11.20.06

Long Time Coming

Posted in Gaming, Rants, Site News, Writing at 11:02 pm

It’s been just about a month since I last gave you folks the full rundown of my life. There is, of course, a very good reason why, and that is because the adage “It’s going to get worse before it gets better” has applied to it for the past four weeks. However, without going into too much of the depressing details, I think it’s safe for me to say that I am past the part that could be considered “worse” and am now comfortably in the section known as “better”. So let’s figure out just why that is.

Let’s start, then, with the obvious– my job. Of all of the jobs that I’ve had in the past few years, this one actually freaking fits me. It’s not relying on me to learn new technologies as I go, it’s not dumping me into a backend nightmare that’s hopelessly undocumented. I’m doing work I enjoy at a difficulty level I am comfortable with and am feeling sufficiently appreciated. And there’s the little things, too; like for example the contracting company’s liaison consistently wonders why I’ve dreaded talking to him every single time he comes by, even though he’s never brought me a single word of bad news (quite the opposite, but I can’t really say too much about that). Oh, and the personal coffee/tea machine in the break room means I may finally remember to bring my own tea in; while I like sub-Lipton’s Earl Grey and Green Tea w/ Lemon just as much as anyone else, after a month I need to have the real stuff again (preferably without scalding the hell out of my hands). Finally, jeans are pretty much the de facto standard there. I tried, really I did, to remain professionally dressed, but when my bosses are wearing rock band t-shirts, it’s hard not to feel just an itty bit conspicuous. In short, nothing short of a major disaster will force me from this job; we’re talking wrath of God type disaster.

Since my last post, I have indeed put some time into Final Fantasy XII, taking me to just over ten hours in. I’ve just left the mines and am about to meet the Marquis, and so far I am astonished to find that the Gambit system does very little to break the immersion of the game. Contrary to the popular assumption, the system doesn’t “play itself”; it’s merely a very advanced scripting system for automating battles. There’s still quite a bit of engagement and strategy involved; at least until you get the Quickenings. At that point the game just becomes an “I win” situation. Put this way, there are a handful of relatively high-powered Werewolves in the lower part of the Giza Plains. These are intended to be almost overwhelmingly powerful, and are like as not to wipe out the party who dares approach them. One Quickening combo of about five or six attacks will wipe out a Werewolf, dealing close to 8200 damage, which is exactly 7500 more damage than the Werewolves can handle. Bear in mind that these are Level 10 characters, and that I really don’t have the practice needed to pull off longer combos just yet. It’s mitigated somewhat by the License Board requiring exceptional diversity to get everyone their first Qs, but still. That’s obscenely overpowered and I love it. Imagine how much more destructive the summons will be.

Speaking of strange aeons, City of Heroes is ramping up for Issue 8. The dev team was notably silent today, leading me to believe that they were concentrating on getting it ready to roll tomorrow. I’d place money that they don’t want to do it prior to Thanksgiving, but I’ve been wrong before, and the fact of the matter is, losing Thursday would not be such a bad thing. We’ll see. Anyway, the segue is due to a graphical glitch that was introduced into the game around the time of Issue 6. The signage for the Magic-origin Enhancement stores was inadvertantly swapped with an atmosphere sign for “El Supero Mexicano Fine Latino Food Restaurant”. This has led to much chortling on the forums regarding just what kinds of forms the enhancements must now necessarily take. The current widely-held belief is that The Burrito That Should Not Be is the most popular merch in the new hybrid stores.

I’ve cleared Medium mode in Guitar Hero II, as well. Oddly enough, there wasn’t much of a challenge to it. I didn’t fail any of the songs on my way to the top. Thus unsatisfied, I switched to Hard mode and was instantly schooled. I am now a humbled man. So I jumped back to GH1 and started Hard mode there; not nearly as tricky, but I’m learning more of what I’ll need for the sequel.

Oh yeah, Children of Mana is a very interesting game. It definitely plays similarly to Secret of Mana, which is a good thing; however, the out-of-battle segments seema little clunky to me, and not being able to change equipment during a dungeon dive is irritating to say the least; basically, every time I increase in level, I have to stop myself from quitting the dungeon just to go back an equip new stuff. Of course, it’s a moot point, really, because unless I’ve gotten much better at avoiding the enemy’s patterns, I wind up dying and getting sent back to the village anyway. I’m looking forward to multiplayer, if I ever, y’know, find someone else with the game.

Much talk has been bandied about with regards to the new consoles being released. Some say it’s a sad commentary on society as a whole. Others look at it as a grand experiment with regards to the nature of scarcity. Me? I honestly have been way too busy lately to contemplate either new system just yet beyond the decisions I’d made beforehand. However, my choices were made with the understanding that the games I wanted to play would be on those systems, and so far most of my assumptions have been correct. Once the first of the year rolls around, I’ll be going ahead and picking up the 360 for Dead Rising, Gears of War, and Rainbow Six: Vegas (not to mention the XBLA lineup). Thereafter, the Wii will be on the list to allow access to the GC titles I lost, along with Smash Bros. Brawl, Sonic, and the VC offerings. Pretty simple plan and with good reasons.

…Besides, let’s be realistic here. FFXIII is still at least three years out, and MGS4 at most two. By the time one or both hit, the PS3 may be at a reasonable price. Assuming the system doesn’t fold before its killer apps hit, then it’s practically an inevitability that I’ll pick one up. Then again, it’s not like we’re dealing with “cut-and-run” Sega here. If there’s any company on the block who knows how to beat a dead horse, it’s Sony.

In the meantime, I’m happy with what I’ve got.

EDIT: I added the Open Games List over in the Journal’s pages section, to your left. You can see what I’m playing at a glance. Saves me the trouble of building a “What’s he playing?” system from scratch.

Permalink