When work is tough, the tough buy crap they don’t need.

My weekly trek of gas filling led me to my least favorite bastardization of retail stock-problems and parody of gamer culture. Best Buy. They had a few deals that only a desperate brick & mortar can offer but mostly they had instant gratification for sale.

Playstation 2: Viewtiful Joe 2 (2004) Capcom Entertainment
Metacritic Score: 85

This title seems to pop up in people’s memorable list. The 2nd one didn’t rate as high as the first one. Metacritic pretty much lines up with what I like. 80s and better are worthwhile. Side scroller cell shaded beat-em-up.

It looks zany and crazy and I don’t own anything like it. Cept Jiewtiful Voe and that’s completely different. Completely. Different. *ahem*

Playstation 2: Rogue Galaxy (2007) Sony Computer Entertainment
Metacritic Score: 85
Ack! The banner ads! Everywhere I go! Banner ads of Rogue Galaxy! Foul temptress! Atlus, oh creator of media for Okatus and Japanophiles, why do you mock me? Do I dare eat from your foul tree? Do I step through the dark door of burning outcasts clad in plate-mail made of undead souls? Atlus! Destroyer of social skills! Animator of manga frames! Ruiner of dental habits!

Oh my god. The hobby. It’s full of stars. *dies*

Playstation 2: Rule of Rose (2006) Atlus Software
Metacritic Score: 53
Yep. I deserve this. I’m the one who forgot the context. It had a reduced price at Best Buy and I was standing there thinking:

1. Ok, was this the game that was on that guy’s amazon list that was into the D&D crap and Baldur’s Gate:Dark Alliance for PS2 … which is totally sucking ass right now … god damn it .. even that was on sale for $7. I think I’d have more fun buying $7 of bazooka joe and sticking my ass to a speeding Gremlin … oh sorry kid who is now scarred for life
2. Or was this the game that has received rave reviews by all and all who have not played are mortal fools with foolishly held fool-money?

I chose #2. I chose poorly.

Playstation 2: Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2006) Rockstar Games
Metacritic Score: 78
My PSP is never used. Except for Lumines, Loco Roco and as an online mp3 player. Sad really. This was a pretty cheap port. I’m finishing up GTA:SA and so I might as well tack this on to the end of the series. GTA clones like Crackdown (360) just won’t cut it until GTA4 comes out. And even if GTA4 does come out, it’ll likely be the best on the PS3 which is best bought at the end of 2007 when they get those 65nm parts in and drop the price by 20%.

Xbox 360: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (2007) Capcom
Metacritic Score: 80
Chalk this one up to a complete lack of self-control. It’s pretty obvious that Capcom puts out the arcade style games and waits for you to write the backstory and the plot. I’m fine with that. Lost Planet is going to be a frozen shooter with a massive single player mission. I’m not interested in the online play, too many young kids and my Gold subscription is going to run out unless The Wookie (or anyone) wants to run some Gears of War co-op. Tim and I had a blast doing that.

It was 10 degrees here. How can a frozen planet not fit the bill?

Consumption In The Mail

Beginning Mac OSX Programming
This book looks pretty tasty. Has insight into the horrifically different world of Mac’s NSobjects and the like. I have another book that hits on a few of the Xcode topics in a better way than Wrox usually does but this would be a good read even if I fail miserably at digesting it all.

Xcode is a fantastic IDE and I’d like to know more about the platform. Apps like Acquisition, Xfactor, Textmate, Yojimbo, Handbrake and Writeroom are elegant and singularly available only on the Mac. Few are free. I would like to know if it’s too hard to write free or if it’s too specialized. Learning the basics might give me some insight and possibly enable me to fill in a gap somewhere (far, far, far down the road).

Wow, okay … less serious …

We3
Comic book about cats and dogs trying to get home. The art looks absolutely fantastic. And nothing soothes the wage-slave like a picture book made for retards. Oh, yeah, it’s artsy and crap. Has something to do with expression. *zzzz* Pictures!

I’d be happy to pass on it except for the robotic cat jumping out at my preferences. Yes, cat, I see you and you rule.

Playstation 2: Shadow Hearts: From The New World (2006)
Aruze / Xseed
Metacritic Score: 77
Ok so this is a bit of a risk. There’s two in this series before this one but I think I’ll just see how this one is. It’s probably going to be similar to Star Ocean (which I found kinda beyond my tolerance of plot/geekiness). But who knows.

Similar to this whole “jumping into a series”, is Metal Gear Solid of which I have no knowledge of. Of course, everyone goes to pieces at the mere mention of MGS. The PS3 is also riding a major piece of its reputation on this mystery title. All I know about MGS I learned from vgcats. Hilarious.

Playstation 2: Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (2006) Square Enix
Metacritic Score: 84
This one was a bit harder to find out there. Amazon with its dark pacts of resellers managed to put up a reseller by the name of OMG_BAI4_GAMES_LESS with an amazing multi-thousand number of sales. This reseller partnership that Amazon has just wouldn’t cut it in the real world. A used car lot owned by MR_ROBOTO_4AWESOMAH_AUTOS would inspire images of spikey haired salesmen screaming ???! and running after me with large stereotypical swords.

Playstation 2: Ico (2001) Sony Computer Entertainment
Metacritic Score: 91
Ico. People can’t say enough about this one.

Yahoo Games said:

A subtle intoxicating journey, and one of the best games around.

Gamespy said:

One of the absolute greatest games you will ever play. With gorgeous graphics, sounds, and environments it’s easily one of the most aesthetically pleasing as well. The level and puzzle design is absolutely brilliant as well.

PSXNation said:

Ico isn’t a new type of game but rather one taken to near perfection. Rarely does a game gel like this and it[s simply the work of a master.

Well I can’t knock it until I rock it but it has a lot to live up to. Comments from sources like PSXNation just make me roll my eyes. They are a bit tied down with regards to their audience. “2007 Honda Civic Magazine says that the 2007 Honda Civic is amazing!” Right. Turning off the Comic Book Guy switch…

Playstation 2: Dark Cloud 2 (2003) Sony Computer Entertainment America
Metacritic Score: 87
Level 5 is really putting out the titles lately, or maybe its me just noticing the PS3 title White Knight Story. To diverge a bit, that White Knight movie floating around (penny arcade commented on it), it is likely just a bunch of pre-vis rendered stuff. I’m keeping my hopes up because the platform could pull it off. Who knows. Pre-release screenshots etc are always lies. Just look at Gran Turismo 4 on gamespot to see historical screenshots that are impossibly clear and massively huge.

Anywho, a few have commented that Dark Cloud is the PS2′s Zelda. Hmm. I’ll have to bounce that off Edgar … I think he’s still convulsing after beating Twilight Princess.