It just happened tonight. I put in Rayman which I recently acquired and thought looked like a fun game. It froze once, then twice. Then I tried Bullet Witch and it froze. I restarted the system and got the rings of death. I felt like I was lucky that the system hadn't died yet but I knew it would eventually. Oh well, at least the kid from Microsoft spoke English and was helpful.

BOO HOO!

On the bright side it will give me a chance to catch upwith my PS2 collectionand original xbox. I won't feel like I'm missing out on achievement points.

So Toys R Us is having their annual buy 2 get 1 free sale until the 23rd of this month. I am a complete mark for these sales and I traveled around today looking for some deals. I really wanted Odin Sphere, and Grim Grimoire but of the 3 store I went to not one store had any.

I bought a new PSP with theDaxter game. I applied for a Target credit card to save 10% so it only cost me $179. I was going to wait for the core system but I figured for $10 extra dollars I would get a 1gb memory stick, Daxter and the Family guy movie. I haven't played any games on it yet but I can't believe how light it feels. I have however already failed miserably trying to put 2 screen protectors on the system. I really am the worst when it comes to any project that requires precision skill.

On my way home I stopped at the only CompUsa I know of left in the New England. Compusa has always been a great place for deals and I still mourn the closing of so many stores. They don't advertise any sales very well, but usually stopping in nets a decent take. Today was no different. The damage continues below.

From Toys R Us

Final Fantasy V, Hot Shots Tennis and Valkyrie Profile 2. Total Spent $62

Art of Fighting Anthology, Infected (PSP) NBA Live 06 (I'm an achievement whore) Total Spent $25

From Compusa

Atelier Iris 3 (PS2)$17

NBA Street (x360) 17

Rayman Raving (x360) 9

Lego Star Wars (x360) $9

Bullet Witch (x360) $12

The Godfather (x360) $12

I've had the PS3 for about a month now. While I like it, it is really just collecting dust at this point. I may buy Virtua Fighter 5, but I can't convince myself to buy any other games right now. I have been playing Shadow of the Colossus with it and I feel like the system does a pretty great job of smoothing out some of the PS2 jaggies. The controller is a bit of rubbish. It feels light and cheap. It definitely is notup to the 360controller. The system itself is a solid piece of equipment and the black finish really looks nice. As far as online goes the old adage you get what you pay for rings true. While the PS3 network is free, there isn't really a whole lot going on with it. There doesn't seem to be any 3rd party demos. I want to get behind the Playstation but there really isn't a reason too right now. Especially when the Xbox has the stranglehold and Bioshock demo available.

My Wii hasn't been played in 2 months. That may be the biggest waste so far.

I sold a few games on ebay. I mentioned them on a previous blog. Here's what I made.

Discworld Complete $41.01

Shin Megami: Nocturne new sealed$100

Tales of Destiny new sealed $153

Tactics Ogre new sealed $150 (sold outside of ebay and wish I had held out until the auction ended.)

The big surprise.....Brigandine new sealed $204.50!

I know Tactics Ogre would have at leastsold forwhat Brigandine did, I just thought $150 in the pocket was better.

All the auctions went up huge amounts in the last 30 seconds of the auction.

Now that the PS3 has gone down in price,I was thinking about selling a few Playstation games that I purchased a long time ago. I never plan on playing them.

I have:

Tactics Ogre (New and Sealed)

Tales of Destiny 1 (New and Sealed)

Shin Megami Tensei:Nocturne (New and Sealed)

I figure they're probably worth about $100 a piece. What do you guys think?

I saw Spiderman tuesday night, and while I went in thinking this was going to be great, I was so disappointed.  The cooking scene with MJ and Harry was awful.  Peter's relationship with Gwen Stacy was pasted on and not developed.  Apparently the black spidey suit turns Peter into a dancing retard who pulls his hair in front of his eyes.  They threw in some random attempts at humor that at times seemed so misplaced and literally halted the movie.  Everyone over acted especially Harry Osborn.  A huge debacle that never felt right.

I was making my rounds at the local used game stores and there's a comic book store that has used games.  They had just bought a collection of Super Nintendo games that were complete with instructions and box.  All the boxes were in very good condition.  They had Zelda Link to the past for $49.95, Starfox for $11.95 and some other semi interesting stuff.  What caught my eye was Super Castlevania 4.  The box was perfect and looked like it had barely been used.  They wanted $24.95 which I thought was a little too expensive.  So I left and as I started driving away I thought about what kind of Castlevania fan would I be if I just left it there.  I pulled over and went back and bought it.  The determining factor was even though I thought $25 was a bit too much, I couldn't really figure out how much I thought it was worth.  If I saw it on Ebay for $15 I would have bought it no question.  And then if you add shipping it would have been close to $25 anyway.  Plus with Ebay you have to wait for the item to arrive and hope it was what the seller described it as.

Another curious game there was FF 7.  They had a non GH copy that they were asking $80.  When did this game skyrocket in value.  I bought a copy from the same place 6 months ago for $20.  And I recently snagged a complete GH version for $14.     Any ideas?

My birthday is approaching.  I'm debating what to get myself for the festive occasion.  I could get a Wii (if I can find one) and a couple of games, or catch up with some Xbox 360 games that I've been waiting to play: Saints Row, COD 3, Dead Rising, Viva Pinata, NBA Street, and F.E.A.R. 

I really hate getting older!

And lastly I want to give a shout out to Wafle, Snipe, Usagi, and Aspro.  I never really played much with Xbox live, but playing GOW with you gentleman has been a blast.

I have been thinking over the past few weeks about games that made an impression with me from the first moments I played them.  They don't come along that often but here are my 2 picks from the last 5-6 years.

1) Tony Hawk Pro Skater

I remember getting a demo of the first level of this game on a Playstation underground disc.  In the very first level I remember the first ollie I did and how easy it was to jump, spin, and do a grind almost seamlessly.  The games have become somewhat watered down and more evolutionary rather than revolutionary, but that first game really was one of a kind.  It brought back memories of playing Skate or Die in the halfpipe.

2) GTA 3

I bought this the day it came out and was familiar with the series from when it was top down and 2D.  The first thing I did was steal a car and crash it into the back of another one.  Then I stole the car I had just smashed into and beat the driver to death.  It was that sense of freedom that really made the game so special.  When it came out there were already plenty of 3d adventure games (mario or spyro), but this one really gave you the feeling that you could do anything.  I can still go back and play San Andreas and enjoy it just as much as when it came out.

Would love to know what others think.

Now that the PS3 seems to be available I have been seriously trying to convince myself there is some reason to own one.  I saw one at Best Buy and since I was not used to seeing them I debated buying one.  The system was on the bottom shelf and I looked up at the available games and couldn't find one game other than Resistance that I would consider owning right now.  So tonight as I sit here I decided to see what was coming out for the PS3.  Between January 11th and February 20th there are 2 games coming out for PS3.  This is according to the Gamespot release schedule.  One is the new Sonic game and the other is Virtua Fighter which I'm sure will be amazing.  So basically I have another 40 days before I need to think about the PS3 again.  There seems to be no hype around the PS3 and I hope Sony turn it around.  I look for them to bring me my next gen japanese titles. 

I got some cool stuff.

Rainbow six vegas Xbox 360

capcom classics 2 PS2

elite beat agents....is awesome DS

final fantasy 3 DS

Castlevania: POR with pre-order bonus.