2006, In Review: Games
The last, and perhaps not least important, of my year end reviews.
Unlike Mark, I have had the opportunity to play the recent additions to the console gaming world's two juggernaut franchises. How did they fare against fiery upstarts like Brain Age, a game I could and probably will play until the end of my days? Not well.
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII is, in a word, punishing.
To speak of the game is to lament the terrible rise of MMORPGs and their poisoning of single player gaming mechanics. Treasure chests and item drops are randomized discouraging exploration and promoting the irritating monster farming and dungeon backtracking that has become a staple of protracting online play.
The clearest proof that SquareEnix must truly hate its fans: one of the best weapons, The Zodiac Spear, is accessible only if you manage to avoid opening four arbitrarily selected chests throughout the course of the game. At no time are you informed of this nasty ordeal of plundering abstinence, so SE is in effect punishing gamers who attempt to defeat the game without outside assistance. Other quests are equally mind-numbing: I have heard the final Mob Hunt Yiazmat takes hours to kill. I imagine in online play these trials of endurance are vaguely worthwhile in that they net you some manner of cyber prestige, but in the insular world of Invalice they seem fruitless.
Despite its immense size (it would take a pilgrimage of well over an hour to hike across), Invalice itself comes across as insipid and lifeless. The main city of Rabanastre certainly has a substantial population, but the NPCs either stand around or amble around aimlessly. For a bustling city there seems to be no semblance of purpose or intention. Illusion of Gaia had more convincing communities.
The natural environments themselves show a distinct lack of imagination or basic ecology. One of the first encounters in the Dalmasaca Estersand is a gigantic Tyrannosaurus, which is equally cool and terrifying -- but completely illogical. If you are going to show a Tyrannosaurus attacking other monsters, which is a great idea because it demonstrates a food chain (ie. the world exists beyond the solipsism of your main characters), please have it be reasonable prey. A Tyrannosaurus cannot survive on wolf pet alone. Now, this may be too nit-picky for a game that asks you to use license points to wear a hat, but beyond the artificiality of gaming mechanics, the actual world itself should show some verisimilitude or basic interior logic.
Perhaps all this would all be forgivable if the story was anywhere close to engaging, but unfortunately it is typical Final Fantasy fare: a somewhat morally dubious character gains access to unparalleled power and is corrupted. Yawn. Our heroes, on the whole, are equally bland - with the notable exception of Fran and Balthier, the latter acting as veritable Falstaff.
Final Fantasy XII, in summary, grafts the crushing hourly demands of online play onto a solitary world propelled only by a lackluster plot. Certainly an awkward step for the series.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Contrary to what you may have heard, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess looks stunning. The chronology of the Zelda series is based on the eternal return and the art department has done a phenomenal job of recasting the tropes of Zelda mythology in unique, yet familiar ways. The new digital/vector Dark World has taken a concept created to solve storage limitation on the Super Nintendo and spun it into a compelling plot device (which is also sure to satisfy furry fans [Ben, et. all] worldwide).
It is a pity the controls do the game no justice.
In the beginning I actually tried using the Wii controller to, you know, aim and such. This led to many a frustrating death. The game difficulty is not fine-tuned to allow the finesse of locating an enemy's weak spot (which is often quite a small target on bosses) and then executing the necessary action manually. My life became substantially easier when I gave up aiming myself and started using Z-targeting -- which begs the question, why the innovative controller if we are going to be using GameCube handicaps? Even using the controller as a sword, while marginally exciting on the geekometer, is a major disappointment as there is no clear correlation between actual and virtual swings.
Twilight Princess is a beautiful game the should have been the GameCube's last hurrah.
Unlike Mark, I have had the opportunity to play the recent additions to the console gaming world's two juggernaut franchises. How did they fare against fiery upstarts like Brain Age, a game I could and probably will play until the end of my days? Not well.
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII is, in a word, punishing.
To speak of the game is to lament the terrible rise of MMORPGs and their poisoning of single player gaming mechanics. Treasure chests and item drops are randomized discouraging exploration and promoting the irritating monster farming and dungeon backtracking that has become a staple of protracting online play.
The clearest proof that SquareEnix must truly hate its fans: one of the best weapons, The Zodiac Spear, is accessible only if you manage to avoid opening four arbitrarily selected chests throughout the course of the game. At no time are you informed of this nasty ordeal of plundering abstinence, so SE is in effect punishing gamers who attempt to defeat the game without outside assistance. Other quests are equally mind-numbing: I have heard the final Mob Hunt Yiazmat takes hours to kill. I imagine in online play these trials of endurance are vaguely worthwhile in that they net you some manner of cyber prestige, but in the insular world of Invalice they seem fruitless.
Despite its immense size (it would take a pilgrimage of well over an hour to hike across), Invalice itself comes across as insipid and lifeless. The main city of Rabanastre certainly has a substantial population, but the NPCs either stand around or amble around aimlessly. For a bustling city there seems to be no semblance of purpose or intention. Illusion of Gaia had more convincing communities.
The natural environments themselves show a distinct lack of imagination or basic ecology. One of the first encounters in the Dalmasaca Estersand is a gigantic Tyrannosaurus, which is equally cool and terrifying -- but completely illogical. If you are going to show a Tyrannosaurus attacking other monsters, which is a great idea because it demonstrates a food chain (ie. the world exists beyond the solipsism of your main characters), please have it be reasonable prey. A Tyrannosaurus cannot survive on wolf pet alone. Now, this may be too nit-picky for a game that asks you to use license points to wear a hat, but beyond the artificiality of gaming mechanics, the actual world itself should show some verisimilitude or basic interior logic.
Perhaps all this would all be forgivable if the story was anywhere close to engaging, but unfortunately it is typical Final Fantasy fare: a somewhat morally dubious character gains access to unparalleled power and is corrupted. Yawn. Our heroes, on the whole, are equally bland - with the notable exception of Fran and Balthier, the latter acting as veritable Falstaff.
Final Fantasy XII, in summary, grafts the crushing hourly demands of online play onto a solitary world propelled only by a lackluster plot. Certainly an awkward step for the series.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Contrary to what you may have heard, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess looks stunning. The chronology of the Zelda series is based on the eternal return and the art department has done a phenomenal job of recasting the tropes of Zelda mythology in unique, yet familiar ways. The new digital/vector Dark World has taken a concept created to solve storage limitation on the Super Nintendo and spun it into a compelling plot device (which is also sure to satisfy furry fans [Ben, et. all] worldwide).
It is a pity the controls do the game no justice.
In the beginning I actually tried using the Wii controller to, you know, aim and such. This led to many a frustrating death. The game difficulty is not fine-tuned to allow the finesse of locating an enemy's weak spot (which is often quite a small target on bosses) and then executing the necessary action manually. My life became substantially easier when I gave up aiming myself and started using Z-targeting -- which begs the question, why the innovative controller if we are going to be using GameCube handicaps? Even using the controller as a sword, while marginally exciting on the geekometer, is a major disappointment as there is no clear correlation between actual and virtual swings.
Twilight Princess is a beautiful game the should have been the GameCube's last hurrah.
posted by d l wright at 1/19/2007 04:47:00 PM
4 Comments:
So I'm trying to get a Wii. I've been calling the Gamestop by my work every morning to see if they've gotten any in.
This morning I call at 10:30 and the guy tells me that the shipment hasn't come in yet so to call back later. I call at 11:30 and he tells me that the shipment came in at 11:15, there were Wiis, but they had ALREADY sold out. Apparently, there were people that showed up and waited for the shipment to arrive.
P.S. Wiis are still selling for $350-400 on eBay.
That's just messed up.
I am still waiting for Electroplakton to come down in price :(
For some reason, I don't think that's ever going to happen. The U.S. pressing of that game was really small... and they only sold it through Nintendo's online store and Target.
Have you checked the local Targets?
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