bob-damn are there a lot of stuff coming out.  time to get a second mortgage just to afford them.  nevermind the time to play.

my "short" list, all first day with no reviews.

Crysis
Mass Effect
Grand Theft Auto IV
Mercenaries 2

my wait for sale/rent list.
Assassin's Creed
Bioshock
Guitar Hero 3
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
Zelda DS
Picross
Half Life 2 Ep 2
Halo 3

my wish i had time to play, but probably won't list
Beautiful Katamari
The Witcher
Stranglehold
Hellgate London
Unreal Tournament 3
Metroid Prime 3

it's funny, i was thinking about the first one the other day and why there hadn't been a sequel in years. 

i remember the other one was a bit hard too, so at least they kept that difficulty-reward ratio the same.

that sums up my first and last thoughts on the matter.  i have two controllers, and with the only lure that i could make a third pc-use only, there isn't much lure.  plus i have a corded white controller for the pc anyways.

i have no interest in fusion frenzy either, which is the only 4 player split screen game i can think of.  maybe that rabbids game too?

viva pinata: party animal will be 4 player coop though.

watched the mass effect trailer last night.  looks good and now we have a bad guy to go after. 

is VP: party animals just a 4-player party game or is there a sandbox mode to it?  i just traded for the first one with gratch, so finding out that a new version is coming is a little wierd.

surprised at how big the too human trailer is. 

have they put the re5 trailer up yet?  that sounds freaking cool.

grabbed about half of the trailers last night, but didn't get the demos.  not sure if i'll even bother with bd.  just too much coming out at once and lost odyssey looks better atm. 

damn sweet news.  now i have no worries about how much i play the thing.

it's a bit like a mirror. 

fwiw, i've had a few top scratched discs before, and only one case where i could still read the data.  luckily i had more than a few copies of the disc in case it went bad, but i have had many cases where a scratch big enough to let light pass through resulted in a coaster.  if the data around the damaged area is non-essential or unused when you access it, you should be fine.  if you ever do a copy though, forget it. 

this was a copy of office 2k3

i've seen a few, mostly at a fry's which wanted to push you into buying a bunch of stuff with it. 

last week, i picked up one from a walmart sunday afternoon.  they had 9 at opening and the clerk was surprised to see it on the shelf. 

my cousin was ecstatic. 

i'm pretty glad i woke up ugly early for a target opening.  9th out of 40 units.  god, that was a huge number at one store, wasn't it?

i've got this in my gamefly list, and it shipped out today.  should have it next week and would like to try out the coop.  if it hadn't been lost in the mail, i would have had it last weekend.    

tag: (kasei vallis)

btw, i have a big  to one of the gamestops in the area.  the were charging $65 for the pc version, because "you can't find this anywhere else today".  MF-ers.  they shouldn't be allowed to raise the prices just because they happen to get their order in sooner. 

Very weird.  I walked into an EB Games (same company of course) and bought it off the shelf for $39.99.  Also, when I was with GameStop it was absolutely forbidden to charge more than what the company said, and while there was some price variation depending on what your competition was, it was never that much of a difference.

the guy who saw this thinks that this store may have mis-labeled the pc version the 360 game price and that the clerks he talked with seemed to be dicking him over for fun.  oh well, he ended up buying it from target later on for it's regular price, so no harm done.  i know where he went, so i might try catching this store in the act.

played through about 3 hours last night, just beyond getting the red minion hive.  loving what i've seen so far.  the strategic options are just becoming available with the two types and 15 strong band i can muster.  once i get the other types and increase that total quantity, i can see this getting interesting. 

the first boss fight was kind of cool, once i got over getting wiped the first time.  those minions are much more effective than you are at this stage. 

the little touches they added really give this game character.  the way the annoying jester greets you with the various titles you earn is cool.  after i left the tower, the local peasants had tied up a wench for my pleasure, whom i added to the growing group of servants around my throne.  nice.  another one ran from me screaming something about what i had done previously. 

the little noises the minions make when they find loot is great.  whether it's for me or weapons/armor to use, they always sound ecstatic about it. 

i can't wait until i open up the crafting options. 

btw, i have a big  to one of the gamestops in the area.  the were charging $65 for the pc version, because "you can't find this anywhere else today".  MF-ers.  they shouldn't be allowed to raise the prices just because they happen to get their order in sooner. 

Also, does Forza 2 come with a manual?   Mine didn't, and I doubt TRU will give me one for exchange now that it's opened.

i would think so, yes.  i just got this one via gamefly, and w/out the manual, i have no clue what the d-pad is actually used for.  not sure i'll keep it, which is part of the reason i signed up for the service.

if you like the arcade games, pick up the arcade unplugged disc.  great value considering you get a 1 month live card in the box + 6 games for $20. 

i wish they would do a demo for the darkness so i could get a better feel for which one i'll pick up.

one of my xbox-less friends is going with the pc version after the demo.  i may have to have him bring it over sometime. 

ygpm re
Star Ocean
Jak 3
R&C: Up Your Arsenal

been on a sci-fi streak, started with some light, but great books from john scalzi

old man's war - campy war story ala starship troopers with a great premise and good humorous bits.
ghost brigades - ender's saga-esque premise with a bit of a philosophical "who am i" overture

i liked both of these and will be picking up the third when it hits paperback.  the universe he's created could be a great one for other novels.

century rain by alistair reynolds - picked up on a whim during a buy 2, get 1 free deal, and was happy i did so.  another author with a great ability to create the fantastic.

greg bear's
eon - first and best of "the Way" universe, imo. 
eternity
legacy
moving mars   

now i'm on to a bit of clive barker, reading cabal at the moment. 

i'll take it.  i was debating picking this up the other day, but i need to save up for next week. 

for 24, i can afford to dip into my mad money.

paypal is ready.

it's been a while since i did this one, but iirc, you need to web them up to light poles and such.  that's what i was doing when i got the achievement.

damn near nothing played all weekend.  just some phoenix wright 2 in the "library" between readings of clive barker's "cabal".  good read

hey noun, want to do some mp saint's row sometime?  i haven't even touched that side of the game.  too busy hitting up all of the side missions.

dungeon maker sounds interesting enough to dust off the psp after it's long spring slumber. 

simcity ds however is the kind of game which i've been wanting portable since the ds came out. 

i still haven't touched re4 gc beyond the first two hours, so i'd feel a little off having two copies of a game i haven't had time or inclination to play. 

not sure whether the transformers portable versions will be cool or teh suq, so it's wait for review.

agreed that this week is more than likely to be a pass in the end with darkness and overlord next week. 

btw, when does project sylpheed hit the shelves?  that's almost a 1st day buy for me.

bad timing.  it'll be a steam purchase for me, but i don't know when i'll play it.

not bad for a budget priced game.  i like it.  looks crazy, but i wouldn't think every battle ends up that way.  i do like the big explosions from the destroyers though.  i've gotten pretty close to beating it.  i just wish you could refit during battle

for those that have played and beat this already, do most of the achievements come during a play through?  i saw that a few are based on skill, but their were a few which made little sense, like the one about joining the light and dark prince together.  not sure i remember that part

Very tempting, even though I'm sure I would hardly use it for any other games   Always wanted something like this for my PC back in the day.

too bad too, as a few really good sims would play great with it.

at least it should be usable on pc, so you can play it with the occasional pc sim that comes out.

i plan on knocking out several of the side games in saints row, trying out the overlord demo and getting some time with guitar hero 2. 

woohoo, i got saints row working again.  someone mentioned that gamecrazy does a resurfacing service, so i'm back in and killing hoes for money.   

considering their current trend of psp anti-hacking forced updates, i would be very surprised to see a change of tactics with this revision.  i'll still hold on to my downgradeable unit for now, thankyouverymuch.

saints row is done, albeit prematurely.  i played it so much last night it froze up and won't start up again.  crap, crap, crap.  it has the tray mark ring on the underside.  i tried to rub it out, but it's a stubborn one.  when it loads, the system goes black-screen and won't respond to any commands.  forced shutdown required.

anyone have any luck resolving one of these problems or am i now in the market for another copy?

I always thought that 1nsane deserved more attention.  It was a PC offroad racing game with all sorts of super fun multiplayer modes like capture the flag, king of the hill and gate rally that I haven't seen adapted in other racing games.  It also had everything from ATVs to rally cars and trophy trucks that had real-time deformation and a random map generator. 

one of the things i loved about this one was the random demo races you could see if you waited on the title screen.  they were playable!!!  if you hit enter during the screen, you could use a car you hadn't unlocked yet.  seems like a crazy idea, but it was effing cool. 

so much fun with that one. 

this could be the game that makes a buddy of mine holding out for gta pick one up now. 

had tons of fun with the genesis version.

35 seems steep considering that their other portable versions are $24, nevermind the free nature of the pc version.

even though the ds is my current portable of choice, if i want to surf the web from the "reading room", i'll use the psp.

[Advent Rising (Xbox)]

Advent Rising (Xbox)

I've ALWAYS wanted to play this one...gotta check if it's backwards compatible...

sadly, it's not.  although i did find and play the pc version a while back before i gave it away. 

i always loved the twinsen games relentless and twinsen's odyssey.  great, quirky, oddball french designed platformer-adventure with some of my favorite music of all time.  the first somehow sold enough to warrant a sequel, but not a third.

i should see if they run on xp now.

i will complete saints row, every activity, every mission.  even the damn tags, without using a map.
i will beat gow, through both casual and hardcore difficulties, and god-willing, insane.
i will 5 star all songs on easy and medium in guitar hero 2, and start on the hard ones.

if i could find a decent used copy, i'd pick it up.  any hope of bg&e getting bc support, ever?  i found one in good shape recently, and almost grabbed it.

obligatory this-game-should-be-$5 post.

damnit. now i have the old pacman cartoon music in my head. 

gratz on your recent acquisition.  you will have lots of fun with it until you realize that you won't be getting anything new for it until late this year. 






oh, and have fun with the wii, too.

doh!  i even have this one.  pc version.  looks nice, but i do wish it worked the 360 controller.  of course, now that i have a 360, i'd rather play it on that instead. 

just one more game to glare at me from the backlog shelf.

most of mine have already been covered.

ultima 9 tops the list, as everything i had hoped a 3d realized britannia would be turned into a smaller world where familiar and favorite landmarks were wiped out.  sure, the world had been "broken" according to the manual, but i saw it for what is was; a way to make one of my favorite wide open gaming continents into a linear set of levels.  some may have been wider than others, and had the illusion of freedom, but you could only progress in one direction.  i got as far as the tunnels under some island, or rather, i overcame frustration that long, before giving up.  such an unfortunate end after a great intro and the promise of conflict with the guardian. 

b&w.  i had fun getting that pet to do stuff on his own which conflicted with my own alignment.  while he was always so goody-twoshoes around the people, i got to throw rocks and fireballs at enemy cities.  then they took the pet away and i lost interest in baby-sitting the whiny little ingrates.

potc.  i loved sea dogs and eagerly awaited what could be done with a new engine and land based exploration.  i wasn't even that annoyed when it was mutated into a disney tie-in, until i realized it was pushed out early to meet the deadline.  their was surprising little to link the two together, as you would only ever see the ship as something to avoid early on.  unfortunately, the first person game was poorly thought out and so were the controls. 

those are the big ones, or at least the ones which stay with me.

don't forget scarface and saints row.  both have a couple of good qualities, most notably the customization and collectability of the cars/clothing/property.  property of course only in scarface, as you acquire all of saint's properties through missions, not money.  i like the driving gunplay better with these two than with gta/godfather as you can aim in every direction, not just side to side.  i also have enjoyed the different side games both have, although scarface's island-hopping drug running got monotonous, enough that i never made enough cash to buy every property. 

i played scarface to near completion and have 15 hours or so into saints row, and have played every gta since the top down days, plus godfather, mafia, and true crime: LA.  it's hard to rank them since i appreciate aspects of each take on the genre.  other than driver 1, i haven't played the series at all. 

nada, nyet.

eh, anything getting released this week for xbla? 

with so many games to pick up, i've been considering buying them from liongames.  anyone have any experience with them?  it seems a bit odd that they can offer so many games on launch for 20-30 off retail. 

this is going to be an expensive year.