#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