Sure, books will always be the main attraction on Amazon’s eReader, but Word Soup is good for a change of pace experience with Kindle. The game is well designed to take advantage of Kindle’s 16-level grayscale display, so that the game looks sharp on the platform.

The concept of the game is sort of a reverse Scrabble idea; you start out with a large grid of letters and from adjoining letters you form words. The longer the words, the higher each word scores. The object is to completely clear the board of all letters, which is quite difficult, but for which you earn a significant bonus to your score.

The game plays in relaxed or timed mode, depending on the kind of challenge one is looking for. Sure, it can’t help you buy nurses uniforms, but both of those words would score fairly well in the game.

In all, it’s a great example of targeting the right sort of game to the right sort of platform; Word Soup is a game readers will find appealing and endlessly challenging.

Until recently, even though I have an iPod, I still had a huge boom-box radio/CD/tape player in my bedroom. It’s large and bulky and aside from being an alarm clock, I rarely use it anymore.

Finally, today, my wife and I agreed to reluctantly replace it. I bought an iHome AM/FM/iPod dock radio with three alarm settings, auto-time-sync, it charges our iPods and it has great sound.

It’s also a slightly dated model that iHome was closing out on, so Best Buy had a clearance special and I was able to get it for about half off! Originally a $150 deck, I picked it up for $74.99 plus tax. That’s nice savings!

Plus, unlike docks that retail normally at $75 or so, this model sounds WAY better; I got $150-level sound without spending nearly that much. I really think I’ll enjoy it. Best of all, it has a battery back-up so if we lose power, I’ll still wake up on time! Yay!

Whether it’s Digital Devil Saga, Nocturne, Devil Summoner or the Persona series, few RPG franchises were as prolific as Shin Megami Tensei in the past decade. The interesting thing is what sets them apart; they’re hard to beat, darker in tone and definitely M-rated. That bucks the trend of most RPG developers, which is to dumb down RPGs to gain mass appeal.

Also interesting is how varied and different each series in the SMT franchise is; few people will mistake Digital Devil Saga for Persona, or Persona for Nocturne, for example. That kind of variety is hard to find, even in as prolific a franchise as Final Fantasy.

Sure, some of the games are a bit on the esoteric side and, as a result, as appealing as searching Orange NJ invisalign users for matching dental records, but hey, quirkiness is good when too many RPGs are “me too” in approach.

I’ve started playing Fallout 3 over from the beginning, and Silent Hill: Homecoming, the only true PS3 iteration of the franchise, looks far more creepy and atmospheric than before. Over on the Xbox 360 side, Fable 2 doesn’t seem to benefit that much, but most of the SquareSoft RPGs certainly do.

From the details in background landscape to the wood-grain rendering in lambo doors, there’s simply nothing that doesn’t look a lot better in 1080p than it did on 480i. Yahoo!

The title is definitely a showcase for the PS3’s HD skills; the game is sharply detailed and rendered, and the boss characters you face off with fill the screen not only with mass, but lovely details that make PS2’s Shadow of the Colossus seem like a children’s coloring book (even though that was a great title).

The level design is impressive in its size and scale, with plenty of room to explore without running into frequent loading delays. The visual effects on display are spectacular and the best aspect of the game is that the action is quick and fluid; especially on HD displays.

In fact, a game like this is certainly a motivator to finally pop for at least a 720p set to play it on, if not a True 1080p HD system, simply because standard definition displays just don’t have nearly as much room to contain all the eye-candy on display in this title.

One thing I enjoyed as a gamer who is not typically a fan of shooters is how intuitive the game system is; there’s never a feeling that one is lacking the depth of a more involved RPG, yet the system for changing weapons, reloading and such never bogs down the action.

Another element I appreciated is that the title has some odd things happen – such as creatures that appear and attack, but don’t stick around to finish you off, necessarily, but who pop back up later to offer a more critical challenge. While it might be overstating things a bit to compare Resistance 2 to the really fun movie Cloverfield, it would seem that the developers were singing from the same hymnal, at least, as the makers of that movie.

If all-out action with a solid story and solid shooter action are what you’re itching for, Resistance 2 delivers it in spades, and ought to be sufficient to keep PS3 fans from feeling like they are missing out on games like Halo 3 or Halo Wars, if they don’t own a 360. Resistance 2 is an instant classic on its own merits.

For its time, the game was a PSone classic. Released in a summer crowded with RPGs, the second Star Ocean stood out because of its unique approach to capturing the feel of pen-and-paper RPGs on a home console game; for example, it was one of the early RPGs to ever make use of non-combat skills. Although such skills were part and parcel of pen-and-paper RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, or Shadowrun, Star Ocean: Second Story was among the first to attempt to simulate such a system and make it an essential part of the game world.

By doing this, Enix made sure the action-style RPG appealed to fans of turn-based RPGs, because despite the battle system, there was still a deep feeling of control and development of one’s character maintained throughout the game. Of course, the early implantation of this non-combat skill system was awkward; in the original game, if you tried to use your cooking skills to make a hearty beef stew, you were more likely to whip up a weak miso soup that had as much chance of poisoning you as it did restoring hit points.

In the remake for PSP, Star Ocean: Second Evolution, the weaknesses of the system have been patched up to make using them less frustrating; while you won’t be successful every time you use a non-weapon skill, you won’t fail nearly as often.

Another element that’s been polished up is the story, which is essentially the same, but offers up a lot more by way of spoken dialog and cut-scenes than did the original. The difference is like reading the Reader’s Digest version of the story, then reading the full novel; there’s just more depth and detail this time out.

From a gameplay standpoint, SO:SE plays essentially the same as Star Ocean: First Departure, which is understandable since SquareEnix borrowed much of the game engine for that remake from SO:SE. That’s essentially a good thing, though.

In SO:SE, you can play through either as female hero Rena or male hero Claude, and though their stories vary a bit, they dovetail quite nicely. One change in tone for the series is that although it is still a multi-world, science fiction epic, you don’t leave the initial homeworld quite so quickly as in First Departure, and the hokey, hackneyed Star Trek ripoff feel of the first title disappears here for a tone that’s a bit more original – though perhaps by a few inches rather than a mile.

Still, in the end, Star Ocean: Second Evolution is a very good, deep and sufficiently lengthy RPG to give your PSP a solid workout by the time you finish it; it’s a welcome addition to the PSP library and certainly appeals to any RPG enthusiast. While not quite as eye-popping as Jeanne d’Arc or as wonderfully comic and inventive as Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, Star Ocean: Second Evolution certainly deserves a prominent place in any PSP owner’s game library.

In the run-up to the first new Star Ocean since 2005, SquareEnix is releasing the first two Star Oceans on PlayStation Portable Slim (PSP Slim), and Star Ocean: First Departure is the first of these two PSP remakes. It marks the first time the first Star Ocean has ever appeared on North American shores, outside of import shops.

While the game definitely possesses a retro feel, the story is engaging and the various systems from battle to skills to item creation possess enough depth to keep most gamers happy and playing through the entire length of the journey. Although mildly updated, the game’s graphics do not stray too much from their SNES roots. The characters are sprite-based, though more detailed than in the original; and the battles are real-time affairs that will keep action RPG fans mildly satisfied, despite the overall retro feel even of the battle system.

The story centers on Roddick Farrence, a boy determined to save his village from a petrification problem when, in a very Star Trek-style moment, he meets visitors from another planet who tell him the only hope for his world won’t be found on his own. In the update, SquareEnix’s team used Star Ocean: Second Story’s game engine to bring the game’s systems up-to-speed with the rest of the series. That includes an item creation system that allows you to manufacture just about anything with the right ingredients and a recipe, even tire chains. Also, the game was given a fresh, American voice cast and offers up hours and hours of voice acting that were never present – for technological reasons – when it was first released on the SNES.

In the end, Star Ocean: First Departure is not ground-breaking or innovative, but it is an essential key to the origins of the series, and the first appearance of the title on US shores makes it noteworthy in and of itself. Fans of the series will see it as a must-have; it also provides a fine jumping-on point for those who played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time on PS2, or are looking forward to Star Ocean: The Last Hope on Xbox 360, and are wondering about the origins of the series.

The plot of the film revolves around the arrest of a group of small time anhydrous ammonia thieves that just happens to include the brother of a powerful Mexican drug lord and whose intelligence in said pursuit resembles fig trees. Keith, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film with Blue Collar Comedy Tour comic Rodney Carrington, stars with Carrington as the arresting officers of the drug lord’s brother.

The twist comes when Keith’s girlfriend, played ably by Claire Forlani, is kidnapped by said Mexican drug lord and a swap – brother for girlfriend – is demanded. The film has a decent and deep cast, including Ted Nugent, Tom Skerritt, Willie Nelson and Mac Davis.

There are light comedy moments and action film intensity that call to mind Witless Protection, the product of another Blue Collar Comedy Tour member, Larry the Cable Guy. What grounds the movie, however, is Keith’s rumbley bass voice and commanding screen presence. He comes off convincingly in his role, which holds the rest of the film together.

Rock legend and conservative talk radio standby Ted Nugent is effective in a comic non-speaking role as Skunk Taylor, a lawman who eschews guns and uses instead a bow and arrow to take down his opponents. Of course, that means a genuine hunter’s compound bow, not some Robin Hood lightweight stick-and-twine.

The plot is nothing original, but as a popcorn movie it keeps a person interested from beginning to end, despite some over-the-top antics by Carrington. The biggest strike against the movie is that there are no positive Mexican roles in the film and by casting all Mexican parts as bad guy roles, the film can come off with a negative racial bias, especially with some of the anti-Mexican comments tossed into the movie by Keith and Carrington.

This problem could have been solved easily by tossing a Mexican FBI agent, eager to help take down the drug lord with Keith and Carrington, into the mix, but that choice was not made in this case. The film suffers for this oversight, limiting its potential appeal.

Although Laurie is best-known in the US for his role on House, in Great Britain he would have struggled to get cast in a similar drama due to an early career as an extremely silly comic actor, whose roles ranged from supporting bits on Rowan Atkinson’s Black Adder series, all the way to a sketch comedy show with Stephen Fry, known as “A Bit of Fry and Laurie.”

His transition to drama, however, has been nearly seamless. Using his British wit to make Dr. House seem cruel and dispassionate, Laurie has made the role uniquely his own and garnered quite a bit of acclaim in the process of playing a curmudgeon. He has worked hard behind the scenes against any efforts to soften his character up, preferring to play House in the bitter, asinine mode that the role was originally conceived in.

Season four, like all shows last season, was shortened by the writer’s strike (and perhaps some troubles with light fixtures), cut off at a mere sixteen episodes. Yet despite losing six episodes from their typical twenty-two episode season, it turned into one of the series’ most memorable.

Unlike most shows, who stay with the same core cast members throughout its entire run to the maximum extent possible despite taking place in a supposed “teaching” environment (how old were the sweathogs on Welcome Back, Kotter again?) House last season struck out in a bold direction by graduating its three main residents under Dr. House’s tutelage and forcing House into selecting a new group of understudies.

Of course, House maximizes the cruelty of the selection process, as well as our entertainment value, but putting the prospective interns through a reality-show style series of challenges. As the numbers dwindle over the course of the first ten episodes or so, the stars who possess the best chemistry with Laurie on screen eventually emerge, leading to the casting of Kal Penn, Peter Jacobson and Olivia Wilde as the newest recruits.

Of course, the original cast members were kept on, but their episode appearances have been cut back, beginning with this season and continuing into the current season five airing on Fox right now. This changing of the guard was a risk for a hit show, but was pulled off craftily enough to inject a sense of freshness into the drama, rather than making it feel like the show was gutted.

And the casting call stunt led to story possibilities even for some who didn’t make the final cut, setting up – in a strike-shortened year, mind you –the most affecting season finales of the show’s four-year run. All sixteen episodes, of course, are here in the collection, as over a half-dozen special feature documentaries and a commentary track on the season’s penultimate episode, House’s Head.

In all, any fan of the series will find this collection a must-have and it may be a season that helps hook new fans into the show, since the new cast of residents provide three new touchstones within the show.

With a $28 million budget and gross receipts over $100 million worldwide, Snyder had a much larger palette to paint with, compared to Romero, who made his version in 1978 with a budget of $650,000 and yet went on to gross $55 million worldwide … at 1978 ticket prices. Despite the much larger budget and a cast featuring stars like Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames, it’s hard to say Snyder did a more effective job than Romero on about 1/50th of the budget.

Dawn of the Dead is set primarily in an American shopping mall, where a group of non-zombified survivors attempt to hold zombie hordes at bay, hoping that by dawn, help will arrive. In the intervening action, many fall and transform to zombies, many brains are eaten (resulting in a memory upgrade for the undead), and much blood and gore is displayed all ‘round.

In the bleak original, the help never came and in that sense, Snyder’s ending places a new twist on the film, seeming to offer a sense of hope, only to snatch it away in the closing seconds of the film. The gutsiness of taking on an intimidating project like this has defined Synder’s directing career, the most recent example of which – with the impending release of The Watchmen, the long-desired film version of the classic Alan Moore comic book – is due to be released in March 2009.

The Blu-Ray offers stark detail to ever scene, and there are plenty of extra features to satisfy the morbidly curious. The best feature is the commentary track, lifted directly from the four-disc DVD Ultimate Edition release, which included Romero talking with Snyder about the film. While the track is, by now, a bit dated, since Romero was still at the time trying to find financing for his fourth Dead film, it is nevertheless the jewel of the assemblage of special features.

Also nice is a home movie on the making of the film, made by a zombie extra; a tour of the Crossroads Mall, and several other mini-documentary features. With a decent, if not quite “better,” remake of the original film, the only major complaints here is the absence of the Romero original movie and several really nice special features that didn’t make it over from the four-disc Ultimate Edition DVD.

In fact, I know of a couple EB managers who are still going through drug rehab stemming from last year’s holiday rush, but that’s beside the point; as consumers, this is one of our top months, so we must spend our dollars more wisely than ever, so as not to get caught with a stink-bomb game. Here’s our list of the best Xbox 360 games for October 2008:

Dead Space

Available October 14, this is one of EA’s rare entrances into the popular survival horror genre. You’re a communications tech trying to repair the damage done to ship’s communication on a mining vessel in space, cut off from all sources of help, when you discover most of your fellow crew have been massacred by an alien entity that now has you in its sights. Looks to be can’t-miss stuff.

Rock Band 2

Available October 19, this sequel to last year’s genre-growing title guarantees your investment by being completely backward compatible with all original Rock Band songs: instant music library! And because we’re recommending RB2… no, Guitar Hero World Tour does NOT make our list for the 360.

Fable 2

Several years in the making, Fable 2 is the game many people bought their Xbox 360 to play. Well, it’s finally here October 21 and looks like it’ll live up to all the hype. Nuff said? You bet.

Fallout 3

Available October 28, the folks who brought you the first great RPG of the 360 era are back and pushing the envelope again! Bethesda’s Fallout 3 is among the most anticipated RPGs of the year, and a great way to round out a very very strong month for the Xbox 360.

In fact, it’s completely empty, and considering there are over 50 titles releasing next month for Nintendo DS, that’s saying something. Sure, there’s a couple titles by SquareEnix, but they’re not RPGs and SquareEnix never does well at non-RPGs.

And then there’s one RPG, but it’s by Disney Interactive and is a sequel to boot. It just doesn’t capture my interest; sorry. And then there’s a Fantasy Harvest Moon title, but it’s a sequel that doesn’t look to bring much new to the table.

So let it be said this way: there are well over 50 DS titles coming next month, but not one of them are anything I’d spend my money on, so I’m not going to suggest anyone else does, either.