Konami decided not to release Suikoden Tierkreis today after all so I pre-ordered it and to console myself, bought Condemned 2 for 360 which is on special offer in GAME at the moment, only £10. I'll play it one day when I've had a decent go at the first one...

I've been collecting some "cheap" games lately. Wal-mart (and now I've noticed Target sorta doing the same thing) has a $10 section for games they either can't move or just outright need to get rid of. You may be able to find something cool or a title which you always wanted to play but it was either not worth the release price or high up on your priority.

Over the past couple of weeks I've gotten some stuff like:

Orcs and Elves (DS)
Prey (360)
Kameo (360)
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (DS)
Killzone (PSP version)
Soul Calibur IV (360. $15 at Target on Clearance)

other titles:

Resident Evil 5 (PS3)
Killzone 2
Legendary (albeit was $30)
Golden Axe: Beast Rider
Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

Just Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (another one to my unfinished RPGs so far). Resistance: Retribution probably next.

I went on a bit of a video game shopping spree today. I finally had a rare opportunity to get into town; so while I was running some errands I stopped into the local eb games and Walmart and picked up some deals for myself.

I also had a few games pre-ordered back in Newfoundland, and my wife eventually picked those up while I was away.

PS2
1.) The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga
2.) Fatal Fury: Battle Archives Vol. 2

PSP
1.) DJ Max Fever
2.) Mana Khemia: Student Alliance

DS
1.) Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume
2.) Suikoden Tierkeris
3.) Legacy of Ys: Books I & II

Wii
1.) Ultimate Shooting Collection (Radio Allergy, Karous, Chaos Field)

I've been getting into top-down shooters lately. Has anybody played any of those shooters from the Ultimate Shooting Collection. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

One other thing I wanted to bring up is I had to deal with an incredibly rude clerk at eb games today because I was ready to purchase 6 games, but I just kindly asked if all 6 games which were fairly new releases at the time if they had any sealed copies of the 6 games I asked for and they only had sealed copies of two of them. So I just told him I would take the two sealed copies.

He got a bit rude and said why would you want it sealed, isn't having the game itself good enough for you. I just told him I'm just a collector it's just something about me and my dedication to my video game collection. It's not as if I got irate, because I didn't but I guessing as a clerk he was interested in making a sale like any person would in a retail store.

I just found out after I got back, one of the two games is not actually factory sealed he just went to the back of the store and placed two carefully hidden stickers on each side of the game, and if I take them off its going to rip up some of the box of the game. So I got pwned. Oh well, I'm just pawn the game off to one of my friends. I'm sure he'll like it. I help him with his video game collection as well.

The joys of being a collector I guess.

Went and pre-ordered a copy of The Last Remnant for PC. Can't wait to get this one, despite the ridiculously harsh criticism it has been getting.

The only bad things I heard about the 360 version were graphical problems, which seem to have been addressed in the PC release.

That said, also getting Last Remnant when it comes out this week.

Pre-ordered devil summoner 2, debated on getting devil survivor (same release date I believe). Decided not to because I never play my DS even when I buy games for it (see luminous arc 2, among others...)

Oddly enough, I went and purchased Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines and have been enjoying it since. I couldn't find a copy in town so I had to order it off of ebay (amazon had it for like...way too much ), and ended up getting an outrageously pirated copy for like 10 bucks, not even. The back of the CD case is in russian! Not kidding. I could have downloaded it for free, sure, but for some odd reason I was obsessive with getting a real copy.

Bit of a bump, but oh well.

Just to add a few to the list of games i won't play ever

Odin Sphere
Persona III: FES
Deus Ex: the Conspiracy
Suikoden III

I bought Odin Sphere and Persona a while ago. I started Odin, it's tough, and i'll finish it one day, but right now i'm too wrapped up in Rogue Galaxy (which i bought like a fucking year ago and haven't touched until now.) Persona, i'm waiting until i have a lot of time to let my brain get fucked up. Could mean this summer, i dunno.

I have no plans for Deus Ex in the near future, but i may pull it out when i feel like i need something other than a JRPG. Suikoden i bought (even though i really shouldn't have) with money i don't have right now. A friend of mine swears by this game, and he said if i didn't buy it, he'd buy it for me, and i could make payments if it came to that. And it did. So i have it. And i'm making payments. He made my other friend co-sign for it. I have weird friends.

Bought Ultimate Ghosts & Goblins for the PSP. Updating what should be pure arcade gameplay bliss and making it a poor mans metroid/castlevania collect-a-thon has to be one of the biggest development mistakes of the last few generations.

3/10

I bought Professor Layton and the Furious Village People off eBay for a tenner. It's fun enough, if a little easy. I'll probably play through to the end but I'm not quite sure why so many people jizzed their pants over it as did (Looking at you here Omagnus).

Because it combines fun puzzles (yes, if a little easy for the more intelligent) with a fun little story, some great art and some great music, which all works to create a very charming game world. Hunting for both coins and hidden puzzles is fun, and the actual interaction with the puzzles is nearly always excellent. All in all it's a great little game. I don't think I ever claimed it was the best game in creation, just a very good puzzle game. Am I wrong? I don't think so, but feel free to differ.

Some of the later puzzles do get a bit challenging, but they're all doable enough. Maybe I was just having trouble because I was playing at 2 in the morning...

A friend of mine outright gave me Dark Cloud 2. I've only heard the name, never anything about the game itself. I guess i'll toss it in when i'm done Rogue Galaxy if i'm in the mood.

You'll play Dark Cloud 2 and wonder why Level-5 is making shit like White Knight Chronicles instead of Dark Cloud 3.

As far as shit I've gotten since my last real post in this thing.

• A new PC (Core i7, Radeon HD 4850, 4GB DDR3 RAM, shit is so cache)
• The Last Remnant (PC)
• DJMAX Fever
• Valkyria Chronicles DLC

Kirby: Canvas Curse, Kirby: Super Star Ultra for DS, and Crackdown.

Crackdown is probably far too fun to be healthy.

It's about god damn time you bought that some games

Ha ha, I wasn't having a go, I just remember a load of people waxing lyrical about it when you did those award things and you being the only name I can remember amongst those voices.

The puzzles are fun, I agree although some suffer a bit from predictability. You know there's always a twist in the wordy questions and there are too many of those silly pouring water into jugs efforts but they are generally fun. The story is ok, I disagree about the art but I guess that's a question of personal taste. Also, hunting for coins and secret puzzles is just a case of tapping around the screen until you find them, or waiting for the dog to point them out.

I'd say as puzzle games go, yes it is a pretty good one but I think as an all round game it's limited by it's own scope. It's certainly worth a tenner though.

I never finished Dark Cloud 2. My game started freezing when I came out of the menu about halfway through which made the game basically unplayable. I was quite enjoying it up that point though.

I bought Planescape Torment. Always hearing how awesome that game is, so I'll finally be able to give it a shot.

Finally picked up Suikoden Tierkreis yesterday, as i needed something to do for choir tour. So far I've noticed that the voice acting - while understandable, and not as bad as i expected - is different because of howthemaincharacteralwaystalksreallyreallyfast like he's a little kid on a sugar rush. He's usually finished talking before the text box is done revealing text (and it moves at a decent reading speed). I'm lucky i know so many fast talking people, but I could see why people might have issues with it.

The game itself it fairly good, but the menus, especially the battle menu, feel sluggish to me

I found that the further into Tierkreis I got, the more the main guy's voice seemed to match his personality. I still need to finish that actually. It's a fun game but the battles do get a bit monotonous. Luckily, you get a room in your castle where you can fight boss battles and gain items and experience so you never need to fight normal monsters to level up your party (And to be honest, you never really need to level them up anyway). Keeping everyone up to date with the best equipment can be expensive but being able to travel between locations freely makes the trading a dead easy way to make cash if you're bothered and like I say, it's not like the game has any fights that are so tough you need decent equipment anyway.

Pro-tip. After your first visit to the coastal caves, go straight back in again. The second time you go in you get access to the top floor (Using the same lift you use the first time, it just chucks you to the top floor and doesn't tell you which can be quite confusing) on which there's a decent spear and the godspeed talisman which when equipped, makes the party run faster, saving a lot of time in the long run.

Where did you find a copy? Also is it the original 4CD release or the white label 2CD one?

You should grab some patches and mods to make it more pleasant on modern computers.
Start from step 2~

It was at this local used book store called Bookman's and it is the original 4 CD version. What's the difference, other than the number discs, between the two versions?

I picked up Operation Darkness, Alone in the Dark and Animal Crossing for the DS. The first two were on sale at Best Buy and they were pretty much the only games left that I actually wanted.

So a week ago, I bought this monstrosity:

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5558/picture40n.jpg

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2310/picture39seu.jpg

While at first glance it might appear to be a Portal gun committing suicide, it's actually a 3D controller called the Novint Falcon. The main draw for this thing is that it provides directional force feedback, as opposed to the regular rumbles and resistances in other game controllers. Which means you can do stuff like feel the weight of an object, know which direction you're getting hit from, have realistic weapon recoil, etc.

I got mine for $140, but apparently they're going for $100 without the pistol grip at Fry's (Novint sells pistol grips for $20 on their website and eBay store). The main problem right now is a scarcity of worthwhile games, since you have to actually mod them to work with the Falcon, unless they have native Falcon support (i.e. were made by Novint themselves with 3D GameStudio :gonk: ). That said, they do have mods for a lot of popular FPSes, including Half-Life 2, which is a definitely a very different experience with this thing.

Right now they're working on the Orange Box and Left 4 Dead. In fact, the way I found out about this thing in the first place was when I saw "Novint Falcon - Portal/EP2" in the Steam beta list. I looked the gizmo up (and if any peripheral could be called a "gizmo," this would be it), and just decided I needed one. I'm already really big on force feedback (I prefer playing multi-platform games on console for solely that reason) so this thing was too ridiculous to pass up.

And then my car got totaled. OH JOY WHAT WONDERFUL TIMING.

Not that much, apart from the whole "less disc changing" with less CDs. The 2CD release is already version 1.1, while the original release needs the official patch as well as the Fixpack, at least I think.

Fantastic find though, the original release looks much nicer than the white label one.