Gaming Update: It's About Time!

This week, I gained accessed two games that I have been waiting nearly a decade for.

My first year of college, I met two of my best lifelong friends from across the hall, and they introduced me to Starcraft (among other things, such as whiskey, another lifelong friend).

My second year in college, I met my current female lifepartner. In the early days of our relationship, one thing we did together was play through Final Fantasy 10 (her idea, not mine . . . she's awesome!)

This week, Final Fantasy 13 was released. It is the first "real" FF in my opinion since 10. I'm sorry, but 12 flat-out sucked. The graphics were good, and the story as well, but the gameplay systems were a disaster. We bought it with excitement upon release, and gave up in disgust a few weeks later. We spent last night playing FF13, and have loved it so far. If anything, it feels so far like the spiritual successor to FF7 (tied with 6 for my favorite ever), in so many ways.

Also this week, I was reading this interview with Dustin Browder, lead designer on Starcraft 2. He mentioned offhandedly that they had "added a bunch of new keys this week", meaning beta keys. I had been avoiding my email and battle.net account page to save myself the heartbreak of not being in the SC2 beta. Hoping against all hope, trying to keep my excitement in check, I futilely logged into my battle.net account.

Well, not so futilely - the beta was there.

So in conclusion: you know how people tell you "life isn't fair"? Well, guess what: for me it is. There is a god, and I believe in miracles.


So far, I love both games. Have a great whiskey! I mean, weekend!

Interesting Quote

From a preview of the WoW beta (the original game, not the xpacs) still on this internet from the ancient era of two-thousand and four:

"For all the improvements, it's remarkable now little actual change there has been in gameplay. Even the simplest of battles are involved affairs that require player interaction, it's not just a matter of setting the warrior to auto-swing and occasionally delivering a kick. The various rage/mana/etc. managements that each class has keep things interesting. Battles do often play out similarly - charge, rend, wait for 2 attacks, yell, wait an attack, smash - but the ability to participate does make a difference. A warrior has to be particularly quick with his Overpower shortcut which will permit him to score a hit despite a 'Dodge'."

Though we expect more nowadays, and should always strive to improve, maybe the combat system wasn't so bad for its time.