The Gamer’s Quagmire #51: 2007 Gaming Sabbatical, Part II
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
You seriously didn’t think that I forgot about the Gaming Sabbatical Part I did you? Yes, it is true that basic grammatical errors and horrifying sentence fragments appear in my articles occasionally. While you may think this all points to a glaring lack of proofreading or that I paid someone I met in an online forum to use English to write some thoughts down instead of their standard Netspeak, it is all to keep you in anticipation of when I may actually finish putting together a coherent thought. This article just may be what you have been waiting for.
In the very near future, as in later this week, I will be making a trek out to Seattle once more for another epic week of gaming or some other form of non-productive activity. After putting together the base skeletal structure of our gaming activities I compared it to our past treks and noticed that Final Fantasy has once again forayed its way into the limelight. Gamers can be quite the creatures of habit, and it only logically follows that we follow an event that featured Final Fantasy VII with one that features Final Fantasy VIII. Life just seems to make sense this way.
In what has been to date a vain and futile attempt to recover some base knowledge of a game that I have played through close to 4 times I have been scouring through some saved games, looking for any notes written down about the game, and peeled through some guides on the Web. Perhaps I will have one of my special moments similar to recalling the activation code for the Blue Huge Materia in VII (which I still cannot explain remembering) and start down the right path to collecting all of the Triple Triad cards, Guardian Forces, and Limit Breaks. Maybe the subtle tricks in the Chocobo Forests will spring forth once more. I suppose it is equally likely that the Mets will call my cell phone and name me the new general manager, but those are bets not worth placing.
What bothered me, and for no real reason other than finding more holes in my memory, is that my memory of all those little details in Final Fantasy VIII are fading. It cannot be a realistic expectation to recall information on this level about games that haven’t been touched in over 5 years. This is what I tell myself. It does reinforce the notion that getting a good run through the game once more is going to require a team effort. Even the dreaded curse words that real gamers dare not mention (rhymes with ofladgety guide) were implied in conversation revolving around getting through the game one more time. I am confident that this will be unanimously shot down once the topic is discussed rationally, but until then I am left to wonder how much about the series I fell in love with when discovering Final Fantasy II on the SNES I’ll remember once the images are on the screen once more.
To no surprise finding a plethora of trivia questions online on several installments of Final Fantasy requires only a minimal effort. This is the crux of my thesis that the Google search engine has been the defining invention in the Information Age (Sour Patch Kids coming in at a close 2nd). After being crushed by several Final Fantasy VIII questions to which I could barely recall the topic in question I decided to go through VII, VI, and a couple other games I have played several times over. What really scared me was that my knowledge of VI, which I consider to be the best overall game of the franchise, despite what my massive Final Fantasy Review article indicates, was severely lacking. It is always fun attempting to answer questions to games you swear could also be referring to an authentic Greek pastry. That is the Web in a nutshell – a gigantic collection of information at your fingertips designed to show you how little you really know.
Despite failing to remember a decent amount of information on these games I do not let it phase me. It is never about the destination but about experiencing the journey (the games and I will not go our Separate Ways). Thinking about getting ready to experience this game once more has been remarkably enticing. Even if it may seem boring, perhaps the best way to remember why you love gaming in the first place is to fire up an old game that you cherish. This may even be the best cure for the current console war. Instead of everyone trying to convince themselves they made the right choice in their purchase or primary use of a console, or grinding an axe, or whatever else it can be called, gamers should just pick up a game they worship and play it once more. I find that playing a hallowed video game is much more enjoyable than arguing the merits of the current gaming mediums.
Then again, that’s just me.
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January 22, 2007
The Gamer’s Quagmire #37: 2007 Gaming Sabbatical - Part I
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
Adventurer’s Perfectionist Disorder, it’s back! The 2007 year kicked off with one of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. Being a gamer at heart I know that if I had it my way I’d be out in California as a game tester and all of my money would go towards an apartment and my entertainment system. It’s an interesting experience to be at work year-round and then take almost two weeks of your life and just sit on a couch and play video games. It honestly feels like a vacation.Sure, you can travel, learn some history, go to an amusement park, visit relatives, go camping, live it up on beach, enjoy a cruise, or whatever suits your fancy. Any real vacation should only be about one thing- avoiding everything about your normal life and just doing something you want to do. I’m always amazed by people that bring laptops on trips and make sure they don’t fall out of the loop while they are away from the office. The last time I had the opportunity I forced someone to leave the laptop at home by convincing them it was in the car when it really was back at the apartment. I’m a good friend that way.
What does any of this have to do with APD? Allow me to bring you on that journey. The last two weeks of 2006 were a vacation from the office for World of Warcraft where I was making leaps and bounds leveling my new character. It’s rough being in a guild where the only way to keep up with the top players is to not have a job, but I still enjoy it immensely. After another week and a half my gaming sabbatical took place in Seattle, something which I hope turns into an annual tradition. During this sabbatical the perfect mix of gaming past and present took place.
Let me present to you my experience of the Playstation 3- it matches what the X-Box 360 brings to the table with the exception of the online play system. I realize that expecting Sony to match Live with their first go at an online delivery system is just insane so that’s okay, but there is a problem. Considering the cost of a fully loaded console with hi-def playback, the 360 is noticeably cheaper than the PS3. I have yet to characterize why. The cosmetic issue of the 360 requiring a peripheral for their HD-DVD drive pushes the aesthetics trophy over to the PS3, but that that can’t be everything can it? If the 360 could handle HD-DVD at launch then the 360’s look would be the best of any of the consoles. The PS3’s design is average at best, same for Nintendo.
Microsoft does not nearly get the beating they deserve for their HD-DVD peripheral. A console having an attachment is inexcusable, reprehensible, sacrilegious, nauseating, and unforgivable. In the age of hi-def entertainment this type of lunacy just shouldn’t happen. It’d be like serving ice cream in a bowl and then bringing along a cone 10 minutes later (you know, because that is what you really wanted and refuse to admit it). That’s not even why they deserve a flogging or two. They announced that the 360 was not about hi-def entertainment, that consoles don’t need it, and Sony was doing too much with their console which is why their launch was delayed so much. Hypocrisy is a major irritant, and this statement reeked of it.
Anyway, the pricing issue is the primary reason why the PS3 is getting crushed right now in the console wars. The 360 is established (for those of you keeping score at home, you need to now admit that the early launch was a good idea) and the Wii offers something that nobody else has. Of course the Wii’s success is based on a gimmick. Zelda is the only game with any good depth to it and the console will not survive on titles like Wii Sports, whose popularity will diminish quicker than the Macarena. Trust me when I tell you that unless a host of good games come out for Nintendo the console will crumble and fall. If the PS3 gets a couple good games out for it then people will eventually flock over to it once the inevitable price cut occurs.
What scares me about my gaming sabbatical was that despite playing good titles on the PS3 and 360 the highlight of the trip involved one of the old classics- Final Fantasy VII. Okay, perhaps it was destiny that picking to play through this game one more time after writing how that was the defining game of the PS2 era for me that VII would once again highlight a gaming weekend. For what was perhaps one last time, our small little group from Gettysburg which set out on the Final Fantasy VII voyage together took the vessel out for once last spin.
As you would expect, simply walking through the game would not be enough. Goals were to capture everything we possibly could before the final dungeon ending in the showdown with Sephiroth. We captured the Gold Chocobo during the final hours of the trip. This felt like the proper ending, but something was wholly unsatisfying about the achievement. Do not misunderstand my apprehension to call it a success. Three people obtaining Knights of the Round in 4 days while playing other games at the same time was a remarkable achievement. What bugs me was that due to a wireless controller issue North Corel was not saved from the train wreck. The blue Huge Materia was not rescued from the spaceship despite me somehow recalling that circle-square-x-x was the password (seriously, I entered the password and picked it up… it was weird). The scales required to put out the fires in the Wutai mountains were missed. Several key Enemy Skills were not uncovered. The Mime materia was not located. The Earth Harp remained a complete mystery. The Battle Square was not conquered.
I’ll be honest with you, as a gamer I was impressed that I remembered certain things about the game. Remembering the song for the piano in Tifa’s house and the spaceship combination was quite prolific (for whatever reason checking my mail every day is still something I forget to do). The fact that so many important items were missed along the journey may making one more last run through the game necessary despite still having my perfect save on a memory card that still remains in my possession. This is a direct effect of a severe case of APD. I should be able to let something like this go. The game has been defeated multiple times with precision, but because my previous run failed spectacularly, in my eyes, it warrants another potential run.
All of this ignores the fact that I still have not made my way through Final Fantasy XII, a game which I claim may be the new champion of the franchise. Vaan, it’s nothing personal. Cloud is a much more compelling hero. Sephiroth is the quintessential villain, something that Vayne cannot claim. It’s not that I think VII is a better game, it’s just that the story in the game is perhaps the best of them all and the Materia system has its place etched in gaming history. Also, not being able to cope with missing several key spells and abilities is eating away at my conscience. Not even Full Cure will ease the pain- only completing the game one more time will. If you have ever played through one game multiple times then you understand my pain. You also understand that there will be one more inevitable article about Final Fantasy VII.
After all, Aeris does deserve a proper burial.
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