Not the band...

I scored a complete copy of Dragon Force for Saturn (well, the warranty card and foam insert are missing) for $100. While I've long been aware of it as one of the more sought-after games for that console, the game never really appealed to me; I've rarely made the time to explore real-time strategy titles outside of the Shining Force series and Blizzard's entries in the genre. Upon starting Dragon Force with minimal preparation, I quickly discovered it isn't a traditional strategy game. There's this interesting hybridisation of slow-moving kingdom politics and super-fast-paced RTS battles. After about ten successful skirmishes and a handful of set-pieces, I decided that I should probably read the relatively thick game manual and start over... And I'm really looking forward to it :)

Oh, and I finished God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta and I'm at the final battle in Ys VI; both are solid titles and worth your time. Ventureland in Epic Mickey was lots of fun, but it's still only a shining moment in an otherwise disappointing game.

Almost done...

Picked-up 3D Dot Game Heroes, Flower, Noby Noby Boy, WipEout HD, and Yakuza 3 for PS3; can't think of many more that I'm itching to grab.

As for the general PS3 gaming experience so far, Flower is sublime, God Of War III is exactly what I expected (gorgeous, entertaining, and kinda pointless), the MotorStorm games are great fun, Noby Noby Boy is oddly endearing, and Uncharted is really engaging albeit rough around the edges (I hear the sequel fixes a lot of that).

I snagged a few demos as well: Hot Shots Golf: Out Of Bounds is solid, The Killzone 2 demo is nothing special, and the PixelJunk games were huge disappointments (I was really looking forward to Eden and Shooter).

I haven't done a proper tally yet, but the selection of PS3-exclusive titles feels kinda weak for a current-generation system; the XBOX 360 and the Wii really seem to be a step ahead. Don't get me wrong though; the PS3 is still an impressive console and worth owning, especially if you don't have a 360 ;)

Reflow

PS3 is fixed... Was still full of dust, even after the blasting I initially administered. Lessons learned: Open your PS3 when cleaning it, and become familiar with cooling-system activity.

$80 and an hour wait for a cleaning and reflow with a 60-day warranty seems reasonable.

I hope this lasts.

YLOD

For context, I spent a good five minutes or so blasting the system with compressed air before I even plugged it in last week, and I keep the console (like all of my consoles) on a hard surface in a well-ventilated area; I have a launch 360 in the same unit.

Anyway, I updated to 3.55, dissociated the console from previous owner's PSN account, formatted the HDD, registered on PSN, downloaded and installed some demos, streamed some TV, played a bunch of Uncharted, then YLOD... I'm guessing it didn't like that much continuous use :( When I unhooked everything to have a closer look, the system had literally coughed-up some massive dust bunnies while the fan was going; I had to tweeze them out through the vents. I removed the hard drive to see if it was at the root of issue (apparently HDD errors can also cause YLODs), but it won't even boot to the 'no hard drive' error screen... And my Uncharted disc is still in there.

I'm gonna take the thing to a particular local shop 'cause they have one of these; they supposedly charge ~$80. There're DIY fixes, but this isn't one I want to fuck around with.

Otherwise, it was a pretty swell week otherwise; Flower is a sublime game!

Library

Found each of the following PS3 titles (not "Greatest Hits") for under $20...

• Folklore
• Heavenly Sword
• inFamous
• Lair
• Motorstorm
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
• Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
• Uncharted

My PS3 blacklog is probably about on par with that of every other console I own :)

I also happened upon copies of Full Throttle (PC) and Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (Jaguar).

URNot(red)E

Got the 60GB hardware-backward-compatible PS3 with two SIXAXIS controllers, a Wireless Keypad, two charging cables, and the following games:

• Assassin's Creed II
• Bionic Commando*
• Bioshock
• Bioshock 2
• Buzz! Quiz World (with four buzzers)
• Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Dark Void*
• Demon's Souls*
• Dragon Age: Origins
• God Of War Collection
• God Of War III
• Golden Axe: Beast Rider*
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Heavy Rain
• LittleBigPlanet
• ModNation Racers
• Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
• Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
• The Orange Box
• Red Dead Redemption
• Street Fighter IV
• Unreal Tournament III

(* = factory sealed)

I'll be flipping most of the games since I either already have them on another platform, would rather play them on Windows, or have little interest in keeping them... Demon Souls, the God Of War games, Heavy Rain, LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers, MotorStorm, and Red Dead Redemption will likely be the only ones to make the cut.

I'd like to remove the system from the previous owner's PSN account before reformatting, but I can't connect to PSN unless I install the 3.55 system update (3.50 is currently installed). I'm hesitant to install the update after hearing all the horror stories about it neutering the optical drive and causing instabilities with previously-installed software... I'd hate to have to pay an extra $100+ just to get a refurbished model that lacks the hardware for which I specifically bought this model :(

Once again, not quite a month :)

So, Epic Mickey... I was talking about how the freedom of choice between countless solutions to the challenges of each area is overwhelming, and when the quests and platforming sections are good, oh man are they ever good! Unfortunately, the quests and platforming sections aren't always good... Actually, they're often downright boring and uninspired. Seriously, a lot of the content seems like it was just phoned-in, and has made me consider quitting the game altogether on more than one occasion. What keeps me going are the hints at something interesting down the line; those moments when everything just clicks and the bigger picture comes into focus pique my curiosity, and I end-up playing for another hour... At which point I've again grown tired of the vapid fetch quests and half-baked jumping puzzles and corridors.

I'm still not done Ys 6, though I am about to begin the endgame, point-of-no-return section. Y'see, my PSP's been somewhat neglected since I picked-up my new smartphone ;) It's a Motorola XT720 running Android 2.1, and while it's not exactly top-of-the-line or bleeding-edge stuff, it's still awfully swell.

On a bittersweet note, after nearly eight impressive years, my trusty Athlon XP 3200+ system is finally being retired (i.e. my parents are getting it, albeit somewhat stripped-down from its former glory), and I've built something new out of a fine selection of free parts... The result?

• Athlon 64 3500+
  
• ASUS A8V Deluxe
  
• 3GB DDR400 RAM (dual channel)
  
• 512MB AGP8X Radeon X1950 Pro
  
• SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS
  
• 80GB + 320GB SATA HDDs
  
• DVD+/-RW
  
• DVD-ROM
  
• Windows XP Pro x64
  

...And it's all in a slick-looking Cooler Master Centurion case!

One last thing: Looks like I'm getting a hardware-backwards-compatible 60GB PS3 with ~20 games from a buddy of mine! Sweet :)