I was expecting this day to have much fanfare and excitement.  Here I am just 18 hours away from having a copy of Final Fantasy 13 in my hands and I’m so pumped up but I look around and everybody is all ‘meh’. 

From what I’ve read and heard about this game, Final Fantasy XIII is structured more like Final Fantasy 6, in that it leads you along a certain path in the story, then opens things up for you for the 2nd half of the game.  I’m excited by this comparison.  Final Fantasy 6 is one of the greatest games of all time and comparing anything to 6 is an honour. 

From the early reviews of the game, everybody is saying that these are the best graphics on the PS3 yet.  With games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, and God Of War 3, that’s hefty praise and I’m excited to play the game on my nice HD TV with the lights off and the high-tech speakers doing their thing ;p.

One thing that concerns me about this game, going into it knowing that there’s no towns (apparently) scares me a bit, I love towns and cities and stuff, I can relax in towns, I don’t have to be on the edge all the time.  I also don’t like the fact that I can only control one character at a time, but I’m sure these things will be just fine. 

The only thing I can think of as to why people are not that excited is the early reviews of the game.  They’ve been fairly weak for a Final Fantasy release.  I don’t think this means that it’s a bad game, but rather, the competition has risen to incredible heights.  Companies like BioWare and Naughty Dog and Electronic Arts are raising the level of excellence in teh video game industry and Square-Enix sort of needs to have a fire lit under their asses again.  Maybe the somewhat poor reception that Final Fantasy XIII is getting will wake up the head honcho’s of Square-Enix.

I’m expecting this game to give me my Final Fantasy fix until Versus XIII.  I don’t think that it will be my all time favourite Final Fantasy game, but I think it will definetely compete for top 5 and that’s all I can ask for.  In the past year, I’ve played Final Fantasy: Dissidia, Final Fantasy 4: The After Years and now I’m blessed with Final Fantasy XIII.  If you’re a Final Fantasy fan, you really can’t complain that you’re not getting your fair share of Final Fantasy!  And there’s still Agito XIII, Versus XIII (which look AMAZING btw) and Final Fantasy 14 to look forward to, not to mention a possible FF7 Remake or post-Advent Children game with Genesis perhaps?  And who knows, maybe a Final Fantasy 5 or 6 DS remake too.  Final Fantasy 15 news is probably around the corner as well…so much FF!

 

Yes it is true, scattered all over the internet Valve announced that a second portal will be released. This new Portal will be a full fledge game, which compared to it’s predecessor was a 2 hour puzzle game. Much information is coming out an spreading across the net like how this new Portal will also be multiplayer. MTV Multiplayer Blog has the full story on the Co-op of the new portal game.

The possibility of a co-op multiplayer Portal brings on a lot of possibilities. We all know Valve revolutionized the First Person genre with their release of Half-Life and they currently have some of the best multiplayer games available with the Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead series. The concept of a co-op portal game where two players shoot portals and solve puzzles could be profound.

Well looks like Valve was far too excited to announce this news that they couldn’t wait until the 9th for the Game Developers Conference. Well maybe they wanted to shine a bit brighter than everyone else, or maybe they were too excited. Another piece of new released is the Valve announcement of crossing over to the Mac. The image below has a Team Fortress parody of the IPod ads that clearly states that Valve is going to the Mac. For more information you can see the MTV Multiplayer Blog

The possibility of the next Portal being available for Mac users is an excellent idea. From experience most Mac users are more artsy and puzzle focused. This would be a great way to expand the market into a more casual market and convert them into more dedicated hardcore gamers. Portal was a great game to show that FPS could be more than just guns blowing things up and hopefully the way Valve is going we’ll see Portal open the mind of our fellow artist friends and have a bit more gaming coming in from there.

Deviant Artist – Daniel Velez

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the UWGamers Fight On! event. It was quite a pleasure to attend with lots of friendly faces. This was University of Waterloo’s first fighting game event of the season. Fortunately with the support of Pownz gaming center and the excellent management of Robert Black the event was a success.

I arrived a bit late myself so I couldn’t enter the tournament, but by the sounds of it the school had a hefty turn out. There was a total number 34 of competitors were that spanned both Waterloo & Laurier Univeristy. Actually word of this event did reach out to the local gaming community and the school also had entrants from as far as Mississauga and Hamilton. Including spectators and passer byers the event was hosting well into 70-80 people.
The tournament had an array of competitors, with people sporting with fighters like Ryu, Abel and Balrog. Actually a lot of non-standard charcters did make it to the scene with Vega, Cammy, Rose and Rufus being some of the best players at the tournament. Each entrant paid a $5 entry fee, and $4 of that was entered into the prize pool. There was a total prize pool of $136 divided amongst the top 3 contenders.

The top player was Peter, a university of Waterloo student, playing with Abel walked away with $95.20 cold hard cash. Next up was Wilson who was playing with Ryu and Balrog, who was awarded $27.20. And in third place Calvin was awarded $13.20, who was playing with Ryu and Sagat. For complete list of competitors and the their ranking can be found on the Shoryuken Forums

Pownz gaming center supplied all the equipment for the tournament, which included 4 LCD TVs, 4 X-Boxes, Arcade Sticks and Speakers. The Pownz gaming center CEO actually attend the event and participated as Vega, one of the best Vega players I’ve seen if I can say so myself. On the side he met a greeted a number of the spectators making sure everyone was comfortable and promoted Pownz next gaming event, which is an entry event for the ESports Championships.

As a spectator of the event, and this being one of the first fighting events, it was a little intimidating at first. Fortunately for me I was greeted by a friend as soon as I walked in, the runner up of the tournament Wilson. Socializing at a gaming event is something different since most people are watching the game and staring at screens, but fortunately UWGamers has a very friendly crew that was nice to meet. A few friendly face and a couple pretty girls did make me feel welcome, but I really came to play the games. The UWGamers had a number of casual gaming booths scattered around the tournament for easy pick-up and play. Spectators were given the option of playing Soul Caliber 4, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Melty Blood and Super Street Fighter 4 HD remix. People at the event were always welcoming to allow new people to play and give a few pointers.

This was Robert Black’s first gaming tournament event. With the success of the event we here at Campus Gamers hope that he host many more in the future. Thank you Robert Black and UWGamers for hosting an excellent event.