The latest in my personal gaming-related news. Let's start off with what I've purchased lately:

- Xbox Live Vision camera. I was a bit skeptical about this accessory before I played the retail version of Burnout Paradise. Ten minutes into the game, however, and I was convinced that the camera is a must-have accessory for this game. Playing with a bunch of folks from work is fun enough; seeing the stupid faces they make during takedowns is that much better; and hastily grabbing terrible DVDs to put in front of the camera for snapshots ("I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry", "Wild Wild West", "Failure to Launch", anything with Jean Claude Van Damme) is the icing on the cake.

- In related news, I just dropped the hammer on the Eye of Judgment Biolith Rebellion (what does that mean!?!?) bundle that includes the PlayStation Eye camera. Not becuase I'm particularly interested in the game--though I'll probably give it a whirl--but for no other reason than I want a camera for my PS3. And hey! Anything that gives me a reason to push the "on" button on my PS3 is a good thing... right? Anyone out there playing Eye of Judgment and want to school me online?

- I've got Burnout Paradise and Advance Wars: Days of Ruin out from GameFly right now. I'm obviously loving the former and, as for the latter, I'm torn on it. The combat portion of the game is just as compelling as the others in the series--though this one has really ramped up the difficutly level. As for the tone and writing of the game, I'm not as down on it.

I initially missed the happy-go-lucky tone of the characters in the first two games--"Hey Black Hole just unloaded redundant rocket arrays on our asses! We're screwed! Yay!" but it seems to me--and I'm only a few hours in--that the vibe in Days of Ruin isn't that far off. I mean, yeah, emo-kid moping about in the beginning is painful, and the flower disease is creepy, but characters like the ludicrously wise-cracking doctor, and the overall sense of boundless optimism and righteous militaristic duty on behalf of Brenner seems to cancel that out. In all, I'm enjoying it, though I suspect I'll never get close to finishing this one.

- Played Rock Band at Aaron's yesterday for the first time in a few weeks. Played bass on "Limelight", sang "Interstate Love Song" and played drums on "Foreplay/Long Time", which is still my favorite drum track in the game. The difference between hard (which I can beat) and expert (which I'm nowhere close to good enough to finish) are stark on that song. The triplet figures in the instrumental intro for that song are far beyond my drumming abilities, which is a shame because, once you get to the singing part, the song is completely playable.

- I got really, really close to buying this game yesterday:

And I still might buy it, for reasons that may or may not become clear in the near future. Stay tuned...

- I've been brewing ideas for Voices in the Box #003 lately. And by "brewing ideas", I mean talking to myself in the car while driving until I say something that makes me laugh. This inevitably makes my wife angry.