The first game on the menu is Soul Calibur IV, which I’m still finding completely addicting to play despite the fact that I’m still pretty bad at it.  My previous PSN account has a masterful record of 30 wins and 128 losses, of which at least 70 of said losses came from players spamming one button with Kilik/Mitsurugi/Siegfried and me failing to defend against that spam with my Hilde character.  The other 60 I would probably attribute to misplays and other general noobishness.  Despite this, I don’t consider losing matches a bad thing as practice against better opponents is the only way to get better.  My new PSN account in about 50 games is at about a 28% win percentage, markedly better now that I’ve learned to play a little bit.  And no, I didn’t change my PSN account because of my previous bad record in SCIV

While we’re on the subject of PSN accounts, I’m going to take a little bit of time and agree with Garnett Lee on last week’s 1up Yours podcast about not being able to change the online handle of the account.  I should not have to register a new email address to get a new handle.  Period.  This is pretty trivial database work.  Seriously Sony, you need this option here.

The second game on the plate is the remake of Final Fantasy IV for the DS, a game that holds a very special place in my heart as the RPG that got me into the genre.  This is the third release of the game I’ve played and the second time I’ve purchased it (I picked up the GBA version a few years ago as well).  And the game is still awesome, though admittedly I am still a part of the problem for purchasing yet another Final Fantasy remake.  This incarnation of the SNES classic features a full 2.5D reinterpretation of the old game, voice acting (which is ok, I suppose), and in-engine cut scenes that are pretty decent despite the hardware limitations.  What I like most about FFIV this time is how the game manages to take the memories I have of the old 2D environments and rendering them in such a way that allows them to keep the charm of the old game yet at the same time look modernized.  The game also features a solid retranslation, though I suspect some things were kept in (You spoony bard!) for the older fans of the game.  Jeremy Parish of 1up supports this assessment, stating in his review that the game is mainly marketed at the older fans of FFIV.  As such, the game is also a bit harder than I remembered: I’ve already lost my party a few times to former pushover bosses.  Regardless, I’m enjoying myself.

Pixeljunk Eden has been my post dinner snack game.  As expected, once I got past the initial control barrier the game got a lot more interesting.  I wound up spinning and jumping through the first garden collecting all six spectra and starting the second and third gardens.  Honestly I haven’t played much more of this to say anything more than it seems to be one of those games that you play for short bursts in spare moments.  That’s not to say that Eden isn’t a good game, but rather I wanted to savor the flavor of this dessert for a long time.  Perhaps I’ll find some more time to play this week before Bionic Commando gets released.