For those who haven't heard Ubisoft has taken Conviction back the "drawing board" even this late in its development cycle. This for me comes with a bit of disappointment, but also allows me to breath a sigh of relief. After what Double Agent brought to the table I was really quite unsure about Conviction. Hopefully this extra development time will allow them to create a product above and beyond what Chaos Theory was. Ubisoft says this could push the game to 2009 possibly even 2010(yeesh, they must really not be pleased with its current state).

Either way this extra time can do nothing but make the game better. I hope they take advantage of it and make something for new people and fans of the series. On a side note... INCLUDE CO-OP!! Those spy missions on Chaos Theory were some of my funnest moments on xbox live.

I've gotten about 21 hours into GTA IV. I'd have to say so far I've enjoyed it quite a bit.

There's a few things that caught my eye right from the start. First, most cars handle like all your power steering was drained and your brake lines were cut. This was annoying to say the least at first. I've started to get the hang of it. Like others have said it is a bit more realistic than all the other GTA games out there in a lot of way not just the driving. The one thing I'd like to see though is how fast I'm supposed to be going. I swear that I'm going like 20 and i can't make a 90 degree turn. Which is ridiculous because if my Hyundai can, any old jalopy should.

Beside the steering troubles, I've enjoyed all the aspects of the game so far. Most the characters are unique and like-able. The stories decent though a little convoluted at points. The graphics are pretty nice. Looking across the city scape onto the ocean into the sunset from the top of the Statue of Liberty, eh I mean Statue of Happiness is something to behold. I do enjoy the new physics though despite the few earlier mentioned setbacks. It never gets tiring watching bodies flop and flail around your car as you plow down a busy street sidewalk. (or watching my body fly though my windshield in a head on collision, come on Niko BUCKLE UP FOR SAFETY! )

I can look past any of the little flaws with the game though because it is quite enjoyable. I don't think it was worth the 10 it received but its close enough to one for me to not care.

That's it for now. I had some more on the excess of a few things in the game but I'll save that for another discussion.

In advance... sorry for the wall of text. But hey its been along time so I'm excused at least this once.

8 months. Thats how long its been since I've made a single post on the Gamespot forums. Life gets busy it would seem when you get married. But things have quieted down and the dust has begun to settle, and now I'm back.

Pretty soon I will be employed with a game developement house here in Dallas, TX once again. This time next month I will be living the dream as I did before.

Though I am extremely excited to begin working with them again thats not the reason for my first blog in like 2 years, well not entirely at least.

I'm a gamer to the core and when I can't fit games into life I feel at a loss. Not particularly whole or satisfied with any day that passes by. I begin to feel like a husk performing thoughtless tasks just to earn a paycheck and go on moving about my daily business. This could be in part from the soul sucking job I am currently performing, but not entirely. My time for games in the last months has been almost nothing. I felt drained, like a zombie, just moving about on auto pilot driven forward by some unknown force.

This all changed a few weeks ago though. My tax return came in and I finally had enough money to buy what I've wanted for years, a Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet. Suddenly I was filled ideas, creative thoughts sprang forth. I was excited. It didn't end there though. It seemed not but a day afterward I recieved a call from the game company asking if i was still interested in employment. Oh yes I was! I gleefully accepted their offer. All this excitement got me going. It's like that fourwheeler you had when you were a kid that was electric start, but now that you're both old you've got to use the kick start to get it going. It's like all I needed was that kick start then suddenly everything was falling into place.

I hadn't really sat down and enjoyed any real games since Mass Effect came out last Nov. I beat it Tuesday. It was every bit as enjoyable as the rest of Bioware's excellent line-up. I also picked up Okami for the Wii. It was actually as a gift for the wife which I ended up playing alot more than her. I love the art style and music in it. The whole Japanese water color painting thing really does it for me. I'm at the last "dungeon" if you can call it that getting ready to face the final boss, at least I assume its the last one.

Point is that I'm greatly enjoying these games, and in return life seems better. I saw the family this weekend for my wifes graduation. Everyone enjoyed some rounds of good ol' Wii sports. The bowlings popular with the older folks in my family it would seem. My parents as a gift bought me GTA IV before they left to go back home. My mom tells me she got it so I could keep in touch with my brother. How sweet. . Aparently when they were at my brothers house for part of the week he was playing it and said he wished I'd had the game so my mom figured she buy it. Anyway played it a good 6 hours or so in the last two days and it looks like I've got another great game to dive into for the next month or so at least.

Well enough about all that though. Onto the main reason for the update.

I'll be updating my blog at least once a week for now untill I finish my personal website. Then the blogging will take place there 3 to 5 days a week. I'll stick to more gaming and less me spewing out boring stories about how my life sucked for a while. You can also look forward to a webcomic to accompany the blog, also in the near future.

It's good to be back in the game again.

If you haven't seen it, check out my hands on with some of the Xbox 360's 2006 titles-- like Dead Rising, N3, Saint's Row, Tomb Raider: Legend and more.

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=24461648