January 08, 2004 -

Master Biscuit

It's been a few days, and I've been slacking on the updates, due to the first week of school being back in session. Gotta love college. But I have a few new goodies to mention.

For fans of PC games and the Sims genre, the Makin' Magic expansion pack is a wonderful addition to your gameplay experience. I got this for Brandi as a Christmas present, and I haven't actually seen her since. I got a chance to play with it for a little while (I built a castle, in my glory), and it's actually a lot of fun, playing with magics in Magic Land, gathering "ingredients" for spells, and entering cheat codes for money to buy all the great furniture, like the gargoyle statues. Check it out. It also includes a preview CD for the Sims 2, out this spring.

Top Spin for the X-Box is the best tennis game ever made. Not that there have been too many, but graphically, this game presents beautiful renditions of some of the pros, including Sampras, Kournikova, and more. Much like the Tiger Woods golf game, there's a really cool character creation engine, allowing you to heighten, fatten, or darken pretty much every body part to your liking, of either gender. It takes a little while to get used to aiming and returning, especially against living opponents (damn roommates), but the game's only letdown so far are the slightly long loading times. But they're worth it for the gameplay...if you like tennis.

I'm almost finished with Legacy of Kain: Defiance. Definitely the best chapter in the series. I'm still impressed with the environments I'm crossing, even this late in the game.

SWAT is a great movie. I'd seen it in theaters, and the bonus material on the DVD -- showing the construction of several scenes, making of's, etc -- make for a good bundle. Check it out.

I've had Beyond Good and Evil for at least a week, and I've so far not even inserted it into my PS2. Everyone that has reviewed this so far has given it scores above a 9.0, and it's supposed to be absolutely amazing. I... wouldn't know, yet. Sales for it haven't been all too good for some reason, either, and Best Buy has dropped the price (again) to only $20. I'll get around to playing it this weekend.

That's all for now. More later.

- Don