Is the 3DS the New PSP?

Chris Kohler seems to think so. Universal praise, predictions of demise for its competitors, and a promise of "hardcore" gaming appeal - hardly typical of Nintendo, masters of mass-appeal gaming.

There is one difference in the position of the 3DS and Sony's yet-to-be-revealed new handheld (I await the day when the corporate masters deem it worthy for our eyes to feast on) is the position of Nintendo in the gaming market. Back in 2007, Sony was the dominant "home console" gaming company looking to destroy Nintendo's monopoly on the handheld gaming industry. Analysts and gaming afficianados alike predicted that Sony's PSP would force Nintendo into third-party game developer status. The reverse happened: Sony made a sizable dent into the handheld market, sure, but Nintendo sold more handheld machines than it ever had in the past. Now, Nintendo is unquestionably more dominant on both the handheld and home console fronts, with Apple's IPhone slowly emerging from it status as the "spoiler" competitor in the handheld gaming wars to a formidable gaming platform. And that's my prediction for the latest cycle of "console warz": Apple is going to take over the gaming market.

When Nintendo first unveiled it's "blue ocean" business strategy in 2006, gamers decried it as an abandonment of Nintendo's commitment to providing quality video games for a gradually expanding market. Analysts either dismissed it as a concession that Sony (and Microsoft to a lesser extent) had "beaten Nintendo at its own game" or predicted a massive drop in its stocks due to such a risky business venture. The rest is history: Nintendo usurped Sony's premiere status in a fashion no one thought possible.

But there's a funny thing about that whole "blue ocean" strategy Nintendo was bragging about circa 2007-2008. By targeting mainstream consumers as potential gamers, Nintendo may have put the nail in its own coffin. Since gaming has become so much more mainstream, it joins a list of other entertainment commodities that vie for the consumer's attention. Specialized products (think Amazon's Kindle) fall to "All-in-one" products like the IPhone and IPad. I believe the same will soon be true for gaming. The less "niche" gaming becomes, the more it will have to adjust to a market demand for multiple forms of entertainment. This is a bittersweet pill for gamers to swallow: it might mean a "decline" of hardcore games overall (not just for Nintendo, but for the industry as a whole), but it also means the days of social isolation for gamers are numbered. I believe that Apple is the company most poised to take advantage of this new "all-in-one" gamer demographic, especially given the increasing prevalence of downloadable content in all sectors of the marketplace. Nintendo is infamously negligent at utilizing the internet for its games, and as the above article shows, things don't look to be changing for the 3DS.

Thoughts?

Video Games and the Economy

In love with your iPhone? Thank your local video game nerd.

And for those of us (all of us?) who are now addicted to seeing our latest text message, facebook update, e-mail, blog comment, etc., well, you have video games to thank for that, too.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203418804576040103609214400.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn_Opinion

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?

Tales of Vesperia rocks!

It's been over 2 years since I bought Tales of Vesperia. As is my habit with JRPGS, I managed to get about 10-15 hours into the game before getting slogged with work and/or bored with the game and moving on. Longtime readers may recall my ramblings on the early portion of the game here

Last week I decided to give the game another go. Let's just say I'm glad that I did.

While the game does revel in moral ambiguity and individualism at some points (ya know, the usual "Just do what you want to do! That's what's important" demagoguery), it also does a fine job of showing how "doing things your own way" can often have negative consequences. The ending, in particular, does a spectacular job of showing the follies of proportionalism - even with the archetypical "save-the-world-from-the-the-evil-lord-of-darkness" plot, there's something to be said about the theme of this narrative and unique "riff" it puts on this familiar plot paradigm.

Still, a game ain't defined by its story, as important as that is. What really makes Tales of Vesperia such a great game a (particularly for those looking for a good "entry-level" Japanese role-playing game) is its accessibility; it really doesn't try to be anything more than an anime-style role-playing game, and it knows this. It is easier to complete than most other role-playing game, and can be enjoyed by 4 players, something which distinguishes it from other games of its genre. While calling it "kid-friendly" is perhaps too generous, the innuendos are mild and the violence isn't really problematic except for the under 5 crowd, which might find it a tad too scary (not to mention too complicated). It's a tad lacking in the tutorial side of things, but Tales has always thrived on a real-time driven battle system - one can easily learn basics by "trial-and-error" experimentation at the exposition of the game, unlike turn-based systems which are brutally unforgiving of entry-level mistakes), and Vesperia is no exception.

Don't expect much of brain workout from this one, though - the thrill of combat is what this game's all about. It's a nice recreational diversion, not meant to be indulged upon en masse. It's basically the sushi bar of video games. Something a little offbeat (especially to American sensibilities), not perfectly healthy, but certainly worth trying out.

Halo Reach?

Xbots like myself are naturally abuzz about Halo Reach, which launched to spectacular fanfare last night. My brother Joe is currently playing his copy (or at least, that's what Xbox LIVE would have me believe) and many others have asked me if I've bought a copy of my own. I haven't, much to the chagrin of my brothers, who are growing tired of Modern Warfare 2 and are anxious to try a new remedy to cure their itching trigger fingers.

The reviews have been stellar, to say the least. One of my friends commented on his facebook this morning that Reach "has lived up to all the hype." I want to hear from the detractors. Pipe up, before I spend more money I don't have and give into the demands of the consumer culture!

Spiritual Warfare (NES)

Did anyone ever own the Christian NES game Spiritual Warfare when it first came out? It can now be played for free on the Wisdom Tree Games website. I messed around with it a little bit earlier, the game is very similar to the original Zelda. The plot is essentially that the people in a certain town have been possessed by demons and you must go around and, as it were, 'deliver them'- this is done by attacking them, and then destroying the demon as it flies out from them. Extra points are gained by answering Scriptural questions, so the game has an educative side to it but this probably restricts the audience the game can demand. For Nes the graphics are acceptable. I wonder how the game develops, does the game have much of a developing plot? I would be interested to hear.

Since the NES era there has been very little in the way of explicitly Christian gaming, isn't that odd? Was the audience more Christian?

I think Christian themed games deserve support from Catholics. As a young, unconverted, lad I wonder what I would have made of these games? When I was about 6, to my shame, I often purchased games based on the box! Spiritual Warfare's front cover would have appealed to me ;) It looks a little like Wizard and Warriors, with a tough looking character on the front. I wonder if the back would have put me off with all talk about religion. But then, surely, the company would want to make known the fact that the game was Christian to the presumably Christian parents trying to foist this game on their beloved child they nobly wished to catechise.

My dream however would be a fantasy RPG game that essentially looks at a world where the people in some way live according to an existentialist philosophy that does not explain the fragmentation and wickedness in the world. The main character discovers a secret, persecuted sect that holds a revelation that explains the fragmentation. Most modern RPGs seem to work the other way round!

Move straight over to 16 Bit Catholic to catch a review of Spiritual Warfare. I think he comes to the same conclusions as my first impressions. I wonder if anyone out there has actually completed this game though? I would love to hear if the plot develops in any way.

This made me laugh

http://dustinfaber.blogspot.com/2010/08/giving-penance-to-video-game-villains.html

In other news, I have Xbox LIVE gold again, and am eager to play Rock Band 2 with any and all takers. Gamertag: Ando Commando 4.

See y'all in cyberspace!

Review of FFX

Final Fantasy X was one of the most successful in the Final Fantasy series, the first for playstation 2, the first to feature voice acting, the first to do away with the much loved world map and the first of countless other things I suppose. Is it however, most importantly, the first of the FFs to support a Catholic worldview or morality? One Catholic minded review praises the fact that the opening quest of the game is that of making a pilgrimage to all the temples across the fantasy world of Spira in obedience to the received religion, is this then the game to give to your younger bro to try and inspire him to come to the next WYD or something? Let's see, let's analyse the game according to sound criteria and discover whether it is the kind of thing that will fuel a Catholic worldview and morality or whether it will mock basic morality and present false, inadequate responses to the most important questions of life. (Spoilers contained more or less throughout)

Reality of Objective Moral laws.

The first section of the game could be themed "Relativist Tidus in the religious land of Spira". Tidus essentially sees the world in the same way as your average young worldling out in Croydon on a Saturday afternoon. Spira the land to which Tidus is pulled into, at least to being with, seems to have rules, objective morality, hierarchical authority and religious rituals. Tidus, the protagonist, that is, the voice of you, responds to all this with cynicism and derision.

He joins a band of guardians protecting Lady Yuna, a summoner, on her quest to perform a pilgrimage culminating in her self- sacrifice to temporarily destroy the wicked monster "Sin".
The obvious baddy, Seymour, one of the religious authorities, from quite early on shows how the whole religious system and morality is in fact totally arbitrary as he is willing to tolerate the use of illicit weapons in the fight against Sin- there is a sickening moment when he says something like "after all, using this wicked weaponry is for the greater good and so it is fine". Tidus agrees with his thinking and even supposedly pious Yuna sees some sense in it. Surely if something is intrinsically evil, it is evil regardless of the supposed good that will come from it? Indeed, ultimately no good can come of it because you offend Almighty God, the infinite Good and reference point to all that is good. The philosophy is preached loud and clear though, apparently objectively evil acts can be performed intentionally to achieve a supposed "greater good".

Of course over time it becomes clear that the acts were not in fact evil but rather indifferent because, guess what, Tidus and Seymour are both in fact correct- things are neither good nor bad in Spira, the only certainty is death.


Interior Struggle to pursue the good.

Many of the characters, even within the team are thoroughly nihilist- they don't accept that there is a good let alone that one needs to conquer himself in order to attain it. Before the shock revelations that the whole religion is a sham and that Yuna has been wasting her whole life and that her supposed vocation is a sham she really embodies a noble conquest of self- the weaker side of her nature wants to cling to romance with Tidus but the greater side overcomes and doggedly insists that she must continue to her vocation.


Divine Providence working through free will.

Free will is taken as a given through the game. There is some sense of providence. Tidus knows the game is "his story". and that he is going to end the cycle of sin in Spira. Is Tidus free? Is Tidus a one off? Could other characters have been dreamed into existence to destroy Sin? The last section of the game seems to be one of Tidus resigned to his necessary fate rather than freely being an agent in a grand story beyond him but requiring him.


Self Sacrifice for others

The initial religious plot is quite noble. The evil monster sin can be checked for a period of time by a summoner, after having made a pilgrimage across the world, sacrificing him or herself in a one on one show down. Yuna, the summoner in the party is undertaking this quest and is quite willing to give of her life for the people. This is wonderful and I found myself egging her on. She has a clear sense of vocation, a higher calling, that her life must be given up for the sake of others. Some of the others also seem to embody self-sacrifice- Kihmari for example, who is clearly dedicated to his role as Yuna's guardian and totally willing to die to allow her to fulfil her vocation. Tidus is opposed to Yuna's sacrifice as is Rikku. Yuna ought to say "get behind me Satan!" but she allows them to continue with her! Eventually the plot spins around as Tidus realises that he is in fact some kind of character being dreamed into existence and with the death of sin the dreamer ceases to dream and he will disappear. Tidus accepts this and ceases to exist as sin dies. There is wonderful Orpheus and Eurydice moment as Yuna clasps in vain at the dissolving phantasm of Tidus!


Basic Christian Theodicy- Monotheism, Goodness of creation, understanding of eternal reward/punishment based on moral behaviour.

This is where the game suffers big time, typical Square 'eh? It seems that people have souls and when they die and have a ritual performed over them their souls go off into a spiritual world. If the ritual is not performed the individual can remain in an undead state or gradually turn into a monster. The whole problem with all this is the absolute indifference of the whole thing. Seymour the wicked baddy dies, so does Auron, apparently good, so does Ject, another baddy, so do a few other good characters and what happens to them all? They all float of neutrally into some kind of existence- What then is the whole point of anything?! There has to be a judgement! The existence of evil, if we are able to name such a thing (and the game does name evil) demands that evil must be punished. The good and evil character cannot indifferently drift off into eternity. Furthermore there seems to be continued existence but there is no God sustaining all of this! It is all very soccinianist, the "soul" isn't so much immaterial as subtle matter that seems to just float off.
There is no God to whom the souls are presented before, there is no God at all. For a while we think "Yevon" is a kind of deity who is utterly indifferent to the cries of his people but over time it becomes clear that Yevon is not the creator at all but simply a powerful human being living inside of Sin. How can any positive worldview contemplate existence without a creator? What fools!

Conclusion

FFX is in many ways technically very good. It is probably the first in a run of new "interactive movie" FFs where the game is made up of linearly progressing cut scenes with lots of optional side quests at the end. I have to admit that I do prefer the old style where you have the world map, the ability to jump a little ahead and the alternative of deviating into side quests at every step of the game. The towns have very little character which is a great pity, there seems no reason to return to them after they have been visited and the NPCs are, excepting 'Cid', all pretty dull.

I really liked the battle system, totally turn based with some really tactic-based battles. I think the difficulty level was just right, the game isn't a walk over and some random encounters can cause trouble- I like that though, sometimes it is refreshing to have an enemy successfully cast death on your whole party ;) I'm was not all that keen on the "sphere system", after a while I started wishing the game would just do all the levelling up automatically rather than giving the option of which stat to increase. It was a little tedious really.

The beauty of the graphics opens up the issue of pornography and I think at a few points the game edges close to the mark. Some characters are absolutely and ridiculously immodest even more than Tifa in her dumb cowgirl outfit in FFVII ;) At one point it is suggested that Sin is a punishment for the vanity of the people. This seems totally ridiculous though as the religious authorities seem to be doing nothing to get people covered up!

Fundamentally FFx carries a worldview that is relativistic, materialist and ultimately nihilist. The game concludes with Yuna proclaiming that the wonderful people of Spira can now build a wonderful peaceful world now that they have redeemed themselves from Sin. Religion was a farce and man has saved himself. It seemed very Rousseauian, that naturally benign man was now going to have paradise on earth now that the religion has been cast aside and the external foe defeated. The real truth about sin though is that it is not some external creature that can be eradicated from the earth in a puff of smoke, no, sin is reproduced by our own wills and to some extent its seat will remain within our hearts until our wicked nature has been made anew in Christ. May the Blessed Mother form Him inside of us through grace here and now that even before the final resurrection we may live free from sin grafted totally into Christ.

I am glad that I played FFX, hopefully writing this review has engraced the act in some way ;) I wouldn't recommend it to anything more than a mature Christian who is capable of mocking the plot for what it is. There are some poisonous ideas more poisonous that Sin's toxin that can easily infect even the aveThe gameplay is really something and there are some great music tracks. Square-Enix have got some really talented guys on their staff, it is a pity, a crying pity that ultimately their games seem to be one after the next supporting godless empty philosophies that leave their depressed teenage audience utterly uninspired.

FFXIII

Alright.

I just finished the 2nd of the 3 discs of the xbox 360 edition of Final Fantasy XIII.

Apparently, scenario and script writers in Japanese Role-playing game land have run the proverbial narrative well dry, so to speak. FFXIII has the usual "let's stop the evil God/empire/ubermench conglomerate-conspiracy" plotline, complete with the usual cast of cookie-cutter character archetypes to illustrate the anti-authoritarian allegory (with one noticeable exceptions, on which I will hopefully elaborate on in a future posting). However, the end of the second disc (about 23 hours into the game, FWIW), commences with the *ahem* "totally unexpected" awful truth trope - that is, the point in a JRPG where the main characters/"band of heroes" discover that what they THOUGHT was the bad guy really isn't the pernicious villian they presumed he/she/it was, but something else. In most games, this enemy is usually revealed (upon its defeat, of course) to be servant/pawn of the REALLY bad guy, the good guy in disguise, or the unwitting interlocuter in some grandiose scheme of some other entity yet to be fully revealed within the narrative. In the case of FFXIII, however...(SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!)

...

The "final boss"/king of the animist deities that acts as the catalyst to this major plot twist IS, in fact, the "bad guy" after all - but after you "defeat him," he just laughs you off and says that you can't kill him - AT LEAST NOT YET! Apparently, the animist deities in this game want their subservient human "tools" to kill them off - but on their terms, not the humans', so they still "win" at the end of the day.

WHAT?!?!?!?!

Nietzche, eat your heart out. Ugh. Thanks be to God for the resevoir of theological and theodical coherence in Catholicism. Beats JRPG nonsense anyday :)

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./

Revising for exams

I haven't been posting as I have been wrapped up in exams and revision for them. Still getting a bit of gaming in though. I'm working through the old Zelda II for the NES (unfinished business from when I was very young ;) ) and also FFX. I'm sure I'll have posts on both soon enough. I'm not sure why I had never got round to playing FFX in the past but am glad that I am now, I think I am pretty close to the end and am working out exactly where the game stands in terms of complementing or detracting from a Catholic worldview. Purely in terms of graphics/ gameplay/ sound/ battle it rates very highly- the battle system in particular, as with thought and tactics fights can be brushed aside quickly. Obviously, in terms of gameplay, things are too linear for my liking... that seems to be the way of a lot of RPGs. There has to be balance because too much freedom normally seems to devalue the story and characterisation.

Ridin' the Alan Wake Hype Train

Alan Wake is a self-described "psychological thriller" (read: survival horror) game first announced over five years ago. It is finally set for release on May 18.

Despite my general proclivity towards role-playing games and my aversion to "blood n'guts" (that I managed to play through Resident Evil 5 without vomiting is, to quote Ben Franklin's aphorism, "proof that God loves me and wants me to happy") that such "survival horror" games tend to possess in spades, Alan Wake's emphasis on narrative development and puzzle-solving gameplay is certainly palpable to a role-playing gamer like me, and the "T for teen" rating would seem to indicate that the carnage will be kept to a minimum.

Many in the gaming community are already extolling Alan Wake as a "game-of-the-year" contender. There's even an online webisode series prequel to promote the game before its release in the coming weeks.

The metacritic average is in the 80th percentile, which would seem to indicate its not quite the foretaste of heaven some gamers apparently think it is. Still, if I ever manage to finish FFXIII and Pokemon Heartgold, I'm convinced Alan Wake can give me a good jolt of summer fun.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear case on Violent Video Games

h/t Sr. Helena at the Hell Burns blog.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-court-videos-20100427-39,0,5997035.story

Prayers!

Hey all,

Yours truly is undergoing something of a dark night right now and could use some spiritual backup.

St. John of the cross, ora pro nobis!

Console games on a Laptop screen

I don't really want to have a television in my seminary room and I couldn't afford the TV licence either, so I use a little device called EasyCap (and there are tonnes of clone devices with different names) all on ebay for around £10. The device converts the three colour wires that would normally go into a scart lead into a USB head. The USB goes into your PC/Laptop and then you use a video capture program to capture the video coming out of the USB. A decent free program is VirtualDub, a better premium one is AMCap.

Anyway, all this means I can play PS2 games or XBOX 360 on my Laptop screen. There is a tiny lag time between input and display and small sound sync delay but for playing RPGs it is more than sufficient. The device is useful to record the stuff happening in the game and so my brother wants to borrow it to continue his boss walkthroughs for games beyond 5th generation consoles.

The return of 2D platformers

I think it is fantastic that in the last 2 years game developers have started to create some new 2D platform games- there has been Little Big planet, the phenomenally successful New Super Mario Bros and the upcoming Sonic 4. I have never been a fan of the 3D platformers which I think either tend towards becoming adventure games, lame RPGs or simply a continued quest to get a good camera angle. So, lets hear it for neo-retro 2D platformers that get back to the jumping, running, dodging, waiting, timing, falling into lava/spikes, getting crushed, using little springs and squashing enemies that we remember and love.

Video Game Walkthroughs

I'm not exactly sure what I think about walkthrough guides. I wonder if anyone growing up playing games today has had the experience of having had to put aside a game that they simply cannot conquer. When I think back to my NES games there are so many games I never completed- Zelda II, Metal Gear, Wizard and Warriors II. There weren't any walkthroughs around at the time as far as I can recall.

I think nowadays the internet is saturated with walkthrough guides for games. I wonder whether games would be more enjoyable if there was a 6 month lag time before any guides could be produced. Sure it would get on our nerves, but I think that completing a difficult game solo has its own special reward. I am pretty sure I finished FFVII without any guides the first time round and how long it took and how much more of an achievement it was at the end.

It has been one of my resolutions for a while now to complete games first without looking up anything online and it really seems to add to the enjoyment- in the long run. It is also a healthy discipline against curiosity and a kind of soft sacrifice- because we all can get very impatient when we are stuck in a game. In modern seminary language, I think the approach is good "human formation" ;)

Afterwards it can then be fun finding out the millions of side-quests you missed and bosses that could have been defeated in 10 seconds with the right tactic. One of my younger brothers has started a YouTube channel with his boss fights of old Squaresoft games, if you have completed the games already ;), you might enjoy checking out some of the sneaky ways of beating various bosses.

Stories that just get more confusing...

I don't know if anyone else has been following the Final Fantasy VII 'series', my take on it is that the whole thing is getting more and more ridiculous... (at least in terms of storyline). Final Fantasy VII certaily had a wierd enough plotline but the sequals, prequals and side-stories have simply squared the number of questions and expanded plot holes even further.

The identity of Cloud, the identity of Zack, the motive/origin of Sephiroth, the pantheistic planet-worship, the lifestream, the 'resurrection' of Aeris.

Does it matter? That's a good question, and I think it does, certainly so if the games are proposing themselves to be more that just mindless entertainment. Why has it happend? What is causing apparently 'serious' games to tend towards growing into illogical, confusing and incomplete storylines as the game progresses? Chrono Cross, Xenogears even FFVIII are other good examples of this.

Are gamers taking the storylines too seriously? Should the Final Fantasy VII series make sense?

Something in me says yes, that storylines should be completed, that questions should be answered. Pope Benedict in his encyclical Spe Salvi suggests that the desire that we all have for justice in life is due to a fundamental deeply held conviction that there will one day be a final judgement. Things on earth that were unsettled will be settled. The ultimate balance of injustice against God and neighbour will be put right. Our justice will be satisfied because God will bring about true justice. If we are among the saints (which I sincerely hope) we will praise God's justice as we see the accursed sent into hell.

Perhaps in the same vein, the desire for a closure and completeness to a storyline relates to a deeply held desire that is part of human nature. A desire for life to have a meaning a desire to know its meaning. Praise God that we do- in Jesus Christ.