Darth Drabek

You guys are so classy with your mixed drinks. I think it's a progressive move when I try a new microbrew. Today is a bittersweet day, because I'm finally drinking the last of my Pumpkinhead ale. It's made at the Shipyard Brewing Co. in Portland, Maine, and it's the only pumpkin spiced ale out there that gets it just right. So it's my last one, but I am enjoying it.

The Everybodyfields - Aeroplane If you like the Jayhawks, you'll probably like these guys.

Very informative post. Interesting thoughts about why some programmers prefer consoles. It seems like these days PC gaming is a whole lot of work for not enough of a reward. I don't want to have to finagle with my virtual memory or tweak my antialiasing settings to get a game to run well. Viva la console!

Chris Bell - You and Your Sister

Nicole Atkins & the Sea - Brooklyn's on Fire LISTEN!

Supersuckers - Pretty ****ed Up she used to be pretty but now she's just pretty ****ed up Pure gold.

We just got done with the artwork last week. We've been tweaking the final mixes to get them just the way we want them. We've also added cello to several tracks, which required more recording and mixing -- but was totally worth it! Lately, we've been shopping around for a good company to actually make the CDs. CD replication/duplication is actually fairly expensive, especially if you want to make less than 1,000 (which we do, because I don't want to tile my bathroom with unsold CDs). Teenage Fanclub - The Concept

Guess what? We're opening for him on February 15! We're the first of four bands, but it's still pretty exciting! Oasis - Some Might Say

I've been playing Dead or Alive 2 (Ultimate) on my 360. It's backwards compatible! Also, I'm getting a lot better at Guitar Hero 2. The wife and I have five-starred everything on medium, and I've moved on the the "hard" difficulty setting. I failed "Madhouse" on hard yesterday. I was 98% through the song. That was the closest I've come in years to tossing a controller through the TV.

R.E.M. - (Don't Go Back To) Rockville

The Afghan Whigs - My World is Empty Without You Awwww yeah.

Avenged Sevenfold - The Beast and the Harlot Good god, is this where the music industry is headed? I'm all set to go buy an album based on the sheer awesomeness of a song I played on a certain guitar-based video game. And it's not even really the band's own version of the song that I'm enamored with...it's some cover band playing that song! Edit: True that, TN. Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" makes Rufus Wainwright's sound like open-mic night posturing, and Leonard Cohen... well, he should just write songs for other people to sing.

Apologies to the writers (and delusional Volo), but JE's writing wasn't even close to BG2. Ditto for the voice acting. Look, I liked Jade Empire. I liked it enough to play through it twice, which a lot of people here haven't done. I thought the art direction and animations were fantastic, and I thought the combat was fun, if a little unbalanced. I really enjoyed the main plot, especially the sections in the Lotus Academy and Dirge. In fact, thought the main story arc was written well. It's the party members I have a problem with. The supporting cast just seemed incredibly weak. Spider is dead on -- it's rare that The Protagonist sets off on an epic quest with such a bland set of companions. How is it that in BG2 deciding which five NPCs you wanted to take with you was like pulling teeth, and in JE I had a hard time picking one groupie to stroll around Bio's beautiful world with me? Even the romance interests were boring. Seriously, BG2 had three romances that were much more compelling than any of the ones in Jade. Yes, even Aerie. (I have heard rumors that you can have an ahem, "mano-a-mano" relationship with Sky, Jade Empire's dashing rogue. I haven't personally tried this, so I can't comment on the quality of this alleged "romance.") Dawn Star showed more personality in the credits than she did the entire game. Sagacious Zu? That was a character with potential, but the finished product completely underwhelmed me. I got the "dangerous loner with a mysterious past" when I was hoping for so much more. I did enjoy the little girl/two demons dynamic of the Wild Flower NPC. The Black Whirlwind was over-the-top comic relief, the Princess was shallow, and the rest were forgettable. All that may sound harsh, but Jade is still one of my favorite games on the Xbox, and I'll be purchasing the sequel when it's done. Another reason to be glad I bought a 360.

I just downloaded it. Its good as well. But I prefer the simplicity of the original song. Any others? I think F Zero could have had something you like, but I only own some tracks of F Zero GX, and this game is on the electrical end of the musical spectrum. Now listening to: f zero gx - blackshadow f zero gx - bloodfalcon sounds like "daft punk meets trance" or something like that. Great fit for a sci fi high speed racing game. I always thought that Nintendo should just shell out the big (maybe medium-sized?) bucks and get Joe Satriani to write and record the music for the next F-Zero game. It would really be perfect. That's what I think about everytime I listen to Crystal Planet or Surfing with the Alien. Warren Zevon - Boom Boom Mancini

I did my research carefully, and my unassailable conclusion is this: Guitar Hero 2 setlist > Guitar Hero 3 setlist That was my main reason for asking the wife for the older version. I guess GH3 has online play, but that doesn't really concern me, as my 360 isn't hooked up to Live. Enjoy Mass Effect (you too Kor). It's sweet. And don't listen to those reviews that said it wasn't nearly X-TREME enough. Because it was just X-TREME enough, in my opinion.

Yeah, that song is pretty far out. FYI: "Some Loud Thunder" is the name of the album, though. The band's name is Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Weird, I know. Afterhours - Ballad for My Little Hyena

My "coolest" present was probably Guitar Hero II. I also received several other thoughtful, practical gifts. But they don't let me rock out to "Possum Kingdom."

I've got problems with you people and you're going to hear about them!

Every year I dig out this CD at Christmas time, and it always rocks. Los Straitjackets - Sleigh Ride

Radiohead - Reckoner

For some reason this thread reminds me of Jorian... Personally, I wouldn't want the job. Not even if they changed their title from "Moderators" to "Regulators." I'm pretty sure the mods have to actually read all of the threads in their respective fora. Could you imagine being responsible for the Star Wars forum? Whew... not even if you paid me. Besides, I enjoy being part of part of the rabble-rousing proletariat too much to take a position of such heady responsibility. Yeah... take that, establishment!

"The Truth"

Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene

If not, well then it fails as a Johnny Cougar cover. Warren Zevon - Numb as a Statue

But...but ... you were on the moon! How cool was that? Just finished my first playthrough last night. I got the "Completist" achievement, which I guess means I completed most of the game. I still had one or two sidequests to wrap up, but I decided that I was sick of putting off the main plot and I took the Normandy to Ilos. I really enjoyed the game. Inventory management became a chore at times, but that was really my only gripe. I too, chuckled when Lt. Alenko stopped his little rant about biotic school because he wouldn't want me to think he was "a whiner." I thought the NPCs were well-written and fun to have around. Voice acting was great, too, although I'm hearing Jennifer Hale's work as female Shep is really something special. I'll have to check that out. Here's something I thought was interesting: I unlocked some sort of achievement for getting a boatload of kills with the assault rifle. Now, apparently, any new character I create has the ability to put points into assault rifles, whether or not their class would normally allow it. This could make for some interesting combinations on repeated playthroughs, am I right?