Well today was my first day back to college after my break :( Boooooooo... but on a much more awesome and happy note: I finished the story part of Final Fantasy XIII! Which means it is time for my review :) It is spoiler free - darn GS wont let me use the spoiler tags so I cant talk about some things :P

I have fallen in love with Final Fantasy XIII. Everything from the story to the gameplay to the characters. Just awesome. Not since Final Fantasy VII has a game had everything meld together so brilliantly for me.

Gameplay - One of the best battle systems I have seen. It is fast paced, it is strategic, and most of all FUN! At the beginning I was definitely a bit worried, but once you get the paradigms the true battle system shines. The AI is actually really well done. I havent had a problem where the other group members used senseless attacks or did something they shouldnt. It is extremely well polished and each role is well defined. The thing that stands out is the fact that grinding exp doesnt feel like grinding. The gameplay is so much fun that each battle is exciting for me.

Presentation/Graphics - Personally I think it is the most beautiful game I have played on the PS3. Both the cutscenes and the gameplay are gorgeous. The level of detail in the characters is amazing. One of the biggest gripes for the game seems to be its linearity, but I had no problem with it. It made sense for the story and thats good enough for me.

Story/Characters/World - I loved the story. Pulse and Cocoon and the struggle of the fal'cie and l'cie. It kept me hooked from the beginning and it kept me wanting to move forward and learn more. I loved all of the characters! Each one had different personalities and problems to overcome. My favorite was definitely Lightning followed by Fang. I thought the character designs were also very cool. I even liked Yuj, one of the members of NORA, and especially Cid.

Sound/Voice Acting - I absolutely love the main battle theme. It never got annoying. I also really liked the chocobo theme. Other than that the music was good but nothing else memorable for me. The voice acting was brilliant and really made you connect with the characters.

Overall - It lived up to all of my expectations and in some parts it exceeded them. I may be done with the story but I have tons of fun awaiting me in the rest of the side missions. It definitely lives up to the Final Fantasy franchise imo. Score: 10 / 10

...Oh and if anyone is curious, Final Fantasy XIII is now a very close second behind FFVII on my favorite FF games list :D

Next blog will be my thoughts about God of War III and Heavy Rain. Stay tuned!

YAY! Finished with my finals at college! I did really well, all A's so far... just waiting on one teacher to post the grades to our final project and test. Hoping for a B in that c.lass because I had a group that decided to do nothing which ended up with me having to do most of the 50 page paper by myself :( Oh and they also ditched me when the teacher surprised us with having to present said project :evil: But thats past and that means woohoo 2 weeks of freedom! I really need it because I have been so busy this quarter. I'm sure it has shown in my lack of comments on blogs, posting frequent blogs myself as well as my participation in forums.

And what will I be doing during my time off? Playing Final Fantasy XIII of course! :lol: I am at Chapter 10 and I LOVE it! But I'm still going to wait to give my full thoughts on the game until I get further into it. Will probably post a review at some point too. This weekend I'll get to play GoW3 thanks to my brother :) Cant wait to try it.

Hmmm what else... think, think, think... *shrugs* sorry my brain has left the building :lol: Will try to get up to date on everyones blogs. Cya!

**NOTE** There are SPOILERS for FFXIII down in the comments section so be warned if you read them!

It's finally here! Cant believe amazon actually got it to me on release day, didnt pay the extra shipping for it. So THANK YOU amazon.com! Played it all night last night hehe. Made sure all of my college homework was done over the weekend because I knew I wouldnt want to do anything but play the game when it came. :lol:

I think it is really awesome so far. The battle system is smooth and tons of fun. Ill wait to give any impressions til I get further in ... and my c.lass is about to start. grrrrr :P

So to everyone else who has played it: How are you liking the game?

Hey everyone!

Ugggh I hate snow. The whole state has been buried in it for the last week or so. Its so pretty to look at but I hate driving in it! I'm not sure how much the final total was but it was way too much for me :lol: Here is a picture of it :D Now this was about 5 hours into the first day of snow when the picture was taken... lots more came after that :lol:

College c.lasses are going pretty good. Tons of work though because almost all of the assignments are projects and they usually give me less than a week to finish them. I've been tired a lot lately but Im only about 3-4 weeks away from the end of the quarter so that makes me feel a bit better :)

Finished Darksiders... and it rocks :P I really love the hack n slash DMC meets GoW feel of the game. Plus the puzzles were very fun. They didnt get in the way of the action or the flow of the game. The boss battles were awesome. My favorite was Stygian, a giant worm with a bad attitude. The battle reminded of the worm in Shadow of the Colossus :) The characters and story were interesting and I can't wait for the sequel.

Played some of Mass Effect 2. Though I didn't beat it, what I did get to play I enjoyed more than the first game.

Havent played much of Star Ocean 4 yet... not because I dont like it, because I do like what I have played so far! ... but unfortunately it is not SD friendly. I can barely read the menus or the dialog... However, thats going to change tomorrow! I'll be getting a samsung hdtv :D I can't wait! *bounces with excitement*

*kicks GS* Thanks so much for doing something that made me loose the whole blog I wrote :evil:

Anywhos, I finished Assassin's Creed II last night :D It is a really awesome game. So much better than the first one. Ezio was a great character and had a lot more personality than Altair. The missions were all very fun and made you feel like an assassin. My favorites were in Tuscany and there was one where you had to take out archers on a bunch of towers without being seen. That one was fun. The missions had tons of variety so it never felt repetitive. Also the added moves and weapons helped to make the game feel even better. Once again the ending had a wtf moment :lol: but that just got me more interested in the next game. Unlike the first game, I actually see myself replaying AC2 at some point. I will probably get the DLC as well. I give the game a score of 9.5

YAY! They are going to make a sequel to Darksiders! :D I havent finished the first one yet but I love it so far. Im glad it sold well enough for a sequel.

Looking forward to next week: Star Ocean The Last Hope International! Anyone else going to pick up the game?

Well thats all for now, have homework waiting for me :roll:

:D Sorry it took so long... college getting in the way of all the fun stuff :cry: But it wasnt going to stop me from making a b-day gift for my totally awesome friend! ;)

Hope it makes you smile :)

Everybody wish lightwarrior179 a happy 18th birthday!

*throws confetti*

Ok now wheres the cake?

:P

Sigh, once again it has been too long since my last blog. Blame my c.lasses! Bad, bad college! :P

Yay! At long last I have beat Persona 3 FES :D :lol: Really, really awesome game. I enjoyed both the characters and story. It was uniquely different to other games I have played. The last few months in-game (December and January) were the only parts that dragged a bit. But it was worth it to face Nyx and see the ending. I thought that the ending was great. It tied in to the whole theme of the game very well.

So what will be the next PS2 game I will be playing? ...Well I thought about starting SO3 because that had been the one I have been waiting to start since finishing SO2 on my PSP. However, I will more than likely be getting SO4 when its released and I dont want to play both SO games at the same time.... Guess that means it is on to Persona 4 for me!

...lets see what else was I going to talk about...hmmmm....you know Ill remember everything once I don't have time to spend writing it. Always happens :P

Oooo that's right! The new FFXIII trailer. LOVE it! :D When they first announced the change in theme song I wasnt thrilled because I couldnt see how it would fit with the game. The trailer proved to me that it will be awesome! Now SE... you have me hooked so just announce the CE in the US already so I can preorder :D

Have you guys every had a trophy or achievement you are trying to get that just drives you crazy? Im stuck on one for Assassin's Creed 2 where you have to kill 10 guys while staying in combat and not getting hit. I swear I have done it a few times but no trophy :( must be doing something wrong.

I think there were other things I wanted to say but it will have to wait. Homework is calling and I think this blog is long enough already :P

Waaaaayyyy too long since my last blog, so lets get into it.

I've been back at college for a week now...boooo...:( Gonna be a tiring quarter especially with the crappy weather that makes me want to curl up with a blanket and do nothing :P darn snow. But the light at the end of the tunnel is that this quarter ends only a few weeks after FFXIII comes out. I already know what will be occupying my time while I'm off :lol:

I beat Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time. Absolutely awesome game! Defintely my favorite R&C. I really liked the story and pacing. My favorite of the new weapons is the Sonic Eruptor. It packs a powerful punch. Like all R&C games, the dialog is hilarious. The space missions are tons of fun and the radio station commercials are so funny. I plan to play the challenge mode next.

Been playing Assassin's Creed II and it is SO much better than the first one! AC1 was repetitive but the sequel does not have that problem. The variety of missions are way better. So far my favorite ones have been in Tuscany. The assassinations where you have to go out to the villias in the countryside were cool. I really like Ezio and the story. There is just so much new and each part is different that I really couldnt explain all of the great changes they made.

Made my first gaming purchase of the new year this week. Picked up Darksiders and loving it! It's like DMC meets GoW with elements of Zelda. I know it sounds weird but it just works. The combat pulls elements from the first two with puzzles and tools that remind me of Zelda. The story focuses on War, one of the four horsmen of the apocalypse, who was tricked into starting the apocalypse too soon. The Charred Council, which he is loyal to, are supposed to preserve the balance between heaven and hell. He must right the wrong and try to restore the balence. War is awesome :D and so is Ruin, his horse. The animation when you call and dismiss Ruin is just epic.

So what will be your first gaming purchase of the new year?

Heya, I hope everyone is having a great holiday?

Did you get what you wished for?

I got some awesome stuff from my family :D Assassin's Creed II, Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time, Last Exile anime set and Black Cat anime set. Also an IOU for Final Fantasy XIII from my parents :D

Well I'm off to go have some fun! Don't party too hard, be safe!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Made a new banner :D *points above* I wanted to do something with Final Fantasy XIII after watching some live streams the last couple of days. I'm even more excited for it now... if that is even possible :lol: I won't be watching any more of them because I dont want to spoil it.

heres the banner if, for some reason, GS is still displaying my previous one.

Really in the Final Fantasy mood, my desktop wallpaper and PS3 wallpaper are both FFXIII related. Even found an awesome theme for my PS3 that has the menu sounds from FFVII :D

I heard there might be a collector's edition of FFXIII. Wonder what it would include... maybe a figure and part of the soundtrack. I love all of the music I have heard, especially the battle theme.

Tried the Army of Two: The 40th Day demo... :roll:. I did it because my brother wanted to try it out. Its not my type of game. But I was willing to give it a shot. Geez that had to be the worst demo I have ever played because of the bugs. First we ran into a solid door we could walk through. It prevented us from moving on because there was no button prompt to open the door properly. So we tried to restart from the last checkpoint, which proceeded to make the game freeze. Then we decided to quit the game and try again, but that made both of our systems reboot. Finally when we get back to the door, we got the button prompt this time. Yet when I pushed it I was warped into the air outside, fell to the ground and was stuck. Ugggh! It was horrible. I mean sure it is a demo and I dont expect it to be perfect (i.e. I found a bug in GoW3 where there was an invisible harpy). But the AoT demo was ridiculous. Where were the testers before this demo was released? Maybe I just find all the bugs when I play :lol: They should hire me to test their games :P

Played some of the ModNation Racers beta. I think the customization of the kart and character are really great. There are a decent amount of options in the beta but tons more that appears to be avaliable for the full game. I havent tried making a track yet. The races are fun and surprisingly I have only had one or two instances of lag while in a race. The loading is a bit on the slow side though. I like the different weapons and boosts avaliable and how you can get stronger attacks by holding on to the item and picking up another. The controls are easy but I have yet to master the drifting. Most tracks I have played so far don't really require it, though I'm sure others will have sharper turns. I think it is a much better version of Mario Kart :) So if thats something you like you should definitely check this game out.