Time for a catchup on some of my recent game acquisitions:

Before my vacation weeks back I picked up two games on the cheap"

Valkyrie Profile 2, PS2, Used, Complete, $11 (I've started playing this twice, and the game has yet to click for me. Part of me doesn't know whether to hate it or give it another try)

Fallout New Vegas. PS3, Used, Complete, $15 (gotta love the Fallout series)

Red Orchestra Deluxe edition, PC (steam), free (I won a free game w00t!)

Besides that I downloaded 3 Japanese PSN Titles:

Malicious, PS3 PSN (I've already blogged about this :P)

Dark Mist, PS3 PSN (Legend of Zelda type game meets twin stick shooter. It's very cool and fun!)

Ore no Ryouri (which translates to "My Hot Cooking," a great ps1 import that uses the dual analog sticks to serve up meals and other mini games. Very fun, a bit hard, packed with a lot of stuff to do.)

Also, Downloaded:

Weekly Toro Station, PS3 PSN (A news program that has a bunch of mini games with it as well.)

Also, bought Yakuza 3, PS3, for $15 new! Loving the game so far. It's very neat how alive thw orld is, and all the neat ltitle things you can do.

The reason being? It's only on the Japanese Playstation store.

I'm talking about the PS3 Game Malicious, a downloadable only title in japan, (not very common) and a stellar one at that with graphics up there with some of the best PS3 Games.

Here I'll let wikipedia explain the game (from wikipedia.com):

"The main goal of the game is to defeat a dangerous group of creatures known as the Maliciou. There is no actual stage progression in Malicious. Instead, all stages start the player off directly in big fights against a boss and his subordinates

For weapon, the player makes use of a special black cloak that hangs from the main character's neck called the Cloak of Ash. The cloak, created using technology from the great prophets, changes into a variety of forms. As an example, the cloak can becomes a fist for close range melee attacks. It can also become a projectile weapon, making use of "demon bullets" to target multiple enemies with a lock on.

The cloak can also wrap around the character to guard against incoming attacks.

The player is able to freely select whichever stage to come next. The ordering could be important, as defeating a boss gives the character that boss's powers in the form of a new action. The character also gains power in other areas, including increased jump height and the ability to lock on to a greater number of enemies with "demon bullet" blasts

As the player takes damage during the game, parts of the main character's clothes and body will disappear. However there are certain places where the player can get healed up when certain conditions are met, which will restore the missing parts of the main character's body (clothes, however, can't be restored.)"

I'm lucky enough that I actually own this game. It's utterly amazing, tough, but very satisfying. My only complaint is the camera, which sometimes leads to some bad camera angles (and staring at walls).

The word is that they plan on bringing this title to the Vita in US as an enahnced download title. So hopefully gamers can experience this great title. I'll leave you with the trailer for this game:

[video=JCM0nzLw5bMIvTLY]

Yup, that's right I'm back. Not only back to Gamespot, but also back to gaming. That's right - I did not play a single game for over 3 months.

Why you ask? I don't know the reasons, but I stopped caring about games, I no longer had a desire to play. I felt suck in a rut. So three months passed and I didn't play a single game. Then all of a sudden i started playing Sakura Wars 5. Played it all the way to the end. That's what I've been missing. My Japanese games. That's one thing this gen seems to be lacking, as this gen has been mainly dominated by US/Canadian/European game developers and publishers.

Regardless I'm back to gaming and collecting a little. I just came back from a ten day trip to Virginia and managed to nab some sweet stuffs for my collection. So I'll give ya the run down! Hold on tight...

On my first day there via a flea market i nabbed two games:

Panzeer Dragoon Orta, Xbox, Complete, $5

Pro Pinball (The Web), PS1, Disk only $2 (got this for my Dad, The pinball player in the family)

On the Second Day I visited two stores, a Gamestop where I've manged to nab a few rarities in the past and a wal-mart)

From the Gamestop:

Suikoden III, PS2, Complete $11

Suikoden V PS2, Complete $26 (nabbing two suikoden games is a major bonus!)

Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, PS2 Complete, $9 (been trying to find the 1st one for ages in good condition, finally payed off)

Star Ocean Till The End Of Time, PS2, Complete (with cardboard box), $9

The Punisher, PS2, Complete, $9

Tales of Symphonia (2) Dawn of the New World, Wii, Complete $18

From the wal-mart:

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, PSP, New, $27 (with discount) (I got this mainly for my sis, but for some reason finding this game has become extremely hard. Tried finding one for her for Xmas last year and just could not find a copy)

During the course of my ten day vacation I found two other titles:

Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 3, Xbox, new, $9

Shin Megami Tensei P4 Persona 4, PS2, Complete (with soundtrack CD), $36

Finally, my last day there, I went to a bunch of flea markets:

Sega Game Gear, just the unit, free (man said he could not get it to work so gave it to me for free. With a little quick repair work, within ten minutes at home I got it working fine :D)

N64 Storage unit, $1 (looks like one of the old atari game holders in the wooden pullout drawers in the 80s. Regardless it'll be useful to hold some of my more used loose n64 carts)

Crimsion Skies, Xbox, Complete, $5

Jet Force Gemini, N64, Cart only, $3

Alien Vs Predator, Snes, Cart only, $2

And finally the best things I found on my trip, were 4 japanese games that a person at the flea market had:

Inital D: Street Stage, PSP, Import, Complete, $10

Inital D: Extreme Stage, PS3, Import, Complete, $10 (I love the Inital D anime series)

Mobile Train Simulator + Densha de GO! Tokyo Kyuukou Hen, PSP, Complete, $10

SD Gundam G Generation Portable, Disk Only, PSP, Free (came in A Super Robot Taisen MX Portable case with manual. It's free so I'm not complaining :P)

If you notice the trend, it seemed I mainly went after Japanese games :P

In Gaming:

Haven't played much games at all. Here's what I've played though:

On the 3DS Front:

Pokemon Pokedex 3D - I'm up to 63 Pokemon registered now :D

On the PS3 Front:

Infamous - Finished As a hero. :D

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune - Got back to this a bit and beat a few levels. On chapter 5 or 6 now.

On Anime:

Eureka Seven - finished watching the 50 episode series. For an anime that started out doing everything I disliked, it ended up being a great one in the end. How the heck did it do that?

High School of the Dead - finished this too, all 12 episodes. Lot's of nods to Zombie lore, American zombie flicks, and video games too. Too bad it's a bit overkill on certain things, but regardless, it's pretty good if for the nods to zombie lore alone.

Dragonball - Finished Season 1. It definitely reminded me that my favorite parts of the original series was the tournaments.

Yu Yu Hakusho - Just about finished season 1 as well. On the last few episodes of season 1.

Case Closed (Detective Conan) - Watched episodes 28 - 33 over the weekend. I really need to get the boxed sets of this series.

Since I've gotten back into Anime, and taken a backseat to video game playing, (haven't played a video game in over a week) I'd figure I post what I recently purchased over the last few weeks:

Yu Yu Yakusho Seasons 1 and 2

Evangelion 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance

(Also the Very best of WCW Monday Nitro)

Dragonball Seasons 1-5

Yu Yu Yakusho Seasons 3 and 4

Evangelion 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone

I got some sweet deals on these, and hardly paid that much for them. Heck both Season of Yu Yu Yakusho only cost me 7 bucks each with Evangelion 2 disk set costing me around 8. I now own all episodes of the original Dragonball series as well as Yu Yu Yakusho)

Case Closed episodes

Case Closed (the 1st movie) the Time Bombed Skyscraper

Cyborg 009 (2001 version) first 8 episodes on a 2 disc special edition set

I only paid 17 bucks for the lot. Case Closed (AKA Detective Conan) is one fo my favorite series of all time. Also the longest running continuous series in anime, with 620 episodes so far and 15 years on the air.

This is got luckily. Normally at the store they sell for 40 bucks each but I got all 4 for ten bucks each. These sets are the first for volumes of the series Trigun, Gungrave, and Hellsing. All 13 episodes of Hellsing are here, along with episodes 1 - 16 of Gungrave and episodes 1 - 13 of Trigun.

Long before I became a video game collector I used to an advid fan of anime. Every once In a while I do pick up a boxed set or movie or so. I'm not much for buying dvds as gaming usually takes up the time and such, but I've scored some pretty sweet deals on boxed sets as of late.

The last week I got Seasons 1 and 2 of Yu Yu Hakusho, and the movie Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance. I was always like Yu Yu Hakusho but barely got to watch much of the anime when i was younger. It'll be nice to actually get to see it.

Meanwhile I got a bunch of boxed sets on order that i scored for dirt cheap.

Dragonball (the original series, not Dragonball Z)

Season 1 and 2

Season 3 and 4

And Season 5

Yu Yu Hakusho Season 3

Yu Yu Hakusho Season 4

And Evangelion 1.o1 You Are (Not) alone

In total it only cost $90 total for that effectively savign a TON of money buying it elsewhere. Not only that I got the whole Series of Dragonball, and Yu Yu Hakusho now doing so and the first two Evengelion movies of Rebuild of Evengelion Series. I'm gonna be busy for the next year watching these xD

Here's the run down of what I've been playing recently:

On the PS3 front:

Infamous - Been playing this a lot lately. I'm very deep in the game and loving the powers. Out of all these open world, superhuman type games (crackdown, prototype) this is by far the best one and has kept me engaged. Love the powers, and the game play. Only quirks I have with it is sometimes the game breaks itself with too many bad guys spawning or awkward bad guy spawns. Nevertheless, the game is awesome.

Alice: Madness Returns - Waited a long time for this one, While infamous is taking up msot fo my time on ps3, betwen spurts I;ve been playing this. After infamous I'll be able to go full force into the game. Love the way Alice looks and the imaginative backdrops. I'm about 1/6th of the way done so far.

American Mcgee's Alice - One of the best parts of getting the new Alice game is getting the old one which I already owned on pc. I loved the way the handled this...just put the game in widescreen, up the resolution, and make the control scheme work. That's what they did, and the game is looking as awesome as it was 11 years ago.

On the 360 Front:

Trouble witches Neo! Demo - Tried the demo fo this game, it's pretty awesome. Like the anime look and the shop game system for this pretty shoot em up. I'll have to get this one day. there's difficulty modes, and online coop too!

On the 3DS Front:

Pokedex 3D - 42 Pokemon registered so far! :D

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3DS - I got this the day it came out. I'll be getting the soundtrack also! :D 3D makes this game look awesome. So awesome that I don't think I even blinked once for the first ten minutes of gameplay xD

On the PC Front:

Spiral Knights - Been playing this free to play action game via Steam (steam now has free to play games through their service). It's pretty awesome and reminds me a lot of Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles in terms of gameplay. I like it so much that I even dropped some money down the the starter pack of energy and items for the game. Sega made a pretty nice game, and it's nice to see a free to play game with multiplayer that isn't an MMORPG on PC for once. Most of my game time as of late has been between the and Infamous.

Gamespotters, what have you been playing as of late? :)

I'm currently debating on whether to get Alice: Madness Returns or not. I'll get it on the PS3 if I do. I'm excited that it does come with the original game, even though I own the PC version.

LOZ, Ocarina of Time 3D Comes out too soon. I will be getting that, especially to get the soundtrack CD that is being offered.

Besides those, there are so many releases coming up it's nuts. xD

Even though I was wrapped up in the E3 madness for the last week, I have been able to game a bit. So let's go with the run down.

On the PS2 front:

Arcana Heart - Finally got back to this all girl fighter game released by atlus. It's got an interesting concept - each girl can be linked to a spirit that changes their move list and abilities. that makes for some great replayability. The matches are quite long too; much different from normal fighters. With lots of super moves, chances for big combos and big air battles, I must say I like this game even though it can wear on your hands. My only disappointment is the final boss, who is much too overpowered, and cheap. So much so, that even vets of this game can rarely defeat her without some luck. Outside the boss, the gameplay is fun with the normal charcters and makes for so exciting moments. If I have to score, it be a 7.5/10

Dance Dance Revolution Supernova - Don't kill me, but I haven't played many DDR games. The first one I owned was universe for 360, and of course I always use the controller. Sorry, call me a lazy gamer if you must :P Anyway playing this game made em realize how much universe of 360 was bad. This game has a better quest mode, challenges for all types of players, unlockables galore, and much much better song list, that taps into both American, European and Japanese music. I like it and will continue at it.

PS1 front:

Lilo and Stitch - I tried Lilo and Stitch which was free through Playstation plus. It was bad. watch the movie, don't play this. Don't even download it. Don't even subject a kid to playing this.

PS3 Front:

Dead Nation - Played some co-op with a friend. I'll say it before and say it again, one fo the best downloadable games you can get on any console.

SuperStardust HD - Only played a tiny bit of this game. Need to play more.

PSP Front:

Pursuit Force - Playing Pursuit Force went from exciting to frustration. The game's time limits are too strict, and the game is an punch to gut beyond the first few levels. I heard the second was better. I got it for free, yet I want my money buck. lol

Modnation Racers - I didn't play much, but I don't like the control scheme. The PSP just can't do this game justice with the controls it requires. again, i got this for free, but it's not that grand. Not like the one for PS3. I can't wait for version as it will do the game justice.

3DS Front:

Pokedex 3D - Another nice app for the 3DS and this one will stay forever free. I love that you can scan codes, take pictures, and play the Pokemon in the real world like in AR games. Note there is a limit to how much you can discover in one day, but regardless it's a nice app that will make you want to go find more Pokemon.

3D Cla$$ics Excitebike - For a free game it's nice. I loved the NES game as a kid and I like the 3D touch. Plus the game does what the original did not...save your times and tracks you make. Would I pay $6 bucks for it (which what it costs now)? Nope.

Wii front:

Heathcliff The Fast and the Furriest - Must not have been a good week for me, cause this game is bad as well. Actually, it was probably the worst game I played all week. I miss the cartoon. Ahh the 80's.

FlingSmash - Now I got the game and the new Wii Remote Plus control for 30 bucks so I'm not gonna beat this to the ground, but as a pack in title FlingSmash is disappointing. Nintendo gets everything right here, good concept, neat characters, and easy to understand gameplay. Problem is the controls are broken. No matter what you do, recalibration or not, the game doesn't real your movements correct half the time. this leads to frustrating bouts of gameplay in the later levels where accuracy counts. For more details, read the review I posted this morning.

Madworld - Save me Jack, save me! After starting out with a problem understanding the controls (there is a bit of a learning curve), and a bad spawn glitch in the first world, I got the hang of it and have really been enjoying this game. The game is over the top, vulgar, violent and an amazing game. It brings the beat em up genre in the modern age with it's many ways to defeat an enemy and fast past action. The visuals look great and sharp, and even though it's a Wii motion controlled game, it felt like it wasn't a Wii game. it felt like something on the ps3 and the 360. Once you get into the game, things become fluid, and fast paced. Best 9 bucks I've spent in a long time. Note I did use the new controller with this game, which made things seem super fluid.

What a great E3 it was this year! What did you guys and gals think? I'm excited for the new Wii U, PS Vita, Halo games, Tomb Raider (excellent way to close out the stage show Gamespot!) and the Future 3DS line up. what was your favorite parts of E3, and what are you looking forward to in the coming year?

I am so excited for the PS Vita that I secured a preorder today from Gamestop for the wifi model. The games and tech had me sold especially at the price.

The 3DS Eshop finally launched, but came a problem. apparently my 3Ds has problems downloading content from Nintendo, via my router. After 2 hours on tech support from Nintendo, I decided to try out a local wifi spot (McDonald's) and it worked. albeit very slowly. from what I gather the 3DS has issues with a number of routers. Which means Nintendo needs to fix that ASAP. I'm able to play online, search the web, do everything else from the router, except download anything from the eshop.

Anyway, the eshop had 2 games for free with it's launch:

3D Pokedex, 3DS Eshop, Free (very interesting as the coolest feature is you can place Pokemon in the real world like you could in AR Games)

3D Cla$$ics: Excitebike, 3DS Eshop, Free (I like the 3D effect, and the best part of this game is it saves your time and creations! I loved this game as a kid)

That aside, with some money from my Bonus I earned from workm I grabbed a few Wii games as well, at good deals:

Fling Smash, W/ Black Wii Remote Plus, Wii, New, $30

Kirby's Epic Yarn, Wii, New, $30

Sin And Punishment: Star Successor, Wii, New, $20

Metroid: Other M, Wii, New, $20

Madworld, Wii, used/complete, $8