New console games: just not worth the hype

The person who penned the old saying "Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me" apparently never heard of Nintendo.

Maybe that's why the old saying has been rewritten by the White House to being "Fool me once shame.... shame on... you.... but a fool cannot be fooled again!" That's certainly the game plan of Nintendo and Sony and Microsoft in selling their overpriced, over-hyped toys. They know that there is a certain breed of fool CAN be fooled again, and it happens every single time these companies crank out their holiday hype. Those fools are commonly referred to as "parents".

You know, when Microsoft came out with the original Xbox and Sony cranked out their PS2, people were talking about how blowing $300 for a game console was maybe too much for people. Riiight... these are the same people who would pay $5000 for a Tickle-Me-Elmo doll on eBay just because they couldn't buy it at the store.

So now Sony and Nintendo are cranking out their new toys for $600, and people are lining up like drug addicts to get them.

Listen folks, take it from me: any parent who thinks that it's important to go broke to get their kid one of these overpriced and obscenely over-hyped game consoles for the holidays needs a smack upside their empty heads!

These ARE pretty good gaming consoles. But the kind of toys that they're promoting are things that are ALREADY on the market in other forms. BluRay DVD? Already out. And what's so special about it anyway? WiFi access? If you have a laptop, then odds are you have WiFi. It's called a wireless network card.

Listen, all you're really doing is feeding the selfish nature of your children when you buy into this hype. I'm sure the graphics and sound are phenomenal, but you shouldn't go broke looking for these things. If your kids don't have a game console at all, look a little further up the isle and grab a PS2 instead of a PS3. You'll save about $300 and your kids will have a larger number of games to pick and choose from. You buy the new console now and you're going to have to wait for the really good stuff to come out!

Trust me, I've been mashing buttons and destroying controllers since the days of PacMan and the original Atari game system. They're great distractions, but they're not worth pulling all-nighters for or risking your lives over.

The hidden warnings

Some safety committee called the "Joy of Tech" came up with these, but the memo to include them with your computer got lost.