I hope everyone is enjoying their Halloween. Surely someone will come up with some clever holiday post later, but some craziness went down in the gaming industry this week and I just wanted to mention it to anyone who missed it.

Mercenaries 2 came out a little while ago. While the game seemed like it would be great, the demo left me fairly underwhelmed, so I passed on it. I’ll have to remedy that soon, since Sarah Palin and Barrack Obama have been announced as new downloadable player characters next week. Awesome. Just awesome. Who doesn’t want to see Palin jack a helicopter, or the O-bomb drop an A-bomb? That last joke may have been in poor taste.

This DLC is coming out because of next week’s presidential election, but Mercenaries 2 isn’t the only game to capitalize on that. On November 4, Rock Band 2 players will be able to download the 20 free DLC tracks, plus there’s a rumor going around that there will be a Presidents of the USA track pack. That’s still just a rumor though.

Speaking of Rock Band 2, Harmonix, the developers, have been tasked with creating a Beatles game. Yes, The Beatles. That’s huge. But what’s interesting is that this game does not have “Rock Band” in the title, since they want this game to be a real, career-spanning Beatles experience. That’s all well and good as long as they let us download the tracks to our system and play them in RB2.

Oh, and the Mirror’s Edge demo is out now. I haven’t played it yet, but I’m sure it’s fun.

That’s all I got, happy Halloween!

Once again, a base has been stolen in the World Series. And while the game might have been rained out, our friends at Taco Bell are not discouraged. Which means America gets free tacos, the most American of all food.

That’s right, stop by any Taco Bell between 2 and 6 this afternoon and you’ll get a free crunchy taco. If that’s all you get, well, good on ya.

It’s true, it’s these little things in life that we really treasure.

Whenever October rolls around there is always a different atmosphere in the air. The leaves are falling, it is starting to cool down and the football is in full force-but before the national pastime is put to hibernation, a champion must be crowned.

Like the Dane Cook has said in the past, there is only one October. Four teams from two leagues come together to resolve the last six months of grueling play, but as different as the national media will lead you to believe this baseball is, it is still the same game. Same rules, same players, same game.

It seems like as soon as the calendar flips to October, baseball changes completely. Television analysts throw out all of the common sense that they have learned and start using a completely different set of guidelines on how to break down what is happening in front of them.

For starters, take statistics. The regular season statistics are not shown in post-season broadcasts. Instead of just using the numbers from the regular season, which represent an accurate description of what kind of player they presently are, they give all the players a clean slate. So if Player A is 1-for-11 in post season play and Player B is 7-for-8, the former is going to be recognized as a bad player, while the latter will be praised for a heroic October performance. This sample size is absolutely ludicrous, and if it was used in a regular season context, it would have zero credibility.

Something that the national media loves to talk about is experience-but does experience really matter? What about the 1968 Mets? The 1997 Marlins? Even the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays are four wins away from going worst to first. The list of teams with very little experience, but still able to perform in October goes on.

Teams that do well in the post-season do it for one reason. They do not care what month it is. They do no let pressure get to them. They realize that this is the same game they have been playing since they were little kids and these games are no different than the ones that they played in April. Good teams play good baseball no matter what the situation.

Why do people like Jayson Stark pick teams like the Angels to win the World Series over the American League East Rays or Redsox? If only baseball writers could look a little closer. The Angels played 46 percent of their regular season against three of the worst teams in baseball that call the American League West home. Texas had the next best record in the division at 79-83, four games under .500. That is pretty pathetic considering the Rays and Redsox played all year against the AL East who only had one team under .500. As for the National League not one of ESPN’s eighteen baseball experts picked the Philidelphia Phillies to go to the World Series.

A lot of writers choose predictions based on nothing but childish nostalgia and what would make their stories easier to write. Just because the Cubs have not won in a hundred years, does not mean that they are going to win, no matter how round that number sounds. Just because it would be great to write about Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre heading back to Fenway for the World Series, does not mean that it is going to happen. Predictions should be based on in-depth analysis of teams, not off of silly storylines.

So while the post-season is great, the coverage is not always the greatest. Always watch baseball objectively. The truth is out there, you just have to do the math.

Here is a double whammy of two interesting stories I heard about on the radio today. Thus I thought I’d share them to you in this two for one smorgasbord of media.

Let Me Show You The Real China
Hey remember how people used to always joke about how long it was taking Guns N’ Roses to release Chinese Democracy? Well now those days are over as GN’R announced today that their long overdue sixth album will be available on November 23rd. Along with the announcement was the release of a new single from the album titled what else but “Chinese Democracy”. I checked it out on Youtube and wasn’t particularly impressed, but then again I’ve never really been much of a fan. I post this more as an interesting piece of news within the music world. If their album is good then good for them and their fans, if it isn’t then that’d be pretty funny seeing 15 something years all for a so-so album or maybe worse who knows.. It’s not my type of music so I don’t know how fans have felt about some of the current songs floating around. Hmm, I remember reading earlier this year that Dr. Pepper, would give everyone in America a free can of pop if GN’R released Chinese Democracy this year, I really hope that offer still stands.

Z-Day
In local sports, the Seattle Mariners named former vice president/special assistant to the general manager of the Milwaukee Brewers Jack Zduriencik (pronounced Zur-EN-sik) as the latest Mariners General Manager. At 57 years old Jack has had experience as a scout and front office worker with the Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and Dodgers. He is often credited for helping turn around the once terrible Brewers organization into a respectable ball club. Jack is held in high regard in baseball circles and last year became the first non-general manager to be named Major League Baseball’s executive of the year by Baseball America. All this news is quite refreshing for M’s fans and I can’t wait to see What the Z-Man can do for our poor ball club.

The announcement we all saw coming finally came today, and it even has the name we were guessing. That’s right, Bioware, the guys behind Knights of the Old Republic, are working on a Star Wars MMO set 300 years after KotOR2, called Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Set during a period of tenuous peace between the Republic and the Sith, players will be free to choose either side. There’s a heavy emphasis on story based on class, and you can be either a hero or villain regardless of faction. You’ll probably be able to play as more than just human Jedi, but we haven’t seen much yet. Still, Bioware is one of the best RPG developers, the KotOR franchise will make for a great MMO, and while details are scarce, with no release date window or anything, I’m very excited to play this some day in the future.

Since it’s hard to post about video games without bringing up Rock Band, I’ll do that too. Rock Band 2 came with a code to download 20 songs for free. Those songs have been announced, and it’s pretty disapointing. In fact, I don’t think I’ve heard of any of these bands. I guess that’s why it’s free.

• The 88 – “Sons and Daughters”
• Authority Zero – “No Regrets”
• Between the Buried and Me – “Prequel To The Sequel”
• The Cab – “Bounce”
• The Chevelles – “Get It On”
• The Cocktail Slippers – “Give It To Me”
• Dealership – “Database Corrupted”
• Endeverafter – “I Wanna Be Your Man”
• The Ghost Hounds – “Ashes To Fire”
• Hollywood Undead – “Young”
• Kutless – “The Feeling”
• The Len Price 3 – “If I Ain’t Got You”
• Lesley Roy – “I’m Gone, I’m Going”
• Opiate for the Masses – “Burn You Down”
• Semi-Precious Weapons – “Magnetic Baby”
• Shaimus – “Like a Fool”
• Thenewno2″ – Crazy Tuesday”
• Tickle Me Pink – “The Time Is Wrong”
• Underoath – “Desperate Times, Desperate Measures”
• X Japan – “I.V.”

Ah well.  These are downloadable November 4.  The code is on the back of the game manual.