Ok so here is a shot of my new imported Nintendo DS. I like the color a lot, but the outside is tough to keep free of fingerprint smudges because of the shiny finish. Since the DS is region free it does not have any issues playing any of the US games, I did have some issues with the initial set up as it was in Japanese, but I worked through them and then just switched the language to English and viola, like it was meant for the states. (My original name was something incoherent in symbols) If anyone needs any help setting there’s up let me know.

Target has a good sale this week on a bunch of games for $39, some for $18. Here’s the list (from Kotaku):

For $39 you can get:
WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007 for the PS2
Zelda The Twilight Princess for the Wii or Gamecube
Final Fantasy XII for the PS2
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 for the PS3 or Xbox 360
Need for Speed Carbon for the PS3 or Xbox 360
Gears of War for the Xbox 360
Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the PS3 or Xbox 360

For $18.88 you can get:
Star Wars: Battlefront II for the PSP
Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition for the PSP
Need for Speed: Most Wanted for the PS2
Socom: U.S. Navy Seals Fireteam Bravo for the PSP
ATV Offroad Fury: Blazin’ Trails for the PSP
Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2
Medal of Honor: European Assault for the PS2
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PS2
Super Mario Sunshine for the GameCube

Not bad for some of these games! I picked up Final Fantasy XII for PS2 and Tony Hawk’s Project 8 for PS3 today while I was there. I’ll be gaming literally all day tomorrow on all systems, both console and handheld, so look for me online.

Picked up WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw 2007 for Xmas also and started playing around with it. So far I am very impressed with the visual graphics and options to create - belts, teams, stables, characters and even PPV’s. The 360 version also gives you the ability to play online while also creating and defending your title. I look forward to unlocking Tazz and Bret Hart to use, look for me trying to squeeze this into my already crammed game lineup.

My wife also picked up Luines 2 and the Family guy game for our PSP, I will give more details on these titles later.

So I got a cool Nintendo DS Lite for X-mas, not the normal US version, I got an imported Japanese one in “Enamel Navy”. I have to say even though I don’t have any games for it yet, my Best Buy gift card will come in handy to fix that, I like the system. This is a nice refinement from the first generation DS which felt very childlike, I feel quite manly with my Navy blue version and I like the smaller footprint.�I am looking forward to grabbing up some titles for it, Mario Kart, Mario Basketball, Yoshi’s Island and Castelvania. If you have any other suggestions drop me a line and if I get a chance I’ll post a pic of my sweet DS.

Wishing all of our readers and fans a Merry Christmas! Hope you all got what your wanted from Santa, and hopefully I will be providing ass woopings online from those gifts you received

It was a very High Def Christmas for me, with mainly games and HD-DVD and BluRay movies.

Sorry I’ve been so scarce the past week. I was away visiting both my family and my fiance’s family out of state, so it’s been hectic and trying to grab a wireless connection has been a pain. Expect a shitload of posts as soon as I get around to unpacking and playing everything.

I should be getting the new Blitz within the next few days and look forward to sinking my teeth into this game, especially with a couple of days off for the holidays it will be nice to have Blitz and Rainbow Six for some good old fashioned coop fun.

I got a chance to download the demo for the latest XBLA title, Assault Heroes yesterday. The premise is you are a guy that drives around in a “Jeep like” assault vehicle that can get tons of upgrades, you use the sticks to shoot like many of the other XBLA titles but can get out of your vehicle and blast around, and play coop both on and offline. The game has a nice look to it and playing through the first level seemed pretty fun and could be worth checking out for 800 Microsoft Points.

So after getting my new Xbox I start testing it out on my assortment of titles, let me say this system runs like a hot knife through butter. =)

I got a chance to play some Rainbow Six Vegas story mode and some coop and really try out the game. The story mode starts you in Mexico, I guess you have to make your way to Vegas, but you can choose from two difficulties, “realistic” and “normal”, and after playing Gears in “Hardcore” I chose to go for normal for my first� run through. I did try some coop in “realistic” mode and got my taint handed right over to me, the enemy will flank and aggressively hunt you down, using everything they have including grenades and flash bangs. During single player action you can get a team with you and the game developers did some nice things here, you can give your team the normal commands of hold, follow, aggressive, etc. but the fun really starts when you get to a locked door. When you reach any door in the game you can use a snake cam to peek into the room and see if there are any uglies in there waiting for you. You can also position your team outside the door and pick from a few options, tell them to run in guns blazing, tell them to go in and clear the room, choose a particular target for them to rush in and kill, flash bang the room and cover or use demolition to blow the door. I thought this was pretty cool and it is useful.

Aside from messing around a bit in story mode I also got a chance to check out the Xbox Live modes. Let me start by saying I like the fact that you can create a character for your online games that actually gains experience as you play. You can fully customize your characters armor (which does affect your character’s mobility and protection stats), guns, camo color and even choose from different hats, glasses, etc. As you gain experience you go up in the military ranks and you get more options for armor, accessories and camo colors. You can also use the Xbox Live camera to scan your face into the game, my first try looks horrible, but I did get an achievement for doing it. I also played wit some buddies some of the coop modes and unlocked some achievements and got a feel for the game, the Ai will get head shots on you. The game also has some nice affects for when you are dying or wounded as well as a whitening confusing affect when you get flash banged, so far the game has a lot of good elements and I look forward to playing this quite a bit more.

I got a chance to take my Xbox in to Best Buy during lunch to see if I could get it replaced so I go to their “Geek Squad”. I wait there for ten minutes until a dysfunctional unsocialized “Geek” tells me that I need to go to the customer service line for an exchange. I then go over to the never ending line that is customer service and wait. 55 minutes later I am at the head of the line and ready to dump off my crappy Xbox. I tell the girl I have a malfunctioning system and she asks to see my replacement plan, I give it to her so she tells me she can switch it out, but if I want to have a replacement plan for the new one? Apparently the replacement plan is a one shot deal, once you use it you need to buy another one?! To me this is crap! So I bought another $60 plan to have a 2 year warranty on my system, she explained that there is a 90 day warranty thru Microsoft but that after that it has to be done thru them. I did get to keep my hard drive, she swapped it out with the new one, I actually thought she was going to give me a free one there for a second. I gave them the cables and one of my wireless controllers, so I got everything new now and another headset. That brings my total of headsets to 3, 1 with my first Xbox, 1 with the Live camera and another one with the new replacement Xbox. All in all I just hope this thing fires up and does not give me problems and if it does that it happens within 90 days so I can keep my replacement plan, I don’t want to keep buying replacement plans!!! Shame on Microsoft and Best Buy!

I got a chance to play a bit of Splinter Cell and the game looks nice, a bit dark for my tastes, in fact so dark at times I had no clue where to go, but then again that is what night vision is for. You actually have an EMP gun to knock out electronics and I was using mine to turn off all the lights in the area, which gives you an achievement. I played the two training missions which are odd because they are staged in a plain white room, kind of reminds you of a mental institution, really odd. You get achievements for finishing these two missions as well. I played a bit of the normal game and got a chance to slit some throats but got mixed up as to what my objectives were and failed. So far the game has decent controls and nice graphics but I guess I am not the biggest of Splinter Cell fan to go ape shit over it yet.

I also decided to fire up my new copy of Rainbow Six Vegas, the credits rolled and it was on to the game, about 5 minutes in my 360 froze. I tried to reload and got past the point of getting off the initial cut scene on the helicopter and walked down the street, I got into a fire fight and bang Frozen again! I think my Xbox has developed a hatred for any game that requires it to run at higher frame rates and decides to stop working. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back, later today will be my Best Buy run to get a new one, wish me luck. What I did see of the game looked pretty good, there is a cover dynamic that allows you to fire from around corners which is cool and an interesting feature that blurs the screen when you get hit, aside form that I couldn’t appreciate anything further because of the lack of a working system.

I got a couple of Christmas gifts early this year and�my buddy�got me another copy of Phantasty Star Universe, which I have and play often, so�I quickly went to best Buy and exchanged it for Rainbow Six Vegas.�I hear good things about this game, some have even gone so far to label it the best FPS ever! Im looking forward to playing tonight for a bit, I should also be getting Splinter Cell Double Agent in the mail, still not sure what I’m getting as my second rental game as www.gamefly.com has everything on my game Q on “short wait”, that sucks.