You may remember me.  I'm the guy that kept promising orgasmically entertaining weekly blogs with the ever-clever title of Sparky's Updates.  Well, I think we can all agree my idea of a semi-formal weekly blog is deader than Jim Morrison.  And folks, lemme tell you, that duder is one rotting corpse.  So long, Sparky's Update, and thanks for all the fish. 
 
Now then... I'll be hitting you all up with occasional blogs of no particular format, reason, or rhyme.  I think this'll work out better for everybody.  I'll still try to feature community blogs and other under-the-radar happenings, but no promises.  Again, if you ever have any recommendations for blogs, user reviews, or criminally underviewed threads, hit me up and I'll try to make sure they get a little more lovin' here on Giant Bomb. 
 
Quick thoughts on what I've been doing and gaming: 
 
Forza 3 and Tiger Woods 10 have been my crack of choice these last few weeks.  Even though I have to spank the piss out of my 360 every time I need to load a disk, I'm still using it and the laptop to get my gamin' freak on.  Yeah, that's right, I just dropped a little Missy Elliot in this here blog.  Booyah, bitches.  I've downloaded a couple of the car packs for Forza 3, and I've gotta admit, I'm pleased with the number, variety, and quality of the vehicles included in 'em.  And at 400 MS points, they fit a niche of being just priced low enough for car enthusiasts like myself.  And that Morgan?  Fuckin' sweeeeet!  That bad boy growls when you mash the pedal down. 
 
Still not great at Tiger Woods 10.  The challenges are almost impossible for me beyond the initial few, and that's with a golfer with near-max stats.  Oh, by the way, I've mentioned this in status updates, but I'm damn glad TW 11 went back to an XP system for its stats.  I hated that Tiger coach doling and taking that shit from me at every turn.  Won't be picking up TW 11 more than likely, but it's still a purdy game to look at. 
 
And speaking of purdy games to look at, Final Fantasy XIII has that going for it... and not much more.  Son of a bitch, Square, you screwed the pooch on this one.  Everything that should feel awesome doesn't.  The Crystallanari... Crystalariu.... the leveling system should be awesome, but instead of the freedom of customization I've come to enjoy from Square's last few offerings in the series, I'm stuck with singular paths and rigid, stunted branches (that's what she said).  Sadly, that same thing can be said of much of the game - its exploration feels too linear and dumbed down for no good reason, the story progresses without any of the usual fun Final Fantasy diversions, and there's no real reason to go back through a second time.  The characters and overarching story are fine, but not outstanding.  Truth be told, it's one of the most bland RPG's I've played in a long time. 
 
That's why I'm pretty stoked to see them announce the new Final Fantasy game for the DS.  It seems like a smart choice and a tentative feeler for the response of gamers worldwide.  If it sells, I'm sure Square will be rethinking their stance on the whole "let's action-ize our RPG's!" shtick.  God, I hope so, because another game like FF 13, and I won't be picking them up until they're at a very discounted price. 
 
Awesome to see Mortal Kombat return to its roots.  That game looks solid and awesome.  Rock Band 3 might be the ticket to get me into the music game thing (I need SOMETHING for parties, anyways).  Telltale should do an interesting job with Back to the Future and Jurassic Park.  Looking forward to writing up more thoughts on E3 soon.  This is my favorite time of the year to be a gamer!