Radical

ODST was rad. $70 rad? No, but then I'm not really into the multiplayer aspect of it all, and ODST surely offers a wealth of multiplayer value for the Halo 3 experience. It is, however, a very enjoyable single-player campaign that shows us some new versatility within the Halo universe; would be nice as a $20~$30 product for those of us not particularly interested in multiplayer, or those of us who have already purchased much of the multiplayer content included. The save system still sucks, but re-playing the first few levels wasn't the end of the world.

I think I've given-up on my current attempt at completing Majora's Mask... I'm tempted to restart the game on Wii (The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition) with a walkthrough for heart pieces and the Bomber's Notebook stuff. I've already re-started The Adventure Of Link on NES.

Expansions

The new Assassin's Creed II downloadable content, Battle of Forli, was pretty cool. Nothing special, pretty short, and it didn't really add to the story (some barely-developed characters show-up and manage to outsmart the group of assassins that just saved the world!?); but $4 for an hour's worth of new content and some added replayablity ain't bad. I was a little upset that my character didn't continue with the sword I had at the end of the game (or any sword for that matter), but I managed. It was also weird that Ezio's facial hair seemed to come and go... Whoops ;) Regardless of its faults, I lok forward to the next installment of DLC.

Halo 3 ODST is really good though. Instead of being a supreme badass following an epic story arc, you get to be relatively insignificant in a much more humble setting, all while feeling lost and lonely in a very real way; that's some impressive storytelling. I do not appreciate, however, the fact that after finishing about half of the game and choosing to save and quit from the hub level, my progress was not saved. Sure, I could revisit the missions I'd unlocked, but I couldn't continue my progress... Which meant that I had to re-play one of the previous missions and then manually choose the next one from the hub map. What's even better is that I'll have to re-play the other three missions in order to actually finish the game! Yeah, that's just amazing; I'm so stoked for that. Ugh.

Aw, nuts...

Oh, Google Chrome version 4.0.249.78, I'd love to use you as my default web browser on my Windows 7 workstation, but you keep randomly overlapping the taskbar (it remains inaccessible even if I "restore down" your window!) and seem to have issues with various Facebook pages when other browsers don't :( I would've gone back to Internet Explorer 8, but Firefox 3.6's speed increase kinda made the decision for me.

But wait, there's more!

Traded my NFR copy of Gex for 3DO, along with Metroid Prime 1 and 2 for GameCube, and Sonic Heroes and Sonic Mega Collection Plus (both "Platinum Family Hits") for XBOX toward complete copies of Gex and Out Of This World for 3DO, as well as Fight For Life for Jaguar, and Axelay and Michael Jordan: Chaos In The Windy City for SNES.

...But I didn't stop there.

No, I went ahead and bought an Hori EX2 arcade stick (PC-compatible) and Fracture for my XBOX 360, as well as Star Fox Adventures for GameCube and NHL Stanley Cup for SNES - that last one was only $2.

Anyway, I've been thinking about how much I'd like an updated NHL game for PSP. As much fun as I'm having with NHL 07 after installing and tweaking fan-made roster updates and settings to make it more realistic, it'd be really nice to see a more streamlined menu system, better AI, and some bug-fixes.

Aside from being slow and unresponsive, is it really necessary to ask me if I want to use the autosave system every time, then warn me that i'm using the autosave system every time, then load the intro movie every time, then select game modes, leagues, loading options, a game file, and then confirm that it has loaded... EVERY TIME!? That's no less than eight painfully sluggish button presses before I can even look at the actual game menu! Why not just let me set the autosave options once, then have the system remember them? Why not have a load option on the main menu? Seems so obvious... The sluggish menu also makes tweaking rosters and lines unduly arduous, though that may be intentional to keep people buying yearly official updates... Except there haven't been any official updates in four years.

Better AI and bug-fixes would just make the whole experience a lot more fun; no more players who run away from a loose puck in the open, goalies who don't cover the short side with reasonable consistency, disappearing players, lightspeed passes flying around the rink, checks that literally send players soaring across the ice, and the list goes on... I'm not asking for a lot, am I? Even a port of the latest PS2 update with some tweaks to make it play a little more like the 360/PS3 version would do.

Oh Yeah!

Totally forgot to mention that I played through a whole bunch of XBOX 360 demos!

Dante's Inferno was kinda meh. Solid graphics, silly exposition, derivative gameplay... Nothing really wrong with it, I guess.

Dark Void was pretty cool... Until I wasn't using my jetpack anymore. I did appreciate that I was allowed to use my jetpack in a cramped hallway, promptly fly into a wall, and die upon impact. Maybe once it hits the bargain bin...

And I finally dipped into the indie game pool and checked-out I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1. It was fun for a few minutes, and then it got very weird. Arkedo Series - 03 PIXEL! was very interesting; I love the aesthetic, but the gameplay was a little dry. Leave Home was just plain cool.

I don't know what came over me...

I stumbled across a new copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, so I bought it. I also bought Saints Row 2 (new for 360, $25) and de Blob (new, $19), and I'm looking for OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast... I didn't get around to buying it after seeing it everywhere for years, and now it's suddenly nowhere to be found! Regardless, I've now officially spent too much money on games this month :(

What have I done!?

I bought Night Trap for SEGA CD 32X today.

I'm not sure what I should be more ashamed of; that I bought a copy of Night Trap on any system, or that I now have all five SEGA CD 32X games.

Discontinued

I bought Metroid Prime Trilogy for Wii because it started disappearing around town once Nintendo announced they'd stopped making it. I also noticed copies of New Super Mario Bros. Wii in white cases while I was out, and mistakenly assumed that's what the new shipment looked like; turns out they were just display copies, but I had already informed some friends in the retail end of things that new shipments were in white plastic... Oops.

I also snagged complete copies of Afro Samurai and Halo 3 ODST for 360 together for $50. Considering that ODST is still going for $65 used in most places, I think I did alright.

Life's getting busy again, and I wish I at least had the time to finish-up Wario Land: Shake It!... I also wish I could choose between Intel's Core i7 860 and 920. The 5-series platform (860) seems to be heading more so toward the mainstream market while the X-series platform (920) seems to be heading toward an increasingly multi-core market... I just can't decide.

Alternatives

New acquisitions: Golvellius for Master System (way better looking than the NES Zelda games, much more ecclectic in terms of gameplay, and fricking hard!) and Street Fighter II' Champion Edition for PC Engine (just because it's amazing to see such a great port that no one thought possible). Still looking for Golden Axe Warrior and considering Zillion II for Master System.

Different

Things I don't like about my QuickSilver 2002 Power Mac G4:

• Can't play HD Flash video.
• I don't like Finder as much as Windows' Start Menu.
• Mac OS X's default keyboard shortcuts mostly suck.
• There still isn't a maximise button, is there?

Things I do like about my QuickSilver 2002 PowerMac G4:

• Everything else.

So I guess I could become a full-fledged Mac user with a Windows PC for specific tasks (gaming and Windows service, mostly); all I'd really have to do is adust to the Mac OS X workflow and buy a more powerful machine... Except I haven't really cared all that much for any Mac case designs since the iMac G4s and the QuickSilvers.

Ergh

Eternal Darkness gets better, and restarting actually made the first third of the game much more enjoyable, as I had a better idea of what the hell I was doing... Though this phenomenon casts an unflattering light on how the game establishes itself. Essentially, we have a unique game with an interesting presentation that leaves you hanging when it comes to gameplay and story. Once you slog through the first few chapters, things don't make much more sense, but they do get more manageable and thus far more entertaining. I've got three chapters to go, and I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm playing a disjointed but clever Resident Evil clone with super powerful melee weapons. None of these obseravtions sound particularly flattering, but I'm actually having fun and I can see why so many people felt this game was underappreciated in its day.

I also sat down with Majora's Mask last night and got to the boss of Great Bay Temple... Only to realise that I was woefully unprepared to defeat him. Thanks to the timed nature of the game, it looks like I'll have to redo the entire dungeon after hunting-down masks, jars, fairies, and heart pieces elsewhere in the game. I really hate wasting time like that.

And finally, a local video game shop is relocating, so I stopped by their old place over the weekend and came away with Pitall II for 2600 and Berzerk (w/overlay) for Vectrex. They'd just recieved a Jaguar CD, but it was suppoesdly already spoken for :\

Brilliant.

Eternal Darkness has no checkpoints or auto-save feature, and doesn't bother to prompt you to save your progress. I was just about finished the fourth chapter (about a third of the way through the game) when I was killed unexpectedly and forced to start the entire game over... That's not fun. I think I'm gonna go play something else instead.

Mano-a-mano

I finished Assassin's Creed II with most of the achievements, and it was great! Right up there with Brütal Legend as a serious game-of-the-year contender, as far as I'm concerned. I have a few complaints, but don't let them dissuade you from checking this game out. First, teaching the player a relatively tricky new technique during a timed mission that cannot be restarted while surrounded by numerous platforms that are likely to interfere with that technique is bad design; thankfully, that mission is optional. Second (and this one contains some big spoilers), whoever wrote the dialogue for the scenes surrounding your fistfight with the Pope (yes, a fistfight with the Pope!) should be fired. We went from intriguing and beautiful science fiction/history/conspiracy story to big dumb action movie for one of this epic game's pivotal scenes, and it just felt so very wrong; it didn't completely ruin the experience for me, but it certainly was disappointing.

I've started playing Eternal Darkness, and after the first two chapters, I'm wondering what all of the hype is about. The dialogue is painful, the story is barely cohesive so far, and combat is pretty frustrating... Maybe it gets better later.

I've been on a bit of a Klonoa binge lately. Since picking-up the Wii remake of the original PlayStation game, I've tracked-down the PS2 sequel, as well as the two Game Boy Advance releases. These are beautiful games, and reminiscent of Ristar in terms of gameplay.

Ooh, and I got to play with a PSX DVR the other day! A local shop got one in, but wants $500 for it :(

I'd love to see something like Broadcom's Crystal HD chip as an add-in card for older computers (especially my Power Mac G4). The ability to play HD Flash videos would make just about every computer from 2000 on capable of functioning as a solid day-to-day workstation.

Speaking of old computers, I got Soul Reaver running on Windows 7, but it stutters so badly that it's pretty much unplayable. Now I'm debating whether I should shell-out for the Dreamcast version instead of having to hook-up my Windows 98 SE machine to play it...