On The Xbox:

• Wrapped up Fallout 3 today, and I have to say, I agree with everyone who thinks it kinda stinks that the game ends at the end of the main quest.  (Granted, this is a video game, and so within its borders we do have the power of time travel.  I could just load up my last save before the last leg of the quest and go do anything else.  I could even just start again with a new character, which I hear is popular.  I just kind of miss the “coda” phase of open-world games, in which everything important is done, and you can roll around and check out what you missed before.)
• Probably already mentioned Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts – I had taken a hiatus from Fallout 3 in order to play it straight through from start to finish.
• Also played Saints Row 2 straight through, because I wasn’t ready to go back to the Wasteland just yet.  (Saints Row 2 stays open after you finish the main quest, but in that case, I had already pretty much done everything you can do in the game, short of finishing a few of the side games and mopping up the Achievements – which I’m not really interested in doing.  Banjo stays open, too, but again, short of beating all the records, I’m done in there.  Both games will occupy the same space as the completed GTA games: I will pull them out when I want to do a bit of what the game has to offer, without getting too involved.  After 6-24 months, I will probably replay each of them from the beginning, as well.)
• In turn, I had taken a hiatus from Fable II to play Fallout 3.  I may even restart Fable II from the beginning, depending on where I left off.  However, given the fact that money (from land and shop ownership) accrues in that game even when you’re not logged into it, I may have some pretty heavy motivation to stay with my current character.  That game is so much fun to play, and apparently to watch, that I’m really looking forward to getting back into it.
• Tried out The Maw today, and the world did not exactly shift beneath my feet.  Given some of what I’ve read online, you’ll have to forgive me for that expectation.  Still, it looks like a clever game, and I’ll probably wing the 800 points at it when I want a diversion, or a new game for K to enjoy.
• Still halfway through Mega Man 9 on the Xbox, and most of the way through on the Wii.  I haven’t felt the need for that kind of platforming for a few weeks, so it’s collecting virtual dust at the moment.  I’m also disappointed that its internal Challenges system is not tied to its Achievements on XBox Live.  There a lot of Challenges, ranging from simple body counts to feats of refined skill, and I’d like to share that information with my friends in a way that does not require me to call them up and say, “Hey, I just beat my 1,000th enemy!”
• Resurrected Test Drive Unlimited when my K’s mom was staying the night, because I wanted to play a game, but wanted something completely non-violent.  That game is so strangely compelling to me, and it seems like it shouldn’t be.  Yet I find myself struggling against the game to be a better driver and take in bigger prizes and buy better cars, even though Burnout Paradise is ready and willing to just let me fly down the streets and smash into everything I see with little penalty.  I’ve decided to buy a second copy of TDU when next I see it – to get the case and manual, which my first copy lacks – and then I’ll give my spare disc to my (racing fan) boss to play.

On The PC:

• I like to play Tower Defense games, and NUD is cool, but…
• …other than that, I’ve been avoiding my PC, because it runs Windows, and I don’t much care even for Windows gaming anymore, since I have a system in the next room that lets me play games in a superior A/V environment for almost no effort at all.  In fact, it plays most of the same games these days, and will even let me play them online.  It even lets me play games with my wife in the room, sharing the experience and presence.  This is really hard to beat.  However, my friends are still PC gamers, at least when it comes to playing together…
• …and now TribesNext is out.  If anything can get me back onto a PC, it’s Tribes 2, and so that is what they have done.  I’m trying to port over all my configs from my old Tribes install today.
• Left4Dead is a PC game for me, too.  Valve hates the consoles and only loves PC gamers^[1], so I buy all my Valve games on the PC.  So, I pre-bought L4D long before I read any reviews.  Then I read the reviews, and all the reviewers gush about how they haven’t been this genuinely scared by a game, possibly ever.  And I think, “I don’t like to be scared,” so I have been giving it a pass.  I may have to actually launch the game, soon, just out of curiosity.
• I should probably play some more EVE Online, just long enough to remember why I don’t like it.

On the PSP and DS:

• DS status: still don’t like it.  Played a bit of Lock’s Quest, which is okay, but not quite tower defense, which is what I wanted.  Compared the DS version of Chrono Trigger with the PSX version running on my PSP, and decided that I would play the PSX version and give the DS version to K (who has been playing rather a lot of it).  Will I still buy a DSi?  Um.  Probably!
• Got all the way to the final boss in Final Fantasy for the PSP, and remembered that there is one reason why you need a White Mage in this game.  Too bad for my party, I don’t have a White Mage.  Nor do I have a lot of chunks of 30 minutes where all I want to do is battle my way through a difficult dungeon only to inevitably perish at the hands of a deity-boss who is harder than every other beast in the game, combined.  So.  I guess I’m not finishing FF again.
• Got to the President in FFVIII and lost interest for a bit.  We’ll see where that goes.
• Brave Story: New Traveler, why have you coupled such a fun combat system with such a cartoony story?  Oh yes, that’s right, you’re made for kids.  Oh, well, I still like you alright.
• Monster Hunter watch update:  Nope, still sucks.
• Hot Shots Golf Open Tee 2 is now in the bag.  It’s not even an open-world game, and it still has a good coda!  After the credits roll, you are promoted from “Platinum” to “Black” level, and compete to unlock the rest of the accessories.

So, that’s games.

1. Or at least, given the fact that all of their patches and content updates seem to be PC-only, it seems that way.

Look, I understand that Final Fantasy is a Fantasy game.  It’s right in the title.  That makes it hard to miss.  Given this, I am willing to suspend my disbelief in a lot of situations.

Sharks are teal blue?  That one’s easy to work with, because teal is not far from a realistic grey.

I'm a Shaaaaaark

Mermaids are pink?  OK, sure.  I don’t know what color real mermaids are, anyway.

All the mermaids are identical

Mermaids are suspicious of my characters’ ability to breathe underwater.  This is fair.  My party possesses “oxyale” (Magic Fairy MacGuffin #802), with which mermaids may not be familiar.  (I mean, you can’t even buy the stuff.  You have to find a pirate who’s kidnapped a fairy and sold her into slavery to a desert caravan… look, it’s complicated.)

How can YOU talk underwater?

But come on… White Sharks…

I'm a Shaaaaaark toooooo

…are purple?  They’re not… white?

(This post is dedicated to my wife, who was willing to buy into all the pseudo-scientific claptrap underpinning Mass Effect, including the mysterious Element Zero (Space MacGuffin #2193) – with its ability to produce both the titular gravity distortions, and make unborn humans psychic – until they mentioned running a “negative current” through a device.  “Negative current?!  There’s no such thing!”  Welcome to our household of nerds.)

P.S. – I almost forgot my obligatory FF8 teaser!

A gun? That's also a sword? e_e

Ninja vs. Gilded Lily

Still playing, after playing all weekend…  It helps to have a cable that hooks the PSP up to the TV, so that I don’t get eyestrain from playing a portable game for so long!  Also, this way K gets to participate.

Disassembling Unnatural Creatures

…And of course, this means that other games still have to wait!

"Try to control your emotions..."

I have played this game many times.  And seldom do I break the tradition of the first group I ever fielded, well over a decade ago^[1]:

The Original Party

Admission: this is senseless.  When I first played Final Fantasy on the NES, I was not familiar with the genre, despite coming in well after the fourth game in the series had been released on the SNES.  I chose these classes because they were on the screen to begin with, and I figured I didn’t know any better.  I didn’t even have the instruction manual to guide me.

(Also, it always struck me as strange that the names could only be four letters long.  Later on, I learned Japanese, and then it made sense:  In the Japanese kana, each character represents a syllable.  So, allowing up to four characters is allowing up to four syllables, and a four syllable name is quite long enough!  Allowing longer names after the translation to English would have required an interface overhaul.)

And now, I have the PSP version.

It looks and sounds very good, even by comparison to the GBA version of a few years ago:

My "Expanded" Names Aren't Much Classier

I think it’s hilarious that I keep buying and playing new versions of this game, and I love it every time.  This time, it’s even pre-empted another old favorite I had started back into.

Don't Wait Up...

1. One of my little brothers will have to tell me if I got the Black Belt’s name right.  I keep oscillating between “Kane” and “Kage”.

In other news: FFT:PSP (just as in the original, IIRC) is, even more than I remembered, murderously complex. If you’re thinking about getting into the series, but are unsure whether you’ll like it, I would seriously recommend starting with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. (It looks like there is a DS sequel coming, as well.) At least that way you can learn if you like the gameplay style without plowing through all of the hours’ worth of text and diagram tutorials in the larger game, and facing crushing odds from the beginning. There are differences, and you will have to visit the tutorials to figure a few things out, but at least you will have a chance to survive.^[1]

1. Also, sage advice from The Reverend: Ignore the Zodiac System.

In the midst of playing though LCTR:L, my computer came down with a case of the gremlins. Eventually, I tracked this down to the fact that my wireless game controller (or more specifically, the receiver that came with it) is a serious power hog, and wants its own USB bus from which to draw. It wasn’t even satisfied with its own powered hub! Fortunately, I had a spare USB 2.0 PCI card lying around, so that situation is averted. However, I now strongly recommend that you buy the wired version of this controller for PC use. It works just as well, and won’t eat all your power.^[2]

I gave in late Tuesday night and started Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions on the PSP. From a couple of missions in, it seems to be just a port with some new animated sequences thrown in. This is good news for me, because I never finished the PSX version, even though I have always meant to. I just wasn’t prepared those years ago for the tactical gameplay style, and it kept putting me to sleep. ^[3] I also spent too much time worrying about all of the different jobs and weapons, instead of focusing on the gameplay itself. Now I’ve played the GBA spin-off and dabbled in a handful of other games in the genre, and I’ve got the tactics bug. If I can just leave my spreadsheets alone,^[4] I should be able to have a good time with this game.

Traveling to Ivalice for FFT/PSP made me nostalgic for FFXII, which K and I have let rest for a few months. After the first 60+ hours and some intensive levelling in a cave,^[5] we needed a break, but it’s nice to come back to it now. The Gambit System (which I still love) made it pretty easy to glide right back into the pattern of play we’d set out, since we essentially had our strategy’s source code in front of us, and we barrelled through a few areas on our way to the next major plot point before K needed sleep, and we packed it in.

That means I’m back to FFT/PSP for a while before I drop off. I can’t remember, though: is it bad karma to rename Ramza as Pika?

1. It was pretty good, but I’m not sure whether to recommend it. It was definitely worth playing in my case, since it’s included in GameTap, and I like Tomb Raider and related Parkour simulators. I still liked Anniversary better, but this one at least had more to do with relics and ruins than cargo ships and cities. The tie-ins with a well-known legend were a plus. At times, I felt the same “discovery-of-the-strange-among-the-familiar” as when I saw National Treasure or read The Da Vinci Code. (Obligatory DVC disclaimer: good novel. Ranks right up there with Harry Potter as a work of entertainment. Also ranks with Harry Potter as a work of biblical scholarship. Please read responsibly.)
2. By the way, I’m sure I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: if you want a console-style controller for your PC games, the Xbox 360 controller really is superb. I’ve bought and used a shamefully large number of controllers over the years, and it’s the best I’ve ever used on a PC. It’s even better than the Gamepad Pro. If any Rosies or other friends are considering picking one up, feel free to ping me for any further information about the wired or wireless controller, as we have both here at Fort Pika… even though we do not have an Xbox 360!
3. It also probably did not help that I was playing right before bed.
4. No joke — for FFT/GBA, I have a spreadsheet in Documents To Go on my Palm Pilot that kept track of each clan member’s job progress and prospects. I have to be careful that I don’t turn FFT/PSP into a programming and analysis project.
5. Level 40 and Deathbringers for everybody!

Then, this morning, I was dreaming about work,^[1] and found it made more sense to just wake up than to stay there.

Since it’s this month’s pick for The Escapist’s Game Circle, I have been playing some Halo… but that has gotten tedious, and I’m not even to The Library! ^[2] I feel about the same way about BioShock right now, although a few hours with the in-game camera may bring things back to a bearable level. Even so, these games feel like work right now, so they’re no good for a Gaming Holiday!

(In Halo’s defense, its main attraction has always been the multiplayer, but that’s not what I’m playing, so it’s a PRETTY WEAK DEFENSE.)

As for The Orange Box: I’ve already finished Portal (multiple times) and Half-Life 2: Episode 2 (Manchester United: 0), Team Fortress 2 is for playing with The Guys, who are at work, and I’m afraid to start The War of the Lions, because I might never put it back down. So, I’ll turn (once again!) to GameTap to see what’s new among its 1,000 games (other than Typing of the Dead, of course). It looks like I may spend some more time Raiding Tombs, visiting with Prince of Persia and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince of Persia, and implicating myself into some three-eyed, stealthy infiltration.

Also, Cricket?! Whoa.

1. We had acquired yet another giant color multifunction printer/copier/scanner/fax, and my boss was disappointed that I didn’t have the Mac OS X drivers available on the network yet, and I couldn’t find the CD, and Canon wanted to charge $0.89 per download via credit card. Some nights, I have interesting dreams; other nights, I’m just doing tech support.
2. Sneak around the corner into a new room, neutralize all the enemies. Sneak around the corner into a new room, neutralize all the enemies. Encounter special enemies, employ secondary weapon/tactic until neutralized. Sneak around the corner into a new room, neutralize all the enemies.

I liked Final Fantasy 8 better than most of the Final Fantasy fans I talk to. For a while, I thought that was because it was more of a Love Story than a Save The World story, and so I was willing to overlook the characters’ flaws more. I also toyed with the idea that I just really liked the designs. Perhaps I was willing to entertain the notion that I “connected” somehow in a personal way to some of the characters in some way that others didn’t. I know of one or two people who are willing to just grant me a crippling lack of taste that leads to my preference.[0]

Recently, I’ve been getting back to it a bit, and I think it’s actually got a lot to do with the music. Nobuo Uematsu has been my favorite contemporary composer for some time, and I just really like what he’s done with the soundtrack for FF8.

Just thought I’d mention it.

[0] I still think the Love Story aspect has an awful lot to do with it, since I tend to like that sort of thing in a fantasy setting[1]. See: What Dreams May Come. (Or don’t, if you’re not likely to enjoy it. ;)
[1] On the other hand, I’m not much for, say, romantic movies set in “realistic” environs. Also, if I had a time machine, I’d probably squander its power on attempting to talk people out of making “romantic comedy” movies. Go figure.