San Andreas was a regular visitor, an odd choice given the mostly single-playerness of it all. Although since the game tends to become an action movie during even the simplest of missions, it remains fun to watch. Assuming action movies are your thing. It certainly is a crowd pleaser for the male half, at any rate.

Cranium is always a good choice for big groups. We had two teams of four. I managed to sneak a couple of those thrice-damned Humdinger cards (where you have to hum a song for others to guess) to the back of the box. It's astonishing how large a gap is present between what a song sounds like in your head and how it escapes your lips. They're almost always a loss when they appear - unless the song is asininely easy, like "When the Saints Go Marching In" - so I dump them when I can. I've been thinking I should buy one of the Cranium Booster packs and swap out most of the Humdingers. More Sculptorades, I say.

Mike and I played a bunch of Pokemon using the recently released World Championships 2004 decks. Since I can't be bothered to follow the tourney scene or analyze online decklistings, I've been learning a lot about deck construction from these four pre-built decks. They're fast, interactive decks centered around some nice card/ability combos. Makes me want to re-build most of my handmade decks.

Chad brought up his Chainmail collection, a miniatures game that has always struck me as Wizards' response to Mage Knight/HeroClix. Like Mage Knight, Chainmail bridges the gap between the hardcore mini games (Warhammer, historical, etc) and not playing mini games at all. I can never wrap my head around the bookkeeping angle of these games, even when they try to simplify it as they do for Chainmail, HeroClix and the rest. Halfway through I started thinking how cool this would be if I had a little LCD display to track all my pieces stats/abilities electronically. Like a DS with GPS. Even when I tried to throw myself into a miniatures battle game (Great Rail Wars), I never got to know the ins and outs well enough without having to consult the rulebook, and that's the kiss of death as far as I'm concerned. So my strategy in our Chainmail game consisted of me asking "What do I have to roll?", being told "16", and then rolling a 3. It was a sad display.

The great video game Show and Tell between Chad and I boiled down to my DS and his Steel Battalion for Xbox. Both set high points for gimmickry. In Steel Battalion, the game is really just a means to an end for that wonderful controller yoke (pictured above). There's 50 buttons on it, all of which do something... usually not all at once however, thankfully. The game reduces to Giant Battling Robots, something we've all done a hundred times before, just not with this level of tactile immersion. The startup sequence is adorable: a button to lower the cockpit, a button to start the ignition, 5 toggle switches to activate your 'mech's subsystems, then a final Go button. Left hand joystick controls heading, right hand controls aiming. There's even a set of sturdy-looking foot pedals for sidestep, brake and gas. It is engagingly daunting. I know if I had a Xbox, that massive controller would already be fighting for shelf space and winning.

Did some EyeToy stuff. I brought along the new(ish) Sega Superstars, which remains an uneven purchase. Played the NiGHTS minigame for the first time; liked it. You have to hold your arms out to simulate flying, and it more or less feels like you're flying. I suggested we put a small fan on top the TV to simulate the rush of air currents.

We even managed to run some 4-man Texas Hold 'Em, during which I had to have the house bail me out three times.