Well it happened, my PS3 went to the big gaming haven in the sky. A sad day indeed. It's like millions of game characters all cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

After overcoming the shock of losing this dear family member, I called Sony Support and will be shipping it out for repair or likely replacement. I treated this system very well and am curious as to why exactly it had failed. But I guess in life, death is inevitable and rarely convenient for anyone. I will definately vacuum dust out of the vents more regularly in the future.

I hope that my new system will come soon as I struggle retaining my sanity while I live this non-gaming life****for the next few weeks.

Being a longtime fan of NISA and their games and merchandise, I was treated to an unexpected event the previous evening.  I received an email a few months ago about submiting my entry into a contest to be invited to the NISA press conference being held in San Francisco.  Well, I actually won and was invited by the NISA PR reps to attend!  With my wife in tow, we gladly went and had a great time.

The club where it was held was very intimate and stylish.  The had multiple kiosks set up with playable games as the ready.  They also had some developer edition PSP's hooked up to some flat screen tvs and I had the privelage to play...Disgaea portable!  I was so elated to see and play this game on the PSP and questioned nearby staff about realease schedules (by end of year).  I had my wife running the free drinks to me as I proceeded to play and actually had a NIS PR guy sit by and watch and compliment my gaming skills .

Did I mention the drinks were free?...Anyway the giant choclate fondue was fun and the other games showed promise as well.  Especially Soul Nomad (PS2) and Dragoneer's Aria (PSP).  My wife was really excited about Alteir Iris 3 though.  The swag consisted of some pink prinny plushies and a couple cool ball point/DS stylus pen hybrids.  All in all it was a great event, the NISA staff was very friendly, the place was not crowded and the games were very accessable and fun...drinks were free!

Thank you NIS, hope you think to invite me again...

I picked up Rogue Galaxy the other night.  The game is pretty engaging already in just the first few hours.  It actually does feel like you're playing an anime.  The voice-acting is pretty top notch so far as well.  Even the voice-actor for Spike from Cowboy Bebop is in their as one of the characters.  All in all, I think this is going to be a great game overall and definatelly holds true to the Dark Cloud legacy.