Justaddwater

" I have $1000 put away for a real drum kit. But if this ION kit is less than $200 then I'll definitely buy it along with an $800 drum kit. "

" Sooo.... you're saying that Vinny's going to be added onto the child sex offender registry? "

" Vinny's - unless there are more than one. "

I think I may have stumbled upon Vinny's future self....If GiantBomb were to sink and he's relegated to filming low budget porn movies for the next 20 years. 
 

Im getting really tired of the current consoles, all Id really want is better graphics, something thats on a par with the PC now. A blu-ray player and thats pretty much it.

Only one ive watched all the way through was Death Note 
 
loved it.

 Yes they absolutely can take the fun out of gaming, whoever says they cant is being ignorant, it does however depend on the person.
 
Ever since I got the 360 Ive been hooked on achievements to varying degrees and it ultimately led me to selling the console and all my games and switching to the PS3 to start afresh.  Only recently have I made a concious decision to ignore achievements (trophies) completely and focus on having fun with the games instead, though even now playing through Dead Space I find it hard to not think about the 'Kill x number of enemies with x weapon' achievements and I still find it hard to not think about my profile and the low percentages associated with not playing games through to completion.
 
Unfortunately, like most things achievements are just a way for companies to make more money, making you buy more of their products and purchase games that you would never under normal circumstances consider playing. Its also a way for Microsoft to install a facade of loyalty into gamers so that they feel invested in their hard earned number and ultimately cross over to the next xbox console when their gamerscore inevitabely transfers over. (Note: Im not a Sony fanboy or anything like that, that comment was completely impartial)
 
Obviously there are a lot of people who take it in moderation, semi-ignore them and enjoy them, sweet. I and a lot of others like myself are not like that. I also see them as a missed opportunity, I cant understand why developers havnt used them as a tool in games to 'break the 4th wall' as it were and do something similar to when the codec went crazy at the end of MGS2. We've seen a little bit of the potential of this for example in the original Bad Company, I believe the achievement description said "Open and use your parachute after jumping from a helicopter" you then unlocked the achievement when you splatted on the floor with the achievement text being changed to "Oh wait, there isnt a parachute" 
 
Ultimately I liken achievements to how ive heard some people comment on proffesional gaming, it takes the innocence and pure fun out of simply playing a game and experiencing the developers creation for what it is.
 
peace x

Anyone know of a way to stream this outside of the U.S.? dont really want to download them as it comes up to about 12 gigs.

I've only recently (in the past day) learned to roll somewhat decently, im very proud :)

Eternal Sonata, its the only JRPG that hasnt felt completely bland and souless to me so far. There are a lot of JRPG remakes out for the DS aswell so have a look around and maybe play a few oldies that you might have missed e.g. Chrono Trigger, the older Final Fantasies (6 in particular)