All Things Virtual 4.0

My Current Videogaming life.

These days are not as bad as they sometimes feel. I’ve been able to play through a couple of games, one of them being an RPG. I managed to beat my Nth play-through of Fallout 2, which I had left hanging for quite some time. I have started my final replay of Disgaea, after which I may be selling my copy seeing as they are once again fetching very nice sums online and I have become a more pragmatic gamer (marriage can do that). I have kept up my strength of will and avoided starting games I wouldn’t be able to focus on at the time (Wild Arms: Alter Code F, Xenosaga 2, Wild Arms 4, Radiata Stories, ad nauseam). All in all, I’ve done a good job of it all.
My mind seems to be falling under the Final Fantasy syndrome again. We are about a month and a half away from XII’s release and already I’m feeling like all I want to do is bunk up in my bed and play marathon-like sessions while neglecting my bodily needs. I’ve actually gotten the flu hours before getting my copies of each of the series’ games since VII and am hoping it won’t be the case here. Hell, I wish I could take vacations for the occasion to see if I can beat it in a week’s time. Unfortunately, I cannot. I find it a small reprieve that Zelda: Twilight Princess for the Gamecube has been pushed back to December 11th, but that only means that I’ll be halfway through Final Fantasy XII at best when my copy of Zelda arrives. I will be torn, for sure. This will be as hard a test of resolve as any I could have ever encountered in my meager, pathetic excuse for a life.
In the meantime, as I’m soon to be done with Disgaea, I will be tackling Dragon Quest VIII, though I fear I may not be able to finish the game before Final Fantasy XII arrives. Hmmm. Quite the conundrum. But screw it! I’m a man who likes challenges! I’ll rise up to the occasion and make the best of it. It’s that of freakin’ Alter Code F… or I could play Wild Arms 4… or Wild Arms 3 again…
I haven’t mentioned my love for the Wild Arms series before, have I? If I haven’t then here I am doing just that. I am absolutely ga-ga about the series. I loved the first game, liked the sequel, loved the third in the series and am currently sitting on both the fourth and the remake of the original. If they made an MMORPG based on Filgaia, I would kill to get into the Beta… and I don’t like MMORPG’s, mind you!
I think that’s enough about me for now.

My Heart Rejoiceth

Only a few days before the Tokyo Games Show and Square-Enix has already made me a happy man. Final Fantasy XII will be getting a direct sequel called Revenant Wings. Not much has been disclosed, unsurprisingly, but there is much to be looking forward from what, if the Japanese are to be trusted, may very well be the best installment of the series. Now, where the hell is the Final Fantasy VI sequel/prequel everyone’s been clamoring for?

Xenophilia

To the surprise of many, Xenosaga episode 3 does not suck. That’s right. I got to play it for a bit just the other day and have found it to be particularly good. Easily the best in the series!
Reports from the few who have beaten the game state that it does a fine job of tying up lose ends and is a satisfactory closer in the gone-before-its-time series.
I’m sure the coy bastards at Namco will continue the series in some form on the next-gen consoles. As far as I can tell, the series has done rather well sales-wise and has accrued quite the following. It would seem logical for them to continue on with a new story arc given the overt hinting at Xenogears within the third chapter. I think this whole denial from Namco about continuing the series or it having any relation to Xenogears is nothing but reverse psychology serving their marketing purposes.

I Yearn for the Wasteland

I don’t know about any of you out there, but I am sick of waiting for Bethesda to fess up about Fallout 3. I have been waiting and hoping for this game for so long I have to keep going back to number 2 just to allay my cravings for a new rendition of the Wasteland.
Oh, and one more thing… there better be an Xbox360 version or I will kill somebody!

Bioshock (no, I couldn’t think of a good title)

This is possibly the single most exciting game coming out for the Xbox360 as far as I can see. Not only is it in the lineage of the System Shock series, it seems fraught with style and finesse such as is rarely seen in videogames. There is this “City of the Lost Children” type movie feel to the visuals. There seems to be so much to the game as far as I can gather from demos and screenshots, it is literally the most inviting game I have seen since Shadow of the Colossus. There is a creepy vibe, an inherent wrongness conveyed by the visuals that makes it simultaneously disturbing and alluring. The game seems like so much more than an FPS and surely that is what the developers intend.
I personally believe that a time will come when most genres will be hybridized and that the only way you can tell one game’s genre from another is by the player perspective. Even then, I believe games will provide many different perspectives as well during gameplay segments so as to provide a wider experience to the player.
Nintendo’s Wii is striving to make the playing experience a truly personal thing, that is, making the player feel like he/she truly is within this imaginary world, within this fiction on the screen. Most hardware and software developers just care about upgrading the visuals, mistaking aesthetics for what actually makes a game an experience to be enjoyed and veritably lived through. I can only imagine what ideas like those intended in Bioshock might accomplish on a system such as the Wii. Hopefully, we will all know soon enough.

All Tingly in and RPG-ish Way

Have I written about this game before? If so, who cares! I’m hoping it gets a release date in America soon. Tingle is an odd character, and the gods know that I thrive on odd characters.
Look at the game’s pastel colored goodness! How can anyone with a heart not like that? If you are afraid of your masculinity, then I can understand, but otherwise this game looks simply marvelous.
There seems to be a great bevy of old-school homage to older Nintendo franchises thrown into the game; such titles as Punch Out seem to be referenced.
Here’s hoping we can all play on our DS with that kooky, spandex-wearing, rupee-grubbing elf wannabe in the West.

Where Can I Get Me Some Runes at Factory Prices?

This is just perfect, the only thing missing now is a US release date. Ever since I first played Harvest Moon on the SNES I’ve been thinking that a few dungeons would be nice to have in the game. A little after a decade my wishes are answered. Rune Factory is the dungeon-crawling version of the Harvest Moon series. I have had my eyes on this titles since it was first announced a good few months ago and have not been able to get it out of my head. Natsume better make an announcement about a domestic release soon else I will be ridden with sadness and woe.

Wii Love Matsuno

Not much to say here, really. The fact that Yasumi Matsuno - of Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy Tactics fame – intends to develop for the newest Nintendo console should speak volumes for itself. I hope there is some kind of Vagrant Story sequel in the near future with ample use of the Wii-mote thrown in.


Where’s the Love? In Japan, that’s where!

So, the Japanese once more get the super edition of a game that not only was originally released first in Japan, but we Westerners were supposed to be getting the better version according to the publishers. It’s nothing new. Square has been making “International” version of its games for about a decade now. The problem is that us Westerners are getting the shaft in that regard. Hell, what’s so international about a version that only gets released in one country?
This time, it is Kingdom Hearts 2 that gets the International treatment. Though I must admit that this time the extras the Japanese are getting are nothing up my alley, the principle is the same. Maybe it’s something that only works in an economy like Japans, to release a title twice by adding only a few features to the second issue, but I certainly hope this discrimination will end with the advent of the online gaming age. I would like to see the international extras up for purchase online as downloads so we, too, can get all the little details the Japanese have been guzzling on for years.

In Closing

Once again, I have run out of fodder for this his issue of my venting game-wise. If anyone actually reads this, leave some feedback. I just wonder if I am all alone out here. In any case, I have my invisible friends and my consoles to keep my warm and all. My invisible wife as well! What more could I want?