thought it was interesting that blockbuster is getting rid of their late fees in hopes that the increased sales from it will offset lost revenue from late fees. so now you can keep movies/games an extra week without any late penalty, which sounds like a good idea if you *have* the movie/game, but i bet it kills their selection when everything's already been rented. oh well, i can't really remember the last time i went into a blockbuster anyway. not to knock them, just that renting games from them is typically like $6, which is a little high, and a lot of times i can find dvd replicas of any movie i'm interested in rather than actually going to out to rent it.

speaking of movies, we actually bothered to get out and saw ocean's twelve last night. man we had looked forward to seeing that in the theater (at this point we prolly only see a quarter of what we want to out) for several months and both of us were falling asleep during the whole thing. i dunno if it was just cuz i didn't have enough sleep or if the movie actually was *that* boring, but man i couldn't get into it. it had a few cool scenes here and there, but damn it just wasn't the same as the original. i think as soon as they weren't in vegas some of the appeal was gone. it had some cool style and a decent ending, but i guess how much i like clooney, damon and pitt couldn't overcome how much i dislike zeta-jones and julia roberts. i dunno, bottom line: too much star power, not enough plot/action. imdb says 6.5, they're not far off.

i finally finished star fox adventures last night. it's insane to think that i originally bought that game in october 2002 along with super mario sunshine and my gamecube itself. i think at one point i prolly went a year to year and a half straight without playing it at all. ended up taking 23 hours in all, as was somehow one of the easiest and hardest games i've ever played at the same time. it's not really known as a particularly popular game, although it was known as a great underground zelda-knockoff. i'm just glad to be done with it, as easy as it was some parts took roughly 12-15 attempts to get through.

i was a little pissed to see last night that EA has secured exclusive rights to the NFL. i've never been much of a football gamer, so it doesn't really affect me *that* much, but it really sucks that ESPN/Sega can't use the NFL anymore, especially after everyone loved that they released a $20 suite of quality games. yet another example of how EA is the evil empire of the video game industry...

the stats continue to look shite for my favorite little purple console this holiday season. xbox was reporting 41% and PS2 at 39% of console sales, so that leaves GC at a distant 20% of sales. although i really don't know how to interpret those numbers that much, since all those consoles are like 3 years old, i don't really know who's still buying them. it's kinda funny that sony didn't expect their new thin PS2's to sell so well and are now having a shortage of them.

i don't really know how the PS2 continues to just beat the shit out of everything (in the grand scheme at laest) every year. i bought one, so i'm not gonna bash it, but graphically it's really nothing compared to the cube if you ask me. i think if nintendo could just prove to everyone that they're not the kiddy brand everyone thinks they are they'd move a lot more merchandise. being a cuber is starting to feel a bit like being the last guy to support minidiscs, heh.

you'll have no more.

--the damaja