Penfold

That's what someone else had posted, that you can't save SSBB date to an SD card. Kinda sucks.

Haha, good plan. Discussion about system scalping could continue forever . To reitterate what someone said, try slickdeals. A coworker go his from a thread on there, so that might be a good way to keep informed. Good luck!

I'm not against scalping because it blocked me from getting a Wii, since I got one Wii for myself and one for my parents both on launch day (Gamestop preorder + standing in line at the Best Buy across the street). It's just a practice I personally don't see as right, and don't respect. Again, you can try to justify it any way you want, but I'm not sure why you're defending it so strongly.

No offense, but I still call bullshit regarding the "service" part of that. It may only be a service for those who wanted to get it AT LAUNCH without wanting to wait in line and didn't care about spending the extra cash. The scenario I envision is that you, as a scalper, are taking a spot in the queue from someone else who wants to get the system, and circumstances may then force the person to buy from a scalper on eBay (let's say their child's b-day, and the system is THE thing they'd really want). Effectively, you forced the person in this case to pay an extra $50-100 despite that they waited in line. Had the scalper not been there, the transaction would have happened that much quicker, more smoothly, and for less. At any rate, you can try to justify scalping anything (systems, tickets, whatever) any way you want, but in the end it is what it is. I personally don't see it as right, regardless. Not trying to start a debate/condemn you for scalping/whatever, just expressing my personal thoughts on the subject. Anyway, I had gotten a Wii for a Friend's b-day in...March last year I think. While I was working on getting that, I found that least the Toys R Us stores around here tended to put new shipments of Wiis for sale every Sunday. At the time, the store workers were relatively willing to let in on when they got shipments, but things may be different now. I guess more than anything it just takes vigilance, if you can't find out when stores nearby get shipments in.

Haha. You know, I forgot the wiimote/nunckuk was an option, I think I'll give that a shot tonight to see how it works.

Hahahaha. Got a chance to get a few games in online against a friend of mine last night. Lag was weird...it seemed to come and go randomly. I did die once thanks to lag, but for the most part it was manageable. Also, Snake is badass. The more I play as him, the more I like him. ROB seems like he'd be really good, but I haven't played with him enough yet. Btw, is everyone pretty much using a GC controller? I have my wavebirds out on loan still, so I've just been using the wiimote...it works, but there are a few problems with it. Didn't try for more than a few minutes of classic controller when I first got the game, but not so sure about that yet.

That's a game I'm looking forward to getting, but probably not for quite a while yet. Especially because it's now confirmed that Mario Kart Wii is coming out less than two months after Brawl (April 27).

Yay, unlocked Snake and Lucario. Snake has been enjoyable in the little bit that I've played with him, and so far Lucario isn't bad (seems very Mewtwo-like, but less floaty). Also, contrary to my initial dissapointment with Capt. Olimar, I'm feeling pretty good about him now. I really like how different pikmin add different effects to the attacks, and his final smash is really useful. I might try an online match at some point within the next few days, but I'm that will lead to my ass being kicked . So, on the topic of online play, I remember nintendowifi.com had some tracking for various wifi-compatible DS games like Mario Kart DS, but just looking real quick on the site it seems like they never did this for Wii games. I don't really see why they at the very least don't integrate Smash Bros and other Wii games with that site, so you could still check your ranking, what stages are most often played, what characters are most often used, when people tend to play etc. I just don't understand why they'd do that for DS games but not offer the same thing for Wii games.

So I read in several posts that people unlocked Sonic by beating SSE...I unlocked him well before beating it (as I'm at under 50% still), so I'm just wondering what the actual requirements were. Still awaiting Snake though...

'k, so I'll start with one I've recently learned from my brother...like I said before, I don't really measure so for these purposes I've just approximated. Gyro sandwich Gyro meat (enough for about 5 gyros): - 1 lb equal portions of ground beef and ground lamb (EDIT: that's 1 lb altogether) - 1/2 regular-sized onion - marjoram - rosemary - black pepper - salt (preferably rock salt / sea salt/ kosher salt) Tzadziki: - 2 cups greek (strained) yogurt - 1 regular-sized cucumber - 4-6 cloves of garlic - olive oil - apple cider vinegar (you could use balsamic or red wine vinegar as well) - several fresh mint leaves For the sandwich: - Pita - lettuce - tomato - onion (Make sure you have plenty of paper towels before starting this, as you'll be doing a lot of straining with them, as well as a food processor or good mincing skill and a potato masher, an oven, a loaf pan, a frying pan, a cheese shredder (you could probably use a food processor instead though), and preferably a mortar and pestle) Start out by preheating your oven to 325. Next, put the lamb and beef in a bowl/container, but don't worry about mixing them for a little bit since you'll be adding to it. Next mince up/food process that half onion, the finer the better. After all minced, take several paper towels, put the minced onion onto them, take to your sink, and strain out the liquids. After you have it nicely ringed out, add the onions to this. Next, take some dashes of marjoram and about the same amount of rosemary (maybe a couple regular spoonfuls each? Just experiment) - if you have a mortar and pestle grind them up, but if not just use them as is - and add to the meat. Add a bit of salt and pepper (freshly ground pepper always, if possible), and start out by mixing this all together by hand. At this point we could just cook it and you'd be left with really good hamburger, but since we want gyro meat you'll need to work it with a potato masher for a while to get the proper texture (I hear you can put it in a food processor to get this effect too, but I don't own one big enough to hold a lb of meat so I dunno from experience). Stick the meat into the loaf pan and cook for about 70 minutes. As it cooks, you'll have some time to prepare the tdatziki. Make sure you're starting out with greek yogurt to begin with, otherwise you have to strain it yourself, and that'll add more time to your preparation. Spoon the yogurt out into a bowl. Next peel and seed the cucumber, shred, strain (just like you did for the onion), and add to the yogurt. Same process for the garlic cloves and the mint - mince, strain, and add to the yogurt. Add a little splash of olive oil, the same amount of apple cider vinegar, and a bit of salt and mix together. All done. When the meat is done cooking, let it set to cool. In fact, it isn't a terrible idea to put it in the fridge from an hour...just be sure either way to extract it from the pool of grease it's swimming in before that pool turns into a solid . If you don't let it cool fully, the meat will crumble when you go to cut it. Anyway, when you cut it, slice into somewhat thin strips, and pan fry the slices prior to eating them in order to heat them back up. Warm up your pita, and put your sandwich together with the gyro meat, lettuce, tomato, onion, and top it off with a good spoonful of tdadziki.

I could add a lot to this thread, but I don't actually measure so my recipes might be of limited use to those who haven't developed a knack for cooking. Is this thread for sandwiches only, or cooking in general?

I think you'll have to, man. Gotta hear this music in the best possible way!

Very fun so far. Haven't played Melee in a very long time, so just getting used to the controls in general, but for the time being I'm just playing with the wiimote by itself. I'm really liking the new characters, though Olimar was a little disappointing IMO. A friend came over and we played several rounds (EDIT: I was joking with him that this game is like OCR for VGM professionals ), then tried some co-op Subspace Emissary. Something about the enemies and how the different franchises mash up as you go through that reminds me of Kingdom Hearts. It has too much platforming, but nevertheless isn't too bad (the "story" makes it enjoyable). Best part so far is the music, IMO, and the majority of the tracks I've heard so far are quality. Such a great feeling to play a stage several times, with different tracks playing each time.

Sounds like we're at the same Smash Bros skill lvl Still love the game though...can't wait to get my copy!

A good chunk of the music I have at work is OCR stuff. At work is usually the only time I have to check out the new mixes consistently, and recently I'll play at least a few OCR tracks through the course of the work day. I tend to keep a very diverse selection of mixes on my work comp, but I'm more selective (and/or lazy) with what I put onto my Zune, which I use to listen to music in my car. After a Crossfit WOD, if I drove to the gym (my weekday lunchtime ritual), it generally feels good to hear some OCR as adrenaline levels fall. So yeah, pretty much at work or while driving are the times I listen to OCR these days. I don't like listening to music while walking (I like to actually maintain a full sense of my surroundings ), it'd be impossible to listen to the zune while working out/training without breaking it, and until I get a new receiver my computer at home isn't hooked up to a proper audio out, so those are the only times that I fit listening to music in general.

So, more on the blu-ray add-on for the 360. After thinking about it though, I'm still not sure if I'd get that or a PS3 as a blu-ray player, though the PS3 will make a stronger case come MGS4's release.

Oooo, oh yeah! I totally forgot about that game...it was just terrible in all respects.

To each his own, I guess. So to add to the list...Red Steel.

I was really pleased with The Orange Box, though the only game I've played on it is Portal. Btw, how are you liking Eternal Sonata? As for the reasons to get an HDMI cable, I think it follows the same logic as to why someone would get component cables for the Wii even if they don't have a tv that supports progressive scan - it still gives you a slightly clearer signal. For me, I mainly got the 360 HDMI cable because I would have otherwise gotten an optical cable for the audio...this way less cables, same effect.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the Gamecube controller. It always worked really well for the majority of games I played, so I'm not sure what the complaining is about...maybe it was some of the multi-platform games it didn't work well for. I'm not sure why people keep saying the d-pad was bad when it was never used as anything but a toggle or to navigate inventories from what I can remember (it worked great for those functions). It was also quite a comfortable controller for me to use for long periods of time, unlike dual shock controllers. Anyway, I love the Wiimote/Wiimote and nunchuk and the classic controller, and the 360 controller is for the most part quite nice (and way more comfortable than I thought it would be). The dual shock-style controllers employed on Sony's consoles are, I think, generally considered the stanard for good reason, but clearly weren't built with ergonomics in mind - I dunno about you, but it tends to hurt my hands to use that sorta controller for extended periods of time. Anyway, I think what people tend to have problems with when dealing when a new controller is in figuring on exactly which button is which. When I got the 360, it took me a while to figure out which out of the 4 face buttons was the X, etc. I think that's something the Gamecube controller excelled at. As Hylian Lemon said, they really did a good job to make each button more unique and accessible, and I think that in turn smoothed the learning curve for that controller. I think in many respects, the Wiimote follows those footsteps, which might also help it be more accessible. So, I don't think it's so much a matter of game controllers being too complicated, I think it's generally that learning curve that's daunting to some people.

I agree. In real life, I play drums as well, and am pretty good, but I sucked when I tried out drumming in Rock Band. The seemingly random assignment of the pads is something I couldn't get used to in the few songs I tried out, not to mention just the general layout of their set. The biggest problem I had, though, is drumming in that game was just too rigid for me...I know it's a game and you need to follow their rules of how to play, but I just couldn't get into it. Playing the guitar was fun (first time I actually tried it out, since I never tried out Guitar Hero and whatnot before either), but didn't have fun playing drums in the game...I'll just stick to real drumming.

Exactly. Recently got a Pro with HDMI port, and had to buy the HDMI cable separately (Pro only comes with component cables). Incidentally, I had heard that only the offical 360 HDMI cable will feed audio and video without using a separate audio dongle. I didn't really care to check the validity of this and just bought the offical 360 HDMI cable. Also, Terial - those 2 games were the same reasons I bought a 360 myself.

Man, I was really hoping they'd announce a hard drive for the Wii during GDC...kinda frustrating they didn't given that the Wii Ware debut is just on the horizon. I'd really much rather be able to just buy and download games that interest me than have to budget my memory space (Wii Ware games have got to have some size to them). Maybe they'll make the SD card functionality, well, functional before Wii Ware are available...

Still haven't put any time into Lost Odyssey. Decided I should probably get through Blue Dragon before starting any other RPGs at the moment (and also spent a good chunk of time this weekend on Portal advanced maps). On that topic, I'm really enjoying Blue Dragon, though it is very traditional JRPG fare (which I'm a fan of personally). It is certainly no Chrono Trigger, but I like it nonetheless. EDIT: Oh, and the music for the most part is pretty good...except for the boss battle song, which is fucking terrible. The guy's singing voice and the lyrics made an otherwise acceptible battle song into audio torture.

Hahaha, I especially like the Bone Thugs parody part.