Before I start any more games...

Okay, so it seems like I keep acquiring more and more games, and once again feel like I need to play catch up before I start too many. If you can't notice by the "Currently Playing" list, I've already got quite a bit on my plate. Some of those, like Castlevania, I may not finish anytime soon. I'll give it another hour or so of play, and if I'm not hooked (I like the game so far, it's just difficult) I'll put it on the backburner, along with a few other games I own. To be clear, I just bought Metroid II and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (used, for a decent price), and I know once I start SMG2, I won't stop until I have every star, just like the first one.

But anyways, the main reason for this post wasn't to talk about what games I bought and what I need to play, it's that I've been playing more of Shadow Complex, and my feelings on the game have been shifting. Originally, I got bored with the game, and felt like the controls were just awful. I was comparing the game to Super Metroid, which most people, critics, and reviewers have been doing, since they are extremely similar. While I still believe that Super Metroid is by far a much better game, I'm finally seeing why people have been raving about Shadow Complex.

To anyone thinking about playing it, I will warn you that the first one to two hours can be kinda boring, as it's not nearly as fast paced or as interesting as most Metroid games. But once you gain new weapons and upgrades, the options on where to go start to open up. I've found that the enemies in the background aren't as annoying as they first were. Yes, they could have still done without them, but I'll admit that it has made for some interesting boss battles and other fights with enemies. In addition, having the background enemies makes sure players don't just run and gun through areas, which starts to be possible later in the game. This doesn't mean it's easy, I still die once in a while, but never a frustrating death.

I'm just over 6 hours into the game, and it looks like I'm almost done with the story. I only have collected around 40% of the items and explored only 70% of the map, so I'm going to spend much more time 100% completing the game before I finish it...as long as I don't accidently find the final boss before I do so, I'm not entirely sure which is the way to the end? I definitely recommend the game to most gamers.

Oh, and I finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Took about 200 pages to get into, and then it finally got interesting. It was a pretty good book, but I feel like it wasn't polished enough. Maybe they wanted to get his three books out soon after he died, to obtain even more popularity, like to use it as a boost for sales, and didn't use that time to edit it more. Either way, good book, but way too many characters, and probably a bit overrated. But that's just my opinion. So I started Still Life With Crows, a horror novel in a series I once got addicted to.