Stay awhile, and listen.

(Photo taken outside The Spectrum in Philadelphia, PA)

I can just imagine the ice Climbers come out the back to bring the stretcher, Dr. Mario is present for on-site care, and the dude from Excitebike is driving.

It's been quite the week. As of late, I have recently spent more time scouring eBay and bidding on things more than I ever thought I would. Within the course of just a few days, I have bought the following (with a bit of patience) dirt cheap;

Dark Cloud (PS2)
Dark Cloud 2 (PS2)
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete (PS1)
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete (PS1)
Vagrant Story (PS1)
Final Fantasy Anthology (PS1)
Final Fantasy Chronicles (PS1)
Final Fantasy Origins (PS1)

Notice something? Yep, they're all older RPGs. For whatever reason, I'm on such an RPG kick with the old PS1/PS2. All of these games listed above I have found on eBay for a lot less than I ever thought possible. If I would have bought them all retail when they first came out, I'd be paying close to $350+. However, I paid only a third of that price in total.

Now, I'm sure this isn't any new revelation or some well-kept secret of the Innernets, but I will say that my overall shopping experience has been very, very good with eBay. If I were to buy these games used today at a local GameStop or GameCrazy, I'd probably get shafted pretty badly; both on price and condition. All the games I have listed above came complete and in near-mint state.

I think my eBaying is pretty much done with now, as I've much to play. How about the rest of you? What have you bought off of eBay?

(VISIT THE FORUM POST - Click this!)

Yeah, I know. Some of you out there right now are simply groaning at some of us here. "Please, shut up about Culdcept. You're ruining my SMASH." Well, too bad. :) This might've been something better suited for the forums, but I figured I'd begin here first and foremost.

Basically, this is a recruiting blog o' sorts. I am looking to get together a small list of folks here on Destructoid that own, love, and play Culdcept SAGA on Xbox LIVE. As of right now, we know of 6 people that play;

Savant - x MikeZilla x
Dale North - DaleNorth
CronosBlade - CronosBlade
CJPKiller - cjpkiller
Conrad - SenorRoachypops
Hitogoroshi - Hitogoroshi(and some numbers?)

We've got a few matches together already and they've been nothing short of a blast. However, if someone ain't around, I'd like to get more people together or possibly start setting up a small Blind Book tourney if we get enough folks.

So, if you own Culdcept SAGA and have an Xbox Live account, please let us know! We'd be more than happy to get some matches together. Leave your gamertag in the comments and I will update the list accordingly. :)

As you folks may or may not know, I recently bought a set of these little guys over at The Behemoth's online store. They used to be exclusive to the lucky few of us who get the chance to go to Cons, but as of the previous holiday, they're available online to the masses -- which is a good thing considering how undeniably awesome the knights are.

But is the full set worth $60 (or $20 per knight?) Read on, my good friends, and I'll explain my personal thoughts about the little guys (and include a few pictures along the way.)



As pictured above, you can see the Castle Crashers all encased in their respective plastic casings and atop their mighty display pedestals/weapon holders. This isn't how they come shipped, mind you. The way you'll actually receive the little knights is inside these plastic cases filled with packing peanuts and a tiny white box which has the knight, the pedestal and their weapons wrapped in plastic. It takes a few moments to get everything sorted out, but that's more a gripe of mine than anything else.

Right out of the gate, you'll notice the construction of the Castle Crashers is solid. These stout little guys are (fairly) poseable and look cool no matter what position you put them in. Now, what I mean by "fairly" is that their arms didn't really raise as far as I thought they would -- because their ginormous heads get in the way of their shoulders. No matter, you're still given enough play to pose them the way you want 'em. For those curious, the articulation points are in the neck, waist, arms, and hands. The hands might seem a bit rigid at first, but they'll become normal after a few movements.



Let's move on to the items the knights with. Each knight comes with their respective colored shield and four equally lethal weapons; a bloody sword, a bloody axe, a spiked mace, and, uh, a frozen fish. The weapons are really well done and look great. I'm not really a fan of the shields, as they don't seem to stay in the pose you want them to stay in, but just as before, that's more a gripe than anything else. All weapons can be placed in the pedestal that the knights come with for easy (and fashionable) storage, so no need to worry about losing 'em.

Speaking about the pedestal, I have one last issue -- there is a little nub in the middle of the stand that holds the knights in place (they have a small hole in their left foot) However, it just seems that this hole and nub don't like to fit together for some reason. It takes a bit of muscling, but you can get it to fit nice and snug. I just get a bit worried when placing the guys on the stand that I'm gonna break 'em. But, as said, they're constructed very well and have a good durable feel.



So, let me sum up all my mildly coherent ramblings into one paragrah. The Castle Crashers toys are by far my new favorite figures. Granted, I don't own that many to begin with, but, they've certainly exceeded my expectations in terms of quality. The pricetag might be a smidge high, but keep in mind that you're buying something that is (supposedly) a limited release and will also help The Behemoth pay their bills in the long run.

I highly recommend these figures to anyone who enjoys this sort of thing, They're a great addition to any collection and $60 for the full set isn't so bad, really.

Now let's just hope The Behemoth can release Castle Crashers sometime soon. :)

Oh, hai Communitoid! Been awhile since I've been around, I know. My apologies for being a shadow in the mist. Rest assured, I'll be back to my old self again once things cool off in my life.

But, lend me your ear (or eye, as it were) for the moment, and let me blather about how insanely awesometastic Culdcept SAGA for the Xbox 360 turned out to be.

And by "turned out to be" I mean that I was rather surprised by it, since it came completely out of left field. Like most of you (some of you?) I downloaded the demo off XBL Marketplace, played it once or twice, and didn't think it was all that great. Then again, I had NO idea what the hell I was doing at that time. A few weeks past, and I randomly picked up the demo again and finally everything clicked once I read a review somewhere that said "Just think of it like Monopoly with a bunch of monsters for houses."

After playing the demo over and over, I was determined to rent the game to see if it would hold water (and be worth the psuedo-bargain pricetag of 40 bones.) Here's where my own plight begins -- I had it #1 in my GameFly GameQ -- but for whatever reason, GameFly flipped me the figurative bird and sent the #5 game in my queue (PGR4 for those curious.)

I called three rental joints around town -- none of them had the damn game to rent. What the hell? This game just came out in February! Disappointed, I realized I would have to wait for GameFly to come through.

But I'm a very impatient person, so I did what any gamer would do -- I bought the damn thing on a whim after seeing it at the mall. I was a bit worried that I might've blown my hard-earned $40, but after diving into the game headfirst for a good 8 hours over the past two days, I can delightfully report that the game is as addictive as[insert something REALLY addictive here]!

The game is rather time consuming, so don't be thinking you'll be blazing through encounters like Puzzle Quest. However, you can suspend your game in the middle, so no worries there. Nonetheless, once you get a handle on all the intricacies and complexities Culdcept SAGA has, you'll be hooked on building your Book (deck) and constantly begin thinking up new and interesting ways to make your opponent cry, curse, and complain.

All in all, the core mechanics of the game are really what drew me in. There's a steep learning curve here, but there is also a lot of rewarding fun to be had once you get over the hump. It's a shame that this game will fall through the cracks with so many gamers, but I figure I'd at least let'cha folks know how I feel.

If you've got a spare $40, I highly suggest giving this one a chance. It really is all its cracked up to be.

(Own this? Why not play me on Xbox Live? My 'tag is x Mikezilla x)