It is truly heartbreaking to see the reviews coming in for both Assassin's Creed and Simcity Societies; the prior for the amazing potential it held, and the later for butchering one of my favorite series.

Persona 3

I've been a huge fan of the Shin Megami Tensei series until now, but Persona 3 has changed that. While absolutely brilliant at times, the game is far longer than it should be and completely flounders near the end. There is simply not enough content to fill 300 calendar days; before the game is even half over, all of the non-combat stats will be maxed out, leaving you with nothing to do during the Evening and Late Phases during the days you choose not to go to Tartarus. Since the entire month's worth of quests, bosses, and exploration can be completed in two days (and frequently just one), too many phases have to be skipped to no benefit. This wouldn't be that big of a problem if the load times were not so bad, but they are. Furthermore, by the end of the game, even the daytime phases will be wasted. There are too many restrictions as to what S-Link threads you can do on what days, so once you complete a few, you may be left with nothing to do on certain days of the week. Lastly, the last few hours of the game are drawn-out, cliched, ridiculously easy, and offers none of the vital explanations necessary to truly understand the game. The FES expansion released in Japan explains a lot, fills in some of the gaps, and gives the game another difficulty, but, as the game currently stands, the moments of brilliance are too spread out to justify the 70+ hour investment.

It isn't ALL bad though; six or seven bosses can be a bit a difficult, some of the music is outstanding, and the S-Link stories are awesome. However, they are not enough to compensate for the terrible endgame.

Their ages show.

Despite believing that PSX was generally a better platform for RPGs than the SNES, the games for the older system have aged better than those of the PSX, at least technically. The games of the PSX generation just have substantially more depth to both their gameplay and storylines, but long load times, slow text speeds, and blurry sprites have made a large cross-section of the PSX catalogue nearly unplayable. I fucking loved Xenogears back in the day, but the game is even harder to get into all these years later.

The cream of the crop, however, hasn't aged nearly as bad.
*Final Fantasy IX- Slight lag in the battle system can be annoying, but the load times are relatively small.
*Final Fantasy Tactics- Hasn't aged bad at all. Still a visual and aural treat.
*Persona 2- The battle system feels a little bit less polished than if it were to be published today, but still has far more depth than the vast majority of RPGs.

Most of the Squaresoft RPGs from the SNES area are as good as ever, technically speaking, but the gameplay is a bit simplistic by modern standards.
*Final Fantasy IV- Great music and storyline, but the lack of party selection or skill development makes the gameplay the most simplistic of any FF.
*Final Fantasy VI- Still a great game, in general.
*Chrono Trigger- suffers from the same simplicity problems that FF4 has.

Kingdom Hearts 2

Kingdom Hearts 2 is an unusual mix of great and fucking atrocious elements. As far as the main gameplay mechanics are concerned, KH2 is one of the best Action-RPGs in years. Both the boss fights and regular battles are a lot of fun, albeit easy, even on the hard difficulty. And as for the story, I like the main parts quite a bit. The problem, you see, is sojourns into Disneylands.

Every single time the game sends you away from Organization XIII, Twilight Town, or Hollow Bastion into the various Disney Worlds, you end up being treated to long cutscenes that are basically CG renditions of your favorite Disney movies, except with bad animation, terrible voice acting, and completely random gaps in the dialogue that combine to make the cutscenes excruciatingly painful and also entirely expendable. I have never skipped through so many cutscenes in my life, and through it all, I don't think I missed a single important point of storyline.

The story and worlds aren't ALL bad. The World That Never Was, Timeless River, and Space Paranoids are all GREAT worlds with interesting characters and boss fights. If Kingdom Hearts 3 abandons the traditional Disney worlds and storylines, and instead focuses on creating new and interesting locations, OR involves visiting worlds from the Square-Enix canon, they could end up making a very interesting game. Midgar? Garden? Lindblum? Zanarkad? Zenethia? The Mana Tree? They could all make AWESOME levels.

And, while visiting Square-Enix worlds, the composer could insert more audio cues and remixes from the games. I don't think either of the KH games made any audio references to the FF games, but damnit, they should have.

I have no problem with having 2D sprites on systems on next gen systems, but I think Disgaea 3 goes far beyond reasonable.

http://www.the-magicbox.com/0707/game070718g.shtml

The PS2 games were only marginally beyond PS1 capabilities, and for PS3, sprites that pixelated are borderline unacceptable.

Not that I would get the game, anyways. The map and Dark World sidequests in Disgaea 2 made it obvious that NIS has no idea how to design extra content without making it infuriatingly random or repetitive.

Guild Wars PVP Edition

I can't tell whether I love or loathe the Guild Wars PVP Editions for each of the three campaigns. You can buy the regular edition, which allows you to unlock skills via either the Roleplaying mode or by spending PVP Points, OR you can buy a version of the game which has no RP mode and instead has all of the skills and many weapons unlocked for all PVP Characters you create on your account. Since ArenaNet has made it clear that no PVP advantage should come from having played more, I guess having more options is nice, but sacrificing the option to do the single player game for immediate benefit seems like it would be a decision that many would eventually regret.

Blame everything, but just a little.

Relatively little blame has been placed on video games for this week's tragedy, except for Jack Thompson's traditional douchebagery. I'm a bit surprised by this, especially with the attention being paid to sketchy connections to Old Boy, but I guess with the very diffuse blame this week that no extreme measures will be taken in a vain attempt to stop future tragedies like this.

Super Paper Mario ain't all that other people make it out to be.

While Super Paper Mario is proving to be an enjoyable game, I'm not nearly as thrilled as a lot of other people seem to be. Too many of the levels are either far too short or just poorly designed fpr me to avidly support the game. Furthermore, many of the puzzles or fetch quests are just really damn annoying., including one combination code that is a full twenty steps long. Twenty steps? What a load of bullshit; If the makers of the game really wanted to make sure you wrote that shit down, eight steps would have been enough. Twenty is just sadistic overkill.

The Bad levels so far (up to 5-3) include:
3-2
3-3
4-1
4-2
4-4
5-1

The Great levels so far include:
2-1
3-1
3-4
4-4

WoW Market Predictions

Making long-term predictions for virtual economies often proves to be unimaginably difficult, but that isn't enough for me to stop my futile attempts at analyzing the Ore market after the upcoming World of Warcraft Patch.

A few of the changes to consider-

1) Uncut green gems will vendor for less, reducing the profitability of prospecting, which will in turn reduce the number of Rare gems that make it to market.

2) Mining nodes are going to be placed closer to enemies, making mining slower, which will likely reduce the overally supply.

3) Primal Nethers are going to be easier to get, and there is also further incentive to run Heroic instances in new epic gem drops, so the overall supply of Nethers will increase.

4) The Epic BoE crafter weapons are going to require more materials, increasing the deman.

With these facts in mind, I predict that the price of ore will go up.

Now, the standard response to this prediction is that the higher prices will lure more people to the Mining profession, but I don't think it would rise enough to keep prices the same. On my server, everyone and their mother is a miner alread.

Ignorance, Idiocay, and Dogmatism.

While some concessions are made for the laws of economics, the economy of World of Warcraft seems heavily driven by ignorance, idiocacy, and dogmatism.

The case in point that absolutely drives me insane is how people deal with the price of transmutes. Often, going by the Auction House prices that actually sell, the difference between the materials and the finished product is over ten gold. Yet, people still charge and pay only five gold for the transmute. Any attempts to ask for more, should one be stupid enough to not use the transmute cooldowns whenever possible, and you'll attract tells from scrubs that berate you for being 'greedy'.

The 5g price for transmutes makes no sense, at all, and completely ignores the actual value of the process. Furthermore, anyone that SELLS the transmutes is an idiot; in virtually all situations, it is a wiser decision to buy the mats yourself and just transmute them whenever possible.

Thrillho!

1) Spring break is wonderful. I need to find a way to do it for a living.

2) My attention span is still broken, by most standards. I'm addicted to MMO's, but never the same one. Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

3) Some companies say that games should be more simplistic. Assholes. I don't mind overwhelming complexity and steep learning curves, as long as the punishments for early failure are not depressingly brutal.

Changes to games I wish I could make:
-Change the coefficient for 2v2 and 3v3 Arena Points in World of Warcraft to .7 and .85, from .6 and .8, respectively.
-Make Skill Level 5 a requirement or prerequisite for nothing in EVE Online. Getting the maximum bonus for whatever the hell it helps is enough. Eidetic Memory: 'TRAIN TO LEVEL 5 (TAKES 14D, 6H, 7M, 6S). Fucking heretics.
-Make more crystals drop in Valkyrie Profile 2. I understand that a lot of the strategy is supposed to come by releasing Sealstones in beneficial places, but as the game exists, such a strategy is a giant lie.
-Xenogears: Text Speed 4x.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Twenty years since the release of the original Castlevania on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Konami’s Castlevania series is still producing outstanding games, albeit in a different format. Having abandoned the traditional stage based game structure after 1995’s Rondo of Blood, the series has discovered formulaic brilliance in the non-linear Metroidvania game design (a rather clever portmanteau).

Portrait of Ruin is the sixth Castlevania game that follows said format, and a direct story sequel to Castlevania: Bloodlines. Taking place during World War 2, Jonathan Morris Junior and Charlotte attack enter Dracula’s castle to find somebody else running the show. The story isn’t much more interesting or more developed than the other Metroidvanias, but it is enough to keep the game interesting, with the enjoyment bolstered by some nice cameos from heroes past. While some longtime fans may dislike the anime-inspired character designs, it works well with a wide variety of portraits for each character.

The game structure and core gameplay design are the most distinct among the non-linear games of the series, primarily due to the ability to control two characters at once. With a very well-thought out control scheme, Portrait of Ruin allows you to run around as a single character or have the other one follow in tandem with your lead. Each character has six equipment slots and a variety of special moves, and even if you choose to only use one character at a time your customization will not go to waste; combo attacks and special moves for the inactive member can be activated with simple button presses. The way in which Konami has assigned the buttons on the DS is truly impressive, and believe me, ‘impressive’ isn’t a word normally designated for button layouts.

In addition to the regular castle that is the center of all the Metroidvanias, Portrait of Ruin has several stages that take place inside paintings. These areas are reminiscent of the old-school castlevanias where you have to make it from point A to point B, kill a boss, then move on, except each stage has numerous savepoints and warp points. The levels can seem kind of repetitive, but overall they remain interesting and extend the game length nicely.

Unfortunately, with an unusually large game area comes a problem that has plagued large games for years, namely repetitive level design. Far too many rooms are used several times over, dulling the overall impression that I received from the game design. Furthermore, the levels don’t seem to be as platformer heavy as some of the other Castlevanias, instead opting for ‘large room with bunch of enemies that you have to get through’ over and over. It truly is disheartening to see them spend so much time on every aspect of the game except making unique rooms to traverse.

Also worth mentioning is the nice variety of boss fights. In addition to a large field of new and challenging boss fights, Konami has included a bonus dungeon with nearly all of the bosses from Dawn of Sorrow.

For years, one of the greatest drawbacks to 2-d action games of all varieties has been the lacking game length. Portrait of Ruin uses a nice system to overcome the problem, and while it has been seen in other games in the genre, I don’t think it has been as well executed. After completing the game, you can replay the game as any of three additional character sets on two different difficulties, and Hard mode includes a Maximum Level setting. Furthermore, one of the alternate duos is controlled almost exclusively with the touch-screen functions of the DS. While this mode is my least favorite of all of the game modes, it is still an interesting component and will extend the game length for those that are interested. There are a few multiplayer modes, but uninteresting design and horrendous DS online system make these additions virtually useless.

The presentation of the game is generally below that of Dawn of Sorrow, in both the graphics and the music. While PoR is by no means an ugly game, the areas are not too detailed, which makes the repetitive level design even more grating. The soundtrack is very good, but does not make as good use of previous tracks as well as DoS did. Still, most of the music is very catchy and well composed.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin is not a perfect game by any means, but it still should be considered the role-model for all future 2-d Action-Adventure RPGs. A great soundtrack, large world, interesting weapons & skills, as well as diverse unlockable playmodes all come together to overcome problems that have plagued the genre over the last twenty years. My only hope for the next Castlevania is that they actually make the game that occurs in 1999. It’s now been book-ended by the events on either side of the final showdown; how about Konami actually finish it?

SIX out of SEVEN

-Extraneous notes- (highlight to read) SPOILERS

-Favorite music tracks include the music just outside of Wind’s room.

-The Combo move Thousand Blades is far too powerful, making hard mode for Johnathon and Charlotte far easier than it should be.

-Richter+Maria mode is actually fun, unlike the Symphony of the Night counterpart.

-I still haven’t unlocked Axe Armor Mode.

-The last boss battle against Death and Dracula is very fitting, considering that the player controls a duo.

Grandia 3 (Sucks)

I used to be a huge fan of the Grandia series. While the first game in the series pissed me off with the endless fetch quests, horribly cliched storyline, and tedious skill leveling system, the following two games in the series either fixed or downplayed the flaw aspects while making the core gameplay completely kick ass. Game Arts' Grandia 3 seems like a stepback from the great story pacing of Grandia 2 and the gameplay systems of Grandia Xtreme, along with introducing a myriad of other problems, to create what is probably the worst game in the series.

The story of Grandia 3 revolves around a teenage boy that stumbles upon a female 'Communicator' being chased in a forest. From there on, the boy decides to protect the girl as she tries making her way home. While the basic story is certainly better than the story found in Grandia Xtreme, that doesn't make it an improvement. My philosophy on story points are that "If you can't make it good, then at least don't make it long." Considering the low quality of storyline, character development, and writing, there are just way too many cutscenes in this game to be justified.

While the story is approximately crap by modern RPG standards, the core battle system still shines, despite having a more simplistic development system than the previous two entries in the series. For those that have not played any games in the series, it is basically a turn-based battle system that takes complex timing issues into account. In the upper left portion of the screen is a circular chart that has an icon for each character and enemy in the battle. Each character has their own speed to moves them towards the COMMAND marker. Once a character reaches that, you are allowed to input a command for them. Next comes the charge time between the command and the action. Some moves, like physical attacks, take place immediately, at which time your character will start running towards their target and start swining when the enemy is in range. Skills and spells, on the other hand, have finite charge times, so you have to lead your shots, so to speak. Lastly, some attacks disrupt the enemy's plans, either by cancelling a command that is waiting to act, or by pushing the enemy further away from the command marker. It works both ways, though, which can make some fights fairly annoying.

An egg system returns, as per the previous Grandia games, but overall the skill and magic systems are simplified. Characters directly equip skills and spells, and they are each allowed one egg and one skill book, which bolster certain types spells and skills to varying degrees, respectively. Special moves are unique to each character, use SP instead of the MP used for spells, and level up through repeated usage.

Unfortunately, the game still comes down to grinding enemies to gain levels. The dungeon design is somewhat interesting, and you can stun the visible enemies on the map screen with your sword, but there are no real sidequests to speak of. As a result, you need to kill the same enemies over and over to be anywhere near strong enough to beat some of the more difficult bosses. By the end of the 23 hours it took me to beat the game, about 10 of those were spent shamelessly grinding.

The graphics and sound are both decent enough, though many of the enemy models are reused from Grandia Xtreme, and the character animation and voice acting are both bad. The environments are colorful, though, so that redeems the game aesthetics.

In the end, I really liked the battle system of Grandia 3, especially during some of the boss battles, but the many weaknesses of the game leave a bad taste in my mouth. A cool battle system does not make up for the bad voice acting, storyline, characterization, or world design.

THREE out of SEVEN

-Extraneous thoughts- (highlight to read)

-Alonso is the only cool or interesting character in the game, and is only in your party for thirty minutes.

-The last boss battle is anti-climactic, ditching everything that is cool about Grandia boss fights.

-The dialogue is absolutely worthless.

-The lack of real sidequests makes me a sad panda.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

Great Japanese RPGs have long had a spotty track record with regards to receiving localizations for the United States. While the Playstation era was not nearly as dreadful as the SNES era, most of the 32bit games in Atlus’ Shin Megami Tensei series failed to make it the United States, Persona 1 and 2 being the only exceptions. My thoughts on Persona 1 aside (and its near total lack of save points), Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is easily one of the favorite RPGs of the generation.

Sadly, despite receiving Eternal Punishment in North America, the first game in the Persona 2 sub-series was not brought over. Often translated as Persona 2: Innocent Sin, it is related to EP in a rather interesting (and spoilerific) manner. While playing through a fan translation of it may be nice, it is not important to understand or appreciate EP’s wonderful story.

The main character, reporter Maya Amano, is sent to investigate a string of killings pertaining to a childish rumor about ''The Joker.'' Word is among High School students that if you call your own phone number and hang up, a serial-killer will answer the phone and murder whoever the caller wishes. Soon enough, the little rumor turns into reality and it is Maya's job to find out what is going on. Upon reaching the school, Maya finds the principal murdered. Soon after, Maya, her friend Ulala, and a police officer Katsuya find the joker and confront him. The meeting causes hidden powers within the characters to awaken, called Personas. Some people are able to tap into the collective subconscious of all humanity and call forth Personas to help them with their powers, and this notion of a universal consciousness is the key to both Persona's story and battle system.

The story of Persona quickly branches away from the Joker and into a massive conspiracy. This is where the previous idea of a collective subconscious comes into play. The world exists as a culmination of the thoughts of those that live in it, so if one changes what people think, then reality will change accordingly. If enough people believe in the Joker rumor, then it will become true. If you spread a rumor that a local bartender is also an arms dealer, then you can order a magnum with your beer. Naturally, the story line uses this gimmick to make the storyline twist and turn as the characters realize that both they and the people that they are fighting are manipulating the will of the masses into furthering their own ambitions. From the very beginning, the story had me completely captivated until the very end. Very few games set out to create a story this original, and even less succeed, but Persona 2 manages the feat and creates an unforgettable story.

Further enhancing the storyline are the frequent opportunities to talk to your party members. In every shop location, you can talk to your party members, revealing new plot aspects and helping to give the characters much more depth. Your members will say unique things for nearly every location for every point in the game. I often found myself visiting old locations just so I could talk to my party members to see what interesting things would come up. This sort of detail solidifies Persona’s story as one of the best in RPG history.

The gameplay hinges heavily upon the game's story. Each character can equip one Persona at a time, with the Persona's leveling up much like a normal RPG character would. While your character's gain levels and stats the same way that characters do in nearly every other RPG, their growth is overshadowed by the use of the Personas. Frequent updating of your Personas, as well as having a strong backup supply of Personas is extremely important to doing well in the game, because it sure isn't easy. In order to get new Personas, your characters need to be at a high enough level, and you need to have enough Tarot cards to summon them. In order to get cards, you are expected to talk to and become come friends with the Demons that inhabit every dungeon.

During combat, you can choose for characters to converse with the enemies. Depending on which characters you choose, the Demons will respond with one of 4 different emotions. Once the demon experiences the same emotion three times in a single conversation, the talking will end and the Demon will take an appropriate response. Scare them, and they will flee. Intrigue them, and receive tarot cards. Befriend them, and earn valuable items. Scare them, and watch as they enter a homicidal rage of non-stop attacks. The game gives you a decent introduction to these systems, but doesn't stress their importance nearly enough, as most bosses will absolutely destroy you if you are not prepared. The game is significantly more difficult than the average RPG, partially due to the complex battle and spell systems.

The battle system is, for the most part, automated. People will continue doing the same given command over and over whenever their turn comes up unless you hit X to cancel back to the menu and change their commands. You can also force people to wait until another member has cast their spell to take action. This may seem only useful for healing spells, but it is in fact integral to the gameplay. The game has a very unique combo system where certain spells or elements can be cast in specific orders to unleash one of several hundred spell combinations contained within the game. While some of the combos are straightforward, such as Water + Earth = Waterfall Crusher, some are really difficult to pull off, but are significantly more powerful. These combos require specific Personas to use specific moves, and considering there are over 100 personas in the game, figuring some of the combos out on your own may be impossible.

The Personas are taken from Mythologies from all over the world, and their combo attacks fit into the mythologies as well. Combine Heimdall, Surt, Loki, Fenrir, and Odin to unleash Ragnarok on your opponents. Likewise, combining Apollo, Prometheus, Astria, Artemis, and Hyperion gives a Greek Panthenon inspired attack. The game is filled with tons of these little references to worldwide mythology, and also gives the player a brief description of the Persona’s origins. It also gets many, many props for recognizing the difference between Satan and Lucifer.

The game itself will take RPG veterans nearly 50 hours to complete, and there are plenty of extras that may cause you to max out the clock at 99 hours. Halfway through the game, you choose who the 5th character in your party will be. The character will stay with you for the next 15-25 hours of the game, and you will experience a separate dungeon and several different bosses depending on who you choose. Complete the game on both paths and you will unlock an extra dungeon after you beat the game using the same characters and from when you beat the final boss. This bonus dungeon can take nearly 20 hours to beat, and depending on how fast and how complete your playthrough is, the more bonuses you can unlock. If you truly get hooked on the game, expect to spend nearly 150 hours getting everything, if not more.

Persona's graphics are solid except for the character portraits. The character portraits are very large and detailed, helping in the presentation of the story. Aside from the high quality portraits, very little is exceptional. The maps are 3 dimensional can be rotated with the shoulder buttons, while the characters are sprite based. The designers have done an excellent job creating a realistic and detailed modern Japanese city, from the colorful convenience stores to an abandoned mental institution. While not the best graphics on PSX, they are detailed enough to realistically create the world that you will inhabit for the next 50 hours.

The music is a mix of outstanding and mediocre. The game's battle music is lackluster, but most of the environmental music is exceptional. The numerous shops throughout the game have very fitting and atmospheric music, while the dungeons have tense and pressing tunes. Notable pieces include the Toa Armory music and the “Super Happy Convenience Store Music” which is guaranteed to either make you smile in delight or cringe in fear of the bizarre Japanese lyrics. The voice acting on the other hand, does not fair as well. While it does lend to the important parts in the story, it could have been better, and the battle voices are much more annoying than they should be, including the enemy battle voices, which have been kept in the original Japanese.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is long and complex, both in its story and its gameplay. While the game may be a large commitment, and may turn people away with its bizarre nature, it is simply one of the best and deepest RPG's you can find.

SEVEN out of SEVEN.

I am The Video Game General

Until I find a better hosting solution, Blogger is the new home of The Video Game General, a blog/site devoted to video game reviews and essays. Two issues must be addressed right off the bat, to ward of the imminent confusion.

1) The name. I'm pretty sure most people will think the 'General' in the blog title refers to the "non-specific detail" definition of general, but it actually refers to the military rank. While I was in college, I was given the nickname "The Video Game General" due to my borderline obsession with video games, my enthusiasm for the medium, and my infinite wellspring of knowledge for games of all varieties. Note that this does not pertain to my skill at videogames, as I actually suck at them, in general. I pity the fool that PVPs with me in World of Warcraft, as my random button presses and inability to target the correct enemy lead to many sad losses.

2) The rating system. Many game fans regard review scores with a philosophy that makes me livid. As some freakish side effect of the United States public education system, any time some number is introduced in review the reader will instinctively compare it to the completely arbitrary 90A-80B-70C-60D grading system, without any regard whatsoever to the comments of the reviewer or the specifics as to how the score is determined. I have my own grading scale, with a few key factors.

- INTEGERS ONLY. None of that decimal shit here. When you make too many divisions onto a rating scale, it encourages a brand of nitpicking that I'd much rather avoid. For example, say I were to give

-ONE THROUGH SEVEN. I use a 1-7 scale for a few reasons. First of all, I insist that there be a truly average value, one that the 1-10 integer scale does not allow. Second, it is a very unusual scale, so people won't bring their preconceived notions of what scores correspond to what. Lastly, it most matches the tier system that I perceive games with.

-Nostalgia can go fuck itself. Seriously. Nostalgia has no place in video game reviews, and no game should ever receive points just for having been played a long time ago. Conversely, I will be creating a section entitled "Video games that I really like that , in hindsight, actually kind of suck."

Here is a rough outline of what each score means.

SEVEN: One of my favorite games. Depth of gameplay, depth of story and characters, a long game experience, and an excellent soundtrack are the keys to getting a score this high. Not all of these things are necessary, though, but they are the traits that will completely pull me into a game.

SIX: A very good game, but there are enough things that bother me about it to prevent me from giving it a seven.

FIVE: Above average, and generally very enjoyable, though does not have enough to really stand out of the pack.

FOUR: A truly average game, and a mix of good and bad in many categories.

THREE: If a game is normally quite fun but manages to piss the hell out of me over and over, it is probably going to get a three.

TWO: Deeply flawed and frequently infuriating games will garner a two.

ONE: Very rarely do I regard games as bad enough to get a one. There is no real criteria for what makes a game absolutely horrible, but "I know it when I play it."

In addition to a basic review of the game, I will include many general unorganized thoughts on the game that could not fit in the review or include spoilers, hidden via whatever method Blogger allows.

So there is my review system and basic philosophy. I'll try to update this site as frequently as possible, but, being marginally employed and making my way through new games only sporadically, I give no promises to when updates will come. Now, does anyone know where I sign up to start getting review copies of games?