My favorite Final Fantasy mini-game

  • July 6, 2011
  • James Skemp
I've had Final Fantasy VIII for many years, but have never finished it. In fact, I've never gotten through the first disc. However, having recently started it up once again, after picking up an electronic copy on the PSN (I still have the original, but this is the only legit way to play it on my PSP), I have to say that Final Fantasy VIII contains my favorite mini-game of the series, and perhaps one of my top favorites of all.

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Review: Parasite Eve

  • January 16, 2011
  • James Skemp
The following is a review of Parasite Eve, for the Sony PlayStation (1). Almost six years ago, back in 2005, I found and picked up a copy of Parasite Eve. I don't recall the exact circumstances on why I picked it up, but I'm willing to bet that seeing 'Squaresoft' on the jewel case had more than a little to do with it. With The 3rd Birthday's U.S. launch fast approaching, I put the first Parasite Eve back on my list, having not played it since a short time after I bought it, and even then not having finished the game.

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Shadow Hearts: Covenant leveling information

  • September 6, 2010
  • James Skemp
As I continue to look through my old files I found leveling information for Shadow Hearts: Covenant, from December 2005 to January (1st) 2006. I've converted it from an ODS file to XML, and am making it available. Shadow Hearts: Covenant leveling guide. Since I have a leveling guide for Shadow Hearts: From the New World (previously written about), it almost makes sense to go back and play the original Shadow Hearts to get information for that game as well.

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On Achievements and Trophies

  • May 16, 2009
  • James Skemp
To a very large extent, I consider myself to be a gamer. Around the time the NES came out, my family picked up an Atari 2600, used. I don't know who sold it to us, but I can remember going with my dad to pick it up at my school's playground (that was the meeting place). At a later point we picked up an NES, via my dad, and then my mom bought us a SNES.

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What I've been up to (Feb '09 edition)

  • February 14, 2009
  • James Skemp
As my last post may have suggested ... I've been playing games. Here's a small taste of the games currently on my plate. Playstation 2 Shadow Hearts: From the New World was close to completion .. before I bought an Xbox 360. Persona 3: Fes still remains to be started, and ditto for Persona 4 ... Yes, I didn't even start Persona 4. Yes, I know how good reviews said it is.

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Shadow Hearts: From the New World leveling information

  • December 27, 2008
  • James Skemp
A leveling 'guide' for Shadow Hearts: From the New World is now available; Shadow Hearts: From the New World leveling. Not only should it have been written up and posted a while ago, it gave me a good chance to use XSD (XML Schema Definition). I tried creating one for my tracking my vehicles' gas usage, but failed. Having worked through the issues on this one, I think I now know what I did wrong.

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Playstation Home Beta: First impressions

  • December 26, 2008
  • James Skemp
Eh. I think it looks really good, but I'm not sure a 3d world is what really drives me. That's about all I've got to say at the moment. Definitely looks good, but ... if you don't want to meet people, what's the point? Side-note: Couldn't find the themed environments.

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What makes a good video game great?

  • December 19, 2008
  • James Skemp
A while ago I was reading a thread asking individuals what games they had last played multiple times. Unfortunately, I actually have a hard time coming up with more than a couple, even though I'm sure I must have played games all the way through when I had more time (id est, in college). The only two I could think of were Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

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Persona 4 pre-order goody = wow

  • December 10, 2008
  • James Skemp
Mustn't ... look ... too ... closely ... (already ruined one surprise) Atlus certainly out-did themselves this time, with the Persona 4 pre-order goody. While I was expecting the "Visual Data" bonus to be large enough to fit behind the game's case, like the Persona 3 bonus, this one is actually graphic novel sized. Very nice Atlus, very nice. And, with reviews like this, looks like we can expect a Persona 5 in the near future.

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I own an Xbox 360

  • December 3, 2008
  • James Skemp
So I did it. Back on November 17 2007 I purchased a Playstation 3. I had debated, back and forth, the purchase of that versus the Xbox 360. At the time the Xbox was having quite a few issues, including overheating, power block malfunctions, and the wonderful RROD. However, as time has gone by, the number of complaints has gone down. Some say that the issues are basically resolved, and you just need to find newer systems.

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