Tuesday, April 3, 2012

The Butterfly Effect

I think everyone in their life wants to feel like they've made a difference or has changed the world. The youth join causes and start revolutions. The old have children. But to make a difference without having to do either of those things would be pretty special right?

How about changing what games people are playing?

I talk about what I'm playing. The highs and lows. Mostly the lows, I'm sure. Never once did I think that what I said would make someone change what they were playing. Then I got a message from a friend. He's just finished a game and was looking for something else to play. With nothing new on the horizon that piqued his interest he turned to a game I've been talking about a lot recently. Final Fantasy VII.

Like me, he's played this game before. Unlike me, he's actually finished it. Somehow my talking about the game got him excited to revisit the memories of the past. I'm interested in hearing if this play through of the game lives up to his memories of playing it a long time ago. The graphics are very dated, but a good story is still a good story no matter when or how often you play it, right?

I have a twitter account that I keep updated less than how much I keep this blog updated. And that ain't much. When I restarted Final Fantasy VII I made the conscious decision to tweet my experience playing the game for the last time. If I can't make it through this play through (for whatever reason) I don't think I'll try to play it again. I'm using the hash tag #FinalFF7restart. If any of you want to follow along my twitter name is @PengwennGamer. Very original, I know. I can't guarantee that they'll be more tweets than blog posts, but every time I play FF7 I will be tweeting soon thereafter what I did in the game. If you've played it you can follow along and relive your memories of the game without the extensive time commitment. If you haven't played the game you can read some interesting stuff to see what you're missing.

I could say that my evil plan has started and that I'm out to change the world, one gamer at a time, but my dreams and aspirations don't go that far. But I hadn't realized that when this little Pengwenn flapped her flippers that someone halfway around the world would change the game he was playing. It's kind of cool. Maybe this Pengwenn is turning into a butterfly.

8 comments:

Zenra Nukenin said...

I recently got the urge to replay some old games too. Just last weekend I played through Freedom Fighters (2003) again. Yeah... It only took three days. I started to play Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (2005) again, but the emulation that allows Xbox games to play on the 360 also causes this game to lock up randomly, so I eventually gave up broken-hearted. These are two of my all-time favorite games.

I'm considering playing Pychonauts (2005) and Beyond Good and Evil (2003) again. Of course, if the Game Of The Year edition of Skyrim isn't out by the time that I'm "done" with Oblivion, I'm going to dive into Morrowind (the greatest game of all time!) again.

And then there's all of the high-def remakes that are out now. Ico, and Shadow of The Colossus on PS3, Halo: Combat Evlolved, and Silent Hills 2 and 3. There's just not enough time in the world. :(

metallicorphan said...

lost my last post when i had to sign in,damn it

Zen-Beyond good and Evil HD is on XBLA for 800 points its pretty good,SH2 and 3 look terrible(see below)..its getting some bad press about the lazy ports
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4678/31181021.jpg


Penny-made it to kalm last night and got Sephiroth's(and clouds) back story..time to find a chocobo to get over the marshes so that big snake don't eat me

Pengwenn said...

Zen, I have Pyshonauts but didn't start to play it until after the breakin. I like it but I haven't play it for so long I don't remember the controls. I have Beyond too but I haven't played that one at all.

I didn't know you had a PS3. I might be getting on soon so look out for me there. (orphan I know you have one).

I hated that snake. I so wanted to get out and battle it instead of sneaking across the swamp on a Chocobo. I tried it once but I didn't last long.

metallicorphan said...

meh,i wouldn't bother with a PS3,not worth it if you have a 360,i mean i play PS1 and 2 games on it more..oh and a few Blu-Ray movies...a lot of people on my friends list haven't touched the thing for months on end

I am in Junon now,last night i got my Chocobo,went through the mines and then to Condor Mountain,levelled for a bit,got Yuffie..and now i am just about to go on TV...it's been a long time playing this,i can't even remember when it was that i finished this game i know it wasn't when it was released,because i finished FF9 before 7,but anyway,enjoying it a lot

not sure whether a remake would be a good idea or not...maybe if it came to the 360 ;)

oh that reminds me Final Fantasy 10 is getting a new HD re-release as well,i think its just for PS3 at the moment though

Zenra Nukenin said...

Sorry. I feel like I've dragged this post into a different direction. :(

I really only got a PS3 for Fumito Ueda's games (Ico, and Shadow of The Colossus remakes, and the upcoming The Last Guardian). Uncharted 3: Drake's Decpetion came with it, and I honestly haven't done much with it. Then again, I haven't done much with Dead Island, Rage, or Catherine either. I've actually been spending most of my gaming time on my PS Vita.

I do like PlayStation Home though. I think it's great that I have the ability to save multiple avatars to swap between, and buy accessories for as little as $.25! I recently bought a whole outfit for $.50!
Side note: It's rumored that Microsoft will soon be dropping their "MS Points" system, though I find that hard to believe. 80 Points seems easier to part with than 100 cents, even if they're the same. Why would Microsoft ever drop that duplicitous, winning system?

When Ubisoft released the HD remake of Beyond Good and Evil, I was tempted to get it, but I ultimately decided not to rebuy something that I never even finished once (the final boss stumped me at first, and for some reason, there never was a second attempt). Halo: CE, Ico and Shadow of The Colossus are all games that I've enjoyed enough to play through repeatedly, and they benefit from having Achievements (or Trophies) added, and 3D support.

The only thing that I didn't like about Psychonauts is that I finished the game without maxing some abilities, and I didn't have the option to replay finished levels. I would have been happy if I could have at least kept what I had already earned when I started over.

Although Silent Hill 2 is my favorite in the series, I can't convince myself to buy the remake. Maybe when (if) the price goes down. Added Achievements are a nice bonus too, but Achievements for finishing each game with no more than 2 saves?... I don't have that kind of time!

If you ever want to find me on PSN, I'm under "Zenra_Nukenin".

metallicorphan said...

half way through disc 2 now
30hrs in
gang are all level 50

not sure if i can get it finished for Tuesday,but gonna try,or else it will be forgotten cos of Witcher 2

(not going for Knights of the Round or chocobo breeding,but done most of everything else up to now)

metallicorphan said...

gotta say i am very surprised at this run through,i finished the game in 35 hrs(how the hell...it seemed like double that)

I must of had some great setup,because all the bosses i was dreading were a cakewalk(Demon Gate for one)

A lot of people have complained about Tifa's Ultimate Weapon(Premium Heart or whatever),it starts of crap,but as her limit break increases so does her strength,so instead of using her limit breaks i gave her the deathblow materia and used that instead(careful never to use her limit break by accident)that way she was doing 9999 damage everytime...clouds x2 attack was doing 5000 each(and i never upgraded that to 4x),and Barret was,well he was 2500 each time,but with slash all which was handy

easier to list the things i didn't do in the game:
Emerald Weapon
Ruby Weapon
Chocobo Breeding
Materia caves(Knights of the Round etc)
Battle Arena
Ancient Forest

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