Ratings Explanation

Here is the utilized rating system I use to put a quantification from whence only subjugated feelings and ideas are now truncated into numerical form. Ratings will be on a scale of {-10 to 10}, {-10} being the worst like ET the Extra Terrestrial and {10} being reserved for games that need to go next to the bowling trophies and the baseball signed by relief pitcher "the Mad Hungarian" Al Hrabosky.

Now to make such a hefty judgement on all the needs of a gamer, one has to weigh all the factors that make up a legendary release of a game and games that need to sink in hot summertime garbage juice. 

1. Difficulty and Reward - Is the game hard but rewarding when accomplished?  Do you want to bust your console with a battle axe after only a couple hours of play?  Can the game be played in your sleep while you care for you child, cook dinner, and fill out your taxes, and all memories of the game become forgotten quickly thereafter? 
2. Learning and Yearning Curve - Can anyone learn to play it and yet not be a master after about 2-3 hours of play?  If people start the game and step away will they want to pick it up again later?  Does it feel like it needs to be finished?  
3. Tingling the senses - Controls, graphics, sound: feels good, looks good, sounds good yet doesn't tax a system it's played on.  Controls get the job done and yet don't become an extra burden that you have to deal with.  Graphics push the envelope of the system they are on yet don't succumb to usual over done games that clip, lag, and bug you to death.  Sounds mimic real life, set the mood, are creative, and aren't some awkward Hanna-Barbera situational additions.  Will this game be used later on as a benchmark or a comparative example in any way?
4. The rug tying the room together - Storyline, depth, cut scenes, loading time, monotony, violence, humor, packaging, properly debugged prior to launch, total hours of play for respective genre, possibility for sequels/expansions, advertising and overhype, availability, extra merchandising, etc

Year End Review: the big star is falling, through the static and distance

Quoting the honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger (including his political career), "One more thing; I work alone," this year started with a lot of mediocrity but thankfully didn't end that way. Both solo and multiplayer games were great this year with the usual lacklusters, buttbusters, and a few mind twisters due to microsoft, nintendo and sony all having their consoles out on the market long enough for quality game development. The biggest releases of the year were either sequels or remakes of originals with very few new game franchises and the best games being solo adventures.

The most innovating hardware release of the year was Wii Fit and software was Fallout 3.

The biggest pile of old banana peels and three week old used diapers, even though I would of loved to find an EA or a Disney type sing a-long game for your pre-adolescent American Idol to blast their undeveloped vocal cords with, was at first hard to think of. I pondered long and hard what had happened this year and remembered that I should probably go a tried and true direction; based from a movie in which the movie was as equally if not more vile - Jumper: Griffin's Story.

A question which I heard from the PAX (penny arcade expo), that took place in August, was how feasible and/or motivated developers and publishers are to invest so much time and money into games that make the same amount of profit as the more novel games such as Guitar Hero which take very little development at all to create.

Compared to last year, there were a lot more quality games released, a huge boom from the end of October through the Christmas season, but compared to my teenage years of gaming and overlooking my collection vs the old days, the collection seems smaller and not filled with as many gems.

It hurts to reflect on the fact that the gaming industry is so large in comparison to when I was a child and therefore should really be producing one gem after another. My latest generation console collection looks like a handful of starlets hidden among piles of pleasure themes and get rich quick schemes. This worries me about the future years when most games don't give the appeal to even play through them more than once and can be completed in just under 20 hours or only breaking them out if others are around to play with you when these days working in the family is usually done by both parents and should be by all thirteen and older children. In the end it's all in the power of the dollar and what you spend your cash on to influence the profits of the companies that choose to create quality thumb mashers or drink coasters so take heed with what you throw your cash towards.

With the new year comes a new rating system to put a quantification from whence only subjugated feelings and ideas are now truncated into numerical form. Ratings will be on a scale of {-10 to 10}, {-10} being the worst like ET the Extra Terrestrial and {10} being reserved for games that need to go next to the bowling trophies and the baseball signed by relief pitcher "the Mad Hungarian" Al Hrabosky.

Ratings are based on what I presented in the Fallout 3 review:

1. Difficulty and Reward - Is the game hard but rewarding when accomplished?
2. Learning and Yearning Curve - can anyone learn after about 2-3 hours of play and will people want to play it
3. Tingling the senses - Controls, graphics, sound: feels good, looks good, sounds good yet doesn't tax a system it's played on
4. The rug tying the room together - Storyline, depth, cut scenes, loading time, monotony, violence, humor, packaging, properly debugged prior to launch, total hours of play, possibility for sequels/expansions, etc

Usually anything above a rating of 5 is worth the purchase and anything below is reserved for those who are monopoly man rich or have a strong love for similar games.

Here's what I bought, how far I got, and what I thought of the games in 2008 in autobiographical order for each system:

360

I was very happy with the year end releases available for the 360. Again issues with choosing 360 or PC versions happened on a couple of occasions almost always ending with the PC as the flagship. The 360 only selections were solid and Microsoft has in my opinion exceeded Sony in the console market for good games due to their prices for their console and availability of developer tools since the old beastly Xbox original days.

Best purchase on the 360: Fable 2

Worst purchase on the 360: Operation Darkness

# of games beat vs unbeat for 2008 on the 360: 5 v 4

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - {rating: 4.5} It's odd to say but this game didn't really feel like its original journey into Las Vegas. It felt more like following people into Atlantic City just for the weekend. The high neon glare environment was missing from most of the game and it puts you back into what felt like an older Rainbow Six game. On the upside the progression/unlocking content and ability to customize your character really made for some nice additions. Too bad 1 and 2 weren't just one gigantic game. Overall a good game but the first was better. Took about 20-25 hours to fully complete.

Battlefield: Bad Company - {Rating: 4} If you like laughing at, not with, Larry the Cable guy, the single player game can be quite enjoyable but very short for the full price of the game. Controls are the oddest I've seen for a FPS in a while and the AI is usually way too tough if the minimap didn't exist. Multiplayer, which I have seen videos for but have not tried myself, looked fun or at least would be with a free month of Xbox Live. Completed the single player in probably 8-12 hours of play.

Grand Theft Auto IV - {Rating: 7} Thug life. It's hard to express how surprising GTA4 was in its self-conflicted main character who really seems to fall into his criminal life rather than aggressively seeking and blooming into a random killing lunatic like the other GTAs. Supposedly two different endings from a major turning point can be obtained but the ending I received was so good I didn't want to go back and change anything I had done. Out of all of the GTAs this was probably the best done as far as missions and their tie in with relationships and the storyline. A couple improvements to the gun play portions of the game still didn't fix the problems I still had with the usual aiming and maneuvering and it still felt like a Rockstar game. It took about 30 hours to complete and was well worth it to play through once.

Too Human - {Rating: 3} Great to look at, different idea of controls, a good mix of diablo and other classic mixed play types, and Norse mythology, this game sadly falls short of anything beyond the 20 hours it takes to beat (way too short for RPG) and really isn't for everyone. It's best described like this: She at first had me at with her good looks then I started to get to know her and found out it was only skin deep. I broke up with her without trying a multi-partner type relationship that she suggested, and she left telling me that I'd come crawling back after a year or two to try the relationship again since she was set on building a business that was much like a franchise.

Mercenaries 2 - {Rating: 5} Never playing Mercs 1, Mercs is a GTA with a military backing that doesn't really give the side quest push GTA dangles out in front of you. The game makes up for it in air strikes and hijacking helos. Almost everything can be destroyed and can be with quite devastating weaponry such as carpet bombing or satellite guided missiles. This is a great one time through game since the story really seemed like it wasn't there. Took about 15 hours to complete and yet was fun the entire time. [Previous Review]

Operation Darkness - {Rating: 1.5} Another turn-based small group strategy game from Atlus taking place in a WW2 setting. Goes from easy to accomplish to damn near impossible within one level. Has issues where you get a "game over" happening due to small miscalculated line of sight or unforgiving enemies that are extremely overpowered in comparison to your characters. Probably only appealing to those that played Tactics Ogre, I have yet to finish this game and just get pissed when I think about trying to.

Infinite Undiscovery - {Rating: 4} Where have all the RPGs gone? This was the first decent classic medieval type RPG out for the Xbox. Taking the gameplay type from FFXII this was a nice change from the old stop and fight random encounter RPGs. A very odd storyline and characters that I first thought were just bad translating voice jobs, this game takes a ton of time on cutscenes. Gameplay isn't near as good as FFXII but it's been 2 years since that game was released and this is a reminder that tri-Ace is still creating games with Squaresoft, including the great Star Ocean series (due out quarter 1 of 2009). [Previous Review]

Fable 2 - {Rating: 8.5} Aw, I if I had a kid I would want it to be a little British kid. A great solo or co-op RPG this game's biggest fault was being released too close to so many other quality games. And with that fault came my inability to sit down and play through more than 10 hours so far but I've watched my wife play through over 25 hours and enjoyed just listening to the humor and culture that only Lionhead puts in games. Guess I'll have to make my wife sit down again for tea and crumpets during the holiday season with me so I can finish it. [Previous Review]

Tom Clancy's End War - {Rating: 6} "Breaker, Breaker 1-9 this here's Rubber Duck. Wait, what do you mean you don't understand that command?" Utilizing a peripheral that used to be used for trash talk about chocolate milk and pwnage, End War does an excellent job implementing a strategy game on a console while still keeping the game fun and enjoyable to watch and play. Voice commands are simple and can be quickly given even if after every command a couple random expletives are added. I played the demo for about 5 hours and have played the single player campaign for about 10 hours. I am keeping this game on the back burner for after Fable 2 and Fallout 3. When that day comes I'll crank the Warren G and happily yell WMD. [Previous Review]

PC

Another year where there were few PC only games, as it has been the trend for the past 5-10 years. I also switched over from my years of Windows 2000 use to Vista and built a new computer just for the occasion. Also got a large usage out of my iMac and started on new adventures with technology based on a different operating system other than one from Microsoft. It almost ended up that the comps were used outside of games more than using them for what they do best. Almost.

Best purchase on the PC: Fallout 3
Worst purchase on the PC: Conan the Hybordian Adventures
# of games beat vs unbeat for 2008 on the PC: 3 v 2

Crysis - {Rating: 6.5} How much did you spend on your computer? Keep it upgraded? No I mean with the latest of the latest. No even better than that. Well guess what, I've got a game that will prove to both of us if you are lying or not. Medium settings? Ha, you did lie to me. An overall short game, 15 hours at most, this game, if you can find a system that can handle it, is the best in looks and physics to date and probably will be for quite a while. Let's just call it the new test standard to replace Unreal Tournament, Counterstrike, and Castle Wolfenstein. Completed and good for the one time through or to test your new drivers/video card.

Company of Heroes + Opposing Fronts (expansion) - {Rating: 7} Need any more games about WW2? Even one that's been out for a while? Well you should need one more and this would be the one. A strategy game focused on smaller squads and combat tactics such as line of sight, elevation, terrain effectiveness of armor, traps, artillery, air strikes, gun emplacements, etc., this game was a nice change from the old steam rolling with gigantic numbers strategies. Storyline and cutscenes along with the map actually felt like progression through the timelines of real portions of WW2. Took about 30 hours to complete the original and an addition 15-20 for the expansion along with a slew of random runs against just the computer. Quite a blast the entire time.

Conan: Hybordian Adventures - {Rating: -2} High hopes. What could of been something of great decapitation and splendor instead was riddled with bugs and choppy gameplay. Soloing was fun but felt the same no matter what class was chosen. Amazing detail but lack of good endgame fun made this one a month of finding out that jumping into a game right when it's released, instead of waiting and reading reviews, may have to be adjusted accordingly in the future. Garbage after 1 month of play.

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning - {Rating: 4} So then I did wait for some reviews and this time it was worth it to find out how good the game was. Lots of PvP focus this is one of the first MMOs that feels pretty good to just jump on and play for a little bit instead of hopping on and waiting around to see what's going on for the night. If you loved the Warhammer universe this might be the game for you. I'm just not sure this will actually stand the test of time vs WoW. I have since cancelled my WAR account after the release of WotLK due to the cost balance of having both and only playing one. [Previous Review]

Spore - {Rating: 6.5} I did well in art class or at least that's what my art teacher told me. She said I was very good at rendering already created objects into my own creations. Well good thing EA made a game for anyone who parked their toshie in art class to create something out of the depths of their minds. You know that place in your head in between the taste of blue cheese, old episodes of Simon and Simon, and farfrompuken bumper stickers? Read my in-depth review if you want to know a little more than my ramblings. Few PC games can gather a crowd to switch off and play without a multiplayer environment. Not entirely done with the single player game, I tend to find myself just playing with the creator modes. If you can dream it, you can evolve it in Spore except for the damn baseball field I want.

Farcry 2 - {Rating: 7.5} While blasting Toto's "Africa", I found myself unjamming the lovely Mac 10 in the best 1st person shooter since Crysis. Taking me about 40 hours to complete, the action is always fun but the story is hard to remember or follow with similar character names and large gaps of time spent roaming the countryside. The 1st person action and graphics in this game are big strong points but I'm not sure that it is worth replaying the whole thing over to try to see if other endings can be achieved. Well worth the one time play through just remember to bring the bug spray.[Previous Review]

Fallout 3 - {Rating: 10} Bert the Turtle hopefully prepared you for what is one of the best games to come out in almost 3 years. If it's not the beautiful landscape, butler robots, empty bottle scavenging without the 10 cent refunds, or gruesome dismemberments, then it has to be taking in large enough doses of radiation to regenerate crippled limbs. One thing that I failed to mention in my previous review but really helped in making a good judgement of Fallout 3 was the fact that the game really did not have much hype prior to release (HALO *cough*cough*) unless it was searched for. This helped keep judgements and enjoyment of the game for those that actually took a chance and played it. A must play for elderly to children alike, this will be a game that other game companies will either copycat or be compared to for years to come. About half way through this game, I'm not intending to rush this at all. [Previous Review]

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - {Rating: 5.5} Well thankfully one company is out there consistently making great quality games and that company is Blizzard. It's really hard to find many faults with the products they produce and if you are playing MMOs, the odds will say you're playing WoW. And if you're playing WoW, the odds will say you probably bought this expansion within the first week of its release. And since we all love gamblers and statisticians, make sure you also go out and hug your neighborly financial advisors and home loan providers for all their hard work they've done the last few years. Well maybe things will change since this was an election year and many gamblers went out there and voted. Remember, always bet on black, oh, excuse me African-American. [Previous Review]

Wii

Nintendo is by far the best company at making games to sit next to someone and play together. Now not necessarily needing to be sober to do so, the Wii also gives much enjoyment just watching others play games as it does actually being the player. This year added to one more in the multiplaying arena but really has lacked quite a bit in the solo play compared to its first year on the market.

Best purchase for the Wii: Mario Kart

Worst purchase on the Wii: Animal Crossing: City Folk

# of games beat vs unbeat for 2008 on the Wii: 0 v 3

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - {Rating: 3.5} Sequel to gamecube's path of radiance, more of the same with no real big changes overall compared to it's counterparts. I really enjoy these turn based grid strategies but they are not for everyone. Only made it about 1/2 way through the game and got distracted by other releases so I can't say much more about the entire game.

Super Smash Bros - {Rating: 5} Sequel to gamecube's smash bros. Great multiplaying fun with a very neat single player side scrolling adventure. Tons of unlockables and many hours to make your hands bleed. Pikachu your face, pikachu your ass, pickachu your balls into outer space. So much stuff to unlock I have gotten side tracked to actually finish the single player adventure but I find myself passing out controllers for this one on the weekends when people find their way over to my house.

Wii Fit - {Rating: 5} Cost is a bite in the wallet but the piece of equipment is amazing. Will probably be implemented later into some other innovative games in conjunction with the normal controller. The fitness game included is laughable in it's blunt honesty and seriousness of how it portrays your image (wii self image) and is unforgiving in your failure to improve your body and health. Great way to torture those that already are self-conscious or show off your balance while drinking alcoholic beverages and doing yoga stances. Does not have an end to it but has additional games and activities to be unlocked.

Super Mario Kart - {Rating: 6} Another in a line of sequels from gamecube classics. It comes with a nice little miniature kart steering wheel that makes you feel like you are at the family fun center. The same one that has the miniature golf course with the windmill that spins but is missing half a blade and has the funny smell of three week old pizza and popcorn. The game is a lot like the original and just as fun with even more tracks and characters to choose from. If you are going to race with someone else this is the game that everyone can enjoy. Also doubling as a great DUI benchmarking game, I have yet to make it very far within this game but again another in multiplaying fun.

(Wife's Purchase) Animal Crossing: City Folk - {Rating: 3} A great teaching tool for showing children what real life will feel like as long as you make them play it for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Not very much of an improvement whatsoever, this game is only going to appeal to those who have not played the previous versions. But another ironic sutblety is the fact that this feels like a metaphor for switching from one job to another (original to sequel) and feeling the same constant grind of day to day work even if it is a "new job". [Previous Review]

Games I didn't spend the money on or never rented but I should of:

Ninja Gaiden 2, Call of Duty 4, Gears of War 2, Dead Space, James Bond 007: Quantum Solace, Left 4 Dead, Mirror's Edge, Personal Trainer: Cooking

2008 memoranda

1. Total new games purchased: 22
2. Best 1st person shooter: Farcry 2
3. Best RPG: Fallout 3
4. Best Strategy: Tom Clancy's End War
5. Best Multiplayer game with friends in the same room: Mario Kart
6. Best Multiplayer game with friends across the world: WotLK, WoW
7. Biggest surprise of the year: Fallout 3
8. Approximate hours spent playing games in 2008: 2007.5 huh that rounds to 2008 (60% being WoW)
9. # of new games beat: 8
10. # of unfinished single player games: 7
11. # of new games without a single player storyline: 7
12. # of controllers broken: 1 Wii controller and 1 mouse
13. System played the most: 360 (not counting time on computers)
14. Biggest real world event missed while playing games: Election of President Obama
15. # of times playing games pissed off the wife: 156
16. Average # of extra applications running in the background while playing computer games: 4 (2 internet websites, iTunes, calculator)
17. # of new songs listened to while playing various games this year: 2157
18. # of days the lawn should of been cut but was instead pushed off an extra day due to games: 20
19. Biggest hopeful for 2009: Resident Evil 5
20. # of approximate phone calls received while neck deep in something requiring concentration on too many subjects at once: 300
21. Last indescision I need solved before the end of 2008: Nuggnuts.com vs Whoppervirgins.com

Music of 2008

It's been a good year for listening to new music.  I found I had purchased more music this year than a few previous years and am pretty happy with almost every choice made.  So here's a quick list of what I felt were some of the best choices of 2008.  Thank you Andy for all the helpful searches and exchanges and First Order Historians for their constant blogging.  Please note that some choices are not new releases in 2008 and just a new purchase within 2008.

Regrets of which I had few

1. The Magnetic Fields - Distortion 
2. (Most of the album) Thief - Sunchild
3. (Most of the album) West Indian Girl - S/T
4. Not finding a Faunts album for sale
5. My job for not allowing me go see more shows
6. Hella (The Ladies) on the wrong days
7. Having to say the band name Loose Fur
8. Not knowing more Scandinavian Languages
9. Still enjoying CAKE

Favorite Purchases of 2008

1. Aimee Mann - @#%&*! Smilers
2. Alaska in Winter - Dance Party in the Balkans
3. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
4. Anna Jarvinen - Jag Fick Feeling
5. The Besnard Lakes - S/T
6. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
7. The Clientele - God Save the Clientele
8. Costa Music - Lighter Subjects
9. David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything that Happens will Happen Today
10. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
11. DeVotchKa - A Mad Faithful Telling
12. Dido - Safe Trip Home
13. Emiliana Torrini - Me and Armini
14. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
15. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
16. Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
17. Halou - Sawtooth EP
18. Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping
19. Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead
20. The Innocence Mission - We Walked in Song
21. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
22. Johann Johannsson - Fordlandia
23. Longwave - Secrets are Sinister
24. Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
25. Mum - Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy
26. The National - The Virginia EP
27. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
28. No Kids - Come into My House
29. The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me
30. The Postmarks - S/T
31. Ra Ra Riot - The Thumb Line
32. Ratatat - LP3
33. School of Seven Bells - Alpinisms
34. The Sea and Cake - Car Alarm
35. Sea Wolf - Leaves in the River
36. Sun Kil Moon - April
37. Tunng - Good Arrows
38. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
39. U.N.P.O.C. - Fifth Colum
40. The Weepies - Hideaway
41. West Indian Girl - 4th & Wall
42. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Surprised to find something of age that should be purchased

1. Cocteau Twins
2. Julee Cruise
3. David Bowie - Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
4. Bachman-Turner Overdrive for Karaoke 
5. Phil Collins - No Jacket Required for Karaoke
6. After careful combing through loads of his music Brian Eno
7. Blues Image

2008 lyric choices

Here's a list of songs I pulled lines from:

the big star is falling, through the static and distance = Magnolia Electric Co, Farewell Transmission

you should follow me down. there's no color and no sound in a black and white town

= Doves, Black and White Town

with two cats in the yard life used to be so hard

= Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Our House

what begins as an unguarded train of thoughts slowly can become an addition to slumber

= School of Seven Bells, Half Asleep

the hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new land to fight the horde, and sing and cry: Valhalla I am coming! = Led Zeppelin, Immigrant Song

oh baby you, you've got what I need, but you say he's just a friend = Biz Markie, Just a Friend

don't leave a key underneath that mat for me
= The Postmarks, Goodbye

but she didn't know how fortune swings, the price you pay when disaster sings = Firekites, Same Suburb Different Park

we burnt to the ground left a grave to admire = Beirut, Sunday Smile

patience is a virtue until its silence burns you = TV on the Radio, Love Dog

and then they show me a world where I can be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical = Supertramp, The Logical Song

he can't believe the love I give is not enough to end your fears = Phoenix, Too Young

hand let go of his with ease n' grace, don't let him bleed under your nails

= Emiliana Torrini, Hold Heart

I was good with names, I had a way with faces

= Destroyer, European Oils

snowshoes and hunters carried the curtail for you

= Midlake, Young Bride

and if you really want to shake it off, you've got to re-arrange us = Mates of State, The Re-arranger

no escape from the circling place

= The Notwist, Where in this World

and ricochet on how I need you

= Sea and Cake, Crossing Line

forgot to carry the zero

= Built to Spill, Carry the Zero

they are intelligent; they are smarter than the most up-to-date supercomputers, we cannot underestimate them = Man or Astroman, Theme from Eeviac

Animal Crossing: City Folk: with two cats in the yard life used to be so hard

Time to make the donuts. Already made the donuts.

Nintendo's newest release Animal Crossing: City Folk is just the game to teach little Billy how the grip of the real world can trudge on with no real end in sight to only be taunted with an inflated overpriced economy and large communication problems with neighbors. Ok it's not that bad but if you were to play it non-stop for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, most of the year it would feel like that.

I myself did not purchase or have any intention of playing this game whatsoever but alas a wife that loved the original Gamecube version was almost destined to buy a sequel. The only real great reason and reward for playing the old Gamecube version was the ability to play classic Nintendo games such as Balloon Fight and Super Mario Bros as they could be collected as items to place in your character's house. Not doing any research or reviewing prior to buying AC:CF was probably a large mistake on both of our parts. What makes a sequel good for a franchise is more of the same with new innovations (Fallout, Call of Duty). AC:CF has barely anything new to it when compared to the original and in the end feels like the old grind of collecting, fishing, and conversing that was great the first time but leaves a bad aftertaste to have to do it all again without any new types of experiences.

Very few games that are not MMO in nature utilize the time system employed in the Animal Crossing series. It's a great long term experience to witness the real time changes, events, and environment evolution dependant on the time of day or year as long as it was only done in small snippets every few weeks. There are holiday events, birthdays, bugs to collect that only appear at night, etc and all of this could be experienced in the short term if you were smart enough to mess with the console's time clock to pull an 88mph fast one.

The largest goal (if there really even is one) was furnishing your house with lots of random quirky items some of which were so rare that people would gloat and tout their findings on forums and phone calls alike till you became so disgusted with the game that a running microwave oven seemed like a good home for the disc. A new feature to AC:CF is the ability to travel to other player towns via Internet connectivity and even go to an auction house setting where collected items can be bid on or sold between players.

Overall AC:CF is great for those that have never played an Animal Crossing game before but for those that have, I'd suggest skipping this one entirely. Instead go spend your cash on something more worthy like a new suit and tie so you can go out an get a real job like your parents did. The bums lost Nintendo!

Logitech Squeezebox: what begins as an unguarded train of thoughts slowly can become an addition to slumber

Much to the hatred of those that attribute the whole idea of a portable personal music device solely to Apple's iPod invention, portability in music can been seen more now than any decade before it even though I have the distinct reoccurring memory of you wearing knee-high tube socks, roller skates, black wife-beater, and a TPS-L2 Walkman cassette player back when you dated that girl that only listened to ABBA.

Some things that have spawned from the last five years in portability and wireless capability with music players are nice gadgets such as these handy ones from Logitech. Named after that thing that your momma plays on when daddy comes home never letting him get no rest, the Squeezebox Duet and Boom are two great additions to those that have and love to play music all night in their homes.

Not focused on the idea of portability, these devices use wi-fi and ethernet connections to allow for an all-in-one listening station. If you are like me and have digital music contained within multiple devices or want to pull music from Internet based services such as Sirius, Rhapsody, Pandora, or podcasts and free Internet radio these babies can and willingly give in to your hearing desires. Along with these is one of the more unique services Live Music Archive which contains a lot of high bit rate recordings of various musicians. Both devices have some of the best compatibility around and also do not mess with default settings of any computer that they connect to (make this your default player?, guess the right answer to click to continue...).

The biggest difference between the two is that the Duet (below) hooks to your home stereo system to output the music where the Boom (Above) is well, a self contained stereo. The Boom and is great for someone that doesn't own an expensive home stereo unit but if you are one of the lucky ones that has come into owning a good system, the Duet is a better choice.


The Duet's biggest selling point is that it comes with a great remote that controls much like the iPod (there are you happy now that I used the iPod as a standard for comparative purposes?). Its display is as good as an iPod and can be used at quite a distance away from the receiver box.

Being one of the better external hardware companies that focuses on computer based products, Logitech offers this gadget at one of the most affordable prices coming in at $270-400 for either choice. It seems like a steep amount but the next step above it is Sono's at $1000 and things go upward from there in price. Well either that or some very cheap piece of technology that's more of a hassle than just putting your computer next to your TV and stereo on some cement bricks and old stacks of vinyl like the Trashmen.

A downside to these systems are that they are really only for people that wish play their music in a different room of their home than their music holding device is located. If you happen to have a good set of computer speakers within the same room that you do most of your entertaining then this is even more of a luxury than you'd want to admit.

Hey I know damn well you would love to hear Kate Perry blasting out of your $5000 speakers while you cook some creme brulle in the kitchen and then move into the bathroom for some more intimate grooming and need to switch it right away to Kellie Pickler for the occasion, so rally up some coin and buy yourself a squeezebox to Git R' Dun.

CNet's Reviews:
Logitech Squeezebox Boom
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
PCWorld's Review:
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
Googled Reviews:
Logitech Squeezebox Duet
Logitech Squeezebox Boom

Oh and for those of you thinking about what to get your loved one for Christmas and the Logitech Squeezebox can't be found in your checkbook, then you might want to consider this instead.