The word "milking" doesn't begin to describe what Activision has been doing to the Guitar Hero franchise. 11 titles have been produced since Activision aquired the series, and 3 more games are due out by the end of the year, bringing the total number of games published under the Guitar Hero branding in the 2007-2009 time period to an astonishing 14 games.

The gaming industry's 2009 Q4 is undeniably packed. With heavy hitters like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead 2, DJ Hero, Dragon Age: Origins, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed 2, The Saboteur, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii coming out in quick succession, competition is stiff, and some good games could potentially wind up getting left in the dust. Something tells me that one of those games is going to be Brutal Legend, the upcoming Tim Schafer production.

By all accounts, Brutal Legend looks like it'll be a fine game. Previews have been positive, and the buzz from those who have gotten extended time with the game is that it's both fun to play and well written, containing a pleasant helping of humor in its dialogue.

With the dawn of the new generation of consoles, prices for full-price, retail videogames shot up from the previous $50 average price point to a $60 price point, which is, for the mathematically lazy, a 20% increase. Around this same time, a number of studios began developing and releasing an increased number of high-budget, single-player only action games. Many games in this style provide players with about 12 hours of total playtime, which is incredibly long compared to the average film, but incredibly short when compared to the number of hours that people might spend in the multiplayer modes of games like Halo 3, Left 4 Dead, or (if you really hate fun) The Darkness.

Take "This American Life", replace Ira Glass with a more witty, tech-savvy host that has the voice of a stoner, and make each show somehow related to gaming (or other parts of geek culture). You now have "A Life Well Wasted," the new monthly podcast by Robert Ashley (formerly of "GFW Radio" fame). 

The first episode of "ALWW" takes place on the 1UP offices' rooftop during a get-together commemorating the death of one of the gaming industry's most important magazines, EGM. Ashley, with his likable voice, interviews key figures from EGM's history, resulting in some conversations that are purely humorous, and some that make listeners truly recognize the level of impact that the magazine had on the history of gaming.

Not to stir up too much controversy, but I find it hard to believe that there hasn't been more outcry about the price of Xbox 360 hard drives. If you're an Amazon shopper like myself, you will find that you can get a 120 GB 360 hard drive for about $150, (source) OR you can get a regular 1TB USB hard drive for $115 (source). So in other words, when you pay for a decently-sized 360 hard drive, you're paying 1.3 times the price for 1/8 of the hard drive space. So for a much higher price (assuming that the average song is 4MB), I could store 30,000 songs with that 360 hard drive, or I could store 250,000 songs with that massive USB hard drive.

There once were three kids who lived in the same town. Despite numerous child-labor laws, all of the children worked at different locations in the local mall. Mike worked at a smoothie place, Sonny worked at a coffee shop, and Nina ran an ice cream stand. Mike, Sonny, and Nina didn't really have any personal problems with each other despite the fact that they were, in a way, competition (Nina wasn't really considered a competitor by Mike and Sonny, since ice cream is a totally different type of product. Because of this, they didn't mind that she got the largest number of customers out of the three).

For some reason, there were some people who only liked going to the coffee shop, and there were some people who only liked going to the smoothie place. There were a metric buttload of old people and little kids who loved going to the ice cream stand, and a lot of them just enjoyed sticking to their ice cream as well.