IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey release date confusion

GameStop says the shipping date was yesterday, it should arrive at their stores today, but the street date for it is not until September 8th. Looks like I will be picking it up next week along with The Beatles: Rock Band, unless I can find somewhere that simply puts it on the shelf early. But I am not gonna be looking very hard.

IGN raves about IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

This is my next game purchase. IGN gave the game an 8.6 in it's review, which you can read right here.

Quick hit update

-Rams looked good tonight against Cincy in preseason game #3. They need to tighten up the run defense a bit and the punt coverage was awful. The defense created 4 turnovers so that was huge. Nice game considering 3 starters were missing from the offense and 2 from the defense.

-Batman: Arkham Asylum still kicks ass. Played a few hours tonight and had a blast.

-Microsoft got my 360 Elite back to me 8 days after I sent it off. Not a switcheroo but the same Xbox. That's pretty damned impressive. Had I known that I would have just waited, but now I have a 360 in my den as well as the one downstairs. Just need a hard drive and an HD-TV for the den. Absolutely no rush on that, though.

-Most importantly, our friends from Canada, Pete and Joyce, will be arriving Saturday evening to spend the week with us. They are just terrific people and we can't wait to see them. It's been almost 3 years so we have a lot of catching up to do. There will be a few drinks downed this coming week, I can assure you of that.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

I picked this up today even though I am not a comic fan in the least. The game has gotten almost universal praise in it's early reviews and let me tell you, it has earned them. This is a first-rate game all the way. The production values are off the charts, the gameplay is very user friendly and it keeps you coming back for more. I stayed up way too late playing this one tonight; work is gonna be a bear in the morning!

This game is already on my short list for Game Of The Year honors. It's that good. If you like action games, this is a must-have.

Beatles Rock Band DLC pricing

Harmonix, makers of The Beatles: Rock Band, has announced the pricing for the downloadable albums/songs that will be made available after the game's release. I am a bit shocked by the pricing; let's just say people are going to be paying premium prices for premium music. The album to be released will be Abbey Road in October and it will cost a cool $16.98 to download the whole album, or $1.99 per song. Considering that 5 Abbey Road songs come with the game itself, that is really pretty pricey. And unfortunately, there is a hook: only by purchasing the complete Abbey Road album will you be able to play the side 2 medley ("You Never Give Me Your Money," "Sun King," "Mean Mr. Mustard," "Polythene Pam," "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," "Golden Slumbers," "Carry That Weight" and "The End") as a whole. That sucks.

It appears as though the following DLC albums, Sgt. Pepper's in November and Rubber Soul in December, will also carry the $16.98 pricing. That really is a bit much. It's the first news that I consider negative about the game. Still, I will be all in. But the more casual fans will probably be thinking long and hard about paying that much for DLC. This could be a bad move by Harmonix.

My wife

Barb passed both of her finals today, much to her relief. I had complete faith in her, but Barb is a nervous sort and she was really worried after taking the 2nd one, which was in a class that she was doing fine in, but less than her usual standards. When she got her grades, she called me in absolute delirium. I have not hear her sound so happy or relived in quite a while. It was great to hear her voice like that again.

It must have been some sort of natural high and it must have been powerful. Why do I say that, you ask? Because Barb, my lovely wife, volunteered to go up to Best Buy and pick me up a new Xbox 360. She even went to all of the trouble of identifying it was the new "Jasper" model, which is supposedly more reliable than the older units. Now that is a kick-ass wife.

I know I am such a baby; all I had to do was wait 3 weeks or so and I will be getting my other Xbox back repaired. And it is an unnecessary expense that we really don't need right now. Obviously I am spoiled and this is a luxury purchase. But the new model was an Arcade unit, so it was relatively cheap and with my buddy Pete coming in from Ottawa in less than a couple weeks, we are probably going to be doing some gaming.

I have decided to just keep the repaired 360 when it arrives and keep it as a spare for my son and me. It's not like these things have the greatest reliability track record. GameStop was only offering $70 for a trade in, so it is not really worth it.

So here's to my wife for passing her toughest class. And here's to natural highs and the rewards they sometimes bring. Thanks, honey!

Brett Favre is...

...a complete and utter douchebag. We get it, Brett. You crave attention. You are a media whore. You love to keep people wondering if you will or won't come back. You did it 3 years with the Packers, 1 year with the Jets and now 1 year with the Vikings. No one cares anymore for this self-made drama. I am sure Sage Rosenfels and Tavaris Jackson, who were competing for the Vikings' QB job, who (unlike you) had gone to training camp and put in all of the extra time and effort, are just thrilled to death that you are coming in on your imaginary white stallion to save the day once again. You tore up the Jets' team chemistry last year and you have just done it again to the Vikings this year. What a great guy you are.

How about this: next season, for the first time in your life, make a big decision and stick to your word. Be a man. Stop being a wishy-washy douchebag who keeps teams hanging on while you constantly change your mind, even after they have grudgingly accepted to move on without you. Just stop it. Go dell some more fricking Wrangler jeans or something, will ya?