I didn't get a job. There were two, possibly three, up for grabs, and I didn't get an offer for any of them. At least I can say that my interviews were the best I've ever had, especially the one on the Friday. The plan is to continue working where I am and hope once again that next time, things will be work out differently.
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Okay, enough real life stuff. I beat Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time for the first time yesterday morning. I played through on Hard, simply because I knew I could probably handle it since I'd played a R&C game before and also, the trophies for clearing the game on a certain difficulty stacked like they do in Uncharted, so I knew I'd get all three if I survived my way through Hard. I have to say, Hard mode was actually hard. I died a lot. There were some tough combat sequences. I don't know if it was the difficulty setting or the weapon selection or the game itself or a combination of any of the three, but ACiT definitely felt tougher than ToD. I'd read in reviews that ToD felt a little easy compared to previous R&C games, so maybe ACiT was just returning back to regular form. Either way, it was a challenging romp. It was never impossibly difficult (here's looking at you, Super Mario Galaxy 2!), but you really had to show some skill and finesse in order to make it through certain segments.
It took me 25 hours and 20 minutes to beat the game completely. I still missed a few Skill Points and didn't clear the final Tournament at the Battleplex, but you can't say I didn't try (Hard mode is hard, remember?). I did, however, collect all the Gold Bolts, Constructo Mods, and Zoni. I also gained access to the Insomniac Museum, which is this awesome place designed to be a near-exact replica of Insomniac's real life studio. Inside, you encounter weapons, game mechanics, enemies, and actual game content that was all cut out of the final product for this reason or that. There are also a few behind-the-scenes videos hidden throughout, as well as a few plaques explaining Insomniac's developing and game philosophies, as they pertain to game design in general as well as to the Ratchet and Clank game. I found it all to be very amusing and interesting, as I'd played ToD prior to ACiT and can now consider myself a seasoned R&C player and fan.
I got lost several times. I suppose that was to be expected, what with the monotone, futuristically white walls and the fact the place was a museum and all. At any rate, I thought it was a really cool idea, putting something like this into the game. You really get to learn a lot about the developing process and when the panels start using words and phrases you don't understand, you realize how truly challenging and complex the game-making process really is (take that, stupid whiny ignorant gamers on the internet!).
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ACiT is actually the fifth game I own for the PS3 that features access to concept art right on the game disc. Is this a current-gen thing? I can't recall any of the games I own for other systems showcasing concept art at all. It's helped me recognize something, though: a love for concept art. One thing I've really noticed this year, gaming-wise - besides my newfound passion for online bargain hunting - is this newfound love for concept art. It's really blossomed in the last few months. I've got my PS3 game collection to thank for that.
Even if the games don't turn out looking identical to the concept art, it's still fun to look at the utterly frameable pieces of artwork. If they're of environments, they can take you away to another place, much like regular paintings sometimes can (if only they worked like the paintings in Super Mario 64...but I guess that's what the push for 3D is all about, eh?). What I also find fascinating about concept art is it provides a gateway back in time to when the game wasn't a game yet; instead, it was just a bunch of tentative ideas. We get the opportunity to see what the developers were toying around with, what the designers had to work with when they went to work actually creating the character models and environments and such. In that way, concept art is at once art and history. Pretty cool, huh?
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NeonNinja's really not going to like this very much, but I have some bad news. I seem to be avoiding Final Fantasy XIII. At first it was just Uncharted 2 and PoP: The Forgotten Sands. After beating those two games (and hopefully earning a Platinum trophy in the process), I was going to jump to FF13. When I finished TFS, however, I didn't feel ready for FF13. I don't think I was ready yet for the time commitment I knew I'd have to invest. That's when Ratchet and Clank entered the picture (in retrospect, I'm very glad that they did). Now, I still want to play through Challenge Mode in A Crack in Time, but after that, in theory at least, I should be moving on to FF13. Except, I was thinking about it yesterday and I still don't think I'm ready. Part of it comes from the fact that there may still be teaching positions open somewhere and I wouldn't want to happen to get a job and have to stop playing a lengthy RPG halfway through. For me, that's a "doomed savefile walking". I'll never pick it up where I left off, and I'd have to start over again. So I'm thinking one more game, preferably something I already own that either hasn't been touched yet or hasn't been played that much. I came up with ModNation Racers. If you remember, this is the game I actually bought the PS3 for in the first place! And yet it's barely been played! Yeah, I probably have 10-15 hours clocked in, but most of that is just me browsing through other people's creations and tinkering with a couple of my own. I've barely scratched the Career Mode. So I'll play that for a while, maybe get through the whole Career Mode, make a couple of tracks (I've had one planned for months now, the blueprint of which is sitting right on my desk), a few characters and karts too (I've wanted to make an Eagle Scout and some MMPR Ranger cars for about as long as I've wanted to make that other track). You know, get my money's worth out of that game, or at least begin to do so. It definitely got shafted when Nathan Drake came to town.
After some quality time with MNR, then (hopefully) it will be time to move on to FF13. Until then, those of you anxiously awaiting my impressions (probably just NeonNinja :P ) will just have to wait a little longer.