I went out and plunked down my forty quarters for Iron Man, this past weekend, which was collecting rave reviews faster than doughnuts at a weight loss seminar. What I saw, was a shallow video game storyline that was totally bland and uninteresting. The film should have been about collateral damage and Tony Stark coming to grips with the fact that his inventions maim and kill people. This film could have even gotten into the fact that there are people out there who rightly hate Americans because we sell weapons like cheeseburgers and are complacent to the fact that those weapons are out there killing innocent people. The film started going in this direction for about twenty minutes, but instead Mr. Stark built a shiny suit that was supposed to distract the audience with its shiny shininess and make them forget the plot had gone AWOL. In lieu of anything that would be memorable, the film went on a tangent building to a boss battle which belonged only in the subsequent video game release. I'll admit that Robert Downy Junior was genuinely funny at times, but this film could have been so much more, sigh. This week I also played the Iron Man, videogames, plural, for X360, PS3, and PS2, in which you basically fly around shooting at imperceptible ants, while being raped by missiles, and forced to fly the same map multiple times. The developers felt if they re-skinned the map with Ice or Dirt you wouldn't notice it was the exact same level. Overall, I expect a lot more from my Comic book turned films. As a matter of fact, I think the last Hulk film with Eric Bana, the one everybody is trying to forget was ever made, was one of the best examples of how to actually get into the mind of a conflicted super hero. Let's hope the sequel gets it this time. I'm cringing at the Incredible Hulk trailers because I'm afraid they fell into the same videogame boss battle storyline hole that Iron Man fell into. I don't like my villians in black and white and judging by the ratings of shows like The Sopranos, most people feel the same way. We are long past the days of G.I. Joe, give me some creme in that coffee.

So my girlfriend and I are coming up on our one year anniversary. No, I'm not coding a marriage proposal into bejeweled, that takes way too much effort and my girlfriend doesn't play videogames, and we're not quite there yet. But we are celebrating our anniversary and the idea of gifts came to mind. My family forwent surprises a long time ago for the much more effective, "what do you want for your/our
__choose a noun__," strategy. So when my girlfriend asked me what I wanted for our one year, stones, rocks, rings, nope, I jokingly replied, "how about an X360."

Apparently she took this suggestion to heart, so now I'm giving a romantic getaway and a "relationship," ring in the form of a claddagh. I am receiving a "relationship" Xbox 360. Being a gamer I think this is the most damn romantic thing I've ever heard, especially because she knows it means I'll spend a little, and I stress little, less time with her because of it. Now of course our families had some opinions, mainly leaning on the, "that's not very romantic" side. So sue me, she can draw a heart on it. I'm wondering if other gamers out there have successfully mixed love and gaming. Hey there's always banking on multiplayer.

The economy isn't the best it's been in awhile, so what? Gamers always play games, especially in recessions. But maybe you're down to choosing between filling the SUV, your kid's college funds, or your upcoming games queue. Maybe you're thinking your kid can pay for their own education, or that you can start biking to work. Worthy sacrifices for a $60 copy of Force Unleashed and a $90 copy of Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition. To this I say, bad gamer, bad, be more creative!

Here are three games we've given ratings of 8 and above, games you can afford because they are free at GameTap. Dust off that 3GHz Alienware PC you've been using for Facebook, then go download Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC), Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (PC), Psychonauts (PC), all freaking brilliant games of yesteryear. Since PC's are always a step ahead of consoles, you won't find the graphics dated and you might feel some nostalgia as you experience the influences for games like Assassin's creed. I had forgotten that Rainbow Six Vegas modified door looking mechanics from Hitman.

I was able to get good performance from each of these games on an office PC, not built for gaming, with onboard graphics, ie, no dedicated graphics card. Gameplay wasn't perfect but for the cost of free, it was damn good. Each download was around a gig to a gig and a half, chump change on modern 500gig hard drives.

Adamant about using your console? Try subscription based services such as GameFly, the NetFlix of games. This will run you around $16 a month for one game at a time. For $60 a game, let me get my abacus, if you beat a game every month or two you come out way ahead. Follow these tips and you could ride out the recession as a gamer, hey, maybe your kids can go to college after all.

The Wii has arguably done more to broaden the market for casual gamers than any other console in the past twenty years. With that market also comes a casual understanding of technology. Just because you can throw down a mean game of WII Sports doesn't mean you can set up and configure a wireless router. A host of other factors can further complicate wireless gameplay, your TV and computer being out of range for example. In the GameSpot office I have noticed the ease with which one can bump into and break off Nintendo's Wi-Fi USB connector. Enter casual internet for the casual gamer, the Net Connect USB Network Adaptor. This is available in some stores or online for around $19. Plug one end into an Ethernet cable, the other USB end into the WII. I was battling online with Super Smash Bros Brawl in a couple of minutes as opposed to the half hour of head scratching it took me to locate, download software for, and set up the Wi-Fi USB. No worries about Firewall/Antivirus/Antispyware/Adware complications that can arise with wireless and can be seen on Nintendo's wireless troubleshooting pages. Plug and play, we tested it, your grandma could do it.

I spent about an hour and a half this week with Viking: Battle for Asgard and let me just say, this is what Beowulf should have been but wasn't. There are no giant crustaceans to fight, just gruesome baddies. Viking is bloody and visceral from the opening cutscene onward. What Viking does best is flush out an intriguing Norse world full of gods, ruins, and dragons. The main village is full of rough and tumble characters pursuing their own interests, the sea rolls violently along the shores, and dead corpses litter the land from recent battles. Wandering around the world gives you the distinct impression that big things happened long before you arrived. A good example of this, is a castle ruin your men occupy that you get to platform on for gold and mead. To make traveling easier the game also includes Leystones that let you teleport between areas you've already liberated. You have to do a little button mashing to get through them which again, keeps the game mechanics in the tone of the world.

The main focus of the combat in Viking is hacking and slashing. Fighting felt God of War esque, but in its own flavor unlike copycats such as Heavenly Sword. The main hero can learn new skills at a battle arena directly linked to Azguard, the Norse version of the Elysian Fields. What's great about this is that the training stays in the context of the game rather than pull you out of it. These skills immediately come in handy such as a jumping slash required to break through higher level enemy shields, I know, God of War, trust me this feels very different. The main hero also quickly acquires some magical area effect spells in the form of sword runes, that freeze, burn, or electrocute enemies.

By the time I had to walk away from this game, I had just made it into the first large battle. I had a little bit of trouble keeping track of where my character was in the fray, but nonetheless had a great time tearing through gaggles of enemy troops. It's too bad I didn't get a chance to get into the Dragon mechanic but I'm itching to get further into the game to try it out. There were some small issues with what I could and couldn't jump over. Sometimes a rock would stop me but the main character wouldn't hesitate to throw himself off a cliff or high bridge to his death. Also the main character can drown faster than any mammal on the planet. Overall I really enjoyed the short time I had with Viking: Battle for Asgard and became totally engrossed in the world.

At first glance the Novint Falcon looks like the portal gun from Half Life. I immediately pictured bliss filled days on the living room couch only to reach an arm through my wall and into the fridge for a refreshing beverage or sandwich. But that's not what the Falcon actually does. The Falcon is riding the tip of the consumer spear in the field of Haptics, commonly knows as force feedback.

The proof of concept demo that came with the device let me feel textures ranging from molasses to sand paper. One of the more exciting demo screens gave me trigger time with a slingshot. The scary thing was, having dispatched many an innocent soda can in my youth, it felt so real it was scary. The rubber band gave a sense of escalating tension as I pulled it back and that satisfying thunk at release sending a digital globe downrange. The demo felt a hundred times more exciting and innovative than a Wii controller. The Wii is safe for now with the Falcon price tag hovering at $189, but watch out when these things go mass market.

I can see a huge range of uses for the Falcon, puzzle games where you can feel the pieces, animal games, hell dinosaur raising games, where you can pet and feed your creature, surgery games, driving games where you can feel the g forces, and best of all games like Zelda where you can actually fire your slingshot. I can see first person shooters where you can feel the weight and heft of your gun and the performance will behave sluggish or quick depending on the same factors. All I can say is drool.

Finally there are tons of applications beyond games. I won't get too deep into it but popular mechanics has an article on UGV's (unmanned ground vehicles see Frontlines: Fuel of War) which described the newest military killer robot MULE, as being controlled by an X360 controller and believe you me, the military is working on Haptics. Other military and civilian applications are remote surgery sweets; stick someone in and a doctor on the other side of the planet can operate.

The other great thing about the Falcon is that it is actually pretty hefty. The device feels solid and if you try and force it too hard the curved actuators just slide to one side or another. The only downside I can see is that the ball shaped controller is a little awkward to grasp, but nothing an ergonomics professional can't fix. My money is defiantly on this device. Of course my money was also on VR ten years ago, but I swear it will come back with a vengeance someday, sigh. Lets hope the Novint Falcon is right on time.