All things must pass, even great games. I've played AC only sparingly for several months now. I'm still missing an obnoxious list of catalog items and I suppose I'll have to make peace with that... but the long honeymoon is over. I've seen every special event, I have all the NES games Nintendo is willing to give out, I'm positive I got more out of this game than 95% of everybody else who owns it simply because of the real-time == real-life attitude I had when I played it.

The last couple times I visited Adamsvil was because we have a couple friends who just got into the game, so we all travelled to see each others' villages. Two of these friends happen to be under the age of 13; I always like to see kids embrace video games. Not just simply playing them or hunting down cheat codes... I mean embracing them. Talking about the characters outside the gameworld, sending artwork to Nintendo Power, and, in Animal Crossing's case, making rock-solid appointments to return to the game on Saturday night because K.K. is in town.

I was having a really great time playing Spider-Man 2 until I reached the Mysterio boss fight overtop the Statue of Liberty. allow me to describe the scene.

The Statue has a forcefield around it, which looks to be casting an illusion to make of look like the Statue of Mysterio. Floating above it is a platform with eight spokes, an energy orb on the end of each spoke. Mysterio's controls are in the center of the platform, protecting by a floor-mounted whirled blade. Around the base of the statue are hoverbots; if you web a hoverbot, it will fly you up to the platform. The plan here is to ride a hoverbot to the platform, attack all eight orbs, then jump for the center brain and knock it out. But here's the trouble:

Zoe's final vet appointment was the day after we returned from Origins. Our big concern was the feline leukemia test... which came back negative. So we opened the door on her quarantine room and removed the baby gate (not like that ever stopped her) and allowed Annie and Zoe to meet face to face.

Immediately they both made little chirpy meows and touched noses, thereby vindicating the several weeks of isolation... feline leukemia spreads like crazy over cat to cat contact. And just as quickly Zoe attempted to play, and Annie attempted to avoid playing. It's been much the same since. It looked much like this:

I guess we can officially call the eReader dead. The last few Pokemon card sets have slowly weaned off the "E" dotcodes... the third and fourth Super Mario 3 sets have dropped off the face of the earth... and where's the long-promised Game & Watch series?

Looking back, the failure of the eReader should not have been a surprise. I was really expecting the Pokemon TCG connection to sustain it, but I suppose that came several years too late... the legendary Pokemon card game is still chugging along, but its nowhere near the popularity levels of the late late 90s. If the eReader had existed circa 1999, Nintendo could have bought Key West and renamed it Isle Delfino.

But at least it was different, in a flashback-to-punch-cards sort of way. I loved it, mostly. But the catch is: I like collecting things. Here's my overview of the entire line:

Movies I've never seen but now know the ending thanks to VH1's "I Love the 90s."

- Armageddon (Bruce Willis stays behind)
- Blair Witch Project (psycho standing in corner)
- Fight Club (Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are the same guy)
- The Sixth Sense (Bruce Willis is dead)

"I Love the 90s" doesn't have the power-packed nostalgia of the previous installments, but it does continue VH1's new marketing strategy of taping obscure comics and C-list actors doing quick bits on whatever the die rolls.

It reminds me of a comedy version of A&E's "Class of the 20th Century," which was completely stupid for two reasons. First, it ran in frigging 1991 or 1992, which was nowhere near out of the 20th century... although I suppose they had to rush production so we could get Julia Child's memories of pioneer days before the inevitable occured. Secondly, they put the damn thing in a time capsule, not to be opened until the year 2099. Good luck finding somebody with a working VHS deck in the year 2099.

We took a shot and bought those crazy plastic cat nail cover things. Zoe is just too nuts right now, and I figure if we can get through these early months, we'll hit the period where she settles down into the feline routine of sleeping 23 hours a day. Right now, she's scraping up Annie's back pretty badly during the fighting - which is a bigger problem than anything she could do to furniture - so we had to come up with something to cool it down.

I was all for the press-on-claws concept in theory, but when we received them (mail order) I quickly grew skeptical. It's easy to look at this and say "That is never going to work." Because you are literally super-gluing little plastic sheathes to your cat's claws. That made me nervous during the application process, because one overgooped cap could bond her little phalanges together. So you have to be careful.

When I reviewed the first movie-based Spider-Man game, I made the comment that "someday we'll get a GTA3-styled Spider-Man game" after noting that Spidey could not touch ground in that one. I honestly don't recall if I knew anything about the sequel when I wrote that, so maybe it was an inspired act of foretelling because Spider-Man 2 is that game. Or maybe the first one was so annoying in its limitations that the step to a free-roaming gameworld was obvious.

Either way, Spider-Man 2 is a vastly different game from its predecessor... so much so that comparing the two is pointless. The first game was the usual linear level paths with fun combat and useless webbing... this one is unassisted exploration with boring combat and the most fun you'll ever have web-swinging.

That's really the end of it. Web-swinging through a minimally detailed NYC is what drives this game. And it is fun enough to support it, although I realize it doesn't sound it. The combat, missions, and awful awful boss fights are the flaw in the ointment, a textbook case of bad design that only serves to slow down all the fun you'll have web-swinging. Keep on reading if you want more complaining.

This is crazy awesome. There is now a Fatal Frame 4D movie attraction at certain Japanese theme parks. As expected, Beyond the Camera's Lens has the links and details.

It sounds exactly like the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" and Bug's Life attractions at DisneyWorld. Sit in theater, wear 3D glasses, chairs vibrate, fog machines and water spritzers. Only you're in Fatal Frame 2. Which would be incredible. I'm on MapQuest right now trying to find a route from Pennsylvania to Tokyo.

Man, imagine that. Broken Necks floating toward you, Chitose blackouts, little puppet girls grabbing at your ankles. And a Crimson Butterfly fluttering just out of reach.

In other FF news, Japan is also getting a Fatal Frame cell phone game. It probably works with camera phones, a natural tie-in. You can collect ghosts in the game and then add the ghosts to your real pictures. I wonder how much exorcismal power my cell phone has...

I'm a Pennsylvanian. I'm a Republican. I'm voting Kerry.

I've voted Republican in every Presidential Election since I turned voting age. I even went through a phase where I was in the Young Republicans and helped local candidates campaign (including Rick Santorum, now a PA senator who has turned into a homophobic asshole.) My allegiance to the Republican party was born mainly from the Reagan years, not from any family history or even from any actual deep knowlege of platforms and issues. I suppose it's a little like being a Steelers fan just because you live in Pittsburgh. And yeah, I listened to Rush back during his zenith Clinton era.