The newest additions to my game collection are: the GameCube console and Mario Kart: Double Dash.

99 Dlls for the GameCube, at that price it's a shame to call yourself a gamer and not to have one!. I bought an extra controller and the broadband adapter with this baby, My friend Clara has a second controller for her cube too, so she carried along theirs last weekend. Let me tell you: It's an absolute delight to play 2 vs. 2 on the same couch. This game is consuming most of my gaming time this days. When I get a little proficient I'm going to start playing online, that's why I got the broadband adapter for.

My Wife always give me something she thinks I would really really like for my birthday, instead of the regular x-mas/anniversary gifts which are things she thinks I really really need or clothes that make me look a little less geek. So I (intentionally) went berserk for the Final Fantasy X-2 three action figure set when we 'casually' saw them in a mall shop. It worked! I got these totally awesome shelf figures for my birthday. But what about the game? What's the point then? So I have to bought Final Fantasy X-2 which I think is more than just fan service. Is a nice breake off MK:DD once in a while.

I've been a little short of spare time because all o the logistic problems involved in cooking for yourself (I'm on a diet remember) so I have yet to see 'Ninja Scroll', and delight myself again with a subtitled view of 'Spirited Away' (I saw the dubbed version in the theater) but I'm happy with these new acquisitions mint in the anime section of my shelf.

My friend Charlie came back from his IEEE isolation congress (held in Albuquerque NM). He found 2 out of 5 games in my PS2 list under $20 USD, so he bought two instead of just one (thanks Charlie): ICO and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.

BG:DA was little disappointment to me but ICO is all I expected and more, and with all the reviews I have read falling just a little short of putting an altar for it, that's something. The simplistic, but yet highly detailed, level design geometry ("architecture" some reviewers would say) is amazing, the camera gives you an almost scary sense of scale, and the gameplay is truly original,

I've being playing Soul Calibour II for the past two weeks (an hour or two every other day) and my impressions are as follows:

All I have read about SCII is true; it's really a great fighting game. The weapon's master single player mode is really challenging and entertaining, the transitions between positions are superbly animated, the cool movements and diversity of fight styles is overwhelming, graphics are extremely well done.. well so far I only have one complaint:

The default 1p costume of Mitsurugui shows that solid accessories were not considered for the 'wining kata' animations. One of them makes the sword pass through one shoulder protection. I may be a really minor problem, but a true polished game shouldn't have such an evident glitch

.. it will continue