$181.04 - Xbox 360 Arcade - Dell - 6/06/2009
$5.98 - HDMI cable - Monoprice - 6/07/2009
$10.98 - New Xbox 360 Headset - - 6/24/2009
$65 - Genuine 120GB hard drive - eBay - 7/07/2009

Total - $263. I didn't get a network cable because I didn't need one, but if I did I could buy one from Monoprice and still have the total be under $300. I would have paid even more for a Pro if I got it from a store. What am I going to get with the savings?

Update: Check the comments for my response to your input.

I am considering purchasing a XBOX 360 from the Dell 20% off deal, so I was researching the Metacritic scores of the 360. Being used to the high amount of high scoring games on PS2 and GameCube, I was taken aback by how few games scored above or equal to 80. So I went on a quest to decide if there have always been that few good games on consoles or if the 360 was much worse than most people say.

I know Metacritic scores aren't the only thing one should look at for a game's quality. But the results are very clear. A change of a few percentage points wouldn't change the winner at all.

If you don't care about the actual data, you can skip to the bottom where I draw my conclusions.

Sega DreamCast
November 27, 1998-2006 (~8 years from retail to complete discontinuation, although homebrew is still made and sold)
DreamCast games by score

Total games...

Over the past month, I've purchased the entire Hλlf-Life 1 collection for a grand total of $2.96. Three [supposedly-I haven't played the expansions yet] great games for the price of a meal at a fast food location, if that. Sounds good to me. Hλlf-Life was $0.98 during it's 10 year anniversary, and during Steam's holiday sale I scored the two PC expansions - Opposing Force and Blue Shift.

In this latest Steam sale, I also managed to pick up Ultimate DOOM. I have never played this game before, and I was giddy with anticipation as it downloaded. Well, I would have been, if the download didn't take like 20 seconds.

Once it installed, I knew that even I would not be kind to the visuals of DOOM. So I downloaded and executed the Doomsday engine to finally start playing DOOM and see what all the fuss is about.

It's not that great. No WASD, no mouse aiming, etc. (although most of the game, it seems, was designed around this) I might finish it because...

There was a contrast between what I asked for and what I got. What I asked for*


Jak 3, Katamari Damacy, God of War, God of War II, Wario Land: Shake It!

* or rather, what I told my mom I'd buy on Amazon's Black Friday sale and get them shipped to her

What I got


$160, $60 check (not pictured), $25 Best Buy gift card, Jak 3, Katamari Damacy, God of War, God of War II, Wario Land: Shake It!, clothing items and other filler (not pictured)

My impressions of the gifts vary. From best to worst:
$220 - It's money. Now I'm really regretting not picking up a 360 Jasper Arcade holiday bundle with DDRU3 and Mat for $130. I swear if I knew it was a Jasper I would have bought it, despite me not having the funds. I would have never thought my mom would want to spend that much on me, and she goes and gives me $100 + the games.
Katamari Damacy rocks. Funny that it was $5 and my favorite gift.
...

I would love to follow Requiem for a Dream with something a little more cheerful... but don't know which version to watch! FOX, Disney, or Japanese w/subtitles? I don't wanna mess up and pick a shitty version...

As for Requiem for a Dream, I really tried to like it. It wasn't a terrible idea, but I'm having a hard time saying that I enjoyed it overall. I liked how it showed the eating/drug dealing/doing drugs with all of the close ups. It was different and fresh to me at least, dunno if other movies use such a technique. When the sudden "FALL" title appeared I thought it said "FAIL". Right after a scene like that made it more amusing than it should have been. In addition, I laughed at the absurdity of "ass to ass", despite it being in one of the more serious scenes. Does that make me a terrible person?

I'm not sure if it's just because I wasn't paying enough attention, but I couldn't understand what the was going on in...

I'm definitely on the low end of CAG when it comes to age. Many great movies and video games I hadn't seen or played at all, and I have to constantly juggle current and past media if I want to catch up. For example, the past month for the first time I have played Day of the Tentacle (thanks to Strell) and Super Metroid. 2002 was my first time playing Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Animal Crossing brought the first time playing Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and 17 other NES games. Christmas 2004 was the first time I had ever played Super Mario Bros. 3. 2005 was the first time I'd played Super Mario 64. This year is the first time I've played EarthBound, (thanks to Strell) and METAL GEAR SOLID. The list goes on and on.

In the video department, this year I saw The Godfather, the Indiana Jones trilogy and the bastard fourth movie, Star Wars, and quite a few episodes of Pinky and the Brain, to name a few. I also saw a few episodes of...