PixlBit

Fair enough, that puts a different perspective on it for sure.  Honestly the only reason I bought one is that my DS died and I didn't see spending only slightly less on an XL when the 3ds was out.  Feb marks the release for the platform that I'm actually looking forward to (Tales of the Abyss) but I STILL don't think I'd have bought one had my DS held up.  My family has Zelda, Mario, and Mario Kart and I'm still playing Etrian Odyssey III right now.

I still say the average consumer may be justified in their frustration, but at the end of the day, they decided to purchase the hardware at that price with no additional perks.  Sorry to say that they only person they really have to blame is the one they see in the mirror.

I just wanted to mention that, anytime The Who is referenced, my day gets better, so thanks for that Travis.

Also, Speaking as someone in the target audience for this difficulty option (I was in my freshman year of college in 1999,) I can confirm that this does sound pretty awesome.

Actually, I'll be playing the ME 3 demo JUST for the unlocks to Amalur.  I never really got into ME, or any other Bioware RPG for that matter.  Excellent games, they just never hooked me for some reason.

I know whats going to happen though...

I'm gonna buy it anyway.

*sigh*

Played the demo last night.  I'd be buying this on date of release if I wasn't already stuck under a pile of games I really want to play.  It plays really REALLY well.

Players must help her escape this mysterious woman's clutches by utilizing the AR features of the 3DS.

Did they try something like this on the 3DS before?

Didn't it suck?

Minus the music, did opening of the video where they were looking at the desk remind anybody else of Chrono Cross?

Some observations:

I believe that the fundamentals of FF7, including the bones of the story, are very solid.  The issues really lie with the presentation (see hooves for hands,) speed (loading times for battles, unskippable summon animations) Character stats (no real pros or cons to making someone a dedicated caster except for Aeris, but you know how that ends up...) and translation issues (finger?  What the hell, This guy are sick, etc.)  A remake of FF7 would be spectacular if they did more than just an HD update, but a real, true remake would have to tear everything down and rebuild it from scratch.  That's the real problem with an FF7 remake.  The game could conceptually be awesome, but the investment required to pull it off is probably just a little scary to Square Enix right now.

FF XIII - 2: I'm willing to give it a shot considering how they seem to have addressed the things I don't care for about first game.  Exploration has returned, customization seems to be addressed at least, and they added towns and a world map.  This pleases me.  I'm still withholding a purchace until I actually read some reviews.

One thing they've done lately that concerns me has to do more with localization.  Combat looked awesome in XIII, but I have issues with how it sounded, namely Vanille. Seriously, she sounded like she was enjoying that WAY too much.  Some of the videos I saw seemed to have Sara making similar sounds.  I don't get it, why can't they make the actress sound like she was getting, I don't know, punched in the gut or something. It really takes you out of the action quite a bit.  There's a time and a place for stuff like that, and I'm OK with it in games in the correct context, but when I'm trying to kill an evil pope who just turned into some crazy tank with a million faces I don't need to hear seductive 'oohs' from the female party members.  It's just plain stupid.

That's all.  Great ep guys.

PS: Someone had the infinite wisdom to buy my kids a DVD with about 10 eps of the Super Mario Bros Super Show on it.  HOLY CRAP that show was bad, but I remember loving it as a kid.

Funny thing is, my kids love it too right now.  I can't wait for them to share my dissappointment in another 15 years or so.