Import Impressions – Final Fantasy Dissidia

I managed to get my hands on a Japanese copy of Final Fantasy Dissidia, Square-Enix’s answer to Super Smash Bros. While I can’t understand a lick of what the story is like, this is a game that PSP owners will need to pick up once it releases in the middle of the year in the US.

As always, the cutscenes are gorgeous, but the in-game graphics are equally as awesome – Square-Enix has really managed to recapture the fighting style of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children with some great fighting tactics, and even though I don’t know exactly what kinds of weapons and armor I’m equipping, there’s a lot of items to get and equip to many different characters.

I’ve only played as the Warrior of Light so far, but all the characters look very well balanced, and their limit breaks are a lot of fun to pull off. Juggling your opponent in the air becomes one of those little pleasures that you get to experience on the handheld.

As I get further and further into the game, I’ll be posting some more impressions, so stay tuned!

- Steve

Introductory Panel: Meet our cast of characters

The day started off with an introductory panel. Well, panel might not be an accurate word. Meet ‘n greet/shout out might be a better description. Aside from reading the rules of the con, the panel was all about meeting the people who run MAGFest and giving them their appropriate due. Brendan Becker, otherwise known as “Mr. MAGFest” let everyone know what was up for the weekend and pointed out the rooms that were being overlooked by the gamers outside.

“One room that kind of gets neglected is… our video room. We’re showing all sorts of video game movies…like Super Mario Super show… We’ve got a slew of DVDs.”
“We’re all here to play games and rock out.” Brendan was our MC, and he kept everyone in good spirits.

The head of PBC productions was introduced, and introduced the con to the concept of “videogame improv.” Only time will tell on that one. They also let us know that rapper Mad Hatter would be shooting a music video on Saturday on what was referred to as “an ExciteBike track.” On top of that, the director of “Resident Horror” announced the premiere of his movie to be screened for the first time for MAGFest guests. Exciting stuff!

Craig from Screwattack.com announced the “How to build an incredible website” panel. He promised “Crazy fun… We’re freakin’ gamers, and that’s what its all about.” He also promoted their new convention named SGC which will be going down July 4th.

So what made this panel unique, then? Paper flyng, audience members heckling and shouting- this was a convention panel, but it felt like a conversation among friends. This convention isn’t like your average heavily-sponsored con: it’s a festival run by people who crack jokes, don’t stick to scripts and above all, don’t think of themselves as businessmen. Everyone is friends with everyone else (or at least it seemed that way). The crew of MAGFest plans on “winging it like they always do.” Stay tuned for how it all turns out!

~Joe Newman

My First Homecoming

Like an ever-increasing number of lucky Playstation 3 owners, I received a code to participate in the Home beta over the weekend. After years of promises and half-glimpses, I would finally have a chance to experience Sony’s much-touted interactive online experience. What awaited me inside their online realm was in a word, sparse.

Overall, the beta offers little to see or do at this point, which is kind of despairing when you considering how long this thing has been in development. The amount of clothing and furniture with which to custom your individual avatar is limited to only a handful of items. Still, I went ahead with gusto, creating the fattest, tallest character possible and then decking him out with red track pants, a black tank top, aviators, a brown hat and black dress shoes.

My online personage thus made, I ventured out into Sony’s brave new online frontier. There are only a few locations available for exploration at this early stage, so I had to content myself with wandering the large plaza area. It serves as a hub, connecting you to the other spaces, like the bowling alley, mall and movie theater. It all looked pleasant enough and, to my infinite surprise, my fellow inhabits displayed equally sunny demeanors. After experiencing the unvarnished brutality to logic that was “World of Warcraft’s” old Looking For Group channel, I expected a little more in the way of fanboy bashing and argument mongering.

Before you can visit any new location, they must be downloaded to the hard drive and even after that there is still a cumbersome loading screen to contend with. While it was neat to see all the people milling about, interacting become a trying process. As most PS3 users lack a headset, communication was limited to typing in each letter manually using the controller. This process continually frustrated my attempts to insert my biting, sarcastic barbs into conversations, due to the lateness with which said jabs would arrive. Also, once I had more than 15 people on my screen, the lag kicked in, though in all honesty it could have been a lot worse. However, my Internet set up is not ideal due to my living in South Korea and my router’s config screen being completely in Korean. On the plus side, there is any number of amusing dances that your avatar is capable of executing. On the downside, after 15 minutes boredom set in. I don’t think I’ll be using it again until the next update.

Generally, the mood seemed subdued, which reflects my overall takeaway from the experience. I know it’s too early to judge, but things like a beta are supposed to get consumers excited about the product. Instead, I’m borderline worried. The fusion of Second Life and gaming that Sony seeks to capture seems headed toward a muted middle ground. The bottom line for me is that I want to be able to find my friends online and play games with them, and I want to do it quickly. What Sony fails to realize, I think, is that this is all that most people want. All the extra bells and whistles, achievements and statistics and customization, are always great, as long as they don’t interfere directly with the primary goal: playing games online with your friends.

By creating entire worlds where a few icons can suffice, Sony surely will create a new experience. However, all the features that Home offers are already available on the Xbox 360 or in PC gaming, just without the veneer of explorable 3D worlds. My experience with Home so far suggests that this gloss could end up as a distraction, not an enhancement, to the gaming experience.

Additional Comment: I’m about 17 hours in to “Valkyria Chronicles” and I’m totally digging it. If you are in anyway remotely interested in strategy, fantasy or gorgeous animations, then buy this game.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed First Impressions

For those that don’t know, the demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed went live last night on XBOX Live’s game download service. At this point, you need a gold account to access the demo currently, but for everyone else, wait about a week and you’ll be able to grab it.

I’m incredibly impressed with this game, moreso than I thought that I would be. In fact, it may be the most fun Star Wars third person game that I’ve ever played. Shadows of the Emipre was amazing, but it’s been over ten years. We’re overdue for a great third person Star Wars game. You take the role of The Apprentice (some may recognize him as one of the worst characters to play in Soul Calibur 4), Darth Vader’s secret pupil and you’re really not on anyone’s side here. Your mission is to seek out and destroy the Jedi and annihilate anyone (Rebel or Imperial) that stands in your way. This is where the fun begins.

While I won’t give away anything that happens plotwise in the demo, you start out with a whole lot of force powers. You’ve got Force Push (which can be charged to repel objects and bend locked doors so that you can enter), Force Lightning (which can be chained to your lightsaber so that it becomes infused with deadly blue sparks), and Force Jump (…it’s exactly what it sounds like. You jump really high.). The objective of the demo is to get to a Jedi, destroy him, and bring Daddy Darth his lightsaber. That means destroy anything that gets in your way.

You can pick up and destroy pretty much any object in the game. The way that you choose to dispatch your enemies is entirely up to you. You can take a lightsaber to their body, shock them with force lightning, throw an exploding barrel at them, or crush them with a TIE Fighter (Yes, you can pick up a TIE Fighter.). The possibilities are endless, and that may be what makes the demo so much fun. At the end of the demo, you don’t get to fight the Jedi, but you do get to go up against a full squadron of Stormtroopers and an AT-ST walker. You whittle down its health and at the very end, deliver a finishing blow by inputting the correct button commands.

If the demo is any indication, this game is going to be incredibly fun. I just hope that there are going to be other force powers and combos that can be dealt in-game. As fun as shooting force lighting at your enemies is, it starts to get old after a while.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed releases in September.