"Think waaaaaay outside the box... Then make it fluffy."

Quantum Conundrum is still fun. Nowhere near as slick and sublime as Portal, but still lots of fun. I'm about half-way through, and while it's been kinda easy, it hasn't been unsatisfying.

Wrapped-up the campaign in Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and it was really good! Not quite as epic as the PS3 titles in the series, but still a really impressive adventure. I fully intend to go back and search for more of the collectibles.

In the meantime, I've been settling-in with Gravity Rush. I was surprised to find a pseudo-open-world sandbox game (not really my main jam), but the gameplay is pretty unique, the story is charming, the graphics are great, and the world is spellbinding; really glad I picked this one up.

Also sat down and finished Stacking. Really solid game with lots of replay value and tonnes of character. I'm holding-off on running through the DLC, but certainly looking forward to it.

Season Passes

More Steam and GOG summer sale purchases!

Steam:

• Fallout New Vegas Ultimate
• Just Cause 2
• Max Payne 3
• Quantum Conundrum Season Pass
• Unreal Deal
• The Walking Dead
• Ys Origin

...And The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition on GOG.

I'm already well into Quantum Conundrum, and it's pretty good! Not super polished (some of the textures are kinda bland, some of the rooms feel pretty sparse, some of the writing is a little stilted), but pretty good! Maybe Max Payne 3 next... Though Grimrock, Skyrim, and Fallout have been tempting, my schedule's in no shape to tackle any kind of RPG right now; plus I still need to finish Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood :\

Meh.

I performed a clean installation of Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) on my Nexus S about three days ago, and it's definitely slicker... Battery life seems a little worse so far (10~12 hours of average use per charge), Google's weather app only works when location services are turned-on, and Google Now doesn't seem to do much for me - specifically, the public transit card doesn't seem to work; perhaps my city isn't supported; perhaps I'll get around to looking into that. Otherwise, I've had the phone start-up in safe mode once (probably my fault), and Swype has been changed from being my default keyboard. So yeah, Android 4.x has been a very pretty and mostly functional, albeit slightly buggy and more power-hungry-than-is-convenient experience.

Easier?

The more I read about Nintendo's 3DS XL, the more I see that it's the way to go; it has a better everything, supposedly. I also read that they're releasing an XL circle pad peripheral, so it's not as though the XL won't be able to do anything it's smaller counterpart can... So much for that sale.

Speaking of sales, Good Old Games' summer sales have been pretty great (bought The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Direct's Cut, Another World 15th Anniversary Edition, and Legend Of Grimrock) and Steam's summer sale is shaping-up to be worthwhile (Binding of Isaac: Wrath of the Lamb, Lara Croft Guardian Of Light + all DLC, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Trine 2, Offspring Fling!, and the On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 launch bundle) despite the fact that I picked-up most of the big releases for stupidcheap during the last sale :)

Speaking of...

3DS is on sale for $150... Assuming I can overcome my fears of crappy hinges, screens scratching screens, and potential redesigns rendering my purchase obsolete, what would I get with one? Sonic Generations, Super Mario 3D Land, maybe Ghost Recon and Resident Evil: Revelations, and a whole whack of DS games... Hrm... Am I missing anything? Recommendations? DSiWare?

Dead Pixel déjà vu

Finally got a chance to set-up my new PlayStation Vita, and promptly noticed a dead pixel right in the centre of the screen... Glad I bought it from a big-box store! Brought it in to exchange, but they'd started an even better promo (free copies of Uncharted: Golden Abyss and ModNation Racers: Road Trip with the purchase of the system; I only got a $50 gift card), and were sold-out across most of the city. The second store only had one open-box in stock and it was almost 9pm, so yeah, had to wait another day... Exchange was successful the next day, and all seems well now. Hot Shots Golf is great fun (exactly as expected), but the graphics aren't exactly flooring me; not bad-looking at all, but nothing mind-blowing, which is kinda disappointing since Uncharted looks gorgeous and WipEout is downright stunning (though the load times are a little long). I'm pretty stoked on the new platform, and it showed-up just as I was exhausting the PSP's library... How the 3DS is apparently in a better position boggles the mind.

Yeah, it's Nintendo, been out longer, and undergone significant price cuts; but from a pure software perspective, the 3DS has Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, sweet Ghost Recon and Resident Evil exclusives, a couple of solid remakes, and unique versions of Cave Story and Sonic Generations... The rest are ports, and often lacklustre ports. Not a bad lineup, but not exactly lightyears ahead of what I see on the Vita. Not that it matters much; I'll be getting a 3DS once the design feels solidified, though random add-ons and stories of shoddy construction have me biding my time for now.