Another week of gaming has served to reinforce my belief that holidays are awesome and even if it's been getting so hot I've lost the ability to think straight I've still had a pretty good time this week. I've played Team Fortress 2, Rock Band 2, Metroid Prime 3 and another game I'll mention shortly but if you know me you'll probably be able to guess what it is. I have been thinking of going for the Bladder of Steel achievement on Rock Band 2 but I'm somewhat reluctant. The achievement requires that you play the entire 'Endless Setlist 2' without pausing the game and while I knew this would be a seemingly impossible task it was not until recently that I worked out quite how long it would take to play the setlist without pauses and it clocks in at over 6 hours. Even with me and my bro switching in and out between songs this is still quite the task to complete. I've still got a little voice in the back of my head telling me to go for it though, not so much for the achievement itself but just to know that I've completed the challenge.

The really exciting news for me this week however is that my limited edition copy of Halo 3 arrived as expected. Not only have I been packing in a fair bit of multiplayer sinceI was reunited with the gameI got it I also went through all the content on the special features disc. The short film on Bungie and the Making of Halo 3 documentary were amazing to watch as a Halo fan and I'd definitely recommend them to any major fan that has the limited edition version and hasn't seen them. Seeing that these people will do 12 hour shifts, will work until 3 a.m. and won't see their families or have proper meals for days it really brings home the commitment that the people at Bungie have towards the Halo projects and makes it easy to understand how they are able to produce such high quality games. There was even one occasion in the Bungie documentary in which the security guard mentioned that he has known people work 28 hour shifts in the building.

The reviews for The Conduit on the Wii also finished coming pouring in this week and from what I've seen since the games release I'm not all that surprised by the negative reaction from critics. I remember a long time ago hearing about this game and seeing how much some of the Wii fanatics were so hyped about it but I didn't really understand the appeal, what was different about this game? Was I supposed to be impressed purely because this was a traditional FPS being released on the Wii? As time went on the game didn't really start to look any better and it looks like it has turned out as a bit of a mediocre game. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against a shooter games coming out on the Wii, I thought Metroid Prime 3 and Red Steel were great, but the game just seems to generic and really doesn't look up to scratch when compared to other shooters these days. It seems that a lot of the people who like the game reallyare purely excited about it's an FPS on the Wii and like most people I'd much rather have a good FPS for another console than a bad one for that one.

I think I'll leave things abouthere this week as despite the electric fan in my room I seem to be a little bit on fire. I hope everyone else has a great summer and I'll leave you with this short but amusing YouTube video. Keep on gaming.

-Gamer_152

So I have finished the campaign mode on Red Faction: Guerrilla. It wasn't an amazing game but it was most certainly a very good game and was well worth the play through. For anyone who is the slightest bit into action-adventure games I would recommend Red Faction to them because I'm sure they'll enjoy it very much. Right the way through the game I found that the destructible environments and the emphasis the game made on all the destructible buildings was what really set it apart from other games of its kind. However Guerrilla has actually only taken up a small portion of my gaming time this week due to my purchase of another great game which I'll mention in a bit.

I have finally gotten around to ordering my collector's edition copy of Halo 3 off of the internet and that should be arriving in two or three days. I figured I had to get it before the annual celebration of Bungie Day (which falls on the 7th day of the 7th month) and with a little luck I may even be able to pick up the legendary Recon armour permutation on the day itself, which is being awarded to anyone who can beat the Bungie employees at their own game. Pre-orders of Halo 3: ODST are also going cheap on some sites as well but I figured I'll check if I can order it at a local store first, that way I can pick up the game after it comes out as soon as possible, or at least that is the plan.

I have also downloaded and played a little America's Army 3 this week and I find myself once again disappointed with America's Army. I thought that maybe in the new version the shortcomings of its predecessors may have been cleaned up a bit, but it seems not. The game is littered with bugs ranging from major technical issues to numerous gameplay problems. But even ignoring these annoying glitches, the gameplay in America's Army 3 provides feels bland and derivative and I really couldn't find much enjoyment at all in playing. Being essentially a propaganda tool of the U.S. Army, it is free to download for anyone with Steam but there's not much to be got out of playing the game.

I am happy to say though I have downloaded a game this week that has been nothing less than brilliant and that's Team Fortress 2 for the PC. I really liked the game on the 360 but my two major gripes with the game were that it felt limited in terms of the number of maps and it tended to demand quite a bit of connection which wasn't the most convenient thing when my router and my Xbox are not the best of friends. However not only are there tons more maps on the PC version, along with all the stuff the various server admins of the PC version have cooked up, but I've found myself surprised by just how rich of an experience I've received from all the new (well, new to me) content in this version. There's more weapons, more achievements, more players allowed per game and maybe it's just because I haven't played an online shooter in a while but I think it's just plain awesome. If you wanna play you can add me under the steam ID Gamer_152 and I'll be playing much more of that game this week.

Anyway it's absolutely boiling where I am with summer heat and the hot air blowing out of my laptop cooling fan so I'm gonna go sit by my electric fan and play some more TF2. I'll leave you with the trailer for the new series of the Halo machinima, Red vs. Blue. Peace out.

-Gamer_152

Has it really only been a week since my last blog? Wow... Well, ok I guess it hasn't quite been a week. You see I spent part of Saturday and Sunday round a friends house and I decided that sleep deprivation and blogging weren't a good mix. I've tried writing while barely conscious before and let's just say it wasn't my best ever work. However my exams are over and I am back gaming for real again. This week I've worked my way up to over 300 obtained pokemon on Pokemon Diamond Version, I've unlocked and completed all songs on Elite Beat Agents (although I'm still struggling at getting past the final mission of sweatin' difficulty) and I'm up to the final sector on Red Faction: Guerrilla. I've also played some of the online matchmaking on Red Faction and I've had a good time with that too.

Now don't get me wrong, all the games I'm playing at the moment are great but I've spent quite a bit of this week thinking about what games I am going to get next. I've already decided what site I'm going to get my limited edition Halo 3 copy from and as we speak I'm downloading America's Army 3 (which is free is anyone else is interested) for my laptop, however there are a few other games I have my eye on. Unfortunately my laptop is .2 GHz away from meeting the system requirements for The Sims 3 but the other major game I have my eye on is Prototype. I like the look of the big open-world gameplay of the game, the huge amount of skills to unlock and the abilities bestowed upon your character which give you the crazypower to run up walls, fly between buildings, turn your arm into a lethallysharp blade etc. I'm also thinking of getting Team Fortress 2 for my PC, I have it for my 360 but without the various extras of the PC version which they have been promising for a ridiculous amount of time it's not quite the same.

I am also considering getting Ghostbusters: The Video Game but from what I've heard Ghostbusters has fallen slightly short of being the video game it could have been. I wouldn't call myself a big fan of the movie but it's a movie thatI thought was very goodand it's good to hear that the game delivers on fan service, I only wish that it could have delivered a bit more in other areas because from what I saw it had the potential to be a great game. If I do get the game it will probably be one of my later purchases. I am also thinking of getting the Big Surf Island DLC for Burnout Paradise. I've been waiting for this one for quite some time and although the island isn't as big as I thought it'd be there certainly seems to be tons more content on there and it seems worth a look but it's not my number 1 priority.

As for games I already have I think I'm gonna finish up Red Faction: Guerrilla, play some more Pokemon and maybe go back to Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Lastly a special thanks to Gamespot for featuring me on their list of E3 bloggers and thanks to PJ24 for telling me about that. This week I'll leave you with Ryan Davis's review of my least favourite video game movie of all time (I really can't begin to explain how much I hate it). Hope you've enjoyed reading and there'll be more blog next week.

-Gamer_152