I have seen a lot of ads for Express on this site over the last few days.

Express is a clothing store chain in the United States that aims its apparel primarily at fashion-conscious twenty-somethings who want to be seen as "edgy."

This does not seem to be a good match for GameSpot, especially since many of the ads feature only women's clothing.

No offense to anyone, but from what I have seen and read, typical video game players rarely seem to have senses of style. Other than T-shirts with snarky phrases or pictures of things from whatever fandoms they are obsessed with, they tend to wear whatever it is that they own for as long as they can, replacing it only when it falls apart or are forced by their significant others or employers.

The minimal level of response to most of my fashion-related blog entries on GameSpot further cements this belief in my mind. The only exception is my colored game hardware proposal entry, which was linked from GameSpot's home page, and a good number of those responses are less than positive.

Seeing so many ads for Express on GameSpot surprises and confuses me. The psychographics of typical GameSpot visitors and typical Express customers do not match, as far as I can tell.

Not that I am the typical Express customer either. I do not consider myself "edgy"--my brother-in-law will disagree--but I do "need" to own dress shirts in every color and shade known to man. Express comes close to offering this, so I have been shopping there a lot lately. (I have purchased 14 dress shirts at Express in last two months.)

I have been visiting Express' Web site quite a bit recently too. I never buy anything from Express over the Web; the shades on screen never match the shades in store, but this is a convenient way to learn if something new is available. That and I fear that more frequent appearances at Express will make people think that I work there. Too many people think that I work at Banana Republic.

This has me wondering. Perhaps Express is not advertising directly with GameSpot. Maybe the massive amount of Express ads that I am seeing on this site is the result of Google's DoubleClick or one of its competitors monitoring my Web activity and placing syndicated ads here based on that.

But the variety of Express ads, constant appearances of these ads and lack of ads from competitors makes me doubt this, even though I cannot understand why Express would advertise on GameSpot.

Anyone else seeing these ads on GameSpot, or is this the result of DoubleClick following me around the Web and placing syndicated ads based on that?

I finished with my video game reservations and pre-orders for the rest of the year: LittleBigPlanet, BioShock, Dead Space, Prince of Persia and Mirror's Edge.

What do these titles have in common?

They are all PlayStation 3 games.

My PlayStation 3 is not my only video game system. I own a Wii and a DS Lite too, but it has been a while since I have seen games for those systems that interest me.

A long while.

I have not purchased a Wii game since purchasing my Wii in April. It has been longer since I last bought a DS game. So long that I cannot remember when it was, probably at least a year.

My Wii activity for the last several months has been to turn the console on every Monday, watch the new videos and view the list of downloadable DS demos on the Nintendo Channel to see if anything interests me (there isn't), switch to the Wii Shop Channel to see if there are any new downloadable WiiWare or Virtual Console games that I feel are worth paying for (there aren't), check for and (if available) download a firmware update and turn the console off.

Nothing about playing video games in there.

And if it weren't for my Picross DS addiction, my DS Lite would be under layers of dust.

What attracted me to the Wii and DS were their abilities, thanks to their unique control schemes, to allow for games (and non-games) unlike anything available for previous home game hardware. After years of buying and playing too many video games that were too similar to video games that I had already played, I was becoming jaded and wanted games that were different.

Most of my DS and Wii games, except for the Virtual Console downloads, were breaths of fresh air. What made them different made them fun.

You could make a game that looks like WarioWare: Smooth Moves on any game console released in the last decade, but it would be dull without the Wii's motion controls. Kirby: Canvas Curse looks no better than an early Super NES game, but attempting to play it with a directional pad and buttons instead of a stylus on a touch screen would be a frustrating experience. And while it is an option, no one plays Meteos with button controls because it is not a viable option. (I am morbidly curious about how the upcoming Meteos Wars for the Xbox 360, with its required button controls, will turn out.) Even games like Picross DS and Planet Puzzle League, which are follow-ups to games with traditional, button-based control schemes, "feel" different and better with touch screen controls. A stylus allows these games to be sped up significantly without making them frustrating.

But as much as I try, I have not been able to get excited about a new Wii or DS game for some time.

If they had been released a year ago, I would have been all over titles like BlastWorks, Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, N+, de Blob and Soul Bubbles. These are unique video games, and, according to many reviews, are pretty good.

Now I can't care about them.

I do not understand this. I was beginning to think that this is because I get stimulated visually--no, not like that--more than any other way, and that the DS and Wii's weak hardware made for visually unimpressive video games, but that cannot be the reason. Many of the DS and Wii games that I have no interest in that I should have interest in are artistically brilliant.

The PlayStation 3 is a fine game console, but the problem with it is that it is an evolution, not a revolution. We get better looking, better sounding games with more realistic physics, intelligent artificial intelligence and superior online experiences. These allow for improvements upon existing video games, not truly original video games. Not even the PlayStation 3's motion-sensitive controls do much to differentiate it from the competition and past home game hardware. Unlike the Wii's motion-sensitive controls, the PlayStation 3's are not versatile enough to be used exclusively or primarily in video games; they work best when used to complement traditional gameplay concepts, such as flicking your wrists upward to take the ids of enemies in Folklore.

Mirror's Edge and Prince of Persia (2008 ) are the latest evolutions of puzzle-based platformers, going back to the original Prince of Persia (1989). BioShock and Dead Space are both System Shock 3 spiritually. And for all the hype that LittleBigPlanet gets for making user-created mods easy to, well, create, it has been done before; LittleBigPlanet is merely the first time that this concept has gotten a good amount of publicity.

Which are apparently what I want from my video games now, as much as I try to convince myself otherwise.

Without evil, there cannot be good.

The Spanish and English editions of Madden NFL 09 double as the good and evil editions of Madden NFL 09, respectively.

The evil edition of Madden NFL 09 features Brett Favre, former member of the Evilest of Evil (also known as the Green Bay Packers), wearing an Evilest of Evil uniform on the cover.

The good edition of Madden NFL 09, released on September 16, features Roberto Garza of the saintly, angelic Chicago Bears on the cover.

I expect everyone to make the right decision and choose the good edition of Madden NFL 09 over the evil edition, even if you do not understand Spanish.

And if you were impatient and purchased the evil edition of Madden NFL 09 in August because it was the only edition available at the time, you can repent now by purchasing a copy of the good edition.

Unless you are evil, this is the edition of Madden NFL 09 to buy.

...you reserve a copy of LittleBigPlanet at GameStop for the retailer's exclusive in-game Kratos (from God of War) Sackboy (from LittleBigPlanet) costume reservation bonus, and when you remove the sticker on the card that the cashier gave you for reserving a copy of LittleBigPlanet to reveal the hidden promotion code underneath that you need to enter to download the costume, some of the paper underneath the sticker rips off, leaving you with an incomplete promotion code, making it impossible to download the in-game costume?

I do.

I have sent a message to PlayStation Consumer Services regarding this. Hopefully I will be sent a complete promotion code.

If I am not sent a complete promotion code, I don't know what I will do. Maybe I'll post another rant here. Maybe I will write an editorial (which will be linked from the GameSpot home page and be read by thousands of people--thank you Soapbox emblem) about this incident, complaining about Sony's inadequate customer service, hurting the company's reputation, which has been hurt plenty in recent years for all sorts of reasons. Maybe I'll try to get one of those sensational, corporation-hating video game or technology blogs to cover my misfortune to pressure Sony to give me a complete promotion code for the LittleBigPlanet in-game Kratos Sackboy costume that I am entitled to.

But hopefully it will not have to come to any of those things.

My plan yesterday was to walk to a GameStop, reserve a copy of the Playstation 3 version of Mirror's Edge (for the free runner's bag), and on the way back eat dinner at a Subway restaurant and go grocery shopping.

The weather had other plans.

There was heavy rain early in the morning, and though it was night when I went out to do these errands and I thought that the rain had long stopped, I took an umbrella to be safe.

A good decision. I felt raindrops immediately after I got outside.

But it was a light rain. It was enough rain that I needed to open my umbrella, but it was no reason for me to change my plans.

After walking about two blocks, the rain and wind picked up and I saw lightening.

I was starting to feel uncomfortable, but I was already outside, so I decided to continue on my way.

Another block and my umbrella became useless. It was above my head, but it was not helping me keep dry. My shirts and pants were soaked, and I could feel water moving around in my shoes with every step. (At least I was smart enough to wear my watch with a metal bracelet; otherwise I would now be in need of a new watch strap.)

The rain was now coming down so fast and hard that it looked like it would cause some buildings to flood—and as I heard on the news when I got home, it did.

Then the tornado sirens rang.

There was no way that I was going to walk four miles to GameStop in this weather, but I felt that I had to do something. I was stubborn. If I walked home without accomplishing any of my errands, I would have "lost" to the weather.

I was about a block from a Subway. I thought about going inside, eating and declaring victory against the weather, but the place was packed (probably more because no one inside wanted to go outside in the then current weather than because a lot of people were eating there). In my then current condition, I did not want to sit so close to so many people for a relatively long period of time.

Besides, I was out of soap and fruit, and low on milk.

I walked three more blocks in the still increasingly heavy rain, wind and lightening to the grocery store. When I got there, I saw what must have been at least 30 people standing just inside the exit, waiting for the rain to slow.

One woman, who appeared to be in her mid- to late-20's, could not help but laugh at me as I entered the store.

At least I was wearing dark clothing—a charcoal gray dress shirt; dark brown heather T-shirt and black, non-pleated chinos. I saw someone else who got stuck in the rain wearing a white shirt. You could see his skin underneath.

But I was in. Victory over the weather was now a foregone conclusion.

I walked down the aisles, my shoes making squishy sounds with every step, leaving a trail of water behind. One employee noticed, looked angry (probably because he was going to have to mop up after me), but tried to show a sense of humor about it by attempting to talk to me about it.

Alas, I was too wet, cold and exhausted to think coherently and carry on a conversation. I didn't say anything to him, nor to the cashier who (I think) said pretty much the same things. I hope that I didn't come off as rude.

And after I paid for my groceries, I walked home. The rain and wind (but not the lightening) had slowed considerably since entering the grocery store, but I was still glad that I chose to buy fewer items that I normally would. It was still raining hard enough that I needed to hold my umbrella above my head, which meant that all grocery bags had to be held in one hand.

Victory over the weather had been achieved.

Unfortunately, it seems that the weather is a sore loser. I successfully walked to the grocery store and back in severe weather, but now many of my cell phone's buttons and keys perform incorrect functions or do not work at all, lights are lit for no reason, the touch screen asks to be re-calibrated randomly and frequently and it turns on for seemingly no reason (whether in standby mode or turned all the way off). Also, my portable music player is displaying the text "Firmware Problem" with an icon of what appears to be a Windows dialog box above it; I cannot even turn the player off because its buttons and USB port are not responding to anything.

Now if you will excuse me, I am busy. I plan to sneeze nonstop for the next two days, and when I am finished with that, I may need to buy a new mobile phone, portable music player and pair of black casual shoes that look like black dress shoes.

My games wishlist currently has six games on it.

This is probably the lowest that it has ever been.

My tracked games list is more than five times longer, and I may end up buying some of those, but my interest in the majority of my tracked games is slightly more than indifferent.

I am not losing interest in video games. I am becoming increasingly discriminating in which ones I buy.

I am getting older. I do not have as much free time as I used to. I do not want to spend that free time playing video games that are good but about the same as ones that I have already played, are good but nothing special or would be good if not for frustrating flaws.

Today, when I play a video game, I want an original experience, with few frustrations. Every time.

(As you can imagine, I have become cynical about video game sequels.)

Just a few years ago, games like Soul Calibur IV, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty, Rock Band 2, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Wii Sports Resort, Dead Space and at least 20 more upcoming games that I will not list because reading a list is boring would have been"must own" for me simply because they are part of existing series or otherwise similar to games that I have already played.

And while familiarity and nostalgia have their appeals, when they wear off, all that is left is been there, done that.

I would probably initially enjoy all of the games that I listed, but after a few hours I would get the feeling that I had essentially already played these games before and then never touch them again. That's a waste of money.

This is why I am overly excited about Mirror's Edge. Yes, the game appears to be little more than Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time only in the first person and taking place in contemporary Singapore instead of ancient Persia, but Mirror's Edge's appearance makes it "feel" original.

I am getting tired of playing video games that take place in dark 'n' gritty urban environments or organic fantasy worlds. Even when it doesn't feel forced, it feels common. Mirror's Edge; by taking place in a bright, colorful, modern, clean city instead; is a breath of fresh air.

Oh, and there is also that thing about being a financially responsible adult.

As you get older, you realize that there is more to fiscal responsibility than staying out of debt. It is also important to build up savings in case of an emergency and so that you do not have to work until you die.

A few months back, I was seriously considering buying a number of DS and Wii games. Before I could purchase any of them, I broke down and bought the watch that I had been lusting after forever. I could afford both the watch and the games, but I did not want to be forced to work a few extra years because I chose to buy both.

When the financial hit of the watch passed, I decided that the games were no longer worth it. Too much time had gone by. It was better to wait for the next "big" games.

If you are wondering why I have Final Fantasy IV for the Nintendo DS on my wishlist despite listing Final Fantasy Chronicles (which includes Final Fantasy IV) and Final Fantasy IV Advance in my game collection, and demanding original experiences, it's because it is Final Fantasy IV. I will never get enough of Final Fantasy IV.

On February 11, 1960, Jack Paar, then host of The Tonight Show, four minutes into the night's program, angry at NBC censors, said, "I am leaving The Tonight Show. There must be a better way of making a living than this. You have been peachy to me always," and walked off the set, forcing announcer and sidekick Hugh Downs to finish hosting the night's show.

On March 7, 1960, Paar returned to The Tonight Show and began the night's show by saying,"As I was saying before I was interrupted, I believe my last words were that there must be a better way of making a living than this. Well I have looked, and there isn't."

I feel like Jack Paar must have felt on March 7, 1960.

In spite of GameSpot's ethical issues, both known and alleged, there is no better Web site for video game coverage. I have looked, and there isn't.

Blatant opinions (not just bias) in news stories, a lack of fact-checking, reviews that do not give readers enough information to decide if a game is for them, snarky comments and generally unprofessional writing and attitudes.

These things are to be expected from almost every video game Web site.

But not GameSpot.

This is why I have returned.

Regarding GameSpot's alleged ethical issues, I do not know what to believe anymore. I am not an insider, but I have heard stories from credible sources claiming that Jeff Gerstmann's firing was deserved and that the aftermath was nothing but a public relations disaster.

But a public relations disaster is still a disaster. People believe what they want to believe, regardless of the truth. If a public relations crisis is not resolved quickly and in a satisfying manner, perception becomes reality.

There was never a satisfying resolution to this pubic relations disaster. GameSpot parent division CNET never gave people a good reason to believe that Jeff Gerstmann's firing was not due to pressure from advertisers. No executive took the fall (CNET Entertainment Executive Editor Josh Larson was let go as part of a downsizing months later, but by then it was too late to change opinions), a commitment to editorial independance and integrity was never proclaimed and half of GameSpot's editorial staff quit, some mentioning Gerstmann's dismissal as the reason.

I have trouble trusting all I see and hear on GameSpot as a result.

Take the changing of Grand Theft Auto IV's review score, for example. When the score first appeared on this site, it was 9.5 out of 10. When the review was posted, the score changed to 10 out of 10. If not for the Gerstmann fiasco, I might have believed, without question, GameSpot Editor in Chief Ricardo Torres' claim that 9.5 was never intended to be the game's final score and that its appearance on the site was an accident, but due to the Gerstmann fiasco (and rumors I have heard of Grand Theft Auto series publisher Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two Interactive pressuring media outlets to give Grand Theft Auto games the highest review scores possible), I will forever wonder why the score changed.

Prior to Grand Theft Auto IV, GameSpot had given 10 out of 10's to four games, the last in 2001. Since then, GameSpot had gotten tougher in its reviews, and review scores overall had dropped.

GameSpot awarding Metal Gear Solid 4 a 10 out of 10 so soon after Grand Theft Auto IV's 10 out of 10 does not help. Maybe their reviewers and GameSpot's editorial staff genuinely believe that these games deserve 10's. Maybe they don't. I would have trouble believing anything that someone from GameSpot or CNET had to say about them, whether defending the scores or claiming that they (the scores) were inflated due to pressure from management, publishers and/or advertisers.

In short, I am back, but I am not enthusiastic about it. Do not expect to see much, if any, content from me on this site unless GameSpot offers to pay me to write it. If you are interested in seeing my writings, about video games and other subjects, you will find them on my personal blog, pentagen.org. (Yes, "pentagen" is intentionally misspelled.)

It's much, much harder to build trust than to squander it. I think the trust our readers have in us is really all we've got, so I'd much sooner leave my job than give it up.

-- Greg Kasavin

High Definition, I don't hate you, but I was hoping to go a little longer without you.

I found excuse after excuse to put you off until later. First I was waiting for your thin CRT television sets to drop to reasonable prices. By the time that happened, all CRT TV sets were terrible.

Then I waited for your LCD sets to drop to then CRT price levels. That happened, but shortly before that I decided that I wanted an LCD television set with a CableCard 2.0 slot so I would be able to take advantage of two-way services offered by my cable operator such as on-demand video and an interactive program guide without a cable box.

After it became clear to me, HD, that the cable companies, consumer electronics companies and the United States Federal Communications Commission would not come to an agreement on a standard for CableCard 2.0 for years, I started looking at your LCD television sets again.

But then I decided that it would make sense to wait for sets compliant with HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) version 1.3. I didn't want to have what would soon be an obsolete version of something.

And when HDMI 1.3 became common, I was waiting for one of your good television sets to have four HDMI inputs. (Oddly, only your budget sets seem to have four now.) A PlayStation 3, upconverting DVD player and one of your cable boxes would take up three of those inputs. I wanted a fourth just in case I needed it in the future. Sure, there are HDMI splitters, but those things take up space and aren't as convenient as having enough inputs built-in.

A few days ago, all of my excuses became moot. Attempting to play Assassin's Creed and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune on my standard definition television set was just that: attempting to play them. These games were designed specifically for you, High Definition. Too many things in these games were barely visible in SD, making them frustrating to play and straining my eyes.

My vision was poor already. I didn't want video games to be the reason why I became legally blind. So on Friday I connected my PlayStation 3 to my computer monitor.

Much better. 1080i is a whole lot easier on my eyes than standard definition.

If only I didn't have to sit at my computer desk in my less comfortable than my bed computer chair to experience you.

The just announced for Europe less expensive, 40-gigabyte PlayStation 3 is not backward-compatible with PlayStation 2 games. (It is compatible with most original PlayStation games.)

This model has not yet been announced for North America, but it is only a matter of time before it is. And this opens the possibility that in the future no newly manufactured PlayStation 3 will be able to play PlayStation 2 games.

This makes me more paranoid about my PlayStation 3 breaking than I already was.

I bought a PlayStation 3 earlier than I would have preferred because Sony announced that the then upcoming PAL-territory version would not have an Emotion Engine (PlayStation 2 processor), making the console less backward-compatible with PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games than the already released NTSC model. The Emotion-less (read: less expensive to produce) PlayStation 3 would surely find its way to the rest of the world and replace the existing Emotion-al models, and probably sooner rather than later, so I "needed" a PlayStation 3 immediately, despite few worthwhile PlayStation 3 games available at the time.

When my first PlayStation 3 broke a few hours after I purchased it, I became paranoid.

If my second PlayStation 3 broke (after GameStop's seven day period in which it replaces one's newly-purchased game console with another new console), and Sony decided that my system was beyond repair, I could be sent a new or refurbished PlayStation 3, possibly one with no Emotion Engine, making a portion of my PlayStation and PlayStation 2 game library useless.

Now I fear that I could lose the ability to play all of my PlayStation 2 games if my PlayStation 3 breaks.

Maybe this is for the better. This generation of game hardware is likely the end of the line for backward-compatibility. Sony and Microsoft have hinted that all content for their next game consoles will be distributed digitally. Digital-only distribution means no need for an optical disc drive, which is necessary for the (primarily) disc-based games of this and the previous two generations of game hardware. Removing backward-compatibility now prevents consumers from being shocked and angered when the next generation of game hardware cannot play previous generation games from the start.