Recap! Get yer recap here! And, after you've finished with that, enjoy more of my Canadian adventure.

Oh, and I'm still looking for contest ideas. Give me the best one and I'll give you a Dreamcast in return.


*- I am buying this game now
*- 2D Castlevania returning to consoles? DO WANT.


A- Haven't seen an article about the derision Rock Band players receive from musical sorts in a while (MaSuTa)
A- Yojimbo stirs up that ol' chestnut by suggesting PC gamers have greater intellect than console users
A- Lazlow wants to see the games industry learn lessons more effectively
S- Weird Kid's Top Ten: SNK Games (Excremento)
S- Breaking the Addiction (SilverDragon1979)
S- RetRose Tinted: Castlevania (Conrad Zimmerman)
M- Count Grishnak got hooked by Final Fantasy VIII
M- In a dramatic turn of events, Brian Keljore's affair deals a negative impact (Final Fantasy VII)
M- Tenro's love affair started with Darkstalkers
P- FAILCAST 11 records tonight


C- CBlog Xbox Scavenger Hunt (FINALLY Ends 6.30)
C- Superflossy wants to sex you up with a kick ass MGS shirt (6.20)
C- Tell me how to give away a Dreamcast and I'll give you one too. (Ends 6.23)


F- TFTuesday!
C- Yojimbo may not be the God of Street Fighter after all
C- unstoppablejuggernaut wants to drive cross-country with a Dtoider. It could be you!
C- stevephoenix has an awesome Dtoid theme for his new phone
C- NihonTiger about to start begging for Rock Band DLC
I- SysiphusRock scores points from me on his intro simply by having a Greek mythological name
B- Happy belated birthday, Tenro
H- PeZ gives us the skinny on his collection


N- Joss Whedon to work on superhero game?
N- Game Center CX coming to America?
N- Play Magazine hires noted gaming critic to troll in their pages
N- Wii update blocks use of Freeloader
N- Study finds teams wearing red more likely to win
N- AMD's new graphics chip is "bigger than Jesus"
N- Gamefly is having a massive sale
N- Champions Online won't require you to have friends
N- Info on the classes coming to Warhammer Online
N- Sony finally confirms in-game XMB
N- Pedro gives the skinny on the new Pyro achievements
N- New PSTriples firmware is up
V- New trailer for Sonic Unleashed
R- Mugen no Frontier: Super Robot Taisen Original Generation Saga has 21 syllables and, now, a review
R- Metal Gear Online gets reviewed
T- MGS4 made iwontusemyname cry like a bitch
T- blu3steel was less impressed with the story
T- But bubuli adored it
T- michiyoyoshiku ranks his top ten favorite game franchises
T- Post from new user about puzzle game that reads like press release
T- Impressions of Facebreaker
T- Brad Nicholson matlocks study that states gamers don't mind in-game ads
T- EA's 3-year extended warranty on downloads is a crock
T- digitastik found Final Fantasy IV disappointing
T- Getting that 1000pt gamerscore
T- With no more backwards compatibility coming, are gamers giving up their last XBox titles?
T- GTA IV paedophilia site controversy is stupid
T- Jack Thompson's offensive message offends
T- Is the Pyro's new weapon in the "Meet the Sniper" vid?
T- xColoradoGamerx powered through MGS4 in 18 hour marathon
T- Brad Nicholson totally missed card battle games
T- Marioland is unsure how they feel about Sonic Unleashed
T- EA CEO has game journalist conspiracy theory
T- Pedro Blandino gets Black Mesa, sets to work on resonance cascade
T- I'm sorry, dude, Operation Darkness is gonna suck
T- An AT-AT Spore creature
T- Spore requirements too great for one year-old Mac


A- SLiFE needs comic book suggestions
F- Spoileriffic clip from Dark Knight reveals what you should already know
S- The robot overlords show ceark some love
S- Team Fortress 2 Heavy poster


R- Amazon reviewers lampoon $500 audio cable
R- craineum wrote some gaming lullabies
R- Functioning keyboard pants
V- Racist Japanese cell phone ad references American election year
V- Video of UK anti-gamer Anne Diamond explaining her new games writing career
V- NERF office warfare
V- Assorted lulz
?- There's a joke here but it's either not funny or I'm not getting it
?- Something about Myspace that I don't understand


S- Slow, but I can understand your excitement over something actually coming to Mac
S- Coonskin posted about this yesterday
S- Nintendo was faster than you
F- I'd ask the forums
F- I guess editors don't go to forums
F- Fail intro





As you may or may not be aware, I'm a smoker. I know, it's disgusting and I've resolved that I'll be quitting sometime before I begin my third decade on this Earth. For the meantime, however, I enjoy my habit. There's something relaxing about rituals and the act of lifting a cigarette to my lips and inhaling that bitter tobacco smoke is intensely pleasurable.

Canada hates smokers, and no province seems to hate us more than Ontario. While most of the country seems content to put warning labels on the packs that take up fifty percent of the space, Ontario has some different ideas.

Firstly, they jack up the price a bit more. The average pack of cigarettes there runs about $9 Canadian. Combined with the weak American dollar, it's quite expensive for a tourist to indulge their filthy habit. More interestingly, however, Ontario has decided to place some rather draconian restrictions on stores which choose to sell cigarettes.

Stores are not allowed to display cigarettes. I'm not talking about advertising here. The actual product must be completely obscured from view. Probably wouldn't be a big deal for a regular who pops round the local shop everyday to get their fix. My brand isn't even sold in Canada, far as I'm aware, and I sure as hell wasn't going to pay the price of a "premium" brand at the inflated rates. So, I did what any normal person would do and asked the clerk what they had available.

The clerk informed me that it was illegal for her to tell me. So, they can't display them and they can't talk about them. You can have no information on price, brand name, nothing. It's as if Ontario thinks that if they shove the dirt under the rug, the problem will no longer exist.



HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO CBLOG RECAPS