The Patriots were just one game away from a perfect season, and they bomb it in the last quarter. Its gonna suck going to College tomorrow. :(

I got my grubby hands on some of the greatest RPGs of all time - Planescape: Torment and Final Fantasy Tactics, as well as a relative unknown, Breath of Fire 4. All of them were through download due to the fact that they were impossible to find in retail, and I trust eBay as much as I can throw it.

But you already know that. So here are my thoughts on what I have played:

Planescape: Torment

I don't know how long I have been eagerly waiting to play this game - I think it was four something years. I could never find a copy of it, and whenever I found something online, it was always nearing $100. So, I decided to give those sellers the birdie and torrent the damn thing.

I haven't regretted it. Planescape: Torment takes place in Sigil, the City of Doors. Think of it as a central hub of thousand upon thousands of realms. Its a place where demons, demihumans, sucubi, undead, humans, any type of race can and will mingle together. Not peacefully, but mingle nonetheless.

We play the role of the Nameless One. Yes, he has amnesia. Big surprise, but by what dialogue I could read, the story is nothing but a masterpiece. If just the dialogue alone is enough for me to grin from line to line, I can only imagine what the finished picture is like.

Back to the Nameless One, just his physical appearance alone shows how atypical of a lead he is. He is pale, his hair looks like hay, he's heavily scarred, he dresses in fur and bones...well, you get the idea. He has more the appearance of a minor boss than the protaganist of some fantasy epic, and I am loving it. I love Final Fantasy as much as the next guy, but it does my heart good to know that there were developers out there that were more than willing to take risks with they're heroes.

The game stars you off in a Mortuary, a place where the dead is sent. Even with its heavily dated graphics, Torment has found ways to send shivers down your spine. You encounter corpse after corpse, each either being opened up in some gruesome manner, or just laying on a table to rot for God knows how long. A wonderful way to send the player face first into the grim setting of Sigil...and Planescape: Torment.

Breath of Fire 4

BoF 4 was something I really had little to no info on before I decided to give it a try. But after playing it for five hours in a single sitting, I am bewildered as to why it is not more known. We may have a cutesy JRPG, with weird, if not downright bizare, hybrids between animal and human, but dig deeper, and you'll find a game with not only an addicting battle system, but an intriguing plot.

The character designs are simple...overly simple sometimes. Ryu, the main character, just has a muscle shirt and baggy jeans. Plain and boring much? Even the Nameless One has more stuff on than Ryu...and well, the Nameless One barely has a fashion sense to begin with.

But the characters are interesting, although I've barely started, so I may be either just scratching the surface or reading them like an open book. But I am enjoying them for the moment.

The battle system is really just a spin on the classic FF style. You have the typical Fight, Magic, Item, Run, Guard, but the twist is on Magic and Guard. There are combos you can utilize with your magic. Its not exactly new - Chrono Trigger did it long ago on the SNES - but its refreshing and adds some strategy to how you place your characters. Now, with Guard, its essential to learning enemies abilities. There are abilities every monster has that you can learn. You do this by having your characters guard, and if/when the monsters use said ability, your guarding characters may/may not learn the ability.Its nothing new, but just like the combo system, it makes battles just a little bit more interesting.

I haven't gotten to play Final Fantasy Tactics yet because of the other two games.

With the coming of the internet, we are able to view an uncountable amount of information. We are also able to download just as much content. Music, movies, word documents, system32 files, the list goes on. We are even able to download components of consoles and big name cell phones such as the iPhone which can add to their capability, to make them even better.

We can even download games, and with emulators of all kinds and sorts, play them on our computer. This post isn't about the negatives and positives the industry gets from people downloading them. I am more concerned about the moral ethnicity about doing such a thing, what rules applies to it, etc.

I love old games. As the industry got more advanced, in my eyes the games got worse. Games like Super Mario were extraordinarily simple, and yet to this day you can still play it and love it all the same, no small thanks applied to nostalgia. Most people will say downloading any NES and SNES game would be alright because they are just so damn old that they are not being published any longer, and add on how Gamespot only sells current generation games, it will be near impossible to find a physical copy.

But isn't this stealing? Our Sunday school lessons should define this as so, but this is a very different medium, and different rules apply. File sharing is illegial because the company is losing money every time a person downloads a game. But if the publisher no longer publishes a game, how are they losing money? Simply put, they aren't. Even if you got it used, the publisher doesn't get a penny. It all goes to Gamestop.

Age has alot to do with the morality of downloading games. If its a game that was just released, or was about to, most people would look at you with shame. But if its something SNES, NES, or heck, even PSX generation, people wouldn't be so hard on you. After all, those games are hard to find. Case in point: you won't find Final Fantasy VII anywhere. Thanks to some wonderful parent groups who felt the game was teaching their kids terrorism and witchcraft, all the big name stores took the game off shelves.

So how in the world are we supposed to get that game? Ebay? That's a very risky maneuver, and there is still the risk of you getting a game that doesn't even work. It is an old game after all, and these things are to be expected.

Downloading is a feasible option here. Its not hard to go to a torrent site, do Final Fantasy VII Ultima (the fan modified version of the PC port which does away with the CDs and puts in fan created updates, God bless their souls). In a few days (or hours, if your very lucky) you will have one of the greatest games ever made on your hard drive. And since the PC version had even less copies sent out than its PSX counterpart, it can see why Final Fantasy VII – of both kinds – is such a popular search on torrents.

In my opinion, age and availability is the only thing that keeps one from downloading current games. Square-Enix is still making money off of Final Fantasy XII. I am always seeing new games coming in at my local Gamestop. The same goes for Final Fantasy X, IX, and heck even VIII. Sure, they are the greatest hits versions, but they are still versions being publishes. Thus, they are versions that SE is making money off of. The games are old – FF8 is 10 years old, if my memory is right – but they are available. You may have to do a little hunting for them, but that is nothing compared to what you would need to do for most PSX and other Golden Age games.

My personal quote is this: if the game is at least eight years old, is no longer being published, and can't be found at any retailer (unless its at an outrageous price that exceeds even the released price) , then I am validated for downloading a game. Perhaps yours is different. Maybe it's the same. But remember, there are consequences for every action. It probably won't affect you directly, but if people keep on downloading brand new games, it won't be long until we will have to dish out seventy dollars for a game.

Hello guys! This is my first post on the Gamespot blog. I will be alternating between my Vox (check About Me) and this, so posts may or may not be far and between, or almost daily. Most likely the former, but one can never know!

Gaming interest wise, I am interested in story oriented games. I sincerely believe are to be one of the top mediums for telling a story, right up there with movies and novels. Thus, you will find most of my games will have a focus on story. There's a reason why I bought a 360 just for Bioshock, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

I'm not really specific to genre, but you will NOT find me willingly playing sports. I hate sports in real life - I fail to see the entertainment in seeing sweaty guys bump into each other - so it would be awkward for me to find the virtual alternative thrilling.