Let me start by saying that I am happy to return to the Game Spot Community after an extended break! I apologize for my absence, but know that I am here to stay and will be performing regular blogs, reviews and in general forcing my opinionated thoughts on you all once again .

Allot has happened since my previous update last year. From a professional standpoint I have just been promoted to Project Superintendent for a $65 Million dollar public works College project. the Largest of its type in Los Angeles, so from that standpoint I have hit the big times figuratively speaking, my goal to oversee the construction of the largest man made building in the world is very real and with every year seems to become more of a reality being in a major management position for Internationally the 5th Largest Construction company on the Planet.

I have also in some ways come to grips with my entire perceived viewpoint on the gaming industry. Every time I think I've made my mind up on what my favorite genre is a new game comes along and shatters my preconceived perceptions. I am extremely excited to see the sudden support and movement of the fighting genre and its newly infused life after nearly ten years of what seems like borderline underground support, examples: Street Fighter 4, King of Fighters XII, Soul Caliber 4, Super Smash Bros, the upcoming Tekken and Myriads of recent best of SNK compilations. I couldn't be happier!

I threw my hand at MMORPS, I built two level seventy characters in World of Warcraft, if you have played this game you know it's no small feat to obtain Tier 6 raid gear, not only did I deck my hunter in that top level gear I also recently cleared Black Temple officially beating the game, well as close to beating that paticular game is possible in its current state. Time to move on!

I have purchased every cutting edge game currently for every major system on the market. Some very brief examples: PS3 - Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto 4, etc. Xbox 360 - Assassins Creed, Bio Shock, Halo 3, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4, and Devil May Cry 4. Wii - No More Heros, Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxies. PC - The Witcher, Crysis etc, etc, etc, etc. My madness extends as well to the PSP and DS systems, the bottom line is if it's a reputable game with any type of potential I have it and usually before anyone else. My biggest problem is finding time to play them all obviously.

In any case just wanted to update you all on what I've been up to and please let me know how you have all been! I'd love to hear how you all are and what you are playing as well as what your thoughts are on recent gaming advances in general. What games are you most excited about at the moment!

Games Radar is reporting from the Capcom Gamer's Day in London that the 4th game in the series has been officially confirmed. A stylized trailer of Ken and Ryu fighting was shown, but no actual gameplay footage, and while development has started the game is still more than a year away for whatever platform it ends up coming out on, Still, we can all rest easy that it is indeed on the way

To view trailer:

CLICK HERE!

I consider myself to be one of the more hardcore portable video game system enthusiast's you will likely ever come across, I have owned (starting from Nintendo's "Watch & Game") every major portable video game system released on the North American continent over the last 30 years and as such have watched with delight the once modest niche market grow into a dominate postion outselling in most cases their home console counterparts.

Let me make it clear right here and now that I am a big supporter of both Nintendo and Sony's respected portable systems, and as such purchased the DS and PSP on their initial release dates. With all that said it's important to point out that I do not typically take side's with recommending one system over another and will usually be the first to point out that each system has it's own share of strength's and weaknesses, so to the greatest reasonable expectation possible consider this an unbiased viewpoint of an individual with a massive amount of time spent with both previous systems.

With all that said regarding the newly released PSP Slim I was extremely impressed as I unwrapped my newly purchased system this afternoon, the first thing I noticed was that the system literally felt like a normal PSP with the gut's removed and could hardly believe how much lighter the unit felt, other notable first impressions revolved mostly around the overall shaped contour, gone are the bulging sections on the back that once made up the makeshift grips, instead you're left with a streamlined unit that is much more comfortable. Balancing the two units you'll actually start equating the older system to a brick in both weight and overall comparative size!

There has been at least for me one MAJOR downfall to the original PSP that I could never understand, that is to say the utterly horrible controls, I had flashback's of my original PSP purchase along with the 2D Fighter "Darkstalkers"(Darkstalkers is very similar to the more commonly known Street Fighter 2 games) the day the system was released, an utterly horrid combination as you simply could not control your character with any type of efficiency due to the lacking button sensitivity. The new model I am happy to report has completely fixed this issue, I played the same game today on the new system and it controls like a dream, I also noticed greatly improved load times and a screen that is much brighter and actually visible in outside natural light!

Is the new system worth purchasing for someone who owns the original model? To me the answer is a resounding yes, if for no other reason than the system is simply more portable, add to that a brighter screen, fixed button controls, longer battery life and faster loading times and you start diminishing some of its toughest critics' most valid arguments.

So I decided to change my avatar today, due to the fact that I am currently spending nearly every extra gaming moment I have in my newly aquired World of Warcraft online game it seemed fitting to choose a world of warcraft based avatar. I actually avoided the game for several years as I previously didnt care for Massive Multiplayer Online RPG's, however WOW (WOW = World of Warcraft to the Hardcore dorks) is a simple, easy to jump into immersive game that is completely addicting.

After just a few short days I already have a level 18 fire ball throwing human mage, it's amazing to me to talk to people who have been playing it for years and still day after day play it religiously and say it never gets old! In any case if you haven't played it and you own a computer I recommend you go out immediatly and snatch a copy, just be sure and let your friends and family know that they will not be seeing you again for awhile!

Much to my shock when I opened my profile today I noticed my shiny new "Top 500" Emblem, Apparently you are awarded this emblem by being hand picked by the Game Spot staff due to the quality of your game reviews. Also, you can recommend talented writers based on their reviews for consideration of this emblem as well, Here's the Link if you know some deserving individuals!

Ladies and Gentlmen, I give you the Soul Calibur 4 Official Trailer!