So, as I have moved across the country recently, this Christmas I received mainly monetary gifts from people. Some were in the form of check while others were in the form of gift cards. I decided that check form gifts would go towards purchasing me new parts for my franken-puter. Bought a new processor, motherboard, RAM sticks, and video card for the bugger and installed them the other day. My computer is now spiffy and can actually play video games that have come out in the past 10 years. In addition to being able to run computer games, Photoshop will no longer slow my computer to a crawl, I will be able to record more than 3 .wav files to the same session in Cubase, and I'll finally be able to start playing with Maya. WOOT!

Anywho, I took my Best Buy gift cards and went and purchased BIOSHOCK (PC) and ODIN SPHERE (PS2). Spent a good part of the day playing those. ODIN SPHERE = pretty in the normal sense of the word. BIOSHOCK = F***ING PRETTY in my messed up sense of the word; so freaking twisted and I'm really not even that far into it yet (hey, my butt goes to sleep quickly and then I have to go move around). In addition to BIOSHOCK I also installed the games SPORE, SAM & MAX: Season 1, and ON THE RAIN-SLICK PRECIPICE of DARKNESS: Episode 1 (ie: the PENNY ARCADE RPG). Haven't gotten to try SPORE yet, but the other two games make me laugh out loud at times. Ahhh...twisted PENNY ARCADE humor. So yeah, ringing in the new year with plenty of digital, screwed-up violence and bathroom humor. Sentient juicer robots that...uh...violate fruit; HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE STORY LINES BASED AROUND THAT!

ps - I am having a hard time deciding whether I want to save the Little Sisters in BIOSHOCK and free them of their parasites, or mercilessly slaughter them for their A.D.A.M. If they weren't little kids it would be a no brainer. Really, it isn't the morality of the issue, it is trying to decide which will have a better pay-off in the end. I'll probably end up going with instant gratification, tear the parasites out of their bodies, and use the A.D.A.M to buy special powers. Heh heh heh...it's fun to be evil sometimes.