OK, so it's been a while since I posted, but that's because I was out of town at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. Held at East Central University in Ada, the festival included readings by a large group of (mostly) Oklahoma authors. The featured speakers were Joy Harjo and Jim Barnes, the 2009/2010 Oklahoma Poet Laureate, and both were great.
This was the first time I'd been to the festival. Jennifer went with me, and we both really enjoyed it. The readings were excellent. With other conferences (mainly Sigma Tau Delta), you never know if the session you're going to is going to be good, bad, or a mix. Here, the poetry and fiction was almost always excellent (there were a few duds). Dr. Keegan and a few other women from Oklahoma that she and Jennifer know read their poetry. I was really impressed by Dr. Keegan's bird poems.
One of the really interesting parts of the conference was the Page One Literary Art Gallery. Basically, you sent in the first page of a story, a one-page poem, or a piece of flash fiction, and they printed and mounted them on boards. People walked through the "gallery" and read them. Jennifer and I both submitted poems, and we both won awards! We got $20 in free books. :) Woohoo!
Easter was pretty good. I did have a good time talking more with Ashley, my youngest brother's fiancee. She's definitely very good for him. Their wedding plans are moving along very nicely.
OK, need to get back to work. It's Monday....
Monday, April 5, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Yeah, OK....
So blogging isn't going as well as I hoped it would.... So instead of sleeping or doing work that I need to do, I'll write a blog post! That's a great idea. But what to blog about? How about video games!
SPOILERS! You have been warned!
Like all Final Fantasy fanboys, Joe and I have had FFXIII on pre-order for quite some time. We even stood outside Gamestop from 11:15 p.m. to midnight to get our copy at 12:01 (or slightly thereafter) on the day it was released. We got the hardback limited edition strategy guide, too. We also set up this ridiculous playing schedule. Since neither of us wanted to be spoiled, we decided I would play all night while he slept since I hadn't been sleeping much at night (although that has changed recently). Then he would start playing a week or so later. It kind of worked. I actualy finished the game, and he has only played a few hours into it--the Dragon Age expansion and Pokemon: Heart Gold have distracted him.
Anyway, about FFXIII. I can see where it's a love or hate game. It's completely different. Yes, that can be said about almost any Final Fantasy; each game does things a bit differently. FFXIII, however, does just about everything differently. The battle system is incredibly fast-paced, and auto battle more often than not wins the day. There's no experience, and enemies don't drop money. Stats and new abilities are learned via the Chrysterium (or something like that, I'm too lazy to look up the spelling) which is similar to FFX's sphere grid. It's not a bad system, but it does prevent you from over-leveling.
The most frustrating part of the game's new system for me was weapon and accessory upgrading. There's a lot the in-game tutorial doesn't explain, and even the guidebook isn't too clear on some times. Different components have hidden multiplier and experience values, and if you don't have a guide, it's just a guessing game. Even with a guide, it's hard to tell which weapon to upgrade. It's just not a system one can really master...it's all guesswork to a degree.
Gaining gil is also somewhat frustrating. You've got to buy a lot of components to get weapons and accessories to their final ultimate weapon form, but the only way to get gil is to find it in chests or sell components you don't need. These useless items often sell for very little, leaving you straped for cash until the very end of the game. Even then, it can be difficult to find enough gil.
Another annoying aspect of the game: Eidolon battles. They all have some sort of gimmick to them, and they are without a doubt the hardest fights in the entire game. I don't know how many times I retried some of them.... Oh, and the whole "each eidolon becomes a vehicle" thing...yeah, not so sure why everyone is obsessed with vehicles suddenly (WoW went all vehicle-crazy with Lich King), but I'm not that big of a fan. Well, maybe I'm a fan of the lesbian Shiva sisters! Two hot blue chicks who merge into a motorcycle? Um...well, it's different.
Here's Snow, er, riding Shiva.
What else do I have to say about the game? Oh, yeah, the best part--the characters are simply outstanding. I don't think I've played a Final Fantasy game with such well-developed characters since the days of FFIV and FFVI. Every single one of them has a storyline and motivation for what they're doing, and they're all important to the plot. Even though they start out as almost stereotypical characters (the whiny emo boy, the hardened silent woman, etc.), they all mature and grow over the course of the plot. I got very wrapped up in them.
To address the whole "FFXIII is super linear and I hate it!" rant that many people have gone on...yes, it is a linear storyline. So is every other Final Fantasy to a degree. No, you can't really go exploring until the final few chapters, but I think that's OK. It let the developers really ramp up the story and characterizations. Do I think every future FF should follow this pattern? No, but as an experiment, I think it worked well. Oh, and no towns? There are towns. They just aren't the type of towns we're used to.
Here's Hope...he's kinda emo at the beginning, but hey, he had to see his mom die. You'd be emo, too!
SPOILERS! You have been warned!Like all Final Fantasy fanboys, Joe and I have had FFXIII on pre-order for quite some time. We even stood outside Gamestop from 11:15 p.m. to midnight to get our copy at 12:01 (or slightly thereafter) on the day it was released. We got the hardback limited edition strategy guide, too. We also set up this ridiculous playing schedule. Since neither of us wanted to be spoiled, we decided I would play all night while he slept since I hadn't been sleeping much at night (although that has changed recently). Then he would start playing a week or so later. It kind of worked. I actualy finished the game, and he has only played a few hours into it--the Dragon Age expansion and Pokemon: Heart Gold have distracted him.
Anyway, about FFXIII. I can see where it's a love or hate game. It's completely different. Yes, that can be said about almost any Final Fantasy; each game does things a bit differently. FFXIII, however, does just about everything differently. The battle system is incredibly fast-paced, and auto battle more often than not wins the day. There's no experience, and enemies don't drop money. Stats and new abilities are learned via the Chrysterium (or something like that, I'm too lazy to look up the spelling) which is similar to FFX's sphere grid. It's not a bad system, but it does prevent you from over-leveling.
The most frustrating part of the game's new system for me was weapon and accessory upgrading. There's a lot the in-game tutorial doesn't explain, and even the guidebook isn't too clear on some times. Different components have hidden multiplier and experience values, and if you don't have a guide, it's just a guessing game. Even with a guide, it's hard to tell which weapon to upgrade. It's just not a system one can really master...it's all guesswork to a degree.
Gaining gil is also somewhat frustrating. You've got to buy a lot of components to get weapons and accessories to their final ultimate weapon form, but the only way to get gil is to find it in chests or sell components you don't need. These useless items often sell for very little, leaving you straped for cash until the very end of the game. Even then, it can be difficult to find enough gil.
Another annoying aspect of the game: Eidolon battles. They all have some sort of gimmick to them, and they are without a doubt the hardest fights in the entire game. I don't know how many times I retried some of them.... Oh, and the whole "each eidolon becomes a vehicle" thing...yeah, not so sure why everyone is obsessed with vehicles suddenly (WoW went all vehicle-crazy with Lich King), but I'm not that big of a fan. Well, maybe I'm a fan of the lesbian Shiva sisters! Two hot blue chicks who merge into a motorcycle? Um...well, it's different.
Here's Snow, er, riding Shiva.What else do I have to say about the game? Oh, yeah, the best part--the characters are simply outstanding. I don't think I've played a Final Fantasy game with such well-developed characters since the days of FFIV and FFVI. Every single one of them has a storyline and motivation for what they're doing, and they're all important to the plot. Even though they start out as almost stereotypical characters (the whiny emo boy, the hardened silent woman, etc.), they all mature and grow over the course of the plot. I got very wrapped up in them.
To address the whole "FFXIII is super linear and I hate it!" rant that many people have gone on...yes, it is a linear storyline. So is every other Final Fantasy to a degree. No, you can't really go exploring until the final few chapters, but I think that's OK. It let the developers really ramp up the story and characterizations. Do I think every future FF should follow this pattern? No, but as an experiment, I think it worked well. Oh, and no towns? There are towns. They just aren't the type of towns we're used to.
Here's Hope...he's kinda emo at the beginning, but hey, he had to see his mom die. You'd be emo, too!What else...graphics are outstanding, voice acting is mostly good (Vanille tends to lose her accent at times), the music works fairly well (even Leona Lewis's "My Hands" at the end works), the plot is mostly easy to follow. Some battles can be a bit difficult in places, but nothing worse than those dumb Eidolon fights. There aren't many extras to complete after finishing the game, just some hunts and a few new places to explore. In fact, I haven't even completed much of them yet. I got distracted by other games, too!
OK, so there's my review of FFXIII, for whatever it's worth. Yay, I blogged!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Trying this again....
I should blog. Blogging is what internet savvy people do, right? But it seems like I abandon blogs. Well, let's try it again! So here's post #1. More will be added/updated soon. I'm going to aim for some sort of post per day, and I'm going to try to make them substantial posts. We will see if that happens....
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