I heard about the story of the family that was lost and the husband/father that went looking for help.  Little did I know that it was someone from the CNET family.  To the family and friends of James Kim, you are all in my prayers.

http://news.cnet.com/2009-12-6141617.html

Well, after telling myself that I wasn't going to buy another game for myself for awhile so I could save up for college, I went out and bought Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (and I still have to buy Call of Duty 3 for the 360 and Catz for the DS for my parents :roll: ).  I skipped over the first Budokai Tenkaichi game after getting the first three Budokai games.  I've been a fan of DBZ for some time but haven't really watched much of it at all in over a year.  So this game was a good refresher.

The first thing I noticed as I started playing the Dragon Adventure (story mode) and I started to notice that the developers should have done a little better job at putting it together.  The leveling system is a little weird, sort of like Budokai 3 but not as customizable.  That is good and bad, but mustly good.  Can get more moves and transformations in than in Budokai 3.  The voice overs are great in the story mode, but can seem a little repetitive at times.  But the saga/movie order are a little out of order, which is a little odd.  Also, some of the story isn't fully correct, which kinda struck me as odd that I was able to remember how the show goes without having seen it in awhile.

One other major dissapointment for me is that all the time it was said that the Dragon Adventure Mode had the entire Dragon Ball story.  Hearing that I naturally assumed that the original Dragon Ball saga would be in the game.  So far no original Dragon Ball saga and I'm disappointed.  Dragon Ball was what got me into the entire anime and I've wanted to play it in video game form, but so far no luck.  Oh well, maybe in the next game.

Other than that I really enjoy the game.  Some people have complained that it is real simple with only two attack buttons, but for me that is a good thing.  I hate memorizing combos and all that.  The only other fighter I have is Dead or Alive Ultimate, which also isn't too complicated.  So fighting games aren't big to me if they don't have hot chicks in it or DBZ.

Well, it was a pretty funny day.  I arrived at work with the parking lot packed.  There were lines at both the E and W entrance.  Surprisingly there wasn't anyone lined up at the middle entrance.  The lines were pretty dang long.  Surprisingly I got probably the best spot.  Stuck in the corner on the E side, which is the slow side.  I had about 15 shopping carts next to me and when the door opened it was a mad rush of people swarming in.  The carts were gone in about 30 seconds. 

Surprisingly people were very friendly.  I didn't have to deal with any up tight, grumpy people which was nice.  It slowed down at about 8:30 on our side, although we looked down to the main registers and there were still lines to the back of the store.  None of us on the E side were going to tell anyone that we were open, so they got to wait.  I only had about 3.5 hours of sleep and surprisingly I was awake after the mad rush.  I even got to go home early, but then again I'm always the first one to go home since my foot injury.  Guess they don't like having someone who starts to limp and move slower after standing on his feet for 5 hours :lol:  Must not look good.

I still think Black Friday is stupid.  There are better ways to make money then that.  But then again the deals are good for the costumers so I know why they are there.  I don't quite understand why people are buying DVD players from Menards, but I guess if they are only $25 you'll buy stupid things.

Funniest thing though is that it was busy enough that each cashier had a bagger, so things went pretty quickly.  But as we were scanning things me and the bagger were asking each other since when did we stock a certain item.  Out of all the things that I checked out, I bet only about 20% of it we normally stock.

Well in less than 6 hours I'll be on a cashier selling crap to people that fall for this stupid day.  I don't know what is more pathetic, the people that storm the stores trying to get their hands on something during super saving hours...or the stores that do this.  I can understand why they do it, to make a lot of money, but the day after thanksgiving?  Doing it on a weekend would be better.  Most of the people that work on the weekend are the poor saps, like me, that have to work during this crappy day.  And the people that go all insane about it don't help anything.  But maybe I'll understand more after my time served.  Or maybe I'll be more pissed off. :lol:

With all the bad things that happened during the PS3 launch...thefts, muggings, shootings, arguments, etc.; it was good to hear about some rather funny stories.  One of the stories I found on an eBay auction, the other one was told to my parents by a guy that worked at Shopko (and actually had photo evidence).  The first story is from eBay, and I'll leave the guy's name eBay name out of it and also censor the language.

i went out wednesday afternoon to the local walmart to start camping out. when i got there, there were already 12 people ther so i got in line being number 13. i talked around and found out the first 6 people there had been there since monday, total hardcore nerds all planning to keep them. bragging about how only they should get the system since theyve been there the longest. how they are so dedicated and how if you dont want to do the time, you shouldnt get a system. generally being complete --------. good for them. we had a hours to pass so we became friends and played some cards and whatnot. the 6 guys in front kept to themselves and didnt associate with the rest of us. we were cool with each other leaving the line to get food, bathroom, smoke, etc since we all knew each other and as long as they were back in 30 minutes. i was about to leave to go buy some KFC for a good number of us and when i stepped out of line, one of the nerds shouted that if i left, i would lose my spot. the other guys told him that they were vouching for me and that i was just getting food but those 6 -------- didnt care. they said i leave, i lose my spot and that was the rules and they would call the manager (they had his number) to come out and enforce it. i said whatever and stayed in line.

a few hours later, the manager came out and told everyone that there were only going to be SEVEN available. they have them in their store and theyre not getting anymore. he told the people after # 7 they should leave if they wanted to not waste their time. me being number 13 should have left but i didnt, i wanted to stick around for a little bit more. everyone else left except me and the 7 other people that were getting it for sure. so the day goes on and i try to make friends with the nerds. i play mario kart on the ds with them and talk to them about the games they were getting. about an hour or 2 later, i tell im gonnna head home since im 8 in line and theres only 7 ps3s. one of them made some stupid joke about if i leave the line then i aint getting back in!! har har. so as im about to leave, i tell them im going to the vons next door and if any of them wanted any food or coffee and id bring it back to them. one of them said yea and all the rest like sheep followed and said yes too. they were gonna give me money but i told them it was on me since theyve been out here since monday. the 7th guy in line wanted some food and coffee and i told him id buy some for him also.

so i go to vons and buy 8 coffees, some food, and some x-lax laxatives. i bring it to my car and put some laxatives in 6 of the coffees and seperate them from mine and #7s. i pull back to walmart and bring all the drinks and food upfront. i give #7 his stuff and then the coffees with laxatives to the 6 nerds annd wish them good luck and go back to my car. i park it around the corner so i can still see them.

about 30 minutes later, #2 and 3 in line get up and it seemed like they were yelling to the other nerds. they both ran into walmart. seconds later (i guess all nerds have the same biology) #5 gets up and runs across the parking lot and into the trees and bushes somewhere. #1 is scrounging for this portapotty type thing he'd brought with him but he is squirting everywhere and all over his pants and their sleeping bags. he runs into walmart. at this time, i start my car and drive back to the walmart to claim my spot in line. when i get there #4 and 6 are gone but i dont know where. #7 is laughing his --- off so hard and i just smile at him. i call up 5 of the other people that i had made friends with that were in line with me ( i had their phone numbers cause i was gonne buy to food for everyone) and told them to get back to the walmart ASAP and get in line. Meanwhile, me and #7 threw all their ---- into the parking lot and i claimed my spot as #1, him as #2. 4 and the people i had called arrived and got in line just as 1 of the nerds came running back and got #7. he started yelling saying they need their spots back. we all told them to ---- off, out of spot, out of line. it was all of us against him so he didnt say ----. the nerds came back and tried to start some ---- but we just laughed, we told them it was their rule and to go ---- themselves and clean the ---- off their pants. the called security and security came. security man was like WTF is that ------ smell and looked at the nerds with ---- all of them and kicked them off the grounds screaming LMAO. so that is how i got my ps3.

The second story is about a guy who kind of went through the same situation, but had a different way at getting back at everyone.

The guy was standing in line at a Target (why he didn't just get one from where he works doesn't make sense to me) and had to go to the bathroom.  He left and one of his friends held his spot.  He got back and everyone started complaining that once you leave the line you lose your spot.  No one would let him back in and they got pretty agressive.  They handed out the tickets and he didn't get one because of everyone else, but he waited anyways.  When the store opened he rushed right to the game section and bought every single PS3 game they had.  When people got their PS3 and tried to get a game they were told they were all out and the guy was waiting right by the registers with the bags of games and told every one of them that they should have just let him get back in line.

Not as mean as the first story, but still funny as hell.  I'm just wondering what the guy is going to do with all the games. :lol:

Now I'm not talking about how their launch went.  That's already been discussed about.  I'm talking about Nintendo packaging Wii Sports with the Wii. Wii Sports is a good game, but it can get old pretty quickly.  It's fun to play in short bursts, but there isn't much substance so people will probably forget about it when more good games come out (or already have if they have Zelda).  However, packaging the game in with the Wii was smart on two parts.

The first part is the fact that some people may not have been able to afford anything else besides the console, so including Wii Sports with the Wii is good for the consumer.  I know some people go out and just buy the console to have it for the future when they can get games for it.  I did it when the PSP came out...but later just got rid of it, when there were basically no good games for the system that I couldn't play on a PS2.

The second part is that they probably couldn't sell it seperately.  Nintendo could probably have released the Wii for $199 or $229 without Wii Sports, but they included it in the system to give it the extra "value" so they could charge more (and show off some of what the Wii could do).  A very smart business move.  Nintendo probably realized that it would have been hard to try and sell Wii Sports seperately.  There isn't enough to it to constitute a $49.99 or even a $19.99 price tag.  I know I would have had a hard time trying to reason why I should pay for the game when there really isn't much to it.  There are more crappy budget games that offer more then what Wii Sports does, just not the fun that you can have with Wii Sports.

So, good job Nintendo.  You gave something to the consumer and did a good business move at the same time.  Something that Sony should think about.

A pretty amazing thing happened to me today.  I went out to get a Wii and had a hard time getting one.  It was only amazing to me because I thought that the people that live in my area wouldn't care about the Wii.  Well I was wrong. 

I headed up to the W Appleton Best Buy and arrived around 8am, only to see a line of about 40-50 people.  I sped out of the lot and went to the E Appleton Best Buy only to be told that there were only 15 and I wasn't going to be getting one.  The next trip was back to the otherside of town to line up at the Toys R Us.  Seemed like that was going to be my lucky ticket...if they had any left.  They only had 15 Wii's and I was number 17.  So close!

A little dejected I gazed across the parking lots to the Sears connected to the Fox River Mall.  I laughed and thought to myself "Why not?"  A quick hike over to Sears and I lined up with one of the guys that also was too late to Toys R Us.  I stayed, but he decided to leave.  Big mistake.  If he would have stayed he would have gotten one.

The nice thing was that the next person to arrive was a mother who was getting one for her son for Christmas.  Some other people arrived and we organized and had it set up that I was 1, the mother was 2, and everyone else just got a number as they arrived.  The mother that was #2 said that she asked an employee on Saturday if they were going to get any and she was told that there would be 2.  2!!! 

I got there when it was 8:15am and the store didn't open till 11am so there was some time for discussions and confidence building for the people who were 3 on back.  Around 10am with some help from one of the other people standing in line we were given the word that there were only 2.  True to everyone's words, I was #1 and the mother was #2.  No one was upset and everyone said there goodbyes and we got our "tickets" and ran for shelter where there was warmth.

After warming up 11am came around and I got my Wii, along with Zelda and and extra Wiimote.  Lot of patience, and some good luck and I'm happy as can be.  Played some Wii Sports boxing and burned off any of built up frustration.  Got some homework to do before I start Zelda...but I also have 2 days off of work to play some Zelda, and I couldn't be happier. :)

Over the weekend I watched the D2 Mighty Ducks movie on TBS, two days in a row.  I've seen the movie before and hadn't seen it in awhile so I watched it.  Wednesday night D3 was on Disney Channel so I watched it again.  Again I've seen the movie countless times, but it's a good movie so I watched it again.  The movie went off just in time for the Season Finale of South Park, and boy was I creeped out at what I saw.  The show itself wasn't creepy although the way it ended was kind of funny/messed up but the actual "theme" of the episode was weird.  As I was watching it I was catching all of the references to the Mighty Ducks movies and I just had a creepy feeling.  Two different stations show the D2/D3 movies and then South Park has an episode where a lot of the things in it are from the same movies that I had just watched.  Coincidence or Conspiracy...who knows, but it sure was weird.

I'll start off with the unimportant.  My BHC Glee Club vid made it to 1000 views, which is surprising.  People said it has no point, which it doesn't.  But then again, 99% of the stuff on the internet doesn't have a point...so I'm not breaking the curve.

Now for more news that is unimportant, but game related.  After the special "We Got a Wii" (or was it "Wii got a We"...i'm confused), I am now convinced that I'll end up getting a Wii as soon as I can.  After watching them play the PS3 my reaction was just "whoop dee doo"; however, after seeing them play the Wii I a) couldn't stop laughing and b) can't wait for launch day.  It just seems extremely fun to play.  Even Excite Truck looks fun.  I'm still a smidgen concerned about the sensitivity of the Wiimote, but that's something that I'm sure I'd get used to.  I can't wait for November 19th.

Wow.  That was the first thing I thought to myself after playing through about 4-5 hours of Gears of War in co-op with my friend.  The graphics are great, but everyone knows that.  Story isn't important in this game, as the main draw is the gameplay.  It's not just some mindless shooter.  You have to think and use cover.  Like Jeff said in the review, if you just run around your going to die quickly and often. 

The game is great, but getting it was a hassel.  After waiting at Circuit City for about 45 minutes, because it was supposed to be sold at 5pm, me and a couple of other people found out that it wasn't even in stock.  They never got their shipment.  So after a few complaints, I headed over to Best Buy...and sure enough they had plenty (possibly even Circuit City's shipment).  Good thing is that they take Circuit City coupons so I didn't have to worry about anything.

Overall it was worth the hassel.  I haven't had that much fun in a video game in awhile.  Haven't played the game a lone, I definately recommend anyone who gets Gears of War to play it in co-op.  It's just so much more fun.  Even when your friends headset is busted and the only real communication you have is through messaging each other. :lol: