I like MAGFest. Well, more like love MAGfest. I've attended as a guest, worked as a staff member and shilled my crafts in the vendor hall. If you haven't had the pleasure of attending one, you've missed out on something special. Every year brings a unique opportunity to meet slew of industry and media guests in a comfortable atmosphere that can't be imitated by the big cons.

Yesterday, Mr. MAGFest and crew announced that voice actor Jon St. John will be in attendance this January. This will be your once in a lifetime opportunity to ask how many times 3-D realms told him they'd need him to do voice work "soon".

Video is NSFW:



Oh, PS, they also got some guy named "Sid Meier". I don't know why you'd want to meet him, but his name was in the press release.

As some as you know I crochet. I've talked about my works before. Normally I'm very sure of exactly what I want in my finished product. But I've run into a bit of a snag. I've got two different prototype Metroid hat models. One is an almost perfect representation of the original NES Metroid. The other is more of a stylized interpretation. I like elements of both. But I'm not quite sure if I should go with, one, the other or combine the two for the final version. So I'm looking for some feedback. Tell me what you like or don't like about each of the prototypes. Prototype "A" on the left is the original version, prototype "B" on the right is the stylized.









The "B" hat may look a little shorter that the "A". That would be fixed in the final version.

The Internets have forced me to see things that I cannot unsee. The advent of the portable digital camera and streaming video on the web has made it possible to view things that you once had to go to very bad parts of town and consort with very sick people in order to experience. So when I saw Halolz had created their 2 Girls, 1up shirt, I knew I had to up the ante:



Chomp. It's kind of like that. If you don't get the reference, don't try to. It's better that way.

If you don't live in a cave you're probably aware that certain websites sell unique shirts on a daily basis for that day only. Teefury is one of these sites. Today, and today only, they're offering this for $9 + $2 shipping:



While perhaps not up to the high standards of woot.com's "Spicy Italian Meatball" shirt, I find it to be uber sweet and it will be in my closet shortly

Physical copies of video games these days have a very robust life cycle. They're bought new, played and then usually enter a phase of recycling where they're either traded to a store for credit, passed around friends or sold off in some other manner. The canny gamer, understanding that he can truly have more game for less cash will determine his or her preferred price point for a game and wait till it reaches that stage in its lifecycle. One man’s OMFG-midnight-release-special-edition-treasure is another man’s 19.99 bargain bin special 8 months down the road. Entire communities on the internet have evolved to help you get the best bang for your buck.
I've been casually following the stories of Best Buy and Toys R Us getting into the pre-owned market now for some time. I believe that local competition in your brick and mortars can help drive down prices, or at least offer you a better option. With GameStop’s almost monopolistic empire of used game huts stretching from sea to shining sea, the average consumer has little choice in where they buy locally. The possibility of new players entering the market was exciting. There might be some real deals to be had, even if I didn't plan on trading them any of my own games.
So when I sat down and saw news on Cheapassgamer about the Toys R Us used game beta program opening up I dived into what scant details they offered. Games must be in good shape and come with the original case & artwork and miracle of miracles, they take in classic games. I jumped to the classic search to see what was involved when I saw this:



That’s right. Toys R Us will give you .50c for your copy of Earthbound with box. Fifty cents for one of the greatest RPG's to ever be made. Half of a dollar for a game that has spawned a massive fan base and routinely goes for over $80 on eBay over ten years after its release. This is an outrage. This travesty must addressed before my faith in humanity is completely broken. What say the people?

OK, so almost two months of inactivity; I has some 'splainin to do. Mostly, ok, almost entirely, it's been Persona 4. I've had that game sitting on my shelf for over 4 months and late last June, I decided to crack it open. What a wonderful way to spend a summer. I have over 92 hours on my save and I've just gotten the good ending. I'm looking forward to my new game + since most of my high 90 level uber-Persona should make the second play through much easier. You can look forward to some pictures of crap I dug out of my VG storage bins, a couple of short reviews and a event announcement before the month is over. If I haven't come back out of the TV within 24 hrs, please send a rescue dog with a small cask of bourbon, preferably Elijah Craig, aged 12 years.