Archive for the 'Technology' Category

Final Fantasy XIII Review

Published on May 24, 2011 in Featured Posts and Technology. 2 Comments Tags: jrpg, PS3, video games, XBox360.

After spending 75 hours on a game I might as well tell you my thoughts on it, so here’s a very quick review of Final Fantasy XIII.

Synopsis

If you’re not at all interested in the nuances, just know that I gave the game a 7 out of 10: stunning graphics, great voice acting, good music, but pacing killed the story and gameplay. A good way to think about this game is to think of it like Lord of the Rings: very slow in some areas, but very rewarding when it finally begins to explain what’s going on. If you can trudge along for a while until the party all finally re-unites half way through the game, and if you’ve liked the Final Fantasy series then this is one I recommend. Also, if you like visually stunning games, this one’s for you. Heck, as of this writing it’s selling for about $25 on Amazon, so go grab it. Now. But, if you’re more interested in very detailed, brain intensive gameplay look elsewhere.

The Review

The story in this game is the standard FF affair: a small band of people made extraordinary by some event or choice have to save the world. There are two societies that hate each other, and through the game you visit both, you discover that things aren’t what they seem, and in the end you fight something that wants to destroy everyone for the sake of some grand, delusional goal.

The characters have the potential to be interesting, but really aren’t.

The main character is Lightning, a soldier with the body of a model and the personality of a rock.
Lightning has a sister (Sera) who’s getting married to Snow, who’s… this guy, you know? He’s pretty good with his fists and leads a band of lazy jackasses named NORA. Lightning dislikes him. She dislikes everything, but mostly him.
Speaking of disliking Snow, there’s Hope, a kid who watches his mother, Nora, die after Snow fails to pull her from a falling bridge. He blames Snow for some reason and has this weird Anakin/Padome relationship with Lightning.
Then there’s Sazh. He’s “the black guy”. He’s got a fro with a bird living inside it. A chocobo. In his hair. As in “permanent residence.” He also has a kid, Dodge, who also has a fro, though his is fowl-free. A grand total of two black guys in the game, one named after a car, and they both have fros. Also, they’re magical. No, seriously, they are.
Then there’s Vanille, the happy-go-lucky love-a-bunch who’s 16 and also hundreds of years old. For some reason she’s also the narrator for part of the game. This whole narration thing goes nowhere. I wish it would have, because I love narrated stories.
She has a friend, Fang, who wears this awesome sari along with a not-at-all awesome mullet. Fang and Vanille are from New Zealand, I think.

From left to right: Snow, Vanille, Fang, Lightning, Sazh, Hope, Snow’s financee/Ligtning’s sister.So those are your characters. They all have some type of development go on, but it’s not particularly dramatic in most cases. With a little tweaking to the way the story was presented, these guys could have been incredible. Instead they were just… you know, kind of cool, but not really all that interesting. Maybe if I play it again…

Speaking of playing again, gameplay is also standard: you run around and fight enemies. The battle system really allows for fluid battle scenes, so it’s great for eye candy, especially when Lightning gets a cool ability like Army of One. Not so great for when you want to control every aspect of every character, because you can’t. You choose a party leader and that’s the only person you can control. This was problematic in some ways–only the person you control ever uses their special ability or related summon, for example–but it also made it fun in others, since it kept things moving. (Two words: Eye candy.)

The biggest overall flaw in this game had to do with the pacing. It was a complex story with a lot of threads from the start. That isn’t a problem, in fact it’s a good thing, but the character development happens so slowly that you really don’t get a chance to WANT to start caring about the characters. I didn’t care about the characters until I was already almost 35 hours into the game. This is due to the fact that character development happens exclusively in cut scenes as opposed to conversations you initiate, which is the case with other FF games. Also, the fact that you don’t really get to explore until Chapter 11 (which is about 35 hours into the game) means that the vast majority of the game is comprised of a long hallway with an orange spot at the end of it indicating either an enemy or a cut scene, thereby giving rise to the nickname “Hallways and Cut Scenes: The Game.”

Still, if you’re a fan of FF games it’s worth a try, if for no other reason than to enjoy the beautiful graphics. The fact that you can play the vast majority of the game with one finger (just keep pressing X, you’ll be fine) is debatable as a weakness. Personally, I rather enjoyed being able to watch shows on my computer while “playing” the game, especially in parts where I was mostly farming for money or points.

The Score Breakdown

Story and Character Development: 2 out of 10.7 out of 10 if we ignore the pacing (which we won’t, seeing as it’s such a HUGE flaw). As for the story itself, unless you pay close attention to the clues in the story the ending will have you thinking “What the heck just happened?” Still, it’s not bad. But pacing… yes, the pacing is THAT bad, and it causes problems through the entire game. I lay it squarely (no pun intended) on the shoulders of character development happening exclusively in cut scenes rather than in player-initiated conversations. Also there weren’t really any enemies you could point your finger at and say “That’s an enemy,” at least not any memorable ones. A lot of characters were introduced, but they simply weren’t developed. Oh sure, you had that one Fal’Cie guy who kept showing up, but the only thing that made any other baddie distinguishable from random background characters was the (forgettable) reappearances. Above: Forgettable characterBelow: Slightly less forgettable character
The pacing was so bad that 30 hours into it I almost dropped the game. I simply didn’t care about the cardboard characters or the convoluted story. After plowing through and finishing the game anyway, I’m pretty glad I didn’t drop it.
Gameplay: 6 out of 10, and it’s mostly due to a huge issue with the party set-up. The fighting system itself is pretty good, and you can choose how involved you want it to be: do you want to choose every move or do you want to let the computer decide the best course of action?The problem is that in this game you only control one character at a time, which is on its face not all that bad since it makes for more fluid battles, until you realize that you can revive every other character in your party, but if your main character dies, no one can revive you. Game over. This pissed me off to no end: why in the heck can’t my healer heal me? And why can’t someone use a Phoenix Down?! I have like 30 of them!Edit:I forgot to mention stores, money, and points. Unlike in other FF games, FFXIII does away with the concept of gil-for-kill. (The point system, however, is alive and well.) Instead, all the animals drop something which can be used to either upgrade weapons or sell in the games stores. If you use it to upgrade weapons then the weapons get experience points. There’s no secondary development which makes the weapon gain intrinsic powers based on what you use to upgrade it. It’s just points. If you sell the item then you can get enough money to buy some worthwhile and hard-to-get items which can speed up the weapon upgrade process.Regarding stores, these are only available in save spots. They’re not shops in the map, but rather more like websites. This makes the shopping experience a predictable and somewhat boring experience, but it takes the annoyance of having missed a shop (and therefore an awesome item you can never again gain access to) out of the equation. I actually rather liked this change.
Finally, there are upgrade paths. Like Final Fantasy X and XII, upgrades are done by using points buy level upgrades: more HP, different powers, higher strength, higher magic. Unlike these previous versions, however, and in keeping with the rest of this games linear proclivities, the upgrade paths are very… well, linear. There are different roles you can upgrade, but each role’s upgrade path is fairly linear. I guess this goes along well with the role-based fighting system they introduced, which is similar to the outfit system in Final Fantasy X-2: so long as you’re playing this particular role you can’t do things in other roles. So your guy is a Sentinel? Then he can’t cast cure. I’ve never really liked that system, although it makes sense, and does give the game an element of strategy.
Graphics: 10 out of 10. Yes, they were that stunning. I’m tempted to give it an 11, or even a 12! The bonus points for being the only thing at times that kept me playing. The game is GORGEOUS. Here’s a beautiful example of what I mean. This is at the beginning of Chapter 12. Fast forward to 7:45 for a great scene.
Music: 8 out of 10. Not memorable, but certainly not bad. It fulfilled the most important role of theatrical scores: ambiance without getting in the way. During fights, I rarely noticed the music. This is a good thing. I only really noticed it when it was fitting within the story. This, again, is a good thing.
Value: 9 out of 10. One cool feature for those of us who get all obsessive about completing every single thing and getting the absolute most out of the game is that you can go back to the game after you finish it and complete all the side quests you may have missed. (You get a chance to save your progress after the credits.) That’s a nice little bit of extra value, and just about the only real exploration you get to do in the game. The keyword here is “value”. I wish more RPGs did this. Heck, I wish I got to do this with Final Fantasy X (probably my favorite in the series). I really liked Blitzball! The 9 out of 10 is taking into consideration the after-game playability, which can go on for as long as you’d like. In fact, the game took me about 75hrs to finish, and I can see myself playing for at least another 30 if I decided to undertake all the sidequests and the upgrade paths. The only knock is that you have to trudge through the game for too long before you finally get to the fun part.

So taking all these scores into consideration: 5 categories for 50 points total. The game gets 35 points. That’s a solid 70% or 7 out of 10. (3.5 stars out of 5 is more Amazonian.)

In the end, here’s the important question: was it a fun game? Yes. Would I play it again? Maybe, if for no other reason than to watch all the cinematics. That’s one thing I loved about Final Fantasy X: you could re-watch the story’s cinematics in the Luca theater. FFXIII deserved at least as much.

And if you’re wondering, yes, I’ll pick up the sequel, Final Fantasy XIII-2. Don’t know about Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but we’ll see. Hope you enjoyed this review.

Wait, You Finished the Game. How About a Walkthrough?

This isn’t a walkthrough. This is a review. If you’re looking for walkthroughs you can buy the official guide–there’s even a collector’s edition–or you can use a search engine. However, if you want a pretty great set of video walkthroughs check out Hassan AlHajry’s channel on YouTube. In fact, if you don’t want to play the game, but want to enjoy the cut-scenes and know the story you can just watch this.

While I’m usually a fan of walkthroughs (I’m the type that buys the book and tries to do everything perfectly), I found that this game lacked so much exploration throughout most of it that one wasn’t really needed until Chapter 11, when you get to Gran Pulse. (Unless, of course, you want to get top ratings on every fight, which helps out when it comes to dropped items and trophies.) After that, yeah, you may want a walkthrough. What you will definitely want, though, is a gil farming guide since there really isn’t any gil to be gained by killing monsters, only by selling stuff they drop and things you find while riding around on a chocobo.

Firefox 4: Redundancy is Redundant

Published on March 23, 2011 in Technology. 4 Comments

(This is just me ranting, so feel free to ignore what I’m about to say. Edit: I’ve been told a few times already, the morning after posting, that this seems to be a Mac specific issue. This redundancy doesn’t happen on Windows.)

File the following under “Fail”.

Let me say it again, just to be clear:

I understand having a window title bar and tab say the same thing, if the tabs are below the address bar, because at least in that case there’s a visual separation wide enough for it to make sense, as is the case with, say, Safari.

But having both up there seems… well, redundant. And I’d pass this off as just a Mac thing, but Chrome, even though it’s not as nice as its Windows-based sibling, has it right.

Of course, things can can sometimes get a bit crowded.

But if things really do get this crowded, close some tabs or open a new window. Seriously, you’re overloading.

As for saving space, heck even IE9 learned its lesson.

In fact, I think Microsoft did a better job than even Chrome in that respect.

But Firefox? *sigh* Maybe there’ll be a theme available that’ll remedy this. But there shouldn’t have to be.

XBox 360 or PS3?

Published on August 30, 2010 in Featured Posts and Technology. 21 Comments

Dear Internet,

I’m planning on finally joining the 21st century and buying a new gaming console. Let me rephrase that: I want to buy a new not-almost-strictly-for-kids gaming console. (I have a Wii and, frankly, I’m not all that crazy about it.) I still have a PlayStation 2 which I absolutely adore, and for which there are still a ton of great games I’ve yet to play (Killzone, Black, Xenosaga, Shadow of the Colossus, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus…), but I’d still like to move to something a bit more advanced.

Recently, a friend gushed to me about how incredible a gaming experience the Mass Effect series was, and how I should totally play it. He sent me a few videos, and it wasn’t long before I totally fell in love with it. (Totally.) I wanted one right there and then. I almost picked up an XBox 360, too, just so I could play Mass Effect. (Also, because Amazon had the now-previous-generation XBox 360 on sale for $250 including Final Fantasy XIII.)

But then I started thinking: $300 isn’t exactly chump change. On top of that, premium titles usually run about $60. Would I buy a gaming system just so I could play one game? Actually, yeah. It’s why I originally bought my PlaysStation 2, so I could play Final Fantasy X (to this day, along with Final Fantasy VII, one of my all-time favorite games.) Still, Mass Effect isn’t in that category for me just yet. It’s enough to prompt me buying a new system, but not enough to make me commit to the XBox 360, when the PlayStation 3, which also serves as an excellent BluRay player, is out there for about the same price. (Alright, it’s $50 more. Big whoop.)

Anyway, the point of this story: I’m trying to decide between an XBox 360 and a PlayStation 3. I’ve made a list of pros and cons for each system, and if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to hear what you have to say about it.

Games: Arguably, this is the most important aspect, but I start with it because it prompted my search. The great part is that most premiere titles are made for both systems, so the subject of exclusive games doesn’t hold the weight it once used to. Still, there are enough exclusives out there to make it a factor to consider. In the XBox 360 camp the only titles that really call my attention are in the Fable series and the Mass Effect series. (I’ve never been much of a Halo fan, so the new game doesn’t hold much appeal for me.) PlayStation, on the other hand, has a number of exclusives I’m interested in playing: God of War 3, the LittleBigPlanet series, the Uncharted series, and the Metal Gear Solid series are among these. And as far as downloadable games go, the fact that I can download Final Fantasy VII onto the PS3 makes that all the sweeter. Most of the other titles I’m interested in (Red Dead Redemption, Batman: Arkham City, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Final Fantasy XIII, Madden 11, and even Mass Effect 2) are available for both systems, so this isn’t as big a deal as it once was. Still, I have to say it: Advantage: PS3, overwhelmingly.
Backwards Compatibility: The XBox 360 can play games from the original XBox. The PS3 is limited to just PS3 games. (The originals had PS2 compatibility, but this was redacted in later versions.) Therefore, the potential game library for the XBox 360 is MUCH larger and MUCH more affordable than the PS3′s game library. This is a pretty big selling point for me, since I don’t mind buying older (but not used) titles. (They’re cheaper and the money still goes to the developer.) Advantage: XBox 360, overwhelmingly.
Play pals: Networking in games is HUGE these days. HUUUUGE. It’s an important feature in modern games. As such, the fact that most of my friends have an XBox 360 rather than a PlayStation 3 means that I’m far more likely to use these features on the XBox than the PS3, since the systems can talk to other people using the same system. (Sad, but true.) Still, here’s the deal: I don’t see myself using this feature all that often. I may be proven wrong, however, once the opportunity presents itself, and it’s a very tempting opportunity. Advantage: XBox 360, overwhelmingly.
Motion Controls: Kinect is getting ALL the press these days, and for good reason: it looks awesome. In fact, it could potentially put my Wii completely out of business. Thing is, I’m not interested in it, especially since it’s a $150 peripheral, nor am I interested in the PlayStation’s Move controller. If I want to play a motion game, I’ll probably do something like go outside and play a sport. Or, you know, turn on my Wii. Advantage: Wii. (Hey, my list, my answers. Shaddup.)
Controllers: Since this IS the way I will be interfacing with the system, it’s an important consideration. I’m used to the PlayStation controllers. I’m not crazy about the XBox controllers, although I’m sure I could grow accustomed to them. Advantage: PS3.
Movies: I know, physical media is dead. Whatever, I still like owning my stuff on disks. Call me a Luddite, I don’t care. HD DVD lost. BluRay won. Sad, but true. (I was rooting for HD DVD.) Buying a PS3 saves me from having to buy a BluRay player, especially since it can be updated to the latest standard version. In short, the PS3 may be the world’s greatest BluRay player. XBox, on the other hand… uhm… well, I can buy used HD DVDs for cheap, right? Oh, that’s right NetFlix…which both of them have. (I stream movies using my Wii ALL. THE. TIME. So yeah, this is a really useful feature.) Advantage: PS3, but only barely: I plan to keep buying DVDs for a while, since I get most of mine used anyway, and from what I understand XBox’s NetFlix functionality doesn’t require a disk while PlayStation’s does. (I may be wrong here.)
Cost: XBox 360S is $299. (I can get the previous model for $250 which includes Final Fantasy XIII, but the tradeoff here is no Kinect connectivity and no native wireless networking.) For the same stats, PS3 is $350, although it also includes a BluRay player, which saves me $100, so $350 – $100 = $250. Practically speaking the XBox is cheaper. Potentially the PS3 is cheaper. Therefore, I’m calling it a tie. Advantage: None.
Upgradability: In either case, I can upgrade the hard drive. I don’t think there’s really much else I can upgrade so I’m calling it a tie here, too. Advantage: None.

So that’s my list up to now. I’m leaning heavily towards a PS3–mostly because of the games–but the XBox 360′s popularity among people who I’d likely play with weighs very, very heavily, despite my lack of familiarity with it. (In short, it’s a gamble.) There are other aspects I know about but haven’t mentioned here (XBox’s Windows Media compatibility), but these don’t matter to me so I didn’t mention them. Feel free to talk about them, though: I’m sure there are things I’m not taking into consideration.

Your turn, dear Internet. I seek the wisdom of your crowds. XBox 360 or PS3? (I would especially love to hear from people who’ve owned or currently own both.) While you think up your answers, if you don’t mind, my new copy of Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2 is here. Time to check it out.

Why AT&T May Be Doing the Right Thing

Published on June 3, 2010 in Technology. 2 Comments

Recently, AT&T announced that it was doing away with unlimited data plans for smartphones. While power users and geeks everywhere have decried the change, I’m wondering whether it’s actually the right move.

Background

A while back, I had a conversation with a friend (my old college roommate, as it so happens) about Net Neutrality. I defended the idea that no one should have control over what people choose to do with their bandwidth (so the idea that telecoms could throttle VoIP services from competitors in order to bolster their own offerings, like what Comcast had done for a while, was out). He argued that ISPs were private businesses, and as such had every right to do whatever they wanted: the market should decide. Part of that conversation involved an explanation of WHY ISPs and telecoms got it wrong, and why trying to fix the problem from their end may be as futile as trying to stuff toothpaste back into the tube.

Just to frame my thoughts on AT&T’s move, I’ve decided to copy over a part of the text from that exchange with my old college roommate. (The thread can be found on Facebook. However, my FB account is private so you probably won’t be able to see it. Sorry.) Here I talk about the magic of unlimited bandwith and how Time Warner tried resolving the issue. It should ring reminiscent of the current situation.

I notice that’s what’s not at question is the ISPs current (for the most part) structure of unlimited bandwidth, which IS being abused by, for example, those downloading hundreds of torrents (to use your example), which is way outside the norm (although I’m guessing a very large part of all torrents are actually copyright infringing and therefore illegal; I doubt there are that many people downloading Linux distros, as much as that would tickle my funny bone, and think they are instead downloading the latest leaked movie).

Of course, the reason for this “abuse”–and I’ll use the term loosely–is simple: ISPs have been selling themselves on “unlimited” for years, which for the layman is the equivalent of magic. For years they could make that claim because there was “no way anyone could ever use [X] amount of bandwidth!” (“No one will ever need more than 640k!”) Now that people can and do test the limits on that unlimited magic, via games and video and all that jazz, ISPs are starting to say “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.” Time Warner attempted to remedy this by creating bandwidth packages–use this much, pay this much, with an overage fee of this much–but with very negative results, probably because they started throttling customers who had already bought service at a certain price and under the condition of “unlimited”. The concept was good, the execution not so.

Despite disagreement to the contrary from many, given the capabilities of the Web, the model as it currently stands is unsustainable in the long run as more and more demands–video, gaming, and VoIP come to mind–will be placed on the network. (By the way, whatever happened with Google and all ther “dark fiber”?) Capping will eventually have to happen. This doesn’t prevent ISPs from simply selling more.

There’s a lot more to the text, but I don’t believe it’s immediately important to the matter at hand. (It involves net neutrality, and it has some pertinence to the issue which may not be directly evident.)

The Problem

As anyone keeping any sort of tab on the industry knows, AT&T has gotten its butt kicked time and time again because of the iPhone. Sure, it has the world’s most popular single smartphone. But it has long been lacking the infrastructure to support the iPhone’s data demands throughout most of its network. (With respect to Luke Wilson, it’s called the iPhone 3G, not the iPhone 2G/EDGE. AT&T shouldn’t muddy the waters by comparing its EDGE coverage to Verizon’s 3G.) The rate of upgrade isn’t keeping up to the increase in demands on their bandwith, so what do they do? The only thing they really can, cap it. The fact is that most users will probably benefit, at least in the short run, by getting lower prices. Yet as more and more services come to smartphones, and as we increasingly rely on these devices and devices like these (think iPad and other slates) as our primary computers AND entertainment–that is, our primary sources of media consumption–the cost to the user will increase, and because the infrastructure to not only support, but profit heavily from that growth will be in place, AT&T and any telecoms that follow suit will see their profits continue to rise unless customers move to providers willing to give them unlimited coverage

Will unlimited data plans be needed? Maybe. Will they be around? I think so, in one form or another. This will probably come when the technology is advanced enough that there’s no possible way that anyone could ever use as much bandwith in a certain period of time as it would cost to support it under a reasonable flat rate plan. But that’s only considering today’s technological requirements for transporting things like current games and internet video. Eventually this will go the way of the AOL dial up floppy, so there’s really no telling what requirements will be when we all regularly enjoy holographic projection or advanced forms of telepresence (holographic telepresence, maybe?). I’m guessing the arguments may sound very similar.