Final Fantasy XIII Publisher/Developer: Square Enix Release Date: March 9, 2010 Platforms: PS3, 360

Disclosure: This review is based off of the PlayStation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIII, which may differ from the Xbox 360 version.

Square Enix has finally hit the next generation of consoles with the release of Final Fantasy XIII [... Read more here]]]>

Final Fantasy XIII
Publisher/Developer: Square Enix
Release Date: March 9, 2010
Platforms: PS3, 360

Disclosure: This review is based off of the PlayStation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIII, which may differ from the Xbox 360 version.

Square Enix has finally hit the next generation of consoles with the release of Final Fantasy XIII for the PlayStation 3, and now even for the Xbox 360. Without playing either of them, the only main difference that can be said between each version is the fact that the Xbox 360 version is spread across multiple discs, due to the size of the game. Other than that, it cannot objectively be said which version is the “better” one without extensively playing through them both. None the less, FFXIII brings to the table an absolutely gorgeous game with another new type of battle system, and another new type of upgrade system, both of which are simple to understand, but look to be complex in their own ways. However, even though the game may look wonderful, it falls short in many aspects that previous Final Fantasy games have shined on.

The graphics are once again beautiful for a Final Fantasy game.

The controls are simple and easy to understand, as they always have been. Moving is controlled with the left analog stick, and the camera is controlled with the right analog stick. The camera, however, can be a pain to control sometimes, especially when you’re moving your character and trying to change the direction of the camera at the same time. The camera tends to want to move in the direction that you are running, no matter where you would rather it be, which can sometimes make you sick as it jerks back and forth. Another thing that you’ll note very quickly is how linear the game really is. From the beginning, you are forced down skinny corridors that move you in a single direction, not allowing for any types of exploration. Later in the game you are given a little more freedom as you are given sidequests, but for the first 20 odd hours of the game, you’ll be traveling in a straight line. Treasures are practically not hidden at all, as if they are down a side route, it will be simple to tell exactly where that route is by your mini-map.

To add to how linear this game really is, there are no cities, towns or shops to visit. To buy or sell items, you will access the “Shop” from save points, which electronically connects you to any types of shops that are available at the time. Save Stations, as they are called, are gratuitously scattered throughout the game, so you’ll never have a hard time finding a place to save. Upgrades to your weapons can also be made at these Save Stations, and while it helps, it can be very unnecessary to do, which adds another level of disappointment on to the game.

Abilities take up segments of your ATB gauge based on their power.

The battle system is the biggest change, and will leave you wanting something more. The ATB, or Active Time Battle gauge has returned, but in a different fashion. Each ability that you want to use costs a certain amount of segments in your ATB gauge, removing the idea of magic points or any limit on the amount of spells you can use. When the ATB gauge is full, your character will use the commands that you’ve chosen on the enemy that you selected, creating a chain. Attack chains are extremely important in this game. The more attacks you do in succession, the more percentage of damage you do to your enemy, until at a certain point they become “Staggered”. Once an enemy is Staggered, they become much more susceptible to massive amounts of damage, which can easily turn the tide of the battle in your favor. Ala Final Fantasy XII, you continue to only control the Leader character, while your other two party members are controlled by the AI. This brings to light the final most important battle strategy, the Paradigm Shift system. At any time during battle you can press L1, which brings up a menu which allows you to choose which role each party member plays. These roles include Commando and Ravager, which are attack based classes; Sentinel and Medic, which are defensive based classes; and Synergist and Saboteur, which are support based classes. There are many times where you will be changing your Paradigm every other action, so it’s imperative to be watching the battle to see what the status of your party members and your enemies are. While all of these features are nice, battles are hindered by the fact that they move so fast. While this may appeal to some players, choosing the commands that you want your party to use manually is slow, and can end in your failure, which is why there is an Auto-Battle button, which automatically selects the best commands that you should use. Unfortunately, this makes battles boring and monotonous, as you can sit and just press the X button repeatedly, and be finished with a battle within eight seconds of it’s start.

In addition to all of these features, summons have also returned, under the new name of “Eidolons”. Each character is assigned one Eidolon, and can only summon that one. To acquire these Eidolons, however, you must battle them while under a Doom counter, which counts down the time until you are killed, and the battle is over. Once you have them and summon them, they fight beside you with an SP gauge. Once their SP runs out, they leave the battle. At any time though, by pressing Square, the Eidolon enters Gestalt mode, which turns them into a vehicle which your character rides. This system is odd, and doesn’t really add much to the game other than being flashy.

The new Shiva Sisters Eidolon which... turn into a motorcycle.

Ala Final Fantasy X, levels for your characters don’t exist, and instead you upgrade your character through the Crystarium. After each battle your party earns CP, or Crystogen Points, which can be used to traverse through the Crystarium of each character, unlocking addition stats for your characters, including HP and Magic, or unlocking new abilities for each role that your character possesses. Sadly, CP is earned very quickly, allowing for a rapid traversal of the Crystarium. The challenge of unlocking everything comes slowly, until you unlock more roles for your characters to be able to play as. In addition to this, each character may or may not unlock each ability, so certain characters seems to be obviously better suited for certain roles over others, making it hard to be able to use a certain group and make them well rounded in each role.

As anyone can tell after seeing any screenshot of the game, it’s gorgeous beyond many games seen today. While you can still tell when the game enters a cutscene, the non-cutscene moments when you are learning more about the story look wonderful, with character mouth movement animations syncing perfectly to the voice acting. For the most part, the voice acting is spot on, but the voice actor for Vanille stands out like a sore thumb as something that just doesn’t belong. Given enough time, her voice will wear on you as it moves in and out of what seems to be an Australian accent, and her giggles and squeaks are odd and obnoxious. The music in the game is also somewhat sub-par compared to previous Final Fantasy games. It seems shines with the elegant orchestral beauty that they are famous for, but seems to miss the feeling of some of the scenes as happy, chipper music plays during a scene that just doesn’t fit the mood.

Lightning summoning an Eidolon with the Attack Chain gauge in the corner.

While Final Fantasy XIII is an okay game, it seems to just fall short in many of the areas where the previous games have excelled in. The first two hours of the game are extremely slow and boring and throw you into a story which, at the time, you have absolutely no knowledge about. And you are unable to choose your party until the 20-25 hour mark of the game as well, when the game finally opens up a little more. The battle system, while much faster paced and seemingly more exciting because of it, fails to excite as well when the player just has to continuously use the Auto-Battle function instead of actually selecting their commands. It’s not to say that Final Fantasy XIII isn’t a good game, and it isn’t bad either, but there’s not enough in it to consider it that outstanding RPG that we’ve been looking for in it.

Welcome to YouTube Tuesday, a weekly spotlight of a few interesting YouTube videos to watch! To make up for last week, we’ve DOUBLED the fun! Check out this gaming and short video mix!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfyonN7WC4M

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3Io9iTUheU

The Gaming Report Episode 32 is live and ready for listening on the Gaming Report page! Head on over to be able to listen or download the episode, which releases weekly every Thursday, brought to you by the Weasel Report!

Weasel, Brad and Chaz look back at the crazy week the gaming [... Read more here]]]>

The Gaming Report Episode 32 is live and ready for listening on the Gaming Report page! Head on over to be able to listen or download the episode, which releases weekly every Thursday, brought to you by the Weasel Report!

Weasel, Brad and Chaz look back at the crazy week the gaming industry has had, as they discuss the Infinity Ward shakeups and new decisions by Activision at length, while also mentioning the ApocalyPS3, the success of Lego games, and what’s going on with Portal!

Got a question? Have a comment? Need to say something? E-mail the hosts of the Gaming Report at podcast [at] weaselreport.com ! We’ll read your e-mail on the next episode, and answer whatever you’ve got for us! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week!

Heavy Rain Publisher: SCEA Developer: Quantic Dream Release Date: February 23, 2010 Platform: PS3

There have been a lot of unique ideas that have been thought up of for video games. In most cases, it’s another new shooter, or some sort of role playing game with a new game mechanic. However, every once in a while, [... Read more here]]]>

Heavy Rain
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Quantic Dream
Release Date: February 23, 2010
Platform: PS3

There have been a lot of unique ideas that have been thought up of for video games. In most cases, it’s another new shooter, or some sort of role playing game with a new game mechanic. However, every once in a while, one game will come out that is so different, it will nearly define it’s own genre. Heavy Rain has been called an adventure game by some, and a psychological thriller by others, but Quantic Dream, developers of Heavy Rain, have called their game an “interactive drama”.

Holding a trigger button allows you to see what your character is thinking.

Heavy Rain lives up to being it’s own genre, as it uses gameplay mechanics that, while similar to some action adventure games in some ways, utilizes them in a way that none of them do. Everything that you are able to do to interact in the game is shown by circles and squares that appear in the world that contain a symbol or arrow within it, which signifies what you have to press or do in order for that action to be taken place. There is no user interface, and no complicated controls, just symbols which trigger an action. For example, in order to open a car door, you are shown a box with an arrow which points to the left, which tells you that you have to push the right analog stick to the left in order to open the door. Depending on how fast you move the analog stick is reflected in-game, as the animation only happens as far as you move. Of course, during fight scenes, symbols appear with a time limit, as the events are all happening in real time. If you correctly press the button shown, you will immediately see the positive results of your actions, and vice-versa if you fail to hit the correct button. However, one of the more broken controls is the movement control. To have your character walk when you have control of him or her, you must hold down the shoulder trigger and move your character’s head with the analog stick, facing the character the direction you want them to move. While this style works for the most part, trying to angle yourself perfectly so that you are looking at the item you want to interact with can be difficult at times, and since the camera stays at a single point most of the time, with the ability to change views with the press of another trigger button, it can become a frustrating task.

Throughout the game, you play as four different characters, each which you cycle through playing as. The transitions from one character to the next are smooth, and loose ends are tied up in the previous scene before it moves on to the next one. One of the unique features of Heavy Rain is the fact that if one of the characters who you play as dies in one way or another, the game continues to progress, just without that character in any of the story anymore. Due to this, the game’s story is very fluid, and will change depending on what choices you make in a previous scene, or depending on what happens to your character. Aesthetically, the appearance of your characters can also change over the course of the game based on previous decisions. This all being said, there are many different endings which are possible to achieve depending on what happens during each of the decisions you have to make throughout the game.

One of the many interesting situations you'll encounter in Heavy Rain.

The main draw of Heavy Rain is, without a doubt, it’s engaging storyline and immersive dialogue that connects the characters to each other, and more importantly the player to the characters. There are many times during the game which will test you on how you want to react; are you going to react as you think the character in the game would, or are you going to react how you yourself would in such a situation. There are also a few times where you really have to consider what feels “right” to you, and what does not. These decisions make the game very dramatic, and keep you on the edge of your seat, as you await what reaction you will get from each of your decisions.

Probably the first thing you’ll notice, though, is the immense visual style of Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain is one of the most beautiful games out there at the moment. It has an ultra-realistic style to it, on everything from the characters themselves, to the rain which constantly falls, creating an atmosphere which has yet to be rivaled. There are, of course, some imperfections with the interactions between the characters and some of the items that they carry and use, but overall, these minor issues are some that can easily be overlooked.

The graphics are unparalleled to others games right now.

To add to the atmosphere of the game, a beautiful soundtrack has been developed for Heavy Rain, making each situation that you are involved in a unique experience. The choice of music during each scene is well chosen, and was created by a special orchestra brought in to create the music specifically for Heavy Rain. The combination of the deep storyline, the engaging characters and the beautiful orchestral music make Heavy Rain a very unique game which is very worth a purchase. The question of replay value, however, is a questionable one. If you are interested in seeing a different ending, depending on how else you could make the decisions posed to you in the game, this game will last you more than the eight to ten hours that one play through takes. The one downfall is that, after you already know the full storyline, connecting with it in a deeper fashion after one play through is difficult. In any consolation, Heavy Rain contains an amazing 57 trophies, with two of them being “See all endings” and “Complete the story with four characters alive”, which are two tasks which will take more than one play to achieve. Overall, if you are looking for a unique, engaging game which will show you something new, Heavy Rain is definitely the game to pick up this year.

The Gaming Report Episode 31 is live and ready for listening on the Gaming Report page! Head on over to be able to listen or download the episode, which releases weekly every Thursday, brought to you by the Weasel Report!

Weasel, Brad and Kyle sit down to share their infinite [... Read more here]]]>

The Gaming Report Episode 31 is live and ready for listening on the Gaming Report page! Head on over to be able to listen or download the episode, which releases weekly every Thursday, brought to you by the Weasel Report!

Weasel, Brad and Kyle sit down to share their infinite wisdom on Bioshock 2, the Heavy Rain demo, MAG, and all of the games shown off at Microsoft’s X10 event! It’s a jam packed episode, so make sure to put some time aside for this one!

Got a question? Have a comment? Need to say something? E-mail the hosts of the Gaming Report at podcast [at] weaselreport.com ! We’ll read your e-mail on the next episode, and answer whatever you’ve got for us! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week!

The Gaming Report Episode 30 is live and ready for listening on the Gaming Report page! Head on over to be able to listen or download the episode, which releases weekly every Thursday, brought to you by the Weasel Report!

Brad and Weasel are back to talk about EA’s lineup for the [... Read more here]]]>

The Gaming Report Episode 30 is live and ready for listening on the Gaming Report page! Head on over to be able to listen or download the episode, which releases weekly every Thursday, brought to you by the Weasel Report!

Brad and Weasel are back to talk about EA’s lineup for the 2011 fiscal year, games that have multiplayer that we wonder if they should, sequels sequels sequels, and a bunch about our travels in the world of MAG!

Got a question? Have a comment? Need to say something? E-mail the hosts of the Gaming Report at podcast [at] weaselreport.com ! We’ll read your e-mail on the next episode, and answer whatever you’ve got for us! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week!

Oh the wonders of technology. Folks, the bad news just keeps on rolling. After grabbing an all-star cast of Brad, Bryan, Chaz and myself for the awesome Episode 30, we sat down and recorded a great hour plus long show for you all. Unfortunately, just as I had started to listen to it [... Read more here]]]>

Oh the wonders of technology. Folks, the bad news just keeps on rolling. After grabbing an all-star cast of Brad, Bryan, Chaz and myself for the awesome Episode 30, we sat down and recorded a great hour plus long show for you all. Unfortunately, just as I had started to listen to it to begin editing, my software froze, and we lost the entire episode. I’m greatly disappointed by the fact that we’ve failed to produce a quality episode in quite some time, and that the hits keep on coming. We’re going to take a look at our current processes, and look into how we can improve the show, both in what we provide for you content-wise, and how we deliver it to you, in the coming weeks. If you have anything you’d like to say about the podcast, please drop us an e-mail at podcast [at] weaselreport.com. We really appreciate hearing everything that we can from you, as you are our audience, and are the reason we make this.

But we can’t leave you empty handed! With that being said, here’s one of the things that we talked about on today’s lost podcast! Thanks everyone, and have a great week!

Welcome to YouTube Tuesday, a weekly spotlight of a few interesting YouTube videos to watch!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rbeAGdYk_0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhPuWT5GxAg

The Gaming Report Episode 29 is live and ready for listening on the Audio Reports page! Head on over to be able to listen or download the episode, which releases weekly every Thursday, brought to you by the Weasel Report!

We’re back with another episode of gaming news for the past few [... Read more here]]]>

The Gaming Report Episode 29 is live and ready for listening on the Audio Reports page! Head on over to be able to listen or download the episode, which releases weekly every Thursday, brought to you by the Weasel Report!

We’re back with another episode of gaming news for the past few weeks! Weasel finds the studio empty this week, but still talks about tons of games coming out in the next few months and beyond!

Got a question? Have a comment? Need to say something? E-mail the hosts of the Gaming Report at podcast [at] weaselreport.com ! We’ll read your e-mail on the next episode, and answer whatever you’ve got for us! Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week!

Last week, Austin made an article on the current, sorry state of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. Reading this spawned some thought into me as well, as I also have accounts on a lot of MMOs, or have tried out a lot of different MMOs in my time. As Austin said, MMOs [... Read more here]]]>

Last week, Austin made an article on the current, sorry state of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. Reading this spawned some thought into me as well, as I also have accounts on a lot of MMOs, or have tried out a lot of different MMOs in my time. As Austin said, MMOs have changed over the course of time, and MMOs tend to change over their lifetime as well, as they have to try and change in order to attract new audiences, and/or keep their currently/previous audience playing. For some games this means adding full amounts of content which significantly change the game, for others it just means adding new features or areas that will keep players playing enough for them to have to pay for another month.

World of Warcraft

As shocking as it may seem to the hardcore game playing community out there, I actually do not play, nor do I like World of Warcraft. Of course, that’s not to say that I don’t know a thing or two about the game, as most of my friends play it. It just never hooked me though. And especially with how the game has changed, I don’t think it ever will either. As Austin said in his article, being able to level and get to the content which was once just for higher level players so much faster doesn’t exactly make the game better to play. Unfortunately I understand why Blizzard did such a move. At this point, most people who have heard about the game and aren’t playing it yet have heard from their friends all of the cool stuff that you can obtain in the higher levels. So when one of those people finally get into the game, they’re eager to get to that content sooner than later. In order to keep them hooked sooner, Blizzard just makes it easier for them to get that stuff, and then the player is happy.

In some cases though, they don’t purposely make the game easier for new players, but it just happens, at least, to the best of the consumer’s knowledge. That being said, I look towards Guild Wars, which technically is actually a CORPG, or Competitive Online Role-Playing Game, which is a term that was actually coined by ArenaNet, the developer of Guild Wars, themselves. To continue on Austin’s train of thought, with each campaign that was released, they added some sort of new feature which made the games easier to complete, and since each expansion campaign just adds to the map more or less, you can travel back to the original games with those features and be even more powerful than before. In the biggest case, the feature was called Heroes, which were customizable AI players which fought with you. I played Guild Wars on Day One, and it was awesome how people worked together to get through missions, and using the original AI players that you could add called Henchman was a challenge, as they weren’t that powerful. Now with the addition of Heroes, the idea of the game being multiplayer has somewhat gone out the window.

Guild Wars

Now of course, to every rule, there is an exception. Even though we complain about all of these different things which hinders the game in our eyes, there is one game that, at least in my own opinion, has done nothing but improve over the course of their lifetime. That game would be CCP‘s own EVE Online. EVE Online is one of those special cases because, honestly, it doesn’t have the kind of user base that these other MMOs have. That doesn’t stop it from being one of the most social and impactful MMOs on the market today. Every expansion that has been released for EVE Online, which is now up to ten plus, is a free expansion. In saying “expansion” though, I don’t mean in the amount of explorable space, but rather, the feature list. Over the course of the past years, EVE Online has not only improved in gameplay, but graphically as well, at an amazing rate. Most MMOs that you see leave their game where it is, and just go for adding content, which, in most cases, is what people want more. And the fact is, EVE does that, but also makes the game look just that much better in the process. It’s amazing what they’ve done with their game, and this is why I play it. And of course, it’s hard. Not TOO hard, but it’s difficult. There is no easy button in EVE, even for new players, which is half of the reason why is chases most new players away.

There are tons of MMOs out there, more than what one person could play at a time. Using Austin as an example though, you can still play multiple MMOs with only paying one subscription fee by hopping. And that seems, in the cases listed, that it might be the best idea. After time, people become bored with a game, especially one that they have to play for an extended period of time in order to get further in it. But when it comes to the developers’ choices in order to make the game more appealing, both for new players and for previous players, some of them could be better. Making the game easier may work for some people, but for others, we are just looking for more content, or improved features upon what the game already has.

EVE Online

Now of course, on the flip side, there are times when the developers DO make the game harder for players, which brings in the idea of “nerfing”, or changing what an ability does to not make it impossibly overpowered in many cases. Unfortunately, this doesn’t help make the player base exactly happy, although nine times out of ten it’s just the players complaining because they have to choose a new strategy to be able to beat a boss, or a certain area, etc. There are a ton of MMOs out there, and they are run differently in one way or another, yet at the same time, in some way, they all are run similar, as MMOs must follow a certain progression style in order to attract peoples’ attentions. Finding the right one for you, that doesn’t feel like it’s insulting your intelligence with how easy it is, but isn’t making you want to throw your computer out of a window with how hard it is, is the ultimate challenge of the MMO player.