I mean, it's honestly one of the most original games this generation. The story is absolutely epic, in every sense of the word. You have some badass weapons in your arsenal, and it's actually fun traveling around New York, unlike any other sandbox game (a few games are exceptions). Some of the boss battles are insane, and you actually have to figure out how to beat them, not just attack, attack, attack. Please, if you take any advice from me, play Prototype. If you can get past the graphics, it's an absolutely stellar game.

It deserved better than what all the reviews gave it, I don't know what these guys were thinking not giving it at least a 9. I'd give it a 9.3 out of 10.

Video game addiction definitely exists, and I am victim to many of those things. To anyone that says it doesn't exist, either stop being ignorant or stop denying that you too might be addicted. Although I would say that I play a lot less than I used to with being in college and all, I still find that sometimes I go on these ridiculous runs where for weeks I will play a ton, and then the next few weeks won't play at all. I think video game addiction starts with confidence. I am one of those people where on the outside I pretend to be confident, but on the inside I truly am not. I find many problems in my social life that I simply won't acknowledge publicly, and keeping it inside doesn't help at all.

But I think all these problems start before video games. A lack of self confidence forces a person to confide in something they think they are good at, and if it's video games, something that's VERY competitive and lots of people can be good at, that's when that person is in danger of becoming addicted to games. It's the same with people who work out all the time, and even go to take steroids to get bigger. Getting bigger makes them feel stronger and more comfortable. It's the same concept, and sucks, but it happens. Video games aren't the culprit, it's the lack of self confidence that kids develop as they grow up.

EDIT: And the reason it will always be a problem is it's hands on, unlike television or the internet, and the competitive nature of people makes them want to be better. If they are better than they feel more confident, and I don't care who you are, everyone wants a sense of confidence in themselves, it just depends on how it you go about doing that. Anything in which you interact and progress in will always have this problem in one way or another, and the way society portrays gamers, as opposed to say athletes, makes the situation even worse.

Well, much has changed since then as well. One unfortunate thing seemed to happen, and that was that the Halo Union seemed to go under. That union has done so well for so long and I'm proud, but it seems everybody has given up on it, and it may be time to move on. It partially is attributed to lack of news, and thus lack to talk about. Plus the whole union aspect of Gamespot is dieing anyways, although I still believe the forums here are some of the strongest on the interwebz. I love System Wars especially, even if you know you will probably never convince anyone to see things as you do, it's always great getting into a good, well thought out argument.

The 360 has treated me well. My newest one has held up for a while, and though I may not game as much as I used to, I find the quality of my gaming experiences have improved. I try to understand stories more, and think out my approaches. I use more strategy rather than run and gun. It has come to the point where my roomate says I overemphasize situations, and that things are much simpler than I allow them to be, but what fun is not thinking about your plan of attack. My most recent game is The Orange Box, and for 20 bucks, this is a steal. 5 games in one? Check. Legendary games in that very box? Check. All PC gamers talk about is Half Life, so I figured I had to try it. It is very good, I must say, though I really don't see why it is considered to be such a good game. The physics and stuff are great, but it seems to get really boring at times. I haven't beaten it yet, so I hope it only gets better as I play on. I also beat Portal, and that was very fun, albeit a little easier than I thought it would be. People were making it out to be a little hard, but whatever, I enjoyed the 3 hours it took to beat it. I haven't played much Team Fortress 2, and the little I did play seemed real hard, but I've heard great things about it and will give it another shot, whenever that will come.

I've also played Left 4 Dead, another Valve game, and that was pretty good, and very underrated. Not many talk about it, but multiplayer is great, and it's very different from your normal FPS. You can be zombies, which is by far the coolest thing I've done in a shooter in a long time, and I actually enjoy being the zombies more than the humans, its that fun. The only thing is the campaign is very limited, both single and co-op, and that just does not justify dropping 60 bucks. I will definitely be picking this up when the price drops.

As you may have noticed, or probably not, I less inclined to pay the full price on video games anymore. Blame it on the recession, or the slight drop in interest of video games, but I just can't really justify spending 60 dollars on a video game. Even Halo Wars, which I hear is pretty good. And I'm like the ultimate Halo fanboy. I just couldn't bring myself to buy it and have told myself to wait until a price drop of at least 20 dollars before trying to get it. Yes, that means I have to wait for the Mythic Map Pack, which I want really bad, but I can wait. Speaking of Halo, my skill has dropped tremendously. I went from being a very good Halo player, with levels in the upper 30's for the MLG playlist (which is by far the hardest), to getting scraped by lower levels guys, like 30s-40s. Its embarassing, and I hate being bad at Halo. I'd sacrifice my skill at every game just to be good at Halo. That's how much I love it. And so it sucks sucking. But hey, that's what I get for not playing as much, and not having Xbox Live at college.

Since I am purchasing games a lot less, I've been planning on going back to games I haven't finished and trying to beat them. On my list to beat are Bioshock, Oblivion, Kameo, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Call of Duty: World at War, KOTOR II and GTA IV. I'm probably going to start with Oblivion, get that out of the way, and move on to KOTOR II, because KOTOR was one of my favorite games of all time. Plus those are all quality games that everyone should beat, so why not?

I'm going to give some recommendations. Play Fallout 3, instant classic right there, way better than Oblivion. Get Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, the multiplayer is amazing and underrated. And buy Banjo-Kazooie on the arcade. I haven't yet but I will. I mean that's one of the greatest games of all time, and for 15 bucks thats a great deal.

So as I continue my gaming and my college life, I wish you all the best of luck with your lives, and I hope you all continue to live happy days and achieve your goals. I have a few that I would love to achieve and am striving for. I want to get better grades so that I can transfer to UMASS: Amherst. I want to get in shape and play football for my current college next season. I want to figure out my major, one that I will be good at and happy with. And I want to improve my relationship with my family, which hasn't been so good, where we seem to always fight, and for no good reason. Remember to never forget what you are ultimately striving for, reach for the stars. Because the sky is the limit, and don't you ever forget that.