If the demo is any indication Jurassic: The Hunted is dinosaur Rampart.

Your game seriously has issues if the most pressing issue is keeping critters away from the windows of your wooden fort. The only truly impressive thing is the main character's ability to repair windows directly behind him while firing a tao-handed weapon at the same time. His truly are the hands/ass cheeks of a craftsman.

There are likely some other gameplay types present but only dino-Rampart is included in the demo. Given that the game is being released with so little fanfare you'd think the demo would try extra-hard to entice buyers. You would be utterly mistaken.

Badman's UMD release looks improbable. At least the downloadable edition exists.

I'm in a good mood because Monster Farm 2 DS is finally being localized as Monster Rancher DS. With the utter failure of the Monster Rancher EVO it seemed like the series was going to be relegated to import-only. The DS game is supposed to be much in the vein of the first two games by using an unseen main character, having crossbreeding and raising a single monster at a time. It's a shame Hoppers aren't included in this version but at least it still has the Mew dolls. I like raising demented lemurs!

Holy Invasion of Privacy has the potential of a UMD release. If it can garner 700 more preorders before November 13 NIS will consider having a limited North American release for direct sale. The UMDs are set to sell at $20 just like the digital version.

Even if this fails at least I'll finally shut up about the damned game until its sequel is fully translated and released.

Cho Aniki Zero is poised to be the first US release of the long-running series and is supposed to release as a downloadable PSN title. Hopefully it takes after its PCE forbearers rather than the (reported) disaster that was the PS2 game. Zero is a side-scrolling shooter in a series full of skimpily clothed muscle men and rife with utterly bizarre (and sometimes suggestive) bosses. Adon and Samson are set to return as weapon options this spring.

Frankly I'm looking forward to it. Even if it's utter trash it's a nice break from busty women in improbable armor. The series also disturbs some of the less secure men in game journalism which is great fun to observe. They seem to think playing a title full of shirtless dudes will make them gay.

As a pseudo-birthday present combined with an unbeatable owner I am now in possession of a Playstation 3. It had been dumped unceremoniously in a local pawn shop by either an irate parent or a petty criminal due to discrepancies regarding its hard drive. At $180 a 2-usb port PS3 with an 80GB hard drive with a Dualshock 3 controller is pretty appealing. I am a damned softie for a good sale and with the assurance of a full refund if it was defective I figured it was a good opportunity.

It turns out the system is a fully functional 160GB PS3. Even if its origins were slightly shady it is comforting to know that its owner was a typical male of poor taste lacking an internet connection. It had never known the warmth of an update, a trophy supporting game or even a theme change from the standard piss-yellow background. Now it gets to suffer through Katamari Forever, Lair and eventually Demon's Souls once I find a nice deal on it.

The PS3 has a very competent web browser unlike the gimp edition utilized by the PSP. If my PC exploded the PS3 would provide a fairly suitable substitute. While something is configured incorrectly and the PSPs cannot connect directly to the PS3 they still can communicate using either the USB cable or the internet. While remote play doesn't actually let you play PS3 games in a hilarious butchered and laggy way it's worth using to access media servers around the house or away from home. The only minor irritant is that the PS3 can only stream content to a single PSP at a time.

The only truly awful thing about the PS3 is how it handles downloadable data. Rather than just downloading a title and being able to play immediately on the 360 the PS3 uses a two-part system wherein it downloads an installation program and THEN installs the game. This was especially irritating when attempting to download a demo of Toy Home, having it install, installing an update and then not being able to play at all because some part of the process failed to function properly. I also dislike how either most downloadable games seem to lack a demo. I'm not spending money on Rampart if it isn't obvious what version it it! Most games install data to the hard drive but for the few titles I have it hasn't been excessive.

As far as exclusive content the PS3 is decent. Lair is interesting once the basic controls are understood. I've been having a good time with Folklore. There is a fair amount of exclusive DLC though the only one which truly stood out to me was Soldner-X. I love shmups so it was a no-brainer. Zen Pinball is also awesome with its attention to physics and details like multi-layered table art.

So far I'm quite happy with the system. The XBox 360 still enjoys its place as the primary console due to it most multi-platform titles being built to suit it. I was given The Orange Box to test the unit before I invested in games of my own and it was less than impressive. Both machines can produce impressive content but the PS3 tends to get the short end of the stick due to its more unique hardware. Shortcuts are usually taken and result in the PS3 games having lower resolution textures or other graphical anomalies.

NIS recently had a sale on some of its downloadable titles including Holy Invasion of Privacy for half off. $10 is a much easier price to swallow for such a small game bereft of bonus materials. Interestingly a poll cropped up to gauge interest in a UMD release on Playstation Blog and NIS's website.With Badman 2 being localized shortly I have reconsidered my stance on the UMD issue in favor of a 'special edition' UMD with both games and possibly bonus filler like concept art. It could be justifiably sold at a higher price point and might still be of interest to those who downloaded the first title.

Rather than attempting to cure the blind, Sony has made measurable progress to give the gift of blindness to others. Witness Girlz Play Too. In an attempt to corner the market of girls with pea-sized brains Sony has unwittingly allowed said market to demonstrate their lack of design sense to the world. They're letting users create customized lilac PSP images from stock patterns and character pictures. It doesn't make much sense as the hideous designs can't be easily reproduced and stuck to an actual PSP unit.

The titles recommended are pretty standard for the girly 'tween market- Hannah Montana and some movie about climbing spaghetti based on what may or may not be an animated film are the 'stars' of the show. Given the limited range of 'tweeny titles basing an entire campaign on that particular age and sex. Having Patapon 2 included seems a little odd. Patapon is cute but the original required quite a bit of grinding for rares and strategy for larger enemies that the chosen market segment may not accept or be able to grasp.

In related PSP news I've still not yet gotten Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This?. Part of this is due to my car's driver's side window refusing to go up but part of it is because I'm still hoping for a proper UMD release of the game. If I spend the $20 on the downloadable version it is inevitable that a (possibly very limited) US UMD run may be released for $30. It's just idiotic that the UMD edition was canceled so close to the game's release. The PAL edition is currently on track for a UMD release although the cost of importing would bring the blasted thing close to $50. Japan has both the original game and its sequel available as UMDs. Patapon 2 had a similar treatment although at least you can buy a retail box with a manual for it.

I don't give a damn about the downloadable versus material arguments that have been floating around the internet. Call me a sentimental old hag for wanting physical media. It costs more to produce a disc or cartridge but I'm fine with that. As long as the media is properly cared for it can last a lifetime. I don't trust Sony and their online presence enough to justify $20+ downloadable titles. This sounds hypocritical for one who buys heavily into XBox's Live Arcade but Microsoft has a better handle of what they're doing.

While the PS2's online ability was nowhere near Gamecube levels it still had serious problems (like Resident Evil: Outbreak's mandatory split server for hard drive users) and many of the games lost functionality when publishers realized the cost of maintaining their own servers. A few XBox games have lost server-maintained features (like Steel Battalion: Line of Contact's campaign mode) but can still be played online even though the console is obsolete. While it's difficult to find random players on Burnout 2's servers it's still possible. There's also the point of cost and content- most Live Arcade titles are $15 or less and many would never have withstood a retail release. Who would buy Rush 'n Attack at retail even at $5? NIS is a well-known niche publisher and Invasion of Privacy could have found success from that little logo alone. Capcom still keeps publishing Monster hunter titles in the US despite its pitiful sales. FROM kept plugging away at King's Field titles despite its limited US following for years. Have some confidence in the game, NIS. A limited UMD release for direct sale would shut up the irritating bastards who want a physical game and avoid the hassle of retailers not stocking the game their representatives complained about. They already have a retail site set up so that is no barrier.

Still, this comes from a female. I need to stick glitter and puppies on my red Kratos PSP and practice for training virtual puppies. Lord knows I would never be able to play Monster Hunter Freedom 2 and break a giant crab's legs apart with a chainsaw made from electric unicorn's horns. That would be uncivilized!

... I just thought, why the heck isn't Sony pushing that Brooktown High game? It's made for that market!

I found a box of random game accessories at the thrift store recently! I could not resist the giant ball of cords and the NES controllers randomly jutting out of the thing. Now that it's untangled there is a nice assortment of controllers though most are NES accessories. I'll never have to buy another NES controller again! It also included some mediocre games barring 1942, a wonky NES and a perfectly good Playstation. There were a few badly damaged controllers fit only for parts but almost everything works fine.

The ball of horrors contained...

2600- one Video Touch Pad, one broken paddle controller, one multi-system flightstick

NES- 1942, TMNT, Bigfoot, Contra, R.C.Pro-AM, Rally Bike, Pro Wrestling, seven standard controllers, two bone controllers (one has start/select pad ganked from a Superpad), two malfuntioning Joycard Sansui SSS controllers, two grey Zappers, one NES system with weak contacts

Genesis- Sonic and Knuckles, Super Monaco GP, Lakers vs Celtics, Madden NFL '94, Tommy Lasorda Baseball, Samurai Shodown, two turbo controllers, one RF out

SNES- Legend of Zelda, one mouse, One performance Superpad, one AC adapter

Playstation- one 5501 PS system, one composite out

Random- Six cellphone chargers, three crappy TV-games, one Cannon printer power supply, one blue Lego

God bless random blue Legos.

Most of the series 2 and onward Megaman figures by Jazwares have an annoying tendency to shed their legs. Not all of the figures suffer this issue but a good half of my collection suddenly became a league of cripples. The legs fall off due to the knee joint piece which connects to their legs snapping. The trouble is that some knee connector pieces were not properly molded and contain small to medium-sized bubbles inside which compromise their structural integrity and lead to little discs jangling around inside of the now severed leg.

I tried several types of glue but plastic is exceedingly hard to stick back together. Today I finally found one that works from the local hardware store. Surehold's Plastic Surgery has been the first glue-y substances to hold the figure's shattered little knees together. I'm not sure of how much abuse it can take but noone's joints have broken apart due to gentle movement and posing. It still beats out the Plastic Weld, E6000 and Gorilla Glue. Each of them just sloughed right off of the plastic after they dried.

Earlier I did contact Jazwares and they tried to help. Since the figures are so old they couldn't find replacements, but they did provide me with a 12-inch Megaman and a special 6-inch Zero which came with a whole packet of mini-figures. The weird thing is that the series 1 figures never had issues with the plastic quality. They were actually so heavily constructed that they had issues standing sometimes. The lighter figures made afterwards came at the price of the joint molding process. Still, Quickman now has both legs attached to his body so I'm happy. I hope this may be of some use to anyone else who has had their Megaman toy's legs break.

The figures which broke were Nightshade Zero (both legs), Axl (both legs), Quickman (one leg) and Cutman (one leg).

Months ago I posted and then culled an entry about my SNES and its habit of displaying green lines for about five minutes before sinking into normalcy. However, green lines were later joined by the system needing to 'warm up' before displaying anything. I had looked online for a cause so as to fix it but didn't find anything useful. I've finally found out what the problem was and it should have been blatently obvious.

The horizontal green lines and the late starting was the product of a faulty power supply. I found a new AC adapter for it and it works fine now. I figured either its video board was dying or the system itself was just failing due to its age. Posting my oversight doesn't do me any favors but hopefully it can save someone else's system from the trash for lack of replacement AC adapters.

I'm very glad the solution was so simple as that particular SNES was put together from a couple of old systems and had the tabs carved out to play imports. Most Super Famicom games will run fine attatched to a Game Genie but all but the few region detecting titles run fine on a tabless system.

Yesterday I had cheesecake for the very first time which was made without any dairy. As a person with a deadly milk allergy, off the rack desserts are dangerous at best. For people with allergies homemade foods are the only option. Since many imitation dairy products cannot be directly substituted for their real cousins some improvisation must be done. To that end I hope to share a few dairy-free recipes that actually work. It's also a pretty simple recipe for those without extensive cooking knowledge.

~Cheesecake~

Cookie Crust
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup softened butter (I use Willow Run Unsalted Margarine)
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon rind (optional)

Combine flour, sugar, vanilla and lemon rind. Blend in the butter and egg yolk by hand or with a hand-held pastry blender. Press into the bottom of a 10-inch greased cake pan and perforate the entire surface with a fork to prevent air bubbles while baking. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 400° and cook for 10 minutes or until the surface is lightly browned.

Filling
16 oz softened cream cheese (I use Tofutti's Better Than Cream Cheese)
1/2 cup sour cream (I use Tofutti's Better Than Sour Cream)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon lemon rind (optional)

Blend all ingredients until they gain a smooth, consistent texture. Pour the mixture onto the cookie crust until within a few centimeters of the cake pan's rim. Bake at 250° for 2 and 1/2 hours or until the surface is lightly browned. The cake may be served warm although the flavor of the egg will be more noticeable. Serve chilled for best results and flavor.

Selling games is tricky. Value depends upon demand and oftentimes demand for last generation's software isn't too large. Brick and mortar shops give only a fraction of the sale price and listing games on Ebay incurs fees and can be a major pain in the wallet. Thus, trading games on the internet is a serious business.

Many forums have their own trading venues. As with most unofficial listings, these are all dependent on both parties cooperating. Establishing trades can be difficult for those who have not proved themselves and abuse is as easy as registering a new alias. Still, for the most part trading goes on without large issues though scams do happen.

Game Trading Zone is one of the older organized game trading websites. Its system is used to offer trades, maintain game and dvd availability lists and keep track of feedback. Everything else is user-driven. It's very flexible but can be a bit irritating if someone doesn't keep on top of their listings or doesn't check their account regularly. Getting common titles traded can be difficult though it isn't impossible. Still, it's one of the best trading websites available on the internet.

Goozex is a newer service with an interesting method of carrying itself. Rather than taking GTZ's hand-off approach, users post games to be traded for a set number of points. Users are matched with others requesting the title and confirm their willingness to ship it. Points are used to trade for new games. Being that this kind of system requires more involvement, each request is required to use a trade credit. Credits run at a dollar apiece so it hardly breaks the bank. However, issues do arise. Those requesting games cannot chose who their game comes from. Receiving a game in good condition is similar to playing Russian roulette. Loose discs are often broken in the mail or in less cases broken games are distributed. Still, those who receive damaged goods can easily get their points and trade credits refunded. It's still one of the safest methods despite its inconveniences.

A couple weeks ago I decided to splurge and get myself an EMS TopGun. For those not familiar with the product, it's a gun which uses LCD bars as a point-positioning system so as to function with any kind of TV. Being that most lightguns prior only function with the old cathrode tube televisions this thing is really useful. It's compatable with the PS2, XBox and PCs.

It is, however, a bit difficult to set up in my living room. Being that we have a decent-sized lcd TV the height of the screen requires the gun be a good distance from the set. This caused so much aggravation because the set is actually pretty close to the couch. This is partially because I like to see ALL of the shinies and my mother can't see well at all. Even with the set five or six feet away she still has to sit on the floor to play anything. The gun was very unhappy with being so close and refused to calibrate. I managed to scoot the tv back about four inches and have to hold the gun almost against the sofa back to convince it to calibrate. Still, after that it works pretty well. It's not as accurate as it could be but I can't move the screen any further away without ripping apart my AV setup which would be totally unacceptable.

So far I've only played Vampire Night and Dino Stalker with it. Blasting little undead gooblie goos on a large screen is so much more fun than with the old TV. It's a shame that there isn't a USB-to-Saturn adapter available for House of the Dead or Snatcher. Still, its more than enough to justify having bought the thing. If there are more lightgun shooters than House of the Dead III for the XBox I'd love to hear about them.

I love weird things. The bizarre tends to amuse me especially if it makes other people squirm.

It's no suprise that the Cho Aniki series absolutely delights me. Its muscled bodybuilders make straight guys scramble to defend their masculinity while its primary genre of shooter makes me happy as a neurotic clam.

Most people are only familiar with the Super Famicom fighting game. Some of the characters are pretty normal. There's anime guy, anime lady with her psycho cherubs and our bodybuilding heroes Samson and Adon. In the realm of the insane there's Adam in his rocket-powered moon, steamship woman and steam-powered Elvis. The stage backgrounds are what terrify most guys, though. Manly fairies fluttering in fields, a literal mantrain stocked with vegetables and what some have dubbed the S&M church freak people out. Combat is rather pedestrian with combatants flying around and trying to whack each other. You could get a worse fighter but other than the crazy junk it's pretty average.

Lesser-known are the shooters. There are two PCE-CD games, one for the PS and Saturn and the last thus far for the PS2.

I haven't had time with the second PCE game yet but the first one is a hoot. There are a few issues, however. Each stage has one piece of background music and three boss battles. The trouble is that the stage background music just starts right back up again after each boss. It's jarring and most of the music isn't very good anyway. Due to the size of the player's character it's very easy to graze enemy fire and explode. Sometimes a background will make life difficult by flashing but for the most part the level graphics work fine. The enemies are less extreme than one would expect. They're more fanciful fare based on legends like Icarus or just odd things like chess pieces and sword-weilding flying arms. The two player characters consist of that anime guy and woman with the cherubs and Adon/Samson as weapon options. So far Cho Aniki's mutant Mega Drive/Genesis cousin Wings of Wor has stranger stuff. Anyone wanting to try a decent Aniki-like shooter really should try it.

The Saturn/PS game, by contrast, is rabidly insane. Ditching the decent spritework of the PCE and SNES game this monster uses digized photos for just about everything. It's what would happen if Satan got ahold of a development kit, photoshop and a stack of muscleman magazines. Little flying men, men on office chairs, a human pyramid and a most disturbing balding man with a metal crotch (containing a very stretching bald guy) prance around trying to shoot Adon and Samson full of holes. It's messy-looking, has the worst stage transitions I've ever seen and is brutally difficult. It's worth messing around with just to see the range of crazy stuff, though. It's just sad to see the series go from semi-competant to totally amatuer in such a short span.

I can't comment on the PS2 game. If anyone wants to subject me to it that would be awesome. I have the means and technology... I just keep spending the money on Virtual Boy Games.

At the moment it seems that I'm hanging around like a tumorous growth. Truth be told I'm a tad sick at the moment and just don't feel like playing much of anything.

Interestingly, this isn't entirely a bad thing. The collection mechanic of this site is a tad of a pain to use but has brought up a few titles I didn't know about. I had no idea Echo Night Beyond had a PS predecessor. It's also provided me with a couple of semi-decent PS2 lightgun games to look up once I find an LCD compatable model with XBox support. It's a bit demanding but I really want to make use of that House of the Dead 3 disc without dragging the XBox upstairs.

This has also prompted me to correct a few errors on both my game list and my faulty memory. Apparently the only non-arcade port Ghouls n' Ghost/ Ghosts n' Goblins I have is the stellar SNES edition. It also dredged up my lack of Carmageddon 64. I thought I had it.

This place also could give screenshots I've taken some exposure. While I keep a personal website its bland nature ensure as few people as possible see my reviews and screenshots. The truly wonderful thing is how badly most of the screenshots of PS games reviewed here suck. Mine aren't huge but they're pretty clear. Now GS has some Tail of the Sun images that can't be mistaken for a blurry picture of some jerk's thumb.