"Any used-car salesman can slap together a shonky PC and market it as 'the world's greatest and most powerful video game console,'" said Matthew Green, "but only Timothy Roberts and his band of henchmen were able to drum up all the hype, lies and lawsuits that have kept hundreds of people like me entertained throughout year."

- Game of the Year 2004 vote!
- Holiday 2004 giveaway!

- One of four copies of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, courtesy of Activision.
- One of three copies of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (PC), courtesy of Activision.
- One of three copies of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (PS2), courtesy of Activision.
- One of four copies of Rome: Total War, courtesy of Activision. Two people will also receive a Rome: TW flag.
- One of three copies of True Crime: Streets of L.A. (PC), courtesy of Activision.
- One of three copies of Call of Duty: United Offensive, courtesy of Activision.
- One of seven Spider-Man 2: The Game t-shirts (XL size), courtesy of Activision.
- One of two copies of Codename: Panzers, courtesy of CDV.
- One of three copies of King of Fighters: Maximum Impact (PS2), courtesy of SNK.
- One of three copies of SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom (Xbox), courtesy of SNK.
- One of five Gungrave packs. Includes Beyond the Grave DVD, Gungrave: Overdose for the PS2 and two guides. Courtesy of Mastiff.
- One of three copies of Painkiller: Battle out of Hell, courtesy of DreamCatcher Interactive.
- One of two copies of Return to Mysterious Island, courtesy of DreamCatcher Interactive.
- One copy of Warhammmer 40,000: Dawn of War, courtesy of THQ.
- One copy of Full Spectrum Warrior (PC), courtesy of THQ.
- One copy of EverQuest 2: Special Edition, courtesy of Sony Online Entertainment.
- One copy of DOOM 3, courtesy of Activision.
- One copy of Zoo Tycoon 2, courtesy of Microsoft Games.
- One copy of Kohan II: Kings of War, courtesy of Global Star Software.
- One copy of Fritz 8 Deluxe, courtesy of Viva Media.
- One copy of Far Cry
- One copy of Blowout (Xbox)
- One copy of Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth (PC-DVD)
- One copy of Alien Hominid (GameCube)
- One copy of Armies of Exigo
- One copy of Grand Theft Auto: Advance
- One copy of Viewtiful Joe 2 (GameCube)
- One copy of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC)
- One of two copies of ESPN NFL 2K5 (one Xbox, one PS2)

I'm not going too far of course, and I'll keep posting in the comments and you can look forward to continued ShackReviews from me every time I finish a game (although the frequency of that is bound to drop). If you absolutely feel the need to keep reading my regular ramblings, I'll keep updating my blog on a regular basis and the game-related content is likely to increase significantly. I should warn you that being a personal site, I make no pretense of objectivity (I can finally say how much I really hate Microsoft/Nintendo/Sony/Atari/EA/Rockstar!) and you'll also have to deal with my admittedly radically left-wing political views.

So again thanks, and don't worry, I'll keep in touch.

jason's Final ShackFacts: Total posts: 755. Total LNCs: 535 (Plus 11 EX stories). Total Sunday Afternoon ShackReviews: 62. Total number of posts using the word "craptacular": 6. Total number using "dumbass": 5. Total using "lame": 87. Total using "stupid": 25. Total using "suck": 38. Total number of obscure Futurama/Simpsons/Pink Floyd references: (Impossible to count). First post date: August 15, 2001. Last post: you're reading it now.

• All-Star Baseball 2005 (PS2)
• Apocalyptica (PC)
• Breed (PC)
• Resident Evil Outbreak (PS2)
• Wario Ware Inc: Mega Party Game$ (GC)
• World Soccer Winning Eleven 7 International (PC)

I came this close to giving up on Final Fantasy X-2 this week. I'm in the last chapter, and at that point where I need to level up before proceeding, and I decided I just wasn't that interested. So I played a bit of Broken Sword for GBA (which is great, although I think they may have made it a bit too easy with some of the interface decisions) before deciding that I had to finish FFX-2 out of principal. So I leveled up a bit yesterday, and I'll probably do a bit more today. I'm not going to bother doing everything, as I usually do with Final Fantasy games, but I'll do enough so that I'm comfortable going up against the end bosses. Nothing sucks more than getting all the way to the end and being too weak to beat the final boss. And if that happens here, I'll almost certainly give up for good.

• Alias (PS2, Xbox)
• ESPN Major League Baseball (Xbox)
• Fight Night 2004 (PS2, Xbox)
• NBA Ballers (PS2, Xbox)
• Painkiller (PC)

I'm still making my way through Final Fantasy X-2, although I've pretty much given up all hope at this point of the story getting any more interesting. The combat system's fun, but the story alternates between pure cheese, j-pop goofiness and WAYPTA moments, and it all adds up to a rather unsatisfying package. I'm going to keep playing it just because the gameplay's fun, but I'm very disappointed in the game. One other thing I played a bit of this week was Beneath a Steel Sky, an adventure game from Broken Sword creators Revolution Games. It was released as freeware some time ago (it's available for download at the official ScummVM site), and since I'd never played it before, I figured it'd be worth checking out. And sure enough, it's a hoot. It's well-written, fun, and quite silly at times. All the things I like in an adventure game. And it works flawlessly in ScummVM, which is great in and of itself. If you're looking for a free adventure game, give it a shot.

Requirements:
- Strong working knowledge of all console platforms
- You play games, lots
- Knowledge of HTML
- Available to work late evenings every weeknight (10pm CST deadline)
- Examples of published work (very important!)
Bonuses:
- PHP / SQL knowledge
- Artistic / photoshop skills
- Available to take occasional trips to game companies/publishers

The pay is heavily based on the qualifications of the applicant but will be at the very least roughly $13/hr and can go significantly higher. The average work week will run around 12hrs per week (5 LNC's plus shackreviews update). Salary however is not hourly... so if you take 4hrs to do LNC you should learn to read/type faster. If you have emailed me saying "I am interested" but didnt include any kind of work examples please do so. Jason/Maarten/myself will be going over the applicants this weekend and narrow it down to a few phone interviews next week. If you have exceptional qualifications we may be willing to be a little flexible on the schedule such as Jason taking Thursday off. Sorry, but if you dont have any examples of work then you wont be considered.

- Jason's letter

As the letter mentions Jason is with us for another 3 weeks and during that time we'll be looking to pick up someone new with extensive console knowledge. Serious inquiries/applications only please. note: This is a paid position with real hours and real responsibility.

• Breakdown (Xbox)
• Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (PC)
• FarCry (PC)
• Firestarter (PC)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (PC, Xbox)
• Worms 3D (PC, GC, PS2)

I've been a bit too busy this past week to play much of anything (plus I'm really getting bored with Final Fantasy X-2), but I did pick up the GBA port of Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars. I've been looking to get back into adventure games for a while now, and I've had a review copy of Broken Sword 3 sitting on my to be played stack for about as long, but I saw this on sale for pretty cheap and picked it up. I've never played any of these games (they were much more popular in Europe than they were here), but I've heard very good things about them, and this GBA port is supposed to be very well done. If nothing else, it should be interesting to see how well point and click gameplay translates to the GBA.

• Battlefield Vietnam (PC)
• The Suffering (PS2, Xbox)
• Tenchu: Return from Darkness (Xbox)
• Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)
• The X-Files: Resist or Serve (PS2)

I've added that X-Files game in the hopes that someone out there has actually played this thing. I no longer have any hopes for it whatsoever, but I'm still a bit curious about it. I actually contacted Vivendi Universal about getting a review copy, but was told that they are sending out "a very limited number of copies." That's nothing new for me of course, as I hear stuff like that all the time, but a quick scan of Game Rankings shows that there have been no reviews at all of this game. No advance reviews in print magazines, no online reviews, nothing. That to me ain't a good sign at all, and would definitely suggest that VUG realized they've got a dud on their hands and are just plopping it in the marketplace in the hopes of coasting by on the brand name alone. I might rent the game at some point or just wait for it to drop below the $10 mark and pick it up (it's already below $30 -- another really bad sign) but it seems like this game is a real wasted opportunity to capitalize on the potential of this property.

• Horizons: Empire of Istaria (PC)
• Kya: Dark Lineage (PS2)
• LifeLine (PS2)
• Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GC)
• MVP Baseball 2004 (PC, GC, PS2, Xbox, 2600, Amiga, Vectrex)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword (PC)

The last couple of weeks have seen some pretty big releases, but there are two more biggies coming next week: Battlefield: Vietnam and Unreal Tournament 2004. But wait, there's more! In the next few weeks FarCry ships, as does Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow for both PC and Xbox and Painkiller and Breed for PC. And there's this nasty rumor going around that Counter-Strike: Condition Zero is supposed to ship before the end of the month. That's a whole lot of gaming in the next month...personally, I'm still catching up on my games from the holiday season, so I'm going to skip most of these (although I did have UT2004 pre-ordered, I canceled it, figuring it'll be a while before I can play it anyway, and the price will probably come down between now and then) although we'll see how long I can actually hold out once these all ship. I'm already having a hard enough time not running out and getting MGS: The Twin Snakes and Ninja Gaiden...all this gaming goodness might be too much for me.

• Colin McRae Rally 04 (Xbox)
• Dead Man's Hand (Xbox)
• Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire (PC)
• Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
• Phantasy Star Online Episode III: C.A.R.D. Revolution (GC)

On Friday I finished Beyond Good & Evil, and I wrote up my review of it earlier this morning as I was waiting for the cable guy to show up to fix my Internet connection. As that review says, I was very disappointed by the game. Not because it's a bad game by any means, but because it felt rushed and incomplete, and it showed enough promise that it seemed clear to me that it could have been a really great game if the developers had a chance to properly finish it. Oh well. I've since moved on to Final Fantasy X-2, and while I'm only 20 minutes or so into it, I must say I have absolutely no idea what to make of this game. I was prepared for it to be a bit cheesy and cornball...but good god, this is nuts. Unless it gets to be totally unbearable I'm going to stick with it...but so far I'm just baffled by what I'm seeing.

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• Culdecept (PS2)
• Spellforce: The Order of Dawn (PC)
• Steel Battalion: Line of Contact (Xbox)

Just when I thought it was safe to get back to work, my Internet connection died on me. What's particularly frustrating about this is that because it was actually working on Friday night and all day yesterday, I canceled my Time Warner appointment for yesterday. Sigh. So obviously this is why there's a mere three new titles today. I apologize and curse Time Warner for doing this to me (again).