I have returned! Almost catastrophically late, but, fear not. I've been looking at a very good game recently, a game so good that it made me eat my own socks. Yes, that good. The game, not the socks. Anyhow, the most recently released game in the Final Fantasy series is by far the best console rpg that I have played on the PS2. When I started playing this game, it grabbed me by the throat, and upped my standards of console RPG's tenfold. Everything about it is astounding, from the story, to the cinematics, to the gameplay. The entire game makes me want to stand up, wave my arms over my head, and scream "EPIC!" over and over again.
As far as the story goes, the tale of a small kingdom caught between two warring empires is a fairly basic concept, but the geniuses at Square Enix took it, and turned it into something extraordinary. Between the political strife, the seemingly one sided romance between two of the main characters, and the epic quest to restore the rightful heir to the crown in order to declare peace with an occupying nation, the story has litteraly got something for everyone.
The gameplay is second to none. The combat system takes a little getting used to, but the first three hours of play are spent in tutorials, which explain all of the game's odds and ends. The combat utilizes an auto attack in conjunction with other special abilities, like World of Warcraft. The thing that really sets it apart though, is that you can pause the game at any time during combat in order to issue commands without having to worry about your characters' health bott0ming out. The skill and ability unlocking system to the game, and is really fun to use. Sure it's frustrating to have to graphically unlock several other skills to get to the one you want, but the puzzle like system is ultimately creative, and entertaining.
I wish that I could go one further about the game (I think that I might edit this post a little later on) but duty calls. "By the light of the moon!" *poof*
Monday, September 28, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
The Fable series, part 2
And on the third day, the lord came down from heaven and said "What be pimping hoes?"! Sorry for the late update this week, Charter cable is now my official nemesis. On our second foray into the fable games, ergo we look at the second game. The sequel I believe built quite faithfully onto the original in terms of story and gameplay. It also tweaked a few features and added some new ones that I think all work very well in contributing to the game. A few that stand out are the streamlining of the ranged combat including spells, and guns. Another thing that I thought was extremely note worthy was that, the developers added in a whole bunch of endgame content to help raise money. This was a feature that was lacking in the first game, and is a welcomed adition to the sequel.
As far as story goes, Fable II has it's shit held tight. Even though your charater never speaks, or interacts socially with other people in traditional methods, the developers wrote the story so well, that your character exhibits all of the traits of a literary hero. Yet again, the game's story line is dark, with undertones of classic British humor, just like the first game, but the dark bits are even darker and creepier. The dream sequence after Lucien declares that he killed your family (and your dog, bastard) is so wonderfully eery, it drove chills up my spine towards the end, what with the music box playing in the background of all the death and destruction. A well received collection of features that were supposed to be in the first game, indeed made it into the second, including the ability to have a child.
Fable II has some of the coolest endgame rewards in rpgs, like the ability to become king of all of the game's world, you don't see that too often. Which raises the question of what the point of the third game is going to be. Recently a teaser trailer was released with the catch phrase of "The race for the crown begins." Now, I think that the selling point of the sequel is going to be to become a powerful monarch, which you already could in the 2nd game. So my guess is that maybe the third game is going to build right off of the 2nd game, (using the same character?) and is going to take the allmighty ruler thing to the next level. Before I sign off for this week, I want to say two things. The first is that I will now be posting on saturdays for sake of convenience. The second is that a really cool looking MMO called Aion is coming out around the same time as the newest addition to the Halo series (all hail master chief) and it would really be worth your time to go check out it's web site. Now, onward Concord!
As far as story goes, Fable II has it's shit held tight. Even though your charater never speaks, or interacts socially with other people in traditional methods, the developers wrote the story so well, that your character exhibits all of the traits of a literary hero. Yet again, the game's story line is dark, with undertones of classic British humor, just like the first game, but the dark bits are even darker and creepier. The dream sequence after Lucien declares that he killed your family (and your dog, bastard) is so wonderfully eery, it drove chills up my spine towards the end, what with the music box playing in the background of all the death and destruction. A well received collection of features that were supposed to be in the first game, indeed made it into the second, including the ability to have a child.
Fable II has some of the coolest endgame rewards in rpgs, like the ability to become king of all of the game's world, you don't see that too often. Which raises the question of what the point of the third game is going to be. Recently a teaser trailer was released with the catch phrase of "The race for the crown begins." Now, I think that the selling point of the sequel is going to be to become a powerful monarch, which you already could in the 2nd game. So my guess is that maybe the third game is going to build right off of the 2nd game, (using the same character?) and is going to take the allmighty ruler thing to the next level. Before I sign off for this week, I want to say two things. The first is that I will now be posting on saturdays for sake of convenience. The second is that a really cool looking MMO called Aion is coming out around the same time as the newest addition to the Halo series (all hail master chief) and it would really be worth your time to go check out it's web site. Now, onward Concord!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Fable series, part 1
Yo. That's all I got for this week as far as a greeting goes. I hope that no one cares about the nearly catastrophic late posting, but the galaxy needed saving again, and I needed to do the laundry and feed my cat. Anyhow, this week's game is actually the game and it's sequel, because it's hard to look at just one of them independently. In this first part The Fable games are arguably some of the funnest and at times most controversial games on the market. Controversial in that the developing studio's head creative developer made a lot of promises for the first game that were never fulfilled, resulting in much customer disapointment, and Microsoft asking Lionhead studios to keep a tighter leash on their enthusiastic colleague. Despite all of the features that never made it into the first game, the first game was extremely popular and for good reason.
As far as the story goes, despite the fact that your character never says anything (as per usual), the narrative of the plot is fantastic, with several good twists, a nasty villain, and a sort of deus ex machina in the form of your creepy and blind older sister who see's into the future and shoots lasers. The gameplay itself is very fun as well, with the combat system being fairly simple to figure out, and having some rather entertaining spells to cast. The one feature thatI find the most interesting is the way that your personal aesthetic changes based on your actions. Such as, how if you brutally slaughter an old woman, that you grow horns and flies buzz around your head. As well as, if you spend two hours hacking up skeletons in a graveyard, butterlies flutter around you, and a shaft of light follows you around. The particullarly enjoyable bit about the Fable games in general (more so in the second game) is their tongue in cheek attitude, a mix of dark fantasy elements and offbeat humor. I personally enjoy this, what with a need to take a break from the more disturbing parts of the game such as children being turned into goblins, and the need to murder your own sister in an attempt to gain an extremely powerful weapon.
Before I make a final statement, I'm going to cut off for now, and publish part two of my critique of the Fable series next week.
As far as the story goes, despite the fact that your character never says anything (as per usual), the narrative of the plot is fantastic, with several good twists, a nasty villain, and a sort of deus ex machina in the form of your creepy and blind older sister who see's into the future and shoots lasers. The gameplay itself is very fun as well, with the combat system being fairly simple to figure out, and having some rather entertaining spells to cast. The one feature thatI find the most interesting is the way that your personal aesthetic changes based on your actions. Such as, how if you brutally slaughter an old woman, that you grow horns and flies buzz around your head. As well as, if you spend two hours hacking up skeletons in a graveyard, butterlies flutter around you, and a shaft of light follows you around. The particullarly enjoyable bit about the Fable games in general (more so in the second game) is their tongue in cheek attitude, a mix of dark fantasy elements and offbeat humor. I personally enjoy this, what with a need to take a break from the more disturbing parts of the game such as children being turned into goblins, and the need to murder your own sister in an attempt to gain an extremely powerful weapon.
Before I make a final statement, I'm going to cut off for now, and publish part two of my critique of the Fable series next week.
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