[b] If my body were a car, I'd be thinking about trading it in around now. I would like to upgrade. I would be actually on the lot somewhere and some guy with a loud sports jacket would be sizing me up...kinda lookin' around goin--maybe kickin my knees.
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-- Ellen DeGeneres
Put the Rock Band 2 disc into the drive, and you might be entirely within your rights to wonder if the game you just spent sixty dollars on is really worth the price of admission.
I'm sad to admit that I missed out on the Silicon Age of computer gaming, that nebulous timespan between 1985 and 2001 when on-line multiplayer was a tangled web of TCP/IP addresses and the concept of a graphics accelerator card was newfangled futurism. A storied time when games were launched by entering DOS mode and typing something like:
I grew up listening to radio stations that said things like: “The HOME *sound of explosions* of classic rock and roll” or “From AC/DC to Zeppelin *sound of freaking laserbeams* all rock, all the time.” So, when Neversoft decided to print more money by making another Guitar Hero game, thus solidifying their strategy of riding the franchise until the wheels fly off and
“Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.” -- Herodotus
In the last few years, an increasing amount of my time has been dominated by three completely independent activities:
1: Entirely sedentary work (in which I am lucky to include gaming)
2: Time with my family (often outdoors)
3: Extremely aggressive exercise
This trifecta has, with the emergence of the Platinum Age of Gaming (which started with the launch of the Wii and continues to this day), beco