Hello guys and welcome to my first impression of GTAV. Let me preface this post by saying that I am a long time GTA fan and have been playing since it was first released back on the Sony Playstation. In the past I would rate San Andreas as my all time favorite game of the series. It had so much to do in that game that it kept me playing for a very long time. When GTA IV came out I expected the same amount of content and was left with a feeling of wanting. I felt a little bitter towards Rockstar and because of that, I did little to no following on the development of GTA V. Expect this post to be a little bias since San Andreas and V have the same setting. Nostalgia is a very powerful motivator.

On Sept. 16, 2013 I went to the midnight release of GTA V at my local Gamestop and arrived at about 11:50 PM CST. I was not surprised when I pulled into the lot and saw a mob of people anxiously waiting for the employees to start handing out copies of the newest installment of everyone's favorite controversial series. The crowd was not out of the ordinary and everyone behaved as was typical of a midnight release. You had your elitists, fathers with their sons, moms waiting in the stead of their precious child, guys trying to look tough, and guys that look like they have never been outside/showered/etc. I was toward the end of the line since I had arrived late and after about 30 or so min. I had my copy of GTA V and driving merrily home. Mind you I had no expectations of what the game was to be like, I was still happy with the idea of having a new adventure through a new and upgraded Los Santos. I loaded up at the local burger joint and headed home for what I intended to be an all night session of debauchery and mayhem. I arrived home and unwrap the game and was surprised to see 2 discs. First was an install disc that took 30+ min. to load up, but was not a problem since it gave me time to eat up. 2nd was the play disc and it whisked me straight into the game.

Initially the physics of the game had thrown me off, but I was quick to adjust and breezed right through the opening tutorial that taught you the basics of movement and combat. You get introduced to a few characters and then the game fast forwards to the present leaving you with question of, "What the hell just happened?" The sequence that followed was lush and vibrant showing off the different type of stereotypes that would be encountered in the game world. It was mesmerizing. Really capturing the feeling of how grandiose Los Santos really is. When the scene finally ended and seamlessly transitioned to gameplay, I was given control of Franklin and my first mission to complete. Needless to say, I can't drive to save my life. Afterwards I was good to explore Los Santos to my hearts delight. What I encountered were people going about their business, cops chasing law breakers, people engaging in conversation and various activities. The world was alive. The amount of activities I have encountered were engaging. You could dive in the ocean, rob liquor stores, collect cars for your garage, pimp out your character in nice clothing, encounter dynamic events where other people were being held up and you could choose to assist either the attacker or the innocent, etc. I was in love but I was also tired so my session ended after 3 hours of mayhem.

All in all the game is astounding. The amount of detail put into the game gives the game life from the PC putting on a helmet to ride a motorcycle to all the social aspects, the nuances shine. I cannot wait to continue playing and see how the game unfolds. For now, the game is a must for anyone who has a love for sandboxes.

- A

Today Nintendo released a new Pokemon Direct. It focused on the upcoming Pokemon X & Y games. I'd like to start off this post saying that Pokemon was a HUGE chunk of my childhood so please forgive the super nerdiness that's about to go down. So here goes... OH MY GOSH. You get not one, but two starter Pokemon at the beginning of the game! Okay, you think that's great? Wait for it, wait for it... one of those starter Pokemon is going to be from the original 151!  I've personally have had every single Pokemon game since they first released Red Version and Blue Version back in 1998. Pokemon was the reason I got a Game Boy Pocket and it was one of the very first video games that I thoroughly played. As someone who has been following the Pokemon game series for more than 10 years, I really appreciate that Nintendo and The Pokemon Company acknowledged the older demographic that still plays this game. Bulbasaur here I come! Another big announcement that was made today was the Pokemon Bank storage system. It's pretty much a Pokemon storage box in the cloud. It can hold up to 3,000 Pokemon and it lets you transfer between different versions. It's supposed to take away the pain of transferring your favorite, hard-trained Pokemon to new versions of the game. It's going to be a subscription service and more information about the annual fee will be released at a later date. If you'd like to watch the Pokemon Direct for yourself, here it is!

Needless to say, after watching today's Pokemon Direct, October 12 can't come soon enough. Not like I was patient enough to wait for it anyways ;].

- B

After getting bombarded with peer pressure from my friends, I finally caved in and got Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I also upgraded my 3DS to a 3DS XL. I almost scored an Animal Crossing 3DS XL but it sold out as soon as I traded in my 3DS; sadness. It was so pretty too!

Anyways, leave your friend code below in the comments so we can play! =)

Double-rainbow all the way!

- B