Tales From Space - Mutant Blobs Attack
A nice little platformer. I found it to be fun even though the difficulty and length leave something to be desired. It won't leave you speechless or win any awards for design, but it is a good little time waster for those periods of time when you need something bite sized and simple. The humor is nice, the physics are good and the art and music are enjoyable.
7/10

Crimsonland on Normal
Way too hard already. Not going to try hardcode more.

Uncharted Golden Abyss.
QTE boss battles where you swipe the screen?
Tilt controls?
Really?

Gemini Rue - Point and clicks aren't a style I generally enjoy, the pixel hunting and inventory combinations don't appeal to me, despite the stories often being able to explore new avenues. The only point and click I've enjoyed in its entirety has been The Cat Lady. This game has an excellent story, it could work as a good novel with its excellent characters, used future environments, and interesting revelations. The puzzles aren't horribly frustrating, but I did have to turn to a walkthrough a couple of times.

Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs - The first expansion to Age of Empires III, it doesn't introduce many new mechanics, just a few civilizations. The story is a weird, almost alternative history affair with the main character interacting with famous individuals in American history. The general play of a level involves building up, creating your army, and winning. Unfortunately, the AI is not too aggressive, so it often allows you to build up without harassment. Overall, it's an enjoyable strategy game with a decent set of town building options.

Ah, finally beat Grandia. I think the clock on my game said it took about 54 hours. While I can't claim to be a connoisseur of JRPGs, this is certainly one of the best I've played. It has a very good battle system, one of those "active turn-based" things which have turned out well in some JRPGs. It's easy to use but has some wrinkles that enrich the combat. It's basically a pretty easy game, but there were a couple of fights that tested me and required more serious tactics and adjustments. My only niggle about the gameplay, really, is that although the game doesn't really require that you grind in general (if you explore and clean out every enemy you find in one sweep, you'll be okay), the magic is laid out in such a way that you get better spells by using certain lower level spells, and sometimes this requires that you go away from what's working best for you so that you can work on building up those weaker abilities. This means you're avoiding hitting enemies as hard as you can so you can hit them more lightly for a bit with the expectation that you'll get heavier stuff down the line.

Graphics are sprites on top of 3D environments that you can rotate to get better perspectives and occasionally uncover secrets - it looks good for a PS1 game. I've read that the original Saturn version is even better-looking. The sparsely added voice acting is hilarious because not only does it have that mid-90s game acting style, but it seems the actors were instructed to...add awkward...pauses during their...delivery.

The story is fine. A lot of the typical cliches (child heroes, ecological themes, THE POWER OF LOVE, etc.) but it's charming and cute.

If you like that you should play the first wild arms.

Pretty good pic.. and now I remembered that I didn't like that blue haired dude. And I think he was the main protagonist.

As someone who hasn't played either, but has played every jRPG he has played without any nostalgia, the above describes every jRPG I've played. Grindy! Poorly written! Spelling errors rampant! Always a maze or five! Conveyor belts everywhere! Invisible stuff! Touch things in correct order or GTFO! The power of love! The power of friendship! The power of emotions! I literally haven't played a single jRPG that didn't go on and on and on about the power of emotions! What the fuck is wrong with these people! I can't stop writing like this! Send help! The previous exclamations are only somewhat exaggerated for mild comedic effect!

Heh. Okay, I definitely had that coming.

But Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy 8 don't have grinding. Chrono Trigger and Radiant Historia are actually written really well and I've never noticed spelling errors in either of them (nor do any mazes spring to mind). There are great puzzles and no invisible stuff in Lufia 2. The only part I'm having trouble swatting away with an example is the "power of friendship/love/emotions" bit. Maybe something in the Breath of Fire series? Probably 2. Or Jade Cocoon, if it counts?

Thanks, you've summed up perfectly how I feel about JRPGs. Obviously it's all down to personal taste, but one sight of doe-eyed little girls, spiked hair or teenage angst and I'm rooting for the bad guy(s), no matter how evil their plans!

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls

Pretty good expansion pack for Diablo 3. The main campaign is pretty short at about 6 hours but once you are done you can continue in Adventure Mode where there are bounties to collect and challenges to overcome. It's the kind of game you need to be in the mood for but if you are, then the constant stream of loot will keep you satisfied.

Zombie Shooter 2 - I've played a few of the "Shooter" games and I've enjoyed them all. They're just great, mindless fun, with some very light RPG elements. This one seemed pretty standard for the series, but still enjoyable.
The Deed - I didn't know much about this game going in, but I was pleasantly surprised! I've only completed one playthrough, which took 23 minutes, but I'd like to go back and see the rest of the paths.
Monster in My Pocket - I had played this one before, but never managed to finish it. This is a weird NES game in that the bosses, including the last one, are actually really easy. It's the common enemies and their frustrating locations / patterns that make it difficult.
Parasite Eve II - Woohoo, I FINALLY finished this game!! I've wanted to play it for sooo long. It felt a bit different from the first one, but still a very good game if you like the genre / era. The last boss was rough, but luckily I had played my usual stingy RPG way and had enough money to buy the super grenade launcher and that made it a bit easier (after like 3 or 4 initial tries with a rifle).
League of Mermaids - This was another weird game. I absolutely loved about the first half of it. It felt like a standard Match-3 kinda game, but it was relaxing and enjoyable. Then the annoying level design kicked in, which highlighted the annoying physics engine. And from there it was a very tedious march towards the end of the main levels, which was enough to see the credits. It's a shame too since there are a lot of bonus levels that I probably would've played had I not been annoyed :P

Full list + completion times

Am I too late for the party? Been quite busy lately but hey, better some gaming than none. :D

Include me, please!

6.4 - Doom and Destiny (Android)
23.4 - Final Fantasy IX (Android)
19.8 - Crash of the Titans (PSP)
16.9 - Daxter (PSP)
19.11 - Technobabylon (PC)
3.12.- 3rd Birthday (PSP)
-------------------

Doom and Destiny - a short review:
Some spoilers may follow!
I...I'm not really sure why I've bothered to finish it. I found the stereotypical nerdy humor severely pushing it, and story quite boring. Might be related to the fact I managed to screw up almost everything I colud. :D On top of that there is next to no help for it available online, so it took some trial and error to get things right. Looking at HLTB times, I have a strong feeling that I missed a chunk of game, but the world map was not helping at all.
All summed up - if you have 12ish hours to sink, and only a bit over 1$ availible - go for it. In other scenarios look elsewhere.
---------

Next up - Final Fantasy IX

Oh and, if anyone's actually reading this, I have a question. How good/interesting is Nintendo 3Ds (lite?) as a platform? I see that they can be picked up for next to nothing these days, so it makes me wonder should I go for it?

If you don't already own a standard DS I would highly recommend it. Though if you already own a DS the only reasons I can think of owning one is for the games, there aren't really many I can think of that aren't sequels to long running series (Pokémon, Professor Layton, Legend of Zelda etc), although if your a fan of the old Ninetendo games they're constantly adding more and more (They recently added Earthbound, Super Mario World and other SNES titles). I spend most of the time using it to play old games downloaded from the store. Though I think it depends on the whether you think the price is worth it.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III
COD BLOPS III is definitely one of my favorite games hands down. As an FPS fan since the days of Perfect Dark on the N64, I've played almost every multiplayer FPS game post y2k; including: COD/Battlefield/L4D/Unreal/Halo games, Titanfall, Star Wars Battlefront etc. Although nothing can beat the classics in my mind, COD BLOPS III is truly the best multiplayer FPS game released this decade imo. I do have to admit I am rather biased towards COD games in general, but to be fair, I did very much dislike the multiplayer aspects of COD: Ghosts, Advanced Warfare, and World at War (ugh). The major reason why I enjoy BLOPS III so much is due to the amount of game modes that are available - a truly complete package. A short explanation of each mode is listed below (all modes can be played in online coop):

Campaign: The traditional story mode contains 11 missions that will take around 10 hours to complete. The modern feel to it is very similar to the Advanced Warfare campaign with all sorts of fancy scanners, gadgets, futuristic weapons/vehicles that you can utilize, along with a linear yet complex level design. I have to admit the campaign is truly BLOPS III's weakest aspect, with very little gameplay variety. There are a few missions and scripted events that are really memorable and fun, enough to compel you to progress, but overall, it was a bit of a drag to complete.

Nightmares: This game mode is essentially the traditional story mode with zombies as your only enemy type. The missions are re-arranged with new voice-overs to create a "plot", but really it is just another way for you to kill zombies.

Dead Ops Arcade II: This game mode is a top down twin stick shooter where you go through a multitude of levels and areas (endless) to beat your high score. There is a rogue-like progression system utilizing power-ups and stat bonuses. Dead Ops Arcade II is surprisingly extremely fun. It's a great break from traditional game modes, and there is a power-up that will make all players shoot in first-person mode (super freaking cool).

Zombies: The new zombies mode can truly be a standalone game - immersive, complex and fun enough that many people only play this mode. Essentially you are dropped in a massive map, with many connecting paths and shortcuts you can unlock (Dark Souls style), and you must survive the apocalypse. You have power-ups in this mode too, and you can even turn into The Beast which grants you certain powers to aid in killing zombies/creating shortcuts. Puzzle elements keep the mode fresh. So far, zombies mode only has 1 map in the base game; however, 2 other maps are provided if you purchase the season pass (or 1 map if you buy the Awakening DLC).

Multiplayer: The heart of COD. As a Hardcore objective player, I'm a bit saddened by the fact this it is a bit difficult to pickup games that are not TDM/Domination modes, but I truly love the levels and games I've played so far. A new gameplay mechanic is introduced in this iteration of COD, known as Specialists. These Specialists are unlockable "professions" of a sort that each utilize a Specialist Ability. These abilities are akin to ultimate moves that you need to charge up and can use to gain an edge. BLOPS III also introduced the Black Market - a system to receive vanity unlockables. The Black Market is one of the major reasons that piss off a lot of people. I don't want to get into the politics of it, but for a casual player, it's an extremely fun system that helps keep you engaged for a long time.

Although it seems I might be praising this game too much, I do notice a lot of issues too. One of the biggest is its relatively poor optimization (you can view my PC specs in my other reviews). I get semi-frequent fps drops in campaign mode, especially during cutscenes, and minor texture pop-ins every now and then. The game is also a huge resource hog, making it very difficult to run many simultaneous programs/Alt-Tab out to do other tasks.

Even so, I truly enjoy BLOPS III and believe that it is one of the best COD releases so far (only below COD4: MW). I hope that other players give it a chance and try it out.

Masterpiece
- 10/10