PixlBit

It's not easy being reminded of all these wonderful games I have sitting on my shelf.  I have to use my PS2 soon (to play some Mega Man games), and I have to be careful of distractions like SF:EXA.  I actually haven't completed this game yet (I fully completed Neo, though, and the Dreamcast Lodoss War game that plays indentical to it), but I do remember how fun it was for the little but I played.

That said, the Shining series is all over the place.  Between Camelot's core strategy titles, you have a bunch of the action-rpg variants (Neo, EXA, Soul, Wisdom, Tears, Wind), dungeon crawlers like Shining in the Darkness and Holy Ark, and a whole set of others that include Feather, Ark, Blade, Hearts, and on and on. 

I'm glad to hear you're almost done with the game (although I'm sure you've beaten by now).  Anyway, before jumping online make sure you do as many of the bounties and resident quests as you possibly can to strengthen you avatar.  I know there will be a few players online willing to help you get stronger (you'll be able to rebirth soon!), but many others will expect you to pull your weight.  Good luck!

I see you have some of the heavy-hitters on the GBC with a whole mess of Dragon Quest and Zelda.  The same goes for the GBA.  Taking a closer look at what you have, I see that you have both Shining Soul games.  There's something interesting going on between those two games, where the first game is basically a test run of what would be greatly expanded in the second one.  Simply put, don't spend too much time on the first game.  Just beat it and move on to the second game which has a better gameplay and character development system.

I also see CIMA in your collection.  That game is rough as it is essentially a game-long escort mission.  I wish you the best of luck towards finishing that one.

And let me mention one more game before running off.  You have to write a review for Black Sigil when you finish it.  I have the game myself, but it beat me down pretty early on due to poor gameplay design.  All I ever did was write an impression for it, and it would be nice to see someone post a full review for the game.  I intend to return to it someday, but the game will be a distant memory to most gamers by then.

I came very close to buying this game.  But, I'm so overburdened with their other strategy games (I own about five of them and have completed none) and I couldn't see myself adding another.  At least NIS's strategy games don't leave us wanting for content!  I only wish I had the time to play through them all.

Ah, the good ol' TBA.  I guess you can add Final Fantasy Versus and the Type-0 localization to that list, too.  Or how about the localized PS3 version of Tales of Vesperia?  I have to say, it's kind of fun (and depressing) to sweep through GameFAQs to see all those games that were announced but never materialized.

That said, I also think games are announced too soon.  I know and understand why they do it, but when a game isn't delivered it really sucks.  I prefer the old way games were handled, back when they were announced right before they were about to be printed and published.  It was kind of cool not having to wait a year or two for a game you heard about and wanted to play!

If it's anything like the one I used to maintain, you might not want to find it.  I swear, I had nothing nice to say about the games I was playing a decade ago!

Ben, I'm very sorry to hear about Pentacle's passing.  You have no idea how much I was hoping that he was going to pull through.

I like the way this site handles our game collections and how we're able to add them.  I've actually kept records of every game I've owned and sold - going as far back as the Atari 2600 - and it was rather painless uploading those text documents.

That said, it is fun to sift through whole release lists for the various consoles.  I've done it numerous times while seeking out new games to play and to remember why I left certain games behind.

I remember reading an article a very long time ago on IGN about Capcom and GBA development (sadly, I think the article is now lost; I cannot find it through a deep site search).  It was centered on the Mega Man Zero games and how they managed to push the series to four games despite low sales.  According to Capcom, they only needed to sell 15K copies by the final game to break even, so they allowed Inti Creates to push the series on until its conclusion.  That is how you properly budget a title within the boundaries of the size of the audience.  This is something that publishers have lost sight of this generation, Capcom included.  They all have stars in their eyes, trying to go after the massive sales numbers, and are willing to risk everything in order to achieve that goal.  Unfortunately, some games and genres cannot support that dream, which leads to scenarios like Dead Space 4.  Until publishers learn to set more realistic goals and budgets for their projects, this will continue well into the next console generation.

While the PSPGo does offer some features not present on the previous models (I believe it can display games full-screen on a television and can also accept a PS3 controller for input), the digital-only nature of the system means that it cannot play every PSP game.  There are plenty of games, both big and small, that are not up for download and probably never will be (like Crisis Core or Kingdom Hearts).  As for the E-1000, that still has the UMD drive, but has no Wi-Fi support.

That said, I still own the original PSP-1001, too, that I bought at the end of 2005.  The UMD drive might not work as well as it used to, and the power button might be tempermental, but it still plays games.  I have opened it and done maintenance on it, though, like improving the d-pad and resetting the power switch when necessary.  I also own a PSP-3000 for playing games on the TV.  It might not display the games full-screen, but it's a nice option for when I want to sit down and play on the big screen.

As for your collection of PSP games, I'd say you have a serious backlog for it.  Of course, I'm not one to talk as I have plenty of unfinished games for it, too.  I'm sure you'll get around to them, though, once your in the mood for them.  With support drying up for the PSP in the West (only three rpgs are coming out for it this year so far), you won't have anymore new PSP games distracting you from the ones you already own.