The Clock is Ticking

The year is almost over and 2009 is upon us! And how thankful I am to be able to put this year behind of me. Don't get me wrong though, I mean 2008 has been a fairly good year to me and it held a number of changes and things that shook me up. But with a whole new year just around the corner, who knows what's to come?

Anyway, these past few days I've been playing a game or two. As always, I have gotten side tracked from the games I started to seriously play, just to play other stuff. The newest focus of my attention has been "Rise of the Argonauts," which did start out kind of slow and has been picking up steam as it rolls along.

One thing that I have noticed about the game is the fact that a lot of the time spent (at least from what I've seen anyway) just running back and forth, talking to this person or another. And as you go, there are quite a few cut scenes and the combat has been scattered to a minimal thus far.

Other issues are lagging and load times, which generally happens everywhere you go. The lag in the game play thankfully happens when you're in town and not so much in battle. The load times, on the other hand, pop up for opening doors and gates, which can get annoying if you end up dying in battle numerous amounts of time (as I did).

Still, the story, while predictable in some aspects, has succeeded in capturing my attention. We'll see how long/far that will take me...

On an unrelated note, WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009 is fairly okay in my book. But what bugs me is how unfriendly the create-a-wrestler mode is. Creating a finisher is all well and fine, it is limited too, but it is a new feature. Maybe next year will see a big improvement there.

But back to the create-a-wrestler mode, meh. That is what always sells me on these types of games and each year that part of it goes down the shitter! Top that off with the fact that apparently the first DLC for the game will not be released for the Xbox 360 until March of 2009! And shit be damned, PS3 is holding a number of exclusive stuff already!

With the way things are looking, I do not expect to continue playing these games in 2009. Absolutely not worth wasting my time with anymore and I've been playing wrestling games since 1998.

Speaking of later dates, I read in the latest Game Informer that Final Fantasy XIII isn't expected to reach our shores until late 2010. Talk about a real drag there... all I know is this: With the amount of years that is being poured into this game, it had better be able to blow away everything that came before it.

Is that being a bit harsh?

One last thing before I stop and this, again, goes back to Square Enix. I finally got around to renting "The Last Remnant" and I am on the fence about this one. I mean it does seem interesting and all, but my problem (and lack of continued interest) has been the fact that I don't own a HD TV. So! I can't read/see/understand a goddamn thing anyone is saying.

How can you get into a RPG without being able to read anything?

Beyond that though, with the time I managed to spend playing this I can away with one simple thought in mind: Why does this game feel so hollow? So... lifeless? It just doesn't catch my attention all that much.

Aside from the restriction of having to go through a great deal to see where the hell I'm going on the map, the characters themselves seem generally pretty bland. Hell for a moment I even thought I had picked up Lost Odyssey all over again. And to top the cake? Rush annoys the bloody hell out of me! Can he just not die, 3 minutes into the game?

Well I feel a little better! Now I shall go back to decapitating all manner of life and see on how Jason may bring back his slain wife...