Right now I have 200 achievements points, have won 50 games solo as random, 50 games 2v2 as random and working on getting more achievements with the other races. I’m really on the fence on my favorite race, I play a lot of Terran but recently went back to Protoss mostly due to the strength of a proxy gateway rush. So long as I can manage building/teching while harassing with Gateways at their door it works.

Every race has its strength and weaknesses. Zerg, as always, has the versatility to mass produce at a rapid pace and being able to switch techs on the fly; but expanding is key in surviving as a Zerg player. Mass production and outproducing your opponent is really important. Right now my weakness playing as Zerg is a mid-to-late transition. Early game with Zerg is pretty straightforward; either speedlings or mass roaches. Then you either choose hydras or mutas. That’s about all you see. Sooner or later brood lords is ideal as their siege, but it’s so late game that most games end in that point.

Protoss is seeing a lot of proxy gateways with a zealot rush, transitioning to stalkers and immortals. The key to a good proxy gateway rush is to make sure you manage your economy and tech quickly to stalkers. Zealots hit a wall without range backup – especially if you’re trying it against a Terran that has managed to wall off, or come close to walling off. Adding a degree of difficulty to the entire rush is harassing with your probe once your two gateways are building. It’s amazing how far back an opponent can be set with just some good harassment with a probe.

I played a lot of my games as Terran, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to win now that I’m Rank 2 in Gold League in a packed division. I’ve played several Platinum players as Terran and it’s all about the early game rush. Terran marines are obviously weak against 6 zerglings or 1 zealot. Your benefit is being able to wall off, but medivac drops, warp ins and even Nydus is the quick way around it. But still to me Terran is very versatile since almost every game you end up building at least one barracks, one factory and one starport. You can switch techs fairly quickly, but to maintain any reasonable Terran production you always end up quadrupling up on a building, if not more. There are games where I’ve sported three tech barracks and two reactor barracks (allows you to produce two marines at a time) just to maintain usage of my economy.

The opening 5-6 minutes is key to every Starcraft2 game. There are just so many opening strategies people can use – I like comparing it to a Chess game. Either you’re on the defensive or the offensive in the first few minutes. You may not always win with a rush and sometimes it’s better to counter the rush and attack. Such a fine balance between micro’ing and macro’ing, the game is quite different than Warcraft III which I spent several years playing.

I did play the original Starcraft but not very competitively and not as intense as I have even these last couple of months in the beta of SC2. I’ll probably start keeping a log of my favorite games every few days from now until the beta break and then post my feedback and feelings on the game.

Sorry that the post is sort of all over the place, just found some time in between work and play to drop some words on the game.

I did have a great game tonight where I did a proxy gateway rush on a zerg player that countered it nearly to perfection. The early game went back and forth and he was able to keep an overlord in my base to monitor what I was doing. Once I realized my initial rush was failing I switched over to a cybernetics core to get stalkers and threw down a robotics for immortals. He continued to harrass me with speedlings straight to my mineral line, so some delicate micro’ing with my probes, zealots and stalkers allowed me to survive. He teched to mass hydras (which was expected at that point of the game) so I got out one colossus to counter. We had a couple more fights before I managed to break into his base. He switched to mutas, but it was a little too late. It’s a great 30+ minute game of going back and forth against a great player.

I’ll see about recording the replay and tossing it up on Vimeo. It’s a great watch!

Anyways, more updates with just random thoughts on SC2, strategy talk, unit talk, counters, etc.

Someone needs to make that into a t-shirt.

• Never have I been so intrigued and immersed into a game where I’m doing controller motions to tie a knot into another man’s tie, while talking about catching a serial killer.

The things that most of the reviews were critical about weren’t even the things that affected my judgment on the game.  What the game really just lacked was memorable characters and a memorable storyline.  I mentioned in a previous post that the whole “us against the world” theme was just bad.  And even at the end of the game you sit there and wonder what really just happened.  I mean the ending really didn’t reflect what the main characters went through the entire game.  For those that watch American Idol, as Simon Cowell always says, it just “lacked that moment”.  There wasn’t anything to make you open your eyes and say, WOW; there were not plot twists or turns that really made an impact.  Everything was very vanilla and I’d even argue that the game’s storyline is really flat throughout.  The first two hours are probably the most exciting, and the last two hours are probably a tidbit less.  The rest of the 40 or so odd hours are pretty unrevealing, semi-dramatic and well, plain.

You play through the game just waiting for that sudden moment that we’ve all come to expect and love in any Final Fantasy game.  I just feel like it never gets there.  When you beat the game, the ending is such a letdown you sit there and really ask yourself “is that it?”  That’s what Square Enix has been working on for almost half a decade?  Yes the game is absolutely gorgeous and probably has the best soundtrack ever, but it’s so full of lettuce and tomatoes you have to wonder where the meat went.

Truth be told, I have still logged a good 10 hours since post game.  The post-game play is pretty enjoyable for those that have grinded through MMOs.  It’s just a ton of missions and I wouldn’t mind working my way to collecting the platinum trophy achievement.  It’s a lot of fighting and a lot of grinding, but the mobs that are available to you are interesting and really difficult.  Sitting there developing a strategy and trying endless possibilities of party group and paradigm combinations makes the post-game entertaining to me.  I can see why the majority wouldn’t think so, but so far it’s been OK for me.  It’s by far the first Final Fantasy game I kept playing after I had beaten it, so I guess that deserves some sort of credit.  But on the flipside of that, I can continue playing it because I don’t seem to be missing anything.  The plot was just that bleak to me.  I can run around Gran Pulse for hours fighting mobs and riding on chocobos and it’s the same enjoyment I got playing through the actual game.

The characters are just a bust to me.  None are forgettable, but none are unforgettable, if that makes any sense.  Unlike most other JRPGs I’ve recently played, I won’t forget any of Final Fantasy XIII’s cast members and their voices but it’s probably out of annoyance than appreciation.  If you were to pay me $1,000.00 to spout out the cast of Lost Odyssey I’d probably fail to do so.  But there’s just no character you want to fall in love with.  It seems like their philosophy of trying to build up each character’s story and how they were brought together for this mission fell apart by spreading itself too thin.  They dabble on each character line, some are confusingly so, but you never end up wanting to cheer them on or go to the next section of the map to see what happens next.  Final Fantasy X had so much mystery and intrigue to it; I had an awfully hard time to put my controller down.  Same goes for VII, VIII and even IX.  Hell, even X-2.  XIII wasn’t difficult to stop playing and take a long break.  You just knew what was going to happen next.
The lack of a strong villain was disappointing too.  They didn’t do a good enough job with the other possibilities and the cameo appearances and quick deaths of each semi-villain were disappointing.  And I’ll reiterate one more time; the crystarium system sucks.  Worst of any Final Fantasy game ever.  Even upgrading weapon’s becomes linear and a huge farming task.

So what are the positives to the game?  At the end of the day, it’s still fun.  It’s the first game in a very long time that I managed to sit down, play through and beat in any sort of reasonable time.  The fighting was fun and in absence of a great story, it kept my interest in seeing what battle would be next and how I would manage to five-star it.  The Paradigm System is above and beyond the most fun I’ve ever had in battles, especially since you get so used to just spamming the OK button over and over in previous games.  The challenge and constant seeing of the Game Over screen made Final Fantasy XIII different in that aspect.  It wasn’t as easy as previous games and knowing that you couldn’t quite power level yourself for farm, the strategy involved in doing it right made it nice.

As I mentioned before, the graphics are of course peerless and the soundtrack is my favorite so far.  But unfortunately that’s about it for me.  Final Fantasy XIII is an interesting combination of a strictly linear JRPG with a substandard storyline and characters.  When the game does switch over to free-roaming Gran Pulse, it’s still somewhat limited due to the fact that you can’t beat half the mobs or missions, even if your peak out.  You need that final level of the crystarium unlocked to really stand a reasonable and non-frustrating chance to win.  So when the game does open it, it’s a false sense of ”fun” so to say; you spend a couple of hours exploring and attempting missions until you finally hit a wall and just want to progress onto the rest of the story.  But Gran Pulse is fun when you return after the game, if it’s your cup of tea.

Overall I have to say I’m disappointed in the game.  It ranks somewhere in the middle of the pile for me out of all Final Fantasies.  I like where the series is heading graphically and even gameplay-wise, but I really wish they’d revisit what made their other titles so strong and lovable.  I would most definitely recommend a play-through by anybody; JRPG fan or not.  It’s worth experiencing, much like the movie Avatar in IMAX 3D.  It’s a testament to the direction that gaming is heading.  And hell, to those that didn’t grow up playing the classic Final Fantasy games this one may be all that much better to you.  Here’s to hoping the next chapter in the Final Fantasy XIII series is a better one.

I’ll be jumping back to Starcraft II when I return from Orlando, Florida.  I’ll post some in-depth stuff on it, by popular demand.

What I love so far:

• The battle system – I’m not sure what FFXIII game some of the critics are playing but this game is not easy.  I have by far accumulated more Game Over screens in the first 20 hours of this game than I have in all previous Final Fantasy games combined.  Yes the majority of the battles can be completed by spamming ‘X’, especially if you’re in a Commander, Ravager, Medic role.  But to do each fight successfully and in a timely basis, it’s really a lot of fun.  There is constant switching of paradigms and even strategically hitting triangle (to unleash your queued ATB earlier) makes this battle system by far one of the best, if not the best.  I find it advantageous to open up a lot of fights with Synergist buffs and Saboteur debuffs.
• The variations of ‘Flan’ mobs – Flandragora, Flanitor, Flanborg.  A nice little treat if you grew up playing Final Fantasy games.
• The soundtrack – I love Final Fantasy music.  So much so that I even attended their Distant Worlds concert last year in San Francisco and plan on going to it this year.  FFXIII has the best soundtrack of any Final Fantasy game by far and really lends to the epicness of the entire game.  Everything feels much more on a grander scale thank to the game’s score.
• Sazh has a CHOCOFRO!
• Not having to use potions, tents (or cabins!) in the game.  Each battle is like a mini-strategy game where the goal is to just succeed.  Having to have potions in between fights was always an inconvenience in my opinion and I’m really glad Square Enix did away with that.
• Item upgrading is really cool.  There is just so much strategy involved with choosing the right weapon, what to upgrade, and how.  Especially with the lack of Gil in the game so far.  There have been a few grinding spots, but it’s not like previous Final Fantasy games.

What I dislike so far:

• The characters.  I feel like they went a little over the top with the “us against the world” theme.  It’s a little played out in my opinion, though they do a good job with the actual story, it’s annoying hearing every character whine about this and that so far.  This game needs an Auron from Final Fantasy X.  Someone that just never cried.
• More specifically, Sazh – by far the weakest character in any Final Fantasy game to date.  His story seems to be filler, and it’s almost like he was the token black guy that Square Enix tossed in.  Up until now the majority of his story is played out paired up with Vanille, who is also a somewhat weak character (though her background has meaning to the game, much more so than Sazh).  The one thing that really hurts it is the gap between revisiting their story line and even when you do it’s for a real short duration compared to the other heroes.  You move two screens, watch a couple of cutscenes, and then it’s back to business with Lightning and her crew.

What I hate:

• The crystarium system is really weak.  It hasn’t gotten better since the first 10 hours, not that I ever expected it to.  It’s just blah.  Considering how great the Sphere Grid was in X and the License system in 12, I’m a little disappointed in what they came up with for 13.  Especially how brilliant the battle system is.
• Hope – Unlike the characters I dislike, Hope I just hate.  At first I perceived him as a much younger version of Cloud.  But he’s just a big baby and his character development is just horrible.  Wah wah wah.  He’s not the weakest character though because his story develops with a little bit more of a meaning from the get-go, unlike Sazh’s.  If you were to mix Final Fantasy universes, Auron would cut off Hope’s head with his big giant sword.

Overall I find it ironic that I’m complaining more about the story than the gameplay changes Square Enix did with this one.  I personally think every one of the changes that every one else is complaining about are great.  I like the linear gameplay, progression of the storyline, lack of towns and shopping made simple.  I mean did you really enjoy buying your potions from one place in a town then walking across the map to buy a weapon?  Weapon upgrading is so much better.

I’m a little further behind than other people that are playing this game at this time mark.  But I took some time to grind for Chips (that you sell for Gil) and to upgrade my weapons, accessories and characters.  I found a nice little spot where mobs actually regen as you walk back and forth and most of them drop Chips.  So I’ll blog again once I get out to Gran Pulse.

So far the game is more fun than any of the other previous Final Fantasies I’ve played, but the story line so far is probably in the middle of the pack.  Greater than 8, 9 and 12, but certainly less than 4, 6, 7 and 10.  1 doesn’t count, and I don’t think I should bother comparing it to the ones that hardly anyone played since they came out as remakes on PSX and random platforms like GBA.