Free Candy For Everyone

I’ve claimed it before, but that was almost two years ago. I haven’t played World of Warcraft in maybe two weeks, and I don’t miss it. In fact, it’s been kind of glorious. I’ve been playing all sorts of different games on my Xbox 360.

I started up Phantasy Star Universe this weekend. It’s not a great game. But there’s something really lovely about playing a role playing game that has an end. I’m playing through, I’m making progress towards goals, and I know at some point I’ll wrap up the story and move on to something else. I kind of love it.

Let’s be honest, I’m sure I’m not really done with WoW. I still have a group that plays every Sunday night (we’ve missed the last week, hence the hiatus). My main is still only level 69 - I have one more level to go before I max out. But maybe I’m done with the constant alt-rolling any time I’m bored. There are so many other games out there! So much I’m missing that could be awesome and fun. I need to get back to playing all those other games.

Maybe I’ll pick up Final Fantasy XII again… That was a good one that I never managed to finish.

As I mentioned last week, I’ve started playing Final Fantasy XII and it is quite good. I’ve been playing several hours a day and have most definitely prioritized it over World of Warcraft. In fact, I had plans to play WoW with some friends on Thursday and things didn’t quite come together so I just watched some TV. And then played FFXII.

For the first time since August 2005, I’d rather be playing something other than WoW. The spell is broken, perhaps? I started blogging shortly before I started playing WoW, which means I have a chronicle of my addiction. Here’s my first post written after I’d started to play. I definitely don’t feel that kind of excitement over WoW anymore. I think I really need a break. Maybe a 60-80 hour break - about how long it might take me to get through FFXII.

I’m still playing WoW once a week, but only once a week. I have the Crazy Cattle’s weekly instance run to show up for. But other than that it’s all FFXII, all the time until I finish it out. Which might take a while since I’m a total completionist and have to explore every nook and cranny before I’ll move on. But it’s fun to play a game with a tight story and an ultimate end.

I’m sorry, but I can’t blog right now. I’m busy playing Final Fantasy XII. Kindly leave a comment and come back soon. I’ll return to blogging as soon as possible.

Game good. Very very good.

I love the Final Fantasy series. Before I was afflicted with the disease known as WoW, I used to mostly prefer console RPGs. I first saw FFXII at E3 two years ago. I was not impressed. What was this real-time game that claimed to be a FF title? What had they done to my beloved FF conventions?

Since then, I’ve been keeping my eye on it. It came out in Japan to rave reviews. I had a friend play it in Japanese and rave about it. I tried the demo that came with Dragon Quest VIII. And I still wasn’t convinced.

It came out last week and a friend picked up a copy. I thought, hey, maybe I’ll take a look. So we sat down and traded off playing through the first few hours of the game. It starts with a gorgeous pre-rendered cinematic with hints of Star Wars and the epic battles of the Lord of the Rings movies. There was a bit too much onscreen text after that. I felt like I was in a bizarre history lecture, like maybe I should have been taking notes to keep the politics all straight. But then we got into the game. And the game was good.

So much is different. It no longer has a fixed camera - you can rotate the camera any which way you choose (though the controls are backwards by my standards). Combat doesn’t take place on a different screen, it happens on the main play level. You can see and avoid monsters in the world. And the big one is, of course, that the combat is real-time.

It’s not bad like I expected. I got used to it and started to really enjoy how it worked. It’s strange that you can run around while waiting for your attack to come up. But I think I still have many hours of play ahead of me to figure it out. You can use the system to automate a lot of the more monotonous aspects of typical combat, but still have the option to be as much of a control freak as you want when it’s called for.

After we played, my friend said “I guarantee you’ll buy it within 48 hours.” Oh, a challenge! I don’t know if me caving and weaseling another joint play session counts as a loss. But I still haven’t bought it.

There are many game mechanics that are different. But they’re good. And it still has the amazing production values - gorgeous ingame and pre-rendered cinematics, great voice acting and a story that keeps you playing. Plus a new leveling up mechanic that’s kind of cool. I’m just trying to work out when I’ll have time to play with everything else I have going on. But I’ll be buying it all too soon, I’m sure.

More exhausted than yesterday if possible! I’m so tired and my internet connection is still really slow. I’m taking a red-eye home tomorrow night, so I won’t be able to post again until some time Saturday. Look for all my pictures at that point. I’m taking them, I promise!

I managed to see just about everything I had wanted to get to today. Whether I can remember any of it is another story. I can handle the volume and the intensity of multiple screens flashing images from every direction. But I can’t really retain it all - my brain takes it in and dumps it out again, probably as a coping mechanism. Hopefully my pics and some of the junk I picked up at the booths will jog my memory.

• Virtua Tennis 3 - I know I already mentioned this, but I keep coming back to it. It looks really good and is lots of fun to play. I know I’ll be picking this on up when it comes out.
• Square Enix - Final Fantasy VIIs. Yes, that’s an ’s’ at the end. All these many many FFVII titles are coming out - Dirge of Cerberus, Crisis Core, and some other one too. I never managed to make my way through the original, so I’m kinda holding off on these until I get to play the recently announced FFVII for PS3, whenever that may come. FFXII and FFXIII (actually multiple FFXIIIs. Again. What is going on??)
• Heavenly Sword - I think that’s what it’s called. It’s a PS3 title, and you play a female warrior. The graphics looked really good. The character has long flowing red hair that moves around as you beat the crap out of lots of enemies. Not a title that would get me to buy the PS3, but if I have one (which I will), I’ll buy this title.
• Lumines 2 - Hands on it. Too loud to hear the music, which made playing it not that meaningful. Looked just like the first one. I’ll probably pick it up, if only for the new tunes and probably must have some new game options, one would think.
• Konami booth - they had DDR and Karaoke Revolution set up, but interestingly, they also had some less well known music games on display. They had arcade machines of Guitar Freaks and Beatmania. I have some pics so I’ll describe these a bit more when I get those up.
• Desperate Housewives - there’s been some sort of backlash over the announcement of this title, at least from what I heard. But it looks fine, if you’re into this sort of thing. You’re a new housewife who moves on to the block with secrets to protect and things to discover. It’s a Sims-type game with an element of story and mystery. Seems like it’ll appeal to many of the show’s viewers. So good for them for trying to make games that appeal to a different target audience then all the darn war games littering the floor.

That’s all I can think of for now. I’m going to try to get in to see Nintendo’s Wii tomorrow - you have to wait on line to see it behind closed doors. But I hear it’s worth it.