As I said previously, once I hit the 350 mark with my collection, I would have a long, cooling off period, in which I would save all my money to buy a tonne more older consoles and handhelds. Today, after adding all the games I bought yesterday, I hit the 352 mark to be exact, and so this is the last blog until Christmas where I'll be talking about my latest acquistions. I'll still be blogging, but now about progress in games. Man, I really feel like some Trauma Center and The Red Star right about now.

So, onto things. Yesterday, I went to see my bff Natalie in Brighton. We had lunch, and gossiped etc. Then we went shopping. Now, I had made sure this time I had some money as there is a really good Gamestation in Brighton. So, we were walking down Church Road, and I see a GAME shop, and my heart starts to pound. Where is Gamestation? Did GAME's acquisition of Gamestation in the year since I'd last been kill off the shop. Then I found it. YAY!

I look around for a while, and there retro section had gone rotten. All the good Saturn games were bundled with the consoles, and Panzer Dragoon Saga was £100. I cry for the days when shops didn't know about eBay prices.

Anyways, I got 13 new games, 5 of them presents from Natalie.

Here they are:

Dreamcast

Legcay of Kain Soul Reaver

Playstation

Time Crisis

Driver

Need for Speed: High Stakes

Tenchu: Stealth Assassins

Playstation 2

Herdy Gerdy

Gregory Horror Show

Xbox

The Suffering

Mercenaries

Uban Chaos: Riot Response

Gamecube

Puyo Pop Fever

Burnout

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life

For this short time, I have more games than TheWesker. No boasting! :P

[Update] I found a good deal on a SegaCD on eBay, which comes with a few games, so my final amount will be 357 before I stop.

I found this video on Youtube which showed the simplest way to get your NES and games to start working again. What you do is you have to put your index finger on the little indent on the cartridge, and wiggle it about. After a couple of tries, the pins line up, et voila, we have SMB3 again. Yay!

So I got my NES yesterday, and within that same day, I got the blinking red light due to my not cleaning the cartridges properly. I've done the whole Isopropyl with water on my cartridges, but that didn't help.

I'm now left with the option of opening up my console and cleaning the connectors inside, which, although I've found a good guide on GameFAQs, I think I'll end up screwing it up. But hey, I already think the thing's a gonner, so I guess I've got nothing to lose.

Anyway, if that doesn't work, I really don't want to spend another £30 for a replacement system on eBay. I think I'll have to let my guard down and go the WiiVC route. A shame, but I may have to do it. *in great dispair of that thought, bashed NES open, and starts scrubbing* :D

There's been way too much hoo-hah, fah-fah, cheer leading fanboyism around some of GS's scores as of the last year. This is due to theincapability of most people to realise that by its very nature, a review is not fact, set in stone, that cannot be questioned.

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Blue Dragon, Metroid Prime 3, Bioshock and now Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction have all been rated "incorrectly" by GS, and frankly, this general feeling of anger and confusion towards GS is tiring to say the least.

For example, saymost of yourfriends are saying Game X is the best game they have ever played, then you will instantly pick that up and really get excited for it, as your friends (Gametrailers, IGN etc.) could never lie to you. Then you hear that lone friend, who liked the game, but didn't think it was as good as everyone said. Surely, that opinion is more useful as it is different to everyone else's, and listening to that view instantly gives you a much broader view of the game meaning you're decisions are far more well thought out.

Not to say that GT and IGN are wrong at all, but it seems that every time GS scores a game lower then they do, GS instantly sucks. What I'm advocating is for you to recognize that every review is an opinion, and just because someone doesn't like a game that YOU haven't even played yet, doesn't mean they are morons, just that they have different views, which is what we need: a wide range of opinions for consumers to make well informed and individual choices.

The funny thing is that when GS rates a game like Halo 3 of The Orange Box a 9.5, everyone loves them, but then the next week, boo to them as they have "obviously got it wrong again". I thought the GS readership to be less volatile than that, but GS proved me wrong on something.

Ye, I've decided to start saving my money (bet you didn't see that comin' Ethan :D)

Anyway, as you may have noticed, I have bought more than a handful of games in the past year, and I need to get through them, so yea, the best way to play is not to pay.

So what am I saving up for? Well, not the PS3 for sure.

No, I am in fact trying to buy up many of the older consoles I've had my eye on.

They are:

Atari Jaguar

Atari 2600

Panasonic 3DO

Sega CD

Sega Master System

Sega Game Gear

Neo Geo Pocket Colour

After that, aside from the PS3, my console collection will be complete for me.

So yea, I need to start saving. Hopefully my NES will be arriving on Wednesday!

I bought it on Friday, when it was released over here, and I'm an hour in. I absolutely adore this game as it is a real evolution of JRPGs in my opinion. I do like turn based-ATB styleJRPGs, but they will die out eventually, and I can't say I'll miss them that much, as games like Eternal Sonata and Kingdom Hearts II is thedirection that the genre needs to go in.

I'm gonna be doing a blog today, about all the stuff I've bought recently, so watch this space.

The last few days have been a bit crazy, but tomorrow, I'm going to be doing a blog on everything I've bought recently, so yea...

Yep, today was my bday, pretty AWSM. Umm, ye, that's all I really have to say!

Fire Emblem was broken, so I had to return it! AAAAHHH!!

Anyway, I got Viva Pinata and Exit out of the return.

While I've had the PSP for a few days, I din't have a game due to the stupid postal strikes (damn you Royal Mail!)

Anyway, I got my first PSP game in the post: GTA LCS.

Now I knew that the PSP could belt out some awesome graphics, but I was still taken aback by how great it looks. Great fun, as well. Tomorrow, Darkstalkers and Daxter should be arriving, and maybe I'll be picking up Exit on Wednesday! AWSM!

Oh, and I picked up those two Gamecube games at Gamestation! I'm giddy I finally have a copy of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance!