Call me a hater, but I wish we'd get a game like Super Monkey Ball 2 again. Multiplatform, no crappy gimmicks, and all about the weird and extremely crazy level designs. Now the series has degenerated into one with mediocre level designs that are all about the gimmick controls.
@Lozmaster: I've watched all the available videos and have not seen anything remotely close to the more elaborate stages of Monkey Ball 2. Can you post the videos you're talking about?
This week I am going to run down the block to Tsutaya, get my copy and a pack of red bulls or FF13 potions. Then I will proceed to refuse sleep till I finish the game. Enough with the taunting! Its game time!
Will people please stop complaining about the ground textures.
'There flat'. 'There low res'.
Look at the rest of the game, the characters, the lighting, the particle effects. They look great!
It is an amazing looking game. Like all FF's usually are for the generation that they are released.
What would you rather have? Numerous sprouting grasses, bumps and holes on the ground? This would be a clipping nightmare.
Even if they did construct the avatars to move with the ground, there would still be problems; awkward body positions, mid limb placment between high and low ground meaning the said limb would be shaking.
The game looks great. The ground textures are practical. And, considering the rest of the graphical quality, take nothing away from the look of the game.
@GunFlame: Obviously they want games like Oblivion or Fallout, where pop-in occurs every other second...
For real, love it or hate it, XIII is the prettiest looking game this gen. Sure, it might not look realistic like Uncharted does but that's not the point. There is more imagination and creativity put into this world than something that is simply mimicking the real world.
@GunFlame: Developers need to take the time to fix ground issues. 1) if any texture in the world is at a different scale than another, you get a weird contrast between high detail and low detail and that's all I see. 2) Nice ground is already proven possible in other games. Look at Oblivion.
@SpaceNinjaDino: I think it's funny you say "look at Oblivion" as a positive example, when they just got done using it as a negative example (because of clipping)
Maybe in 2 generations, people can just do whatever the hell they want in games, and it will all fit together. It ain't gonna happen next gen, that's for sure.
What I want to know is why we still seem to be limited to three/four characters for a fight. I would've thought that the "next gen" Final Fantasy would at least allow all of the characters to be in a fight at once. There seems to be only six for this game as of now, so it could have very well been a good time to test it out.
Though the player may be limited due to story reasons and that is a decent enough excuse, I guess.
@Elessel: I'd say they have the characters in 'reserve' ala FFX. Man a 6 party squad would have rocked though. That would really have been a use for Gambits!
@excel_excel: That could work as well. Something akin to a tag system? Oh wow, that would be cool as well.
Though I say it would be better for the flashy fighting system of XIII since there are those giant enemies to fight. Plus the action would be crazy and hectic and really drive home the "Advent Children" feeling they were going for.
@excel_excel: Well, the main series FFs could always use a bit more strategy and less grinding, though I do love my grinding.
@Toimia: I wouldn't think 3/2 more people would really be all that confusing. They would just have to tailor the system correctly to make it manageable.
@Elessel: Having 6 characters make sense when coupled with XII like automation system, but any Final Fantasy fan should realize that enemies often have unavoidable area attacks. I'd rather not have my entire party wiped out in one attack. Switching out characters could be a strategy in itself.
Which I never used, by the way. I'd have characters that were levels 70 and 17. I'd only use them for desperation when trying to run away while my main party was wiped out.
@Elessel: May I point you in the direction of Last Remnant. (PC verison) Square experimenting with big party battles ( we're talking 25 man or so here)
Its pretty good, but far too different from final fantasy to be used in the main series.
It just changes the battle system too much if you have to manages lots of people at once.
So its not so much a technical limitation, but just a matter of being able to effectively control and use your party members before it goes from a party based RPG to small scale RTS :P
@deanbmmv: Then again, Golden Sun: The Lost Age allowed you to play with 2 parties of 4 during certain parts. As long as there isn't more than 4 fighting at once, I don't see the harm in having a few backups. I think that would make the gameplay even more interesting as you might want to have a specific character fighting certain battles and maybe not in other battles.
@ostartero: Thats how most Final Fantasies work., you have 3/4/5 guys in battle, and several in reserve. X had the most flexible with this, allowing you to switch party memebers on the fly, XII requiring a visit to the menu, and most others requiring it being swapped about in the overworld (which stopped in IX as theres no over world in later games)
Me personally, I'm going with the PS3 version since according to Famitsu, it'll have uncompressed audio and 1080p cutscenes compared to the Xb0x 360 version.
@dagamer34: Where has it said the xbox won't get the 1080p cutscenes?? and I'm betting people won't be able to tell the difference between the audio.
Now as to which will look better? I'd say the edge will go to the PS3, but it'll probably be a slim difference between the two versions.
Well initially the 360 wasn't slated to have this crap on it's platform. So it was the obvious winner. However after faced with the possibility of not regurgitating another dated title on an entire non-japanophile/non-PS3 owning audience; Sqeenix got with the fucking program. They pulled some talent from a Chinese shovelware studio and made with the conversion. So yea, the Xbox 360 was originally the winner, now it's just another victim.
BA-DUM-BUM! I'll BE TROLLING HERE ALL WEEK FOLKS, TRY THE CHOCOBO!!!
Looking good. Character and Monster models look superb.
Yeah the grass is really flat why not do what MGS3 did for grass then? I hope theres some battles taken place on water too, that'd be a heck of a visual treat.
@Chrystolis: Fuck that'd be awesome! *salutes* I don't think the game has anything like it though, I;m sure Square-Enix would have shown something as mindblowing as that already!
@Azures: For a game that prides itself on being fantastic looking and transporting you to new worlds, it should look good. It seems all they've focused on are the models.
CODER: Whew! All done with the character models and animation! Now, time to work on that little insignificant detail -- the surface of the world -- which we've neglected all these years.
WADA: No! You mustn't! We'll ship without ground if we have to!
@Azures: If I were a developer who had worked on the same engine for many years, I would definitely try to make everything look good especially when you use the grass for cover. If a PS2 game can have moving grass while I'm crawling through it, why can't Modern Warfare.
@Azures: I'm pretty sure someone in the industry cares about the graphics of the grass, same goes for anything in nature..just look at water in games these days to see how far it's come.
@CherryIcee: 1. The game has to be the same for both systems. And lets be real, the 360 has less capability than the ps3. It's fine, it's a fact. Whether or not devs harness the power is inconsequential (uncharted 2 for instance), and its a double edged sword since its more difficult to develop for. Goin devil's advocate here, no fanboy war.
2. Multiplayer is gonna have less graphical requirements than the single in order for it to run efficiently. So that's another instance where grass can easily get the axe.
@excel_excel: There are plenty of things on the floor in mw2, some of them can even kill you. Things on the ground and the texture they use for the ground are two different things. Personally, doesn't matter. Because if the game is doing its job you don't give a crap about how the grass looks, that dude over there is shooting at you.
@Azures: I wasn't talking about Modern Warfare or any game, i never once stated that.
What i WAS saying is that as games grow and go along everything should be improving, not just one aspects, and yes, that means more texture in things such as grass, water, etc.
@Altima NEO: On the flipside, perhaps they spent too much time making it look fantastic and not enough time realizing their gameplay was trash :(
I agree graphics are important, but so many people seem to be panning the ground texture. Lush grass (etc) would be nice, though I have a feeling there will be more than enough going on during battles to think much of the ground texture. Looking at static screenshots makes such things much more noticeable.
@MaximumPayne: Exactly. As a Forza/GT player, I couldn't really get behind it because the physics frustrated me soooooo much despite my tolerance of GT4's silliness.
The more I see of this game the less I think I'm going to like it. It is still a day one buy for me though, I just don't know how much more of this 'clean' look I'm going to suffer though. XIII Versus--where are you anyways?--has the problem.
I've moaned about this before, so I'll not repeat what I've said, but I sure do miss the grit and grime of VII. The plausibility helped me connect to the characters and care all the more. This game, XIII, has as much in common with me and my life as, well, as Star Trek. Not much.
@Friedhamster: I'm not too excited for this game either, although being a huge fan of the final fantasy series...i'm sure i'll pick this up, but the wait is easy on me
You know, I don't know what it is about this game.
It clearly is GOW repackaged, but there's something about the storyline that seems far more interesting.
Maybe its the nod to the Orpheus myth, the reworking of Christian iconography, or even the critical eye it casts towards Christianity...
But now that I think about it, I think I actually like this more than GoW because it's about Christianity in general- something that feels much closer to home than Greek Mythology. Though Greek Mythology is a great setting for storytelling, I just don't feel as emotionally attached to the imagery or story as I do when speaking about contemporary religion.
Though I wish they'd attempted to be at least a little more subtle with their presentation, I'm officially interested in this game. I wonder how far they will take the Orpheus connection...
Wouldn't a virtual vacation be better on the holodeck?
But, color me excited if I can visit Deep Space 9. Ever since ST:DS9 Harbinger, I've wanted to explore the whole station (not just one tiny section closed off because of repairs ...).
During the fight with the Grim Reaper (??) my demo got stuck with me in the grips of the reaper, upside down, with our heads sticking though the bottom side of the island. Not frozen, just stuck.
Kind of a fitting end to my already skeptical following of this game, based on what is arguably my favorite piece of literature ever.
@FaceFisted: Funky Fanatic: True, but a game breaking bug like that is a bit more telling than say some slowdown or texture loading. I had to restart my PS3.
I have to admit that for a clone that REALLY wants to be god of war, this demo was actually not half bad. I might have to consider picking this one up now.
12/15/09
Call me a hater, but I wish we'd get a game like Super Monkey Ball 2 again. Multiplatform, no crappy gimmicks, and all about the weird and extremely crazy level designs. Now the series has degenerated into one with mediocre level designs that are all about the gimmick controls.
12/15/09
Congrats, you haven't watched any of the newer videos for this game, it looks a LOT more like monkey ball 2 than any of the games since.
12/15/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
Will people please stop complaining about the ground textures.
'There flat'. 'There low res'.
Look at the rest of the game, the characters, the lighting, the particle effects. They look great!
It is an amazing looking game. Like all FF's usually are for the generation that they are released.
What would you rather have? Numerous sprouting grasses, bumps and holes on the ground? This would be a clipping nightmare.
Even if they did construct the avatars to move with the ground, there would still be problems; awkward body positions, mid limb placment between high and low ground meaning the said limb would be shaking.
The game looks great. The ground textures are practical. And, considering the rest of the graphical quality, take nothing away from the look of the game.
12/14/09
For real, love it or hate it, XIII is the prettiest looking game this gen. Sure, it might not look realistic like Uncharted does but that's not the point. There is more imagination and creativity put into this world than something that is simply mimicking the real world.
12/14/09
12/14/09
I like the look of Oblivion, and the game is awesome, but it is a little rough around the edges.
12/14/09
Maybe in 2 generations, people can just do whatever the hell they want in games, and it will all fit together. It ain't gonna happen next gen, that's for sure.
12/14/09
12/14/09
Though the player may be limited due to story reasons and that is a decent enough excuse, I guess.
12/14/09
12/14/09
Though I say it would be better for the flashy fighting system of XIII since there are those giant enemies to fight. Plus the action would be crazy and hectic and really drive home the "Advent Children" feeling they were going for.
12/14/09
12/14/09
@Toimia: I wouldn't think 3/2 more people would really be all that confusing. They would just have to tailor the system correctly to make it manageable.
12/14/09
Which I never used, by the way. I'd have characters that were levels 70 and 17. I'd only use them for desperation when trying to run away while my main party was wiped out.
12/14/09
Its pretty good, but far too different from final fantasy to be used in the main series.
It just changes the battle system too much if you have to manages lots of people at once.
So its not so much a technical limitation, but just a matter of being able to effectively control and use your party members before it goes from a party based RPG to small scale RTS :P
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But I would rather that there was standard leveling rather that complete reliance on some kind of grid system like X and XII.
I've kept pretty far away from most of the XIII stuff, so as far as indepth knowledge goes, im pretty limited.
Just the way I like it! :D
12/14/09
Me personally, I'm going with the PS3 version since according to Famitsu, it'll have uncompressed audio and 1080p cutscenes compared to the Xb0x 360 version.
12/14/09
Now as to which will look better? I'd say the edge will go to the PS3, but it'll probably be a slim difference between the two versions.
I'll be getting the PS3 version.
12/14/09
"360 vs. PS3 version, FIGHT!"
Well initially the 360 wasn't slated to have this crap on it's platform. So it was the obvious winner. However after faced with the possibility of not regurgitating another dated title on an entire non-japanophile/non-PS3 owning audience; Sqeenix got with the fucking program. They pulled some talent from a Chinese shovelware studio and made with the conversion. So yea, the Xbox 360 was originally the winner, now it's just another victim.
BA-DUM-BUM! I'll BE TROLLING HERE ALL WEEK FOLKS, TRY THE CHOCOBO!!!
12/14/09
12/14/09
If I can't access it, I'll be a very sad panda.
12/14/09
12/14/09
Now I'm sad.
12/14/09
12/14/09
Yeah the grass is really flat why not do what MGS3 did for grass then? I hope theres some battles taken place on water too, that'd be a heck of a visual treat.
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CODER: Whew! All done with the character models and animation! Now, time to work on that little insignificant detail -- the surface of the world -- which we've neglected all these years.
WADA: No! You mustn't! We'll ship without ground if we have to!
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/14/09
people care, people notice
12/14/09
2. Multiplayer is gonna have less graphical requirements than the single in order for it to run efficiently. So that's another instance where grass can easily get the axe.
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What i WAS saying is that as games grow and go along everything should be improving, not just one aspects, and yes, that means more texture in things such as grass, water, etc.
12/14/09
I mean for a high profile game, I expect more on the ground than just a flat plane with a grass texture.
I mean, take Nuts and Bolts. Drive around Showdown Town. For a game people didnt like, it looks fantastic
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I agree graphics are important, but so many people seem to be panning the ground texture. Lush grass (etc) would be nice, though I have a feeling there will be more than enough going on during battles to think much of the ground texture. Looking at static screenshots makes such things much more noticeable.
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And if it somehow affects you and makes you like the game less, you're way too OCD.
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The first area of the game is kind of lame, until you get enough awesome parts.
12/14/09
@MaximumPayne: Exactly. As a Forza/GT player, I couldn't really get behind it because the physics frustrated me soooooo much despite my tolerance of GT4's silliness.
12/14/09
I've moaned about this before, so I'll not repeat what I've said, but I sure do miss the grit and grime of VII. The plausibility helped me connect to the characters and care all the more. This game, XIII, has as much in common with me and my life as, well, as Star Trek. Not much.
12/14/09
12/14/09
12/11/09
It clearly is GOW repackaged, but there's something about the storyline that seems far more interesting.
Maybe its the nod to the Orpheus myth, the reworking of Christian iconography, or even the critical eye it casts towards Christianity...
But now that I think about it, I think I actually like this more than GoW because it's about Christianity in general- something that feels much closer to home than Greek Mythology. Though Greek Mythology is a great setting for storytelling, I just don't feel as emotionally attached to the imagery or story as I do when speaking about contemporary religion.
Though I wish they'd attempted to be at least a little more subtle with their presentation, I'm officially interested in this game. I wonder how far they will take the Orpheus connection...
12/11/09
But, color me excited if I can visit Deep Space 9. Ever since ST:DS9 Harbinger, I've wanted to explore the whole station (not just one tiny section closed off because of repairs ...).
12/11/09
Kind of a fitting end to my already skeptical following of this game, based on what is arguably my favorite piece of literature ever.
This was the PS3 demo, by the way.
12/11/09
12/12/09
I guess hell froze over.
12/12/09
12/11/09
Call it what you will, but i did enjoy the demo and so i'll buy it...the release date it's a little problematic tho ^_^
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