SergeStorms

This has been a dry season for games and that is reflected in the numbers.

I have a 360 and the family has a wii. I play "regular" games on the 360 like Fallout 3, Far Cry and we all use the Wii almost exclusively for Wii Fit or screwing around on Wii Sports and Wii Play. In my home, at least, the two items are almost different genres. I play the usual games on 360 and PC and Wii is for the stuff that is special to it, like Wii Fit. I am not a Nintendo fan and never played Mario or Zelda so don't even look for those style of games on Wii. But when I speak to the parents of my kids friends, all the talk about Wii is for stuff like Wii Fit and Wii Sports and how novel and fun it is to bowl or do the cow races with the family. There is a lot of understanding about the Wii in adults surrounding the non traditional console applications and I think those driver sales a tremendous amount.

I played a lot of Sims 2 so got this one on launch day. I have heard there are different ways ot approach the game. I tend to be pretty straight forward and make a sim, get a job, have a few relationships then settle down, raise kids and so on. While I enjoy customizing the home to some extent, my approach is pretty goal oriented in the game. I like to max the career, in Sims 2, pull of great dates, have my kid get A's, and that sort of thing. For me, then, Sims 3 is a great evolution. the goals are more fluid and interesting as are the moodlets. I think they add a lot to the game. I love the open worlds where you can easily get around and do stuff. It makes having my little 50's style dream family (even when it is sometimes too chicks) more interesting and less tedious after the initial fun phase of getting things going. Raising kids right is less of a grind and turning aging off and on and changing the life span makes it easier to tinker with stuff and learn the game. I think the game feels empty compared to Sims 2 but I support the mod community and will buy stuff off online sites way before EA so I know there will be a lot of great stuff in the future.

I was reading on Eurosport that this is a pretty controversial move in Spain. The country has over 18% unemployment so a lot of commentators are saying how can Real Madrid fork over this much money with this kind of economic pain in the country.

I think they paid way too much for this yahoo. He is a great player and he and Kaka will provide unbelievable speed, passing and shooting that can carve up a back line, but I wonder how much Sir Alex will be able to guy with this much money. No one has a better eye for talent. Plus, I can't help wondering if Galactico history will repeat itself.

This will put pressure on Laporte to get at least two or three big names this year. I bet they keep Eto'o but Henry is getting up there and there fans will be getting restless, even after winning the treble.

Fallout 3 first. I probably spent as much time playing Oblivion as my next three favorite games put together. Fable was OK and I will get Fable 2, but I am really looking forward to Fallout 3.

none, my second 360 just red ringed. I suppose when I get it back, I will play about ten hours a week like I usually do.

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Assassin's Creed. I thought it was going to be OK but I loved the death confessions of the targets and how they built up the plot. It was very well done.

Original Star Trek. Maybe it is just that when I was a kid there weren't many of these shows. There were a couple of British imports like Space 1999 and UFO, but Star Trek, which was in reruns, I am not that old, was just so different and cool. My friends and I all bought the paperback books with the shows made into short stories in them. The cover are ruled.

This is the reason I learned in college. Before cash registers, store owners made things end in .99 or .95 to make their clerks go to a cash drawer to make change. Otherwise, they were afraid the clerk could just pocket the amount if it was a round number and the customer had the right amount. The tradition just stuck when cash registers showed up then of course computerized inventory control. It is now a tradition people expect. Everyone on the planet assumes the reason is to fool you so how on earth can that work? People grew used to seeing things ending in .99 or .95. Otherwise, they think the price is somehow odd or weird.