I've said a lot of bad things about the Playstation 3. I questioned its abilities. I bemoaned its excessively high price. I postulated it wasn't worth getting when a Wii + an Xbox 360 (the so-called Wii60) was a better deal with better games.

I'm sorry, Sony.

I own a PS3 now (giving me the PSWii combo) and it's freaking awesome. This Fall was to be the "build a new gaming PC". This new rig would play Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins and lots of other great games. But...something funny happened on the way to Newegg.com. Instead of a new PC, I ended up with a new HDTV and a PS3. I think I came out on top on this deal. Especially now Bioware has confirmed Dragon Age: Origins will come to consoles. The last coffin nail in my PC gaming days has been driven in. I'm officially a console fan-boy.

Let the hate-mail begin...

This has nothing to do with games; but, I thought I would run through the movies I actually saw this Summer. Especially since we're starting to be inundated with the DVDs. I didn't see every movie (or even every "big" movie); I'll only comment on the ones I saw. I'll rate each movie on a ten-point scale, even though I don't really think you can find 10 gradations in quality; but, anyway...In the order in which I think of them...

• Iron Man (10): One of the best movies I've seen in years. I can watch this over and over and never get tired of it. Everything about the film--led by Downey, Jr.'s acting--is spot on.
• Kung Fu Panda (9): Second-best movie of the Summer and the first Dreamworks CG film to stand up to Pixar (and win). KFP is just a really, really fun time for the whole family.
• Prince Caspian (6): I was really disappointed the spiritual part of the book was effectively neutered. Of course, the Caspian book is the second-worst of Lewis' series (Magician's Nephew is--by far--the worst) and extremely talky, so I understand why they didn't want a faithful translation. Still, the movie was more about Ben Barnes looking soulful than how the Pevensie children regained their faith.

I've just started trading on Goozex and it's great. Goozex is a game-trading facilitator. You rifle through your stash of old games and decide what you want to get rid of. You list each on Goozex and the system will match you up with someone else that wants the game. Then, you ship the person the game; and, once the "buyer" confrims receipt (with positive feedback), you get a certain number of points added to your account. You can then "spend" those points to get games from other traders. The only cost to you is: $1 paid to Goozex for each "buy" you make (you purchase "trade credits" through PayPal and spend those credits to get games, you don't use the trade credits to sell games) and the shipping cost of sending out the games you're getting rid of. You can also buy points if you're lacking in games to give away. I got rid of two games pretty quickly and am in line waiting for two new games (Madden 09 and NCAA 09 for Wii). You get much better value for your old games (and can trade more types of games) than selling them to Gamestop. If you're the type that routinely gets rid of old games, give Goozex a try.

So…Brett Favre retires. EA names Brett Favre the cover athlete for Madden '09. Brett Favre un-retires and reveals himself as a petulant prima-donna who wants out of Green Bay as fast as possible. Brett Favre eventually ends up playing for another team and is exposed as a washed-up QB who makes bad decisions. OK, that last part hasn't happened yet; but, the Madden Curse lives and you can bet it will happen.

If you're not familiar with the Madden Curse, you can read more about it on Wikipedia.

In short, I'm tired of the hullabaloo around Favre and think the Packers should tell him to come to camp and sit on the bench. At least that would protect him from the Curse.

(There. That's my anti-Favre rant cleverly described as something to do with gaming.)

Update: Favre is off to the Jets. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Yep. The Madden Curse is going strong.

Assorted thoughts about the Microsoft E3 Press Conference, jotted down while watching...

• MS has conceded the "family entertainment system" to Nintendo and is going fully after hardcore teen & adult gamers. That means they are focused on Sony as their only real competitor.
  
• Fallout 3 looks good. I may have to scrounge up a 360 just so I can write a guide for it.
• No personal interest in RE5 or GoW2; but, the online co-op at least worked.
  
• Molyneaux is promising a bunch of stuff again. Anyone remember the last time he promised a bunch of "innovations"? Anyway, seems he's pushing Fable 2 more as a Sims competitor than an RPG. Oh, goody, I get to grow old, get married, have kids, watch them grow up...I thought I was playing a game, not re-creating my life. :sheesh:
  
• MS's spokespeople need better teleprompter skills. They're awful.

I do not want to dig deep into my psyche and examine the decision I am making; but, I do want to explain something that will be changing with all future (written after 1st May 2007) guides (both free FAQs and Premium Guides):

I will no longer cover the evil path through a game.

A lot of thought has gone into this. It started when I was working on Oblivion last year and went through the Dark Brotherhood quests. Those quests are truly disgusting. There are jokes about the murder of a six-year-old girl. You're tasked with killing innocent people for money. Death and bloodshed are celebrated at every turn. In short, the entire quest line is nasty and made me feel bad. Thinking back, I had similar problems playing through as a Dark Jedi in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. When I got around to SW:KotOR2, I quit early in the process of working on the Darkside path through the game--I just didn't like playing it. Now I'm working on Jade Empire; and, about halfway through the game as a "Closed Fist" (JE's euphemism for arrogant ***) player, and I don't want to finish the game this way. So, I've decided to quit playing the bad guy.