I like RPGs and play a fair few of them, but very few from the 6th generation on. So I started playing Eternal Sonata. I don't know why, I think it had to do with the originality of the premise (the game takes place in the mind of a coma-ridden Fredic Chopin -- yes THAT Chopin). I think I was also influenced by the length of the game -- most people saying that it takes just 15 hours to complete.

So 20 hours in I tell Mrs. Aspro (who eats RPGs for breakfast), "I know there has to be a way to switch party members..." She looks at the screen for 3 seconds and says, "Press Y". Oh yeah. Up there "Switch Y".

So 10 hours later I am about to face what appears to be the last boss, but I'm just getting trounced. I figure, "Oh I wonder how my regular attacks are leveled" I had not actually used a regular attack since I was level 2, I was now level 59. I then learn, yes at the end of the game, that I can string together my regular attacks to do more than ten times the damage of a special attack. I then finish the game in 7 minutes.

Ladies and Gentleman, this Moment in Gaming Stupidity has been brought to you by Stride.

"Sad" is not something that games do well, or often for that matter, and while that may be by design it doesn't change the fact that I can count the number of games that have done sadness well on one hand.

I'm just one level into the XBLA game, Braid, and it not only nails "sad" but also manages to emote regret. And it does all this with sad little drawings, music and words.

The game takes the 2-d platformer convention (probably to put your mind at ease) and then starts fooling around with time mechanics. It's one of those games that the critics love for being nouveau, but don't let that discourage you because the game is actually unlike anything you have played before. Yes, it's a little Mario, it's a little Lost Vikings, it's a little Portal but being like all of those games at once, and still being something new and different is not easy.

Download the trial, give it a try and let me know what you think.

I've beaten more games this year than any year before, and it feels good. So far I'm up to eighteen, but I've slowed down the last month by starting GTA4 and Eternal Sonata at the same time. My goal for the end of the year remains 30.

Last year, I think I beat 13 the entire year, the year before that, around 9 and the before that I don't think I ever beat a game, going from one game to the next and being satisfied to set them down when I was done.

I don't know what has changed, but in the old days if I started a book I would finish it, no matter how dry or poorly written it was, I'd perservere. These days, if it sucks within the first 100 pages I'm outta there. But with games, now I stick through until the bitter end. And boy, this year, there have been some bitter, bitter ends. (Asterisk below). Some games this year have been outstanding -- shocking and surprising actually (+ below) and some, well some have been just plain boring, but in any case, I've kept playing.

1. PWAATAT (or Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations, if you like).
2. Call of Duty 4.
3. Stranglehold, John Woo Presents +
4. Scarface. +
5. Indigo Prophecy +
6. Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime +
7. Ontamarama
8. Simpsons Game, The (DS)*
9. Draglade +
10. God of War: Chains of Olympus
11. LocoRoco
12. Battle of the Bands
13. No More Heroes +
14. The World Ends With You +
15. Open Season (360)
16. Astonishia Story*
17. Pokemon LeafGreen
18. Pokemon Emerald

This is kinda nuts because I lost about a month and a half this year in moving, quitting jobs etc... But at the same time, I know work for myself, so I get to define how I use my time.

How's your game completion going so far? Only 4 months left.