I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Jon Burton, director of Traveller's Tales, who found Gamebits through its review of Haven: Call of the King. I respect his opinion of that title, and appreciate the time he took to share it with me. Hey, didja know the game's coming out for Xbox as well?

Speaking of disappointing titles, I gave a very brief run through Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. I acknowledge that I played only the smallest portion of this game, in a very short time, and can provide only an uninformed opinion as a first impression. But I didn't like it. It's closer to Syphon Filter than Metal Gear Solid, and is not the Xbox killer app I was told to expect. I see no reason why the PS2 and GameCube versions shouldn't be adequate, whatever the disciples of the Xbox's supreme processing power preach. Oh well. As I've always believed, my opinion is only that, and not fact. Good thing, because too many other people would have contrary "facts" about Splinter Cell for me to be right.

Maybe we can try to agree on Skies of Arcadia Legends, which is surprisingly fun. I've must've gotten used to the dark and complex stories abundant in most (Square's) RPGs. Arcadia reminds of earlier works like Final Fantasy II.

Yeah, that's a lot of games I've been playing. What else is there to do when New England buries one in snow?