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You know, this game will sell an absurd amount, since even people who weren't as big of fans of the series might pick it up just to say they have it. I may, even though I never played any of the earlier Duke Nukem games. XD

That is, if I believed it would actually come out on that day. There's still time for it to disappear.

I really hate some middle schoolers sometimes. They're horrid little creatures. Well, they can be at least. They are hitting my last nerve and I'm afraid I am starting to be too...haaaarsh.

Welcome back. What brought you to come back?

Awesome. For games I can strongly suggest, just off the top of my head:

Assassin's Creed - any of them, but Brotherhood's multiplayer is awesome and AC2 provides the necessary background to really understand Brotherhood's single-player campaign. AC1 is great, and cheap, but not really necessary to understand the narrative given the time skip between 1 and 2. With myself, Zero, Kin, and Pi owning it, we're almost at the 6 players needed to play private matches of multiplayer... AG guildwise shankings? Shutupandtakemymoney.jpg. Maybe Mala will be tempted, since there's stabbing and most of us would probably have no problem whatsoever with a house rule reserving the Doctor (complete with plague mask) for her private use when she's around. I think you might like the hunchbacked noble with clawed prosthetic limb or engineer character. I myself am torn between the Officer and Beard-Beard Action Beard for character models.

Anything Dead Rising - first game is awesome, but Case Zero can be snagged for 5 bucks and give you several hours of game play, the taste you need to decide on the franchise, and some unlockables and a leg up on DR2. Case: West just finishes the whole thing off with a glorius multiplayer romp. The cool thing about DR2 isn't so much that the survivors are reasonably competent as the fact that combo weapons are insanely fun and the multiplayer is rife with moments for epic hilarity... like Kin using his new combat skills to powerbomb and tear the arms off of zombies while I play crowd control with a full inventory of 12 bowling balls. Oh, and arming survivors with, ahem, personal massagers.

Bulletstorm - Demo just hit yesterday. Suyo can join me in singing its praise. I don't know if Kin played it yet, but he can certainly bear witness to the glee I took in the skill shot system, enviromental hazards I could visit on my foes, and weapon selection. This game promises to be almost as crass, crude, gory, and fun as Duke Nukem Forever, if not equally so. I so cannot wait for Feb 22 to arrive.

Red Dead Redemption - GOTY last year. With good reason. It also got DLC of the year from many sources too for the affordable and epic Undead Nightmare set.

Borderlands - Not bad single player, but multiplayer with 3 friends is where this baby shines. Kin and Mala seemed to enjoy the hell out of it when they played with me, and I'm hoping to get some people together this weekend for some more of it. 3 of the 4 DLC packs are awesome, and the odd man out isn't all that bad, just not all that awesome. GOTY edition is probably around 40-50 bucks and totally worth it. Especially if you have other friends who own it too.

Earth Defense Force: 2017 - This budget title can probably be scooped up for 10-15 bucks (admirable when you consider that it came out a few years back at an MSRP of 30) and is pretty unashamed at being pretty bare-bones and cheesy. It actually feels like a 70s-80s rubber-suit monster movie about giant bugs invading the earth and with 5 difficulties spanning 50 levels there's plenty of replay value even if many of the levels feel the same. Collecting literally hundreds of weapons as you go (many available only at higher difficulties) can get a little tedious, but it is nice to have a game you can come back to for a bit of mindless killing (by the thousands... as well as easy destruction of entire cities by both you and the aliens) when you don't know what else to play. Easy split-screen couch co-op is a strong draw too in these days of online-only multiplayer. Even better... let's look at the next entry.

Coming out for a delicious 40$ on March 1st of this year is Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon. Up to 3 players in an online drop-in/drop-out multiplayer campaign mode with 150 weapons and 4 upgradable suits of armor as well as the upgraded versions of the series' signature vehicles? Awesome. 6 player survival mode? Epic. 40$ price tag? March 1st is my new Independence Day.

Also, anything Mass Effect. I suggest getting the GOTY edition of ME1, since it includes the DLC pack that was really good (Bring Down the Sky) as well as the game and a premium theme for your xbox. ME2 and its DLC are epic and strongly suggested, though you might want to wait for the collection probably coming out shortly before ME3 (12/31/11) that will most certainly have the game and all of its DLC in one package... though it might not include the last DLC which should be hitting shortly before 3 to bridge the gap.

There are, of course, plenty of other excellent games (as well as some really awesome XBL Arcade titles), but those can wait. These are just some noteworthy suggestions you can probably get for a decent price... many of which include mp to enjoy with the rest of us.




Anything in particular you're thinking of? I'm watching a few things, but for AG enjoyment I can see people getting into Kore wa Zombie and Beelzebub. Both are the kinds of crazy I can see a lot of AGers getting into. Gosick is probably a bit more discussable, but I don't think it would be everyone's cup of tea. Infinite Stratos, Freezing, and Dragon Crisis don't strike me as heavily discussable shows.

Middle schoolers suck.
Eat them.

Bulletstorm.

It's off the energy leash.

Ugh! Why can't my god damned coworkers get to work on time!? Yes, I know we've gotten a lot of snow storms that screw up the morning commute, but, hello..? We live in New England, for crying out loud! What the hell were they expecting?

If I can drive through a snowstorm and get to work on time, so should everyone else. I am so sick and tired of getting stuck at work late, especially since I HAVE to get home so that Stream can take the car to work.