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So I finally got over one roadblock in Guitar Hero III that was Slayer on expert. Now I’m at the final battle to beat the game on expert, guitar battle against Lou the devil. Of course I always fail and decided this is where I stop, because the guitar boss battles are the most retarded thing they ever added in Guitar Hero.

So I tried a bit of The Simpsons the Game. I love the Simpsons and the the humor of it all. It’s great to see those cut scenes that look even better than the TV show in HD, but it’s a bit strange to look at them in 3D. They just look a bit odd. The game itself is pretty basic. Typical platforming and beat em up in various themed locales. I love all the references the game makes about other games. To name a few of many they take stabs at: Madden, Shadow of the Colossus, Medal of Honor, Mega Man, Metal Gear Solid, Mario, Sonic, Frogger, Grand Theft Auto. They range from a video game poster to a full blown level.

Now Mass Effect. I got it early from my usual unethical ways. I wasn’t excited about it or anything, but I had a slight interest. I’ve played Bioware type games like KotOR and Jade Empire before and I enjoyed them. First impression is the game looks great. The production values are top notch. Music, voice acting, art design, are all fantastic. However the game by default has a grainy film type of filter applied to it which I noticed right away and then got used to. It’s not distracting after awhile, and in some cases make things look more realistic and other cases not. I decided to turn it off later. If you can imagine KotOR but the battles changed into a 3rd person shooter, that’s pretty much what Mass Effect is. You have force powers, or in this case “biotics” that enable you or your squad members to throw, freeze, or levitate enemies. This is done by holding the R bumper and the action pauses for you to plan your attack. The L bumper will bring up your weapon selection screen where you can change yours and your squads weapon. These are the only times the action completely stops so you can make decisions, otherwise it’s an all out real time shooter. There’s the usual Bioware fare of multiple dialog trees, good and evil ways of communication, quests a plenty, and get your own love interest. What was a slight interest has become an obsession. I’m hooked to the game. I love all the different alien species and how they communicate. They all have unique characteristics that are charming in their own ways. I’m only 10 hours so I have a bit more to go. And I suspect to uncover a few plot twists that will make my jaw drop.

I’ve reached my limit so far in Guitar Hero 3. I’ve only beat 1 of the last 4 songs on the expert level and have not made a whole lot of progress on getting close to beating them. Slayer’s Raining Blood is seriously kicking my butt. I don’t play online anymore because 90% of the time it’s Dragonforce (hardest song) on expert and everyone is awesome at it. I did download the Foo Fighters pack of 3 songs, which are okay. I like the songs but they aren’t necessarily fun to play. Also, this week’s South Park was about Guitar Hero. The episode was basically a rock star rise to fame cliche story, with the band breakups, drug abuse, and reunion; except based on Guitar Hero rather than a real band. It was pretty good. I keep forgetting that South Park is really funny.

I also updated the newest PS3 firmware which added themes (yay?). Where’s my in-game menu access? Also I started the Uncharted demo download cause I’m really looking forward to it. So I started it as a background download and went to watch a Blu-ray movie. So I figured it would be done when the movie finishes. But apparently the download stops when a movie is playing. That was annoying as the 360 does not do that. So I guess I’ll play it later today. I still have no games for the PS3, but am considering getting Ratchet & Clank and Uncharted.

It’s that time again where DeepDiscount has a 20% sale on all movies.

Save an additional 20% Off from 11/09/07 – 11/25/07 with Promo Code DD1109.

Disclaimer from DD:

“Offer valid on currently available DVDs, Posters, Fun Stuff, and Storage Accessories. Previous sales are excluded. Prereleased DVDs are not included in sale. Coupons do not apply to video games, CDs, Books or electronics. Coupon may only be used once per customer. See site for details. We reserve the right to limit quantities.”

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I used it to order the Angel series Collector box set. I had the individual boxes before, but the new box is so cool . I sold the old boxes on half.com and got about 65 bucks, and ordered the new one on DeepDiscount for about 78 after the discount. So it’s not too bad :\. I also ordered the Planet Earth series.

This and getting Cars and Ratatouille at Amazon and the recent buy 1 get 1 sales at various stores, has put me back a bit and I will not spend anymore for awhile.

Back in July my Xbox 360 got the “red rings of death” error. Being that I had previous opened the console for firmware tinkering, I was not qualified for a warranty repair. So in my desperation I found a fix that cost me 8 cents. I followed this guide using a few pennies. What the problem seems to be is that when the console heats up there are RAM chips under the board that get heated and loosened, and that causes the error. By sticking some wrapped up pennies underneath them, it adds additional pressure to them to keep from coming loose. It worked until a few days ago. The red rings came back. So I opened it up again and added an additional penny on each stack for even more pressure, and lo and behold my Xbox is once again running normally. However, in my haste of opening the console I cracked one of the inner tabs that lock it together. It’s not a big deal as it’s not visible from the outside. I just want to play my games