The Shield Season 7 DVD Set – The last season of my favorite cop drama, and possibly one of my all time favorite television series. If you have yet to give The Shield a shot, you are missing out on something special. The last season especially does not skip a beat, and features a very shocking, yet fitting conclusion.

PSN/Microsoft/WII Points Cards – Previous years have seen many high caliber PSN/XBLA/Wii Ware releases. 2009 is arguably one of the best years in download releases with studs like Shadow Complex, Trine and Final Fantasy IV: The After Years to name a few of many. Additionally, it has been a killer year for game add-on content with Neversoft and Harmonix still strongly supporting their respective music games, and titles like Call of Duty: World at War, Gears of War 2, FallOut 3, Little Big Planet, Killzone 2 and many more being consistently fed new DLC throughout the year to increae the lifespan and replay value of their titles. I do not know about you, but I have at least bought well into the double digits of PSN/MS cards this year alone. If you keep a keen eye to online retailers, you can find many of those going at huge bargains for big savings on that oh-so-easy-to-impulse buy DLC.

I Love You, Man – It was a close battle between this and The Hangover for my favorite comedy this year. But after seeing both a second time several months after the fact, I Love You Man surprisingly holds up better. The jokes still hit home for me, with the highlight being the vomit gag, which is easily one of the best shock laughs in all of film.

Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker – At Wrestlemania XXIV this year, I witnessed hands down, the best wrestling match of all time. This is somewhat strange since it featured none of the over the top gimmicks or stipulations from the wrestling world like ladders, thumbtacks, cages or other props. Strangest of all, this bout was between two wrestlers that many consider are both well past their prime and rapidly approaching retirement. Just like Brett Favre has proven skeptics in Minnesota this year, athletes can be like abottle of fine wine and improve with age as Undertaker and Shawn Michaels put on a five star mat classic for the ages. If you ever watched wrestling at one point in the past then by all means rent/Netflix Wrestlemania XXIV just f this match, I guarantee you will not regret it.

10 Year Anniversary of the Dreamcast – Sega’s dream may be long gone, but at least it was honored and remembered this year with class. Across the web, many videogame press outlets had a ten year anniversary nod towards the Dreamcast, and even a few new indie games were released for it this year. Someday, somewhere, Shenmue III will see the light of day.

Taken – Note to self, do not kidnap Liam Neeson’s daughter.

On last week’s episode of Drunken Gamers Radio, we discussed the upcoming indie game for the Dreamcast, Irides. Well, today we have news about the game, including a solid release date. Here’s the release from our friends over at GOATstore:

Irides: Master of Blocks is an incredible puzzler game where the player has to match blocks of similar colors together to eliminate them, score points and create combos. The faster that the blocks are connected and the more blocks there are, the better the score when they are eliminated! Just like all of the great classic puzzle games, Irides: Master of Blocks is an easy concept, but one that is tough to master!

Irides: Master of Blocks contains over 30 levels of content, challenging players with different Power Blocks to either assist or hamper your progression through the game. Players can also attempt to become the Master of Blocks with a friend in Co-Op mode, progressing through the game with both players playing in the same playfield. A two-to-four player multiplayer mode allows players to face off against friends or foes to see who is the true Master of Blocks! Friends not around to play? Submit scores online to see who the best in the universe at smashing blocks is!

Want something extra special? To celebrate the 12/12 release of Irides: Master of Blocks, the GOAT Store, LLC is creating 122 (144) special limited edition copies of the game which will be sold only through the GOAT Store, LLC’s online web site.

The official release date for Irides: Master of Blocks will be 12/12/09.

To order Irides for Dreamcast, click here

Read on for more information about the game…
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Thanks for joining me in part two of the Top 15 Things You May Have Forgotten About the Dreamcast countdown. Just a reminder, this list is made up of things that may have been glanced over and not paid all that much attention to why the Dreamcast was as awesome as it is remembered. Additionally, some of these items are just some of my own personal favorite memories of the Dreamcast that I presume will be greeted with a few raised eyebrows. If you got a favorite oddball Dreamcast game and feel it needs a shoutout, don’t be shy and comment away at the bottom of this article!

9) Bleem!

Remember Bleem? The company that was advertising that through emulation they were going to be making every PSone game playable on the Dreamcast, with improved graphics and loading times? Bleem boasted they were going to do this by inserting a boot disc into the Dreamcast followed by your desired PSone game of choice. Seemed like an interesting proposition, considering the soon to launch PS2 was going to feature backwards compatibility with the PSone catalog. Unfortunately everything was not meant to be. Besides the obvious legal issues of a third party bringing PSone emulation to the Dreamcast, Bleem ran into many development problems (just how would they get dual shock games to work on the Dreamcast’s one-thumbstick controller?). The end result of what Bleem released was a fraction of what they promised. Three separate Bleem packs were released, with each one operating as a boot disc for one of three PSone games: Tekken 3, Metal Gear Solid, and Gran Turismo 2.

8: Tim Kitzrow Goes Crazy

Ever try to throw your Dreamcast games into a CD player? Sometimes pieces of a game’s soundtrack would play, but usually there was only some form of “Please insert this disc in a Dreamcast” message that would greet your CD player. Midway got a little creative with NFL Blitz 2000, where the track features a two to three minute clip of random commentary from in game announcer Tim Kitzrow. Nothing out of the ordinary until the final moments of the track where Kitzrow starts cursing like a sailor for no apparent reason; the expletives are bleeped out, but one could only imagine the harassment Midway would get from the NFL if the sudden foul-mouthed Kitzrow managed to work these mysterious play calls into the in-game commentary.  

7) VMU Beep

You cannot call yourself a Dreamcast fan if you have no idea what I mean by the VMU beep. It is almost like a right of passage to any Dreamcast owner. The VMUs Sega introduced were unique contraptions, which were a hybrid of a memory card and a mini GameBoy of sorts so you could play mini-games on the go. Too bad not that many games took advantage of the VMU, mostly in part because of the VMUs horrible battery life. Within a couple of months of purchasing a new VMU, the battery would die. Not that it would matter (drained batteries did not delete save files thank goodness!) because I have no recollection of playing any of the few VMU games that came out. Unfortunately, this had a unique side effect when booting up the Dreamcast every time with a drained out VMU battery resulted in a short, excruciating loud beep. After awhile, just like crazy noisy Dreamcast processor, I got use to it, and if I did not hear that ear popping beep, it would be cause for concern to search all over my room to see where I misplaced the damn thing.
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I know I am nearly a month late on this one, but with good reason! It was awesome to see so much love and reminiscing of the Dreamcast’s short, yet mighty run on its 10 year anniversary last month. I too am a mammoth Dreamcast fan when it first launched; I had my first job for a few months when the Dreamcast came out and rushed to the stores to blow my expendable income to make the Dreamcast the first of many platforms I bought on launch.

However, I have seen a lot of identical praise recycled across the many nostalgic Dreamcast anniversary articles I have consumed across the Internet, so let’s try something a little different. Let’s make a list about the Dreamcast, not just any top games or reasons to own a Dreamcast list, this baby’s going to stick out so without further ado I present….

Top 15 Things You May Have Forgotten About the Dreamcast (Part 1)

Why 15 and not the customary 10? That is because I am too damn picky and would clobber myself with a Dreamcast Mouse if I left the extra five off the list. Most of these may not be the immediate reasons that came to mind why you cherished your Dreamcast as much as me, but they were the icing on an already delicious cake that made the Dreamcast the best little system that couldn’t. 

15) The Fishing Controller

When the Dreamcast launched the only game I bought was The House of the Dead 2. I ravaged across all the stores in town disappointed not to find a light gun for sale on launch (and none would be for another two to three months), but you know what accessory was for sale right off the bat? The Sega Fishing Controller! That’s right, this is the only console to come out with a controller designed for the ultimate gamesmen sport, fishing! It does not matter there were only four fishing games on the Dreamcast, Sega had you covered! Or if you had a lot of times on your had, you could come up with other fascinating ways of using the Fishing Controller, such as Wii-esque motion controlled fighting for Soul Calibur like this fellow demonstrates.
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