Who else remembers it? This advert resulted in me finally upgrading to the Super Nintendo following months of begging to my parents. On Christmas Day 1994 I became the proud owner of a SNES and Mario Allstars. Good times! 
 
On another note, why do British alternative comedians not advertise videogames anymore? I think Frankie Boyle should do the TV ads for the next GTA game following his cameo in IV:
 

I recently installed Mixcraft 4, and was eager to try my hand at a bit of videogame music remixing. Here's the first track I've done so far:

Back from the wilderness

It's been about six months since I've really been involved with the site in any capacity, and I've decided now is as good a time as any to offer something of an explanation. So here goes. I joined Giant Bomb on launch week with a great deal of excitement about the site. It had (and still does have) the potential to be one of the best video game websites on the internet, and I was glad to be a part of that. In fact, over the past year the site has improved dramatically, and I've been really impressed with new features and content that the staff keep serving us up with. So why the self-imposed exile? Well, in short 2009 has been a really busy year for me. I've been holding down a full-time job whilst at the same time doing my best to finish a Masters degree in International Politics, and any spare time I've had has been devoted to spending time with my girlfriend or (attempting to) keep in touch with close friends - not to mention having to get through a mountain of coursework. As a result I've barely had time to devote to playing games let alone contributing to Giant Bomb, and there came a point when I had to pretty much walk away from the site for a while. Although I've taken time out to listen to the Bombcast and check out the new videos from time to time, I haven't been doing a lot else here and that's something I hope to change over the next month or two. So a big "Hi!" to everyone on my friends list and don't worry, I haven't dropped dead or anything. 
 

Videogame Backlog

So anyway, as of next month I'm going to have a lot of spare time on my hands for the first time in ages. The following titles are on my list of games to get through, and are either releases I failed to spend any time with last year or have yet to play:
 

• Final Fantasy IV (SNES)
• Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (Wii Ware)
• Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
• Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360)
• Chrono Trigger (DS)
• Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii)

 
Recommendations anyone? In addition to these I also have the daunting task of going through all the other new releases pretty much since Christmas and seeing if there's anything essential I need to get hold of. I have a lot of catching up to do!

So, you're sick of your job. Your boss keeps giving you the crappiest, most menial tasks in the office, and every day without fail you get stuck looking after the phones while your co-workers are out having a "liquid lunch" at the company's expense. Worst of all, you've only had 3 hours sleep because you spent yet another week night online playing Team Fortress 2. I know what you're thinking - if only daily life at the office was as exciting as that time you got 5 dominations without dying. Well, now it can be! - with the all-new Wage Slave Achievement Pack! Unlock all 5 achievements to get the one thing you've been craving since you started the job - as much free time to play Team Fortress 2 as you like!!

Disclaimer!!  floorswine accepts no responsibility for any instances of contract termination, reassignment or redundancy

...is just days away. Is anybody else out there as excited as I am? I hadn't really played much Fallout 3 since completing Operation: Anchorage, but a couple of days ago I started a new game with the aim of being the most evil son of a bitch in the wasteland. So far I'm really appreciating the way good and bad karma affects things - it definitely adds a lot to the longevity of the game. I had always been aware of this, but I've still been taken aback by just how different my experience has been so far this time around. In my first playthrough I saved Megaton and stuck mostly to the main storyline with a few side-quests along the way, but this time I blew it up straight after leaving Vault 101 and then did the Anchorage missions directly after that. Now I'm wandering the wastes with my Chinese Stealth Armour and Guass Rifle, and super mutants are suddenly not much of a problem at all. This time I'm planning on doing some more side quests (as well at the Pitt) before playing through the main storyline, and I'm then I'm thinking of maybe waiting for Broken Steel to come out before I play through to the end again.

So now I'm ready for the Pitt - what are my expectations? Well, to be honest the Pitt was perhaps the DLC that least interested me when they were all originally announced. I felt that the change of setting with Anchorage and new level cap with Broken Steel were more interesting than the Pitt, which seemed to be essentially more of the same. But after Anchorage, perhaps more of the same is not such a bad thing. Although I enjoyed the more combat-orientated approach (and I know plenty of other people hated it), I felt that the more open-ended nature of the main game - one of its biggest strengths - was lacking. This made for a refreshing change of pace in some ways, but this time around I'm mostly looking forward to playing some brand new content where I get to interact with new NPCs, loot people's corpses and go exploring. You can never loot too many corpses!!

What does everyone else think? Did you enjoy Anchorage? And what are you hoping for in the Pitt?