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Until I left him in the dust with my recent points push, news editor Tim Surette and I had ourselves a bit of an achievement points rivalry. Now that I'm almost 5,000 points ahead of him, Tim has switched to bragging about his prowess in Wii Sports Baseball. I've only played the game once, but that didn't stop me from running my mouth. And because my mouth goes a lot faster than my brain, I accepted Tim's home run derby challenge.

But why should I be the only one to go up against Tim "Long Ball" Surette? I quickly rounded up some GameSpot editors, created a bunch of Miis, and GameSpot's first ever Wii Sports Home Run Derby was born.

I think it's safe to say the 1927 Yankees had nothing on this fearsome lineup of prodigious sluggers. Here's the GameSpot Murderers' Row:
Greg Mueller
Alex Navarro
Brad Shoemaker
Ryan Davis
Brian Ekberg
Jeff Gerstmann
Tim Surette
Aaron Thomas

Did I mention there was a trophy involved? Heck yeah there was a trophy! Check out the video to find out who took home the hardware in GameSpot's Wii Sports Home Run Derby.

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Get to know the people that bring you all of the great content on GameSpot in a regular series of short and lighthearted gaming-related interviews.

Episode XII: Greg Mueller

Poor Greg. He sits all by himself in the corner of the office. He's so far away from everyone that I've gone entire days without seeing him. The desk next to him has been empty ever since Bob Colayco left GameSpot for the difficult job of trying to get people to buy World of Warcraft. (By the way Bob, all your old E3 badges are still hanging by your desk.) But it's not all bad news for Greg. Now that Greg Kasavin is gone, he gets to go by just his first name. No more being referred to as "Greg Mueller" all the time!

Sitting way off in a corner wasn't enough to keep Greg from answering my hard-hitting "Getting To Know" questions, though. He shares his strategy for reviewing bad games, talks about his early GameSpot career, and reminisces about playing old games with his sister.

Look for a new video (not "Getting To Know") next week, and then "Getting To Know" will return on March 2nd with Brian Ekberg. Thanks for watching!

I wasn't yet working for GameSpot when my girlfriend and I moved to the Bay Area last May, so as much as we both loved the idea of paying exorbitant rent and not being able to find parking, we passed on living in San Francisco and ended up in Mountain View, which is better known as the home of Google. Now that I'm working for GameSpot and our lease is up, we decided to move closer to San Fran so I could do something other than work, commute, and sleep. Last Saturday was moving day, and even though we paid people to pack and move everything, it somehow managed to be as painful as ever. Part of the "fun" of moving is trying to figure out what you do and don't need to take to your new place. My method of discerning what makes the cut is pretty simple: All of my stuff is awesome and most of my girlfriend's stuff is lame. She played along with the plan for awhile, but it was kind of difficult to chastise her for having too many shoes when I've got an unopened bottle of Tomb Raider wine from 2002. Yes, I've got a somewhat extensive video game collection.

Anyone who has ever collected anything, be it dolls or baseball cards has had to deal with the reality of their collection at some point or another. You can try and keep everything but eventually you're going to have to make some difficult decisions on what things are important to the collection. I have had to face this quandary twice in the last nine months. Last May I started with the easy stuff. I gathered up my various game-related pamphlets, flyers, and catalogs, and put them up on eBay. Then I turned my attention to the boxes in the garage that were filled with E3 paraphernalia. Five years of show newsletters, press kits, key chains, t-shirts, bumper stickers, (crappy) demos, pens, and other assorted trinkets got the eBay treatment. I didn't make much money on the auctions, but I like to think that my stuff found a good home in the back of someone's closet. Goodbye backpack from Sony's 2003 E3 party; I'll miss you. Don't worry Metal Gear binoculars; you're safe on the shelves. Fear not tennis ball can with a copy of Virtua Tennis for the PSP still sealed inside; you're not going anywhere. For some reason I had a bunch of broken NES-era peripherals. Those were donated to the trash can. I probably didn't throw as much away as I should have since "awesome" peripherals, such as my U-Force and no less than three NES light guns made the move to California.

Getting rid of so much stuff in May allowed me to delay some difficult decisions, but the February move brought them back to light. We're talking heavy stuff, like what to do with my collection of Electronic Gaming Monthly magazines. I already had a few years worth of EGM in 1999, but for some reason I hopped on eBay and bought about 75 back issues. It was a lot of fun flipping through them reminiscing about long-forgotten games and seeing coverage of systems like the Sega CD, Atari Jaguar, and 3DO. It's hard to believe, but there was some genuine optimism when those consoles were released. But as much as I don't want to part with the August 1993 issue with Aero the Acrobat on the cover, it does cost money to lug these things around and they do take up quite a bit of space. Yep, I kept them.

Thanks to the preponderance of game compilations and the success of downloadable classics it has become more difficult than ever to evaluate what parts of a video game collection are indispensable. Do I need Super Mario Bros. for the NES, Super Nintendo, and Game Boy Color when I can just buy the game for $5 on the Virtual Console? What about all these old sports games? You'd have to pry R.B.I. Baseball and Super Tecmo Bowl from my cold, dead hands, but it's hard to justify having 14 versions of Madden when I only play the latest one. It's a safe bet that I'm not going to bust out Madden 2005 so that I can play as the Bears and relive the Jonathan Quinn era. I even have a few games for systems that I don't even own, but you never know when a CD-I is going to appear on your doorstep, so it would be foolish to part with them.

There are plenty of systems that aren't seeing their games re-released, so it makes sense to hold on to them. Keeping the Dreamcast and its best games is a no-brainer, but when am I going to be so desperate for entertainment that I break out the Virtual Boy? And then there are systems that just aren't much fun to play anymore. Why do I own one Atari 2600, much less two of them? Some of my systems have never even been opened because they're worth so much more that way. I must have had visions of a future where I did nothing but sit around and count my money when I bought the killer trifecta of a Pikachu Nintendo 64, WonderSwan Color, and Pokemon Game Boy Color, and then stashed them away unopened. Somehow I doubt I'll be retiring early because of those savvy investments. I'll admit that there's almost no chance that a broken Atari 5200 is going to be the missing component of some supercomputer that solves all of the world's problems, but who am I to predict the future? I'm keeping it!

A few pieces of my collection take up a bit more space than the others, but If Ricky Schroder can have an arcade on Silver Spoons, then I'm certainly not going to part with my dual screen Play Choice 10 arcade cabinet, or the Jurassic Park pinball machine that I wanted so badly I opened a savings account that I dubbed the "pinball fund." Ignore the fact that I've dropped over $2,000 on it and it still doesn't work properly; one day it's going to bring joy to everyone that plays it.

I've always been quick to point out to my mom that it's ridiculous that she holds on to old mason jars, and I've never been shy about telling my dad he's crazy for saving our old Epson printer* that was hooked up to our Apple IIe. After all, I know how to cut things loose, and I'm never going to have a bunch of semi-useful, half-broken items cluttering my house. At least that's what I always thought. The two Game.com handhelds on the shelves say that I'm wrong.

* My dad's reason for keeping an ancient dot matrix printer: "What if I need to print something on 17-inch paper?"

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Friday, February 9th started off like any other day. I got to work two hours late, used the side door so Jeff wouldn't see me, and when I got to my desk I just kind of zoned out. Then Ryan beat me up and stole my lunch money, and Alex yelled at me because I violated his "Never look Alex Navarro directly in the eyes policy." Needing a little cheering up, I turned to my old friend Mark Wahlberg. But it wasn't Mark Wahlberg the Oscar nominated actor that I turned to, it was Make My Video: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch for the Sega CD. Aww yeah, feel the vibration!

So there I was, right in the middle of creating my own vision of a Marky Mark music video when tragedy struck--the Sega CDX quit working. I tried frantically to bring it back to life, but despite my heroic efforts there would be no miracle on this rainy February morning.

It wasn't easy breaking the news to Dave Toister that his beloved CDX had gone to the big arcade in the sky, but it had to be done. Though he took it surprisingly well, we're keeping an eye on him this weekend to make sure he doesn't do anything rash, like go out and buy an N-Gage. As is the custom here at GameSpot, I prepared a memorial for the fallen console, and we honored its memory in what was a truly beautiful and moving service.

Dave has asked that in lieu of flowers, money be sent directly to him. If you'd like to send your condolences to Dave, you can email him at DaveT@GameSpot.com.

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Get to know the people that bring you all of the great content on GameSpot in a regular series of short and lighthearted gaming-related interviews.

Episode XI: Ryan Davis

Many of you are familiar with Ryan from his role on GameSpot's weekly show On the Spot or his frequent HotSpot appearances. Or perhaps you've seen him on the hit show Time Trotters. But that's the Ryan that's famous all over teh internets. "What's he like off camera?" his fans demanded to know. So I got him for this week's "Getting To Know GameSpot" to find out about the long road did he took in becoming a GameSpot editor, and got to the bottom of what video game collectable he most regrets giving up.

I'll hopefully have some sort of video (not Getting To Know) for you next week, but either way "Getting To Know" will return on February 16th with Greg Mueller. Thanks for watching!

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Happy Mike Tyson Day! Wait, you don't know what Mike Tyson Day is? It's kind of a long story, but the gist is that once a year I take on Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Not the lame Mr. Dream version) to see if I can put Iron Mike on the canvas. As to why I do this, you'll have to watch the video to find out.

Before I embarked on my journey I thought it would be interesting to see how some of the other GameSpot staff fared when facing Mike for the first time in many, many years. To be fair, the guys had no warning this was coming and they only got one shot at the champ, so don't be too hard on them.

Well, what are you waiting for? Join me, Alex Navarro, Ryan Davis, Rich Gallup, Jason Ocampo, Brad Shoemaker, Tim Surette, and Dave Toister on my annual quest to defeat Iron Mike Tyson.

*I had a hard time matching up some of the video, but cut me some slack; I'm a writer, not James Cameron. :)

After reviewing games for six years I'm well aware of exactly how many bad games there are lining store shelves. I'm not talking about games that leave you disappointed when you beat them; I'm talking about games that smack you in the face with their awfulness mere minutes after you start playing. Everyone knows that a game with horrible controls, lame gameplay, bugs, and ugly graphics is bad, right? Maybe not.

This may sound crazy, but there was a time when I didn't know what a bad game was. My parents had an Atari 2600 and I would get up early on Saturday mornings to go downstairs and play Combat (which was an awesome game) with my sister. We didn't have a lot of games, but my parents would pick up some of the "big name" games every now and then. One such game was Pac-Man. I loved Pac-Man and everything that had to do with Pac-Man. I loved the cereal, the cartoon show, the game; if you put Pac-Man on something, I was going to try and figure out a way to own it. So I was pretty darn excited when Pac-Man came out on the 2600. I wasn't all that great at it, but that didn't stop me from playing for hours on end. When I got older I read stories about how bad that conversion was, but I had no idea that it paled in comparison to the arcade game. But that wasn't the only game I was clueless about.

E.T. for the Atari 2600 is, simply put, one of the worst games of all-time. It's frequently cited (along with the 2600 version of Pac-Man) as a major catalyst for the big video game crash of the mid-80s, and even non-gamers have heard stories about millions of cartridges being buried in a New Mexico landfill. That didn't stop me from playing the heck out of that game. I really had no idea what to do though, and most of my time was spent trying to levitate out of pits with little success. I'd sit there for what felt like hours trying to do something--anything that felt like progress. I'd scour the manual trying to find a clue as to what I was doing wrong and it never dawned on me that it was the game's fault and not my own.

I eventually got a Nintendo Entertainment System, where my blissful ignorance continued. My buddy Jason and I stayed up all night one night trying to beat the steaming pile of dung that is Back to the Future. I still remember trying to dodge those stupid milkshakes like it was yesterday. Other duds that I spent way too much time playing included: T&C Surf Designs, Ring King, Top Gun, Baseball, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Not the arcade port, the stupid one where you had to swim underwater and avoid rage-inducing beams of electricity), and many more.

I didn't necessarily get a lot of enjoyment from playing these games, but I'd keep playing them because I knew I liked games, and these were, well, games. When I played these bad games I figured that perhaps the game was geared towards someone else or that I just wasn't very good at games, and so I kept plugging away, trying to see the light. We didn't have the Internet back then, and lord knows Nintendo Power wasn't actually going to say something bad about a game, so it wasn't all that easy to find out what games were good or bad. My friends must have been in the same boat as me because I don’t recall any of them every telling me how bad a game was. Nobody could have told me that the Sega CD was a lousy purchase? Thanks guys!

You'd think that I would remember what it was that made me realize that some games were just plain bad, but it must have been something that I gradually figured out as I got older because no single game or moment comes to mind. I still bought some duds in high school and college, but I sure as heck knew I had made a mistake when I got a lousy game home and started playing it. I was all sorts of fired up when I realized what a mess South Park was on the Nintendo 64, and it didn't help that I had bought the RAM expansion pack which upgraded the graphics from terrible to ugly.

I play lousy games quite often these days (I'm looking at you, Superman Returns), but I do so for a noble cause. As a GameSpot editor, it is my sworn duty to protect readers from bad games. If I am somehow able to stop a kid from blowing his allowance on Mini RC Rally or someone decides against downloading Soccer on the Virtual Console because I dropped a 2.2 on it in my review, then I've done my job. It may sound crazy to some people, but I know all too well that not everyone knows that there are so many bad games out there patiently waiting for the chance to make someone miserable.

Last Saturday, GameSpot posted a feature in which each editor picked the one game they were looking forward to the most in 2007. Even the lads from GameSpot UK and GameSpot Australia chimed in, but even with this expanded roster there were some great games that didn't make it on the list. It's not that we're not interested in those games, but rather we were only able to pick one game each and not everything could make it. The passionate response of our audience to that feature prompted me to ask you, the reader, what game you were most looking forward to this year.

I received a ton of responses, and it was no surprise that many of you had trouble limiting your list to just one game and often named several games in your response. Some people were compelled to write entire blogs on the matter. See, it's not so easy to pick just one game, is it? These aren't all of the games that were mentioned, but due to space and time constraints I've picked the ones that were mentioned by the most people. Alright, enough with the yapping and onto your most anticipated games of 2007

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
digital_soul says:
It simply has to be Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii. Not only is this a game that has already been briefly, but tantalizingly, dangled in front of our face as a one time launch title, but is also the game that could potentially revolutionize the FPS genre. Early previews lauded the control scheme saying it was extremely intuitive and came very close to nailing the precision of mouse/keyboard controls. Add to that the fantastic legacy of the previous two games, Retro's undoubted talent, the extra time spent in development, the fact that no FPS has got it quite right on the Wii so far, and you have what could easily be a game of the year contender if they get it right.

Super Mario Galaxy
WhollyNight writes:
My vote for most anticipated game of 2007 has got to go to Super Mario Galaxy. As much as I'm looking forward to Smash Brothers Brawl, BioShock, Rogue Galaxy, Assassin's Creed, and many other games this year, it's been since Super Mario 64 since we last received a real Mario platforming game. There's plenty of room for them to have developed the gameplay to the point where it just won't feel like a retread of things we've done before. Not to mention that Nintendo will be sure to pull out all the stops to really show off what the Wii control scheme can do with their mascot roaming the deep corners of space. Tack on Miyamoto's practically flawless development record and I think we have a recipe for one of the most sure-fire mind blowing games of 2007.

Assassin's Creed
teh_ghost says:
The game I'm most looking forward has to be Assassin's Creed. I am a huge fan of the newer 3D Price of Persia Games, and in many ways, this game is reminding me of that. A lot of the Prince's acrobatic moves have made the move here, and the character seems to have some similarities as well. On top of that there is the whole confusing storyline and I'm interested to see how it plays out. As a Canadian, it's also a plus to see Ubisoft Montreal developing a game, so I can feel like I'm supporting my country by playing video games, as cheesy as that is. Everything about the game seems to really draw you in, the great graphical look, the setting of the crusades, and way the gameplay appears to work flawlessly.

Metal Gear Solid 4
wonderboy_46 writes:
The one game I'm looking forward to this year is Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. I have always been a huge fan of the Metal Gear series and have played every title, including those on the MSX. I have waited nearly six years since the conclusion of MGS2 to see where the narrative goes next and I can't wait to find out what happens. The game also promises to be the PS3's first "killer app" and remains the sole reason why I will be purchasing a PS3 despite the fact I am already an Xbox 360 owner. Here's hoping that Mr. Kojima will once again deliver on the huge hype.

Burnout 5
Sonicwizard writes:
I can't wait for Burnout: 5. I hope it can somehow surpass Burnout: Revenge. The Burnout series is just so great and never disappoints. The graphics always look amazing and they almost always add something to the game to make it better, one game after another. There is also so much content in the Burnout series; so many achievements and cars that lead to unlockables. Burnout: 5 will have me playing which ever console I get it on, for a very very long time, and I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

Mass Effect
HumanTorch101 says:
The game that I am most looking forward to is Mass Effect. It was made by the same company that brought us the KOTOR series and that has become one of the best RPG's IMO. They seem to be taking the "your actions affect the game" to the next level because EVERY single action you make can change the course of the game. If they do it right, this game will have a massive replay value and that is something that I look for when I buy a game. Also, the graphics look excellent and hopefully the sound and music will live up to my expectations as well. In conclusion, it looks as if Bioware has another winner and I hope that people will continue to support them so they can continue making excellent games.

Grand Theft Auto IV
emperor922 writes:
The game I'm looking forward to most would have to be GTA4 because last year we got a watered down version of it called Saint's Row. GTA4 has not been shown in any form and that's why I think I'm more interested in it than anything else. We don't know how it looks and if it will bring anything new to the table, or if it will fix any of its nagging control issues.

BioShock
Rasgueado says:
This is a hard decision to make since picking a single favorite title is almost like splitting hairs at this point. Placed under duress, however, I would likely have to say that I'm most looking forward to BioShock. I've been watching this style of game since the original Ultima Underworld and each time the formula seems to be perfected a little bit more. I'm glad they've chosen a new world to set this in, and I'll be even happier if they tell a complete story with it instead of closing it with a cliffhanger. After that... I'll likely be crossing my fingers to see if they would be interested at taking a stab at trying another Thief title...

Command & Conquer 3
Shasam712 writes:
My most anticipated of '07 is Command and Conquer 3, specifically the 360 version for me. I am a die hard C&C nut, and it's been over half a decade since we had a Tiberium based installment in the series. Kane is back, cooking up some delightful plots, while the addition of the third alien race may mean that there will be some major revelations in the story. In truth, I could care less about the gameplay, I just need to know what Tiberium is; what its purpose is; and why, oh why, is Kane so cool!? I think it’s time to prove that RTS games can be major players on a console.

Just a few of the many other games mentioned include: Forza 2, Half-Life 2 Episode 2, Crysis, Spore, God of War 2, Banjo-Kazooie 3, Stranglehold, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Halo 3, Hellgate: London, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Blue Dragon, and one optimistic soul is still holding out hope for Duke Nukem Forever to make it out in 2007. I'd like to thank everyone for taking the time to comment and email me about their most anticipated game.

As you may or may not have noticed, a feature in which the GameSpot editors discuss their most anticipated games of 2007 went up this weekend (judging by the "Where is insert game here?! OMG GameSpot hates insert console here!" comments, you have noticed). To clarify as to why the list wasn't longer, we were asked to pick one game each, and because there are only a handful of editors, there was no way every great game could be mentioned. I know I'm looking forward to the next Metal Gear and Super Mario Galaxy, but God of War was one of my all-time favorites, so I had to go with God of War 2.

If your favorite game didn’t mentioned, now is your chance to make your feelings known, right here in the Soapbox. I'd like to hear about the one game you're looking forward to the most this year. Leave a comment below or send an email to AaronT@GameSpot.com. I'll look over the submissions and will put the best of them in a feature that will be posted to the Soapbox this Wednesday. Try to keep them under 150 words so we can get a good sample of games.

Well, what are you waiting for? Get writing!

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Get to know the people that bring you all of the great content on GameSpot in a regular series of short and lighthearted gaming-related interviews.

Episode X: Tom Magrino

This week I sat down with Tom Magrino, one of GameSpot's copy editors. It turns out that he's a pretty nice guy when he's not driven to tears because I use too many commas. I don't know a whole lot of copy editors and I'm guessing that most of you don't either, so enjoy the look into the life of someone that likes punctuation so much that they made a career of it.

I've got a few other video ideas rattling around in this brain of mine, so in order to make time for them I'll probably be doing "Getting To Know" every other week. But don't worry, it's not going anywhere. And next episode we're graced with the presence of Mr. Ryan Davis, so you've got that to look forward to...or something. :)