The Orange Box

You might be wondering why we chose to highlight video games again so soon after having done so a few months back. The answer is sort of summarized in "The Orange Box" from Valve/Electronic Arts. This holiday season there are FAR too many games coming out. Most have already hit the shelves but gamers out there are going to need several holiday breaks to get in all the gameplay necessary to enjoy them all. The Orange Box is simply a box (that is orange, of course) that contains Halo 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal. One mythic shooter, one online team-based cartoony shoot-out that this writer enjoys far too much, and the long-awaited 3-D puzzle game that's hard to describe called Portal. Whether you're an action fan, an online frag-freak, or of the intellectual persuasion, chances are this box may be swallowing up a lot of your time this year.

Super Mario Galaxy

Oh my. It's Mario! Again. With his Princess always getting captured, you'd think he'd finally learn to keep his address unlisted. This time around Mario does his thing in 3-D with the magic of the Nintendo Wii. The game is exactly what Wii users have been waiting for...a game that brings us back to our roots while legitimately being enhanced by the gimmick behind Nintendo's latest system. As a side note, the soundtrack features a FULLY ORCHESTRATED version of the classic Mario theme. That, I have to admit, is both surreal and impressive in its own right.

Halo 3

Unless you've been living under a rock, chances are you've drunk the soda, worn the T-shirt, seen the commercial, and used the toilet paper or whatever product that has been used to promote this monster of video game sequel in your part of the world. Sequels are what this season is all about. With all the new systems having hit the shelves last year, here we are with prime video game real estate bearing down on us. Halo 3 is no different. It's the same as what we knew before. Only shinier. If you're a fan, don't miss it. Don't pay attention to the hype...just play.

Most likely you've seen an episode of the show "Heroes". If you're like us, you couldn't stop watching. That is, of course, assuming you watched Season One and not, what's still playing on the television right now, Season Two. Season numero Duo isn't necessarily bad...but it's been sabotaged by the writers' strike. When a television show with an epic plot has to end 13 episodes earlier, the story has to suffer. And that's why we've made the Heroes: Season One DVD Boxed set our featured product of the month. It's currently on Amazon and is one of the best things we've seen on television for a long time. It's also something we're rewatching so that when Season 3 comes out (and the strike is most likely over) we'll have that childlike enthusiasm we had before. Take a peek at what started the whole thing and why, even with a failed 2nd season, the show will be coming back with a vengeance.