Nekura

What I want to know is this: where is You Don't Know Jack? Can you think of a better game for their new XBLA party format? Make it compatible with the Scene It "big button" controllers and you'd have an instant winner.

Hopefully the RB2 guitars will work better than the original Rock Band ones. I've purchased and exchanged mine seven times and not a single one had a working tilt sensor.

- The scene in Blade Runner where the spinner is headed to the Tyrell Corporation headquarters for the first time. That scene still blows me away.

Since that might not really be considered a car - BONUS PICK!

- The mall parking lot chase scene from Back to the Future. ("Let's see you bastards do 90!")

XBox 360

Yeah, that's why youth violence is at a 10-year low in the U.S. at a time when video game sales are at an all-time high.

Source: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/vage.htm

OH NOES! IT'S TEH VIDEO GAMES!

So, basically, only "slumming" TV and movie writers are eligible for the award. What a crock.

Just to be equally arbitrary I think we need to start limiting "Best Director" awards to members of the Mile High Club...

It's not like Microsoft was telling us anything anyway. They wouldn't even 'fess up about the issue. Also - if you read their "free game" offer closely, that was a treat for us for supporting them and was not an apology in any way.

This is a little OT, but I've found the people who work for NPR to be real jerks. Back when I ran a big web site dedicated to local bands, the Chicago NPR folks contacted me and wanted my site to provide them tons of information about local bands (they wanted to compete with the Tribune's Metromix music and dining site). All I asked was that they mention my site. "We can't do that," I was haughtily told, "We're *public* radio - we can't do advertising!"

They were perfectly willing to let me provide them content but couldn't even bring themselves to list the source. I stopped listening and pledging after that.

The attitude of this reporter is just another example of NPR looking down on us lowly normal people with their top hats and monocles and wondering what the big fuss is. Elitist bastards.

I sympathize with their problem, but the lag between when they write reviews and when the magazine ends up in the hands of reader is going to kill them. (Most print magazines have a 2 - 4 month lead time.)

In that same amount of time, I could have received a copy from GameFly, tried it out first hand, and mailed it back. I'm to the point now where I don't even read reviews unless there are a ton of really good titles coming out all at once and I'm trying to prioritize. It costs me nothing to try out a game that sounds like it might be fun, even it goes back the day I get it. (Star Trek: Legacy - I'm looking at you...)

Of course, it also means I'm not *buying* games anymore, either. Instead of seeing a rock-solid review in EGM and then buying the game on release day, I rent. In the few minor cases where I know I'm going to play the game over and over again (Orange Box, Halo 3), I just click the "Keep It" button and it's mine.

I moved to this method of playing because I couldn't trust reviewers any longer to give me the straight story. If I believed a bogus review, I was out $60. Now, I pay about $35 a month and always have 3 brand-new games on tap with more coming whenever I am ready.

This is why we need to keep rating out of the government's hands. Can you imagine the kind of censorship and red tape would be created if we let the yahoos in charge decide this stuff? They can barely run the country, let alone fairly judge game content.

I liked being able to bounce a car into an opponent, but you're right - it was cartoonish and the AI would never do the same to you. I won't end up missing it (none of the PSP iterations have it and those are still fun), but I know I'm going to keep ramming into the backs of cars out of habit for at least the first few hours...