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.