These are just my opinions over lunch and should have no bearing on court proceedings pending or in progress.

Heavy Rain was good-- You know, I really enjoyed Heavy Rain. Mostly gorgeous, fairly suspenseful and even clever here and there. Quantic Dream seems to be a very focused developer with regards to pursuing the interactive/adaptive narrative its built its library on. Just listening to people talk about how their game went is exciting. While the ending scenarios are finite, none of them make for any less of a good story.

More than any coverage I heard over the last week, the end section of the Gamer's With Job Conference call last week was a refreshing contrast to the extreme "hate" the game got on Podtoid's Spoiler podcast. While conceding plenty of flaws, there was an overall sense of joy regarding what they had experienced, and how different their playthroughs were. One guy pretty much failed the game as much as you could (and not even on purpose) and ended up with a pretty excellent ending in his own right. Its a cool podcast in general, despite their overall 'core ineptitude, but this spoiler section is definitely worth a listen.

Monster Hunter, try?-- Checked out the Wii demo for Monster Hunter Tri last night. I think i get what all the fuss is about. It seems to be all about the technique of the player, above any gear/item spec you may be running. In that way, its a lot like, say, Modern Warfare or MMO's when they're at their best. You've got to know what your skills do, and when to use them. If you're good at what you do, you succeed. I need to play the demo a bit more, but I think it may be a winner.



Final Fantasy VI-- Wasn't that a really good game? That was a really good game. You don't get ensemble cast epics like that... aside from that, really. Cleaving your world in half, at the mid point of your game, just doesn't happen anymore, even in a thematic sense. To be honest, I miss that. Alot.

Final Fantasy XI-- Level 11 and I'm not addicted yet. Where are my darned food pellets!? I'm pressing the lever!! Its not bad, but it also hasn't drawn me in to grind and grow for any bigtime investment.

Final Fantasy XIII-- Looking forward to picking it up Friday. Gotta say, I'm feeling a bit smug about the whole "playing the game on its intended and allegedly superior console". The PS3's a mighty fine piece of hardware, and I'm looking forward to having my eyes melted by the amazing production values.

God of War III -- So then, as much as I want to fanboy-out with my PS3, God of War just isn't doing it for me. Tried the demo for a bit and, no lie, it just felt like more of the same to a fault. At this point, I'm much more interested in checking out Dante's Inferno before I lay hands on GoW3. Maybe I'll play the demo to completion, but its just not doing anything for me. Process that, Console Wars!