Final Fantasy XIII linearity, good thing?

So I was playing Final Fantasy XIII up to chapter 11, I was told by reviews that this Final Fantasy is quite linear until much later on. I found out that up until now it has been quite linear even though there was some section that lets you explore the open world.

Is Square taking a risk or simply responding the need to change RPG genre? I feel that Square realised how RPG change these days especially in western world. Take Fallout 3 for example: it combines the element of open world ala GTA and RPG which turns out to be very successful and enjoyable.

The feel of today Final Fantasy is completely different. Square Enix seems to leave traditional RPG formula with this FF. There is no town or shop to visit before visiting the dungeon. No need to farm monster and leveling up before tackling the next dungeon. Instead they are focusing to the story, pace and action. The combat is simplified but complex enough not to be boring. In the end, we see more of a hybrid RPG of Final Fantasy.

So is it a good thing? Many forums condemn Square for changing drastically with this FF, but maybe they have legitimate reason.
First of all, Square said that since it is the first FF on new generation console, it takes a bit more time to develop because they need to start from scratch. And it is hard and consume a lot of time to make towns, and 3D building structure in high definition, and it is the same reason that they didn't do FFVII remake.
With already years in development, Square might be forced to do it this way in order to save time and budget.
Secondly, even though it is quite linear, it will still give you a 40 hours of playing and that is without all the side missions and completing all the upgrades. 

Another plus thing, while FFXIII might not be appealing for hardcore traditional RPG gamers, it certainly easy on the new comers. They can be kept engaged without straying from the story too long by dictating the pace of its story. The battle is not tedious and intimidating like previous gambit system, the story is not as complicated as FFVII. Actually the story is quite simple, but it tends to be over stretched.

Finally all I think Square has taken a step into the right direction to make Final Fantasy more appealing with mass audiences. Only maybe next time they can add a bit more exploring so that we can get the sense of this big world and of course, improve the story.




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News & Update 28th March

- Seems that Square Enix change their stance about Final Fantasy VII remake. After eliminating the possibility of the remake because it will be long and expensive, now Yoichi Wada, the president and chief executive of Square Enix say that they are "exploring the possibility" to make the remake. If fans petition enough maybe they do it, but don't expect it in this near future.

- Microsoft confirmed that Natal follow up is in development. They really confident with Natal success don't they?

- Nintendo announced 3DS as successor of current DS. It will play 3D graphic without the use of glasses. It will also be backward compatible with DS titles. It set to give public demo on this year E3. With Playstation Move, more Natal and now 3DS, this year E3 should be very exciting. 

- In respond to Nintendo's announcement, Sony plays down the 3DS, saying that 3D should remain in console not portable, next PSP unlikely will feature 3D.

- Heavy Rain will get Playstation Move support. Given how you  control the game, Move support makes sense.
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3DS, the next big thing from Nintendo

Big news from Nintendo. They confirmed that 3DS will be the next successor of current NDS. With already 30 million units sales in Japan alone, Nintendo is going forward to maintain its handheld market dominance.
Like the name, 3DS is capable to produce 3D graphic without the need of special glasses. Details are scarce right now, but rumor said that it uses "Parallax Barrier" LCD technology by Sharp and Hitachi which is available in 3D simulating PC monitors.

The good thing is that the 3DS will backward compatible with current NDS titles. Whether they can convert all titles into 3D graphics remains to be seen.
Also possible things that will be included in this new 3DS will be motion detector, tilt sensor and force feed back.

Nintendo promised that the device will be available for public demo at E3 this year.

I have a mixed feeling about this. Partly because I haven't seen the device and what it capable of. On the other hand, I think it is about time that Nintendo start planning on its NDS successor and try to seperate themselves from the rest of the competition. For example, take a look at iPhone, whatever NDS can do, iPhone has the potential to do it better in terms of the technology. With 3DS, Nintendo can take another technology leap in gaming industry.


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Premium downloadable content coming from EA

In further monetization of digital content. EA has a new plan in the horizon. While we are already familiar with post release DLC and game demo. EA want to try something new called "premium downloadable content". Think of it like a very long game demo with 3 - 4 hours of playing time, sort of like Battlefield 1943. This DLC will be available shortly before the release of full blown packaged game and will be priced at $10- $15. 

From EA point of view, this will serve a low cost marketing tool and limit the risk of completing and marketing the full game. They can determined whether people like this game and to identify what change should be made based on user feedback before they release the full game.

While I'd say that this is an interesting idea, we need to further see what EA means by this premium DLC. If this is like a big chunk of the full game before the actual release, maybe like Gran Turismo Prologue, then I think it is just ridiculous. Having to spend $15 then another $60 if you like the game, is a definite turn off. 

However if this DLC is something that you cannot find in the full game but somehow still in relation to the story and its universe, then I think it can be interesting. Think of it like Resident Evil 5 DLC The Lost in Nightmare episodes, put it into pre DLC instead of post DLC.
Even though I wouldn't dare to say that people will love this idea, as least make them feel their money worth something. The question is whether developers like EA will deliberately cuts off the chunk of full game and separate it to make more money out of it. I think they will.
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News & Update, 18 March

- Rumor: With Sony launched PS3 slim with lower price, it seems that it is only matter of time before Xbox 360 do the same. A chinese tipster posted an image of what could be a slimmer Xbox 360 mother board. If Microsoft can launch Xbox 360 slim with price similar to Wii and of course, Natal altogether, it will be interesting.

- In Spring, Xbox 360 will get an update to add support for USB mass storage device, however you can only register maximum 2 device at a time and it only allow maximum of 16 GB. There always a catch for Microsoft. Well if looking at the bright side, it is better than nothing, right?

- According to Playstation blog, the most popular request by community is cross game chat for PS3. I think it's due. Wonder what is holding Sony to release patch to activate this feature. We know that it's not something impossible to do on PS3.

- Digital Foundry tested Playstation Move's latency between user input and in game reflection. The result? 133 ms, which according to them is fine through most application for this kind of controller. Note that this is just a rough testing.
 
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$15 for Modern Warfare 2 map pack?

Robert Bowling confirmed the Modern Warfare 2 DLC called "Stimulus map pack" consisted 3 new maps and 2 old maps from Modern Warfare 1. The price however raised a bit of eye brows. Should you get one, your wallet will be short by $15. It is basically $5 more than usual DLC price. 

Well for me it confirms one thing. Activision is taking advantage of the fact that Modern Warfare 2 is the biggest selling game currently. I mean, what else could that be? Development too costly? 

After bad PR for Infinity Ward bonus thing, at least we expect that they should keep the $9.99 price for map pack and show that they are not a greedy company. But alas, they think otherwise. The bottom line is, this is not a price thing. $15 is not a price that only billionaires can afford. It is more towards Activision gesture to the fans and public. Activision could be the new EA, and become the most hated video game company of all.  

I aware that Modern Warfare 2 is a very good game and Bobby Kotick would probably say that if you don't buy the DLC then many others will still buy it regardless of the price. But Activision need to keep their feet at the ground. The FPS genre is evolving. MAG force you to work with teams rather than individuals and it working well. I would say that MW2 gun mechanism is still the best compared to others. But for gameplay, I would prefer MAG and recently Bad Company 2 which requires more teamwork and coordination, and when winning a match is more satisfying than MW2. 

 

 

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News & Update, 12 March

- New Nintendo Patent suggest new DS cartridge design. It is unclear whether it is for the same DS or will be for its successor, because the number of pins is the same with current cartridge. We shall find out more about it soon.

- The innovative Scribblenauts 2 is announced and will be coming this fall. It didn't come into a surprise as the first one is hugely popular.

- Modern Warfare 2 map pack will hit Xbox Live on March 30. PS3 and PC will hit later.

- The official name of Sony's new motion controller is Playstation Move. The system will use the PlayStation Eye Camera and controllers with multicolor, light-emitting diodes to provide real-time, three-dimensional tracking. Playstation move will be marketed at less than $100 and the games that will be supported are LBP, SOCOM 4, Sports Champion, Eye Pet and many more. From the looks of it, it really resembles Wii motion controller.

- Onlive will launch on June 17. Its service will be limited to 48 United States, and will cost $14.95 a month. Note that that is only for Onlive service. The game will still need to be bought or rent. This should be interesting to see if Onlive can be successful.
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Hakan of Super Street Fighter IV is very weird

To sum up this guy is kinda weird. This is the final character of Super Street Fighter IV. Just watch the clip.
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Ubisoft DRM bad for business

Ubisoft implemented new DRM for its games. Forcing PC gamers to constantly connect to the Ubisoft's server while playing. So when the server has a problem, the game will be totally unplayable, even if it is the game like Assassin Creed 2 which is only have a single, offline play.

To make matter worse. The server is under attack by hackers until today, so those who bought the copy legally will be sitting and biting their fingers.
Ubisoft needs to abandon this whole DRM thing for their own sake. Firstly by forcing player to constantly connect to the internet will seclude some players. Many complains include some people would like to play their legally bought games during road trip while internet connection is not possible.
Secondly, players who lost internet connection during gameplay have a risk to lose all their unsaved progress.

The obvious intention with this DRM is that PC pirates is so huge that with this DRM implementation, Ubisoft will still gain more compared if they are selling the game without DRM. 

But has it come into their expectation? There is a rumor (which Ubisoft denied) that the game itself has been hacked and pirate version is running as long as you are disconnected from internet. Plus now that the server is attacked by the hackers, it delivers more blow to Ubisoft. It could not be any worse than the one who are paying the price are them who bought the game legally. Maybe those who play pirated games are enjoying the game without all these troubles.

I am actually have nothing against Ubisoft for implementing the DRM to combat pirates. It is their right to try increase their profit and I'm sure they already calculate business opportunity gained and loss with this step. It is business after all.  
However, they shouldn't have launched the DRM before they know that it is trouble and hack proof. Don't give half ready product that has troubles since day one.
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News & Updates, 5 March

- Ex executives Infinity Ward sue Activision demanding $36 million in damages as well as Modern Warfare franchise. It will be nasty legal battle. Guess we won't see Modern Warfare 3 in 2011.

- Sony announced SOCOM 4 and Zipper interactive will be back in developing. With not so hot previous SOCOM, I expect they learned their lesson and give more solid gameplay this time.

- Lara Croft and Guardian of Light will be the new title in Tomb Raider series. Only this time, they ditched the Tomb Raider part.

- Sony is preparing a device to compete with Apple's iPad product as well as smartphones that is capable in downloading and playing playstation games. Well... yeah, ok.

- Rumours regarding Sony will remove Other OS install feature in fat PS3 is untrue. At least by PS3 Linux maintainer Geoffrey Levand.

- The Rockband network is live today. It has more than 100 new songs from individual artists to purchase and play. I really fond of this network for giving people a chance to publish their song to public. Though I won't be playing this. We'll see how successful it will be.
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Heavy Rain review: two thumbs up!!

I just finished Heavy Rain and two thumbs up is the appropriate word for it. Heavy Rain is interactive, decision based drama about a serial killer called Origami Killer. The game is told from 4 different perspectives whom somehow connected to the killer.

The game itself is a combination of QTE (quick time event), instant decision making based, and role playing. It is hard to specify Heavy Rain into specific genre. Once you played it, you'll understand what Heavy Rain is all about.
Quantic dream wanted to make a different game where player can feel some emotions. David Cage said that gamers until now are only feel simple emotion ie (excited, angry). By creating this game, he wanted gamers to feel more emotions such as remorse, sad, sympathy and I think while Heavy Rain won't make you cry, I would say they manage to achieve their goal.

The entire game is a series of cut scene, just like if you are watching movie. But instead, you'll be making your own decision and every decision resulted in almost different situation, which of course will impact the ending. Should you play Heavy Rain twice, it will not be 100% the same with the first one. For example: You hear that a women is being beaten in other room. In this situation you will save her, but it depends on how quickly you are. If you didn't act quickly, after the scene, the girl's face is bruised. Otherwise, the face will be fine.
And it is refreshing to play second walkthrough but choosing a different decision and see how it goes.

Apart from glitches and bugs, Heavy Rain is a must play game. It's not everyday you will encounter game like this. I bet from now on, a lot of developer will be interested in making this type of game.
Well presented story, insane graphics makes Heavy Rain worth game of the year award.

Score: 9.5/10
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No more Infinity Ward for Call of Duty?

Huge news for the past few days. Seems that there is disturbance between Activision & Infinity Ward. Bouncer showing at IW's office and Activision call for "contract breaching and insurbordination".

Not long after that, two top IW's executives, Vince Vampella and Jason West, quit IW.

Though it's unconfirmed, Activision set to announced new Call of Duty by unspecified studio in 2011. Not only that there is also another Call of Duty that will be developed by Sledgehammer games that will expand into action- adventure. So there is 3 CoD games including the one developed by Treyach. Confused yet? Maybe we will see MMORPG Call of Duty in the future?

Looking back, Activision has a HUGE plan for "milking" Call of Duty franchise, which Infinity Wards might had a disagreement. And one thing for sure, though Activision still said that IW will still be integral part of CoD, it remains doubtful with two top executives left the company. The million dollar question is, what the future hold for Modern Warfare? Will future Modern Warfare be as kick ass as it can be?
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