Chicago Gears Party !

Do you live in the greater Chicagoland area?  Are you melting with anticipation for Gears of War 3 ?  That rascally gang over at Pixeldom.com will be throwing a party in the parking lot of the EB Games at 2603 N. Elston.  I know what you're thinking, "The hipsters will overrun me in Bucktown".  While midnight is the witching hour of many hipsters, the bright lights and easily recognized advertising for popular American goods should keep them away.  If you are still concerned, bring some Natural American Spirit cigarettes or copies of the latest Bon Iver album to bait them away. 

Back to the point, enjoy a 2v2 tournament for Gears of War 2 complete with prizes.  Enter the raffle for a Gears Retro Lancer replica.  Meet the Sugar Gamers and those Pixels and Popcorn scoundrels.  The party gets underway September 19th at 9pm and runs right up until midnight and the release of the most anticipated game of the year.  Intense !!!!

Click here to get all the juicy details.  Check out their site.  You might learn a thing or two.

Now Don't Disappoint Me...

So I conveniently get the Gamestop weekly ad emailed to me, and what do I see?  There's going to be a new Harvest Moon (HM) for the DS!  Woot!  I desperately want to pre-order it for 3 reasons:

1. It's only $30
2. I've always wanted a Harvest Moon title for my DS
3. When you pre-order, you get a plush horse!

 I tried to look up some information on it, and I couldn't find much.  Apparently you move into a town in which commerce has slowed to a trickle, and you have to re-vamp it by growing your farm to amazing proportions and selling awesome stuff at the local bazaar, which was once world renown.  And, with your help, it will be again!

Don't get me wrong, I deeply and truly love HM...but it is, admittedly, formulaic.  Dilapidated farm/town?  Check!  Grow crops and animals?  Check!  Refresh, revamp and renew the town to its former glory?  Win!  And that is why I love it.  But, I am still holding back on making that all important $5 hold on my copy of Bazaar.  Why?  I'm totally afraid they'll change it up.  What if gameplay is totally lame on this particular game?  What if you can only harvest at night or something stupid?  What if there aren't cows??

Have you ever pre-ordered a game that you thought would be so awesome that you ended up totally disappointed with?  Specifically if it was part of a series, and it turned out to be so incredibly, unexpectedly lame?  I kind of had that happen with Lego Indiana Jones.  I love the Lego series, even Jones, but I bought it at full price and that was a mistake.  28 seconds after it released it went down to $20.  Totally worth $20.  Not so much $50.  That's why I'm waiting for Lego Harry Potter to see if it drops in price quickly, even though it's killing me to wait to play it.