Bethany has posted a super neat video contest that is dedicated to giving thanks to your favorite industry person, game (or game series) or platform. An emblem to the best video creators is up for grabs so stop by the contest forum to check it out.

If I had something to give thanks about it would be the Quake game series. I have met thousands of people over the years online and hundreds in person. Without this game series I wouldn't have many friendships online and in person.

My best friend actually became my friend because we found out that we both loved Quake 1 when we met each other in 2003. 

If I could find a good enough Quake 1 tattoo I would get it. 

<3 <3 <3 Quake

I have to share the sackboy that Sophia made over the weekend. Now, everyone go over there and beg her to share how she made him!

Would you buy a Castle Crashers soundtrack and many of their character figurines? I would definitely buy figures of most of the characters and mounts, they are too cute to resist. I checked Behemoth's store and they have the main colored Knights. I plan to splurge on the Blue Knight w/the weapons and case and a t-shrit in the near future.

Having the itch to hear some Castle Crashers music today, I came across this article that links to a user on youtube that has some of the songs. Not sure if they asked Behemoth for permission to do that. Either way, if you haven't played Castle Crashers, you're missing out.

You all should celebrate Halloween with GameSpot! Bethany has announced the recent scavenger hunt activity. There is an emblem at stake! Stop by to view the scavenger list and rules and begin your screenshot hunt in the gamespaces.

By the way, please, please go find that hot dog screenshot in the list. I can't explain why, but you'll regret it if you don't!

Last night I uploaded the secret I've been hinting about as of late. Basically, I plan to make a mini how-to series where I put on makeup from game characters. Because I'm a bit of a perfectionist I wanted to do the makeup/hair/cap/accessories to bring more of a resemblance and hopefully give people ideas to do their own take on it.

This one is a two part video of Heavenly Sword's Kai. I'll upload one of the pictures to show you what it looked like without having to check out the videos. The first video is a description about the project I am doing and how to put on the white mask with makeup. The second video shows how I made the pattern for my face and the reveal. On a side note, I think Nariko's makeup will be easy to do. However, I am still trying to figure out how to make the circlet to top it off.

I didn't have an arrow. Instead, I did an Air Arrow! Does that exist?

Scary, I know.

By the way, any of you planning to dress up for Halloween this year? If so, what are you going to be? I haven't been invited to any Halloween parties yet. I usually get asked at the last minute.

I purchased Age of Booty on XBL earlier this week. I attended a little pre-release party for the game about 3 weeks ago, thanks to Kristin. I had the chance to play a game of Age of Booty and a few games of a Flock preview build. There were a variety of Age of Booty booths that held 2 v 2 matches. I stood in line to play the Age of Booty game and listened closely to the tips that the players were giving their teammates. I learned enough to play the game once I had my turn to play. I also ended up getting some more tips from random people standing behind me. The game didn't look like my kind of game, but once I learned how to play I completely lost track of time.

If you see me on XBL, I'm still a newb so play nice!

Uh huh. You questioned if I could do something like it! Shame on you.

I am looking for Kai's cute little fox hat. I noticed that the ears are bigger than a cat so it has to be a feral cat or fox ear'd hat. Have any of you seen a real one of these? I searched online last night and couldn't seem to find anything that resembled it. I was thining that I could make a custom hat by using a marroon bandana cap or skull cap and glue things on the front with another bandana or piece of cloth. There was a post I found last night where someone said he saw a girl wearing one just like her in Japan.

I am also wondering about Narikos head piece. I would like to think that it would be easy to find online under some barbarian site, but what keywords should I search? Tiara's seem a bit too danty for a headpiece that doesn't have any diamonds.

I know this sounds super silly, but life seems a little empty without Xbox Live. Am I the only one that feels this way?

My cute little XBL avatar is blank on my GameSpot profile. :*

About two weeks ago I put the Lego Batman game on hold at GameSTOP. I thought about how many Batman or Dark Knight fans there are and did not want to wrestle with them to purchase the game next Tuesday. I have not put a game on hold (pre-ordered) with a deposit for at least three years. I NEED this game... right now! I have XBL working again now that the internet was installed at my new place last night.

While catching up on the latest about the Lego Batman game, I came across this nifty Catwoman mobile; this has got to be the coolest looking thing ever. I also liked the way they didn't limit her to the Legos blocked visuals found in the game. In this shot she is laying on her side with one of her provocative poses. On another note, the Batgirl environment shots gave her the appearance much like the comic books resembles; she on a mission to save humankind from harm! I was ecstatic that there are a variety of female characters in this game.

On a similar note, DC Comics has been good about not killing off their female characters when it comes to their storyline, much more often than other comic book publishers. A few days ago I received an email from one of the distribution lists I am on. The lady mentioned that one of the games she played was going through the women in refrigerator syndrome. The link she provided went to a webpage about how comic book companies get rid of their main female characters. There are some valid points that were made. However, I can also see the point of view from the comic book authors as well.

It was refreshing to see that someone believes there should be more heroines in comic books. I find that it can apply to female characters in games and movies just the same. There has been an increase amount of female characters popping up more now than before. I will never expect there to be an even ratio between male and female characters in PC or video games, however, one can hope that will be many more of them. Having badass female characters brings more diversity in a game's storyline.

We think we know exactly what type of games we like and then out of no where we are proven wrong. Games are like food; we sometimes have to give it a few tastes before we can claim that we'll never try it again.

Last December I finally confessed that I did not like turn-based games. I take it back! Please forgive me. I think a part of the problem was how I did not understanding the current generation of turn-based strategy games.

I recall UpInFlames and RK-Mara trying to convince me that Civilization 4 game was worth a try. I honestly could not get away from the haunting memories of Gettysburg multiplayer. It was blocking me from trying to figure out how to play the Civilization 4 game. Now that my personal computer is dead (yes, that's another story), over the weekend I rented Civilization Revolution on the Xbox 360. I have to say this game is super fun and a bit addicting. I plan to purchase it soon. I actually missed a school assignment over it yesterday. gah! The good news is that I've already racked up about 16 achievements for the game.

The question I have about Civ Rev is this... how different is this game compared to Civilization 4 PC version?

You know how you change your hair color, get a really different haircut, change make-up or buy new clothes? You boys can relate to buying new clothes, right. You girls know EXACTLY what I mean about coloring hair, changing your make-up or getting a drastic haircut. Well, sometimes having that change can make such a difference for someone. Okay, maybe some of you don't buy any new clothes. Maybe you can relate to that feeling when you start a new school or job. Please tell me you recall some of those moments. Well, that's kind of how we all feel about GameSpot. We like the new look, we love the new look, we hate the new look, we need to GET USED to the new look or feeling we have when we visit the site. Either way it takes a few days or a week to get adjusted at a new job or school. This is the same scenario with GameSpot Wide. I'm pretty much used to it already because I have been looking at mockups for many months now. Although, it has been available for everyone via beta.gamespot.com for a few weeks now.

I think the pages are amazing but I have been known to move to new cities just to learn about a place. The thought of learning how to navigate a new city and learning new roads or freeways is always a new journey and I enjoy every moment of lifestyle changes. I think this is partly the reason why I love the new design and how much more organized it has become.

The latest GameSpot E3 2008 coverage design makes me want to play a game that looks like it! The design kind of reminds me of F-zero so I have this incredible urge to play that game on SNES at the moment. When viewing the design more closely I noticed the tiny OTS in the left corner.

This year's E3 seems to be packed with more games that I really want to see compared to last year. Although the expo carries the label of E3 it has not carried the same vibe as previous E3 events. In fact, I do recall back in 2005 and 2006 that the old E3 vibe wasn't there like it used to be. There were more spectacle activities happening than there were in previous years.

The first year I attended E3 was in 1999; I was working as a freelance reporter for a variety of game fansites such as Jediknight.net, Gamers Extreme (now known as Gamers.com) and Strategyxtreme.com (Mplayer.com's strategy gamer channel). The focus that year was to check out a variety of upcoming LucasArts games and Strategy related games. I also met so many of my Quake friends in person for the first time. My first visit to E3 was packed with amazement. I recall believing that life could actually be one big video game arcade! It was called E3! The only difference was how I didn't need any quarters! I got in free and I had the chance to play games that weren't in arcades or on store shelves.

The second year I attended was in 2000. This was the best year I have attended E3 because it was packed with so many memories all in one week. Mplayer was running a spiffy booth that year and hosted a three combo tournament called Triple threat. The tournament featured three popular shooter games of it's time; Quake 3, Rogue Spear and Aliens versus Predator. Dennis Fong (Thresh) was expected to show but to his fans' dismay he didn't participate in the tournament that year. Instead, a new shooter super star came out of no where, Johnathan Wendel aka Fatal1ty. Wendel was not know in the West coast Quake community at the time but quickly gained ground and continued to do so. I met him and his father that year. He was extremely excited about winning a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle. This was the same year I met many owners and news reporters from a variety of game websites that distributed news I would send them through email. And don't laugh here but Daikatana was extremely popular at the Mplayer booth that year too. Hey now, be nice! *snicker* The game wasn't even released yet, it was a demo Killcreek and Romero showed that year. Oh, and I do recall Westwood Studios was still around at the time too. How could anyone ever forget this amazing company?

The third year was in 2001 and this was the last year I wrote journeys about experiences at E3. I represented GameSpy Industries as a sidekick reporter for preview content that year. It was still the typical OMG! I AM IN AN ARCADE vibe at E3 though.

Why do I bring this up? Well, E3 isn't completely the same. I can't get blisters on my feet like before but I can save tormenting my feet for Quakecon every year. I can't bump into old Quake friends or game developer buds by accident but I can accidentally find them on linkedin, facebook and myspace. I may not be able to do all of these things anymore but the truth in the matter is that the games are still there. That's one of the main reasons I first attended E3, it was primarily for the games. My memories of E3 haven't changed but being able to still see coverage is one indication that E3 does still exist; it has just evolved.

A friend passed along this link to a Simpsons Map and there are some Simpsons character models for download as well. It is insane how much detail it includes such as the Simpson's house and neighborhood. When I first viewed this youtube video about it I had thought it was the World of Padman, a popular Quake 3 modification.

I have updated my gamespot blog profile page. I was known as CaliforniaGirl for playing Command & Conquer, Quake and S.C.A.R.A.B. online on Mplayer, a former multiplayer gaming service. Therefore, I think my brother felt it would be good to keep my grass roots. Obviously, the CaliforniaGirl alias evolved into CaliGirl or XP-CaliGirl because killing people in games like Quake made it more difficult to see who I killed in the game. If you don't know what I mean because you never played Quake... I don't think we can be friends anymore!

This banner above was one of the three designs my brother did for me. Some of you may have known him as DarkViper, the guy who created UnrealKingdom.com among many other game fan sites in the late 90s. He was well-known for also being the creator of Epic's make something unreal contests. This design reminds me of the first time I played Unreal 1. I was beta testing it as a volunteer for Mplayer at the time.

I was playing Guitar Hero 3 with Kristin Reilly a few nights back. We were working towards the co-op Xbox 360 achievement. She kept telling me that I failed. I definitely did.... I was playing Medium and she was playing Hard difficulty. By the way, any of you see her in my video from last year's E3? Yep, she was one of the blonde girls in that video. Now you know why she may look familiar to you.

Kristin is pretty hardcore at Guitar Hero 3. She went out of her way to give me some pointers to improve my skills but also made sure I was aware that I stunk at the game. I mainly played Guitar Hero 1 on the PlayStation 2 when it first came out. Might I add that I never finished it and only got to Medium difficulty.I recently started playing GH2 on the 360 and noticed how much more difficult medium is in GH3. It was fun playing co-op but we never finished to receive the co-op achievement. I got tired of playing and it was getting late that night. I realized later that I could probably play co-op with other people online. Although, having her remarks of "you failed at life" wouldn't have been nearly as cool. Plus, hanging out with Oliver was also fun. I don't think he likes the sounds of the guitar controller though.

Anyways, I figured that I would also admit that I have also been playing Kareoke Revolution: American Idol on the Xbox 360. I've learned some tips from this guide here to help me overcome some of the achievement obstacles. I've been playing this game off and on for about 2 weeks now. I keep feeling like my neighbors are going to