Hm. I'm pretty sure there is a way to beat Barthandelus without going too deep into the crystarium. People attempt it for the challenge. Vanille is probably necessary because her debuffs change the speed of fights dramatically.

I like the options for combat later in the game. There's a whole bunch of tricks that each character can use in various situations. I'm playing through the game again now and did not realize until recently that Vanille's Death, Hope's Last Resort, etc. jump in damage output if you switch them to Commando before the move finishes.

Just finished Splinter Cell: Conviction, I was initially very divided about the game until I played the Third Echelon HQ mission, which was easily my favourite level in the entire game. I've also been playing Gears of War 3 with Dizzynecro and a couple of his friends, had a lot of fun with that except for that one time where I peaked out of cover to see a Berserker charging right at me which gave me a shock. We finished Horde mode, might ask about going through the campaign together at some point in Arcade mode.

Four-player online co-op sounds very tempting.

Definitly hit me up for that!

Been owning nubs in StarCraft

Just bought Alan Wake pre-owned and the poor fool who previously owned it obviously tried to scratch off the DLC code, failed and then gave up. There's a huge tear in the scratch panel where they've tried to scratch it but went too hard and ended up almost ripping through the card. But the code works fine.

Ikari, here's some tips from the FFXIII guide:
Use Light, Fang, Hope. Use paradigms of Rav/Com/Rav, Com/Sen/Rav, Med/Sen/Med, Com/Sen/Med, Rav/Sen/Rav &Med/Sab/Syn.
Keep Fang in Sen until Barthandelus is staggered and go for Relentless Assault. Use Combat Clininc if health gets too far down, or you get overwhelmed by nerfs. Later on in the battle, don't worry about healing all debuffs, just go for major ones, eg Fog, or Pain. Save your TP for the final stage of the fight. Once he casts Doom, rush him down. Go for broke with Relentless Assault. You should have enough TP for two applications of renew, and one Dispelga. If you get overwhelmed quickly go for Com/Sen/Med, and swap back ASAP. After a bit, he will shuffle off the mortal coil.

For Barthandelus i just went light,sazh, vanille. sazh haste is very helpful and other buffs,debuffs too.

Hunters? Metroid Prime 1 & 2 are a lot better. I'm just saying :P

Red Dead Redemption.

Alan Wake