…system initializing…

…loading…

…system online….

 A fanatical scream.  That’s what it would be.  One, long, open mouthed scream.  Probably with a lot of head-shaking and hair pulling.  That’s what I would ‘say’ if I had to sum up my review of Portal 2 in one word.  The screams of Bieber fans would pale in comparison.

Let’s get to it, shall we?

I have to hand it to this game.  Released in 2001, this sci-fi MMORPG is still kicking it 9 years later.

I began playing it shortly after its release, stopped for 5 years, and came back to find most of the same people still at it.  They join up, play for a year or two, leave for school or an affair to chase tail, but they always come back.  I’ve even seen people fall back on it while waiting for the newer games to drop major updates.  Anarchy is a unique blend of sci-fi, interwebz humor, and fantasy that seem to addict its players despite its old age.  (There’s even a reference in it to Ceiling Cat watching you, well, you know.)  Whatever the catching ingredient is, it’s still working, and you can play it for free if you want to get a feel for it.

Overall game rating - 4 out of 5 stars

Global Agenda didn't seem like much at first after I downloaded it.  Hey, it was a free 14-day trial and no sub required if bought it, so what the hey?  Well, a whole weekend later shot to hell (literally, or virtually as the case may be) I found that I ... wanted to play MOAR!! Hell ya, bra!  Tabula Rasa's influence is all over this game but without the issues.  It's just a plain old-fashioned, and (dare I say it?) addictive shoot 'em up game.  The point-of-view is a third person over-the-shoulder in case any of you readers want to know.  The pvp instances aka scenarios aka battle grounds aka what-have-ya are just pure awesomeness.  Global Agenda shows that to be skilled is actually much more important than being well-geared.  Skill.does.really.matter.  Gear is good, too, but a player with mediocre gear and great skylz will chop the crap out of a well-geared scrub.

L4D2 got some criticism when it first came out because a lot of people felt it should have just been an add on to the first and it wasn't worth the $50-$60 price tag. I was one of them but now that the price is down to $30 and if you wait until a good steam sale, you can get it as low as $15 (assuming you got 3 other friends interested in playing it). Price aside, is the expansive add-on worth it?

I say yes. I just got it about a month ago during one of those steam deals I was talking about and I can not put it down, seriously I already have 65 hours. So whats new and whats different yous ask? Well here is my rundown.

I am a die-hard wow fan.  I have played wow for about 4 years now.  I have played on high speed all that time.  I'm not one of those "I'm so leet I got all the best stuff" kind of players.  I enjoy taking new players through beginner dungeons a lot.  People laugh at me and tell me wow is going to ban me from Stormwind Stockades if I keep it up.  I may have run that particular instance more than anyone in the entire game. 

So this month I am on dial up.  I am stayin at a friend's housesitting for most of a month, and it's out in the boonies.  We're talking miles from the nearest cable or dsl connection.  This place is in cell phone hell - about 5 miles away all cell service drops off and you don't get it back, so a cellular connection won't work either.  I haven't heard of any trial offers for satellite internet, so I could just have high speed satellite while I'm stuck in limbo.  My only choice is dial up, if I want to connect to my world digitally. 

Imagine sending a legion of German soldiers across the battlefield to face a row of heavily armored enemy tanks.  Now, picture your minions turning around to flee as your enemy begins to decimate them.  What is this?  Retreat?!  Zat is Unakzeptible!  So you deploy two ruses.  One is the 'Blitz' ruse, which increases your units speed in a specific sector, and the other ruse makes them fight like rabid feral hyenas- All thoughts of retreat null and void.  They fight to the death and by God, my little infantry units take down enemy tanks!  The fatherland is pleased!

How awesome is this game?  Hard to quantify its greatness, but suffice it to say its one of the best RTS games I've ever played.  There are a multitude of reasons I say this.

This is a new MMO that seems to me to have a new concept.  If you're into football you might want to try it out.  It's not out yet, but you can sign up to be one of the first to play. http://www.quickhit.com/

a review from http://MMORPG.com 

"When Jeff Anderson left as the CEO of Turbine, he needed to try something new. His new company is doing just that with a casual, free-to-play online American football game called QuickHit Football.

This game takes a sport that the North American market knows and loves, and puts it out there as a free-to-play online game. 

Version 3.2 of World of Warcraft, also known as "Call of the Crusade" is now on live servers. In addition, a trailer for the new patch has been released.

The trailer features gameplay footage of the new dungeon known as the "Argent Tournament" as well as footage of the new "Isle of Conquest" battleground.

The full patch highlights, notes, and of course the trailer, are all available at the official WoW 3.2 site here.