I just can’t see it. Really.

I mean, I look at Rock Band, and I look at Guitar Hero, and I can’t help but feel that Rock Band beats the other in every way. And I’m not even talking about the music each one contains.

I look at the interface of the general gameplay, and it really boils down to lines versus circles. I can understand why the original Guitar Hero used circles back in 2005, too. With the power of the PS2 and the quality of the video being output, circles give the most accurate representation of the timing while still being able to be seen by the player. (Coincidentally, this is why I think Rock Band AND Guitar Hero look terrible on the PS2 now that it’s just a port.) But because of the newer generation of systems, the horizontal notes work so much better and give the BEST visual cue to the song’s timing (provided you calibrate your system). I can’t understand why people would prefer Guitar Hero’s circles.
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Apparently, Snack Strong Productions (a thinly-veiled group of people at Frito-Lay) want to scare the pants off of you with a game called Hotel 626.

And from the reactions that the browser-game community (if you can call it that), it seems like the chip makers did a pretty damn good job. I haven’t got too far in myself, with a lot worse things on my plate than horror games, but I can tell there’s a lot of effort put into this, and it’s worth your time.

You can only play the game from 6PM to 6AM, but if you’re really bored, you can fudge it by changing the clock on your computer.

As far as I can tell, there’s no mention of any kind of product placement other than the name of the “developers.” This might be the least-effective viral marketing game ever made.

Something that should be noted is the game’s use of microphone and webcam (which creates one of the most frightening player-photo collages ever made at the end), which doesn’t happen all too often. If you happen to live in the US, you can also give a phone number for extra layers of immersion.

Go on, give it a try. But if you scare yourself to death, I’m taking your doritos.

I’ve been a loyal GameFly customer since March 20, 2004.

Let that sink in for a while.

In a matter of weeks, and two more payments of thirteen dollars and some change to them, I’ll have been a paying GameFly customer for five years. Five long years. I don’t want to even think of how much of my money I’ve given to them.

It started with Viewtiful Joe for GameCube. I was trying to rent it from all my local Blockbusters and Hollywood Videos, but none of them had it, and I was getting frantic. My poor fifteen-year-old mind yielded to a banner ad on IGN or Gamespot, and I signed up for the free trial. Around the same time I had been given my own bank account with debit card linked to the family one. What better use for a 16-digit piece of plastic linked to my money than a subscription based-service?

Yes, my logic was flawed. How many 15-year-olds do you know that don’t spend their cash on video games?

But I was a happy customer. I played over a hundred games with GameFly. I never had delays on getting games and I could get the best new releases within days of release. It was fantastic. Splinter Cell, Soul Caliber, Eternal Darkness, I played them all. A glorious existence! (When it came to gaming) I saved so much money that I even was able to buy a Nintendo DS on launch day.

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The view doesn't change much, but at least it isn't gunmetal gray.

Without a doubt, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is one of the best PS2 games I’ve ever played. This isn’t very impressive, considering I have played a grand total of eight games for the PS2.

With all the controversy over Metal Gear Solid 4:Guns of the Patriots in the Game of the Year race, and remembering that I actually do have a PS2 now, as well as once playing through Metal Gear Solid:The Twin Snakes for GameCube, I thought I might as well give the third installment of the series a try. I understood it as a successful game that used stealth gameplay well, as well as having a plot that didn’t involve arms containing souls of dead people possessing whoever got it for a transplant.
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