Shauntu شان

This month I played mostly on the DS; however at the end of the month, for my birthday, Farah surprised me with an Xbox 360! Now I can try out all the downloadable demos from the Live Marketplace in addition to looking into 360 games I have wanted to play…

(1st Timer) Alone in the Dark (Wii): Wow, this game is bad. I had read how bad it is, but didn’t remove it from my Gamefly queue in time, so tried it for a bit. Crappy graphics, crappy controls, got stuck for no reason, and had to blink the character’s eyes for 10 minutes for some stupid ‘immersive’ reason. The game has a DVD style Chapter select option, so chose to skip to the end, and couldn’t figure out how to open the door in front of me. Horrible.

(1st Timer) Civilization Revolution (DS): Played my first game on the easiest setting, and I kicked serious ass as Saladin. Actually, it made me realize that the easiest setting is way too easy, as I had all technologies researched, with a Nuke and Tanks while Montezuma, who suddenly thought he could challenge me, had Archers. Played a 2nd full game on the 2nd difficulty setting; still kicked ass, though the other civs did try to challenge me throughout and technology wise one was able to keep up rather well; however, my Ninja Knight Army wiped out the Arabs, and then later my Stealth Tank Army, accompanied by a Rifleman with a Great General, wiped out the Romans and the Spanish. Won a Cultural Victory in the same turn that I would have won a Domination Victory… Would have been my Game of the Month, if not for Professor Layton…

(1st Timer) Manhunt 2 (Wii): Wii’s likely most violent game so far, started disappointingly with, soon after starting to play, having a wheelchair drop down ahead of my character, and his legs getting clipped/stuck to them. Couldn’t move anymore, had to restart from scratch. Realized that tilted the Nunchuk changes the view and stops movement. Played up to the 3rd stage, where I got stuck with 3 weird dudes that I can't get past -- I still hate stealth based games, it looks like, due to their trial and error nature in dealing with enemies while hidden.

(1st Timer) Blast Works: Build, Trade, Destroy (Wii): A bizarre sidescrolling ship shooter where enemies attach to your ship, which becomes really fun when your ship has become bigger than the screen with dozens of enemy ships attached and firing. Played through the campaign mode up till the 5th Campaign, at which point it got too hard for me to be able to make progress. Played co-op with Farah as well, in the Arcade Mode, where once Farah used up all the continues, I played alone until I reached the 2nd mission of the 5th Campaign, at which point I was all out – but not before getting to a point once where I had enough ships attached firing enough bullets that the frame rate actually lagged a bit! Tinkered with the editor, and realized too much effort would be needed there – it really is quite extensive.

(1st Timer) Dementium: The Ward (DS): The goriest game I have ever played on the DS. Its a FPS, though in the first few chapters I have only had use of a nightstick and gun. The environment, a hospital with blood all over and enemies that look like humans with their chests ripped open (they form the shape of a mouth with the heart as the tonsil), is extremely creepy (other enemies are little sliding things that originated in the babies ward). Its also the first game to make me actually jump while playing – one of the primary focuses is the use of a flashlight, and while crossing a railing on the rooftop in the dark while it was raining, sweeping the flashlight around to see the scenery while I was crossing, an enemy climbing the railing right next to me suddenly coming to view when I swung the flashlight in that direction almost caused me to drop the DS. Very effective.

(1st Timer) Professor Layton and the Curious Village (DS): A collection of puzzles and brain teasers, very effectively presented as the obstacles within a story where you are trying to solve the puzzle of a will. The brain teasers themselves are very cool – definitely stumping me regularly, but never unfairly; the hint system – unrelated to the scoring that is affected by how many times you try a puzzle – ensures fairness, while encouraging exploring the village for the coins needed for the hints. Its a charming village too, where everybody loves to present puzzles at the drop of a hat just cause that is what they love. Plus, a curious story too, with a treasure to find, a mysterious inheritance, a murder, and kidnappings of people not feeling well… my ‘Game of the Month’.

(1st Timer) Soul Calibur Legends (Wii): A very generic action game, where all the sword fighting is done with motions. The gameplay is rather repetitive, and for some reason while there is co-op, its only in a ‘Party’ mode, not the main Quest mode.

(1st Timer) We Ski (Wii): A skiing game, but didn’t play it much due to Alisha hogging the Balance Board.

(1st Timer) Bioshock (360): My first played game on the 360, which happened to be a free rental from Hollywood Video (free Birthday rentals? Cool). Wow the graphics look good, and its very atmospheric as well. Though, the controls feel weird; the game would control so much better with a Wii Remote… I guess as far as controls are concerned with FPS games, I am spoiled…

(1st Timer) Solitaire (Cell): Played the included Solitaire on the cellphone when bored once. Solitaire sucks.

Mario Kart Wii (Wii): Played the Coconut Mall tournament, picking up the coins – managed to do it under a minute on my second try, which I think is pretty good. Then I later checked the rankings, and my brother did better. The 2nd tournament, a race through the Battle Mode map, DS Twilight House, I did better in, I think, managing to race the whole 5 laps in almost one giant unbroken powerdrift… I could have done better I suppose if I had made use of the powerdrift boosts. I also finished the first cup at 150cc, came 2nd due to a horrible first race performance, and unlocked the strange Birdo.

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS): Continued playing, finishing the game. For a while, the gameplay seemed to be getting repetitive, but eventually the enemies got faster and you had to fight faster, and that made it quite a bit fun. After completion, submitted my score to the WiFi leaderboard, placed No 9121 on Normal difficulty (Head Ninja mode got unlocked upon completion). My ‘Karma’ score was 4,188,678; all the 30 top scorers shown were 999,999,999, which seems ridiculous as a difference. As an examp,e my uploaded score says 13 Chapters, 5:06 play time, 14 defeats, and 78 UTs; the 1st place person’s score says 13 Chapters, 5:04 play time, 0 defeats, and 3 UTs. So, what, is it the defeats that leads to this huge gap? No idea.

Boom Blox (Wii): Played 3 player multiplayer at a friends house, where the game again proved what an awesome party game it can be, instantly accessible by people of all types. Played it again for a few hours, 3 player multiplayer, at another friend’s house. The quick sample mode is awesome. The game is awesome.

Wii Fit (Wii): Dropped just a tiny bit.

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Wii): Played the 2nd stage. I am really liking the extra variety and specialties given to characters. The camera killing characters by pushing them off ledges is a problem, but less than before due to being Widescreen.

Toki Tori (WiiWare): Completed more of the tougher 4th level (underwater) stages.

DEMOES:

(Demo) Pictoimage (DS): The objective: An AI person (showing gender and age) draws a picture, write out what it is. Umm, and that’s rather it. There was a mode to draw a picture yourself and have someone else identify it, I didn’t bother trying that.

(Demo) Carnival Games (DS): I haven’t tried the hit Wii version, as a couple of people I know have told me it stinks. The DS Demo had 3 minigames, and I really don’t understand the point after playing them, which took a minute to play through all 3.

(Demo) The Incredible Hulk (DS): Rather mindless 2D sidescroller where you beat up whoever is in the way, but it managed to be fun enough for me to play the demo twice… though I think it would get old fast if their isn’t variety in it.

(Demo) Kung Fu Panda (DS): Two of my recently enjoyed DS games (Zelda and Ninja Gaiden) have utilized touch controls for combat. This demo does the same, with an additional twist: the game pauses when you touch, allowing you to move the stylus around and see what move will take place and thus decide on exactly what you do, then performing the move when you release the stylus. So you can still have the fast combat, or you can have more precise combat. Intriguing idea, shows even the ‘quick turnaround movie license cash-in’ games developers can come up with unique gameplay concepts on the DS.

(Demo) Rock Band (Xbox 360): Tried the Bass Guitar on Medium in store, and was actually a bit disappointed. Bass doesn’t seem to co-relate to the music as much as Guitar and Drums do.

(Demo) Heavenly Sword (PS3): Tried out the demo in store, and was rather disappointed. The combat didn’t seem too fluid – I was just button-mashing and the heroine was just repeating certain attacks, and auto-blocking some attacks presumably when I wasn’t pressing buttons. Then again, games where you are placed in one location, with waves of enemies continuously dropping in for a while, tend to bore me. I need to be moving towards a goal or objective.

(Demo) Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 (DS): Played the demo operation, removing tumors from a patient, on Easy, Normal, and Hard. The game seems like a much more polished version of the previous game; I also liked how it tabulated the score now, actually giving me a much better idea than the previous game as to how well I did.

Microsoft: Well, they have some good games headed to the system, but not many that I am yet too excited about. Resident Evil 5, Banjo Kazooie, and Portal: Still Alive ended up being my highlights; Your in the Movies and Lips were the low points of the conference, sad to say. I will say the Avatars, Mii-Toos, do seem to be done fairly well and their use in-game has potential. The Netflix partnership is appealing as well. For the most part, MS seems to be making the case that PS3 is irrelevant, while also saying that they want to be where the Wii is.

Nintendo: While I enjoyed Nintendo’s conference, they still disappointed by basically staying away from the ‘hardcore/avid gamer’ market. Their new peripherals, Wii Speak (room based voice chat, as compared to headset based) and Wii MotionPlus (adding true 1:1 motion support to Wiimotes) are cool, and Wii Sports Resort was a huge surprise. Wii Music looks awesome to me, and Animal Crossing: City Folk could be huge. However, that appeared to be all they had to announce for the Wii… other than that, they just showed off 4 3rd party Wii games, of which I am most interested in Call of Duty: World at War. For the DS meanwhile, they again hardly announced anything, leaving me wondering what GTA Chinatown Wars will be like, but not much else.

Sony: As far as games go, Sony probably focused the most on the hardcore audience; though they did have the traditional charts section where they try to convince everyone they are on top of the world, using LittleBigPlanet to show the presentation was awesome. Resistance 2 looks pretty good, and so did the new Ratchet and Clank game. Sony does still seem to have the tendency of announcing big games long in advance, which they did now with God of War 3 (even as Killzone 2 still goes missing, after being first shown a few years ago as the reason to get a PS3). Their Home (which MS has co-opted with part of the Avatar functionality as well) still is in perpetual beta and still uninteresting. They also showed a 256 people online game, MAG. Sony does seem rather humbled right now though.

This month, I started a 2 month GameFly membership, thinking it would be handy in trying out some games that I otherwise would skip.

Mario Kart Wii (Wii): Played in the two tournaments (the Topmen boss battle and the reverse Mushroom Gorge stage). Finished the last cup on 100cc. Played online a bunch with Farah, often connecting with Kamran.

Wii Fit (Wii): Exercised a bit, unlocking more modes, including the rather fun penguin minigame. Tried the only 2 player mode, jogging, and didn’t think much of the idea of doing it 2 player.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS): Got to the first dungeon and completed it.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii): Played a few songs at Medium. Even with the 4th fret button added, I still manage to mostly get above 90% of the notes… Beating Morello in the boss battle was tougher though, took me a few tries. A friend once described Guitar Hero as an elaborate Simon Says – while I agreed with him then, at medium it’s definitely a pretty frenzied Simon Says. Have now done 17 songs in Medium…

Geometry Wars Galaxies (Wii): Tried out co-op, but Farah had difficulty following the action.

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (GC): Played couple of stages with Farah, who was excited for the upcoming LEGO Indiana Jones :).

(1st Timer) Worms 2 (DS): Picked up for $10 at sale after having tried and being intrigued by demo. I can see the game being particularly fun online, possibly… best part was naming my Squad – always fun to see messages like ‘Shauntu makes it personal’ and ‘Captain Lota sleeps with the fishies’ and ‘Fahadist is no more’. My fourth Worm is called Schizo Buddy.

(1st Timer) Toki Tori (WiiWare): My first WiiWare title, debated heavily with myself between this and LostWinds… finally picked this as it was developed by the developers of the quirky but fun Worms 2. Fun puzzle game that, while also quirky, is really highly polished. I love the point and click controls of moving the strange chicken character as it searches for eggs, though the game supports manual movement with Nunchuk or Classic controllers. A 2nd player can help by drawing hints on screen, and the game is sending a log of the chicken’s travels and adventures to the Wii Message Board, which is a rather neat surprise and add’s to Toki’s personality. I have now played more than 30 of the stages, and after some consideration (thinking mainly of Ninja Gaiden and Guitar Hero III), have decided that Toki Tori was my ‘Game of the Month’.

(1st Timer) Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword (DS): Started. Played 4 chapters so far, pretty awesome controls and rather fun so far.

(1st Timer) LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (Wii): Played first stage, part-way co-op, until Alisha bugged Farah to the point that she dropped out. From the first stage, it does seem more interesting than the LEGO Star Wars games, due to managing to integrate puzzles and traps that suit Indiana Jones into the gameplay.

(1st Timer) Sega Superstar Tennis (Wii): My first Gamefly rental. This game is boring. Where in Wii Sports Tennis, each swing takes fully into account how you swung (angle, speed, timing, all of it), in this one the swing is just a replacement for pressing a button, and in fact timing is irrelevant. Once the core game mechanic is broken, the rest just becomes boring.

(1st Timer) NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams (Wii): Gamefly rental – while the core gameplay mechanic (controlling the flight path of a flying jester who always has forward momentum) is a little weird, the game has atmosphere and great music, and it is captivating Alisha, who is reacting worried to ghosts in a cutscene and pretending to fly herself while the NiGHTS character flies. Overall the game has great atmosphere and an intriguing story, and the music is awesome. But, the controls are not the greatest, and some of the objectives can get frustrating.

(Demo) Cake Mania 2 (DS): Dealing with customer orders for cakes, involving 4 shapes of cakes and 4 types of frostings. Overall, pretty simple.

(Demo) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (DS): Crappy action combat and boring level.

(Demo) Worms 2: Open Warfare (DS): Quirky ‘Gorilla’ style game (comparing with this old gwbasic game I had on the PC long time ago) with some powerful alternatives to bananas… got me interested enough to pick it up later in the day when I say it for cheap in a store.

(Demo) High School Musical: Makin’ the Cut (DS): A single, 30 second song in the demo, where the gameplay is like Elite Beat Agents, tapping on-screen icons as they show up with the beat of the music. Except the icons have no numbers and thus if there are many on screen, unless you remember the order they came in, you will be guessing. No sliding or spinning moves like Elite Beat Agents in the demo, instead there was an ‘interlude’ in the music where you have to drag basketballs to baskets. Overall, quite crappy.

(Demo) Arkanoid DS (DS): Pretty standard Arkanoid, complete with familiar music, with the novelty of stylus controls. Which, while they work pretty well, didn’t really feel that different though. What did feel different though is that the gap between screens is treated as part of the game, with the ball going missing there, and until the ball speeds up, it is disorienting when it spends time in the unseen gap…

(Demo) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (DS): A 3d action/adventure in the spirit of the Tomb Raider games, unfortunately the developers made a poor demo due to one reason: Bad level design. Basically, I get to an area where the traps kill in one hit, the shotgun (fired & aimed using stylus in an unintuitive manner, where the action is on the top screen but you still aim by pointing on the bottom screen in the proper direction…) has limited range to shoot the statues in the way, and thus I have to move the character using the D-Pad into the trap zone to get in range. Mess up, die, and freakin’ restart from the beginning.

(Demo) Spore Creature Creator (PC): A trial of the creator editor for Spore, downloadable from http://www.sporepedia.com/, where you can also upload, download, and view other’s creations. It’s an interesting approach to previewing one of the core aspects of the upcoming Spore game – certainly some bizarre creatures can be made.

(Demo) Crosswords DS (DS): This was a demo of the Word Search, with a easy and a normal Word Search puzzle. Pretty nicely implemented, and I did enjoy finding the words. I guess if you enjoy Word Search and Crosswords in the newspapers, then this title is better than the newspapers!

(Demo) Crosswords DS (DS): Another demo for this game showed up on the Nintendo Channel to show of the Anagrams portion of the game. Again, the interface is well done, and those who like these things in the newspapers would love it.

(Demo) Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (DS): This demo just had 1 of the many minigames in Raving Rabbids 2, and it wasn’t much fun, but at least it only lasted a minute.

(Demo) Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS): Tried the store demo, played one Jet song on Medium. I did rather well, though it was uncomfortable holding the DS with the Guitar Hero add-on strap while the DS is still attached to the Demo Station.

(Demo) Contra 4 (DS): The demo was just the first stage of the new Contra 4, and it was tough! I died many times before managing to complete it, each time getting a little further. Even though it was so hard, that I was getting further each time and that the stage isn’t too long made it fun.

(Demo) Wall-E (DS): The demo was boring, as all I seemed to do was pick up garbage cubes and throw them at floor switches to create bridges I could then cross to get to the next section.

Oh look, here I am, continuing with my crazy idea of keeping a monthly gaming log... I guess I really am crazy! BTW, though I don't mention them, I continue to make use of many of the Wii Channels, in particular Everybody Votes Channel (which Farah and I haven't missed a vote on since it came out -- and we both have higher than 74% accuracy rates with our predictions...) and the Internet Channel. The new Nintendo Channel is pretty cool too, what with weekly videos as well as DS Demos (though when will the recommendations/reviews we are submitting for games start getting tabulated and displayed for games?). Anyway, games I played during May include the following... with Boom Blox on the Wii being my Game of the Month!

Mario Kart Wii (Wii): Played through and won almost all of the 100CC cups, unlocking the use of Miis in the races. Also defeated some of the Staff Ghosts, unlocking 4 Fast Staff Ghosts, while trading ghost challenges back and forth with my brother, who in the end topped me on every course so far... Also participated in the first tournament a bunch, where Chain Chomps were added to the middle of a standard race, but only really tried the second tournament, a race through gates on an empty course, a couple of times.

Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA): Played part of Chapter 3. Getting rather repetitive.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii): Finished all songs on Easy, plus a couple on Medium. Alisha loves to rock out with the guitar.

Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (DS): Unlocked Triangle Math, Clock Spin

Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (DS): Played a bit... Got myself a Brain Age of 20...

Elite Beat Agents (DS): Worked on the last remaining *** difficulty song, but it's pretty difficult!

Wii Play (Wii): Played a few hours or Tanks, Shooting Gallery, and the rest of the modes with a friend, Khurram, at his place -- and they remain fun as ever. I was surprised to see how good my friend played Tanks, my favorite mode, in which he beat me pretty continuously...

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS): Started this game from scratch, and reached the first dungeon.

(1st Timer) Wii Fit (Wii): The latest sensation to hit the gaming world, Wii Fit comes with a new weight & balance sensing 'Balance Board' controller, one that already has a bunch of games announced as supporting in the near future. Wii Fit, the game with comes with the Balance Board, meanwhile, is all about measuring your weight (in lbs or BMI), setting goals for adjusting your BMI, and performing exercise. 4 basic types of exercise are included: Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance Minigames. The Balance Minigames, which include things like Skiing, are the most game-like and fun parts of the title, and are handy for taking a break between the heavier workouts. The Yoga is pretty neat, the Strength Training makes me sweat, and the Aerobics makes me sweat even more. Also, the game, quite rightly, labels me as Obese from my BMI. Both Farah and I are enjoying the concept of getting exercise from Wii Fit, and what makes it particularly neat is the immediate feedback, through measuring your movements and balance, that it gives during exercise. I do get the feeling that if I can get into a steady routine, it will be good for me. The hard part is how to use Wii Fit with Alisha wanting to join me on the balance board in the middle of exercise...

(1st Timer) Portal (PC Windows): Finished, and it definitely took me more than 3 hours. Pretty neat game, though I regret knowing the 'plot' beforehand.

(1st Timer) Boom Blox (Wii): For a game that, when described (throw balls at blocks to make them fall, or conversely, pull blocks without the whole structure falling), sounds so simplistic, Boom Blox, designed of all people by Steven Spielberg, is a real gem of a game. Your ball throwing strength is determined by your moving the wiimote, the physics are amazingly realistic, the modes many and varied (many making use of creatures in the game, like clearing a path for a Gorilla to reach her babies), and the multiplayer (available in co-op and competitive) is guaranteed to make any party a blast. I can seriously say anyone can enjoy this game. Definitely, my 'Game of the Month'.

(1st Timer) Master of Illusion (DS): Not so much a game as it is a 'Magic Training' software, it has 3 modes. Solo mode is where the DS plays magic tricks on the user, often the type of tricks where you are asked to pick things on screen in such a way that the end result is predetermined through mathematical or otherwise certainty (though Finger Yoga, where the DS kept predicting how I was holding my fingers, took me for a loop for a while until the game decided to let me learn how the trick worked). The Magic tricks section teaches you various tricks, utilizing the DS as part of the trick, that you can perform on others -- certainly more entertaining to show off and make others wonder, even if most of them are performed by sneakily inputting information into the DS, whether through the shoulder buttons, the mic, or drawing something in a very specific manner; of course, being able to read the marked deck of cards that is included is part of the trick. Finally, there are some minigames that aren't anything special. The crappy part of the title, though, is that you have to unlock everything, and there is a limit to how much can be unlocked per day.

(1st Timer) Ninja Gaiden Demo (DS): Finished on easy, medium, but hard seems quite impossible for me. Still, pretty neat action game... That said, the demo didn't give any idea on whether there is anything other than fighting... Pretty neat to have an action game in book orientation though (where you hold the DS like a book, normally used by Puzzle titles).

(1st Timer) Crosswords Demo (DS): Finished the demo on all difficulties (though I gave up on hard some time after running out of all the hints), and have to say that for a Crosswords title, it's actually pretty neat.

(1st Timer) My Word Coach Demo (DS): This demo was of a Tetris style mode where letters fell from above, and you had to spell out words written out on the side screen. It was fine as a gaming mode, but not necessarily that fun, as the necessity of giving you letters for the words you can build made the letters falling rather predictable.

(1st Timer) Eco-Creatures Demo (DS): An RTS style game where you control a character and move him around the screen, and can then tap on your 'army' to send them to attack enemies. The environment friendly message is pushed down your throat, and the gameplay really too easy to be interesting.

Rock Band Demo (360): Played the same song in store first on Drums, then on the Guitar, on medium difficulty. Did well with both instruments, though I did better on the drums, even with my prior experience with Guitar Hero... I also have to say, I enjoy drumming more than the guitar... too bad Rock Band is so expensive.

(1st Timer) Flash Focus Demo (DS): The demo had an Eye Test of Focusing, as well as a minigame involving Hand-Eye coordination using Baseball... While simple, surprisingly decent.

(1st Timer) Iron Man Demo (DS): Touch Screen for shooting, using locking/homing missiles, and a charging beam, D-Pad to move, L to afterburn, and occasionally any other button for EMP... action game that plays like an original version of Desert Strike... while it was a bit fun in the short burst of the demo, the number of buttons mixed with stylus aimed shooting got tiring on the hand very quickly.

(1st Timer) The Spiderwick Chronicles Demo (DS): RPG with Mario RPG style stylus drawings during battles to increase damage, fully touch controlled motions and actions, nice interface. Played surprisingly well, though shaking each bush is worse than standard RPG barrel/pot busting... My overall impression is one of being impressed at the quality of a title that seems likely to be only picked up by kids.

(1st Timer) Apollo Justice Demo (DS): Standard Phoenix Wright style game, with new set of characters and new hero. Demo does good job though of trying to pull in existing fans by having you defend Phoenix Wright himself -- who seems nonchalant and mysterious even while accused of murder, with oddities like him being a piano player now who is also a poker champ in a potentially illegal gambling den where the murder took place... that said, having played 2 Phoenix Wright games previously, I feel like I have had enough.

Will mention pre-Season 4 spoilers, but try to keep Season 4 spoilers out of this post for anyone who is waiting for DVD's to watch Season 4. Unless a guest cast list is a spoiler for ya, in which case, don't read further...

Lost has it's Season Finale for it's 4th season coming up, 3 hours long. Part 1 will air this Thursday, Parts 2 & 3 will be aired 2 weeks later. It's been a great season so far, rather concentrating on telling one specific story (basically, how the story got to the point shown in the Season 3 Finale's last scene, where Jack and Kate, some time in the future, talk about Jack wanting to return to the Island). Obviously, Season 3 ended with the survivors getting into contact with a Freighter that is there to rescue them, so the story for Season 4 did focus heavily on the Freighter...

The Guest Cast lists for the S4 Finale, publicized by Lost Press Releases, is below (I am concentrating on mentioning characters that have been on the show before only, and also not mentioning characters that are part of the main cast). Keep in mind, that due to the nature of the show (with flashbacks and flashforwards, among other things), characters can show up whether dead or alive, so nothing can really be inferred or given away by a cast list. Also, note that there are many times when guest characters with small roles, or major surprises, are omitted from Press Releases...

There's No Place Like Home, Part 1:
Rose (815 survivor)
Richard Alpert (Other)
Frank Lapidus (from Freighter)
Keamy (from Freighter)
Omar (from Freighter)
Nadia (Sayid's friend)
Mr. Paik (Sun's father)
Mrs. Paik (Sun's mother)
Carmen Reyes (Hurley's mother)
David Reyes (Hurley's father)
Margo Shephard (Jack's mother)
Carole Littleton (Claire's mother)

There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3:
Rose (815 survivor)
Richard Alpert (Other)
Frank Lapidus (from Freighter)
Keamy (from Freighter)
Omar (from Freighter)
Walt (815 survivor)
'Mom' (Walt's grandmother)
Christian Shephard (Jack's father)
Penelope Widmore (Desmond's girlfriend)
Charles Widmore (Penny's father)
Henrik (man who detected EMP and told Penny in S2 Finale)
Dr Marvin Candle (aka Dr Wickman, aka Dr Halliwax)

PS: Lost is Awesome...

I'm crazy, I know. I like to spend time looking at statistics and analyzing patterns and cataloguing all sorts of stuff. I not sure how many people know this about me, but I used to pore over Cricketers statistics when I was in high school and make lists of all the books I ever read.

That said, I like to think that is human nature. I wonder whether most will agree?

Thing is, I also like to commentate on stuff. Anyways, I felt like doing something totally 'catalog' and 'commentate' worthy, probably totally nerdy to some. I felt like trying out keeping a monthly log of games I played and commentating on them. Not so much reviews, as opinions and observations. Both on new games I played as well as older games I played. Whether I played a game only a bit or a lot. Obviously, writing at once rather than as the month goes on, I could forget about something I played or I might mistakenly have something I played earlier than April and mistakenly placed it here. Oh well, still counts, my brain!

I'll note, I lost my DS and bunch of games last Thanksgiving (); Farah got me a DS for Valentines, and just before and during April, I picked up some of my favorite DS titles again at bargain prices, usually used -- which is why this list is so heavy on old DS titles!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii): My main game from March, continued playing it through April, unlocking all the characters, finishing the story mode, playing Classic, Boss Rush, and All-Star modes with a few characters. Completed all the solo Events, as well as the co-op events with Farah. Continued playing the story mode in co-op with Farah, which is at about 35% or so complete now. Got 1 Boss Trophy, fighting Petey Piranha on Intense difficulty. Completed many of the challenges, unlocking lots of good music tracks, some neat stages, etc. Built a few more custom stages. Didn't play it online much, though did use the spectator mode and 'gambled' a bunch.

Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (DS): Played it pretty frequently for minutes a day, generally about 5-10 minutes every few days. I tend to do a few of the training exercises each time, alternating between them, usually 3 of them at a time. I actually still enjoy 'Reading Aloud', where you simply read a passage from classic English Literature, the farthest from any 'game' type activity ever. Oddly, the exercise where you count people entering and leaving a house, once a favorite, is now my most boring exercise. Unlocked a few of the training exercises.

Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (DS): Generally, I tend to play the 2 Brain Age titles as a pair. I also tend to not do the Daily Test, rather, only doing some of the training exercises. In 2, my favorite is actually Word Scramble, with rotating letters you form together anagram style. My most boring one is one similar to the house guests one from 1, where you keep track of what position a runner ends up in as others run past him. Unlocked a few of the training exercises. BTW, the piano playing exercise has the worst piano playing controls I could imagine, yet I can't help but choose that exercise at times to hear what classical piece will be played this time.

(1st Timer) Jam Session (DS): A sophisticated simulated Guitar, that is more a utility software than a game. While I could see that it's a pretty accurate guitar simulator, I can also see that with 'real music', I am unfortunately pretty hopeless. Thus, only really tried this for an hour. Also, my fingers hurt using the D-Pad as 8 chords/frets.

(1st Timer) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii): Now this kind of Guitar I can get into -- fake guitar playing what is basically an elaborate 'match the colored buttons with the accurate buttons on the fake guitar peripheral'. But its so much fun! You get in a groove, the music is great, everything looks wobbly after playing it due to staring at moving colors for 4-5 minutes a song, and the Guitar peripheral with the Wiimote attached (giving it a built in speaker for feedback when making mistakes as well as vibrations when rocking out) is a pretty cool 'controller'. Plus, Alisha loves to rock out with me when I play, holding a PS2 guitar I have and pretending to play it while I play. Awesome. Completed all 42 songs on Easy, defeating Lou the Devil at the end and unlocking some 'bonus' songs. Completed a couple of Medium songs...

Picross (DS): Picture Crosswords, one of my favorite 'logic puzzle' games ever. Started it from scratch again after having lost it Thanksgiving -- and finished all the Easy puzzles in a brief sitting. Still fun, but I look forward to the larger, more sophisticated puzzles where I actually get stumped again.

Elite Beat Agents (DS): My favorite lost game. The used copy came with *** Chieftain Difficulty already available, which was fine by me as I had already completed all the songs on * and **, and had been midway through *** anyway! Completed a few of the *** songs, which are tough and take a bit to get used to the beat. I need to find my earphones for best performance in this one...

Metroid Prime Pinball (DS): My favorite pinball game ever, replaced anew. Looks like whoever used it before didn't even play it, certainly never made the high score tables. Played through it in the amazing 'story' mode a ton, eventually making it to and beating Metroid Prime and thus unlocking the higher difficulty and all the boards in 'High Score' mode. Awesome game still.

(1st Timer) No More Heroes (Wii): Started it and played it through about the first 4 assassins. Looks like 7 more to go. The 'grinding' you have to do between assassination missions to be able to start them looks like it could get tiring. Game is ultraviolent, completely weird and wacked out, and language can be offensive at times, not to mention the plot being totally crazy at times, so stopped playing it while my mom was visiting.

(1st Timer) Bully (Wii): Tried this rental due to all the positive reviews the older PS2 version had received, and was honestly under-whelmed. I could see merit in the school environment, with the game making a point about bullying the bullies, and the classes were interesting, but so much of the game boiled down to running around the map to meet people to get missions then going to place to complete mission, that it got boring before the game was due. Plus, the combat motions were too simplistic, simply swinging the Wiimote and Nunchuk.

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Wii): Farah and I pulled out this old game from the shelf and played a few co-op on-rail shooter stages -- which are still fun and the Rabbids are still crazy. Then I completed all the Rabbid Songs minigames, swinging the Wiimote and Nunchuk like crazy maracas.

(1st Timer) Mario Kart Wii (Wii): Comes with Nintendo's version of the 'Wii Wheel' shell, which really does make the game better! I honestly didn't think a new Mario Kart game would be anything special, and now I think this is likely the best one ever! Playing online with my brother and his wife has been flawless, and trying to beat Kamran's ghost saves on the beginning stages has been so much fun, that I can see myself playing this game for a long time. Farah loves it too, and we have played it online a lot since I picked it up. Got a 2nd Wii Wheel too! I will have to end up saying that this is my 'Game of the Month'. Also, Alisha loves the Wii Wheel, she likes twirling it around pretending to play :).

(1st Timer) Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 (Wii): Got it in a deal with Mario Kart Wii, and have tried it out once, completing basic training camp and playing 1 Exhibition match against the CPU. The controls, where you get to play as the whole team at once, are revolutionary and amazing, compared to most sport games where you only play as the person who has the ball at any given time.

Wii Sports (Wii): Lou visited early in the month, and ended up playing a few hours of Bowling. He's too good now, though took him a bit to warm up so was still close in the beginning. Played Power Throws mode, where he showed me how he rebounds off the rails on the side, and I showed him how to knock out all pins in Round 10 by rolling the ball on top of the rails. Something I had not actually been able to pull off, but he went ahead and practiced for a bit and was able to do it!

Big Brain Academy (DS): I never scored too high in the DS game, like a C, even though on the Wii game I have done much better (B+ I believe). With playing the Brain Age games, figured I would give this one a try again, by actually trying out the various challenges in different difficulties. After getting better in them, was able to score C+ in the test. BTW, I can now say with authority that the Wii sequel of the game is indeed a lot better and a lot more polished.

(1st Timer) Riviera: The Promised Land (GBA): My current 'old GBA game', deleted the used save files from the used copy and started a new one. I have to admit, the gameplay is completely different than any other RPG I have played. Leveling up through the use of individual weapons enough times is novel. The lack of exploration of the game world feels unusual (you basically never move your character, only using menu commands to move, look in places, etc -- all with limited 'explore points' that you get in battle), yet I am enjoying exploring the new ideas and gameplay concepts in the game. Have finished 2 chapters so far (another oddity, chapters in an RPG where you thus cannot 'explore' previous areas even if you have collected some 'explore points'). The story of being a 'Grim Angel' summoned to destroy the land of Riviera, and all humans ('Sprites') living there, before the land turns into a demon's base, only to turn on the Gods to save Riviera instead, could be interesting.

Balloon Fight (Wii VC -- NES): Kamran sent me Balloon Fight and I ended up playing it a few times. Still fun for such an ancient game.

End Thoughts: Well, I played a nice variety of games between the Wii (8) and DS (7), a Wii VC title, and even a GBA game, played on the DS, for a total of 19 games played during the month. A lot of music based games, too, I'll note (3, plus piano exercises in Brain Age 2 and Maracas in Rayman Raving Rabbids). Overall, actually a pretty big month for gaming...

First, a chart:

FY     Sony              Nintendo            Microsoft
1998 974,000,000    629,000,000
1999 1,130,000,000 645,000,000
2000 730,000,000    421,000,000
2001 -409,000,000   726,000,000
2002 623,000,000    800,000,000    -750,000,000
2003 939,000,000    560,000,000    -1,191,000,000
2004 650,000,000    316,000,000    -1,215,000,000
2005 404,000,000    777,000,000    -485,000,000
2006 75,000,000      894,000,000    -1,262,000,000
2007 -1,969,000,000 1,489,000,000 -1,892,000,000
2008 -965,000,000 2,480,000,000  614,000,000
Totals 2,182,000,000 9,737,000,000 -6,263,000,000

The chart above shows the profit from Sony (Playstation division), Nintendo (as a whole, seeing as how their only real business is the gaming business), and Microsoft (showing their division that is responsible for Xbox, but also over the years things like Zune). Also note, that the 2008 numbers show the full Fiscal Year for Nintendo, but only includes 3 quarters of data for Sony and Microsoft, whose 4th Quarter data isn't released yet.

My question is, will Microsoft be able to have its first year of profit from the gaming business? I honestly think it will, I really don't think their 4th quarter will dampen things any. And to me, that means that unless they do something boneheaded, they should continue to have profit for the next couple of years for the remainder of 360's life cycle... and that, given how much they invested in getting into the gaming business, is a huge checkpoint for them.

Sony meanwhile is having transitional pains. They had them when they transitioned from PS1 to PS2 (as can be seen in the 2001 loss), but were able to recover really nicely and take over the market for the next few years. Their transitional pains in moving from PS2 to PS3 is even deeper however, and it does seem unlikely they can be 1st in the market this time around. My advise to them would be to not over-tech the PS4 (I would also give Microsoft the same advice btw, for their eventual Xbox 720).

Finally, Nintendo, whose conservatism with wanting to maintain profit against all odds seemed to contribute to the Gamecube coming 3rd behind PS2 and Xbox, is showing how that conservatism can own everyone when they do it right. I mean, their last year's profit alone has exceeded Sony's total for the last decade -- and their projection for the next year is $3.13 billion...