Re: Goodbye, for now. (1 year ago)

Love the ending image you left us on Ben, it's one that I was considering using myself! I can definitely understand your position and it takes a lot of courage to admit when you've changed and evolved yourself, perhaps even more in some ways for you since your own changes come from a positive place rather than a negative one, and you're not trashing your past likes just because of that change.

See you in another life, yeah?

Re: The OSCARS of the internet! (1 year ago)

Huzzah, finally nominated for the Nintendo Fanboy award, thank you everyone! Next year Jarrod, next year! Oh, and just so you all know, this week you can find a demo on WiiWare for Aya and the Cubes of Light as well as a Snake Eater 3D demo and Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 on the 3DS eShop

Re: Sydney PALGN Meet 2012 ( now Sat 18 , 11 am ) (1 year ago)

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

Unfortunately something has come up for me that I need to address over the weekend and I won't be able to attend this meet.Pretty bummed as I was looking forward to personally catching up with everyone and have never been to one of these places before! May you all have a great time and take plenty of photos! Hope to make it to the next one!

Re: Bon Voyage, Amigos (1 year ago)

BEEEEVVVVVVV!

You're pretty good



It was a treat being able to validate your last review and a pleasure writing with you all of this time. May you go on to bigger and better things!

Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye! (1 year ago)

Well I've held on for as long as needed and I've done my duty to the last. It's time for me to bid a farewell, for I am here to officially announce that I am resigning from my position as a PALGN Staff Writer. I'm turning the lights out. Forgive me if the following seems a wee bit rambling, disconnected and otherwise all over the place. I may come back and add things later on. I have always strived to conduct myself on here with some dignity. To that end, I'm going to finish up here with some dignity, like a true gent – maybe even Laytonesque. To that end, as I type this up I sit here with some tea and crumpets. You'll say pics or it didn't happen, so here you go, if it will actually let me post:



I started off on this site as as a normal user – if you're ever wondering what ever happened to that guy friend-o or were curious about whoever it was in IRC that went by friend-o, fido, fiendo or any other derivative, then now you know. I lurked on PALGN long before I actually joined though, so in some ways I feel like I've been a part of the place for a much greater amount of time, and if you go back through my posts you'll see it was the forum that inspired me to sign up. Even so, I still can't believe that a grouping of editors at the time felt that I was worthy enough to actually have the opportunity to start writing here a couple of years ago. I'd like to sincerely thank the editorial team of Jeremy, Adam, Anthony, James V et al for thinking that I had it in me to write for the site and for always being professional and courteous with me. Thank to to the staff who paved the way before me to make PALGN as good as it was. I'd of course also like to thank my fellow staff writers across the time I've been here: Adam Guetti, Denny, Bev, Cian, Andrew, Jarrod, Kim, Jahanzeb (many apologies if I've left someone out) – we've been through a lot and I know that I've learnt a great deal from every single one of you. The design and tech guys also deserve some praise too for their efforts in whipping up outstanding feature images whenever requested.

Of course, as it's already been read and said many times before me by other departing staffers, PALGN is nothing without its readers and users. If any one of my pieces stopped you from buying a complete dud of a game or convinced you to buy a game that you ended up loving then I feel that my time as a writer here would have been a success. If one of the gaming bargains listings helped you save a few dollars or if a Nintendo Store Update convinced you to not worry about logging into the Wii Shop/DSi Shop or you jumped at glee when a long-awaited game finally made its way on there then I also feel like I've done what I came here to do. And it's been a true joy to do it, believe me.

More importantly to me though, you guys have influenced my own tastes in so many areas. There are so many games to mention that I would never have had the chance to try were it not for various recommendations from the community here – The World Ends With You, Cursed Mountain, Disaster Day of Crisis, No More Heroes, Shadow of the Colossus, Chrono Trigger, Eternal Darkness and more. I really, really could go on. It's also thanks to PALGN that I've expanded my tastes in TV – Breaking Bad, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, The Prisoner – they now rank amongst my favourites of all time. I may have heard about all these games and shows from other places first, but it was the groundswell of goodwill and passion towards them on PALGN that has made me dive right in and stick with them. You've also reaffirmed the love I have for other games and shows like Hotel Dusk, Lost, a plethora of Zeldas, Metal Gear Solid 3, The Shield and even a few nods here and there to the game that really started it all for me: Shadow Warriors II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (known as Ninja Gaiden II in other parts of the world).

Thank you to the craziness that is the forum in general – the amount of extreme lulz and insanity have always be a treat to be a part of, and it's here that I feel the community has truly lived. Thank you most of all for your understanding through this time and the clear loyalty that you have all shown to myself, the writers and the all too-often neglected mods, who deserve a lot of praise for their years of hard work. I really mean that guys – getting a glimpse into your world has been astonishing. You all have true grit. It really has been heartwarming for myself and the rest of the staff to see all the support and goodwill from mods, users and the rest. Thank you to the IRC crew, who always embraced me when I stepped inside the absolute madness there. And thank you all of those that I have met in person since joining PALGN, and I know I will see many of you again soon and hope to meet more PALGNers as well some day.

While I may be done here on PALGN, as too have the rest of the staff writers, I have been...training for...something rocket, which comes this way, you might as well say, and more, which will be revealed at a later date.

I thought a long time about just how to finish this post, and in the end I decided that there was only one possible way to do it. I wanted to go out on a high. Go out with a smile, a positive, with maybe even a bit of inspiration thrown in, to reflect what's happening now and what will happen in the future. And only one thing can do that – a Rocky montage!

Re: My most memorable PALGN reviews (1 year ago)

^What, no mention of the highly contentious review you did for Epic Mickey ?

Re: My most memorable PALGN reviews (1 year ago)

Well done Bossman! You've certainly had the gamut of fantastic, generation-defining games as well as some true duds, and some interesting commentary on the gaming industry and gaming journalism. Disappointed that you didn't get any reference to Elf Bowling in there somehow though

Anyway, to shamelessly rip off the idea, here are some of my own memorable reviews of the top of my head:

*UFC Undisputed 2010: Everyone remembers their first!

*WRC: FIA World Championship: I was probably way too nice to this one in both score and commentary, but it was fun when I did rip into it. Never thought I'd weave a Thelma and Louise reference into anything!

*Cave Story: The first title of mine to get above an 8.5 and my first WiiWare game. It was an outstanding game and I stand by everything I said in that review - plus my original writeup for the Nintendo Store Update had my best ever blurb!

*Okamiden: I had a lot of joy playing the game and it translated into the review. I was also pretty heartened to read the comments afterwards of people who were buying the game because of my writeup.

*National Geographic Challenge: has the distinction of being my lowest score ever. But I somehow managed to make it through!

*The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D: It's not often that a person gets to review a Zelda title and I took the opportunity whole-heartedly. This little gem is also my highest scoring game on PALGN at 9.5.

*Gears of War 3: Probably the most high-profile game I have reviewed and definitely the one with the biggest response in the community. Still disagree with Cian thinking it's worthy of a nine though

*Professor Layton and the Last Spectre: My very last review, containing the word last in the title and my last ever score above 8.5. I don't think I could have wanted a better game to finish up on.

Nintendo Store Update - 10/02/12 (1 year ago)

Re: Readers Questions for PALGN Staff (1 year ago)

^Just to answer one question, the forum itself is not in danger of shutting down on Friday, so you will still have a chance to reach your milestone before any kind of other movement. Friday will see the official end of editorial content on the front page (reviews, news etc).

I Am Alive Survivor Trailer (1 year ago)

Nintendo Store Update - 03/02/12 (1 year ago)

Re: Rayman 3 HD trailer released (1 year ago)

^Indeed, it seems like a massive tease to me to just throw it in there when the sequel is in complete and utter limbo! At least it's not another Rayman 2.

Rayman 3 HD trailer released (1 year ago)

Re: Sydney PALGN Meet 2012 ( now Sat 18 , 11 am ) (1 year ago)

I definitely can't do nights during the week due to work, but I'd be happier to go for early on during a Saturday.

Re: Sydney PALGN Meet 2012 ( now Sat 18 , 11 am ) (1 year ago)

Think I should be okay for this one

Nintendo Store Update - 27/01/12 (1 year ago)

Re: One Questions (1 year ago)

The Virtual Console games aren't released with any kind of regularity in of themselves. The Wii Shop itself is generally updated every Thursday at midnight/Friday morning with something, whether it's a demo or a WiiWare game or sometimes even a VC game.

Metal Gear Solid HD Collection launch trailer (1 year ago)

Re: She says the jungle...it just came alive, and took him. (1 year ago)

Jarrod!



You shall be missed my friend! It's always been good to have a fellow Nintendo lover onboard, but there's a lot more to your presence on the site than this. Normal members may not realise it, but the man is not only a news-posting machine but probably writes some of the most creative reviews on the site. His own charisma definitely shines through in anything that he does. Plus he's posted many an article of mine late at night and there have been times when we've been constantly posting one another's random image and trailer items at ridiculous hours, which always makes one feel appreciated and glad to give back

Oh, and I think this is now also a Predator thread.

Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D release date revealed (1 year ago)

New Max Payne 3 screenshots released (1 year ago)

Nintendo Store Update - 06/01/12 (1 year ago)

Nintendo Store Update - 30/12/11 (1 year ago)

Re: Professor Layton and the Last Spectre Review (1 year ago)

^Not Layton himself, he's the same actor across all games, but sometimes Luke and secondary characters are done by different voice actors.

Re: Readers Questions for PALGN Staff (1 year ago)

I'd have to say that it's highly variable for me as well. Sometimes I might work on a bit of a review over a couple of days and sometimes I will thrash one out quite quickly. The ones that I do in a hurry don't really have a pattern to them either - sometimes I'll write something quickly for a horrible game to get it out of the way, whereas other times I might be overflowing with good will towards a title that I'll have it written and ready to be published an hour or so after I've put down the controls.

Re: Professor Layton and the Last Spectre Review (1 year ago)

Benza - the cover format is different because we're basically getting the US version of the game, complete with their voicework, cover and extras, whereas before we were always getting the straight PAL versions. I've got no idea why they decided to give us special treatment this one time, but I'm definitely not complaining

Pretty sure this one will sell well enough to make it possible for Mask of Miracle and Layton vs Ace Attorney to wind up on the 3DS for our territory eventually

Professor Layton and the Last Spectre Review (1 year ago)

The Sims Freeplay Preview (1 year ago)

Re: Gaming Bargains V2 (1 year ago)

I'm not sure of any bundles, but you can pick up the 3DS alone for $199.00 at Target at the moment, and Super Mario 3D Land for $55.00 there as well.

Re: Nintendo 3DS General Discussion (1 year ago)

I didn't actually own a GBA back in the day but one of the few games I bought and made use of the DS Phat's backwards compatibility powers was Minish Cap...which it seems almost nobody else played the first time around Still got the original box etc too. Looking forward to getting stuck into a lot of these in any case though, especially the likes of Fire Emblem, Wario and Mario & Yoshi.