Green Herb + Red Herb

I had to bring XIII back to the rental shop.
I will pick it up eventually, though.
The beauty of getting Game Over when your main character dies
Is that you actually get Game Over from time to time.
Really, in a Final Fantasy, how often does that happen?
Particularly intense boss battles.
Malboros.
Anything that turns you to stone.
And when you let your guard down around a pack of Mindflayers.
Mind Blast and whatnot.
Because when you can't control your mind, you can't operate properly.
Which is why people get hammered and immediately lower their standards.

I've never played a Tom Clancy game that had a plot I considered interesting.
What does that say about Tom Clancy?

I picked up Dead Space on a 7-day rental.
The demo up on Live and the PSN doesn't set up the game properly.
Sure it goes over commands and instructions.
Tells you what to shoot.
But the demo also undoes its' own sense of atmosphere by screwing with the game's pace.
Which, for anyone who's played it, are the game's most charming traits.
At first I thought, "Shoot limbs? UN troops shoot limbs.
I shoot faces."
It took me capping a couple of those spindly assholes to realize:
Shooting limbs can sometimes be tougher to pull off.
Anyway, I'm still early on, but it's a great time.
Does survival horror properly.
I constantly check my ammo reserve and inventory space.
And ink ribbon supply.

edit: The Gapra Whitewood in XIII was when things became interesting.
It is also the last place I reached before returning the game.
It was the first area with visuals that felt like next-gen Final Fantasy,
And it was the first place with intriguing character development.
The mutual, bitter pissiness of Lightning and Hope made for intriguing dialogue between them.
Which the game sadly lacks.