In just about 5 weeks, the latest installment of the venerated Final Fantasy franchise makes its way to the US for PS3 and 360. The hype preceding it is typical of any of the titles in the main Final Fantasy canon (well, except perhaps for XI); however, the amount of uncertainty and doubt about this title appears to be unprecedented for a game in this series. Those of you following initial reactions to how this title differs from previous FF titles are likely a combination of excited and apprehensive. Having played through an imported copy of the game, I feel compelled to share the good news and bad news. The bad news is that everything you’ve read about this game’s style and design is absolutely true. The good news is that it’s a fun title with one of the most epic stories in the series, and that most of the changes are very well done, with some minor exceptions.

I’ll try to keep details on the story minimal, but what stood out to me was the degree of backstory...

FULL DISCLOSURE: Yes, that is my referral link to MacHeist in the sentence below. Just don't think I'm hiding that fact from you.

As a part of the MacHeist software bundle, I thought I got enough awesome programs for $39.

But the other day they added two programs, Delicious Library and Multiwinia. Couldn't care less about Multiwinia, but after some goofy twitter finagling, I downloaded Delicious Library.



Woah.



WOAH.



Hold your games by UPC up to your computer's camera, the program will scan them and download all the info, images, and even keep an up-to-date resale value average. It also quickly and simply allows you to sell your games via Amazon (though I haven't messed around with that yet.

It's not flawless. Some of the cover art it grabs is the European version, and I have to figure out how to resize the cover images for Dreamcast...

Dare I speak the unspeakable? I dare.

Let's get the positives out of the way first (and they are many):
1) The game has a convincing, amazing atmosphere. It really draws you into the world it created.
2) The characters are memorable and mostly unique. Their interaction, both with you and with each other, adds a remarkable amount of narrative depth to the game.
3) The world itself is deep; but we're dealing with "Oblivion 2.0" here, so of course we'd expect wide, various, and cavernous gameplay. That's certainly a positive.
4) The graphics are appropriate. The awe I had at seeing the first bombed-out village upon leaving vault 101 was memorable, and not something easily done by games.
5) The music is incredible. Amazingly enough, not the first game to feature The Ink Spots, but I'm still impressed.

Now let's focus on the two negatives that were big enough to create a net dislike for the game for me.
...

1) I'm a graduate student. I was informed today that my dissertation committee wants to schedule a defense (oral presentation followed by intellectually raking me over the coals with brutal questions) of my research. So, in 4 weeks, I'll have completed all the requirements for my Ph.D. in' awesome! No more revising a 200+ page document, waiting for weeks at a time for feedback, being asked by jobs I'm applying to when I'm going to defend. Huzzah.

2) Received another phone call from a university I'd applied to asking if I'm still interested in the position. Sure. Could be nice. Not many tenure-track jobs out there at this time. So, I may be moving to a big state wherein automobiles get double-booted if you don't pay your parking meter. I think only Strell will understand that joke.

I wonder if I ever sent him the photo of that car.

3) My weekend? Left 4 Dead. I may go see an all-Motorhead set performed by Skeletonwitch tomorrow...

I speak, of course, of the "480 signal with stupid bars and a logo" HD channels.

I was super stoked that Time Warner added CNNHD a few weeks ago. But as I turned it on, I noticed that the programs are the same resolution and aspect ratio as the regular ol' CNN channel. But they had big ol' bars on the side that said "HD" (a la ESPN).

Whatta joke. Maybe it's a placemarker as they transition to HD content. I dunno. The only truly HD good-picture-quality-fills-up-the-damned-screen program on CNN is the DL Hughley program. Which is the worst show on a news channel since that Fox NEWS comedy show, the half hour news hour.

What other channels have, for the most part, sucked? Those channels that exist in the HD section of your program guide, but don't show HD quality programming?

And that's not to speak of my National Geographic HD channel, which frame skips like a mofo, has major display issues, and the audio...

I was able to play about an hour of Dead Space last night after delightfully buying it on the cheap from another CAG. Huzzah.

I like the gameplay. Not enough, but enough to keep going in the game.

But the plot itself doesn't even begin to pretend like wasn't lifted whole hog from Doom 3 (and I'm sure those more knowledgeable scifi folk can trace the lineage of the cliche "alien bodysnatcher type things invade space station the hero came to simple work on as part of the maintenance crew" tale). The lighting, the creatures jumping at me, audio/text/video logs lying around? Blood-written messages on the walls?

I think the only difference is that I have a female interest to pursue here. But I wasn't given enough exposition to care about her.

Does this game's story improve at all? I enjoyed Doom 3, but I enjoyed it in the way one enjoys dinner from Wendy's: filling, but typical, brief, somewhat unsatisfying, and...

Gears of War 2
Resistance 2
Dead Space
Fallout 3
Bioshock PS3
...what else am I forgetting? Quantum of Solace? I admit, I'm a huge 007 fan, so I'll be getting this at some point.

So much shooting, not enough time. So what should I pick up? I'm leaning between Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2 for the multiplayer aspect, but Fallout 3 is also really tempting. Dead Space is the lowest on my list currently for its lack of multiplayer; as cheapy pointed out in the most recent cagcast, wait for it to drop. The same is the case w/ Bioshock PS3. I'll wait for $20-30 for that game.

Criminy. What's a person to do? I suppose that this should be a "Gears of War 2 or Resistance 2?" thread, but I'm open to compelling suggestions for the other titles. That, and any sort of debate b/w GoW2 and R2 would immediately turn into a 360/PS3 thing; leaving me inundated with the fury, anger, and strong convictions of posters, and...

Just curious. I know it's a contentious topic due to the recent CAG discussion, but each time I fire up my 360, I see no fewer than 3-5 people, all of whom are playing in a forward-moving time bind.

They were playing Rock Band 2 2 weeks before release.

They had Saints Row 2 2-3 weeks ago.

They were playing Fallout 3 last week.

They're now tucked into Gears of War 2.

The thing is, Microsoft can actually see what games you're playing/have been playing. They know, for instance, that I played Fable (1, not 2) and Saints Row (1, not 2) over the past week or so.

Knowing this, why don't they seem willing/able to stop piracy? The thing about the Xbox was that you could pirate easily enough, but you couldn't, at all (I believe) go online with your pirated discs. The transition to their second console seems to have overlooked this fact, as people have been and are playing these games online already....

Moving into our new digs (Athens, OH), I was expecting lots of hippies and college kids. Since the school year hasn't started yet, it's actually a weird combination of ultra-conservative pentecostal folks peacefully coexisting with ultra-liberal hippies.

Which means we have an awesome Kroger. HUGE produce section, and two full aisles of hippie food: organics, multigrain, bulk grain (no bulk tea, sadly), vegetarian, vegan, etc. All kinds of milks: rice, soy, organic, etc.

But this shit caught my eye. PANCAKES IN A MOTHERIN CAN!



***ORGANIC*** pancakes in a motherin' can.

I would love to see the look on the company owner's face when they declare bankruptcy because hippies don't buy foods in pressurized cans. Except Pabst, maybe.

EDIT: As I'm sure will happen, the comments section is available for your dick jokes. C'mon,...

Ouch. Guess I won't be playing Haze for awhile after all.

Between the picture in my first, and only other, blog, and what I'm about to post here, I think I've decided I'm going to do my best to just post pictures I take every now and then.

Because y'all probably read enough of my blather as is. Or ignore it. But I digress.

As CAG 2.0 features blogs, I find myself frequently debating on whether or not to post one. This is my first - but it's in search of a need for a second, third, and so on.

Why should I, or anyone, blog? What is necessary to be a good blogger?

So I thought through these things and came up with the following:

1) A fevered ego large enough to think that people care about *your* musings, opinions, and experiences.

- well, there's no doubt I've a sizable one of those.

2) A strong opinion on virtually everything and anything, no matter how minuscule or unimportant.

- check

3) Frequently encounters things worth sharing with other folks, which are mostly of a stupid and observational nature. Like Jerry Seinfeld.

- When I see a cat wearing jean shorts and a mesh ball cap rollin' down the street in a hoveround, yeah, I want to tell someone.

So in the end,...