Did The Writer's Strike Not Apply to Blogs?

Oops, oh well...

Let's play some catch up, shall we? The Office, Supernatural and BSG are back! I'm back! And now that my husband is managing a particular well known game store, I'm far too busy rolling around naked in piles of free gaming schwag to blog or play much of the games themselves...Due to which, I am now expecting a little gamer of my own...ah the circle of life continues...

Or it would except that Rock Band still has not added Foghat to their galaxy of stars...come on!

ICandee's Top Five: Christmas Edition

Still need some last minute gifts for the gamer in your life? Target out of the DS? No Wii's to be found? The only edition of Rock Band you can find is for the PS3? Well fear not, my friends! I have gathered the finest in last minute gamer gifts that are guaranteed to be available in stores! And here they are (in no particular order)-*ahem*

ICandee's Top Five: Last Minute Gamer Gift Edition

1. Wii Points Card: If you know someone lucky enough to have been able to actually find a Wii this holiday season, why not buy them a points card for the Virtual Console? Or if you know someone who really really wants a Wii for Christmas and you also know they're not getting one, get them a points card and make them open that first. They'll think their next present is a Wii and you'll have the pleasure of pointing and laughing when they start crying.

2. XBox Live Subscription (the year one, don't be a cheapskate and get the 3 month one jackass): If they don't already have XBox Live, this is a great gift! And if they do have Live...well, who doesn't like saving $50.00 bucks? Woo hoo, free year of Live!


3. Game Stop Gift Certificate: Let's face it, with the exception of a Play N Trade here and there, Game Stop is all we've got as they push forward in their plan to annihilate every "mom and pop" game store in their path. So just give in and get your gamer a gift certificate from Game Stop. Nothing says "I love you and stuff but I'm too lazy to really put any thought into a gift and this way you can get what you want and I don't have to hear your bitching" like a gift card, yes?

4. XBox Live Points: With all the downloadable content for games like Rock Band and Beautiful Katamari your gamer is going to be truly grateful that, thanks to you, they only need to spend $60.00 bucks on a game since you're picking up the rest of the tab by buying them a points card. (oh yeah, they can get movies and stuff too I guess).

And last but certainly not least: *drumroll*

5. PS3: Let's face it, finding a PS3 this holiday season is like shooting fish in a barrel.

Don't forget to check back for ICandee's Review of Everything 2007-coming soon!

Betrayal And A Two Hour Drum Solo

Well, we're already getting into the holiday spirit around my house: dreaming about finding a pink DS in my stocking, wondering if Rock Band would ever consider coming out with a Christmas carol song pack and crying over Heroes' betrayal since they've crossed the line between good (engaging story lines and characters) and evil (this craptacular season). Which reminds me of one of my favorite Simpsons quotes, "I didn't think it was possible, but this both sucks and blows". Up yours Heroes!

Speaking of The Simpsons, I'm trying to play through this game and let me just say this: the humor is fantastic, the look of it (on the 360) is almost perfect Springfieldian and if I have to have another argument with the camera because I want it to go one way and it insists on go in the exact opposite direction, I going to pitch my controller at it. (Then Ill pick my controller up lovingly, dust it off, apologize, then I'll flip it the bird and go play Rock Band...I'm totally awesome on drums by the way...)

I'm Taking My Katamari and Going Home

Ah, the sweet sensation of glorious rumble when your speeding Katamari collides with that stupid jerk dog that won't get out of your way...Oh Katamari, how I've missed you! Sort of anyway...

Being a rabid fan of the Katamari Damacy series of games (Me and My Katamari was the reason I wanted a PSP and I still listen to the soundtracks in the car) I was overjoyed to learn that Katamari was "rolling" onto the Xbox 360. Not only that, but it was going to be $40.00 bucks. Woo hoo! Now of course once all of the downloadable content comes out, King of All Cosmos knows how much the game will end up costing me but at least I have it now on the 360 and can take a break from playing the old games through BC power on the PS3. At least for a while...

Unfortunately, being one of the few Katamari fans that liked the 2nd game better than the first, I was disappointed to find that Beautiful Katamari is more along the lines Katamari Damacy. Which isn't a bad thing all told, however in BK instead of telling you it's a size objective they try to disguise it as a specific object..uh, objective. Of course, you still need to get a certain size within a certain time period and rather than success being measured by how many "Japan" things you've managed to roll up, it's more dependent on size a la Katamari Damacy without being based on number of things rolled a la We Love Katamari. The temperature mission is back although it's made more frustrat...er, challenging this time around by cold things making the temp go down. Ironically, the "roll cold things up" mission is missing the "hot things bring the temp up" aspect. There's no cut scenes to speak of so the story they tell you in the beginning is it: no quirky Japanese family, no King backstory, no nothing....Just plug the hole, no time for small talk! *TWSS*

The "All New Music!" soundtrack has me slightly confused as with the exception of a few new songs, it's really just remixes of songs from previous Katamari games. Which is fine with me I suppose since I'm a huge fan of Katamari music. (FYI: I swear one of the songs features a girl that sounds JUST like the video instructor from Battle Royale!)

For all my whining, I still like the game. It is Katamari after all (and the 8-bit credit game is back from Me and My Katamari, woot!). However, I'm ready to spend my hard earn points on some downloadable content that will hopefully give me more of a reason to not run back crying to the PS3 for Katamari backwards compatibility consolation.

And now it's time for "ICandee Tangent Time!" *pause of applause*

I watched The Descent for the first time last night...what a depressing freaking movie (Original UK ending FTW!)

Next On A Very Special Episode of Puzzle Quest

On the next episode of Puzzle Quest:

Let Them Eat Cake...Creepy Creepy Cake

Ode To A Cube

Oh Weighted Companion,

That helped me through that level,

How my heart broke for thee,

When I sent you to the Devil.

Return of the JedICandee

Well I'm back from Disneyworld and can now start my new gaming life as a married woman...dun dun DUN! Here's a random picture from our honeymoon. I thought it'd be funny for RuFfNeCk to try on some mouse ears:


He didn't think it was so funny but I'll let you judge for yourselves, yes? He's too busy concentrating on the Halo 3 countdown to still be mad anyway (Is it too early to start my Beautiful Katamari countdown?).

However, the best picture has to be the one we took after riding "Star Tours" at Disney MGM Studios. After you leave the ride, they have a photo area in the gift shop where they will stick your head into a scene from the Star Wars movies and do their computer magic to make it look good. Here's the result of RuFfNeCk and I as Princess Leia and Han Solo:

As you can see, I love my husband very much...

At any rate, the honeymoon was fabulous (I highly recommend a Disneyworld vacation) and we found a couple of arcades that had Mario Kart which was awesome! But I'm glad to be home and I'm ready for some new games...Game on!