BardicKnowledge

Anyone who currently doesn't have a Live account: Microsoft offered my wife a free 1 month trial of Gold membership when she signed up for a Silver account. I don't know if everyone will get the same offer, but it's certainly something worth trying if you're interested in trying out the multiplayer (though if you're the main user of a 360, you really should have it already).

No -- only 320 points left! I'll get this asap though -- congrats, anso!

Overflow's idea is sweet -- Nintendo needs to get on this (or if they don't, it'd be nice if the fan-made projects got wind of the concept...)

I liked the ability to edit in custom shooting quotes in the DOS version of Scorched Earth (which btw is the best version of this type of game...period).

^Rats -- wish I would have been able to get in on the victory! I can't wait until Tuesday -- it's going to be a blast choking you all with the Smoker.

Congratulations -- looking forward to telling you so in person at MAGFest!

The 8-bit music is the best part of these conversions thus far -- I'm very impressed with how good their music team is at arranging the pieces down.

Animal Crossing is hard for me to recommend. I find that the game gets very dull very quickly...but with wifi, that may not be the case. Still, having burnt myself out on the DS version, I won't be getting it.

I'm buying it this morning so I can pre-load over the weekend. And if anyone still has concerns about running it, it plays faster than TF2 does for me. The Source engine has got to be the most optimized thing in gaming...

Pop on IRC and make us play -- most of us will jump into a game if we're aware that others want to play (especially L4D -- so good!) You won't regret buying that big package deal btw -- TF2 and L4D alone almost make it worth it, and you also got the last decade or so of great PC fps games.

If you need male voice or a tenor recorder, let me know -- I'd be glad to help with another track!

There are a lot of artists whose music outside of their submissions to OCR is certainly _not_ free: off the top of my head, I can think of Audix, Destiny (no longer using that name AFAIK -- look for Helen Trevillion online sometime) sgx, Siamey, pixietricks, and zircon are all putting great music out there trying to make music professionally. In addition to people making original pieces, there are plenty of professional level VG cover bands that are deserving of your money -- The OneUps and The Megas are the two I can come up with without wasting more time doing your research for you. It's great that you've enjoyed their charitable contributions to OCR's database and your playlist as a result, but don't try to undercut anyone's hard work...especially people who have been around much longer than you have.

Have you guys seen this level yet? Thought it was pretty good.

Just because G-T schools you doesn't mean that you suck. Hit me up after the weekend is over.

Pre-ordered! The gift card is a good idea, btw.

Playing GT was humbling, as I expected. Managed to finish off his sonic once though, which was great. 1:10ish for me now -- just as good as Iowa State usually does!

Nohbody (or anyone else, for that matter), I'm free pretty much all day on weekdays -- find me in IRC and tell me to play.

Seconding Jeremy Soule's work, especially Morrowind. Most of Ragnarok Online's soundtrack does this sort of thing very well also -- especially Prontera's theme.

Rama, did you see the Wily 1 stage the Capcom folks blogged about? Great guitar solo in there at least...

Demos of XBLA things are always free -- go give it a shot!

I'd love to play an OCR D&D (3.5 preferably as I don't have the 4th Ed books) game via IRC sometime. If anyone organizes it someday, be sure to let me know.

G-T, I've added you now that I have my copy of Brawl back. I don't expect to win, but I can have fun whilst getting the crap pounded out of me. Find me on IRC sometime. Edit: my # is 0044-2503-3545

I hope they decide to keep Brawl's airdodge. IMO wavedashing is a mechanic that should stay in Melee. I'm also very interested in the hacking going on though -- any word on if they have managed to find a way around Nintendo's latest update (for those of us who haven't installed things yet)?

If the graphics jump backwards isn't an issue, get her an emulator and have her play the earlier FF games (6 comes highly recommended, and is the most story heavy of them). Otherwise, it's difficult finding JRPG's on the PC, and the Western RPG game (Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, Morrowind, etc) are often more complicated as far as stat management and behind-the-scenes things go. If they're up for trying one though, Morrowind comes with my highest recommendations, and will run on anything considered decent nowadays.

Surely any (offical -- off-brands tend to suck) controller responds fast enough for anyone. The difference has got to be too small to be noticeable...