Screw the RIAA

On the topic of video games, over the weekend Kristin and I finally beat Batman: Mystery of Sin Tzu for Xbox. The game was pretty fun, but somewhat repetitive. Everything was the same throughout the game, except for the bosses—beat up a bunch of guys while disarming bombs or saving hostages. The bosses kept it quasi-interesting, at least, except for the end boss, Sin Tzu himself. He is one of the cheapest game bosses ever. You had to use a special dash attach to hit him a couple of times, not hurting him of course, to build up your combo meter which would allow you to use attacks that could actually damage him. Even when using your combo meter you could only hit him a couple of times before it ran out. Since it was such an exercise in tedium, K and I just popped in an unlimited combo meter cheat. I hate it when a games make terrible game decisions, such as on this boss because it just takes you out of the game and makes you not want to play any further.

Since we beat that, I have started playing Unreal II for PC and Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast for Xbox. Unreal II is pretty sweet so far and I’m probably going to focus on playing that in the near future. Jedi Outcast is all right, but from the levels I’ve been playing it’s getting somewhat repetitive. I’m looking forward to the levels where I’ll actually get a light saber and force powers because right now it’s just an average first person shooter.

I’ll probably appreciate playing any games more once I bring home my big screen tv today. Yep, you heard me correctly, I’ll be bringing home a nice, large television for use at home (assuming they have the one I’m buying in stock). I’m still somewhat undecided as to what to get. It’s down to two tv’s, though—either a 55” Mitsubishi or a 47” Panasonic. They’re both widescreen and extremely pretty. What will probably make my decision is how far I can talk the dealer down on either one. I’d like the 55”, but it’s a little bit more spendy. Either way, I’m looking forward to getting everything hooked up and watching a movie or playing some Xbox on it soon.

Since I’ll be buying this new tv, I probably won’t have a lot of extra money to use for anything frivolous over the next however many months it’ll take me to pay it off, but I’ll live. I’ve found one site online that is going to help keep me from buying many cds. I know I’ve said in the past that I don’t buy cds anymore anyways, but I have been occasionally as of late if they’re on sale. Unknowingly, I’m still supporting the RIAA, which is something I definitely do not want to do. To limit my spending on music, I will only buy cds that are released by artists or labels not associated with the RIAA. To find out which discs are ok to buy and which aren’t, I use this site. I search for a cd I think I might buy, and if it is RIAA affiliated, I simply cross it off my list and refuse to buy it. If the cd is not RIAA affiliated, the band sure as heck will get my support.