I've really come to like Buffy the Vampire Slayer... Until season 4 that is. Maybe it's the move from high school to college, maybe it's because the characters have changed a bit too much (Giles doesn't feel like Giles anymore, Buffy needs to stop being jerked around in the world of romance, and Xander has been playing a smaller and less charming roll), but the world of Buffy just doesn't feel the same. There have been some good episodes like "Hush," which was a largely silent episode that reminded me a lot of Dark City [check that out and Equilibrium if you're a fan of the Matrix]. But overall season 4 is pretty "meh." I hope things pick up again because I was really getting into the show. I was able to relate the the characters and have empathy for them, but I'm not giving up on it just yet. I gave up on Six Feet Under during season 3, but I think I need to see Buffy to the end.
In the world of videogames, the Broken Steel DLC for Fallout 3 was quite excellent. I had a wonderful time going back to the Capitol Wasteland and falling in love with the game again by remembering why it was so great. That said, a level cap of 30 may be "right" for the content that's offered, but I think you can still reach that pretty quickly. However, there aren't enough useful new perks to make level 30 seem as exciting as it once did. My careful planning for the first 20 levels of my character is almost irrelevant since you can now acquire all the useful perks quite easily with the extra padding that 10 more levels provides you.
Moving on from Xbox 360 back to -- PlayStation 2? Yes, I recently bought Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XII since I seem to be experiencing a bit of Final Fantasy XIII fever. I gave X-2 to a friend to borrow while I went back to Ivalice for XII. I must say, the story is quite excellently told. After dealing with the dearth of such in Blue Dragon, I can really appreciate XII's political intrigue this time around (which is not to say that I didn't like it the first time). Still, Vaan and Penelo are useless characters, but Balthier and Basch make up for it. Too bad Vossler, Reks, and Rasler weren't playable characters since their character designs and personalities are one hundred times better than that of Vaan's or Penelo's.
I've also been powergaming XII a bit. Apparently, within the first hour of the game you're able to find a rare enemy that will quickly raise you to about level 30 or more within a couple hours of grinding and Phoenix Down buying. This is where some of XII's MMO elements kind of bug me though. Having to reload a game because there's a 10% chance of a treasure chest showing up and then a 10% chance of that chest containing the item that you want is not a fun experience, yet here I am doing such. Maybe I'm just trying to make XII last since I know the story arc is pretty short (my main problem with it).
This brings me to my hopes for XIII. First off, I like a lot of the faux-MMO elements that XII brought, but some of them like the rare chance of items and monsters showing up are stupid concepts for a singleplayer game. I want to experience all the content that I can -- I shouldn't be shut off from it for some arbitrary reason. I'm not competing against other players around the world, so why shouldn't I have all the best and shiniest equipment?
Another thing, if XIII has anything like the Zodiac Spear going on, I'm going to be absolutely pissed. The Zodiac Spear for those who don't know was one of the biggest "fuck yous" to videogame fans in recent memory. You see, throughout Final Fantasy XII there were specific treasure chests that you weren't allowed to open if you wanted to obtain the most powerful weapon in the game (the Zodiac Spear). Does the game warn you about this in any way? No. The only way you'll find out is if you spent any time trolling message boards to find outrage from players who spent hours on the game already to find that it was all wasted because of some arbitrary bullshit perpetrated by Square Enix.
That said, I've a few more dos and dont's for XIII. First, XII had reversed X and Y-axis camera controls that were not changeable. This cannot be tolerated from a modern game! Reversed Y-axis controls I can deal with in a third person game, but X-axis? It just doesn't make sense. When I hold right on the right analog stick, the camera should move to the right where I want to look, not to the left. Additionally, like the MMO complaint, there should not be any missable items or anything that will prevent you from obtaining quests or anything like that. I don't want to read a walkthrough just to find out that if I don't do something that I'm screwed for no good reason (Apparently I sold an item that will shut me off from a few quests -- if it was important, why wasn't it made into a non-sellable key item?). Furthermore, XII's guild charter provided a decent log for keeping track of some sidequests, but I would like to see that fleshed out in XIII. If I come back to the game after a while of not playing, I want to know what the hell I should be doing.
One more thing: if there are any enhancements to the "international" or Xbox 360 versions of XIII, they should be made DLC for all platforms. Ever since Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix has added some nifty or interesting features to the games when Square re-released the games in Japan or elsewhere. Sometimes they just contained changes that where made for the American version, but sometimes (as in the case of XII) entirely new content and features were added. In this modern age in which we live, Square has absolutely no excuse for not making these sorts of things DLC. I don't care if it's a few bucks more, everyone everywhere should have the best version of the game possible.
Well, I think that's all I've got in me for tonight. Until next time children...
In the world of videogames, the Broken Steel DLC for Fallout 3 was quite excellent. I had a wonderful time going back to the Capitol Wasteland and falling in love with the game again by remembering why it was so great. That said, a level cap of 30 may be "right" for the content that's offered, but I think you can still reach that pretty quickly. However, there aren't enough useful new perks to make level 30 seem as exciting as it once did. My careful planning for the first 20 levels of my character is almost irrelevant since you can now acquire all the useful perks quite easily with the extra padding that 10 more levels provides you.
Moving on from Xbox 360 back to -- PlayStation 2? Yes, I recently bought Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XII since I seem to be experiencing a bit of Final Fantasy XIII fever. I gave X-2 to a friend to borrow while I went back to Ivalice for XII. I must say, the story is quite excellently told. After dealing with the dearth of such in Blue Dragon, I can really appreciate XII's political intrigue this time around (which is not to say that I didn't like it the first time). Still, Vaan and Penelo are useless characters, but Balthier and Basch make up for it. Too bad Vossler, Reks, and Rasler weren't playable characters since their character designs and personalities are one hundred times better than that of Vaan's or Penelo's.
I've also been powergaming XII a bit. Apparently, within the first hour of the game you're able to find a rare enemy that will quickly raise you to about level 30 or more within a couple hours of grinding and Phoenix Down buying. This is where some of XII's MMO elements kind of bug me though. Having to reload a game because there's a 10% chance of a treasure chest showing up and then a 10% chance of that chest containing the item that you want is not a fun experience, yet here I am doing such. Maybe I'm just trying to make XII last since I know the story arc is pretty short (my main problem with it).
This brings me to my hopes for XIII. First off, I like a lot of the faux-MMO elements that XII brought, but some of them like the rare chance of items and monsters showing up are stupid concepts for a singleplayer game. I want to experience all the content that I can -- I shouldn't be shut off from it for some arbitrary reason. I'm not competing against other players around the world, so why shouldn't I have all the best and shiniest equipment?
Another thing, if XIII has anything like the Zodiac Spear going on, I'm going to be absolutely pissed. The Zodiac Spear for those who don't know was one of the biggest "fuck yous" to videogame fans in recent memory. You see, throughout Final Fantasy XII there were specific treasure chests that you weren't allowed to open if you wanted to obtain the most powerful weapon in the game (the Zodiac Spear). Does the game warn you about this in any way? No. The only way you'll find out is if you spent any time trolling message boards to find outrage from players who spent hours on the game already to find that it was all wasted because of some arbitrary bullshit perpetrated by Square Enix.
That said, I've a few more dos and dont's for XIII. First, XII had reversed X and Y-axis camera controls that were not changeable. This cannot be tolerated from a modern game! Reversed Y-axis controls I can deal with in a third person game, but X-axis? It just doesn't make sense. When I hold right on the right analog stick, the camera should move to the right where I want to look, not to the left. Additionally, like the MMO complaint, there should not be any missable items or anything that will prevent you from obtaining quests or anything like that. I don't want to read a walkthrough just to find out that if I don't do something that I'm screwed for no good reason (Apparently I sold an item that will shut me off from a few quests -- if it was important, why wasn't it made into a non-sellable key item?). Furthermore, XII's guild charter provided a decent log for keeping track of some sidequests, but I would like to see that fleshed out in XIII. If I come back to the game after a while of not playing, I want to know what the hell I should be doing.
One more thing: if there are any enhancements to the "international" or Xbox 360 versions of XIII, they should be made DLC for all platforms. Ever since Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix has added some nifty or interesting features to the games when Square re-released the games in Japan or elsewhere. Sometimes they just contained changes that where made for the American version, but sometimes (as in the case of XII) entirely new content and features were added. In this modern age in which we live, Square has absolutely no excuse for not making these sorts of things DLC. I don't care if it's a few bucks more, everyone everywhere should have the best version of the game possible.
Well, I think that's all I've got in me for tonight. Until next time children...
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