Christmas Madness!

Hey all.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, whether you got lots of presents or just enjoyed the presence of your family and friends.

We had a pretty good time over the last few days. The Wager family did our usual book exchange on Christmas Eve and I got a new Pratchett book out of the deal. It's always nice to get Discworld books for Christmas.

Sunday saw Garrett opening his cool presents from Santa which included a nice drawing pad and some crayons to go with it. I think he also got a fancy shmancy wooden truck with a few wooden cars on it, amongst other things.

I got a drill from Julie & Garrett which will go great with the drill bits my dad got me 2 years ago. I can finally make holes in stuff without having to use a hammer!

I got some shirts, which are nice, and The War Of The Worlds DVD (the 1950's version). I also got several gift cards which I was able to put to use on BLACK MONDAY, er, Boxing Day. I hit the mall right at 8am and was out by 9am, just when the crowds were getting bad. What did I get for my troubles, you ask?

A shiny red Nintendo DS, baby! And a few games. And a new pair of boots (since my last pair was so worn down on the instep I felt like I was participating in a rickets simulation).

I LOVE the DS. The funny thing is that both of my brothers picked up PSP's over the last few days so we were having the battle of the handhelds at my parents' place. While I must admit that the PSP is one sweet little piece of hardware, there just isn't anything to play on it. Dave picked up GTA: Liberty City Stories, which was nice to look at but I didn't like the feel of the controls. Grant had Metal Gear Acid, which also looked rather nice but I didn't have much of a chance to play. I know that Lumines is supposed to be an awesome puzzle game but otherwise there just wasn't anything that really popped out at me as something I had to play.

The DS, on the other hand, is also an awesome piece of hardware but very different from the PSP. I was completely addicted to Meteos for almost the entire day on Monday and have put a bit of time into Mario Kart, which is insanely fun. Metroid Pinball looks pretty deep, for a pinball game (plus it has a rumble pack which is always a plus). Trauma Center is HARD, but for a surgery simulator it rocks. I haven't even tried Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney or Mario & Luigi: Partners In Time, but they both look great.

So, in my opinion, the DS is a better system if only because there are so many great games on the system... I haven't even mentioned the ones on my rental queue... The PSP is really nice, but just doesn't have any games.

Plus it's really fun to play Mario Kart over the wireless LAN here at the in-laws.
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What I'm Reading: The Claus Effect
What I'm Playing: All those DS games, Guitar Hero
What I'm Watching: Corner Gas