Thirds

I've been distracted again... All these sales... Awesome games for pennies.

I'm currently a third of the way through Braid (noticed I'd lost my saved game in the console transfer; started over), Cave Story+, Rayman: Origins, Serious Sam: The First Encounter HD, and Trine.

I've given-up on Far Cry 2, and I stopped playing Mortal Kombat when the second Shao Kahn battle got super-cheap.

I'll post about all the awesome Android Market stuff when the sale's over.

Perhaps I'm simply ignorant...

The 1.0.4 patch for the Android port of Puzzle Quest 2 greatly improved performance, and the game feels almost too smooth now! My dirk-plus-poison weapon combo is dominating enemies, but it's still fun :)

My brother picked-up a Samsung Galaxy Infuse 4G... it's big, and it's also very fast; like, 10Mbps fast! Kinda makes me sad that my Nexus S is only getting 1~2Mbps on a similar network... different companies, but both apparently use the same protocols :(

Literally slept on it...

Long story short, I literally slept through yesterday's Steam deals and missed the chance to get Back to the Future: The Game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Serious Sam HD: Gold Edition for super-cheap... Damnit.

Rage is $30 today; hrmmm...

Buhbye, social life!

Rayman: Origins is everything I'd hoped it would be; buy it; forget everything else... Except for Mortal Kombat. Ho-lee-shit, this is what a fighting game should be! The learning curve is fun, the story mode is fantastic, and the fanservice is pure joy. The $70 it was going for new was steep, but the $35 I paid for a PS3 copy is a steal; I will be buying the DLC.

Everything else is on hold, despite the incredible sales on Steam right now. I've already picked-up The Oddboxx and the third season of Sam & Max... and I'm teetering on Alice: Madness Returns, Cave Story+, Dead Island, Hard Return, and Space Marine. Rage is also on sale, but $45 isn't cheap enough for me to buy it well before I'll have any chance to play it.

Out Of Control

I've been stopping by an indie game shop by my work every now and again since the 15th, hoping they've ordered a copy of Rayman: Origins for 360. Turns out their suppliers aren't offering it, so I checked out another indie shop not too far away and they had it... So I bought it... And King Of Fighters XIII for 360, Mortal Kombat for PS3, as well as Boom Blox, Kirby's Return To Dreamland, and Sonic Colors for Wii.

There is no way I have enough to time to master this stack of fighting games, let alone get any good at them. I need a plan, and I'm thinking that after I get Assasin's Creed: Brotherhood out of the way, I'm avoiding all open-world/sandbox games, RPGs, strategy games, and the like until I plough through some of these single player titles.

Man...

I remember, when I first started my current sysadmin position a few years ago, an employee accidentally deleting a database. The database software had the "delete" and "delete all" buttons right next to each other, so I didn't really blame the employee.

I was about a third of the way through Puzzle Quest 2 and had developed a pretty killer Assassin character when I accidentally deleted him. I really only play the game on the subway ride to and from work, and I happened to be particularly tired on my way in that day... Whoever put the "delete hero" button next to the "back" button and made the deletion confirmation screen look exactly like any other confirmation screen in the game deserves a real good smack upside the head.

Didn't get Rayman: Origins the other day 'cause my local indie shop didn't order any... I really hope that game's successful :(

Right, it's an alpha...

The latest version of Puzzle Quest 2 for Android seems to make everything feel a bit snappier.

The Voxatron alpha is fantastic, but awfully short; looking forward to more!

Amnesia and Justine are triumphs of game design.

Escape Goat is really fun.

Far Cry 2 is still not grabbing me.

The Resistance 3 demo was boring.

Rayman: Origins is sweet; forget Modern Warfare 3, Skyrim,  Skyward Sword, etc... I'm buying the new Rayman.

No dogs jumping through windows...

I completed Amnesia (and the spiffy little Justine DLC), and I loved it! The game didn't make me go to bed with the lights on or anything, but I found it really intense. It was a nice change of pace to be helpless and have to hide in the face of danger, and to experience scares that didn't rely on surprise. I really dug the Lovecraftian themes and exploring the castle, but what really won me over was the balance of the gameplay; stay in the light or lose your sanity, hide from enemies in the dark, don't look at enemies for too long... Those design decisions force you to light rooms strategically, remember where you came from, and rely on the sound design. I highly recommend this one.

Hallowe'en

Far Cry 2 sits untouched since my last post.

I started Castlevania: Legacy Of Darkness on N64 for Hallowe'en... So far it mostly looks bad, sports a horrible camera, the jumping mechanics are terrible, and the main character lacks a whip. That wasn't a good start for a Castlevania title, so I considered spending some quality time with Silent Hill 2 and Jack Bros. to keep in the spirit, but they failed to hold my attention for long.

Ended-up taking advantage of Steam's Hallowe'en sale and snagged Amnesia, Costume Quest, Dead Space 1 and 2, and the Penumbra Collection. Held-off on The Binding Of Isaac for no real reason, but ended-up picking it up as part of The Humble Voxatron Debut. So Amnesia is awesome, Voxatron is a whole different kind of awesome, and I haven't really played anything else since...

...Except for Puzzle Quest 2, which was recently released for Android! It's slow, unresponsive, and buggy, but hot damn, is it ever fun! So glad to finally have it on a portable platform :)

Not gonna make a pun...

Far Cry 2 is quickly getting on my nerves with the random encounters, mounted weapon aiming, and lack of any compelling narrative whatsoever since the opening scene... Which is sad because I had really high hopes for this one, and it feels like it's so close to being awesome.

Whoops...

Completely forgot to mention that Aban Hawkins & the 1000 Spikes and Wizorb on XBLIG are amazing, while Rochard was a pleasant surprise and Sideway: New York turned-out to be only pretty good on PSN.

Kinda started Far Cry 2 on PC last night, and it's strangely compelling... A gorgeous map and solid gunplay hampered by a ridiculous scenario and some mildly frustrating gameplay mechanics (saving progress, fighting the effects of malaria) even-out to be a very pretty game that keeps me coming back for more... More of what, I'm not sure yet. I doubt I'll finish this one, but I'm not ready to put it down just yet either.

Duke Nukem, Forever!

I finished the single-player campaign of Duke Nukem Forever, and it was killer! That was some proper, oldschool, circle-strafing FPS! It's definitely an outdated game in terms of design, and the tone and environments are barely cohesive, but it's a perfect iteration on Duke Nukem 3D: Solid graphics, tasteless "humour", visceral weapons, and awesome environmental interactivity (the ego system is genius!). The quick load times and extra weapon slots of the PC version make it the platform of choice, and the $10~$30 price tag is more than worth it. I was bothered by the numerous negative reviews I saw around the Internet though... How is this game a failure? It could use some more polish and it isn't an industry-changing revelation despite apparently common unrealistic expectations, but it's a complete and enjoyable product that hearkens back the era in which it it was born. Duke Nukem Forever a relic loaded with history and nostalgic value, and that's worth much more than a write-off by the gaming press.

So far, so good...

I'm about a third of the way through Duke Nukem Forever (Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is still on the backburner), and it's pretty good! I'm waiting to see why so many people hated this one so much... Sure, many aspects of the design are pretty dated, the graphics aren't as pretty as Crysis 2's, and the humour is particularly crude, but then that's kinda par for the course for a Duke Nukem game; they've never had the most ingenious design (gunplay, story, etc...), greatest graphics, or any sense of taste. What makes the series enjoyable is the campiness and interactivity, and Forever has both locked-down... So far.

Too Much

A complete copy of Snatcher for SEGA CD is going for $250!? Damnit! I knew I should've picked it up at $100 a few years ago...

Just finished the Protector Trials and Minerva's Den. The former was a bit of a chore, but the latter was fantastic; that's what DLC should be! Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has been on hold in the meantime.

Picked-up Duke Nukem Forever for $10 on Steam, Child Of Eden and Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 (360), The Ico & Shadow Of The Colossus Collection (PS3), as well as Ghost In The Shell, Pandemonium 2, and Shipwreckers! for PSX. Traded-in my broken 360 Pro (w/HDD, headset, power adapter, Ethernet cable, and box), Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus (PS2), Super Street Fighter IV and NHL 10 (360), and a stack of XBOX games toward some of that.

It's all about me.

I completed Gears Of War 3's campaign; good game; many questions left unanswered; Limited Edition packaging is sweet.

I earned all 85 stars in Cordy a while back.

I tried to get into Immercenary on 3DO, but it's really hard.

I passed-up a mint-condition, complete copy of Guardian Heores for Saturn; my pitted, disc-only copy will do.

I'm half-way done the Protector Trials in Bioshock 2, and I'm getting bored... But I want the bonus gene tonic awarded upon completion before I start Minerva's Den in earnest.

...Aaannnd I'm slowly getting back into the groove of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

Deluge

Installing the broken Pro's HDD in a working Elite and transferring everything to a USB flash drive, then transferring the contents of the USB drive to the new S worked like a charm! I also bought Gears Of War 3 (Limited Edition), NHL 11 (it was under $10), Outland, Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, and Trenched. Will be picking-up Child Of Eden, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, and Stacking: The Lost Hobo King shortly... Holding-off on Catherine, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Duke Nukem Forever, and Space Marine for the immediate future; just way too much to play right now.

Patience

Yesterday, I bought a glossy 250GB XBOX 360 S, new, for $197.99 when I stumbled across an unexpected sale. Today, I borrowed a Hard Drive Transfer Cable, but it doesn't seem to be working. Tomorrow, I'm going to install my old hard drive on another console and see if copying everything over to a USB flash drive will work... I'm not spending $15~$30 on that damned cable.

Shopping

Went shopping...

PC: Fallout (original packaging), Jedi Knight, Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy
Wii: Boom Blox Bash Party, Donkey Kong Country Returns
XBOX: SEGA GT Online
3DO: Blade Force, Captain Quazar, Immercenary, Killing Time, PO'ed, Space Hulk: Vengeance of the Blood Angels, Star Fighter, Way Of The Warrior
NES: Solar Jetman

I already had the discs for PO'ed and Way Of The Warrior, but these are complete copies :)

Speaking of shopping, I bought Cordy for Android, and it's fantastic! Gameplay is a mix of Sonic and Bionic Commando, the graphics are gorgeous, and the replay value is immense; I'm actually going for the full 85 stars (completion, collection, and speed) with this one! Best $2 I've spent in a long time.

Trying new things...

The Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine demo is amazing; I will be buying this game.

The Cordy demo has me buying my first mobile game.

Speaking of mobile games, here's what I'm playing on my phone right now: Angry Birds (all three, up to date), Bonsai Blast, Cordy, Eternity Warriors ('cause I can stop its background services; can't stop Gun Bros.'), Fruit Ninja, Gem Miner, Jewels, Lane Splitter, NinJump, Pumpkins vs. Monsters, Replica Island, Rocket Bunnies, Slice It!, Speedx 3D, Tetris, Words With Friends, and YooNinja. Need more titles with production values like Cordy that have actual depth and aren't just arcade/grind/puzzle games!

Holds it, holds it, HOLDS IT!!!

I bought Bastion on Steam, it is awesome, and I will be replaying it.

I held-off on From Dust after hearing about the lacklustre PC port.

I'll hold-off on a 3DS until that screen-scratching issue is resolved.

I'll hold-off on a new 360 until the price drops, now that the PS3's price has dropped.

Got Older

Haven't had much time to play games; been busy having epic birthday celebrations.

Did snag a copy of Pangya for PSP though, and found someone to solder the display leads on one of my Virtual Boys! The demos of Bastion, Catherine, From Dust, and Trenched are pretty awesome... Still haven't replaced my 360.

Built a new server at work: Dual Xeon E5620, 32GB of RAM, over 5TB of hot-swappable hard drives, redundant power supply... Kinda sorta overkill, maybe, but whatever, I still came in under budget :)

Bullets

Finished Crysis 2; it was awesome; all of my previous criticisms stand.

I always thought Bioshock was a gorgeous game; Minerva's Den looks hideous after playing Crysis 2 :(

Still avoiding Lair.

Found a copy of Silent Hill 2 of PC.

Really tempted to finally try Dwarf Fortress after reading this.

Not looking forward to replacing my XBOX 360, as it will mean buying Bastion, Catherine, Child Of Eden, Outland, Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition, Trenched, and likely a few more I'm forgetting at the moment... Gonna be expensive :(

Damnit!

I snagged a complete copy of Jack Bros. (Japanese) and a loose copy of Virtual Fishing for Virtual Boy, but now all three of my remaining systems are failing and the guys who were doing repair services seem to have closed-up shop :( Decent games though, albeit somewhat simplistic.

Almost done with Crysis 2. It's still a gorgeous game, I still feel like a badass, the acting is still a little weak, and the story got pretty flimsy for a while there... The good outweighs the bad though.

Badass.

About half-way through Lair, and it's still disappointing.

About half-way through Crysis 2, and it keeps getting better. Some of the acting's pretty bad (e.g. Gould) and the narrative's kinda broken (poor cohesion, lacking exposition, tired clichés), but the gameplay is solid (dynamic, accessible, visceral; makes me feel like a real badass) and the graphics are gorgeous.

BFF?

The Duke Nukem Forever demo was pretty cool! That preview delivered exactly what I was expecting before I read all those scathing reviews; a ridiculously mindless FPS with good-but-not-great graphics and a pointlessly interactive environment... Much like Duke Nukem 3D. My only real complaints are with the weapon and health systems (why did they copy Halo!?), and the linearity of the levels. Perhaps I won't be picking this one up at full price, but I do intend to buy it.

In the mean time, I was gonna sit down with Crysis 2, but then I heard about this, so I won't be playing it 'til Monday.

So I finally got around to finishing that free first episode of Back To The Future: The Game... Aaannnd seeing as how that didn't last very long, I'm thinking it's time to check-out Minerva's Den.

Really, anything to avoid Lair ;)

Oh, and that G5 is still sketchy after getting a less-dead battery in there... Wheee!

Neutered

So I was able to get that Power Mac G5 running stably after disabling the second CPU and getting the setting to stick... Didn't have the right bit to remove the heat sinks and do it physcially. Unfortunately, shutting down caused everything to kick back in, so I'm thinking dead battery. It's prolly worth the ~$10 to get the thing running as a single 1.8GHz machine; could be worth a couple hundred dollars on craigslist that way; won't be able to run HD Flash video though.

P.S. Outland is an awesome game.

Misunderstood?

Jikandia's a safe and fun little grind... The visuals, gameplay, and writing are all vaguely reminiscent of other titles, the one-line-at-a-time dialogue is sort of annoying, and the $30 price point seems a little steep, but it's not at all a bad game.

Uncharted 2 left me feeling about the same.

Anyway, I started Lair... If not for the analog control update, I would've turned it off after the first level. The art ranges from gorgeous to hideous, transitions between menus, cutscenes, and gameplay modes are noticeably unpolished, the dialogue is ridiculously contrived, enemies can be particularly difficult to see, and the story is painfully underdeveloped. I can definitely understand how disappointed people must've been when the game was first released, being forced to slog through that with SIXAXIS motion controls.

So removing a CPU on a Power Mac G5 is right up there with disassembling a Nintendo Virtual Boy in terms of arbitrary complexity.

Stuff

Got Crysis 2 Limited Edition for PC (gorgeous) for $20, Guardian Heroes for Saturn (badass) for $50, and Shining Tears and Shining Force EXA (haven't played them yet; can't wait to hear the god-awful voice acting I've read about) for PS2 for $13 each.

El Shaddai (PS3 demo; 360 still broken) is literally insane. Almost finished Uncharted 2. TITS has been kinda boring; gonna try Jikandia next.

A friend's Power Mac G5 bit the dust; looks like one of the CPUs is bad; gonna try disabling it.

Got a motherboard from a Dell Vostro 230 replaced under warranty; currently stress testing.

Trying to puzzle-out the best combination of server hardware and software upgrades to accommodate a major database upgrade at work... Not looking too good, given my budget.

Was pretty stoked to play Duke Nukem Forever, but the reviews are having me consider sticking to Crysis 2 for the time being.

Cheap.

Kirby's Epic Yarn, complete and in great condition, for $29.99... Got it.

TITS

Tried-out The 3rd Birthday, Legend Of Heroes: Trails In The Sky, and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on PSP... I had no idea what was going on in the first one, the magic system tutorial in the second one wasn't exactly the most helpful set of instructions, and the third reminded me that I don't have the spare time to really appreciate the strategy genre.

Really, more than anything else, I've been playing Pumpkins Vs. Monsters on Android; sweet, sweet game :)

Otherwise, I've been putting together a new server and multi-WAN routers at work... Good times.

I can feel it calling in the air tonight...

The over-the-air Android 2.3.4 update didn't work on my Nexus S, but that may have been my fault; I didn't know how to manipulate the recovery menu, and ended-up pulling the battery... Not the brightest move, I know, but I was literally half-asleep when the notification popped-up. Anyway, I grabbed the update from Google's servers today and ran it manually. I'm really happy with the phone (even more so since installing Swype), and really have only one complaint; the in-call volume is really quiet, even at the loudest volume setting! It's fine in most cases, but if I'm walking down a city street, I can barely make-out the other person's voice, let alone what they're saying :(

I haven't touched Uncharted 2 since my last post, but I did develop a brief addiction to the demo of Gem Miner on my phone.

I may have some SEGA Saturn Twin Sticks on their way, as well as a couple of Dreamcast games (Armada and Project Justice).

Oh, and the Unity shell for Ubuntu (I just installed 11.04) is pretty rad... Like, actually radical. The new interface took me a day or so of casual use to get comfortable with, and now I'm really digging it.

Upgrade

My third XT720 started sapping batteries and stopped connecting to the mobile network... Awesome. After trying my provider's third-party vendor, corporate store, head office, and warranty replacement centre, they finally let me upgrade to a Nexus S... It's pretty :)

I played through Uncharted last week, and it was fun, but nothing earth-shattering. The story got a little silly, the cover system was frustrating, the gunplay was kinda boring, and the jumping controls were too loose... Not exactly fantastic in a game primarily comprised of cover-based shooting and jumping puzzles. I did enjoy the dialogue though. Anyway, I'm well into Uncharted 2 now, and while the camera and scripted events are hugely improved and supremely impressive, the rest of the game feels about the same... Naughty Dog may have peaked at the first Jak and Daxter game.

Back On The Scene

New acquisitions:

• 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand (360)
• Metroid: Other M (Wii)
• Need For Speed: Nitro (Wii)
• Chronicles Of Pern: Dragon Riders (DC)
• Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero (PS)
• Pandemonium! (PS)
• Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (TGCD)
• Dark Seed (PC)
• Starship Titanic (PC)

I've only had time to sit down with Legend Of Heroes, Mortal Kombat Mythologies, Need For Speed, and Pandemonium! so far, and while I'm pretty happy with all of them, there're different reasons behind each...

Dragon Slayer: Legend Of Heroes seems to be a pretty straightforward Japanese RPG from Falcom, and their Ys series has me on a bit of a Falcom kick. Considering that Trails In the Sky (the sixth Legend Of Heroes game) was just released in North America for PSP, I thought I'd look into its roots with the only other English release in the series; it was a nice surprise to discover that Faxanadu (NES) and Sorcerian (PC) are also part of the Dragon Slayer series... Yeah, there're over 25 games if you count all of the sub-series :) Ooh, and I noticed an allusion to the 1984 Bruce Cockburn song "Lovers In A Dangerous Time" in Legend Of Heroes! So the pop-culture references of the recent Falcom translations (e.g lyrics from Hall and Oates' "Maneater" in one of the PSP Ys games) is apparently a bit of a tradition...

Anyway, Mortal Kombat Mythologies is friggin' hard. Interesting game with some really fun sequences, but jumping puzzles and limited lives 'n continues were a very bad idea.

Need For Speed: Nitro is fun, and so far totally worth the $8 I spent on it.

Pandemonium! is just as awesome as I remembered; fantastic platformer.

Death

Been busy; released a new CD with my band; that was prolly the biggest time sink.

Anyway, I've finished Ys I & II Chronicles. It was great fun; reminiscent of Half-Minute Hero, which, I guess, is therefore reminiscent of Ys Book I & II ;) That brings me up to speed on the English releases of the Ys series... And I want more. Here's hoping someone ports and translates Ys IV and V soon!

My 360 RROD'd... Gonna buy a new one; might splurge and get the Kinect bundle in anticipation of Double Fine's new Sesame Street game. Was almost done Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood when it went.

Seriously considering tracking-down an iPad to play Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

Explored m0n0wall and pfSense as router solutions at work.

What else is new... Stumbled across a copy of Guardian Heroes for SEGA Saturn, but the owner of the shop didn't want to sell it to me because it was in such poor condition.

Oh! I'm on my third XT720 and second SIM card; all under warranty... I still dig the phone, especially considering what I paid for it.

QA

So the free first episode of the Back To The Future game will only let me play once before the "Play" button stops working... I have to reinstall the game to play again. This issue has been discussed on TellTale's forums, and the best solution seems to be running the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP... Yeah, a game that was released in 2011 needs to be run in way to maximise its compatibility with an operating system from 2001.

I downloaded the Crysis 2 demo and was prompted to make an account in order to play; this process is apparently powered by GameSpy, which should be totally awesome because I already have a GameSpy account. Unfortunately, the game doesn't recognise my GameSpy account, and won't let me make a new account because my e-mail address is already associated with my GameSpy account...Wheee!!!

On a more positive note, Ys I & II Chronicles on PSP is fantastic!

So Busy

I've been absolutely swamped lately... Mostly with sysadmin work (we're quickly outgrowing our current infrastructure here) and recording sessions with one of my bands.

I did, however, manage to clean-up the following computers:

• Inspiron 1150 (sound and USB don't work... Click the link... No, seriously) for a friend so she could do Photoshop work while her main laptop is in repair.
• Inspiron 8600 (1.5GHz Pentium M, 1.2GB DDR333, GeForce FX Go5200) that I got for free.
• A killer custom desktop: ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP, Core 2 Duo E6750, 2GB 800MHz DDR2, 320MB BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC; three SATA hard drives totaling 800GB; a sweet Lian-Li mid-tower chassis. This one was also free; not sure what to install on it though... Seems like a good opportunity to revisit Linux or BSD.

Oh, and I'm on the last battle in Ys III, which is good because Ys I&II ships today :)

Kinected

Looks like I'm getting a Kinect... Damn you, Tim Schafer.

Anyway, I'm about half-way through Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and it's amazing, and overwhelming, and holy crap.

REAL

Having a nice little conversation with a supposed former 3DO employee right over here.

Oooh, I like it when they squeal!

I finished Epic Mickey last night... It's a good game, and I might even play through it again some day to see everything I missed, but it's just disappointing to see so much potential wasted.

Fans of Disney, 3D platformers, and exploration will find a lot to like there, and the game does tell one of the best Mickey Mouse stories I've seen since Runaway Brain, but there's also a lot to criticise in terms of gameplay design and consistency.

It's sad to see so many elements done right, only to be slapped together into a lacklustre final product.

Anyway, on to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood...

Mindless?

I keep reading about how much mindless fun Bulletstorm is... Mindless? Really? The demo presented something more akin to a combination of The Club and MadWorld than a DOOM clone like Painkiller (Bulletstorm's predecessor) or Serious Sam... Or Will Rock ;) The latter games are mindless; the only real strategy there comes in the form of surviving vast hordes of enemies by employing twitch reflexes and simple resource management. Games like The Club, MadWorld, and presumably Bulletstorm are more about creatively stringing-together fast-paced and original combos while being keenly aware of your environment and how you interact with it.

Anyway, the Bulletstorm demo was a lot of fun, Killzone 3 is very pretty, and Epic Mickey is almost done... I can't say I'm really stoked about any of them though.

Christmas II

Stacking comes out this week... Which reminds me that I forgot to mention playing through Costume Quest: Grubbins On Ice over Christmas! It was wonderful! Stoked for Stacking!

Speaking of Christmas I finally got an OtterBox for my XT720 as well as Ninja Golf for my 7800... Yeah, both had to be imported from the States, and it took about a month longer than expected.

Wait, what? Oh, yeah, I did say Ninja Golf... A BRAND-NEW, SEALED COPY OF NINJA GOLF!!!

Gee, thanks...

Remember this computer? That client contacted me the other day looking to upgrade. We went with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium and a 60GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD; the two Raptors became a RAID 0 scratch disk.

All was working beautifully until he plugged-in his LaCie 526; Windows wouldn't let him set it above 1280x720. Restarting, installing LaCie's monitor drivers, and even forcing the native resolution wouldn't work... I had him double-check every driver, setting, and OSD option, but we couldn't figure it out. I suspected Windows was treating the monitor as a TV, and instructed him to check the EDID setting while I was on the phone with him, but he couldn't find it.

I had him contact LaCie, and they promptly responded with a horribly written e-mail instructing him to contact Microsoft and download some nondescript patch for Windows 7 (yeah, just "download a patch to fix the issue") and let them know if he found a solution.

So I did some more reading and noticed that the EDID setting only appears if the monitor is receiving a digital signal. Since the client couldn't find the setting, I'm guessing the monitor was defaulting to DVI-A. I had him force it to DVI-D in the OSD, the EDID setting appeared, and when he changed it appropriately, Windows allowed the monitor's native 1920x1200 resolution.

LaCie should've been aware of such a possibility, especially for a customer who bought a $1500+ monitor.

Ys, Ys, Ys... And a Birthday

Ys VI is pretty good, but is a definite step backward in just about every regard after playing Ys Seven... And it really shows how little work Konami put into the PSP port when immediately followed by Ys III; it's easy to forget that they're running on the same engine! Ys III is very slick, and the gameplay mechanics keep things moving briskly. I don't think I've ever played an action RPG so fast-paced... I like it. A lot.

I bought a copy of the Sonic Adventure 2 Birthday Pack for Dreamcast, today... It's a pretty sweet package, plus I didn't own a copy of Sonic Adventure 2.

Oh, and the Bulletstorm demo's been sitting on my PS3 (Silver XBL at the moment) since it came out... No time to play :(

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 :)

Not quite a month...

Sorry for my recent absence... Work, music, and a particularly nice girl all contributed.

I did find the time to make all kinds of progress in Ys 6, and while it's been a lot of fun, I can't wait to finish it and get into Ys 3; same engine, but supremely optimised with a properly fleshed-out narrative... Mmm. Ghost Of Sparta'll fit in there somewhere, I'm sure.

I also tracked-down a copy of and got started on Fragile Dreams on Wii, and man, is that a ever a beautiful and lonely game! I'd've spent much more time with it if I hadn't gotten a sweet deal on a new copy of Epic Mickey :) Basically, I paid a premium to get the latter title new, so I'm gonna make sure I get my money's worth and play it ASAP. Anyway, I'm a few hours in, and I'm loving it! Yeah, Epic Mickey's reminiscent of the oversaturated third-person mascot-driven platformer genre from previous console generations, but it's just so slick; great graphics, tight controls, a neat gimmick (create the world around you with paint, or destroy it with paint-thinner), and a genuinely interesting take on familiar characters. The cutscenes feel out of place, the camera can be mildly frustrating at times, and there are secret warps that can make following the narrative feel very stilted, but all of that good and bad isn't what's really important.

So yeah, we have a nostalgic 3D platformer that may seem a little rough around the edges... Who cares? Well, you should. It's old news that Warren Spector (Deus Ex) headed-up the development of this game, we've known about the infusion of his trademark branching, morality-based gameplay almost since the project was first announced, and the game certainly looks dark and foreboding, but only once you begin to experience the repercussions of your many actions will you understand the feeling I'm about to describe. Every area has numerous solutions, and they're not all black and white decisions between good and bad. Sure, you can play the game with a focus on altruism and paint, or be more self-serving and paint-thinner your way through the world, but there are also a lot of gray-area alternatives and seemingly extraneous paths throughout, and that's where things get interesting. Here's an example: I had already solved an area in various ways, and noticed a couple of gears I hadn't seen before. The gears were clearly susceptible to my paint-thinner, so I erased one, and then the other, and then something broke and a gremlin I had befriended earlier started yelling at me. Apparently, I had just undone all of the hard work he'd performed for me behind the scenes. I promptly re-painted the gears, but it was too late; the damage had been done, and there was no going back! I was just being irresponsible with my destructive powers, and the game surprised me with real repercussions. I honestly felt kinda bad! What's great about Epic Mickey is that these situations become more morally challenging and complex as the game progresses. I'm nowhere near the end yet, and I really can't wait to see what's next :)

Oh, and Shank got really repetitive as I slogged through it... I'll finish it some day.

As for work, blah! Bandwidth issues (looking into fancy multi-WAN routers), planning for a new server and server software, moving our main database offsite and migrating to a remote client setup, planning a major anti-virus upgrade after our previous solution started taking-down computers with 40GB (or smaller) hard drives, re-imaging computer labs over the holidays, updating and expanding our BlackBerry server, and much, much more. I need a real vacation.

It Has Begun!

I haven't had much time for games the past week or so, but I did take a look at next week's release list - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Donkey Kong Country Returns, NBA Jam, Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, Sonic Colors - and it's clear that the holiday buying season is upon us!

Prometheus

Tracked-down God of War: Ghost of Sparta and Ys: The Oath in Felghana for PSP (the latter was particularly elusive), as well as Silent Hill 2 for XBOX... But I've yet to actually play any of them.

I'm still grinding though Ys: The Ark of Napishtim, and it's a fun grind that's never too long and monotonous. It's interesting to observe how the characters, weapons, and enemies are balanced; how certain areas are off-limits simply because your character may not yet be strong enough to deal any damage to the enemies there. That approach makes the world feel a little more organic and open, but sometimes it almost backfires... Like when I had to grind the same room over and over just to be able to deal any significant damage to a particular boss enemy, and when I discovered that I was able to jump ahead to one particular area and hurt certain enemies that yielded huge amounts of experience points and currency. What's impressive about those exploits is that they still feel organic in the context of the game. Retreating from a powerful enemy or carefully tiptoeing around an area you aren't supposed to see yet doesn't pull you out of the experience, especially since it still doesn't make the game easy; just less punishing ;)

P.S. Pac-Man Championship Edition DX looks totally sweet...

Yeesh...

Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (Ys 6) is a hell of a lot harder than Ys Seven; it also appears to be much shorter, as I'm already about half-way through the game; it's also plagued by annoying load times and inconsistent framerates; it's also really fun despite all of that! The PSP version of Ys: The Oath in Felghana (Ys 3) is released today (alongside God Of War: Ghost Of Sparta!), so that should keep me satisfied on this alternative action-RPG bender :)

63 and 1/3

I bought a copy of ClayFighter: Sculptor's Cut for Nintendo 64 today... $30 even, at a flea market; it's usually ~$50 + shipping on eBay :) Not a great game, but certainly a rarity as it was a rental-only Blockbuster-exclusive title.

Oh, fuck off!

I thought I was being all subversive in the wake of Bioshock 2's canceled PC DLC by buying a used copy for 360 today... Only to get home and read this.

In better news, I finished Ys Seven, and it was great; I highly recommend it despite the cheesy translation. I also picked-up dirt-cheap copies of Sly Cooper and TimeSplitters for PS2. I'd been meaning to try those games for a while now...

Professional

I traded-in my Canadian ColecoVision Expansion Module #1 and snagged a first-generation Atari 7800 ProSystem (the one with the never-leveraged-and-subsequently-covered-over-in-later-hardware-revisions expansion port) last night, along with Asteroids, Ballblazer, Food Fight, and Ms. Pac-Man... No Ninja Golf yet, but it will be mine.

I'm thoroughly impressed with the system from a design standpoint versus its contemporaries, and the advantages are especially apparent with Ballblazer... Seriously, watch this video. Food Fight and Ms. Pac-Man are great arcade ports, and Asteroids is a unique raster-based interpretation of the vector-based arcade original. The 2600 backwards compatibility of the whole thing is a nice bonus, but those stock controllers're kinda whack.

Anyway, I finished Costume Quest, and it was signature Double Fine goodness, complete with familiar tropes and nods to fans throughout the game. It's a simplistic RPG in the same vein as Penny Arcade Adventures; the concept is genius, the presentation is golden, and the short length of the adventure feels just right. It's pretty repetitive, but it never feels like a chore. I highly recommend it.

Christmas in October!

Seriously, yo... The Writer DLC for Alan Wake was a nice little package, Sonic 4 is a great update to the 2D Sonic games, Costume Quest is ridiculously fun (though the text is a little hard to read), and Super Meat Boy is just... I don't even know... Play it! As an added bonus, Super Meat Boy was released on sale and because I bought all of the aforementioned games on XBLA in October, I'm supposedly getting 800 MS points credited to my account next month!

Oh, and I'm really tempted to pick-up an Atari 7800 and track down a copy of Ninja Golf... How I didn't notice that game until yesterday baffles me.

Progress

I just can't wrap my head around the Dead Rising games... They're good, visceral fun, but I hate the save system.

Anyway, I can't wait for Costume Quest and I'm eager to get into the new Alan Wake DLC. I've finished Halo: Reach (solid game, great production values, nothing particularly special though), Scott Pilgrim (amazing experience), and The Secret Of Monkey Island Special Edition (pretty, funny, and satisfying; albeit with some fundamental design flaws), and I'm almost done with Shank (looks great, getting repetitive). S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky is notably arduous and only vaguely interesting so far, but I loved the first game, so I'll stick with it for now.

Really tempted to just pick-up Enslaved... Spear Of Destiny is keeping me busy for the time being though :)

Penguins, Earthworms, and Monkeys

Well, shit.

Anyway, I found copies of Surf's Up and NHL 10 for XBOX 360 and together they cost me ~$10; that's a huge value for two totally sweet games! I also snagged Darkwatch for XBOX as well as a complete copy of Earthworm Jim 2 for SEGA Saturn to replace my disc-only copy. Ooh, and I got in on that $10 Left 4 Dead & Left 4 Dead 2 bundle on Steam!

I've been sick and busy all week, so I've yet to complete the last few missions of Halo: Reach, but I did find the time to install S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky and continue along in The Secret Of Monkey Island.

...And now, demos. Enslaved is totally sweet. Quantum Theory is weak. Vanquish has potential. Hydrophobia is interesting.

Back In Action

It's so nice to have a kick-ass computer again... I played through the single-player campaign in Modern Warfare 2, and it was totally sweet; great set-pieces and high production values deliver a fantastic solo game, so there really is something there for everyone.

I've since moved on to Halo: Reach, and it's really solid so far; I'm about 1/3 through a solo campaign. I'm still working through Ys Seven as well, and still having lots of fun there.

Recent acquisitions include Ivy The Kiwi and Resident Evil 4 (gonna give it another try) for Wii, and I finally found a reasonably-priced (though sun-faded) copy of Earthbound for SNES along with a reproduction cartridge of Earthbound Zero for NES... Yeah, I'll find the time for Fable II, Metroid Prime 3, and Yakuza 2 at some point, I'm sure ;)

Resolution

Steam was running in Compatibility Mode on my Windows 7 machine... I'm not sure why. I put a stop to that, though I had to edit the registry to do so.

Performance on that same machine had become sluggish and choppy, and the cause turned-out to be the ASUS-provided drivers for my ASUS PCE-13N wireless network card; I've since installed Ralink drivers, as the card is built around a Ralink RT2790T chipset. All runs smoothly now.

Still regarding the same machine, I never could get all three sticks of RAM running together stably at 2000MHz, despite an extensive discussion with a G.SKILL technician. They offered to allow me to RMA the whole kit (2000MHz, 9-9-9-24-1N) for something a little more tame (1600MHz, 7-7-7-21-2N), but I tested the current kit at both 7-7-7-21-2N and 9-9-9-24-1N at 1600MHz, and the performance difference was negligible; I'm talking a latency difference of ~3ns (61ns vs. 64ns) and a bandwith difference of ~20MB/s (67.66GB/s vs. 67.68GB/s). Given that the RMA process would leave me without a functioning computer for a few weeks and neuter my upgrade path, all for a trivial speed increase, I think I'll be keeping the 2000MHz RAM and running it at lower frequencies.

So all is now well, and I am at peace :)

Escaping The Mouse

Alan Wake (and "The Signal" DLC) was great! Remedy has done a pretty good job of keeping things fresh and interesting; the gameplay never became tedious, and the story kept me guessing... I haven't been able to bring myself to complete a survival horror game since Resident Evil 2, and I couldn't put Alan Wake down until it was complete. Well done!

Anyway, I've been away for the past week... Wrapped-up most of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game before I left, and it was glorious. Buy it. It's cheap, nostalgic, epic, visceral, and fulfilling. The movie's pretty awesome too, as are the graphic novels... Yeah, I'm a fan, and it has nothing to do with the fact that the whole thing takes place in my actual neighbourhood or that my band has played the same venues featured in the books/movie/game ;)

Shank's up next for me, but I'm suffering from the stuttering cinematic issue that's been going around; I've yet to fire-up the game to see if there's a patch.

I brought Ys Seven along while I was away, and it's pretty sweet. Good graphics and music, standard story, engaging gameplay, and awesome boss battles that are genuinely challenging. I never did finish the first three games on TurboGrafx CD, decided to abandon all hope of doing so once the PSP remakes were announced, and have yet to try Ys VI on PSP... But it's supposedly the same formula each time, so I figured this'd be as good a place to start as any. It was a toss-up between Ys Seven, Lunar Silver Star Harmony, and Persona 3 Portable... As well as a bunch of other quality PSP RPGs I've yet to explore.

Moving on, remember that RAM issue I was having with my new computer? G.SKILL approved my RMA request and I got a stick of RAM in the mail last week... But there was no correspondence once I sent the faulty module away, or paperwork shipped back with it. The module they sent back doesn't work either, so I'm wondering if they just returned the old one (it would only fail under specific conditions, which I outlined in the RMA request) or the replacement is faulty as well. Grrr. In the meantime, I'm running at DDR3-1600 speeds :|

For myself.

I bought a complete copy of Air Zonk for TurboGrafx-16 for myself for my birthday on Wednesday :)

Yup.

The Best-Looking Upcoming 2D Games

Legacy

I picked-up copies of Soul Reaver for Dreamcast and Soul Reaver 2 for PS2... For convenience's sake, I guess. Also snagged a copy of Rabbids Go Home for Wii 'cause it was cheap; haven't played it yet.

I did, however, sit down with Limbo on XBLA, and if I hadn't gotten sick over the weekend, I would've finished it in one sitting; sweet game, slick presentation, powerful imagery.

Kinda wishing Prince Of Persia was over already so that I could focus on Alan Wake... Not that Prince Of Persia is bad, but it's all feeling very repetitive and I'm only a little over half-way though the game.

Anyway, a friend recently came to me with a need for a motherboard, CPU, RAM, video card, PSU, and case with a strict budget of $600 before tax... Here's what I suggested:

• Gigabyte GA-P55-USB3
• Intel Core i5 750
• OCZ DDR3 1600MHz Gold Edition Low Voltage 4GB (2x2048MB)
• Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5670 1GB
• Cooler Master Elite 350 Mid Tower Case w/350W PS

More Than Nostalgia

Just got Wonder Boy III for SEGA Master System and AMOK for DOS/Windows... I'd never played the former, and now I'm wishing I had; it's so very much better than the second Wonder Boy/first Monster World game! I can't wait to take the time to really get into this one. As for AMOK, it was a favourite of mine back in the day, but I never could find the PC version. I snagged the Saturn version not too long ago, but playing it at 800x600 in 16-bit colour with a keyboard is the way to do it; even considering that I had to dust-off my Windows 98 SE machine (300MHz Pentium II, 196MB of PC66 RAM, and a 32MB AGP ATi Rage Fury) to get it running :) Both games hold-up incredibly well today!

3D Glasses!

I watched Coraline in 3D on Blu-Ray... The effect was pretty cool, but the colours sucked.

Anyway, I also picked-up a pair of SegaScope 3-D glasses along with Blade Eagle 3-D, Maze Hunter 3-D, Missile Defense 3-D, Poseidon Wars 3-D, and Zaxxon 3-D. The first adaptor card I got (used to connect the glasses to the system) was faulty, but the second one worked fine. The effect is novel and the games're pretty creative, but I did notice a few issues. The most glaring problem I ran into was with Blade Eagle 3-D, where there appeared to be two ship sprites when your ship descends; it looked like a focus issue, though I suppose it may be intentional... Which would be weird. Anyway, moving on, when I play light-gun games I tend to close one eye to help my aim, but doing so in Missile Defense 3-D negates the 3D effect. Regardless, I'm pretty impressed with the technology, and the games aren't bad. Now to track-down the three remaining 3D titles...

Epic

Picked-up a complete copy of Mickey Mania for SEGA CD... That game is really pretty :)

Awake

I snagged a copy of Alan Wake for $50 yesterday (it's still hovering around $70 at most stores), and put Prince Of Persia on hold while I checked-out the first chapter. So far, so good; Alan Wake may just be a survival-horror game that I can stand! I haven't completed a survival-horror game since Resident Evil 2...

Oh, and after winning the first seven games of the first round of the playoffs in NHL 07, the game declared my team to be the Stanley Cup champions... And then the first round continued with two more games. Ergh.

Going Back

I really dug the first Kirby game when it was released on Game Boy, but didn't really follow the series beyond that. I've been collecting the major Kirby games since, but really only got back into them today, when there was a huge blackout in my area. I ploughed through Dream Land, and am well into Dream Land 2... Only eight or so more Kirby titles to go! :)

Oh, and I defeated the boss in Wario Land: Shake-It! Then, in true Wario fashion, a bunch of secret levels were made available. I'll get back to them some day, I'm sure. Everyone who complained that the game was too short clearly didn't bother with all of the challenges and secret levels. Shake It! is definitely a worthwhile Wii investment.

Finally, I borrowed Way Of The Warrior and DOOM for 3DO from a friend after he found his Goldstar 3DO in his basement. Way Of The Warrior is every bit as ridiculous as I remember hearing it was back when it first came out, and also exceedingly difficult to play. It does have some really nice touches (graphics, music, secrets), and after doing some research on the title, I uncovered what looks to be an impressively deep fighting game... But I'm not quite ready to dedicate that much time to it just yet. DOOM, on the other hand, is just as awful as I'd heard. The 3DO port is barely playable, and the only redeeming qualities are the killer CD soundtrack and the ability to strafe using the shoulder buttons. Avoid.

Oldschool Heat

I'm having a lot of fun with Atari Karts on Jaguar. I often see it described as a Super Mario Kart clone, but it really is a very different game. While they are both kart racers, Nintendo's offering demands a balance of driving and combat whereas Atari Karts focuses almost exclusively on the former. Bonuses and hazards in Atari Karts affect your own kart (speed, handling, tires, etc...); the only offensive pick-up in the game reverses your opponent's steering, and is exclusive to multiplayer races.

I've also read numerous complaints about Atari Karts' graphics, but I suspect that many critics forget just how blocky the graphics in Mario Kart are. Atari Karts runs at a much higher resolution than the Super Nintendo game, and features some clever scaling tricks to achieve hills and jumps throughout many of its tracks. Another misguided complaint I've often seen is that the Jaguar game is too easy, but races become genuinely challenging by the mid-point of the race season... Perhaps those critics didn't play for very long ;)

There are some legitimate issues with Atari Karts (like the unnatural bumper-car physics, and how some obstacles are flat on the track and can blend-in to the road), but all of them are minor and don't significantly detract from the fun to be had. Quite simply, Atari Karts is a driver's kart racer with a gentle learning curve and some of the most impressive sprite-scaling graphics of its generation.

---

I bought BIT.TRIP RUNNER on WiiWare, and it's a great combination of delightfully frustrating gameplay, catchy and interactive music, and fantastic '80s-inspired visuals. Get it.

I've also finally taken the time to explore the free Windows version of Cave Story, and it's sublime; I'll definitely be grabbing the WiiWare remake and really digging into this one.

Oh, and Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is really good too! It's a new twist on the shoot-'em-up genre from Treasure; that right there should be enough to sell you on it.

Before I move on from the Wii, I should note that I've made it to the final battle of Wario Land: Shake It!, and it's... Annoying. It's not actually that bad, but it's definitely gonna take some practice.

Finally, do you remember when I thought my PC was overheating because of the weather, and so I took the side off my case? Turns-out it was actually the increased voltage required to get my DDR3-2000 RAM running at 2000MHz that was affecting my CPU. I've been messaging back and forth with a technician from the RAM manufacturer, but we've had no luck yet... In the meantime, all is stable at DDR3-1600 speeds.

Busy Again

My XBOX 360 doesn't seem to be displaying blue fuzz anymore; I kept the newer Jaguar (and power adapter, and controllers) once I was informed that the warranty sticker on the older one wasn't an Atari sticker, and once I discovered that neither of the consoles had the analog-input circuit; and I traded the old Jaguar and extra games for copies of Sin & Punishment: Star Successor and Super Castlevania IV... Though I haven't had time to play either of them.

128-bit?

I bought a second Atari Jaguar. This one's in better condition, cosmetically, than my first one; it's a later model (higher serial number, smaller power adapter), and doesn't have a warranty sticker like the first one. This second system came with two controllers, an RF switch, and loose copies of Atari Karts, Evolution: Dino Dudes, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure, Tempest 2000, and Val D'Isere Skiing & Snowboarding.

I'll keep Atari Karts for sure, but I'm not sure which of the consoles, controllers, and power adapters to hang on to, and which to sell.

Fuzzy

My XBOX 360 started displaying blue visual artifacts while playing Braid... The issue was still apparent when I popped-in SSF4. It wasn't a particularly hot day or anything and visual artifacts are a common symptom in overheating GPUs, so I'm guessing that my console is on its last legs. Some may recall that I got this 360 near the end of December 2006; that means that in three days, this system will be 3.5 years old... Or exactly six months out of warranty. So do I play it until it dies? Pay to get it repaired? Trade it toward a used replacement? Splurge and grab a new 360 S? Then again, I played Price Of Persia for a while without issue after the fact, so perhaps it's not quite over yet.

NHL 07's playoff situation is getting more frustrating by the day. Six-game suspensions for too many game misconducts after one playoff game? Disappearing simmed games? I give up. I really hope that NHL 11 is coming to PSP; I will buy it as soon as it's available.

Thirteenth? Sixteenth?

Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars is the 13th game in the "Vs." series, right? I guess if we're counting both versions of the original Card Fighters' Clash games, the "Pro" version of Capcom Vs. SNK, and the "Cross Generation of Heroes" version of Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, it becomes the 16th...

Anyway, I took the time to get familiar with it this past weekend, and I'm loving it! Great graphics, plays beautifully with an arcade stick, the music is far less annoying than what we got in Marvel Vs. Capcom 2, and the gameplay mechanics feel genuinely fresh. I'm especially impressed at the versatility of the controls; how it's not terribly overwhelming for newcomers to the genre, but deep enough to keep more serious players interested. By the way, I'm sticking with Casshan and Batsu as my team at the moment.

Es... Three Of Them.

Rayman Origins is the real show-stealer at this point; that thing looks awesome.

Otherwise, I think Nintendo's had the most impressive showing overall. Goldeneye 007 seems confused (Daniel Craig?) and Donkey Kong Country Returns feels like a step backward after Jungle Beat, yet both still look like a hell of a lot of fun. Kirby's Epic Yarn is amazing in terms of its visual presentation and gameplay design, 3DS has me genuinely excited, and Epic Mickey is looking much better than I expected after seeing those early screenshots. The new Metroid, Zelda, and Kid Icarus games are all intriguing, but haven't really gripped me like the others.

I've seen some pretty impressive stuff from all companies (for example, I'm really digging the look of Castlevania: Lords Of Shadow), but Rayman and that tidal wave of Nintendo goodness is just drowning out all the Halos and Killzones...

Oh, and I can't seem to get past the first round of the playoffs in NHL 07 on PSP. I've now beaten Florida six times (something like 5-2, 10-1, 3-1, 8-1, 3-0, 3-0), but it keeps making me play them. If I sim to the end of the series, it doesn't start the next one. Grrr...

Playoffs

The playoffs in NHL 07 on PSP seem to be broken... The game crashed consistently when trying to start the first round (I saved manually, simulated the first game, then re-loaded the save to get around that), the calendar doesn't seem to track games properly (my 10-1 game two win over Florida seems to have disappeared from the record books), and there doesn't seem to be any way to check playoff stats. Not fun.

Profit

I found Final Fantasy Tactics, Front Mission 3, Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and Xenogears for PlayStation (all complete, non-Greatest Hits) for ~$40 at a used record store, bought them, and then walked down the street and got ~$80 for them at a used game store.

I've also recently picked-up Prince Of Persia (360); The Conduit, Punch-Out!!, and Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom (Wii); Kirby 64 (N64); Uniracers (SNES); Aoi Blink, Barunba, Rabio Lepus Special, and Ryūkyū (PCE); as well as Ninja Gaiden II and III (NES). I also snagged an Hori Fighting Stick Wii and a Turbo Booster for my TurboGrafx-16.

Now then, to follow-up on my last post, Tomb Raider: Underworld is easily one of the best of the series, and I highly recommend playing through Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld. There're issues with these games, and those issues are even more apparent after great titles like Assassin's Creed raised the standard of the genre, but these modern Tomb Raiders are still very entertaining. Regarding Anniversary, while it is a remake, it serves as a reminder of past events that are important to recall when playing Underworld... I didn't finish Anniversary, so I had to read the Wikipedia entry on the Underworld plot to make sense of some parts :)

F.E.A.R. 2 really feels like more of the same from the first game, but rendered with MUCH nicer graphics and presented with a few new gameplay elements. I loved the first one and I really enjoyed this sequel, but it just didn't blow me away this time. Worth your time if you're a fan or if you've never played any part of the series before, but not exactly groundbreaking.

Prince Of Persia is visually gorgeous and an intriguing change of pace for the series. It feels more deliberate than the three previous games; more akin to the original in terms of control and pacing. The exposition is a little awkward at first, but I hear it gets better as the game progresses... Unfortunately, I don't think they'll suddenly re-cast the voice actors and tone down the ham-fisted clichés. Considering that you can get this one for $15 now, I'll gladly overlook the cheesiness and backtracking... At $60, however, I would've been much more disappointed.

So very tired...

Tomb Raider: Underworld was pretty sweet, but not without its faults; F.E.A.R. 2 was really good despite feeling like more of the same from the first game; Prince Of Persia (2008) is off to a solid start, but I'm already noticing potentially big annoyances; Tales Of Monkey Island has been great throughout.

I'll go into more detail when I'm not half asleep.

Oops...

I was apparently supposed to finish Tomb Raider: Anniversary in order for Tomb Raider: Underworld to make much sense...

Wrong Address

I bought a SEGA lot off craigslist last week. The guy gave me the wrong address and didn't provide a phone number, but that's another story...

I picked-up a model 2 SEGA CD with all three (yes, three) EMF shields and the extender for model 1 Genesises, two non-TMSS "High Definition Graphics" model 1 Genesises (that's the very first release; there were at least seven different model 1 Genesis releases), two model 1 Genesis power adapters, two six-button controllers (one first-party, one third-party), a blue Konami Justifier lightgun, 18 Genesis games, 18 SEGA CD games, some empty cases, a Nintendo R/F switch, and a coat hanger for $70. Judging by eBay prices, the lot was worth $300+ :)

I kept the SEGA CD, the EMF shields, one of the power adapters, the Justifier, and the first-party six-button controller; Android Assault, Rise Of The Dragon (box release in a jewel case), and Robo-Aleste for SEGA CD; Eternal Champions and Shadowrun for Genesis, and a bunch of the SEGA CD jewel cases... And sold the rest for $100. I'm pretty happy that I essentially got paid $30 to keep a few hundred dollars worth of stuff :)

I also picked-up official SEGA CD and Saturn back-up cartridges, and am holding-off on Alan Wake until I get through some more of this gaming backlog.

Oh, and I finished Hero 3 in Half-Minute Hero and am about half-way through Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Three Seconds.

My SEGA CDX can't read the copy of The Adventures Of Batman & Robin that I picked-up the other day... Which is unfortunate, because it seems to run just fine in emulators and on other SEGA CDs. Hell, I even copied the CD, and the burned copy runs just fine in my CDX! The disc looks immaculate, so I'm guessing that my CDX is the problem :(

I haven't had any further issues with Super Street Fighter IV disc read errors since my last post though, so that's a plus.

Stoked for Alan Wake, and planning on looking into ModNation Racers on PSP. Speaking of PSP, I'm on Hero 3 in Half-Minute Hero, and it's a fantastically frustrating good time. The Evil Lord, Princess, and Knight games are fun and add real value to the package, but the the Hero games are where it's at. That game is a system-selling killer app for the PSP.

Red

I picked-up Super Street Fighter IV for XBOX 360 yesterday, and upon inserting the disc, I was greeted with one red light on my console. I managed to get the game running, but then got disc read errors about half-way through a single-player tournament. Tried it on my brother's Elite, and didn't run into any issues... Grrr.

Tomb Raider: Underworld still has my interest, but holy crap! The camera and controls are so ragged and jumpy... I don't remember Legend being that bad.

True

Tomb Raider: Underworld looks great, but the camera's mostly crap, the controls are pretty awful, and the exposition is poorly developed... Surprisingly, it's pretty fun so far, despite all of its shortcomings.

Oh, and taking the side panel off my computer seems to have fixed the crashing issue; damned humidity.

P.S. Crysis Wars on the highest visual settings, while still pretty impressive, isn't as impressive as I remembered.

Hot

Turned-out the random crashes were due to my new PC overheating... The weather around here has gotten a lot warmer recently, and diagnostics are showing no faults or damage; so it's time to look into new cooling solutions.

Anyway, Prototype is good, but definitely not great. The ending was kinda whack, but maybe I just missed the point.

I played through Episode 2 of Tales Of Monkey Island today, and Tomb Raider: Underworld is downloading from Steam as I type this...

Prototypical

Prototype has randomly crashed three times during the final few missions... While that would be frustrating with just about any game, the fact that this one has become exceedingly boring and I'm only finishing it because I've already come this far makes matters much worse.

I think I'm still having fun...

...But I do seem to be hijacking a lot of tanks in Prototype.

Prototype

Prototype is pretty cool. While it doesn't feel as fluid as Crackdown and it's very reminiscent of its spiritual predecessor, The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, Prototype still has a lot of good stuff to offer. The gameplay is nicely varied, the atmosphere is suitably gritty, and the story is vaguely intriguing so far (I'm about 1/3rd through)... It has managed to hold my attention.

Moving along...

Bioshock 2 got better toward the end; mostly because the characters developed at a quicker pace and the plot advanced accordingly. I was a little disappointed that a few things were hinted at but not explored at any real depth (e.g. your character's origins), and I ended-up in the same position I found myself at the end of the first game; overstocked and overpowered, ignoring 75% of my inventory, and rarely feeling particularly challenged. A very satisfying game overall, I'm still in love with the setting, though the scenario could use a bit of work. The first Bioshock is a must-play; the second one isn't quite as awesome.

So now I'm on to Prototype...

Bioshock 2 is unnecessary

I'm about half-way through Bioshock 2, and I'm feeling pretty bored and apathetic. It's like the first game, but less interesting because we've done it all before. There're new characters that I don't care about (except when I wonder why they're still in Rapture some ten years after it went to shit), new gameplay aspects that I don't enjoy (defend things against waves of idiots), and some pretty serious pacing issues (the story hasn't progressed in some time; just sayin')... Essentially, I feel like I'm grinding through something very pretty that I've already finished. It's an engaging and satisfying game, but it's just not doing anything special.

Prototype and F.E.A.R. 2 are up next.

Sudden Savant?

I accidentally finished Arkham Asylum. I sat down to put in an hour or so, and ended-up ploughing through to the end before I knew it. I dig the Bioshock-esque atmosphere and I love the character presentations, but I felt the story was a little rushed; a little too convenient at times... Fantastic concept though. Similarly, the voice-actors, while top-notch, were occasionally left to struggle with some pretty awfully clichéd lines. The final battle was just ridiculous and disappointing, but it's still a killer game, worth every penny spent on it and every minute spent with it, right on par with Assassin's Creed II... But I think I had more fun with Brütal Legend last year.

Within two days of spending some quality time with Street Fighter IV, I was able to finish the game on the hardest difficulty setting without using any continues... So I fired-up Super Street Fighter II Turbo to see if I'd somehow become a Street Fighter savant. I had not; SSF2T kicked my ass in short order.

Anyway, I bought a complete copy of Alien vs Predator for Jaguar (needed the box and overlays) and Street Fighter Alpha Anthology for PS2 (only way to get SFA2 Gold), and I'm back into NHL 07 on PSP in a big way thanks to AronVad's new (and very impressive) roster update over at the GameFAQs forum.

Anticipation

I've been playing Batman: Arkham Asylum and Street Fighter IV on the new PC, and they're both pretty amazing, despite both being out for quite a while now.

While Arkham Asylum is gorgeous, fluid, and just downright impressive, it's all a little overwhelming; I'm 20% in and just feeling a little lost... I'm sure it'll coalesce as the narrative progresses.

Street Fighter IV made sense right away, but now that I've taken the time to learn its new mechanics (so I'm not playing it like SSF2T anymore), I'm a lot more comfortable competing against other people. I've unlocked every character but Seth, and while Ken's still my go-to guy, I'm really liking Abel and I'm curious to see how Makoto (my other SF3 character) shapes-up when SSF4 is released.

Oh, and my FireWire Solo causes my USB controller to stop working when waking from sleep mode on the new PC :(

Assembly

Three builds in the past week:

1. 2.4GHz "Prescott" Pentium 4 on an ECS PM800-M2 with 1GB of 400MHz DDR RAM.
2. Core i7 930 on an ASUS P6X58D Premium with 6GB of 2000MHz DDR3 RAM.
3. 2.53GHz Pentium 4 "B" on an ASUS P4T533-C with 1GB of PC800 RDRAM.

I built the Prescott machine out of some parts of my own and parts that a client insisted were broken; it works, but the CPU fan is ridiculously noisy; it'll be used to power a basic surveillance system. The i7 is my new personal machine, and it's ridiculously fast. The motherboard has one of those nifty Linux-based virtual machines for instant-on access to the Internet 'n such, but it boots Windows almost as quickly, so there isn't much point to it once you get over the novelty. The Rambus machine is a nice surprise that I pieced-together out of spare parts from various broken machines I had lying around. That one's going to a friend of mine whose desktop died - bad sectors, burst capacitors.

Jeebus!

This thing is fast!

QTE FTW

Finished God Of War II. It was a lot of fun with just the right amount of challenge, though a little too cheesy at times. My only real complaint is with the quick-time event button cues; single button presses and stick motions are indicated in the centre of the screen, but repeated presses or motions are indicated on the bottom-left of the screen. That inconsistency made the final battle awfully annoying...

Anyway, I've decided on the rest of the parts for my new computer:

• 60GB OCZ Vertex SATA 3.0Gb/s SSD
• 1TB Seagate 7200.12 SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD w/32MB cache
• Plextor PX-880SA 24x DVD+/-RW
• Antec TP-650 PSU

30 Seconds

Okay, seriously, Half-Minute Hero is amazing, and I can't put it down... It's a great blend of RPG, critical thinking, and self-referential humour that keeps me coming back for more. I've only played the Hero mode so far, and while I should be bored of it by now (~50% complete), it mixes things up just enough to keep me grinding away. The quest-specific sub-challenges are great incentives that significantly add to the replay value.

Anyway, I bought some more of my new PC today:

• Intel Core i7 930
• ASUS P6X58D Premium
• 6GB (3x2GB) 2000MHz DDR3
• Sapphire Radeon HD 5850

Fun!

PSP

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines didn't provide the revelatory backstory I'd hoped for. While it is a solid title and certainly impressive on the PSP, the played-it-safe nature of the plot really devalues it in the series. I should also mention that the sidequests are essentially optional, as you can power-up your character quite effectively along the way by simply completing the main quest and ignoring everything else. This strictly-optional nature of the sidequests may be a response to the negative reaction that they received in the first game, but because they now offer so little added-value to the experience, they become trivial and provide no compelling reason to complete them; especially since the PSP controls aren't nearly as tight as the console games in the series. I wonder if the DS Assassin's Creed titles are any better...

Anyway, I snagged a few more PSP games the other day:

• Age Of Zombies - Amazingly good, almost entirely on account of its hilarious context for otherwise classic gameplay.
• Echoshift - I never did finish Echochrome, but I had a lot of fun with it and this one seems like a nice addition to the series.
• Everyday Shooter - Pretty cool, not as tight as the hype had led me to believe, but definitely worth checking out.
• flOw - Always loved this one, and it's very pretty on the PSP.
• Half-Minute Hero - Great concept, charming presentation, nothing else quite like it... Definitely worth your time.
• Lunar: Silver Star Harmony - Cheesy voice acting, but a real slick update to the classic game... That I've still yet to finish in any incarnation.
• Patapon 2 - I love the Patapon games because they're so engrossing, beautiful, and endearing, but I always feel overwhelmed by the depth they offer and never seem to get very far with them... I'll change that one day.

Not sure where I left-off...

...but I've since picked-up Deadly Premonition for XBOX 360, Metal Slug XX for PSP, Confidential Mission for Dreamcast, D for 3DO, NBA Jam TE for Jaguar, and Ys Book I & II for Turbo Grafx CD; I ended-up passing on Violent Soldier.

Oh, and from that Lynx lot, I kept Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Electrocop, Gates Of Zendocon, KLAX, Pac-Land, RoadBlasters, Todd's Adventures In Slime World, and Zarlor Mercenary.

Lynx II, Part II

I snagged a Lynx II, power adapter, and 15 games off a local buy & sell for $60. The system has some dead rows on the screen, and I already had or didn't want many of the games, but I should be able to make back most of my investment by trading-in what's left.

The games (all loose) were: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (surprisingly good!), Chip's Challenge (flat cart; I'll keep my original ridged copy), Electrocop (impressive game, albeit hard to keep track of what's going on; includes an awesome selection of mini-games), Gates Of Zendocon (ridged cart; decent, though primitive-looking shmup), Gauntlet, KLAX, Pac-Land, RoadBlasters, Robotron 2084 (good conversion, but the control scheme is sorely lacking), Rygar, Todd's Adventures In Slime World (love this game), Ultimate Chess Challenge, Xenophobe, Xybots, and Zarlor Mercenary.