"Risen" is, for all intents and purposes, a fun, enjoyable RPG. It's not going to win any awards for originality (think "Fable" meets "Morrowind") nor will you be particularly bowled over by the voice acting (half the world is voiced by a Ringo impersonator), but the graphics are pretty solid and the game mechanics are straight-forward and easy to grasp.
Which is why it's such a shame that it did not transition well from the PC to the Xbox 360. From all accounts the PC version was a solid "B" game, where as the 360 version seems to garish anywhere from an "F" to a "C" at best. The reason for the discrepancy is what feels like a thrown-together, hashed-out conversion to the 360.
On the opening screen the menu bars are partially cut off by the bottom of the screen. As are any captions like, say, your location. On one map transition the words were almost completely cut off, save the first letter which I guess was "T." The key bindings are, at times, counter intuitive and feel as though they were mapped by a person who has seen a 360 controller but never actually played a 360 game.
The worst transition is the engine, which feels sluggish at times. When in crowded areas everyone suddenly slows to a crawl. This isn't such a bad thing when in cities or camps, but in combat it makes some encounters nigh-unplayable.
Even with some hiccups and bugs the game is still a solid role-playing experience and worthy of any RPGer's time. But add it to your GameFly queue, or pick up a used copy; while the issues do not completely diminish your game play, they do make the $59.99 price tag look quite steep.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Feelin' Guilty...
So I have to admit I'm feeling a little guilty as of late. I still have not touched "Awakening" since my initial few nights of playing it. I feel like it's that guy/girl you really wanted to go on a date with because they were totally hot and interesting, and then the date didn't go so great but you told them you'd call anyway, and you never have. "Awakening" is just sitting on top of my 360 looking at me... forlornly.
I just can't get into it. For one thing, I had *such* a thing for Sten. Loved him to pieces, wish he was a love interest. He's not in this expansion and that makes me sad. But more to the point, NO love interests are in the expansion and that makes the game feel a little empty. Lemme 'splain:
It's not just that I really have a secret desire to RP it up with NPCs. I mean, I do, but that's not what's at issue here. The romance (and indeed the like/dislike) system of DA:O was what added a nice flavor to the game. It gave it depth and a bit of mystery. From your conversations you learned things about people which led to quests or just made the NPCs feel a little more human. The romance was especially nice because then you really, really had something to work for and interact with your party members for more than just "Hey, how's it going?"
Which is what "Awakening" offers you. First off, the dialog options are stilted at best, and second, and most important, there is no real challenge to it. On my first (admittedly weakest) playthrough, I totally missed Oghren's side quest. Completely! I also missed Liliana's because I didn't care to talk to her (I have an alpha female thing goin' on). If you miss "Awakening"'s equivalent of a side quest, you must be drinkin' while playing. Four conversations with the mage and I hear that he misses his kitten. Guess what? There's a kitten playing outside. Ugh. Two with the whiney Howe kid and you figure out what he wants. And then ALL conversation with them is DONE. Done! Finished!
What's the point?! And as much as I love BioWare, so much of their games depends upon the interaction and human element. The stories are always decent, but nothing truly revolutionary or ground-breaking. And "Awakening's" story is ... well ... same shit different villain.
*sigh* I'll pick it up some day, I promise, I will. But in the meantime ... it's just waiting for me to call. And yes, I feel guilty about it.
I just can't get into it. For one thing, I had *such* a thing for Sten. Loved him to pieces, wish he was a love interest. He's not in this expansion and that makes me sad. But more to the point, NO love interests are in the expansion and that makes the game feel a little empty. Lemme 'splain:
It's not just that I really have a secret desire to RP it up with NPCs. I mean, I do, but that's not what's at issue here. The romance (and indeed the like/dislike) system of DA:O was what added a nice flavor to the game. It gave it depth and a bit of mystery. From your conversations you learned things about people which led to quests or just made the NPCs feel a little more human. The romance was especially nice because then you really, really had something to work for and interact with your party members for more than just "Hey, how's it going?"
Which is what "Awakening" offers you. First off, the dialog options are stilted at best, and second, and most important, there is no real challenge to it. On my first (admittedly weakest) playthrough, I totally missed Oghren's side quest. Completely! I also missed Liliana's because I didn't care to talk to her (I have an alpha female thing goin' on). If you miss "Awakening"'s equivalent of a side quest, you must be drinkin' while playing. Four conversations with the mage and I hear that he misses his kitten. Guess what? There's a kitten playing outside. Ugh. Two with the whiney Howe kid and you figure out what he wants. And then ALL conversation with them is DONE. Done! Finished!
What's the point?! And as much as I love BioWare, so much of their games depends upon the interaction and human element. The stories are always decent, but nothing truly revolutionary or ground-breaking. And "Awakening's" story is ... well ... same shit different villain.
*sigh* I'll pick it up some day, I promise, I will. But in the meantime ... it's just waiting for me to call. And yes, I feel guilty about it.
FanGirl's Guide to the Cliche
FanGirl’s Guide to the Cliché, You Idiot Developers...
When does a good idea become a cliché? When I’m freakin’ expecting it and not the least bit surprised by it. Seriously, I would have thought this was fairly obvious by now, but game developers keep throwin’ ‘em at us in the vain attempt to be edgy and dramatic. Here are a few of the clichés I’d like to see die in a FOCA:
The Betrayal: Dun-duh-duh! That person who has been helping you for half of the game, or your best friend of 20+ years? Yeah, they’ve been working for the bad guy or ARE the bad guy the whooooooole time. (Insert maniacal laughter here.) This has, on occasion, been done well. Bioshock being the most recent incident where the betrayal was handled so subtly and deftly, you had to sit back and think “that bastard!” A recent example of this not working? Well, gee, how about “ “Dead Space?” I can remember a point, about ½-way through “Dead Space” when DH and I looked at each other and said “She’s gonna screw us over.” And sure enough, she’s working for the bad guys. Wow, what a twist! It’s gotten so bad that now, when playing a game, I find myself instantly distrusting whomever happens to be helping me because I’m now conditioned to expect betrayal. This isn’t edgy, this is CLICHÉ!
The Twist: Technically the blame for this goes to M. Night (What a twist!), but the video game industry has been more than willing to beat this dead horse. Again, sometimes a twist can be good and I’d hate to ban or outlaw the twist entirely, but it’d be worth it to save the groan-inducing incidents of, say, “Infamous.” ***Spoiler Warning *** The bad guy is you from the future? Really?? Are you freaking kidding me? *** End *** Insert Lilli Von Shtupp saying “How ordinary.” Again I find myself playing games and waiting for the twist. What’s it going to be? Is he really dead? Is she really dead? Is this all a dream? Is Soylent Green people?? A twist is not a twist if I saw it coming a mile away. (I'm not even going to discuss the horror that was "Metal Gear Solid" and the 50-billion twists within that garbage)
The “Bad Guy” hero: Okay, first off, as an English major, I feel the need to point out that a bad-guy as the hero does not make him an anti-hero. It makes him some douchebag I gotta follow around. 50 Cent (“50 Cent: Blood in the Sand”) definitely falls under this category, as does Kratos. Okay, we get it, the big, tough, tattooed killing machine has a heart. Or a soft-spot. Or has been wronged in some way that should make me feel sorry for him. Move on and find someone else, please, for the love of the Throne.
The Non-timed Dire Situation: Inevitably, usually in the beginning of a game, I am going to be in a spot where I have to get out of the building/room/ship, or get away from some evil monster chasing me. Let's use the initial scene in "Mass Effect 2" for example: someone is taking over the ship and trying to kill me. I need to get to the hangar to find an escape ship ASAP. However there is no time limit, so I can explore every square inch of the building, go back and do a dance, sit on my ass to go to the bathroom ... I have all the time in the world. The danger won't be triggered until I get to the hangar bay itself, at which point, the danger is already over. I realize that exploring is a huge part of the game, but why not add a challenge to it? Trust me: I have RPG vision from years of playing Resident Evil. I can both run AND look for shiny objects. I can even click on those shiny objects while running for my life. Funny how that works. But I'm willing to lose those three ammo clips for the sake of feeling like my life is really in danger. Knowing that I have all the time in the world to escape rips me out of the mood of the game quicker than, well, the betrayal cliche listed above.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
I am Jack's Complete Lack of Surprise.
Well, FFXIII finally got here from GameFly and wow am I totally not surprised at how much I dislike it. This game could give Hideo Kojima a run for his money on the cut scenes of DOOM. The cut scene to game play ratio is so out of whack it was more like watching a movie, but every 30 or 40 minutes it kicks you back to the main menu so you gotta smash some buttons to get back to the movie.
And my predictions for the game were pretty spot-on. Once again we are in medias res (starting after the story began) and we have to wait for any semblance of back story. Of course seeing as we're playing an FF game, we can pretty much assume there is an evil overlord/corporation ruining Happy McHappysville, and our main character is trying to stop them. Oh, did I mention the main character's name is Lightening? *head desk*
Lightening is joined by Hope, Snow & Vanille. Oh my god I wish I was kidding. Snow is, of course, our main male love interest and can summon a motorcycle. Vanille is -- you guessed it -- the quirky, hyper, kawaii girl who spouts off random bits of cutesy dialog that, at times, make zero sense with what is going on around her.
Which brings me back to my point about the Final Fantasy Archetypes: they are being worn to death. Carl Jung said that once an archetype is named as an archetype, it ceases to be an archetype and devolves into a cliche (that's not the exact word he uses but I'm not going to dig out my Jung book right now, thank you very much). Ever since FFVII, the standard FF characters are becoming more and more obvious. FFX was, I think, the pinnacle of "I see what you did there," with Tidus being so similar to Cloud, I was humming the Patty Duke theme song in my head.
I thought I understood why SquareEnix does this: because it creates a sense of familiarity. We instantly like certain characters and dislike others because we recognize them as who they are like. "Oh that guy? He's cool, he's like Sephiroth." But now the standards are wearing themselves so thin, they're not like a character, they are that character, only somehow more annoying. Vanille is Rikku on meth. And Rikku wasn't even Rikku, but a character who was like Yuffie, only somehow more annoying. See the pattern here? I imagine if you truly hated yourself, you could devote 48 hours to playing every FF game from FFVII - FFXIII and watch the slow, hateful devolution of the character types. I thought it was courtesy to the players, but now I understand it's just plain laziness. FF is milking their own brand faster and harder than Lucas with Star Wars.
And once a-fucking-gain with the ridiculous clothing. I like to think the designers of the game are failed fashion students who spend too much time at Harajuku Koen, and target their angst towards the players by finding the most garish color combination and draw lines of fabric that defy so many laws of physics, I'm worried they're going to disrupt the space-time-continuum, and call it a day.
I got about 7 hours into the game before I realized I don't hate myself this much. I story and dialog are mundane, the characters are trite, recycled garbage, and the game play is a joke. When the game does decide to let me play, the combat is ridiculously juvenile and simplistic, and somehow feels completely at odds with the most complex, convoluted upgrade system I've ever seen in my life.
No. Just no.
And my predictions for the game were pretty spot-on. Once again we are in medias res (starting after the story began) and we have to wait for any semblance of back story. Of course seeing as we're playing an FF game, we can pretty much assume there is an evil overlord/corporation ruining Happy McHappysville, and our main character is trying to stop them. Oh, did I mention the main character's name is Lightening? *head desk*
Lightening is joined by Hope, Snow & Vanille. Oh my god I wish I was kidding. Snow is, of course, our main male love interest and can summon a motorcycle. Vanille is -- you guessed it -- the quirky, hyper, kawaii girl who spouts off random bits of cutesy dialog that, at times, make zero sense with what is going on around her.
Which brings me back to my point about the Final Fantasy Archetypes: they are being worn to death. Carl Jung said that once an archetype is named as an archetype, it ceases to be an archetype and devolves into a cliche (that's not the exact word he uses but I'm not going to dig out my Jung book right now, thank you very much). Ever since FFVII, the standard FF characters are becoming more and more obvious. FFX was, I think, the pinnacle of "I see what you did there," with Tidus being so similar to Cloud, I was humming the Patty Duke theme song in my head.
I thought I understood why SquareEnix does this: because it creates a sense of familiarity. We instantly like certain characters and dislike others because we recognize them as who they are like. "Oh that guy? He's cool, he's like Sephiroth." But now the standards are wearing themselves so thin, they're not like a character, they are that character, only somehow more annoying. Vanille is Rikku on meth. And Rikku wasn't even Rikku, but a character who was like Yuffie, only somehow more annoying. See the pattern here? I imagine if you truly hated yourself, you could devote 48 hours to playing every FF game from FFVII - FFXIII and watch the slow, hateful devolution of the character types. I thought it was courtesy to the players, but now I understand it's just plain laziness. FF is milking their own brand faster and harder than Lucas with Star Wars.
And once a-fucking-gain with the ridiculous clothing. I like to think the designers of the game are failed fashion students who spend too much time at Harajuku Koen, and target their angst towards the players by finding the most garish color combination and draw lines of fabric that defy so many laws of physics, I'm worried they're going to disrupt the space-time-continuum, and call it a day.
I got about 7 hours into the game before I realized I don't hate myself this much. I story and dialog are mundane, the characters are trite, recycled garbage, and the game play is a joke. When the game does decide to let me play, the combat is ridiculously juvenile and simplistic, and somehow feels completely at odds with the most complex, convoluted upgrade system I've ever seen in my life.
No. Just no.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Being a Dick Does Not An Anti-Hero Make
Playing "God of War III" reminds me that really, Kratos is a dick. Zeus pretty much sums it up by calling him a petulant child. For those unfamiliar, here is the Cliff Notes version of the story of Kratos:
God of War -- Kratos, nearly defeated in battle, calls upon Ares to help him win. Ares turns him into, essentially, a juggernaut whose sole purpose in life is war (blood for the blood god! Oh wait, wrong series...). Kratos goes home, murders his family and then, realizing what horrible thing he has done, he swears revenge on Ares. Okay, fair enough.
God of War II -- Having killed Ares in GoW, Kratos is now the new god of war (wow! No one saw THAT coming!!) and is fairly bored with his position. He acts like a jerk to all the other gods and seems to seek out war for war's sake. Annoyed, Zeus tricks Kratos into giving up his powers and kills Kratos. Not one to let death get him down, Kratos proceeds to swear revenge (apparently there's money to be made in the revenge business) on Zeus, and with the help of his new found friends the Titans, he rages war on Olympus. Oh yeah, he kills Athena along the way. Oooookay...
So that brings us up to GoWIII where Kratos has spent the first hour of the game swearing revenge (*yawn*) and throwing his toys around the room. Athena shows up briefly to, apparently, give credence to what Kratos is trying to do, but at this point, there is very little to like about Kratos.
The gameplay is fun, as always, and even though every game since GoW has instilled the dreaded quick time event (i.e. "press X to not die"), the original is still the best and GoWIII manages to make the quick time events fun and rather exciting. The action is great, attacks are fun and all the other shiny things a game is supposed to have.
But it's hard to get really sucked into the game when the voice actor went to the Christian Bale school of constipated grunt acting and over-emphasizes every word out of his mouth. Oh, and the fact that he's a giant dick who can't seem to get over all the wrongs visited upon him by ... oh wait, isn't this all his fault?? Again, just because you're a dick doesn't mean you're an anti-hero -- it's means you're a poster child for frat boys with too much testosterone.
Borderlands was a game that was thin on story, but great on gameplay and that worked because you were probably playing with a buddy and it was funny as hell. I don't care what the haters say, the clap-traps were funny. GoWIII is thin on story, but even great gameplay isn't saving it for me. Even some of the most beautiful backgrounds, amazing camera work and spiffy quicktime events can't hide the crappy voice acting and "Uh... so yeah, then this happens..." storyline. I've heard more interesting stories from three-year olds.
I'm an hour in and I can already tell what's going to happen: Kratos will kill all the gods. I just hope they manage to slap a little more meat on these bones.
God of War -- Kratos, nearly defeated in battle, calls upon Ares to help him win. Ares turns him into, essentially, a juggernaut whose sole purpose in life is war (blood for the blood god! Oh wait, wrong series...). Kratos goes home, murders his family and then, realizing what horrible thing he has done, he swears revenge on Ares. Okay, fair enough.
God of War II -- Having killed Ares in GoW, Kratos is now the new god of war (wow! No one saw THAT coming!!) and is fairly bored with his position. He acts like a jerk to all the other gods and seems to seek out war for war's sake. Annoyed, Zeus tricks Kratos into giving up his powers and kills Kratos. Not one to let death get him down, Kratos proceeds to swear revenge (apparently there's money to be made in the revenge business) on Zeus, and with the help of his new found friends the Titans, he rages war on Olympus. Oh yeah, he kills Athena along the way. Oooookay...
So that brings us up to GoWIII where Kratos has spent the first hour of the game swearing revenge (*yawn*) and throwing his toys around the room. Athena shows up briefly to, apparently, give credence to what Kratos is trying to do, but at this point, there is very little to like about Kratos.
The gameplay is fun, as always, and even though every game since GoW has instilled the dreaded quick time event (i.e. "press X to not die"), the original is still the best and GoWIII manages to make the quick time events fun and rather exciting. The action is great, attacks are fun and all the other shiny things a game is supposed to have.
But it's hard to get really sucked into the game when the voice actor went to the Christian Bale school of constipated grunt acting and over-emphasizes every word out of his mouth. Oh, and the fact that he's a giant dick who can't seem to get over all the wrongs visited upon him by ... oh wait, isn't this all his fault?? Again, just because you're a dick doesn't mean you're an anti-hero -- it's means you're a poster child for frat boys with too much testosterone.
Borderlands was a game that was thin on story, but great on gameplay and that worked because you were probably playing with a buddy and it was funny as hell. I don't care what the haters say, the clap-traps were funny. GoWIII is thin on story, but even great gameplay isn't saving it for me. Even some of the most beautiful backgrounds, amazing camera work and spiffy quicktime events can't hide the crappy voice acting and "Uh... so yeah, then this happens..." storyline. I've heard more interesting stories from three-year olds.
I'm an hour in and I can already tell what's going to happen: Kratos will kill all the gods. I just hope they manage to slap a little more meat on these bones.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
A Spectacular Romp in Merely Adequate Land
So after waiting months for Dragon Age: Origins "Awakening" expansion pack, I have to say in a nutshell that it's good but bland. For those who remember their SATs, Awakening is to Dragon Age as Tribunal was to Morrowind. That is to say, it's a good, solid expansion pack, but at the end of the day it doesn't feel like anything riveting, groundbreaking and new. It's not "Bloodmoon."
The game opens with you, the High-Commander of the Grey Wardens, returning to Vigil's Keep which was once Arl Howe's land, and was given to the Grey after the end of DA:O. In a nice turn you can opt to either start a new character from Orlais, or import your old character from DA:O, assuming you didn't die in the end. This, I have to say, makes me happy because I'm rather attached to my Dalish Rogue, Arshes.
Of course as soon as you arrive you discover the Keep has been overrun with darkspawn, and nearly all of the Grey Wardens are dead. Gosh, I hope my character hadn't been pouring her sweat and blood into rebuilding the order while she was waiting for the expansion pack. What a let-down that would have been! Once again you're surrounded by darkspawn, petty politics and annoying companions.
And this is where the banality of the game starts in. Oghren makes a return appearance, joining the Grey Wardens, which begs the question: why didn't you just turn him into a Grey Warden in the first damn game if it was possible? Oh, I guess he'd be dead with the others ... Anyway, he's back as the token drunk, crude-humor aspect. While Oghren is definitely funny to listen to, and provides some good campside humor, I have a huge problem with him: I can never seem to guess what is going to get approval/disapproval with him. I know a lot of people had that complain with Sten from last game, but I always found Sten to be ridiculously easy to get along with and truthfully he was my favorite character. It was Oghren that did and continues to baffle me. Taking the nice route gains disapproval, as does the negative route. Talking to him makes me pine for the idiot-friendly system of Mass Effect 1 & 2 that clearly points out the Paragon, Renegade options. Grrrr...
You pick up an apostate mage named Anders who is already on my sh*t list for a variety of reasons. For one: I swear to God he is voiced by the same guy who did Alistair. That, in and of itself, is annoying and creepy. But the character is an amalgam of Alistair and Morrigan: he has the cocky, wise-cracking attitude of Alistair and the "I hate the chantry and Circle of Magi," "oh my God those evil templars are at it again," attitude of Morrigan. It's like they were trying to kill 2 birds with one stone and failed miserably.
Next is Arl Howe's whiney, emo son Nathaniel. He is, quite literally, the male counterpart to Leiliana. A decent rouge who's constantly promising the darkspawn and undead creatures that he wants to be merciful to them and hates the fight. Wth?! He is coming to grips with his father's evil, treacherous ways and his new role as a Grey Warden. *yawn* I foresee him spending a great deal of time at camp.
*** Mild Spoiler *** The only mildly interesting character thus far as been the personification of Justice, who is trapped in a dead Grey Warden's body. Don't ask, it's a long story. However the reason I like him is that he is basically Sten reborn; in fact I have taking to calling him Sten #2. He's stoic, confused by our world/customs/feelings, and doesn't like to waste time talking. He is also oblivious to Oghren's constant jokes. Excuse me while I bang my head against my desk.
There are no romance options in this game, either. Bioware said they wanted players to concentrate on the story rather than the interactions. Okay, if I wanted to concentrate on story and not interactions, I wouldn't be playing a Bioware game. That's the whole reason we shell out money for their product! The chance to RP it up and romance NPCs! What's the purpose of me gaining approval, giving gifts, and talking to these people if there's no chance for romance!
Oh yeah, while we're on that topic, the gifts are suddenly very obvious as to whom they belong to. In the last game you had to kind of guess, and talk and play around. Now they might as well be labeled "for so-and-so."
AND ANOTHER THING!!! It was nice to see Oghren in his Armor of the Legion from last game, but goddammit if I knew I was going to lose my inventory, I would have gone ahead and put the Warden Commander's armor ON my rogue, rather than having it sit in my pack. *grumble*
I'm about half-way through at this point, so I'll keep griping, er, updating on it. :)
The game opens with you, the High-Commander of the Grey Wardens, returning to Vigil's Keep which was once Arl Howe's land, and was given to the Grey after the end of DA:O. In a nice turn you can opt to either start a new character from Orlais, or import your old character from DA:O, assuming you didn't die in the end. This, I have to say, makes me happy because I'm rather attached to my Dalish Rogue, Arshes.
Of course as soon as you arrive you discover the Keep has been overrun with darkspawn, and nearly all of the Grey Wardens are dead. Gosh, I hope my character hadn't been pouring her sweat and blood into rebuilding the order while she was waiting for the expansion pack. What a let-down that would have been! Once again you're surrounded by darkspawn, petty politics and annoying companions.
And this is where the banality of the game starts in. Oghren makes a return appearance, joining the Grey Wardens, which begs the question: why didn't you just turn him into a Grey Warden in the first damn game if it was possible? Oh, I guess he'd be dead with the others ... Anyway, he's back as the token drunk, crude-humor aspect. While Oghren is definitely funny to listen to, and provides some good campside humor, I have a huge problem with him: I can never seem to guess what is going to get approval/disapproval with him. I know a lot of people had that complain with Sten from last game, but I always found Sten to be ridiculously easy to get along with and truthfully he was my favorite character. It was Oghren that did and continues to baffle me. Taking the nice route gains disapproval, as does the negative route. Talking to him makes me pine for the idiot-friendly system of Mass Effect 1 & 2 that clearly points out the Paragon, Renegade options. Grrrr...
You pick up an apostate mage named Anders who is already on my sh*t list for a variety of reasons. For one: I swear to God he is voiced by the same guy who did Alistair. That, in and of itself, is annoying and creepy. But the character is an amalgam of Alistair and Morrigan: he has the cocky, wise-cracking attitude of Alistair and the "I hate the chantry and Circle of Magi," "oh my God those evil templars are at it again," attitude of Morrigan. It's like they were trying to kill 2 birds with one stone and failed miserably.
Next is Arl Howe's whiney, emo son Nathaniel. He is, quite literally, the male counterpart to Leiliana. A decent rouge who's constantly promising the darkspawn and undead creatures that he wants to be merciful to them and hates the fight. Wth?! He is coming to grips with his father's evil, treacherous ways and his new role as a Grey Warden. *yawn* I foresee him spending a great deal of time at camp.
*** Mild Spoiler *** The only mildly interesting character thus far as been the personification of Justice, who is trapped in a dead Grey Warden's body. Don't ask, it's a long story. However the reason I like him is that he is basically Sten reborn; in fact I have taking to calling him Sten #2. He's stoic, confused by our world/customs/feelings, and doesn't like to waste time talking. He is also oblivious to Oghren's constant jokes. Excuse me while I bang my head against my desk.
There are no romance options in this game, either. Bioware said they wanted players to concentrate on the story rather than the interactions. Okay, if I wanted to concentrate on story and not interactions, I wouldn't be playing a Bioware game. That's the whole reason we shell out money for their product! The chance to RP it up and romance NPCs! What's the purpose of me gaining approval, giving gifts, and talking to these people if there's no chance for romance!
Oh yeah, while we're on that topic, the gifts are suddenly very obvious as to whom they belong to. In the last game you had to kind of guess, and talk and play around. Now they might as well be labeled "for so-and-so."
AND ANOTHER THING!!! It was nice to see Oghren in his Armor of the Legion from last game, but goddammit if I knew I was going to lose my inventory, I would have gone ahead and put the Warden Commander's armor ON my rogue, rather than having it sit in my pack. *grumble*
I'm about half-way through at this point, so I'll keep griping, er, updating on it. :)
Sunday, March 14, 2010
To Final Fantasy or Not to Final Fantasy, that is the question...
So I'm always torn on Final Fantasy games. For the most part I think people fall into two categories: those who think Final Fantasy games are the ultimate expression of video game awesomness and the type of thing Jesus Christ would play if he played games, and those who think Final Fantasy is teh awful lameness.
For the most part I tend to agree with the latter group. I enjoyed FFVII in high school, but what self-respecting nerd didn't? I liked FF X "okay," though I feel I need to point out that my favorite part of FFX was the damn blitz ball mini-game. That's not exactly a glowing review for a game. I liked Final Fantasy X-2 because if you ignored the horrible plot, and the fact that it was, essentially, a crappy attempt on SquareEnix's part to appease its fans who were distraught over Titus and Yuna NOT getting together in FFX, the collection aspect of the game was rather fun. I'm typically anti-kawaii when it comes to my games, and I'm certainly not a girly-girl, but I did really enjoy collecting new costumes and playing with them. Though once I did get them all (like Pokemon...) I figured out very quickly that the dark knight and samurai = win, and pretty much never changed them. Ah well.
But that's it. The other games have done absolutely nothing for me and here's why: they're the same fucking game.
The same characters are in every game. Don't waste my time trying to say they're not. The androgynous hero who is a tortured soul and more often than not has some glaring familial issue (almost always daddy); the love interest who is either too proud or too callow to admit their feelings until the very end of the game when the whole point is moot anyway; the plucky female character who takes on a strange pseudo-sexual little sister role; the cocky male buddy/bromance; the dark, mysterious person who, it will always be revealed, has some sort of connection with the evil entity in the game; the serious, dark, morose, emo voice of reason (this character can be male or female depending); and "the other," who is generally a different race altogether. It's as if they take the characters, dip them in bleach, paint new faces and hit play. Oh joy.
The same world/scenery/scenario is in every game. Oh sure it has a different name, different ethnicities (except those damn chocobos and cactaurs. They are apparently universal) and different fun diversions, but no matter how many cutesy mini-games, or words or vehicles they put into a game, it's the same story every time: Happy, harmonious people are suddenly disrupted by an evil being/corporation and it's up to our heroes to save the world. Really?
I've not played FFXIII, but looking at it, I can tell it's going to be the same thing. But, like a glutton for punishment, I'm going to rent the damn thing and spend my evenings cursing the banality and triteness of the game, and wishing a pox upon the first born children of SquareEnix.
So I guess the real question is who's the bigger fool: SquareEnix, or me? Don't answer that.
For the most part I tend to agree with the latter group. I enjoyed FFVII in high school, but what self-respecting nerd didn't? I liked FF X "okay," though I feel I need to point out that my favorite part of FFX was the damn blitz ball mini-game. That's not exactly a glowing review for a game. I liked Final Fantasy X-2 because if you ignored the horrible plot, and the fact that it was, essentially, a crappy attempt on SquareEnix's part to appease its fans who were distraught over Titus and Yuna NOT getting together in FFX, the collection aspect of the game was rather fun. I'm typically anti-kawaii when it comes to my games, and I'm certainly not a girly-girl, but I did really enjoy collecting new costumes and playing with them. Though once I did get them all (like Pokemon...) I figured out very quickly that the dark knight and samurai = win, and pretty much never changed them. Ah well.
But that's it. The other games have done absolutely nothing for me and here's why: they're the same fucking game.
The same characters are in every game. Don't waste my time trying to say they're not. The androgynous hero who is a tortured soul and more often than not has some glaring familial issue (almost always daddy); the love interest who is either too proud or too callow to admit their feelings until the very end of the game when the whole point is moot anyway; the plucky female character who takes on a strange pseudo-sexual little sister role; the cocky male buddy/bromance; the dark, mysterious person who, it will always be revealed, has some sort of connection with the evil entity in the game; the serious, dark, morose, emo voice of reason (this character can be male or female depending); and "the other," who is generally a different race altogether. It's as if they take the characters, dip them in bleach, paint new faces and hit play. Oh joy.
The same world/scenery/scenario is in every game. Oh sure it has a different name, different ethnicities (except those damn chocobos and cactaurs. They are apparently universal) and different fun diversions, but no matter how many cutesy mini-games, or words or vehicles they put into a game, it's the same story every time: Happy, harmonious people are suddenly disrupted by an evil being/corporation and it's up to our heroes to save the world. Really?
I've not played FFXIII, but looking at it, I can tell it's going to be the same thing. But, like a glutton for punishment, I'm going to rent the damn thing and spend my evenings cursing the banality and triteness of the game, and wishing a pox upon the first born children of SquareEnix.
So I guess the real question is who's the bigger fool: SquareEnix, or me? Don't answer that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)