Some ideas are fantastic right from conception. Other ideas seem doomed to fail right from the drawing board. Some ideas have initial merrit, and yet others take you by surprise. But what about those ideas that you just know had potential, but somehow ended up in complete disapointment?

Here folks, is my TOP 5: GOOD GAME IDEAS GONE WRONG.

5. ALIENS vs PREDATOR: EXTINCTION (PS2) -

When I first heard an RTS game was in the works that would use this franchise as a platform, I was foaming at the mouth. All I could think about was StarCraft, using Aliens, Predators and Marines as the factions. Seriously, how could this fail? Well, it did. What should have been an addictive and relevant RTS game turned out to be an absolute comma inducing borefest. The graphics were sub-par and the gameplay was spotty, but those were simply minor frustrations in comparison to the real letdown. The game didn't use ships whatsoever, even though the game practically begs for it. Why not use the colonial marine ATVs and Dropships and predator ships? Why not have different structures or bases to add depth like in StarCraft? A balance of soldiers, ships, bases and clear objectives is the bare necessities of the RTS genre. In AvsP:E, you didn't even really have to mine or hunt for supplies, you didn't have to manage much at all really, and you were very limitted as to how many units you could have on screen. There was very little variation in mission objectives, very little customization, and even less strategy. This game could have been epic, but instead it turned out to be a sloppy, non-entertaining, excercise in generic game design.

4. CASTLEVANIA: JUDGMENT (Wii)-

CastleVania has had some great characters over the years, from Simon to Alucard, from Death to Richter, and Dracula himself. The series has always had great weapons, from whips to swords, axes and knives, to magic and holy water. The series is known for some great settins and musical scores to boot. So how can you skrew up a fighter based on CastleVania characters? Well,you can make it in3D and put it on the Wii.All they had to do to make a winning game here was use a dynamically rendered 2D format (ala Guilty Gear, BlazBlue), and focus on making it a visual feast with classic gameplay and a soundtrack of "symphony of the night" quality. CVf ans would have eaten it up. Instead, we got a lackluster product, sloppily made in 3D with near broken gameplay, and slapped on the Wii as one of 1,000 other forgettable shovelware titles. GameSpot's rating of 3 was very, very generous.

3. BOMBERMAN ACT ZERO (360) -

Anyone who played Super BomberMan on the SNES knows how addictive and fun BomberMan can be, especially fighting your friends. Dynamic puzzle-like strategy, addictive gameplay and interesting powerups were all you needed. It was a simple, but oh so sweet formula. Bringing the series back, and playable on the 360's admirable online service was, in theory, a decent idea. And then this game dropped. And bombed. This game is a bomberman game in title only. Its almost like the devs knew it too, because they made sure that nothing about this game even remotely resembled anything BomberMan, right down to the bombermen themselves. I could go on, but there is no need. Complete Epic Fail, especially considering the potential battles that could have been waged on XBLive.

2.FINAL FANTASY IV: THE AFTER YEARS (WiiWare) -

Developing an oldschool, 2D, classic styled Final Fantasy is at the very top on my list of "good ideas". Unfortunately, when I dream of the idea, it sounds so much better than what SquareEnix shat out for us. First of all, the game is only available as an over-priced Wiiware download. Secondly, you can't get the whole game at once, it comes in sections, so while its already over-priced, you can revel in the fact that you only own 1/4 of it. That said, once you've quickly run through the lackluster and forgettable story that didn't even meet the bare-bones criteria of being somewhat nostalgiac, you might be glad you only bought the first part. This could have been done really well, with top-notch graphics and decent writting, but it ends up being nothing more than a shallow and blatant cash-grab by SquareEnix, who once again, kicks their fanbase in the groin.

1. LEGEND OF ZELDA: FOUR SWORDS ADVENTURE (NGC) -

Seing as how "Legend of Zelda"is my all-time favorite game series, this was an easy pick for top spot on the list, and remains my biggest dissapointment in gaming. Ever. This is the one idea on the list that should have been an absolute guarantee to be a game of epic proportions, especially when you consider the consistancy and quality the series has had for two decades. So the idea was simple; make a classic 2D Zelda title in the mold of "Link to the Past", spruce up the visuals with some minor effects from"WindWaker", and make it multiplayer. Just typing that last sentence gave me goosebumps and chills, so you can imagine how much I like the idea.The gameplay, combat and puzzle style of Zelda fits a multiplayer scenario perfectly, and with the GameCube having four controller ports, this game should have been a dream come true. So why wasn't it? Because Nintendo selfishly used it as a gimmicky marketing ploy to sell accessories. The single player portion feels awkward and disjointed due to the GBA related aspects still being present. But worse than that, you actually can't play this as a multiplayer Zelda game with NGC controllers. You need a GameBoy Advance system, and a systems "Link" cable (unintentional but painfull pun there) for EACH and every player. So to play a four players and use this game to its potential, you would need to have an NGC, copy of the game, one NGC paddle, three GBA systems, and three sets of GBA link-cables. Rediculous. Had this game been a straight up multiplayer title for use with the Cube's extra controller ports and NGC controllers, it would have gone down as one of Nintendo's best multiplayer games ever, and people would still be raving about it today. As it stands, its pretty much the most forgotten and often dismissed title in the series, and for good reason.

Thanks for reading friends. Please, feel free to comment on my list, but share your own examples of good game ideas gone wrong. I'd love to hear some other choices!

Cheers.

Lets be honest, we all like a deal right? But is there a distinction to be made between using deals to your advantage, and taking advantage of a companie's deal?

I'm on the fence. Part of me feels that since I'm not doing anything illegal, and I'm merely taking advantage of a companie's own stupidity, its really just a clever gain. This aspect is heightened by the fact that I've had some utterly horrid experiences with the companies I take advantage of the most (EBgames/GameStop and BlockBuster Video) so there's a little bit of "stick it to the man" type moxy to it.

Take BlockBuster Video for example. Last month, they had a promo here in Canada in which they were clearing out thier pre-owned video games with a "buy 2 get 1 free deal". They were also running a deal in which any current gen game was worth a minimum of $10 trade. The joke is, they sell some of those used games for only $9.99!! THINK ABOUT IT!! You could go into a blockbuster and buy 3 used games priced at $9.99 for only $20 (because the 3rd $10 game is free) and then EACH of those games is still worth a minimum of $10 apiece (so $30 in credit for what just cost you $20).So I took that $30 in credit, bought more $9.99 games (every 3rd one free remember) and flipped those back in for $10 apiece and so on and so forth. You basically gain $10 every time you flip a set of 3 $9.99 titles. I ended up getting a brand new extra retail game ($59.99 value) because every time I swapped games, I put the extra credit on gift cards.

Is it wrong for me to do that? I mean, if a company is stupid enough to keep giving me $30 trade for stuff I just bought from THEM for $20, is it wrong for me to purposely flip those games in a few times to gain that $10 each time? I mean, they're setting thier trade prices, I'm just smart enought to work the system right? Or am I being fraudulant at this point?

Same applies to the deals you see at EBgames/Gamestop. When they have those "trade 3 used titles get a brand new game" deals on, I'm all over that! They usually restrict the deal to games that trade in for at least $8 or higher, but even still, there are deals to be had. For example, I just purchased "Uncharted 2" and "Demon Souls" for my PS3 based purely off those 3 for 1 deals, and it cost me about $50 total for both games. I just used that buy 2 get 1 free used deal at BlockBuster to purchase used games on the cheap, and provided they count for the GameStop promo, those 3 used games (that just costme like $30 or so at BBV) are traded for a brand new $69.99 game at Gamestop or EBgames under their 3 for 1 deal.

This of course is all aside from the other deals that are to be had, such as digging rare games out of pawn shops and garage sales and flipping them on Ebay and the likes for big money (a copy of Final Fantasy VII fished out of a garage sale for $5 can fetch you upwards of $60 on Ebay for example). Pawn shops are a goldmine if you know whats rare and what'll re-sell for profit.

So should one feel bad about taking advantage of these deals and loop-holes? I mean, retailers are making thier money, especially when you see EBgames/GameStop locations popping up everywhere. And those companies set thier own promotions and prices. So is it wrong to take advantage of them when the situation presents itself?

The question is folks, where does your morality sit in regards to deals in gaming? Are you a savy shopper? A crafty crook? Just a guy who relishes the hunt of a sweet deal?

Gordon Freeman?

Really?

Seriously?

One of the best video game heroes of all time!? Are you kidding me? And he beats out characters like LINK and SOLID SNAKE!?

Complete joke.

Okay, I get. All the PC hounds voted for him because he essentially represents the PC quotient, especially seing howmost of the other characters were from console series. But c'mon now, Gordon Freeman being considered one of the greatest gaming heroesof all time is the equivalent of Micheal Jackson being considered one of the greatest babysitters of alltime. Too soon? Meh.

I realize this is nothing to get worked up over, and its just a rediculous and subjective internet poll, but when an outcome is this absurd, you can't help but say something, and just wonder what planet people are on.

Appologies for my absence as of late folks, I started University this september, and as of day one it has consumed my time as if it were a monster feeding upon my flesh. Perhaps a rather grim analogy, but a fitting one none the less I can assure you.

Thusfar, I've been struggling with the transition. Not only has it proven difficult to keep up with the materials and readings, but considering its week three and we're already writing papers, I can't help but feel I'm being put to the test before I've even had time to learn anything relevant.

This has also meant much less time being devoted to gaming. I've managed to grab a few more platinum trophies, for BioShock and the Genesis Collection taking my total to five, and numbers six and seven will come if I ever find the time to scoop up the last few trophies from Killzone2 and InFamous.

I've also got two games incoming, having pre-ordered "Uncharted 2" and "Demon Souls", but given my recent and ever growing workload at University, they'll probably sit on my shelf unappreciated for longer than I'd like.

Anyhow, my time has been spoken for as of late, but I did want to check in and send my regards to you all, especially those friends from my unions whom I dearly miss chatting with more frequently.

Where did we go wrong?

Multiplayers are fun. They have offered us countless extra hours milked from our $60 purchases. They have allowed us to bathe in the joy of playing with and against real thinking opponents, and offered the entertaining unpredictability that no AI computer can conjure up. They have expanded gaming to become a social activity, and opened the door to new gaming experiences, and new friendships.

So why then am I really starting to hate them?

Because they have seemingly killed off the campaign, or at least the emphasis on atmosphere and story.

Maybe I'm a dinosaur, a dying breed of gamer that actually basks in the single player experience, but in all the hoopla over leaderboards, LAN vs network, I POWNED you, etc etc I can't help but miss the good old days when I just cozied upto play my way through a worthwhile and satisfying story mode. Simply put, its a trend that I'm very concearned about, and one that I don't see going away anytime soon, what with the popularity of Call of Duty 4, Killzone2, Gears of War, Halo just to name a few. The problem is, those games are the upper echelon. The creme de la creme of games that actually manage to put both components together in a worthy package. But there is a much darker side. What about those countless games flooding the shelves that tried to offer both, and ended accomplishing neither?

When I think back to the most interesting FPSers I've played, it isn't the multiplayers that come to mind. Its Half Life. Deus Ex. Chronicles of Riddick. Doom3. And most recently BioShock that have stood the test of time, and kept thier place in my heart.That was due to how entertaining and well developed thier campaigns were, not because I shot my buddy in the face 600 times.

Its not that I dislike multiplayers. On the contrary, I've had a blast with them. But it just seems like somewhere along the line something got skrewed up. When did a 5-6 hour campaign become acceptable? Or how about the online component that barely resembles the subject matter?Is there some law thats been passed that says any FPSer must contain an online component? Or are developers just worried that they don't have the talent to produce an engaging and lengthy campaign? Perhaps greed is a factor, with publisher's wanting a sliceof the online pie even if the game they're publishing is best suited as a single player experience?

MoH:Airborne contained only 6 short missions for the entire campaign that lasted about 4 hours. FEAR pulled off its atmospheric campaign well, but couldn't resist cramming in a forgettable online. HalfLife's Orange Box collection followed suit by tossing an online mulitplayer into the package, which while fun in short bursts, certainly didn't uphold the quality of the campaign episodes. Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena offered up a nice remake, followed by a substandard second campaign, which was rushed to allow for a very lame online component. Barely 3 months after release, nobody was even playing.

Now, my two favorite releases from last year, Uncharted and BioShock,have both opted to add mulitiplayer into their respective sequel efforts, and while I'm still looking forward to both titles, I can't help but be skeptical. Even if the mulitplayer components are done well, it'll still leave me wondering how much more developed or impressive the campaigns could have been had the devs not spent so much time adding multiplayer.

There's obviously many benefits and aspects to appreciate about online multiplayers.

But is the truly atmospheric single player experience drawing its last breath and witnessing its final days?

COMPLETE LIST IS HERE!!

TOP 10 CURRENT TRENDS IN GAMING I WISH WOULD DIE ALREADY:

#10. PASSCODES FOR RETRO RE-RELEASES - its 2009 folks, not 1985. Passcodes were rediculous and frustrating eons ago, and they have no place in retro re-releases today. If you're going to charge any sum for a 15-20 year old game, please take the 5 minutes and 1 block of memory to offer a proper save function.

#9. SUBSTANDARD "COLLECTOR'S EDITION" JUNK - anyone who purchased the Assassin's Creed Collectors Edition knows exactly what I'm talking about. Who wants an Altair figurine that comes broken? Useless posters that I get for $5 anywhere also don't augment the pricing of a "collector's set". A disc of interviews and extra content is nice, but c'mon, lets take more than 5 minutes to throw it together eh? Back in the day, a collector's Edition might have come with leatherbound artbooks, soundtrack CD, interviews, and extras (Lunar & Lunar 2 had ALL of that!). Many come in spiffy tin cases (Halo2, FFXII etc) which is cool, but I need more. It seems people can be bought with cheap posters, plastic figurines, and little else. Look, if you want me to pay upwards of $20 extra for a "collector's edition", a leatherbound art book and disc of extra material is the bare minimum of my expectations.

#8. SHOVELWARE - though the 360 and PS3 certainly have thier share of sub-par titles (anyone played "vampire rain"?) it seems to be the Nintendo Wii that is being most heavily plagued by this issue. Every time I'm ina video game shop, I can't help but marvel at the sheer amount of crap lining the walls. Games that nobody's heard of. Games that nobody's advertising. Games made by companies I've never heard of. Jeebus, go into a GameStop, look at the Wii wall, and actually try to pick out more than 10 games you wouldn't consider a waste of shelf space!! Look, not every game is going to be a masterpiece, but there's a pretty fine line between a failed effort, and an effortless fail.

#7. THE CRAPTASTIC ENDING LEADING TO A SEQUEL - nobody can blame a company for wanting more out of their efforts, and turning a single successfull title into your flagship "franchise" is certainly common practice, but its gotten to the point where you don't even expect a proper ending anymore. At what point did the obligatory sequel-tie-in become a qualified ending to a game!? At this point, none of use are expecting the next Prince of Persia orResident Evil to be the last game in the series by any means, but does that mean we don't deserve a proper or rewarding ending!?

#6. RELEASE DATE FIASCOS - Does anybody actually take release dates seriously anymore!? They're never accurate, they change every five minutes, and when the dust clears, the game is going to arrive eons after the originally stated date, so why bother with all the "release date statements" and "major announcement" hogwash. I know, I know, so the companies can build anticipation right!? But that doesn't even work because at this point we almost assume there'll be delays don't we? This gets even weirder when GameStop starts taking pre-orders, and then your game is delayed fromQ3 2009 until "sometime in Q2 2010. But we don't want to not pre-order and miss out on all that free swag now do we!? Well, maybe we should re-reference item #9...

#5. TOO MANY CONSOLE MODELS - Jeebus, I can hardly keep it all straight. There's the 360 Arcade, the 360 Elite, and the 360 Pro. Wait, this pro comes with a game bundle, but this one comes with nothing. Oh, that was just a special. OMG, there's a Halo bundle....that doesn't come with Halo!? Kinda silly, but I'll bite, what makes it a Halo console then? Ah, its an ugly green color. That'll look nice next to that hideous red RE5 bundle. Maybe I'll just get a PS3. Okay, so the 60bg had everything you'd want, but its now discontinued because people griped. So now my choice is the 20gb thats back-compat but has a tiny HD, the 40gb that isn't back-compat, and 3 different models of 80gb with various differences depending on when they were built......awww skrew it, I'm pluggin in my SNES.

#4. THE QUICK TIME EVENT - when the hell did "press X now" become the standard for gameplay!? Its not interesting. Its not fun. Its not entertaining. And itall but dumbs a situation down to the point where I'd rather just "press reset now". How fun would PAC-MAN have been if every time a ghost came near you could just tap "A" to escape!? Sure, God of War was fun, but since then the quick-time event has become a plague of poor design choice. Is there something wrong with actually just controlling your character!? RE4's lamest moments were quick-time events, a few were randomly thrown into Uncharted for no good reason, and they all but left Prince of Persia's combat as an after-thought. Sorry, but the quick-time event is sooooo 2005, and it needs to go.

#3. THE ONE DAY CAMPAIGN - This bugs me quite alot since personally speaking, I'm a huge fan of single player experiences. Thats not to say I don't play online, I do, but I'm getting sick of paying $59.99 for a game with a 5 hour or lackluster campaign mode. "Chronicles of Riddick" for example was a nice atmospheric single player stealth shooter, but the remake offered a dumbed down campaign and a forgettable multiplayer that few people even bothered with. Same goes for "Medal of Honor: Airborne", which was actually a fantastic game, save the fact it was only 6 missions long. Even my friends who are complete "Halo" junkies were quite frustrated when they walked through Halo3's campaign in what seemed like an afternoon. There are certainly examples of games like CoD4 that managed both well,but there are far too many others where you almost wish they'd have not bothered with an online component at all, especially since the market is already flooded with muliplayers. I'm VERY worried that relevant and satisfying single player campaign modes are becoming a lost artform.

#2. DROPPING THE F-BOMB TO ENSURE THE M-RATING - The "M" rating is there as a means to make gamers aware that content may be unsuitable, but it seems like its almost become a badge of pride or symbol of appeal to some gamers, especially the teens, as if a game without that "M" isn't worth thier time. Sure, there are games like "Silent Hill" that will justifiably bear the "M" due to thier content, but there are even more titles that seem to add pointless content to an otherwise standard game in an effort to "EARN" and "M" rating. Take "HAZE"on the PS3 for example. Its actually a decent enough game from a graphics and gameplay standpoint and could easily have been an accessable T-teen rated action game, had the dialogue not been written by a retarded monkey with tourettes syndrome. Even games like "Killzone2" and "Gearsof War" which would have been rated "M" for violence and gore anyhow, went to great lengths to dumb its language down and throw a swear word into every other line of dialogue. Don't even get me started on all the gangsta-wannabe thuggery games plaguing the shelves, thats a rant for another day.

#1. MILKING A FRANCHISE WITH SUB-PAR SPIN-OFFS AND SEQUELS - I don't understand developers. They're the first ones to complain when sales are down and make excuses when games are delayed, yet they bring it upon themselves. Square-Enix is the worst offender and best example I can give. They've delayed FFXIII until 2010 even though thats thier major project and the game everyone is hyped about, yet they've released a near endless barrageof remakes, re-ports, spin-offs, and mini-games based on the same franchise. At some point, they're going to have to realize that releasing 2 quality A+ titles a year is better than releasing 7 lackluster titles. And I don't mean to pick soley on Square-Enix and Final Fantasy, its just the easiest example. You could make the same arguement with Konami's treatment of CastleVania, Capcom's treatment of MegaMan and Resident Evil, EA's treatment of Medal of Honor, Sega's treatment of Sonic, and so on and so forth. On the contrary, look at how Nintendo handles a series like Legend of Zelda and you've got an example of how to honor your own franchise.

Well, thats it folks, the whole list.

I don't expect you all to agree on every point, as these are merely my own frustrations, but I hope you had an entertaining read. Comments and feedback is muchly appreciated :)

ALMOST THERE GUYS, JUST A FEW MORE BLOGS FOR THE COMPLETE LIST.

HERE ARE #4, #5and #6......Enjoy :)

TOP 10 CURRENT TRENDS IN GAMING I WISH WOULD DIE ALREADY:

#10. PASSCODES FOR RETRO RE-RELEASES - its 2009 folks, not 1985. Passcodes were rediculous and frustrating eons ago, and they have no place in retro re-releases today. If you're going to charge any sum for a 15-20 year old game, please take the 5 minutes and 1 block of memory to offer a proper save function.

#9. SUBSTANDARD "COLLECTOR'S EDITION" JUNK - anyone who purchased the Assassin's Creed Collectors Edition knows exactly what I'm talking about. Who wants an Altair figurine that comes broken? Useless posters that I get for $5 anywhere also don't augment the pricing of a "collector's set". A disc of interviews and extra content is nice, but c'mon, lets take more than 5 minutes to throw it together eh? Back in the day, a collector's Edition might have come with leatherbound artbooks, soundtrack CD, interviews, and extras (Lunar & Lunar 2 had ALL of that!). Many come in spiffy tin cases (Halo2, FFXII etc) which is cool, but I need more. It seems people can be bought with cheap posters, plastic figurines, and little else. Look, if you want me to pay upwards of $20 extra for a "collector's edition", a leatherbound art book and disc of extra material is the bare minimum of my expectations.

#8. SHOVELWARE - though the 360 and PS3 certainly have thier share of sub-par titles (anyone played "vampire rain"?) it seems to be the Nintendo Wii that is being most heavily plagued by this issue. Every time I'm ina video game shop, I can't help but marvel at the sheer amount of crap lining the walls. Games that nobody's heard of. Games that nobody's advertising. Games made by companies I've never heard of. Jeebus, go into a GameStop, look at the Wii wall, and actually try to pick out more than 10 games you wouldn't consider a waste of shelf space!! Look, not every game is going to be a masterpiece, but there's a pretty fine line between a failed effort, and an effortless fail.

#7. THE CRAPTASTIC ENDING LEADING TO A SEQUEL - nobody can blame a company for wanting more out of their efforts, and turning a single successfull title into your flagship "franchise" is certainly common practice, but its gotten to the point where you don't even expect a proper ending anymore. At what point did the obligatory sequel-tie-in become a qualified ending to a game!? At this point, none of use are expecting the next Prince of Persia orResident Evil to be the last game in the series by any means, but does that mean we don't deserve a proper or rewarding ending!?

#6. RELEASE DATE FIASCOS - Does anybody actually take release dates seriously anymore!? They're never accurate, they change every five minutes, and when the dust clears, the game is going to arrive eons after the originally stated date, so why bother with all the "release date statements" and "major announcement" hogwash. I know, I know, so the companies can build anticipation right!? But that doesn't even work because at this point we almost assume there'll be delays don't we? This gets even weirder when GameStop starts taking pre-orders, and then your game is delayed fromQ3 2009 until "sometime in Q2 2010. But we don't want to not pre-order and miss out on all that free swag now do we!? Well, maybe we should re-reference item #9...

#5. TOO MANY CONSOLE MODELS - Jeebus, I can hardly keep it all straight. There's the 360 Arcade, the 360 Elite, and the 360 Pro. Wait, this pro comes with a game bundle, but this one comes with nothing. Oh, that was just a special. OMG, there's a Halo bundle....that doesn't come with Halo!? Kinda silly, but I'll bite, what makes it a Halo console then? Ah, its an ugly green color. That'll look nice next to that hideous red RE5 bundle. Maybe I'll just get a PS3. Okay, so the 60bg had everything you'd want, but its now discontinued because people griped. So now my choice is the 20gb thats back-compat but has a tiny HD, the 40gb that isn't back-compat, and 3 different models of 80gb with various differences depending on when they were built......awww skrew it, I'm pluggin in my SNES.

#4. THE QUICK TIME EVENT - when the hell did "press X now" become the standard for gameplay!? Its not interesting. Its not fun. Its not entertaining. And itall but dumbs a situation down to the point where I'd rather just "press reset now". How fun would PAC-MAN have been if every time a ghost came near you could just tap "A" to escape!? Sure, God of War was fun, but since then the quick-time event has become a plague of poor design choice. Is there something wrong with actually just controlling your character!? RE4's lamest moments were quick-time events, a few were randomly thrown into Uncharted for no good reason, and they all but left Prince of Persia's combat as an after-thought. Sorry, but the quick-time event is sooooo 2005, and it needs to go.

#3. coming soon

#2. coming soon

#1. coming soon

#8 and #7 REVEALED!!

TOP 10 CURRENT TRENDS IN GAMING I WISH WOULD DIE ALREADY:

#10. PASSCODES FOR RETRO RE-RELEASES - its 2009 folks, not 1985. Passcodes were rediculous and frustrating eons ago, and they have no place in retro re-releases today. If you're going to charge any sum for a 15-20 year old game, please take the 5 minutes and 1 block of memory to offer a proper save function.

#9. SUBSTANDARD "COLLECTOR'S EDITION" JUNK - anyone who purchased the Assassin's Creed Collectors Edition knows exactly what I'm talking about. Who wants an Altair figurine that comes broken? Useless posters that I get for $5 anywhere also don't augment the pricing of a "collector's set". A disc of interviews and extra content is nice, but c'mon, lets take more than 5 minutes to throw it together eh? Back in the day, a collector's Edition might have come with leatherbound artbooks, soundtrack CD, interviews, and extras (Lunar & Lunar 2 had ALL of that!). Many come in spiffy tin cases (Halo2, FFXII etc) which is cool, but I need more. It seems people can be bought with cheap posters, plastic figurines, and little else. Look, if you want me to pay upwards of $20 extra for a "collector's edition", a leatherbound art book and disc of extra material is the bare minimum of my expectations.

#8. SHOVELWARE - though the 360 and PS3 certainly have thier share of sub-par titles (anyone played "vampire rain"?) it seems to be the Nintendo Wii that is being most heavily plagued by this issue. Every time I'm ina video game shop, I can't help but marvel at the sheer amount of crap lining the walls. Games that nobody's heard of. Games that nobody's advertising. Games made by companies I've never heard of. Jeebus, go into a GameStop, look at the Wii wall, and actually try to pick out more than 10 games you wouldn't consider a waste of shelf space!! Look, not every game is going to be a masterpiece, but there's a pretty fine line between a failed effort, and an effortless fail.

#7. THE CRAPTASTIC ENDING LEADING TO A SEQUEL - nobody can blame a company for wanting more out of their efforts, and turning a single successfull title into your flagship "franchise" is certainly common practice, but its gotten to the point where you don't even expect a proper ending anymore. At what point did the obligatory sequel-tie-in become a qualified ending to a game!? At this point, none of use are expecting the next Prince of Persia orResident Evil to be the last game in the series by any means, but does that mean we don't deserve a proper or rewarding ending!?

#6. coming soon

#5. coming soon

#4. coming soon

#3. coming soon

#2. coming soon

#1. coming soon

I will unlock a new portion of the complete list every week, but I'll start by releasing two items, since one of them is a repeat from my last blog, and the catalyst for this list.

TOP 10 CURRENT TRENDS IN GAMING I WISH WOULD DIE ALREADY:

#10. PASSCODES FOR RETRO RE-RELEASES - its 2009 folks, not 1985. Passcodes were rediculous and frustrating eons ago, and they have no place in retro re-releases today. If you're going to charge any sum for a 15-20 year old game, please take the 5 minutes and 1 block of memory to offer a proper save function.

#9. SUBSTANDARD "COLLECTOR'S EDITION" JUNK - anyone who purchased the Assassin's Creed Collectors Edition knows exactly what I'm talking about. Who wants an Altair figurine that comes broken? Useless posters that I get for $5 anywhere also don't augment the pricing of a "collector's set". A disc of interviews and extra content is nice, but c'mon, lets take more than 5 minutes to throw it together eh? Back in the day, a collector's Edition might have come with leatherbound artbooks, soundtrack CD, interviews, and extras (Lunar & Lunar 2 had ALL of that!). Many come in spiffy tin cases (Halo2, FFXII etc) which is cool, but I need more. It seems people can be bought with cheap posters, plastic figurines, and little else. Look, if you want me to pay upwards of $20 extra for a "collector's edition", a leatherbound art book and disc of extra material is the bare minimum of my expectations.

#8. coming soon

#7. coming soon

#6. coming soon

#5. coming soon

#4. coming soon

#3. coming soon

#2. coming soon

#1. coming soon

Okay, so I'm in week two of my Wii ownership, and while I've grown attached to the damned thing, I still don't own a single Wii game. I have however blown through 6 Wii points cards. Thats 12,000 points (translation: $120) but I've got more than my money's worth considering a few of the rare RPGs I've downloaded for $8 (Secret of Mana, Ogre Battle, Mario RPG etc) fetch $50+ apiece in original cart format.

I'm loving the Virtual Console, but I do have a major complaint.....Why the hell do the classic games maintain the old save features like passcodes!! Seriously now, we're not in 1985 anymore, but here I am scrambling for a piece of paper so I can jot down some 60 character code, which of course will have to be changed every time I get one new item.

B j 0 0 o o T q I l 1 O 0 w W l k b d

Its that the letter O or the number Zero? Was that supposed to be the number one, or the letter I? Dammit, maybe that "I" was a lower cased "L". Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Seriously now, most of these games have been emulated and ported to the GameBoy Advanced or otherwise with a save feature, so why am I jotting down these strings of code in 2009!? And don't give me some hardcore gamer crap about it "maintaining the integrity of the original product" because if I cared about that factor, I'd be blowing in the cartridge, not playing them on a Wii.

Rant over.

Oh, and my review for the latest Prince of Persia game is up.

*** EDIT UPDATE ***

Apparantly, my problem is that I'm actually turning the games off properly! On mnay games, if you use the Wii's "home" button to just back to the Wii's main menu without actually exiting or quiting the game properly, it will save your spot. Still not as good as just adding a proper save function, and it doesn't work if you unplug or turn off the power bar to your unit, but still usefull for short breaks.

Thanks to a really nice dude I randomly chatted with in a video shop today :)