It's been a while since I've done a ranger stuff blog.. I have lots of great stuff to blog about, and not a whole lot of time to do it. Story of my life...
Just throwing this up there in case anyone has missed it. PSN will be down tomarrow for part of the day. From Blistered Thumbs:
Sorry for the delay but our computer decided to crash. But we are back now to finish the story. Hang loose and hold on for the end shall surprise.
I won't spoil anything. I will say though that the ending isn't what I was expecting. There were at least a couple of times I thought it would end but didn't. I have to say that this game was really incredible in how it kept a balance of being linear but still give you room to explore. It is also a fine example of direct storytelling without giving you choices. I think this game set a milestone personally for me than Uncharted ever had. I loved the adventure. I love how you didn't know just around a corner if there was going to be a big group of Clickers. It get things suspenseful. There are some interesting and crazy encounters with humans, especially one particular group. The game is many ways like The Walking Dead in how humans are just as ruthless if not more.
You know, I was thinking about doing a full review of this game at some point, but given that it takes me forever to get NES reviews up, I'll keep this on the brief side. This blog assumes, by the way, that you know what Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is and have either played it or read a few of the reviews going around.
June Gaming I finished up the Legend of Zelda last Friday. I really enjoyed the game, but left somewhat dissatisfied. I think that I have just been spoiled by A Link to the Past. I think that LoZ, like Metroid laid a wonderful foundation. I can believe that both games were the cream of the crop back when they were released, but the sequels took the best parts of the originals and expanded upon them. Either way, it was a great game. It was quite a treat seeing where one of my favourite games began.
I then sat down on Saturday to start and finish Super Metroid. It has been quite a few years since my last playthrough, so I forgot the placement of a few key items. I could not remember where Crocomire was, and I completely forgot about the Wave beam until after Ridley. In the end I finished the game in 5 hours with an 89% collection rating. I was quite surprised by that because I had a lower rating the last time I had played it.
AT&T finally came and fixed my internet. I cannot believe how much I missed having a proper connection. It tooke me a little bit, but I finally decided what game I am going to tackle next, Faxanadu. I have heard good things about this classic NES game, and dowloaded it off the VC. From the 15-20 minutes that I spent with it so far, I have gotten a good vibe. I hope that it does not disappoint.
In my last couple of blogs I've said some controversial things about christianity, usually as an offhanded joke because it's easy and christians kind of set themselves up for it. However, I feel the need to have this discussion - and I want it to be exactly that - a discussion. This isn't me telling you your lifestyle is wrong or anything, this is just me saying how I feel about the subject, it can be blunt and harsh, but please, feel free to argue with me as much as you want.
As Social Media and the Internet envelop us more and more, I see the dangers of being too obsessed with celebrities and their lives and fandoms for various franchises. Too many people, most of them young and naive, seem more interested in spending every waking hour they have talking about a celebrity they are obsessed with or a book series they read religiously than about taking care of their own lives. Perhaps these lives might be sordid cases of abuse, neglect and frustration, others might have a mental illness. I doubt any normal human being could spend hours online obsessing over some Hollywood celebrity or a book/movie series/T.V. show. I would find it very boring after 10 minutes but there are people whose entire life is built around over a celebrity. I only hope these people look in the mirror and realize that they are wasting their lives and mental health over it. All humans, regardless of their station in life, are equal and should be treated equally. They are not to be worshiped like a God. I am equal to 7 billion others, no more, no less. Society would be better if these individuals would wake up, smell the coffee and think about themselves instead of some wealthy celebrity who wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire. It makes them look second-rate. Sadly, most of them take that advice as an insult. I guess life wouldn't be worth living if it weren't for their obsessions. Well, at least the Goth movement will be happy to gain new members.
Of all the new Square-Enix Final Fantasy games announced recently at E3 2013: FFXV, Lightning Returns, I’ll even mention Kingdom Hearts 3 in there for good measure, and X and X-2 remakes, the only game that is actually closest to release is already playable. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is in its second week of beta testing, dubbed Phase 3, and is shortly on its way to Phase 4 in a couple of weeks time which will be an open beta and characters and *progress will be transferrable over to the official servers at launch in late August. Current Phase 3 testers, including me, will have all of their progress and characters erased, so most testers are experimenting with all the features and providing feedback to developers on their official forums. For those that are interested in extra information, the Phase 3 beta consists of three 48-hour weekends that allow testers to create characters and explore some customization features and explore the first few starting areas (quests, storylines, etc.) of the game that most new players will visit at launch. The purpose of the tests is really to test server load stress and some in game bugs and what not. The beta also allows players to test the game out on Playstation 3 and its gamepad setup. The interesting thing about this is that you can login to your account from either your PC or PS3, providing you own a copy of the game for each system.
Many of the testers have already taken to the web to create online fan communities, forums, personal blogs and setup information pages and instructions for the game, not to mention the number of youtube videos that have popped up online with detailed information about every nuance of the games controls and battle systems etc. As expected a lot of these mentioned sites have also brought with it the usual hardcore versus casual voices getting into the equivalent of bar room brawls over who to blame for ruining the general MMO experience. It feels like a genuine launch for an MMO alright.
During my second week I managed to download and login with my PS3, and I have to say that after playing with PC last week, I much prefer the gamepad and PS3 setup with keyboard plugged in for chatting. Part of the reason I feel the gamepad works so well is the fact that this game has been streamlined and more intuitive and easy to play as a single player. I hardly ever needed to party with anyone to complete a quest. If I had a little trouble, all I needed to do was grind a bit and then I was ready. So I can imagine that console players who are going to try an MMO for the first time will be more than capable of using their PS3 to do so. There are some graphical limitations compared to PC, as to be expected, but the game play more than makes up for quality in terms of quantity of content on the screen. This issue about the game being too console friendly and accessible to new players has consistently been the point of debate since the start of the beta, and will most likely be debated during and after launch.
I should explain that I have had experience playing FF XI, FF XIV version 1.0, and other MMOs and the usual consensus in these communities is that MMOs have become too simplified for the sake of adding more new players as opposed to making them more challenging, in short, veteran MMO players want to keep new players out and keep MMOs niche. Square-Enix and their money woes will probably keep them satisfying the wants of the many as opposed to the vocal minority. I was listening to a podcast regarding developer questions being asked at E3 from “journalists” who were really just fan site bloggers asking hard hitting questions about accessories and personal housing that is rumored to be featured in the game instead of asking about balancing battle systems and customizing interfaces or allowing the creation of add-ons by the community. 
When Final Fantasy XIV 1.0 officially ended, Square-Enix created a gorgeous video depicting a meteor crashing down and destroying Eorzea, the place the game takes place in. I joked on a fan forum that Square-Enix represented the meteor and the people being destroyed were all the old players. In a sense, wiping everyone out and starting over with new players- A Realm Reborn. In a way, that is exactly what Square-Enix has done with the new game, XIV version 2.0
After spending the last two weekends with the game, I feel like Square-Enix has won me over as a new fan. I am very impressed with the direction of the game design and the attention to detail that developers have placed into the creation of a beautiful new world. Soon, the beta will be open to more players so they too can explore this awesome place on their own.
I was just recently reading about an old game that was meant to be released for the PSP system, called Final Fantasy Agito, which was later changed to Type-0 and only released in Japan. Several hackers have gotten together to create language translations so that more people can enjoy the game in places where the game wasn’t released-- everywhere outside Japan! The translation team is close to finishing the translation and a lot of people are wondering how long it will take Square-Enix to shut them down. In the case of A Realm Reborn, Square-Enix rebuilt a disastrous game from the ground up and spent a lot of time on development to make fans happy. While there is no mention of the infamous Agito game being released in the West any time soon, in the case of A Realm Reborn, Square-Enix should be praised for listening to feedback and giving fans what they want.
My friend was home on Friday afternoon, so I went over with my 360 to play. I forgot my controller though and so played my 3DS instead.
With my who's gong to a hospital check up tomorrow i took him to see the newest Superman Movie, I can't be bothered to rewrite what I posted on a message board.
Animal Crossing is taking of me life O_o! Thats how much I love this game. As I previously stated, I did not like Wild World has much has I like this game. I have been trying to be a good Mayor and develop Arni properly. I should have named it Wonderland!
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Someone had given them 10 N64 cartridges and they were almost all good titles. I picked out Goldeneye, Mario Golf and Body Harvest for resale, got them home and NONE OF THEM WORK!
Why not check in on this online arcade auction just for kicks? Should be going on for a while.
Darn, last time I posted a blog was... May 14th. I really should be keeping up appearances.
So yesterday, I attended brentalfloss's FAQ session, after the opening ceremony with the Screwattack guys, and BlackNerd doing a Reggie Fils-Aime impression I thought was pretty funny.
I was thrilled to find out that Namco Bandai will be releasing a Tales of Symphonia HD collection. It includes the original game and the sequal Dawn of a New World. It will have the original Japanese voice tracks for both games along with skits and bonus content that were part of the Japanese PS2 version that never made it to the states. The bad news is it won't be out till the first quarter of 2014. But with Tales of Xillia just a month away that could be a good thing.
Geez, it has been a while since I did a blog.
Sorry about the gap in coverage. Been busy with work, and then the dog got sick. But I'm back now! This entry is all over the place, I don't have the time and energy to spend doing a themed entry, so it's pretty much just going to be songs I really like from a variety of artists I like (or liked their versions of the song).