Sad day, indeed, guys

All this Jeff Gertsmann affair is really disturbing. Until Jeff is re-hired again or proof that he was not fired
because of the K&L review, I am not coming back here.

Rendarian, Visionary, Sonicare, Crovax.... it has been great to discuss and share opinions with you, guys,
these last four years. Hope I see you soon.

farewell

Milikito

First of all, you will have to be really condescending with my grammar today. I got some nice wine with the dinner
and that will surely emphasize my poor language skills

I had been playing some Etrian Odissey in my DS for many weeks after beating Puzzle Quest to death, until I decided, I a couple weeks ago, that I should come back to the real c.l.a.s.s.i.c.s. Thatīs what I have been playing during the last month (well, what my work had allowed me, sadly ):

PS2;

• FFXII: Oh my, so good you are, Matsunoīs joy. I have found lately that random encounters in traditional JRPGs are testing my patience now that I am getting older and older. Etrian Odissey is a good example of this. However, with FFXII I have rediscovered the joy of grinding for the pure awesomeness of it. Why, oh, why did you have, Oh Square, to fire Matsuno. He has this perverted obsession on making the games I adore the most (just keep reading). I donīt think I will be able to digest the low blow of seeing him making a waggle rendition for the Wii, if the rumours are true.
• GT4: Itīs strange. I bought the game and did not try it for a year and a half. Itīs like GT3, with the strange property of looking incredibly great on my HD TV.How so? PD are really good, no matter how slow they release their products. So I am sure I will eventually be buying a PS3 and GT5, despite Sony and their autodestructive and nihilist fate. I would not hate buying Eye of Judgement either
• The Red Star: 20 dollars for this is a bargain. What a hidden gem. The Ikaruga ****boss levels are lovely. Buy this game already, guys. Really.

Wii:

• Oh, yeah... the Wii. That cool console with the Tennis game. Well, it ends up that I got tired of Wii Tennis (after 2000 points, there is no point anymore in keep playing). However, I got Paper Mario on VC. Paper Mario is made of the substance of the dreaming stars and the essence of the olympic nectar. I wonder how I could miss this N64 gem. It obliterates Paper Mario for the GC and many RPGs I have in good regard. Sometimes, the admiration I feel for Nintendo can only be compared with my hatred for them

DS:

• Not much DS love, lately. Picross is great, though. I still have to buy Zelda.

PSP:

• And here my love for Matsuno continues. I am having a combined orgy of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics. Being in PAL land, I wonder two things... how I could live without having played FFT before, and second, what were Square thinking when they developed FFTA for GBA. The second is a raw
  and simple attempt of insulting the intelligence of the customer. Or his age. Or both things. I might be stupid, but I am old. So, I will be careful before doing the same mistake for FFTA DS. Looking at the sales in Japan, it might happen than more than one may share some of my opinions on this particular subject.
• Power Stone. This port got so many critics. And this really brings me to believe that maybe I should have bought a Dreamcast when I had the opportunity. Because this game is so funny in all his dumbness.

So, sorry for my verbosity. I would love to hear from you which game has stole your attempts of having a proper life lately. Except if that game is BioShock, because in that case, Iīm going to envy you so much that it wonīt be healthy for my decrepit body...

regards, guys

Vanillaware just confirmed an "Odin Sphere"-lke action RPG for the Wii, with waggle sword action:

May be, at the end, the Wii will end up being the spiritual successor of the PS2, and not a Wii-tennis console with
mini-games showelware. Yay!

Thanks to a controversial member at neoGaf forums (at http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=142786)
I found this little gem for PSP and DS):

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords for PSP Review - PSP Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords Review

I really need to recommend to you, guys, Puzzle Quest. For either the PSP or DS, doesn't matter. Both versions are great.
The highlights are (PSP version):

1. (1) Excellent pace. The perfect handheld game and an example of how PSP niche game should fare
2. (2) Nostalgic, "Might& Magic" overworld map system
   
3. (3) Addictive puzzle-based combat system which evolves into a fully fledged strategy game (not without its share of exploits)
   
4. (4) Outstanding soundtrack and great sound effects
   
5. (5) very good artwork (as usual, looks astonishing in the PSP screen). Interestingly, with a certainly anime-ish influence, with contrasts with its deep routes in the traditional 90's PC WRPG foundations
   
   

The best way to describe this game is as an old school PC WRPG (it reminds me of the oldest Might and Magic games) with a unique combat system based on a puzzle game not much unlike bejeweled/zoo keeper. The nice thing about the mechanics is the fact that achieved puzzle blocks generates you either gold, mana, damage or experience. Mana is in turn used to cast spells which may affect the board or the stats of the players.

While the puzzle part, at the beginning of the game, suffers from being a little bit luck-based, soon after you start level grinding, you get offered with a wide selection of tools to change the combat from a skill/luck based showdown to a clever and addicting strategy game where a war of attrition is placed over the adversary, and many trade-offs need to be evaluated beyond the obvious implications of every move.

Another very nice thing about the game is the puzzle variations that are involved with the different aspects of the game. Some
examples:

1. (*) You can capture creatures you have already beaten a certain number of times. This is done by a puzzle challenge where you have to eliminate all the block pieces on the board with a certain number of moves
2. (*) You can train mounts by playing a version of the puzzle with time limits. This has obvious parallelism with fast check matches as it changes radically the way you play the game
3. (*) You can learn spell from captured creatures by being able to create a wish-list of blocks from a static board
4. (*) You can create new items (which nice bonus) by being able to match together special symbols on the board
   
   

Summarizing up, I can understand that this is a niche game that fills some particular tastes. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that its scope widely fits the needs for what a good portable title should be. Slow paced mechanics with fantasy settings and a outstanding level of strategy gameplay have been some of the ingredients of the receipt for many of the best handheld titles I have ever played (like IS products: Advance Wars and Fire Emblem)

It's ironic that this is first real instance of such concept on PSP (as MGA was an interesting spin of the concept, yet flawed,
and Field Commander was a terrible let down). Maybe, recently, Devil Summoners was close, too. And I really believe it's a luxury to have such value regarding artwork, soundtrack and presentation for what it's basically a low budget handheld game.