Let Me Rethink This…
In a weird turn of events, I ended up watching Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete as part of a movie night. I was unaware of it but there was 26 minutes worth of new footage that had been added into the complete version. Most of it was not exactly completely necessary but it did help to flesh out the movie a bit more instead of leaving it so minimalistic.
For some reason this time around, I really enjoyed the film. I don’t know why. The new parts do help to make the story flow better, but I also think that’s because I had a previous experience with the film and was able to truly notice the differences. The extra footage did help to add weight on the story side instead of too much time spent on the visual nostalgia fest side. Or it’s also possible I’m enjoying the film because of my surprise. I didn’t realize they were added. Fifteen minutes into the film, I began thinking to myself, “Wait, has it been that long, I don’t remember these parts.” The shock of not having to sit through the same film over again was indeed very welcomed last night.
This is an important key to point out. I’ll be honest. I’ve never finished Final Fantasy VII. I’ve always had a little bit of a bias against it and find it easy to dismiss as an overrated game. Final Fantasy VI is a game that is more cemented in my heart. It’s my opinion that the story line is much more sane and that Final Fantasy VII’s popularity was boosted by the advancement in graphical technology, the adoption of the Playstation, and video games beginning to spread into mainstream America. In the case of Final Fantasy VII, there were an overwhelming number of people first venturing into the Japanese RPG and in my opinon, that is why it remains so highly remembered not because of it’s actual substance but more because of it’s timing. Also it is my opinion that many got hung up on the trivial parts of Final Fantasy VII. For example, the bad guy with the large sword. The hot chick with the large bust. The death of a main character and the tear evoking theme that followed.
I feel that if you just look at these parts, then you’re missing the point of why VII truly was a genre changing game.
To be continued,
David
Rock Band Network Launched
The Rock Band Network is up on the Xbox 360 today and I’ve checked out what it has to offer. The interface is similar to the regular Rock Band store but with more sorting options. These options include sorting by artist, author (group who did the note tracking for the song), country of origin, decade, difficulty, genre, label, language and title. Along with those, there is a menu for a random song, “Harmonix Picks” and Top 10 lists of newest and highest rated songs. It is well organized for the most part but can sometimes be slow to respond, hanging up on some menu selections.
A major addition to the Network Store are the song demos. From my research, the demos are always the first minute of the song and cut off right at that minute, which can be a little jarring. At the end of playing that song there is an option to buy, replay or to exit out. Once purchased, there is an option rate quality of the note tracking at the end of the song. The authoring on the few I have played felt fine but the tuning on the levels of difficulty isn’t super consistent.
At launch, there are 105 songs with the majority of them being listed as having no label, a good sign, but there isn’t much representation from the larger indie labels like Sub Pop, who have promised support. Personally, there is a lack of the independent stuff I was looking forward to but two songs from The Shins and of Montreal isn’t too bad of a start. Hopefully, that will improve in the next few months. The songs are priced at 80 and 160 points, which is 1 and 2 dollars, respectively. Selected songs will come to other platforms at an unconfirmed later date.
Ben
My Take on Heavy Rain’s Controls
I’m enjoying Heavy Rain. And while my complaints about the demo in regards to the terrible dialogue writing and the awkward voice acting still hold true, there are elements of Heavy Rain that I feel work amazingly well. And one of those things just happens to be the contextual controls.
While I initially felt the way Ben did about the games contextual actions, I have completely come around on the controls. I feel like this game is doing something revolutionary with the controls that I haven’t experienced since possibly Ico.
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Heavy Rain’s Contextual Controls
Heavy Rain pushes contextual controls more than any game in recent memory. In most games, there will be a context sensitive button that does something depending on the situation you are in or objects you are near usually to say, “Interact with this.” For example, in Far Cry 2, there is a single button to get in and out of a car while the same button is used to intimidate certain people, among other things. It all depends on the situation, being near a car or a person. This contextual button works because it is always the same button, the game lets you know when it can be done and there is an underlying system. As you go, you learn the contextual interactions you can do making the prompt less important.
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Simplicity
Click Here – http://metroid.jp/
It’s simple. It’s intriguing. It’s solitude. It’s discovery. It’s hope.
Let’s just hope it not also a waste.
David
