Word of the day: "cerumen" (dig dig dig)

Another blog entry lost to the ravages of entropy. I had a fairly involved diatribe on Grandia 2, in reponse, but once again, blogging from home has failed me. So I foresook lunch today and decided to hastily key in my observations, in precis, before the Lethean sweep of time (picked that phrase up last night from some book on the history of the Punic Wars I was leafing through out of boredom) effaces my memory.

Firstly, on Grandia 2's localisation; I have to admit that the translations were at least done in proper syntax and with proper scansion; although a lot of the dialogue's irritation value comes more from the nature of the source material. Like many Jap console RPGs, it articulated a pro-humanist, anti-theistic saga of heroes forging their own destiny. However, this expressed itself though the text in the form of multiple exhortations to call upon "the power of the heart" and "love." While I can understand how these themes can resonate through the medium of Japanese language, its translation into English, and its passing through modern, cynical Western sensibilities can make the narrative *very* grating. This is particularly evident towards the end of the game when virtually everything from the primary protagonist's mouths were platitudes on "believe in people" and "love will save us all."

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy Grandia 2 as a classic style jap-rpg in both narrative, gameplay and presentation, but there was definitely a "seen it before" feeling as I played through the game. Although well produced and well-polished, the storyline ultimately doesn't tread any new ground that older Final Fantasies or even games like Shining Force or Illusion of Time or even Phantasie Star didn't cover.

The voiceovers were professionally done, but they tended to ham it up a bit, particularly the female voices of Elena and Millenia.

And as for the "Strange Beast-Person", I actually quite enjoyed his sophisticated aphorisms, even if too many of them were of the "jungle wisdom" school of thought; with lines such as "We must be like the leopard and hunt our prey in silence" and other lines of that ilk. And yes, the battles weren't random in the "spontaneously teleporting to the isometric console RPG battle arena"-archetype - you could see the little bastards wandering around the game world and try to avoid them. But frankly, given that your party members were tagging along behind you like a wedding train, the confined spaces in which enemies often patrolled, and the fact that bumping into Tio as she ambles along behind you was enough to trigger a battle sequence, it did eventually degenerate into the "plough through enemies" phase that mars almost all Japanese console RPGs. However, the quasi-real-time battle system was definitely a good innovation, and the advancement of moves through "coins" was a cute but pointless tweak (it's definitely no Sphere Grid:)

I've decided to husband my resources towards upgrading my PC, as opposed to getting a PS2, for the main reason that most of my favourite games, developers, and genres still ultimately come on PC format. The best PS2 / X-Box games also tend to be (eventually) ported to PC, such as Grand Theft Auto 3, the imminent Halo, or Shadow of Destiny, and I won't be surprised to see MGS2 or Final Fantasy X come up over the next year or so. Given that, I find it hard to justify the thousand or so ringgit I'd need for a new console, when I could just as easily spend that much on a new processor and a GeForce 4.

Also, there are the constraints of *time*; I still have books, anime, and movies yet to be watched, and adding another alternative form of entertainment would simply be another expensive indulgence I don't fully utilise. Finally, I don't have a television in my room, (DAMN IT), and having to crawl into the living room and set up a console on our old two-A/V port Samsung each time I wanted to play is really troublersome. That, and the fact that my parents usually glue themselves to the TV in the evenings.

I've heard mixed reivews of Kingdom Heart, so I must defer comment. The only PC games that I'm really anticipating are Grand Theft Auto: VIce City, Mechwarrior: Mercenaries, and Freelancer (when! when! when!).

Have decided to cross the cultural divide and immerse myself back into the Western old-school CRPG but with bigger, badder scale - yes, I"m talking about MORROWIND! Now *this* is an RPG with *unbelievable* scope - a fantastically realised "continent" with diverse architectures, very good interacting factions, and the sheer freedom to develop and move and explore at your own leisurely pace. A lot of great fan and official plug-ins have also been created that add incredible richness and depth to the game (there's even a Twin Towers memorial island to be installed), and the editor is simply stunning. It is, bar none, the most comprehensive game world editing system on the market; and although it may lack Dungeon Siege's user-friendlines orr Neverwinter Night's real-time RPG-ing through DM intervention, it allows you to essentially create nw game events, conceptual overhauls, and ultimately reshape the gaming world of Vvardenfell in your own image from bottom-up. The visuals are the best in contemporary RPGs, for sure, and the sheer.. immensity and love that went into crafting every single dungeon, city and location in the single-player game is utterly evident. Already, the onlin fan community have created oodles of mods that can really add (or detract) from the gameplay substantially through the addition of new missions, scenarios, locations, items, characters.

Not much else to add on the real-life front (ah, hated reality), so I shall end here. Computer games, books, and my other mental hobbies, at times, to me, the "real world" - and all else just a waking, walking nightmare I encounter before I awake into that more sublime reality. This may be dangerously delusionary behaviour, but ultimately, it's the only view of the world that helps me make sense of the emotional chaos of it all.

And, a final word: "In Memoriam Microprose." This venerable company was shut down by Infogrames last Friday; it has fallen a long way since the classic days of Gunship 2000, and Civilization. Although it still managed to produce the very good Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix F1 recently, it just hasn't been the same since Sid Meier left to found Firaxis. This pattern of great gaming leaders departing their original development houses after their consumption by the major players is worrying; witness Warren Spector, Richard Garriott, and the Roberts brothers leaving Origin. Sir-Tech, the creators of Wizardry and Jagged Alliance similarly died a slow death - now those were people who loved gaming and gamers (what other company actually *fixed* corrupted savegames for you if you mailed it in???) - although I'm glad Sir-Tech managed to haul out Wizardry 8 to bring to a fitting conclusion to one of the original pillars of CRPGs since the days of yore.