Ladies and gents, as of this writing, my Freshman year in college is over, and so is my lack of updating for the summer. My god, where to begin? Well, I picked up a slew of new games since last October, and I'll list them:

• Galactic Civilizations 2
• Sins of a Solar Empire
• Guitar Hero 3
• Dawn of War: Soulstorm

Not too many, but that's not the biggest thing. My roommate had a Playstation 3, which I made good use of, believe me. I had just enough days to beat Grand Theft Auto 4, although not entirely, and I must say that it meets and exceeds every expectation I had. The city is godlessly humongous, with fantastic detail throughout. It would take me months simply to get used to the ins and outs of the city, and that's before you meet the pedestrians (car fodder). The city lives and breathes, people act realistically, do things like real humans do, and cuss like drunken, lobotomised sailors.

Speaking of lobotomies, why do we drive in that game like we have one? Most of the cars, sans the extremely well-detailed sportsters, are simply four wheeled slugs that spin out and fishtail like their tires are made of finely polished glass. Apart from that one complaint, and the fact that the helicopters have somewhat clunky controls, and the targeting system still needs some work, the game is without fault, plain and simple.

PS3 - A Friend To Me

As I said, my roomy had a PS3, and I got as many demos as I could played on it. While I was unable to get the MGS4 beta, I did try out Condemned 2, and I have to say that I'm not very impressed. It was about as frightening as a fuzzy kitten, and the whole 'mud men' concept dragged on after I booted the fifth one coming out of the same hole in the face. The storyline looks interesting, but we must remember why we buy games, to play them and not to watch them.

Apart from gaming with the PS3, I also used the 'Folding @ Home' program while it wasn't being used for games. If you're interested in helping with cancer research, which if you're an at all decent human being, you are, check them out here. It can also run on your computers as well, and I've already got 30 Work Units done! I'm not exactly a sociable person I suppose, so I didn't use any of the other options the PS3 had to offer, but then again, I've got less than a GB of music on my computer, so I doubt it's worth sharing.

Luck Be a D6 Tonight

Well, 5th Edition's coming (of Warhammer 40,00 tabletop), so I better get my last few games of 4th played while I can. I have a new hobby center less than an hour's drive away, so expect lots of battle reports like the one posted a few months back every Saturday or so. I play on Fridays and I get back fairly tired, so no dice on same-day BR's. Unless, that is, if people show some genuine interest. I have a new Whirlwind waiting to rain death on the enemy, and that fairly lynch-pins my army. Time and time again, I've cursed the fact that I wasn't able to field one, and now that lament is over. I'm going to try a lot of modelling tricks on this one, and see what happens; what I'll do first is use some modelling putty to sculpt my Chapter insignia on the side. Take that, Forgeworld! I never got around to buying the Apocalypse book, but with 5th edition so close to coming, I seriously doubt I'll purchase it, although I may simply because I realize how quickly these sort of things appreciate in value. For example, I talked to a friend over the phone about buying his old copy of Cities of Death, but he'd already sold it back to the hobby store which now asked for about five dollars more than it's original printing! Yeesh.

Read Any Good Books Lately?

I game, and I read, it's what I do. For the last few months, I've been chewing through the Horus Heresy series at a speed that's got my wallet nervous. As of this writing, I have every one up to Descent of Angels, and I can't wait to get my hands on Legion. I've also picked up: Desert Raiders, Fifteen Hours, Duty Calls, the Blood Angels series, The Last Chancers, the Soul Drinkers Omnibus, the Space Wolves Omnibus, and the Ultramarines Omnibus. Of them all, I only regret the Soul Drinkers Omnibus. It's arguably one of the worst-written books in the Black Library, although it did have good opening potential. I won't spoil anything, as that's a fairly rude thing to do, but suffice it to say that the storyline after about the middle of the first book is, at best, ludicrous. I had a seriously hard time believing that the wonderfully written Grey Knights novels were written by the same person. The Space Wolves Omnibus, on the other hand, is marvelous, with witty characters and a believable, engaging storyline. I haven't pried open the Ultramarines Omnibus yet, so I can't say one way or ther other, but if False Gods and Fulgrim are of any indication, I think I'll be a happy man reading them. By the way, in my opinion, Fulgrim is the best Horus Heresy book thusfar. I didn't think it was possible to make a good book regarding the Emperor's Children, but Graham McNeill proved me sorely wrong.

In addition, I've also purchased a Bible. Not a hotel room-ish one, but a real, 'pass it on to your kids' type. The reason being is that I'm becoming a more faithful person in my real life. Don't worry, though I won't have any problems tearing the 6th Commandment to shreds in the Grim Future of the 41st Millenium (in case you don't know, that's 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'.) Ironically, it's 40K that made me into a more god-fearing man. Seeing what laxity can bring myrself, albeit in a more realistic (read: not with daemons tearing me a new one) sort of sense, I've started working out and I've got a girlfriend to boot.

For the Changer of Ways

Things are indeed changing for me. Consider this, I weighed 250 pounds (113 kg, for you Europeans) at the onset of my Freshman year. With no intramurals at all, I dropped to 200 (90)! How? Probably because of a severe change in diet that I plan on taking with me. That and I was required to walk just about everywhere on campus. I'm going to say right now that the oil crisis we're in right now is probably good for our bodies. I mean honestly, with gas the price it is now ($3.75 USD at this writing), I'm very fortunate I picked up a Honda Civic. It's not a Toyota Prius, but it gets the job done. While I did state that I have a girlfriend, we like to keep things between ourselves, so don't expect her to be on an episode of the vlog. And to answer your question, no, she doesn't know about it. I've also switched majors. In the first of the year, I was a Theatre Performance major, but now I'm switching to Psychology. Either way, I get into people's heads, huh?

That's all for now, Gamespot pioneers. I don't know what I'll talk about next time, but I can bet you it won't be in seven months like last time. Oh, and by the way, since when did that picture turn from the English poster to the Spanish one? Que!?