Monday, March 29, 2010
Game Room was made for me
So, I don't know about you but I miss arcades more than anything in the world. I miss the atmosphere, the sounds, the insane cabinet art, and being able to have a bitchin' afternoon with twenty dollars and still being able to remember it. That's why I was so pumped when XBLA announced Game Room. You can download arcade classics for about 3 dollars, and stick them in your own virtual arcade space that you design. Friends can come over and play on your machines, which then gives you tokens to go and play on theirs. Everything is a perfect recreation, from the outrageous cabinet art that looks amazing but ultimately has very little to do with the game proper, to the arcade background noise that is expected from such a crowded and chaotic venue. Everything that was put in this game was added with love and care, and I appreciate that. Currently I have six cabinets: Finalizer, Battlantis, Shao Lin's Road, Tutankam, Asteroids Deluxe, and Centipede. They offer classic home console games too, but I'm really an arcade rat by heart, so I stick to what I know. There's supposed to be weekly releases of games too which is nice. Also I forgot to mention that when your friends go into your arcade they can bust up your high scores and send challenges and a bunch of other cool stuff. It adds a level of competition that I didn't think would be possible in a virtual setting. All in all, I think this is one of the best ideas ever to be implemented on XBLA, and I people really give it a chance. Because, honestly, everyone should know what the golden age of arcades was all about.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Linear Impressions
OK, so I'm about ten hours into Final Fantasy 13 and I'm ready to talk a bit about it. Simply put, I'm blown away. This game (so far) is everything I could have wanted and more. Since becoming Square-Enix, I've felt like the company as a whole has suffered. SquareSoft would have never put out games like X-2, 12, and The Last Remnant. Back in the day, you saw the name Square and you knew it fucking meant quality. These days though, it's really hit and miss.
So it is with great pleasure that I say, this game (so far) has managed to rekindle my faith and love in the company as a whole. The story is great, and I especially love the character driven flashback moments that remind me of LOST. The battle system is such that I actually look forward to getting into fights now, as opposed to before where it was just a grind.
I did want to briefly address something though.
There have been voices floating around accusing the game of being too linear, and to that I have a few well thought out responses. First, there has never been a non-linear Final Fantasy. The over-world map that we could wander around in just provided the illusion of a free roaming game, there was never any real choice in any of the games but to plow forward to the next objective. Not that there is anything in the world wrong with that.
I would prefer a well crafted and directed story over the cluster fuck that is a WRPG. To illustrate this point, I'm going to call-out the WRPG of the moment, Mass Effect 2. Now first things first, I loved ME2, I really did. But, it was certainly not God's gift to the genre, for one major reason. The story sucked ass.
I'm not talking about the character's story, I'm talking about the slapped together "Reaper" plot that for the better part of the game I suspected Martin Sheen of making up. The game pulls a very clever trick on the player. It knows that its main story is rubbish, so instead it piles on the decoration until what you ultimately have is a narrative clusterfuck. I felt like I was playing a short-story anthology, rather than an RPG with a single cohesive story to tell.
It's sad when a single side mission's story outclasses the actual story by so much. That being said, I also want to call into question the pacing of the game. Without linearity and a driven storyline, the sense of immediacy the game attempts to instill on the player is diminished.
"So what if the Reapers are coming," said I as Commander Shepard.
"I must spend an hour mining this planet, then a few more acting like the space version of Dr. Phil, running around helping my crew deal with their emotional problems because if i don't, they'll die in the end."
Brilliant.
And please don't start on the issue of "choice" either. That's ridiculous. The choice system as it stands in WRPGs is as shallow and morally challenging as the kiddy end of the public pool, and with considerably more excrement floating about. There is no real choice in these games. At the end you end up either a complete asshat, or a complete saint, and will receive a few added seconds of people telling you how much of either you really are. Hooray for consequences.
You want an RPG with real choice, and a real variety of endings? Go play Chrono Trigger and thank me later.
No game is perfect, but when I see gamers condemning JRPGs for linearity, and deifying WRPGs for their ability to sacrifice direction and pacing for illusion of choice, there is clearly something wrong.
-I have metal joints-
So it is with great pleasure that I say, this game (so far) has managed to rekindle my faith and love in the company as a whole. The story is great, and I especially love the character driven flashback moments that remind me of LOST. The battle system is such that I actually look forward to getting into fights now, as opposed to before where it was just a grind.
I did want to briefly address something though.
There have been voices floating around accusing the game of being too linear, and to that I have a few well thought out responses. First, there has never been a non-linear Final Fantasy. The over-world map that we could wander around in just provided the illusion of a free roaming game, there was never any real choice in any of the games but to plow forward to the next objective. Not that there is anything in the world wrong with that.
I would prefer a well crafted and directed story over the cluster fuck that is a WRPG. To illustrate this point, I'm going to call-out the WRPG of the moment, Mass Effect 2. Now first things first, I loved ME2, I really did. But, it was certainly not God's gift to the genre, for one major reason. The story sucked ass.
I'm not talking about the character's story, I'm talking about the slapped together "Reaper" plot that for the better part of the game I suspected Martin Sheen of making up. The game pulls a very clever trick on the player. It knows that its main story is rubbish, so instead it piles on the decoration until what you ultimately have is a narrative clusterfuck. I felt like I was playing a short-story anthology, rather than an RPG with a single cohesive story to tell.
It's sad when a single side mission's story outclasses the actual story by so much. That being said, I also want to call into question the pacing of the game. Without linearity and a driven storyline, the sense of immediacy the game attempts to instill on the player is diminished.
"So what if the Reapers are coming," said I as Commander Shepard.
"I must spend an hour mining this planet, then a few more acting like the space version of Dr. Phil, running around helping my crew deal with their emotional problems because if i don't, they'll die in the end."
Brilliant.
And please don't start on the issue of "choice" either. That's ridiculous. The choice system as it stands in WRPGs is as shallow and morally challenging as the kiddy end of the public pool, and with considerably more excrement floating about. There is no real choice in these games. At the end you end up either a complete asshat, or a complete saint, and will receive a few added seconds of people telling you how much of either you really are. Hooray for consequences.
You want an RPG with real choice, and a real variety of endings? Go play Chrono Trigger and thank me later.
No game is perfect, but when I see gamers condemning JRPGs for linearity, and deifying WRPGs for their ability to sacrifice direction and pacing for illusion of choice, there is clearly something wrong.
-I have metal joints-
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Final Fantasies
Time for a bit of back-story. Christmas time rolled around last year and the parents were bugging me to tell them what I wanted as a gift. Nothing really came to mind so I just asked for a FF13 pre-order. I'm bound and determined to avoid that special age where you cease to get good gifts, and become content with socks and holiday meats. Sad part is, I neglected to specify how I wanted this pre-order to work, so there was no midnight release at Gamestop for me. Instead they bought it online through Best Buy. It wasn't ideal but at the time I saw little harm in the choice.
Flash-forward to March 9th.
I received notification the game was shipped on the 8th so I was content to get it sometime that week. Again, not ideal, but I'd been pumped about this game since they announced it some four years ago. A few more days wouldn't kill me.
Actually they were. Every day there was an Final Fantasy-less mailbox outside my house, I died a little. Every time I fired up my 360 and saw my friends playing it, I felt fury. And every time one of my friends tried to talk to me about the story, I threw a chair at their face.
Nerdy as it sounds, this game was serious business.
Called the mail office today to try and get to the bottom of all this, and was basically told that best case scenario, it'll be here Monday, but realistically, it will be here sometime late next week.
So, naturally, I gave into frustration and impulse and just bought it from Walmart (fuck you, bestbuy.com), and will be installing it/playing it shortly.
I gotta say, I feel amazing. I'll post my impressions later.
Quick side note: play Deadly Premonition. For 20 dollars, it's the best gaming experience you'll ever have. Though it's certainly not for people who judge solely on appearance, have no sense of humor, or have no taste.
-The coffee never fails.-
EDIT:
After already collecting the mail for today, after talking to the post office today and being told that it wont be here till next week: the fucking thing mysteriously appears in my mailbox. I'm driven to believe one of two things. First: Best Buy saw my complaints and saw fit to manipulate space-time to place the merchandise in question squarely in my mailbox. The second: the mail lady had the damn package in her truck and forgot to deliver it on time. Personally I'm more inclined to believe the former.
Flash-forward to March 9th.
I received notification the game was shipped on the 8th so I was content to get it sometime that week. Again, not ideal, but I'd been pumped about this game since they announced it some four years ago. A few more days wouldn't kill me.
Actually they were. Every day there was an Final Fantasy-less mailbox outside my house, I died a little. Every time I fired up my 360 and saw my friends playing it, I felt fury. And every time one of my friends tried to talk to me about the story, I threw a chair at their face.
Nerdy as it sounds, this game was serious business.
Called the mail office today to try and get to the bottom of all this, and was basically told that best case scenario, it'll be here Monday, but realistically, it will be here sometime late next week.
So, naturally, I gave into frustration and impulse and just bought it from Walmart (fuck you, bestbuy.com), and will be installing it/playing it shortly.
I gotta say, I feel amazing. I'll post my impressions later.
Quick side note: play Deadly Premonition. For 20 dollars, it's the best gaming experience you'll ever have. Though it's certainly not for people who judge solely on appearance, have no sense of humor, or have no taste.
-The coffee never fails.-
EDIT:
After already collecting the mail for today, after talking to the post office today and being told that it wont be here till next week: the fucking thing mysteriously appears in my mailbox. I'm driven to believe one of two things. First: Best Buy saw my complaints and saw fit to manipulate space-time to place the merchandise in question squarely in my mailbox. The second: the mail lady had the damn package in her truck and forgot to deliver it on time. Personally I'm more inclined to believe the former.
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