Excitement and disappointment for the next Final Fantasy

As a teenager, Final Fantasy was a big part of my life. I loved to play and watch as the story developed while I levelled through the missions. I particularly loved the cutscenes, SquareEnix just had a way of making them look spectacular. Their worlds were engrossing, you wanted to be part of it. Their characters seemed very well developed and they always had very strong female characters in their stories, whether evil or good.

So when details of Final Fantasy XV came out a few months ago, I was pretty disappointed that the story revolves around five males.

No lead females, although recently there has been details that the regular ‘Cid’ character, in all final fantasy games is a female in this game. I just don’t think it’s enough.

With all that aside below is a trailer that came out recently for Final Fantasy XV. The world looks amazing, the cut scenes – amazing as usual. Can’t wait to see more details about this game. I hope it’s not as disappointing as other recent Final Fantasy games, store wise.

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Exclusive levels in games, it needs to go!

I happened to watch an IGN video the other day about the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5. As my partner and I are fans of the series we were very excited until they discussed about the exclusive content.

Previous to this consoles have had exclusive games. You either have a game on a console or you didn’t. For most games however they were available on both consoles. Now we have the problem of you can get the game but certain levels and areas are exclusive to each console.

This. Is. Annoying. I use to be able to just buy a game. Or if I was lucky and had both consoles (PS3 & Xbox 360) could buy a game for whichever platform I had. With these new consoles and their exclusive content, if I want to play all the exclusive content I need to play it on both consoles and play the exclusive content. Either through buying both versions of the game or borrowing different versions off my friends.

It also means that investigating into which version of the game to get for which console is going to be more difficult. Not only is a matter of investigating any lag or display issues it is also about which game has the best exclusive content!

A post about my love for TableTop

So today’s post is about my favourite YouTube series from Geek & Sundry called TableTop.

I can say without any doubt that I am now a game board geek because of this YouTube series, it is hosted by Wil Wheaton. The series is a great way to easily learn board games, makes it fun and I find enjoyable to watch.

To make sure that there are more TableTop series there needs to be more people watching the series.

So here are some easy steps on what to do:

1. Watch the series (trust me it’s awesome) here.

2. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, because their sponsors will continue to support them if they see user engagement.

3. And just for fun, buy more awesome boardgames. The best places in New Zealand I have found are:

• MightyApe – They seem to be importing a lot of games from the US & UK.
• Seriously Board – I haven’t used them but they seem like great guys who love board games.

I have a group of friends who love board games too that I didn’t realise. It’s been awesome working my way through the different games they have and having such an awesome time 🙂

Thanks Wil Wheaton for showing me the awesome world of TableTop!

DC Universe Online Opening video

I love Marvel Comic heores but I really love this old DC Universe Online opening video. Yes it’s old but I love the grittiness of each of the characters.

The year of Gaming

I am a gamer with less and less time for games. I’ve also become a lot fussier in my selection of games to play.

But this year brings the release of two games that I’m very interested in and have been waiting for.

Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy (FF) is one of the longest running game series that I’m aware of. With FFXII being a flop (well in my opinion) the videos released so far for FFXIII look to be promising.

The world looks to be very dark and gives me the impression of a cross between the dark FFVII Midgar and the high tech FFX Zanarkand.

The main character Lightning looks cool and according to reports Character Designer Tetsuya Nomura was asked to create a “female version of Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII”. Very interesting considering Final Fantasy VII is definitely the most loved game out of the series by Final Fantasy fans.

FFXIII will be released to PS3 and Xbox 360 however I’m not sure on any other platforms other than these.

Diablo III
The long awaited Diablo III was announced last year and looks set to release this year on PC. Diablo I, II and II Expansion were huge titles earning Blizzard all sorts of awards for best selling games.

One of the reasons that I believe that we’ve waited so long for this game is because after Diablo II – Expansion the team disbanded. After a while most of the Diablo team left Blizzard and created their own company Flagship Studios and created the game Hellgate: London. Although hyped up as a ‘Diablo fans dream’ it was a huge disappointment. Uncreative environments with repeating levels and a small world to explore as well as a poor storyline and execution.

Diablo III will take place 20 years after we saved the world in Diablo II. There is still a lot of information kept secret about the world and characters. The only NPC confirmed from previous Diablo’s is Deckard Cain. There have been 3 character classes confirmed Barbarian, Wizard and newly created Witch Doctor.

One of the exciting things is that the development for Diablo III started in 2005 and they’ve been through three revisions of artistic design before reaching the standards felt neccessary by the Diablo III team. This gives me the impression they’re only going to put out quality and with Blizzard’s track record (i.e Starcraft: Ghost stopped) this is extremely exciting. The released Diablo III will only be the best that Blizzard can do. Blizzard do quality.

With these great games coming out this year my dilemma is the fact that my PS3 is broken and I managed to blow up what PC I had (very old system).

So I will be saving like mad to try to mend or buy a new PS3 as well as look at maybe getting a new PC. Wish me luck!

Full Collection

So I’m a gamer, have been from a young age. Started with Alley Cat on an old IBM “Portable Computer” and has worked it’s way up.

However due to the cost of trying to upgrade your computer every 6 months – having to the upgrade to the graphics, sound and cpu power to allow you to play a new game I’ve moved to Consoles. Between my partner & I we have a Xbox 360 & PS3. I was never concerned about not owning a Wii due to the fact (as my partner points out well) that it’s not 1080p capable.

BUT! Within the past month or so I have been pining for a Wii. One of the guys at work purchased one for the work area (which I never get to play because I start @ 7, leave @ 4.30 well before others stop working), and he bought one for home and was telling me just how much fun it was. Well if there is a hugh fun factor then forget high end graphics – sign me up! My opinion of Wii has changed significantly, the Wii-fit sounds like fun (although whoever put a weight limit on it should be shot considering you’re trying to get people FIT, one would assume you’d target unfit and overweight people??).

The other aspect is that my next generation console collection seems somewhat incomplete without a Wii. So I’m hoping our friend Gillian (who’s recently bought a Wii) can bring round his console and help me to convince my other half to join us on my Wii crusade 🙂

Blizzcon never disappoints

So with Blizzcon ’08 finished some exciting news came out of the always eventful conference.

Diablo III has announced a new class, the Wizard. This is the third class to have been announced (of 5) and joins the Witch Doctor and Barbarian.

With the Wizard class they released a new trailer which looked pretty awesome while the character was running through some amazing looking 3d dungeons.

Also exciting news for Starcraft fans, Starcraft II is to be a trilogy. Not so fun for me who never really got into Starcraft but my little brother is going to love this.

On a side note I would love to go to a Blizzcon. Just the way Blizzard do things is super awesome. Let’s hope they’re happy with Diablo III to release it within my lifetime!

Oh P.s. Blizzard I’m available for a job anytime – just call me 🙂