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, Mike's Rambling, Role-Playing | Tags: Final Fantasy 7
Jaz’s post last night reminded me of a blog entry I made elsewhere on September 5th of last year. Rather than paraphrasing it, I decided to re-post it here – so it’d finally get an actual audience. Unfortunately, I no longer know the location of the quotes I used – I believe they were user comments on some b-list game review site. I apologize in advance if any of my actual words (and not those of the review I quoted) seem venomous; it was written at a moment of weakness…
September 5th, 2007:
Bennett Campbell, you’re just some guy who posted a reader review of a game back in 2005 that I happened to find today, but you are my champion. With the exception of one general statement you’ve made, you have managed to express a frustration of mine I feel I’ve been alone to hold and cherish like a Knight Templar and his oath.
Let me back-track before I trudge on; today I was surfing the web, and stumbled upon the blog of Warren Spector while reminiscing about Deus Ex – one of my favorite games. While reading his various posts, I came to realize (again) just how good Deus Ex was – and, more specifically, what made it good.
While on this high, I saw a fanboy remark about Final Fantasy 7. Yes, the usual one; “OMFG FFVII IS SUCH A BETTAR RPG.” Mismatched genres aside, it angered me – and so I set out to find someone besides myself who was less than impressed by this confusing – yet somehow beloved – Japanese Role-Playing Game.
Looks like I’ll be slapping up one more update for today. Busy opening night!
Anywho, I found this interesting article over at A Good Husband called “My Husband plays XBox too much” - it’s an informative read that deals with that lop-sided relationship where the man is the gamer, and the woman is the (typically) disgruntled bystander. It gives some pointers for men and women on how to handle ‘game-time’. I like how it doesn’t attempt to preach, and acknowledges that the penchant to game isn’t always an addiction, but a male coping mechanism.
Give it a once-over.
Filed under: Games & Gaming, Mike's Rambling, Nostalgia | Tags: Gears of War 2, Ultima 7
Whuzzappenin’? Allow me to be the first of the dynamic d-pad duo to welcome you to the blog… and the start of many bad puns. My name is Mike Mann, and if you haven’t guessed, I’m the husband, and not some unfortunately named woman with facial stubble. Seriously, I’m not. And even if that were true, it wouldn’t really be a his and hers blog, unless I were really awkward insane and wanted to pose as two people.
So, this is He Frag, She Frag – a hubby and wubby gaming blog aimed at couples who flap their fingertips at video games together – but don’t let that target audience deter you. There’s something here for everyone, from the hardcore volcano-faced PC nerd to the casual soccer mom who likes to tickle dachsunds (… That’s a Nintendogs reference. I hope that was obvious.) My co-author is my lovely wife, Jasmine. She’s the murderous vixen. Oh, she’s also the woman in the banner, too.
We decided to begin this as a result of several aborted blog attempts, at least on my part. I’ve tried to begin a game review and nostalgia blog in the past, but I couldn’t handle the structure and the obvious time and financial burden of keeping up with the latest games. Instead, I wanted to just talk about gaming… Whatever that may be… And the topic is one both me and my wife share. So, why not both blab about it together? A boob-tube indoctrined geek blogging about the teaser trailer for Gears of War 2 is a dime a dozen, but a game blog aimed at couples? Moderately original!
So there you have it! Welcome!
My first order of game-related business is to announce the start of my personal crusade; to finally play Ultima 7 – Parts 1 & 2 – through to the end, for the first time. I bought these classic games back in 1993, and have only ever tooled around in the immersive open-ended simulated world that makes Oblivion look primitive in scope. It’s a shame games like these are overlooked by the younger generation of gamers, because there was so much substance in these titles that isn’t found often nowadays.
I’ll be blogging my progress through these games here under the title of The Ultima 7 Blogthrough, inspired by Blogging Ultima.
At any rate, my quest is clear; rather than learn new ways to rob the Britannian mint, murder people for their houses, bake bread for a living, or scam the gambling tables in Buccaneer’s Den, I shall finally triumph over the Guardian and legitimately watch the end sequences of these gems.
That is, if Jasmine lets me… Teehee.
