It’s been forever and an age since I posted anything significant, and that’s because my gaming world seems to have exploded. I’ve got so much stuff to play I don’t even know where to start writing about it all – and so I’ve decided to post a written thumbnail gallery of what I’m going through right now.

Games I’m Still Playing

Star Ocean: The Last Hope, XBox 360

A Kingdom for Keflings, XBox 360 Live

Games I’m Playing But Haven’t (Yet) Written About

Fantastic Contraption, http://www.fantasticcontraption.com

Amazing little web physics game along the lines of The Incredible Machine. You must get an object from one place to another by building fantastic contraptions out of various types of wheels and rods. Free to play with extra content if you’re willing to pay a little. It’s well worth it.

Little Big Planet, PS3.

I haven’t dug too much into this one yet; I just picked it up a couple of days ago. I’m late to join this party and it’s a shame, it’s a pretty mind-blowing gaming experience. At it’s core, LBP is a fairly typical platform game, but they expose that core in an unprecedented way by giving you all the tools you need to create a rediculous variety of worlds of your own to play in, alone or with friends.

Persona 4, PS2

I caved into temptation and started playing Persona 4, and was hugely impressed. As fantastic as Persona 3 is, Persona 4 takes a small step beyond it in nearly every respect. The steps may be small but the number of them adds up to a great difference; Persona 4 is one of the best RPGs I’ve played, so far. I’ll be writing it up soon.

Valkyria Chronicles, PS3

This game really blew my mind, even more so than Little Big Planet. When I got myself a PS3, I got it for two reasons – it was the cheapest BluRay player available on the market at the time, and because I want to get Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3 when it’s released. If I’d known about it, Valkyria Chronicles would have been more than enough justification. It’s a strategy roleplaying game, not a genre I’ve ever tried before, but now I think I’ve been missing out. I’m not going to rave about this one too much, it’s my #1 priority for an Impression post; I’ll save it for that, coming up soon.

Pain, PS3 Store

This is a pretty small game I was introduced to just last week. The idea is to flick a living crash test dummy of a character around a scene, causing as much destruction as you can. It sounds kind of brainless and silly, which it is, but it’s amazingly addictive and satisfying to play. The base game comes with one scene and a couple of characters to throw around. Two additional scenes and a large number of extra characters are available for purchase on the Sony Online Store.

Games I Am No Longer Playing

Persona 3 FES, PS2.

• I’m still sucked in by the story on this one, but sadly I reached a point where I could not defeat a boss encounter and don’t have enough saved games to go back and level up to try again. I will start a new game in the future, manage the early game days better, and possibly play at Easy level just so I can get through the story more effectively.

Harvest Moon – Tree of Tranquility, Wii.

• A good game, one I enjoy, but I’m too far off the target audience for it to hold my attention against the likes of Star Ocean, Persona 4 and Valkyria Chronicles.

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