At last, I've played enough of some of my Christmas games that I felt I could effectively write up reviews for them. Hope they help you!

LSW:TCS (DS)

GWG (DS)

P.S. Please recommend them if you liked them! :)

This is in no particular order. I have never really been one to think about what games I would like to see made. I was always pleased and psyched about what I saw coming out. Unfortunately, in recent years, I've noticed the change in how games are made and what they are like and have realized that I wish this change hadn't happened. I don't think it's been for the better. This is a whole other topic, but it's my reason for creating this list. Feel free to comment/critique.

Yup, it's true. I made a quilt. It's a super awesome quilt, I might add. I got the idea from whoever of my GS friends posts small pics of the DS games he/she wants or has in their blog posts (minishdriveby, you're one of them). It is a grid collage of my DS collection to date. I thought I'd post it now because it's the start of a new year and it will surely grow as the year goes on. Quite frankly, I think it looks really cool. It's one of the best things I've done on Paint, haha.

EDIT: I forgot to mention it before, but it was a bit more intricate than simply placing the boxes in a grid. The games are in an order, going left to right from the top row to the bottom - the order in which I came to acquire the games. Call me a loser, but I keep a notebook that I keep vg-related records in. One kind of record is a list of the games I own, complete with date of purchase and a check box for whether or not I sold it. I've been writing in it for at least a decade now, since I was still in grade school, hehe. This kind of masterpiece is what it's good for. 8)

I have seen the card battles in Chocobo Tales. I have seen the battles in Dragon Quest Monsters Joker. Both look great. So, until handheld Pokemon games have battles that look like those featured in the games mentioned, I will not buy another Pokemon game. I absolutely refuse.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt for the music and a few other game elements to get an overhaul as well.

I am absolutely addicted to Geometry Wars. It's true. I'm not even past the first two galaxies but I've played them to death. And the same thing goes for Lego Star Wars The Complete Saga. I'm halfway through Ep.IV and have played the game for about eight hours so far. There's just so much content in both games. I've written down a bunch of notes that I will use to write reviews ("I liked this...", "This wasn't so great."), but since I'm back at school now, I'd much rather spend my free time playing the games than writing about them. Rest assured, I'll get around to writing up reviews eventually but I highly doubt that this time around it won't be until I beat the games. LSW is relatively unbeatable and GWG is absolutely unbeatable. That game can be played for the rest of one's life.

So that's where I'm at right now. And by the way, school sucks.

Well, I've been thinking of writing about how my Christmas went or about first impressions I had of the DS games I got, but I just don't really feel like doing either atm. = Maybe I'll do the first impressions thing sometime at the start of the new year. idk. Quite honestly, I'm in a state of disbelief over the fact that tomorrow is New Year's Eve. Where the heck did this week go? I, like, didn't do anything and time just flew! Really, I didn't do anything. One minute I'm just waking up and the next it's dark (no, I didn't sleep each day away...). It's just crazy. I mean, I'm all ready to party but...this week really flew by. And, it doesn't help that I go back to school on the 2nd. I'm definitely not looking forward to that. I hate school. I've grown tired of the whole college thing. I want to be done with it. Not because I'm not doing well or because it's too hard (cause neither circumstance is true), but because overall, I just feel like I've been there and done it. As scary as the real world sounds to me, I'm so ready to jump right in.

Oh man, that was a stream of consciousness if I've ever seen one. All I really wanted to come here tonight to say was Happy New Year. I know we barely know each other, but I do still want to wish all of you all the best in 2008. :)

I'll be leaving for my grandparents' in a few hours and I won't be back until sometime Wednesday (I think), so here's wishing a very Merry Christmas to all of you! May you all find joy and cheer in the company of your own family and/or friends and hopefully all get what you asked for. ;)

P.S. Woot for getting halfway through lvl20!

Since there were quite a few interested in what my initial thoughts would be about this game, I thought I'd just post a blog entry for the cause.

Well, so far I've played about three hours. I'm at the start of the third chapter. I don't know where that puts me as far as the game's overall length, but I'm sure there's still much more to do. Things are still just getting started, story-wise. And speaking of the story, I'm hooked. It's kind of a mystery. I mean, Vaan ends up on a continent only ever known to him by legend so there's going to be plenty of unknowns at first. I'm betting that once we know what/who the true evil is, things will be more about kicking their butt than figuring out all there is to know about the world. One other thing I have to note about the plot is that it's very welcoming to see Vaan as a relevant character. He has a purpose this time around, whereas it seemed as though he was just tagging along in FF12.

Contrary to what I'd heard in most of the reviews I read, the game is actually pretty challenging. This was a pleasant surprise given that fact. They had written that it was relatively easy to make it through the game. This is true, I've found, only if you are prepared for each fight, are a high enough level to take on the enemies, and all around just know what the heck you're doing. Wait, that's cardinal RPG strategy #2 (or something close to #2). Bottom line, as far as I've seen, the game is never a pushover. Mission 1-4 was tough and took me seven tries to beat.

Some other comments worth noting:

- The espers are cool.

- The world of Lemures is gorgeous. Every locale is really beautiful and the atmosphere just sucks you in.

- You can name forged weapons!! Let me tell you, that was a VERY awesome surprise.

Well, I hope that helps some of you out there in determining whether this game might have a place in your respective collections. If you're on the fence, I recommend getting the game. It's got a certain charm to it that just can't be denied. If anything, it'll make for a fun little adventure that you can come back to time and time again. :)

Sooooo, that boycott last week seems not to have had any effect on anything. How disappointing. If I'd known that ahead of time, maybe I wouldn't have been so terribly bored that whole day. Oh well.

We're going to pick up my brother from his school in VA tonight. What's this mean for me? A whole heck of a lot. Not only will I now have someone to hang out with during the day for the remainder of my break, but we're finally going to be able to give each other our Christmas presents. Tonight, we'll break open Revenant Wings. It's been absolutely killing me to have not one but two copies of both the game and the guide in my closet for the last half a month or so. I've skimmed through the guide a few times in that time, which has thankfully pacified my crazy anticipation. But it's just barely been enough. I had to break out NSMB to keep me occupied this week. Now that's desperation! :P But in all seriousness, it's such a good thing I don't have to wait much longer. By the end of the day, I will have broken through the packaging and into the game. Yeah!

I'm helping to spread the word about this. Tomorrow, there is a boycott on CNET. If you want to participate, do not go on any CNET websites for the duration of the day.

The list of such sites include Gamespot, News.com, TV.com, Movietome.com, Gamerankings.com, GameFAQs.com, Metacritic.com, Download.com, and MP3.com.

Also, be sure you're logged out of each of these sites if you're a member. You might still count as a hit if you remain logged in even though you may not actually be surfing the site(s).

I, for one, am most definitely participating. It will suck, as Gamespot is one of the sites that I go on daily to blow spare time, but this is an overly worthy cause and I can just go to 1Up or Gametrailers.

Well, hope to NOT see you all NOT here tomorrow! =D