Entertainment/Gaming Consoles

Well, quite a few things have happened in my gaming world. I still play consoles pretty frequently, though I've had less time lately. I guess that's why I haven't written about it.

GTA3 was finally beaten while at Paul's. It wasn't beaten <b>fairly</b>, but it was beaten. I'll go through it soon enough and 100% the game, though I think I'm going to need a walkthrough for some of the packages.

I've been playing a lot of sports games lately and I'm definitely enjoying it. <b>FIFA World Cup 2002</b> has provided a number of hours of fun and I haven't even really scratched the surface of it yet - there are a number of difficulty levels, and beating it on "World Class" difficulty is definitely going to be the ultimate challenge. I think Paul and I <b>may</b> be able to accomplish it in a 2P Co-op while he's here. We'll see. We'll definitely have trouble with it, but I've gotten better since I played it as his place.

<b>NBA Inside Drive 2002</b> is also pretty fun, and I've started a season in that game. 80-some games + playoffs + championships should give me some serious play time on the game... and it only cost $10! You'll have to pay $30 if you buy it at the store though - I gots the hookup. Pretty good basketball game, though it has its quirks - sometimes you'll have the momentum for a dunk and you'll be in the right spot but it'll stop and do a fuckin' jumper. That's aggravating.

<b>Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3</b> has been beaten to a bloody pulp. It's still fun as hell though. I've 100%'d the game which is <b>no small feat</b>. I probably have over a hundred hours on the game. I'm now going through it and picking up the little things that don't count - stat points and extra decks. I have most characters complete now - only 5 more to go. That's out of about 20. But every goal for every character is complete. That was definitely a satisfying accomplishment.

I counted up and I currently have 17 Xbox games. Many of these were purchased at pretty hefty discounts, but I've still invested some pretty serious cash in my Xbox. I just got NFL 2K2 at Target the other day (for $17 and change) and I'll be getting into that when I have some time. Right now though, FIFA has got my attention.

I'm up to 13 PS2 games, which I think is a pretty decent amount. Again, most of these were purchased at pretty steep discounts - $20 for a lot of them, even though they weren't listed on the "Greatest Hits" roster. I really want to 100% GTA3, as I've stated previously. The other game that I'm eager to fully get into is <b>Virtua Fighter 4</b>, which I got at a discount thanks to a pricing error. I really really really suck at it right now, but I think that it'll come to me with enough practice. If I spend the time to master all of the characters, it will definitely be providing me with PS2 goodness for a long time to come.

As for the actual console, my original unit died after only a few months of use. The drive tray would shoot out of the console and remain in an open position, unable to close until I powered off the unit. Game discs would not read in the drive - I couldn't play anything. So I took the console back to Wal Mart, put up a bit of resistance to their resistance and got a brand new unit. I'm happy to report that it's working fine. I really really really hope this doesn't happen again.

Today's my birthday; last night was the party. I got a GameCube, Super Monkey Ball and Super Smash Brothers Melee. Both games are pretty good fun with a friend, and SMB has a pretty good single player game. I haven't had much time with the GC, but I'm enjoying it so far. I plan on ordering FIFA 2002 and NBA 2K2 today, as well as Eternal Darkness, which, I'm told by a friend, is one of the most amazing games ever. We shall see...