Thanks to most of the QSF5 crew and their respective significant others for contributing to my first poker win. I was wreckless and made crazy predictions, but in the end it paid off. I’m guessing it had something to do with the raised alcohol levels of the other key players as well. Oh, and the much appreciated beginner’s luck helped as well.

Since we’re on the topic of making guesses, I thought I’d take a stab at predicting what we’ll be seeing at E3 2008. Below you’ll find some of the stuff I’ve heard, some of the stuff I want to see and some of the stuff I dreamt up.

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First, I’d like to direct your attention to two reviews, my MGS4 and my Space Invaders Extreme one. I enjoyed writing the MGS4 review, but not because I enjoyed the series, but how I managed to not criticize the game to death. It’s very easy to attack a game for its faults, especially a AAA game with valid faults. Anyways, please critique, compliment or comment.

So what is CAG? CAG is CheapAssGamer. They’ve launched a new site this week and since I received both Lost Odyssey and Resistance: Fall of Man this week as well, I thought it would be nice to talk about how awesome CAG is.

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Wow. I missed the Friday deadline. What happened? I simply forgot. There wasn’t much to talk about anyways.

So what was I up to? Playing Pixeljunk Monsters. Watching the 1UP Show featuring a Gears of War 2 Q&A session, Alone in the Dark and BF: Bad Company. Oh, and I was watching my brother go through the final act of MGS4. My review is essentially done — just doing the proofreading and such. Don’t worry, there’s no spoilers.

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Yes, it’s over, the last chapter of Snake’s tale was completed by yours truly. I’ll elaborate more about the game in my review, but let me stress one thing: you need to play all three previous games.

Need.

The impact and subtlety of MGS4 would surely wash over many new comers and I would go as far as saying that a majority of the game would be a clusterfuck of nonsensical cutscenes and references. It’s that important. So I implore you to play the originals. If you’re frustrated, ask a MGS veteran for help. You’ll thank me and would probably love the the finale a lot more.

Oh, and needless to say, avoid spoilers. It’ll taint the experience as well.

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Picked up the Limited Edition box set and I was disappointed by the packaging like Mr. Bettenhausen here. The packaging could have been handled better like the European Limited Edition or the Japanese Limited Edition. Still, it wasn’t bad for $90 taxes included.

Here’s the breakdown of what I received:

• Metal Gear Online beta invite - for pre-ordering
• Metal Gear Saga Vol. 2 DVD - for pre-ordering
• Metal Gear Solid 4 Art-book - for pre-ordering the Limited Edition
• The Making of Metal Gear Solid 4 Blu-ray - Apparently over 2 hours and all in HD
• Metal Gear Solid 4 Soundtrack sample - A CD’s worth of songs. Not the entire soundtrack

Like I’ve said before, this is the one of the few franchises I would purchase a Limited Edition for. It’s just that wonderful to me. As for the game itself? Let’s just say this is the definition of a “next gen” game.
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Admittedly, I didn’t get a chance to try out the new medic updates for Team Fortress 2 — there was just too much other stuff to play at the time. What was it? Oh yeah, GTAIV. Well, perhaps I’ll try the medic update along with the upcoming Pyro update.  If you’ve been wondering about those comical TF2 class skits, the next one will be the Sniper.

Unfortunately, we have no idea when any of these are coming nor any details about these updates, but at least Valve is providing updates to TF2 unlike what Crytek is doing with Crysis. “At this time, there almost certainly will not be a patch 1.3 delivered for Crysis.”

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My DLink DGL-4300 died yesterday. The warranty expired approximately 3 months ago as well. Bummer. I didn’t buy the router for its advertised “game experience” improving claims. I bought it because it was the cheapest 4 port Gigabit router I could buy. It’s so awesome that I bought a replacement from CanadaComputers for $95. My original one cost me $115 or so. Gigabit is so worth it.

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Last Sunday I brushed off my Sega Dreamcast and hooked it up to my Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP. At first, it was going well. Everything was working, but then in the middle of Marvel vs Capcom 2, the Dreamcast went black. So, with the aid of Google, I resurrected my Dreamcast.

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Saturday will be hampered this weekend. I have overtime to do. There’s not bitterness, since there will be sweet overtime funds being syphoned from it. The only downside will be the lack of GTAIV time.

I was going to create an editorial/article about one of the key areas which I look for in a first person shooter, but I decided to just informally conduct it here.

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Notice anything different with the title? Yeah, it’s not longer “No_Style’s Checkpoint”, because I’m claiming the entire ‘Checkpoint’ thing as my own now. The rest of you QSF5 editors can find your own schtick.

First, I’d like to point out this hot deal for a Pink, Onyx or Polar White Nintendo DS for $99.99 — that’s $30 - $40 off depending on where you’re looking. If you enjoy different kinds of games and aren’t afraid of experimenting with your gaming orientation: pick one up.

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