So I made a commitment to myself to update this site every single day for the month of August. I held fast to that vow even as my brain exploded from so many things to deal with at once and the stress gave me canker sores (they’re the new ulcer). And then, with three days to go, AT&T’s DSL service crapped out right as I was about to post. My best intentions and hard work, destroyed by corporate incompetence.

I’m pretty sure that’s a parable for life in modern America, or something.

Despite my constant complaining that you’re surely sick of reading by now, I managed to motor through and review four huge games in ten days. (In addition to my regular duties, including dissecting Halo and Halo 2 in copious detail.) And yes, I played through to the end of all of them, even unlocking the new Maria mode on Dracula X Chronicles — well, OK, I only played about half of Tactics in English. But having finished the the game twice in English on PlayStation and the PSP version in Japanese, I think I am capable of making a fair assessment, no?

I guess what I’m saying is that I won’t feel bad about completely slacking off with this fortuitously-timed three-day weekend. Except… the first thing I did upon getting home from work was sit down and whip the reader-submitted wiki content back into shape. It’s been a long, lonely week since the last two articles went up, and there’s a ton of stuff in the queue. So please to enjoy the following:

Another Virtual Console review, this time of the exciting left-scrolling simulation Legend of Kage.

And a very loving look at Soulcalibur. Yes, the official spelling crams it all together with no intercapping. It looks dumb. But at least it’s not as dumb as Sony’s official all-caps spelling of PlayStation 3, which always gives me the impression they’re screaming at me. Come to think of it, they probably are. In desperation.

Anyway, expect more of these in the next few days. Unless I decide to go ahead and take a few days off. Don’t worry, I’ll feel guilty about it if I do.