demands. We're counting on you.

Motorstorm: Barren or Just Too Young?

After picking up the Motorstorm 1.2 update along with the developer diary, I started thinking about what Motorstorm really is. When I first inserted Motorstorm after installing the update, the first thing that caught my eye was the new menu item on the start page called "WRECKreation". I was disappointed when I opened the menu item and all I saw was a time trial, but then I started thinking to myself. What menu item would have only one thing inside? Afterwards, I watched the developer diary, and I really liked what I saw.

The developer diary didn't focus too much on the 1.2 update but what was really going on behind the scenes. It talked about how the team started working on future updates from the day that the game was released, and how they already have ideas that they will implement after the 1.2 patch is released. This made me think back to right before the game came out.

Everyone was excited about Motorstorm. It looked just as good as the target render that was shown two years ago, and it had been said that the quality of gameplay would match. All of the hype died down, however, when it was announced that there would be no split-screen multiplayer. In fact, there were no other modes other than online multiplayer and the "campaign". Sony responded to the public outcry by saying that Motorstorm was an opportunity to show off the Playstation Network's capabilities. After that was said, almost everyone thought that Sony meant that they wanted many people to be playing Motorstorm online. Even I thought this until seeing the developer diary.

Now I think I know what Sony meant behind that statement. They didn't want to show off their online multiplayer capabilities, but rather to show off another important aspect of the Playstation Network, and that is the ability to improve a game for years after its release. They've already shown this by doubling the amount of game modes since the release, although doubling on one mode is pretty easy to do, and I think that they will continue to release these updates until there is really nothing more to add to the game, which would include split-screen multiplayer.

I think that this is a great idea and will probably pave the way for other titles to release more content gradually, provided that the cost is not too high, and since Motorstorm is just a first example from Sony, the next titles will not have the lack of modes that Motorstorm had, which would make an incredible amount of content available. What I'm trying to say is everyone needs to stop ragging on Motorstorm for its lack of content. Just like a baby, Motorstorm does not have a wealth of content in its early stages, but I predict that as it matures, the excellent team behind the game will make sure that in the end, Motorstorm is well worth the $60 spent to obtain.

Download Watch - 1.81, MotorStorm Update, and Trailers Galore

I'm late on the Download Watch today, I know. This is because the Firmware 1.81 update was available today and it was the slowest firmware update I have ever downloaded. It took over an hour and a half to download, and when I finally downloaded and watched/played everything, I was too tired to blog it. But here I am now, and I have a lot of updates for this week.

Firmware Version 1.81 - 2/10
This was the slow download, and there wasn't even anything good that came with it. The only update was a fix to the RGB setting, which would reset every time the system was rebooted. Yup, that was the ONLY thing changed. I wouldn't have even downloaded it, but the system didn't let me access my PSN account until I downloaded it, so I had to do it...

MotorStorm 1.2 Update and Time Trial Add-On - 8/10
Wow, the Europeans got something before the Americans did. This is a very welcome update in my opinion, because adding more modes to this barren game is always good. The time trial is nice, letting you race against the best times in the world, or you can just download your friend's times. The time trial was placed under a new menu option that made me very excited. This was called "WRECKreation", and I thought it was a "create-your-own-wreck" thing that the team might have kept quiet, or maybe they're planning something like that soon. Other than the time trial, the 1.2 update made some very subtle changes, like making that annoying dirt smear for people who join or leave the lobby disappear if it isn't showing something. The view is now closer for ATVs and Bikes, and that's about it. I never saw the Elimination mode that was promised, but maybe I just overlooked it.

MotorStorm Developers Diary - 10/10
The update shipped side-by-side with a new developers diary, which showed us a behind-the-scenes look at what the team has been working on. This was a really nice video, but I think I'm going to have a standalone blog post to talk about what I think about updating MotorStorm.

Haze Ubidays Trailer - 10/10
I was hyped the first time I saw this trailer, and I get even more hyped the more I see it. This is the best time that I've seen it since the trailer was presented in glorious 1080p. I can't wait for this game to come out and this will probably be the ones that I will buy the day it comes out. I really need to start saving my money for autumn/winter as there are a lot of games that I will want to buy when they come out.

The Darkness Story Trailer - 7/10
The Darkness looks nice. It sounds nice. I'm not quite sure of how good it will play, but that will be all cleared up when the demo comes out. This trailer is pretty much what everyone has been seeing, so it's nothing new. You got to see more hearts getting eaten and more people getting shot, but that was about it. I'm getting tired of the trailers. Just give us the demo! Preferably before the game comes out, please.

Super Stardust HD Trailer - 3/10
This is also more of the same. I feel like I've seen this trailer dozens of times. It looks good to try for a demo, but if I don't get one, don't count on me buying it. If I do get the demo, it will still have to be really good for me to be convinced.

Lair CGI Trailer - 4/10
When I watch the CGI trailers, I'm always impressed, but when I see gameplay footage, I'm always let down. This is one game that I want to be good, but I'm thinking it won't be. The other bad thing is this game is guaranteed to be a letdown because of its hype. A demo has been confirmed, and only after that will I decide if it's worth buying or not.

That's it for the PS3 updates this week. There is one downloadable demo for the PSP called Xyanide or whatever, and it's a 3D space shooter. It's not very good. The pacing is very slow, and I'm not much of a fan of mindless shooters. I mean, there weren't even any powerups! This one is definitely not a buy for me.

Rock Band Details Released

Today I stumbled upon some details on Rock Band, Harmonix's garageband multiplayer title, from Game Informer. Most of the details were about rather small things, but there were a couple of things that jumped out at me.

One disk with 4 separate campaigns. Guitar, Drum, Bass and Vocal. Each can be played on its own from start to finish, in addition, a full band game is designed to allow for one huge co-op playthrough.
This will add a lot of replayability to the game as this is now essentially five games in one, if you buy every one of the instruments. For a game that is already famous for it's incredible replayability, the addition of four extra campaign modes is guaranteed to keep Rock Band in your PS3/360/Wii for a very long time.

Will feature full support for four player online play on both 360 and PS3. Any combination of on/offline play will work and each player can pick their own difficulty setting.
This is a must for me since one of my Guitar Hero fanatic friends owns a 360 and only a 360. Also, no other friends of mine that live near me own a PS3, so the cross-platform support is great to hear. This would be even better if you can combine online multiplayer with splitscreen because then I could form an entire band with just me, my friend, and his two brothers, one of which is also a friend of mine.


Flexible community system will allow you to find bandmates anywhere in the world.
This is also a great addition because most of the members GamerCast Network, the forum that I am a part of, live in the United States, while I live in Europe. Most PS3 games to date have had trouble with making worldwide servers, most notably Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm, so I'm very happy that I will be able to play with anyone around the world.

Musical fret-boards are now transparent so you can see more of the background visuals. Guitar is on the left side of the screen, Bass on the right and drums down the middle. Vocals scroll from right to left along the top of the screen.
After sketching this out on a piece of paper, I noticed that this layout will actually work quite nicely when playing in a group to counter the splitscreen. When playing alone or by yourself while playing online, however, I would like to be able to take away all but my own notes, since I would probably find it distracting to have all of the notes streaming past at one time.

Guitars and Bass now have 10 frets. 5 for the regular sections of the game and 5 for the newly designated solo sections.
This is so cool. Not only will you look really awesome shredding close to the body of the guitar, but the notes for the solos are all hammer ons so there is no strumming required, which will make the solos a lot easier.

Drums are apparently insane. You use actual sticks and hit one of four colored pads in front of you, in addition to a kick pedal attached to the drumming unit. Drummers will also have the ability to do fills etc. in their own little free-form section, do well and you'll trigger the drummers version of star power.
I like seeing that there will be only five drums to stay consistent with the guitar and the bass, but I would have rather seen a cymbal replacing one of the toms just to have a cymbal on the set. I know that some of the songs will have the crash of the cymbal replacing one of the buttons, but I think it would feel better to have the cymbal on the actual set.

After the details were released, I was very happy with what I read. I'm starting to get excited about this game, but I have one concern. A game that ships with so many peripherals is bound to cost a fortune. Seeing that the Guitar Hero II for the XBOX 360 costs around $90, I would say that Rock Band may retail at $200 if all of the peripherals are included. I wouldn't be very happy buying Rock Band unless one of two things happen. The first would be that the game were to ship as just the game and you had to buy all of the peripherals separately. That way, I could get the things that I wanted. For example, I could get the guitar and the drums, and pass on the microphone. I may even buy all of them anyways, but seeing two $30 and two $60 price tags would probably hurt less than seeing just one $200 price tag. The second thing that I would want to happen is the game would depend on free DLC like SingStar. This would prevent me from buying everything until Rock Band 57 or whatever.

The Recording Project

So I've started to record gameplay from my PS3. It's going along nicely, although some of my earlier videos showed that I really should have messed with some settings before recording, most notably brightness. I've recorded some gameplay from a couple demos and Resistance, and I will try to do every demo that I'm capable of showing a lot of. I started off with some casual stuff, like Go! Puzzle and Hot Shots Golf, but now I have posted a Resistance video and video from the Ninja Gaiden Sigma demo, which you can see below.

Resistance: Fall of Man Menial Punching Gameplay


Ninja Gaiden Sigma Ninja Fortress Gameplay


Ninja Gaiden Sigma Boss Gameplay


On a small side note, I will be adding a couple of segments to the blog. These segments will take place on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Mondays, I will write a segment called "Dressed to Impress". This is where I comment on the most impressive set of screenshots or video that I have seen that week. On Wednesdays, I will write a segment called "D'OH!". This is where I comment on the stupidest move that a company or single person in gaming news makes. The final segment on Fridays will be called "Download Watch". This is where I mostly comment on downloads from the American, European, and Japanese Playstation store, as well as any other downloads from that week of note.

The K!ller is in the house!

Hey readers reading this, this is Jing, also known as K!ller around the internet. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this blog here. I am mainly a PC gamer, and I have an access to numerous consoles, and games, so I can give pretty good feedback/reviews, as I am quite experienced too.

Not else much to say... but, I really hope this blog works out.

The Inaugural Post

So I've decided to create a blog for me to comment on all of the news that is going on in the world of gaming. I've invited some friends from my international school here in Lund who are also some pretty hardcore gamers, so I'm hoping to get a bit of a community set up.

Speaking of communities, if you care enough about games to be reading this blog, you should go and check out the GamerCast Network in my links box to your right. In my opinion it is the greatest gaming community on these here internets, mainly because the people there are never too critical of anyone, and if they do seem critical, it's probably just joking around. It's also small enough so that everyone knows each other pretty well, so a good foundation is set for the community.

Now to introduce myself. I am Jarred, known as pherstothelee around the internet. I own a PSP and a PS3, and I have access to PC gaming, an XBOX 360, a Wii, and a DS, so I feel that I would be a good candidate for video gaming journalism. The only consoles that I am really critical about are the Wii and the DS, mainly because of their gimmicks (the touch screen and the whole "motion sensing is the only way" thing). I am sometimes critical of XBOX Live and the fact that you have to pay for an online multiplayer service. I'd say more, but most people can get to know me and my fellow bloggers as entries are written.