Turned out longer than I thought... To summarize this whole mess, you can find bits about my absence, what I've been up to, a couple game reviews, and when my next submissions may arrive.

...

S'up, everyone. God, how long has it been? I think I disappeared sometime in August. All I know is that college kicked in and despite what time I did have, I just couldn't devote much of my time to animating, no matter how simple my cartoons can get.

But for any of you that were around after my second submission, you probably remember my infamous 'official apology to Newgrounds' blog post. That was pretty much the second factor that made me quit for a tad too long; I think that on the day following my submission, I got number 13 on the Top 50 of all time, and really, that's just wrong. My series is a bunch of shorts that Egoraptor could do after his tea and crumpets. If I were to get those spots, I need to deserve them, and I'm still exploring ways on how to do just that.

I'm still at a bit of a crossroads, but I've already thought of a few ideas that I plan to implement once I get more time for cartooning, such as expanding the cast, improving the art, making the cartoons longer and/or creating a collaboration of shorts so that there's more to look forward to upon each submission. Really, it's a matter of what I can do to improve what I do without jumping the shark; I may even try something different altogether because, the more I look at it, Kagome and I accidentally created a knockoff of VGCats...

But as for a timeframe, don't expect anything until a bit after Christmas; you see, my college has all of these ridiculous student discount dealies that it's not even funny. You know how programs like Flash, Photoshop, Premiere and the like cost about $500-$1000 each? Well, my school and Adobe have a deal going on where I can buy a CS3 Suite containing Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Soundbooth, Encore, OnLocation, and Ultra for $309. Yes, three hundred and nine fucking dollars. Screw Newgrounds, I'm taking over Hollywood!

But yeah, I plan on mooching off of my parents for this Suite. As much as I want to buy it myself now, I've been saving up for a few other things... games, consoles, you know, the nerdy stuff. However, I can guarantee that after getting this behemoth of a package, I might be a continuing YouTube contributor as well.

Now, I can't promise much, but even though I haven't been doing any Flash, I've still been doing some voice work as of late. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just have to lay low on the details and talk about them once the project is completed and submitted. I have to say, though, from what I was allowed to see, it looks fantastic, although I'm really iffy about my choice of voice. To put it bluntly, I'm pretty sure that the most common criticism about it will be that it's too annoying, but I guess I'll just have to wait and find out, though I'm not holding my breath.

But what else is there to cover... ah yes, games. You didn't see that coming, did ya?

Anyway, let's talk about a game I already made fun of... Call of Duty 4. I am proud to say that my cartoon was nothing but a satirical parody; if you own a 360, PS3, or gaming PC, you need to buy this game. NOW. Seriously, screw Halo, screw Killzone, screw whatever games that devs hype up themselves and pick up the game that actually left me cursing myself to sleep once I beat it.

Honestly, this game is a true masterpiece from the fictional story to the balls-tighteningly fantastic action that will keep you running and gunning from beginning to end. Have you ever played a shooter where the devs just seemed like they have no military experience whatsoever and the closest thing that they came to that loftly resembled a war was Full Metal Jacket? Call of Duty 4 is nothing like that. This game kicks your ass until you wear your buttocks like a hat, quoting Yahtzee, the charismatic stallion that he is (see end of blog).

Aside from shooting, Call of Duty 4 has some awesome levels that break up the action to make each experience a bit different from the rest. You have aerial missions, sneaking missions (in ghillie suits, which kick ass, by the way) and sniping missions outside of the loud and fast-paced action that made the Call of Duty franchise awesome.

I got a chance to play the online multiplayer, too. There seemed to be a small lag between my actions and the end result on my enemies, but I really can't determine if it was my connection or the server, which suffered a huge crash the next night (those that got the game know what I'm talking about, and it happened on the PlayStation Network and Live). However, when it did work, it was fun as hell. To break apart just gunning each other down, killing sprees offer you power ups from UAV maps to airstrikes to helicopters that really shape up battles. Even though the graphics were toned down for the multiplayer, it still beat the hell out of just about every other shooter to date.

In short, if you love awesome campaign modes, get Call of Duty 4. If you're a multiplayer junkie, get Call of Duty 4. In all honesty, buy the damn game. I will honestly hunt you down and kill you if you don't.

For closing thoughts, the downside to the game is the difficulty; even on the normal mode, the game can be downright murderous. Moving up to Hardened will make you die every second on the second, and I didn't even want to bother with Veteran. It might not be that much of a problem for 360 owners as the game doesn't offer individual achievements for beating levels on different difficulties, but the achievements you can get are very interesting and fun to work for.

I've also played the DS version of this game. Obviously, the presentation isn't as great. Comparing this to its normal mapped bigger brother just isn't fair. It does fair, however, well as a DS game with solid controls and good graphics that the tiny little mobile tank can dish out. There are some control issues, mostly in the iron bar aiming (which requires a double tap on the screen that sometimes doesn't register and is oftentimes hard to control when it does) and occasionally wonky AI, but it serves well enough to get an 8/10 ranking from me. Sadly, there's no online, which would've benefited the game greatly. If you have a store that allows you to rent DS games, I'd give this one a go. It's not bad, but I can't fully recommend it either.

Also, Super Mario Galaxy. I got this, I love it. Really, I can't put it down. This is one of those few titles that actually make me sit down and play for long periods of time. It's that fun. There's so much variety in level design and gameplay mechanics that, if you play the game right, you'll experience something new around every corner. The only time the game would get repetitive is if you play in the same world two or three times in a row, and there are a LOT of worlds in this game. Really, I'm trying to remember off of the top of my head now... there's about six worlds per galaxy, somewhere between six and eight galaxies with certain unlockable worlds... bah, somewhere around forty different levels or more. I'd be happy if someone can correct me on this, but this game is HUGE. It probably took me about fifteen hours to beat, and I haven't even gotten all 120 stars yet.

Really, Mario is as solid as the day he appeared on the NES. Couple some new characters, costumes, enemies, world designs, and graphics that would make a 360 fanboy clutch his console in the corner shivering, and you've got one great game. Definitely GotY material. Next to Call of Duty 4, of course.

Unfortunately, that's all I've played. I'm going to try and get a PS3 sometime soon, since I've learned that Gamestop stores can sell used/refurbished 60GB version only for about $429, which is a hell of a lot better than the 40GB version that just came out (seriously, why tote backwards compatibility if you're just going to drop it?). Anyway, I've heard some good things about Drake's Fortune, so I'll try that once I get it.

Now, with the game reviews out of the way, my history explained, my future plans revealed... I'm just about done wasting your time. I'm thinking about including a small extra with... whatever it is I plan to submit in the upcoming months. That extra will turn out to be a bit something like this.

Let's just say that I have a bone to pick with a certain game. Maybe you can guess what it is in the meantime.

Laters.