PixlBit

I didn't have a good time with Zelda II as a child. However, I was ignorant of RPG mechanics and I believe I didn't understand how to properly play the game. I've revisited it in the past year or so (and at this point I understand the genre a lot better and I'm tolerant of grinding) and I like it but its old-school difficulty makes it a tough slog. I like that the creators did something different and alternate approaches like Zelda II should happen every know and then but not too much.

Yikes. If you're in maintainence you have it rougher than I do. 

I just picked up Ni No Kuni. Even if I don't continue where I left off right away, it feels good to know that I own it finally.

Good point that the amount of good games of recent and the past year are monopolizing your time, no matter how many promising titles are on the horizon. I'm constantly playing catchup on many titles, even those that are 2-3 years old.

Name a game that frustrated you so much that you couldn't finish it and explain why.

I haven't played Jean D'Arc but the other two are great.

Sounds like a plan to me. The Uncharted games are worth it, too.

I couldn't get into Fallout 3. I only played enough to make it out of the Vault and visit the first town but the sheer size of options was so staggering I wouldn't make time for it. I'll come back to it some day.

I love Mass Effect. Great story and characters. The only thing I hated about the Mako was fighting in it. When I had to fight a Thresher Maw....god that sucked. I hate those creatures or anything that looks like a sandworm. They'd pop out of the ground and make you soil yourself. The same thing happened in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando.

Nice grabs! I once owned a copy of Morrowind GOTY but I never played it. I gave it to a friend who had recently bought one of the first Xbox systems and I figure I should give it to someone who'll get some use out of it. I need to text him to see how he felt. At time I bought it, I was well into Skyrim.

I couldn't get away with skipping any days of high school. Skipped a handful of days of college, though.

I think Ebert wrote one too many articles about the subject but I think that all he was doing was stating a preference about video games, not passing judgement on people who do. Its still a young entertainment medium so it won't reach everyone, especially a man who wrote extensively about film, books, art and music (through reviews or blog posts). Since he died, people are being a little kind about the fact that he never took an different side on the "games as art" debate. But during the period where the backlash was at its height (and Ebert was defending himself quite well), I never saw the big deal.