Ok, so it's the start of exam week, so what's the last thing I should be thinking about?
Games!
I got a few new games a couple of weeks back (more on that later), but the real thing to write about is the future. I'm currently seriously debating whether or not to buy a PS3, because both the upcoming MGS4 release and the recently released GTA4 have caught my attention in a large way. The problem being that even with a hypothetically possible price drop to coincide with MGS4 (it's been semi hinted at), a PS3 costs what amounts to a whole month of rent, which is money I simply don't have (since rent begins in July but my next student loan only comes through in October).
Even if I did get it, I would have to justify a £300 machine for two games (that I'm interested in), particularly when there are a lot of good upcoming PC games (remember how I only just built a new gaming PC?). I mean, aside from the new Galactic Civ expansions which I'd like to pick up, there's also Sins of the Solar Empire, Mass Effect (more on that in a bit), and Warcraft to resubscribe to.
So, Mass Effect. I have been hugely interested in that game from the very first press release (I follow Bioware news, so sue me), but I never picked it up on the 360 because a) I wasn't around when it was released, and b) I had a feeling a PC version would turn up eventually.
And so it has, in all its tweaked, 'we-actually-listened-to-the-fans'-gripes' improved goodness.
And it just recently dodged a giant bullet.
EA, recent purchasers of Bioware had slapped some DRM software onto the package... and as anti-piracy moves go, it seemed to punish legal buyers more than pirates.
See, on top of the usual serial-key activation, the game needed to connect to the internet to check it was a legal copy. Tolerable, right?
Well... actually, it had to check the internet every ten days, beaming back god knows what to EA in order to check... what exactly? Is there some way that a legally bought game can become pirated with time?
On top of that, you only get three installs of the game before it refuses to load again. And that includes for separate users on the same PC, and occasionally if you make hardware changes too.
But so long as it catches all the nasty pirates, right?
Well, no... the first thing any software pirate would do is to crack the .exe so that the whole DRM system was disabled. So really, the whole thing could only ever punish legal game owners.
This was all leading to a mass-boycott by the fans, but at the last minute Bioware convinced EA to drop at least the 10-day re-check part of the procedure, although the 3 installs stands. I probably would have bought it either way, but I'm very relieved that the more questionable parts of the procedure are gone.
Anyway, I promised word of recent games.
I picked up two DS action rpgs a few week back. Strangely, both by Square Enix, but they couldn't be more different.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
The sequel (prequel, to be exact) to an obscure spin-off of Squeenix's main franchise, Ring of Fates is a semi-hack 'n' slash rpg set in Crystal Chronicle's unique world. Compared to the Gamecube original, which was downright dire to play on your own and had practically no plot, this installment is a vast improvement: You get an AI party of unique (if slightly 1-dimensional) characters which can each be controlled individually, you get battle mechanics which are less... dry, shall we say, than the usual FF turn-based system, and more involving and enjoyable than the original CC, and you actually get a storyline.
Okay, so the storyline borrows from previous FF games a tad, but it is genuinely engaging most of the time, and the little cut-scenes which move the plot along are always enjoyable.
The visuals are spectacular, especially for the DS. The character models are of the same chibi-style as last year's FF III, but the sheer level on detail on armour, equipment and monsters is wonderful, though the moments when the game zooms in on the characters tends to highlight the lack of a huge number of polygons. However, this comes at a price, and that is that the DS simply can't handle moments when a lot is going on on-screen, and you get quite significant graphical lag.
Still, this is a wonderful little game, which is great to unwind with alone, but can also be great with friends (you can run through the main campaign with your own characters MMO-style), though it's not Wi-Fi capable.
I would say that this is what will be eating my time between exams and revision, but it's somewhat overshadowed by...
The World Ends With You
Again, action RPG from the creators of Final Fantasy, but this time we're looking at an entirely new IP set in modern-day Tokyo, albeit one filled with pyschic powers and graffiti-styled monsters.
This game is brilliant... I really have trouble faulting it. The story is incredibly engaging, and pretty damned unique (the protagonist's amnesia at the start of the game not withstanding).
Basically, the main character, Neku, awakes in the middle of a busy Tokyo crossing, with no memory of how he got there, and he discovers he's invisible to the morning commuters. Shortly he meets a girl who rushes him into forming a pact in order to fend off a pack of monsters ('Noise'). Neku finds himself stuck in a seven-day game run by the enigmatic 'Reapers'. Each day he has to complete a mission sent to his cell phone or else be erased.
The plot twists a *whole* lot, and focuses on characters and character development much more than events, making each character very deep and believable, with each growing a little as the story moves on (particularly Neku).
But really, it's the gameplay that is really brilliant here. Remember how in games like Final Fantasy the random encounters get old really quickly, and by the end of the game they're a chore more than anything?
Well in this game, the fights are a) not random, and hence not forced down your throat, and b) enjoyable to the point that you actively seek them out.
And, maybe most amazingly of all, it suits the DS in ways that no previous game has touched on.
See how we have two screens? The action splits onto each, one per character. The bottom screen has Neku who fights using psyche abilities activated by various different stylus inputs (and there are lots... it's a very flexible, well-implemented system), while the top screen houses the partner character who battles (either automatically or on demand by the player, switching seemlessly between both styles) using a surprisingly simple, but deep combo system based around the directional buttons. You essentially get the same monsters appearing on each screen (killing one kills it on both), and have to alternate between both characters to pass a little icon between each, which builds up attack strength for a finisher move.
The game also brings a whole heap of new concepts to the rpg table, like the fashion-based inventory system (not the best message to kids, but it fits the setting...), the fact it encourages you to take breaks from play by offering xp for downtime, the idea that you can only improve stats (hp excluded) by eating food and letting it digest as you eat. Hell, you can even lower your level intentionally to earn more xp to level up your attacks, and get more items from each battle.
Even the soundtrack is awesome. Ok, so it has some hip-hop themes, which is usually really not my thing... but it's good music all the same. So since I could sing this game's praises for a long while, but need to finish this post tonight, I'll just leave you with a sample of the sounds (and visuals) from the game.
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) and the Song of Ice and Fire (Book two!