Filed under: News
Sorry for the break between updates. We’ve had an extremely busy month so far! Between all the doctor’s appointments, our son taking off walking all by himself and being on vacation, we haven’t had much time for gaming ( at least I haven’t).
Don’t fret! He Frag, She Frag will be back next week with more posts. Stay tuned.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, News, Reviews | Tags: Army of Two, Final Fantasy, Gary Gygax, JRPG, Lost Odyssey, MMO
I guess it has been quite a few days since I last posted. Sorry for the wait, guys. You’d think a stay at home mother would have nothing better to do than to blog all day, but that’s where you are wrong, my friend!
First off is some news, and I want say RIP to Gary Gygax. You will be sorely missed.
Yesterday we picked up Lost Odyssey in favor over Army of Two mainly because I’d been anxiously awaiting a JRPG for the 360. Currently I am about 4 hours into the game and have hopeful expectations for where it can go from here. I must say, it’s been a pleasurable experience so far. I think this game is where the Final Fantasy series should have gone after Final Fantasy VIII. Saying thus, it might leave you wondering, “Just what the hell do you mean?”. Indeed, I said this to Mike and he had a similar reaction. (more…)
Hey, Japan, we’ve had soundcards for almost two decades now – use them!
I was watching Jasmine play Lost Odyssey last night – a spiritual successor to the Final Fantasy games on the 360 – and I was [somewhat] shocked to see reels and reels of exposition done completely in text. Text! Text! How about flipping your four DVD’s worth of boring, emptily-rendered cinematics into some useful voice-acting so you don’t have to read the equivalent of two novels between each battle?
Someone tell me this, too; why does a game need to be 40+ hours long? Do you do anything diverse in those hours? No. You do line-up-and-whack-off grinds for a couple days between each asinine cinematic, which is followed up by – in Lost Odyssey’s case – pages and pages of textual storytelling. Apparently the main character, Kaim – an amnesiatic immortal – only has text-based memories, because each recollection he has is done in 5,000 words or less. That you have to read.
I have no problem with reading, don’t get me wrong. If the game were made in 1993, it’d be fine – but it drives me crazy when these JRPG’s – heralded as epics – get ported over here with polished creature designs, and nothing more. I don’t feel immersed in a cinematic expierence when the camera is fixated on the pages of a damn paperback for 15 minutes at a time. The ‘memory’ sequences don’t even have any stimulating visuals to accompany them.
This goes for you too, Nintendo. Make your damn Zelda games talk. It’s 2008.
Mass Effect did a fabulous job of blending movie with game. Japanese developers need to start appreciating the fact that video games are something we westerners do better, and improve their tired old RehashCraft.
Let’s face it, I’m a blurber. If I don’t have the motivation to chime in at length about something, I’ll just throw up an interesting link.
Which is what is happening now! Actually, I’ll have a good article about my proven XBox 360 Life-Extender tecnhique this week – I just felt the urge to make this post because of a newsletter I just received from The Escapist. They posted this article about the ‘accidental success’ of the first X-Com game, which I found pretty interesting. It was more than a sleeper hit than anything, but is universally acclaimed by anybody who knows anything about the history of video games.
For those not in “the know,” X-Com: UFO Defense was a squad-based tactical strategy game with equal parts economic planning and resource management. You’d oversee the construction of X-Com’s bases, hire recruits, research and produce new equipment, and vie for financial support by aiding the countries of the world with their UFO problems.
They kind of give the sequel, Terror from the Deep, a bad wrap – but I enjoyed it. Yeah, it was basically the same game as the first with new graphics, but I totally dug the Lovecraftian allusions.
The first game served only to perpetuate my fear of aliens and alien abductions – a popular media topic in the US at the time, what with shows like Sightings and the X-Files being popular - and so I regard it with equal parts love and discomfort.
With 2K Games’ purchase of the X-Com franchise, this may not be the end of this classic name in the news.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, Interesting Links, Multiplayer, Role-Playing | Tags: fantasy, pen & paper, Role-Playing
Sorry for the delay, it certainly has been a few days longer than I would have liked. I was actually expecting Jasmine to blog about one of the items on her topic list before I got to my next post, but I guess I win!
I have a few things to blog about over the next couple days, but I’ll start from the to top: Fantasy Grounds. Chances are you haven’t heard of it, but it’s essentially a virtual tabletop for Pencil and Paper role-playing games, and all that the concept implies. Roll virtual dice, draw on virtual maps, host games and play as Non-Player Characters and even use mood lighting to accentuate your scenario’s location and various expositions. It’s the whole freakin’ package, and it’s customizable; don’t like a particular rule-set? Fine, create your own (a feature that has me drooling over this thing) – inject your own map graphics, character portraits, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.
The full version, of course, costs money – but it’s affordable, and comes in two flavors; ‘Full’ and ‘Lite’ – the former offering the ‘game master’ system and customization tools, and the latter being the player’s edition, allowing them to log into the game master’s ‘room’ and play their characters.
If you’re a fan of role-playing, or simply were too shy to try it, this is your chance. There’s nothing more comforting (and annoying) than the anonymity of the internet – but at least you can have hearty creative sessions over the distance with close friends.
Definitely good stuff.
UPDATE: It’s too much of a coincidence that I made this post on the same day that Gary Gygax passed away. RIP Gary, and thank you for all your contributions to evolving modern gaming. Your work inspired Ultima, which makes me eternally grateful.
