Pick it up at Toys R Us until Saturday at close and receive a $20 gift card; $30 if you're an R Us member!

This new segment will be brief and to the point.

Times are tough, and we all need to stick together. In the gaming world, plunking down $60+ happens without a doubt when a beloved franchise or overhyped title (some we don't even wait to read reviews about...) hits the shelves, so spending a good chunk of change is an inescapable fact for any gamer (unless you are a filthy pirate at which rate SHAME ON YOU!).

This entry of DEAL WITH IT is a pretty nice deal coming from TOYS R US for the GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME title. I looked at Best Buy, Target, and Walmart's ads, but have seen little-to-no value for the upcoming title with the exception of Best Buy touting that the game comes with two player skins. Anyway, Toys R Us will be offering an exclusive $20 Ghostbuster gift card featuring Stay Puft Marshmallow Man with purchase of Ghostbusters: The Video Game!

I plan on turning right back around and buying the DS version of the game since it appears to differ somewhat from the console/PC titles. More importantly, Ghostbusters is a franchise that needs to be supported so it can make its big 21st century comeback!!!

Pay a little extra for whatever warranty you're offered.

Seriously.

You'll be glad you did.

...and go buy it at Circuit City. You still pay the retail price of $59.99, but from release until Saturday at closing time, you get a $10.00 gift card "free"! That's like getting the game for $49.99 (if that statement helps you sleep at night)! Oh and if you don't own Saint's Row yet, the price just dropped to $29.99, so make two separate transactions and buy Saint's AFTER GTAIV and only pay twenty bucks.

Enjoy the $10.00 gift card.

I know I typically make these entries for games that have yet to come out, but I've been rather busy lately, so I apologize for the tardiness of this Snap Imp [SI]. All I have to offer is a quick comparison of then-games and their now-game counterparts:

Zelda Windwaker---->Twilight Princess

Smash Bros. on 64---->Smash Bros. on Wii

Warioware for DS------>Warioware for Wii

Resident Evil 4 on GC---->Resident Evil 4 on Wii (I know I'm reaching here, but the controls made this game fun all over again!)

....Mariokart on GC/DS=====Mariokart on Wii???? What the heck happened?

I'm always the first to ridicule someone for basing their opinion of an upcoming game on its graphics, but in this case I have to side with them due to the simple fact that this game looks as if very little has changed since the last installment. Smash Bros. Brawl took the wind out of me moreso than a ground pound from a Donkey Kong with a packed sticker globe [insert pic of Bob Sagget here]. There was a ton of new content, a much improved adventure mode, new characters, huge roster, lots of music, lots of stages, lots of challenges...get the picture? Twilight Princess took the franchise in a new direction while going back to what took the original NES style of the game and made it better (HINT: Ocarina of Time)--and refining that as well. I just don't see that being done in MKWii.

And while I'm at it, Mariokart Wii? Ugh, please don't start that annoying habit of tacking on the system name to your titles, Nintendo.

Everyone who keeps a blog and owns this game is obligated to post about it. I will keep my blog entry short and sweet, highlighting the game's "awe factor" while saving my in-depth judgment for my review in the future.

All I have to say is the moment the title screen loads for the first time and you see GTA's trademark character cartoon stills with the catchy music beating away in the background you know you're in for a treat. The opening scene and credits are on par with any Hollywood major motion picture. The voice acting is top-notch--you'll hear that a thousand times over. However, what is more important is the scripting itself. A bad actor can make lines from legendary movies like Pulp Fiction or Goodfellas sound like struggling high school writer crap, and the same can easily be said for videogame dialogue, but the writing is so clever and believable that you actually laugh out loud quite a bit along with getting a good grasp on the various complicated relationships you'll find in the game. Superb graphics considering all that is happening around you: don't think the citizens of Liberty City are just strutting around mindlessly as the NPCs in GTAs past have done (ok...so many of them are), but upon closer inspection one can see bums huddled around a fire, police staking out a dirtbag's hideout, delivery guys pushing handcarts, people reading newspapers, fighting, arguing over car accidents, cops chasing down thugs...you really have to see it to believe it. Once I get over the captivating storyline (meaning once I get stuck to the point where I either quit playing or destroy my 360), I definitely plan on spending more time as a tourist in LC...much like any non-escaping war vet Russian-born immigrant would probably want to do.

This isn't a snap-impression of the game itself, but rather of the technical achievement highlighted in such a creative game being developed. Good writers imitate. Great writers steal. Or so it's been said. The same goes for videogame developers. This is the comment I left on the forum board in response to the first look at the upcoming Wii title, Order Up!

A suitable build on what the Cooking Mama franchise started. It's good to see Wii developers (SuperVillain=sweet company name) taking small steps in the right direction to realizing the potential of the system. Gamers are tiring of streamlined minigames that boil down to slight variations of those we've played on the last Wii title we purchased (only so much one can do waving their arms around). The addition of funds (not auto-unlockables like Cooking Mama), restaurant choices, and--most importantly--goals other than just preparing food in a step-by-step process will add much more longevity to this game.

Like Wii-Fit, this may turn out to be only a niche game with a cult following (lots of people like Cooking Mama and lots will enjoy Wii-Fit), but what's more important is gearing developers away from titles that are nothing more than a mish-mash of mindless minigames (except for the next WarioWare...we like your mindlessness!).

Graphically unimpressive? Yes--the people look like Lego-men and...well, I can't say the other, so I'll just say 'hotdogs'. But if you want a graphically overhauled COOKING game...? Sheesh, one can only hope Sony and MS would be smart enough NOT to venture in that direction.

I had no clue the fourth Terminator movie was in the works!!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438488/

I was watching the third one yesterday on T.V. (even though I own the DVD..weird how we sometimes do that) and was thinking, "When's the next one coming out?" Christian Bale (Batman Begins and this summer's The Dark Knight) will be playing the lead role as John Connor in charge of a band of human refugees scraping together what forces they can to battle the self-aware machines of the future.

The movie began shooting late '07 and is to be the first in the next Terminator trilogy. The next installment will NOT be called Terminator 4 because although it is the fourth in the series, the new trilogy will be taking the story in a different direction--presumably a war torn post-apolocalyptic, humans vs. machines world...one I've been looking forward to since the first time I saw Terminator. I remember thinking whenever a scene of the futuristic combat was shown in a Terminator movie, "I wanna see THAT movie!" I'm sure many of you have thought the same. Well, come 2009, we're all in for a treat.

It hasn't been confirmed whether or not Arnold will make an appearance in the second three films (rumored that the lead player from No Country for Old Men--Eric Brolin--will be a terminator in "T4"), but AT LEAST a cameo would be awesome!!!

This is going to be short and sweet. No sprawling tale of where to farm and at what times to post in AH or what rare spawn to camp and weapon/armor to PRAY will drop...

...LIGHT FEATHERS. Yes, light feathers. Those things that fall in abundance from the moonkins in Darkshore and the birdmen in endgame. Harpies are particularly generous as they drop not only the feathers, but VIBRANT FEATHERS as well which you can exchange at the Darkmoon Faire for some pretty sweet prizes (like a 16-slot bag--40 req'd, I think).

My proof? To get funding for the guild I created to have more than the obligatory singluar bank tab, I began selling a lot of the stuff I had compiled in my bank on the six toons I had. Stuff I didn't know there was any practical use for. I sold a stack of 20 light feathers at the AH for 5g. I never though they'd really sell, but I was the only one posting a full stack, so I figured what the hey? When I found out how lucrative this was, I began buying out all the small stacks and (and later on, full stacks) of light feathers anywhere from a few silver for one or two feathers, to 2-5g for a full stack.

I know what you're thinking: "5g for a FULL stack? That's how much you just sold one for!" True, but by now I was selling them anywhere from 7-9g (10g was the most I ever got for a stack, but that was a rarity). And if you're thinking buying out all the light feathers is foolish because it'll leave you with a heavy inventory (c'mon, this is basic economics 101), don't worry. If you ride it out, much like the stock market you are guaranteed to make your money. With a post fee of LESS THAN 1 SILVER for a 48 DAY listing, you will surely make the money back even if you sell an originally 5g stack for 6...the profit margin is there. Mostly you'll see stacks for around 2g, but you'll come up if you buy the little half-stacks or cheap solitary feathers unknowing players list in AH.

Hope this helps get you to your next bank tab, mount, or that coveted epic you've been trying to get!!!

Remember Molyneux's promise of Fable's alleged "open world" and free-roaming territories where if you cut a single blade of grass, that it grows back real time? Or unique scarring to every character created so you'll never get the same appearance twice? Remember how you were supposed to be able to interact with everything and the weight of your SMALLEST decisions would turn you good or evil which would drastically effect your gameplay? Well, what sticks with me the most out of these empty promises garnering false hopes is the "open world" gamers were supposed to be able to traverse. It simply wasn't there.

The game felt like an "on rail action RPG" so-to-speak.

Now take a look at Fable 2's screenshots...notice any similarities?

FENCES and TRAILS on almost every world shot.

Hmm...here's to hoping we're not looking forward to another linear RPG from the Molyneux camp. :P