Yes, I am! Really! Least I think so. Random life update (if... anyone really cares) In college, been at a single job for... 17 months (record get) even if I get no hours, and have had my life stolen by a game.

Got Monster Hunter Tri on release date, have over 110 hours, and still nowhere near done. Love this series.

For those of you thinking about it; get it! Just make sure you get the Classic Controller Pro bundle, or like learning wonky Wiimote controls. Playing with a controller that feels like a PS2 controller is even easier than on the PSP.

Now, things that irk me about the otherwise wonderful online play: other players (sometimes). Do yourself (and everyone else playing online) a favor and play a bit offline first. And I don't mean five minutes worth. Get to 3* or 4* offline before popping online and getting yourself killed every time. Hopefully those that know the series will do this anyways, since they know what they can expect.

Bring potions every time! I haven't had many, but I've seen people die and state 'no meds' after. Are they getting beaten on that badly, or do they just not have potions? I'm still sitting on 8-10 of both Potions and Mega Potions when I hear this or still have one or two of the three meds I take at the start of each mission (when people aren't greedy bastards). Potions are 66z each at the guild counter, or you can stock Herbs and Blue Mushrooms offline. Mega Potions are harder to come by, I know, since you need Honey. But please either farm them (yes, 10 per run is annoying, but...) or use the farm. I was sitting on over 350 honey after a 10 cycle honey farming with each of my farm cats with Bizzy Beez for 'fertilizer'. Cycles are easy. Step out into Moga Woods for 2 minutes during the day, go back to the village, sleep for the night. Boom, 2 cycles done. Rinse and repeat. Just... please don't die because you ran out of potions since you didn't bring your own and complain about it.

Don't be a greedy bastard! This one isn't major to me, since I stock up on 10 Potions and Mega Potions every run and bring meat and 3 hot/cool drinks (if needed). There are 4 stacks of 3 meds, 4 stacks of 2 rations, and 4 stacks of 2 hot/cool drinks when they're needed in the supply box at the start of each mission. Unless you're only playing with one other person, PLEASE only take one of the stacks at the start. If you actually need more than one of the stacks, either bring your own pots as well or, heaven forbid, learn how to NOT get hit. The best hit is the one that doesn't touch you.

Learn your weapon before going against a new monster! This only happened once, but had me WTFing well. Person brought in a lance he didn't have any clue how to use against Uragaan. Suffice to say, he used at least two of our continues, if not all three. If you're going to drag in a new weapon against a monster, please at least have a decent weapon and an armor set for it and know how the monster moves. I only lance Diablos because he's a right pain about steamrolling you and I have a full Agnaktor set, which is basically a Lancer's dream.

Have more than one set of armor! People that spam Rathalos in the Lagiacrus set make me cringe. Notice how you're losing about 80% of your hp when you eat a fireball (which the bastard spams well) in the face? That's because you're weak to fire! Offset your fire weakness if you have to (the Lagiacrus set has 9 slots for Decorations, which I believe is enough for 18 skill in fire res. Find another slot in a weapon or Talisman, and your -10 fire res becomes +10). Remember that Rathian set you made back in your 2* online days because everyone spammed her? Use it. Earplug is a godsend when he rages, and the set already has 25 fire res (15 natural and 10 from the fire res skill).

Eat food before every hunt! Don't know what the combinations will do since there's no food guide online yet? Figure them out yourself offline and write them down! Eat food, see what it does, then Quit Game to Mode select, don't save. (make sure you save before eating) You don't lose zenny, and quitting to the mode select kills your food effect so you can try the next one. My favorites are for 2*: Meat and Milk. HP+20 and a small defense boost. In 3* I spam Milk and Milk. HP+30 and a large defense boost. Meat and Milk in 3* is HP+40 and a medium defense boost. A helpful tip about attack boosts from food: A small boost is only 1.6% of your weapon's base power extra. A medium boost is 3.3%. Much smaller than armor boosts. Elemental resistance boosts are also small. A large boost is only +5.

Sorry for all the talk, but I wanted to seem important. tl;dr version: Buy the Classic Controller Bundle of Monster Hunter Tri, and don't be a noob online. Please.