Yeah, it bites. I'm in the process of moving into a new home that's currently being remodeled. Sadly the "badges" associated with PAX have been sold out for a few days now. Totally screwed that one up, this is what happens when your schedule just becomes filled to the top with crap. 
 
I remember I saw both Gabe and Tycho at a Halo tournament in Bellevue years ago. How long ago? Well Bungie came over and they were demoed their E3 demo of...........................
 
.........................Halo 2. Remember that demo? When everyone freaked out when Master Chief did his very first Ghost hijack? Or gasped when he did dual wielding (Something that I never understood why it was so amazing, considering I could dual wield shotguns in Marathon 2 and....bah.)
 
So congrats for those who get to go.  *grumble*
I'm getting the feeling that my life is about to go into overdrive in the next few months. 
 
Oh, and it's not all doom and gloom: I beat Batman. It kicks ass. That was a mass generalization. Regardless, you should go play it.

I’ve had awesome track record with blog posts.

So let’s all calm down, and do something fun that wont indirectly incite factions of people wishing to destroy each other.

I mean what painful ludicrous and polarizing arguments and anger could be possibly be unleashed by talking about a game like Final Fantasy VII?

Right?

Right??

 
I’ve wanted to do a post like this for a while. Waiting for the stars to align in terms of certain events, and perhaps my own personal psyche and experience? I've been a bit inspired to finally post this due to the recent fan english release of Policenauts. Regardless, I believe it might be a good time to have a bit of a brain dump. Just an attempt to try and dump all my thoughts and ramblings out on a certain subject.

 
I believe the terminology of having a “brain dump” deserves it’s own logo…

For those interested in the Final Fantasy VII modding scene. Check Qhimm. 

Final Fantasy VII is a game that fascinates me. There are only a handful of games so polarizing in internet social circles as Final Fantasy VII. The conflict between the two opposite ends of the internet spectrum; sometime override my personal interest in the game.

But while this little blog post is about the games future and evolution, it IS required (just for a moment) to look at the games past.

Stupid logical conundrums.

 
My personal opinions of Final Fantasy VII are, what I consider: practical.

It’s a great game, not THE BEST of the series (I find comparing certain titles directly amongst a 20 year old history…a bit….dumb, even with common elements among each title of the series.) I don’t consider one title in the franchise to be the best-of-the-best. I do see it as a game that helped the Playstation library, at the time considerably. I do find it the game showed that RPG’s in general were a commercially viable risk on a console, and we should be appreciative over what it accomplished.

And that’s about it. Let’s move on. (I scratched the surface with that. I would love to talk about the game ad-nauseum, more specifically how the game changed how JRPG's mechanically over time for better or worse.)

The popularity of the game was understandable. At this time however, something absolutely fantastic happened.

It only took us almost a decade to figure it out.

Eidos was tasked with releasing a PC port of the game, and boy was it terrible.

I remember years ago trying to get it to…function…on a friends machine. Grimacing as I heard Uematsu’s original score downgraded. The video during the cutscense were more compressed for some reason or another. It was all sorts of bad. My friend looks at me, wondering why the heck I was suggesting this game to him, as the cutscene of the reactor exploded…upside-down…

I didn’t give it a second thought after that. Final Fantasy VIII had a PC port as well, and it was even worse received that the first Final Fantasy PC port effort. Square did not allow Eidos to give Final Fantasy IX a PC port treatment.

Years pass, and Square changes. My opinions on Square have become more volatile in nature over the years. It’s difficult because I was, and still am, very much so a fan. But recently I can’t avoid what they have obviously become. I view them as monolithic in nature, and from a public relations standpoint, act like spoiled uninformed children. My impression is that there are high levels of their corporate structure, living ten years in the past, while at the same time expecting the gaming world to revolve around them.

Its arrogance, but more importantly a serious case of being completely out of tough with their audience, at least concerning their western audience.  
It’s understandable. 
Overtime the company has become increasing bloated and rightfully successful. With constant success and expansion the likelihood of a bubble situation makes sense. Concerning their games, their track record has become increasingly…varied…With excellent games juxtaposed with moments of more awkward mediocrity. Success comes with a price, and that price can come into play when following thorough with success.

 
I’m talking about The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII.

The last few years Final Fantasy VII has gotten a strong resurgence. Years ago I remember Square considering a re-release of their Playstation titles for the PS2. Ports specifically. (They were port happy back then.) I think people forget that the clamor for a Final Fantasy VII remake, or a re-release of some form, is not necessarily something new. This has been a pipedream for many fans going back for multiple years.

Instead we got the Compilation, or as I affectionately call it: “Everything but a remake.”

The two prequels (Before Crisis / Crisis Core) and Final Fantasy VII’s subsequent sequels (Advent Children / Dirge of Cerberus.) have understandably been met with mixed reactions. It also, with the combination of an E3 technical demo, raised our collective basic expectations as fans. Why wouldn’t it?

Square’s PR claims regarding the reasons to not do a remake have been difficult to swallow, especially from a company more than eager to milk it’s franchises for all their worth. I found debate on online forums and from game commentators more enlightening than: “were too busy doing stuff.” Basic logistical problems regarding adapting gameplay mechanics have been brought up. Looking at Square’s track record, the fact that they have suggested that if a project of this magnitude would be undertaken, (Final Fantasy VII remake.) the possibility of something more than just a graphical overhaul being done is quite high.

As you can imagine: While Square struggles to make its yearly Final Fantasy spinoff quota, and struggles even worse regarding releasing main entries into the series, the possibility of a remake in our immediate future looks a bit bleak.

On second thoughts, perhaps the “too busy doing stuff” is legit?

Final Fantasy XII I believe still holds the Guinness world record holding of longest time a game took to be released. (2001-2006) For those of you who are wondering, yes, I do believe XIII   is expected to beat that record.  
That, or they have terrible management somewhere in that bloated company. Regardless, I'm getting off base into more reiterating speculation.

Remember that crappy PC port I was talking about?

At first it was simple: A few minor character swaps, change a few weapons, and some necessary basic software upgrades.

Watching the modding scene of Final Fantasy VII has been over the last few years: Deeply entertaining.

Modding is nothing new. But it’s a rare situation where a Japanese game can get fair modding treatment, as from what you can imagine is an amazingly talented community.

Character replacement is still going strong, and it has developed quite a bit. At first it was a simple swap of large battle characters for their SD field brethren. Now we have custom models, featuring a game that now has custom resolutions. 

Done.

In fact, one of my favorite gaming soundtracks this year was done by a fan named Final FanTim. For Final Fantasy VII specifically he re-mastered every track in the soundtrack with high quality instrument samples. The end result is something simply glorious, that’s will give even a novice fan something to smile about.

This ingenuity is not uncommon among fans of Square. In fact no matter how phenomenally large, bloated and awkward Square becomes, their fan base seems to always go the extra step.  

So much so, that they have done more to the Chrono Trigger franchise that Square has done in the past decade.

Square didn’t like that.

 
A lot of people have strong opinions regarding the amount of fan service projects Square has shut down, for a game that until recently had been out of print for years. Legal conundrums aside, the legality of the Final Fantasy VII mods are devoid of any headaches. Although, as you can imagine, the amount of people who perhaps own a copy of Final Fantasy VII PC versus the amount that have torrented it is questionable. It’s not a very difficult, or controversial statement, to think that the ratio is not in Square’s favor.

 
For those of you who are wondering why bring up Final Fantasy VII modding now: Or why the hell have I decided to write down a bunch of stuff that you already probably know, the reasons are as follow: There is still a considerable amount of people who have no idea that such a scene exists, and, perhaps more importantly the big next thing that is on the horizon.

I recently went on a trip and took Final Fantasy VII on my PSP with me. I was blown away at how well Final Fantasy VII worked as a portable game, but slowly began to get bummed out. Why you might ask? Well, for one, because of this:

Not as much as you are.

 
Well guess what’s currently being done about that?
 
As of writing a retranslation has begun from what I can tell. Text editors for the game have been created.

No matter how, or when an official update to Final Fantasy VII will be like if it is ever released, fans might be able to make their definite version in the near future. One can argue that they can already.

I remember an interview with Gabe Newell from Valve talking about the possibility of fans making a mod of a remake of the original Halflife. He simply agreed that of course it would eventually happen.

While everyone jumps up and down screaming for a remake, clinging to all matter of information released by Square. Or, for those whole simply wish to see any form of update of any kind to one of the most pinnacle games of all time. Take the time to remember during these times of upset and disappointment regarding Square’s bizarre suggestions and announcements, that fans might have your complaints covered.  
 

I hate the sun.

There was a time period in my early life where I used to live in the great state of California. Perhaps that should have built some bizarre immunity to the current state of my...state....of Washington.

According to a local news affiliate we hit 101 degrees.

Practically no one in this state has air conditioning in their homes.
It's fricken Washington for crying out loud.

I positioned a bunch of fans in a bizarre pattern in an effort to pump air into my home, but for the most part it's a bit cooler inside than outside. Regardless, my concern on my 360 and how it would be affected by the recent change in weather forced my paranoia to creep up. (Granted: I've gone through two consoles, I'm on my third.) Trying to play through Dead Space and Pixel Junkies first game The Maw currently, but my fear that my 360 might abruptly explode in a torrent of flames made me resort to sporadic console power usage.

I'm also preparing to leave the state tomorrow and go on a trip with family, so between trying to survive and trying game, it's been a bit difficult.

In the mean time, I'm getting my PSP ready.
While a majority of time will be socializing with family, if there is any down time at all, I sure as hell will be ready.
I picked up Star Ocean: First Departure. I've been highly surprised of the quality of the remake so far. I played the original Star Ocean emulated with a translation patch, so it's interesting to see how they updated the game. I also got Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles as well as Final Fantasy VII loaded up, if ever I have the urge to play through a game that I have already played through to the umpteenth time.

But most importantly, I think I'll divert my attention to finally play through Beneath a Steel Sky.



You see, my PSP is happily running custom firmware, which means I can do stuff like run SCUMM engine emulators that let me play games like the original Monkey Island and in this case...*ahem*....BASS (worst acronym ever?) I have a love for old school adventure games, I'm looking forward to playing one that has been recommended to me for so long, but never have had the opportunity to really play. This trip might actually give me reason to check it out a bit.

You can download the whole game legally here.

So that's it.
I'm still working on my Monkey Island walkthrough in my spare time. For a good portion of this week I'll be off, hopefully to colder temperatures.

I haven't done a review in a while. I actually have only done two others so far, I've always wanted to branch out and write more. For my 20th #S rank game I decided to review Secret of Monkey Island, a game that I personally consider one of the greatest games ever made.

You should read it.

If you don't I will hunt you down...and by cynical and sarcastic.

And if you don't...well...err...I'll probably still be cynical and sarcastic, but in a less insulting manner...
...
...

...sorta...

Go 600th post!

Boy is this harder than I thought. Hopefully I'll finish it.

I've been making periodical posts, but nothing too extreme for the last few months. I got a lot of stuff planned for the end of this month personally, (I get to attend one of my friends weddings for godsake.) but for the next few weeks: Nothing. Summer is pretty exciting, and by exciting: I mean it's sorta not really exciting. Unless removing malicious adware is exciting...which it is not.

So in the mean time, I've been planning and sorta creating a guide for The Secret Of Monkey Island. Just in time for the HD remake. And yeah, that picture is what I'm going for in terms of the finished product.

Tomorrow, I will embark into the great unknown to a mystical land called: "The Gorge".
There I will enjoy what is called: "The Sasquatch Music Festival", where I will listen to what many consider to be: "awesome music".

I will also not have the internet with me for three days (till monday.), probably not have television either due to the fact that I'm camping.

What if I miss something cool that happens here? What if an awesome game is announced and I don't know about it?! What if the Mayans were wrong and the world doesn't end in 2012, but on this Saturday?! I would like to know something like that!

If anyone is kind enough to just post random news that I might miss here while I'm gone, I would greatly appreciate it.
That, or you can send links to me to internet addiction clinics / anti-paranoid behavior techniques and appropriate medication.

Out of curiosity: How long have any of you gone without internet or television?

Everyone is dropping their own early opinions of Killzone 2, so I thought I might add my own two cents over this insane game.

Jeez where do I begin. I guess I should start out by being critical, this game is getting heaps of praise, which it most certainly deserves, but I've had a few moments of head scratching.