From doing some searches, it seems this game gets a bad rap from an awful lot of people. Still, I like it. It's fun, and an easy way to eat up 15 minutes. Granted, it's golf, and some people aren't too big on that, but it's golf with super powers. Seriously. Beyond that, there's plenty of interesting courses (14 of 'em with the recent addition of Ice Spa), a practically limitless character customization feature, more strategy than a golf game really needs, and it's completely free, unless you want to pay for stuff. Hell, there's even guild support, and I think it'd be cool to have a Destructoid guild. So if anyone else here plays this, username's KyrenGraves, gimme a shout.

edit: if you've never been, go here.

Alright folks, here's what I got. Compy's name is Silvergun, as RSG's what I was playing at the time of the most recent format. This thing's a true Frankenbox. The only original equipment in this build is the cpu and the sound card, everything else came later as parts failed. Mind the dust, I'll be the first to admit my setup's a wreck.

PC:
Antec Sonata II case (120mm's, 2 of 'em, damn quiet)
600w Mystery Power Supply (sticker's on the other side, so i have no idea what it is offhand)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
1gb ram
GeForce 7900 gt
SB Live! (old, yes)
one SATAII 320gb seagate
one ATA 160gb seagate
one ATA 80gb seagate (failed)

Monitor:
Gateway 22" widescreen, max res 1600x1050

Mouse/KB
Logitech MX1000 laser mouse
IBM Model M collapsing spring keyboard, built Mar. 16, 1988 (hey, this thing could bludgeon a zombie to death, and i love it)

Audio:
Klipsch GMX-A 2.1
Skullcandy Skullcrusher headphones

Gaming:
Slim PS2, XBOX360 Elite

Dust:
Much.

Booze:
quarter fifth of crown special reserve, half fifth of captain morgan private stock, half a bottle of absinthe

and there you have it. Hopefully this won't get buried since I'm posting it at 1 am.

So I got bored, and trying to come up with ideas for stuff to put here, and I got to thinking of an excellent idea:

make my own drinks.

Obviously, from the title, it didn't work out at all. In fact, it failed so horribly, I'm going to share it with all of y'all.

Captain Morgan's Spiced Chai

what I was thinking: Spiced rum, spiced chai, this'll totally work. That, and since private stock somehow has a vanilla aftertaste, it'd be a good combination.

how it came to be: quarter glass Cap'n Morgan Private Stock, one tablespoon of sugar, top off the glass with boiling water, add tea bag, let sit for about 20 minutes (i'd rather it be too strong than too weak).

how it tasted: At the very least, it was drinkable. Barely. It tasted like hot watered-down rum plus pepper and other spices. Plus alcohol bite and chai tea isn't that enjoyable of an experience. I give the drink:



3.5 out of 5 grimaces.


So now I'm thinking I could do more of this. If any of you have an idea for a potentially good drink that went south, drop me a line. If I can get hold of the ingredients easily enough and try it, I'll write-up the worst one available. Just don't make it bad for the sake of being bad, no raw eggs plus cough syrup combinations or anything like that.

...and i'd love to find out why. slightly drunk right now, forgive the typos and rambling.

practically every rpg out right now has its own epic soundtrack. hell, most games in general have epic soundtracks now. but there's one not-that-small problem with this:

no soundtracks released stateside.

sure, if you really wanted it that badly, you could go to GameMusic.com, but everything you buy there's in japanese. what i'd love to see is a soundtrack for shadow of the colossus in english sitting in an FYE somewhere at a reasonable price. but odds are this won't happen, so i'm fucked.

but why is that? there's enough gamers in the states that would love to get their greasy little hands on high-quality music, and not have the case booklet written in moonspeak. hell, there's stateside concerts with a full-on orchestra and everything just for vg music. so why no soundtracks?

i mean, hell, there's even the off-chance that a non-gamer would happen to pick it up, think "man, this music's pretty bitchin'," then go get the game itself. revenue for the publisher of the music, revenue for the game company. it's a double whammy, and it makes no sense for it not to be there.

I find myself watching the opening movie for Persona 3 all the way through every time I turn the game on, and I'm not really sure why. I'm sure most of you have experienced this some time or another. Maybe you like the music, maybe (in the case of action games) the opening movie gets you all hyped up to go kill some zombies, beat the crap out of Xzibit (def jam: fight for ny), whatev. The .Hack//GU series has this effect on me as well. Just that specific combination of imagery and sound that makes the whole experience so f--king EPIC that you have to sit and watch it all the way through, y'know...

Not that anyone'll ever read this, but hell, why not. Here's where y'all come in. What games keep you from hitting start and skipping the before-title-screen movie, and why?