So, I was in Ealing Broadway (my local highstreet) yesterday, to pick up a few school supplies, and I decided to pop into HMV, just to look around.

While browsing, I decided to check out the albums section, and was horrified at the prices.

£15 ($30) for Jagged Little Pill, which was released in 1995!

£10 ($20) for Celebrity Skin, which was released in 1998!

How on Earth do they think they're going to sell those copies at those prices? And also, the number of people buying CDs is plummeting, so why do these sort of prices still exact? Evil shops, leeching off nostalgia!

Anyway, I did pick something up there. Spiceworld the Movie on DVD. I was a huge Spice Girls fan years ago, and have recently got back into them, so I saw this for only £5.95, and just had to have it. I watched again, and its still pure classic.

I bought a couple of albums off amazon today for just over £5 including P&P! They were:

Celebrity Skin (Now I'm the one screwing HMV over! :P)

Spice World (Watching the film again reminded me of all the great songs on the album, and it was dirt cheap)

Henshin a go go baby!

"Pride comes before the fall".

Every single major console manufacturer goes into a time of great pride, and then it all blows up in their faces catastrophically.

The reason the 1983 crash occurred was because Atari felt they on their own could move a number of cartridges which was equal to the number of systems out. They didn't think about the hundreds of third parties who were making 2600 games, neither did they think that maybe, just maybe, consumers were a bit more clever than to rush out and buy E.T., Custer's Revenge and other abominations to gaming.

Sega came next thanks to the whole Genesis add on fiasco of the early to mid 90's. Sega though that consumers would rush out to buy these peripherals to experience something "next-gen". Sega failed to realize that Night Trap wasn't the future of gaming, and the events that occurred from 1992-1995 was one of the major causes for Sega being unable to carry on with the Saturn and Dreamcast later on.

Nintendo's boasting that the N64 would change the world of gaming thanks to its then revolutionary stick. However, the use of cartridges meant that pretty much no games came out compared to the Playstation, and Nintendo then suffered again with the Gamecube, thanks to consumer disinterest caused by the N64.

Sony is currently going through its "fall", as after two perfect generations, Sony is now being pinned to the wall, and beaten up by Microsoft and Nintendo this gen.

Before I start bashing MS, let me just state that I love the original Xbox, and the 360, so now that that's out of the way, let's start.

While 2007 has been an excellent year for the 360, the rest of the decade is starting to look a bit grim in my eyes.

Microsoft will go through their "fall" soon, for a number of reasons:

Firstly, by the end of 2008, no third party game will have "Only on Xbox 360" slapped on it. Doing that would be stupid as they will be missing out on the PS3 market, which will be a vital source of income in years to come. Bioware, Bizarre and Bungie have either left MS Studios, or been bought out by EA and Activision. That means that the Bioware RPGs, PGR and eventually Halo will be on other systems. Do you think Gears of War 3, or Ninja Gaiden 3, or Dead or Alive 5 will only be on the 360? I sure as hell don't, as console exclusivity from third parties will soon be extinct.

You may retaliate with "well, what about the first party stuff", but what first party stuff? We here almost nothing from Rare, and MS themselves have pretty much no living IPs after the original Xbox. Where's Crimson Skies 2? Voodoo Vince 2? etc. Sony have many first party studios, pumping out Wipeout, God of War, and many others, and this will define the PS3 in the coming years.

Next point, the red ring of death. The fact that this problem still exists is shocking, and if they don't eradicate it soon enough, it will be linked to them forever, just the same as with the NES, PS1 and PS2.

Next, while MS still have fewer SKUs for the 360than Sony does for the PS3, they're catching up, and fall into the same trap of confusing more casual consumers, and repelling them.

While this is a minor point, the fact that XBL has been down for over two weeks, now means that the PS3, and even the Wii have better online functionality at this current moment in time. I hope that's a huge embarrassment for MS as it will teach them. Also, charging for XBL is now archaic, as every other platform, including handhelds offers free online gaming.

The final point is the whole DVD format wars. Blu-Ray is now the exclusive format in which Paramount will produce all of its DVDs. This is a massive blow against MS, as this will also probably lead to more studios switching over to both formats, or even just Blu-Ray. If Blu-Ray does become the standard, then PS3 sales will rocket and Sony have to be congratulated for at least doing something right this generation. MS will then be left with "HD-DVD", which no one will want, and another blow to their reputation with the 360.

MS are going to face some major issues for the next few years, and I worry about the recent rumours about the next Xbox, as it could lead to MS' "fall".

Rock Band isn't released here until March, I think, that's what amazon.co.uk says.

Anyway, I was checking it on Wikipedia, and found out that Hole's "Celebrity Skin" will be in the game. I will now be buying Rock Band on the day it comes out, as I love that song so much.

I'm going to buy the game on its own, as I can use the 360 mic as the microphone, and I'm buying GHII from my friend, so I'll use that guitar for Rock Band.

I cam't wait to start rocking out!

So, I'm going to be out of money for a good while. Bday presents, Freewebs site upgrades and getting my laptop fixed will leave me with prett much no money until probably Q2, and then, loads more people have their birthdays, so not much money, but you know what, in the annoyingly optimistic persona that I sometimes inhabit, I am actually glad I won't have any money.

I'll finally be able to make a dent in the 300 or so games I bought last year. That number is not a joke, it is what I really bought in one year.

I think the game I'm looking forward to most finishing is The Red Star, as I just think its pure brilliance, and you'll never get stuck due to puzzles, just your own skill, which I really like in a game.

Also, I might actually finish Twilight Princess, but lets not hope for the world! ;D

I, as a collector, like to have the proper version of the game, on my shelf, just so I can stare at all the games I'll never finish.

But, there are some games which are causing me quite a headache. Why? Because, while I do want to have the physical copy, the downloadable version is so much cheaper that it reall is forcing me to think about downloading.

i.e. Harvest Moon on the SNES is currently going for a Buy-it-now price of £120 on eBay. It has just popped up on the EU VC for 800 points (£5.60). Seeing as I'm not the biggest HM fan, I'll just download it, but other titles like Symphony of the Night and Paper Mario are so much cheaper on these services, that I just might have to download them.

Yay! I'm finishing so many games recently! Stranglehold was great fun, but much too short. I hope they make a sequel.

Games I've finished in 2 weeks: Amped 3, Donkey Kong Country, Portal and Stranglehold.

Belive it or not, that is probably a new record for me...... I have too many games....

Next I'll work on Stunt Race FX for the SNES!

I was playing the Orange Box quite a bit last night, and did quite well.

I completed Portal, and yes, that credits song is brilliant. I liked what happened with the whole "behind the scenes" thing half way through the last test chamber.

I also made a good deal of progress in Half Life 2, and I'm now in Ravenholm. I'm really liking HL2.

Last night I was playing my SNES, and after some Stunt Race FX, I decided to work on Donkey Kong Country, and I was shocked how quickly I got through the game. I had about a third left, and I completed that in no time. The last boss, K. Rool, was just annoying, but still, quite easy. I really enjoyed the game, and can't wait to pick up the next two parts of the DKC trilogy.

So here are my tops for 2007:

Game: Super Mario Galaxy

Film: Resident Evil: Extinction

Manga: Battle Royale vol. 15

Song: "Shoes" by Kelly

Fave modern system: Wii

Fave Retro system: SNES

Fave Handheld: DS

Best new site I visited: Gametrailers

So there you go. Moan about the fact I didn't put tripe like 300 and 30 days of night as my fave films, but I don't like saying utter garbage is my film of the year.

New Year's resolutions:

Umm, I don't have any, I'm alreadyperfect as it is!;)

The right game won GOTY IMO. I love Super Mario Galaxy to bits, and its my GOTY anyway.