It's too bad iPods are so expensive years later, otherwise I'd say screw it and get a new one.
Ni no Kuni is awesome. My favorite game of the generation other than Valkyria Chronicles.
Were it me, I'd probably be looking for an early-gen PS3. I love my 60-gigger, since it plays 15 years worth of games on one machine and I don't have to hook as much stuff up to a TV. Failing that, I'd probably get a PS2.
I love Vintage Stock! I find so many rare goodies, particularly at the Oklahoma City, Midwest City, and Norman stores! My most recent find there was Suikoden II, complete, for $99. I can't find that game for any less than $120 for the disc only on eBay or Amazon.
Not really, with rare exceptions like Balloon Fight. Most of the really good NES and SNES games were strictly single-player games (Balloon Fight was a rare example of a good multiplayer NES game), and I find online leaderboards to be meaningless. The top players hacked their way to the top (99,999,999 points? 999,999 wins in two days? Seriously), and being buried in a sea of a hundred thousand other nonsensical gamertags. doesn't really stir my competitive juices.
I didn't get the Bioshock Infinite strategy guide, although I enjoyed Bioshock Infinite. I generally only get them for RPGs. Might go ahead and pick this one up although I've already beaten the main game once. I might try the 1999 mode. I loved the Ni no Kuni strategy guide.
Most of the games I, and most other gamers, want on Virtual Console have already been released. The rest are obscure third-party games that will likely not be released due to lack of interest in them. Earthbound was a pleasant surprise, given the apparent legal hassles involved. I wish Nintendo had completed the Nintendo 64 version of Mother 3 myself. It looked pretty cool.
Sorry your landlord has been hassling you. It sounds unnecessary, but who knows.
I'm kind of interested in The 3rd Birthday. I guess it was a letdown compared to Parasite Eve 1 and 2, though.
As far as personal blogs, if you feel 'em, write 'em. People are going to be dicks anyway. It's the Internet, and the anonymity of the Internet brings out the inner asshole in everyone.
The Suikoden series is one I'm looking to get into. Vintage Stock has Suikoden II for $100.
And said software announcements turning out to be stuff like Facebook for your Xbox 360! WOW! Just what I always wanted!!! Forget those games, Imma post pictures of my cat using my 360 and Kinect!
You don't really buy ANY console for "power". If you want to brag about the horses under the hood you build a rig. Any console is bought for the games it plays. Nice graphics are just a bonus to that.
Nintendo went for power with the SNES, the N64, and the Gamecube, but there were deficits in all three products. The SNES had a far better graphics and sound chip than the Genesis, but a slower CPU, The N64 had a faster CPU than the PS1 but was crippled by the catridge format and the lack of dedicated sound. The Gamecube had the mini-DVDs and didn't play movies (like I cared anyway) but was a far more powerful machine than the PS2. Going for power didn't help Nintendo.
