For Christmas 1998, I had asked for the Nintendo 64...well, I'd asked for it the previous two years too, but I really wanted it that year because The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time had been released, and I had to have it. To make a long story short, I did, along with a couple other games, including Goldeneye 007, which I still maintain as one of the best FPS games ever.

So, once the presents were unwrapped and the debris cleaned up, I hooked the N64 to the big TV in the living room, because my own TV didn't have the right hook-ups. After plowing through the Deku Tree, our relatives started showing up, so I turned the game off, until someone suggested popping in Goldeneye.

Now, this was the time when Nintendo was still generous to give you two controllers with the console (unlike last year, where I had to try four GameStops and a Walmart to find a second Wiimote), so soon the family was watching my older brother and my cousin blasting at each other for most of the rest of the day.

By the next time my cousin was over, we'd gotten two more controllers, and from then on, whenever he came over for a holiday, be it Christmas, Easter, or even Mother's Day, we'd all pile into my room, crowd around the TV, and hurl explosives at each other (Complex with Proxy Mines FTW) until we're almost literally dragged from the room. We've tried extending the tradition to include other games, but nothing's stuck with us like good old 007.

It's been 10 years now, and the competition's only gotten more intense; I used to win just about everything hands down, but now, though I still usually win, it's a real battle to come out on top, with alliances between the four of us changing at least three times a round. Well, when we aren't belting out "I Feel Pretty" or "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," anyway.

Yes, alcohol is usually involved. Why do you ask?

We've warn through several controllers, and nearly broke the console itself more than a couple times, but a quick blow on the cartridge is usually enough to get it working. Last year, I got the four of us brand new controllers, with custom symbol decals, which are now our official weapons. We've got ten years of memories, and each new game usually brings with it something to add to the list of stories, which up to now includes such classics "When James Cursed Out The Caves Then Blew Himself Up," "When Mike Executed Anthony," and "That's Not A Proximity Mine, Is It? (Yes, it was)."

And tomorrow, of course, the carols my mom will be playing will be accompanied by the sounds of a small war, occasional swearing, and drunken singing. And it will be glorious.

So, what special traditions will you be observing tomorrow?

As the medium's evolved to the point it has now, there's been a push toward removing the linearity of gameplay in favor of giving the player more freedom in how they explore the world and unveil the story. But is there a point where there's too much freedom? And is there merit to a linear game?

In short, yes. Well, for me, anyway. I understand the reasoning behind the whole "wide open sandbox" thing; you want to make the player feel like his decisions really made a difference, and make them really feel like a part of the world. But at the same time, too much freedom can be suffocating: Confront the player with too many options, and they'll get lost.

Personally, I tend to prefer more linear games to wide open games. I like the feeling that I'm making definite progress, that I've "completed" the game when I've gotten that last upgrade, and I'm on the last level. When I try to play one of those wide open games, no matter which way I choose, I always seem to feel like I'm missing something by making the choices I did. Yes, I could replay it later and do things differently, but these games are usually so big that I don't want to slog through the whole thing just to see what happens when I pick Door #3 instead of #2.

Which, I suppose, partly explains why I tend more toward action games, which even now tend to be a race from one end of the arena to the other where you smack around whatever happens to get in your way. I have been trying to play more RPGs, though, and I'm liking how the eastern RPGs tend to mix the linearity of the main story with the freedom of side-quests. If I want to just get on with it, I can, and the bulk of the game's content is right in front of me. If I want to explore the world a bit, I'm free to do that too in nice fun-sized bites.

So where do you guys fall on the scale? Do you like to be given free reign to wander the game world, or do you just like following the story?

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I'm re-working my way through the Legacy of Kain series. Having just finished Soul Reaver 2 this weekend, I'm pondering whether to play through Blood Omen 2 (which is no doubt the black sheep of the family, but a part of the story nonetheless), or just skip ahead to Defiance.

On one hand, I started replaying them with the intention off going through the whole story in one elongated go. Blood Omen 2 may be detached from the main story with future Kain and Raziel, but it helps inform that one.

On the other hand, Blood Omen 2 is probably the weakest of the games as far as gameplay goes, and has more than its share of bad bugs. Defiance, by comparison, is polished and really fun.

At the moment, I'm leaning toward Blood Omen 2, if only so Defiance will seem that much better when I make my way to playing it. What do you guys think?

Half the Mega Man fans out there were excited that the Classic series was getting a new entry, while the other half scoffed at the fact the game wouldn't be a 3D entry, or even a 2D game with hi-res, next generation quality sprites. Instead, Capcom was making what's effectively its first NES game in over a decade.

There were cries of laziness, among other things, but the anger was tempered a bit by the fact the game would be available for only 10 bucks for a download. Over the months since its announcement, it became clear that Capcom wasn't just doing it because it was easier, but to really call back to the Blue Bomber's glory days, by including sprite flicker as an option, and commissioning so-bad-it's-good box art like in the old days.

So, being a big fan of the series, I downloaded the game the other day. It's charming in its old school presentation, and all it's missing is an option to blow on the cartridge. The game plays as well as the old game, though personally I wish they hadn't gotten rid of Mega Man's slide and charged shot, because without them the game is pretty darn hard.

I've only gotten through two levels since I got it (Like I said, it's not an easy game), but so far I've loved what I've seen. The level design is challenging without feeling cheap, and the music is catchy. If you've got ten bucks to spare, I'd definitely recommend picking it up, especially if you're like me and grew up with the old school platformers.

For those that don't know, the Legacy of Kain series mainly follows the murdered-nobleman-turned-vampire Kain as he...well, he's got a few different goals during the games, ranging from "get revenge on the guys who killed me" to "take over the world" to "save the world."

If that sounds like it leads to a very complicated story, well, you'd be right. Legacy of Kain probably has one of the most labyrinthine storylines I've ever played through, involving time travel, alternate time lines, and ancient conspiracies for a start. And the real kicker is, it all makes sense and it's one of the best crafted stories in gaming, despite some of the installments being developed by entirely different teams, which usually spells trouble for a coherent plot.

Additionally, the series, despite originating in a time when voice acting was more of an afterthought than anything, has had fantastic voice acting in all of its installments, with a very talented cast rounding out the characters. The storyline and voice acting are, frankly, enough reason to play the games. That said, the gameplay itself is also great, though it varies quite a bit over the five games.

I first got into the series with the second game, Soul Reaver, which I bought pretty much entirely on impulse. I'd heard of the game, of course, in the game magazines I read, but it wasn't something I was particularly watching or looking forward to. One day, though, I was in the mall with money to burn, and picked it up. It turned out to be pretty good, even if it ended on an infuriating cliff hanger (the result of a deadline, which a part of me can appreciate for obvious reasons). I found myself hooked on the story, and played the next three games to find the story's conclusion (for now, anyway. There's no sequels announced, but I'll bet one's coming).

Which, of course, left a gap: I'd never played the original. So I tracked it down (yay for retro gaming stores!) and started playing it last week. It's a little rougher around the edges than the later games, understandably, but so far it's good. There's some rather inventive mechanics, and it's fun to see the world before it went completely to hell. I may have a more thorough review once I finish it, but for now..."Vae Victus!"

This time, I'm tackling Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and trying a few new things at that. For one, a week or so ago I invested in a new little toy: A digital video capture for my laptop. After completing the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time walkthrough, I noticed the publisher added a bunch of Youtube videos to the walkthrough of different sections of the game. So, I figured, what the heck, I'll just do that myself.

I eventually found a good way (for my current laptop hardware, anyway) to get some good quality videos. I'm shooting to just do boss fights for now. Unfortunately, something happened in transferring the videos from my back-up lappy to my internet capable one, which broke my old flash drive. I eventually just uploaded them directly from the older laptop (had to do some digging to find the old 'net adaptor), and got a new flashdrive.

Anyway, Prime 3 is a new challenge as far as walkthroughs go, because unlike the first two games I did, it's distinctly less linear. Whereas, honestly, in God of War or Prince of Persia, most sections boiled down to "Walk over here and kill these dudes," Metroid as a series is based around more freeform exploration. Right now, I've stopped at a point where the path splits in two more or less equal directions, and I forget which one can be completed first. And this is just in the first real level.

Should be a pretty good challenge to figure out how to go from here. And I'm always up for a challenge.

Anyway, yesterday I spotted this article on Kotaku.com, and thought I should highlight it. Every other week, it seems, I see another story about some schmuck blaming his idiotic decisions on something he saw in a video game, so it's nice to see a story where games aren't villainized.

Now, a part of me does take issue with the fact that the family apparently let an 11 year old girl play something like Grand Theft Auto. The game's rated Mature for a reason, and it ain't for kids. Also, yeah, this probably isn't the be-all-end-all rebuttal to the "Games are Evil" crowd.

What it is, though, is a nice little story that runs counter to the common "wisdom" that games corrupt children. Here's a little girl who showed great presence of mind in a dangerous situation, thanks to (admittedly erroneous) knowledge she gained from playing games, and helped pull her family out of the wrecked car.

I know this story isn't going to get any kind of play on national networks (it probably would if the game got blamed for the crash, rather than the rescue), so spread the link around.

On a similar note, anyone out there got stories about how video games helped them in some way? I'd love to hear them.

Okay, so they're not always bad. Mortal Kombat was good in the sense that it was a goofy martial arts movie, the first Resident Evil movie was an enjoyable zombie flick, and Doom was good for mindless action. But, by and large, these movies are the exception to the trend.

Comic book movies used to be similar, but starting with Spider Man, they've really hit their stride, which has me wondering why video game based movies can't seem to keep up.

Part of it, I think, is that movie makers can't seem to separate what makes a good game, what makes a good movie, and what people like about the games that would work well in the movies.

For the most part, directly translating the story from a game into a movie just won't work. For starters, even a short game is about 7-10 hours nowadays; you could easily go wrong in making a game-movie by trying to cram everything in. Also, though there's been a significant rise in multiplayer, the average game usually has one lone protagonist, and you can't have a movie starring just one guy (Castaway notwithstanding). And, in a lot of games, there's things that just don't make a bit of sense, but we forgive because of gameplay reasons, something that can't be said of movies.

The two biggest dangers in making a video game movie are A. trying to cram in everything from the games, and B. making something too far removed from the games. For an example of the former, look at Mortal Kombat Annihilation which, aside from having atrocious writing, tried too hard to cram in every MK character they could think of, meaning in the 90 minute movie, each had maybe two minutes of screentime, if that. For an example of the latter, look at just about anything by Uwe Boll. Or, if you'd like to preserve your sanity, look at the Super Mario Bros. movie: Instead of the bright and colorful mushroom kingdom, where the titular plumbers save a princess from a firebreathing turtle and his army of magical turtles and mushrooms, you had the two plumbers going to a dimension where the dinosaurs evolved into humanoids, and they have to rescue the dystopian city from a mob boss evolved from a T-Rex.

The answer, I think, lies in moderation. You have to capture the spirit of the games, and adapt, not translate, it onto the big screen. Games and movies work in different ways. The interactivity of a game means a lot: A faulty story can be forgiven if it's fun.

As I said, the first Mortal Kombat movie, and the first Resident Evil movie did it right. In the former, the characters were put into a kung fu movie, which fits since the game series was inspired at least in part by Jean Claude Van Damme and Bruce Lee. The story's ridiculous and over the top, but again: Kung fu movie. Having real martial artists play the heroes worked wonders. In a movie like that, your ability to emote is secondary to your ability to kick guys in the face.

The first Resident Evil movie, on the other hand, ditched everything but the basic premise and the evil corporation, and it still worked, because it hit the zombie movie notes right: A group of relatively normal people struggling to survive in a horrific setting. The new characters fit the setting, and the nods to the games were subtle, but noticeable to fans. It eschewed the signature parts of the games that wouldn't make any sense in a movie, like the ridiculous key puzzles, but it kept the suspense and atmosphere.

Above all, gamers like myself don't want to just watch a game they've already played on the big screen. We just want to see a good movie. I think what needs to happen is game developers and fans need to become more involved with the movies, just like what's happening with comic book movies: Spider-Man, X-Men, Hellboy, they were all made by people who already knew and loved the characters. Once it gets to the point where more directors and producers are into games, then maybe we'll see that turnaround.

Anyway, on to business, and this week I want to talk a little bit about one of my favorite gaming series: Final Fantasy. I've been playing a lot of FF lately, what with getting Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII for my birthday, picking up Final Fantasy: 20th Anniversary Edition for my PSP a few weeks ago, and, most recently, getting the remake of Final Fantasy IV on the DS. All of this has gotten me thinking about how I got into the series in the first place.

Like many gamers out there, my first foray into Square's flagship series was Final Fantasy VII, which is one of those landmark games that'll get its own chapter (well, maybe a section anyway) in video game history textbooks in the future. FFVII is noted for quite a few things, among them bring the role-playing game genre to the masses, where previously it was a niche market at best; being one of the first games to have a big budget advertising campaign; and helping to show that games weren't just for kids anymore, with a mature, complex, and engaging storyline.

At first, none of this interested me. Sure, I saw the commercials and all, but at the time, the idea of spending the advertised 60+ hours on the game seemed nuts to me. I was young, I had ADHD, what can I say? Anyway, my older brother decided to rent it on our weekly trip to Blockbuster, then didn't actually play it. Just for the hell of it, I popped it into our PlayStation Sunday afternoon, and got hooked into the story. We ended up renting it every weekend thereafter until my mom figured out it would be cheaper to just buy the darn thing.

As I said, I was more at home with action games, and I honestly didn't even understand the battle system very much until I'd nearly finished the game, which would have made it much harder to beat, if I hadn't cheated my ass off with a GameShark. Anyway, it gave me a bit of a taste for RPGs, though until recently that was limited solely to the FF series.

From there, though there were six earlier games, I neglected to play them for one reason or another, mostly my (now somewhat remedied) inability to play something that looked old when I've got shiny new games to play. ADHD, remember? Then, while I was in England and cut off from modern systems (except for that week I spent with the Official PlayStation 2 Magazine), a friend gave me an emulator and I played through the fourth, fifth, and sixth games in the series, finally seeing what was up. Then, a couple months ago, I picked up a remake of the original on the PSP and plowed through that as well. FF's II and III are as yet the only ones I haven't touched yet.

Which brings up an interesting aspect of the series that makes it more or less unique among the gaming industry. Each game is a fully self-contained world and story (with recent exceptions such as the oddly-numbered Final Fantasy X-2). Unlike other series, where you'll often have to play through them all, in order, to grasp the storyline, you can pick up and play any of the FF games in any order, and still get the full effect. It's an aspect that makes what was traditionally a niche genre surprisingly accessible.

Square's habit of remaking the games (well, the ones prior to VII, anyway) helps bring them to new markets. And I suppose you could also say it gets them more money from the hardcore fans that'll buy every iteration of a game just to pick out the differences, but I'm feeling charitable, so I won't say that. As I mentioned before, I just picked up the Nintendo DS remake of the fourth game, which is considered by some to be the best in the series (other candidates include the sixth and seventh entries, which is a debate that I may blog about later). It's got all the hallmarks of a good remake, like updated graphics and sound and adding new features, while keeping what made the original good in the first place.

I'm not really sure exactly how to conclude this, except to say this entry turned out much longer and more eclectic than I might have originally intended, so I suppose I'll leave you with this: They're good games, go out and give one a try.

Anyway, as I mentioned last week, Friday was my birthday, and with that came presents, among them Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and No More Heroes.

The former is a sequel to one of the biggest games to come out over a decade ago, Final Fantasy VII, which is often credited with bringing the entire role playing game (RPG) genre into the mainstream, with its high production values and unprecedented ad campaign. For those unfamiliar with the series, each Final Fantasy game had been entirely independent of the others in terms of story and game world, with no in-continuity sequels, with the recent exceptions of FFVII and the tenth game.

Alright, now that we're all up to speed, Dirge of Cerberus is a decent stab at an action game starring Vincent Valentine. Of course, if I wanted to be cruel, I'd also say it's Square-Enix's attempt to copy Devil May Cry with its gun-toting red cloaked badass main character (though to be fair,
Vincent came first). The game plays well enough, though Vincent isn't as agile as you might hope, and melee combat is all but insignificant unless you really want to save ammo, which isn't much of an issue. I haven't gotten too far in the story yet, but it seems to be the usual "Save the World" + "Protagonist with a Dark Past" formula which, don't get me wrong, still works. Overall, the game is fun, but it's mainly something for people who're already fans of FFVII.

Now, No More Heroes, on the other hand, is one of the strangest things I've played in a long time, and that's including Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which features an Italian plumber, a giant monkey, an elf, and a space suited warrior woman beating the tar out of each other for no readily apparent reason. The story follows Travis Touchdown, an anime geek who buys a lightsaber off of E-Bay, and then decides to be the world's greatest assassin.

Yeah, seriously.

The game is decked out in ridiculously bright colors, and plays everything so over the top it's absolutely hilarious. So far, my opponents have included a burnt out rock star with a ridiculously large sword, what appears to be Burt Reynolds wielding a pair of six shooters, and a mailman in a superhero suit.

Now once you wrap your mind around that, the game plays pretty well. There are a couple issues, such as how the lock-on cuts off when you do a dodge move, but other than that there's a good variety of enemies and tactics you can use.

I haven't gotten through it yet, but I'm guessing it will only get more bizarre from here on in. It's a very stylish game, and is worth playing just for how patently strange it is.

Now that that's out of the way...anyone got a better idea for a title?

In short, this game was amazing. But, I suppose I ought to write a little bit more than that, so here goes.

Hm...Where to start? The graphics are great. The amount of detail crammed into just about everything is almost unbelievable. The game is almost photorealistic at points. There were times I was almost sure they'd swapped in live action scenes. The effects are just as polished, and it seems to me that it would be almost impossible to improve on the graphics.

The sound design is just as good. Ambient sounds of battle ring out with eerie realism, and the different weapons all have their own distinct effects. The voice acting, like the rest of the series, is top notch, as is the writing. The music fits the mood of the scenes perfectly, from low key melodies to heart pumping techno when you're spotted and have to fight your way out.

And the game plays as well as it looks. They revamped nearly everything about how the game is played compared to previous entries in the series (this is most evident during a brief flashback to the first game), and it takes a little getting used to, but it's also possibly the best control scheme they've come up with yet. Combat's much smoother this time around, and the new elements, like the ongoing battle surrounding most of the environments, are implemented seamlessly and naturally.

And the story, well, I'm not going to spoil anything, but it's definitely worth seeing through to the end. Just about everything from the series, from big questions to nearly forgotten details, is wrapped up in a way that suggests Hideo Kojima, the game's mastermind, planned it all way back in 1998 when Metal Gear Solid came out.

Konami really outdid itself with this game. It's a wonderful finale to a great series, and any fan of action games should pick it up.

So, I ended up picking God of War 2, mostly because I've gotten through it and it's a fairly straight forward game. (And now you know why I was on a Greek mythology kick last week.) Among other things, I've noticed it slows me down a ton, because I literally have to stop to type out notes in every other room. Also, I think I've repeated the phrase "Once they're all dead" about 50 times by now (It's a bit of a violent game, yeah.), and I'm really starting to think I need a thesaurus. Other than that, hey, I'm basically being played to play a video game. Not, you know, a lot, but it's something.

It's got me thinking though. Usually, I only use walkthroughs if I'm looking for something specific, or just something out of the way. For the most part, the first time I play through a game, I try to figure it out on my own. A part of me feels relying on a guide robs you of the experience, like you're just going through the motions instead of really experiencing the game.

Then again, with a game even if you know the whole story and what to do in the bosses, there's still the experience of actually doing it, which is something you won't find in a movie, book, or TV show. And there are people who'll get stuck in a game for any number of reasons, maybe lack of dexterity, or maybe the game has a bad design flaw that will hide the solution to a puzzle that should be obvious. I know that's happened to me a couple of time, so I can see why you'd use a walkthrough.

Of course, none of the above is going to stop me from making the things. Cash is cash, and I'm being payed to do something I'd do anyway.