I'm so excited. 24 is finally returning for its eighth season tomorrow night! a 2-night, 4-hour season premiere of total awesomeness. To commend it, I've posted my review of 24: The Game. And, as a bonus, I also posted my review of the Japan-only game based on the 24 license, Pachi-Slot 24. If you have the time, check out the reviews, and then tomorrow at 9PM, check out 24 on Fox!

In other news, since my last blog, I got, and beat, Resident Evil remake for the Gamecube. I kicked its arse. I might review that one down the road as well just to compare it to the original PS1 version.

My WWE Day of Reckoning review is up. This is my first review of a Gamecube game. Good game. Check it out if you have the time and give it a thumb either way you feel.

Happy Happy new year. W00t. I wasn't the biggest fan of 2009. Hopefully 2010 will be better. Who's with me? Anywho...

Gamecube update. I've beaten Resident Evil Zero and the season mode of WWE Day of Reckoning, so two games down and one to go (Metroid Prime). But, I've got one more Gamecube game coming. I just ordered Resident Evil remake for the Cube. I'm really interested to see how this remake ended up. I still have Resident Evil Director's Cut for the Playstation and it's one of my favorite games of all time. Hopefully the remake will live up to the original.

Now, in my last blog, I said I'd talk about my strangest Christmas present, which is a game I bought for myself. I'm a huge fan of 24, the TV show, and I like the PS2 game (24: The Game) as well. A while back I heard they actually made a second PS2 game based on the 24 franchise, but it only came out in Japan and it was, get this, a slot machine game. Daito Guken Koushiki Pachi-Slot Simulator: 24. It's a real game, I'm dead serious. Here's the Gamespot page for the game. No reviews, user or otherwise. It's still a relatively new game, just over a year old.

Yeah, I got it. And yeah, I played it. As for how it is? Well, you'll have to wait for my review to hear that. Here's a hint, it's a slot machine game for the PS2. That should give you an indication of how good it is. Heh.

I'll be reviewing it around the same time I post my review of 24: The Game. I'll post my reviews of both games on or around January 17th, in celebration of 24's return for its eighth season. Also sometime in the month of January, I'll post my first review of a Gamecube game: WWE Day of Reckoning.

How's it going everyone. Hope all of you had a great Christmas. I just got home from a large gathering of family and friends. We had ham which was quite wonderful.

I got many presents, but my favorite one was a present my best bud gave me. A Gamecube. He told me he found it at Gamestop for only $30. He said he was gonna get me an Xbox 360 or something but he said it's way too expensive. I agree. I said to him "Don't worry, this is better, trust me".

I used to have a Gamecube, many years ago. I had to sell it, along with all the games I had for it, back in 2002 I believe. So I barely got to play any of the games that came after that. I've always loved the Gamecube though. I particularly love the mini disks. They're so cute. Actually, everything about the Gamecube just radiates cuteness. That may be why it didn't sell as well as its competitors, but oh well.

I got three games with my new Cube. Metroid Prime, Resident Evil Zero and WWE Day of Reckoning. I like all three.

I doubt I'll play many multiplatform games on the Gamecube. I'll probably just stick to exclusives, because I don't like the controller quite as much as the PS2's (but It's still good and I'll probably like it a lot more when I get used to it again). I've found just under 2 dozen games I'd like to eventually buy for it, nowhere near the 156 I have for the PS2, but still very good stuff.

On my next blog in the coming days, I'll talk about my strangest Christmas present, a game I bought for myself. And I'll talk about a few other things as well. Cya later, and Merry Christmas.

I'm going to try to keep this short because I usually write my blogs in Wordpad and paste them here but right now my Wordpad isn't working, so I'm writing this in Gamespot's annoying box thing.

Anyway, back about a year ago, I modded my PS2 to play Japanese games, pretty much just for one game (King of Colosseum 2). But I hoped I could get more use out of my ability to play import games. I'm constantly looking for new ones to buy for cheap prices, but finding Japanese games for low prices isn't very easy.

But I found two Japanese PS2 games on Ebay, paid about $6.00 for one and $5.00 for the other (including shipping). Now, I didn't have very high expectations for either of these games. The first one was TVDJ. That one was actually reviewed by Gamespot (it got a 2.5). It's a rhythm game, and a pretty mediocre one at that. It is pretty amusing though. You use the face buttons to mix a cartoon (literally being a TV DJ, get it? Heh). It's only four levels long, and each level has a 5-minute time limit but can be beaten in less than that. I can see why this never came out in America. Amusing for 5 bucks, but if I had spent any more than that, I would've felt ripped off.

The second game is Yoake no Mariko, and remembering that title is very difficult because, unlike King of Colosseum and TVDJ, the box only has Japanese text on it. It's another very odd game. Unfortunately, I can't even play it because it requires a Japanese microphone to play. Here's a video of the intro and gameplay I found on YouTube.

So neither game is very good, but they're both amusing and quite crazy Japanese fare. Another thing that's crazy is the disks themselves. In American games, the PS2 logo on the disk is either black or red, but the PS2 logo on both of these disks is pink. Very pretty. The TVDJ disk has a very light, almost glittery pink PS2 logo whereas the one for Yoake no Mariko is a solid pink. The one for King of Colosseum 2 is maroon. I wonder if every PS2 game ever released in Japan has a different colored PS2 logo on the disk? If my camera were working, I'd show you a picture of it.

Oh well, that's all. Overall, unless you want to buy every PS2 game ever made, I'd recommend you stay away from both TVDJ and Yoake no Mariko, which shouldn't be too hard because they were both Japan-only titles. They were actually both published by Sony, which kinda surprised me. Oh well. I hope I can find some good Japan-only PS2 games. I've actually tried to get my hands on the Japan-only PS2 port of the Saturn game NiGHTS into Dreams, or the Japanese PS2 version of Sonic Gems Collection (which includes Streets of Rage), but they're so rare, expensive and hard to find that I might never get those.

Well, seeya later. Man, Japanese games are quite wacko.

This is rather strange. I paid for the cheapest Value shipping, the 5-10 day USPS, but for the second online order in a row, Gamestop shipped it via the much better UPS 3-Day. I thought it was a fluke when it happened last time, but two Gamestop orders in a row? They must like me.

So this was the order that contained the Game Boy Advance, as well as Max Payne for the GBA and my 150th PS2 game, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004. The GBA system they sent me is in perfect condition, not a scratch, and it included what appeared to be a 3rd party battery cover. Yeah, believe it or not, finding a used GBA with a battery cover is kinda rare nowadays. What do people do with their battery covers, flush them down the toilet?

Seriously, I was looking on the Amazon page at used GBAs, the offers from all the different sellers. I went down the list, and each and every one of them said "No battery cover". WTH? Well, I'm gonna take good care of mine.

Another cool thing is when it comes to Max Payne. They included the original box and the manual, in perfect condition as well. Now, as anyone who has bought used games for a cartridge-based system would know, finding a used cartridge-based game with the original cardboard box is also a rare feat. Most of them don't survive. So that's cool. They're collector's items.

They also included the original case and manual with Tiger Woods PGA Tour. Although, finding the original case for disk-based systems isn't nearly as rare as cartridge systems. Still, it's nice to have it because I'm a collector. I'll play that one soon and post my thoughts. It got great reviews on Gamespot and I've always had a soft spot for golf video games (even dating back to when I had golf games for the NES and Sega Genesis), so I'm pretty sure I'll like it.

I did play Max Payne though. I'm such a huge fan of the console versions, and I was very curious about how the handheld version turned out. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, when it comes to presentation, they did a really great job translating this to the GBA. The graphic novel cutscenes are all intact with all of the original speech from the console versions. The speech within the levels has been removed and replaced with text, but that doesn't hurt it at all. The graphics are great as well. I'm not sure what the high standard for visuals is on the GBA, but if it's basically a portable Super Nintendo, then they did a great job. It's very true to the original game.

But, as far as the gameplay goes, it gives a very poor first impression. First of all, the isometric viewpoint makes moving kind of strange. It's like some other isometric games, where you basically imagine turning the d-pad 45 degrees to the right. So, pressing up on the d-pad moves you up-right, while pressing down on the d-pad moves you down-left, pressing right moves you down-right, and pressing left moves you up-left. It takes quite a bit of getting used to.

My biggest issue with Max Payne on the GBA is, the majority of time, enemies attack from off-screen. This makes the game a helluva lot harder and more annoying.

But that said, I'm still getting used to it. Maybe I'll like it more as I play more of it. My second GBA game, Fire Pro Wrestling, will probably arrive within the next couple of days. I definitely have much higher expectations for that one. I'm a huge fan of the Fire Pro series, and by all accounts the GBA game is a very solid entry in the series. It definitely helps that the series was 2D to begin with, so there aren't as many difficulties in porting it as there are with a 3D game like Max Payne.

All in all, the GBA is a great system and I'm looking forward to seeing more of what this handheld has to offer.

Wait for it... No, not yet, not quite, almost, building the suspense, a little more, okay here we go. *drum roll*...

Game Boy Advance.

Lol. You thought I was gonna say a current-gen console, didn't you? Not quite.

I've never been the biggest fan of handheld games, but I have played GBA before and I liked it. I even Reviewed a GBA game about a year or so ago, which was actually one of my most well-received reviews (heh). After doing more extensive research on the library, I ultimately concluded that the GBA was worth buying. The library looks great. I'm learning about all the good games available for it. Another plus of the GBA is that it's backward compatible. The Game Boy/Color has over 10 years worth of releases for it, and there are a lot of good games out there (I already own a few, which is one reason why I didn't opt for a DS).

I like the DS and PSP. I've played em, I like em. I'm really impressed with how good the technology has become. But they're both a little too expensive for my tastes. When I think of handheld games, I think cheap, inexpensive and convenient. Handheld games don't necessarily have to be cutting edge in my opinion, they just have to be fun, and I think that's what the GBA offers.

I bought the original model GBA. That's because, when I tried to play the SP, my hands cramped up pretty quickly. The buttons are too close together for my tastes, I much prefer the old model where the buttons are to the sides of the screen. Another advantage of buying the original GBA is that it's less than half the price of the SP or Micro. To get an SP or Micro, it's hard to find for less than $40, whereas the original model is easily found for $20. The Micro was out of the question anyway because it isn't backward compatible either. The trade-off is that the SP has a rechargeable battery which is cool, and a few other features the original didn't have. But, on the other hand, you need to buy special headphones for the SP whereas regular headphones work with the original.

So, in the end, I think I made the right choice. I bought it from Gamestop's site, for $19.99, but I wanted to get free shipping because there's a free shipping sale for orders over $25. They only had 5 GBA games in stock, and the only one I even remotely wanted was Max Payne for $4.99. Unfortunately, that still left me 2 cents short of free shipping, so I tossed in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004 for the PS2 for $1.99 to push me over the mark. I love when companies offer free shipping online. You can spend more money on stuff.

Other than obviously Max Payne which is coming in the order, the first GBA game I plan to buy is Fire Pro Wrestling.

Also, Tiger Woods PGA Tour is actually my 150th PS2 game! Sweet milestone. I'm still nowhere near finished buying PS2 games though, there's still tons of games I want for it.

Finally, speaking of Tiger Woods, how 'bout that whole ordeal with Tiger? Pretty crazy stuff innit? His wife beating the crap out of him. I never saw Tiger Woods as the type of person who'd cheat on his wife, but then again he is a rich celebrity. Still, it's hard to believe anyone would cheat on... her:

I dunno. I think I'd give Tiger the benefit of the doubt on this one. What do you think?

First, I had a very happy Thanksgiving, and I hope you did too.

Maybe it's just me, but I didn't notice nearly as many good Black Friday deals as most years. Maybe some of you guys can comment on that. I don't know.

The only deal I really liked was at Gamestop, Buy 2 used games get 1 free. I scoured the place for a bit and quickly found my selections. Tony Hawk's Underground, Onimusha 3 and Dark Cloud, all for PS2 of course.

Tony Hawk's Underground is one of the only games in the series I didn't have, at least out of the first six games in the series. The more recent games in the series have gotten quite poor reviews so I'm a bit iffy about them. THUG is good though. Maybe another diehard fan of the series could tell me if American Wasteland and Project 8 are worth playing?

Onimusha 3 is pretty groovy too. I'm a big fan of the series but I haven't bought this one till now. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna like this one.

Dark Cloud is a game I didn't know about until recently. I've heard a lot of people say a lot of different things about this game. So, I'm going to try to enter with as little preconceived notions as possible to form my own opinions on this one.

Paid $13 for the three. Not a horrible deal. But in all the other stores I looked in, I couldn't find too many good Black Friday deals. The manager at Gamestop told me this is one of the slowest Black Fridays he's ever seen, so maybe I'm not alone on this. Thoughts on Black Friday this year?

Yeah, I said it. What're you gonna do about it? I'll break out my BFG 9000 and blow your (bootay) away!

Okay, just kidding. I don't really believe Doom is superior to every FPS to come after. I mostly said that for an eye-grabbing blog title. But I still believe Doom is fun as hell.

I bought Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil for the Xbox off of Ebay for about $5, and it arrived today. I bought it partly because I liked Doom 3 and I was interested in playing the expansion pack. Partly because the Collector's Edition of Doom 3 (with the ports of Ultimate Doom and Doom 2) is a lot harder to find nowadays, luckily those games are included in Resurrection of Evil as well, along with Doom 2 Master Levels.

I haven't played a classic Doom game in, at least 5 years, probably longer. I remember I used to have the SNES version, the Playstation version, and the Windows 95 version. But I don't have those anymore. I never really got too far in the Doom games. I found them quite difficult, but I was younger and a less experienced gamer at the time. But I do remember loving them regardless.

So, when I popped in Resurrection of Evil, the first thing I did was I went to the classic Doom. As far as I've heard, they're identical to the original PC games, which is a very good thing. The controls are great, really work very well with the Xbox controller. Despite the fact that Doom is a 16-year old game now, it's still insanely fun in my opinion. I spent hours playing it today.

I beat the three episodes of the original Doom with little trouble (played it on the easiest difficulty, under the assumption that it would be harder than it ended up being), then I tried to move on to the 4th episode (from Ultimate Doom) but I got stuck on the second level. Moved on to Doom 2, also got stuck on the second level. Moved over to Master Levels, and what do you know? Got stuck on the second damn level. Lol. There must be something I'm missing, I've exhausted every possibility of where to go on these levels but I can't figure out where I'm supposed to go. Killing the enemies is no problem. I mow them down by the dozen with little trouble. But I can't find the key or the door or the passageway to advance through the level. The game makes you feel like a rat in a maze, but man, blasting the demons is still so much fun.

Still haven't played the actual Resurrection of Evil game yet. The classic Doom games add so much replay value to the package, no Doom fan should be without this game. By the way, they also have split screen gameplay for up to four players, co-op or deathmatch, which is pretty awesome. No online play though, but whatever, not like I care. Heh.

So all in all, really fun classic games. I've played games like Halo and Half-Life, and don't get me wrong, I love em. But the classic Doom games will always be fun to me.

P.S.: Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans. I'm cooking a big meal tomorrow. As a cook, it's one of my favorite days of the year. I love to cook, but I love to eat more. Can't wait.

About a week ago, I came across a little-known PS2 game, pretty much by random while doing an Amazon search. It was a game that got mediocre critical reviews, but outstanding user reviews, which intrigued me. It's called Disaster Report. After doing some more research on the game, I liked what I saw enough, so I bought it. It arrived today, and I played it for a few hours. I usually don't talk about games like this, but I wanted to here because I'm really loving this game so far.

It's a very unique game, in fact it's hard to even place in a genre. But most people who played it consider it a survival horror game. The core gameplay is similar to both Resident Evil and Silent Hill, except there's no combat, and for the first part of the game at least, no enemies. Instead, your primary adversary is a series of earthquakes, which is the primary source of the horror in this game.

The game takes place on a man-made island. This island is suddenly struck by a massive earthquake. You and a small handful of survivors basically have to make your way to the center of the island for evacuation, finding your way through obstacles, solving complex puzzles (such as saving a girl from a subway car that's teetering on the edge of a collapsed bridge, without killing both of you), and most importantly, avoiding certain death from collapsing buildings, falling debris, and pieces of the level literally collapsing and falling into the ocean as you play, in real time. It's a very different kind of survival horror, but it can be far more shocking and startling than any undead creature.

There's other strange stuff about this game too. For example, you need to drink water, otherwise you get dehydrated. Luckily, you can carry water bottles that hold a good amount of water, and you can refill them on a regular basis, which is nice.

The controls in the game work fine, the gameplay as a whole is very good. The puzzles are intuitive, it's just a fun game that makes you think, and occasionally scares the crap out of you. It's nice and refreshing to see a survival horror game that doesn't have to rely on darkness or cliche monsters to get the shock value, and instead going to a more realistic disaster.

Why this game got such below average reviews from critics, I don't know. It's fun and unique, that qualifies it as a good game in my book. I'm only a few hours into it but I'll review it when I finish it. It seems the biggest gripe of the critics was the visuals, which were below average for its time (2003). The visuals get the job done fine, it's just not as technically impressive. I don't really care about visuals as long as they don't hurt the quality of the game, so in this case, the visuals are more than good enough for me. But people who see graphics as a serious issue should steer clear.

Also, people who want a fast-moving game with combat, should also steer clear. This is primarily a puzzle-solving game. So this is definitely not for everyone, but I will say that if you're looking for a unique experience, you should definitely check this game out.