Some Brad Thoughts

- I'm starting to feel a little better now. Assassins Creed got a 37/40 from Famitsu. This is pretty nice especially since the game is from western developer Ubisoft. But it is Famitsu.... and they seem to give Gundam games scores this high sometimes. So we will see, but my fears are being eased some.

- I had a very vivid and very odd dream last night about the upcoming game Alan Wake. I don't know anything about the game except that it's very mysterious. My dream was as equally mysterious but didn't actually have anything to do with the game itself. It involved a very strange and compelling film I was watching (and very much into) and the whole time I was trying to figure everything out. It had something to do with two very lost kids or something. All I know is they were alone the entire movie and when they finally saw someone all that person said was "Alan Wake". The movie (in my dream) ended there and for me (in the dream) everything made sense. The dream goes on from there but I kind of forget the rest. This is undeniably bizarre since I'm not even following this game and there is little to no info about it. Just thought I'd share... lol. Maybe it's a sign or something.

- FU Nintendo. Shortly after Nintendo decides to release their first Turbo Duo game for the Virtual Console they announce they will be porting Ys Book 1 and 2 to the DS. These games received an English translation for the Turbo Duo and they could easily have been VC downloads. No, instead.... like with the upcoming Fire Emblem 1 remake... they will make us pay 35 dollars for it on the DS. I was really excited about Sin and Punishment because I thought it was a sign Nintendo was going to finally start releasing these rare or previously Japanese games on the VC; but it seems they would rather instead sell them for top dollar and keep pumping out overpriced crap noone wants on their download service.

- Metal Gear Solid 4 got delayed till Q2 of 2008. I know Nick and David had a bet so I thought I'd let everyone know.

- I was pleasantly surprised when I heard (from watching On the Spot) that Final Fantasy Tactics A2 will not suffer from one of the major problems that made the first game suck. There will still be a Law system with certain randomized skill and magic restrictions in each battle. But instead of being penalized or even jailed for "breaking the law" you instead just get rewarded by following it. This totally flips things around and turns a system previously annoying and tedious into one that is actually quite compelling. Now I can restrict myself when I choose when going for these bonuses but decide to forget them if the situation becomes dire. This actually adds more fun with the strategy because the player is forced to weigh the costs and benefits of his actions in battle in a meaningful way. I'm officially excited about this game again.