HumanityPlague

So far I got a copy of Day of Defeat: Source (gave it to a friend, already owned it), 2 pieces of coal, a 50% off coupon for Greed Corp, and a 50% off coupon for Shadowgrounds Pack.

I saw the recent Joystiq article about how FF needs even more releases (

here

) which is...frankly crazy. Trying to equate Final Fantasy with Modern Warfare is the most bonkers thing you could really think of. Those games (annualized franchises) work primarily because they're based on a solid framework, and every year they improve (or at least try/give the illusion of trying) on the framework. I'm speaking in generalities here, but you get my drift. There's NO common frameworks in Final Fantasy at all. Or, if there are, they're spread over like 4 different platforms (Consoles, Cell phones, Portable devices, and cell phones again...because Square is dumb). Here's three reasons why: 1. With their current FF 13 clusterfucktastic idea of making 2-4 games alongside it, you have to start with a good game, to begin with. FF 13 isn't great (just going by reviews, but still). So, starting your spin-off series on a shaky platform, isn't a good start. 2. Because FF 14 already came out, no one cared, and they're trying to save face. And finally 3. Does anyone have any real belief that quicker (in development) FF games would be better? It would just make quicker, mediocre games, which hey, they seem pretty intent on doing all on their own. I guess if they just want to lose money, go ahead.

Three things to help Square get on the right track:

1. Kingdom Hearts 3 on 360/PS3. No more of this stupid portable/cell-phone shit. A real KH3, fully voiced, great looking, fun battle system. NO CARDS. NO AMNESIA. NO PREQUEL BULLSHIT. Continue the story.

2. Vagrant Story 2/Parasite Eve 3 on 360/PS3 (see no. 1 for reasons why)

3. Give Final Fantasy a break. Hell, Giant Bomb awarded you guys the "Take a break award" in 2010. Take that to heart. Take a few years off, come up with some new, interesting, fun ideas, and put them in a game. Also, the dude who gives every bad guy in Final Fantasy, the most improbable, batshit, hair-style? Cut off his hands. He's done.

On the flip side, (and this is only funny to me), I kind of want them just to continue to drive the FF name deeper into the ground. When they announce Final Fantasy 15, then FF 16, and so on, I kind of look at it with quiet irony. It's hard to be "final" when you're working on the 15th (in just the big-boy franchise), of anything.

Eh, that's what Single-Player WoW is all about.  Just emulating your own server for you (or a few friends), and having a good time.

Some gaming update stuff:
 
1.  Going through Batman 1 on 360.  It's still great.  More tightly paced than Batman 2, at least.  I just did the first Scarecrow level, so that's ok.
 
2.  Beat Red Dead Redemption.  Yeah, my issues remained with it, Marston kind of skating around, for example.  Also, I really disliked the health system in the game.  I did have a weird thing occur at the end (besides the game freezing at the last mission).  Right after I killed Dutch, I got the mission to go back to my wife.  So, I rode a bit, and came up on a bear, he attacked, and I killed it.  Rode a bit more, came up on another bear, same thing.  Rode a bit more, then got attacked by another bear....and another...and another.  So, it was me, against 5 bears.  Needless to say, I didn't survive that encounter.  When I reloaded the checkpoint, I went the exact same way, and didn't come across any bears.
 
3.  Beat Alan Wake as well.  Decent game.  I know the game has a lot of little issues, but I can appreciate what they were trying to do (even if the didn't fully succeed).  I think the thing you *really* have to realize about that game is, you're not supposed to  clear out each area.  A lot of the time, you're just supposed to run & dodge, to the next checkpoint (it clears out any enemy chasing you).  I only realized this in Chapter 5 (of 6), when I got to an area with 14 guys, and no hope of beating them.  I just booked it to the next area, and moved on.  I also think the dodge thing is poorly implemented, but is helpful at times.  I love the graphics, sound/music, story-beats (not the story itself, but how it was told), etc.  I'd give it a 4/5, probably.
 
4.  Bought the Scott Pilgrim game for 360.  "Eh?" comes to mind.  That game is just not for me.  Did like cheating with the Power of Love sword though.
 
5.  Got into this weekend's beta for the Old Republic.  Already downloaded the small, small client of 20.4gb!  Second biggest Star Wars game.  The first is, The Force Unleashed 1.  It's 30gb on Steam.  Fuck that.
 
6.  I beat Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 a few days ago (on Super-hero difficulty), on a pro-reg side.  I'm slowly going through it (on a 3rd playthough), on legendary, gonna go anti-reg.  But the game is a lot easier with level 35 guys running around.  I primarily used Ice Man, Juggernaut, Jean Grey, and Human Torch (but I'd swap him out a bunch, to unlock other costumes).
 
7.  Grabbed Costume Quest on Steam.  It...doesn't run great?  That game is VERY timing focused, and it seems to lag here & there on my computer.  Not sure if it's my computer, or the game itself (I'd lean toward the game), but who knows?
 
8.  Beat Psychonauts.  And hey, it didn't fuck up my Steam install!  Even better.  Glad that game had Steam Cloud support, or else I wouldn't have gone back.  Also glad I was able to make it past the 3rd mini-boss in the Wrestler world.
 
Ah well, that's enough for now.

My usual late-night gaming update is as follows:
 
1.  Got Batman day of launch.  Beat it a few days later.  It was good, but I think overall, Asylum is the better game.  I just mean tonally, and everything.  I realize City has better combat, more crap to do, more villains/enemy types, etc.  I just had more personal fun with Asylum though.  Not sure if I'm in the minority or not though.  Also, the controls felt overly complicated at times.  Like trying to map too much stuff out.  I can't even imagine trying to play the game on a PC, with a keyboard.  Yeesh.
 
2.  Slowly making progress in Red Dead.  Just got to Mexico, and did my first Ricketts mission.  Yeah, I dunno,  that game is weird.  I'm getting into it a little more, but it kind of has the Batman problem of the controls being overly complicated at times.  That's my same problem with GTA 4, actually.  Also, in RDR, and GTA 4, it feels like the characters are "skating" at times.  Like they can't come to a complete stop, when they should.  I fell off the raft twice (during Irish's mission), because I slipped off, trying to grab more ammo.  Not fun.
 
3..  Beat Web of Shadows a few days ago.  The ending got SUPER easy, for some reason.  Once you really figure out how to web-line from enemy to enemy, the combat gets real easy.  I liked it, overall.  It did have some quality problems (I fell through the ground twice, Spider-Man froze in mid-air a few times, etc).  But the swinging was spot-on, combat was largely decent, story wasn't too stupid (for a comic book game), etc.   I wish they had actually continued making more GOOD Spider-Man games, as opposed to the last two hunks of shit.
 
4.  Re-installed my Pinball emulator (Visual Pinball with Pinmame).  It's been updated some, and they seem to have fixed some of the problems.  The last time I tried it, the right flipper didn't work on Win 7, for example.  Now it all works reasonably fine, even the mini-flipper in Starship Troopers works, which is cool.
 
5.  I think my mad hunt for Forza 4 LCE is coming to a close.  No one seems to have it (for the real price point).  And I'm not paying 120$+ for it.  Target is having a "Buy Two Get One Free" sale this week.  I'm thinking of grabbing the regular version, Dark Souls, Child of Eden, or Mortal Kombat, depending on what the stock is.
 
6.  Big news:  I'm getting a custom SNES next week.  It's 95$ (which is a bit pricey, but ah well).  Here are two pics of it: