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?