I had been looking forward to Dragon Quest IX for some time on the DS. I thought that the game would be released on time or slightly after it's Japanese counterpart, but for some reason, I have not seen or heard much about a US Release.

It was in my head, and I'm not sure why, that Japanese games were starting to become translated faster and released in North America fairly quick, but with this DQ IX problem, I'm starting to have my doubts.

See, I had been looking forward to this release for some time. Looking at the game on gamespot and other gaming websites really had me going about how awesome this game was going to be. Then I see it gets released in Japan, sells 3 million copies. It's a hit, a great game, people are buying. I want to buy, too. And I'm sure many other people in the US want to buy it as well.

But nothing. I searched the web for possible US Releases, but all I hear is "sometime" and "Maybe 2010". With the sales this game has had, wouldn't they want to get it over here as soon as possible. Correct me if I'm mistaken, but RPG's on the DS usually do pretty well here in the States. So why the wait? Get this game over here, now!

So I guess I will be waiting some time before I see DQ IX on my local Gamespots shelf. Not sure why, but there will be a wait. Till when? I don't know. I'll keep my eyes on the web, looking for any information I can find.

Over the past few weeks I've been mindlessly playing games that I wanted to beat a while ago, but haven't because I've been busy with the semester.  Beating Suikoden 4 was a major relief.  I did not enjoy the game, and the reason I played it was because I beat all the rest of the Suikoden games except 5 and I wanted to move on.  Unfortunately, when I got 5 it wasn't that much fun either.  So I play the game, trying to beat it, slowly.  I'll also play Medieval Total War 2 every once in a while in an attempt to beat that, and I'll also play Metal gear Portable ops also, which is fun.  With more games bound on the way for Christmas, I'm running a bit behind schedule.  So many games to play, but enough time to play them all!

So the other day, while playing Metal Gear Portable Ops, I tried out the "Scan for Recruits" feature, which allows you to pick up an IP Address from a Wireless Internet Connection, and pending on the address, gives you a character.  From my home address, I got a character named Crow, who was very good, and was the first sniper in my ranks.  Figuring I needed more recruits (I just had a bunch of soldiers that were dumb and only knew how to handle an AK-47 and little else) I figured to take a walk around the neighborhood with my dog and my beloved PSP.  Going around the neighborhood, I used the feature to pick up about 8 different connections, tapping the O button repeatedly in hopes of getting a character.  Most of the characters I got were very unique and good.  From that small walk, I got some kick ass recruits, so needless to say, I'll be doing it again in the parts of the neighbordhood I have yet ventured.  It was really fun, it kind of felt like cheating, but it's not, I mean, it's a feature in the game, and it's not like the recruits I got were God awesome, but they were above average.  I love Metal Gear Portable Ops!