Hello all,

I am in need of someone who has deep knowledge and GREAT understanding of Superman comic books. A few years ago, we (Stacey and I) were given a box load of different comic stuff from a collector who was leaving the country and could not take things with him. He has not been heard from in over 5 years now.... we are getting rid of a few items.

There are two specific items that I need better understanding of.

1) Kingdom Come Revelations : It's a two book (hardcover) set in a hard slip case. 1996 is the date on it, retail price was $85. Still NEW, never opened.

2) Two Superman Forever soft comic books. One has a hologram on the cover, the other is a plain cover with superman on the front. It is numbered 72/15000 and has 6 signatures on the cover and has a ticket of authenticity. Both of these are NEW in plastic.

I also have 7 Prince Valiant oversized hardcover books... (no clue what the hell it is) and 7 Prince Valiant softcover books. all in near perfect condition.

If anybody out there knows ANYTHING about these things, please PM me.

Well, kinda.

I picked up MLB 10 The Show, MLB 2k10 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 last night! So far, BFBC2 is a ....... BLAST. MLB2k10 is 400% better than last years game, and I have not tried The Show yet.

I'm going back in, wish me luck!

Hello poeples of GameSpot! It has been a long long times since I did a blog about games, it seems that my vacation and the recent weather kind of dominated my thoughts.... and life. But do not worry, I still play games! I will share with you today, the games that I have been spending time with, and the games that are coming out next week that will keep me VERY busy.

First off, I have still been playing a LOT of Tiger Woods 2010. I know I know, with his recent issues many people have been anti-Tiger, but I love golf, and it's a very good game

Also, I still have been spending gross amounts of time With Forza 3. I have not been playing it much online, as it seems the single player is very deep and very challenging at times. Also, Turn10 has done a GREAT job with DLC and FREE gifts to VIP members.

And, of course, I have been playing my share of MW2.

But now, on to the NEW games!

Unless you have been living under a rock, or in a small cave in the NortWest Territories, you should know that Heavy Rain came out this past Tuesday. At first (after playing the demo) I was not really sure, or sold, on this type of game. It's almost like new way of playing a point and click game. But at the same time they did such a AWESOME job of speeding things up when needed, and bring a story to you in such a unique way.... it really has BLOWN MY MIND. In fact, there was one moment, pretty early in the game where I actually yelled "OMFG!" No spoilers from me, but if you are on the fence with this game I can only say, GO GET IT!

Now, next week, I am in BIG TROUBLE! There are THREE, yes THREE games coming out on March 2nd that I have already pre-ordered and will be picking up...... I have plans to take Wed March 3rd off work so I can spend some "quality" time with all three of them

First:

This game just might CONSUME me. I have been a HUGE fan of the BF series, going all the way back to 1943 on the PC. In fact BF 2 on the PC is my GAME OF THE DECADE! Here is a nice little video of some online play.

Now, my BIG problem. For the longest time, the 2k MLB series has been anything but good, or enjoyable. This is why last year, after spending yet ANOTHER $60 on a sub-par game, I swore off 2k baseball forever. My problem is, all my friends that play baseball games only have a 360, so I am stuck. Then, this week the demo for MLB2K10 came out...... and I must say, it looks and feels GREAT! I swear, if I get this game and it SUCKS again, I will...... probably do nothing and buy next years when it comes out, I am weak

And the MACK DADDY OF ALL BASEBALL games comes out on the 2nd also (see my problem?) MLB2k10, MLB 10 The Show and BFBC2 ALL ON THE SAME DAY!

If I can find time for all of this, and WORK................. expect some kind of video review for these games soon!

Hope everything is good with all you out there in GS land!

Ahhh yes, the sun is out, it's about 35 degrees and all is well, for the most part! We survived the mother natures one - two punch and things are getting back to normal. Just to give you an idea on how much snow we got.... the schools have been closed since......... Friday Feb 5th! They were supposed to re-open today, but because another 3-6" were due last night (never got it) they closed them again today. Damn I wish I was still in school!

Any way, here is the grand total of what we got here just north of Baltimore MD. 56" in about 4 days! Yes, that is more than 4.5ft of white CRAP! And if I have to pick up another shovel this winter, it will be used to bash someone in the face.

So I wanted to share a few pics with you, so you could also enjoy a little of what we had just in case you are not near this area. Enjoy... OH, and at the end of the video, you will find a nice short clip of one of Staceys jobs... just figued you might like to see it.

I swear, I will get to a actual game blog soon!

Dude.... WHERE'S MY CAR!

And this is how they had to clear the snow, the blows could not keep up.

And now, the video! **** some of this was filmed around 2am after we had shoveled about 4 times the first night... we were not in a very good mood.

Here is the forecast for today.

I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

If snow could be Biblical......... this is it. 25" on the ground already, and 2"-3" an hour still on the way for the rest of today.

If you don't hear from me tomorrow, send help!

So we are coming up to the end of our trip, I skipped many many of the 900+ pics that I took, along with the 700+ Stacey took just in order to keep it short

So do you remember where this trip started?

Yes, MARYLAND! That is were we live, and in a VERY small bar in Kolbenz Germany we came across this plate! It was during a night out with the ships crew, which I might say, REALLY KNOW HOW TO PARTY.

Oh, one more cool looking castle.

So as we sailed further north on our way into Amsterdam , we finally saw what makes this part of the world famous, a real WINDMILL!

Our ship arrived in Amsterdam at night, we snuck in under cover of a new moon! I took this from the ships deck.

Our first day in the Dam we decided to hit the streets on our own. We left the ship at about 8am, and were greeted by this.....

HOLY HELL! We just can't get away from this guy!

Then, as if that was not enough, we wanted to get some coffee so we visited this place..

Yes, we were looking for COFFEE! I swear.....

Oh, and on our walk we found out that I own a Hostel in town!

Amsterdam is a very different city, built on the water for the most part. One of the best ways to get around is via water taxi on the canals.

We took a small boat like this to our hotel... it was cool, they had a small dock behind the place!

Now, some views of Amsterdam!

This is a average street in Amsterdam. Most people get around via BIKE!

At the main train station, there are so many people that ride bikes, they have a parking garage DEDICATED just for bikes!

This is the main train station.

This is behind our hotel

And while on one of our walks, it started to snow... this does not happen very often in Amsterdam we were told. Here is Stacey and her WTF look!

And this WAS NOT taken after a visit to a Koffee Shop....

When you look at this next picture, you may be asking yourself "are those buildings about to fall over?" The answer might be YES.. but no, not really. Because of the land being so soft here (next to the water) many of the buildings have settled and now lean one way or another.

Did I mention that they like bikes in this city?

Oh no.. what does that Red Light mean?

And WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE!

Salt and Pepper shakers anyone?

OK OK it was not ALL fun and games, we did get some culture while there.....

We also spent about two hours in the Anne Frank House Which is something EVERYBODY should see and learn about.

Finally it was time to go home... It may look like I was happy about it in this pic, but in reality I wanted to stay longer. So did Stacey.

In the end, it was a FANTASTIC trip and I would HIGHLY recommend a visit to Germany, and Amsterdam. If you are from the states, it's like a different world, with TONS of great things to see, and learn about. The people are very friendly, and are open to sitting down and talking/drinking late into the night to learn more about us as well. I can't wait to go back!

Oh, and with this trip, I must retire my first Passport. We had some great times together, visited many, many cool places such as....

Australia

Germany (twice)

Hungary

Slovakia

France (twice)

UK (twice)

Austria

Netherlands

Canada

Mexico

Jamaica (twice)

Bahamas

That's it I think! Thanks for joining me on this trip, hope you had a good time!

I apologize that it's been taking me a while to get all of these posted, but I was out of town for business again last week, and I also have over 900 pictures to go through! So this might be a few week process

But before I continue with our trip, I must ask a favor of you felllow gamers. Stacey, my GF, recently launched a YouTube chan for her company, they are in need of subscribers. If you havea YouTube account, could you please go HERE and subscribe to it. I thank you in advance!

Now, on with the trip!!

So last I left you, we had docked in the small town of Wurzburg Germany. This was an amazing little town, with great food, GREAT bars and some very friendly people. Here is a pic of Stacey, with the Wurzburg castle in the background. Sorry that it is blurry, but it was raining and I think I got water on the lense.

Here I am, don't I look thrilled!

The sun actually did come out! Here is Stacey trying to talk with the Swan. I had to take a picture, just to make sure there was no Fowl play.

OK OK, enough of that damn Swan!

As if being on vacation for Xmas and New Years Eve is not enough, it is also Stacey's birthday on Xmas day! Here she is getting her cake that night on the ship.

Now, back to Germany...

Another shot of the town, all closed up for the holiday.

Here is a cool house. Yes, it's a house. The story behind it is cool. If you look at the right side, you will notice that the house gets wider as it gets higher. This was done by the owner, because when you build in Germany, you pay by the actual footprint of the building, not how much "air space" it takes up. So he built it VERY small on the bottom, and made up for it on top!

Here is a better shot of that castle....

And another castle, but this one was taken at night.

Next you will see just some random shots, all taken from our ship as we sailed north towards Amsterdam.

I kept expecting dragons to come flying out of the fog!

Ok kids, next stop is Cologne Germany, and the AMAZING Fireworks they put on for New Years EVE!

So as many of you already know, Stacey and I recently returned from a 18 day trip to Germany and Amsterdam. Below is the map of where we went. Basically, we flew in to Frankfurt, took a bus to Nuremberg where we got on our river ship that took us 16 days up the Rhine River to Amsterdam. So come on! Follow me!

Because we could get the trip for about $400 less, we decided to fly out of Philadelphia. Not a big deal, Philly is only 90 miles north of Baltimore so it's a easy trip. BUT, the day we were leaving there was a snow storm predicted... because of this we decided to drive up the night before, and stay in a hotel just to make sure we got to the airport on time.

Little did we knwo that when we woke up on the morning of our trip, Philly was about to be hit by their largest EVER recorded snowfall. They ended up getting like 23.5" at the airport, this did not make for a good start for our vacation

This was looking out of the window in the airport.

Then we got the bad news.

Yup, our flight was canceled....... So after sitting in the airport for nearly 8 hrs, we got another hotel and would try again the next day.

Here is the same shot, 24hrs later. Still not great, but the sun was trying to come out... and we finally did leave!

The flight over was non-eventful (which is always good) and we landed in Frankfurt 8.5hrs after we left Philly. But because of all the delayed flights from around the world, we had to sit and wait for another 3 hrs before our bus could leave as we had to wait for fellow travelers.

We got to the ship! The River Explorer, 415' long, like 30' wide, holds 170 passengers and 40 crew memebers.

Our first stop was Nuremberg Germany, this is where we borded the ship, but we got to go into the city to see their famous christmas markets.

At these markets, you could buy anything from authentic german gifts, to bread, meats, cheeses... all sorts of stuff. Here is a pic of stacey, with all the shoppers behind her. The place got PACKED!!

After walking around for a few hours, it was time to go find our favorite sausage house. Yes I said SAUSAGE house. We found this place last year when we did a tour from Nuremberg to Budapest, it's a great little place to get something to eat and drink.

So for now it was back to the ship, to set sail for our first port of call! Bamberg Germany.

Here we are, setteling in for our first night on the river.

The first part of the trip starts out on the Main Danube Canal, this will then connect us to the Rhine River. You can see how cold it was by all the ice in the water. The good news is, I did not see another Titanic happening here

Because the canal and river is used mostly for bringing goods to the interior of Germany, there are many, many locks that you have to pass through. Here we are coming up to one of them. In total, we went through 43. This changed our elevation from start to finish of more than 300ft! for the whole trip.

Here is downtown Bamberg.. not so very big.

And as in most small towns in Germany, they have their outdoor markets.

Cool building, no idea what it was.

Another cool building... most of their stuff still looks like this!

We saw lots and lots of VERY cool old buildings and Churches.

You can see how many of these small old towns are still stuck in midevil times! Streets that are all stone, and can hardly fit cars on them.

Here is a pic of the city wall that still up around Rothenburg Germany. You can still to this day climb the wall and walk around the entire city!

Stacey almot at the top of the wall.

Looking down the walls path.

Still in Rothenburg.

Part of the city wall from the outside.

Our ship, docked in Wurzburg. You will see more pics of this city in my next vacation blog

We have returned from our jaunt through Germany and Amsterdam, man does it feel good to be home! Happy New Year to all!!!!

I will be posting a blog soon with pics and details of the trip, it was FANTASTIC... except for the 1 day delay leaving and coming back due to snow. And let it be said "DAMN THE GERMANS KNOW HOW TO DO NEW YEARS EVE!" This is not intended to offend anybody, but I am pretty sure they were still trying to fight of the allied attack! I have never, EVER seen so many fireworks up in the sky at once.

Well again it's good to be back, hope all is well with everybody and I will try to get to your blogs and fun stuff soon!

Well kiddies,

I just a little less than 48 hrs I will be leaving for a nice little 18 day trip to Germany and Amsterdam! I am very excited and can't wait for wheels up and to be on the way. We will be doing a river cruise similar to one we did last year, except this time it is on the Rhine River, not the Danube. We start in Nuremberg Germany, and end up with three days in Amsterdam. For those of you on my Facebook list, you will be able to track us via pics I will be posting

So that is all, everybody have a GREAT holiday and very Happy New Year! I will post pics here when I return on Jan 6th!

Come, take a stroll with me through my day yesterday………. But first, a little background to set things up.

Last week Monday, we had Comcast come out to the hose to swap out a digital box, for a full HD box. When the tech got there, I brought him to the TV was that was getting the new box, and within about 4 minutes he had done the swap. However, the new HD box would not turn on, and, of course, this was the ONLY HD box he had on the truck.

After a 1.5 hr round trip to the Comcast service center, the tech came back with a new HD box and did the swap…. YES! Everything worked………. So we thought.

We did not realize (until too late) that the OnDemand feature, and a few of the premium movie channels did not work. So this past Saturday we spent a few minutes (more like 35) on the phone with the geniuses over at Comcast while they tried to "PING" the box in hopes of getting it to work properly. No luck, the box just would not work. SOOOOO… we had to set up another appt for them to come out.

Fast forward…..

Tuesday:

Saturday before we hung up, we set a new appt for Tuesday between 10:00am, and 1:00pm. You know, because they can only give you a 4 hr window.

10:00am rolls around… 11:00am passes, 11:45 I leave my home office to go check on the painters downstairs. I come back into my home office at 11:47 (yes, a grand total of 2 minutes had passed) and I noticed that I missed a phone call on my cell (we do not have a landline phone, have not had one for 7 years)

Turns out it had been comcast calling to confirm our appt for 10:00—1:00, (remember it's already 11:45) OH.. one other thing, they called and confirmed this appt THREE times between Saturday night and Monday night.

Any way, I retrieve my voice mail that was left no more than 2 minutes ago, and to my SHOCK.. the voice mail says " Hi, this is (blah blah blah) With Comcast, I was calling to confirm you appt for today, but since you did not answer the phone we will consider you not there, and have canceled your appt. Please call us back to reschedule."

I'm sorry WhAT? This is where the fun starts….

Right away I call them back, but of course sit on hold for almost 15 minutes before I get Einstein on the phone.

ME : Hi, I am calling about an appt I had for today, that I was just told has been canceled because I missed your phone call.

Comcast: Yes sir, I see that at 11:46 we tried to contact you, and because there was no answer, the appt has been canceled, would you like to reschedule that?

ME: Ummm no, I would like for the tech to come out during the time frame I was give for today :10:00 – 1:00.

Comcast: I'm sorry sir, but the tech has already been rescheduled to another customer.

Me: So let me get this straight. You (Comcast) called us THREE times between Saturday and last night to confirm this appt, and because I had to walk away for 2 minutes to check on something my appt is canceled?

Comcast: That is correct.

Me: I called you back within 2 minutes of that voice mail, sat on hold for another 15…

Comcast: Sir, you should have answered your phone.

ME: Oooo k, SO.. if I had to really use the washroom, or was on a business call, I don't get a chance to call you back to say "YES I AM HERE"

Comcast: I see your point, let me see if someone from the tech scheduling dept can give you a call back.

ME: Thank you, I will be waiting for your call.

45 minutes go by…. Time to call back. I will shorten up this conversation for you.

ME: Hi JOE at Comcast… please look up my account, and hand me over to a Manager.

Comcast: Yes sir, I see the notes, and understand you need to speak with a manager.

Me: Thank you

Comcast: Please hold.

25 minutes go by, nobody picks up……

THIRD CALL BACK.

ME.: blah blah blah blah (as I explain the whole thing AGAIN)

Comcast: WOW.. I really feel your pain, and understand.. this really was not fair to you.

ME: Thank you, now, how will we get this done today.

Comcast: well…. I can try my best to use some backdoors to the tech dept, but they will probably just make you reschedule.

Me: Tim…., just so you understand, if I reschedule this appt that Comcast confirmed THREE TIMES, the next guy coming out will be Verizon to hook up FiOS.

Tim: I understand.

The tech was at my door 23 minutes later. AND… the box did not even need to be swapped, just PINGED correctly from their end.

Comcast lives in my house to see another day.

Soon, I will be leaving for a much needed vacation. I will be in Germany and The Netherlands (Amsterdam) for 18 days. My question for you is. If you have been to either Amsterdam or Cologne, what are the MUST DO/SEE things in those cities? We will be visiting other cites in Germnay, but those are very small towns so I know what to look for there.

Ideas?

For those interested, there is a Community Game Night tomorrow (Tuesday) Dec 1st for MW2. You can check out the details HERE

Come join us!

BUT

For those of you that celebrate T-Day, HAVE A GREAT/SAFE ONE! For me, I will be driving 11 hrs tomorrow to be with my mom and sister on Thursday, will be back home Saturday.

That is all, carry on.

Yeah yeah yeah, so it's Friday the 13th today, big deal right? Well, that's what I thought until I brought my car in for what I thought was going to be a standard brake check. $900 later, I get to pick up my car. DOH!, it's a good thing I really trust these guys or I might think something was up.

Thanks to the few that showed up for the Forza 3 Community Gamenight on Tuesday. I am sure there would have been more people, but CODMW2 came out which I am sure 99.8% of people were playing. Speaking of how many people were playing.. CHAAA CHING! Did you see/read/hear how many copies were sold in the first 24hrs? HELLO BANK!!

Oh, got this emblem from Tuesday night.

Red ones go faster.
This person has it all figured out where Forza Motorsport 3 is concerned. It's not about driving fast, it's about driving however you like so long as you look doing it. Awarded to racers who have impressed GameSpot editors with their car designs, regardless of their skills behind the wheel.

Back to MW2. Played it, finished it. 9hrs, 20mins for me. So I have no clue as to how people are saying they finished it in 4hrs. Thought the story was "decent" and the gameplay and enviorments were AMAZING. Well worth the $$ to me, and that is not even talking about the multiplayer aspect.

Went and saw The Fourth Kind last weekend. Can't say everybody will love it, but if you "believe", you may find it disturbing.

Nothing going on with me this weekend, Stacey is working, I will be cleaning the place.... as we prepare to move... at some point.

That is all, be safe, have a GREAT weekend!

Oh, I leave you with this....

Don't be this guy!

So I understand that there is a little known title coming out tonight at midnight called MW2, and that MANY of you will be busy all day & night on Tuesday playing, but if you have Forza 3, and need a break... check out Gamespots Commuity Game Night

A few of us will be tearing up the tracks and layin the rubber down in what might be the best sim racer out. Come out and join us! Then, after an hour to two you can go back to your silly MW2.

Here is one of the cars I will be using..

Hello to all out there in Gamespot land, it's been a little while since we last spoke. I have been very busy with work, and life so I figued I would take a quick moment to catch up with you all.

On the life side of things, the hunt for a new house has started! For those that have been through this before,you know what I mean when I say this can take up every free minute of your time. Just looking at places that are even close to where we currently live seems to take FOR FREAKING EVER. The good news is, I think we have things narrowed down to two places, so this may come to an end soon. Then, we just have to pack, move, fix up the old place and sell it.. or maybe keep it and rent it out, have not decided on that yet.

On the gaming front, wow, where to start. It seems like I have blown through a bunch of games in the past few weeks. Dirt 2, for you racing fans is a FANTASTIC game with awesome graphics and great game play. For you PS3 peeps, you MUST play Uncharted 2. The game keeps on keeping on with a great story, and beautiful enviorments. Gameplay is solid, and there is a new multiplayer aspect that can keep you going after you finish the single player part. Again, this is a MUST PLAY IMO.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising. Hmm, what to say.... this might be one of the first games where I feel it was over hyped to the point where the devs actually flat out LIED to potential buyers of the game. Don't get me wrong, it's not really a bad game, it just did not have things that we were TOLD would be in the game.

Forza 3 : WOW, race fans on the 360, don't wait to jump into this game. It's DEEP with lots of cars and tracks, and more customization then you probably know what to do with! Speaking of this game, make sure you check out the Gamespot COMMUNITY GAME NIGHT for next weeks game night that features Forza 3. More info can be found HERE

More Life stuff.........

As you all know, Halloween was last weekend, man am I glad that it's OVER! I love halloween, but I think I have finally found something that I just might be getting too old for.... loud, crowded bars on halloween night

Here in Baltimore we have a area of the city called Fells Point. Thisplace probably has three bars for every retail store in the area, and on Halloween you can say it gets a little............ crazy. Any way, I had a buddy of mine fly in from Denver for the weekend (for another reason that you will see in a minute) So I figued it was my duty to subject him to the drunken mobs that rule the streets in Fells Point on this night. Man, don't think I will ever do that again.

Why helllllooo there, take me to your TeePee....

And here is my new favorite bartender. She offered to tie me up in her web, but I could not let that happen.

So as mentioned before, a buddy of mine flew in from Denver for the weekend. The reason... the Ravens were playing the (at the time) undefeated Denver Broncos. This pic was taken from our seats...

Turned out to be great game for Baltimore, with a 30-7 win!

Oh, one more pic.. I took this yesterday out of my home office window. I had it all framed up, and would have been a very cool pic of a Blue Jay, but the damn bird could not wait, so this is what I got.

That's about it for now. Hope you are all doing well.... GAME ON!

So the weekend is FINALLY here, thank the baby Jesus for that.

Yesterday, as I was in my 6th hr of a 3.5 hr drive (yeah, do the math) I realized someting, the use of ANY type of police, ambulance, or fire siren should NEVER be allowed in radio commercials.....EVER.

As mentioned before, yes, the weekend is here, and man do I have a lot of gaming on the schedule. I picked up Operation Flashpoint : Dragon Rising last week, I am about half way through it. I wish I could say this game is everything it was cracked up to be, but it's not. It's close, but maybe the worst AI in gaming history really knocks this game down.

Also, I picked up Uncharted 2 yesterday on my way home. Because I was so dead tired after I got home, I only played like the first chapter or two, I don't even remember! LOL, but what I do know is..... this is the way a story should be told. It really is done well, almost movie like. BUT, to those that have played it, was getting out of that train in the begining maybe the most annoying level in gaming history? Not sure why, but holy hell I could not wait for that to be over!

In movie news. I saw Paranormal Activity last weekend, and Zombieland this past Tuesday night. One, I thought was very good, and the other one...... sucked. Can you guess which one sucked? Yup, it shocked me too, but Paranormal Activity was MUCH better than Zombieland. Zombieland is like that GREAT game that comes out, that just falls short on every level. It had soooo much potential.

AND!! Forza 3 comes out next week!!!

Well kiddies, that is all for now. Just remember, have a GREAT weekend and BEER CAN CHICKEN FTW!