What to do, what to do...

Wrapped-up Dishonored, so what's next? Looking at my Steam library, what jumps-out at me...

• Alice: Madness Returns
• Borderlands
• Bulletstorm
• Call Of Duty: Black Ops
• Darksiders
• Dead Space
• Skyrim
• Mass Effect 2
• Transformers: War For Cybertron

...Suggestions? I'll be messing around with Torchlight II in the meantime.

MOAR!

Added a bunch of stuff to the collection; in no particular order...

Virtual Boy

• 3D Tetris: This game really sucks so far.

Jaguar CD

• Battlemorph: Big improvement over the already-decent Cybermorph, though the draw-distance is still hurting.
• Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands: Big improvement over the already-decent Hover Strike, though the camera is still painful when you hit a hill.

SEGA CD

• Ecco The Dolphin: Haven't played this one yet, but it's an enhanced version of the unique Genesis game I enjoyed back in the day.
• Ecco: The Tides Of Time: Haven't played this one yet, but it's an enhanced version of the unique Genesis game I enjoyed back in the day :p

PS3

• The Unfinished Swan: Really cool; great fun to explore, so far.
• Derrick The Deathfin: Also really cool, thanks to its visual style and fast-flowing gameplay.

Wii

• The Last Story: I like to support... Gonna get around Xenoblade Chronicles first though.

Anyway, as I've progressed further into Assassin's Creed III: Liberation and Dishonoured, both have proven to be truly engaging experiences... Which only makes me more disappointed that they blew it on presentation.

Also, started Persona 4 Golden to see what all the fuss was about... Not sure I get it yet.

Kinda sorta...

...Splurged yesterday and bought Demolition Racer (Dreamcast), Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (360), LittleBigPlanet PS Vita (Vita), Major Minor's Majestic March (Wii), and Shining Force CD (SEGA CD).

Still waiting on my shipment of Battlemorph and Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands (Jaguar CD), and 3D Tetris (Virtual Boy).

Wrapped-up Max Payne 3 and Rayman: Origins, and both were great; play them.

Working on Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dishonored, but can't stop my self from save-scumming... Not fun.

so much

Halo 4 (single-player campaign): Short, kinda repetitive, mostly fun, extremely pretty, and great characterisation... Though parts of the plot are a little too esoteric for people who haven't read the books.

Rayman Jungle Run: Looks great, plays great, gets really freaking hard at times, and then just kinda ends... Totally worth $3. Seriously. Do it.

First hour or so of...

Call Of Duty: Black Ops: Pretty exciting, I guess... Nothing all that special yet though.

Dishonored: Boring voice acting and only passable writing... But great aesthetics and exhilarating, dynamic gameplay make-up for it.

Penny Arcade's On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3: Yes. Just, yes. I missed this so much.

Autumnal

Final haul from Steam's Autumn Sale:

• Borderlands GOTY
• Call Of Duty: Black Ops
• Critter Crunch
• Darksiders
• Darksiders II + a bunch of DLC
• Dishonored
• Hotline Miami
• Thief Gold
• Thief II
• Torchlight II

...All for $116.

Was really hoping to snag Spec Ops: The Line for $15, but I thought the sale was running until later today and I kinda slept-in; woke-up to find yesterday's feature sales still up, but the rest over  :(

anything to do

Approaching the midpoints of Max Payne 3 and Halo 4... Both solid titles so far; Max Payne is gorgeous, stylish, visceral, and engaging, but ventures into the truly ridiculous a little too often; Halo's a rock-solid shooter with incredible graphics for the 360 that simply drags-on at times.

Bought Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, BreakQuest: Extra Evolution, and Persona 4 Golden for Vita, as I'm almost done with Rayman Origins and none of them were on any Black Friday sale lists.

Speaking of Black Friday, I've already snagged pretty much everything Darksiders on Steam, and it cost me, like, $35. Steal. Also, can't decide what to pick for GOG's five for $10 promo :(

Cordy Sky is kinda cool, but Android 4.2 isn't coming to the Nexus S... Not that those two things have anything to do with each other.

Chrome Users!

1. Go to chrome://plugins
2. Disable Flash (in my case, 11.4 r31)
3. Go to http://adobe.com/go/EN_US-H-GET-FLASH
4. Download and install Flash (11.4 r402)
5. Enjoy a Chrome that can open links in new tabs without issue!

It's Wednesday...

...And suddenly there's way too much to play on PlayStation Vita; Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, Dokuro, Ogarhythm, Ragnarok Odyssey, Retro City Rampage, Silent Hill: Book Of Memories, and Virtue's Last Reward.

Also, Max Payne 3 is pretty epic so far.

So I do.

Got in on that Windows 8 Pro upgrade for $40 deal, and it's pretty good! Any bugs have been minor and I generally don't use the Start Screen, so I'm pretty happy here. Also picked-up a 128GB OCZ Vertex 4, which means I can have Diablo III, DOOM 3: BFG Edition, Max Payne 3, and RAGE all installed at once... So I do. DOOM and RAGE, mindless as they may be, are just plain fun; I could play them over and over and over again... So I do.

Also added a Pro Controller and Power Drive Rally to my Jaguar collection; both boxed.

Sat down with a few demos last night: Forza Horizon's kinda great, Starhawk's not my bag, Hell Yeah!'s alright, and I can't remember what else I played right now.

State of the...?

Android: Triple Town and Flick Golf have been usurped by Jetpack Joyride and Rayman Jungle Run.

Windows: Legend of Grimrock was awesome, and DOOM 3: BFG Edition was a lot of fun.

Vita: Gravity Rush was solid, but I don't think I'll be coming back to it any time soon; Hot Shots Golf and WipEout have been nice distractions when I've played a little too much Rayman Origins; Retro City Rampage is awfully charming, but I'm not sure how long it's gonna be able to hold my attention.

Jaguar CD: Jaguar CD!? Yup! Snagged one with Vid Grid, Blue Lightning, Baldies, MYST, and a Memory Track, all complete in boxes. Now to hunt-down Battlesphere, Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands, and Iron Soldier 2...

Dreamcast: Evil Twin... 'nuff said.

Exciting Stuff!

I've been too busy to sink any significant time into any games lately... Keep coming back to Grimrock when I have a few moments to spare (seriously, in love with that game), wrapping-up Gravity Rush when I'm on the go, and Triple Town and Diablo III still get some attention. Quantum Conundrum's DLC is gathering dust, and I've stalled about half-way through Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers.

Work has consisted mostly of server stuff; new hardware, data migration, etc... Exciting stuff.

Stuff

Traded-in my incomplete copy of Splatterhouse (TG16) for a complete copy; snagged a complete copy of Cannon Spike on Dreamcast, a cheap (used) copy of Rayman Origins for Vita, and a Saturn-to-Dreamcast controller adapter for my Saturn Twin-Sticks :)

Next XBLA purchases: Mark Of The Ninja (rad demo) and Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.

Finished Mass Effect... Not bad, but not great. The story is intriguing and now I'm kinda wishing I was a different character type instead of a soldier, but I doubt I'll be playing it again. Gonna plough through Max Payne 3 before I get into Mass Effect 2, but I'm not gonna install Max Payne 3 'til I get a bigger SSD later this week... So in the meantime, I'm working on Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers; sweet game, so far.

Mon dieu?

Finally tracked down a complete "Saturn style" copy of Jumping Flash! for PlayStation! Unfortunately, I had to drive half an hour to pick it up and it came in a lot with seven other games. Wasn't really interested in complete long box copies of Toshinden, ESPN2 Extreme Games, Kileak, Mortal Kombat 3, or Warhawk... But it did include The Raiden Project.

Also, Super Crate Box rules :)

History is written by the historians...

Still ploughing through the first Mass Effect... Mostly because I want to see if they fixed everything in the sequel. It's not bad, but it's still not all that awesome either; I've been taking a lot of breaks to play Psychonauts.

During the most recent break, I finally got around to trying Legend Of Grimrock... I'm in love.

Also played through the first level of Duke Nukem 3D after snagging it during a Good Old Games sale, and it was just as rad as I remembered.

Picked-up Sound Shapes yesterday, and it's really cool! Lots of fun, great music and visuals, lots of replay value (even just to hear the songs again), I dig the Cross-Play and cloud saves, I'm looking forward to DLC, and I'm stoked to start playing around with the editor.

Summer Play

XBOX Live Arcade gets an HD remake of a classic that doesn't really improve upon the classic (which I already own), a Kinect-only game (I don't have a Kinect), a mediocre zombie platformer, a mutiplayer-only game (I don't have XBL Gold), and a wonderfully-animated mash-up of the beat-'em-up, Metroid, and RPG genres with questionable writing and artwork... Disappointing, especially considering previous Summers gave us the likes of Bionic Commando: Rearmed, Braid, Castle Crashers, Shadow Complex, Trials HD, LIMBO,  Bastion, From Dust, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, and more!

PlayStation Network's PLAY is back after a weak first year, but this time we get Sound Shapes and Papa & Yo... PLAY wins this round.

Also, Quantum Conundrum was really good! Haven't dug into the DLC yet though.

F.E.A.R. 3 is gorgeous and has some really satisfying gunplay, but it's not very scary... Unsettling at times, but not scary. Regardless, the game gets pretty enjoyable after a slow start, so stick with it. I haven't quite finished the single-player campaign (on the second-last level), but yeah, not scary.

Y'know what's really scary though? Slender. Fuck. Scary as hell. Try it. It's free. I don't ever want to try it again, and I've only made it halfway through; but you should try it.

Vital

I love my PlayStation Vita. Great exclusives and ports and multimedia features and Cross Buy and so on. The stuff on the horizon (Tearaway, Cross Control, unique entries from big franchises, etc...) looks very promising, but I have just one gripe... And it's a big one. I play my Vita almost exclusively on the subway to and from work. Motion controls don't work well on the subway, nor do they work well in a car... BUT THIS IS A PORTABLE SYSTEM!!! Blowing on and shouting at your portable system (see Tearaway) don't go over well on the subway either. Always give me the option to turn off stupid gimmick control schemes.

More.

Added Metal Slug 2 and Samurai Shodown to my MVS collection, as well as a better-looking copy of Samurai Shodown II...

Giga Power!!!

Acquired Metal Slug 3 and Real Bout 2 MVS!!!

"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.

I'll get around to it...

Harley Quinn's Revenge was fine; kinda short, kinda boring, not enough Robin, too much bad dialogue. Yeah, not really worth $10.

Sonic Generations kinda rules... Like, it's actually a great game. Great gameplay (except for the Perfect Chaos boss battle; some design kinks in there), inside jokes for longtime fans of the series, and loads of replay value implemented in a way that perfectly complements the balance of speed and exploration found (though often overlooked) in traditional Sonic games. I hear the 3DS version is completely different, so I'll be picking that one up too.

Bought a Vita with four games (Gravity Rush, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and WipEout 2048; two were free as part of a sale), a 32GB memory card (~$60, used), and a hard case; That was Friday... Been busy though, and haven't had a chance to open it yet.

Spending Effort

Recently acquired complete copies of Burning Rangers and Shining Force III for Saturn! Also picked-up a complete copy of Sonic Drift 2 for Game Gear, as well as loose copies of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine and Sonic Spinball... Which means I now only need Sonic Labyrinth to complete my collection of all north american Sonic releases for Game Gear! Oh, and I snagged a "Mk1" Game Gear.

Also bought a loose copy of Shining Soul for GBA... Kinda cool, but awfully slow-moving. Still need Shining In The Darkness, Shining Force CD,  Shining The Holy Ark, and Shining Soul II to complete that collection, and two of those are readily available to me.

Tried (again) to get into Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier, Mega Man Powered Up, and Trails In The Sky on PSP, but I just couldn't do it; not my style, I guess... May give the Persona series another shot though.

Harley Quinn's Revenge is kinda cool, but not exactly blowing me away.

Classics

Diablo III is incredibly addictive; simple as that. Tried to go back to Torchlight; couldn't do it. The Humble Indie Bundle V pulled me away for a while when I started Psychonauts again (as I'm wont to do every year or so), but yeah, Diablo III.

The Dragon's Dogma demo left me completely uninterested in all but the monster designs of that game.

TripleTown still monopolises my mobile gaming time... Though I did bust-out Card Fighters Clash last night and was immediately reminded why it's one of my favourite games :)

Made some great progress with my Hyper-V-based server P2V project at work; that was fun.

Windows 8 Release Preview is slicker than the Consumer Preview, but similar enough that I'm still not sold on the concept... Plus a bunch of cool games (Jazz, Hydro Thunder, etc...) suddenly going missing from the app store is disappointing.

The more you know...

What I've learned about Mass Effect So far:

• Dialogue options aren't always what they seem.
• Inventory management is kinda broken.
• Buggy sections are... Inconvenient.

I really hope Mass Effect 2 is better.

What I've learned from Diablo III so far:

• Diablo III is friggin' awesome.
• Getting booted from a single-player game because of server/connectivity issues is mostly not cool.

R.E.A.L.

I've given-up on Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Deus Ex: Human Revolution for now; they're so drawn-out and time-consuming that finishing them (despite being about halfway through each) feels like such a chore. I took the opportunity to try Mass Effect. It's an ingenious action-RPG so far, but I'm spending way more time talking to people and running errands than doing anything particularly awesome; perhaps I should stick to the main story for a while. Regardless, I've sunk four or five hours into Mass Effect and I'm still feeling compelled to get back to it, so it's faring better than Assassin's Creed and Deus Ex :\

...Can't help comparing Mass Effect to Star Control II though, and still considering just firing-up the latter on my 3DO ;)

Betacular?

The Diablo III beta stress-test weekend dealie was stellar; May 15th can't come soon enough! I'm playing Hellfire in preparation (it was either that or Dungeon Siege; I've never finished either, but I've hardly spent any time with the latter), but man, for those 13 levels, I was in a fantastic place. It's a little disappointing that a lot of the great ideas implemented in the new Diablo game have already been seen in the competition, but the visuals and storytelling make-up for it. As for Hellfire, I made it to the hive playing as a Monk (who's pretty overpowered from the outset), and things suddenly got kinda underwhelming with some pretty weak level design and annoying characters,; I wasn't all that disappointed when I discovered that uninstalling something called Sierra Utilities deleted my character. What to do...

Esoteric

Blazed through Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP on Steam, and what a gorgeous game! Visually and aurally stunning, I just want to drink it all in. The mouse-driven controls are a little awkward and the plot's kinda thin, but everything else is genius in its simplicity; even though the gameplay is nothing particularly complex, it provides a solid challenge in its... I dunno what the right word is... The hints are concise, the puzzles are opaque, and I still had fun.

Also tracked-down a copy of Nightshade for PS2 and Cool Cool Toon for Dreamcast.

And I'm kinda bored of Deus Ex: Human Revolution about 1/4 of the way in... Not sure if I want to press on or come back to it another time.

I did, didn't I...

Did I miss an entire month again? I did, didn't I... That's cool though; aside from TripleTown and Journey, there's hasn't been much to go on about. TripleTown is awesome and Journey is one of the greatest games ever made; I played through it the first time without even pausing; I look forward my next playthrough. Seriously, I cannot stress how beautiful Journey is, and I mean in every possible way from price to length to replayability to inadvertent multiplayer. It's a game of sights and moments and human nature and you have to play it.

I've spent ~$100 on XBLA titles in the past week. Specifically, I've purchased Rocket Knight, Radiant Silvergun, I Am Alive, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, Sine Mora, Rayman 3 HD, and Fez (this Friday); holding-off on Skullgirls for now. Still gonna tell you all about the Indie titles I bought, when I get around to it.

I also snagged Golden Axe Warrior, Out Run 3-D, and Space Harrier 3-D (SMS; I now have all seven official 3-D titles), Sparkster (SNES), Hang-On GP (Saturn; it's decent), Typing Of The Dead (DC), Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii; gotta support), Jak And Daxter Collection (PS3; really only for the first one), the second Humble Android Bundle, and prolly a few other games that I can't recall at the moment.

Oh, and I'm almost done Torchlight. It's very good, but not great. Loot's kinda inconsistent (I'm stuck with awesome versions of low-level stuff, so I look ridiculous) and the grind got old before I was done.

Catching-Up

Q.U.B.E. was good... Except for one puzzle near the end that just fucking sucked.

Bought Gargoyle's Quest II for NES; Demon's Crest and Weaponlord for SNES; Metal Slug and Neo Turf Masters for MVS; a long-box copy of Return Fire for 3DO; the Humble Bundle for Android; Half-Life: Source (50%-off coupon), From Dust (66%-off sale), Serious Sam 2 and 3 (66%-off sale), and Skyrim (25%-off coupon + 33%-off sale) on Steam... Haven't played any of them (except for the first few levels of Anomaly on my phone) because I've been caught-up in Deus Ex: Human Revolution (I'm a hacker!) and downright addicted to Torchlight.

Also snagged a bunch of really good XBLA indie games, but I'll get into that another time... Like when I'm done Torchlight :)

P.S. Did not like the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo.

*yawn*

Wrapped-up RAGE and Arkham City. Not quite 100% on both, but awfully close. Both games are surprisingly similar in how they approach open-world game design... And it's 5:30am and I'm exhausted, so I'll write more another time.

I'm also almost done Q.U.B.E., and it's very good.

Pun

Had a hell of a time installing RAGE...

Issues:

1. Steam requires games to be installed on the same drive as the Steam client; I keep Steam on my system drive, which you may recall is a 60GB SSD; even retail copies of RAGE require a 25GB Steam installation; after some manual clean-up, I had just enough space.
2. Game just wouldn't start; hung at the "Preparing to launch RAGE..." window; moved Steam client to a different drive and re-installed RAGE from the discs, just for fun; same problem.
3. Used Steam's back-up utility to back-up RAGE; moved Steam back to the system drive and then restored the back-up; everything works!

Anyway, I'm just getting started, and things aren't as bad as I was led to believe by the reviews. The graghics are gorgeous and the gameplay's solid; the story's a little contrived, but nothing awful; essentially I'm seeing a simple and solid FPS with stuff to do between levels.

I finished Duke Nukem Forever's The Doctor Who Cloned Me DLC after Space Marine, and it was alright... Nothing special, but it does have a few high points (the clone training facility is amusing and the moon level is visually stunning) as well as a few low points; the Gears-Of-War-parodying Dylan character's dialogue, in particular. I wouldn't pay more than $10 for it, and even then, it won't change your mind if you weren't already a fan.

The 1.0.5 patch for the Android port of Puzzle Quest 2 (possibly because of my recent upgrade to Android 4) is choppier, fails to load pretty frequently, sometimes simply doesn't display assets (black rooms, inaccurate maps, etc...), and occasionally crashes.

Speaking of Android 4, it's an adjustment, but an easy one because it's very pretty and the new layout and functionalities make sense. It's still decimating my battery, so I keep mobile data disabled unless I'm using it... Which sucks for work e-mails.

Loved it!

Space Marine is rock solid. Great graphics, delightfully visceral gameplay, a surprisingly engaging story with endearing characters... And multiplayer I'm actually interested in!? There isn't much bad here; I've read complaints about checkpoints and the "cliffhanger" ending, and I noticed some infequent issues with models getting stuck on world geometry, but it's all so minor in context. The checkpoints could've been laid-out a little more efficiently to reduce time spent running around, but if they were placed any more frequently, the game would've been far too easy; the designers managed to find the right balance of feeling like a total badass while still having to replay the challenging points a few times. Yes, you're going to waste some time, but no, it's not particularly frustrating. The ending isn't a huge cliffhanger, but rather a setup of things to come; the main story is still self-contained and complete. As for the good, many people immediately draw comparisons to Gears Of War, and while I see why they do; Gears is all about finding cover, whereas Space Marine is all about not giving a fuck because you have a chainsword!  Seriously though, Space Marine is such a slick production and a refreshing departure from everything else. It's ridiculously surreal, yet takes itself completely seriously without coming-off as silly. It redefines the beat-'em-up genre while marrying it to the third-person shooter genre with aplomb. Gears is still killer, but Space Marine gives us something genuinely new and exciting. Oh, and the multiplayer: I got into it to earn an achievement for the Great Gift Pile contest on Steam, and ended-up having so much fun I stuck around well after earning the prize! I'm putting it hold for now so I can work on this stack of unplayed games, but I'll be coming back to it, I'm sure.

Speaking of stacks of games, I've picked-up the following on Steam:

• Batman: Arkham City
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
• Crysis: Maximum Edition
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• L.A. Noire
• Sonic Generations
• Star Wars: Knights Of the Old Republic
• Star Wars: Republic Commando

I also won copies of Grotesque Tactics and Portal, as well as a bunch of Steam coupons... I'm so screwed.

Ploughing

Space Marine is awesome. I breezed through RAAM's Shadow... It was alright; nothing all that special. I'm also already about a third of the way through Space Marine (which is an awesome game). Playing through Cave Story for the third time (first was the original release, then WiiWare, now Steam); last boss is giving me trouble.

P.S. Jamestown is great.

P.P.S. Space Marine is awesome ;)

Where to begin...

There've been so many sales lately, I was having a hard time keeping this blog up-to-date with what I'd bought... Here's what I can remember since my last update:

Steam:

• Alice: Madness Returns
• Bulletstorm
• Duke Nukem Forever: Hail To The Icons Parody Pack and The Doctor Who Cloned Me
• Hard Reset
• Mass Effect 1 and 2
• Overlord Complete Pack
• RAGE
• Serious Sam HD: Gold Edition
• Torchlight
• Space Marine

Android:

• Age Of Zombies
• Can Knockdown 2
• BackStab HD
• Blow Up
• Fruit Ninja
• Heavy Gunner 3D
• Homerun Battle 3D
• Hyper Jump
• Flick Golf!
• Flight Control
• Jelly Defense
• NFL Rivals
• Puffle Launch
• Reckless Getaway
• Reckless Racing PLAY
• SketchBook Mobile
• Sleepy Jack
• SoundHound
• Spirit
• Tetris
• TileStorm HD
• Toki Tori

XBOX 360:

• After Burner: Climax
• Elf Squad 7
• Gears Of War 3: RAAM's Shadow
• Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
• Samurai Shodown Sen
• Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Uncaged Edition

PS3:

• MotorStorm: Apocalypse
• Yakuza 4

In other news, my Nexus S is now running the official release of Android 4.0.3, and something is killing the battery; disabling the Google+ and Google Talk apps seems to have remedied the problem. Otherwise, sweet :)

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 :)