When it comes to The Guild, as with most things in life, I'm the proverbial last man to the party.  Despite having been nagged by all my friends over the past few years to check out what this web show had to offer, I just never found the time or had the motivation.  On a whim I decided I'd snag the recently released The Guild: Seasons 1 & 2 and see if I could figure out what all the fuss was about.  Have you ever have one of those moments where you're embarrased you didn't listen to your friends earlier?  The Guild has totally turned into one of those for me.

I'm a gamer, always have been. Problem is for a large number of years that's really just consisted of the video variety. That's a huge mistake on my part, to not enjoy the video game's analog brethren... the board game. There’s actually a vibrant and intense board game world out there that’s been pushed to the sidelines by game players such as ourselves for too long. Recently I’ve been wading back into the board game waters and I've decided to bring the noteworthy stuff to my fellow gamers.

In this semi-regular column I’ll be doing my best to introduce some of the cooler games out there. We’ll also be taking detours into comically terrible games from the past as well.

In Dominion you're trying to increase the size of your Estate by adding villiages, markets and such until it becomes a...wait for it... DOMINION. In actuality you're acquiring victory points (hopefully more than your opponents). I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled about the idea of Dominion. It was sold to me as "It's like Magic: The Gathering except you don't have to buy booster packs." Turns out that definitely sells the game short. While the game does revolve around building a deck of cards over time it's the initial simplicity, the developing depth, and the unique way it provides endless replayability that makes it a game worth playing. Let's take a look at how the whole thing works.

Are you anxiously awaiting The White Album?  Don't hold your breath.  Talking with Harmonix PR rep John Drake at Microsoft's recent X09 press event in Toronto, we asked the question that's been on everyones mind: how long until we see every Beatles album made available via DLC?  Much to our surprise, the answer showed that future Beatles DLC is on shakier ground than one might expect;

"Every time we do one song, it's not like Rock Band where we wait for the masters to come in and just author them... its like, send people to Abbey Road, use the original tape, separate them out... it costs thousands of dollars. We're waiting to see how things sell. We're waiting to see how the albums do. If they sell well, we'll have a lot more content."

It's not like we're pinning our hopes on a shooting star or a Green Party victory -- Beatles DLC selling well is pretty much a no brainer.  All You Need is Love is the fastest selling piece of Rock Band DLC ever.  I find it hard to believe there'd be a steep drop off in sales once the albums are released.  But still, doesn't the fact that there's no firm commitment in place guaranteeing this content seem a little...  hinky?

Come on Harmonix, I named my daughter after a Beatles tune.  Let me sing the damned thing to her!

Being a fresh face in the world of games journalism, I was really excited to go to X09, Microsoft’s annual fall gaming showcase in Toronto.  Once I got there, I couldn't have been more excited to check out two games, both of which are made by Activision:  the musical experience “DJ Hero” and the latest edition of the Tony Hawk franchise “Tony Hawk: RIDE.”  Then I found out there was going to be an open bar at the event, which meant there were three things for me to be excited about.  But that’s neither here nor there.

Just when you thought the RROD-prone XBOX 360 couldn't get any more worthless. Now you can get one with Sarah Palin's signature on it! And the Ebay seller is asking for the totally-not-unreasonable price of $1.1 million.

Now I'm sure you could make the argument that with 1.1 million you could both buy an XBOX 360 and pay for Palin herself to play with you and still have plenty left over to donate to her wardrobe budget campaign fund. But its the show of support from the gaming community that matters the most. 'Sides, I'm always in the market for a used console signed by the political equivalent of a whoopie cushion. Aren't you?

[Geekologie]

A letter from the Editor;

Every month we try and compile the best and brightest news we've reported straight from the frontlines of the gaming warfront, and put it right here in digest form with theBBPS Monthly.  But instead of our usual up-to-the-minute reporting, this September we just pretended like it was 1999 all over again.  The 10th anniversary of the Dreamcast will do that to a fella.

Hit the link to check out every last nugget of awesome we produced to showcase our Dreamcast love this past month.  And don't worry -- if you'd rather not wax nostalgic, all of our usual non-retro highlights are in there as well.  We talk everything from ODST to DJ Hero and back again.

Jim Squires, Editor-in-Chief

Earlier this year, I reviewed the USB-compatible Game Boy flash cart created by chiptuner, BleepBloop.  The cart's USB connection and huge amount of on-board memory made it the best one on the market.  But not even a year later, he's working on an even better model.

Hit the link for the new specs.

Sick of the same old platformer characters?  I've got nothing against Sonic, Mario, and their cohorts, but I just need something fresh once in a while.  And that's what the wonderful world of imports is for.  I decided to check out Go! Go! Ackman 2 for the Super Famicom.  While I was sometimes facepalming with frustration, I had a great time with the game.

Hit the link for the full review.

If you're longing to create and play your own classic LED games, than perhaps you should invest in the Meggy Jr. Billed as an LED Matrix Game Development Kit, the Meggy Jr. is a DIY handheld game that, after assembling and soldering, has a built-in LED shoot'em'up on its circuits.  The standard kit will set you back $75 and includes all the LEDs, boards, buttons, battery holder and all the other components you'll need.  For $20 more, you get the super kit, including all that, plus USB programming cable and bonus resistor.  The source code, coding instructions and programming software are all available for free online.

This looks like a great weekend project for the amateur tinkerer, or those of you with tech-inclined youngins.  All you need is some basic soldering skills and you'll be ready to go.  You can also pick up handle sets and various parts on the website, so you can customize the look of your homebrew game. It's sort of like a retro/modern day Mr. Wizard experiment.

Has anyone ever played around with one of these?  How is it?  It definitely seems interesting, just depends on how big the learning curve is to program your own stuff....and to think of a good idea for an LED game.

[Evil Mad Science]