PixlBit

Cost of living is kind of a wash in a lot of ways. Housing is cheaper in Oklahoma, but Maryland is actually cheap compared to other Northeastern areas, which isn't bad for it being the wealthiest state in the country (most of said wealth being concentrated in the counties near DC, of course). As far as gas, Oklahoma has the cheapest gas in the US by quite a margin, but since I did a lot more driving in Oklahoma than I'm doing in Maryland thanks to Baltimore being less sprawling than Oklahoma City/Norman, I spend less on gas in MD. Food is actually somewhat cheaper in Maryland. Oklahoma not only has one of the highest sales tax rates in the country - the state rate is 4.5%, but the cities and counties impose their own taxes and the actual sales tax rate ends up being 9-11% - but they also tax groceries, while Maryland exempts most groceries and has a 6% sales tax rate. The auto insurance was the one big case of sticker shock I've had since I came here. Oklahoma is actually one of the more expensive places to get auto insurance thanks mostly to the weather there - tornadoes and hail are a big source of claims in OK - but 15 years of being with the same State Farm agent plus a good driving record netted me a pretty low insurance premium there. My rates doubled when I came here. I found out later that Baltimore is one of the most expensive cities for auto insurance. Oh well.

I forgot I contributed something to this.

Bayonetta 2, although Nintendo published that one. Resident Evil Revelations. Deus Ex. Shantae on the Wii U eShop (the Miiverse community for that game is so completely fucked up it's hilarious).

Here you go... enjoy!

As a rule, I don't go chasing Trophies or Achievements. Most of the requirements for them are boring as hell or require you to start the game from scratch because they're one-time-only deals.

Yeah, I remember Duck Hunt. My NES-owning best friend back in 1987 (I never owned a NES myself) got the set that came with SMB and Duck Hunt. He also got Gyromite used but never had a R.O.B, so we took turns operating the pipes on controller 2.

Light gun games can be a lot of fun in small doses but they all get repetitive after awhile. Duck Hunt was no different. That dog pissed me off to no end, and almost everybody I knew who played it took a few frustrated shots at the dog with the Zapper.  Later, I learned that the arcade Vs. Duck Hunt actually did allow you to shoot your dog during a bonus game when the dog would be leaping into the air trying to flush out ducks. He'd hobble on screen with his face blackened like a Tom and Jerry cartoon, sporting a leg cast and a crutch, yelling at the player. I can imagine that Nintendo didn't want to court more controversy than video games in general were already getting by allowing you to shoot the dog in the NES version, even with the Looney Tunes/Tom and Jerry cartooniness.

My favorite light game of all time was Battle Clash, a Super NES Super Scope 6 game that pitted you against mechs. You'd use repeat fire to fend off enemy attacks and charged single shots to the enemy. It had a catchy soundtrack composed by a female composer named Yuka Tsujiyoko, who is the main composer for the Fire Emblem series. I hope Nintendo considers releasing that on Wii U VC. I also liked a couple of machine-gun light gun games made by Midway, Terminator 2 and Revolution-X Featuring Aerosmith.

It's too bad Christmas was so stressful for you. I'm glad New Years' turned out to be much better. For my part, Christmas was pretty good with my PSTV and New Years was all right. Drank egg nog fortified with rum and set off a couple of packages of Black Cats left over from the 4th of July. My birthday, on Tuesday of this week, however, was very stressful for reasons I might go into later.

My reading has consisted of Stephen King and a reread of an old favorite, The Clan of the Cave Bear.

Good, as always, to see you check in.

The guy sounds like a Microsoft stockholder.

I own a PS4, and nothing Microsoft has really interests me in Xbox One. Most of the games I'd play on Xbox One are on PS4, and PS4 is getting quite a few exclusives that I do want.

Hey, the 3DS is a nifty little system. I own more games for it than for any other handheld I've ever owned.

My favorite Virtual Console offerings on 3DS are the Kid Icarus games. The NES KI was given 3-D visuals and it has the same sound as the Famicom Disk System original (the FDS had several more sound channels than the NES, which is why some NES games that originally started as FDS games sound kind of tinny). KI: Of Myths and Monsters for the Game Boy is really hard to find and it was one of my favorite Game Boy games, so I was delighted to find it on 3DS VC.

When my wife got me mine, she got me the bundle with the Lego Movie video game included as a digital DL that also came with an 8GB memory card, which went for $100. She also got me Tales of Hearts R (physical version), which was my "trigger game" for asking for this for Christmas. It came with a Dualshock 3, but will work with a Dualshock 4 as well, and in some games the DS4's touchpad can emulate the touchpad on the back of the Vita.  There was a "plain vanilla" version going for 80 bucks new as well, and the console is the size of a pack of Bicycle cards. PSP games run really good on it.  As far as compatibility issues, some of its issues are due to the use of the gyroscopes and touchpad in the Vita, I guess, and a few of the Vita's better-known games like Gravity Rush and Uncharted: Golden Abyss aren't supported. The former would be kind of cool, I don't give a damn about the latter. Most of the newer games from Japan do support the PSTV, like Freedom Wars, ToHR, as well as Persona 4 Golden. The one game I would like to see patched for the PSTV that isn't compatible is Ys: Memories of Celceta.