Potential Job

Well my days of unemployment might be ending soon if all goes well! I had an interview with JB Hi-Fi today for a job in the games department. It's only part time though, so stil plenty of time for gaming and not enough money to buy more games. Backlog gaming continues!

Suikoden IV

Platform: Playstation 2
Year released: 2005
Previously played: Never, still wrapped in plastic.

I figured I should start by opening of of those games still in their plastic wrappers. The first one I got my hands on was Suikoden IV, so I figured that would do. All I know about this game is that number 3 was awesome, though I never played it, and that I also own number 1 or 2 for the psx, though I'm pretty sure I never played that one either. Moments after ripping the plastic off something occurred to me. This game was released in Australia in very small numbers. If I had left it sealed, I might have been able to sell it for an ok amount of money. Bummer.

First impressions of this game weren't great. For starters, it's ugly. Now a few weeks ago I was playing FFXII which is a very pretty game, but even if I wasn't coming straight from that, I still think I would be un-impressed with what I am seeing. The landscapes are too bare. They need to put in some pot plants or something, seriously! Add some pretty rendered backgrounds even to pretend there is more out there than there is. It's a pretty barren world.

The story is not great so far, but some games don't really get going until you are a few hours in. I remember wanting to quit Final Fantasy Tactics Advance because it was boring, but I played a little longer, changed my mind and have since racked up over 100 hours. I think it holds the record for the most hours I have spent on the one game. Oblivion would probably be in second place.

Anyway, looks ugly, story sucks, but hey, I've played worse. Oh and it gets worse. You see in order to get around you have to sail from place to place and sailing, is balls. I rejected the tutorial, then regretted it because I can hardly steer the ship. I'm not sure if it would have helped though, every review you read on the game bags the shitty sailing system and the too-frequent random battles while sailing. Nothing like fighting seaweed every few virtual centimeters.

I got up to the second mission, which involved sailing to an island, and thought, screw this.

So this game is now on hold. I hear it is actually pretty short and does have a good story, so I might go back to it, but for now it's back on the shelf.

The purpose

So I used to be a hardcore gamer. I still am, deep inside, but a few things have been preventing me from being so hardcore these last few years. Money, location, and movement mostly. I counted that in the last year and a half I have moved 8 times, living in 6 different cities in 3 different countries. Not an ideal situation to be lugging a few consoles around. Hell, my gargantuan laptop was enough of a pain in the arse. Regarding location, I lived most of the last 3 years in Japan. That might not immediately jump out as a problem, after all, isn't Japan the video game homeland? Sure, if you want to play games you've never heard of and can't understand. Which I did, but with only limited success. Why I though I could play a game like Final Fantasy Tactics in Japanese, I'll never know. Very over-ambitious. I then moved to New Zealand, which while the same region and language as my home country, I couldn't really buy games because I lived in the middle of nowhere. Hell, I couldn't even buy cereal without having to travel for at least half an house to a town that had a supermarket. You get the picture. Then comes the big one, MONEY. I'll admit that for a year there I did have enough money to be comfortable, though I mostly blew it all on alcohol. Then came the time when I became poor, and that has lasted for the last 16 months. I was even earning only AU $128 a week for a few weeks there last winter. Which after rent of $99 was taken out, well you can do the maths.

Well two of these things have changed, allowing me to play games again. I have a house with space, I'm in an English speaking country with game shops nearby, I don't have money, but I do have plenty of TIME. And lets face it, that's what you need the most. In Japan I did have a Dreamcast with a collection of easy-to-play-in-Japanese games but I hardly ever touched it because after I made some friends I got a life, and didn't have any time to sit around at home. Yeah I said it, I GOT A LIFE! Am I saying that you gamers have no lives? No no... of course not... *cough* but seriously, if you are going out to party 5 nights a week, you really don't have time for much else except sleeping, eating and feeling hungover.

But now, NOW! I can safely say that I have no life once again. Here's the current situation:

* I'm unemployed.
* I live with my parents.
* I'm broke.
* I don't have many friends.
* I have a lot of spare time on my hands.

So this means Game On. With one small problem. I'm broke. Oh sweet 360 sitting in the shop window, I fear we will never be together...

But all hope is not lost! See back in the day, I had money. In fact I must have had a lot of money, because I was buying games faster than I could play them. A cursory glance into my old bedroom reveals no less than 7 PS2/Xbox/GC games still in their original plastic wrapping, and plenty more that were brought second hand and never played, or has less than 30 minutes of total play time spent on them. Crazy I know, but there you have it.

So I will go back through my collection, and play all those games I spent my hard earned money on and this time, I will actually finish them! And I will record my adventures thoughts here. That is the purpose of this blog.