The Backlog

The sequel to the game I’ve probably spent the most time with in the past year or so has come out, and it’s even better than the first. Which isn’t to say that it’s a revolutionary change; it’s not. It’s very evolutionary, however, and it improves on everything. The interface is easier to work with, with multiple ways to sort songs when playing quick play, which is handy since between this and the first, I have over 100 songs available. The hammer-on notes are much easier to identify now, although I still prefer the pills from Guitar Hero. Gameplay is virtually untouched, otherwise, which is fine, since it was damned near perfect, as far as I could ever tell. The difficulty curve is still as friendly as it was in RB1, meaning you can logically progress from Medium to Hard and be able to complete the songs without a whole lot more trouble.

While not important, the graphics are basically the same, and the sound is still great, since all the songs are now using the master tracks. Online play is just as fun as it ever was, and with lots of people buying the game, it’s fairly easy to get all four spots filled. The song selection is somewhat varied, but it could be better. It’s entirely rock except for the token punk and Beastie Boys songs. It now has online battle of the band things where you post your score against those of the rest of the world. My scores aren’t too spectacular. Also, I still can’t hold a beat. I can’t comment on the new instruments since I just stuck with my old ones. The Guitar Hero 3 guitar is still superior to the RB1 one though! I highly recommend this to anyone who likes these sorts of games.

Apparently there’s some new meme running around the comics blagoblag where you list 50 things you like about comics. This site’s mostly intended to be about video games, but hey I like comics, too, so I figure what the hell right? This should be fun (and in no particular order).

1. Breaking panel borders for story reasons
2. Little Nemo
3. Ellis’s Norman Osbourne
4. Morrison’s Cyclops
5. Xorn before he was Magneto
6. Xorn after he was Magneto but before any of that was retconned
7. Iron Fist
8. ONE PUNCH!!
9. Kilowog
10. Monkeys for no reason other than that they’re monkeys

11. Stan Lee Meets…
12. Waid/’Ringo Fantastic Four
13. Powers (the comic and the, uh, powers)
14. Howard the Duck
15. Chris Bachalo
16. Claremont/Byrne Uncanny X-Men
17. 22 pages of Ultimate Peter and MJ talking
18. 22 pages of the X-Men chilling out and playing baseball
19. Captain America not jobbing to Thanos
20. Layla Miller

21. The Big Two poking fun at each other
22. Cosplay
23. Fans in general
24. Frank Quitely
25. Experimental layouts
26. Alternate reality stories
27. Shit blowing up
28. Funny books (that is, ones that are funny, not the general term)
29. Ed Brubaker
30. That weird bald dude who was writing some crime comic about a superhero homicide police unit I met back at Megacon…03?

31. Martian Manhunter’s Oreo addiction
32. Aliens that look nothing like humans
33. Sentient chipmunks and bugs with power rings
34. The Rocket Raccoon/Groot tag-team action
35. Keith Giffen
36. Peter David
37. John Cassaday
38. Creators’ direct interaction with fans online
39. The fact that some of it’s actually public domain
40. Old EC books

41. Hardcover collections of anything (anyone want to buy me that Howard the Duck Omnibus?)
42. The X-Force “puppies and rainbows” cover
43. Alan Moore’s beard
44. Superman
45. Young Justice
46. Generation X
47. XKCD
48. Luke and Danny
49. Carey’s initial X-Men team (which unsurprisingly fell apart pretty damned quickly)
50. Booster and Beetle

Metal Gear Solid 4 is intended to be the final installment of the three-console generation-spanning Metal Gear Solid Saga [which further spans the NES and MSX if you throw in the earlier pseudo-prequels (I'm told the actual stories presented in those have essentially been completely retconned)], which gives it the horribly difficult task of wrapping up three games and something like 40 years of in-game continuity that’s already inconsistent due to some translation errors and lack of knowledge of the future of the series. Was it successful? Well, as someone who still hasn’t played through the third game (I’m getting to it…eventually), but could actually follow the second’s insane story, yeah it did.

The biggest complaint I’ve seen is the huge number of cutscenes throughout. It’s barely exaggerating to say that there’s one every 10 steps. The good thing is that, like its predecessors, they’re all rendered with the in-game engine, so the gaming continuity is never broken. The codec has been replaced, so there’s no more 500 line text message scenes, either, which is simply wonderful. Many of the cutscenes are somewhat interactive, allowing viewpoints to be changed, or flashbacks to be viewed. And there’s LOTS of flashbacks.

The game itself has tons and tons of callbacks to the earlier games, even ignoring the flashbacks. Snake’s first encounter with Meryl from MGS1 is repeated with another familiar character, with a slightly different ending. The story has some interesting twists and turns, and virtually every character’s story is wrapped up at the end, which is the idea, I suppose.

But what about the gameplay? Well, it’s good. Not great, but good. Which is to say, a lot of gaming problems that have been solved in other series are present here. They don’t really hurt things too much, but they’re there. Snake’s new Octocamo (which makes me wonder why he doesn’t just have the invisibility suit from MGS1 and MGS2, since it seems to work much better) makes hiding extremely easy. Walk up against a wall, stop moving for a second, wait for the beep, and now you’re at 80% camoflauge (or better later in the game). Enemies walk right by and don’t even notice you’re there until you’re strangling them from behind.

Gunplay is a much bigger part of this game than previous installments. Sneaking is hardly even required now, and shooting dudes (and some of the ladies, as well) is just as effective. Speaking of ladies, Snake doesn’t seem to be able to meet one who doesn’t keep her top undone down to her cleavage. Just saying. Guns and ammo are easy enough to get. Shortly into the game, you gain access to a gun shop which you automatically sell duplicate guns to (which is a damned brilliant idea, and I wish more games would do this) and can buy new ones and ammo and upgrades for all the ones you already have. It works well, and means you’re never, ever without grenades or rockets for the rocket launcher you picked up three hours ago. Does it makes it too easy? Not really. Playing on Baby Mode like I did makes it too easy, but still fun. And honestly, in a game that’s 60% cutscene, do you really *need* that much challenge? There’s more real-life challenge in staying awake while they blab about nanomachines.

All in all, it’s a fun game. Was it worth purchasing the $500 monolith that now sits under my TV to play it? Probably not. Not to say I regret the purchase in the least, I’m just not completely sold on the machine.

I’m just trying out the iPhone Wordpress app here. I doubt I’ll use it much but you never know!

There’s a lot to like about the current generation of consoles.  One my favorites is the ability to download games straight off their respective online services to the local storage medium, removing any need for going to a store or waiting a couple days for something to ship from an internet store.  This has its downfalls, of course, the biggest being DRM, but that’s really unavoidable, and I don’t fault the companies for including it.  I don’t think anyone can, really.  As everyone says, though, no one really cares about DRM until it stops you from doing something you want to.  The biggest thing I’ve seen is people being unable to access their XBLA games offline after a repair.  Not cool.  It doesn’t hurt that there’s lots of really great games coming out on the various services that wouldn’t be worth paying full price for a disc, but are more than worth the $10-15 price point they’re sitting at.

XBox Live Arcade

I admittedly have the most experience with XBLA.  I’ve purchased the most games from it, and certainly use it more than the others.  I’ve gotten too many games to really bother to list even the gems (just go check MetaCritic or GameRankings or something), so I’ll just talk about the two most recent: Bionic Commando: Rearmed and Braid.

BCR is essentially a remake of the original NES game with lots of added content, such as new MGS VR mission-like challenge rooms, and 3D graphics (the gameplay is still solid 2D; I hate the term 2.5D unless there’s a really good reason for it like multiple layers or something).  The core gameplay hasn’t changed at all, and it’s just as tough as ever.  It’s really nice looking, and the animations are smooth and well-rendered.  The story’s been tweaked a bit with the Nazis Badds now being the Imperials (complete with pink uniforms), but I’m told Hitler Master D is still the end boss, which is good to hear.  There’s lots of powerups, and it’s still just as good now as it was then.  And the inability to jump is just as infuriating.  You’d think he’d have figured out that it’s slightly handy now and then.  At $10, it’s definitely a good buy, even if you’ve beaten the NES version over and over.

Braid is like the polar opposite of BCR.  It’s a puzzle platformer along the lines of, say, Abe’s Oddysee or Flashback with a time reversal gimmick thrown in.  Although I shouldn’t say thrown in; it’s entirely critical to the gameplay, unlike Prince of Persia where even without it, it would be a good game, if very difficult.  The puzzles will often require you to move time back and forth and let the level do what it needs to do.  There’s something of a story told in pure prose before each of the worlds, but it’s completely optional.  As far as I can tell, the main character’s girlfriend broke up with him so he’s trying to save a princess.  Or something.  Like I said, it’s not important.  The puzzles are interesting and often challenging, although it doesn’t always feel like you’ve found the “right” solution.  The graphics are a bit eclectic, with the backgrounds largely being watercolor-looking backdrops, and the main character and enemies being hand-drawn sprites.  I’m not sold on it.  The music is generally very calm, and actually reverses along with time, which is a nice touch.  And I guess that’s what it comes down to.  It’s full of small touches like that that go a long way to show its polish.  It’s a little steep at $15 compared to other XBLA games, but it seems worth it.

Online games are, of course, playable on XBox Live with a Gold membership, which costs $50 a year at retail, but can be found cheaper without much effort.  XBLA’s biggest problem is its Microsoft Points system.  You buy points at a rate of 80 per dollar with different games, addons, movies, and music (on the Zune store) all having different values.  That’s fine, but why not just make 100 points per dollar?  Oh yeah, need to hide the actual cost of something so it seems like we’re getting a better value.  Finding stuff can be a chore, too, but hopefully that will be fixed with the Fall update.  I’m not holding my breath for it, though.  There’s also XBox Originals (games from the first XBox that can be downloaded and played straight from the hard drive) available, but I don’t really see the point since nothing put up yet is rare and can be found at a local store for $10 or less.  Why not just get the disc?

Playstation Network

I’ve gotten four games from PSN at this point: Super Stardust HD (with the Solo add-on pack), Everyday Shooter, Pain, and PixelJunk Eden. The PSN store is interesting in that they actually have full-size PS3 games available in addition to the arcade-style games and PS1 games.  Not to say I’m terribly interested in Warhawk, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, or Siren, but it’s a good idea, and I hope to see more in the future.

Super Stardust HD is apparently a remake of some old game called Super Stardust (the sequel to Stardust) into HD (durr).  I never played either of them, so I can’t comment on the accuracy of the remake, but it’s definitely one of the more fun games on the system.  It’s easy to pick up and play, but still very difficult, with a good competitive spirit thrown in with the online scoreboards.  It looks and plays nice (being one of those twin-stick shooters that are becoming so popular), and is overall a great experience.  The basic game is definitely worth the $9.99, but I’m not completely sold on the $4.99 Solo expansion pack.  It adds a few new game modes, but I’m not sure if it’s worth it.  There’s also a Multi expansion pack for an additional $4.99 bringing the “full” game up to $20, and I can’t really say it’s worth that.

Everyday Shooter is ANOTHER twin-stick shooter, but the experience is so completely unlike SSDHD, it’s not really a comparison.  ES is the indie game version of the twin-stick.  It’s highly stylized, and the levels are all different.  The gameplay follows the fantastic music, and the simplistic graphics really work for the game.  It’s definitely worth picking up at $9.99.

PixelJunk Eden is the indie version of the swinging genre.  The gameplay is hard to explain, but it’s really very calming.  Basically you swing around trying to find the items in the level, all while making plants grow and killing Pollen Prowlers by hitting them.  I don’t know, it sounds silly, but it’s fun.  The art design is simplistic but gorgeous, as is the sound design.  I wish I could talk more, but it’s really easier just to look up videos on YouTube.

PSN has a lot of good things going for it, and other than the not as good as XBL online experience, very few faults that can’t be fixed over time.  The store’s also a LOT faster and easier to use than the XBL store.

WiiWare/Virtual Console

I can’t really talk much on WiiWare since nothing’s really interested me enough to bother getting.  I assume it’s not unlike Virtual Console, however.  That’s to say that you have limited space (and WiiWare games are supposedly BIG), downloads time out, and you have to input your credit card number EVERY TIME you want to make a purchase of points.  It also uses silly points like XBL, but at least 100 points = $1.  The online experience is non-existent in Virtual Console games, and presumably not great on the WiiWare games if it’s anything like online disc games.  I want to like the Wii, I really do, but outside of Nintendo games and a handful of good third-party games, it’s pretty lacking over all.

Yeah, I’m a bit late on this one. Way to keep current, right? Well, I finished my first play-through a long time ago, and loved it. Not every moment, since it gets a bit talky at times, but for the most part it was a very fun game. I started a new character over the weekend on Hard, this time as a Soldier (I played Infiltrator the first time through), and it’s a different game. The enemies are smarter and tougher. They still like to run at you, but they also use cover very well. The Krogans seem to like regenerating from death, too. Why can’t Wrex do that?

Speaking of allied characters, they’re still as dumb as ever, and are still better at getting in my way and dying than shooting things.

I’m coming back to this saved post several months later.  I haven’t played this game in awhile.  What’s important is that I enjoyed it once.  The length was just about right for my needs: 20-30 hours, with room for more exploration if desired.  I wish I had more to say.  It’s not a perfect game, but what is?

Yeah, I got one of these things.  Once the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle (complete with Dual Shock 3) came out, it was time to bite the bullet.  I managed to preorder one through Amazon in the 10 minute window during which they sold their entire preorder allotment.  Naturally, I was on travel the day it arrived via UPS, and of course UPS required a signature.  So I had to make a trip down to their distribution center in the rain on bald tires.

I could buy new tires with the $500 the thing cost me and still have money left over.  Anyway.

Upon firing it up, I had to update it, which is a MUCH slower process than the 360, but the system itself is pretty good.  Next to the 360 it’s basically silent, but so is a jet engine from five paces.  But yeah, it’s quiet.  Even with the drive spinning you can barely hear it.  The Xross Media Bar menu is MUCH faster than the 360’s Dashboard, as is the Playstation Store, but it’s not available from in-game at all, which means you get a notification of a message, but have to quit whatever you’re playing to actually see it.  Supposedly, this is going to be fixed in another couple updates.  Will it happen?  We’ll see.

Something that does bug me, though: game installs.  Yes, some games require that you install them in order to play them.  MGS4 has a 5 GB initial install, then a smaller one before every act.  I largely stopped playing PC games to avoid this.  Power of Blu Ray! I guess.  Oh yeah, Blu Ray.  I can’t tell much of a difference at 32 inches of 720p.  I wasn’t expecting to, either.  Thankfully, NetFlix offers Blu Ray, so at the very least I can get one disc with all the special features rather than having to get two, one just with the special features.

The downloadable games seem okay, although other than the PS1 games, it’s largely shooters and arcade games.  Which isn’t a bad thing.  I got Pain for free with the console, and free is about all I’d pay for it.  I also downloaded Super Stardust HD and Everyday Shooter.  They’re both twin stick shooters, but play very differently.  SSHD has you flying around a globe shooting asteroids and aliens, while ES has a different theme and play style for each level.  I like ES better, really, but they’re both worth the $10.

Another interesting, if not terribly useful, feature is the Remote Play feature.  It lets you connect to the PS3 with a PSP either over local WiFi, or over the internet.  It lets you play PS1 (and maybe PS2) games sitting in the PS3’s drive, as well as movies shared over the network.  The problem is that games are basically unplayable with that much lag.  I can see maybe some RPGs or something being okay, but I tried Einhander by directly connecting to the PS3 and even the minor lag was just too much.  Being able to view my videos over the internet, however, could be very, very useful.

It also has the network sharing capabilities of the 360, but seems to be a lot faster in it, which is good.  Overall, I like the system, but it’s not quite perfect yet, and the game selection is still lacking.  I’m planning on getting Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune once I finish MGS4, though.

Mega Man is officially the most milked series.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mega Man, and have since I was a kid. Its quality has been up and down over the years, but there’s still a ton of gems in the series. They’ve managed to keep them difficult, despite the overall industry trend to make games easier. Not that I’m complaining; I’m not actually all that good at a lot of things, so easier games are more enjoyable. But anyway.

Looking at the list of games, it’s pretty clear that when a series starts, it’s good, gets better for a game or two, then drops off. Games two or three seem to be the high point in any given series, with one and four still being good. And I can’t lie; I haven’t played much of a lot of these. I’ve barely touched the X series, and only ever played the first Battle Network, but thought they were both a lot of fun.

The spinoffs are very interesting. I want to play this Rock Man DASH Golf. Golfman? Yes please. Tee-shaped, golfclub arm, and golfball shooting other arm (which he then whacks at you with his golfclub arm). I guess my biggest complaint here is that they’ve been following the Pokemon method for the Battle Network games (leading into the Star Force series). One game a year is already too much, Capcom. We don’t need multiple releases of both. Nintendo’s smart enough to release two Pokemons every couple years, with a third mild upgrade a little later. People aren’t going to keep buying these over and over, especially when they can only get half the stuff without a friend. And yet I must be wrong since they wouldn’t make them if they didn’t sell.

Sigh. I’m not all that sure what there is to say about Mega Man. It’s a great series, and it’s lasted 20 years now with regular releases, which is a huge achievement (100 gamerpoints!). Oh well, here’s hoping for 20 more.

I’ll start off by saying I was very uninterested in the PSP when it initially came out, and for a long time thereafter. The games didn’t interest me, and the ones that did were either ports or half-assed sequels or spinoffs of console games. It was very evident that developers simply didn’t get handheld gaming. Which makes little sense, since in a lot of cases, it’s the same companies making DS games, which, for the most part, are properly designed handheld games. Just to clarify: when I talk about handheld gaming, I mean something that can be played in short bursts during a commute or whatever. Something like Grand Theft Auto doesn’t really fit into this mold, nor do many racing games. Puzzle games and other short-form games, or long-form games that can be easily split into short chunks, on the other hand, do. My misgivings are a bit unfair, however. The PSP has a system-level sleep function, where a flick of the power switch shuts the machine down while (presumably) holding the memory on at a stable state. The DS does something similar, where you simply close the machine, and it’s off. In both cases, the battery drains a lot faster than it would with a full shut down, but that’s fine if you expect to be at a power source and have your charger later.

Anyway, following this past Christmas I was left with a bunch of Best Buy gift cards and decided to pick up the Dexter PSP pack, which comes with a silver Slim PSP, a copy of Dexter (the game, not the TV show), and a copy of some Family Guy UMD (both in crappy cardboard sleeves), and a 1 GB MemoryStick for something like $200, which isn’t really a bad deal. After opening it up, I was really shocked at how cheap the plastic feels. It’s a strange complaint, I know, but it really does feel a lot cheaper than whatever Nintendo’s using, both on the original DS and the current DS Lite. It’s a bit weighty, but not so much so that it feels bulky, but it fits in the hands really well. I much prefer the wide design for handhelds over the vertical one Nintendo used for the GameBoy line (with the exceptions of the original GBA and GB Micro). Mainly because I have fairly big hands, but also because it means you don’t have to support any top weighting.

Turning it on, it’s immediately apparent where the money went: the screen is amazing. It’s bright, has a nice resolution (not high res, I don’t believe, but far better than it needs for its size), and is really big for a handheld. Despite the initial problems people claimed to have with the square button, I haven’t had any trouble with it, at all. They either fixed it, or it was just an overblown internet complaint. In any case, the square button works and feels just like the other three for me. At first startup, it makes you give it a name and put in the date and time and such, using a typing system not unlike T9 on cellphones, which is really a pain to use. I don’t like it, and wish they would come up with something better, but what can you do? You can set your own skins, and there’s the XrossMediaBar (yeah, that’s how it’s spelled) which is a pretty nifty menu system, although I’m not sure it needs its own name and branding, other than being used across the Sony product line. It takes MemoryStickDuo which I really can’t stand, since Sony is the ONLY company that uses the things. I’ve never liked them. That said, the pack came with a reasonably sized one, so I can’t complain too much.

The PSP’s other big feature is its WiFi capabilities, which are used for games, firmware updates, internet browsing, and now Skype. From the get-go, the PSP was designed to be updateable. In addition to cutting back on piracy (more on that in a bit), it also lets Sony add features now and then. And they do it fairly often. Most updates are pretty small things, but once in awhile, they’ll add something like Skype, which could be a pretty useful feature. The WiFi seems to be reasonably quick, but it has a hard time getting a signal in my room for whatever reason. It has a bunch of multimedia capabilities: audio, video - the usual, and it’s pretty good at them, if you want to carry the thing around, which I doubt many people do. The UMDs are kind of pointless, however, when a DVD can be fairly easily ripped to a good size and resolution for the screen, not to mention simple piracy of stuff. There’s also remote play available for PS3 owners, so games and movies can be played from anywhere on the internet on the PSP, which is a neat idea, but probably a bit laggy, unless you’re within your own network, but then why not just use the PS3?

PSP hacking is very rampant, and that’s not a bad thing. Recent developments have made hacking the machine as simple as changing its battery. Before, you had to downgrade and upgrade and do all sorts of stuff. I haven’t personally done it, but I’m tempted. It gives access to emulators of all sorts, including PS1 games, which, while supported if purchased from the PSN Store, there aren’t that many games just yet, and it’s another expenditure if you already have a given game.

I don’t know, I’m still not completely sold on the system, but there’s enough good exclusive games to at least make it somewhat worthwhile. I don’t think it’s going to have Nintendo shaking in their boots any time soon. At the end of the day, it is what it says it is: a portable Playstation. That’s not a bad thing, but when the DS is doing completely new things, how can Sony really compete?

When I heard a prequel RPG to FF7 was coming to the PSP, I was skeptical.  I think everyone was, really.  I didn’t HAVE a PSP at the time, so it didn’t really register with me too much, though.  Well, it finally came out, and the scores have been pretty good. Most notably, Jeremy Parrish and Shane Bettenhausen over at 1up/EGM gave it good scores, and I tend to agree with them on most things. On the other side of things, XPlay gave it a 2/5, which isn’t TOO surprising due to their admitted distaste for Japanese RPGs. So anyway, I decided to pick it up. And you know what? It’s pretty fun.

You play as Zack, who people who played FF7 will remember as something if they bothered to remember the plot. I haven’t played it in years, so I barely remember him as anything other than a member of SOLDIER, which is where we find him now. You start out with some cut scenes and are told to stop a train. So you do. Well, the cut scene does. It’s nicely non-interactive. You hit the ground, and take a minute long cell phone call while standing in place and getting shot at. You then get the pleasure of killing them, which is all done in a very actiony style (it’s really closer to action game than RPG, honestly). There’s a little line of actions across the bottom that you move a cursor over using L and R. You then hit X to perform that action. Spells have a short, interruptable casting time, but attacks are instantaneous. You also get dodge and block buttons, which are VERY useful. It all moves essentially in realtime, and it’s FAST.

The battles themselves are essentially random battles that it wooshes you in and out fairly quickly. Occasionally you’ll run into a mission battle with the enemy showing up in the area. Throughout a fight, there’s a set of slot machine wheels spinning and they go faster as you earn SP, which you get for hitting enemies and doing things. You also spend a little bit to dodge and block, but it’s a minimal amount. As far as I can tell, the DMW wheels are entirely random and things just…happen. They’re always in your favor, though, which is great. You can be in the middle of a fight and suddenly you take no physical damage and use no MP to cast spells. Sweet. Additionally, you get limit breaks from the wheels, and Zack and materia level up by them. I think. The levelling may be less random, but it doesn’t seem like it. At any rate, it happens in the middle of battle and there’s no after-battle screen detailing gil and experience earned.

As I alluded to, Zack’s magic and abilities go back to the FF7 materia system. Sort of. It’s both simpler and more complex. Because of the DMW system, levelling materia isn’t quite the science it was in FF7, but it also doesn’t seem to do a whole lot, as far as I can tell. There’s also the ability to combine materia, although I haven’t quite gotten there. It apparently allows for some very…broken abilities (Parrish mentioned something like a Fire spell that also doubles Zack’s HP and MAGIC). Still, I can’t wait to get to that point. There’s only a limited number of materia slots (I currently only have four), which leads to shuffling them around as needed. Of course, this leaves the problem of not knowing what you’ll need until you get to battle. I had a problem with an early fight where I had just gotten an accessory to halve Fire damage. Naturally, I got a boss fight who liked shooting Fire-based spells at me. I still won, but had I stopped to think I could have switched that on while removing the Fire materia for something more useful.

The game seems to follow a mission-based structure. The main plotline so far has been a couple missions, but you can roam around as much as you want before them. At any save point, you can go do sidequests, which tend to be as simple as “go kill some dudes” and get stuff as a reward. They’re a fun diversion and would be great for people carrying their PSP around with them.

Technically, it’s really well put together. It doesn’t look as good as, say, Final Fantasy XII, but it’s at least as good as Final Fantasy X, and the overall design is a lot more slick than either of those. The sound is also very nice, although I’m just using stock PSP speakers, so it may not hold up as well through some good headphones. The voice acting is surprisingly decent (and surprising that it’s there), and fitting for the characters so far. The cut scenes are about what are to be expected from Square at this point in time, which is to say, really nice, and slick as hell. Seeing the FF7 world rendered like this is really wonderful (despite not thinking FF7 is all that spectacular, it was built around a very interesting world).

I guess my biggest problems are twofold: One, Square only seems to want to give this treatment to FF7, which is far from the best in the series and not even really the best FF on the PS1 (I still want to see FF8: Laguna and Friends Kill Dudes and Bang Chicks), and 2) it makes me wonder why the OTHER FF7 pre/sequels have been so lackluster. I know they know how to make good games, so why haven’t they? Especially with what is arguably their biggest hit.

Anyway, I’ve got a ways to go in the game, and it supposedly only gets better.