I hope everyone had a great holiday season this year.  With all these new games to play, it won't be such a long and cold winter around here!

In my pre- and post-Christmas shopping, I found out that, for the most part, the PlayStation 3 is now available for impulse buyers.  I've seen as few as one and as many as about 30-40 in stores here in the Atlanta area.  Most have signs saying they have them, and we're not seeing the violence that hit at the console's launch.  Face it; the console is still very scarce, so where is the demand for it that we saw in November?

I can possibly answer that at one retailer who will remain nameless.  They had stacks of the console, in both flavors, but were still requiring customers to buy a bundle.  On the day after Christmas, the requirement was 3 games and an additional controller.  I tried talking them out of the bundle, and they said they were sticking to it.  I said I'd wait, and sure enough as I was talking to the manager someone was processing returns ... there were three consoles being returned!

Equally interesting was a shopping trip a few days later to another retailer on the same side of town.  They had a pretty obvious sign saying "Now Available;" when I asked they said that nobody was after them.  The store wasn't requiring a bundle purchase, but they still had them.

The next day, I was back at the first retailer and made an interesting discovery.  The bundle had changed to 2 games and a controller.  Again, I tried to talk them out of it, even going so far as to offer to buy a similar number of Blu-Ray movies instead (since I could find at least 2 BD movies I'd want; I was having trouble picking out 2 PS3 launch titles).  Still wouldn't budge off the bundle.  I'll wait some more.

I'm sure the PlayStation 3 will do fine in the end, but it's not starting off right.  No included HDTV cables, limited launch lineup ... someone needs to turn this ship around pronto!

First of all, I hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving holiday.  This is a time for family, for enjoying each other's company, for good food ... so make sure you step away from your Wii or PS3 long enough to savor that.

That said, I have to say that the last day has proven one thing to me.  All you doubters of what Nintendo was thinking when they decided to let Sony and Microsoft get so far ahead of them technologically ... should have been in our den throughout the day.

We fired up Wii Sports for the first time early this morning, and for the most part, it never left the drive.  It's hardly the system's marquee title, but in my opinion it fully verifies what the House of Mario had in mind when it developed the Wii.  Everyone was playing it ... my mom, my aunt, all the cousins young and old.  Everyone loved it!

We created Miis for all the players, and that was as entertaining as the games themselves.  We used the Photo Channel to show off some freshly-taken digital pictures.  The biggest part of all ... we all had FUN!  We didn't need hundreds of millions of polygons, 1080p resolution or any of that other stuff that people say you have to have if you really want to consider your console to be "next-gen."

We'll be back at it later in the day.  Enjoy your holiday weekend, and happy gaming!

Lunchtime today was pretty eventful ... my Wii arrived!  It's a well-presented package, and appears to be labeled for easy set-up for someone who might have never (or not in a long time) set up a console before.  I won't be setting it up until late this evening because (ugh) work beckons.

Taking a look at the features: I'm thinking the Wii Photo Channel may be a good idea, at least for me.  My digital camera uses SD memory cards, so it'd be a perfect way for me to show off new pictures I've taken recently, without lugging a laptop everywhere or relying on the camera's small screen or the slightly larger screen on my SD-friendly PDA.

Looks like it'll be a fun Thanksgiving week!

Now that we're mere hours away from the launch of the PlayStation 3 in the United States, I checked out eBay to see how things were going.  As expected, the speculators were having a field day.  I saw one auction for just the console (60GB model) go for $3,550, or almost six times its list price.  The Wii isn't faring much better; recent auctions have sold for $900, or just over 3 1/2 times list price.  Again, this is purely for the console!

I'm sorry, but the line has to be drawn somewhere.  I'm sure both Sony and Nintendo will be keeping an eye on eBay this weekend and over the next couple of weeks.  They've got to be spinning on their eyebrows seeing people make so much more money on their machines than they will; heck, Sony is widely expected to lose money on each PS3 it sells.  (I think Nintendo has said it will actually make a small profit on each Wii, a rarity in the console biz.)

You realize, don't you, that if this keeps up, about the only place you'll be able to buy a PlayStation 4, Xbox 720 or a SuperWii (when/if each arrives) will be on eBay, at exorbitant prices.

Anyone care to start a dialogue on this?  How do you make sure that end-users can buy the console, yet protect those who might wish to sell their consoles later?  After watching this silliness (and reading the line stories here on GS), something needs to be done.

As to my own Wii situation: thanks to a poster in the Wii forums, I located the GameStop bundle at its second outlet, Barnes & Noble.  B&N had removed the magazine subscription and the extended warranty from the deal, so the only overpriced item was the Wii-branded SD card.  I confirmed my order, and it'll arrive at my office Monday.

I got to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert in Gulfport, Mississippi a few years ago.  The concert was mere days after the tragic accident that claimed the lives of both his parents, but his performance was still spot-on.  If he's touring near you, take a chance and go see his show!

Why do I bring him up?  The latest escapades with console pre-orders reminds me of one of his more recent parody songs, "E-Bay" (to the tune of "I Want it That Way").  I've seen local stores prepare their shelf space to make room for the PS3, knowing full well they won't have a console to sell much after opening on November 17.  However, come noon, just like after the EB GameStop pre-sales ended, you'll see most all of them up for sale to the highest bidder.

Personally, I'm all for free enterprise.  If someone's desperate enough to spend $1500 on a $600 gaming machine, I should be smart enough to sell to them, right?  That said, if the only people buying the machine are speculators, then something may be wrong ... either with Sony under-valuing the console (i.e., is it truly worth $1000-plus, since the market may well bear that price) or with the retailers--and Sony--not figuring out how to make sure that only final consumers buy them.

I've been on both sides of the argument here.  I have been trying to pre-order a Wii with no success, yet 5 years ago I lined up at a local Wal-Mart with the buddies from my favorite game store to buy as many of their Xbox consoles as we could so the store would have its own supply to sell.

So the question is this: how do you make sure that only consumers buy the consoles, but at the same time protect people who might eventually want to sell their console to someone else legitimately?  After all, I got my Xbox 360 from a friend of a friend who bought it and didn't like it.

... the world changed forever.  I don't have to go into what happened; goodness knows there's enough media outlets doing that today already.  Up to that point, we in the gaming world were readying for the upcoming release of the Xbox and the GameCube as if nothing else mattered.  Then, in an instant, such things seemed much less important.

Today, we're almost in the same position.  Two new consoles, the PS3 and the Wii, will be released very soon, and again, that's almost all that really matters.  Deep down, we all know that it's only a small facet of our lives.  Just once today, take a moment and reflect.

All that said, if there is one thing that has governed my life since that fateful day, it's that I WILL NOT LIVE IN FEAR.  A week before 9/11, I had purchased airfare for a vacation in California later that year.  The afternoon of September 11, 2001, I vowed I would not let a bunch of psychopaths ruin it.  I took the trip, as planned.

Similarly, don't let today distract you from living your life.  I plan on finding a game or two to play this evening ... maybe as comfort, maybe as striving to get back to normal, like many of us did back then.  But most of all, because it *is* part of my life, and I intend to enjoy it to the full.

OK, get your minds out of the gutter, people. I'm referring to the game currently residing in my GameCube, "Mega Man Anniversary Edition" from Capcom. These games are certified classics, and still hold up well, even with all the ancient sound effects and flashing sprites when too many were on one line of the screen. The thing I had forgotten was how hard these games were. I'm still working my way through Mega Man I, and at least I'm at Dr. Wily's stage, but some of that is incredibly difficult. I got to a point where I got absolutely stuck ... fortunately a quick search of the 'net found a current GameFAQ that pointed me in the right direction (or, rather, what otherwise unknown power-up was necessary to complete a given part of the stage). I'm looking forward to finishing the game, so I can (a) see what it unlocks on the disc, if anything, and (b) start Mega Man II. I have a thing about completing games in order.

I love these compilation titles. In fact, it was Namco Museum (Vols 1-5) that convinced me to pick up a PlayStation. I'm kind of miffed that Capcom didn't release its Capcom Generation titles here in the United States. The legend at the time was that Sony wanted "Tekken or better" quality for any game it approved for use on the PS, and since Capcom's old arcade games were 2-D, Sony wouldn't approve them. Keep in mind, that Namco was still releasing its Museum discs at the time. Supposedly, Capcom got so mad they threatened to stop PS development and take their games, including Resident Evil, elsewhere. Guess things got worked out ...

Well, I certainly hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. For the first time in a few years, I did relatively well in the wish list department. To be fair, I'm not a huge fan of wish lists, simply because I think it's up to the gift-giver to determine what they think I would like. However, with so many media choices out there (games, DVDs, music) it's a good idea to give some ideas as to titles I don't own or plan on purchasing, because there's nothing like having the recipient tell you they already own X when you went out of your way to get it to put a major downer on your family gift exchange.

Anyway, I did receive a couple of games I requested, notably Metroid Prime 2 and Mario vs DK for the GBA. Both are games I've wanted to get but either haven't had the cash or haven't found them on sale. Now I've just got to find time to play them amongst all the other titles I'm fooling around with, including some classics (see Now Playing for details).

You'll find that it'll take me a while to finish a given game, simply because I have so many other interests outside the gaming domain that occasionally a game gets lost in the shuffle. The biggest example is that it took me almost 5 years of off-and-on playing to complete Final Fantasy VII. There would be stretches where that'd be the only game I would play, and then stretches where the disc would spend months in its case, never to see the laser-light from my PS1 (or PS2).

What is one of those interests? Amusement parks. Right now is the off-season for most every local park, so it'll be a long cold winter before I'm back riding my favorite coasters and enjoying the out-of-doors. If you're also a theme park fanatic, be sure a link to Screamscape is in your Favorites list ... http://www.screamscape.com. It is one of the best rumors and news sites out there and will keep you up to date on what's happening at your local fun zone.

Until the parks reopen, there are Koopas to stomp, Space Pirates to zap, dungeons to explore and races to be won. Have a Happy New Year!