Hey guys,

I have started to sell new and used video games online through Amazon.ca. Most, if not all of my listings, are the cheapest available and I have several rare games/consoles in stock.

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We now have an eBay store: http://stores.ebay.ca/Yoshi-Industries

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Please check out my postings - they are being sold under the name "Yoshi Industries" and you can follow my store's Twitter postings at: http://twitter.com/y_industries

Many thanks and enjoy!

I recently began buying old games for my Nintendo 64 off eBay. For a few dollars a piece, I got Donkey Kong 64, Pilotwings 64, Paper Mario, Star Wars - Episode I: Racer, Forsaken 64, Quake, Quake II, Blast Corps, Excitebike 64, Resident Evil 2, Cruis'n USA, Cruis'n World, and Vigilante 8. I am quite happy with these purchases and some were based from your suggestions. All this got me thinking, "When these games originally came out, they cost anywhere between $60-$70 each. Now I can own them for $3!" Obviously, the monetary value of the games has decreased; however, their play value, in my opinion, remains high. Sure, the graphics, sound, etc., are dated - I cannot deny this but the games remain worthy purchases given the sense of nostalgia and fun that they provide.

I think it might be time to update my NES, SNES and GCN libraries!

(On a side note, if you need to strengthen your Wii library, pick-up Red Steel 2. Great graphics, awesome controls, unique story - what more could you want?)

Can someone explain to me how the emblem system works? Sometimes I have three emblems, but other times I have only two emblems. I am not sure how emblems are awarded and I have never actively sought one. From my experience, they just appear, disappear, then re-appear like some lame horror movie franchise.

Come to think about it, I just had a Saw emblem. Now where did it go?

Last night a few friends and I broke out the N64 and played some vintage Goldeneye. Needless to say, we had a blast! The game has definitely aged, but it still offers an all-around great multiplayer experience replete with intuitive game play, healthy weapon choices, varied game scenarios and brilliant level designs. It only took us a matter of minutes to rediscover the love (and hate) of "screen watching", circling (and destroying if helpful) body armour, and strife walking to increase speed. Unfortunately, none of these techniques helped those who were unfamiliar with the game; they only aided those of us who were already 00-agents. (Everyone had some experience with this blockbuster.)

Graphics aside, the game is as good, if not better, than I remember it.

I plan to revisit Conker's Bad Fur Day next!

I recently bought a 40-inch LCD television. I was hoping that this notable upgrade would enhance my enjoyment of the Nintendo Wii and this is true in most respects, but it also raised some concerns about graphics. On my new television, there is a notable breakdown in graphics. Although the games are larger, easier to follow and more vivid, I can also noticed an upsetting decline in character outlines. For instance, when playing House of the Dead: Overkill or Wii Fit, the character models sometimes appear shattered along their edges. I understand that the Wii was never meant to compete with the other consoles on a purely graphical basis, but this development still disappoints me. Some continuing effort to improve the graphics of the Wii would be appreciated. Nintendo took such an approach with the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo DS. Why not take the same approach with the Wii?

This post isn't meant to toot GameSpot's horn, but I truly feel that it offers gamers the best site for interactivity and information. IGN provides excellent albeit lengthy game reviews and many unique features; however, you cannot access the entire site without a subscription. Given that the Internet makes it possible to share news, reviews, previews, images, movies, walkthroughs, etc., with few restrictions, I don't see any benefit in paying for such things. Moreover, I dislike the media player used by IGN. It always opens a new window and the "descriptions" seldom match the actual content of the videos that they supposedly describe.

Regarding other sites, I find the GamePro one poorly organized, slow to update and lacking in the online community department. Although the GameInformer site is purposely incomplete at the moment, I don't anticipate any positive additions to it. (Right now its interactivity is less than that offered by GamePro!) We're all aware of the pros and cons of the GameSpot site so I don't feel obliged to repeat them here. However, I will conclude by saying that my favourite site of all time is Segadojo, which harkens back to the Dreamcast days. Oh, do I miss both…

Despite the novelty of allowing gamers who share similar interests to form online unions, I find that this feature of the GameSpot website is underused. For instance, I recently joined three different unions and not one of them has been recently updated. (In fact, one of them has been without an update for over 1 ½ years!) I assume the reason for this is that the unions do not offer anything greater than the general discussion boards available on this site and that there is no real way to capitalize on the sense of community offered by the unions beyond simply stating one's affiliation to some of them. If there was something extra added to differentiate unions from the regular discussion boards and someway players could take advantage of their union memberships, then I think this feature would be more widely used.

In cataloguing my game collection online, I realized that many of the entries received poor review scores by GameSpot. I admit that not all the games in my collection are perfect. In fact, a good percentage of them are mediocre, but very few if any of them can be considered awful in themselves. I think the quality of a game reflects both its maker and player. I obviously put value in graphics and functionality; however, I put a premium in entertainment. Thus, some of my favourite games, such as Castlevania, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Hexen all for the Nintendo 64, rank poorly on this site yet they hold a special place in my library. I enjoy the unique storylines, game play, controls, challenges, depth, graphics, sounds and multiplayer fun (if available) that they offer. Not everyone has or will enjoy these titles. I like them because I find them fun to play.

I guess the point of this rant is rather simple: you can only truly discover a game by playing it yourself.