mikeszekely

Yeah, and so do I. (And yes, I'm also serious, although I've only watched a few episodes so far). But they're DVDs. That makes all the difference. Retro shows are awesome on DVD. Retro shows on VHS... that's just sad. EDIT: Unless it's Gobots. I'll take whatever I can get there...

I think I probably would have beat it, except it happened to come out at the beginning of the holiday glut. If it was summer, it would have been the only game on my plate, and I'd keep banging my head on the proverbial wall until the game was done. But now, the choice is something more like be frustrated at Megaman, or wander the Wasteland in Fallout 3. I'll concede that MM9 doesn't have the best music in a Megaman game, but still... Megaman game music is awesome. If ever there was a reason for killing someone in their sleep, dissing Megaman music would be it. The game's Blood of Bahamut, and it's for the Nintendo DS.

Were they trying to charge you an extra buck a month like they are for Blu-ray? I decided the PS3 upconverts DVDs nicely enough that they could kiss my grits on that one.

Yeah, but a VCR? Tapes? I know retro-80's in cool right now, but c'mon! What tapes are you watching in that VCR of yours? ALF?

I found the ghouls and know exactly which room you're talking about, but somehow missed the manhole. D'oh! Well, I'm off to kill the Family, then the slavers in Paradise Falls. Then... um... y'know, at this point I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to be doing. But it sure is fun wandering the Wasteland and picking up the odd quest or two.

Without a doubt. I occasionally find some good clearance at Best Buy or Toys 'R Us, but the best place for clearance is Target. The only problem with Target is knowing just when to bite. I picked up Devil May Cry 4 for PC for $20, and a few days later (just long enough that I'd tossed the receipt) they dropped it to $10. Meanwhile, I passed on the new NiGHTS game for Wii, telling myself I'd wait until it dropped to $20, only to have it vanish from the store before then.

I'm not, but it's kinda irksome to support a film when it's released only to have a better version come out in less than a year.

Really? Because I searched all three. I found nothing but scorpions in one, one was totally devoid of life, and one had a fellow who said he knew where the Family was and that there was a tunnel that'd lead me to them, but I couldn't find the tunnel. Please point me in the right direction.

No, I avoid Gamestop ever since I left. Maybe if they're running a buy-2-get-1 deal. I buy most of my used stuff at a place around here called CD Warehouse. They usually charge $40 if the game is $60 new. And I was an ASM until 2006. We tried to be a little more discerning at our store... and we got chewed out for it. Corporate didn't care how much crap you were taking in that had to be set back to the warehouse to be resurfaced and stuffed in a generic case with no cover. Corporate cared about GI subscriptions, reservations, used game sales, and the dollar amount of used games we took in. I took the job there because I liked interacting with games, in the era when you could actually talk to an employee who played the games and could give you an honest opinion. I quit because I was tired of writing up those employees and for "not meeting performance goals" and being forced to replace them with sleazy used-car salesmen who'd tell you that not only is Imagine: Baby the most awesome game ever, but they'd only be getting two copies, so you'd better reserve it.

Dammit anyway! Blu-rays are freaking expensive enough without the DVD double-dipping trend.

I don't know. I built my computer from scratch for about $1000, and while that might sound expensive, add the cost of a modern gaming console with the cost of a computer you'd use just for internet crap, and there ya go. The economy is definitely affecting my gaming habits, though. Like I said, I've been buying PC games lately because they're a good bit cheaper than their console counterparts (and half the time look better on my PC anyway). I used to buy one or two games a month; this year I could probably count all the console games I've bought on one hand. I don't even really buy used games anymore because they're too expensive.

Newegg has an EVGA GeForce 9800GTX+ on sale for $185 and free shipping. But I have a promo code you can use to get another $10 off. And there's a $20 rebate on it too. Tell you what, I have a BFG 9800GTX+, and Crysis has been the only game so far I haven't been able to run at the highest settings (and even then, I was running it at the highest settings for awhile, but the particle effects on a snow level bogged the whole thing down).

If you buy a high-end video card, it'll last as long as a console. You're not going to run every game that comes out at the highest settings, maybe, but console games stop looking as good as PC games on high settings anyway, so I call it a wash.

The problem this time of year is that there are simply too many games. You can't afford them all. One tip, if you've got a computer that can do gaming, is to buy PC. You'll save anywhere between $10-$30 per game vs. Xbox 360/PS3. Fallout, for example, is $39.99 at my local Target.

Ah, Fallout 3. The game that's kept me up until 2:30am twice now, even with a bad cold. Easily my pick for Game of the Year so far, and this is coming from someone who never played a previous Fallout game and didn't like Oblivion.

Okay, but why not Perfect Dark then? Don't let your memories be tainted by the 360 prequel, but Perfect Dark was better than Goldeneye in every conceivable way. The weapons were better, the maps were better, the single-player was better, and the two best MP maps from Goldeneye were in Perfect Dark. Don't tell me that Nintendo wants a cut of that, too? I'd have thought their cut would have been the ridiculous sum Microsoft paid for Rare in the first place.

Well, they're just Legends class. I'm skipping Hot Rod because I already have Deluxe Classics anyway. I could have dug a Deluxe or Voyager Warpath, but Legends is about my limit for Wheelie and Cosmos (and Brawn and Beachcomber, for that matter).

It's the last room with a swinging platform. You drop down into it, and the walls and floor are covered with spikes. The only gap is a narrow hole directly under the platform. Whenever I move on the platform, the platform moves too much, so ultimately I just bought the item that lets you take one hit from the spikes, walked off the right edge, took the hit, then jumped down the hole. I've managed (three times) to beat all the robot masters, but I never finished any of the Wily stages. As for Plug Man, yeah, those blocks are frustrating, but it's kinda old school. Ultimately, it's one of my favorite stages, because of the sense of satisfaction you have once you've got the patterns down. I can do that level with my eyes closed now, (after many frustrating deaths, and a sketching the levels in a notebook with numbers for each when each block appears and notes on which blocks to jump to when). I wasn't too thrilled with it. I started playing it, and yeah, sometimes you get startled when something pops out at you, but ultimately it's just not scary. I got tired of stuff popping out at me with Resident Evil 2. Speaking of those old Resident Evil games, Dead Space certainly reminds me of their clunky controls. On the whole, I rather agreed with Zero Punctuation's review, and put it aside to play Fallout 3 instead.

Yeah, Activision's plan is to have a new Call of Duty every year. Infinity Ward makes a game, Treyarch makes a game with IW's engine, then IW makes a new game from scratch. So CoD6 should be an IW game, and should be a must buy instead of another meh WWII shooter. I didn't really feel that CoD4 had weapon balance issues. It's true that if you ran up on somebody and tried to shoot them with one kind of weapon you might get wasted by another, but in those instances you might have been using it wrong. For example, the very first class on the list has a rifle (I forget what it's called off the top of my head), fires a three-round burst). If you're close enough that the other guy can hit you with an SMG or a shotgun, you're going to die, but if you can find some cover where you can see your enemy at a distance, but they can't see you unless they're looking hard, you can take them out quickly with one or two bursts. Similarly, the shotgun was great for smoking some twit who thought he'd be cute and knife you, but you didn't want to be shooting guys on the street from a second-story window with it. Finally, you had to accept that not every class/weapon was suited to every map. On the small map with all the containers laying around, you wanted something suited to close-quarters. On the map with the missile silos and the hangers, you wanted to keep your distance. I've tried the MP in a lot of console shooters since Goldeneye on the N64, and for the most part VERY few have kept me engaged the way Goldeneye did. Probably the original Perfect Dark, the original Halo, and Call of Duty 4. Even games like Halo 3 and Gears of War just didn't hold my interest.

No Infinity Ward = not a real Call of Duty game. I'm skipping this one (just like I skipped Finest Hour, Big Red One, and Call of Duty 3), and I'll check back with the franchise this time next year.

I might check out GHWT if I see a cheap used copy of the stand-alone game; no box sets for me. I had a chance to play it at a Wal-Mart. I only go to play the guitar, so I can't comment on their take on drumming, but I'm not really impressed so far. I do like that they cleaned up the interface (GHIII's was just awful), but it's still not as clean as Rock Band's. And I'll say it before, and I'll say it again and again, Harmonix does a great job of making you feel like you're really playing music. Neversoft just doesn't get it, and (especially when you play a song you're already familiar with from Rock Band) it feels more like a game with patterns and timing to learn than music. Guitar Hero would be the same thing with the sound off.

I probably will cancel my order, but as sound as your reasoning is, I'm not chancing the clearance thing. I'll probably go to Wal-Mart, buy a Prime, then cancel my order.

Man, these Core i7 benchmarks make me want to replace my barely six-month old Wolfdale and mobo. The 920 (which I think is the low-end i7) looks like 20-30% better performance over the E8600... and I got an E8400.

Yeah, I thought they were done too, then discovered they were doing a sequel halfway through the season. Guess I'm waiting for the DVD.

Okay, I saw one now too. It's not really pink, but kind of a dull red. Like they took the G1 toy and kinda washed him out. Are they trying to make him look 25 years faded, maybe? Well, it'd be nice to have a perfectly G1-accurate toy, but raise your hands if any of you actually thought that'd happen. At minimum, we knew he'd have the short 'stacks (irony of ironies, the picture of him on the back of the box has long 'stacks). In any case, if you have an original G1 Prime or one of the other reissues, did you really want to buy ANOTHER one? Nope, this is for people like me that never owned a G1 Prime (even back in the day, closest I had was Ultra Magnus and Powermaster Prime, never the original), and managed to miss all the reissues*. Frankly, I'll take what I can get (although the DVD, belt buckle, and comic book are definitely icing on a delicious cake). *Unless you count Pepsi Prime. I did manage to get him. Sadly, I have to wait, though. Silly me, figuring I'd beat the holiday shoppers and scalpers and what not and preorder it from Target.com back in August. Of course, they're telling me that it won't arrive until the end of the month, and they'll probably smash the crap out it in shipping.