I forgot to mention something about Sly Cooper - it has slowdown in some areas. Okay, that's it. It doesn't bother me none, and it's confined to very specific spots. I didn't want you to try it out and be like, "Hey! Tycho didn't say anything about slowdown!" or something like that.

There's these goofy little creatures you get in Starfox that let you continue. They're called Bafmodads, I think. I know that it starts with Baf and ends with Dad, and I feel like that's good enough. There is room for error between those two poles, but also for romance and adventure. So I'm set.

Gabe seems to like Starfox Adventures well enough. I haven't jumped on all that many platforms since The Killing Game Show years ago, so it's probably not my place to say - but I don't think this is a game I could play for any extended period of time. Every mission I've seen is nothing more than an unbroken string of petty indignities.

Those of you interested in the import gaming scene might want to hit VGD. Street Fighter Zero 3 for the GBA dropped this week. I had the opportunity to play this game at E3 this year and it's fucking incredible. It is an amazing conversion with a ton of animation and great art. The other cool thing is that you can play import games on a US GBA. No need for any special adaptors or Mods, just plug it in and go. Also coming out this week is the latest Neo-Geo release, Rage of the Dragons. I honestly have not had a chance to play this one yet so I can't say much about it. It's a 2D fighter based on the Double Dragon Universe and from what I hear it's pretty solid.

I was also sent a link to Ready Room's XP/2K tweak guide for gamers, and it's been pretty interesting so far. Caveat emptor, of course. The Ready Room is an information site for strategy-action hybrid Natural Selection, which I can't seem to stop talking about for some reason.

Perhaps a more accurate way of putting it would be "You Had It, And Then Gave It To Me."

It's hard to know what to think about Microsoft buying Rare, but there are a variety of responses.

With all this Ghost hub bub I totally forgot to talk about Starfox. I have had it for about a week now and it's a hell of a good game. This really isn't a Starfox game though. It's a platform/adventure style game that just happens to have Fox, and a few precious minutes of Arwing action here and there. It's easily one of the best looking games on any console. The water effects rival those in Mario Sunshine and the characters look totally awesome. I honestly was sort of disappointed in the combat before this evening but that's because I didn't actually understand how it worked. I realized there must be more to it and so I sat down tonight and actually read the manual. It turns out the combat is actually really fucking cool. I'm pulling off wicked combos now and bad ass special moves. Rare has always seemed to have a hard on for making players collect shit. Starfox takes this concept to new levels by giving you approximately three hojillion different items to collect. I'm looking for spirits, fruit, scarabs, fuel cells, gems of various colors, little fucking animals that let me continue, spellstones, different kinds of seeds, mushrooms, nuts and roots. the list is fucking endless. I am beginning to think that my love of platform games goes beyond a simple affection for the genre. While I don't feel the need to wash my hands every five minutes I do think that just a touch of OCD is required to really love these games the way I do. I simply must find every fuel cell. I have to know what happens if I give the mammoth the golden root. Tycho once asked me if I think something bad will happen if I don't collect all the things. I told him I don't think I would die, but why take that chance.

I am completely astonished by the stupid crap I've had to tolerate regarding this Ghost thing. As often as not, it's a clumsy segue into some screed about consoles or PCs which I'm sure sounded very smart when you wrote it. It is the sterling, unerring quality of this discourse that has inspired today's comic, in fact. I have neither the time nor the energy to disabuse you these notions, which have apparently dismantled the whole of your mental apparatus. If you've been avoiding consoles because you see them as childish, while you yourself are a man of erudition who only deigns to use a machine befitting your elevated intellect, there is no way for me to describe to you how far off-base you are. You can't even see the base from there. You're looking around, but you can't find it. Where's the base?

Your mom is a wildcat in the sack.

It’s so cool when people make my point for me:

In response to the argument that Blizzard is alienating it's mainly PC fan base with its move to consoles I have this to say: Shut up you retard. It's not like Starcraft: Ghost is only going to be available on the moon. You don't need a fucking spaceship to play it. It's for consoles, they sell them in stores for God sakes. Stores by you probably! Don't tell me you can't afford one either. We both know you just paid four hundred bucks for that brand new GeForce 4. It's not like scraping together a hundred and fifty bucks to buy a console is going to kill you. And don't give me that bullshit about not wanting to buy a console for one game. If you don't have at least one console by now you're missing out on a lot more than just StarCraft: Ghost my friend. I understand that your PC is cool and that half life was a great game but if you don't own a console you are missing out on hundreds of great games every year. Role playing games, fighters, platform games, shooters God the list of amazing games you will never play is fucking endless. The PS2 alone is practically a necessity for anyone who considers themselves a fan of electronic entertainment. They should be dropping the fucking things out of airplanes over war torn Afghanistan along with flour and water. It's a basic goddamned human need. If you don't have one by now it's nobody's fault but your own.

Wow, the response to Starcraft: Ghost has been pretty insane. I took some time this morning and visited a few message boards just to get a feel for what people thought of Blizzards latest title. It seems that an overwhelming number of you guys are pretty pissed off. I have seen links to no less than three different petitions asking Blizzard to make a PC version with robust online support. I can understand how all you PC gamers might be upset over Blizzards announcement but I for one couldn't be happier. If you have any questions about why I might be uninterested in a PC version of Ghost Just take a look at this quote from one of the many angry threads out there on this subject:

So, now we know what Blizzard was planning. While it would have been nice to see a tactical FPS with a strategic overlay, I am not displeased in the least by this announcement. The issue of who exactly is doing what on this game always seems nebulous to me, where Nihilistic Software ends and Blizzard begins - we deal with that in the strip - but a reasoned analysis tends to allay any fears I might have. Lord Of The Clans was an internal project and they killed it, even after years of investment. They aren't likely to release anything with their name on it that isn't at least "very, very, very good." What's more, while we think of Diablo as a Blizzard game, the people behind it - Blizzard North - were once a studio called Condor, picked up on the strength of their proposal. Blizzard is in the habit of making very good decisions, so if they think Nihilistic has the sauce I'm going to call it good.

You have, no doubt, already heard of the hot EA/McDonald's/Intel marketing three-way, for which paper towels and blue tarps have already been purchased. However, you may not have seen our comic strip on the subject, because I just now uploaded it.

I had some friends over on Saturday to play some games. I had Ikaruga, Raging Bless and Socom all ready to go. It turns out the evening was dominated by the Xbox version of Soccer Slam though. From about six in the evening to almost midnight it was nothing but killer kicks and trips to the soccer shop. I live in an apartment and the chick above me is always complaining that Kara and I are too loud even when we are just sitting on the couch reading. Now Soccer Slam is a game that requires yelling when you're playing it with friends and I was a little worried about my future in this particular complex. Over shouts of "Fuck you Angus!" and "Suck it Nova!" I tried to caution my friends against being quite so boisterous. In the end we decided that goals would be celebrated with the silent waving of ones hands and curses directed at the opposing team would be kept at a reasonable volume. It's no secret that Tycho and I were huge fans of the Gamecube version of SS and the Xbox version has some tweaks and features that make it even better. One of the most frustrating things about the GC version was that Killer Kicks rarely resulted in a goal. We always felt like if you're actually able to execute one of these Matrix inspired mega kicks you deserve the goddamned point. It seemed that maybe one out of every hundred killer kicks ever actually scored in the GC version. Now on the Xbox these same kicks find the back of the net with satisfying frequency. Visually the game looks pretty much identical. The Xbox version has some fantastic weather effects that I don't remember being in the Cube version. Maybe I am just spacing out here but I don't remember snow or rain on the cube. Word is there are also some new hidden teams to unlock. It's probably not worth buying if you already have the Cube version but Xbox owners should certainly pick this one up. The single player experience is nothing special but if you get some friends together this game is a fucking blast. It's easily one of the best party games on any platform.