Unless the price is very low (such as during Steam holiday sales) or the game does not have a narrative "end" point (such as fighting games), I will not buy a game unless I am reasonably confident that I will replay it multiple times. Sometimes that isn't the case and the game gets completed once, if at all, but I try my best to wring every last drop of entertainment I can out of my purchases. Granted, it almost makes me sick to think of all the time I spent playing Chrono Trigger and Persona 3/4 (usually when I'm considering playing those games yet again!), but it mostly works for me, and has saved me a little money to boot.

I agree, please end this needless annoyance.

What's the one released game/series that you would consider yourself a fan of, but for one reason or another (released for an old system, never released in your country, like the concepts but not the game style, etc.) you haven't played and are unlikely to play any time soon?

My choice would be Terranigma, which I learned about from watching a Let's Play of it. The game looks incredibly fun, the dialogue is oftentimes hilarious and the story/characters are surprisingly affecting. I would like to play it, but seeing as it was not sold in the USA, there isn't a cheap and legal way of doing so, and I'll have to hope Square Enix releases it here in some form. (I also considered the Ultima series, which is fascinating in concept but seems too archaic in design and difficult to get working on modern computers.)

Nope, no way to travel that path. That passageway is a crossing to the mainland, and I think one of the characters (Norris or Doc, I believe) mentions that the currents are very strong at this time of year and cannot be traversed (at least with the small boats you get to use). It's there to let you know that you're only looking at a small part of the Chrono world map - though exactly where on the map you are is not fully explained, it's implied that you're somewhere near the village at the bottom-left corner of this map, which is the village of Porre.

This fear is a dangerous one, as it can spiral into obsessive terror. Grappling with the infinite darkness of oblivion, that dread knowledge that one day relatively soon you will cease to be and think nothing more for eternity...that's frightening, especially when you can't stop thinking about it. It's easy to say, "Stop thinking about death," but when it becomes an obsession, you might as well say, "Stop breathing."

The only advice I have (and I'm sure it's not the preferred way of dealing with the problem, but it worked for me) is to find something new and fascinating to obsess over and keep following it until you forget about your worries. For the first several months of 2005, virtually all of my idle time was spent thinking about death, and no matter what I tried, I couldn't stop. Then came rumors of the Nintendo Revolution, and all the crazy speculation and seeming inside knowledge about the wonder machine allegedly under development captivated me. I started seeking out any bit of information I could find, following all the gossip emanating from dubious sources (anyone remember Aries?). By the time we got accurate information about the newly-christened Wii, I forgot about my fear and got on with my life. I worry from time to time that the fear will come back, but it hasn't happened for five years so far, and I hope it remains that way.

Also, consider this. The universe itself will die someday, if current theories are correct. There will come a point where not only stars will burn out, but even matter itself will disintegrate and the universe will become a total void. You are not alone; take comfort in knowing that, eventually, everyone and everything shares the same fate.

The XFX is almost certainly the better of the two. Here's a review of it. I don't know of a review for that specific Ultra PSU, but similar units in the past have rated rather poorly.

I still prefer the Dreamcast's.

lundy86_4

When I first got NBA 2K9 for the PC, I didn't own a compatible controller, so I tried the game out with KB/M.

...I bought an Xbox PC controller the next day. There is indeed a genre or two that is not conducive to standard PC controls.

Walkthroughs I usually don't use, unless it's for something like one of those tedious and complicated sidequests that frequently pop up in JRPGs. Cheats? Yes, yes, yes. I love to use cheats (in single-player games). Been using them since the Game Genie days, and I don't see much chance of stopping. For whatever reason, using them doesn't make me feel shortchanged on the experience. Indeed, the games that I generally end up playing the most, that I come back to year after year, are those where I cheat the most excessively. It's one of the reasons that I didn't enjoy GTA4 as well as its predecessors, despite its many improvements - without a proper cheating device, I couldn't play it as a Superman simulator like I did with the others. I don't always cheat in games, but I don't regret it when I do.

I sold my copies of Allied General and Panzer General for the PS1 and later felt the need to play them again. I rebought Allied...and found out that I sold it because I no longer enjoyed playing it. Regardless, this taught me to never sell my games lest I end up going through this cycle again (and Allied General is sitting on a shelf behind me, unplayed but unlikely to go anywhere).