Lightning

I had actually intended to start this game log last month with Mass Effect 2. Then I powered through the game. I may actually revisit that later with a second playthrough comparing both experiences, but there's something a little more fitting about me starting with a Final Fantasy.

I, like many gamers, got introduced to the series with FFVII. I've stuck with the series ever since and have played at least significant amounts every main series Final Fantasy with the exceptions being FFIII (only got a few hours in) and FFXI (I've never gotten into MMOs). My opinions of the series are all over the place. I wouldn't wish FFII or FFVIII on enemies. I think FFVI and FFVII or amongst the best RPGs ever made. I retroactively regret being as forgiving as I was of Dirge of Cerberus and giving up on Tactics fairly early.

Point being, this series as a gamer matters to me. And looking at much of the coverage for FFXIII, there's much to be examined in the way of changes. There's equal amounts of glowing praise and harsh criticism throw at the game. Both make me skeptical of those speaking. Rarely is anything praised to the moon as great as hyped and the harshest criticisms of this game I've seen so far aren't anything that signifies to me a bad game as much as a load of critics being nearly personally offended Square Enix ventured out of standard JRPG territory.

Even many fans prior to the released seem ready to jump on opposite ends of the poles. Many people were already hailing it to somehow "save the JRPG" somehow with nary a thought to how it was going to sell an entire genre when itself by the admission of it's creators wasn't developed with JRPG design ideas in mind. Fans prepared to hate it upon arrival express outrage that a game within a series that makes changes in universe, battle system and pretty much most things that define previous entries had - wait for it - changed!

My intention will be to go in depth, look at various aspects of the game and give my impressions of how things come together. Don't worry, I'm doing going to give a plot-point by plot-point breakdown, but I do plan on offering some "fair and biased" (don't sue me Randy Galloway) commentary on things as I progress through the game.

With that, I'll post something on hour 1 sometime later in the day. 

In appreciation of classic Sonic, I'm sharing a remix of the "Green Hill Zone" theme from Sonic the Hedgehog entitled "Green Chills" by William Harby, aka WillRock07. You can find it and other music from Harby from the WillRock YouTube Channel.

1. 2010 Preview: Garnett Lee of Shacknews started out the year taking his look at the games of 2010, one that's already released now and selling well in Mass Effect 2 and a few other potential gems I share the same hope for.

2. TGR: Speaking of Mass Effect 2, John Laster gave his take on the game in his review for The Game Reviews you can check out here.

3. Independent's Day: Once again, The Independent Games Festival is gearing up to celebrate your independent's in March at GDC. The 12th Annual IGF Award nominees were announced this month.

4. Steady Mobbin' moment of the count: Highlighting a  Mob Rule community feature from Bitmob wherein members from the Bitmob community attempt to define what exactly 2009 was the year of...

5. EA Sports: Free FIFA, No 3D (yet). Peter Moore shot down any speculation EA Sports would be pushing 3D this year. Thank you. He also announced free-to-play FIFA on the PC which would go into beta in June. This only leads me further to believe EA Sports going to more subscription based versions of games sooner than later.

+1: Works of art: For what's considered as artistic a game as we've seen, it deserves a work of art honoring it. Capcom Unity highlighted an great looking Okami-inspired sculpture. Nice work.

Then tonight I caught a rather annoyed tweet from Daniel Feit whom directed me to Armando Filgueiras Jr.'s Bitmob piece "Is Japan Still Important to Gaming?" I'll admit, on title alone, my initial reaction was to not even bother. Which wasn't fair. Any bold statement or question deserves to be heard out. So, I did give Armando a fair shake to explain the prospect of Japanese games becoming a dying breed and...well...

...really?

I'm dumbfounded how people can't seem to comprehend the idea the growth and expansion of an industry allows for more companies/countries to come in and stake a claim without it somehow simultaneously meaning the downfall of the company/country that has the stranglehold over the industry previously.

The drop in market-share by percentage is very much a valid discussion. Japan has definitely loss ground. But let's not lose perspective here. This isn't like Japan went from having half the market-share in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras and has fallen into obscurity. Western-influence on gaming now has nothing on Japanese in terms of domination at the peak of Japan's hold on the industry. If you want to take words at actual definitions as opposed to using words for dramatic effect, the West isn't even in the neighborhood of domination. 

Much of that had to with the crash in the 80s and that migration to PC in the West. Japan had the console market to itself for a while. PC's, at least in America seemed ruled by Western development. This led to different lineages in game development and audiences that for many didn't even touch what the others were playing. For instance, as influential as Halo was in breaking first-person shooters as a staple in the console space, there was actually nothing new about the FPS to the PC gamer. For people that grew up on console RPGs from Japan that mostly follow the lineage of Dragon Quest, Western RPGs from that follow the lineage of table-top Dungeons & Dragons games seemed deceivingly new and innovative when they came to consoles. Actually, the base gameplay of a disguised die-roll, more directly self-chosen attribute paths, and non-linear storytelling were old hat that predated video games.

This isn't to diminish many of the incredible innovations to come out of the West in recent generations. They have been plenty of industry-changing innovations to come from the West. That's undeniable. But I did want to cite what's a common PC gamer complaint in often innovations in console gaming weren't necessarily new.

Now to upset PC gamers -not that I care- but while PC games were influencing and still influence game development as a whole, if we're using the metric of sales and mainstream acceptance as a gauge, there's a reason most of the top-selling games of all time were developed in Japan for consoles and handhelds. And even looking past Wii Play (i.e. Wii mote with $10 mini-game collection), a great number at the top are Wii and DS games. Just within the VGChartz tracking of the top 50 in worldwide sales for 2009 and even taking out Wii Sports (pack-in) and Wii Play, Japanese games outsold Western games by 34.3 million units. Japanese games penetrate the top of North American and European sales charts far higher than the West does Japan.

Surely, these figures probably don't account for MMO subscriptions, Steam, free indie games, or social networking gaming but that's irrelevant in the context of the debate. With that gap just in sales, it is ludicrous to present the idea the Japanese game industry is becoming irrelevant or that Western development is dominating the industry.

I also find it funny with console makers scrambling to make motion controls, with the DS in its touch screen as well as mobile gaming in the Japan being light years ahead of the West before iPod or iPhone did either, that people proclaim there's a lack of innovation that's coming from Japan. And while I'm as equally excited for the upcoming slate of Western games in 2010 that Armando lists, from what we actually know of them most of that list are arguably not that innovative and may lean more toward the iterative problem for which many Western games decry Japanese games. The one that might truly be innovative in Heavy Rain is still arguably a mix of old tricks (QTE's, context-sensitive controls, non-linear storytelling) with a death mechanic that's may be more interesting in theory than in practice.  I'm as hopeful for the critical darling as anyone, but it's probably leading candidate for 2010 hyped game most likely to actually flop.

But sales aren't everything. History shows sales figures are as much a result of access, audience and promotion as anything else. It's no small wonder that once Microsoft released a successful console in the Xbox (and then the Xbox 360) that, like one the PC, the top selling games for it would be Western games. People tend to buy things produced with their sensibilities in mind. Those things are often created locally as often someone native to a city, region or country understands the cultural nuances better than someone from outside.

So while it's easy to point to Square Enix president's Yoichi Wada's "prejudice"  in the Japanese market line, an American would have to be in complete denial to make a claim Americans don't do the same thing with many products. "Buy American" is a popular economic slogan and there are plenty of people in this country that won't try a food, watch a movie, buy a car, read a book, and yes even buy a game if they perceive it too "foreign." Heck, we can often be tribal with products between different regions within the country. So that's not remotely a mindset problem unique to Japan and aren't keeping games from being sold there

I don't believe one region, barring another industry disaster will probably ever be truly dominate again because of that. Japan the rest of the Asia, North America, and Europe all have their own markets with several things that stay within each and that cross-over into other markets. And all have developers within those regions that understand their regions and will often cater well to them well remain strong in their own foothold.

But rest assured, the rumors of Japanese game development's downfall have been greatly exaggerated.



Naturally for me, that's going to start with The Game Reviews, specifically with EIC John Laster and Editorial/Features Director Sinan Kubba. As with any writer with their editors, we've definitely done our share of butting heads on certain topics. Often people don't appreciate being challenged. Even if I don't immediately appreciate it, I do eventually because ultimately it makes you a better critical thinker and therefore sharpen your voice. Their thoughts and opinion, whether I've agreed or not have done as much to shape my own on games in the past year as any.

Speaking of being influential opinion, I also want to shower a little love on Big Red Potion. There's a load of podcasts out there, many more consistent than the one hosted here. But BRP really stands out in taking the gaming conversation places many shows don't necessarily go without some controversy to lead them there. There's a unique thoughtfulness to it and the diversity of ideas brought to the table. So for that, thanks and many props to Sinan and one TGR Previews Director Joe DeLia.

I don't particularly wear many gamer communities on my sleeve as the typical message board community can be very grating. So as if I didn't already have a load of respect and appreciate for Dan Hsu for everything he's done over this entire career, Bitmob only confirms much of why I look up to the man. In the static that becomes many other communities, through Bitmob Hsu along with the rest of the staff have truly fostered a very thoughtful and creative community of gamers. Some have aspirations to be in the press, many others just appreciate the encouraging outlet for a voice. Two of those voices I really appreciate belong to Daniel Feit and Travis McReynolds.

As a regular 1UP.com visitor, this year started off on a shaky and very familiar note. Particularly the buyout and layoffs. Out of the ashes of that have emerged a lot of great things. For one, 1UP in itself is doing just fine and some voices are really starting to emerge and stand out as a result. My favorite would have to be fellow Carolina Panther fan David Ellis whom I have to credit with doing something I wasn't sure was possible in filling Garnett Lee's shoes very well. He's been somewhat "Aw, shucks" about it, but Ellis has carried that torch quite nicely. Also, Tina Sanchez has really grown on me via the Good Grief/The Oddcast emergence. Silly and prone to the occasional gigglefit, her growth has been a very pleasing thing to watch.

That said, those that have left seem to have landed on their feet quite nicely. CO-OP, the spiritial successor to the 1UP Show may easily be me favorite offshoot from former 1UPers at Area5.tv. It remains funny and entertaining, exposes many games I may have never noticed in other coverage. Along with Bitmob, now these guys are teaming up with the relaunch of EGM so hopefully that mean greater things for their future. As well, I'm offering a final shoutout to the guys at Eat Sleep Game. What they've done with Rebel FM has also been a load of fun to watch grow with the freedom of really having their own voice.

There are load of other people, I'd love to highlight but that would take forever and I would undoubtedly leave someone out. Would they notice, probably not, but all the same. Enjoy doing whatever it you're doing to close out 2009. Be safe, be good, and have a good 2010. Episode 2 is coming soon offering more traditional gaming props. Until then, holla back.

Studio of the Year winner Rocksteady Studios surprised us all with Batman: Arkham Aslyum. They also kicked off the night by announcing Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 to be released in 2010 through Warner Bros. Interactive. Eidos/Square Enix Europe is apparently not involved this time around.

There will be more Halo. There will always be more Halo. At least with Halo: Reach, so far at least there's excitement without the cynical "expansion pack" criticisms.

No one saw the sucess of the initial Crackdown coming. It of course was the thing you that came with a purchase of the Halo 3 multilplayer beta. This time, it stands completely on it's own and is calling for you to blow @#$$ up. Particularily zombies. I'm so sick of zombies....

Some joked after seeing it of it being Modern Warfare 3. Medal of Honor comes to the modern age and it will be interesting to see what the EA military shooter series bring with a new time and setting.

So we go cheap and easy today and mix Peep This with Score and an epic remix.

1. Because Awards Planning Actually Sucks

It's video game awards season and Tina Sanchez, 1UP Community Manager and co-host of The Oddcast and 1UP's Game Night, puts her own spin on the awards discussion after dealing with the not-so-fun official nomination process. With categories such as "He Gave It To His Mama" and "Seriously, WTF" it's not hard to wonder why Ms. Sanchez may need professional help. (Kidding, I've nothing but love for Tina.)

2. I Want What He's Having

Okay, I'm not making any jokes about Sinan Kubba. Primarily because he's the Editorial and Features Director at The Game Reviews that may hold the fate of any piece of work I may throw their way. He's also an intelligent and interesting person if you read or listen to any of his work. From his You Have Lost blog, he recounts a dream of a video game I'm finding even more intriguing now than the day he first mentioned it.  Of course that could just be the NyQuil cocktail talking.

3. Me Me Me Me Me

Seriously, you thought I'd go by birthday not cheap-plugging myself? C'mon! On the Bitmob front, Dan Hsu posed the issue to the community of game review events and whether they cause an integrity issue for the reviews that attend. I take on that issue asserting it's less of an issue than it seems on the surface, but it's for you to decide for yourself.

4. Are You Hardcore?

Editorial Director of Gamefly Media Garnett Lee in Shacknews's Evening Reading for the day takes on the oft-used, rarely clearly defined term "hardcore" and what it means, if it means, anything at all in the present gaming landscape.

5. Anyone Else Want To Hop On This Track?

It's my birthday. Final Fantasy VII just going to get a mention. Period. If you're going to attack the iconic theme of the game uber-villian Sephiroth for a remix, why not throw in a Final Fantasy party's worth of remixers at the project. Taking on "One-Winged Angel" for the OCRemix Voices of the Lifestream album are bLiNd, Fishy, pixietricks, Sixto Sounds, Steffan Andrews, Suzumebachi, tefnek. This is "Black Wing Metamorphsis."