So it’s been three years since the next gen consoles came out and there have been plenty if great games that game out. From small scale independent games to the huge blockbuster games there have been no doubt plenty of great games to choose from. However, if you are in my position then you are still in dire mean of your RPG fix and for the life of me I cannot fathom what the hells taking so long.
Now I understand that RPG’s do tend to take it’s time to move onto the next gen consoles, this is usually the case. But it’s been three years since the 360 came out and while there have been RPG’s they haven’t hit me yet. Looking back at some of the best would be those odd hybrid fusions of action oriented games that have RPG elements. Mass Effect, Oblivion and Fallout 3 would all come to mind in this manner. They all have those RPG stat elements and bring it into a action genre. But not really that kind of RPG experience that I’ve been waiting for.
So what have I been waiting for? Well probably one of those JRPG’s, those are the ones I tend enjoy the most. The ones that have come out have not really been very engaging. Most just seem to be very unpolished and not full of life. Let’s take a look at the RPG games I have played so far”
You were pretty bad!
Enchanted Arms- This was probably the first RPG to be released for the next gen consoles and if it was a sign of this to come then it was point on. Horrible dialog, music was very generic, somewhat interesting map progression, graphics could of used more time to develop. The story was somewhat interesting. The idea of a demon possessing your hand and seeing it grow over your body was pretty cool. Biggest problem was probably in the combat.
You were really good! Eternal Sonata- Really this game was great. The graphics were great, the story premise was original but turned into something else at the end. Music was pretty fine and the battle system was highly addictive. I would have to say that this was my favourite next gen RPG. Problem with this game was the story really. It had an interesting premise but never really used it well enough.
You were kinda fine!
Lost Odyssey- I was really hyped up for this game. I thought the premise was interesting enough but the way it was handled was very poor. Everything about that game seemed to go at a sssssllllllooooowwwww pace. From cut scenes, battle system and dialog everything seemed so slow.
You were pretty dull! Infinite Undiscovery- Really I wasn’t sure what to expect from this game. I knew I wasn’t going to be a grand-slam hit but maybe I was expecting a bit more from it. The voices were very generic, the music was forgettable, the battle system was nothing special and the overall experience just left me saying “.....ok.”
You were pretty good.... for a while!
Last Remnant – Really I thought this was the RPG I was waiting for. And I said this to myself as I was playing it. But as I was playing it the game started to feel like a chore to me. The battle system was trying to make battles more of an epic scale when really all it was doing was just making this game more of a chore. Disregard the graphical issues with this game it’s still a sub par experience.
AAwwwwww yyeeeeaaaahhhh I find it odd how I can play these games with such aggravation and yet go back to a game like Persona 4 and enjoy that with such ease. It makes me wonder if Persona 4 were to be released on PS3, would I still think it’s a fantastic game like I do now? Or would I think it needs some more polish?
So what’s the problem? Where are all those great RPG’s I played on my PS2?
Well when you think about it most have either tried to crack the Next Gen consoles with mixed result or just moved on to make cheaper games and move on to the DS. Creating games on with a smaller budget to a mass market of over 80 million owners seems to be logical. People tend to forget that RPG’s have a difficult time selling themselves so they usually stick to the strongest device out there.
Now I know I haven’t played all the Next Gen RPG’s out there (Tales I’m looking at you) but this certain group doesn’t leave me with much hope for the future.
Maybe I was expecting something more when it moved to the Next Gen. Maybe I thought things would get better after playing a bunch of crappy RPG’s that really had no reason to be played or finished. But really if these games were on the PS2 maybe I’d think there just as great as some of the other games out there? Is Final Fantasy XIII going to be that RPG I have been waiting for? I never really Liked FFXII that much so does this spell doom for me? Will I just have to stick with FPS and other action oriented games for these Next Gen games? I certainly hope not but only time will tell.
So the weekend went by and the 6 annual VGA’S went on the air. After all these years I figured by now the VGA’S would have figured itself out by now, create an identity and just roll with it. And yes it has, for better or worse it has. The identity it has is some weird hybrid of celebrities and video games. Now, for whatever reason, it has worked for them. I guess it’s tailored to the young adolescent teenage males that think video games are the be all and end all of everything, which is fine. VGA’S too me are nothing more then a big advertisement for both celebrities and video games.
One of the best things about the VGA’S is the whole aspect of the exclusive trailers. I still remember to this day seeing the Godfather trailer as that big mafia guy was talking about stuff from the movie. Huge WTF moments ran through my mind as that trailer faded to black with the God Father logo making its way at the end. But now, all trailers don’t seem to have that certain umph that God Father had. Sure, that trailer didn’t show game play but that wasn’t the point. The point was to say “Hey look how good he looks” and be interested in it from then on.But all these other trailers don’t have that umph. Most that are shown are too early in development to really peak an interest. Plus, God Father itself is far too popular for people not to take notice. Beyond that, there really hasn’t been a trailer aired on the VGA’Shaven’t really spread word of mouth. Most are just very early teaser trailers that don’t really show anything of interest.
The awards, again for some reason just doesn’t seem relevant in this show. Yeah, you see winners and an exception speech but there really wasn’t much emphasis on them. A lot of the time, more hype came around with the celebrities as they were presenting a trailer to the audience. I won’t go into the screw up that happened but it did so hahahaha. But going back to the awards, I was very VERY fearful when Will Wright came out to receive his “Gamer God Award”, I thought he would run the clock and eventually get a signal to rap it up. Fortunately, that didn’t happen but I feel like he purposely went short on his speech. Most of the awards given out were typical nothing really worth mentioning. Again, though they had that huge montage of winners for almost half of the actual awards. Which is just plain stupid, you call yourself an award show and montage half of the awards given out?
The music was horrible. Last year they brought in Video Games Live which I just thought was a fantastic idea. And then they go back and revert to what it was before. I’m sure by now everyone’s heard the Ludacris ‘ video game rap song and really, they dropped the ball. No song was related to a video game in anyway, I’m not sure why 50 Cent was there, I’m not aware if he’s trying to promote his Album or he has a new one coming. It was interesting for it to end with Weezer as they never really preformed for such a time. Aside from that it was very generic musical showcase.
Overall the show itself was not all bad. Jack Black was a good choice. He seemed to know more about video games then previous host and work it well. The presenters weren’t all bad most were entertaining the models were stupid. There’s no need for some hot girl to come out and say “Hey I like games ;)”. It still boggles me why they bring Hollywood celebrities to a video game show, especially if they have no relation to games at all. For entertainment purposes, the show was ok. I still feel like the show is trying to grow into something a bit more serious, trying to get more people involved in the whole judging process and finding out proper winners. Somewhere down the line I feel that Spike will get the proper balance of advertisements, celebrities and video games all in one. I don’t know when but I feel this way. Start the Conversation
The Three Lights of the RRoD Everyone has a story of there first RRoD story and I'd like you all to listen to mine. It all started some time in December of last year when I first went to go get my first 360. By this time RRoD was a clear notion in my head and really it was the main reason why I was so reluctant to go ahead and buy one. Finally a freind convinced me to go ahead and buy it. He even told me he'd drive me to go and get it. So off we went to go off and buy my very first 360.
Now normally you'd go to a Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Future Shop (Canada's Best buy) EB or where ever to buy one. But me? No no no I wasn't like that. You see my friend showed me this flyer for a local store they specialized in refurbished products. Now I know what your thinking, but at this time I already went ahead and bought a refurbished MP3 player that was working great for me so I thought this was a good opportunity. So I went and bought the Premium version that sold 2 games (Forza and NHL 2007) along with a one year subscription to XBL. for about $220 not a bad deal.
Off I went to a local future shop to get 2 recently released games Eternal Sonata and Mass Effect (The only two games I wanted the system for). Went home opened the box up and took out all the components. You can tell the box was previously opened but meh, what can you do. Hooked it up threw in Eternal Sonata and was instantly hooked. I should also note that I have a Wii and PS3 for whatever reason (bragging rights? I suppose). For two weeks I switched between Eternal Sonata and Mass Effect constantly playing both.There we're times when I played for an entire weekend without leaving my house only for the sake of food (Yeah ok I'm a loser too).
Anyways, constant playing always made me worry about the RRoD but I didn't care I was loving the games and couldn't stop. Eventually I said too myself "You know my sister bought me Rainbow Six Vegas for my birthday on PS3... I should really try that out." I did and got hooked. Played it for a good five days till I beat it. Now by this time I figured it was enough rest time for my 360 and was looking forward to playing my games again. Went ahead and turned it on and what do you know... RRoD.
I don't know what caused it, maybe it was the fact that it was winter and I left it off for a bit, maybe my 360 was mad at me for ignoring it for so long or maybe it was because I bought a refurbished product I don't know. All I knew was that those Three-Lights (lol Sailor Moon reference) were mocking me... mocking and laughing. Eventually, I called up a friend of mine who knew a thing or two about this. He told me of all those weird methods to try and restore my 360.
First was the un-plug everything wait and plug everything back in method. And well to my surprise it worked. I was happy and spazzing out everywhere. Went back and played some Sonata satisfied. After a couple days or so I got RROD again but I'd always use the same method of un-plugging all then reconnect and it worked... for awhile. For the next week or so I would have to end up doing this method over and over again. It was getting to be a pain and I was just about to give up on my 360 experience. But I wouldn't have to worry about that because well, it gave up on me. That method no longer worked and again I was frustrated. Once angain I called my friend and he said the only other method was the towel method... the dreaded towel method. The Three-Lights of Sailor Moon For those who don't know this method, it's basically wrapping up your 360 in a towel, turn it on, wait a bit, turn it off, remove towel and turn back on. I have heard many negative things about this method and was recommended as a last resort. Frankly I knew it was near the end so I decided to do it. For whatever reason the towel trick didn't work for me. Or well, it did but it took a long time for it too work. The normal time your suppose to leave your 360 on while wrapped in the towel was about 10-15 minutes and it should work. For me it was anywhere form an hour to an hour and a half. Realising that this method wasn't really helping me (and never really feeling good about doing it) I knew it was time to give up on my 360. It has died and comeback to life far too many times for me to remember so finally I put it too rest.
So what could I do now? Call Microsoft and tell them? Well I tried, and well it didn't work. Apprently, the console was not under my name so I wasn't allowed to send it. Maybe it was because I bought it refurbished I don't know. And what about sending it back too that store? Well I could have, infact, they had a replacment warranty. Problem there was that it was only for three months and I was in my fifth. I could of sent it back to them when I first got my RROD but I didn't and instead went for the other methods I stated above. Even if I did send it back to them, they would just gave me another refurbished 360 that might of died aswell so I wasn't looking for that.
Finally, I gave in and went to my local Futureshop and bought an Arcade version and just put the hard drive onto that one. I don't know if I have the falcon chip or not but I do know it comes with the HDMI component and I heard the HDMI ones are +5 RRoD resistant. So now I'm back to enjoying more 360 games without any worries of the dreaded RRoD. Though in the back of my head I feel it will show up again.
So what happened to my old 360? I sold it for $80 to a guy who said he could "fix" the problem. And that MP3 player I had? I dropped it and now it doesn't play music so now I just use it as a memory stick. Oh, also as I was reading the serial numbers to the Microsoft guy I saw the date the model was created. Apparently, it was one of the original launch consoles.
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