Ffffff- A Hundred and Fifty -What-?

I stole this picture from you Chance.  Sorry!

So, I was checking around on places last night as I do, and I checked over at The Games of Chance (which I do a lot) and saw this little tidbit of information.  There was much rejoicing and table-flipping all at the same time which is an odd thing, let me tell you, and at the time, I didn't quite know what to do with this information.  I sat down and I thought about it for a bit, weighed it, and I've been doing that on-and-off today between bouts of playing Final Fantasy XIII and...well, yeah, that's pretty much all I did today.  Well, did that was of note, of course, since I also did mundane things as we all do in a normal day.  Anyways, the point is that I've been thinking about this Limited Edition and whether or not I want it, and the answer is yes, of course I want it, but the sub-question is, as chance put it, do I hundred-and-fifty-dollar want it?  That has been what has plaguing me since last night and I fear it will continue to do so until Persona 4 Golden drops and I'm in GameStop again with the option to upgrade my pre-order to the LE.

I mean, I -am- working now, and I can swing it financially, I believe.  Which is....honestly very odd to even consider, but good as well.  But the barebones of it, in pure financials, is that it boils down to the lamp, the obvious draw in this, being a $60-70 item.  If you consider the game itself is $60, as they usually are, and then take the others into consideration - soundtrack at $15-ish if it's physical which it won't be, so $10 for digital, and the steel case is, what, $10 more?  Maybe $15 itself? - and end up with $80-90 before the lamp.  So the rest of that, the entire game still between REVENGEANCE and the LE pricetag is specifically towards an admittedly really fucking cool lamp that, to be honest, I don't know if I'm ever going to plug in.  I mean, I -probably- will, but I don't know.  Depending on the quality, I might decide just to keep it in its box or whatever, always telling myself that I'll display it at a later date even though you and I both know I'm never going to get around to displaying it.  So the -real- question is whether or not I will ever regret getting it, and I just....don't know if I would.  I've never actually used the Messenger Bag I got from the inFamous 2 Hero Edition, but that was still goddamn worth it, so who knows?

Regardless of what I will be getting with my copy of REVENGEANCE, I will, for sure, be getting the game.  My hype for it has remained at a fairly high state, and a constant one at that, because of what has been shown in the way of 'cutting shit' and also 'slicing bitches' which is tantalizing to me.  I long to experience Raiden slicing a potentially robot soldier into 17 bits simply because I can even though it's very obvious that that is overkill of the highest order.  Even now, with an admittedly dour mood that I'm trying to fight back, I am able to do so with the twinge of excitement that burns at just the thought of running and cutting support beams as has been shown in previous footage to bring an entire roof down on some mook heads.  For once, here is a game that gives you a sword which can cut things well and truly beyond the scope of what most swords even dream to be able to cut, much less video game swords which can apparently strike flesh a dozen times without drawing even a drip of blood, or, in some cases, produce it by the buckets without actually rending a foe in twain.

So great has my desire been that I have given serious consideration into purchasing the Zone of the Enders HD Collection simply for the physical demo that the package has to offer.  "But Mogs," you say, "I thought you were excited for Zone of the Enders HD Collection?!"  I was, dear friend.  I was.  I awaited it as a child awaits Christmas morn, and as a parent awaits those happy exclamations and excitement from said children.  But this Christmas morning only saw boxes of socks, it seems, so there is very little to celebrate, much less rejoice in.  To say that the HD Collection is shoddy is apparently generous, though whether that's from the everyman or the ultra-focused hardcore among us that can tell the difference between 60 frames per second and 58 is uncertain.  Regardless, it is not a claim you want to hear, and the issues the collection has are specifically the only issues you would not want associated with a series like Zone of the Enders.  For a game that relies on its pace, its action and its grip on your reflexes, to hear that there are significant Frame drops when the action gets packed is a death knell, plain and simple. 

In these days of patching, it -is- tempting regardless, as one can always hope that complaints are overblown and/or they will be things of the past at some point in the future, but we can never be too sure.  Konami doesn't have a great track record with these Collections, in releasing nor supporting them in the days, weeks and months that follow their journey into the masses.  Being that Kojima Productions wasn't involved with the porting for....whatever reason, it's hard to say if the man himself will step in and right this wrong or at least motivate someone, anyone, to do it in his stead and, really, who's to say it's something that -can- be fixed?  It's a sobering thought, that some classics just have to stay that way, in the past, but for all sorts of reasons, some games are just that, unbending to the constant flexibility needs the future weighs in with.  Still, I feel like loyalty, if nothing else, compels me to grab this Collection sometime, and my hunger for the REVENGEANCE demo within is certainly not helping.  Decisions, decisions...

That Other Game With An Assassin In It

When I haven't been dealing with issues, working, sleeping, playing Final Fantasy XIII or watching Youtube videos, I've been putting time into Ragnarok Odyssey and for as much as I like it, I worry that I don't.  I say that because I just...keep finding reasons to -not- play the game, as they are listed above, and that's not really a good sign.  It's a confusing one as well, since I generally like the game as I play it, a few hiccups aside, but I never really go into it going "Yes, time to play some more RO" like I do with other games.  I don't ever feel really excited to get into it, I guess is what I'm saying, but I don't leave disappointed at the same time.  It's one of the more odd situations I've found myself in with a game, and it's one that I suspect exists because the game is -just- outside of my normal fare in terms of what I like and enjoy.  It's so close that it hurts, but not close enough that I can swear some sort of unconditional affection.

At its core, Ragnarok Odyssey seems to be a Monster Hunter game with brighter visuals and less weapons from what I can tell.  Having not played Monster Hunter games, I don't have a whole lot to base it on, but I have -some- knowledge, and the formula seems to be in place here.  Accept a mission from the small-ish hub area, check.  Gear up depending on your class/weapon, check.  Go on mission which involves killing all forms of monsters, potentially huge ones that you can destroy parts of for extra items, check.  Rinse, repeat, check, check, check.  It's more interesting than I make it seem, of course, but still, in practice you're just taking on non-varied missions in the same dozen maps that are retooled in a certain way for each map to make them slightly 'unique' and murdering everything so long as you have health and AP to do it, of which you can make limited use of limited items to ensure they stay up.  It's something that works for some folks and it just almost works for me, but I can't help but want more.

I think the disconnect really happens because I have been spoiled by the best when it comes to this sort of thing.  I'm not quite sure why, but whenever I have a game that lets me take a mission or a quest that involves the same few maps the game has to offer, I default back to Phantasy Star Online thinking, which just has the best memories I could have for that sort of thing.  In hindsight was it repetitive and slightly grindy?  Yes, sure.  But it also had stats and level ups, Mags and monogrinders for weapons and most important of all, it had missions that were more than:  Get to X Area and Murder the shit out of the things there.  It had variety and it blows my goddamn mind to this day that nobody, including Sega themselves, have not realized that this is something that's necessary.  Just managing to -get- to one area should be enough for some missions, perhaps getting there and then back to the start, or something even.  Yes, you're killing things along the way, but you don't -have- to.  It's semantics, of course, but it's a vital difference all the same.

With Monster Hunter and Ragnarok Odyssey, unless I'm mistaken, your character isn't quite so malleable, so much as they're more or less governed by what they have.  From what I can tell, in MH you've got a weapon class and you can just switch different weapons of the same type, but if you're a Greatsword-wielder, that's what you're using.  In Ragnarok Odyssey, you're tied to a class and each class has a weapon specific to it, so that's again, what you're ending up using.  Assassins, my class of choice, use Katars as is shown in the picture at the top of the post, but the other five classes in the game have their own weapons, each having their own stats and, if you're lucky, some good abilities tied to them.  As such, stats aren't nearly as malleable nor are your characters which just makes it really difficult to feel like you're really getting anywhere.  The only time you see a marked increase is when you clear a chapter and for me, I really sort of crave that kind of growth, so being so infrequent is a real pain.

Still, to say the game is not enjoyable would be a straight lie, as I am having some fun with it, definitely.  My problem seems to be that I'm hoping that the game is like something it's not, when I really should just enjoy it for what it is.  And what it -is- is a game that lets me dash around and cut shit up without getting hit if I'm particularly good with my square-pushing skills.  Or, if I'm feeling adventurous, I can switch to a different class, negating the real need to make multiple characters, though I'll still likely end up doing that as well.  Always nice to have options, basically.  Now that I've kind of sorted it out in my head a little more than it was, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to jump back into RO and have some real, honest-to-goodness fun with it, or at least be excited to actually get into it.  I just feel bad that it really, really makes me realize how much I cannot wait for Phantasy Star Online 2 to come by.  Or at least PSO HD.  Whichever comes first.  (Protip:  It'll be PSO2.)

Grand Theft Auto V is Going to Be Huge

When I say that GTA V is going to be huge, understand that I'm not stating the obvious in that it's going to sell all sorts of copies and such.  What I'm saying is that the game is going to be huge if Rockstar isn't feeding us a line of bullshit which, of all the bits of information that've been put out by GameInformer, I think is the most interesting.  And there's a whole lot of information that's been put out there, most of which I'm using ComputerAndVideoGames to go off of today.  I mean, it's pretty much out there -everywhere- as even like friggin' Forbes is reporting it according to some googling, but CAVG seems to come up a lot or maybe I'm just imagining that, so I'm checking them out for a few things and might end up sourcing from them more often in the future depending.  Regardless, the rather long list of bullet points they've got about GTA V information is tantalizing and does quite a good job of selling it to me which I had previously thought was going to be a bit of a rough job.

The hugeness of the game lies in something that has been laid out flat as almost a challenge for us to anticipate in these months before the game will be available for purchase.  The actual map, the world of Los Santos, in GTA V will be 'bigger than San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption combined'.  That is a very, very tall statement, and I think that's aided by the fact that the ocean floor and mountain ranges will be fully explorable, meaning that every inch of territory within its borders (sans building interiors of course) is accessible through some means.  Not quite sure if that means you can scuba/deep-sea dive or if there's going to be submarines, but the ocean floor is 'fully detailed and can be explored' so take that for what you will.  As someone who thought San Andreas' map was huge, but completely underdeveloped, I am a little wary of course, because a map that takes you an actual hour to traverse one side to the other doesn't automatically make it good it there's nothing interesting in 80% of it because it's being big for the sake of it.

Still, 'scope' seems to be the name of the game here so I'm a little optimistic in assuming that it will be a fairly fleshed out map in its own right.  I say scope because not only is the map huge in scope, but so is the basic premise, the basic mechanic of the game, which is certainly a big departure for the series as a whole.  In GTA V, there will not be one protagonist, but three, all of whom are fully-realized and independent characters in their own right.  Michael, the character most figured was 'the' main character from the trailer, is a man in his 40s who is currently in the witness protection program after getting out of the business in the East Coast.  Now retired on the West Coast, he's stuck with a family that he hates (who hate him too) that is all too willing to spend all the money he made in his former life, leading him to need a new source of income and fast.  Easy come, easy go seems to be how he gets back into the game.

He's joined by the other two protagonists, Trevor and Franklin, who both have their own goals, motivations and backstories that are quite different.  Trevor is another man in his 40s, but where Michael exudes a confidence, perhaps even a bit of class, Trevor lacks that entirely.  He's grown up committing crimes and it's his main source of income.  Income which ends up funding vices - drinking and drugs, mostly - making him the 'seedy' member of the team, as well as the one that's the biggest liability.  Unlike those two, however, Franklin is a 20-something street hustler who's looking to move up into the big leagues.  I'm not quite sure myself just how these three get together to start up a little 'crew' as it were, but as the main characters, you can control any of them at just about any time through means of a quick-swap.  On missions where all three members have a separate job, you can hop into the role of any one of them (and switch part-way through if you so desire) to carry out their task, be it sniper, driver, air support or anything else under the sun.

Not only that, but apparently when you are not controlling two of the characters, they are off doing their own thing, and it is possible that, should you switch to them, you will find them directly in the middle of something, though what that is is unclear.  Doubtful that they take on 'missions', even side ones, on their own volition, but perhaps beating up pedestrians if you jump into the shoes of Trevor or hitting up some hot spots as Franklin.  Regardless of whatever they're into, you take control as soon as they come up from the Google Earth-style swap menu, so they do whatever you desire then on, but it's still interesting to consider leaving Trevor outside of an upscale neighborhood and taking control of him again to find that he's in a dumpy area of town scoring crack money or something of that sort.  Maybe even hopping into Michael's character as he's playing a round of golf to calm the nerves.  The possibilities are astounding, though I'm sure in practice they will be a lot less mind-blowing.

Ambition is the clear name of the game here, and even though it initially will not please everyone for the exact reasons we feared, if it succeeds in half the things it attempts, it'll be successful and quite so at that.  Not being able to buy property (which is slightly understandable, given the three different characters with three different lives thing) is a small price to pay for something a little different and a little more organic in the game, if just to see how it ends up playing out.  And so long as everyone's buddies aren't hitting you up every ten minutes or so to go shoot pool or look at 'giant american titties', I think we'll be juuuust fine.  After all, this stuff, this is all just the tip of the iceberg.  I'm honestly far more invested in the game than I thought I would be on concept alone, as, hey, I have dug multiple-protagonist games in the past and, done right, I'm sure this will offer something quite interesting with that type of scenario.  Even if the melee system isn't going to be focused on and just 'improved' some.  Because I'll always have Sleeping Dogs for that.

Some Nintendo Online Bits Detailed

So, the big big question about Nintendo's newest console, for me at least, is how will the Online Side of it go?  Just my luck - Nintendo decided to do a Nintendo Direct showing off some of the features in....well, not a complete way, but at least a good introductory manner to tide us over while we wait for some more details.  I've heard tell that there are actual Wii U units out there already, likely for review purposes (not to mention Demo Stations), so we'll be getting some impressions in short manner.  Not -of- the Network, of course, but hopefully with how it might be set up, since the console comes with an instruction manual which is a very, very foreign concept, apparently.  Still, what -is- there is sufficiently meaty to pick at and go over and for some reason I am very, very curious about the console, so I'm just going to roll with that interest to its natural conclusion, whatever that may be.  I've sort of talked myself out of wanting one two or three times already, but it has some sort of pull that I can't quite explain.  Perhaps simply that I've been without a Nintendo console for so long, being that my last one was the N64.

The first thing the video covers, and perhaps the one thing that I'm really a little confused on still, or at least really not sure on, is the WaraWara Plaza, which is the Home screen basically.  Or...one of them, at least.  I think standard will be that the WaraWara Plaza (Which is an extension of Miiverse?  I guess?) will be on the TV where the standard Wii Menu screen, with buttons in rows will be on the Gamepad, though they can be swapped if so desired.  Basically what it is is a thing that shows off Wii U games that....exist?  Are getting played a lot?  It's not really clear what the criteria will be for showing up, but I'm assuming it's not based solely on what you yourself own.  While also showing them off, they also show off a few comments that people are making about it which are randomly picked and probably not universal.  So if your buddy Roger says "These zombies are super fast" about ZombiU and it comes up on your Wii U screen, it's probably not coming up on -everyone's- screen.  It's just a way to get you interested in games that are out there which is admirable, but again, I'm curious as to how it'll actually work.

Next up, the thing that's all at once amazing and terrible is the Wii U Chat system that they showed off which is not terrible for bad reasons but for amazing ones.  You see, the Gamepad will make use of its microphone and video camera to offer a video chat service through the Gamepad itself, meaning you can theoretically do this while watching something on TV, like a popular movie or TV show should you desire, but not while playing a game.  It's pretty standard all told, but what elevates it is that you can use the stylus that comes with the system(?) to draw on the screen whilst speaking.  I'm not sure just what anyone expects this to be used for that is not vulgar and hilarious, but if anyone has a really viable instrumentation, feel free to speak up.  I'm just picturing 90% of Wii U Chat conversations containing "Stop drawing penises on me", though maybe this will be deterred by the fact that the screen will -only- be showing the drawing and the other person, so you would technically be drawing penises on yourself in their perspective.  It's all very confusing, I guess, but I'm sure you were thinking the same thing when you heard it first.

What is particularly distressing about the whole of it is that that video attempts to summarize the Ninendo Direct, yet doesn't mention the Nintendo Network in a way that is more than cursory.  So, knowing that, I went to watch the Nintendo Direct myself and...well, I am -still- confused.  I read a Joystiq article (that I'm not linking because I don't wanna) that stated it would basically work like the 3DS, in that it'd be a friend code, but a universal one which is not ideal in the least, especially so for a Console that will be around for five or so years at least.  But there was a little hubbub in the comments linking to other articles that said Alphanumeric code that you create, meaning a tag, meaning like everyone else has.  So when I watched the Direct, I expected to walk away with complete knowledge of just what the hell, so I would know who is right and who is wrong about the situation.

I did not.  I still don't know if it's a code that you pick, or that's assigned to you.  I would assume you pick it since you have to provide your Name, Address, Date of Birth, Gender and Email Address as well as a password, which seems rather silly to provide for Nintendo to just spit out a 16-digit Number Code that you'll use from then out.  Especially when they speak of it as being a unified code that you'll be able to use on PCs and Mobile devices to fiddle with your account, and one that will eventually go to the 3DS and be used with future Nintendo Hardware products.  But that's my issue - I shouldn't have to assume anything.  It's Nintendo's onus at this point to shout from the rooftops "WE HAVE A MODERN-DAY NETWORK STRUCTURE!" since it will be, in fact, their first time at it.  If they actually do it!  That there's still no official statement definitely outlining it in stone this late in the game is worrying, but hopefully not indicative of the quality that the Nintendo Network will provide.  With any luck, there'll be -another- Nintendo Direct like next week that will further detail online bits, hopefully using one of their own online games as an example to show off how to set up a game and this and that, since that would be really helpful and really reassuring.

Do I Want a Wii U?

Given that I've had a bit of extra time lately with things being....like they are, and the fact that I'm actually bringing in some playing money for the first time in a while, I've been putting some consideration into things and at the top of that consideration list is the up-coming Wii U.  It surprises me, I'm sure you'll all know already, and I cannot quite pin down just -why- I have anything beyond a passing glance to give it since I know, in my head, that it really has nothing to offer me that I'm interested in.  I suppose it's just the glimmer and glitter of that which is new, but I'm usually pretty good about being able to resist that sort of thing unless it is something that I directly want, like it was with the Vita.  It's a quandary, that's for sure, as I have said that I'm not really all that enthused with Nintendo's First Party efforts, and if any other Nintendo release past the N64 is concerned, that's all that really should matter

The system is getting -one- thing I want, at least, in the form of Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper, which is basically Warriors Orochi 3 with extra stuff and, here's the important part, on a fucking disk.  Does that blow your mind?  It shouldn't!  Because the goddamn game should be on a disk no matter what, but we've learned that things aren't always as they should be and it just sucks when it's like that.  Still, that's just one game and no matter if it's a game I particularly want, it does not justify a drop of $350 (because who wants the basic model?  Nobody, that's who) when the game, itself, will likely be $50 or $60 as well.  Not to mention the looming possibility of 'exclusive Wii U Pad functionality' which translates into 'stupid things we arbitrarily added to force you to use things besides buttons and sticks' since KOEI doesn't know the meaning of the word 'optional'.  This is all stuff you want to learn -before- you shell the cash, which is what I'll be doing, certainly, since impressions are going to be key overall and not just here.

The major tipping point for me is just how up-to-date Nintendo's Online workings are, really, which seems to be a strange metric to gauge it by.  Fact is, however, that the Wii U is indeed starting a new cycle and we can often use where the console begins as a judge for how it's going to progress through the years.  There are some outliers, as the PS3 ended up growing by leaps and bounds beyond its original constraints, but I doubt Nintendo will offer the same evolution.  In fact, I fear the opposite if the N64, the Wii and the 3DS is anything to go by, since all three examples show Nintendo offering growth and never, ever utilizing it in a decisive way until it's too late, if even then.  For the N64, it was the expansion pack (and arguably rumble pack), for the Wii it was Motion+ (only required for Wii Sports Resort and Skyward Sword?  C'mooon), and for the 3DS it's arguably the Circle Pad Pro which is a whole other argument in itself.  But the pattern is that Nintendo has a habit of releasing things mid-way through for something, and then only using it for that one thing, completely neutering its potential and leaving everyone confused.

My point is, if the Online Infrastructure isn't up-to-par on day one, I have very serious doubts that it will ever be, as I'm not quite sure Nintendo is flexible enough to end up molding it the way Sony did with the PS3 to get it from where it was to where it's at now.  Specifically, the at-least list is topped by "Unified ID" (which rumors indicate is a thing with the Nintendo Network ID or something similar) and "Universal Achievement System" which.....no, isn't my preference, it's kind of a thing now.  Every single thing that -isn't- a Nintendo product has Achievements of some sort now (hell, even some of Nintendo's own games have something of that sort) and refusing to acknowledge that by having a system in place is just going to show Nintendo's own stubbornness in insisting they don't have to do what everyone else is doing while doing....-most- of what everyone else is doing all the same.  After all, Nintendo is the last horse past the gate when it comes to having an Online set up in a cohesive manner as well as coming in to this whole HD game.  If they're not catching up and 'surpassing' all at once, they're still behind, and that's where they're going to end up.

Possibly not behind sales-wise, though that is an option depending on how Nintendo plays their cards, but in general opinion nonetheless.  Without delving too deep into rhetoric, cliches or stigmas, to say that the Wii captured a wide majority of we who play games regularly is a falsehood and I know that's such a controversial statement and blah blah, but it's the truth nonetheless.  If you have a Wii, it's generally a companion piece and not a main-stay, trotted out whenever a first-party title is released and then quietly ushered behind the curtain while the rest of your time is spent with a PS3, a 360 or a handheld of your choice.  The reasoning behind that is basically that the Wii fell out with folks who play games more often than every few months or so when something reasonably interesting from the First-Party pops out, since there just isn't a whole hell of a lot else there.  You gotta have something to fill up the time with and the third parties are a-thrivin' over in PS360 land and unless Nintendo can keep the seemingly high interest up, the climate is going to go much the same way and without the novelty of "Hey, I can play bowling with a remote control" to fall back on, there's no other widespread audience to grab.

That is, in fact, my real, genuine concern with the system, in that it has poised itself to be the system we all want it to be, without the past pedigree to buy that assurance.  The masses might not agree, but I personally need a little more than Yet Another Mario Title In Which Something Is Barely Different and the promise of another Zelda game in two or three years to get my hopes up.  I need new IPs from Nintendo who are supposed to be the most creative of the big three out there.  I need continued third-party support.  I need Nintendo to know just what in the blue hell they are doing with the Wii U without voluntarily introducing something that could technically change the entire climate of the system, yet doesn't, ending up in enticing you to spend $20-$60 on an accessory for a single game, potentially two or three.  I need something to affirm the faith that so many people have unquestioningly in Nintendo.  Perhaps the Wii U will deliver on that - I'm not too sure.  Clearly, I have my doubts, but I can hope and dream as well and if, by chance, the Wii U ends up being what it can and should be, I think the answer to the question I've been pondering will be "Yes.  Yes, I do want a Wii U."  What a day that would be.

Grand Theft Auto 5 Coming Spring 2013

With every genre out there, there's generally one game or series that can more or less encapsulate what we all consider that genre to 'be' or at least used to be in some cases.  Basically the stand-out series that has steeped itself in the tenets of what that genre -is-, that we tend to associate it with the genre and vice-versa.  For First-Person Shooters it's (currently) Call of Duty (formerly Halo, formerly Doom, etc. etc.), for Role-Playing Games it's somewhat still Final Fantasy though pretty much by default, and for the Sandbox Game Genre, it's basically Grand Theft Auto.  There's competition, surely, but Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City and San Andreas basically cemented its place as the fore-runner of the genre with nothing else really coming along to seriously challenge the throne.  Saint's Row has come perilously close, thanks to its insistence on sticking to out-of-the-box shenanigans and parodies where Grand Theft Auto 4 strayed off course, earning it some ire, but it never quite made it, and it's hard to say that it -will-, with 3 being a mixed bag and no 4 in sight.

Being the fore-runner of the genre means that whenever a new installment is heading out to the masses, it's kind of a big deal because folks get excited for that thing.  I might count myself among those excited for the announcement of a release window for GTAV, but I'm not quite sure just yet, based on how IV did end up.  The funny thing is that I like IV, and I even have a few stories from it (one from the Multi-Player portion of the game if you can believe that) but it's not a game that can hold your heart or your vigor for long, especially when others come along that do what it does and better.  And it's because of those games that I just have to wonder how V is going to compare, as it's not a matter of simply being uncontested in everything it does.  It's going to come up short in some areas when based against other Sandbox games, simply because it cannot do everything, and it's mostly a matter of how forgivable those short-comings will be.  It'll likely be a matter of how well it does what it does well, really, and that's just something we'll have to see.

As for myself, and this comes as no shocker I'm sure, I'm sure I'll end up basing GTAV against Sleeping Dogs, because I really really like Sleeping Dogs, and it certainly has some interesting takes on the 'formula' that GTA games tend to follow as a basic principle, as well as unquestionably being leaps and bounds above it in quality for some areas.  The melee combat for sure, and I'd argue that it simply covers all close combat things (meaning I'm counting melee weapons as well) better, where the actual gunplay is down to opinion.  (I prefer SD, of course for the slow-mo, but I'm willing to step back and say it's not perfect since it's not a 'focus' as it were)  I'd even venture to say that some of the things it does with driving, namely the action hi-jacks and the ramming are miles ahead of anything GTA IV or even previous games in the series, could hope to meet, and it's not something I look for V to implement.

Depending on what your opinion of IV was, V either has a little or a lot of room for improvement, and I certainly cannot see a future in which people lament that "X was better in IV", so all that remains to be seen is just how -much- of a leap in quality V is over IV.  Going back to the familiar haunt of Southern California (though not necessarily to San Andreas, Los Venturas or San Fierro) is a start in the right direction, but a tricky one as well, as that means it's going to get a lot of allusions drawn to GTA:  San Andreas, which some consider to be the best game in the series.  If you don't manage to fit in that amount of stuff that SA had, you're gonna get complaints probably even moreso than IV which is a troubling thought for sure, and based on IV's rather sparse (in comparison) landscape of things, that's going to be a challenge.  Buying property's basically a sticking point if you ask -any- GTA fan, so I would certainly hope that Rockstar is smart enough to include that, and in a way that's satisfying.  It'll need an overall economic re-shift for the mechanics, of course, since you're likely going to be making money off these properties, thus you'll need things to buy with said money and in consideration of how much you're likely going to get around a certain point in the game, but that's for forward-thinkers and balancers to worry about; just get it in the game and we'll be happy.

That's honestly really all I'm expecting out of GTAV in all honesty.  I know it's going to be a cinematic game, bordering on 'experience', and I'm sure Rockstar is planning on sneaking a little more parody into this one than the last, but other than that, it's really kind of a blank slate.  And that, more than anything, I think, is really exciting, since we've seen what they can do with the tools they have.  To see what returns from IV, what -doesn't- return from IV like the man-dates and to see what just comes in 'new' (like property ownership, and if I'm wishing, then customization) and to see what level of polish it all has is what's going to really have me looking forward to it, more than anything else.  Say what you will about the mechanics of any game they release - the recent ones generally have a level of polish on them that a lot of other studios really can't afford to have, and that goes quite a long way on its own.

Something Like An Update Post

As we all know, when it comes to things that are bad, they never come in, stroll around for a moment and then leave without so much as a second thought.  They come in with a few buddies, also bad, and hang around for a little while until you're ready to strangle something and you don't really care -what-.  That's been what it's like here since the last time I posted, and that's directly responsible for the -why- I haven't posted.  I'm still not in a good place as it is, but I realized that there are possibly people who use this as their sole venue to know if I, as a person, am doing alright or something like that, and it'd be kind of a shitty thing for me to do to -not- update those people if I can help it, which I can.  Because, you know, I'm just a nice guy like that or something I suppose.

The situation is thus:  I'm pretty alright.  I lost internet the night after I posted last, hence the first night of non-posting and it was kinda sucky for me and such, but nothing too bad.  The next day, we (by we, I mean my family) got some news that is....well, pretty bad.  I don't want to throw this out here because I don't need attention nor sympathy or anything like that, but suffice to say that there could be some severely bad news about a close family member in the coming week or two.  So that's been weighing on me since and it does wonders for keeping any enthusiasm or verve I could muster for anything at bay, which is why it's been particularly hard to even consider posting since I've just not been in it.  I'm still not, but I suppose I'm managing fine enough, might start again normally depending on how things go.  The other issue is that I'm sick-ish again.  Because, you know, why not.  Nothing beyond waking up with a surplus of mucus for now, but given how things are, I'm not liking my chances of getting better without getting a little worse.

I've been keeping busy, though, which is good.  Between the first and likely only chapter of Corpse Party that I played which I suspect has made me a worse person overall because of the things that are now in my memory that I cannot un-remember, Ragnarok Odyssey that has the most adorable Slimes that I have murdered by the hundreds already and Youtube videos on the Vita App (which I'm still not entirely happy with, and it could be fixed with just a little more 'robust' channel viewing, and by more robust, I mean any at all), I haven't had a moment to say that I am bored.  Of course, I have work, Final Fantasy XIII and the recently-finished Costume Quest  to thank for that as well, which is to say that it is a good time to do what it is that I do, I just wish the conditions were a little more conducive for enjoyment.

That's been the most noticeable with Costume Quest, which I finished in two sessions of plays, getting 100% of the trophies while I was at it.  (Of course, there's only 11 and they're pretty simple to get)  It's a light-hearted Halloween-themed romp that I played, in fact, because it was just Halloween and I did nothing else to celebrate than eat candy and....well, I ate some candy.  It was, in fact, delicious.  I suspect that any other time, I would be able to fully appreciate it for what it was, but instead I could only find the mechanics boring and grating, much like Final Fantasy 13's own, and glare at my screen whenever the FPS dropped noticeably as all Double Fine games seem to do, and do a lot.  It was fun and I liked it, but I also wasn't playing it to enjoy it, simply because I felt like, hey, I should play it because of that time and, when I played it about halfway through, because I was almost finished with it.  I worry that that might've hampered my opinion of it overall, which is why I decided not to continue with the Grubbins on Ice expansion, choosing to instead save that for the Holiday season, with hopes that my natural excitement during those times will help the game put an exclamation point on it.

I did purchase Assassin's Creed:  Liberations as well, and I have been avoiding playing it for much the same reasons as I've listed already.  We all know my opinions on the Assassin's Creed games, particularly AssBro and AssRev (though AC1 and 2 are both spoken of as well in those) and they are not ever universally positive when I'm in the best shape I can be.  So trying to go into such a game and expecting that I will walk away satisfied in the least is lunacy which I will not attempt - I want to like Liberations or at the very least give it a fair shake.  I'm in no position to do either at this juncture, but when I am, you will probably hear about it because that's sort of what I do.  With any luck (I notice that I say that a lot) I'll be back to posting tomorrow night, and there's some genuinely interesting things to speak of that's come up lately, so I'll have plenty of things to cover.