Yep, its that time of year again. This time it almost snuck up on me as I was paying too much attention to the PS4 release date and not my own birthday. X3 Hope everyone has a good day, mine sure was fun.

On the 24th I shall be 23 years old. To be honest I wasn't very excited for my birthday this year as compared to the last, not sure why. Might be because the PS4 is coming out soon and the 24th is not November 15th. XD

Today is October 11th, a date that will be etched in my memory for as long as I tread this life. Today I remember my friend Athus, a person who helped me find myself in this world. Without his guidance I don't know where I'd be today, he inspired me on so many levels to achieve my dreams. So today I remember Athus: A friend, a mentor, and a fellow dragon. Wherever you are, I hope you are truly content. I'm going to write a tribute song for him in an album I'm creating entitled "Oceankin".

So I got this lovely new full tower to transfer all my parts into, and today my mate helped me to assemble it via Skype video call. The call lasted more than 8 fucking hours. I assembled everything and transferred all the parts. For whatever reason my system just would not post. Being exhausted and upset, I elected to shelf the new chassis till  eternalundeath comes to visit. I transferred all the parts back to my system and set it up fully again. It would not post. It was past 2 at that time. I started freaking out and re-checking everything while Dara tried to keep me calm. At 2:30 in the morning you better not expect me to be very level-headed about personal issues. Just when I was about to give up hope I noticed my RAM was slightly askew. I had it turned the wrong way in both towers. One oversight undid all that progress. Oh do I feel great right now. :)

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....w-warrior.html Get ready for Wang!

Welp, its time for a new review this week guys. Enoy! http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....blacklist.html

Today is a special day for me and  eternalundeath. Today marks the day where he asked me to be his mate two years ago, something I have not regretted once. We have been through a lot together, and sometimes it is hard being so far away from him. It helps knowing that one day we will have our own place together, its something we are working towards. I've never been with someone who I've felt this compatible with; when I'm visiting him it feels like this is right. I love him so much, and I look forward to spending the rest of my life with him. This is our special day love, let's enjoy it. <3

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....-for-pigs.html The pig men await!

Lately I have been wondering how people would treat me if I changed one small thing about my appearance. I ran this by a few co-workers and to my surprise they wanted to join me. We are all going to wear small rainbow pins on our uniforms and note how people will react to them. Most people associate a rainbow pin with support for gay rights and will therefore look down upon us, become mildly annoyed about us "flaunting" our support, or will be happy to see other like-minded individuals displaying what they believe. Publix says it does not discriminate against sexual orientation, and some of my co-workers wear non-work associated pins, so this should not be an issue. If they can wear religious pins, why can we not wear a gay rights pin? Any thoughts on this?

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....ts-row-iv.html Time to say hello to the Saints again!

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....-of-triad.html Get ludicrous!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl.....m=251317677842 The starting bid is $125 and the buyout price is $200. I will pay for the shipping myself and insure the package. Who wants a Vita?

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....ntures-of.html Drop by and check out my new review guys!

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....ue-legacy.html New review up everyone!

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....-activity.html Hope everyone enjoys.

Well sadly this great trip has come to an end. I'm heading back home now, much to the chagrin of my mate and I. I had an amazing trip, and I loved every moment of it. I wish I could have stayed longer but we both have our jobs to get back to. Next time he's planning on coming to see me, I miss him already...Here's hoping I have a safe trip. Much love to everyone. <3

Just wanted to say Happy 4th guys, hope we get to celebrate many more! On the 6th I'm going to be flying out to spend nine days with my mate  eternalundeath, I'll be returning on the 14th. Very much looking forward to spending time with him again, and we'll go see Pacific Rim together! Much loves to all and I hope everyone has a good weekend.

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....on-dragon.html Hope everyone enjoys!

http://gaminglair4all.blogspot.com/.....se-review.html Please read my reviews each week!

I've put up nine PS3 games for sale if anyone is interested! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl.....m=251291783836

Microsoft...really? You reveal the new Xbox, showcase its internal hardware, throw lots of numbers at us, then proceed to focus on nothing but sports. There was a little CoD at the end but that was like going to a buffet and being surprised that they serve food. Seriously...when I am rolling my eyes at the new console reveal, then something has gone terribly wrong. EA being partnered with Microsoft horrifies me, on account of the barrage of sports games that showed pre-rendered footage and absolutely no gameplay. The new Forza looked neat, as did what very little I saw of Quantum Break. Ghosts looked damn impressive, though it really says a lot about the state of the gaming industry when the most impressive game isn't a new IP. Overall the technology is amazing and innovative, they just better use it for more than rendering fucking sports games. In summation: Microsoft, quit fellating EA or they'll never leave your house.

I know you've probably heard this a lot today but please take a little time out of your schedule to show appreciation to the woman who birthed and put up with your shit while you were growing up. We shouldn't need to make one day devoted to mothers and fathers, they should be shown gratitude every day if they deserve it. So this is just a reminder: Give thanks for having parents who care about you. <3

Well today I went to the premiere of Altcon in Talahassee, Florida. I had no idea what the hell it was, turns out this was the first one ever! My uncle had a booth set up there for his Vampires Next Door website and my mom and I went to help him out. Last year I went to Icon with my mate and that turned out to be rather shitty due to the more kid friendly atmosphere, so I honestly wasn't expecting much from this relatively unknown convention. Boy was I surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I ran across a furry cosplaying as Booker Dewitt from Bioshock and hung out with him and his friends for the entirety of the con. His costume was fantastically detailed and he even had the SkyRail Hook and shotgun from the game coverart, he even let me keep shotgun as a souvenir! The concessions were of quite costly, as a ham sandwich and beer ran me $10. XD Needless to say I ate light there, was too busy geeking out over the awesome booths and cosplayers to really care. This con was very small compared to Icon, but I ended up loving it more due to the awesome group I was hanging out with. I even witnessed an interesting 30 person sword fight in the courtyard involving Master Roshi and an Assassin Initiate from AC. ^.=.^ Overall I was impressed with the turn out for this con, its small size did little to deter the crowds. Oh and I also met Scott Tepperman from Ghost Hunters International fame. He had a few interesting things to say about the Syfy channel and what it's become over the years. X3 I hope they will hold another con next year, because I sure am going to it again!

I was honestly prepared to be having a blast today slaughtering the Locust hordes, but currently I am just sitting here and stewing in bitter disappointment. I don't know when Epic lost their minds and decided to casualize the Gears series; maybe it was after seeing how much money the CoD and Battlefield series make. Maybe it was when they decided to bring in People Can Fly to work on the game, a developer who has very little experience working on AAA game titles and who certainly had no experience with the Gears franchise before this. I don't know where it all went wrong. This is no longer Gears of War, it is just a third person shooter with fast paced multiplayer and streamlined features that appeal to newcomers. Here are some glaring problems I have with this game:

1. The campaign and Star-scoring system- Dear god, whoever put this one into the game needs a lesson on what makes a coherent story. Each level is incredibly tiny, requiring only about 10 minutes to get through. Then after the level you are scored for your performance by a completely unnecessary star ranking system that affects only a few unlocks you get. There is a second campaign after you complete the Judgement one, I've yet to get that far. The second campaign apparently has the same story structure as the other Gears games. Why not just make the whole game like that? The first campaign feels too arcadey and detached from anything in the story. I can equate it to the terrible Lost Planet 2 and its segmented campaign.

2. Missing features- Most of the characters from the previous Gears games are gone from multi, which leaves a bizarrely tiny character pool that will no doubt be filled by paid DLC(more on that in a moment). You cannot even select your Locust soldier anymore because they are almost completely absent from multiplayer altogether. That's right, you fight nothing but humans in every game mode other than Overrun! The tiny number of selectable characters makes it feel like you are witnessing some kind of horrifying clone war, only some of the clones are wearing bacon skins and digital flashing armor that would make a Berzerker look like Garret from Thief. Speaking of Overrun: Hey Epic, where is that character progression system I read about several months ago in Xbox Magazine? They are gone. Now all we have are completely static classes that cannot be altered in any form save for weapon skins and armor. Yay, I always wanted a fucking Zebra engineer with a rainbow colored rifle! Bravo there Epic...

3. DEAR GOD THE DLC- I was pleasantly surprised by just how many weapon and armor skins there are, and most of them are pretty damn cool to look at. You can unlock these goodies by acquiring prize boxes based on differing parameters. The system is nice and works great, there is just one massive flaw with it all: Most of this shit has to be bought on Xbox Live! Yes, you get a cute little selection of skins you can unlock, but after that you need to shell out more cash for this crap. The entire set of weapon skins is being sold for skullfucking $50! That's right, for about the price of a second copy of Judgement, you can own all the weapon skins. I should also mention that the armor skins are not included in this bundle, those are a separate purchase. No Epic. You will not be getting more of my money for your stupid little microtransactions.

4. Dumbed down multiplayer- I really have to hand it to Epic for finding a way to make a damn COG soldier move like your average soldier form CoD, i.e. like they have freaking wings on their feet. Gone is the weighty feel of controlling a massive soldier wearing massive armor, now you may as well be sporting paper mache armor. They almost completely removed the Down but Not Out system, making death a minor hindrance from which you can respawn quickly from. All characters start with grenades now, a monumentally stupid decision that is leading to CoD-like grenade spamming of epic proportions. And to top off this cake of fail they have stripped out most of the known Gears modes such as Annex and KoTH. We are left with four multiplayer modes along with a Horde-like Survival mode which I haven't even touched yet, though I'm expecting it to be an extremely watered-down experience. I'll keep playing, and likely keep finding shit that's wrong with the game.

Epic, I ask you this: What have you done to this beloved franchise?

I first heard about this album about six months ago from Wikipedia whilst searching for when this band's next album had a working title. I realized that with The Living Infinite as a title there is no room for improvement, it is a perfect title and fits the theme of the album, which is the ocean and how our society rises and ebbs likes the tides themselves. Can the actual content itself match the awesome title? You bet your fucking ass it can. This is Soilwork's magnum opus; a huge double album that mixes their earliest and latest musical styles. Every single song on this album can stand on its own and nothing seems to be simply filler until the next big song. Everything the band has learned over their career has culminated into this: One massive, powerful, ass-kicking metal album.

A few standout features of this album fans may already be aware of, but newcomers should know that this album has plenty of absolutely fantastic guitar solos, purely uplifting vocals, hardcore roaring, and deliciously melodic rhythms. This is just plain good metal. Soilwork knows what their fans like, and they have delivered it twenty fold. The style of this album is like a mix between Natural Born Chaos and Sworn to a Great Divide with touches of Figure Number Five and Stabbing the Drama readily apparent later in as the album progresses. Now saying that, every masterpiece has some flaw that only adds to its allure. A couple of the songs seem like they could have been placed in a different order, such as the last song Owls Predict, Oracles Stand Guard. Great song, but it seems like an odd song to conclude your melodic album with. It is heavy and fast, striking thunderously into your ears as you are aurally assaulted, but ultimately it just seems like an odd choice for the very last song. The song Realm of the Wasted has a very odd chorus that is catchy but takes some getting used to. One other song is Let the First Wave Rise, which needs to be fucking longer. Its too short! These are minor nitpicks on an otherwise perfect product.

Now for the standouts. The song I first heard when viewing the preview for this album was Rise Above the Sentiment. Let me go ahead and say this song is fucking magic. It is so perfectly orchestrated, the chorus so magnificently soothing, that it has become one of my all-time favorite metal songs. The Living Infinite is a two part song which really speaks to me, everything about it just feels right. The Windswept Mercy opens like its from a completely different band, delivering an unexpected surprise to your ears as it changes to classic Soilwork. Long Live the Misanthrope kicked my tail the first time I listened to it, I was just blown away by the power and intensity it contained. I proceeded to listen to it about ten times in a row after that. Drowning with Silence has lyrics so awesome I'm pretty sure my balls grew bigger just by hearing them spoken. "I can laugh in the face of god, because I won't be loved in the end." Come on man, that's some deep stuff. Antidotes in Passing is blissful and serene, like the wind blowing lightly across the surface of the ocean, letting up on your ears for a moment while it prepares to deliver more bad-assery. Finally we have Parasite Blues, a song so utterly mind-blowing that I had to study each part of the damn thing to fully understand its message.

Now for my favorite songs: Memories Confined, This Momentary Bliss, Tongue, The Living Infinite Parts 1&2, Let the First Wave Rise, Vesta, The Windswept Mercy, Whispers and Lights, Long Live the Misanthrope, Drowning with Silence, Antidotes in Passing, Leech, Loyal Shadow, Rise Above the Sentiment, and Parasite Blues.

The verdict: GET OFF YOUR ASS AND BUY THIS SHIT NOW!

Albums like this come around every once in a great while, a testament to the influence of Gothenburg metal and its brilliance. Soilwork has completely outdone themselves this time, proving that losing a key member didn't slow them down one bit. They are not stagnating, nor are they failing. This band is growing and innovating, something that challenges many older bands today who are struggling to remain relevant in their respective genres. If you love melodic metal then you owe it to yourself to give this baby a try. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to listen to it while I play Heart of the Swarm.