Be my friend! I promise I won't bite, unless, of course, you would like me to, which is just WEIRD.

So, I've been playing the original Metal Gear. It's a lot of fun, more than I thought it would be. A few things I find hilarious/frustrating:

1) Okay, so you're walking up to a guard, and all of a sudden he screams at the top of his lungs, "I'M GETTING SLEEPY!" Isn't that ASKING for trouble? Plus, the fact that the guy is so sleepy...is not taking enough protein or something?

2) So everytime I die, I go back to the beginning. I fell in a trap door. BACK TO THE BEGINNING. Rar.

3) Engrish makes me laugh, every time, guaranteed.

4) I love how when soldiers spot you, you can scurry off of the screen, and all of a sudden, they've forgotten all about you. The simpler days of gaming, before all this "realism" stuff.

I'm having a blast though, except for the fact that EVERY TIME I DIE I GO BACK TO THE BEGINNING.

I went to Goodwill again and found these gems:

Double Dribble
Metal Gear ($1.99!!!!!!)
Excitebike

Do they even KNOW what they have there? My God!

Yessss! I have a working NES! I already own Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt and SMB2. Here's the list of what I ordered off of Ebay:

Captain Skyhawk
Kirby's Adventure
Super Mario 3
Rad Racer

I'd say that's a good haul. I also forgot how much I suck at the first Mario game.

Found it at Goodwill for 12.99. It came with a Zapper and two controllers. Now the big test...does it actually work? (Cue dramatic music)

I love Soul Calibur games. They're fantastic. I do have a big problem with the next one, though.

You see, the create your own fighter feature is perfect for the arcades, or online. But instead, they're keeping it, same as always, offline. WHY? WHY WHY WHY? This is the perfect game to build up in the arcades and then release online. Why would they do this?

Of course, I'm going to buy it, and love it, but I would like some more human competition. After a while, the computer can be too easily fooled, and it's nice to have people who can learn your moves and beat you down.

In the morning, when I go to my car and go to work, all I want to hear is music. I don't want to hear three people bantering about stupid things. Am I alone on this? Does everyone on earth like morning shows except me?

For a while, the local alternative station dumped a morning show and went to playing music in the morning. It was heaven.

In other news, I'm sick. I have a really bad sore throat. I might die. If I die, bury my ashes in Brian Reynolds.

1) Clutch performance needs to be measured. Here's the problem: You have Tom Brady and Jake Plummer. Now, Jake has all the physical tools, but Tom has all the mental tools. Madden stats, however, only measure physical ability, meaning that in order to make the QBs correct, you have to jack up Brady's limited physical gifts and take down Plummer's physical stats. That's jive. It wouldn't be hard to fix that, really.

2) Make me able to change the in-game songs. It would be awesome to switch their crap selection to my MP3s. Imagine, if you will, hearing in-game Radiohead's "Where I End And You Begin." That would rule more than could possibly be allowed by law.

3) Let me know during the season what kind of players are going to be available during the draft. You don't have to spell it out for me, just let me know, hey, this draft is chock full of RBs and is short on TEs. Honestly, most teams know that during the season and are able to make their personnel moves accordingly. Why can't I?

Those three things alone would make me come back to Madden. Not too difficult, now is it?

I am kidding, of course, to some extent. But really, isn't gameplay king? I mean, I remember having the Doom3 vs. Half-Life 2 debate before the games came out. People actually believed they would be just about equal. Turns out they weren't even in the same ballpark. Half-Life 2 won because, not only did it have graphics, it had gameplay.

Sure, graphics will sell your game, but in the long run, which franchises are the most successful? That Aquanox franchise sure took off, didn't it?

Meanwhile, there are games that fly under the radar that have merely okay graphics that happen to me some of the most amazing games I have ever played (Katamari Damacy), but people still whine about it. It boggles the mind. It shouldn't matter.

Does ANYONE remember how blown away we were by Battle Arena Toshinden? It was incredible. We had never seen anything like it. Now? We laugh at it. We can't believe we were hoodwinked. Mark my words, beware that the same does not befall this generation.

I'm loving this game. I mean, I know it has two things going against it: Monopoly & Tycoon. However, this one has an inimitable style, and it's put together extremely well. Highly recommended.