'Ere, He Says He's Not Dead

I have been outrageously busy with work lately, and blog-writing fell victim to my own private time recession (not to be confused with My Own Private Idaho, which I definitely do not want). It was comforting to know that my gaming friends noticed my absence; David had his wife ask Sandi if I was all right.

Even in the midst of lecture preparation and test grading, I have been able to play games at night. Final Fantasy XII has seen the most screen time, as I took to scouring Ivalice for the components necessary to forge the game's most expensive weapon, the Tournesol. I am currently one item and about 500,000 gil away from it, but the area in which I must obtain this last item sounds . . . problematic. I plan to begin exploratory forays soon.

I fired up Oblivion for the first time in close to a year last night, and I opted to install the game to the Xbox 360's hard drive. This decision was motivated primarily by the console's merciless manner of spinning the disc. Although Cyrodiil eats up almost every virtual inch of storage I have, playing the game without the drone of the optical drive was quite nice. I resumed my habit of lackadaisically meandering the countryside, slaying the odd bandit or goblin while looking for ruins I will probably never enter. What can I say? I am a spade at heart.

Game well this week, and may you have all the time you need to poke around your world.

A Powerful Argument for Temperance

As a teetotaler, the last word of the title is metaphorical in nature. However, I find a need to avoid things like this in a way not unlike the nineteenth-century temperance movement argued for detachment from alcohol. Final Fantasy XII has been noted to resemble an online roleplaying game in its structure; while obviously a single-player experience, the combat and gear mechanics take a cue from the world of its numerical predecessor. Online games are generally designed to draw players into the games' worlds for long stretches of time. Final Fantasy XII managed to do that to me with one of the most inexplicably addictive systems possible -- its bestiary.

The game archives some basic data about each opponent you defeat in battle, like its creature type and a wordy description. However, more flavor content is available if the player defeats more of the varmints. In some cases, merely traveling through an area will net the requisite number of vanquished enemies, but not all foes are so numerous. I spent a good two hours last week trying to collect data on a monster that appears once in an entire portion of the game. I defeated the beast, vacated to another region, and returned to respawn the stupid thing. I now wander through previous areas to beat on nonaggressive denizens of Ivalice because I want the bestiary completed. Why do paragraphs of text mean so much to me?

While perusing the Escapist last week, I came across an offer for free EverQuest II. Does anyone know if it has a bestiary?

Game well this week, and may you have better luck than I at finding wyverns.

Come to the Dark Side -- We Have Loot

Fear not -- I am still free of World of Warcraft and its brethren. However, like my friend David, I have a hefty reputation as 'Mr. Inventory Screen.' I can spend half an hour tweaking gear and checking statistics. I have the art of inventory down to such a pathetically inexact science that I can parse a couple dozen pieces of Too Human treasure within sixty seconds and still take ten minutes on the pause screen.

Mass Effect and Sith Lords began to hex my wife with their looty charms, and I am beginning to reap the rewards during our journey through Final Fantasy XII. I have been banned from developing characters through the license board. However, the augmentation part of the board is almost filled for all six party members, leaving little else but delving into the item lists. See this and despair . . .

BWA HA HA ! ! !

Since I mentioned Mass Effect, this. Yes, there is much rejoicing.

Game well this week, and let the minstrels live.

Alignment Check

Over the weekend, I finished Prince of Persia. As usual, highlight the spoiler which follows at your own peril. As you may guess, the title stems from the Prince's actions at the conclusion conclusion of the game. I actually considered bailing to the Dashboard when I saw what was coming, but the threat of missing something I should know when the downloadable content hits kept me going. On another front, I like the fact that we never really get to see Ahriman; it sort of has that Jaws effect. For those of you whose willpower held out, suffice to say that I am in no danger of, say, this.

While I would not call Prince of Persia a hard game, in the sense of something like Ikaruga or Mega Man 9, the cries of "it's too easy" which echoed across the ether somewhat perplexed me. I 'died' at least one hundred times before completing the campaign (see, Achievements do accomplish something!), which is probably more than my experience with Sands of Time. Do we really need a game over message to tell us when we have failed at something? Ask anyone who watches or hears me play a game -- I am well aware that I messed up, load screen or no. Unlike several to whom I have spoken, I cheered the downplayed role of combat in this reboot of the franchise. I always got the feeling that fights in Prince of Persia games fell somewhere between a playtime-lengthening gambit and Metal Gear-style punishment. I felt far more like a rock star when wallrunning and jumping than in the dispatching of hordes of meaningless dudes. Who am I -- this guy? I would have felt no great loss if the environment itself were my only adversary in a game like this.

Game well this week, and may Scheherazade lose track of your light seeds.

An Unusual Occurrence

I finished Too Human this week. I have yet to see the ending, though, since I made my way through the game alongside my brother-in-law. The oddity of the game's multiplayer component can lead to scenarios like this. I suppose I could just go read the source material, but my reading list is already quite long. We started replaying levels with the 'through' characters in a quest for max levels and phattier lootz, which, while fun, seems to run counter to the whole Ragnarök vibe. On the item-gathering front, I have had a fantastically hard time obtaining any of the title's charm quests. Is that a byproduct of my Bio-Engineer's cybernetic alignment?

I have to get around to pushing my Champion through Too Human's campaign -- once that poser Ahriman is put in his place. And I get to the bottom of what happened to Faith's sister. And I see Balthier be awesome another half-dozen times. I really do have a problem . . .

On the tabletop front, my D&D game might not be a pipe dream after all. The guy trying to round up players has a party of four, which would even free me up from having to run one of the characters. I will update you on how this unfolds, when it unfolds. Hopefully no one minds sticking with the 3.5 rules.

Game well, and may every drop be a red drop.

The Plunge Taken

After over two years of Xbox 360 ownership, I have finally played a game online. Yes, I finally burned one of my 'sorry your console turned to slag' Gold Live membership cards in order to play some Too Human multiplayer with my brother-in-law Chuck. He took to the front lines as a Berserker, while I play combat medic as a Bio-Engineer. The game's challenge factor decreases a bit when your health is not at the whims of the loot generator. I can say that I wish the cutscenes had been left in the online component of the game; the now-absent cyberpunk/Norse mishmash was a big draw for me.

I have also liked the ability to chat with someone while playing a game. Since my wife is typically visiting the land of Nod by the time I get a gaming session underway, my choice of in-house conversation partners is limited, and the dog looks unmoved by my cries of triumph or frustration. By the way, the fact that the included headset only lets you hear the person wearing it can make for some really funny stuff.

Game well this week, and may those ping times do the limbo.

A Quick Look in the Rear-View Mirror

I am still entrenched in Prince of Persia, although my brother-in-law's entry into the world of Xbox Live may induce the use of my free Gold cards to play some Team Fortress 2 or other multiplayer stuff. My innate unitasking has left my other acquisitions of the year on the shelf, awaiting their next chance at my singular attention span.

As I consider my game purchases last year, I noticed a couple of trends. Pleasantly surprising is the fact that the only M-rated title I bought was The Orange Box, which is actually a game from the year before. This marked a decided shift from Mass Effect, BioShock, and their kinfolk during 2007. I also noticed that game buys were often driven as much by political statement as desire for the product. I shelled out full retail for Too Human because I think Silicon Knights can really hit a home run with this material if freed from the albatross of a decade-long development cycle. While I dug what I saw of Mirror's Edge during and after E3, I wanted to tell Electronic Arts that doing more than simply dumping sports games and Rock Band updates on us every year was a worthwhile venture; if only that had worked. Braid's unabashed awesomeness blessedly confirmed my faith in independent game development.

Other than Street Fighter IV, which offers the chance to reacquire my long-rusty skills, and Dragon Age: Origins, which is, well, by BioWare, not much is on my radar for the year as of now. As I had little on my radar at this point last year, that is subject to change. Maybe I should invest in some new radar.

Game well this week, and keep a close eye on each blip.