I think I would have gotten it yesterday but for the credit card I put down for my pre-order expired. Oh well. It's the Assissin's Creed III: Liberation model. I think the game will be OK but am mostly excited for the supreme and wonderful whiteness of the console itself. I am alarmed this website didn't deem it necessary to review it yet but reviews seem decent esp. for a handheld spinoff of another series. Honestly, I am more excited to play PS1 games off PSN than anything on it. Granted, I've had a PSP for years now and never did that on ther but I am thinking this time will be different. I'm excited. I can say that much.

I decided that Sonic Rush just isn't worth playing. There's level memorization in all Sonic games but it's just horrible in Sonic Rush and life is too short. Good thing I have Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones on my 3DS as well.

I have just beaten the initial set of eight chapters and, I must say, so far it is ridiculously good. I am playing on easy (which is default and I always play the default difficulty first, figuring that is where the devs probably put the most effort). Even so I've had a rough time getting through w/o anyone dying. I am looking forward to really digging into this one for sure. There is a great deal of depth here, between weapons, magic, different characters and so on and it feels like you really get to customize your party to your liking. My one complaint is it's really hard to level up weaker characters w/o them inadvertantly dying on you but that challenge is for the better since it just means you really, really have to pay attention to every last detail on the screen. It does make it tempting to just use your best characters and leave the underlings huddled in a corner somewhere though. Still, I am pressing on and trying to use all the weapons at my disposal. I really hope the rest of the game is as good as the beginning.

Somehow, this is the first time I've done this. Unfortunately, the games I chose are not making me fall in love w/ the DS library. (I love the DS as a device but mostly for playing GBA games.) The first, Lunar: Dragon Song is kind of known to be a weak entry in the series--and, Lunar fans, trust me when I say it is as bad as you fear--but I am really dissapointed w/ the game I am now playing, Sonic Rush. A lot of people see this as a return to form for Sonic but, honestly, it just cannot touch the Genesis games. The controls are fine but everything else just doesn't work. For starters, the music is quite forgettable, but worse than that the level design is just plain bad. Because of the speed, Sonic games tend to have a couple blind jumps here or there but it's really just ridiculous in Sonic Rush. Even w/ the use of two screens, there are still tons of times where very much needed info of what's above or below you is left out. I am going to be happy to be done w/ that one for sure.

I got my original 3DS at launch and have to admit I was somewhat dissapointed. A lot of the stuff I was looking forward to wasn't implemented yet. I was esp. dissapointed by the lack of an eShop and by the games available. Ultimately, I loved the thing and played it more than any other gaming device I owned but that initial let down was kind of a bummer. I am pleased to report, that is not so w/ the 3DS XL.

For starters, the thing is somehow amazingly bigger than a regualr 3DS w/o being nearly so much more space as a trade off. It still fits in my jacket pocket or my somewhat baggy jeans. It really didn't lose anything on portability for my purposes. I suppose if you have pockets that just exactly fit a 3DS, maybe you will be left in the cold but unless that is the case, really, the added size and weight is no big deal at all.

The screen, I think, looks great too. To my dumb old eyes, it barely looks any more pixilated than a regular 3DS. Some guys are really picky about this so if you are, it'll probably bug you a little. I am not, all the better for me. Really, the biggest downside for me is I have to run it just a little brighter than my regular 3DS to get it to look its best. Additionally, you can run original DS and GBA games in native resolution too w/o it being really small, which is a bonus, and does look a tad sharper than full screen but I think the impact of it running on the full screen is more than worth the tradeoff in sharpness. Any game running on this looks just great and the 3D effect is deeper as well. Honestly, I think if this had been the original model instead of the small one, there would have been no need for a price drop. It's really much more impressive than the original 3DS.

It is also worth noting that the color of the actual system is much nicer than it looks in the pictures Nintendo provides. It looks a very plasticky cartoonish red in photos but in person it's metallic and much less kiddie looking for sure. This also helps the two-tone from being to cheap looking. I still like the look of my original black 3DS better but I can live w/ this. I do sort of wish I had the fortitude to wait for a white one though.

All and all, since there is no loss in portability for my purposes and I love the screeen, this is a very worthwhile purchase for me. Probably, if you hate the original 3DS, you will not love the XL but it's a great upgrade if you like the idea of bigger screens. The transfer from my old 3DS went pretty smoothly and so now I have all my old stuff only bigger and that is awesome.

Am I stoked? I'm stoked.

I actually ordered it on Friday. I went w/ the first $200/free shipping deal I found on eBay, which happened to be through Toys-R-Us. I do not recommend them as they are slow. Had I shipped via pretty much anyone else I deal w/, my brand new red XL would be in my hands right now. They also charged me sales tax so I might as well have just walked a couple blocks to a department store and got one. Lose/lose. When I was a kid, I thought Toys-R-Us was fun but now I know they are wicked web of sadness and not sending me my 3DS. OK, so technically it is going to be here w/in the alloted time and I have no real right to complain. I do have a right to buy elsewhere in the future though and that's just what I'll do.

In any case, my 3DS experience is about to get eighty percent bigger. I am sure there are those who like to game small on handhelds but I'm not one of them. I want the next 3DS to be even bigger. It should be the size of a suitcase and run on a gasoline engine, portable only via a heavy duty cart--sold seperately.

Yep. I'm ready to declare this my favorite Mario game after finishing it up this morning. It's tricky and you have to be clever and fast but it's worth it. It's got completely addictive gameplay where graphics and sound don't matter a bit. I am definitely looking forward to playing Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again on my 3DS now. I think I'll also have to pick up the DS games as well.

Saw the sucker on eBay and just had to have it. I am definitely stretching the number of consoles I can reasonably keep around the house at this point, which is bad news for Nintendo since it means I will probably pass on the Wii U for this reason. It's still on for handhelds though so they'll be getting a few of my hard earned dollars for a 3DS XL provided reviews of the thing don't turn out to be horrible.

In any case, since MS dropped online support for the original Xbox, the consoles are dirt cheap so if you got a few single player games you wanna check out, definitely now is a good time. Mine came bundled w/ a few things but I got it mostly to check out Fable and Morrowind. I am stoked about the latter esp. since I am not a PC gamer and it is one of the very few full-fledged open world RPG games available on preveious generation consoles. I guess I have missed out on the joys of online Halo and Halo 2 for all time but I think I can live w/ it.

I am just at the beginning of the single player campaign and haven't even tried the online portions yet. I have mentioned on the forums here I bought it in part just to support the concept but I think it stands on its own as a game. It is basically a Diablo clone when you get right down to it. It is esentially a bunch of kill and fetch quests you go down in a dungeon to do then return to town for more of the same. The loot and inventory systems are somewhat simplified as are skill trees and the like, which still works every bit as well. I'd even say I prefer the console-style control for this kind of a game. I love Diablo but esp. when you find yourself a bit over powered it feels like you are just clicking a mouse over and over again. W/ the controls in Heroes of Ruin you have to break blocks w/ a charged attack and then can follow up w/ a regular attack or a powerfull spell or special attack and your limited energy (same thing as mana in Diablo) keeps it from feeling too button-mashy. It is not the deepest game in the univers but it's fun, feels immersive and is really scratching that dungeon crawler itch for me.

Who else is excited for this one? My hopes aren't too high based on lackluster reviews but if this is even a decent game its a big step for this type of game on handhelds. Hopefully we will see more and better in the future. I do have a bit of dilemma though since I'm already in the middle of two (count 'em) games, StarFox Adventures and Mario Vs. Donkey Kong (additionally, I am enjoying a minute or two of Ecks Vs. Sever on GBA from time to time). I think I am going to wind up putting down the two handheld titles for Heroes and only play StarFox Adventures on weekends. Ah well... To have such problems!

If you are somehow on this site and don't know what this is, this is OUYA:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console

It is an open Android-based console platform designed from the ground-up as a gaming system. It costs $99 and people are going crazy for it to the tune of almost $4 million raised on Kickstarter in two days through word-of-mouth and media hype. It looks to me to have about PlayStation 2 level graphics and an awesome controller that features standard controls and a touch pad. Is it the real deal? Time will tell.

The thing that surprises me about this development is just how much hate I am seeing about this. Gamers sit and complain about big developers money grabbing practices, focus on graphics over gameplay, focus on the most popular genres and so on and so on but then when something comes out that is build from the start to allow indie devolopers and easy and creative way to put games out on home console, all they do is sit and talk about how it won't work. This is a defeatist attitude. If you want the industry to change, this is an opportunity to support something different. The potential alone is worth the ninenty-nine dollars I put down on it. If it doesn't pan out, at least I can know I put my money where my mouth is. You can too. You'd be naieve to ignore the huge potential for failure here but OUYA's ambition alone is worth the price of a few new release games to support.