I was just thinking recently and i have a few things on my mind. I am hurting for a good old fasioned arcade. You know, the type that just lights up the mall when you see it, it almost glows. Its like "come play my games". I had one of these at the mall not too far from where i live. It was located in the crystal mall, maybe 15 minates away. The arcade which i had grown to love was named "jesters game land". It was the best arcade i have ever been too and the best i will ever go to. At the time, it was nothing special, just an arcade, you know, it had the usual variety of things like DDR, silent scope, Tekken, House of the dead, all the essentials with a bunch of other less known yet still amusing games. I remember cruising through the mall with my two best buddies, jesse and brian, each of us had our wallets loaded with an almost infinite seeming amount of money. We went to the food court and got dinner, we went to orange julius for a pina colada, we went past EB games and did some window shopping, but we werent planning on buying. We had our sights on another outlet of gaming, It was like yesterday, we were just walking down the isle with our pretzels and our drinks, laughing, talking about funny things that happened at school and what have you. Then, we saw it. In the heart of the crystal mall was the essence of gaming. I am talking about jesters game land. We all just went silent. It was as if we had walked into heaven and the doors were open. The chatter of other people was just drowned out by the clangs and booms of the arcade games awaiting us. At the same time, we all just walked right into the mystical land of gaming, With the blue neon lights that rendered that tint that was so appealing. We pretty much split up  and went to play what our hearts desired. It was like a sanctuary. Even if it was only about 45 minates that we were there, it was like a 45 minate long trial of gaming heaven. Playing 4 player games like zombie revenge together, then switching off on house of the dead, then splitting up again to do whatever then regrouping to play together again. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and it did.After what felt like not too long, my pocket had become slim and vacant of tokens. We all regrouped and walked out of our rec room of choice, filled with the excitment of the things we had occomplished, like "omg i beat the high score on so and so" and "that was so sweet when we were playing zombie revenge and u shot the zombie right before it got me". We strolled out of the mall into the cold winter night as snow coated the ground, left with a feeling of satisfaction, like we got what we came for. We all went home in different cars and established "same time next friday." The week went by slowly, and when friday came it was the perfect weather to be at the mall. It was snowy and cold outside. We all went in one car this time with our wallets packed yet again from our paychecks that we cashed the day before. We made our usual rounds then we headed back to our coven. When we got there, it was like someone had taken a knife and stabbed it into our backs. We reached the area where the arcade was, but no arcade. All we saw was an empty room, almost like it was dead. We said things like, oh, they probably just moved it. But we knew. We knew the sinister plans that they had for our arcade. We looked around and no jesters game land. It was indeed a sad day. We had been deprived of our favorite arcade as well as the only one within 60 miles of our home. It was like they had taken something from us. We knew it was going to go at some point, but why did it have to be that friday? Of all times, when buisness was booming and people were pouring money into the token machines faster than they were counting it. We later found out that the arcade had been shut down for good. We were there again doing some christmas shopping, and there we saw the most foul sight these eyes have ever seen. Our arcade had been closed down for an Old Navy. Thats right, Old Navy. One of the trendiest department store empires we know. It had to be an old navy. It just made no sense, there were 2 other department stores in the mall, macys and sears. Now they need an old navy too? Well as i said before, all good things come to an end, and it just goes to show that no good thing can last forever. It really was the lsat sign of the end of an era. Nowadays, arcades are pretty much dead. Its hard to find one these days that is running and has working game machines in it. Hopefully one day wherever i go, i will find another arcade for me to make occasional visits to, just to burn some cash and have some fun. We got over it quickly, the mall was still a great place to hang out and to this day it still is. Times are changing, arcades are out, department stores are in, now the conformists have one more outlet to suckle artificial power from. But my friends and I will never forget the great times we had at that arcade. RIP jesters game land, may you one day rise again somewhere else in the mall.

You know what i find odd? why is it that 90% of the X360 launch titles were ports of Xbox games? I mean that doesnt make a lot of sense, especially since they didnt do much for the graphics. But look at games like Kameo and DOA4, they were some of the only non ported launch games for the 360 and they were probably the highest rated. If theyre gonna port these games then they should at least make them backwards compatable so u can at least not spend an extra 10$ on them if you dont have HD or something. Well Bill gates is a greedy bum, go figure. And its also odd that the PS3 is apparently so much more powerful than the 360, usually sony lags behind a bit. Also the only games mostly that ive been seeing for the PS3 are FPS's. Well whatever, i just hope the 360 flourishes into the vibrant butterfly it can be, rather than a nasty old moth.

you know, im really sick of hearing about the Wii. I get it, the names wierd, no one cares. WILL PEOPLE JUST LET IT GO!?! its not a big deal and im sick of middle aged fat partially bald losers constantly talking about it. Also, wtf is with nintendo? why do they keep trying to come up with these wierd new control schemes? first the DS, now the Wii. I think the wii would have been impressive about 10 years ago, but the use of laser guided movement isnt exactly revolutionary. Just make a console like the cube and you wont gamble thousands of dollars.