Aliens, Raccoons and Modification

Despite never having played the XCom games before, I followed the announcement of the new FPS game with quite some interest. Nice art style, interesting era of history that is not normally explored, a potentially incredible deep tactical command/RPG system. Take a look. I personally thought that 2K Marin had really nailed a good balance between first person and strategy.

The internet, as it is wont to do, got rather angry. How dare they make a FPS game out of a beloved turn-based game? That will never work! People were angry, it seemed, because it wasn't the XCom they'd played 18 years ago. To which I say; "Of course it isn't." Sad as you may find it, turn-based games aren't as big as they used to be. There's less of a market for them these days (which makes the recently announced XCom Enemy Unknown reboot even more of a surprise). If it were me, I'd be quick excited to play a new spin on my favourite franchise. That said, I do sort of understand the outrage. If they announced a Grim Fandango reboot that was an FPS, there'd be blood.

The tagline would probably be
"They're dead... Now make 'em deader."

East Versus West: The Role-Playing Conundrum

There's a lot of ways to divide up role-playing games. Fantasy or sci-fi? First person or third person? Turn-based or action? It's hard to talk about RPGs, however, before one division rears its head; Western or Japanese?

There's certain expectation attached to either genre. The Western RPG, or WRPG, is associated with more action adventure stryle gameplay, usually involving you running about in a wide open world, taking quests and levelling up specific skills as you do. The Japanese RPG, or JRPG, is more linked to turn based battles, featuring a range of characters in a vast, and often complex story.

Since I'm currently flip-flopping between an example of both genres, Skyrim and Final Fantasy IX, I figured I might take a whack at comparing and contrasting the two. I will admit to having a limited experience of JRPGs, so please forgive any ridiculously inaccurate sweeping statements. Let's get to it.

For a start, there are a lot fewer of these guys in WRPGs

Wishing you a... hold on, stat check... Happy New Year!

It's been an RPG kinda Christmas for me this year. I'm not normally an RPG fan. Sure, I like my stats and upgrades in other games, but I've never been a massive roleplayer. If I have been at all, most of the RPGs I've played are western RPGs as opposed to Japanese turn-based affairs.

But this Christmas, I've gone all out and am playing RPGs than ever before, by complete accident. First I got Chrono Trigger on iOS. Then came along the beautiful surprise of Final Fantasy IX on my new (hah) PSP. Then Christmas happened and I got Skyrim. And I've just remembered that I'm in the middle of Dragon Age: Origins. SO MANY RPGS.

Chrono Trigger is still going strong. There's a section, about midway though the game where you fight several tough bosses in quick succession but, it never felt as though the game was ganging up on me. With out giving too much away, halfway through there's an amazing twist in the direction of the story and a whole new location is revealed. Needless to say, I'm having a great time. Even when this jerk showed up to repeatedly ruin my Chrono-Frog-Robo dream team;

This isn't even a major plot boss fight. He turns up,
you kill him, and that's it. No explanation or anything

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year

Oh and it's Christmas too? I was talking about coming home for the holidays and spending six hours a day on the Xbox. As a serious point though, I need to take more breaks, I'm starting to get quite bad headaches.

Okay, moving on from that downer of an opening, I'M BACK HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! I finished up all of my deadlines before the end of term, and now I have a month to catch up on my gaming backlog. First on the chopping block is Assassin's Creed Revelations.

Nothing is True, Everything is- HEY PRESENTS!

Pre-Christmas News Bonanza!

University deadlines being what they are, I haven't been able to finish up the blog post I had planned. It was going to be about RPGs and the such, but it just boiled down to me rubbing myself against Paper Mario and not an awful lot else. I'll just do a post about Paper Mario in the future, because I'm intending to finish the original over the Xmas break. I might even go the whole nine yards and buy "Thousand Year Door". Or maybe I won't. I love freedom of choice.

Retrospectively, I wish I hadn't used the phrase "rubbing myself against Paper Mario" That seems like a fast-track to horrific paper cuts. Anyway, no turning back now.

No real direction here, just a quick round up of things that have been happening recently before I knuckle down for the next few weeks.

BEST RPG EVER (MAYBE)

Blood Diamonds

Even if you've never heard of the Tetris effect, you've no doubt experienced its effects. Having the wall in front of you ever being moving upwards after a long Rock Band session. Feeling as though the world is shaking after playing too much Call of Duty. It's essentially when your mind starts playing tricks on you because of too much visual stimulation.

Recently, I've been falling asleep to the images of coloured rocks being rotated into place AND I DON'T LIKE IT ANY MORE MAKE IT STOP.

WHY WON'T THEY GO AWAY

Bejewelled isn't a franchise I've really ever played before, despite having had a go on plenty of clones in my time. If you are unaware of the game's premise, then you might need to stop reading this blog about video games, and first learn what a video game is.

A Novel Idea

I love books. I also love games. If only there was some way of uniting my two passions...

What a coincidence.

Game books aren't exactly brand new, but they have been enjoying quite the rise in popularity over the past few years. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Halo all have their own spin off novels. Assassin's Creed has a few lack-luster adaptations. Even Gears of War, a series not known for its deep storytelling, has several tie-in novels all written by the lead writer of the series (At least that's what thirty seconds worth of research on the Waterstones website tells me).