I like that the troll/sock/thing directly lifted some of my critiques of the game - word for word.
Anyways, I was wondering if anyone else got the special edition hard cover players guide with this game? The guy at gamestop talked me into, saying I would get a 20% discount on the guide if I bought it with the game, and it looked nice so I grabbed one. It actually is really nice looking, just wish there was a reason to use it. Damn me.
I really want it. I just can't afford it at the moment. I did set one aside to pick up later, though I love guides, even though I don't actually use them - I just like the artwork and design and that alone makes them worth getting for me.
Just got the PS3 version. I made till the third chapter on the 360. I'll be replaying everything again tomorrow... so far I'm loving it.
It goes without saying the PS3 version is gorgeously looking, the 360 one is not slouch either, but compression artifacts hurts the presentation. I still can't figured out why they chose to have many PS3's real-time recorded videos instead of running all the cutscenes directly off the 360 engine...
For those nearing the end of the game: I heard some are saying the ending is really good, as in one the best endings yet. Looking forward to reading your impressions
I loved the FFXII guide... too much Artwork goodness
Haven't seen the XIII one though
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Last edited by S_D_J on Mar 18th, 2010 at 05:40 AM
Yeah same here. This one is really nice. Nice thick paper, tons of artwork. Hopefully it will become more useful late game for sidequests and what not.
The BG games spawned a new era of intelligent and interactive storytelling. It's always a shame to see this entirely binned in favour of the likes of graphics.
I am not actually saying this game is definitely crap, just that this direction id disappointing. When I said I'm not going to play the game, that was not out of moodiness- I'd want to in order to take a look at the mechanics if nothing else.
The reason I am not going to is because I can't; I don't own either console.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Mar 18th, 2010 at 11:58 AM
It probably will. Also for stuff like weapon upgrading and that sort of thing.
Really, though, I want it for the art more than anything else. I'm an art nerd, and FF guides have also always been very helpful in my cosplay stuff (and yes, already am planning on cosplaying Lightning sometime soon, don't think I have the time to do it this year though).
And it wasn't graphics about BG that I didn't like. It was simply that there was nothing about the game that appealed to me. It's not the sort of video game I enjoy playing, and it never has been.
And unfortunately I don't think I can simply lend you my 360 for that
And I do not think that is a rational or reasonable response. BG is VERY good indeed and by any measure of the sort of game you like, bar graphics, it should definitely be in there.. In any case, you dislike PC gaming and playing with a mouse, and you would have been pretty young at the time as well.
You either did not give it a fair chance or, if there is literally nothing in there that appealed to you, you have poor taste in what is good about games. Large, interactive, well-designed, a huge variety of choice in what you play and what your story is like based on that, interaction between your party members that FF games can only dream at, fully co-operative multiplayer, awesome viilains in both games... I very much suspect the former, and that you are adopting this attitude just to be stubborn rather than there being any substance behind it.
FF games can only dream they ever reach that level of intelligent interactivity in an RP- and XIII is going in the opposite direction. Greatly superior games in almost every measurable way.
How you can say you do not like BG but DO like Guild Wars is utterly beyond me.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Mar 18th, 2010 at 05:10 PM
Halo is a well-made series with high production value, great level design for a shooter, an expansive universe, and near-perfect multiplayer. Still doesn't mean I like it.
It's not a matter of a game being objectively good, it's of it being subjectively appealing. Not everyone likes the same thing, and even a flawless masterpiece will have uninterested detractors.
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Halo has numerous flaws also, and also a lot of its popularity is from deathmatch modes, which is the type of thing Lana does not like. That does not apply here. In fact, she likes plenty of things which BG either directly begat or which BG is a superior example of- so as I say, her view here makes no rational sense. It's just being adopted for reasons of stubbornness and that is unbecoming.
In any case, I reject that subjective argument entirely. From any rational perspective, BG is a better game and a better role-playing experience, minus the presentational aspects (graphics and sound). Since those times, FF games have become prettier, but gameplay wise they have barely improved at all.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Mar 18th, 2010 at 05:20 PM
If all people can do is give reasons like "I just didn't like it" or "It didn't click" then don't expect me to take it seriously. In the case of something like FF, I will simply translate that as "I am taken in by FF's presentational aspects."
Also, if you have an entirely personal view on such a thing, I consider it important to be able to hold the view that it was still a better game even if you did not enjoy it as much, which is a stance I always hold in my reviews (example- Magical Starsign is a better game than Final Fantasy III, by any reasonable measure, but I gave III the higher score, noting that it was in spite of it being a worse game. Similarly, Forrest Gump is an exceptionally well made film from a critical perspective, though I cannot stand it.).
Doing that is a sign of a mature and sensible view. Sticking with such dogma to a point of view, which is what is happening here, says the opposite.
Ironically, of course, BG nosedived when they followed it up with Neverwinter Nights, which was never the same.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Mar 18th, 2010 at 05:30 PM
Why is it that you always assume that when I have a differing opinion it's simply out of stubbornness?
I think I've made it clear many times that I was quite surprised that I got so into GW and that it's very much an exception - in every way - to my usual taste in video games.
I do not like western-style RPGs. I simply don't. I never have, and I've never been able to get into them. I have never thought that the attempts at translating traditional RPGs into a video game format has worked quite as well as it should. Such as the whole "your choices affect the game itself". That rarely ever happens to the extent that they claim it does. You're still just going along with the story, and even if you can go off and do what you want between Point A and Point B, you still have to get to Point B eventually anyway.
FF at least makes no lies about what it does. The stories are linear and you're really just playing along. Okay, fine. I don't care. I don't play video games for an RP experience.
I also grew up playing JRPGs (Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, the Mana series), and, as you pointed out, am not a fan of PC gaming. So yes, that does probably color my opinion, but really, everyone's opinions are going to be biased. That's why they are opinion. Something could be the best game ever made but that doesn't mean I'm necessarily going to enjoy it.
I have no problem with deathmatches in games, btw. I just don't like multiplayer in general.
You most certainly can affect BG's story. It's linear enough to be focussed but there are massive changes that can occur in how it all works out. This is one of the points- you CAN change it to a reasonable extent. FF has given up on that- that's not necessarily a disaster but it is a lower ambition. Lower ambition done well is better than high ambition cocked up, but BG didn't cock it up (and in the case of a game like VIII, FF missed the low ambition as well). For that matter, my biggest criticism of FFX's plot is not its linearity- though that was a shame- but because it completely failed to make sense at the end, and I have never found two people who actually have the same idea about what the plot was, which shows clumsy storytelling.
If you CAN have a genuine, storyline affecting experience, why rule that out as a positive thing? As I say, not to mention the nearly insane detail of the party interaction in BG (especially the sequel) which must give it more replayability than almost any RP game I know. Who lives, who dies, who falls in love, who is redeemed- even what happens to the world- are all up for grabs.
It has a storyline as epic and memorable as any FF game. Its mechanics are good enough, and any faults with those mechanics are only on a par with FF games of its time (and in my experience, not having played the last two, since), it has David freaking Warner as the best video game bad guy I ever played off against... and I could play through the whole thing with my friends!
I'd say maybe you just don't like projecting a version of yourself into the game world, instead of playing a preset character as in FF games... but that Guild Wars thing still gets to me. It cannot just be a random exception- things don't work like that.
I honestly believe that you you gave BG a proper and open minded chance, you'd like it. Though 12 years on, it is late in the day.
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Meanwhile, in regards to XIII- do you guys really feel that its utter linearity and general lack of towns actually improves the experience? You think exploration and discovery have no place in an RP game?
The game sounds like one giant dungeon crawl to me.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Mar 18th, 2010 at 05:59 PM
I never said that I ruled it out as a positive thing. I said that I've never seen it done nearly as well as is claimed it can be done. Saying you can play it through with friends isn't necessarily a plus for me, either.
Also, yes, singular exceptions can happen. It certainly can work that way. And GW is just as linear, anyway. You don't make any plot-changing choices, you have no control over how the party interacts, you don't customize anything about your character beyond appearance. You're just along for the ride, pretty much.
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The lack of towns does not bother me in any way. I don't think it detracts from the game. And not having to run from shop to shop to get what I need is certainly a plus, I'd say. Being able to sell and buy stuff at any save point is very nice.
Has anyone reached Chapter 11, btw? I've heard that it's as long as the rest of the game before it put together.
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Mar 18th, 2010 05:33 AM
I love guides, even though I don't actually use them - I just like the artwork and design and that alone makes them worth getting for me.
