It was weak, but I understand why. Next year ushers in the next gen, but the big hitters at Sony and Microsoft aren't going to direct people away from their current offerings just yet. I get it. But, damn, other than the ones we already knew about (Halo 4, Tomb Raider, Last of Us, etc.) and the surprise Gears and Castlevania games, there wasn't anything that threw a curveball. The sad, hopeful inner child hoped, prayed that Nintendo would do something to wow me and make me a believer again. No, they didn't do that and the WiiU looks to repeat everything about the Wii that drove me away. No Zelda or Metroid and what they're doing to the Mario franchise is borderline criminal.

Oh, and by the way, I'm only talking about games. That's all I care about, not the admittedly impressive entertainment offerings. I'm a gamer.

I think Jerry/Tycho, over at Penny Arcade put it best in today's post:

"I would say that this is what I don’t like...

Holy Wow. I'm not a big reader, but this was highly recommended by a friend. He described it as "the Matrix crossed with Lord of the Rings" and it really is a spot-on analogy. I won't go into a whole review of the series, but will say that if you like an amazingly well told and lengthy story about all kinds of geeky stuff that's driven by a great, twist filled story with excellent character development.... pick the books up. Great, great stuff.

I finally got Braid on XBLA, since it was on sale and it's such a critical darling. And I don't care for it.

I'm finding that my gaming tastes are just like movies tastes, as games get more and more diverse and resemble the vast options in terms of styles, messages, genres, etc. I just don't care for thought-provoking, art-house bullshit. I see Braid as two things.

1) a puzzle platformer
2) an emotional and preachy message

I'm okay with the puzzle platformer aspect, and I like the humorous play on good old Super Mario Bros. The music is nice (by itself), controls are good, etc.

But, reading those books with all that self-reflecting, self-absorbed, near madman rambling, coupled with the imagery and the music all put together just makes for one gigantic mushroom stamp of depression. I play games to escape real world bullshit and this one gets all preachy and tries to be thought provoking about how we interact with...

I played the 3DS for a little while at Target yesterday. Holy no thank you Batman. It sucked. Thank goodness, that's one system I don't feel the need to buy.

I've collected game magazines pretty much since Nintendo Power issue #1. I was going through my collection and decided it is time to clean house. Here's what I have:

Nintendo Power = approx 90 issues from #2 onward
EGM = approx 110 issues from early on, like issue 30 onward to now
Game Informer = approx 90 issues from early 2000's to now
GMR = entire run, something like 20 or 25 issues

And about 40 random PSM's and OPM's, Next Gen (from late '90's), Play magazine, and so on.

I'm really at a point where I can weed through, save a few issues here and there, and toss the rest. But, can these be worth something? I hate Craigslist and ebay is a headache because of the cost and hassle to ship.

What say you, oh wise CAG community? What do you think this collection is worth?

And, as a side note, I found some neat stuff. Like an original and mint NES warranty card, original Super Mario 3 instruction...

Arrgh! Seriously! All I have is $10 to best buy via the reward zone and it's burning a freaking hole in my pocket. I'm playing Alan Wake now and have a modest backlog after that, which I was hoping would keep me until Halo Reach. But this damn thing is making me nuts. First of all, no, you can't have it cuz I'll use it. I could use it towards something like Lego Harry Potter or Transformers War for Cybertron, but I don't want to more than like $10 out of pocket.

Any suggestions for a $20 or under game? 360 only, please.

First a little background....Been a gamer since the Atari days, always hardcore, always way into the industry and have been on top of things. Now I'm a father of two young kids, have a career, home to take care of, awesome wife, etc. This all equals not as much time or money for games. With that said...

I finally picked up a PS3! Now I have all three consoles. I'm a huge 360 fan, I love everything about it, so I had some hesitation coming in. First experience with the PS3 on Wednesday.....dash sucks compared to how "alive" the 360 dash feels. Then I go to PSN.....wow, really sucks compared to NXE. Then I pop in my first game, which I've waited two years for, MGS4. Disappointed (partly because I just came off Splinter Cell Conviction and I tried playing MGS like Splinter Cell...dumb mistake).

So, I came back tonight and popped in Uncharted (1). Wow. Even for a 3 year old game, it's just amazing. Now I'm not questioning this purchase...

I had been on the fence ordering the Final Fantasy Xiii soundtrack. I'm trying to watch my spending (this is the first quarter of 2010, or as I call it, Heaven on Earth for gamers), and was thinking about getting the regular ed. from Play Asia for about $55 after shipping.

I waited and then went to check today to see if it was still available and it wasn't. So, I went into "OMG, I won't be able to get it!" mode. I know I can dl it from some website in a few weeks or get a shoddy bootleg off ebay soon enough. But, I try to support game-related artists because this is my passion. I love this industry.

Luckily, I found the limited edition for $60.99 shipped on ebay! The guy has a great rating and I had the money in paypal, so I went for it.

Am I nuts spending that much for 4 music CD's, an artbook and some bonus DVD that is in all Japanese? I thought spending $35 on Black Mages III and Lost Odyssey (each) was bad enough.

I should preface this by saying two things. First, this is my first blog entry, anywhere. Ever. Second, I don't have a lot of time to play games. So, having more than one or two unplayed games at any given time is a complete waste of money (for me). But, I love videogames, so....

I've just been on this spree lately. First, I bought Street Fighter IV and Star Ocean Last Hope when they came out. Then I picked up a Fightpad (retail, none of that aftermarket marked up shennanigans!). Then the Kung Fu Panda/Lego Indy 2 pack when it was on sale. Then I ordered the Mass Effect platinum hits version. Then bought Tales of Vesperia (which I will discuss in my next blog entry). Then bought Blue Dragon, Lost, and Tomb Raider Anniversary at gamestop with the buy 2, get 1 deal.

That's a hell of a lot of games in a couple of weeks! Granted, I did sell off 6 games recently, which is where I got the funds to go on this spree.