ENTRY 298 or 299 (again I've mis-counted but according to my calendar countdown, it says 299 with 66 days left in the year.

ENTRY 299: OCTOBER 26, 2007

Do you cheat?

I don't mean on tests or taxes, but in games. By games I don't mean Battleship, cards, poker or anything like that but rather the electronic games. PC, PS, PSP, GBA, GBA_DS, GC, XBOX.....you know what I'm talking about.

This is something I've struggled with time and again. The way it used to be, I would immediately look for codes and have a blast (Dark Forces was my first major cheat game). Then it got to the point where I would honestly beat the game and then from that point on play with cheats.

There are walkthroughs, which are sort of like cheating, as they tell you how to beat a boss without actually giving you a code for invincibility.

For the most part I play an honest game. I would also NEVER use a code in a multiplayer game. When I played the LotR games I beat each game fair and square. Of course, your pay off to beating them are the codes. I like the games that have the codes but it recognizes whether you have actually made it far enough to use them.

There are some fine points to cheat codes.

With GALACTIC BATTLEGROUNDS I can enter codes to build everything immediately rather than waiting around. That means I can amass a fleet and arsenal that will crush my opponent with ease. Except that this code also allows the computer to do the same thing. This just gets crazy cool after a while when you max out the number of ships and soldiers allowed to be created. Talk about a battle and sometimes....you don't win.

With JEDI OUTCAST the codes got in the way of a level you are supposed to lose. I was stuck trying to take out the boss and there was no winning. It was always a stalemate that had no end. Then I turned off the cheat because I remembered being beaten at the scrfeen and the game continued...sure enough, that's what it was.

With the GBA games I have looked up codes that are really just the passwords to go to any level and play in AOTC. That's a game I got sort of bored with early on and just wanted to be able to jump anywhere I wanted and play, which has been fun to do.

I was playing the ROTS game for GBA and couldn't get past Mace as Anakin. I got online and found a walkthrough. I still haven't made it past him, but let's just say he's feeling the hurt when he beats me. Keep in mind I just bought this one the other day as I saw it for $10 on a shelf.

I love the codes for BATTLEFRONT II as well. I beat the game but today I sat down and decided to play through with codes. Unlimited weapons and unlimited health shows the power of the dark side...or dork side. (nods to No0b1)

All in all, cheats can be really fun. I have nothing against cheaters (I even like watching the G4 show but maybe that's because I find the host gorgeous---especially when they did the flashback show to '80s games and she was decked out in '80s 'goth' style......I digress....). I just like to beat the game honestly before jumpipng in on the amount of total anhialation I can bring down with codes.