Celceta for Vita... Shells and Cheese?

Picked-up Tearaway and Ys: Memories of Celceta for Vita, but haven't had a chance to spend any quality time with them yet, which is especially sad because I hear Tearaway is incredibly good and Ys is the reason I bought a Vita :(

Got to try an XBOX ONE though; Forza 5 and Killer Instinct; very pretty, but nothing groundbreaking during my short time with them. I like the UI better than the PS4's, and the controller's fine... But yeah, that's about it.

Ooh! Rayman Fiesta Run on Android! Really cool, but why must I submit my Google account just to play? :\ Also, Type:Rider... Pretty neat :)

More Newishness!

PS4: Contrast is kinda cool; FIFA is... FIFA.

Wii U: Wind Waker HD was fine; Super Mario 3D World is awesome; and Sonic Lost World might be kinda fun to watch, but I don't think I ever want to play it again... Maybe the 3DS version is better.

Nexus 5: Yes.

Bought Ni no Kuni, new, for $20.

Greatness [Still] Awaits

Played a PS4 demo unit the other day! The physical system looks great, the controller feels great, the demos were... A lot of stuff I'd seen before. Spent the most time with Knack... Which, I have concluded, is a pretty shitty demo.

Saw an XBOX One... It was large.

Bought Bangai-O Spirits complete for $5!

Ridiculous Fishing is now on Android!

Android 4.4 is alright, I guess!

Using batch files and Visual Basic scripts to automate domain printer updates feels kinda silly, but I'm doing it anyway because Group Policy Objects weren't propagating quickly enough for everyone last time I tried that.

More books... Less time with handhelds.

Gonna focus on A Machine For Pigs and Burial At Sea for now.

Oldschool!

Got sucked-in to the 2012's Death Rally remake... I'd read so many negative reviews and consequently avoided it, but it was recently deeply discounted, and I had to see for myself. Well, it's not awesome - certainly not as awesome as I remember the original being - but it's pretty fun and rewarding... And kinda short.

Also snagged the new Rise Of The Triad on sale, and it's supercrazygonuts! The original was really interesting, but never really held my attention beyond its initial moments; it was just too ridiculous... The new is just as ridiculous (that into cinematic is so awful), but feels a lot more solid... Like it has a foundation rooted in reality; much more organic that the first one.

Ooh, and Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs! I'm just getting started, but it's already so creepy! The implications of the journals and setpieces! The way the house shudders! Can't wait to see how pants-shittingly good this gets :)

Then, Outlast.

The Wise Man's Fear

Took a break from games and read a pretty big book.

While reading said book, there was a smattering of Puppeteer (which looks gorgeous), and I managed to plough through the main campaign of Rayman Legends (which also looks gorgeous) on Vita. I'm not sure how I feel about the Back To Origins section (like, why did I even play the first game?) and I've yet to see the Invasion Mode patch, but on the whole, I'm really glad the game exists :)

Now it's back to Shin Megami Tensei IV (I think I'm a little under halfway through) and Borderlands 2 (so much content!), but I'm really tempted to dig-in to the new Pokémon game... The fact that there's a new Ys game coming in a few weeks is what's really holding me back. I've never played more than a few hours of a proper Pokémon game; I get it, but I just haven't taken the time.

Damnit.

Promised myself I wouldn't after Persona 4 Golden, but here I am, a few hours into Shin Megami Tensei IV... And I'm hooked.

Where was I...

Dragon's Crown just gets better and better... Some of the earlier dungeons can be a little tricky, but once you start taking-on sidequests and really filling-out your party, it all comes together nicely and you get to be a very well-drawn (and well-animated) badass.

Persona 4 Golden was awesome. Play it. Stick with it. It's like nothing else.

Borderlands 2 gets really good, and then about halfway through it gets absolutely overwhelming; if you're a neurotic completionist (I'm not, thank goodness), this game will ruin you.

Electronic Super Joy is a lot of fun; some really clever level design in there. Mercenary Kings has one of the worst control schemes I've ever experienced. The Swapper is downright gorgeous, though it does get a little obtuse toward the end. I still love Hotline Miami a lot. Oh, and Don't Starve is pretty cool.

Kid Icarus: Uprising has lost me for the time being, so I tried The World Ends With You, but its battle system really turned me off; too chaotic. Now I'm on to either Project X Zone or Shin Megami Tensei IV. Attack Of The Friday Monsters was incredibly good, by the way.

And I finally found an english-language (EU) SNK copy of SNK vs. Capcom: Cardfighters' Clash! I only had the NA Capcom version, and had only found Japanese SNK versions until the other day.

On top of everything else, I've been playing a lot of Tetris DS and EA's Tetris for Android... Like, a whole lot.

I love vanilla everything...

Dragon's Crown and Muramasa on Vita look incredible. Almost done Persona 4 Golden. Kid Icarus: Uprising is really pretty, but it's just not the best thing ever, y'know? Borderlands won me over by the end, but the PC port crashed on me so many times in Old Haven and The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned that I just gave-up and moved on to the sequel... Whose more complete characterisations have served to shed a harsher light on the franchise's crass humour; I'm talking Duke Nukem Forever territory, here. *sigh* Dead Space 2 is still pretty awesome though, and Gears Of War: Judgement is, well, Gears Of War but less interesting so far.

Broke Down

I did end-up making some Steam purchases during the summer sale:

• Borderlands 2 Season Pass
• Condemned: Criminal Origins
• Deathspank
• Monaco
• Proteus
• Rune Classic
• Skyrim: Dawnguard
• Skyrim: Dragonborn

Also picked-up the Limited Edition of Shin Megami Tensei IV for 3DS (despite promising myself I wouldn't after sinking so much time in Persona 4 Golden) because, along with my earlier purchase of Fire Emblem: Awakening, Nintendo was including $30... Which has so far netted me copies of Mighty Switch Force 2 and Shantae.

And Borderlands is getting kinda boring. Looks like I'm about 60% through the game, and while I like it, I'm ready to check out... Playing it in shorter and shorter bursts as it becomes a bit of a slog to get to the end.

So cheap!

Steam's sales are incredible, but I'm in no rush to play DmC, Metro: Last Light, or the last two Call Of Duty games (all were down to $20~$30); everything else I've been eyeing (Gunpoint, Monaco, Rain-Slick 4, The Swapper) are all super-cheap to begin with; and Singularity is STILL over $20... Looks like it's gonna be a summer of working through the backlog; I'm cool with that :)

Also, Persona 4 Golden is, like, the longest freaking game ever! Who has time for this shit!? Still awesome, but I don't think I'm gonna touch another Megami Tensei game for a while after this one.

Play with me?

Would just like to mention that I found copies of Ghost Trick, Muramasa Rebirth, the Limited Edition of Project X Zone, and Tetris DS... ALL AT THE SAME PLACE!

Also picked-up complete copies of Ristar for Genesis and SEGA Touring Car for Saturn!

Ooh, and Gears Of War: Judgement for cheap! Like, brand new for $30 cheap!

Damnit.

I purchased Borderlands: Game Of The Year Edition, Borderlands 2, and a Borderlands 2 Season Pass - all for about $30 - during various Steam sales, but didn't get around to trying any of them until the other day. I'd heard the first game was essentially a Diablo-esque FPS with hardly any narrative... I'd say it's more of an offline MMO-style grind, but whatever. As for the story, yeah, pretty bare-bones so far; I'm a level-20 Hunter. Anyway, I'm into it... I kinda wish I wasn't, but I am. Gonna wrap the first game up ASAP and hope the sequel's plot is as good as I've heard it is.

Purple

I finished The Last Of Us, and it's definitely worth everyone's time. I can't imagine what it would be like to play that game as a parent, though I'm pretty sure it'd have a huge impact on the player's experience. Anyway, the final 25% is considerably more engaging and interesting than the zombie-apocalypse routine of the first half of the game, but I'm mostly impressed that I ploughed through a stealth-heavy game without save-scumming! It was a very organic experience; one that so many other stealth games have had such a hard time delivering.

Once that one was out of the way, I finally wrapped-up Far Cry 3 and Bulletstorm. Both games were really good, though both would've greatly benefited from allowing me to edit their horribly awkward scripts ;)

Kentucky Route Zero Episode II was as stunning as the first episode, I'm downloading Borderlands, and you really must play Ripple Dot Zero.

Naughty Dog

So I finally got a chance sit down with The Last Of Us, and I'm now a little over half-way through... Really solid stealth-action game with great voice-acting, but I don't see what everyone's so incredibly stoked about. I've been a Naughty Dog fan since Way Of The Warrior on 3DO, and while this may be the most ambitious title they've ever released, I'm kinda disappointed by some of the rough edges I encountered over the first few hours; my character has gotten stuck in world geometry, looped through falling animations, and died; my flashlight has experienced something resembling an epileptic seizure; I've quit in the middle of an encounter only to continue from a point after that encounter when I return to the game; Ellie has straight-up teleported through obstacles on multiple occasions; other NPCs have literally run around in circles; enemies have respawned from previously cleared-out areas; dead bodies have seemingly randomly hurtled themselves through the air; and the entire world - save for me and the skybox - has simply vanished. Even worse, many of those bugs are reproducible. Regardless of all that, the story's pretty interesting, but then I'm just not getting into it; it's very by-the-numbers... I do like the flow of everything though; this is a stealth game that doesn't make me want to reload my game every time I'm spotted *ahem*Dishonored, Deus Ex: Human Revolution*ahem* The Last Of Us is a really good game; don't get me wrong; it's just not a ten for me... Yet.

P.S. Picked-up Okamiden and Sonic Rush Adventure for DS, Lost Odyssey for 360, and P.N.03 for GameCube.

P.P.S. Guacamelee is friggin' awesome!

A survivor is born, eh?

Snagged Tomb Raider for $25 from Steam, and it was totally worth it; solid game. Great graphics, fun gameplay that's right up my alley (story-driven single-player action in a rich world to explore), and it's plenty long without feeling too drawn-out. The tone of it is all wrong though... Tomb Raider goes for a much more serious experience than Uncharted, but is undermined by the ham-fisted writing, mediocre voice acting, crazy physics, and supernatural plot points; Uncharted had way more fun with its story and characters, but it felt mostly real and achieved a much better balance. Ultimately, Tomb Raider feels particularly unnecessary after the previous trilogy; Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld were great after the nearly unplayable Angel Of Darkness, and this new one just feels like it kinda throws all of that away... Reboot? Origins? Meh. A solid game, but a disappointing Tomb Raider.

Almost done... I hope.

Added Code Of Princess, Fire Emblem Awakening, and Yoshi's Island DS to the collection.

Monkeys. Cosmic terrorists.

Stumbled across copies of Contact (DS), Contra 4 (DS), and Far Cry Instincts: Predator (360)... Almost done.

It's about time!

Went out to pick-up Pandora's Tower for Wii, came home with that plus Dead Space: Extraction (Wii), Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (DS), Sonic Colors (DS), and Super Princess Peach (DS)... Still on the lookout for Ghost Trick, Ōkamiden, Sonic Rush Adventure, and Tetris DS.

6/8

Wrapped-up New Super Mario Bros., and it was great. Not perfect, but familiar, challenging, and still fun... Looking forward to the sequels.

Just started The Knife of Dunwall and it's more of the same so far, which is totally cool.

I'm stuck on the second chapter of Slender: The Arrival, and while it's suprisingly rough around the edges, I'm still really enjoying it.

Persona 4 Golden may be the greatest game I've ever experienced, but I'm still just not that into it... It's such an impressive piece of design, but the story and subject matter just ain't doin' it for me.

Jon crashes.

About half-way through Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, New Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario 3D Land, and they're all stellar! NSMB is the weakest of the bunch, if only because of it's difficulty... I appreciate the challenge, but I would've placed a few checkpoints and secrets in less sadistic locations if I'd designed the  game. 3D Land is classic Mario platforming and exploration with some great new twists, but it all feels a little disjointed from level to level; not much in the way of the cohesive themes like other Mario games tend to have. Dark Moon is impeccable... Seriously, it's incredibly good. A rich world to explore, full of character and action; it's the kind of game I live for.

I also took some time to try SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters DS. The first Card Fighters game is still one of my favourite games of all time; the second is good, but the new mechanics made battles drag-on way longer than was fun; the third one... Ergh. It should be fun, but there's so much shit going on! honestly, I would've been happy with the first game's mechanics garnished with updated rosters and graphics, and a new story. I'll get back to it once this Mario business is wrapped-up, but I'm not exactly as eager as I first was.

Finally, snagged a complete Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage?! Collector's Edition for 3DS :)

Do The Mario!

It occurred to me that the last Mario game I played through was... Super Mario Sunshine in 2008!? I simply haven't gotten around to the New Super Mario Bros. or Super Mario Galaxy series, nor had I continued with the Mario & Luigi or Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, and I never even touched the Paper Mario series.

Well, I recently took advantage of $129 in gift cards, $70 in free promotional stuff, and two $10-off sales to get a red 3DS XL, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Super Mario 3D Land, and New Super Mario Bros. 2; that's $320 worth of stuff for $141 :) Then, having never owned a DS or DSi, I started picking-up everything I'd missed... Here's the collection so far:

3DS

• Kid Icarus: Uprising
• Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
• New Super Mario Bros. 2
• Shinobi
• Super Mario 3D Land

DS

• Aliens: Infestation
• Kirby: Canvas Curse
• Kirby Mass Attack
• Kirby Super Star Ultra
• KORG DS-10 Plus
• The Legend Of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• The Legend Of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
• Metroid Prime: Hunters
• New Super Mario Bros. (black clamshell)
• SNK vs. Capcom: CardFighters DS
• Sonic Rush
• Starfox Assault
• WarioWare Touched!
• The World Ends With You

I had someone snag a copy of Okamiden literally out from under my nose before I could buy it, and I'm waffling on Bangai-O Spirits, Contra 4, the two Mario & Luigi games, the two Mario vs. Donkey Kong games, Moon, the two Yoshi games, Wario: Master Of Disguise, and WarioWare DIY.

Anyway, Mario games! Dark Moon is incredible, NSMB is a little rough when blown-up on the 3DS but still great fun, NSMB2 is simply better than the first one (so far), and while 3D Land feels kinda bite-sized it's still pretty awesome. Seriously, nothing wrong with any of these titles; classic gameplay and character; they just feel good, and I shouldn't let myself go without for so long again :)

American exceptionalism, jingoism, and quantum mechanics...

BioShock Infinite. Incredible. I don't know what to write about it. It's been a day or so, and I'm still working-out the details of the ending. I want to discuss it, but most of my friends who play games are still playing it, and everything I've read online has made some pretty wild assumptions to fill-in the blanks I'm wrestling with... And they're incorrect. Anyway, I spent the first ~10% of the game with my jaw hanging open; absolutely stunning. While the rest wasn't as consistently stunning as the first few levels, I wasn't ever disappointed. Some really well-done twists, visceral gameplay, and near-constant stimulation made-up for the fact that I was incredibly overpowered early on, the death mechanic is questionable, and I'd been spending too much time scavenging every nook and cranny for resources... Though that may be why I was incredibly overpowered so quickly. Other criticisms include Elizabeth's canned reactions to things like lock-picking and finding supplies during somber moments, some battles that dragged-on a little too long, limited interaction with the Songbird, and the overpowered hand cannon. Then I spent the final ~10% of the game with my jaw hanging open; absolutely stunning; I don't even want to play anything else ever again.

P.S. Thomas Was Alone is also amazing.

PSA

Clive Barker's Undying is one of the best games you will ever play, and is now available at gog.com.

Anyway, been busy, but know this: Far Cry 3 is great. While I think I prefer the setting and story of Far Cry 2, the malaria, travel times, and constantly being under siege in that previous title made everything really cumbersome and kinda not fun, so I eventually gave-up. The only issue I've run into with Far Cry 3 is that I had too much in-game money too quickly, so I simply purchased everything I wanted instead of earning it through missions... Maybe they should've saved the ability to be a super-badass for a newgame+ mode or some such. Regardless, great game.

Dead Space was also pretty good! Shitty voice-acting, poor pacing/information dumps, and generally repetitive gameplay aside, I really enjoyed the experience. Started Dead Space 2, and it seems improved in just about every way; stoked!

Finally!

Hotline Miami is killer (especially that soundtrack!), but Bulletstorm and Deus Ex: Human Revolution still aren't holding my attention... Dead Space, however, totally is!

I haven't cared much for survival horror since Resident Evil 2... Design decisions like infinitely-respawning enemies in games with limited resources just kinda pissed me off. I tried every ensuing Resident Evil game, Silent Hill, Parasite Eve, etc... But they just didn't do it for me; going back to Silent Hill 2 came close, and Amnesia: The Dark Descent was a delightful surprise, but neither had me excited about the genre again, so I skipped Dead Space entirely.

I did pick-up the first two Dead Space games on Steam during a sale a while back, but it wasn't until a friend insisted I try it, even if only for the story, that I bothered to install them. I'm about half-way through the first title, and though the voice acting sucks and the game's stating to feel a little repetitive, the ship is interesting, the gunplay and HUD are radical, and the story is solid; I'm seeing this one through to the end :)

Seriously!?

I have to play through The Cave six times to see everything!? Maybe later...

Unnecessary Swearing

Finished Spec Ops: The Line. Solid game (really dug the sand dynamics), great visuals, and a classic story. Didn't like Nolan North voicing the main character, but it's totally worth your time.

Also finished the main campaign of Torchlight II, and I fell in love with the series all over again... Likely not going to continue with the random maps or playing through the story again, but it was great while it lasted.

Started on Hotline Miami; feels like a gamepad is the way to go on this one.

Bought The Cave as soon as I could; already wrapping-up my second playthough; one more to go. Love it.

Still chipping-away at Persona 4 Golden. Every time I think I finally get it, I'm confronted with another level of convolution and the scope of this thing widens... And I feel overwhelmed all over again. I've spoken to friends who're longtime fans of the series, and they tell me to focus on social links and limit my grinding to once per rescue, but then I feel like I'm missing so much! Then again, the dialogue tries too hard and I'm not really interested in living out the day-to-day of Japanese highschoolers.

Sand!

The Scorchers was fun... And short... And worth $5... And I still want more!

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 3 was also fun; dragged at times, but there's lots of room to explore the job system and keep things fresh as you make your way through the story.

Persona 4 Golden is incredibly dense, Dustforce and La Mulana are freakin' hard, Little Inferno is one of the best games in recent memory, Giana Sisters - Twisted Dreams is flawed but fun, Torchlight II is great, Bulletstorm is solid, I still haven't brought myself to finish Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Spec Ops: The Line is even better than I expected.

P.S. Thanks for deleting my complete save, Rayman Jungle Run update! :p

Problem Solved

Re: My last post, I started Bulletstorm and Black Ops. The former is big dumb fun while the latter feels kinda mindless and looks dated... And then The Scorchers came out :)

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.