I have never owned a handheld system before... I never really felt the need.... But my job is going to start including some travel I figured it was about time...  I know I had the choice between Nintendo and Sony... I really had no preference other than a couple of games that I would rather play on the PSP have been out for a while...  I am going to see what the handheld experience does for me.... I may pick up a DS eventually if I like this enough... I would love to play DQ9 which is supposedly DS only so that could influence some things....

I did not get a chance to play it yet.... I plan on putting some time on it tonight.... we will see how that goes....

I also am banking on some of the compatibility with the PS3 to come into play, but that is really not that big of a concern....

 

When I played Paper Mario: Thousand year door for the GameCube, I was intrigued and, despite a few things, enjoyed it.  I am always put off by random side quests that don't have any forseeable benefit or that you cant complete at least part of as you progress.  I do not enjoy playing the same levels over again to reach one certain point where I need an ability I didnt have the first time.  Pointless running around just to collect worthless items seems frivolous.  Thousand Year Door did this to some extent, but not to the extent that Super Paper Mario did.  Maps and Cards and the like seemed repetative and pointless.  I also dont really go for the "home base" prgression through the game.   Every time you beat something you end up right back where you started to discover more secrets of the same area.  Its redundant.

Super Paper Mario was basically a let down.  It really had no challenge.  I knew that the battle system had been changed, but I kind of expected a little better way to battle enemies.  And switching between characters frequently just stops the action... at least put a fast swap or something...

Oh well... its under my belt and now I can focus on GOD OF WAR 2, but I have this distinct feeling that Kratos is an Idiot.  He treats the other gods like crap and then foolishly thinks that Zues is going to help him and, of course, things turn out poorly...

P.S. I dont like the weapon upgrade system of GOD of WAR... never did.....

What can you do?

I finally made my way through Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door.... it took just under 38 hours to complete... I failed to collect all the characters but thats alright... I suppose I could go back through and collect some of the rest of the stuff, but I just dont care that much.... I am ready to move on...

Speaking of moving on, I have to debate between Super Paper Mario and God of War 2.... I imagine I will start with God of War just to kill stuff... Yeah that should be sweet....

 

My tv is now alive and well again.... In honor of my triumph I decided to get Super Paper Mario and God of War 2... they should be here in a few days... that gives me time to finish Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door... Time to buckle down...

It happened.  I wasnt expecting it to happen, but it happened.  My DLP Tv lamp crapped out tonight.  I was going to sit down and watch some tv and just relax on this Friday night and now I can't even do that.  Luckily I have a backup plan to get some more Paper Mario in tonight... My PC monitor has inputs in it so that I can play my GameCube still.  I ordered a new Lamp online for $185 and it should be here before the end of next week.  It shouldn't take more than a couple minutes to swap the new one with the old, but, man, that just put a damper on my whole weekend.  Sigh... This might give me more time to work on some PS2 stuff I have been neglecting..

The lamps are supposed to last for 8000 hours.  I have had my tv for just over a year, but if I did the math correctly, 8000 divided over 365 days is nearly 22 hours a day!! I know I watch a lot of tv, but I know it wasnt on for that long!  There is something about 6000 in "High Power" mode, but that is still 16 hours of tv a day!!  I think this lamp might have expired too soon.  Oh well... Maybe I can coax the tv back on after I try a couple things, but I am probably without recourse...:cry:

I went out and picked up Paper Mario Thousand Year Door today... I wanted to play it before the new Paper Mario comes out.  Kind of like a test drive.... of a different vehicle.... I realize that the New Paper Mario is somewhat different from this one.  We will see how it goes.... I have two weeks to beat it before the next one comes out... I also am going to pick up Rival Swords, if it is any good anyway...

I have been hammering away at Call of Duty 3 on and off since I got it.  I thought I was only about 75% done with it when it... just... well... ended.  I was rather disappointed by this game.  The other COD games seemed to have more challenge.  The weapons of WWII aren't really all that "exciting" and I suppose without any Sci-fi elements to the game, major "boss" battles dont happen as such.  Many of the levels were placid and ordinary.  In many cases, all that was required was to survive.  This was made simple by the numerous allies that kept the enemy at bay long enough to heal.  The visuals were not even as good as the previous games.  The numerous glitches and long pauses in in-game squences only detracted from something that was not very exciting in the first place.

At least I can knock that off my list and move onto something else.  I plan of getting GOD OF WAR II, but I haven't even had the time to order it online let alone play anything.  I have to keep moving forward with what I have, before some really exciting games come out for the PS3 and I cannot go back.

I think my Wii is broken! Or at least damaged.  I bought the component cables and when I plugged them in and turned on my Wii there were little black specks here and there.  I didn't know what was wrong.  I though maybe it was my tv or even the cables I bought, but I switched back to the original cables and they still exist.  I dont know what happened.

This is what it looks like!  Not my Wii, but similar images appear on mine.  I have read and people on the boards say its hardware or firmware and they will have to replace my Wii.  I'm not really happy about this, but I DO want it fixed.  I think I can save all the info on there, save games and miis mostly.

This is just frustrating.  How did component cables break my Wii?  I'm hoping its just something I can fix, but it doesn't look good.

Anyone else having this problem?

I took this long weekend very seriously.  I only worked a little overtime, and stayed at home for the rest.  More cold and more snow only added to the enclosed weekend.  I managed to play through a significant amout of Zelda.  I have now reached about 35 hours into the game... I started the weekend just over 10.  I even ran through a brand new pair of Wii-mote batteries.  I talked to almost no one and ate very little.  I could have found better things to do, but decided that I worked a lot and had not even taken off some of the other holidays that existed since the new year.  I was due.

I am really enjoying Zelda.  I took some time off the main quest just to travel around the world and collect some things that would help me in the future: Heart pieces, gold bugs, and a few other rare collectables.  I want to collect everything, but I need to finish the quest first.  I am trying not to use a guide for anything (like golden bugs), but that might happened after I finish the quest.

...it consumes me....

Yeah I seem to start to complain too soon about some things.  Of course upon Reading The ... Instructions I found the source of my problem and fixed it with ease.

I also managed to get Wii Play before work yesterday.  Bad Move, in some sense.  Then I had to wait all day before I could even get home and then I still didnt get a chance to put it in, not even for a minute.   I wanted to, but real life always seems to get in the way.

There is still snow and the promise of more snow only disheartens me more.  I am going to try and stay home all weekend (including Monday) and play as much Zelda as I can stand, but I already know I am working OT this weekend, how much, is still to be determined.

I still have a number of games to get through including:

Trauma Center

Call of Duty 3

SoA: Legends

and DQ 8

amongst others I may never get back too....

I have hit my 3rd Wii-mote with the purchase of Wii Play and now only need one more nunchuck (and maybe the component cables) to complete my Wii purchases until SSB: Brawl comes out.

...when will it end...