So, I bought Monopoly for the 360 the other day, assuming that of course, a board game that can accommodate up to 8 players would certainly have online play.

I was wrong.

Maybe there is some sort of licensing that I’m unfamiliar with that doesn’t allow online multiplay. Maybe there is some good reason that they would leave this feature out of the game. I can’t fathom what that might be. The rest of the game isn’t that awful, except for the Monopoly guy following you around the board on every turn, and menus devoid of worthwhile options, and lacking in game options or player status information…
Alright the whole thing kinda sucks. But you can play on a lot of different boards, and it has achievements. That’s about it though.

Between Guilty Gear and My Japanese Coach, I managed to completely forget about Midnight Club and Guitar Hero. Additionally, I bought some used games, like GG Dust Strikers and Super Collapse for DS. I’ve got so much gaming to do; I hardly know where to start. I’ve officially banned myself from purchasing anything outside of pre-orders, but such bans are easily broken. Buying a GameCube certainly didn’t help. Right now, at GameStop, you can get one for $40, which includes an extra controller, two $10 games and a memory card. It’s like getting the game, controller, and a memory card free. After I bought that, of course I needed the gameboy player, and of course I needed a game like Croc to go on it… So there’s been a lot of reckless spending on my part. Somewhere in there I rented Devil May Cry, which was fantastic even though I had it on super easy mode like the slacker I am.

Hopefully I’ll have more reviews up here since I will be busy playing and working. The Japanese coach is off to a great start. I was placed in level 11, but they were still explaining SOV sentence structure to me. Super Collapse for DS is great, even with it’s thoroughly unnecessary quest mode. I like having the ability to use bombs whenever I want. Unfortunately it seems to be a requirement for far too many levels.

I was told today that Final Fantasy 2 and 3 both suck a little and I should skip them since there’s a lot of FF ahead. But, I want to go through them all naturally…. well, naturally as they were released in japan, anyways.

This month, I have Final Fantasy 2 and 3, Guilty Gear on DS, PSP and 360, Super Collapse on DS, Japanese Coach on DS, Midnight Club and Guitar Hero on 360 and miscellaneous GameCube games all waiting to be played, and not much time to play them, let alone keep up with this blog. Is it possible that I finally have too many games?

… nah

I’ve finally gotten around to playing Rockband2, and I’m surprised by how much I like it. I haven’t played drums or bass yet and have only played with two people so far (I’m waiting on the guitar hero band kit).

Song Selection
In every set there’s been at least one song that excited me. I can proudly admit that one of them was Livin’ on a Prayer, because that’s karaoke GOLD. Equally, there have been a couple that I hated, but that’s good diversity, I imagine.

World Tour Mode
This is all I’ve done so far, and I like the way it’s organized. It’s not at linear as guitar Hero (I never played the first rock band, so I don’t know how it compares). I like the option to jump all over the continent playing different shows, but I suppose that’s a little unrealistic. You seem to have more options regarding your tour: who to hire (which reminds me of the crew in Need For Speed Carbon) whether or to play for certain bonuses.

Gameplay
My favorite feature of the game play is the star rating filling up on screen while you play. In Guitar Hero it was a bit of a crap shoot; you didn’t know your star rating until you finished. I also like the separated solo sections within songs and the solo rating. The ability to save a band member is also nice, and better than the star power option in Guitar Hero. Again, these might be features from the first Rockband which I didn’t play.

Details
The character options aren’t stellar, but they are present. Making a rocker that looks like you, or the rock star you wish to be is better than picking one of Guitar Hero’s generics. As I continue to play, it seems that more customization options will become available through clothing and accessories.

I’ll keep doing the tour mode before investigating anything else, but you can color me impressed so far. The plan for tonight is to download some songs, which I believe I can incorporate into my tour set lists.

First Impressions take place in the first hour of playing a game. These list the excitement (or disappointments) felt initially. It’s like unboxing, but with gameplay instead. Ungaming? That doesn’t sound right…

I’m sure these dungeons are exciting for those who have already played Final Fantasy, but I’ve got a goal in mind. I’m not trying to blaze through all the games, but I am trying to finish them all. Therefore, I don’t want to take a lot of time fighting in unnecessary caves. So, the guy who says “chaos shrine…” who I thought was part of the final boss adventure is in fact superfluous.

The last time this happened to me was in the underwater shrine. I was fighting some pretty hard battles, only to realize that I didn’t need to be there at all. When I got back on track with the story, the bosses and enemies were *very* easy. Similarly, the last boss I beat before going to the Chaos shrine was easy, but then the shrine was difficult.

It’s nice that they include these areas, but it’s not so great that they seem to be integrated into the game in a way that suggests the are part of the main quest. For those like myself that have never played the game before, it would be nice if the side quests were more obscure. Now my party is excessively leveled into the 50s…

The original story can be found here.

Basically, one of the writers posed as an uncle wanting to buy a game system for his 15 year old nephew. He called 100 stores across America to see what the general public is told by game store employees. He only called Game Crazy, Play N Trade and GameStop stores.

A distinct majority suggested XBOX 360, with only GameStop employees suggesting the Wii. The other significant responses were Xbox 360/PS3 and PS3. The age of the child, and his gender, certainly guided the responses. The common demographic for Xbox 360 is young males (older males for PS3 and everyone else for Wii (women, young children, older people)).

When people come into my workplace and want to know what to buy, I ask them a lot of questions. Today someone was looking for a game for a girl, and I immediately suggested the Imagine series and Hannah Montana; I was stereotyping all the way. But the woman said she liked action/ adventure games like Jak and Daxter. That’s not girly, but it’s also not overly violent either. Since she was looking for a DS game I suggested Lego Star Wars instead.

The gaming industry is like a very popular secret to many. They know it’s out there, they see people buying it and using it, but they just don’t understand what the appeal is. The other day I explained to my dad that a gamer is like a reader or a movie-goer. Games are (usually) long like books but visual like movies. Some people keep all their games and others sell them after they play them – same as people who watch movies or read books. Some people just rent them, some share them with a network of friends. After I told him that, I could tell that he, an avid reader and movie fan, understood what gaming was about in a way he missed before. Though it’s a huge multi-billion dollar industry, there are MANY people who just don’t get it. Seeing the direction they are lead in the Kotaku survey is a telling indication of how the other half lives.

“Dammit!” will be posts on unfortunate gaming setbacks. This first unfortunate gaming moment comes from Final Fantasy, which I just started playing. I’m in the Earthgift shrine, for those familiar with the game. If you aren’t, this shrine is one of the cave-type areas you must explore.

First, I got lost in the desert, strangely occupying a basement floor of the shrine. Whatever. I came across a large worm that dealt 350+ damage. My party did not stand a chance. I was dropped off at the front entrance of the shrine with 4 collective health points. I went to town, I rested, I went back.

This time I went a lot faster through the shrine, though I took longer on B2 (which was a forest) than before. I took a different path across the desert and quickly reached stairs. I went through this so fast I don’t even remember B4. I made it to B5, which was a traditional cave-type maze layout that was symmetrical. There were doors ahead to the right and left, which both had blue fire blazing in them. I started to avoid it before foolishly confronting the fire. I don’t remember it’s name but it was stronger than the worm. I was barely hanging on when death came, and killed my entire party.

Why was this so difficult? It was optional. Its was a deadly optional dungeon that I entered twice. Final Fantasy has a fun trick of being open world and not at the same time. Sure, you can wander wherever you’d like. Just be prepared to be slaughtered for deviating from the story line. If you take a lot of time to grind and level up, this is less of a problem. However, the monotony of doing so sucks the fun out of the game. 


Dammit! posts will be rated using symbols above the numbers on a keyboard, with the highest value being eight.
Dammit! rating: !@#$ (4 out of 8)
Breakdown:
!: Lost in the desert
@: Killed by something I didn’t need to fight
#: Sent back outside
$:Returned to be killed faster by something else I didn’t need to fight.

I’m finally playing Final Fantasy, and I’m starting at the beginning. Luckily, the original games are rather easy to find on handhelds today, so I’m starting with FFI on PSP. I’m not very far: I’ve saved Princess Sarah and that’s about it. I have a Warrior, a Thief, a Red Mage, and a White Mage. I’ll probably get FFII on PSP as well, then switch over to DS for FFIII. I’ve never played any old turn based fighting games, so killed my party a couple times before I got the hang of it (and understood the importance of leveling up).

“It’s About Time” will be an account of games past that I am just now playing. I doubt there will be many as old as Final Fantasy.

Ok, you may think its impossible to suck at this game. All you do is roll stuff up. If that is your mindset, this post is not for you. If you like playing the game, but keep getting insulted by the King of All Cosmos as he abuses you, here are a couple of tips.

1. Non-stop Rolling.
Try to never stop moving. even if you are rolling up little things, it’s better than rolling up nothing. Aim for always hearing the pluck of new items on your Katamari.

2. Find a Path.
If you do a Prince Look, you will often see that the level is laid out in a pattern or path. Once you understand the paths, you don’t need to prince look to find them every time.

3. Stay in Your League
Try to stay around things you can pick up. Don’t wander too far away where everything knocks you around. You’ll loose a lot of time, and possibly shrink your Katamari in the meantime.

4. Look for Hidden Spaces.
Often there are doors that open to reveal a hidden space filled with things to roll. (In Beautiful Katamari, there’s a room filled with gold bars or Xboxes.) When rolling outside, look for shops or restaurants you can enter. Usually they are packed with easy to roll items. These places have a dual purpose: you quickly grow your Katamari and leave with a more complete collection.

5. If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try Again
Familiarity with the level is a huge bonus in Katamari. You learn what you can roll up and when, so you can have a mental game plan about which areas to tackle first. For example, in indoor levels, I try to stay on tables or shelves as long as possible, because items are often bigger and closer together than on the wide open floor. And, once on the floor it’s hard to tell where you are and what’s around you without taking the time to Prince Look.

The katamari games, albeit a bit redundant, are among my favorites on any system. I usually don’t buy a new (non-nintendo) system until there is a Katamari game for it. I know that sounds strange, but they never have multi-platform releases, and it so happens that the price has often dropped by the time it comes out.

In playing Need for Speed on Xbox 360 and Wii, I understand how serious Nintendo was when they said Wii was not a competitor to Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Playing NFS first on Xbox 360 allowed me to see the game as it was meant to be. Six cars in an average race, massive 20 car race wars after territory takeovers, and sharp, clear graphics.

The Wii version was a sad, stripped-down version in comparison. Four car races, no race wars whatsoever, and when using rca cables, everything is fuzzy and dark. There’s no cabin shots from the other car during boss races, either. Clearly, A full featured game was made and subsequently stripped down to work on the Wii.

Game creators, developers, etc. should understand Wii is the apple among oranges. Because it is not a comparable system, a game can’t really be tweaked into working for the Wii if was developed for 360 or PS3. Not recognizing this reality emphasizes the Wii’s weaker engine, making the system useless for many. However, there are plenty of games developed specifically for the Wii that are fun, full featured and look great.

So, is it better to make the same game for all levels of consoles for a sense of fairness? Should they make different games for Wii, like the All-Play series for Sports titles?

Surely it costs less to make one full game and one stripped game. I want to say they should just skip making a Wii game all together, but if you only owned a Wii, the stripped version wouldn’t be so bad. However, if you have both, there’s no point it buying it on the Wii because it is better on the 360… but the 360 version is arguably harder, so maybe you’d rather have the Wii version.

I haven’t completely made up my mind on this issue…. EA has decided to make different versions of their sports games, but not so much with their other titles like Need for Speed. Maybe they improved with Pro Street, which I haven’t played. Tony Hawk saw a seperate Wii version, and SSX had the exclusive Blur, but they both kinda sucked. They forced motion controls when they weren’t necessary. Need for Speed is guilty of that, too. I think that every game should the option for classic controls, with the exception being titles like wii play, sports, etc. The motion controls are most beneficial when intuitive. Despite five options of controller configurations in NFS, I think that none is really intuitive.