All sorted without too much bother thanks! As for what happens next well, 1) I'm so glad I was right to help the nice doggy at the start of the game. :) 2) And after he helped me sort out el Gigante I was a bit worried because I wasn't sure if he'd got squished in the fight or had run off safely again. So how happy I was to see a trusty canine shape at the top of the path as I went back up to the graveyard. I bounded up to say hello and... well you can guess the rest. Savaged relentlessly by wolves, tentacles everywhere, lol. 3) The president's daughter appears to be Ashlee Simpson!! Have you finished it yet or are you in the depths of the later stages?

OA's right about Shadow of the Colossus. Excellent game. You get an amazing rush when you tackle the giant bosses. Speaking of "bosses." The game is really just you, a horse, some lush environments, and a bunch of video game bosses to fight. There aren't any hordes of "henchmen" to fight through. Each boss is a fun challenge where you try to figure out how to kill them. The only downside to the game, imo, is that it runs a tad short. Do you have a PS2 in addition to your Wii?

...and as an evening's gaming draws to a close, I have a strong suspicion that my next session will see me up against The Thing In The Lake. Argh, I'm rubbish at boss fights! And I'm-a scared...

Great links, thank you! I'll be checking back on that top 25, nice to see Final Fantasy X and <3 Silent Hill 2 <3 have made it. I'm sure Colossus and RE4 will be in the top ten, maybe (hopefully) Tomb Raider Anniversary as well. Feels so good to geek out! :)

Bah, the company firewall doesn't like those links, I'll have to report back later. Meantime, if you like the look of Shadow of the Colossus, you should definitely check out Ico, which is the earlier game from the same team. It's one of the most beautiful gaming experiences I've ever had. Perfect for playing with some post-rock on the go! :)

Ha ha, I'll do the shoutbox takeovers around here, thanks! ;-) I see a couple of things that excite my interest out of your convo with Derek... Metacritic, hooray! I love that site, have discovered loads of great music through it. And Okami, mmmmmmm Okami. I've just started panic buying PS2 games for a stockpile, since I just noticed that they've all but disappeared from the shops now, and that's one of them, along with Shadow of the Colossus, the last couple of Silent Hills, and I'm thinking about God of War...

Unfortunately, probably not much. That's the sucky thing about video games. They are expensive brand new and then aren't worth much used and then gamestores usually don't give you as much as you want for instore credit. How much are you hoping to get? If you have Pikmin 2 and not 1, you could get some decent cash for that on eBay. Maybe 10-20 for Animal Crossing. My guess is that the bond and splinter cell games aren't worth much (problem is there are many games for each of the two series).

True dat. Their "all-time high scores" list for music reviews cracks me up.

Metacritic? Did you change your alliance from allmusic??

If you're interested in more of that Buffalo Daughter let me know, I can upload some. Animal Crossing was a fun game but it felt like such a tedious time eater here and there. I was hoping at the time to get my wife to play the game with me. No such luck. Yeah, Pikmin is so so. I do like most of the Splinter Cell games. I haven't played a couple of them though. Have you played Okami? The PS2 version was good.

I've never heard of the Conduit. That looks interesting. Does swaptree work pretty well?

Ran out of space. I was so nerdy that I took a picture of me on the floor surrounded by all of the copies of the game. A friend of mine has a copy of the pic. I'll have to get it from him and upload it.

It really depends on the game. Some games I don't sell b/c the value isn't worth the effort. I have made some good money on some games here and there. Those games are usually harder to find RPGs. Sports games are the worst for holding value. I have a great game sale story. There was a Microsoft training center in the building I worked at when I lived in Minneapolis (this was around the time the first Xbox came out). They gave out free copies of Xbox games as part of their training packages. Anyway, they had a bunch of games left over and were selling them cheap to get rid of them. I managed to snag close to 50 copies of Halo brand new in the packaging and resold them all on eBay for a nice profit. I don't remember the exact price, but I remember getting multiple copies cheap (it must have been about $8-10). lol, I was on top of the gaming scene back then so I had a good idea of their worth, etc. I ended up going to the atm in the building in order to get enough cash.

Buffalo Daughter. Too funny. I was just listening to them a couple days ago.

Another game I highly recommend, if you like RPGs, is Skies of Arcadia. I didn't own the cube version, but had the dreamcast version. Excellent game. The only problem is that it's harder to find and is a sought-after game so it may cost $15-30.

I have a few games (some I sold). I still have Pikmin, super monkey ball 2, wind waker, RE4, and eternal darkness. The only thing with my games is that they are pretty cheap these days. You're almost better off buying some of them than paying for the shipping to trade. If you want to check out one of those games, I highly recommend Eternal Darkness. Great game. You can usually get it cheap these days. I used to have other games like animal crossing and a zelda compilation, but I sold those for some decent dinero at the time. Reviews for Eternal Darkness: [url=http://cube.ign.com/articles/363/363071p1.html]here[/url], [url=http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/reviews/review.pl?sys=gamecube&game=ed]another[/url] and [url=http://www.gamespot.com/gamecube/adventure/eternaldarknesssr/review.html]here.[/url]

Big LOL to chucking a hand grenade into the middle of a massive bunch of roosting crows and collecting all the goodies. :D

Aww, I know! I'm guessing you got whipped up in all that Election Fever too, eh? I was up until 3.30 in the morning watching it... when Obama got Ohio I was content enough to go to sleep! What was the feeling like where you were that night? Or are you already tired of people asking you about it?? (If so, sorry...)

I got a bit startled last time I played - was moving in for a killer shot at one of them when he whipped out a bloody great chainsaw and splattered my insides all over the wall - charming!

Hey Brad! How goes everything, long time no hear...

Hey what do you think of The Streets? I see you've had the debut on this week. The second album's a brilliant* epic narrative, geezer-style, but I thought his next two were awful crushing disappointments. *(assuming you like the first)

Ha ha, I did do for a while, yes. ;) Aria's on a late shift at work at the moment so I can play guilt-free of an evening anyway though. Although as it turns out he's pretty happy watching me play it - oh yes, I'm living the dream! :-) Yes! I shot the plank when I got back to the farm after my restart, since I was so very disappointed with my manure-caked pendant first time around, heh.

Mmmm, top skillz, ta! - I've been working on that (I did have to start again after using all my ammo in a terrified frenzy), those kicks and slashes are very satisfying. And I picked up a brown chicken egg at the farm and I've been shooting bird's nests and crows to get hold of the shiny things... :) Oh dear, I could measure out my whole life by the video games I've been obsessed with. :D

You'll be pleased to hear I picked up RE4 the other day! Although I've got it on my rackety old PS2, and I expect you've got a fancy Wii version have you? Anyway, I'm liking it very much indeed. Only just started, really, but I love the atmosphere of that damp forest, and those lumbering pitchfork villagers freak me out. The combat music is insane! Any tips?

I like the EP, cheers!

Notes the (waning) comment-hope all is good.

Oh it's not a real holiday today, no-one gets the day off work or anything. But there are lots of fireworks and bonfires everywhere. Not that I'm bothering this year, I'm staying in and cooking Chinese. Though I'm pretty sure that they invented fireworks, so maybe it counts. Nice pic, that look's working for you! ;-) Must get pics of our Halloween party costumes up on F-book, I went as an electric chair victim and Aria went as Russell Brand, heh.

Woo! Hello, bold new Brad!

Hooray! and phew! (I hope). Not to mention hello! Happy New President!

MI's not much of a battle state this year. McCain ended up pulling out about a month ago so it looks like Obama easily here. I see Nader has already conceded tonight & thinks Obama will win in a landslide. I am curious to see how some of the local elections where I live will play out. I'm in a fairly conservative city. We have a couple of interesting state proposals this year too--one to allow medical marijuana and another for stem cell research.

Oh yes, he was blind. Thank you. I had a brain fart. I think I had the "bells" on the brain with him. Thanks for the GW2 trailer. I hadn't seen it. I'm glad to see DeVotchKa being appreciated... it is rather weird to see them used for a game. I think they used Gary Jules cover of "mad world" for the first game. I liked the first game, but the single player mode was very short. I didn't know about the punch-out update. I will have to check that out. I hope they bring back the characters from the first game. I liked the SNES Super Punch-Out! but it didn't seem as fun as the original nes game. Did you have any problems voting today? I was worried about having a long wait. It wasn't too bad.

I don't know it... (yet!) ...but some of the write-ups on the Last page are incredible. I think I need to hear it. :) Nice avvie, is there something going on over there today? There's not really been anything on the news about it. So You Think You Can Dance finals or something I suppose. ;D

Yeah, those cultist dudes get a bit old. I do love most of the RE4 enemies though. It's been so long since I've played it that I'm trying to remember where you are sequentially. Have you fought the lake monster? The giant troll dude? I also liked battling the guy that is deaf but kills you quickly.

Have you played RE4 yet?

Enjoying the new Of Montreal, Brad? I like Beware Our Nubile Miscreants best, the line about the psychic's prediction makes me lol.

Lovely! I'm into The Walls Are Starting To Crack and Atomic Heels, a little bit meh about it overall though. Next time I listen I'm gonna concentrate on the drumming. :)

Congrats on wrapping up metroid! wind waker is great. The only thing is that I still haven't finished it. let me know what you think of RE4. RE4 is one of my all-time faves. Not much new here. Just busy with school. Too busy :(

Imagine the DRM-ridden world of the iTunes store and then toss in some rotten garbage and a tactical nuclear weapon, and then you can begin imagining what this crap is like. Essentially for the PC you're paying to rent the software (can only install 3-5 times before the software is useless), wheras XBOX and PS3 users get to use the games indefinitely, on as many systems as they want. I'm not gonna pay $50 to rent these games, no way.

I'd like to, considering how great the original was. But because of the SecuRom DRM and installation limits, I won't touch it with a 30 foot SATA cable. In fact, since EA has introduced installation limits to pretty much all their games, my interest in PC gaming is waning quickly--it's a shame that it has come to this. I will continue to play games that lack DRM or have DRM that doesn't limit the number of installations, such as Sins of a Solar Empire and Fallout 3, but there will be no Spore, Mass Effect, Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2, or Red Alert 3 for me, ever.

Very lifelike :)

Ah that's what they all say! And again when it comes to the music. ;-) Heh, no, it has been a bit of a frenzy recently. Sep/Oct are peak months for new music, I'm finding...

Hey B - check out [artist]Gang Gang Dance[/artist]'s new album on my Disk, think you'll like it...

Aw, well I do my best! Nah, scrub that, it's not like I have to try THAT hard ;-P

I have a suspicion you'll be interested in the new Secret Machines album. If you had a suspicion as to where you could get hold of it, you'd be right. ;)

I see them! Excellent work.

Are those jack-o'-lanterns finished yet? I want one!

We got bupkes in common, musically. But I like your AV!