sunnuntai 22. joulukuuta 2013

Collection 2013

It's time...

...But, instead of a LOOOOOOONG-ass, gigantic, tiring blog entry, I've decided to handle this year's collection differently. I recently registered with Giant Bomb, and that's one public site on the net that has a pretty complete list of video games available, and good, free customization for list entries, which makes it a perfectly good platform for my video game collection. But there are a few things you should know.

It's not exactly Collection 2013, it's my whole collection out there, presented just in the way the Collections of the past have been presented thus far. I've had some hardware problems recently, and not much time to write, so the descriptions of the games are still well under construction, but that construction is constant - I write whenever I have time. I add games in real time, so as soon as I have a new one, it'll be on the list, pronto, without further notice. Special editions of the games or other special notices are found within the descriptions.

The prices, especially for the digital releases, might not be 100% accurate. Mobile games are no longer noted in the actual collection, but I've listed them here this once. PC games are finally noted, due to my long-anticipated acquisition of Final Fantasy XI.

I think that's about it, so haul your virtual ass over here.

So that the original idea of this annual entry wouldn't go to complete waste, here's an alphabetical list of games I've bought or otherwise legally acquired this year, complete with the usual useless information I like to point out. ...And hey, before I forget: have an amazing Christmas!!

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag [Buccaneer Edition] (Xbox 360 / 2 x DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 129.90 €
Astérix (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (WOL Records) / 12.00 €)

Batman - The Video Game (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (WOL Records) / 10.00 €)
Batman: Arkham Origins [Collector's Edition] (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 99.90 €)
The Battle of Olympus (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (WOL Records) / 20.00 €)
Bayonetta (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 19.90 €)
Bejeweled LIVE (WP7 / Digital (XBLA) / 4.99 €)
Bejeweled Live + (WP7 / Digital (XBLA) / 2.99 €)
Binary Domain [Limited Edition] (PS3 / Blu-Ray (Top Ten) / 9.95 €)
Braid (Xbox 360 / Digital (XBLA) / 4.79 €)
Brain Challenge HD (WP7 / Digital (XBLA) / 0.99 €)
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (PS2 / DVD-ROM (Private) / 12.00 €)

Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (PS3 / Digital (PSN) / 14.95 €)
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate HD (Xbox 360 / Digital (XBLA) / 11.99 €)
Catherine (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 19.90 €)

Darksiders (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 14.95 €)
Darksiders II [Limited Edition] (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 14.95 €)
Dead Space 3 (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 29.90 €)
Devil May Cry HD Collection (PS3 / Digital (PSN) / 14.95 €)
Dirge of Cerberus - Final Fantasy VII (PS2 / DVD-ROM (Auction) / 17.00 €)
Dishonored (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 34.90 €)
DmC - Devil May Cry (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 19.90 €)
Doom 3 (Xbox / DVD-ROM (Gift) / 0 €)
Dota 2 (PC / Digital (Steam) / 0 €)
Double Dragon (NES / Game Pak USA (Auction) / 16.00 €)
Double Dribble (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (WOL Records) / 6.00 €)
DuckTales Remastered (PS3 / Digital (PSN) / 14.95 €)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 24.90 €)
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 9.90 €)
Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 9.90 €)

Fable II (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 9.90 €)
Fable III (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 7.90 €)
Final Fantasy III (NES / Repro Game Pak USA (Timewalk Games) / 60.00 €)
Final Fantasy Anthology - European Edition (PS1 / 2 x CD-ROM (Auction) / 49.00 €)
Final Fantasy XI Online - 2007 Edition (PC / DVD-ROM (Auction) / 4.90 €)
Final Fantasy Origins (PS1 / 2 x CD-ROM (Auction) / 32.00 €)

Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 11.90 €)
God of War: Ascension [Special Edition] (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 79.90 €)
Grand Theft Auto V [Special Edition] (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 79.90 €)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch - The Videogame (NES / Game Pak PAL-A (WOL Records) / 12.00 €)
Gun Bros (WP7 / Digital (XBLA) / 0 €)

inFamous 2 (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 24.90 €)

The Last of Us [Joel Edition] (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 79.90 €)
Little Acorns (WP7 / Digital (XBLA) / 0.99 €)

Machinarium [Collector's Edition] (PC / Digital (GOG) / 0 €)
Max Payne 3 (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 29.90 €)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 29.90 €)

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3 / Blu-Ray (Top Ten) / 34.90 €)

Ōkami HD (PS3 / Digital (PSN) / 9.90 €)

Prince of Persia Trilogy Classics HD (PS3 / Digital (PSN) / 14.95 €)

A Realm Reborn - Final Fantasy XIV (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 34.90 €)
Resident Evil: Revelations (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 34.90 €)

Saints Row (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 3.90 €)
Shadow Warriors (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (Pelihuone Enter) / 29.30 €)
Shatter (PS3 / Digital (PSN) / 9.95 €)
Silent Hill: Homecoming (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 16.90 €)
Skate or Die (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (Pelihuone Enter) / 9.90 €)
Soul Reaver 2 (PS2 / DVD-ROM (VPD) / 14.90 €)
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 16.90 €)
Spyro the Dragon (PS1 / Digital (PSN) / 4.99 €)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 9.90 €)
StarTropics (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (WOL Records) / 25.00 €)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES / Game Pak USA (Auction) / 17.00 €)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES / Game Pak USA (Auction) / 17.00 €)
Super Meat Boy (Xbox 360 / Digital (XBLA) / 9.60 €)
Super Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 14.90 €)

Tales of Xillia [Day One Edition] (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 69.90 €)
Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (NES / Game Pak PAL-A (Auction) / 10.00 €)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (Xbox 360 / Digital (XBLA) / 14.95 €)
Tekken Revolution (PS3 / Digital (PSN) / 0 €)
Tiny Toon Adventures (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (Auction) / 11.00 €)
Tomb Raider [Nordic Limited Edition] (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 32.90 €)
Track & Field II (NES / Game Pak PAL-B (WOL Records) / 8.00 €)

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 16.90 €)
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 24.90 €)

The Walking Dead (Xbox 360 / Digital (XBLA) / 9.60 €)
The Walking Dead: Season Two (Xbox 360 / Digital (XBLA) / 19.80 €)
The Wolf Among Us (Xbox 360 / Digital (XBLA) / 19.80 €)
WWE 2K14 (PS3 / Blu-Ray (GameStop) / 39.90 €)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Uncaged Edition (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (GameStop) / 12.90 €)
Xbox LIVE Arcade Compilation Disc (Xbox 360 / DVD-ROM (Gift) / 0 €)

Zoda's Revenge - StarTropics II (NES / Game Pak USA (Auction) / 16.00 €)

perjantai 13. joulukuuta 2013

REVIEW - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer | DS | 2007

GENRE(S): Action
RELEASED: June 17, 2007
AVAILABLE ON: DS
DEVELOPER(S): 7 Studios
PUBLISHER(S): 2K Games

The sequel to the 2005 box office success, but critical flop Fantastic 4 premiered on June 15th, 2007, co-starring and subtitled after one of Marvel's cult antiheroes. After Activision's failed video game adaptation of the previous movie and a Game Boy Advance-exclusive spin-off Fantastic 4: Flame On - which went largely unnoticed - 2K Games took the reins and delivered a video game adaptation of Rise of the Silver Surfer for all major systems on the very same day. A couple of days later, another version was released on the Nintendo DS. Long story short, it's a horrible waste of space, one of the worst games I've played in a while, and it could just as easily be a bad Game Boy Advance game.

Clobberin' time.

Reed predicted this game was going to suck.
An unidentified manifestation of energy enters Earth's atmosphere and the Fantastic Four is sent to investigate. It is identified as the Silver Surfer, an intergalactic traveller on a good will hunt for the "planet devourer" known as Galactus, but whose mere presence on Earth is a threat to the whole planet. While the Fantastic Four seeks to contain him and negotiate with him, a certain arch enemy of theirs is seeking to "align" with him and use him for his very own agenda.

I just read my review of the first Fantastic 4 movie license again; I told you that I couldn't bear to watch Rise of the Silver Surfer to the end 'cause it was so horrible, while I kinda liked the first one. I just remembered that I did watch it to the end, 'cause my ex-fiancée thought it was a lot better than the first one and wanted to watch it to the end. I remember being pretty hung over, so I probably watched the later half of it with one eye open. I remember parts of it, but not all of it. Ironically, the critics liked Rise of the Silver Surfer more than the first movie, too. It was probably the presence of the character of the Silver Surfer that cut the deal; after all, prior to the movie's release, one of my friends was hell bent on seeing it even if he hated the first one, "'cause it has the Silver Surfer in it". Back then, I had no fucking idea how popular this guy was, as I had not been a comic book buff in years. There was a vague childhood memory in the back of my head relating to the Silver Surfer, but he's the kind of character that can be confused with many other characters, especially in the Marvel Universe, if you're a child. So I just said, "yeah, umm... yeah, sure, great." The movie turned out a freakin' mess, the flaws in the original stood out even more and it was punched full of all-new holes right from the start. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is probably the worst Marvel movie in the last 15 years... and at least this Nintendo DS version of the video game is one of the worst Marvel games made, ever.

Is that Sue Storm or a bald, male Vault Dweller?
So first of all, the game is trying really hard to explain itself for being a Nintendo DS game, and fails miserably. The cutscenes and mission results span across both screens, and some levels are straightforward vertical 2D shoot 'em ups - the best this game has to offer, not much - but that's it for the usefulness of the DS palette. Power-ups are stored on the touchpad, just to come up with some excuse for it, and there's another very distracting problem: since there are no immediate power-ups, you'll have to halt all action every once in a while in a very dangerous game to use a power-up from the touchpad. As far as general graphics go, this could quite easily be a (bad) Game Boy Advance game. Same goes for the music - it's the same ambient boom you hear in every stock action title, especially the licensed ones.

The game is of the typical platformer variety, where you switch between all four members of the Fantastic Four at steady intervals and make good of their "special abilities". Which are everything you know they have - Reed has an elastic body, Sue has the abilities of invisibility and telekinesis, Johnny can set his body on fire at will, and Ben... well, Ben is Ben. A hulking monster with rock for skin. 'Nuff said. But, they also have some additional abilities to either spice up the game (tasteless, more salt please) or just to make SOME use of the Nintendo DS scheme. Or both. Don't know, and stopped caring two seconds into the game.

Yep... THIS is the game at its best.
The controls are HORRIBLE. Or rather, it isn't the controls that are horrible, how the characters respond to the controls is horrible. That might sound like the exact same thing, but actually it isn't. You see, very often when you have bad controls, your character just refuses to do things. It might be a slight error in programming which turns out a massive problem at some point during the game. For example, I recently replayed Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - the first one, I'm never touching the second one again - and as I said in the review, main character Starkiller kips up stylistically after he's struck down, and during that move, and for maybe a second after that, he isn't able to do anything. That can really break your momentum in such a fast-paced action game, that one second. Well, refusal is not the problem in this totally different game. The guys do everything you ask them to... but, that one second comes into play in the form of a delay. For every single action, whether it's just walking, jumping, or punching. Once again, at first it isn't such a problem, but you know it's going to be - and the breakpoint where it turns out a problem comes sooner than you might expect. It's just something you can't get used to - it's like you're shouting orders to some guy, who passes them over to another guy, who barks them out at the character a few short but felt moments late.

You start as Ben, and I thought the problem would go away once you switch characters 'cause just maybe Ben's size affects his speed, but it doesn't go away - it turns worse. With the lighter characters, the problem just grows with overshot jumps that usually lead to a one-hit kill from spikes or something worse, and these jumps aren't your fault - they're just inadjustable. Actually you don't need more than one misjudged (read: delayed) step, and it's back to the beginning of the level. That's right, no checkpoints. Also, the logic of the game can be questioned almost every passing moment. Like, why Ben's the physically weakest character of the bunch. Or why Reed's technical expertise is absolutely needed to PULL LEVERS. Like I said, Johnny's simple arcade-style shoot 'em up levels are the best this game has to offer - really easy, really dull, but at least controllable and entertaining on some extremely slight degree.

So, a new Fantastic Four movie's coming out, and I'm sure many of you have already made your reservations by the very tiny bits of leaked information, but I'm pretty sure it will be lightyears ahead of these two movies, and I hope it will spark game developers' interest to finally make a playable Fantastic Four game - no, I don't want a licensed product, I want an original game. There have been plenty of perfectly playable superhero games inspired by great movies - it can't be that hard to make a good Fantastic Four game. Although games like this might prove otherwise.

UPS
+ I really can't come up with anything; even the Game Card's not good for anything recreational

DOWNS
- Horrible, delayed controls
- Poor use of the device's capacity and features, stock music

< 2.1 >

maanantai 2. joulukuuta 2013

REVIEW - Captain America - Super Soldier | DS | 2011

GENRE(S): Action / Stealth
RELEASED: July 15, 2011
AVAILABLE ON: 3DS, DS, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360
DEVELOPER(S): Next Level Games, Griptonite Games (DS), High Voltage Software (Wii)
PUBLISHER(S): Sega

Captain America. The first Avenger. Or should I say, the WORST Avenger. Before the recent, overwhelming surge of Marvel superhero films capitalized by the phenomenal success of the all-star cavalcade The Avengers, Captain America was never the first Marvel superhero on any game developer's mind. Only one game exclusive to the Cap's name was made back in 1987, for a few choice home computers, named Captain America in the Doom Tube of Dr. Megalomann. What a mouthful. Then came the aforementioned surge, that started all the way back in 2000 with the theatrical release of X-Men. With almost everyone who ever was anyone in Marvel Comics getting their own movies, it was inevitable that Captain America would make his way back to the silver screen as well, even after 1990's miserable failure. He did so in the summer of 2011. Captain America - The First Avenger was a box office success... but let's rewind just a few days. A game called Captain America - Super Soldier was released on the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360, with a 3DS version on the way. Since a handheld version was developed in tandem with the major platform versions, it was kinda tested on the original DS, which had already been discontinued years back and the 3DS had been out for several months - so it's obvious this version of the game in particular didn't sell too well, and many have forgotten a DS version's existence. I don't forget, and I can't resist reviewing a potentially awful game that has an awful lead character. To my surprise, Captain America - Super Soldier ain't that bad, though. Bad, but not THAT bad.

A consistent series of almost-semi-pseudo-rights

In a game based on the middle part of the film Captain America - The First Avenger, the recently transformed super soldier Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, infiltrates a Nazi fortress commanded by the Red Skull, Adolf Hitler's most loyal henchman and the leader of HYDRA, a division devoted to the research of a powerful artifact called Tesseract, which the Nazis are planning to use for world domination. There - I explained it with one sentence. Random challenge from a Captain America fan accepted - and beaten.

I took another look at my last round with Cap U.S.A. to warm up a little, and found that I didn't explain my dislike for the character thoroughly enough. Well, it's like this: time has seriously forgotten Captain America. Time slipped by him, as well as his originally cool backstory a long, long time ago, long before I was even born. He was created during the war, FOR the war. Unlike other comic book superheroes who were created as inspired by soldiers, and to inspire soldiers in return, or those who appeared in many war-related stories during those times (including Batman), were interesting and exploitable for several other reasons than just the war. Captain America's success depended on the war, as cruel as that sounds. Even as he was named the new leader of the Avengers when he was brought back in the early 60's, almost two decades after his own comic book was discontinued, I think people were more fascinated with the group than its head. I can't really lay down facts and stats here. When the Marvel movies started to pour in, and especially when they kicked off the Avengers series with the amazing Iron Man in 2008, they just couldn't live without making a Captain America movie, since he was considered the "first Avenger" and the leader of the group for such a long while. But, how did Captain America do by himself in 2011?

There's a dude on that balcony and
no way to hit him. Oh hell, let's twist
logic and fuck him up with a space-time
ignoring supermove.
Critically, quite good. Through my eyes, not that good. The film had two top-class actors in Tommy Lee Jones and Hugo Weaving, but the plot that was sewn together from a couple of different popular storylines from the Cap's early days just didn't work. It was like watching The Rocketeer all over again - for the fourth or fifth time - with Chris Evans looking like Adam West as Batman whenever he had his helmet on. I also found it distracting to watch Johnny Storm from the Fantastic 4 film series - which was deemed a failure by critics back in its day - playing another Marvel superhero. It felt like they had consciously hired a leftover to portray a leftover, just to set up the final bridge they needed for the Avengers assembly. I had nothing against having Captain America in that movie - after all, it had Iron Man. And Thor. And the greatest presentation of Hulk ever. Just like in any Avengers story or game or cartoon, or whatever that was ever made, the "leader" was overshadowed by his cohorts. But as long as they were with him, he was nice to have along for the ride.

With this set of emotions to back me up, and the fact that the game was a very - VERY - late, virtually unknown entry to the original DS library, I can hardly be blamed for not giving the game too much credit in advance. It might seem that just by bringing this game up, or just its name, I'm hell bent on giving you another hateful lecture in the style of the "top" games on the Bottom 40 just for the fun of it - yeah, I guess that's what I do from time to time. Well, not this time. Captain America - Super Soldier starts off looking like it could be fun. It ultimately isn't that fun, but starting off like this is already a lot more effort than I expected from the developers. I know it's definitely not much, but Super Soldier is the best game starring Captain America I've played so far. There - something nice. Another random challenge accepted, and beaten.

Strap your headbelts, there's more niceties coming your way (!): for such a capitalist product, it looks very nice. It's got nicely rendered polygon sprites and 2.5D backgrounds with a lively camera. The heroic music is quite good, too, and it sounds massive through headphones. Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell and a couple of other actors reprise their roles from the film - the best ones don't, but their parts are taken over by experienced voice actors. It's a surprisingly flashy game by all accounts. That's the best part... and you can't get very far with that, but it helps.

The game comprises of objective screens, taking turns between an all-out beat 'em up, stealth (odd, but totally predictable in these times), and a mild puzzle, sometimes coupled with a touch pad minigame. None of the core gameplay elements work right. Beating Nazis up is quite fun at first, especially since Cap has such a wide variety of moves, unlocked at a tight pace. Perhaps too tight, and perhaps the variety is too wide since some of these moves have no use. You can place the blame on the flawed collision detection, or just the fact that once Cap lifts his feet off the ground, the game takes the majority of control. Aerial attacks are extremely difficult to pull off, and platforming is simply enfuriating due to inadjustable spring jumps. Wall jumping works surprisingly well, though. The easy combat turns into an all-out ass rape in record time, which is unnecessarily difficult to avoid even with your few kill 'em all supermoves in tow, due to these flaws in design I just mentioned.

Hitler Kombat.
The stealth part is very simple as you have just one move in your stealth repertoire - silent takedown from behind - and Cap automatically crouches down and walks slower in these screens. The hard part is dodging the lines of enemy sight - the cameras are particularly annoying 'cause they move much faster than Cap does in these screens. Running past them isn't much of an option either, 'cause very often there's an enemy waiting just beyond the camera's furthest zone, and running's almost just as inadjustable as a standard jump or "flight", which you'll have to familiarize yourself with during the few gauntlet runs in the game. Well, there's a little bit of consolation in the fact that even if an enemy looks straight at you, you still have perhaps a second to escape from his sight - just a step back from the line is all it takes to fuck with the A.I.. How solid.

The puzzles start off by pointing out the obvious, either directly or indirectly, and unfortunately they keep doing that throughout the whole mudwalk, so there goes the third main element. They usually involve Cap's shield, and throwing it at an exact sweet spot to create a Domino effect; kind of like a poor man's round of The Incredible Machine. The couple of different touch pad minigames are pretty much the only way to translate Cap's superhuman strength and how he's still dealing with it to the physical properties of the Nintendo DS. There's one in which you need to use the stylus to lift by simply stroking it upwards on the touch pad, and one in which you have to deliver consecutive, epic punches to break a massive obstacle down by clicking at shield icons on the screen at the exact right time when they're lit up. They're quite fun, and there's no time limit to annoy you out of your already tested mind.

This still ain't as nice at is sounds, but Captain America - Super Soldier is a lot better than I expected, and if you're a total die-hard fan of everything related to Marvel, it's not a totally unworthy addition to your game collection; I could come up with several much worse games from better franchises in three seconds, if I found them worthy of another mention. I'm almost impressed.

UPS
+ Nice graphics and relatively massive sound
+ Utilization of the DS' physical properties shows promise

DOWNS
- Once the enemies start coming from every direction with unseen weapons firing at you at the same time, you'll start to see how bad the controls and general mechanics really are after that initial promise
- The stealth just doesn't belong, and it just doesn't work either
- Incredibly linear and repetitive level design with very limited exploration for collectibles
- My personal feelings towards the franchise and its main character do not help at all

< 6.2 >

sunnuntai 1. joulukuuta 2013

Marvellous December

I've spent most of the last month preparing for one of the most exciting and important nights of my life. Last night was furious; I succeeded in conquering one of my greatest fears, and at the same time one of my greatest ambitions since I was seven years old. I took the stage with Devastracktor, a local metal band I've genuinely liked for a few years, and this was like my baptism of fire since I was unofficially called in as their new lead vocalist back in April, following the friendly departure of their previous one. The gig went extremely well, a lot of my best friends including my girl were there to back me up, and I was well received by old fans as well, and most importantly, the band was satisfied with my performance. I also had the privilege of sharing the stage with my predecessor Jaakko during our "greatest hit" "Poser Disposer". It was simply awesome, every second of it. I'm going to remember last night for a long time, no matter how drunk I was by the end of it. I might post some pics later.

Still plenty to go.
Anyway, that's what I've been doing. Studying the art of thrash metal. Luckily I've been able to squeeze in a few game reviews and the way I see it, there's nothing standing in the way of the continuation of the Marvel marathon. Like I said earlier, it's not a direct continuation, it's a reboot, since there are a few games left over from previously handled Marvel franchises.

At the same time, I'm taking on Final Fantasy - as a long-anticipated whole; Lost Odyssey was kind of a warm-up for that. This week, I'm ordering a copy of Final Fantasy III for the NES from Timewalk, and when that one arrives, I will finally be the proud owner of every single main series game with the exception of the remade XIV. There are Final Fantasy games which I haven't reviewed yet, and this background marathon of mine includes other games besides the main series, so don't be surprised if you're going to see flashes of Final Fantasy in the midst of the Marvel marathon. Right now, the plan is to finish every Final Fantasy game which I have never finished before, and exclude the few games which I have... but I'm not sure if I can resist a round of Final Fantasy X, 'cause it's been a while. Maybe I'll wait for the HD version, I'm sure it'll be a blast.

The most important thing is, that doing Collection 2013 starts NOW. This summary of the ~70 games I've bought this year (considering today's date, that makes six games per month!) is going to be one gigantic article, once again split into several parts for an easier and lighter read. I was supposed to publish the Collection on Christmas or a little before Christmas, but now I think I'm going to wait right 'til the final day of the year before letting it out, and think of something else for a Christmas special.