Yep, couldn't put it better myself :)

Good choice with the 3DS. The Etrian Odyssey games are on my to buy list, I played a demo and loved it.
I'd definitely recommend Fire Emblem Awakening, and any other Fire Emblem games (there's a new one in the works at the moment, it's pretty much guaranteed to be brilliant). Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is good, I wouldn't say brilliant, but it's not bad. Phantom Hourglass on DS is a better Zelda game. If you get the 'New' 3DS I would recommend the remake of Xenoblade (unless you plan on purchasing a Wii / Wii U pretty soon as well) as Xenoblade is probably one of the best games I've ever played.
Infinite Space on the DS as well is an absolute classic. Bravely Default is a pretty good JRPG, very grindy and repetitive but compared to some of the stuff you play I can't see that being a problem :)
That's just a few off the top of my head :)

The only real difference for me this weekend, over any other weekend, is that my romantic meal on Saturday evening was wild pheasant, which is something I rarely have (but it tastes great), and some roses to make it look all Valentinesy. The other stuff, candles, music, nice cooked meal, etc. are something me and my partner do all the time.

Mmm... I love game. Pheasant is particularly nice.
We used to go quite regularly to a really posh hotel, not quite Michelin starred but pretty damn good food (it's one of the reasons we're so broke now... XD) which was kind of our romantic treat...
We live with my partner's parents so it can be a difficult to have the privacy to prepare and eat a romantic meal...

Right now, I have Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (in progress), Shadowrun Dragonfall (in progress), Super Meat Boy (kiss my ass, Cotton Alley), Super Hexagon, Dark Souls (just started), D&D Chronicles of Mystara (in progress), Full Mojo Rampage (just started), Final Fantasy 3, Sunless Sea, Quest for Infamy, Grim Fandango, Valkyria Chronicles, Bastion, Phantasmagoria 1 and 2, Paper Sorcerer, Resident Evil 4, Nihilumbra, Warhammer 40K Retribution, Escape Goat (in progress but need to restart) and Escape Goat 2 on the desktop.

Figuring it'll be one of those. =)

This community is really awesome. I made a thread asking if someone could manage to find the background picture of my avatar. And in between 40mins it was found :D

I had a chance to run through the first Etrian and really enjoyed it aside from the obnoxiousness of needing to know specifically how to kill certain monsters in certain ways to obtain rare components for high-end gear.
(A frigging hint or two wouldn't have killed you, designers.)

Haven't had a chance to really get into Fire Emblem, but from what I've heard about the combo of perma-death and tactical combat that should be a pretty safe bet, not really a big Zelda fan so I'll probably skip those (haven't been into Zelda since A Link to the Past), Xenoblade sounds good since I figure I'll get a New one (gods, someone needs to junkpunch whoever's in charge of naming their hardware), haven't heard of Infinite Space but I'll check it out in just a sec, and Bravely Default looks interesting but I'll keep in mind the super grindy bits.

And yes, grindy repetition can still beat something being bamboo slivers under the fingernails painful like some games...=)

Additional - I can offer advice on two games to avoid like the plague - 999 and Virtue's Last Reward.
Watched a Let's Play for the first and essentially rage-quit the Let's Play for the second because I couldn't stand to even watch it anymore.

If you find yourself with an abundance of money and a desire to cause someone pain?
Gift them those games with a big smile. =)

That's lots to choose from. I usually only have a few on the go at a time, and usually different genres (so I have something to play depending on my mood).

I think the only one on your list I have played is Final Fantasy 3. I own Quest for Infamy, but have not played it yet, and I stopped plying Resident Evil after number 3 (well technically Resident Evil 0, but chronologically it was Resident Evil 3). I own them all on the Game Cube, the Resident Evil 1 remake was very good, but the newer ones since then have lost their appeal to me.

That's great news, and very quick work. I'm glad you found it again, and I can't wait to see what new creations you come up with. :-)

*congratulations hug*

I stopped playing Resident Evil after Resident Evil 3 on the Playstation.
All the spinoffs, the story mutilation, all that crap, I avoided it all.
(Feeling compelled to mention that I've seen all the movies, though...
Yay for purging secret shame. -laughs-)

Resident Evil 4 is supposed to be fantastic, Capcom's shining moment of pulling their head out of their ass before taking the good things they found with that and systematically ruining them all with 5 and 6.

If you like turn based RPGs / Strategy at all you won't regret getting Fire Emblem. It's a great series and Awakening is the best yet. Plus on the highest difficulties it is rock hard, which should be right up your street ;)
After beating it I tried a run on Lunatic and only got to about the 8th mission before giving up in frustration.

Infinite Space is an absolute gem. Cheesy space opera with great spaceship management, it gets a bit easy near the end but the story is great.

The problem with Bravely Default is that I can't really tell you what the problem is without somewhat spoiling the game for you... XD

And Xenoblade is just hands down my favourite game ever, just a great JRPG. It feels a bit like a JRPG meets an MMORPG (minus any actual multiplayer elements, but the kind of MMO world) combat is fun, the world is glorious, story isn't half bad either.

I loved Samurai Warriors Chronicles, but I think you need to be a fan of the whole Warriors series thing to get that one (and it's kind of a love / hate one, very button mashy hack n slash but with tons of characters and things to unlock)
If things go well this year we're hoping to get our own place again.

We don't really go out to eat much either other than when we can get away. When we do it's usually gastro pub type places or something. We don't really have many posh restaurants (or decent places to eat at all) near us.

I'm always a bit reluctant to buy and cook more expensive things like pheasant and game in case I spoil them... plus my partner's not really keen on them anyway.

That's why I stopped playing, the story and spin-offs just got ridiculous. Yes I know it's about zombies, but I think you know what I mean :-). The original two had a great atmosphere, and the story was superb. The third started to show the cracks, it was still fun, but started to suffer, and after that it was just ruined by the ever degrading story and plots. I think greed got the better of them.

I never liked what I heard about number 4. It seemed to change the style too much for my liking. But hopefully you will enjoy it and it won't be a let down for you.

On a side note, I remember reading recently about a Resident Evil 1 remake on the PC, is that just the Game Cube version ported onto the PC?

I just checked Infinite Space out on Amazon, and it does look appealing.
If I can find a seller that I feel comfortable with, I'll pick it up somewhere down the line. =)

Figure I'll probably pick up the Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton series as well, for when SMT has kicked my teeth in.

Never got into either series, but they're both supposed to be excellent.

If things go really well for you (and I really hope they will), would you consider starting the restaurant you had originally planned, or would you stick with the pizza van?

I know what you mean about being reluctant to cook more expensive and tricky things. But we enjoy cooking together, so even if it turned out horrible, it would be okay. It would not be the first time, as we love trying new methods and dishes and sometimes they do not go right. :-)

Not sure about that one, but I've heard more than one person commenting on how it's a remake of a remake, so it probably is.

It's Capcom, after all.
I'm old enough to remember the level of rehashing they did with Street Fighter 2 way back when, and that was just a fighting game.
They've been milking Resident Evil to death for years now.

And yes, right around the time that they were nuking Raccoon City, that's when I knew the story was going to hell.
It was silly at its core, but at least until then they were trying.