I don't know if I've mentioned it before on here, but my brother and I both decided to get each other a copy of Revenant Wings and a guide. Anyway, four boxes from Amazon came in this week. I took a look through the 304-page guide (304 pages!!! For a DS game!!!). First thing I noticed...that is the craziest assortment of summons I have ever seen. I can't wait to dive into that.

Well, that's not really why I'm writing this second post of the day. It has become clear that Square loves their Ivalice, a whole lot. Because they've made this. Insane. Freakin' insane. It's already looking much better than FFTA, but what I'm wondering...how close to being as good as FFT will it be?

All I know is that I'm so glad I'll be able to make up my lack of FF12 summon gameplay by using them in the two games mentioned thus far.

And now for something even more amazing: BAM. There's voice acting!!! In a DS game. I never thought I'd see the day. And you know it's going to be good. Heck, those CGI cutscenes are just plain ridiculous. I'm definitely looking forward to FF4 DS's release now. I never beat it (I had the copy that came with FF Chronicles). This'll be great. And it's totally going to put FF3 to shame, hehe.

The only news that would make life as a DS-owning RPG lover even more amazing atm would be official news of a US release of ASH.

I won't go into detail about how terribly shocked I am about the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, because everyone else has done so already, better than I could have expressed it myself. But I am shocked and appalled. I just can't believe that he "allegedly" got fired under such circumstances. That's just weak and absurd. He was just doing his job for crying out loud. But I guess this is how the world is now. With the merit of morals and virtues becoming more and more insignificant with each passing week, who knows where we'll be as a society in a few years, or even this time next year. It's just depressing.

I've heard of bribery in politics before, but never in the gaming industry. It's so simple: make a quality game, get a good review. If you don't want your product to get bad reviews, don't make a bad game! I mean, just last night, I was all upset over the realization that Myst DS is more practical as a bulky coaster (if kept in the case) than as an actual playable video game. It is by far the best example of a bad port that I have ever encountered. I don't think Midway could ever pay enough to have that game see above even a 4.0, not like they would. It's just really unfortunate that some companies would stoop to such a low level just to earn more sales. I honestly been living under a rock the last four years because it never used to be like this. I can't believe it has gone from how it used to be in the 90's to how it is now. Such a shame.

So here's my take on the situation, at least regarding how I intend to react. As I'm not a paying subscriber of the site, I have no subscription to cancel. I don't plan on leaving the site forever, as Gamespot isn't and never was my sole online source for gaming news (mine is a melting pot of GS, 1up, IGN, and Gametrailers). But what I am planning to do is never rely on online game reviews ever again. It doesn't matter what site they're on. It has obviously become evident that we've all been blindsided and now that the truth has been blown into the open, we don't know who to trust or where to go. Anywhere could be unsafe. I'll trust reliable reader's reviews and my own intuitions. And that's it. I'll do like my brother has been doing all along. In fact, he just pays attention to his intuitions. It's never failed him before. And so I don't expect it'll fail me.

Jeff, wherever life takes you, I wish you all the best.

Remember how about a month or two ago I was trying to figure out a way to import a copy of Myst for the DS? It's coming out in Europe next week, and there are currently no plans for an American release. I've loved Myst since it first came out, and since the copy I have of the game for my PC freezes a whole heck of a lot, I was looking to this port as my eternal savior and source for perpetual travels to Myst Island. Well, it is with a heavy heart that I say that I am no longer planning on getting the game and I implore all of you, whomever of you were interested too, to completely forget that such a port even exists. It is perhaps the most sloppy, untrue-to-the-original, poor-quality port I have ever laid my eyes on. I thought DKR DS was bad, with its gimmicky added features. No, that was nothing. I don't think I'll ever encounter a worse port than this. I'm so sad and infuriated. This is a freakin' tragedy. This is a travesty. This goes beyond me being a hardcore purist when it comes to ports. THIS PORT IS DOWNRIGHT HORRIFIC AND UNPLAYABLE. It's crap. Don't believe me? Check out these links:

Now, I know you're all like "oh here drummer131 goes again with his links", and I know that they might be annoying, but just know that the only reasons I ever post links here are either because it's something that I really want to share with you all or because whatever is said on the page behind the link is exactly what I want to say only said better. So please check em out. If you were interested in the game, this is proof that you shouldn't import it. If you weren't, you should read them anyway, just so you know what a terrible port can be like.

Reader's Review (written by a fellow lj community member)

Just check out the pics here

That is all. =/

A Continuation of the Assassin's Creed Penny Arcade thing

^ bottom post

Man, it just gets better and better.

I am a Secondary Math Education major. I will be student teaching in the spring at one of the local high schools. That's background info. This story's about my co-op teacher, whom I found out plays and owns a DS. She owns two of them, actually. She's 53.

She brought up the subject, this morning before her first c**** started filing in (I was there to observe). I can't remember how or why. Oh yes. The word puzzles from the workshop we both went to yesterday evening. Anyway, she got to talking about how she owns nearly all the Brain Age / Flash Focus type games. And she really does own them. I don't own any of them myself, but she's 20 years old according to BA. She can't stand the sometimes inaccurate voice/symbol recognition, haha. At any rate, I was just surprised like crazy that she played a DS, let alone owned one (or TWO!!). When her grandson comes to visit, she breaks out the second DS and they play versus in Mario Kart and NSMB. He usually wins because she's not good at those kinds of games. She's always driving into trees and walls or getting the stars bashed out of her, haha.

I just couldn't believe it. We don't play the same kind of games, but we both share a love of the same system. Who knew? :)

Hey everyone. Long time, no post. I just thought I'd share with you something I read recently which I found to be very insightful and interesting. It's a recent news post from Penny Arcade. I don't know how many of you frequent that site, but you all should. At any rate, there's a part in this news post where he discusses the Assassin's Creed reviews. I found it absolutely fascinating. I won't say anymore. You'll have to read it to find out what I'm alluding to. But the point is, it definitely brings to plain view a reason why you can't take critic reviews completely seriously.

Linkage!

^ Read the bottom news post.

...about Super Mario Galaxy last night. Wierd, I know. Don't remind me. But yeah, there it was. I was Mario (though looking like myself) exploring Galaxy-like worlds. It was very cool. But it made me wish I had a Wii, REALLY BADLY. Like, I LOVE platformers, and this platformer looks freakin' amazing. I look at the screenshots and I'm just like "OMG, that is so cool."

There has yet to be a Wii game that has made me want to rush to get one, but SMG certainly seems like it might have that effect on me...eventually.

Oh man.