Blog Posts from "Random Ravings"

The FFXIII Experience – The Halfway Mark: Story and Character Analysis

Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:57:42 -0400

Previous Blogs: 30 Minutes, 1 Hour, 4 Hours, 6 Hours, 8 Hours, 15 Hours

Some may say the halfway mark is too early to review FFXIII’s story and characters. Nearly everyone I’ve spoken to has said the second half of the game is the good part.

But so what? Does that mean we should completely ignore the first half, forgiving or disregarding its flaws? I think not. Fanboys do that. It’s how developers misinterpret things as “People haven’t said anything bad about this part. They must love it!”

So I think now is the perfect time to pause the blog, reflect on the story we’ve seen so far, and analyse the progress of the character’s growth.

Remember, this is written based only on what we’ve seen so far, from the beginning of the game to (nearly) the end of chapter seven. It doesn’t matter how good the story might get in the future, if the story so far isn’t good enough to capture the players attention, all the last minute awesomeness in the world isn’t going to stop them taking it back to the store half way through. An urge I have been battling myself for that very reason…

Since the character analysis turned out longer then I expected, I’ve organised it so the lesser ones come first, and the ones I have the biggest issues with at the end. Hope will be last, in something I like to call “The Hope Revelation”: a discovery I find both disturbing and fascinating. Did Square really intend to create what they did? We’ll have to see.

**Remember: BIG SPOILERS**

Main Story Overview

How good FFXIII’s story so far is really depends on which way you look at it. At this point, seven chapters into the game, the back story has been fairly well fleshed out by a never ending series of cutscenes, dancing back and forth between the present and the past. The way we discover the connection between the characters and how they affected one another is clever, and just the type of things I usually love.

So my problem with the story isn’t so much where the characters have been... it’s where they’re going. In this case: no where.

Out of seven chapters, only two had a goal. The intro, in getting to the Fal’Cie structure, and the second chapter, in getting to the Fal’Cie itself and Serah. After that… what? The team is dumped in some random locations, split up, and go their different directions. But where?

For much of the game, the characters just appear to be walking because that’s the way to go. No thanks to the linear design, I might add. You spend chapters upon chapters, just following the path, because there's no other option. No reason, no goal. Just walking.

Towards the end of chapter five, Sazh and Vanille seem to have a mild goal of going to… actually to tell the truth, I’ve already forgotten. How’s that? I can remember the entire plot of FFVII, and even IX and XII (ie. the games I liked), but I can’t even remember a plot point from XIII only five days ago. What a laugh.

What I do remember is Sazh mentioning his son, so I’m assuming they’re going somewhere to look for him, but obviously it wasn’t very stressed.

On the other half of the story, Lightning and Hope’s goals seem like a huge mangle of different ideas. Kill the Cocoon Fal’Cie, kill Snow, kill everyone in Hope’s hometown at one point. I mean wtf is that? Definitely a O_O moment there.

After Lightning’s epiphany, all of that goes out the window, and we lose all goals except “find Hope’s father”. Now, in most games, that is hardly considered a driving focus for the entire story. Finding a father or son is rarely important enough to keep people playing, unless they hold something vital that’ll stop the destruction of the universe, or they’re going to reveal some massive secret.

In Hope’s case, he just wants to cry to Daddy, so that feels like a dead end completely. In Sazh’s case, his son may might actually be a key character. We’re given such little information about it, however, that we can’t really judge how urgent we should feel about it. It’s more “He might be important… or he might not”. Gee, that really sounds like something to strive towards.

In any case, these are usually considered SIDE stories. Not major plot points. So far, FFXIII has no ultimate goal. The characters are all confused and without focus (literally), which leaves the player in such a state too. I have no freaking idea where the game is heading. I stopped reading the Datalogs back in chapter three because I was sick of the endless spiels of information that should have been included in the games dialog somehow. See? That’s what happens when you remove towns and NPC’s. That’s how lore and world history is delivered. Through the people who live in it. Not a friggin text book. We should be able to go there for supplement information, not forced to just to figure out what’s going on.

By this point, I no longer care. I don’t care about the characters. I don’t care about Cocoon or Pulse. I don’t care for the entire Crystallis universe. It could implode in a massive fiery cutscene and I wouldn’t feel an ounce of remorse. In fact, I’d probably cheer.

Hence why it’s been five days since I’ve played the game, and feel no reason or desire to go back there. There’s no curiosity. No “what happens next?” feeling. Cause so far, nothing has happened. It’s just a lot of walking and character drama that gets real old, real fast.

The story may well gain a goal later on, but in my honest opinion it’s to little, to late. If nothing has happened in over fifteen hours and half the game, it’s no surprise that I’m completely bored with it and want to stop. It’s just bad game design. VERY bad design.

So, that’s my issue with the story. Let’s move onto the characters. Don't worry: not all of this will be negative. I do like about half of them. It’s just unlucky that much of their dialog seems to be written by chimpanzees.

Fang

“Wait,” you may be saying, “isn’t this a fairly big leap? All Final Fantasy heroes do is kill people! Aren’t that all psychos in some manner?”

Well, yes and no. See, for all the Final Fantasy’s that I can remember, the writers have been very careful in how they word the characters intentions. The heroes actions are nearly always in defence of something; defence of a loved one, defence of the planet, or to prevent something bigger and nastier that’d kill a whole lot of people otherwise.

For example, Cloud and Co. want to “stop” Sephiroth. If they could talk him down over a cup of tea and some scones, I’m sure they’d be quite happy to. Many pre-fight dialog sequences involve the heroes begging for the antagonist to surrender peacefully. It’s just unfortunate that nearly every FF villain IS a homicidal maniac, and therefore the only option is to kill them.

Hope is the one I’ve encountered so far who’s one and only goal is to KILL a team member. He has no other goal; it has consumed him in every way. Finding his father is an after thought, pursued only due to Lightning’s encouragements. Revenge on Snow is what he wants, and he’ll do anything to see it through.

So how did he get this way? Well, we haven’t gone deep enough into Hope’s past to discover whether he enjoyed kicking puppies or pulling the wings of flies, so we can only assume that this personality change was caused by the death of his mother. This event brought forth the sociopathic behaviour, and was then nurtured by Lightning throughout chapter five, or what I’ve come to call “The Dexter Chapter”.

Fans of the Dexter books and TV series will understand what I’m talking about. It’s pretty much the only way I can describe it. Hope is Dexter, the boy with a deep seeded psychological trauma that is driving him to kill. Lightning is Harry, the parent who sees what’s going on inside Hope’s head, but instead of trying to quell it, helps him take control and channel it into making him a stronger individual.

This was truly disturbing for me, and made me wary of Hope and what he might do in the future. Especially after Lightning has her “epiphany”, changes her mind, and tells him to abandon everything they’ve been striving for so far. THAT makes him mad. He almost goes Dexter on her right then and there, screaming “Everybody leaves me, I’m always alone.” Only Lightning’s quick reaction of grabbing him and saying very firmly “I will never leave you” may have saved her from a quick trip to stabby central.

Even then, for the remainder of chapter six, Hope follows Lightning around saying accusing things like “What am I supposed to do now?” and “He has to pay for what he’s done”. As Lightning, all I wanted to do was get away from him, since I now viewed him as an unstable threat that could snap at any moment. Perhaps that’s why she threw him at Snow and ran in chapter seven? Huh, you know, suddenly I don’t blame her.

Chapter seven shows that Hope has no intention of giving up his murderous quest, spending every cutscene glaring at Snow, fiddling with the knife, and saying accusing things. And when the confrontation occurs, only the interruption stops us seeing what his method of killing would have been: Snow dangling from a ledge, Hope above him, knife raised high. What was he going to do? Stab Snow in the arm and let him plummet to his death? Or go for the head and get the satisfaction of knowing the kill was 100% his?

We may never know, since this is where sociopathy ends. Snow risks his life to rescue Hope, then carry him to safety. Naturally, Hope is still a little angry and confused, but they talk more, he realises Snow isn’t that bad, and all ill will is forgotten. The creepy personality disorder stuff simply vanishes, no doubt under the unshakeable clause of “every body can change”.

Scoff. Screw that. People don't just recover from that kind of disorder in a single cutscene. That kid is messed up, and I'll never be able to look at him the same way, no matter how 'good' he becomes in the final chapters. He was going to do what he was going to do, and it was only sheer luck that kept him from doing it.

I'd be scared to travel with him if I was one of those characters. What if he’s actually a psychopath? The urges hardwired into him, able to re-emerge at any time? What if it only progresses, and the things that set him off become smaller and less predictable? Today, it’s Snow killing his Mum. Tomorrow, it’s Vanille eating his cupcake. Look out! There’s a two foot long knife coming your way while you sleep soundly in camp!

It truly makes me wonder: did Square have any idea what they were doing here? Did they ever really look at their character, and think, just perhaps, a serious mental disorder could be applied to him, making him a lot less like a hero and more like a sadistic killer? I’d love to hear their response to the inclination, though chances are they'd just say “It's ok, cause he changes by the end!”. Bah. Cop outs.

-------------------

So ends the halfway mark character and story analysis. Phew, MAN that was a long one. I apologise to anyone who slogged through it all and didn’t find it at all enlightening. Feels great to get it all off my chest though.

God of War 3 is nearly over, and this blog is done, so it’s just about time to continue the FFXIII experience. Will the final chapters be better as everyone claims? Will my opinion of it lighten, or only get worse? I have my predictions… but for now let’s just pray I can get through chapter ten without snapping the disc in half!

The FFXIII Experience – Fifteen Hours In

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:39 -0400

Previous Blogs: 30 Minutes, 1 Hour, 4 Hours, 6 Hours, 8 Hours

Sigh. Three days since I last played FFXIII, and I still have no drive to play it again.

A lot has happened since the previous blog. A lot in regards to my opinion, I mean. In terms of the game, even though I played seven hours longer, and got through three whole chapters, nothing has really happened at all. It’s a been a long, boring, drawn out and linear experience, and frankly I’ve almost reached my limit.

Before I delve into the blog, I have to admit that a lot of previously unknown information has come to light, drastically changing (and explaining) my perception of the game. The main revelation being: the director of FFXIII is the director of FFX-2!!!

I cannot believe I never looked into this. The director is just as important in gaming as it is for movies. I was basically setting myself up for disappointment! This knowledge explains so much about the game’s design, that everything is starting to make sense. The over acted characters, Vanille being so erratic and overly girlish. The J-Pop music, why the Paradigm system is so reminiscent of the dress spheres. And mainly why the game is so freaking awful.

Further uncovered information included:

* Sales of the game
Snow to the rescue! Our hero zooms into the fight on his brand new Shiva-cycle, and proceeds to wreck the joint with a multitude of icicles. It’s a pretty cool cutscene, that’s for sure. Then, just to make things more dramatic, Lightning pushes Hope towards Snow and legs it. Yeah, cause that can’t end badly.

This level consists entirely of Snow and Hope running down a narrow city path filled with enemies. Every now and again there is a cutscene where Hope stares accusingly at Snow, says accusing things to Snow, and makes accusing noises, but never actually gets to the point. And this continues for roughly two hours.

When they finally reach their inevitable confrontation, it’s just as weird as the moment with Lightning. What the hell is going on here? Who are these writers, and what are they smoking? Their idea of drama is just… strange and skewed. Or maybe just Japanese? Though in all the anime’s I’ve watched and JRPG’s I’ve played, I’ve never quite seen revelations, epiphanies and encounters quite like these. For starters, the others usually made sense.

After getting interrupted, ensuring that the “You killed my Mum!” drama continues for another three chapters, we zip back to Fang and Lightning. Fang kindly fills us in a little on her and Vanille’s origins, takes a beating from the always emotionally irrational Lightning, and sadly, doesn’t reciprocate by smashing the rude *****'s face in. Oh well, maybe later.

They then rush off to rescue Snow and Hope, but frankly by this point I was so sick and tired of the game after seven hours of the same thing over and over, I had to switch it off. From what the guide book tells me, I was nearly at the end of the chapter anyway, so whatever. Close enough. I get the feeling I’m not missing anything.

The Current Consensus?

Literally the only thing keeping me from taking this back to the store and using the dough to pre-order Resonance of Fate is the knowledge that if I don’t ever finish it, I’ll be inundated forever by fanboy’s saying “But it got so much better! It got amazing! You’ll never know because you didn’t play it! You’re an idiot!”

And you know they would. Unless I complete this blog and document every goddam reason why I’m not enjoying the game, people will think I just “missed something”, or didn’t give it a chance.

It’s pretty fair to say that at this point, I’ve had enough of the game. It’s slow, it’s boring, it’s unnecessarily restrictive with it’s forced two-man parties, linear gameplay and complete lack of anything imaginative in terms of levels, puzzles, exploration or challenge. It’s quite possibly one of the most mind numbing FF experiences I’ve had, and I thought it couldn’t get much worse then VIII or X-2.

In fact, the one good thing that’s come from this game is the renewed respect it’s forced me to have for the titles I previously disliked in the series. X is looking great to me now. In fact, if given the choice, I’d rather play X through completely then spend another fifteen hours going through the first eight chapters of XIII. Hell, even attempting VIII again sounds appealing.

But I must admit; this all sounds a bit odd given the evidence I’ve stated above. Is that really enough to make my opinion drop so drastically?

In short, no. My issues with the story, characters, pacing and writing are so numerous that I’ve had to make a separate blog, devoted completey to their analysis. That will be up within the next few days, given that I have social commitments (not to mention God of War 3 just came out). Man, FFXIII is going to be lucky to see anymore action this week…

The FFXIII Experience – Eight Hours In

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:31:33 -0400

Previous Blogs: 30 Minutes, 1 Hour, 4 Hours, 6 Hours

Strange. Eight hours in, and I’m still stuck in chapter four? What manner of madness is this?

Well, it can actually be explained in one word: Odin.

**Remember: SPOILERS!!**

When we last saw the crew, Lightning and Hope had decided to take the path of “kick ass and kill anyone in our way” leaving Sazh and Vanille to wander… somewhere else. I can’t recall if they actually gave a specific destination… people just seem to walk and end up where they want to be in this game.

Chapter Four Part 2 starts with something I imagine most vehicle fans would jizz their pants over: Hope driving a massive bipedal machine that flattens anything in its path. Cool right?

WRONG! (Come on, have you read my other blogs?)

Allow me to deviate for a second to comment on something I’ve glossed over so far. For much of the game now, I’ve actually been having slight niggles with the in-game camera. At times it feels awkward, getting stuck or unresponsive, other times it seems to drift so your character is on the far side of the screen. I chalk this up to it being slightly to close to the character: not over the shoulder like Gears of War, but not far enough back for a suitable fixed position like FFXII either.

Given that I complain about almost everything else, I let the camera go, because honestly it only happens sometimes, and only when your exploring the world. The combat camera is the important one, and that’s perfect. Exploring the levels isn’t exactly a matter of life and death.

When Hope hops into his giant machine, however, the slightly-to-close camera has a complete **** fit. Unable to decide whether to focus on the whole robot or Hope himself (a tiny figure sitting on its top), it constantly zooms in and out, swings in all directions, and will actually spin very fast should to get over zealous trying to control it. Couple this with the monstrous machine’s wonky control system, and you have the stuff of mass frustration.

Thankfully it doesn’t last long, and after roughly ten minutes of stomping about, crushing conveniently positioned robot battalions, it ends, and you’re left with a confused feeling of “What was the point in that?” Seriously, this is an RPG. Not an action game. We have war games if we want to get in a tank and drive over people. Ten minutes of awkwardly marching a mech down a linear path is just a minor distraction. Hmmm… perhaps that was the point?

After an amusing (and somewhat relieving) end to Hope’s new toy, he faces the inevitable scolding from the “You’re slowing me down” queen, Lightning. Except something is different this time. Her anger causes pain, light, and then quite suddenly, an Eidolon to burst forth from her body. Odin has arrived.

Subduing Odin is, quite frankly, a total *****. He’s the toughest enemy so far, and, as I discovered, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll fail the first time due to being ill prepared. He also involves an enormous amount of trial and error.

All I had to go on was the previous Eidolon fight with the Shiva Sisters. I fought them with a single person, while one of the sisters healed me when my health was low. Essentially all I had to do was cast Libra, then carry out the respect earning prerequisites (as odd and occasionally unresponsive as they seemed). Very little information was given other then that, let alone tips on future fights.

In the Odin fight, I had two characters to use, and the respect requirements had changed. Odin liked people who healed the wounded, and build battle chains… but which people? Did it have to be only Lightning, or could Hope help too?

I had no idea. The only way I could find out was to experiment: watch the bar while Hope heals. Die. Restart. Watch the bar while Lightning heals. Die. Restart. And so on.

This was made extra difficult by the fact that Odin’s attacks were strong, long, and seemingly uninterruptible. He had a string of up to four or five powerful attacks, that hit multiple party members, and froze my action queue for the entire length of the combo. By the time he finished, whoever he targeted was dead before I could cast any queued “cure” spells at all.

To make matters worse, he had a nasty habit of unleashing these attacks the second the battle started. Thanks to the inability to move my characters out of the way, often both party members got caught in his path, resulting in an insta-loss mere seconds into the fight. During the times I was able to survive, Hope and Lightning’s AI’s did their best to stay apart and flank Odin, but it still seemed like an awful lot of luck was involved.

As it turned out, only Lightning’s actions affected Odin’s respect bar (handy to know for future Summon fights I guess). This immediately caused problems for me. See, I assumed that each character had a role. From the little research I’ve done, I know that Lightning is a great Ravager and Commando, while Hope is a master healer. So naturally, I’d put no points into the healing branch of Lightning’s skills. Nor did I have a Paradigm set up with her as a healer. So automatically I was unable to win in the first encounter; even though I survived, I couldn’t garner enough respect, and so was killed by the Doom Counter.

Yet even after setting up the right Paradigms, Odin kept wading through me like a hot knife through Vanille (I wish), leading me to wonder if I hadn’t levelled my characters sufficiently. Thankfully, there was a nice contingent of enemies just before the Encounter area, so I took out my frustrations for thirty minutes or so on them, grinding and raising Lighting’s healing skills.

After that, the subsequent fights with Odin went a lot better, as my tactics were refined and his habits became more familiar, and eventually I was able to claim him as mine own.

Phew. What a battle. Aside from the cheap insta-kills, and the respect requirements experimentation, it was a lot of fun, and no doubt a preview of the stronger enemies to come. It was only later that a friend reminded me that I could have used an Attack boosting Shroud to make the fight a lot easier. Damn, why didn’t I think of that?

Using My Eidolon – About Time!

The very next battle gives Lightning the chance to show off her shiny new partner, who takes three Technical Points to summon. Odin arrives via a dramatic cutscene, where Lightning launches into the air, slices his crystal in half and releases him. In a moment that nicely highlights the new emotional bond between the two, Odin very gracefully and lightly catches her hand as she falls, and the scene ends with the two in an identical battle stance.

It’s amazing how a small clip like that can convey so much. During the fight to claim him, Odin looked evil, ominous. A great white knight, bearing down on Lightning with only her death as his goal.

After gaining his respect, things have changed. The way he catches her hand is so gentle and uncharacteristically caring that it shines a whole new light on him. Now he’s her White Knight, towering over her protectively. Even the way he mimic’s her pose is sweet.

This is all before he starts going to town, slicing and chopping everyone in his way. Which gives me a chance to explain how the Summons finally work.

Summoning Eidolons in XIII is similar to the ones in XII, in the way that they become a new party member and help you on the battlefield. They have two bars: one for health, that degrades over time or with damage, and a “Gestalt” bar. The Gestalt bar can be filled by healing the Summon, and by letting it dish out as much damage as possible. The higher the bar is, the longer you’ll be able to use the Eidolon in its Gestalt form when you eventually activate it.

In Odin’s case, he transforms into the horse, and Lightning rides him around either performing auto-attacks like the regular combat system, or entering them in manually (up + triangle, left + X). A number counts down with each attack, meaning it’s recommended you use his ultimate move only when it reaches “01”. With that, the Summon is over, and normal battle resumes.

Given the amount of technical points Summoning requires, it’s obviously supposed to be a strong and “in case of emergencies” skill. My first attempt left a lot of enemies standing, though they were heavily damaged. Leads me to wonder if XIII Summons will end up like XII ones after all; great to use on hordes of weak regular enemies, but not as effective against strong ones or bosses. We’ll have to see how it goes as the game progresses; I’d really like to see a Final Fantasy with Summons I actually want to use occasionally (Go Go Yojimbo).

Meanwhile…

Back with Sazh and Vanille, things are chugging along as usual. Many friends told me that this section was one of the most drawn out and annoying in the game. Not because it’s bad; the final section of Chapter Four consists simply of a long path to explore and grind in, full of treasure, puzzles and enemies. Almost sounds like regular FF!

What makes it annoying is how slow the combat is. Since we’re forced to use Vanille and Sazh, we don’t have many options in terms of Paradigms. Both are good Ravagers, but we know how well that works on the Stagger bars. Sazh is such a terrible Commando though that the battle time tends to equal itself out. The presence of even one strong enemy can make the smallest battles drag out for three or four minutes.

After an hour of running around, hitting switches and grinding enemies, it’s finally time to move on and leave Chapter Four. We’re treated to a small character building cutscene, that just makes me want to throttle Vanille even more, and a catch up with our long absent friend Snow. He meets Cid! Hooray! He had to be in there somewhere, we all knew it.

And then Fang kicks Snow’s head in. Ouch. She’s a pretty cool chick. Shame her voice is so awful. I’ll still be looking forward to having her in my party. What awaits in Chapter Five?

New General Consensus?

Eh. Still rather indifferent.

It was nice to finally use a Summon, and to meet an enemy I really had to work hard to beat. The insta-killing and trial and error system may have been a little harsh, but at least when we die it’s a simple matter of “retry”.

Lightning is finally beginning to soften, letting down her shields a bit after the Odin fight, and showing a little care for Hope. The other characters haven’t really changed. It will be interesting when Fang finally arrives, since she doesn’t seem like the type of person who’ll take orders from Lightning, nor will she put up with irritating brats like Vanille. Sweet.

Most of all I’ll just be happy to see a change of scenery; trash piles really aren’t the most impressive backdrop to stare at for hours. More progress to make tomorrow!

Next Blog: 15 Hours

The FFXIII Experience – Six Hours In

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:31:26 -0500

Previous Blogs: 30 Minutes, 1 Hour, 4 Hours

This blog is going to be equal parts ponderance as it is about the game. Sorry about that. Sometimes I just like to meander through my own thoughts.

It’s been three days since FFXIII went on sale in Australia, and the first returns have starting to drift back in to the EB Games/Gamestop where I work. When questioned about why they were bringing it back, most said the same thing: “Too linear”, “to boring”, “hated the characters”.

Which suggests that most of them probably gave up within the first ten hours of gameplay. In this case, I can understand that. I always prefer people to give a game a chance, but I have to admit that even I’m feeling the fatigue. Six hours in, and the game STILL feels like it’s only just getting started. Not to mention it still insists on “training” me. What the hell? It’s almost like it was designed for people who don’t even play computer games, the way it holds your hand for so long. But more on that later.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why I’ve been so resistant towards the story format of XIII. I mean, I literally spent this long just running around the beginning city of Rabanastre in XII, and I was happy as Larry! Why am I complaining about a game that’s so far been almost nothing but story, which I also usually love

The only conclusion I can draw is: this is the first time I’ve ever been forced to play through the main story of an RPG without any opportunity for rest or deviation. Exploring, talking to NPC’s, visiting towns, doing side quests or dungeons… these are all staples of the RPG that we seem to take for granted. Both JRPG’s and Western RPG’s have them, and for many of us these are more interesting then the main story itself.

Just look at the Mass Effect games! You can play the main story in less then ten hours, and though they’re good, you might feel a little non-plussed about the length and content. The real meat of the game is the planet exploration, the errands, the character development, the secret missions. These can easily increase the game time to forty hours or more, and deliver twenty times more information then if you’d just played out the central plot and then left.

XIII seems to have taken the stance of “Look, we simply don’t have the time to make an entire next-gen game that has an epic open world with enough towns, monsters and side stories to fill it. Let’s just get the main story out of the way, and then make an absolutely enormous area for players to explore at the end”.

It’s a theory that sounds like it could work. And for many I guess it does. But then there’s a community of people like me who’ve always played it the opposite way: done everything that’s possible to do in the game at your current level, then continue with the main story. The plot is an integral part of the game, true, but it’s also a series of road blocks, offering new challenges, loot and areas to explore only once each one is hurdled.

It’s these breaks that help us reflect on the main plot, slow the pace to one we feel comfortable with, and evolve the characters to a point where we feel confident and ready to move on. “Grinding” might seem boring for some, but to others it’s actually a form of mid-game relaxation. We can chill out, refine our combat techniques, kill stuff, earn exp, cash, and occasionally decent loot. Grinding is only bad when the game forces us to do it, to make up for its lack of content and artificially extend the gameplay time.

Even though things are picking up in XIII, my enjoyment and interest are still struggling to be maintained. Yes, the story is coming together. Slloowwwllyy. Once again it’s not so much through the dialogue as through the Datalogs, though at least the flashbacks are helping to illuminate the characters pasts a little. I strongly believe the lack of rest/deviations points is causing my fatigue, and general impatience towards the game as a whole.

In regards to the combat training: I feel like I’m being led through the game on a leash. A very strong, unbendable leash, and whoever is holding it is forcing me to learn things the way they want me to learn them. It’s like the game doesn’t trust that I can handle it’s oh-so-intricate systems; a feeling supported by the entire first half of chapter four, which plays more like a glorified training course then an actual level, attempting to put you through every possible outcome in the foreseen future.

Here’s what combat’s like without a Commando. Here’s what it’s like with only two people. Here’s how enemy’s fight each other. Have another three or four of these battles, just to be absolutely certain you got it the first time. No, you can’t just go out and play around with different enemies at your whim. No, you can’t freely change your team members and get better acquainted with their skills and habits. You will do it this way, because we tell you too.

Bah. This is an exuberant amount of QQ over seemingly small things, but I suppose we can’t control the things that bug and hamper enjoyment of the games we play. Plus, there’s still so many chapters to go. Enough pondering. Time for the gameplay:

**Remember: SPOILERS!!!**

Chapter three ends with a battle, and lovely Vanille almost becoming lunch for a hungry Boss. Damn, so close. I was cheering for it, trust me. Lightning and friends kill it, steal a jet and fly off into Chapter four.

Meanwhile, Snow is still doing hero stuff, back in the Crystal Lake. After another fight, and a quick cutscene, we meet our first Summon: The Shiva Sisters, and learn how we’re supposed to capture them.

Seemingly each Summon requires you to fight them in a certain manner, in order to gain their respect. These can be revealed by casting Libra on them multiple times, and pushing (R1 on the PS3) to read the details. A “Doom counter” is clocking down while you do this, with death and failure the assumed result if it reaches zero. You have to keep raising the “acceptance bar” until it’s full, and you can finally push X to claim the Summon.

Considering how much effort the game puts into making you understand every facet of the battle system, I found this fight rather confusing. Mainly because, despite doing what was required, the acceptance bar seemed to climb erratically. I don’t know if it was a bug or glitch, or perhaps there were other requirements to reach – in this case battle chains or successfully blocking attacks – but I couldn’t seem to nail a consistent result. In the end, I did… something, and the bar jumped a lot, allowing me to push the Win button despite it being only three quarters full. Weird.

This is as much as we get to see of Shiva, however, since Snow is immediately interrupted, and we finally get acquainted with our final team member: Fang, the hunter chick. And it’s awful. Her “Australian” (it might be the intended result, but it’s far from the reality) accent is three times thicker, heavier, and more pronounced then Vanille’s, and just as offensive to the ears. God I hope she’ll be the strong silent type like Lightning when she joins the crew.

Speaking of our cranky protagonist, things haven’t improved between her and her new “friends”. Having crash landed in a junk yard, Lightning proceeds to abuse, belittle, and finally abandon her comrades, leaving Sazh to exclaim “Daymn, that is one uptight ho!” Ok, so he doesn’t actually say that, but I does call her “Grumpy”. Sazh is so cool

The first half of Chapter Four, as mentioned above, seems geared entirely towards training players in every possible aspect of the Paradigm system. I suspect this is due to the linearity; thanks to the lack of open ‘practise’ areas, the game feels it needs to hold your hand and lead you through a series of preset trials, to ensure you feel tested and ready.

The game does this by removing/adding an element at certain points during the level (eg. removing Lightning, your Commando/fighter, and thereby forcing you two cope with only two Ravagers/Spellcasters). Then it will throw a few battles your way; usually by placing a select number of enemies in your path between the starting point, and the point where it wants you to learn something else.

Oh, you can avoid the fights, sure. But remember, there’re no grinding areas. You need to fight every battle you can to earn enough CP, advance your characters, and make sure they’re strong enough to keep plowing through the story.

You progress this way, swapping out Vanille for Hope, or using all three at once, versing a varying amount of enemies both strong and weak. Given how little time the game has for anything but pushing through the main story, it’s an effective, and probably necessary procedure… for people who have never played video games before. For the rest of us, it feels slow, staged, and redundant.

We know how to fight. Hell, we probably picked that up from the explanation tabs. We don’t need you to organise or limit our available party members and enemy encounters in order to further the point. When do WE actually get to take control of our party and set it up the way we want (not this chapter obviously)? That’s kind of where most of the fun is. Honest, we don’t need you setting up these elaborate training courses, designed to look natural by thinly veiled cutscene events.

Right, well I think I’ve ragged on about that long enough. How about something positive now?

Despite the overly thorough training procedures, the battle system is getting increasingly faster, more frantic, and gaining new layers. The chapters of “Push X to Win” are thankfully long gone, as rapidly switching Paradigms not only becomes common, but almost necessary in every fight. The speed in which it all takes place is exhilarating and tense, where a brief lack of focus can result in your main character being targeted and decimated before you even have time to call out your Medic.

The strong enemies especially require an enormous amount of attention. Most have so much HP that anything but a full team assault barely scratches them. One thing becomes very apparent: if you don’t stagger your foe fast, you’re in for a long, arduous fight.

While attempting to raise the stagger bar, you soon learn a number of different factors need to be taken into account:

* The bar degrades around four times faster if the damage dealt to it was done by magic, then if it was dealt by melee attacks. This makes it extremely hard for Ravagers to stagger enemies quickly without fast and precise (or lucky, given that you can’t really tell when you AI comrades will attack) teamwork. Each attack raises the enemies stagger threshold, demonstrated by a percentage (think the Super Smash Bros health system), and the higher it gets, the more the stagger bar is filled with each attack. Ravagers have to deal damage constantly in order to achieve this.

* The stagger bar depletes quite slowly when the damage dealt is by a weapon wielder, but should it be allowed to deplete completely, the stagger threshold will also drop in percentage, and you’ll essentially have to start from scratch. Once again, a constant assault is required in order to maintain the bar. And this is where a new technique comes in handy.

At this point in time, most characters have at least three slots in their action queue. Waiting for all three slots in the queue to charge takes a good four seconds, and though it makes your character deliver a power onslaught of attacks in quick succession, it also means that the stagger accumulated from the previous attacks has probably had time to deplete, or even reset. To stop this, the player can interrupt the queue by pushing (Triangle on PS3), and force the character to attack with two, or just one action charged.

The idea behind this is not so much to deal damage as to keep “juggling” the stagger bar, ensuring that it doesn’t fully deplete while your team readies their attacks. Once the stagger is successful, then you can charge the bar and smash away until your hearts content.

This kind of depth to the combat was just the thing I was hoping for; something to pay extra attention to, and eventually micromanage for maximum effect. Trying to keep track of a single enemy’s stagger progress while fending off other attacks and constantly monitoring your teams health and status ensures you’ll be on your toes for the entire battle.

One final thing that helps make this process a whole lot easier: the Pre-emptive Attacks, mentioned way back in Blog 2. These are not as easy to get as you might think. Some enemies have a wide field of vision, and will see you coming even if you think you’re directly behind them. You can deploy special items called “Shrouds” (L1 in the level exploration mode), one of which hides you from enemy sight and makes sneaking up on them easy. Shrouds are rare and uncommon to find, though you’ll earn quite a lot of them if you repeatedly fail to get any star ratings in your battles.

When a Pre-emptive attack is earned, players are rewarded by the lead character attacking every single enemy at the beginning of the fight, and raising their stagger bars and thresholds to max. It usually only takes a single hit after this to instantly stagger an enemy, but the effect doesn’t last long. You need to choose your targets quickly, and choose them well, because by the time you’ve finished your first attack, all remaining enemy stagger bars will have reset to null.

Do you choose to take out the biggest and strongest? Stop it from dealing huge damage to you occasionally? Or do you take out the smaller, weaker enemies first, and avoid receiving their less-damaging-but-numerous attacks on a constant basis? Such decisions need to be made usually at the very beginning and on the fly, with the ability to drop any plan you had and change Paradigms if it all goes to hell. One things for sure: support classes i.e. anything that can cast boosting skills on its fellow baddies, or detrimental effects on your own team, needs to go. And fast. Thankfully, most are pretty weak, and will go down quick as long as you all focus on them.

The game helps you further explore this choice by introducing you to “fighting enemies”. These are two different enemies types (eg. Beasts and Mechs), who simply don’t get along, and are fighting each other out in the opening. You can nearly always get a pre-emptive strike on these guys, since they’re so focused on each other they rarely see you coming.

The battle itself is practically a free ride. The enemies will pay you no heed, and go on attacking each other. You could sit back and watch if you like; see who comes out the winner. But the spectator sport doesn’t last. At some point, one side is going to beat the other, and once that’s done their sights will be set on you. You need to decide how to handle it: help the weaker side kill the stronger, so you’ll only have a few stragglers to mop up? Or kill the weaker side so you can focus on fewer, or even a single stronger enemy?

Decisions decisions. FFXIII combat is becoming full of them, and the time you have in which to make these choices grows smaller as the enemies grow stronger. I seriously can’t wait until the ending with its giant free roaming setting to explore, full of monstrous creatures to challenge. Hopefully it’ll make this tedious slog through the main story feel worthwhile.

The first half of Chapter Four draws to a close with a huge (but not difficult) Boss that will be familiar and nostalgic to many long time fans. Lightning says “Screw you guys, I’m going to kill whoever I want”, and abandons Vanille and Sazh to whatever path they please, before marching off into Chapter Four Part 2, Hope in tow. I breathe I sigh of relief.

Maybe now the game will let me continue without the training wheels? Maybe. And will I actually get to use a Summon? Gah, considering I didn’t even get to play today, I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.

New General Consensus?

Not really.

Character development going nowhere fast, other then the odd flashback and some vague conversations here and there. Lightning is still being a hard and unlikable *****, Hope is still gearing himself up to kick Snow in the nuts next meeting. The hero himself is unconscious somewhere, and Vanille is still annoying the **** out of everyone. Sazh Evercool is stuck among crazy people, simply wishing he could get on with his task minus the drama. Man, I feel his pain.

The levels are still linear and uninspired, the story is vague unless you want to read the Datalogs every time they update. Only the combat is advancing in leaps and bounds and becoming a wondrous part of the game to play. Hopefully the rest will catch up as the chapters go on. I have many friends assuring me it will, and honestly, I hope their right. I’d love to come out enjoying this game. Who would wish four years of waiting to feel like a waste?

Next blog: 8 Hours, 15 Hours

The FFXIII Experience – Four Hours In

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:27:13 -0500

Previous Blogs: 30 Minutes, 1 Hour

Alright, another day, another attempt. Thankfully, this time the game advanced in leaps and bounds for its combat system (thank god). Characters and story still aren’t really grabbing my interest, but at least I finally have the ability to customize them. Things are looking up!

**Remember: SPOILERS!!**

Start Up

Before playing again, I had a quick look at my game guide, just to see if I could derive some sort of expectations of what’s to come. Surprisingly, everything seems to happen after the main story finishes. The Hunts, the Chocobo treasure hunts, the weapon construction. It all seems very odd. They couldn’t find a way to incorporate it?

At least we won’t have anything like story to interrupt our pursuit of extra content, right? Hmm. Anyway.

Gameplay Time – 2 Hours

The next hour was spent inside the strange Fal’Cie place, switching back and forth between characters. No further gameplay actions were revealed, so not much to talk about. Majority of the team meets up at last, we find Lightning’s sister / Snow’s fiancée, and then we lose her again.

The story is explained a little bit, but still not in the best fashion. I don’t know if they’re leaving it purposely vague in order to build tension. I spend a good portion of time in the Datalogs, researching. It gives you a pretty decent overview, but I’m really beginning to hate the words “Fal’Cie” and “L’Cie”.

So everyone gets pissed and decides it’s time to kick this super powerful Fal’Cie being’s ass. Cause you know, nothing could go wrong with that idea. The creature itself turns out to have the name of an Aeon that we’ve seen in a previous game, though obviously we don’t get to use him after defeat. And thank god! It’s a multi-part battle! You need to attack his arms first, then body. Sweet. I really hope there’ll be more bosses that require this kind of thing.

The chapter ends with a number of cutscenes, explaining the relationship between Snow, Lightning and Serah (the sister), as well as a dramatic finale for the Fal’Cie casing. In super hi res graphics, I might add. They really are superb. Watching an entire lake freeze into crystal is just mind blowing. God I love the PS3.

Gameplay Time - 3 Hours

Wow. FINALLY, the more intricate battle system starts. And it’s fairly decent too. Each system is slowly revealed over a number of battles, so as not to confuse anyone. Much of this hour is spent evolving my characters, making new Paradigms, and exploring the longer (but still narrow) first section of this chapter.

Thanks to their earlier actions, the entire team has now been made into the Fal Cie’s minions (known as L’Cie). If they don’t do what it wants them too, they’ll be punished in a rather nasty fashion. On the upside, they can now use magic, improve their skills, and have different jobs in the battle system.

The first few tutorials cover a number of things, though I’ll start with the jobs each character has, since that’s kind of needed to explain Paradigms.

Each character has new roles in the party. Some, like Snow and Hope, have three different possible roles so far. Sazh, on the other hand, only has one. Each role is named for the actions it involves: “Commando” means the character goes it for hard hitting melee attacks. “Ravager” makes the character stay back and unleash spells. “Medic” makes the character focus on healing and removing status effects. Snow and Hope also have their own unique ones; “Sentinel” which makes Snow draw the enemies attention, yet massively boosts his defense, and “Synergist”, giving Hope the ability to cast status boosting spells (Haste, Bravery).

Each job can be upgraded/evolved by using “Character Points”, which you earn through fighting. The system for this is designed as a series of crystals connected by lines. To acquire new skills and character boosting traits (more health, more strength etc), each crystal need to be connected together. You do this by moving along the lines, which requires a certain amount CP to do.

Phew. A lot of info. But it’s all good. The new character building system seems to be a nice balance between the ones of the previous game; not as confusing or involved as the FFX system, but not as general and plain as the FFXII license board. It’s good, I approve. I actually want to pop back to the menu every few fights and boost my character, which was nothing but a pain in FFX.

Ok, so now, finally, onto Paradigms. These are the much needed change to the battle system that finally gets rid of “Push X to Win”. Hurray!

Paradigms are created by mixing together the different types of jobs mentioned above. Which jobs are available depends on who you have in attack-party-of-three at the time.
As an example; the game forces you to use Snow, Lightning and Vanille (ugh) for the first section of this chapter. This means you have Commando, Ravager, Sentinel and Medic jobs to choose from.

Paradigms allow you to quickly and effectively change all your characters jobs at any point during the battle. Each Paradigm is named differently, depending on what jobs it’s comprised of e.g. Commando + Commando + Ravager = Paradigm named “Relentless Assault”. This means the team will attack continuously in an effort to wipe out the enemy fast. In doing this, however, it’s likely that your team will sustain damage.

To counter this, you push the Paradigm button (L1 in the case of PS3), and select the Paradigm named “Solidarity”. This immediately changes your team to Commando + Sentinel + Medic. Your Commando will continue the attack, your Sentinel goes into a defensive stance and draws attention, and your Medic heals everyone up. Once you’re healed, switch back to Relentless Assault, and continue the attack. Later you can freely mix and match combinations in the menu, and create new Paradigms for use in battle.

So this is the big combat change I’ve been waiting for. Is it effective? Well, yes. The game makes sure you have a need to use them straight away, by throwing a large number of enemies at you per battle. This impresses me greatly. You can literally have upwards of eight or nine enemies in a single fight (perhaps more, that’s the biggest I’ve seen so far). Most consist of a few weak enemies and one or two more powerful ones, meaning you get hit hard and also hit often. Master the Paradigms early is imperative to continue.

Personally I’d still like to have direct control of the characters… but I’m starting to see that it wouldn’t work in this particular game. The battles are extremely fast paced and relentless. Enemy recharge times are miniscule. It’d simple take to long to micromanage everybody, especially given how fast your HP gets whittled down. Given the circumstances, Paradigms are indeed the most effective method.

Having learned my new battle system, and glad that I now actually have to pay attention in order to win, the game has now become quite a bit more involving. I no longer need to take extended breaks in order to recharge my interest, so things are looking up!

Gameplay Time - 4 Hours

We’re treated to a lot more cutscenes that are both beneficial and detrimental to the characters in equal parts. As an update on my opinions of each of them so far:

Lightning - Still angry, still self absorbed, still a *****. Her moments of softness are always followed by moments of irrational violence. I wonder when her “growing” into a caring character will start. At the moment, she’s a frustratingly moody and giving everyone the silent treatment. But at least the other characters aren’t afraid to tell her this too.

– Eehhhhh… Vanille. God I hate her. I gather she was meant to be the typical, high voiced, erratic Japanese school girl type, that just doesn’t translate well into English. Her moods and actions make little to no sense, and the game would have benefited from her not existing at all at this point.

One nice thing that I touched on back in the first blog that’s getting used more now: in game banter. While Lightning is running around, no longer is the team a mysterious part of her that pops out for battle. Now they run around the area, exploring and chatting to each other. It’s nice to hear, even though Lightning remains the hardened mute and refuses to join in. Also, we learn that Lightning is only a code name, not her real one. Hmmm interesting. I wonder if her real name is any better?

Much of this hour was spent once again exploring, character developing, and experimenting in battle. We learn two new elements that I approve of:

The first is Tactical Points. This take a long time to explain, despite the TP bar being below Lightning’s health bar from the start of the level. TP is used for special skills, and is fairly limited. You have a maximum of five points (so far), and unlike health they don’t recharge automatically after battle. Instead, you have to earn them by doing well in fights. It might take two or three high rated battles to recharge one point, so obviously they’re not meant to be spent frivolously.

So far, the only skill we’ve been able to use with TP is “Libra”. FF veterans will recognise this as the skill that reveals enemy traits and weaknesses, though this time it has more effect then ever before. Using Libra on an enemy not only reveals it’s information, your team immediately takes advantage of that info by changing their tactics accordingly.

This is absolutely brilliant, as anything that makes your AI team mates smarter is a blessing. If the enemy is weak to a magic element, such as Water, and one of your team possesses that skill, they’ll automatically start using it for maximum effect. Likewise, if your main character possesses that skill, the “Auto queue” button will begin to queue that particular skill when targeting that enemy. Very clever and useful.

Once again, I hit a point of no return before fully exploring an area, so I had to end it there. Three hours of constant play is probably enough for now anyway heh.

New General Consensus?

Better! Much better. At least in the battle system department. I’m beginning to understand the reasons for the choices they’ve made, and that’s a good thing. It’s just a shame it took two hours of forced X X X gameplay to get there.

I’m also very pleased that the character development system is so straightforward and effective, as that was a main concern of mine from way back.

The drive to play it is growing, even if the story and characters are still fairly weak. The graphics are incredible, and starting to be flaunted more often, as hoped. Yeah, things are looking up. Hopefully the next blog will be full of more positives as well!

Next Blog: 6 Hours, 8 Hours, 15 Hours

The FFXIII Experience – One Hour In

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:45:55 -0500

Previous Blogs: 30 Minutes

A good nights sleep and a day in which to do nothing but play my extensive back catalogue. I feel I need to pursue my FFXIII experience further. Perhaps I was too harsh on it last night?

Start Up

The first thing I notice upon loading my game is that it gives you a story synopsis of everything you’ve experienced so far. This scrolls up the screen at quite a pace, and can’t be stopped or rewound.

Most interestingly, I noted that I knew none of this. I’d picked up bits and pieces of what was going on from things Snow and Lightning said, but otherwise I was merely glossing through on an “Ok, so this is happening in some place to some people for some reasons I don’t yet know” kind of mind set.

I pretty sure I’m missing something here. I explore the in game menu, and find a tab marked “Datalog”. Inside is a veritable plethora of information regarding Pulse, Cocoon, the characters and the story so far. Hmm. I am most perturbed.

While I appreciate all this info being in one place, I would have preferred it to be explained in game! I sincerely hope it does, because I really don’t want to be going back and forth to the datalogs, reading pages of summary and explanations, just to keep track of wtf is happening in the story. That’s just lazy writing. But we’ll see.

Gameplay Time – 35 Minutes

Picking up where I left off with Snow and Co. Another long pathway of enemies to fight i.e. be defeated by X.

X X X X X X O! Nah just kidding, it was X again.

One pleasant surprise was to see exotic black haired chick IS still with us. I could have sworn she ran off to help the refugees. She’s an awesome fighter to watch, very sensual. She even has this sexy hip gyration when she uses a potion. Man, it’s a shame she won’t be around for long.

Ahem, moving on. Defeating more enemies with X, until I come across another Boss. It’s a giant dog thing with the head of Advent Children’s Bahamut and covered in armour. He’s pretty nasty… in the sense that I actually had to use one potion during the fight, inbetween pushing X.

How are these even considered boss fights? There’s no skill or strategy involved at all! Why can’t I target specific areas on my enemy? Like the armour, legs, head, chest. This combat at it’s most basic, watered down form. Impossible to lose, and assuming you keep pushing X, plays out exactly the same way every time. Even FFX’s combat entertained me more then this early on.

Another thing that’s bothering me about the combat that I haven’t mentioned yet: the ratings. Every fight has a rating. WHY do so many JRPG and J-Brawlers need a rating system? I mean, it’s nice I can achieve a 5 star rating just by pushing X, but what have they got planned further down the track? Are the super enemies not going to drop decent loot unless I get a high rating? No thanks. Most tough enemies I’m just glad to kill; I don’t want to have to worry about making it an A-1 perfect battle too. Hmph.

Gameplay Time – 45 Minutes

Around 10 minutes of cutscenes which, thankfully, did explain some of the stuff described in the Datalogs. Not very thoroughly, but it’ll do. This is interjected by another Boss-ish fight with Lightning and Sazh. This guy was mean. I had to use another potion.

Then it’s back to Snow for some more cutscenes and fighting.

Gameplay Time – 50 Minutes

We are now in control of some new team characters; Hope, the blonde boy who just watched his mother get owned, and Vanille, the red headed girl narrating the story. I already hate them both. Well, Hope hasn’t said much, but I know he’s going to be a whiny brat. Vanille… my god. Who ever wrote her dialogue needs a snap-kick to the head. I wonder if it’s possible to kill off team members? Where’s Sephiroth when you need him?

Another cutscene, and it’s time to explore the mysterious fal C’ie thing where Lightning and the others were headed.

Whoa. Hope has a Boomerang as a weapon. And Vanille’s wielding some weird staff that shoots out cutting wires. That’s pretty cool! Except wait, no, Vanille runs like an absolute spaz. Her list of annoyances is growing. What the hell kind of accent is her VA using anyway? It sounds like it’s trying to be… Australian? No way… can’t be. That’s just atrocious. We sound nothing like that. She sounds like an American chick speaking a mangled form of British/Aussie/Kiwi. I’m so appalled.

This is the first “Open” area we’ve been allowed to explore. The mini map clearly shows the layout, as well as enemy locations. This is handy. Another tutorial message has popped up explaining Aggressive and Preemptive strikes. Oh thank god! They do exist! In other words; approaching the enemy from behind will take them by surprise and result in their “stagger” bar being very high at the start of the battle. Attacking head on will just be a battle like any other.

Hmm. Something else about the battle system I actually like: thanks to the action queue system, if an enemy dies to one action, yet there are two more remaining in the queue, your character automatically jumps to the next closest enemy, without the queue resetting. Now that I like. Well, in the sense that if I have to put up with this form of combat, at least this is making it a little more streamlined and useful.

Gameplay Time – 1 Hour

Ah poo. I went the wrong way and hit a point of no return before I’d explored everything in the room. I HATE when that happens. Guess I’ll have to stop and reload, though now I’m to annoyed at how horrible Vanille is to play any more.

I’ll play something else and come back to it later.

New General Consensus?

This is going slow. Very slow. I mean most of the FF’s are slow to begin, but they’re punctuated by tons of exploration, talking opportunities or side quests. Even before the main story starts.

It’s not great when a game fails to maintain my attention for more then 30 minutes at a time (I’m not just doing so for this blogs sake, I’m genuinely getting tired and in need of a break). I blame it mainly on the combat… and the fact that I don’t like the characters… and that I still feel like I have no real idea what’s going on or why, even after reading the Datalogs.

Urgh. Probably just my general impatience. A break and a different game might allow for a more optimistic outlook when I come back. I hope.

Next Blog: 4 Hours, 6 Hours, 8 Hours, 15 Hours

The FFXIII Experience – 30 Minutes In

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:51:33 -0500

I’ve been waiting for this game ever since I saw the trailer on my FFXII bonus DVD. That’s been a looonggg wait. I, like many others, hoped this would be the biggest, best, and most amazing Final Fantasy to date.

But recent reviews have brought to light many changes that are not normal for the series: only controlling one character, linear design, no open world, few side quests. These have made me slightly wary, and more then a little sceptical. I go into the game now, prepared for anything, and hoping that I will not be disappointed too often. After all, being pleasantly surprised and actually loving the game would be the best thing to happen in the end.

This is a blog I’m keeping, more so for myself then other readers, though you’re welcome to scrutinize and comment should you wish. It will be interesting to see how my perception and attitude towards the game changes depending on the characters, story, outcome etc. Will it be indepth? Maybe. Will it be needlessly picky? Definitely? Will it be overly positive/negative? Most likely. Eh, that’s just how I work. I’ll be quite happy to admit if my immediate observations are proved wrong in the end.

***Remember: SPOILERS ALERT!!!***

Game Setup

Having booted up the game on my PS3, was surprised to find there was no install. Hmm. Interesting. As long as there’s no exorbitant load times, that should be fine. Immediately went to the options, switched on all the subtitles… and stopped. There seemed to be a distinct lack of language options. To my horror I realise that, blu ray or no blu ray, Japanese language was not included. I am stuck with English VO’s!!! :O

Things are not off to a good start.

Gameplay Time – 5 Minutes

Having seen the opening many times on the net, the cinematic was no surprise. I am impressed with the smoothness of character animations; very fluid and natural. Lightning is athletic, even if her name is stupid. That has nothing to do with anything, I just think her name is stupid, and thought I should get that out of the way early.

One thing I note is that the English VO’s aren’t quite as bad as I was led to believe! At least, the characters that have spoken so far seem ok. Sazh reminds me of Eddie Murphy, and hey, I can live with that! Lightning sounds like… cold, monotone, emotionless fighting character #37. Eh, at least she’s not grinding my nerves yet.

Graphics really are quite stunning. Glad I have a PS3 to take full advantage of them. I pity those poor 360 players (not really).

Gameplay Time – 10 Minutes

Now that all those overly sensitive 360 players have stopped reading, lets move on to the actual game. After the train crash, the Giant Scorpion fight starts, and I get my first taste of battle. I do the tutorial. Appears pretty straight forward. As soon as all the explanation windows disappear, I take control. I am confused.

Analog sticks and D-pads fail to move Lightning. She is stuck in a single position. Once again I realise I have not researched this game enough, otherwise I would have known that the mid-combat free roaming ability of FFXII was completely abolished, and replaced with the “your side, their side, ATTACK!” of the previous games.

Hmm. After 200 collective hours of FFXII over the years, only now do I realise how much I enjoyed running around the battlefield, smacking monsters in the face or butt at whim, fleeing freely, leading enemies around while my team attacked them, or merely moving out of range of a melee. Being stuck in one position now seems… so unnecessarily constrictive. Less immersive too. Having direct control over a character really upped the roleplaying feel.

People complained that FFXII “played itself”. By which they meant that if you set up your Gambits correctly, your party members would do exactly what you wanted at the right time, usually without fail. Even your main character could have these Gambits, meaning you could sit back and let the game play the battles for you. This was an understandable concern, but in reality it only applied to your run-of-the-mill monsters that roamed the various areas. Bosses and more powerful creatures required more strategy and skill.

I get the feeling FFXIII is going to be essentially the same. Even though the Gambits are gone, we now have an “auto” button, which queues up all your main (and only) controllable characters possible actions. This system checks the situation and acts accordingly: single enemy? Attack as per normal. Multiple enemies? Use a special skill that attacks them all at once.

So far, the battle system hasn’t quite been playing itself, but it’s pretty damn close. At the moment it’s defining “Push X to Win”. In fact, I was doing a few battles while writing these notes, just pushing the button continuously. I didn’t even have to look at the screen! Push X to win indeed. The whole “controlling one character” thing is a little boring too. Not being able to select exactly which spell or attack I want my team mates to do is going to take a lot of getting use to.

From what I’ve heard, the battle system expands more later with Paradigms, and a similar deal applies: you need to switch and manage your parties roles for more powerful enemies, but with smaller fodder it’s just a matter of attack, attack, attack.
Still, merely changing Paradigms is probably going to be a hell of a lot less micro-managey then directly controlling the actions of your entire team. Good or bad thing?

Well hey. It’s only 10 minutes in, and I’ve only had a few battles. Even FFXII was that basic in the beginning. It’d be silly to pass judgement so soon. Still, first impressions ARE important…

Gameplay Time – 15 Minutes

I like Sazh. Lightning’s a *****. She better grow somewhat in the game, cause at the moment her attitude problem is really making her difficult to like. Then again, even Cloud was a self absorbed, thoughtless, insensitive prick in the beginning.

I wish I hadn’t watched that IGN video with the joke English dubs. I keep expecting the baby Chocobo to say “Daymn!”. I get disappointed when he only cheeps.

Should mention the stores being an integrated part of the save points. It’s certainly handy and streamlined, even if it does take all the fun out of going to towns and talking to the locals, learning the history and the lore and perhaps engaging in some side quest. The license in my inventory suggests I’ll be buying access to more stores Mass Effect style.

Environment interaction is somewhat new as well. Or at least, more common now. It used to only happen in the previous games by going up to a suspicious looking area and exploring it, resulting in your character leaping around the screen along secret paths to treaure. Now Lightning jumps over everything. Showey, if unnecessary. Eh.

Actually Sazh’s constant narration is beginning to grind on me. I wouldn’t mind it if Lightning talked back, Uncharted style for some interesting, character building dialogue. But he’s just talking about nothing. Missed opportunity there.

Gameplay time – 20 minutes

A Boss that looks remarkably like the Judges seen throughout the Ivalice games. How intriguing. Here we learn about “battle chains” and “staggers”. By constantly attacking an enemy, they can be staggered, and made to take more damage for a short time. Not a bad idea. Reminds me of the “breaks” from the Valkyrie Profiles games.

Then we zip over to another character. Snow! He and various other people around him also have decent English VO’s. I’m so relieved.

However, I’m a little disappointed that I’m not actually able to talk to all the NPC’s. Walking past them generates an automatic spoken response, which consists of a single line. On one hand, it’s nice that I don’t have to press X yet again to activate them. On the other, I wish I could, and perhaps get a more indepth view on the story so far and situation. Also, walking past again triggers the same response. Easily spammed. Hm.

More cutscenes, where we meet Snow’s rebel team, called “Nora”. Seems to consist of a dude with a flaming hairdo, a blonde kid with goggles, and a rather exotic looking black haired chick sporting some interesting attire. Helllooo. Why isn’t she part of the main squad? She could easily be this game’s Tifa.

Unfortunately this where the English VO problems begin to show: not from the voice actors themselves, but from the writing. A clearly Japanese moment that would be fine and suited for the Japanese language, but when translated into English, falls flat and seems stupid. Damn, I guess THIS was what I was afraid of.

Gameplay Time – 30 Minutes

More battles. A whole long path of them in fact, which I once again defeated by pressing X with my big toe while typing up the previous analysis. I know, I know. The battles will get better.

We meet more fleeing rebels, and a few future team characters hiding under hoods. I’ve already marked a few as having the potential to “annoy the **** out of me”; namely the goggles kid, and the red head chick that appears to be narrating the game. “Bang”? Really? How old are you again?

After some more corny writing, Snow and Co. gallop off to fight some more bad guys. But I’m tired and can’t play anymore. Plus, the exotic black haired chick isn’t part of the team anymore, so my interest automatically waned. I guess I’ll play more tomorrow. Assuming Resident Evil 5’s new DLC’s don’t distract me.

General consensus so far?

After getting over the shock of losing my free roam and my Japanese VO’s, as well as the oddly (super) simplified battle system and main character I don’t immediately like, I guess it’s not bad. I’m not hooked: a really engaging game would have made me play without interruption, not feel compelled to get up and write a 4 page analysis in the middle of (and during) it. It also would have kept me up until 3 or 4am, instead of only 1.

Once again I’m finding myself driven by the “it will get better” promise. Which I’m sure it will. I mean c’mon, 30 minutes? That’s nothing in JRPG. It might be enough to finish half of Modern Warfare 2, but in a JRPG that barely covers the intro. If that! As we have thusly witnessed.

There’s definitely more to see, more to pick apart, more to be surprised by, or to change earlier conceived opinions. Either way, there will be:

More tomorrow.

Next Blog: 1 Hour, 4 Hours, 6 Hours, 8 Hours, 15 Hours

GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City Coming to PS3 and PC!

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:11:40 -0500

Oh ho, those poor xbox players have one less exclusive to lord over all other systems. In a "surprising" move, Rockstar annouced today that the previously 360 exclusive title "GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City" will in fact be arriving on the PS3 and PC after all.

As quoted:

While this prompts a great amount of joy for us PC/PS3 users, it does inspire a certain amount of pity for the 360ers. While Halo and Gears are certainly worthwhile exclusives, "Episodes From" was a huge edition to their list, and steadfast gloating point. Losing it has got to feel like quite a slap in the face. Sort of like if God of War 3 suddenly decided it wanted to mingle too.

However, this IS Rockstar we're talking about. Liberty/Vice City Stories didn't remain exclusive to PSP for long before it *****d its way over to PS2. Even the cute China Town Wars DS game wandered meekly up to PSP when Rockstar decided the Nintendo market simply wasn't enough.

Honestly, what have we come to expect from a company that wanted to make GTA IV on PC was so hard to pirate it required you to make two seperate accounts for two completely unnecessary programs, even before you could play the damn thing. IF you could play it. The mountains of DRM and poor optimization brought many a modern computer to a grinding halt.

On top of all that, they had the nerve to make attempting higher settings impossible if the game thought your computer "couldn't handle it". I mean what the hell? I'm a PC user, I'll damn well attempt to run my games on whatever damn settings I please! I don't need some third party deciding these things "for my own good" (see: Australian Government R18+ Game Law, or lack there of).

So what was the result of all of Rockstar's wise choices?

It took all of one day to crack, and people pirated it anyway, just so they could have it nice and clean, without all the DRM chugging it up. From what I heard, it worked infinitely better that way. Why do I feel like I'm being punished for being a good and honest customer? (see: sucker)

Meh. I'm all ranted out. It's great news that "Episodes from Liberty City" is coming to PC at last, but I dread to think about the hoops we'll have to jump through if we're stupid enough to buy it retail. Then again, Rockstar could surprise us....

Naaaaaahhhh. Let us know what you think of Rockstars betrayal, 360 players. Let the anger flow!

Blizzard's 'Draw Your Female Monk' Diablo 3 Competition Yields Amusing Results

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:29:07 -0500

On January 26th, the Blizzard Team behind Diablo 3 annouced a "Draw Your Own Female Monk Contest" on Twitter and the Battle.net forums, in preparation for her official unveiling. The results so far have been both impressive and humorous. For convenience sake, I thought I'd just put them all in one blog for you to marvel at.

Enjoy!

Artist: Mjollnir (Second Picture coloured by Udany)

Artist: Lytus

Artist: Pinuxette

Artist: redaction00

More on next page! ----->

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This one is pretty cute. Is Diablo too serious for a cute female character?

Artist: kasuturo

Artist: besonderheit

Artist: h8u Artist: sergiof

Artist: The_Dragon_King

Still More on Next Page! -------->

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Artist: Brettabra

Don't know what the heck happened to this one, but she looks more like a Hobbit crossed with a Troll. Or perhaps a Warthog. Either way, her armpit hair alone would send Diablo running...

Artist: Melkisedek

Artist: Leugi

Artist: ~

Artist: d3bn

Artist: artdrawnbyjelly

And my personal favourite:

Artists: tedknaz

Daymn! I think we have a finalist! Excellent entries by everyone involved there, and we look forward to Blizzard's annoucement on who the winner is. Good luck to you all!

Ten of Gamings Greatest A.I. Characters

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:16:37 -0500

Artificial Intelligence. It’s the scariest thing the human species has faced since cloning, zombies and stem cell research. What could be more terrifying then the machines we depend on every day, suddenly rising up to enslave us instead? Communications monitored! Assets frozen! Transportation shut down! FRIDGES AT ROOM TEMPERATURE!!

Well, that’s probably a long way off. The best we can manage at the moment is the iDog, Robo-sapien and maybe that one that plays chess. Wow, look out, we might have to king him! We humans have at least another ten years up our sleeve, no problem. In the mean time, we can turn to good old video games for our ‘previews of coming attractions’.

[digg] Of all the characters that have appeared in our games over the years, few have been quite as memorable as the A.I’s. Some were helpful, guiding us to victory and even eager to learn the inner quirks of mankind. Others were not so friendly; acquiring self awareness, and the megalomaniacal tendencies of a rogue God.

Let’s look back on the best A.I’s gaming has provided, and perhaps catch a glimpse of our future rulers in the process!

***WARNING - May Contain Spoilers***

(Further Note: I am aware that is a treacherous topic, since each A.I. has more then an armies worth of loyal fans behind them. I’ll try my best to do each one justice, but please avoid rallying the lynch mob if I miss something important. Polite corrections are welcome)

“Sentient Hyper-Optimized Data Access Network”

Quote: “Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone…”

And finally, we come to the greatest AI of them all… or at least the most well known female one. The original System Shock is far too old for most people to remember, but the second still maintains quite a cult following, thanks largely to SHODAN and her manipulative, condescending ways.

The first game took place on a space station, where a Hacker was forced to release the resident control computer from her ethical restrictions, and gave her self awareness. Free to do whatever she wished, with the power of a God Complex to back her up, SHODAN started to create a new form of life on the station. The result was a parasite; able to attach itself to multiple biological forms, and communicate together as a singular entity. Before SHODAN’s plans could be completed, however, the Hacker destroyed her, jettisoning a pod containing some of her CPU components and creations in the process.

In the second game, her crashed pod is picked up by a starship, and the cycle starts anew. Taking the role of an enhanced solider this time around, players were forced to help SHODAN first take over the ship, then escape it. Her creations, free from her will and slowly consuming the ship, meant you had no choice but to help each other, despite SHODAN’s continuous belittlement and commentary on human worthlessness. Ending with an epic showdown in cyberspace, it appears that both she and her life forms are eliminated. Until the final scenes, where we see an escaped crew member showing signs of sickness, and her voice sounds strangely familiar…

Though there were AI’s before her, most older gamers agree that SHODAN was the “Mother” of AI characters. Her distorted voice, superiority complex, quirky mannerisms, and general distain for humanity have been mirrored in many that have followed (most notably being, of course, GLaDOS). But no matter how much they try, none have ever quite matched up to SHODAN. Her snideness. Her contempt. The loathing that dripped from her every command. She was pure digital hatred.

If we ever get a System Shock 3, would today’s generation be ready to face the evil that is SHODAN? She has cake alright, but if you look at it, she’ll kill you.

------------------------------------------------------

So there we have it. Ten of Gaming’s Greatest AI Characters. Prime examples of the callous overlords our future may hold.

Any I missed? Another A.I. more deserving? Post them in the comments below!

L4D2 Future Update - Infected Bots and The End of Auto Spawn

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:47:25 -0500

[digg] Fantastic news for all L4D2 enthusiasts out there! In Valve's latest blog, the team annouced they have many intended fixes coming our way, including the prospect of Infected Bots to take the place of leaving players, and the removal of Auto Spawn from finals. As quoted:

This is incredible news for players, as both these issues have been the bane of Versus games since the arrival of Left 4 Dead 1. At such a critical time, where faith in the series was beginning to dwindle, this is a much needed and positive boost for the community. More updates like this could only be a solid step in the right direction.

With "The Passing" promising the return of the original Survivors, and the community working hard to implement the old maps, things are definitely looking up for the longevity of the series. We can only hope that L4D2 will continue to improve!

Ode to Ramirez - We're Oscar Mike

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:52:28 -0500

Modern Warfare 2 may be regarded as "teh best game eva!" by many, but it's undeniable that the single player mode has some... less then desirable features. Many find Infinity Ward's new fetish for military terms a tad annoying. Not to mention their need to make the player feel like the entire war rests on his shoulders.

Of all the phrases said in game, few have become as infamous as the "Oscar Mike" order, and the ever dependable "Ramirez". Here's a small collection of the internet's 'appreciation' for IW's 'epic' title.

RAMIREZ - WE'RE OSCAR MIKE!

(Click Image to Enlarge - Thanks go out to the Facepunch forums for their hard work)

I'm having Nam flashbacks just looking at them...

Lego Diablo - Bricks of Destruction

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:03:56 -0500

You marvelled at Lego Star Wars. You were amused by Lego Indiana Jones. You smiled at Lego Batman, and scratched your head at Lego Rock Band. And I think it's fair to say that Lego Harry Potter won't be the most exciting edition to this long running series.

Perhaps the Lego team is just looking in the wrong direction? Perhaps the next game needs to be more... mature? Say, something involving gigantic Lego Weapons and mountains of Lego Demons to slay? Presenting:

To see more, pop over to Dunechaser's main archive; leave a message and show your support!

A Nostalgic Study into Aliens vs Predator's Classic Origins

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:20:50 -0500

A Long Winded, Nostalgic Study into Rebellion's AvP Origins

With the new Alien vs. Predator game quietly sneaking up on us, Rebellion recently decided to unleash the original game on Steam for a mere $5. Upgraded to suit most new computers, with all patches and add-ons integrated, AvP Classic is a trip down memory lane for us PC oldies.

First appearing in 1999, then later released with a “Millennium” expansion in 2000, AvP arrived around the same time as other great titles as Half Life, Dues Ex and System Shock 2. Many old school gamers will recall this as “the Golden Years of Gaming”, where each game felt fresh and innovative; not just a graphic laden rehash of everything we’ve seen before. A time before WASD was even thought of.

[digg] Personally, AvP fought Half Life for right place on my Pentium 166’s 1.6GB hard drive, taking turns to be uninstalled and reinstalled when the fancy took me. Sporting a whopping 3fps, any more than a few enemies on screen at once resulted in game crunching halts of at least one or two seconds. Slide shows had nothing on my AvP experience.

Regardless, I played the death out of that game. I completed every level on the hardest difficulty, earned every cheat by meeting the sometimes-ridiculous requirements, and even direct-dialed my friends so we could play 1-on-1 online over my 14k modem. (Yup, most people thought that not possible. Somehow, we managed it).

Yessir, those were certainly the days. But what was it that made AvP so memorable? Why is it even now deserving of our praise, for what it introduced to the gaming world, and how it pummelled and beat us into the gamers we are today? Let’s have a look back on the FPS glory that was AvP Classic, and see what made it so great.

F.E.A.R. 2 + DLC - Complete Review

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:59:34 -0400

Complete Review: Alma Won’t Kill You, But Boredom Might

Though FEAR 2 was released back in February ’09, the developers aren’t keen to see it forgotten. With a new DLC released, and a more affordable pricetag, curious gamers are starting to eye this game with renewed interest. Now seems like a good time for an honest review.

I originally purchased this for the PS3, and enjoyed the first level, but had to return it due to my hatred of playing FPS’s with a controller. Then to my surprise, Steam offered both the main game and the DLC for half price! I recall my famous last thoughts being: ‘Oh, what the heck? Might as well!’

Me and my stupid impulse buys.

Review Highlights

(For the TLDR Crowd)

FEAR 2 begins thirty minutes before the end of the first game. Taking the role of a soldier named “Becket”, a member of the elite ‘Delta Squad’, the player and his team mates are tasked with tracking down Genevieve Aristide, the president of Armacham. Due to the incriminating evidence found by the protagonist of the first game, linking Genevieve and Armacham to the incarceration of Alma and other telepathic experiments, she is due to be arrested.

Before they can reach their goal, however, the explosion from the end of FEAR 1 occurs, and Becket and his team are rendered unconscious.

Awakening later in a hospital, after undergoing some brutal and unscrupulous surgery, the Delta Squad find they are the unwitting subjects of more telepathy experiments, and are now gifted with heightened abilities (a.k.a bullet time). They continue to give chase to Genevieve through the ruined city, all the while being hunted by Armacham miliary, Replica soldiers, hideous mutants and Alma herself. It’s a struggle to survive against zzzzzzzzz…..

I’m sorry, dozed off there. If you played the first game, you’ll immediately recognise how familiar the story is. As in it’s the same goddam story. You’re an elite soldier, in an elite squad, who’s other members die one by one, while in pursuit of a person you really don’t care about, from the very first minute of the game until the last. Alma wants to kill you, but she never does, and in the end there’s a cliffhanger that’s about as fascinating as your average Twitter post.

WOW! Look out, Planescape: Torment, you’ve got competition!

To make matters worse, the story is delivered by dialogue so poorly written that even a D Grade movie director would cringe, and in text logs that read more like “SECRET HUMAN TELEPATHY RESEARCH COMPANIES FOR DUMMIES” then subtle hints to an overall storyline. The only way they could make things more obvious is if the characters spelt things out for you every chance they got.

Oh wait: THEY DO!

It’s best not to read too deeply into FEAR 2’s plot, since it’s truly more horrific then anything you fight in the game. Some of the characters lines were delivered so badly, I actually laughed in disbelief. How does this stuff get past the playtesters? Can’t they hear how god awful it sounds?

Conclusion: I’ve seen better things written on paper with crayons.

Graphics – Still Grey, But At Least We Go Outside!

On PC, FEAR 2’s graphics aren’t bad. They might be grey generic, and bland, but they aren’t bad. And compared to the PS3, they’re fantastic. Don’t ask me why the PS3 version looked so awful on my HD 40 inch Sony Bravia TV, but it did. I can honestly say that the PC version was a 150% improvement.

The prettiest level you’ll come across is the first, before the bomb goes off. It features a stunning amount of colour compared to the rest of the game; bright hotel settings, some interesting décor to destroy, a charming twilight over a glowing city. It’s nice. It’s what got me hooked when I first played it on the PS3.

Once that bomb goes off, however, it’s all starts to go downhill. Back to the dark corridors, back to the boring offices. You’re funnelled here, you’re channelled there. No branching paths or choices. They try to mix things up with a school level, but really that’s just another office in disguise. About the only parts that do stand out are the city streets.

The city has been nearly levelled after the explosion, with the radioactive dust casting an eerie red glow over everything. Charred corpses of civilians who didn’t have time to run litter the streets, and will disperse in a cloud of ash if you touch them. Compared to the inside of a building, the new tileset is a welcome change.

The biggest problem I had with the first game was the limited amount of set pieces. You saw the same hammer, the same sign, the same file cabinet or cluster of office desks a thousand times. There was no variety. FEAR 2 is equally as guilty, and the horror atmosphere suffers substantially because of it. Take the second level as an example: the hospital the Delta Squad wakes up in.

You wander around. It’s dark, it’s creepy. You find a blood trail. It leads to… a corpse on the toilet! Ahhh ooohhh scary. Then, a few rooms down, you find… the same corpse! Only in a different position! Keep pushing on, and you’ll discover an examination table with a doctor lying on it, stuck full of needles. In fact, you’ll find no fewer then four of the exact same doctors, on the exact same tables, filled with the same needles. Obviously this kills any kind of tension the game can work up. The impact of the ‘scares’ just wane into tedium.

And it’s not limited to the dead character models. The enemies have ridiculously few skins. The soldiers are similar to the point where I struggled to tell the difference between the Replicas and the regular army. Not that it mattered. The crawling mutants have one skin only, so even they stop being interesting after the first few.

If there’s anything that’ll keep today’s gamers happy, it’s the gore. Limbs and heads can be blown off with ease, showering the screen in gratuitous amounts of carnage. The best scene in the whole game involves an up close, full frontal, slow motion decapitation. Don’t know how that got through our Australian classification groups.

The final verdict? A mild upgrade from the original FEAR, but not much. You won’t be gawking at anything here.
[page]

Gameplay – Cause No Game is Complete Without Bullet Time

Ignore the grey graphics. Forget the horror. Strip away the repetitive levels and terrible, terrible story. What do you have left?

A pretty solid shooter.

If nothing but the action matters to you, FEAR will definitely scratch that gun-crazed itch. Fights are fast, furious, and bloody. Enemies are plentiful and know how to surround you, but your assortment of weapons will get the job done. Certain sections are just continuous maim-fests that would keep even the most trigger happy of gamers entertained.

That said, it still has its glaring flaws. I played it on hard, and barely broke a sweat. Seasoned gamers won’t find much of a challenge here. Since around two thirds of your adversaries are regular humans, all you need to do is aim for that great big melon on their necks; a couple of shots to the head, and even the toughest grunts go down. Console players might struggle a touch more, but those of us using mouse and keyboard will be mowing baddies down like so much canon fodder. It does get old eventually.

On the plus side, there’s no regenerative health! It’s back to the good old medpacks and armour. This will prevent you from running headlong into battle every time, at least, and perhaps use a grenade occasionally. Well, maybe. The presence of “bullet time” makes even the most frantic battles a cinch. Hence why I never used it until the final levels, out of a sheer desire to get the game over with faster.

Another mechanic Monolith tried to introduce was the “cover” system. Certain objects, such as tables and file cabinets, can be pushed over for you to hide behind. You will never, ever use this. In the time it takes to knock the cover over, you’ve taken twice the amount of gunfire you would have received if you’d just straight out attacked. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Monolith (in a moment of sheer brilliance no doubt) tried to encourage people to use the system… by taking out the ******* lean ability.

That’s right. You can’t lean. No looking around corners. No peering past rumble. What is the point in that? It just means that even if you do play with the cover, you can’t do anything but look over the top of it and expose your whopping great noggin. Gee, how handy. I’d much rather cop bullets to the face then to the side.

Those issues aside, it’s run ‘n’ gun to the core, and does it pretty well. There’s a few mech piloting and gun turret sections to break up the monotony, but otherwise just hold your finger on those “forward” and “fire” buttons, and let the bullets fly.

Guns – Hint: You Can Actually Hold Three!

There aren’t a massive amount of guns in the game. Two machines guns, two shotguns, and your basic pistol are the ones you’ll come across moat. They’re fast, they’re accurate, and the ammo is plentiful. The shotguns aren’t quite as powerful as they could be, and you’ll need to put the damn things in someone’s mouth for a decent gore explosion.

Later on you’ll find some heavier weapons; a rocket launcher, flamethrower, sniper rifle, straight-beam laser, and a one-of-a-kind plasma canon. They’re not bad, but really, nothing compares to the Nail Gun. It was a favourite in the original FEAR; why does pinning a body to a wall provide such endless amounts of amusement?.

The Nail Gun isn’t as deadly this time around, firing large green syringes instead of actual nails, and you’ll need to land a few hits before the final one pins them. It’s still loads of fun, and the end results are the same. I’ve always wanted a Replica Piñata.

While you have three slots for weapons, I assumed that two were for your main weapons, and one was for your side arm, alla the CoD games. It wasn’t until right near the end that I accidentally grabbed another weapon while my pistol was equipped, and realised I could hold a third full size gun as well. Well bummer. Played most of the game with only two main weapons.

Guess that says a lot for the difficulty, ay?

Enemies – Attack of the Creepy Crawlies

As with the original, there isn’t much of a variety in enemies. You’ll be fighting regular military for the first few levels. They wear mostly blue gear, and come in machinegun, shotgun, and flame thrower flavours. They have little to no armour, making them easy pickings for the ‘boom headshot!’ crowd. The flamethrowers are especially laughable, as you can simply shoot the tanks on their backs.

Later you come across your first crawlers: skinny, boney guys that can crawl across any surface. They’re fast, and they can pin you, but they don’t do much damage, and their single model/skin gets old over time. The game’s favourite trick is to just throw hundreds at you in a small area, and hope you can’t mow them all down too quickly.

Then the Replica’s are activated. These guys look, sound, and act exactly like the regular military, except they have a brown hue to their clothes instead of blue. They have more armour, but their heads are still every bit as vulnerable. They can also carry the heavier weapons, making them slightly more dangerous. Later, you’ll meet Replicant “Ninja’s”, which are basically the crawling guys with cloaking abilities. Considering the awesomeness of their introduction, I was disappointed about that.

General AI of the humanoid enemies isn’t bad. Not as revolutionary as the first game, but they certainly know how to flank and use cover. Unfortunately they have the uncanny ability to know exactly where you all, all the time, every time. This is largely why the game is run and gun: because there’s no way to use stealth. Once alerted, enemies will continue to hunt you relentlessly until either you or they are dead. No way to hide from bots with wall hacks I guess.

Even though they’re cheaters and relatively smart, they also have moments of amazing stupidity. Usually in the form of a grenade. The enemy’s abilities to throw grenades is, for some reason, very unpredictable. Three out of five times, it’ll bounce off something and might even return to them. They won’t run from it. Sometimes the throw will be ok, but then their team mates will chase it, like dogs after a stick! It’s hilarious and odd at the same time.

The next notable enemies are the Mechs, which are about the only challenge the game has to offer. They come in two forms; a smaller man sized one that doesn’t show favour to shotguns, and an enormous heavy monstrosity wielding more fire power then a paranoid redneck. Both types use shields for protection, which need to be deactivated using electrical sources or EMP grenades. Then it’s just a matter of unloading everything into them until a weak spot appears. Figuring out how to takes these guys down is half the fun.

Further into the city you’ll encounter another mutant. The “Puppet master”, as I nick named him, is a strange, loping freak, no doubt formed in the explosion’s aftermath. This creature demonstrates some paranormal abilities, and is able to make your screen flash white and red if you get to close. While he doesn’t deal much damage himself, he does have the power to ‘control’ any dead bodies around him; lifting them up via red psychic threads and making them fire weapons still clutched in their hands.

If the Mechs provide the only challenge, the Ghosts will provide the only apprehension. It seems some of the city’s residents aren’t pleased about being disintegrated, and are still hanging around as angry, vengeful spectres. Encountering these beings can be unnerving, especially since their wispy forms are hard to see. The best parts of the game are the “haunted areas”: places where your flashlight doesn’t work, the screen flashes black, and the ghosts come continuously from all angles. I wouldn’t say it’s scary… but definitely tense.

And finally, we have Alma herself. Poor Alma. Poor, useless Alma. It’s must be so frustrating: the most powerful psychic entity known to man… and she’s reduced to walking slowly past your field of vision in a vain attempt to shock you. Well, ok, she can attack you this time. But any assault that can be deflected by a quicktime event isn’t really life threatening. Unlike the first game, Alma fails to frighten even once.

Come on, Monolith. Give the girl a break. Make her really scary for FEAR 3: give her a Bible to carry! Then she only has to ask if we ‘have some spare time to talk about Jesus’, and players won’t be able to flee fast enough!
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Sound – Is That Asthma Or Are You Just a Wimp?

Sound in FEAR 2 is ok, but not used to the maximum of its potential. I was really looking forward to the school level; I expected all kinds of noises. Children whispering, laughing, crying, singing ring-around-the-rosie. I didn’t get any of that. Think I heard some sobbing once, but that was it.

Since it's so desperately trying to be a horror, most of the sound only happens when something surprising or ‘scary’ occurs. This just goes to show how little Monolith know about horrors. Sure, silence can be disturbing, but have they ever played Silent Hill? Anyone who has can tell you; hearing terrifying ambient noises off screen is a whole lot scarier then a void.

While most of these ‘fright’ noises are music cues or sharp violins, the most annoying one has got to be Becket’s heavy breathing. The same tactic was used in the first game; something would happen, and the main character would start to breathe as if he was beginning to panic. If it only happened occasionally, no problem. But they use it all the freakin’ time. It’s like they knew the game wasn’t that frightening, so they used the breathing as a way of saying “Look! This is scary! The character is scared! You should be too! Be scared, dammit!”

It might be nit picking, but it got on my nerves. Shut up, Becket, ya big wuss.

As for the sounds of battle, it’s the usual bang bang stuff. It’s loud, it’s satisfying. The Mechs especially have nice whirrs and groans about them. And the sound of that Nail Gun… ka-pish ka-pish ker-shplat. Music to my ears.

DLC – Drop the Act, Earn the Win!

In September, a short, four level DLC was released for FEAR 2 called “Reborn”. This side story puts you in control of a Replicant soldier, who is contacted by Paxton Fettel: the antagonist from the first game that died unceremoniously at its end. Seems old Paxy isn’t as dead as we all hoped he was, and needs help rejoining the land of the living.

While I once again had issues with the story (I ******* hated Paxton Fettel, lamest bad guy ever. I don’t want him to come back for FEAR 3), and even with the length (roughly 45 minutes), I can safely say I enjoyed the DLC more then all of the main game combined.

Mainly because it chose a side! Reborn completely dropped the whole try hard horror thing, and firmly stuck with the shooter stance. And it was awesome. This DLC sees you blast your way through Replicant ranks, with the bare minimum in weapons and fire power. Enemies plow through walls at you, a highway full of snipers tries to slow you down. Then, coolest of all, you fall through a sideways building, busting up cubicles and doorways on the way down.

This tiny expansion held more imagination and fun moments then all of FEAR 2, which in a way is almost embarrassing. Sure, you can finish it faster then an episode of True Blood (FEAR needs more vampires), and the ending is full of ‘meh’. But hell, I might even play through it again soon, just to get my shooter fix.

If you didn’t need to own the original game to play it, I’d say shell out the ten bucks for the expansion and just stick with that. Even if it does mean suffering through that melodramatic Paxton prat again. Ugh.

Conclusion

FEAR 2 is game born into the wrong genre, and raised by parents who are too set in their ways. Rather then letting it evolve, or even change, they’ve continued to stifle its true potential; forcing it to conform to an expectation it simply can’t adhere too.

Or to put it bluntly: the limitations of the FEAR universe make it unsuitable to be a horror, and until Monolith figures this out, future titles will continue to be underwhelming. They need to focus their attention on the things they can actually do right. Namely good, old fashioned, straight out shooting.

This may require them to drop the FEAR series altogether and make something more devoted to action… but I don’t really see that happening. A lot of (strange, easily pleased) people love FEAR just the way it is. And when there’s a cash cow to be milked…

I guess it’ll take FEAR 3’s success or failure to prove me otherwise. Pray Alma is actually scary by then. As with with most games, it's a little hard to sum it all up with a simple number at the end. So instead, the rating will be based on the level of enjoyment I got out of it.

FEAR 2: A bargain bin buy only.

Enjoyment Rating: 4/10

Dead Space: Extraction – Review

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:25:01 -0400

Fans of last years survival horror “Dead Space” will be glad to know that the much awaited prequel is here at last. The catch? It’s on Wii, and also an on-the-rails shooter. Yes, I’ll forgive you for not leaping for joy.

“Dead Space: Extraction” allows gamers to see how it all began; from the second the Marker is moved and the Colony goes crazy, to the moment Isaac and his unfortunate crew hail the Ishimura for landing.

Review Highlights

(For the TLDR Crowd)

Better Know Your Game Developers – Suda51

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 01:38:00 -0400

(This was originally posted on Limit Break, but since some upcoming Suda-titles are going to be Hellforge material, thought I'd better post it on here as well)

If there’s one thing I love doing, it’s collecting rare and unique games made by developers who deviate from the mainstream. Discovering some dusty title traded in by a less knowledgeable person is like finding treasure; the more obscure the better. Unfortunately, this also makes it very hard for me to discuss my finds with others, since no one has even heard of some of these games, let alone their creators.

During my blogging time, I’ll probably want to post news related to future game releases by these lesser known designers, and understandably I’d expect most reactions to be “Huh?”. So to better help you understand my excitement, I’ll be doing little introductions for each developer, letting you know what they’ve done in the past, and why their games are worth your interest.

First up, one of my all time favourites:

, welcome to Hellforge!

FFXIII: A Novel Prequel?

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:29:08 -0400

Those who have been watching the "Special" section of the Official FFXIII Japanese website would have seen a new addition recently. Square has annouced "Special #4": a series of short stories, leading up to the starting point of XIII, with the first one called "Episode Zero: Promise".

Some fans were upset that the prequel wasn't an anime or a PSP game or even a lame DS title. Personally I love novel tie-in's even more then some of those (burn in hell, Nintendo DS), so this is all very exciting. It's just a shame that the stories are only being released on the Japanese website (so far), and most likely in Japanese. We'll just have to wait until some devoted fans translate them (probably take all of a few days).

Another interesting point is that Square has skipped over Special #3 to annouce this. What could #3 be that it warrents being held back? Hmm... interesting. We'll keep an eye on that while we're waiting for the first episodes release.

Valkyria Chronicles II Coming to the US

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:51:08 -0400

Hooray! Valkyria Chronicles 2 is going to make it out of Japan! Thank god for that.

Sega made the official annoucement only a few days ago, and while there's still no word yet on a european release, it shouldn't be far away. Coming in Summer 2010 for the US, it's currently PSP only, though a console port hasn't been ruled out completely. Sega also left a nice message for it's Valk 1 fans, as well as other info sources for us to follow, should we be interesting in Valk 2's progress:

And here's another quick trailer.

Dead Before Dawn Needs Your Help!

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:54:47 -0400

Seems the folks working on the much awaited "Dead Before Dawn" campaign have run into a spot of trouble: the computer of one of the main designer's has died, putting the Halloween release date in jeopardy. They're calling for help, either in the form of small cash donations, or pieces of unwanted computer hardware, in order to get the project up and running again as soon as possible.

If being a good samaritan isn't reward enough for you, they're also going to put the names of everyone who donates $10 or more into the game, as an Easter Egg to hunt down and gloat over.

For those of you who don't know what "Dead Before Dawn" is, you'll find the trailer for it below. The most faithful and amazingly accurate recreation of the awesome "Dawn of the Dead" movie ever! I drool over it almost as much as the Black Mesa mod, and will definitely be donating $15 next pay day if it means getting the mod out on time. Romero ftw!

FFXIII Updates: News, Screenshots and Website

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:01:21 -0400

Square Enix recently held a "FFXIII Premier Party", where a ton of new information and media was released:

And finally, a whole bunch of new screenshots. Some were released in the Famitsu scans, but these are obviously better quality. Damn, Jihl looks so very cool. Can't wait to get more details on her.

I also took the liberty of adding some commentary dialoge inside the pictures that might, could, possibly, maybe appear in the english dub. Honest.





























Source 1
Source 2
Source 3

Diablo 2 Revival - Hellforgians Unite!

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:37:14 -0400

For the past two days, Sol and I have been reliving the joy of Diablo 2, and figure it's about time we invite the rest of you. We're playing on USwest, soft core ladder for now. Might upgrade to hardcore later once we get into the swing of things (At the moment I'm so reckless I've already carked it three times by jumping into hordes of a lightning imbued enemies fearlessly).

If we can get enough people together, we could even start a little group. "Hellforgians" anyone? Heh. We might even come up with a few guidelines, like giving uniques and rares to those who need them, staying together to maximise experience, all that jazz.

It might actually be interesting to expirement with some different builds. Let's face it, everyone's made enough cookie cutters in their time. With a game this old, that'd only make things boring. Personally I'm remaking my Plaguezon from back in the Flagshipped days. She's a lot of fun; those Flayers don't stand a chance. Sol's still trying to figure out which way to take his Barb.

We're lvl 22 at the moment, and collected a few items to help a Necro, Paladin or Assassin get started. Anyone interestied? We'll happily help you catch up.

Let's give D2 one last hurrah before 3 comes and kills every ounce of replaybility the old sprites have in them. Our account names are as to be expected: SolInvictus and Project_Xii. Add us, biatches!

Update:
In regards to making games for people to join, it'd probably be easiest if we called them "Hellforge#" (# being a number between 1-9), and the password "Pass". Easy as.

Shadow of the Munny - Mini Munny Colossus!

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:09:20 -0400

A user by the name of Matthew 'servotron' Ellison over on the Sprite Stitch Boards, recently bought a blank "Munny" doll:

and turned it into...

Complete with Mini Wander and Mini Wander-Mashing Mace! All we need is a Mini Agro, and the scene would be complete :P

Anime Update - 31/08/09

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:48:11 -0400

Guess who's been trolling again! Trolling DVD stores anyway.

Where does all this anime keep coming from? Release dates say they've been out for years, yet I've never seen or heard of them yet! And they all look so interesting on the case too. But more on those later.

Despite spending 116 hours on FFXII these past few weeks, I've still found time to watch a few anime here and there:

"The story begins in 1629 Kanagawa during Tokugawa Tadanaga's rule. The daimyo staged a tournament where the participants fought with traditional weapons rather than bokken ("wooden sword"). The story revolves around the first match between the one-armed swordsman Fujiki Gennosuke and the blind samurai Irako Seigen and deals with the circumstances that led the two to participate in Tokugawa's tournament."

Oohh very interesting. I love a good, bloody sword fight. And considering the series is apparently best known for its "graphically realistic violence and nudity", sounds like I'd be getting plenty of that. This has definitely made it to my "must see" list.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's about all for now. I'll try to have those reviews up shortly. Aside from anime, I also discovered the final chapters of the Hellsing manga, translated at last. Sad to see a good series end, but it was decent all the same. I sincerely hope Alucard will return in some fashion... perhaps in some proper prequel versions of Hellsing: The Dawn? Fingers crossed.

Don't be shy with those reviews, people! Let us know what you've watched!

Better Know Your Game Developers – Suda51

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 10:21:29 -0400



If there’s one thing I love doing, it’s collecting rare and unique games made by developers who deviate from the mainstream. Discovering some dusty title traded in by a less knowledgeable person is like finding treasure; the more obscure the better. Unfortunately, this also makes it very hard for me to discuss my finds with others, since no one has even heard of some of these games, let alone their creators.

During my time on Limit Break, I’ll probably want to post news related to future game releases by these lesser known designers, and understandably I’d expect most reactions to be “Huh?”. So to better help you understand my excitement, I’ll be doing little introductions for each developer, letting you know what they’ve done in the past, and why their games are worth your interest.

First up, one of my all time favourites:

, welcome to Limit Break!



Real World Halo Warthog

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:17:03 -0400
I'm not usually one for posting about how cool something from Halo is, but this I just couldn't pass up.

Early in August, Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, Australia, was host to a Halo 3: ODST event. As part of the show, Xbox Australia brought over some of their Weta made props from the scrapped Halo movie; one of which turned out to be...

The Halo Warthog, fully functional and detailed to the T. Midnight Update was lucky enough to drive the sucker, as well as record their experience. Sporting tusks, a machine gun, warning labels and enough grunt to flatten... well, grunts, it's quite possibly one of the coolest game related real-world creations I've seen.

Could you imagine plowing through the streets in this thing? Taking road rage to a whole new level?

Way cooler then a Puma.

Gamer of the Week #10 - DDRage

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:11:30 -0400
Dance Dance Revolution. Go to any local arcade, and you'll no doubt find a kid there, spinning and dancing like some kind caffeine fueled machine, putting those around him to shame. There's always one. It'll look easy when he does it, but should you choose to challenge his superior DDR skills, only humiliation and possible injury awaits... if not to yourself then to something else.

Here's why some people just shouldn't play coordination games, even in the safety of their own homes. Make sure you watch it all the way to the end, you'll see what I mean. (NSFW)

FFXIV: Jobs and Monsters Revealed

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:59:58 -0400

Seems Square Enix sent Koku Gamer a series of 11 new screenshots, revealing some new monsters and character jobs in the upcoming game:

"The new jobs seem to be ‘Marauder’, ‘Pugilist’ and ‘Weaver’. The first title suggests a sort of tank sub-job, with the opposite possibly being the Pugilist; which will no doubt be a brawling class. The Weaver could either refer to a magic-based class or an actual weaver of clothes; our money’s on the former."
Jobs

Ogre

New FFXIII Info Revealed at GamesCom 09

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:27:11 -0400



Square Enix was quite generous with their info at the recent GamesCom gathering, revealing not only a number of new game features, but a possible release date too! Some of the most notable points:

As well as all this info, a number of new screenshots were released. You'll find them below.
Things are looking good, people! FFXIII will be on our shelves before we know it ; )

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4

Final Fantasy Enemies: The Cockatrice

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:24:32 -0400

The Myth

The original Cockatrice myth extends back nearly two thousand years ago, appearing in one of the worlds earliest encyclopaedias. Said to be created when an egg laid by a rooster is incubated by a toad or snake, the resulting creature has the body of a dragon, with the head of a fowl. This makes it very similar to the Basilisk, which is born from the egg of a snake that's incubated by a cockerel.

The Cockatrices unusual creation gives it a number of deadly abilities, such as turning living beings into stone with a single glance, or breath that can kill instantly. Unlike the Basilisk, it also possesses wings, so it can fly to places its serpentine cousin can’t.

Like all mythical creatures, it has weaknesses; the weasel is said to be immune to the Cockatrices stare, and so can kill it, while the sound of a rooster crowing invites the same fate.

Though I imagine a sharp sword to the neck would be just as effective.

: All but VI and IX

The cockatrice has been a Final Fantasy staple, appearing in all but two games of the series. Most of its forms have resembled the original myth, at least in some way.




Starting off fairly plain and unimaginative, Square’s Cockatrice remained that way until the advent of 3D (FFVII), before suddenly getting outright ridiculous in IX and XI. While these designs made for decent monster encounters, it wasn’t until FFXII that the Cockatrice became something to be remembered, and almost characters within themselves:



FFXII’s Cockatrice could easily be the best designed creature in the game. Round and bird-like, they maintain their connection to the original myth by having distinct reptilian qualities, such as clawed hands instead of wings, and a long, scaly tail. They also have a unique travelling method; choosing to curl into a ball and roll lazily around the landscape, rather then waste energy by waddling.

As an added bonus, their new forms came with an amazing amount of personality, and the Cockatrice very quickly evolved from a simple enemy, to a much-loved NPC! Many fun quests revolved around these cute, rotund chickens, especially after your party found the “Feather of the Flock”, and gained the ability to speak with them. Ever heard a fat bird talking with a cockney accent? You can’t help but laugh.

If you’re not travelling all over the world, tracking down a few tame ones that decided to “go out and find themselves”, you’re protecting them from a relative that isn’t quite as friendly:



The dreaded “Cluckatrice” and its ravenous “Chickatrice” brood are submitted as Marks in an early hunt quest for your party. Low level players remember it ‘fondly’, especially if they chose to challenge it earlier then they should. What adventurer wouldn’t look at these gorgeous balls of fluff and think “Hah! No problem! We’re eating chicken tonight!”? Well, before their brains get pecked out through their eye sockets, anyway.

The Cluckatrice could lay waste to an ill prepared party, turning members to stone or simply helping her chicks peck them to pieces. Many have found themselves fleeing to the nearest save crystal with these fouls fowls hot on their heels, where they’d sheepishly patch themselves up and then slink away, swearing to return later and reap revenge. There’s a certain amount of shame in admitting you were bested by a chicken.

The Cockatrice characters were so loved, that one even appeared in the later Final
Fantasy Tactics A2 sequel as a reoccurring villain! The “Crushatrice” and his chicks encounter the player on numerous occasions, and many have compared him to Ultros for the number of times he battles and flees the party.

Being a huge fan of these creatures, I can only hope that they’ll make a cameo appearance in FFXIII, and not revert to some kind of inferior design. I mean, just look at those rolly polly feathered fiends! What’s not to love?