A friend of mine was murdered this year.

I was writing a post about my Christmas video game memories and it made me think about something that happened this year. Not to me, but to a friend of mine from college. It seemed to be a strange coincidence, but I had planned to reach out to him since I hadn't heard from him in a long while. That's when I heard the terrible news.

My friendship with Mitt stretched back to second grade. I went to JW Arnold Elementary school in Jonesboro, GA. The best way to describe him in second grade was Data from the Goonies. Mitt was a cool kid, pretty much like me and we got along fairly well. After second grade, I moved to a different school district and changed schools and never saw him again. Well, until a few years later.

Mitt went to the same martial arts school as my friend Matt. I ran into Mitt once again at Matt's birthday party in middle school. It was a weird coincidence, but it got weirder from there. We finally reignited our friendship in college, all while playing Pump It Up (which is a DDR clone, which I felt was superior in every way).

I played Pump It Up quite religiously, and if you've ever seen me play, I'm pretty damn good (well was, I'm sure playing it now would physically kill me). I started playing in high school and was overjoyed to see the rec center at GSU had one. Needless to say, I went there all the time and fed that machine my quarters (it was priced at $.50, which was a steal).

One day while playing, I saw a kid who looked familiar. After I had played he asked me if I went to JW Arnold and I was like "haha so it is you!" We had an immediate friendship, and a common interest with the dancing game. We met up at the rec center almost daily for my entire freshman year at GSU and played Pump It Up all the freakin' time.

We hung out quite a bit, I even took him our on our Sea Doo's when his family came up to camp out at Lake Lanier. He was a total noob at driving PWC's and flipped off the front while he tried to tow the tube. We had a good laugh after we had determined that he hadn't broken his neck.

After I switched schools, we got busy and didn't get to hang out as much. Every once in a while when I was down on the southside, we would get together at Southlake Mall and play Pump It Up. It sound so dorky, but we both loved playing that stupid game and we found every excuse to play. One time when we were at Tilt playing Pump, some dude tried to sell us LSD. That shit was weird.

After a year or two, we both got busy and sort of lost touch, although I seemed to run into him at total random. The last time I saw him was a few years ago before a friends wedding. It was good to see him, and I now regret not making time to see an old friend. I regret it becasue I can't do it anymore, because he's now dead.

Earlier this year, Mitt was driving near the Starlite Drive-In off of Moreland in Atlanta. His car broke down, so he went to ask for help nearby. Instead of being greeted with a friendly hand, he was greeted with a bullet to his chest. A bullet that would prove fatal. He was shot, and left to die.

Mitt was a pretty extraordinary guy, probably the absolute nicest person I've ever met. I don't know why these sort of things happen, and why they happen to good people. It was the worst case of wrong place at the wrong time, and now my friend is gone forever. I wish now that I had gotten to share a laugh with him just one more time. I really wish that this had never happened to him at all. Rest in peace, friend.

The world ends tomorrow, so let me tell you my choice for 2012 Game of the Year 2k12

Spoiler alert; it's Chrono Trigger.

Frog is a fuckin' badass, btw.

The year is winding down and everyone on Earth is trying to sift through the rubble of the looming apocolypse to find the one thing that will bring their mind peace...what some bloke on the internet thinks is the pinnacle of gaming for the past 365 days. And folks, I'm here to tell you that I am some bloke and I am on the internet. So without further adieu, here is my top game of the year.

I have to be honest with you, I haven't touched this game this year at all. I actually haven't touched it in almost two years. Actually, this game came out almost 20 years ago. But you know what? I don't give two fucks about you, or your opinions. If you want to write a blog about games and name Call of Battle 3: Premium Ops DLC Edition game of the year, then sign up for a blogger account and write that shit down! I'm sure we'd all love to hear about how fuckin' sweet zombies mode is, you asshole.

Anyway, now that the hostility is channeled into a ineffective manner, let's continue with my praise for this not-lost and quite remembered game! Chrono Trigger, as many of you know, is fucking great. I didn't know to what extent this game ruled until I played through the damn thing. It's so good, I'm considering another go through the story with my overpowered gear! I think I may do that soon!

Chrono Trigger was originally released on the Super Bacon Dispenser System (SBDS for short), which would have been awesome if it were true. The only thing to make Chrono Trigger any better is to consume bacon while playing it. In reality, it was launched on the Super NES in the mid-90's to much deserved acclaim. Since that day, it has been one of (if not the most) sought after SNES game in the library. You'd be lucky to snag a complete copy for under a buck-twenty in US doll hairs.

To break it down to the brass tacks here, Chrono Trigger is a traditional console RPG. I'm sure if you have any sort of history in games, you would pick up what CT is throwin' down. It's so incredibly well made, it holds up incredibly well to this day. Even with the resurgence of retro gaming these days, people who aren't necessarily into retro games will more than likely get into it and have a blast playing it. The story is pretty straightforward, but the character development and execution is brilliant throughout. It definitely is the benchmark on which all other RPGs are measured.

I waited a very long time to finally play through Chrono Trigger, and I really wish I hadn't done that. I wanted to play it on it's original format on the SNES, but that is much too costly. I eventually picked it up for the DS and played through that. I don't think it detracted from the experience in the least, that is to say the port is very good. If you haven't played through this wonderful game, I suggest you do. All kidding aside, it is truly one of the greatest games I've ever played in my entire life and I whole-heartedly believe you will enjoy it if you already haven't.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

These are games you should play that actually came out this year:

Welp, you're dead.

Legend of Grimrock - This game is old school to the bones. It's a re-vamp of classic dungeon crawling games of yore. It's fucking incredibly hard, and completely scares the shit out of me. It's also super hard to put down, so give it a go. It's also like $15 which makes it the bargain of the century. There is a Steam sale going on as I write this and you may be able to get a little bit more off the top of that!

The art direction of this series is amazing.

Torchlight II - I guess this is the year of the PC for me, because I straight up bought a shit load of them. Torchlight II was intended to be the Diablo 3 killer, and in my opinion it raped Diablo 3's bloody corpse with an iron tank dick. That is so gross. In reality, this game probably sold nowhere near the units of Diablo 3 with it's hype bullet train but that is A-OK. Torchlight II is such a great game, I can't even formulate words. It's incredibly easy to pick up and endlessly fun to play. You go in and out of like 5000000 dungeons clicking on fucking raccoons and shit, but it's fun 100% of the time. I suggest you make an Engineer and just uses cannons. Yes, CANNONS. Shit is amazing.

Luke can talk to animals. I shit you not.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - All kidding aside from everything here, this is actually probably my favorite game of the year but I haven't beaten it yet. I've played every single Prof. Layton game to date, and so far this is the best technologically. I still haven't hit the zinger in the story, so I don't really have any comments on that. The way the game plays is an improvement over the previous, adding a little bit more depth to clicking on everything to find hint coins. I do believe most of the puzzles are too easy, either that or I am a genius (and I do not think this). If you have never played a Professor Layton game, you owe it to yourself to get a DS and fucking play one. I suggest the Diabolic Box or Unwound Future, both of which are stellar. I will not lie, Unwound Future made me straight up cry.

My love affair with World of Warcraft

Let's rewind time, shall we? Back in the 90's my brother, sister and I played this game called Warcraft and it's much superior younger brother, Warcraft II. After my interest in the 'get my ass kicked all the time by my siblings' genre waned, my brother kept the Blizzard flame burning strong through the years. He played the fucking bejesus out of Starcraft and Diablos, and was a Blizzard fan boy in general. He was the one who got me into WoW initially.

When WoW was unleashed unto the world, my brother was still carrying the Blizzard banner high and proud. I was aware of WoW, but was hesitant to enlist because of my previous attempts at MMO'ing. I had played Galaxies quite a bit, and enjoyed it. I did play Everquest for about a month before I got into Galaxies, but it was nothing to write home about. I never got into the meat of the game. Final Fantasy XI was also on the hit list of games I've played and didn't get into. I figured WoW would be one of those games and I didn't care to waste the time.

Oh how fucking wrong I was.

I created a character on my brother's account just to see how the game was. It looked neat to me, as Final Fantasy XI did before it (I still think XI looks great, it's just BORING AS HELL) and I was interested in checking it out on my brother's $15 a month. Unfortunately I was instantaneously hooked. The very next day I went to Wal Mart and bought the game. That was December 5th, 2005.

I started my warrior on that fateful day, I named him Xalthos. He would be the only character I would play for a few years. I spent a great deal of time being a complete noob, running around and killing stuff. The first few months, I had absolutely no fucking idea what I was doing and it was great. I would just run around and do quests. As a matter of fact, I never did a dungeon until I was like level 55 and even then it was in BC with two 70's ushering us through.

I took a break at the end of 2006 because I wasn't as interested in the game, and I had a lot of school work to do. While I wasn't playing, Burning Crusade launched and I couldn't really be bothered. I wasn't level 60 yet and leveling back in those days was a huge bitch, so I was just like "fuck it." I eventually caved and bought the game, because it was like 50% off when CompUSA was closing down. A short time later, I resubscribed but never installed the X-pac until I hit 60.

I didn't hit 70 until March of 2008, which was the final year of Burning Crusade. I was about to graduate college, and I didn't really play the game all that much. I had gotten my friend Zach and Mike into playing and Zach had taken it to a new level. He surpassed me in level and hit 70 well before I did and started raiding with some people. After I hit 70 I joined the guild he was in, which is the guild I am still in today, Wrath of Nekromancy.

It wasn't until I had graduated and gotten a job that my addiction to the game hit full intensity. I found myself with a great deal of time after work and not a lot to do, so I just played more WoW. As the new expansion pack loomed, I found myself learning more and more about the game, and just getting better and better at it. As ridiculous as that sounds, there is sort of a learning curve to the game. Once you figure out how a lot of the stuff works, the game is a lot easier to comprehend and excel at.

I was in full WoW mode when Wrath of the Lich King dropped. I took time off work and got the game at midnight to play for the next day straight. Now you might be thinking "that sounds like something only a loser would do!" Well, I took a paid day off of work and spent it doing something I enjoyed with my friends. If you took a day off work to watch a football game, it's pretty much the same exact thing. It's the same exact thing as taking a sick day from school and playing Final Fantasy VII all day, because I know you've all fucking done that. I know I have.

Wrath of the Lich King, contrary to popular belief among the players, was a pretty solid expansion. Granted there was a fucking nerf roller coaster for the entire duration of the expansion, the x-pac on a whole was really fun. I had tried my hand at raiding in BC, so I wanted to do more. Luckily for me Wrath was the x-pac that aimed to bring raiding to everyone.

Now to the uninitiated, raiding sounds like we're going to run into a girls dormitory and steal their undies. The concept here is the same, except replace dorm with dungeon and panties with swords and shields. You can loot pants, so I guess that's fairly close. Raiding in terms of MMO's is a large group of people tackling a dungeon together with the ultimate goal of crying over loot and complaining about someone else being terrible. While this doesn't sound very appealing, it's pretty fun. Although people bitching isn't fun, and you just kind of have to look past that part these days.

I enjoyed raiding quite a bit, so I tried to do as much as I could. It was really enjoyable to get together with 24 other people and tackle difficult raid bosses. Some would argue that Wrath on a whole was a cakewalk, and I will partially agree. The game, as a whole, is pretty simple. Early bosses had weird mechanics, but if you just paid attention and weren't a moron the game is not hard at all. Even still, there were a few challenges in Wrath to be had, and it was enjoyable to see them through.

One of my greatest accomplishments in WoW would probably be Charlie and I putting a random PUG together to get Ulduar drakes and actually doing it. Granted we were mostly in ToC gear, but even then it wasn't as easy as it sounds. It took us two nights, because by the time we got to Yogg it was like 3 in the fucking morning and I was falling asleep at the keys. But the second night we came in there, one-shot it and then went to Algalon and managed to kill him before he disappeared. I was very pleased that we had assembled a group of random people and got some sweet ass drakes. I was so pumped.

It's moments like that which keep me coming back to WoW. There are so many moments and stories that remind me of my love for the game. For instance, one time I joined a random group of people from Phenomenon (the top guild on the server) who were going to clear Sunwell for shit n' giggles. We were all level 80, so Sunwell was pretty easy for the most part although it was the most difficult raid at level 70. We clear all the way to the last boss and by that time I have to take a major, major deuce. It looks like we have a lot more trash to clear before Kil'Jaeden so I get up to use the bathroom and by the time I get back they had already beaten him AND THE LEGENDARY BOW HAD DROPPED. Not only did I miss the RP event at the end, I missed seeing a legendary drop. Boo hoo.

These days WoW isn't the same as it used to be, but I still sort of enjoy it. For me, it was all about playing with my friends and now most of them don't play anymore. I had a pretty solid group of people I raided with on my rogue, but they all changed servers or quit. Playing by yourself is just not as fun as playing with others. I wish I could raid like the old days, but the new raids just look kinda boring by comparison.

WoW has this unending appeal to me, and I really can't nail it down. I really enjoy the world in World of Warcraft, it's enjoyable just to fly around and explore stuff. It's such a colorful and elaborate world, filled with a bunch of random shit. There is always something better than what you have, and you just have to go out and get it. I feel like there is constant progression in the game, and it gives you a sense of accomplishment for doing trivial things, which sort of makes you feel good. I enjoy that.

This is going to sound ridiculous coming from me, if you know me. Over the past few years I've been in a lul of sorts. I lost my job I got right out of school after working there for about a year and a half. At first I wasn't all that bothered, but after I couldn't find another job for a few months, I got worried. I managed to get a job working at an online sex toy shop, only because I needed a job. So I had a job I hated and I moved back in with my mom to save money, and I felt pretty terrible about it. I never felt much like doing anything, and the lack of interest in hiring me to do something I enjoyed and excelled at was bringing me down further.

Over this time I played WoW a whole lot, because it made me forget about all the bummer shit that was going on. At times I felt like maybe I was spending too much time playing WoW, and at times it felt like that's all I wanted to do. Looking back, it really helped me not plunge completely into the bummer oblivion I was approaching. WoW and it's constant make-you-feel-good gameplay style made me feel good about myself in terms of the game. I was pretty good at it, and it kept me going.

I joined a progression raiding guild and they liked me, and accepted me. It felt good to be accepted when all I felt was rejection. I'm sure if I joined a club or did some other social interactions I might have found the same acceptance, but I'm pretty weird around people I don't know and the internet sort of breaks down those barriers for you. Plus you're all into WoW, so you can just talk about that anyway.

Luckily for me I have amazing people in my life who have supported me all the way through my shit-storm of a life for the past few years and I've come to a much better place. I still have a desire to play WoW, but in a different capacity. I no longer feel like I have to play the game to feel accomplished, I feel that in other areas of things I do. Now I can just play WoW to play WoW and kill some wolves and complain about loot.

I don't really want to end this post with a cliched story about how WoW changed my life, so I'll end it with another WoW related story. For the first tier of Cataclysm, I raided with a small group of guys from my raiding guild on my rogue. We were probably like server 3rd or 4th in terms of progression, but we just wanted to kill da bosses. We were on the last boss of the normal modes, before we were going to do heroics, which was Nefarion. We had cleared Cho'Gall, and Al'Akir so Nefarion was on our shit list.

We worked on the fight for a few nights, rarely ever making it past the lava phase. We put in several good attempts which got us to the third phase, which was the tank n' spank phase. We wiped a lot because our off-tank was a clueless stoner Paladin who was carried by class at that point (Paladins is WoW on easy mode if you are interested in playing the game), and couldn't kite adds to save his life.

On the attempt we finally killed him, everything was running smooth until Phase 3. We had him down to execute range and that's when shit hit the fan. We managed to keep the adds at bay the entire time, just to have the off-tank die. We throw out a battle res, only to have the tank die again a few seconds later. The whole time we are CC'ing the shit out of some adds trying to lighten the load on the main tank, but it doesn't work. He goes down.

We're at about 10% at this point, the furthest we've ever gone. We'd just popped Bloodlust to get in the extra damage on the phase, so we were working with a little bit of extra damage on our side. With both tanks down, I noticed that I was sitting really high on threat so I get the hunter to Misdirect the boss to me and I pop Evasion (increases my dodge by like 90% or something). For the last remaining 10% on the boss, I Evasion tank Nefarion like a boss while he gets nuked to death. When he finally died, I was down to like 1000 health and there were only like 4 people left up in the raid. The sloppiest kill we ever did and quite possibly the most exciting.

So Doom is my favorite game of all time.

This guy is fucked.

So if you were not aware, today marks the 19th anniversary of the release of the greatest computer game ever created; Doom. It was on this day in 1993 that id Software unleashed Doom upon the world, and nothing was ever quite the same.

Many credit Doom as being the very first first-person shooter ever created, which is just straight up incorrect. A lot of people credit Wolfenstein 3-d for being the first, but I would argue it goes back much further than that. In my opinion, Battlezone was the first 1st-person shooter ever created. I could be wrong, but I feel like that is correct.

As I said in the title of this post, Doom is my favorite game of all time. I can't even count the hours I've spent over the past 19 years playing this game. I've beaten it so many times I've lost count (I have beaten Doom II twice, I know this because that last level is a HUGE BITCH). I will also tell you that I have never, ever beaten the fourth episode of Ultimate Doom, because I could never figure out one of the levels. Every once in a while I bust it out to try to beat it, and it's just too ridiculous.

How'd you like to read patch notes for a PC
game these days and all the new version said was
"New shotgun and some more levels" and THAT WAS IT?
It's be fucking amazing.

I have an equal affection for Doom and it's AMAZING sequel, Doom II. Doom II is exactly what a sequel should be; 32 new levels and a double barreled shotgun. That is really all you need, and you've got a fucking guaranteed hit. I definitely feel Doom and Doom II are about dead even for the top spot on my list of my favorite games, but today is the first game's birthday and I'll talk about that one.

I came across the very first Doom game like most people did at the time, through shareware. It came out a year or so before I began venturing onto the young World Wide Web, so I had to get the game in a physical form. I had played Wolfenstein, and the magazines were touting this as a Wolf3d killer, so I was in from the get-go (much like Resident Evil, which I will discuss - most likely at length - at another time).

HAHAHAHA, FUCK THIS GUY.

If you didn't grow up playing computer games, you are probably unfamiliar with the term 'shareware.'  Unlike today's market where you get to beta test a game to demo it, shareware was released in tandem (or sometimes prior) to the release of the registered version of the game. Shareware is basically a huge chunk of the game which is freely distributed to get people interested in the game. In the case of Doom, it was the first entire episode (of 3), which was 9 levels.

I got my full version of the game from my dad's friend. He brought the disks home to me one day after work and I about lost my god damn mind. I ran upstairs, installed the game and jumped straight into Inferno. Holy fuck balls was it horrifying to a 10 year old, but it was so fucking sweet. It was so incredibly hard, and I was so incredibly young and retarded that I had to cheat to beat the game. It wasn't until a few years later that I manned up and beat the game without cheats. Luckily for me you can just unload the BFG on the Spider Mastermind and he dies....spoiler alert.

The game has so many great things going on, it's hard to really single out every one. I believe the game still looks incredible, even to this day. It was so well put together, that it hasn't lost it's bite. I still prefer playing Doom on an old CRT monitor to get the feel of shooting demons in 1993, which is a great feeling. Also, mouse controls are for pussies, you play this game like a man; with the fucking ARROW KEYS.

D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DO YA HAVE IT?
GUTS!

I developed an interest in game design by messing around with the modding tools available for Doom and Doom II. I didn't really get too heavy into level design until Duke Nukem 3d, but I definitely built my fair share of crappy little Doom levels. The thing I loved the most was redesigning the sprites in the game, which I did all the time. I used a program that would extract all the sprite files and open them in Paint, where I would add more gore or design new items. It was a great deal of fun, and lead me to become more interested in the behind the scenes world in game industry.

Doom has always had this appeal for me, one that has never faded and will probably never fade away for me. Every time I play it, it's like I'm picking it up for the first time. In my opinion, the game has never aged and continues to look great still to this day. It was designed so well, the whole thing sticks and still makes me feel like a 10 year old when I play it.

Nostalgia Time! Mortal Kombat II strategy guide!

The very first time I saw Mortal Kombat II, I lost my mind. In fact, the first time I saw Mortal Kombat, I lost my mind. As a kid, seeing something like this live in front of your very eyes for the first time in the early 90's is mind-shattering. To the eyes of a kid who has grown up on Mario Bros. and Metroid, Mortal Kombat is the most incredible thing I had ever seen.

I remember the first time I saw MK2 very well. I walked into an arcade in Warner Robbins to check it out while my mom shopped in the mall. The first thing I see is Rayden on the side of the machine, shooting lightning into the sky. I said "UHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT?" as I had no idea Mortal Kombat 2 was even a thing since I hadn't started reading video game magazines. I watched in awe as some dude shredded Jax with Baraka and 6,000 gallons of blood fell out.

Needless to say, I had to have Mortal Kombat II when it was to be inevitably released on the home consoles. I had tried to get my parents to get me the first game on the SNES, but they refused. Somehow they flipped their lids and allowed me to own MK2 on the Super NES. Not only did they let me have it, they actually BOUGHT IT FOR ME. Thanks, mom and dad!

I've read this thing probably 100 times.

I actually don't remember how I got this strategy guide, I just know that I've had it forever. I vaguely remember getting it at a bookstore when I was a kid, but I really don't recall. What I do recall is reading this fucking thing cover to cover about 400 times. It was in my bookbag at all times when I was a kid, until it was succeeded by the Mortal Kombat 3 strategy guide (which I have around here somewhere).

This book is pretty radical. It's got bios, move lists, MK history, sweet ass art and temporary tattoos. If you manage to find a copy in less worn out shape, you'll find it to be a pretty nice book. The copy I have has been through it's paces, so it's worn all to hell. Like I said previously, it was in my backpack for recreational reading when I was like 12.

Speaking of art, this book is loaded with Mortal Kombat 2 art from John Tobias. I loved the art for these games so much, that this became my style guide for drawing when I was a kid. I used to trace all of the fighters in the book, so I could teach myself how to draw like John Tobias. One time I took a picture of Sub-Zero from this book, photocopied it to a transparency at my dad's work, and then put it on a projector to blow it up real big on a whiteboard. Then I proceeded to draw a giant Sub-Zero on a whiteboard at my dad's work. It was fucking radical.

This book represents the glory days of Mortal Kombat for me. MK makes up a huge chunk of my childhood, and it wasn't just playing the game. I was into the lore, the characters, the art and everything. I remember seeing the trailer for the movie for the first time before Street Fighter: The Movie and it blew my mind. I went to the arcades whenever possible to play the games. I rented the home video. I wanted to go to the Live Tour. I read the fucking Mortal Kombat novel (I read it again more recently and it is fucking AWFUL, although nostalgic).

The only other franchise to capture my imagination as Mortal Kombat did was Resident Evil, but my memories and collection of Resident Evil will have to wait (as it's incredibly extensive, and the amount of things I have is ridiculous). Since those days, Mortal Kombat hasn't really been the same. In my eyes, the only worthwhile release since Ultimate 3 has been the most recent game simply titled 'Mortal Kombat' (although Shaolin Monks was really fun).

I think the glory days of Mortal Kombat is long-gone, but I still remember the times I had with the old games. Everytime I see this book, I think back to when I was a kid and all the fun times I had. If you haven't played the old games, you should really give them a shot. They are pretty much all great, and heaps of fun for everyone.

Collection Spotlight: Big Boss PSP

I want to start showing off a few bits of my collection that are actually unique. Like most collections of games, a good majority of it is stuff a lot of other people already own and is pretty common place. But like a lot of collector's, I have my gems. Now these items may not be worth thousands of dollars or super duper rare items, but they are neat or obscure. This one falls into the neat category.

This is the sweet carrying case, it says
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

This is my Big Boss PSP which came out about two years ago or so. I actually had no idea this thing was in the pipeline until it was released, but I was drawn to it immediately. I've been a big fan of the Metal Gear franchise since Metal Gear Solid, which is the fourth game in the series and some people would have you think it was the third. We'll talk about that at another time.

So since Metal Gear Solid, I've been a pretty big fan of the series. I would say my favorite is Snake Eater, although I've only played through it once it's still my favorite. The first Solid game is a classic, and I think I've beaten it several times both on the PSX and the Gamecube. Anyway, this is about the PSP and not the series.

The only camera I have is a cell phone camera and the lighting is terrible, so all my photos are shit.

The Big Boss PSP was released to coincide with the release of Peace Walker, which was an official canon release in the Metal Gear Solid series. The PSP had previous Metal Gear games with Portable Ops and Ac!d, which weren't canonical games, but I could be mistaken on that part. The storylines of that game are so convoluted, it doesn't even really matter.

I was going to go into my opinion of the PSP history and how it sorta tanked, but I'll just keep this post to my story of how I came across this beast. I first saw it in a Gamestop in Southlake Mall when I was out buying games with Derek and Khanh. It was tucked into the glass case next to the counter, sitting unassumingly at the bottom of the case. The following conversation happened between me and a lady who worked at Gamestop (which is another reason I loathe Gamestop, and urge anyone to cease purchasing games there):

Me: How much is this Big Boss PSP in the case here?

Lady: Did you pre-order one?

Me: No.

Lady: Well that one is already spoken for, they were pre-order only and we don't have anymore. You should have pre-ordered one!

Fuck you, Gamestop.

Ask Derek and Khanh, this is pretty much verbatim how it went down. Not only did she NOT ANSWER MY FUCKING QUESTION (it was $200 btw, I found this out later) she then chastised me for not pre-ordering something I didn't know existed until that point. I can see saying "They are $200, but unfortunately we only have 1 left and it is reserved." Instead she acts like I was a moron for not pre-ordering it. Fuck you, lady at Gamestop, fuck you.

So, at this point I was both pissed off and bummed. I went home to soak in my tears that this limited edition console was out of my grasp and I would have to pay hundreds for it years down the road just to have one. I admitted defeat, and cursed Gamestop and their cocky-ass employees.

As luck would have it, the lady at Gamestop was dead fucking wrong. So wrong in fact, that I almost drove down to her store to rub it in her face that I had actually bought one not even a week later. How did I manage this monumental task, you ask? A friend helped me.

I don't have an old version to compare to, but this one
is a bit more compact.

The following week at work I sitting in my little office farting around on the computer when Khanh pops in the room and says "Davey, those Big Boss PSPs are on Barnes and Noble's website." I immediately opened a browser, found the PSP on there and bought it without hesitating. A few short days later, it was sitting on my doorstep when I got home from work. A funny thing about it's delivery was that it was almost about to pour rain down the day the PSP was delivered, so the PSP was going to be sitting on the stoop of my house (which was uncovered). I raced the storm home to get the PSP a minute or two before the bottom fell out.

The PSP itself is a limited color variant of the revised PSP. The new model PSP was a slimmer version that boasted a better screen and more compact form. I personally like the bulkier PSP because it was easier to hold for me, but this one is a pretty nice console overall. The screen looks absolute great, and as far as I can tell functions just as well as the old one. This new version of the PSP features a revised disc tray on the back, which is less prone to shoot discs out and is a lot simpler than the old one.

The Big Boss PSP pack also came with the Peace Walker game (a game I admittedly haven't played more than an hour...sorry) and a slick little carrying case. The box set featured most of the stuff you'd get with a normal PSP, so I got a charger and all that. The box is also pretty neat, so it sits on top of my shelf on display.

A nice addition to my collection, I would say.

 I think this little thing is pretty cool, and one of the key items of my collection. It's not the only limited edition console I have, either.This is definitely something I'm going to hang on to for a while. You don't come across these everyday and it holds a special place in my collection. Finding things like this and getting my hands on it are what keep me interested in collecting.