Well, my unemployment lasted exactly zero days. I was able to find a job at Sears in the receiving section. It's not exactly lucrative, but it'll pay the bills (and buy the occasional video game) until something a bit more permanent pops free. Then it becomes toy money and a 10% discount on things like TVs and sound systems (and more video games).

I was only able to knock out one game this month, but it was a big one for me:

12. Metroid (NES)

I am embarrassed to say that, despite owning the game pretty much since it came out way back in the late 80s, I had never finished it. I got Samus to take her helmet off, which is pretty good for the first runthrough I guess. It's an awesome game and I'm glad I can finally count it among my completions.

It doesn't look like it, but I actually did cut the game buying back a little this month. And what I did get was rather hit and miss. There's a bunch of Singstar and Buzz! games in there for my wife and most of the other stuff was picked up on a couple of trips out of town. So, all in all, it was a relatively slow month (as always, these are in the order that they found their way into my collection):

June Acquisitions-
-Singstar: Legends (PS2)
-Singstar: Country (PS2)
-Alone in the Dark (360)
-Clive Barker's Jericho (360)
-Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (360)
-Silent Hill 2 (PS2)
-Two Worlds (360)
-Tourist Trophy (PS2)
-Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones (NES)
-Gun.Smoke (NES)
-WCW SuperBrawl Wrestling (SNES)
-Silent Hill (PS)
-Buzz!: The Hollywood Quiz (PS2)
-Buzz! Junior: Robo Jam (PS2)
-Mojo! (PS2)
-Singstar: Pop (PS2)
-Mojo! (PS2)
-NASCAR '08 (360)
-Stuntman: Ignition (360)
-PBR: Out of the Chute (PS2)

The collection stands at 927 games. I hadn't actually planned on hitting 1,000 this year, but it's starting to look like a possibility. We'll see.

The Iron Maiden track pack has me playing the heck out of Rock Band 2 (360) again. Maiden is one of my all-time favorite bands, so I was pretty excited when they announced the songs. I wish they would have included "Wrathchild", but you can't win 'em all. I've also been playing a lot of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy (PS2) and since Blue Warrior is now a level 60 Champion (!), I'll probably finish this one off very soon. I'm not sure what's next after that. I'm eyeballing Metal Gear (NES), Max Payne 2 (PS2), and STILL want to go back and clean up some of the 360 games I've got started.

Oh, and something I don't always do: a random song suggestion of the month! If you're a hair metal fan at all, check out "Shake & Tumble" by Firehouse. I have had this song for years, but had never listened to it. Then I jumped in the car after work and it was on. For all the crap they take for looking stupid, no one can deny that most hair metal bands were excellent musicians.

That's it for now. June was a ridiculous month...I'm hoping July is a little more relaxed. Catch you all next month.