I thought I would be in a slouch at the start of the summer. Niece and nephews around, I didn’t think I’d have time for any gaming.

Apparently, I was wrong. Very wrong.

Of the 4 kids visiting, we have the oldest, my 16yr old nephew, and his 12yr old sister. And he has a PS3, and even brought a few games with him for his 6 week visit.

In short, they both like to play games. A lot.

Personally, I’m still trying to play through Metal Gear Solid 3. That’s kinda at the forefront, but it’s not the simplest game to play when you’ve got others in the room. I can barely play it when my wife is around, as it’s easy to get distracted and miss parts of the story. But I’m not giving up

Considering I’m playing it for the story, it’s basically in a holding pattern until my niece and nephew leave at the end of July. I don’t consider it on the back burner yet, but that may change. I may play it some, but it seems to be a scarce thing. And, I won’t start on MGS4 until I finish 3, so that game, as much as I want to play it, is still back burnered.

My nephew seemed interested in Battlefield: Bad Company, so I got that from GameFly and it came in on Saturday. I thought it over, and ended up buying it for about $47 after using a coupon (my account is being canceled tomorrow). I thought we’d be able to game together more with it, especially since I hear the multi-player is sweet. Turns out, he just kinda likes it, but then again, he hasn’t taken an initiative to play it yet. That’s going to change this week, I’ll see to that.

So now, I have more going on than I can seemingly keep track of in my head. Here’s the updates:

Games I’m currently playing:
1. Battlefield: Bad Company – PS3
2. Need For Speed: Carbon – PS3
3. Metal Gear Solid 3 – PS2
4. Heavenly Sword – PS3
5. Final Fantasy X – PS2
6. Katamari Damacy – PS2

Games I’ve back-burnered for various reasons:
1. Castlevania: Lament Of Innocence – PS2
2. Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest – PS2
3. Gran Turismo 4 – PS2
4. MotorStorm – PS3

Games that I can’t wait to get to:
1. Metal Gear Solid – PS1
2. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – PS3
3. Ninja Gaiden Sigma – PS3

Games that I’ve recently completed:
1. Heavenly Sword – PS3 – 06.11.2008
2. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – PS2 – 06.09.2008

I’ve been hearing about a sale at GameStop might be having soon. A Buy 2 Get 1 Free on all used games, to be exact. I’ve actually been saving my mad money for this, and today… well, today, I found a 35% off Buy It Now items on eBay, usable 3 times. Let’s just say I’ve made some decisions…

Here’s the rundown:

$29.99 Heavenly Sword
$24.99 Ninja Gaiden: Sigma
$18.00 Need For Speed: Carbon
$ 8.50 S&H
$81.48 Total Cost
$25.55 CashBack Earned
$55.93 Final Cost

I think that’s enough games for now!

A few different things are happening over the next week or so (possibly some right good game deals, too!)

The iPhone 3G was announced Monday, and since I’ve got a back-up cell phone, I eBayed mine and will be able to afford a replacement 8GB iPhone when they are released July 11th – just 29 more days…

The sale of the iPhone also put some cash in my pocket, so I was able to order a Dual Shock 3 controller yesterday.  It should be here early next week, and I can’t complain.  I’ve been thinking about getting one for awhile now.

I’ve then got an option to snag an amazing deal at GameStop, when it happens.  It’s my understanding that a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale on all used games is coming sometime this month.  With the extra money in my pocket, I’ve actually thought about getting a friend with their Edge card to accompany me and help me snag Ninja Gaiden Sigma, BurnOut:Paradise, and Heavenly Sword together for about $82 total.  That’s about $27 a game, and something I think I could live with.  It’d be a little tight after that, but good grief – think I’d have anything to play?

Add in the fact that my copy of Metal Gear Solid 4 should be here early next week, as well as Metal Gear Solid 1 I snagged from half.com, and I will be looking at getting gametime in on #1, #3, and then #4, as to appreciate the entire series.  I have no doubt MGS4 is going to deliver – I just want to be prepared for it all.

Oh, and all this is happening just as our nieces and nephews arrive early next week as well.  Perhaps patience will be a virtue learned over these next 6 weeks.  At least I will (I hope) have time time to game here and there.

What’s going on in your life?

Ok, so maybe I had some trouble with Prizerebel.com and they wouldn’t move as fast as I liked for the DualShock 3… So I went ahead and went for the following (click for a better view):

I’ll let you know when it ships, and definitely when it arrives!

Edit: I also scored the following on Half.com, to complete my collection (click for a better view):

And yes, I listen to Jaci Velasquez

Blah… I hate it when life throws curve balls.

It seems we are going to have from 2-4 kids staying with us at any time from June 16th through the 30th for part of their Summer Vacation, which means… little to no PS3 gaming for me. This means that getting MGS4 on release isn’t the best idea.

In light of this development, I’ve re-arranged my priorities for games and such, and have come up with the following:

Since Buy.com has the DualShock 3 controller on sale today, I’ll be using some of my PrizeRebel.com points to help pay for that. After that, I won’t have the points to pre-order MGS4 for free, so I’ll continue to look to get MGS4 for free after the kids leave (filling out surveys or nab a sale on it… who knows!?).

I’m also still attempting to score a trade on Heavenly Sword, which, if it falls through, I will quite possibly be without for another couple months. Hey, I’ve waited this long, what’s a little more?

Looks like my PS3 is going to be getting more loving. We recently purchased a 42″ Panasonic plasma television for the living room, complete with 5.1 surround sound, and I must say, even the demos on the PS3 are amazing in 720p, especially with the added sound support. It’s just a pity that most of the games I play on the PS3 are PS2 games – but that may change in a couple of months.

The biggest issue I had with buying a 1080p HDTV was the price of cables. With HDMI and Optical cables seemingly being distributed by price-gougers, I opted for some from Newegg.com and Amazon.com and ended up with 4 HDMI cables, 1 Optical cable, and 1 new component cable around $70 – which is probably about $20 more than one HDMI cable from companies like Monster in the store. So while I’ve saved some money, I’ve still got at least another day or two until my HDMI cables show up – then I can’t wait to see what Blu-Ray has to offer.

After gaming on an SDTV for the longest time, it’s like a breathe of fresh air. It feels like a new era in my gaming life.