I'm not a Penny Arcade fan, but this picture is pretty cool.

Nintendo has opened up the Pokemon Global Trade Station website. It's a cool site that has tons of info about the Pokemon trading going on over Nintendo's Wifi network.

Notes from the labyrinth
 

Was doing some exploring. Ran into a Golem. That sucked. Everybody died. Golems are bad, mmmmmkaaaayyy.

Up to around level 47 now.

Having a bit of a problem completing a mission from the Radha...


EDIT: Got it. It helps when one doesn't botch the mapmaking part and misses mapping a hidden door. argh.

My party have leveled up to lvl 11. I have taken out all the FOEs down to level 3 and unfortunately the boss on level three does over 100 points of damage in one hit. He takes my entire party out with nary a scratch.

I do have a question though. Is there a place to mine within the first 3 levels? I found a place that gave you the option to chop so i had a guy take the woodcutting skill. Now i hate to put a point in mining until i have found a spot to mine. Is there one within the first three levels that unlocks when i put a point in the skill?

I just looked at my maps.

The game does warn you to run from the red ones. ;)

While I couldn't find Jam Sessions or Drawn to Life this past weekend at the store where I have store credit to burn, I did manage to pick up DK: Jungle Climber for $24.99 CAD and, surprise, surprise, also managed to pick up Brothers in Arms: DS for $15.99 CAD!

Speaking of the all the Etrian talk, I went back to it (again) after another short stint with the horrible Metroid Prime: Hunters (I really need to sell this so I am not tempted to try it again). I'm down to floor 19 and my main crew is level 55. The "plot" kicks in once you hit the third and fourth stratums. My desire to dive deeper into the dungeon is being hindered by my desire to refight bosses for rare drops.

Yeah yeah. :p

So about the skill Take. Do the spots to "take" something show up before you have the skill? Are those the spots where you can pick withered fruit and stuff?

All the gathering points show up regardless if you have the skills to harvest from them or not.

OK, I started playing Etrian because of all this "awesome" talk. I'm still in the first two levels, though, and yeah, the FOEs are tough. I don't get the skill part, either. Which skills lead you to learn new ones? Better yet, at what level (points allotted?) do you learn new skills?

New Etrian Odyssey thread: http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=512134

You gains skills by putting points into then in the Custom menu, you gain one point per level. The skills they are grayed out require an additional skill at a certain level, you can check by clicking on the grayed out skill in the Custom menu.

Humph
 

Getting kicked out eh? Fine, I see how it is...
:D

New Picross puzzles are now available for NA users.

Is this in addition to the two packs they released a week or two ago?

Holy crap, Rydia is delicious.

http://img146.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ewscan1go8.jpg
http://img265.imageshack.us/my.php?i...ewscan2tq1.jpg

Yeah, I checked it out this morning and there were four packs total - two dated 9/3 and two dated 9/17.

cool. I'll check them out. I wish puzzles at 15/15 and above weren't such a pain to play (I hate scrolling).

I did a few of the Mario puzzles.

Final Fantasy IV DS, December 12th in Japan.
I'd expect it here about three months from that, give or take.

Dragon Quest IV DS, November 11th in Japan.
I really hope this comes out here, it probably will.. but it's not set in stone like the above.

Sweet. Maybe we'll get something every 2 weeks. I'm coming up near the end of the included puzzles. Just started Level 7 of Free mode last night.

I remember using hints once early on in Normal mode... I wish there was a way I could see which puzzle that was because I know I can kick its ass now.

Namco Museum DS comes out this week!

Here's an interesting idea... Not sure how good this game will be. Sorta playing the light/dark or past/present worlds in Zelda simultaneously. Could get quite frantic watching both screens at once.

Interesting idea. I'm not sold on the execution yet though.

Just started playing through FF V Advance, pretty neat.