Up late talking games & writing? You're...

Games: Still playing Etrian Odyssey 3. Still loving it.


Believe it or not, despite all the time I've been playing I have yet to defeat the first boss, but I hope to put him down tonight and move on to the next series of floors.

Also, I don't think I've mentioned it before, but the game now includes a co-op multiplayer feature that lets people team up in certain areas. As a result, Atlus hooked me up with two copies of the game so I could test it out. I had warned the wife that I would need a partner to go questing with me, and good sport that she is, she gladly accepted despite a professed lack of interest in RPGs.

(She’s a hell of a good shot in action games, though. Watch out!)

The funny thing that she actually ended up loving it, and she’s deep in the adventure herself. We've been talking strategy, comparing notes, and keeping tabs on each other's progress. I don't know if she would have been as eager about the previous Etrian titles since EO3 has tons of little tweaks and nice touches that make it silky-smooth to play, but whatever the case, she's into this one.

Etrian Odyssey 3 gets a thumbs up for me, and a thumbs up from my wife. How much more of a testimonial do you need?

At the moment, I'm currently wrapping up my formal review of Limbo, on XBLA. If you follow me on Twitter, then you have no doubt seen me gushing about it over the last two or three days. After having finished the game and spent more than the usual amount of time on the write-up, I really do want people to know that it's an outstanding title. However, nothing I could possibly say would match up to the experience of seeing it in motion and guiding its shadowy little protagonist for yourself.


If you are the kind of player who cares about game design, the artistic quality of gaming, and about games that aren't afraid to try something new, you owe it to yourself to AT LEAST try the demo. Really though, you should probably just download the thing right off the bat and take the day off of work to play through it. It's that good.



My latest review just went up at GameCritics. Click HERE to check out my breakdown of the point-and-click adventure, Secret Files: Tunguska. It's currently available on the Wii and DS, though I think the only people who will really dig it are hard-core Adventure devotees and people who are fans of cats that like salty pizza crust.



As promised last time, my formal opinion of Naughty Bear is now up, too. Click HERE to read it, but in case you don't feel like going over and the entire review, here's the nutshell: Naughty Bear is steaming crap.


Food: The family was in the mood for an ice cream cone tonight, so we packed into the car and headed out to a local spot called Molly Moon. I've heard nothing but raves about the place from everyone I've talked to and it was a blisteringly hot afternoon, so this seemed like the perfect time to give it a shot.

Mistake.


We tried three different flavors: salted caramel, strawberry coconut milk, and some sort of cherry. The salted caramel was salty to the point that it was borderline inedible, and my wife did, in fact, throw it away.

I had the strawberry coconut and was really put off by the lack of sweetness. There were vague hints of strawberry and the coconut milk came through pretty clearly in the aftertaste, but my general impression was that it was bland and fatty without actually being pleasant. Like the wife, I also threw mine away. Tossed it out window of our car, in fact -- my gift to the local crows.

My oldest son had the cherry and he seemed fairly happy with it. The wife and I each had a little nibble, and while it was certainly the best of the three, it wasn't impressive by any means. It certainly wasn't good enough that either one of us would've eaten an entire scoop of it.

I have no idea why Molly Moon has gathered such a fanbase here in the area. I mean, I'm all in support of local businesses and handmade foods, but I have never in my life had a scoop of ice cream so bad that I decided to throw it away after a few bites. Until now, anyway. Maybe we came “on a bad night” or something, but if you ask me, trying three different flavors is giving the place a pretty fair shake.

Bottom line: YUCK.