Obviously, I haven't been making huge tweaks to the blogs after the recent change of some enormity, but today I did add one tweak that's been on my mind for a bit: a bar along the top of the page so that it's easy to return to your own profile if you visit a friend's blog. It's something some of you had asked about, as well.

Another change I may implement today is a change to add replies to the "Friends" page, so that it's easier to see discussions friends might be having that you aren't necessarily aware exist. It's likely I'll put that change in place today, perhaps even in the next few minutes. It'll make it easier for more people to join interesting discussions.

This section of the site is obviously still a work in progress. I hope that you're enjoying the streamlined design as much as I am. Thanks for continuing to frequent the site and for posting in your blogs when you have something to share.

I always (as in, both times thus far) enjoy reading about your expliots at Gamejam. Long may it continue!

Awesome write-up describing what sounds like a wonderful event. Thanks for sharing!

Eventually you get to the point where every other puzzle will stump you for a while.

I downloaded Pushmo this afternoon. Now a few hours later, I'm at 4-6 and ready to stop for a bit. I didn't skip any puzzles, so my brain is a bit fried at this point. Getting to the top of the Christmas Tree was quite the ordeal, and there were a few other tough puzzles along the way, as well (the NES controller comes to mind).

MS Word mostly. I use Notepad for small stuff.

I use Microsoft Word and sometimes Open Office. I also write a surprising amount of stuff in regular Notepad if I'm in a rush.

I didn't play much this week. I've been more interested in watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's my first time watching them, ever. So no spoilers. Currently about half way through Season 2.

The Longest Journey

Up to the start of chapter 4. April's just ended up somewhere in her underwear. That's so... not appropriate!

Pullblox (Pushmo)

Up to the Nintendo murals. They're a bit easier than the challenges, and form some interesting pictures of Nintendo characters.

Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Got lost in the stupid forest near the start of the game. Don't remember what I'm supposed to do. Found an animal who talks about smell and a mushroom that gives off an aroma but I'm damned if I know how to make the two things interract.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Just landed in the mines section of the lower world. Haven't explored further yet.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

Got the lens of truth from the well and then I went to Gerudo Valley, but that whole dodge the sentries thing is much harder on a small screen.

My gaming habits are all over the place. Also on a Zelda kick.

The Longest Journey

Progress is slowing down. I'm enjoying the story, but I find myself with other things I want to do. I've hacked the archives, given the kid what he wants, gone to see a guy in a hoverchair and after a LOT of dialogue, I was just too weary to go on. I think I'd have preferred this game as a TV series or a book (though graphic novel might have been a better fit). It's really just a visual novel with some puzzles thrown in. It doesn't want to be too challenging, because it doesn't want people to give up and not experience the story.

Dead Rising

The mechanics of this game really bug me. Shooting is incredibly difficult. The one save thing is also a bit weird. Started a new game with old stats, got about an hour in, shot Carlito in the food court gunfight, then died on my way to a save point. Took the disc out and probably won't attempt this one again for a while. I'm a couple of levels up though.

Pullblox (Pushmo)

The puzzle solving continues. Still getting stumped by a lot of them.

Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Got this on the 3DS virtual console. I'm hoping it's as awesome as I remember. Haven't done much yet, basically gone down to the beach to retrieve my sword.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Still in the Volcano/Earth Temple, making progress. Got the bomb bag, will probably finish this dungeon the next time I play. Sword fighting with those lizard guys is tough. Fighting two at once almost killed me.

Lucid

Drawing lines is getting a bit dull. I play this when I don't feel like playing anything else.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

I knew ahead of time I'd be sitting somewhere waiting a while so I put this back in my 3DS. Cleared the water temple. Dark Link was tougher than I remember, but that is a really cool fight. Beat the boss, onto the next segment of the game. This is where it opens up and lets me tackle the next two temples in any order, I think. I'm in the well under the town looking for the lense of truth, and falling into stupid pits all the time.

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

I bought this on the Wii Virtual Console a while back but hadn't played it. I've finished the game a few times before, but not for a very long time. I played the first 3 day cycle where you're stuck as a Deku kid. It was amazing how much I'd forgotten, like where to find the fairy fragment, where to find the bomber kids when they challenge you to hide and seek. First time I failed, too, since I started the game about a minute before morning. They said I wasn't up to it, but there wasn't even enough in-game time to complete it. That's something I'm remembering about the game - time management. You need to make sure you have enough time to complete certain tasks. But the first cycle is pretty easy. Got the observatory, lovely music there, got the moon tear to trade to the plant near the clocktower, and ended up getting there a full day early, so I danced until dawn with a scarecrow, and then again till night, banked all my rupees and went to visit Skull Kid. SWAMP, MOUNTAIN, OCEAN, CANYON, HURRY, THE FOUR THAT ARE THERE, BRING THEM HERE! If it lets me listen to Oath to Order, then hell yeah!

Mass Effect 2

I bought the Arrival DLC a while back when it was deal of the week. Decided to start it. It's not really that good. I'll still try and finish it before ME3 is out.

Why does EmP already have five orbs while everyone else has four?

Wish I'd discovered it 10 years ago. After Grim Fandango, there was a huge empty void where this genre once stood.

I'm playing through Longest Journey myself right now.

I'd go as far as saying Pushmo is the best thing on the 3DS eShop so far.

The only one of those games I don't own is Pushmo. I'm thinking I probably need to get it. I hear overwhelmingly good things about it. Lucid I picked up on the Steam sale, like you. In Zelda, the skulltula spiders got me, too. And you know how I feel about Mario Kart 7. It's like we're the same person this week!

Myself, I've been playing a game that I'll be reviewing next week, so I'll save up anything I have to say and talk about it then. I haven't had much motivation to do anything lately or I'd have more game progress to share. I need to shake this funk.

My 360 gets neglected this week, and the Wii becomes my most used console for the first time since Smash Bros. Brawl was released.

Mario Kart Wii

About half way through Mirror GP, but it's more frustrating than fun at this point. Will probably be shelving this one for a while.

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

I have descended to the world below. It's a quiet, eerie sort of place. I went to a temple and some guy had been sitting there for years waiting for me, just to give me some instructions. What a fulfilling life this guy must have lived. Couldn't just leave a note? Anyway, continued into the Falon Woods and met a Goron who is researching stuff I'm bound to find useful. Did a quest in the forest to find some little Kikwi things and was rewarded with a slingshot for my trouble, allowing me to access the next area and the game's first dungeon - Skyview Temple. Did some exploring. Got stumped once or twice, and the sword spirit thing goes into this whole hint thing, which is just a little too vague to be helpful. Fought a Skulltula, which used to be easy enemies in Ocarina of Time. These things are insane now, and I got my first game over (and subsequent rage quit). After going to GameFAQs to see a lot of people had trouble with it, I found the solution and continued. I'm actually enjoying the game despite some frustrations with the motion control. Who came up with the rotating key into boss chamber locks? worst thing is Link just automatically goes through the door to fight the boss, rather than going to SAVE at the EAGLE STATUE RIGHT NEXT TO THE DOOR and then I died fighting the first boss because it took me too long to figure out how to fight the bastard. (That was my second ragequit). But hey, I endured and pressed on and I'm currently in the Earth Temple, which is really more of a volcano, except I don't get a cool Red suit to protect me from heat. As it stands, it's a very good game. I think it'd be even better if it let me plug in a GameCube controller.

Mario Kart 7

Attempted a GP at 150CC. 1st race = 1st place, 2nd race = 1st place, 3rd race... was first until right near the end of the race where a bunch of shit happened and I somehow ended up in 7th. Almost hurled the 3DS across the room. Plus my hand was hurting pretty bad by the end of that. Ugh. The more I play this game the less I like it.

Pullblox (Pushmo)

The puzzles are getting tougher to solve. I find that I get stumped on a puzzle for a few days, then solve it, and usually solve the next few before landing another tough one. I don't think I've ever gotten so much play time out of a puzzle game that wasn't Tetris.

The Longest Journey

The plot thickens. Currently breaking into a police station's archives.

Lucid

It was $1.25 on Steam a few days ago. Relaxing sort of puzzler. Just draw lines on a colour group to make them disappear, only catch is you have to get all of that colour in your line. Area bonuses add to the strategy. One attempt to make a huge portion of the screen one colour ended badly when I couldn't get a legal move from it. One criticism I have is that there are 55 levels to progress through, and you can save and exit and resume, but if you start the game and then accidentally press Start instead of Continue, your progress is wiped and you start over. And that is really easy to do. No warning or anything, just watch the first level load up and you try your hardest not to swear.

Disgaea 4

I wanted to play this yesterday afternoon, since I had about 2 hours to kill. But because it's a PS3 game and I forgot to make an appointment, it spent that entire 2 hours downloading a huge update in excess of 2 GB. So I didn't end up playing it until this morning where I sat through some story segments about this vampire who likes sardines and this suck up werewolf, and completed some tutorial missions which is the same old stuff I've learned in the three games prior to this. I'm hoping the story picks up soon because right now I'm finding it hard to care about these characters.

Because when I think "not hardcore," I definitely picture Mega Man. A game isn't hardcore unless it's downright gritty, don't you know?

Those are definitely some nice perks. I'm not sure if a lot of RPGs thought such a system would eliminate the mystery (there's an argument to be made for that, definitely) or if they were trying to sell guides or what. In any console generation, it seems like there are development teams that "get it" and there are others who make similar games but always fail to include features that could make their respective games so much better. It's a pity.

I was disappointed when I couldn't get more games for you, but pleased when I was able to get the publisher to send you Tropico 4. I really enjoyed its predecessor, and I was confident that I was getting them to send you something you would enjoy. I'm glad I was right, but the down side is that I didn't get a copy myself. I probably should remedy that someday.

Astonishia Story (January 1st) [PSP]
Hits: 962

So, it was Xmas again and my sister was heavily pregnant with her first child. This meant she could not travel very far and, in our immediate family, she lived the furthest away. Being the selfish child, she demanded we all go and spend Xmas with her, condemning me to three nights on the world's most uncomfortable couch. I didn't sleep much, so instead, I played the PSP a lot, which had been left sadly ignored throughout the majority of the previous year. Despite having access to Ys, I spent my time playing Astonishia Story instead, for reasons I still do not fully grasp.

So, there you have it. I had a cold, energy-draining holiday, and you got a review for a game you've never heard of from it.

Red Dead Redemption (January 8th) [360]
Hits:1994

I got R in the Alphas. Remember when we used to have tourneys? Good times, those. So, yeah, we had one and I won. With this review. That, according to Will that week in the RotW, didn't even make the top 3. Take that, you kooky Canadian!

It really was a ramble review. I'll never be a refined writer; my reviews are basically rambling on a word document then trying to make sense of the mess of worlds that stick at the end, but this really came out so much better than I expected. I never wanted Redemption to end, yet I knew it had to at some point, so I procrastinated as much as I could and still didn't complete every side quest or challenge. It gives me an excuse to revisit Marston's world now and then. And shoot people who probably don't really deserve it.

101-in-1 Sports Party Games (January 11th) [Wii]
Hits: 2006

Because, sometimes, you can have to much of a mediocre thing.

The start of this year was just about the end of getting review codes through the post for me, and this would have been a depressing end. Around the end of last year, I got a few 101 game collections, the majority of which were by no means awful, but hardly stand out. What they did do right was make a lot of the games insane enough for you play through just to see what they might come up with next. This collection just had a lot of broken sports stuff thrown in, most of which barely worked.

Medal of Honor (January 14th) [PS3]
Hits: 1175

So, at the end of 2010, I was approached by a gaming site of sorts who wanted to commission me to write a few things for them. I told them I would listen, and sold out a little. I hear it's the in thing to do. Anyway, I was asked to write something on Medal of Honor, which I'd previously done, so figured it wouldn't be that hard. I had a draft done by the end of the day, but they asked me to hold off because they had other things they wanted on the front page that day. I didn't care, so held off. No response a week later, so I gave them a nudge and was told that, that close to Xmas, they weren't bothered about getting new stuff on the page as traffic was culled. I shrugged and waited for them to response. New Year rolled by, and I nudged them again, were I was sent a message telling me I had taken too long to get the review to them, and that further commissions would need to be completed in a much more timely fashion. I didn't bother replying, and HG got a free review. Everyone's a winner.

Xenon 2 (January 23rd) [GEN]
Hits: 1162

Not even going to pretend to be humble about this; I love this review, and it'll probably end up being the best review I've written that no one will ever really read. I wrote it primarily at the end of 2010 for that alpha-marathon I remember caring about once, then deciding to save in for the next year when it was clear I had won. Joe destroyed me in the 2011 race, but I wasn't to know that then!

I'm glad -- happy, even -- that after this I never need to go anywhere near Xenon 2 again. Some things are best left to nostalgia.

ZPK2X (January 24th) [XBLI]
Hits: 1135

EmP: Remember at the start of the year, I said you should buy that live game with the kitten AK47 and zombie hoards?
DoI: Uh
EmP: Then mocked you for liking Unreal more than Quake III?
DoI: That's been going on for years
EmP: Never gets old.
EmP: I made a review intro from the corresponding nagging, anyway.
EmP: I'd forgotten about it until now.
EmP: Ever get around to picking it up?
DoI: I never did.
EmP: Almost exactly a year later, and I still might get the chance to mow you down with a kitten-shooting automatic rifle.
EmP: Isn't that, really, what a Christmas miracle is?
DoI: Now that I think about it, it does sound pretty magical

Cthulhu Saves the World (January 28th) [XBLI]
Hits: 1564

Much like Zeboyd's last Indie game, the dev shot me a message through HG mail to offer me a review copy. Unlike last time, I'd not already purchased the game and wasn't already most of the way through the title. But! Much like Breath of Death, the game rocked.

Stuff like this is what kept me glued to the indie service through the end of 2010 and the start of 2011.

The Ball (February 6th) [PC]
Hits: 875

The Ball turned up on my doorstep one day, much like a lost child nobody wanted and were looking to pass on. I am a charitable soul, so I took it in, played it through my PC (which struggled, alarmingly) and decided the kindest thing to do would be to then review it. I did. And that's how I saved February.

Still don't know why I bolded I remember twice.

Mass Effect 2 (February 28th) [360]
Hits: 734

Here's an odd statement. I put off and put off playing Mass Effect 2 because I know that as soon as I started, I'd play nothing but, and I didn't want to run out of game time so quickly. Hell, even now I have DLC missions I've not played because the thought of having no new Mass Effect to be able to play right now distresses me.

ME2 lived up to this ruinous self hype by being almost effortlessly better than the first game, which I still openly adore. I went into the review know I'd made a bit of a hash out of the review of ME1 by bouncing all over the world in an attempt to prove its vastness, so reined this review right back in. I'd learnt a few things when I took some risks with Red Dead that paid off, so reemployed them here. I'm more than happy with the result.

Thunder Force II (March 15th) [GEN]
Hits: 895

Man, I wish we could have carried stuff like this on. THE PLAN was to release a new Thunder Force review each day, and it's something we more or less managed to pull off. Flanked by site titans like OVERDRIVE (est 1845), MASTERS (obligatory Canadian) LEROUX (Missing, presumed drunk) and DarkEternal (Second best writer with �dark in his name) we went back to the obscure beginnings, ran riot through the 16bit era and came out the other side with JP-only imports. It was awesome; even if Jason's messing around with the coding then changed the colour scheme of the page and endured me to hours of further HTML coding, and his efforts now have sunk them into oblivion along with anything else I put in score box summery. But there is a bitter rant for another time.

Along the way to our great success there was betrayal, desertion and hissy fits aplenty, but we all looked forward to doing it all again a month later. Sadly, the disastrous �'Arnie' week, featuring games made off the back of California's former head of state, never came into fruition, and my grand plan of a theme week each month ended with this one glorious shot. I don't care; it rocked.

(Also, just in case it was in doubt, this won the RotW, and is, as such, THE BEST Thunder Force review on the site.)

Epic Dungeon (March 31st) [XBLI]
Hits: 927

I like to think of myself of a bit of a pioneer. It's one of those things that helps me feed my mammoth ego, but covering the Indie scene really did give me a lot of satisfaction; especially so when I knew people were buying games they would have otherwise never hard of based at least somewhat on what I'd reported. In this case, Joe beat me to the review of this game, but only because I'd gotten him into XBLI in the first place! You have a lot to thank me for, Joseph, and I've yet to see a gift basket.

Hydrophobia (April 14th) [360]
Hits: 934

Sometimes brilliant, sometimes dodgy, it's still such a crazy improvement on the game that first hit XBLA a year or so before, they might as well rename it. The recent update dropped the price of the game by half, fixed more or less every major complaint leveled against it, and left a decent survival horror-like game where your biggest fear is the environment.

Nevertheless, this review was a huge headache for me. I'd been writing pretty well up to this point and it was this review where it all started falling apart. I had horrendous writer's block and, as I always have done in the past, decided the best thing was to power through it. This led to several finished drafts but they were, to be blunt, absolute shit. Hell, this one isn't great; Bloomer rightly pointed out that it has a confusing voice where it jumps back and forth between the old and the new, but, by that point, I simply had to wash my hands of the thing and try to move on.


Beyond Good & Evil HD (April 23rd) [360]
Hits: 928

Despite the fact that this a cheaty rewrite of an older review and I still use large chunks of that review in this one, I really struggled to get this one out. It was probably the beginning of the end of my regular output because I got all kinds of frustrated that I couldn't finish the bloody thing so locked myself away in a corner until all three (I think three?) of the drafts were done. It was about then I decided I wasn't enjoying it anymore. I wrote out of obligation.

There's a little slice of drama out the way. I then won a RotW. Yay!

Alan Wake (April 26th) [360]
Hits: 910

I'm a bit of a survival horror junkie -- have you noticed? As such, I was psyched throughout the entirety of Alan Wake�es production. Then I purchased the game later than everyone else, because that's just how I roll.

Suskie and Marc (and most of the interested world) played this before me and gave very different accounts of their experiences. Through Suskie's excellent review, he made the game sound fantastic, and through Marc's constant bitching over AIM (which I've missed the most in my time offline) he made it sound like a one-trick pony. I guess I thought they were both right as I took the middle ground.

The second game is reportedly underway. I'm hoping they can build upon Wake strengths and perhaps dial down the trees.

Ravan Squad (May 2nd) [PC]
Hits: 614

This was a bit of a cheat. When I wrote for the original Raven Squad game for this very site, I also worte for another one which has since closed its doors. I reclaimed my earlier works, lest they fall into the pist of Oblivion, and posted them back up here. Or, at least, I did for this one. I had the others on a USB key along with a handful of drafts and recently found out it had died. It also had most of the Year in review on it, so I've had to write this entire list again from scratch with a much fuzzier memory. On the bright side, it means you, one of the three people to read in this far, have to put up with 33% less pretentious bullshit.

Shining Force II (May 10th) [GEN]
Hits: 841

It's taken me years to actually review this game, despite the fact I must have beaten it a good half dozen times while I've been writing reviews, and countless times before that. Shining Force II is my go to game. I have it on a USB key on my keyring so if I'm ever stuck somewhere, and there�fs a PC nearby, I always have something to do. This review came off the back of such a game; work was dead, so I spent more time playing Gen roms then doing what I was being paid for.

I actually have a very small list of games I want to review before I throw this crazy reviewing gig in, and, now this one's down, it's now almost exhausted.

B-Team (May 30th) [DS]
Hits: 1030

Not everything has some story behind it. Sometimes I just play a game on a whim then review it. This was one. Rubbish, rubbish game thought it was.

Akane the Kunoichi (July 17th) [XBLI]
Hits: 944

We got a message asking us to review this Indie game because one of us used to be pretty hot on reviewing the Indie scene (it was me before I got lazy!) and so I did. I had heard of Akane's dev team before as I had downloaded the trial of their previous XBLI game, Ace Gals Tennis, and it was rubbish. I expected the worst on this account, but found an extremely worthwhile title included instead.

I should delve back into the Indie scene again should I discover the free time ever again.

Neptune�fs Pride (July 26th) [PC]
Hits: 835

Spared the label of �the longest review I've ever written by the absolute monster that is Oblivion, Pride is still a huge rambling wall of words that doesn't ever really delve into the obligatory trappings like how the game works or what the controls do. It's a condensed gaming diary, I suppose, that talks about my favourite subject. Me.

But, still, I love this review. It's easily the one I spent the most time on during last year, not just because it's huge but because I spent a lot of time editing it. It used to be a lot bigger, believe it or not, but I scaled it down to what it is now over several rewrites, and I wasn't going to publish the damn thing until I was ready. Hell, it was sitting in storage while I wrote B-Team and Akane.

Pride still weighs on my mind and you can expect something else to come from the game sometime in 2012. It�fs a fascinating concept, and I'm simply not done playing around with it and bragging about my results.

(P.S: Second RotW in a row. Watch the record break)

Dead Space (July 28th) [360]
Hits: 910

AKA: The review were Gary forgot who directed his favourite film.

Yeah, that was a gaffe, made better by a quick edit but forever immortalised by a bit of forum banter now stuck to the bottom of the review for eternity. No one to blame but me.

But, yeah, the review. Came out okay, didn't it? I'll assume you said yes, voiceless reader. Thanks, dude.


Trapped Dead (July 31st) [PC]
Hits: 713

I'd like to say it seemed like someone out there in Dev land still loved me when a copy of Trapped Dead showed up on my doorstep, giving me a perfect chance to be momentarily excited. A strategy game set in and around an undead apocalypse? X-Com with zombies?

Except, no. Trapped Dead is an ambitious RTS that plods on like the stereotypical foes that dot the game. One laden with bugs and errors that the games more likely to crash that have you get your brains munched on. Patches were released, but only in German, which made keeping to a review deadline pretty hard going. My German is a little rusty. Or non existent. One of the two.

On reflected, 4/10 seems a little high. Oh well.

L.A. Noire (August 13th) [PS3]
Hits: 1378

Good old L.A. Noire. Like the slightly retarded friend you keep around out of pity, Noire could have (and kinda has) got by on just how obvious it was that an impossible amount of hours were ploughed into the game. The fantastic graphics, the highly professional voice acting and the stellar period-perfect soundtracks all failed the mask the fact that all they had been stapled to was a very pretty game constantly telling you to press X to win.

L.A. Noire is several steps too close to being an interactive movie and too far removed for comfort from being a video game. It doesn't so much as hold your hand, but lifts you up in a fireman's carry and dumps you face first into the solutions it wants you to find. Then, if you manage to mess that up anyway, it doesn't care. You win regardless. What a steaming pile of wasted potential.

The only noteworthy thing it did was allow me to write a review that won me a forth straight RotW victory thus granting me the highest streak record. Congrats, Team Bondi. Rockstar might now think you're a bunch of dicks, but you're alright by me. So long as you stop making shit games.

Fire Mustang (August 20th) [GEN]
Hits: 664

In my attempts to win RotW #5, Fire Mustang threw me for a bit of a loop. Out of games to review, I needed something I could beat quick and decided to jump into the crazy world of 16bit scrollers, pick out a dud, and there tear the sucker to shreds. People seem to love that kind of thing around here -- a sad commentary in and of itself. I was then quite annoyed to find the game was actually pretty good, and that I enjoyed it enough to sink all the time I had to find a new game into playing it. I was stuck, then. A praise review it was. I'd not planned on that.

Someone else won RotW that time around. Suskie even came out of the shadows briefly to try and end my run early, and I salute him for it.

Tropico 4 (November 6th) [360]
Hits: 481

Back in the hazy month of August, Jason and myself sat down to compile a large list of games we should try and get review copies from. It was a list of some size, and many e-mails were sent. One game arrived. This one. I was a little annoyed at first; I'd asked for the likes of Rage and Deus Ex, and I got bloody Tropico 4. Then the game very slowly took over my life. It's still the title I sink the most time into now. Hell. I�fve not even beaten Deus Ex yet because I spent more time building a civilisation on tropical islands instead, then watching the bastard people turn on me because I feed them nothing but rotten bananas, or sold their homes to criminal immigrants.

I'm currently in the midst of ruining a former partner. I've bought his company from underneath him, and am trying to have one of my pretty islands host the Olympic games, just to bankrupt him a little bit more.

Get to tha choppa 2 (November 29th) [XBLI]
Hits: 514

Man, I�fm clever. Have you read this review? Go do so, it's not very long, and I think you'll agree I�fm clever. Yes. Me.

Smart.