Happy Birthday?

Today is kind of my birthday... I mean I was born on May 22nd, and today is May 22nd in Australia. But then I was born in America, where it is still the 21st. So I don't know if I'm actually 30 yet...

Kara gave me GTA IV as a present and I'm excited to play it. I've never been 100% sold on the GTA games, but everyone raves that this one has amazing depth and it is a landmark in gaming. Since I'm a gamer, I suppose my hands are tied! I have a US 360, so Kara had to ship the game here from America due to region restrictions. A few interesting points about that:

* The Australian government rates all games and movies (unlike America where ratings are handled by the industry). The highest video game rating in Australia is MA 15+ (aka suitable for 15 year olds) and any game that doesn't meet those requirements is actually BANNED for sale in Australia! This ain't America, folks! So, the version of GTA IV released here has actually been censored so that it could achieve the MA 15+ rating. I'm not quite sure what the rules are about importing a game that is unrated by Australia, but we pulled it off anyway...

* PC and console games are rediculously expensive in Australia. If I were to walk in to EB Games and buy GTA IV, it would cost me $120. INSANE! And here's what's even crazier... Kara bought the game in the states for $60, and had it shipped over here for $13 for a total of $73 USD. Convert that to Australian dollars and the cost was $76. It was actually $45 cheaper to import the game from America rather than going to the local game store. I wonder if importing is the norm here, at that price difference I imagine it's quite common.