I have been doing a lot of thinking on ways to save money lately. Having a job today is a wonderful thing, but to take care of your earnings is probably hardest part of your job. When it comes down to it, I am pretty bad at saving money. I barely have over $1000 in my bank account and that’s pretty bad. I tend to buy the things that I really want in life and for a lot of people, that seems like a dream. While, it seemed that way at first, it really isn’t a dream, but more of an addiction.

I have been called many things, one of which a good friend of mine, calls me a Consumer Whore. To be honest, he’s right! I love to buy things that the social pigs in the world love to get and because of the hype, I fall into the trap. Nowadays, I have been trying to watch my spending as much as I can. Because, to be open about it, I am getting sick of spending money of stuff I want. This is where Netflix and Gamefly come into play. No longer will I need to go and find a game that I want to play and buy it. I can rent and see which one I like to play and if it’s a game that I really want, then I will pre-order it. This goes the same for movies. I have a moderate sized collection of DVD’s to the left of me and an even bigger collection of video games to the left of that. In the middle of it all is my TV stand and the “equipment”, so to speak. Now, my space is getting smaller and I need to weed out the games and DVD’s that I don’t really want to spend my hard earned money on, and rather save it for something really special. But, how do these services compare and should I spend my money on them?

Gamefly is a modest approach (and really the only approach) when it comes to renting games. Sure, there is Blockbuster, but who really goes there anymore? Hollywood Video has shit the bed and West Coast Video has been dead for nearly a decade now. Digital Distribution is coming our way, but now it’s all a matter of the mail. Gamefly is a great service, but compared to the speediness of Netflix, I have to say that I very underwhelmed. I though the service would be twice as fast, if not more fast than Netflix. But, with Netflix, I get my movies as soon as they are shipped back to their warehouse. The recent games I sent back to Gamefly took nearly a week for them to receive and then the next week I would get the next couple of games on my “Queue”. When it comes to selection of titles, they both hold their own with plenty to choose for, however, the amount they have in stock is usually better for Netflix than it is for Gamefly. Not one of my Gamefly #1 games have shipped to me yet. Granted, those #1 games usually are titles that are pretty popular now, but nonetheless, I still haven’t received my #1 game yet. Netflix on the other hand is always on their game in giving me the #1 movie that I have in my queue at the time I want it and I have gotten the title that I requested with no strings attached.

For the consumer whore in me, it’s pretty discouraging when you don’t get your top choice. But, don’t let be the end result for you. If you must, play the games you’re not that found of and get them out of the way. This will, in turn, make way for the games you really wanted to play as long as they are still on your queue. Although, the speed may seem a bit off balanced for you, think of it this way: Now, you can watch the DVD/Blu-Ray movie while waiting for your next game to hit your mailbox. Even with these little problems with Gamefly, you’re still getting your money’s worth: The ability to play games. Which leads me to my next update!

Because I now have Gamefly and Netflix, I will start doing reviews of games/movies that I finish! Currently, I have Assassins Creed: Bloodlines for this Playstation Portable;  I will be giving that a review soon! I hope you enjoy my first little blog here. I finally have time to do them! So, it’s an exciting time!

Since I am now working on the Halo: Reach community site over at IGN, I am writing a few articles on the game types of the Halo: Reach Beta. Today, I just posted the Generator Defense impressions for the game and I hope that you will take the time to read them! Please, leave all the feedback that you can so that I may improve my writing and eventually get better as a writer!

Thanks and happy gaming!

http://halo.ign.com/articles/news/5557/Generator-Defense-Impressions

Bassett.

I wanted to make a quick update on the site! As you can tell, I have found a great new design that suites what I am looking for in a blog page. Now, when something is featured, it will show in the little scroll in the middle of page. These will have everything to do with new develops and commentaries that I will be posting! So, keep in touch!

It’s been quite sometime that I have updated the site. But, I have some pretty cool news as to why. I have recently been offered a contract to join IGN Entertainment working on their Halo: Reach community site! It’s a very exciting endeavor and one that I cherish. I have worked with IGN before in the past and it has always been fun, exciting, and educating work for me and giving the gamers news to go on about their favorite games has always been a big passion of mine and one that I love to thrive.

My latest work on the site is based off of impressions of the control scheme of Halo: Reach and how the player will respond to multiple different control to enhance the game play of the game.

You can find the article here: http://halo.ign.com/articles/news/5524/Halo-Reach-Control-Schemes!

Don’t forget to read about other great Halo: Reach news on the site as well. I will try to get more post on here soon and add more to my portfolio as days go on; community work is my forte and I hope that this page will generate great game news, opinions, thoughts, and fan expressions! Check back soon for more!

I have returned from Arizona! Well, I have been back for a week, but I haven’t been able to update until now. But, for good reason. My week has been very rocky ever since coming home back on Monday. In preparing for the week ahead, I had to take care of some listen minute issues that were plaguing me since my return. Wrestlemania was an amazing event for many reasons. It was Shawn Michael’s last match as he has since retired from the wrestling world. I had the pleasure of seeing a man, who did it all for the wrestling industry; Michaels will be missed as the “Main Event”, the “Showstopper”, and of course, “Mr. Wrestlemania”. Not only that, I managed to see another great of the wrestling world have his own closure. Bret Hart; if you know the industry well and have been following Bret’s career, you would know of all of the hardship that Hart went through. But, this is not a sour on Bret’s career post. This is a triumph for a man who also gave his all to the industry and gave Vince McMahon what was coming to him since the “Screw Job” back in Montreal in 1997.

Truely the grandest stage of them all!

Absolutely breath taking!

However, that is not all. It is amazing how weird this week turned out. When I get home, there was more to the week than just a normal return home. It’s time to get all dressed up for Anime Boston 2010! Now, I am not a anime fan. Not in the least, but being a good friend that I am, I traveled into Boston to get a glimpse of all to see at the Hyne’s Convention Center in downtown Boston. What I found was that there were a lot of people…or things there. Not just things, but people cosplaying as characters from their favorite anime, video game, comic book, movie and television shows. This is actually the coolest aspect of the whole show. Going to this expo and seeing all of the cosplayers in their costumes is truly an amazing site. Now, some of the costumes were really well done, while others lacked the necessary fabrics…and well, the look of the character. But, that’s just being very nitpicky on my part and a bit shallow. It was still funny to see some of my friends show up in costume and really sell themselves as the characters they were trying to display.

While the conference was cool and all, it’s just not my thing. I was in a sea full of anime lovers and to be honest, I am not an anime fan in the slightest. I did manage to catch up some cool video game related swag, but other than that, it was merely ho-hum for myself. It was still a fun time and had fun, but again, not for me. With that, here is a few pictures of a couple of cosplayers in action!

Big Boss salutes as he gets his title.

I have no idea...

Well, that was my week! What a week it was too! So much to see and so little time I have to do it! There was another big event that happened yesterday and that was the launch of Apple’s new iPad, which looks to be a smashing hit right now, as usual. I will have my thoughts on the iPad (I don’t have one, but I thought I would post something about it) as well as more on the game project I am working on which will be the focus of my blog for the long haul now. See ya, everyone!

I return to Arizona for another reason, though. When I arrive Arizona tomorrow night, I will be there for more than just catching up with old friends. I will be going to the showcase of immortals. The grandest stage of them all and the mark of the beginning of spring: Wrestlemania

This will be my second Wrestlemania in my life time. I have to say, that it’s been a long time coming for Phoenix, as I always thought it was among the prime locations for a Wrestlemania event and finally it will get it’s fair share. Expect a lot of pictures from my time there (except for the drunken stupors  I will be getting into). Ah fuck it, I may as well post those too. This isn’t X-Rated for a reason you know.

Bassett

My weekend was full of blah, but I got this site up and running again. What is my next move? I have begun officially using Twitter on a daily basis instead of using just Facebook (which I only use for family and friends). It’s a little weird right now since I have had a Twitter account for more than a year, I just never used it. I have used it to following gaming industry experts, community managers (Major Nelson, Microsoft; Robert Bowling, Infinity Ward), WWE Superstars (“JR” Jim Ross, Stone Cold Steve Austin) and websites like IGN, Engadget, and other tech related sites. Now, I am putting myself out there, for the world to see. What will the world think of me and how I react to news and speculation? Only time will tell.

Well, it’s another new beginning for my website. I am hoping that this layout will be suitable to what I need for my portfolio website. I am currently still on the same hosting as I was back in the day, but let’s hope that all of the problems with the last one go away. Over the next month, I will be updating this site to get everything back up.

I am currently working on two different projects; One XNA game and one based in the Unity Engine. It should be a very few months/years coming up! Let’s keep the ball rolling!