Category Archives: PlayStation

Games, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox

My 360: 2nd December 2005 – 9th February 2007

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Stranger by the roadside, do not smile
When you see this grave, though it is only a 360’s,
My master wept when I died, and his own hand
Laid me in earth and wrote these lines on my tomb.

It was a matter of time, but my 360 has finally joined the millions of others that have croaked as what must be one of the most unreliable consoles ever made. And since it’s costing me £83 for a new one I’m going to be more than mildly annoyed if the rumoured HDMI version appears imminently.

After the early faults appeared I enjoyed a week of play without issue, both on Psychonauts and assorted 360 games. Then, last night, it froze in the Crackdown demo and again when playing COD2. Restarts brought the dreaded three lights, so now I’m just biting the bullet and getting it replaced. That has to be better than constantly playing in fear of the inevitable failure.

Since I’m going to be without a 360 for at least a week now, the bright side is that I’m going to use the time to work through some of my PS2 and DS backlog. I intend to finally finish Ico and God of War, and then crack on with Hotel Dusk, Dawn of Sorrow (still haven’t finished it), and Phoenix Wright 2. Every cloud…

Editorials, Games, PlayStation

20GB PS3: Why the Hate?

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So with our PS3 launch moving ever closer, we poor Europeans aren’t even getting the 20GB PS3, and every time I see it mentioned in online conversation it’s derided as vehemently as the Core 360. The “tard pack” is what it’s called in the popular lingo, I believe. I even keep hearing that they can’t shift them in Japan.

Now maybe I’m missing something that everyone else knows, but why is it such a bad option? So it has a smaller hard drive, but you can buy a bigger hard drive than 60GB for less than the price difference. No memory card slots? Can’t see myself using them, and for portable storage my assorted collection of flash drives and portable HDDs will do fine. Even if I did need one, I think USB card readers are so cheap that they actually pay you to take them now.

And that leaves wi-fi. That’s nice, but I have a wired gigabit network which is faster and more reliable than even a new 802.11n network, let alone 802.11g that the PS3 ships with. The 360 wi-fi adaptor may be overpriced, but I don’t end up paying for it even if I’m never going to use it.

Maybe it goes back to when it was due to come without HDMI, really making it a stupid option. Sony’s choice to add HDMI into it changed it into a good option for those who think £425/$600 is silly money for a console (everyone, then), and yet it’s just as stigmatised as options like the Core 360, which actually do lack important functionality. I just think that they’re missing an opportunity by not bringing that version out for, say, £349. That’s a price that I’d consider. £70 more than the 360 is a lot more palatable than £150 more.

Games, Impressions, PlayStation

Thoughts on Final Fantasy XII

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With Zelda finished (still my firm GOTY), I’ve flicked the component switch over to the PS2 in order to put some real time into the other big adventure of 2006, Final Fantasy XII. While I feel that I’ve only scratched the surface of it, I just wanted to put down some thoughts on the drastic new direction in which the game has taken the venerable series, beyond the first impressions that I wrote previously.

First of all, I really do have to emphasise how huge the changes between this and Final Fantasy X are. Most seem to think of Final Fantasy XI as the black sheep of the family, but XII almost validates it. MMORPGs are a huge deal nowadays, bigger even that conventional RPGs, and I think it’s entirely possible that XI was intended from the start as a big experiment to see what of that genre might work in a traditional offline RPG. XII comes out the other side looking a bit Frankensteinian at first, but with the praise being heaped on it I don’t doubt that XIII will play in a similar fashion. Dragon Quest IX is also supposed to be adopting more real-time combat mechanics, so we may find that that has experienced a similar mutation.

Overall, I like the new combat very much. I thought X did an excellent job of revising the battle system without breaking too much with the formula and would have been quite happy had they stuck with that as a framework. Random encounters are a system that I’m glad to see the back of, and while it would have been perfectly acceptable to use the Chrono series as a model (normal enemies visible on the map with turn-based combat when battle is initiated), the idea of making the map screen and battle screen one and the same is inspired. The game as a whole feels more coherent; less fractured than when you’re constantly switching between exploring and fighting, and even entering the menu to use an item or spell. It’s just all there.

When I started out on XII the combat was the element that I was most unsure about, what with the other changes that are immediately apparent – full 3D environments, mainly – being easily accepted. At first it seems rudimentary since you have only physical attacks and the game essentially does that for you. In fact it’s actually quite boring since there’s little more to it than chivalrously exchanging blows with the enemy. It’s not until a couple of hours in when you get a real party with spells and the Gambit system in full swing that things fall into place. Maybe that’s a serious criticism because I was only convinced to stick with it by the rapturous praise that the game has received, but once it lets you loose on the licence board and Gambits it works really well. Continue reading Thoughts on Final Fantasy XII →

Best of 2006, Games, GOTY, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox

GOTY Late Additions

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It’s always a risk when deciding on your games of the year before 31st December (and especially before 25th December) that something will come along that could or should have made the list, had you only played it a month before. So instead of going back and messing with the whole list, here’s a handful of latecomers that deserve a mention and had a shout of making the list:

  • Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA) – The first of two Final Fantasies, and one from back in the glory years which FFIV began a year earlier (yes, they used to make one a year). RPGs and portables often aren’t the best of bedfellows, but couple this with a Game Boy Micro and you have a top combination. A machine small enough for you to forget that you have it and a deep game that actually lets you make decent progress on the commute go together nicely, and it helps that this is one of the stronger instalments in the series. Bring on FFVI Advance in February!
  • Final Fantasy XII (PS2) – FFXI aside, this is probably the biggest breaks from the formula for a major series that I’ve ever seen. At first I wasn’t completely convinced by the MMORPG influence (MMO combat is completely inane, and the only reason to do it is because it’s with real people – why would I play it with AI characters?), but a few hours in, once you have a party and the Gambit system in place, it just clicks. Had I played it earlier this could probably have made the top five.
  • Viva Piñata (360) – If I was doing special awards this would have been a shoo-in for both surprise of the year and best game nobody played. I certainly expected it to be rubbish, but quite the contrary. Playing like a cross between The Sims and Animal Crossing (neither of which I’m a massive fan of, oddly), it’s surprisingly addictive and paced well enough that you never go long without unlocking a new Pi?ata or other item, ensuring that you have an incentive to keep playing. Best of all, it’s an Animal Crossing-style game that doesn’t use a real-time clock, so you sidestep the issue of having to go back to a weed-filled garden after a few days of downtime.

All of those are worth a look. And I’m so glad that bloody feature is out of the way for another year.

Best of 2006, Games, GOTY, PlayStation

Best of 2006 #2: Okami

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Okami

I suppose that epic adventures featuring wolves with annoying cohorts must be du jour this year. Expect a flood of them in 2007, presumably with cover and blind fire mechanics.

Despite underwhelming sales (I blame the other wolf game) and the culling of the development team, Okami deserves all of the credit it gets. Zelda’s is a formula that remains infrequently copied and more infrequently equalled, but on their first attempt Clover made a game that could easily stand alongside any of Link’s adventures. Not only did it have an extremely lengthy quest to complete, but also took the audacious decision to almost completely break from the ostensible storyline barely 15 hours in. Zelda comparisons may be obvious, but when this is such a good imitation – with, it must be said, some wonderful flourishes of its own – they’re hard to resist.

And those graphics! I can’t extol the game without mentioning those. While Gears of War was comfortably the most technically impressive-looking game of 2006, Okami is almost certainly the best from an artistic perspective. The whole game looks like an animated watercolour painting, even down to the texture of heavy paper that lies underneath everything at all times. It’s stunning, and I just wish I could have seen it in 720p.

For those of you in the UK without the means to play the import, show Capcom the error of its ways by marking 9th February 2007 on your calendar. It demands to be played.