Gaming off the Beaten Path

It’s been a fun month, but I’m all Final Fantasy’d out. And how do I follow up and entire month of borderline obsessive coverage of a super nerdy RPG?  By covering something even nerdier!  After all, what’s nerdier than Magic: The Gathering? I have played MTG for a very, very long time.  There was a time in my life that I was ashamed of that, but that time has come and gone.  I may not have the time or resources to dedicate to the game that I used to, but I still like to play any way I can.  That usually means playing digitally and unfortunately, I have always found Magic video games to be lacking.  They usually fall into one of two situations, either they require too much of a financial commitment or they deviate too far from the actual game to be any fun.  But now, Thanks to the (pun intended) “magic” of the internet, I have finally found the game I was looking for.  And the best part?  It’s abandonware, so it can be downloaded for free. Actually call

After last week’s appetizer, it’s time for the main course. I’m not going to lie, this is probably going to be a long one.  I know all about the whole “recommended word count” for online articles and this post is going to blow it out of the water.  I can also say for certain there will be spoilers, probably some big ones, for both the original Final Fantasy VII and the Remake.  So, strap in, grab yourself a beverage and read on because its pretty much illegal to go anywhere anyway.   In the first article I posted when I re-started my blog last year, I ranked my top 10 titles from the previous generation, a list that saw “The Last of Us” finish in the number 3 spot.  I talked about how that game set a new standard for how a video game could look, sound and be presented.  It raised the bar higher than I had ever seen on a console before, pushing the PlayStation 3’s hardware to its limits in every way.  Well, the bar has been raised again.  The FFVII remake is un

The wait is over, its finally here.  What started as a random tech demo at E3 years ago has finally evolved into a reality: the Final Fantasy VII remake is here.  It took a little extra time for me to get my hands on a copy thanks to the COVID-tastic shipping schedule, but my collector’s edition finally arrived early last week. I’m not going to lie, I haven’t quite finished the game.  Quarantine or no quarantine, putting 40 hours into a game in two weeks is just not something I can do right now.  I thought about going into the history of this game, but I think most hardcore fans already know it and most casual fans don’t care.  I already discussed the original, so that’s out too.  I am going to do a full review next week, but I certainly have enough time in it to give some initial thoughts. My biggest takeaway here: this isn’t really a remake, its more of a re-imagining.  As far as I am in, I’m not sure how I feel about that.  But there are also a lot of

Here’s a fun fact: Ehrgeiz means “ambition” in German. Sorry, I didn’t know what else to start with.  I have been thinking about covering this very, very strange game for a while now and looping it in with Final Fantasy VII seemed like the best idea.  Your first question was probably “what does a random 3D fighting game from the 90s have to do with Final Fantasy VII?” (Actually, your first question was probably, “how the hell do I pronounce the title? But whatever.) It’s simple.  Most of the cast of FFVII are playable characters in this game.  Before I get really going, the more hardcore FFVII fans out there are probably all like “why didn’t you just review Crisis Core?”  Well, it’s been a while since I played it and while I do have access to a copy of the game, I don’t have a functional PSP to play it on.  Crisis Core is awesome, and I’m not sure I could get too in depth with my thoughts on it since its been so long.  So, back to Ehrgeiz we go. As I m

Nowadays, it seems like any game that becomes remotely popular gets some sort of spinoff.  Hell, they took a mini game from The Witcher and turned it into its own standalone title. But that wasn’t always a given.  Even with a game as popular as Final Fantasy VII, the thought of having a cannon spinoff wasn’t something that crossed most people’s minds.  I talked last week about how deep the characters in FFVII were, so it would make sense to give them their own time in the spotlight.  Dirge of Cerberus puts said spotlight on Vincent, one of the more popular characters from the original game.  Though he’s and optional character, Vincent has a very deep, intricate backstory that is very closely related to many of the critical characters of the universe.  Aside from Cloud, he’s probably they only member of your party that has close ties to both the Shinra and Sephiroth.  So a spinoff about him definitely makes sense from a storyline perspective. Rather than

For my 10’s, I’ve decided that one post isn’t enough.  Each Tuesday after I write about one, I’m going to do an additional post pertaining to the game or series I covered.  Most of these are going to be lists, rankings, etc.  As always, these are subjective, unscientific and literally just one guy’s opinion.  I do plan on going back and doing one for the two I already covered (Doom and Madden), but for now we are going to stick with FF VII.  I am going to rank the party members based on usefulness, power level and just generally how good they are.  This has nothing to do with how well written they are, how cool they are, etc. its strictly about their combat prowess.  I am also going to be considering how they perform for the whole playthrough, not just maxed out.  That’s a whole different discussion.  Anyway, without further adieu: 9 - Cait Sith - In a lot of Final Fantasy games, characters that are obnoxious or unlikeable actually turn out to be useful party members.  That isn’t the