Lots of good stuff there. I love that Alice screen shot. Got to play that game sometime. I believe I have it on 360 from a sale a while back.

It does look nice, though you'd never see something that colorful in the original game. Like I said, it's worth it for that game alone.

Actually, there's more guys here that enjoyed the Tomb Raider reboot. It's just that Blake and Greenman are the loudest haters :P

You're probably right. I thought I saw more people decrying the reboot but maybe it was just those two drowning everyone else out!

LOUD HATRED!

 It's not like that game doesn't deserve the hate though...

I don't remember the specific hatred you guys gave it. Though I can say the story was pretty laughable, especially considering how much the developers were hyping that part up.

My main concern was that the first hour was a terrible mess of quick time events and cutscenes. After that it's a bit better, but not by much. Every ledge you jump onto seems to crumble, or something overly dramatic happens and it seriously gets annoying after a while.

 It's basically Uncharted but without a likable character. I'm not just talking about Lara Croft: They all bore me. It's like Uncharted nineteen million times worse, and since I'm not a massive fan of Uncharted... it doesn't say much for the game. 

You're dead-on about those crumpling ledges. To be fair though, Uncharted does that way too much as well.

I wouldn't say I hated the reboot, just that it lost everything I enjoyed about TR while the improvements were all done better in a different game. It's the perfect example of AAA mediocrity in my eyes.

I personally liked the added exploration in TR. It's something I think even Uncharted could borrow from. Without that, I would have written it off as an Uncharted clone.

I thought the exploration wasn't handled as well as the older TR games. Technically the reboot was more open than the past titles, but the old ones still had their secrets which requires much more thought in how to get that statue. The reboot just spelled things out too plainly. Then there was Croft Manor in Legend/Anniversary which tackled exploration better in every way than the reboot.

I have no experience with earlier TR titles yet. Something tells me it will be hard to go back to the reboot after I'm finished with the collection.

I reviewed Rayman Legends, Tomb Riader Collection, and Tales of Symphonia Chonicles.  The music stages of Rayman Legends were the best part.  I'd play a whole game of that.

Sounds like you actually did six reviews of those games considering two of them are collections!

Nice pickups. I wanted that Tomb Raider collection for the longest time, I never see it anywhere anymore. I enjoyed the Tomb Raider reboot alot. One thing though, I bought the PS4 Definitive Edition and fell victim to a known bug towards the end of the game where my save data was corrupted and I lost like 15 hours worth of playtime. Haven't touched it since.

I am definitely buying Rayman Legends for PS4, I just haven't yet.

Mario Kart 8 is probably my next purchase. Excited to play that on my newly acquired Wii U.

I heard about that bug. I'm glad I didn't wait to play the game when I got a PS4. What a shame. As for the collection, I suppose you don't shop online (where I got it). I don't think I've seen that in stores either.

I didn't know Legends was on PS4. That said, I don't think I it will look any better on that platform. I think it looks the same even on 3DS! Since you have a Wii U, I'd recommend that platform as it has exclusive levels.

I really loved Madness Returns. I admit it is much more "colorful and vibrant" compared to its' predecessor but the story still seemed very dark and got especially disturbing towards the end. My only problem was there were not as many weapons as in the original. (But what weapons were there were pretty darn cool!)

I hope you will enjoy Dragon's Dogma,Kev. The game pleasantly surprised me personally but that's not to say it doesn't have flaws. Still,it's a lot better than a lot of capcom's other work of late! (Though in capcom's defense I was also happy when they released RE: Revelations on the other consoles. I found raid mode a lot more enjoyable than mercenaries!) 

Good to hear the game retains its disturbing tone. I suppose it doesn't hurt to mix up the color palette either, considering the original was mostly black, grey, and red. I hope they made switching weapons a little more intuitive as well. Cycling through all those weapons in the midst of battle cost me a number a lives.

I am pretty hopeful for Dragon's Dogma. I already like Moster Hunter a lot and this game fortunately doesn't keep its best fun exclusive to online play.

I really liked the Tomb Raider reboot, but I wasn't all that much of a fan of the original. I preordered Tales of Symphonia Chronicles with the last of my Christmas Amazon gift card money and I can't say that I'm sorry I did. If Id waited, I'd probably have spent the money on something else and would have regretted not getting it.

Was it the PS1 original or the PS2 remake? I'm wondering if I should start with the remake on this collection...

Even at $40, Tales of Symphonia is still quite the deal. It's so rare that a game drops in price that early anyway.

It was the PS1 original.

I have Madness Returns. I haven't really had time to get to it yet. I should get to Dark Arisen soon too since it's taking up space on my HD.

I just finished the main story in Tales of Graces and will get to Tales of Symphonia soon because I really want to finish it this time and my GC copy was sold ages ago.

Let me know how good Dark Arisen is when you play it. Maybe I'm missing out. 

I don't know when I'll get to Symphonia. It's such a long game so I will most likely play all my shorter games first (which is inching pretty close to double-digits right now).

I want to play some shorter games too. I just seem to wind up playing long RPGs . 

I used to be that way. I don't play games nearly as much as I used to though.

Good stuff you picked up. PQ2 for a buck is always good. I remember buying that because the original on the Playstation was hard to find and I wanted to give it a try. I don't think I played much of it. 

Yeah, PQ2 will be something to play next time I'm on a long bus ride. I'm really no expecting much from it, nor do I plan to play it very long.

That haul should keep you busy for a long time! I have several of those games and never played played lol. I got most of the way through Tales of Symphonia on the GameCube but didn't finish it. The battle system never really clicked with me. A lot of people love that game though.

It will keep me busy until at least August when Destiny comes out, I'm sure!

From what I hear of Symphonia is that the battle system is its strong suit, while the story is pretty cliche. If you didn't really like the battle system, there probably wasn't much left to enjoy, right?

May for is just Transistor and Watch Dogs this week. I liked the new Tomb Raider game but not as a Tomb Raider game. She needs here acrobatics and platforming puzzles. Without it, Tomb Raider doesn't stand out and now ironically plays like Uncharted. I enjoyed the game but not as Tomb Raider.

I hear that a lot, that it's not good as a Tomb Raider title. It is indeed ironic how Uncharted was first seen as a Tomb Raider clone. Now it's the other way around.

I liked Dragon's Dogma quite a lot myself.

I bought the CE of Tales of Symphonia Chronicles. I still have my Gamecube game but since Tales of Symphonia is one of my favorite games ever I had no qualms about rebuying it in a high-end CE.

That CE was out of my price range. You were smart to jump on that one quickly though, as it seems to be going for up to $300 now!

I jumped on that one and on the Xillia CE. Some games I just have a gut feeling about getting the CEs. I kick myself to this day for not getting Vesperia's CE.

I was also one of thousands victimized by the fiasco over the Ni no Kuni Wizards' Edition. I preordered it and lost out on it. They did give me a free hardcover strategy guide though.

Digital River is such nonsense. They are the only company that charge the moment you pre-order. I pre-ordered Drakengard 3 under the assumption it was exclusive to the Square store. Lost out on $15 and gained lots of headache because of that.

I need to get around to playing my copy of Madness Returns. 

If yours comes with the original game, be sure to try that first. Though it has aged in a number of ways.

I don't know that it does, but if it does, I'll definitely play it first.

Madness Returns' problem is that the game was way to long; a lot of filler platforming through out the levels.

Definitely. I haven't even beaten the first chapter (which must be the longest first chapter ever) and I'm already sick of repeating the same brain-dead puzzles and platforming.