new direction

I've been thinking of a new direction for this blog and I have decided to split it up into two blogs:

One for personal posts which is at www.mriceguy.blogspot.com

&

the games blog at www.thatgamer.wordpress.com (www.thatgamer.com also directs there)

I'll see if I can come up with an interesting name for my personal blog, instead of just Mriceguy's blog!

xbox 360

I actually did it, I bought an Xbox 360. I purchased the Halo 3 Starter Pack from Dick Smith Electronics. My first jump into the next-gen arena. I mean with so many awesome new games coming out, how could I resist? So I've been playing my two games, Halo 3 and Stuntman: Ignition (Thanks nzgamer!).

Check out my gamertag on the right, I was hoping to get my online alias, Mriceguy, but alas it was taken, and so was that gamer. Out of desperation I eventually wound up with my own name, Michael Gray. So yeah, nothing special about that. And afterwards, I found out that you have to pay Microsoft to get your name changed! I understand that you wouldn't want people changing their name all the time, but they could've just put on a time restriction. Like where you can only change it once a month. I mean you are paying for the service.

Well, back to what matters most, the games! Here's a list of 360 games I'm hoping to get into at some stage (in no particular order)...

Fallout 3
Resident Evil 5
Fable 2
Viva Piñata
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Grand Theft Auto IV
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Mass Effect
Half-Life 2: The Orange Box
Rock Band
BioShock
Burnout Paradise

Assassin's Creed
UPDATE: Already Pre-ordered, the metal tin!

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Dead Rising
Gears of War

game journalism

From this day forward, I will be centering this blog around the games industry, including important news, game reviews and more. And occasionally you will still see some pieces here and there about me. My goal is to grow a reader base so more people can learn through a kiwi's insight into the world's fastest growing entertainment, video games.

So the reason behind this change is that I've had a sudden realization. Since 12 years old I've wanted to be a video games programmer/designer. And I've just been so focused on getting that job and nothing else, that I've blocked out all the other billions of opportunities there are. After my first year courses in computer science, I found programming extremely boring, unsatisfying and difficult. Now why would you waste your life doing something you don't love? I know that university costs money and I still have to pay off my student loan. But it's better to use up one year, than many more down the track. My deep gratitude goes towards Robin Sharma and Steve Pavlina, for helping me realize this.

Now moving forward, I still love video games, don't worry! I've been paying attention to game journalism for a while now, reading reviews, news, video features, podcasts etc. but I never considered doing that for myself, until now. I've always had a passion for writing. And what could be better for me than playing video games and writing about them! Game journalists are needed more and more, now that games are becoming entertainment of choice. My big career goal now is to get a job at a New Zealand game magazine (eg. The Game Console) or website (eg. nzgamer.com). So this blog and these reviews will be a great way to train myself up. And also to stop the Sony Bias , I will hopefully go out and get a Xbox 360 soon. Even with the PlayStation 3 at $799 now, I have to stop myself from getting one one just yet... LittleBigPlanet isn't out until next year!

Because I'm still playing a whole lot of PlayStation 2 games I haven't had a chance to play yet, I will be reviewing some older games to begin with. If you've missed out on some old games, here's your chance to see if you should really go back for them. I will also have my own, "Michael Gray's Game Scoring System" (name pending!).

So, Ratchet and Clank (2002) review, coming soon!

Queries, questions?

holidays

well holidays are over now... i really have so much i want to write and i know that i can write whatever and always edit it later but for some reason i feel as if i need to enough time to write it good enough the first edit!

Hopefully when i get back into the swing of things with uni starting again tomorrow i can write some new posts, especially about poverty and the No More Excuses campaign...
www.nomoreexcuses07.org
www.nomoreexcuses07.bebo.com

contacts

i just got contact lenses... 'nuf said... well not really! if you're a glasses owner you probably know their setbacks, they fog up, get in the way, can't see out the sides, plus they look like a pair of binoculars on ur face!

So contacts are a great alternative, i'm just having a few troubles getting the left one in. My eye won't stay open! I'm sure the whole process will get much easier when i get used to it. ;)

i'm not really the sort of guy to take pictures of himself, so when a photo comes along and i'm in it, i guess i could post it up here...

foodstuffs

i finally have a job!! i have a contract for a position at foodstuffs in silverstream, only a short walk away from home. for those that don't know, foodstuffs is nz's largest grocery distributor, supplying groceries to supermarket stores such as new world, four square and pak 'n save. woolworths and countdown are the opposition! i had an interview on monday which went on for more than two hours! i tried extremely hard to not let my major character flaw show, but he picked it up instantly. I'm now known already as the quiet guy! I'm gonna get paid pretty well, the hours aren't too extreme, although will take up a lot of my weekend 8am - 4.30pm Sat and Sun. hopefully all goes well.