CVG Christmas Game Guide (patent pending)

It's that time of year again! As much as I deplore the consumerist, materialist, fill-up-the-void-in-your-life-with-more-crap attitude that pervades Adventide here in America, this is a videogame blog, and as anyone who's got kids/young adults/teenagers/boyfriends/girlfriends undoubtedly knows, videogames are not only almost always on someone's wish list, but they can make a good "filler" gift, as well.

So, to make the secular side of the season a little more bearable, I'm going to use this post as a "catch-all" for those interested in discussing the various games available right now - want to know if a game is appropriate for your son/daughter? In a Christmas budget crunch and need to know how to get the most bang for your buck? Got recommendations for other readers on good deals? Bored out of your mind and just need to vent about the long lines and crazy soccer moms who apparently don't know the difference between Rock Band 3 and Epic Mickey? Well, here's your chance!

So there you have it: the first official authorized Catholic Video Gamers all-purpose awesomesauce on toast-fueled Advent-2-Christmas Game Guide. Post away!

Nintendo 3DS Conference

As usual, NeoGAF has all the information one could ask for.

Things I like:

- Tales of the Abyss DS (it looks just as good as the ps2 original)
- virtual console for game boy games
- release date: March 11, 2011.

Things I don't like:
- $250. Sadface, groan, etc. I spend too much on games as it is.
- lack of American developer support
- lack of F-Zero 3DX

Still pretty amped, though. Thoughts?

E3!!!

Ok, so we've seen all the press conferences. Zelda. Killzone 3. Golden Sun DS. A Gears of War rip-off...blah, blah, blah. I'll be honest: nothing too interesting so far, and at this point, the only revelations we can expect are impressions from the show floor. Ah well... I'm too busy playing Pokemon right now to care! Maybe if they announce FFXIII Versus for the 360...or an new F-Zero game...

Anything noteworthy from my fellow gamers? That new Xbox 360 slim looks pretty nifty...

In Case You Missed It (Because I Sure Did!): Dragon Quest IX release date is official

...as per neoGAF, portable old-school role-playing heads stateside July 11.

Interesting to note that Nintendo, not Square-Enix, is the publisher this time around. The ESRB rating is E10+ (DQ VIII on the ps2 was rated "T for Teen," as have most other mainline entries in the Dragon Quest series). Hopefully Nintendo doesn't bungle the transliterations - I'm all for family-friendly games, but this is a game series where the dialogue contributes a great deal to the overall enjoyment of the game, and I'd hate to see a diluted translation of an excellent script just to maintain more accessibility amongst the younger gaming set.

Nintendo's got a pretty impressive teaser up on their official website, FWIW:

http://dragonquest.nintendo.com./

What's on the Horizon for 2010?

Though I've had some success in eliminating my gaming backlog this holiday season, I'd be kidding myself if I committed to doing this throughout the coming year.

So, here's a list of video games slated for a 2010 release that I'm looking forward to:

Pokemon Heartgold/Soulsilver (I'm a pokemaniac. Need I say more?)

Dragon Quest IX (portable Dragon Quest! WIll the soundtrack be as good as VIII's though?)

Final Fantasy XIII (all indications are that it is NOT like Final Fantasy XII, so I'm all in!)

Star Wars: The Old Republic (in spite of it being an MMO)

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (even though I haven't really played the first one!)

Yeah, it's rpg-heavy, but I'm a sucker for the genre, and even though there really isn't much else I'm interested in, DQ and Pokemon alone (let alone together!) will be enough for me in the coming year.

Dark Void, Capcom's latest action game, is out soon, too...anyone gonna go out and buy that one?

Bitten by the poke-bug!

For the second year in a row. Anyone got any remedy for it? My brothers go back to school on Monday, and we're aiming to finish New Super Mario Bros. Wii sooner rather than later.

On a side note: Anyone have some "co-op" wii game recommendations, aside from the various "LEGO" variants? I've got relatives anxious for a new multiplayer wii game for the family, but I couldn't recommend anything outside of the New Super Mario Bros...and frankly, they seemed fairly disinterested in it, anyway.

DS Game of the Year?

My brother picked up a fairly obscure Western DS RPG yesterday after seeing its high metacritic average (metacritic.com is a website that compiles reviews for a given video game and averages them into a composite score; for you movie buffs out there, think Rottentomatoes.com, but for video games):



IGN is calling it the "sleeper hit of the year." My brother bought it and was, for better or for worse, up until the wee hours of the morning playing it. He enthusiastically described the game mechanics in a way that was clearly meant to entice me to purchase a copy of my own - I may as yet do so, especially after reading IGN's review.

Has anyone else played this game?

Cooperation and Competition in Video Games

First off, a belated Merry Christmas to all readers of this blog. God bless each and every one of you!

Here's what my dad and I bought my younger brothers for Christmas:



I was under the impression that this game was just a "wii-make" of the Nintendo DS game of the same name from three years ago. Turns out I was wrong, and good thing, too: it's as if the game was designed with the Kirchoff clan in mind. It's more cooperative than competitive, which seems to be a rarity for video games these days outside of the shooter genre.

My brother Tim has introduced me to another cooperative game, Resident Evil 5. My aversion to blood, gore, and the like isn't preventing me from enjoying it, either. In fact, I feel like I'm playing some Indiana Jones spin-off more often than not - except for the blood and guts, of course. It may be worth re-examining the last blog post in light of this game, as well.

All that for later, though. The important thing: cooperative multiplayer gaming is AWESOME. Period. And as much as "playing a sport" could probably do this just as well, you can't play basketball outside when there's snow on the ground.

I'll (hopefully) post more detailed impressions of both of these games later (or, alternatively, another poster will!). For now, though, less typing, and more, you know, actual game-playing. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Imagination Station

Something I frequently hear from video game detractors of all varieties is the claim that video games as a collective whole "stifle the imagination."

Here's a strawman to refute that claim: Scribblenauts, the new DS platforming/adventure title that should be available at most United States retailers as of the day of this posting.

Normally, I would offer the readership a quick soundbite about the game, but nothing I could say describes the game as well as this video:



Interesting, no?

What Video Games Do Seminarians and Priests Play?

Being a seminarian myself, I'm acutely aware of the peculiar curiosity that Catholics and non-Catholics alike have regarding the "daily grind" of seminary living. While there are certainly many differences between the life of a seminarian and your average college-age young adult (more, I'd wager, than the moratorium on dating that comes with the job description), here's one similiarity that won't surprise readers of this blog: both seminarian and non-seminarian alike LOVE video games!

Here's a sampling of the video games I've played/seen people playing within the past week or so at St. Joseph College Seminary, where I live and study 9 months of the year:


Far Cry 2

Call of Duty 4

Soul Calibur IV

Mortal Combat vs. DC Universe

Rock Band 2

Tales of Vesperia

Star Ocean 4

Civilization Revolution


...and that's ONLY counting Xbox 360 games. I am one of 6 priests and/or seminarians who owns one, and living in community makes it easy for us to keep what I call a "diversified gaming portfolio" - a vast collection of video game titles of many different genres. It saves money, too; you can bet that at least of one of us is paying attention when a high-profile game is about to be released!

One of the guys here has a PS3, another has a PSP, and at least one of my brother seminarians has a Nintendo DS, as well. PC gaming, too, has something of a following here; we've got at least one Half-Life/Portal PC player in our ranks.

One thing I'm not seeing: MMO's. I can't stand the accursed genre myself; maybe the other guys steer clear of the genre to avoid the perils of online game addiction? Whatever the reason, gaming is alive and well at at least one college seminary in the country. How's that for a snapshot of seminary living?

Fellow Gamers! A Request!

After purchasing Knights in the Nightmare and Dragon Quest Swords last week, I foolishly forgot to inquire about a "wireless internet adapter" or some doohickey with a similar-sounding name for the Xbox 360 that lets me use a wifi connection to access Xbox LIVE. It's hard to believe I've owned an Xbox 360 for upwards of 3 years now and I STILL haven't been able to get on LIVE! That will change once I get my grimy gaming hands on this adapter thingamajig (hopefully!) Only problem: I don't know where to start looking for a good deal on this particular item (no surprise if I don't even know what the heck this thing is called, hence why I'm also refraining from googling about it, at least for now. St. Jude and St. Anthony, pray for me!) I'll probably cross-post this request on some gaming forums I visit regularly, but as this is my blog is my primary communication with the gaming universe these days, I'd be doing myself no favors if I didn't ask the readers here for some help. So, in brief:

1) Where can I find one of these things?
2) What's it gonna cost me?

In the meantime, my brothers back home are inquiring about HD Component Cables for the Wii; I'm slightly more familiar with this item (in fact, I recall seeing some "third-party" produced cables for this peculiar purpose while shopping at Sam's Club with my dad), but the Nintendo-produced, "first-party" cables were no where to be seen. I've heard that Nintendo currently only sells them online; is this true? I'm not much for third-party gaming supplies, though I certainly won't speak for my brothers; at this point, they'd probably take a functional, third-party device of questionable longevity and quality over nothing at all.

Detailed responses to either or both requests are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

UPDATE: So I went to Gamestop today, bought $99.20 worth of games and completely forgot to ask about either the cables or the adapter. ARGH!!!

Move Over Final Fantasy XIV...

Enter the real game of the show for e3 2009 - Star Wars: The Old Republic:



click here to view the incredible first trailer!

How did I miss this? Granted, there's no gameplay footage, but if an on-again, off-again Star Wars "fan" like me was willing to commit to purchasing this game on its release day, I can only imagine what the real Star Wars enthusiasts feel.

Then my brother curtly told me that this game, like FFXIV, is an MMO ("massively-multiplayer-online" game).

"You have been deceived." Indeed.

Why oh why must the most graphically impressive games be of a genre I absolutely despise? Well, ces't le vi. There are plenty of other games I'm looking forward to...like, say, the Nintendo DS role-playing game Infinite Space (which just released in Japan to a flurry of positive press and premiering at the very top of the weekly video games sales charts), or the intriguing , Let's Tap! for the Wii (a likely candidate for the next "kid-friendly games, parent-friendly prices" post, if nothing else), both of which happen to be published by Nintendo's former archcompetitor, Sega.

Unlike last summer, which proved to be quite the boon for gamers (high-profile video game releases of just about every imaginable genre graced just about every prominent piece of gaming hardware), this summer does look to be a tad on the slow side - which is probably better for an overweight gamehead like me, anyway. Gotta get some form of exercise besides Dance Dance Revolution, after all! Plus, with the Year of the Priest commencing today, one would think a seminarian would find something more Christ-like than lounging around playing video games all day.

So, to my fellow gamers - with the gaming pipeline so thin in the coming months, what do you plan on doing to beat the heat? What future releases do you have your eyes on?

St. Isidore, St. Gabriel, and St. John Vianney, pray for us!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

...well, for gamers, anyway. The Electronic Entertainment Expo (aka e3) has finally arrived, and boy, is it BACK! Until roughly two years ago, e3 was the premiere event for game companies to reveal upcoming game lineups and even new hardware. That all changed two years ago, when various coincidental factors caused the expo to become massively downgraded. It's pretty apparent from Microsoft's Press Conference today, however, that e3 is BACK and better than ever. Christening the event "Christmas is July" (err, June) doesn't do it justice.

This is the day gamers of all stripes have their eyes glued to their computer moniters (and now, with the advent of digitally distributed game content, video game machines themselves can now broadcast this information just as well) waiting for the latest breaking news about new games (today's hot items: Metal Gear Solid for the Xbox 360 and PSP, Mass Effect 2, and a remake of the classic adventure game Curse of Monkey Island, among others) hardware revisions (did anyone get to see the new PSP GO?) and rumblings of things still yet to come (the infamously secretive Sony game developer Team ICO is present and will reportedly be showing off their latest projects some time soon!)

I never designed this blog to become a news aggregate, but e3 is THE gaming event of the year (with the possible exception of the Tokyo Game Show in the fall) and offers plenty for gameheads everywhere to talk about. So, what do you think of the show thus far? What games/hardware/speeches stand out thus far? Anything particularly memorable? Or perhaps e3 is a snoozer of a spectacle for you?

Let's hear it, folks. Fire away in the combox below!

St. Justin Martyr, pray for us!

Christmas Break!

As of Friday I have been granted a temporary reprieve from the academic burdens of my vocational discernment. This gives me an opportunity to focus on my emotional, physical, and spiritual obligations, especially those that I've neglected over the second half of the semester, this blog included.

Despite the new game releases that accompany each Christmas season, I haven't interest in any of them save Chrono Trigger DS, which I'll hopefully get as a Christmas gift. Soul Calibur IV has proven to be surprisingly popular with my brother seminarians, and while I can't say that the game possesses any particularly endearing value beyond sheer entertainment of the absurd (who wouldn't want to see Yoda fighting an Elvis look-alike with nunchaku?), that alone has been a welcome respite from the strenuous workload that too often characterizes college life.

Since I've been back home, I've rediscovered that I have the Pokemon gene - embarassed as I am to admit it, I can totally understand why the game has been so successful and popular. Organizing a team of virtual critters to fight and trade with friends makes for an undeniably fun game. This game and Pope Benedict XVI's Spirit of the Liturgy will ensure that my living room sofa is occupied for long stretches of time for this 3 and a half weeks of Christmas vacation. The book is certainly a bit on the "heavy" side - I find myself re-reading passages just to glean everything I can from the text - but my gaming hobby and Spirit of the Liturgy are proving to be far more complementary than I would have ever thought they would or could be. Being a video gamer, the "play" theory of liturgy (though Pope Benedict does ultimately deem it as "insufficient") resonates deeply with me. The idea of play being an excape from the confines of the world is an idea that many video games take and "run with," so to speak, but in the end, it ultimately becomes just another part of the world we live in, as the rules and confines established by the game transform the game from being "another world - a counter-world or a non-world - to being a bit of our world with its own laws." Games provide a fleeting escape from reality at best; they can't transport us to our higher calling, even if they can indirectly help us on our way there. It's a good reminder for video game enthusiasts (including yours truly) not to let these games become idols - they aren't the Savior whom we await during the Advent season, and we certainly can't offer ourselves to them expecting any sort of true fulfillment.

That's not to say that games don't provide something of value - Aquinas, for one, echoed Aristotle's thoughts that the relaxation from games provided a good - but in the age where many (myself included) spend inexorbinant amounts of time with video games, Pope Benedict's reminder is one worth noting.

Gaming lull...

I've been very busy on my supposed "week off" - I haven't touched a video game since my last blog spot, believe it or not. A Player Diary for FFIV is looking highly unlikely now, but I can affirm that the story, with its focus on light and darkness, seems to lean closer to the Christian view of things (where things simply are or are not good than the ying/yang Taoist dichotomy that ulitmately makes everything a collective abyss. It's a long play-through, and it's frustratingly difficult at times, but this makes the experience all the more fulfilling.

In Story of a Soul, St. Therese tells us that God allows suffering in order to bring us closer to Him; in the psalms, we learn that God chastises those who are close to him. Final Fantasy IV DS reflects this in both its narrative and in the actual gameplay itself - as I said, it's a long haul, but it's worth it in the end.

Patience! (Warning! Amatuer theologizing ahead!)

There is an important lesson to be learned from the gameplay (irrespective of the virtues of the game's story) of Final Fantasy IV, and that is the powerful benefits of patience. Saints have written about it in ways that I can't possibly emulate here and now, explaining eloquently and emphatically that God's power over time is not something that man need not fuss over. Human beings need time; but God Himself created time. We do not know "the day or the hour," for example, but God, in his "eternal-present" moment, does, and he assures us that, even though we suffer, we "are worth more than many sparrows."

As I play (and hopefully finish soon!)Final Fantasy IV, with its "active-time" battle system (where a meter slowly fills up over time before any action can be taken in battle) and its unrelentingly difficult boss battles, I will admit that my patience, (along with yours, I'm sure, as you wait for the eventual player diary) is being tested. The fact that my brother's recent excursion to Canada yielded the unexpected blessing of the new PC game The Political Machine 2008 doesn't exactly help the matter. But the rewards, as of now, have been worthwhile. I've enjoyed the story of this game far more than I expected I would, and I will be writing about it more extensively later. But for now, I merely ask for your patience as I finish this game. I'll do my best to make the wait worthwhile, but in the meantime, here's a particular saint quote that I find appropriate for this particular moment in time:

"What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know." - St. Augustine

"Bid Farewell to your Bloodstained Past!"

J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis effectively demonstrated that high fantasy could be used as a form of Christian witness. Both of these writers used their mythic worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia to allegorically present Salvation history and the mystery of faith (among other things). Unfortunately, despite the fact that the video game market is saturated with games featuring settings that, in terms of scope and size, are not at all dissimilar to those of Tolkien and Lewis, these games rarely if ever communicate the values and deep mysteries of the Catholic faith. In fact, it’s not uncommon for the inverse to be true –the Playstation 2 game Xenosaga, for example, is teeming with scriptural allusions, but ultimately presents a Gnostic thematic completely contradictory to the truth of the Catholic faith. Still, some of these games do present some themes that, if not always explicitly Catholic, are powerful reminders of certain Christian virtues. Some of you may remember my entry about The World Ends With You from last month in which I praised the game’s story for presenting a powerful message of the dangers of self-destructive envy.

Final Fantasy, the forefather of fantasy role-playing video games and generally the most well-known and critically acclaimed of the genre today, has a mixed record in terms of compatibility with Catholic values. For example, Final Fantasy XII, the most recent mainline entry in the series on the Playstation 2, has a morally problematic narrative which culminates in a “kill God” conclusion (borrowing from Nietzsche’s infamous “God is dead” Nihilist writings); conversely, the story of Final Fantasy X (also for the Playstation 2) has been compared to a religious pilgrimage and appropriately concludes with the defeat of a monster called Sin.

I’m currently playing through the fourth entry of this acclaimed video game series (first available for the Super Nintendo in 1993 and subsequently released on the Game Boy Advance and, as of last week, on the Nintendo DS, which is the version I’m now playing), and it seems to hold the most promise of any narrative in any Final Fantasy game I’ve played. Having played through about three quarters of the Game Boy Advance version of the game about two years ago, I’m quite familiar at this point with the game’s main character, Cecil, a Dark Knight who, after destroying villages and taking lives by order of his King, eventually undergoes a sort of conversion experience, casting off his armor of Darkness and becoming a Paladin of Light. Recalling the words of Archbishop Sheen, St. Francis of Assisi, and many other holy men and women, I thought this moment not only served as a reminder that we are to be of the Light (and not the darkness), but the way in which the scene is presented mirrors the Sacrament of Reconciliation – the advertisements for the game itself echo the same theme: “Bid Farewell to your Bloodstained Past.”

There is the caveat that this moment of conversion and forgiveness does seem to lack the most important element: God Himself. Scripture itself attests that God is the one who shall take our hearts of stone and place new hearts within us; Final Fantasy IV seems to emphasize the inward human self more than the salvific presence of a Divine Savior, even in the vaguest of terms. Still, I never did complete the game the first time, and the revamped presentation and translation of this Nintendo DS version may shed new light on the deeper intricacies of the story and its relevance to the mystery of sin and God’s forgiveness.

Those who read this blog often know all to well by now the erratic infrequency of my posting here, and this game promises to retain this trend. To be quite blunt, this game is difficult – very difficult. Having just completed the extremely easy Rocket Slime, adjusting to this game is naturally going to make the experience even more prolonged. I may end up posting multiple player diary entries for this one; stay tuned until then.

Player Diary: Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

For those wondering about the lame excuse/reason for the tardiness of this latest player diary, it doesn’t really have anything to do with completing the game in time for the scheduled posting. In fact, I managed to finish the single-player adventure/story “mode” of Rocket Slime – that is to say, I annihilated the “final boss” and polished off the game’s extra “epilogue” content – in roughly 14 hours. While it’s certainly a serviceable (if simplistic) little adventure game, it’s certainly not some sort of existential gaming experience that’s capable of setting the world on fire – and that’s fine. That’s something best left to the Holy Spirit, anyway.

No, the reason I had to delay a write-up of this quaint and cute adventure game had nothing to do with the solo sections. It was the multiplayer features that kept me engaged long enough to once again fall behind my schedule. Don't get me wrong, shirking one's duties is never something to be commended (as St. Paul says, “those who shall not work should not eat”), but it’s a testament to good game design if the multiplayer component of a video game has me playing the single-player campaign again just to boost my chances at winning future multiplayer sessions. This game does just that.

As a video game, DQH:RS takes its cues from the much-lauded Legend of Zelda series despite the fact that the game is set within the world of Dragon Quest. Both Zelda and Dragon Quest are two of the oldest and cherished video game properties in existence, and it’s interesting that this game, which stylistically and substantially speaking is more in the vein of movies like Over the Hedge than anything else, seems to draw its inspiration from games designed with an older crowd in mind.

Alas, I digress. DQH:RS will do quite nicely as a single-player adventure game, even if it is a bit on the kid-friendly side: you play as a ball of slime who needs to save his village from the mob/“Plob”, who kidnap the village denizens (who are also slimes) and reduce it to rubble. Silly slime jokes abound (the village’s nun is named “Mother Glooperior”) as do some references to other Square Enix video games (a Benedict Arnold Platypus named Ducktor Cid, after the famous Dr. Cid character in Final Fantasy video games). Throw these ingredients together, and you've got Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime in a nutshell. But why settle for nutshells?

The real bread and butter of the game is in the tank battles, which do comprise a fair section of the one-player adventure, but really become something unto themselves when you play with others. It’s not nearly as violent as it sounds – “tank battles” bring to mind gruesome images of war and carnage, but here, it’s all about team work and cooperation. Without going into too much detail, it’s awfully fun catapulting dynamite, mirrors, and other silly things from cannons while desperately defending your tank from the onslaughts of interfering interlopers trying to destroy your tank from the inside. It’s hard to relate in words exactly what goes on, but rest assured, it’s well worth it!

File it under “kid friendly games, parent-friendly prices” as well – it’s probably a little hard to find in stores now, but I got my used copy for $12.99. It’s a silly diversion at worst, and arguably at its best as a hilariously fun game well-suited for long car rides and rainy days. There are certainly far worse things – video game or otherwise – that you could spend your money on.

E3 and WYD Recap

Now that both E3 and World Youth Day 2008 now officially belong to the past (and God’s eternal “present moment”), a recap and reflection is certainly not out of the question, and seeing as the date of this posting happens to be a Sunday (a day that, according to the Tradition of the Catholic faith, is reserved for God-centered meditation and thanksgiving), I hesitate to share even the most modest reflections on either. Scrupulous? Perhaps, but since I haven’t posted in a while (my current employment situation leaves me without internet access for most of the week), I thought I’d post a brief update just so no one thinks this blog has died an untimely death – patience, everyone!

So, in recognition of the fact that I must “Keep Holy the Sabbath Day” and also not shirk my responsibilities to the readers of this blog, here’s a choice selection of some of my favorite moments from both WYD and E3 – without commentary:

WYD:

- “The mission of the Church is to help people be free,” – Cardinal Francis George, at the July 20 WYD mass

- The Pope’s decision to encourage reception of the Eucharist kneeling, and preferably on the tongue (as first reported by Sydney’s very own Cardinal Pell last week)

- “My dear young friends, if you take part frequently in the eucharistic celebration, if you dedicate some of your time to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the Source of love which is the Eucharist, you will acquire that joyful determination to dedicate your lives to following the Gospel”. – Pope Benedict XVI

E3

- The surprise announcement that an Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy 13 is indeed in the making

- The localization of Retro Game Challenge, a Japanese Nintendo DS game that was formerly seen as having practically no chance at ever seeing a release outside its home territory.

- Sony announcing more games for its Playstation Network, including the appropriately-titled and intriguing action game, Fat Princess.