I beat my first Final Fantasy game.  I just finished the GBA version of Final Fantasy.  It was pretty easy, I got my characters up to level 65 before tackling the final boss who I beat on my first try.  Next I'm going to play a few PC games courtesy of GamersGate and I look forward to Dragon Quest 6 coming out next month.  After those I'll tackle Final Fantasy 2!

Doom, Alone in the Dark, Mortal Kombat, House of the Dead, Blood Rayne...  When you saw these, did it feel as if you were being punished?  We, as gamers, are letdown repeatedly by these half-efforts at making a good film.  The potential is there, why can't these films be at least on par with the rest of what the movie industry gives us?

The problem stems from a director's inability to portray the game in an effective way.  The actions inside of a game cannot be mimicked on screen, it's up to the director to portray their own vision of things, not to try to copy game in every facet.  Remember the first person shooter scene from Doom?  If you do, you should learn to block it out like I have, because that is exactly the reason game-movies are awful.

The movie industry is butchering what could be great movies, all to gain a quick buck off of us fans. Doom should never have been made into a movie, period. It’s the epitome of a mindless shooter, and it has done nothing story-wise. Was it a fun game? Yes. It was revolutionary in its time, but not because of its story.

Silent Hill held a lot of promise, but it was a letdown. Overall, I liked the movie, but it was mediocre at best and could have been so much better. The same could be said for Max Payne. Again, it held promise, but was ultimately a letdown. These games are perfect candidates for something that could be turned into wonderful, thought provoking films, but no one wants to try with them.

Budget gaming is an art form, and I am a Picasso in the field.  I rarely spend $60 on a new game when, for the same price, I could get two or three olde titles.  Being the artist I am, I always choose to let my games age, like fine wine.  Not only are they better in my eyes, but I don't feel robbed when I buy them.  In the list I am about to present, expect the games to reflect upon what I have just said.

Game I'm Digging:

Prototype - Despite what I'd heard, I'm greatly enjoying this game.  The freedom of being an anti-hero is rather refreshing.

Alan Wake - So thought provoking.  The atmosphere and story are both highly praised by me.

Okay I admit it...I hack my gold in Majesty 2 games.  I use a free program called Cheat Engine.  It's pretty easy to use.  Make sure you go through the tutorial.  Here's what I do for Majesty 2:

1. Launch Cheat Engine
2. Launch Majesty 2
3.  Start your game and take note on the amount of gold you have. (Save your game!)
4.  Alt-Tab and go back to Cheat Engine.  Choose the Majesty 2 process.  
5.  Type in the Gold value, select Float for scan type and click the First Scan button. Wait for it to finish.
6.  Go back to Majesty 2 and when the gold changes go back to Cheat Engine.
7.  Type in the new Gold value and click on Next Scan.  When it finishes you should see 2 memory addresses.
8.  Double click on those addresses and they will go to the bottom.  Double click on them again and enter the desired amount of gold.  999999 works for me.  :)

With the end of year sales and Christmas, I don't know about you, but we ended up with a few new games.  Rather than going through each game and trying to play all of them at once, I took a different approach.  I decided to take it easy and get to know one or two games at a time.  It's helped me to really enjoy and savor each game, rather than moving quickly on to the next one.

Between Black Friday and Christmas, we got five games.  We did not start playing anything until Christmas, though.  I've been concentrating on "Mario Kart Wii" and "Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Wii)" and having a great time.  Both of these games have been superb and very enjoyable.  Mario Kart has been fun for our whole family and we often play it together.  "Shaun White" has mainly been single player gaming, but my daughter and I just started playing the multiplayer part of the game.  Both of us have been having lots of fun with it.  The controls are really well done and the game itself is quite enjoyable.

I recently popped in "Toy Story Mania (Wii)".  Reviews have been mixed, and rightly so.  The interface is rather confusing and what they call 'Story Mode' is not a story and also contains a few rather weak mini-games.  Initial impressions were...confused.  But after further play, and moving into the more open parts of the game, you realize those weak mini-games are rare and most of the mini-games are full of fun and charm.  It's a great family game as you play against each other and compete for high scores.

Still left to play is "NBA Jam (Wii)" and "Kid Adventures: Sky Captain (Wii)".  Not sure when I'll get to those, but in the meantime, I am very happy with the first three purchases.

Mood: Relaxed with some energy from the Pepsi

Thinking About: When I'm going to brush up on Japanese before class starts

Currently Playing: Bioshock 2, Dragon Age: Origins -- Ultimate Edition, Aion

Maybe I should actually play....  If you're too cheap to buy Minecraft here's a free alternative : Maniac Digger