On October 19th, 2009, The 501st Legion and Rebel Legion will take over The Big ‘E’ Final Day Parade in FORCE! This will be the biggest showing of Star Wars characters this event has ever seen!

The Big E, New England's Autumn Tradition and the largest fair in the northeast. It's a New England extravaganza with top name entertainment, major exhibits, The Big E Super Circus, the Avenue of States, New England history and agriculture, animals, rides, shopping, crafts, a daily parade and a Mardi Gras parade and foods from around the world for 17 glorious days during New England's most colorful season.

If you have children, you will not want to miss this event.

For more information on The Big ‘E’, click please goto www.thebige.com

PLEASE BE ADVISED: We love fans of Star Wars and The 501st, but we respectfully ask that folks not follow us after this event. We do have places to go after our events, and non-501st are NOT allowed to go to these places with us as this can cause problems. We hope you understand and enjoy the event!

LOCATION: The Big ‘E’
1305 Memorial Ave
West Springfield, MA 01089

TIME: The Big ‘E’ is an all day event, though the Star Wars characters won’t make their presence known until 5:00.

Where do I begin?

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is a game for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. The single player storyline of Dark Athena is set after the events of the 2004 title The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Unlike its predecessor Dark Athena includes a large multi-player portion. The game also includes a remastered version of the original Butcher Bay game.

Plot

Sometime after escaping from Butcher Bay with Johns, Riddick's ship is found by the mercs aboard the Dark Athena who pull it aboard for salvage and body harvesting. Lucky for Riddick (and unlucky for the mercs) Riddick's cryo tank releases him before the mercs board the ship. While Riddick hides in the ceiling the mercs come aboard and take John's unconscious body away. It is during all of this that Riddick acquires his first weapon, a hatpin from Gale Revas's (the captain of the Dark Athena) head.

It is now up to you, in the role of Riddick, to escape from the Dark Athena. You will use stealth for most of the early part of the game. Guns are not acquired until much later though you can use the guns of defeated drones but you can't take the guns from them.

There are a few side quests that can be performed for achievements but these are not needed to complete the game.

Gameplay

Like Butcher Bay before it, Dark Athena puts you in the role of Riddick in a single player game that easily spans eight hours of gaming time. The game does not use a conventional save game system and instead uses a checkpoint system that automatically saves the game when you pass each checkpoint. One of the biggest benefits of this system is that it allows you to go back and replay the game from any checkpoint you have previously passed.

The first two or three hours of gameplay will find you playing a game of cat and mouse with the mercs and their drones aboard the Dark Athena. You will be using either your fists, Revas's hatpin or the Ulaks once you acquire them. You will be crawling through ducts and hiding in the shadows. If you can keep your presence secret by hiding the bodies in the darkness the mercs will not be on alert. Once the mercs begin to find the bodies of the dead expect to hear announcements over the P.A. system talking about you!

Even though guns do become available in time it is important to note that ammo is limited. Once you run out that weapon is nearly useless. Some weapons are nearly useless from the start, namely the SMG. This glorified B.B. gun is only useful because of the excellent spotlight attachment. On the other end is the shotgun which has the equivalent to an LED light on the end but wastes mercs with a single shot! You're not likely to need the lights because Riddick has his eye shine which allows him to see in the dark.

For the most part eye shine works great but there are some areas where even with the eye shine on you can't see anything! in these situations flicking the lights on and off quickly can help you get your bearings without making you too much of a target.

Drones

There are two types of drones in the game, regular and alpha. The regular drones also come in two varieties; controlled and uncontrolled.

A controlled drone has white lights and acts smarter because it is being controlled by a live merc (or you at a certain point in the game). An uncontrolled drone has red lights. Drones also carry a machine gun that can not be removed but Riddick can use the body as a shield and fire the gun.

The alpha drone is a very large beast equipped with a grenade launcher and chain gun. They are difficult to take down if you don't know the secret. Taking down an alpha can be a bit of trouble as it easily shrugs off everything you throw at it. It's a two-part process to take one of these beasts down so if keep that in mind after your fifth re-spawn!

The drones are the chief export of the Dark Athena and their reason for existing. The mercs on the ship are more like pirate raiders than mercenaries. They make their living by turning convicts (and others) into drones and selling them.

Weapons

In the early part of the game you will either be using your bare hands or the hatpin you stole from Revas. Once the Ulaks are discovered (automatic) those will become your main hand-to-hand weapon.

There is a tranquilizer gun that can be acquired shortly after defeating Margo by killing a technician working in a confined space. This weapon has unlimited ammo and stuns anyone hit for about 15 seconds. you can quickly dispatched a stunned merc with your Ulaks.

When it comes to launching a lot of rounds down range you have a few options. The first is the basic pistol. It does not pack much of a punch but it can be used to create diversions and to kill lightly armored opponents.

Up next we have the submachinegun. It holds the most rounds (60) and has the best light but it also has poor accuracy and low damage. I find this is a good weapon to use in the Pitch Black multi-player portion of the game.

If you don't mind getting in close with your guns then the shotgun is the one for you. It only holds eight shells and the light is near useless but those eight shells pack a lot of punch! Those same shells lose their potency quickly at anything other than close range.

The last weapon that will see heavy usage is the assault rifle. With a 38 round magazine and a decent light this is a great weapon. It is the one you will likely use the most in single player.

Not quite a gun but something else is the SCAR. This weapon shoots explosive charges that stick to whatever they hit. Up to five charges can be live and they are detonated with the left trigger. A common tactic is to shoot some on the ground and walls before a group of mercs charge in. Trigger the explosives and take out a group of mercs in seconds! The SCAR does suffer from a slow recharge rate.

If you complete one of the side missions you can acquire the sniper rifle. This weapon has very limited usage in the game simply because of the lack of ammo. Instead of a light this weapon sports a scope. Long distance - the next best thing to being there!

Voice Acting and Such

One thing that really impressed me about this game is the top notch voice acting and character movements. It's not just the gravelly voice of Vin Diesel himself either. All of the voice acting is excellent and when you see the prisoners move in their cells all of their movements match their dialogue.

There is no stiffness or bland body gestures like you find in other games (cough oblivion, Fallout 3, cough). Instead you have a game where you feel like you are taking part in a Riddick movie because the characters are so life like.

Let me tell you right now that nothing kills immersion more than listening to bland dialogue while the person gesticulates wildly. When you talk to the sadistic Jaylor you feel like you are dealing with a real person and not some graphical construct on the screen. The same goes for the script. When Riddick talks it just feels right.

Multiplayer

When Butcher Bay was released in 2004 it lacked a multiplayer environment. This was due in part to the publisher (Starbreeze Studios) not wanting to delay the games release or push it too far over budget. With Dark Athena they decided to embrace the multiplayer idea and even went so far as to create two new modes in addition to the standard four multiplayer modes we all know and love. there are numerous maps to choose from and a DLC pack of extra maps is available for download.

The usual modes are death match, arena, team death match and capture the flag. Long time FPS players should be familiar with these so I will not be explaining them further. Instead I will focus on the two new modes; Pitch Black and Butcher Bay Riot.

Pitch Black - You think your bad enough to play the part of Riddick and kill mercs in the dark? Do you? If so this mode is for you.

One player takes on the role of Riddick (eye shine and Ulaks) while everyone else is a merc with a gun. Mercs start the game in a well lit area where they pick their weapon and drop into the darkness where Riddick lives. When choosing a weapon players either choose between high power or good lighting, you can't have both. That's right, the more powerful the weapon the crappier the light mounted on it! When Riddick dies the merc who killed him becomes him and the hunt begins again!

This mode is a ton of fun. Even the worst FPS player gets lucky sometimes and manages to kill Riddick while he's busy slicing up the other mercs. The SMG provides a lot of light but Riddick can charge and kill you before you take him down with that over rated pea shooter! The shotgun takes Riddick out fast but you can't see anything!

Butcher Bay Riot - Anyone up for a three team capture the flag style game? This is the ultimate team game for 3 to 12 players. Before the game begins you have a limited amount of money to purchase your weapons and armor. If you win a round you get bonus money for the next round. You win a round by finding the power cell and taking it to one of the opposing teams bases.

This is a very challenging mode and it requires a lot of thought and tactics to win.

Conclusion

Even though Dark Athena is not as much of a stealth game as Butcher Bay is I still consider it a worthy successor. The game does an excellent job of immersing the player into the Riddick universe. Playing as a drone (regular and alpha) is fun and even the brief stint in the mech is enjoyable.

The inclusion of a remastered version of Butcher Bay doubles the single player enjoyment from eight to sixteen hours easily. Add in the multiplayer modes and this game is easily worth the price. Single player enjoyment alone is easily in the $3.75 an hour range.

The Good
• Voice acting
• Character motions
• Script
• Butcher Bay inclusion
• Pitch Black

The Bad
• Some 'boss' battles will have you scratching your head on how to beat them
• Some AI issues with line of sight
• A few, "what do I do now?" moments

The Ugly
• Some issues of enemies being able to shoot through walls and hit you

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Yes, I own Animal Crossing games. In fact we have the GameCube version and two copies of the DS version, one for me and one for my daughter. One of the things I love about the DS version is the ability to go to another town and interact not just with the townsfolk but also with my daughter. Sadly the GameCube version did not allow for such activities. It did have a way to visit a friend's town but you could not visit them in their town.

Ever since the Wii was released there have been countless rumors of an Animal Crossing game for the Wii. some of these rumors said it would be an MMO with a monthly fee while others just said it would be like the GameCube version with some hobbled form of Wi-Fi.

At E3 Nintendo has announced the impending release of Animal Crossing: City Folk due out before the end of 2008!

From Nintendo:

If life were an endless vacation, what would you do? Go fishing, collect shells or watch fireworks with friends? Build a snowman, exchange presents with family or decorate your house for the holidays? Take a trip to the city, go on a shopping spree or visit friends from all over the globe? In Animal Crossing: City Folk, life moves at a relaxed pace, but the world brims with endless possibilities.

• There's always something new to do. In the living, breathing world of Animal Crossing: City Folk, days and seasons pass in real time, so there's always something to discover. Catch fireflies in the summer, go trick-or-treating on Halloween or hunt for eggs on Bunny Day. If you're in the mood for something a little faster paced, take a bus to a new urban city area that's unique to Animal Crossing: City Folk. There you can catch a show at the theater or check out the sales at Gracie's boutique. But if you don't show your face back home for too long, your neighbors will miss you.
• Up to four people from your household can live and work together to build the perfect town. Design clothes and patterns, write letters and post messages on the bulletin board for each other, or invite up to three friends to visit your town using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. With the new WiiSpeak microphone, it's like you're all in the same room. The microphone sits atop the sensor bar and picks up the conversation of everyone in the room to encourage a more inclusive experience.
• Get to know your neighbors. The heart of Animal Crossing: City Folk is building relationships with the animals in your town as well as with other players. Befriend your animal neighbors by exchanging letters, gifts and favors. Animals can also move from town to town, bringing their memories and stories from their old towns with them. And since animals are notoriously loose-lipped, they spill all the juicy details.
• Express your personal style. Customize your town, your house and yourself by collecting bugs, fish, fossils, art, furniture, clothes and accessories. You can also go to the salon in the city to change your hairstyle and get a Mii? makeover. Plus, if you design clothes in the tailor's shop, animals will wear them and maybe even bring them to other towns.

All I can say is "thank you Nintendo." It looks like this is going to be a great game and likely to suck the life out of little kids all over the USA this holiday season!

I'm not so sure about the microphone business but having the Wi-Fi in a similar fashion to the DS version of the game is just great.

This reminds me... I need to fire up my DS copy of the game and go pull some weeds!

Set for a spring 2009 release Wii Sports Resort is being marketed as the sequel to the amazing Wii Sports game that shipped with Wii consoles and helped make that console such a hit. Packed in with each copy is a Wii MotionPlus. No word on how to get these by themselves just yet.

• This sequel to the popular Wii Sports makes use of the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which gives players the most responsive and realistic experience possible. The Wii MotionPlus accessory, which is included with Wii Sports Resort, plugs into the base of the Wii Remote controller and, combined with the accelerometer and sensor bar, provides an experience that gives players an even greater sense of immersion.
• Just as with Wii Sports, people will love competing against friends and family. As the competition heats up, Wii Sports Resort is as much fun to watch as it is to play. First-time players will find it easy to pick up a Wii Remote and jump into the action.
• Wii Sports Resort takes place on a tropical island. A wide range of activities will keep players coming back for one more round. Some sample activities include Sword Play, Power Cruising (racing a water scooter) and Disc Dog, which involves accurately tossing a disc to a cute, Mii-like dog.

Not a ton of details on this just yet but I expect that all those people who purchased a Wii just for Bowling are the target audience for this one.

That dog looks just like the one that torments me during my Wii fit workouts!

Wario Landâ„¢: Shake It! stars Wario, the smelly, bad-mannered alter ego of Marioâ„¢. With the Wii Remoteâ„¢ controller turned sideways like an old-school controller, veterans and newcomers alike can run, jump and smash their way through hectic side-scrolling stages. Players shake the Wii Remote to help Wario take down his enemies, empty bags of treasure or cause earthquakes. Best of all, there are numerous stages each offering multiple missions to keep players coming back again and again to unlock everything, collect more coins or just improve their best times.

Kirby Super Starâ„¢ Ultra re-imagines one of the most beloved Kirby games of all time. Kirby Super Star Ultra features new graphics and fully rendered animated cut scenes. With so many adventures waiting to be unlocked, there will never be a dull moment as Kirby runs, floats, copies enemies and uses Helpers to fight King Dedede and Meta Knight. New modes like Revenge of the King and Meta Knight Ultra await, along with classics like The Great Cave Offensive and Milky Way Wishes. On top of the main modes, there are also three new touch-screen-controlled mini-games that can be played with up to three friends via DS Download Play. Not only that, but players can go on Kirby adventures with a friend via local wireless as well.

Mystery Case Filesâ„¢: MillionHeirâ„¢ uses the unique Nintendo DS interface to expand upon the seek-and-solve game play of the popular series from Big Fish Games. Players seek out cleverly hidden items in a multitude of painted scenes. Players progress through an interactive detective story investigating a cast of characters and uncovering new evidence to find the rightful heir to a million-dollar fortune. This new portable installment is available only for Nintendo DS. With interactive logic puzzles that use both the touch-screen interface and built-in microphone and include the first ever multiplayer mode for a Mystery Case Files game, Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir presents a new generation of seek-and-solve games for casual gamers and franchise fans.

Mario™ Super Sluggers stars the ever-lovable Mario and his crew of friends. It builds on the social-gaming fun and movements people learned in Wii Sports™ and turns them into a full-fledged baseball game that can be played by every member of the household. Players make a throwing motion with the Wii Remote controller to pitch the baseball and make a swinging motion to swing at the pitch. The game boasts more than 30 playable Nintendo characters and all the madness of a Mario sports game. Just like Mario Kart® Wii, it bridges the gap between experienced players and those new to the Wii console, with fun challenges and beautiful graphics.

Dear Stephen,

We wanted to let you know we will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account, effective September 1, 2008.

Each additional Profile Queue will be unavailable after September 1, 2008. Before then, we recommend you consolidate any of your Profile Queues to your main account Queue or print them out.

While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

If you have any questions, please go to http://www.netflix.com/Help?p_faqid=3962 or call us anytime at 1 (888) 638-3549. We apologize for any inconvenience.

- The Netflix Team

Being one of those customers who uses the profile system to make my NetFlix experience better I cruised on over to their FAQ link to find out why they would want to cause pain to their customers.

We will be eliminating Profiles, the feature that allowed you to set up separate DVD Queues under one account.

When? Profiles will be eliminated on September 1, 2008.

Why? While it may be disappointing to see this feature go away, this change will help us to continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers.

Do I need to do anything? Consider moving all DVD titles in your Profiles Queues to your main account Queue. To do so, log-in and visit this page

How will this impact my account? On September 1, 2008:

• All DVDs currently at home or in transit will be associated with the main account Queue
• All Profiles rental history will be added into the main account rental history
• Your additional Profile Queues will be eliminated. If you would like to keep a copy of each Profile Queue we recommend that you print them out
• Prior to Profiles going away, we will also email you a copy of your Profile Queues
• Profiles movie ratings and Profiles Friends connections will no longer be available
• You will not be able to transfer your Profiles data to a separate new account
• You will be able to set a maturity filter on the main account

Profiles are one of the best things that NetFlix offers to its customers. We use them to allow our daughter to have her own que of one DVD at a time. This teaches her to watch and return at a reasonable pace.

I have friends who have the three-at-a-time plan and have three separate ques; one for movies, one for TV shows and one for anime. Having the multiple profiles allows a member to manage their que more effectively. Without the profiles a member has to always look at what is in the que when they send a DVD back.

Let's just say I have finished watching one of my Battlestar Galactica DVDs and I send it back. If I have the rest of the DVDs in my TV Show que then I know it will ship out shortly after they receive the DVD. If I only have one big que I may get a movie when I ship this back. The only way for me to insure the next BSG DVD shows up is by manually editing the que.

If I can't have multiple profiles I might as well drop down to the one-DVD-at-a-time plan.

This is a very bad move on NetFlix's part. I don't understand how getting rid of profiles could be possibly be seen as a good thing for customers.

The picture does not lie. Nintendo is putting out a special Silver and Black DS Lite Guitar Hero bundle. It will be available June 22, 2008 in North America.

The colors look OK but the included game sucks ass. Did I say that? Yeah, I guess I did.

All the footage and advance information I have seen about this DS game paint it in a very bad light. I predict kids with neck injuries from playing this game. The way you hold the DS, pick and look at the screen just looks uncomfortable. Couple this with the very limited audio capabilities of the DS and you have a recipe for disaster.

REDMOND, Wash., June 12, 2008 - Most musicians dream of one day reaching platinum success. A new Nintendo DS™ bundle lets aspiring axe shredders claim that coveted status right from day one. The new Silver/Black Nintendo DS branded with the Guitar Hero® logo will be available exclusively as part of a limited-time bundle with Guitar Hero®: On Tour. For the first time, this smash-hit franchise is playable on a portable video game system using the revolutionary Guitar Hero™ Guitar Grip™ peripheral and fully tapping into the distinctive abilities of the Nintendo DS hardware.

The DS Lite looks nice but why did they have to brand it with the Guitar Hero On Tour game? Is the game predicted to be so bad that they feel the only way to move it is by attaching a special edition DS Lite? Nintendo, I think this may turn out to be your first mistake in a long time.

Amazon .com Grocery is a lot like shopping at a large warehouse like Costco, except with no crowds, a more diverse selection of products, and no driving. Almost all products are free shipping with an order over $25.00 and you can subscribe for extra savings and automatic delivery.

My first order consisted of a twelve pack of Annie’s Organic Macaroni & Cheese (my daughter’s main diet staple) and a three pack of Equal Exchange Fair Trade organic coffee (3 twelve oz. bags). The mac & cheese cost about $1.88 per box (usually over $2.00 at the supermarket), and the coffee came out to about $6.60 for a ground 12oz bag. The savings were good but not huge, but I got free shipping and no going to the store (awesome!). The not going to the store part is great if you shop with children in tow.

They offer many departments including natural & organic (my personal fave), gluten free, gourmet, personal care, household items, even pet care items.

The food items are all non-perishable, no produce, meats or dairy. They carry milks of all types in aseptic packages.

You could spend hours browsing the assortment of products they carry. I was also able to add in a book that my daughter wanted, all in the same order. Super Saver shipping took about a week by USPS.

I found the shopping experience to be a positive one for a few reasons, choice, savings most of the time (have your calculator handy), and convenience. The savings in gas alone if you live in a rural area is worth it. The free shipping was great too! I will definitely order again.