Videogame Pile-o-Shame - Part 3 - AAA Madness

see: Videogame Pile-o-Shame - Part 1 - "The Room" , Videogame Pile-o-Shame - Part 2 - RPG Edition

The interesting aspect of any gamer's pile-of-shame is that it's generally filled with great games! With rare exception do I purchase a bad game. . .the games on this list remain unplayed because other games in different genres drew my attention away. In this week's crop of titles, we'll see the depth of my madness: three of the five listed are top-selling, AAA titles!

Let's go. . .

• Phantom Brave (PS2) - The "spiritual successor" to Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, how can a gamer go wrong?? Disgaea is revered by many as one of the best tactical RPGs ever made. . .and I can attest to the reasons why. Phantom Brave follows in that tradition and as such, this game should be calling to me. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to it yet and it collects dust on my shelf. Tactical RPGs are well represented in my pile-o-shame -- this is something I need to consider when the next one calls to me.
  
• Kingdom Hearts (PS2) - Though Kingdom Hearts 2 is the better regarded of the series, I've always meant to give this game a spin. I believed I picked it up at a buy-2-get-1-free event at Gamestop a while ago, and unfortunately I never got around to playing it. I hold out hope that my kids will notice it and check it out. . .who knows.
• Final Fantasy XII (PS2) - For shame! Another victim of the Christmas rush. I did play through about an hour of the game, but as many know, an hour doesn't get one very far in a Final Fantasy game. This game's visuals are INCREDIBLE. I do implore anyone who likes RPGs to check this game out. . .millions of Final Fantasy fans can't be wrong! As an aside, I own just about every one of these games across all platforms, though I've played very few of them. The one that's gotten a lot of play is the new FF VII: Crisis Core (PSP) -- CHECK IT OUT.
  
• Shenmue II (Xbox) - Now this one is embarrassing. I'm a huge Shenmue fan! I thought the original Dreamcast game was one of the best games ever created and I still harbor a bit of anger towards my wife for harassing me during its final unpausable cut scene. Why oh why didn't I take to the second game?? To be fair, I did get through quite a bit of this game, but I had to repeat one too many book moving missions and I guess I just couldn't take it anymore. I still have my save, and I'm still pining for the next chapter in the series. . .what are the odds that I'll pick this back up? SHENMUE fo' EVAAA!!!
• Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3) - another AAA title. Wow does this game look and play great. . .it's a total must-buy. I was really starting to get into it and got to a point where I had trouble moving forward. Rather than reduce the difficulty level, I just quit playing. Frustration: the mind killer. Anyway, Drake's Fortune is a real showcase for what the PS3 can do. I got this game for Christmas, and unfortunately (no pun intended) only one game got my attention this past Christmas season: ROCK BAND. I think I'm kind of done with Rock Band, so now maybe I can go back and play the games I missed because of it -- or maybe I'll just play GTA 4 instead. PAH!

What have YOU not been playing??