Tia Marie

Today's E3 Roundup

It's no secret that I'm a huge gamer. I've been to several gaming expos/cons as both a consumer and press, but E3 has always been the pinnacle of game industry news and sneak peeks at the latest games and new technologies coming to the homes of gamers across the world. Today, I wanted to curate the hot topics from the various press conferences that took place today. Obviously this isn't inclusive of everything, but more of what caught my eye.

Microsoft Press Conference

At the Microsoft press conference, we got to see updates to the Xbox as well as some previews of games which will support the Kinect. In the clip below, check out the sneak peak that Joystiq gives us of the new UI for Xbox. They've done a lot to clean up the UI, but most importantly you will be able to see Bing supported search results, more streaming video and a very smooth interface for the XBLA marketplace.

Clipped from: www.joystiq.com (share this clip)

 

Clipped from: majornelson.com (share this clip)

Minecraft comes to Xbox

Mojang will be working towards finishing a complete, console-friendly version of Minecraft due this fall Holiday season, which should be around the time when the PC and Mac versions of the game finish beta mode.

From gamerant.com (share this quote)

Clipped from: gamerant.com (share this clip)

Starwars Kinect

The game features everything that you could possibly imagine from a Star Wars Kinect game, yes you can control a lightsaber and swing it around. And yes you can control the force with your hands. You have the ultimate power of a Jedi in your hands as you ride Speeder bikes and interact with Imperial Walkers in the classic Cloud City. You can control your Jedi by dodging forward, moving side to side and slashing droids to piece with your lightsaber

From www.platformnation.com (share this quote)

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Games for the Little ones

While not quite making the waves like the more mature games announced and displayed at E3 this year are, you can be sure you'll be hearing about these new titles if you have young kids in your home. Developed with the 3-12 year old kid in mind, your gaming area is about to resemble a warzone of a different sort.

From news.teamxbox.com (share this quote)

Clipped from: www.capsulecomputers.com.au (share this clip)

EA Press Conference & Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3, BioWare’s forthcoming action role-playing game will complete the final chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy. The game was originally delayed due to a packed holiday season, which will witness the release of some blockbuster games including the likes of Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Batman: Arkham City, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and more. Mass Effect 3 will take place after the events of the Mass Effect 2 downloadable content pack Arrival. The game’s protagonist Commander Shepard will embark on an adventure which sees him trying to save the galaxy from the Reapers.

From playstationlifestyle.net (share this quote)

Clipped from: playstationlifestyle.net (share this clip)

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Clipped from: www.cinemablend.com (share this clip)

Awesome new game releases

In addition to all of the above news, there are some really awesome games that I've been super excited to hear about, games that I'll certainly purchase as soon as they are released.

Assassin's Creed: Revelations

For the E3 demo, we join Ezio as he prepares to leave the city and seek out his Templar nemesis. First he talks to the local Assassin's guild chief Yusuf and discovers that the harbour has been blockaded with ships and barricaded with a large chain drawn from the old Tower of Gelata.

From www.eurogamer.net (share this quote)

Clipped from: www.eurogamer.net (share this clip)

Rocksmith

Rocksmith will include a unique quarter-inch to USB cable, that is the first of its kind, and will allow users to plug any real guitar with a quarter-inch jack directly into their Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC.

From rocksmith.ubi.com (share this quote)

Clipped from: rocksmith.ubi.com (share this clip)

Fable: The Journey

At Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference Peter Molyneux revealed the next game in its action role-playing series. Fable: The Journey will utilize Kinect functionality for things like controlling horses while riding in a carriage, casting spells and swiping swords in melee combat.

From xbox360.ign.com (share this quote)

Clipped from: www.youtube.com (share this clip)

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim will offer a wide world open to exploration, richly detailed on both a micro and macro scale. With over 150 dungeons and at least 300 hours of potential gameplay

From www.gamefront.com (share this quote)

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Bioshock Infinite

There's something more frightening in the world than a Big Daddy. BioShock Infinite introduces Songbird, a massive flying metal bird who serves as guardian to Elizabeth, the woman you've vowed to escort off the flying city of Colombia.

From ps3.ign.com (share this quote)

Clipped from: ps3.ign.com (share this clip)

Overstrike

Set in the near-future, Overstrike follows a team of four elite agents obliterating enemy strongholds using fringe-tech gadgets and lethal teamwork. The members of Overstrike 9 are comprised of an ex-mercenary, Interpol’s most wanted thief, a gifted young scientist and a decorated detective. Collectively, they are the agency’s outcasts.

From www.insomniacgames.com (share this quote)

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For More Updates

That's all I have for now, but definitely keep your eyes peeled on the clip below for more E3 updates this week:

Clipped from: e3feed.com (share this clip)

Gaming on the Mac

Yes, it's possible. If you're a PC gamer, take a moment to read the previous sentence and take a deep breath.  It's okay, I know this is a hard concept to grasp and I know your next question is akin to, "Why don't you just use paralells/bootcamp/vmware/crossover to play Windows games?" Why are the answers, "I don't want to," or "I'd rather play a full port," not viable answers? Trying to run a virtual machine to run a game kind of sucks and it's a huge pain in the ass to reboot your computer into a Windows environment to play games. You also have to have a separate copy of Windows for bootcamp to work.  

My laptop is pretty central to everything I do and it's a big inconvieniance to have to essentially run a foreign machine.  That's what booting into Windows from bootcamp feels like to me. I used to play an MMO in from bootcamp and I found that I rarely actually played it.  The process of logging off your machine, booting into another OS and not being in your native setup is a pain. Sometimes I just want to play a level or two of portal while I'm waiting on my ride to pick me up from work.  Gaming from bootcamp becomes a chore and a ritual that you know isn't a simple process like, "click icon, game go" sort of thing.

Fortunately, gaming on the Mac has gotten a great deal better.  Now there is the Mac App Store and Steam to supply us Mac gamers with yummy gaming. The types of games that you're seeing on both the Mac App Store and the Steam Mac store are pretty good.  There are also other great places to buy Mac games online and download them immediately.  

Clipped from: itunes.apple.com (share this clip)

Clipped from: store.steampowered.com (share this clip)

Clipped from: gametreemac.com (share this clip)

Clipped from: www.gameagent.com (share this clip)

Clipped from: www.gameagent.com (share this clip)

 

I have a ton of games on my mac.  Seriously. Since I have discovered Steam and Bioware, I have had tons of games on the mac.  Here are just a few in my library:

There are some small no name games in there and silly puzzle games, but there are some actual mainstream games in there. Star Craft II, Left 4 Dead 2 and I also have portal 2 running around some where.

Anyhow, gaming on the Mac is very possible and getting more popular as game dev companies are releasing ports to Mac.  Do you guys have any places you get Mac games?

PS: If you're having problems with a game on your Mac or are looking for mod information, never ever try to ask or look up info on non Mac gaming sites. It will only end in heartache and no answer. Stick with other Mac gamers to help you with your problems. Trust me.

Help me kick cancer's ass!

The time is almost upon us! Starting this Saturday (October 16th) at 8am Pacific time, I will be participating in a 24 hour gaming marathon to raise money for the Children's Hospital & Research Center in Oakland, California.  Below, you can click on the clip to be taken to my donation page.  100% of your donations go directly to the charity and are tax-deductible.  Please consider sparing even as much as a single dollar or two.  

Clipped from: https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/m.aspxi176117A819CE77DDA (share this clip)

 

You can also join in on the fun by tuning in to my Justin.tv channel, which will be providing a live stream of the gaming awesomeness with myself and team WNOHGB! You can either watch the stream from tia-marie.com or directly on Justin.tv (links provided below).  

 

http://www.tia-marie.com/live.html - Video/Chat Embed 

http://www.justin.tv/tia_marie - Justin.tv Direct link.

I'll also be doing some giveaways during the stream, so don't forget to pop by the channel and see what you can possibly win!

 

Game Center, Game Changer for Mobile Social Gaming?

Today many iPhone and iPod touch users will install the new iOS 4.1 update which will include a new App from apple called "Game Center."  This new application bills itself as a social gaming application that will incorporate leaderboards, achievements and friends.

This is nothing new to those of us who have been playing mobile games from our Apple devices as we've seen social gaming platforms like OpenFeint and Plus+ who have been the leaders in this app space for quite some time. Both platforms offer the same features as apple's Game Center with a laundry list of compatible games.

I personally have been a fan of OpenFeint, they make discovery much easier of OpenFeint enabled games and even have daily deals of free games which are OpenFeint enabled.  Their platform is stable and fast with a huge collection of games of all genres.  

Clipped from: www.apple.com (share this clip)

Plus+ seems to be more of the underdog in these applications, despite having wildly popular applications like We Rule and GodFinger.  The Plus+ platform has always been buggier for me and applications that are Plus+ enabled seem to load extremely slow and frequently cannot connect to the server (which for games that require an internet connection, leaves you unable to play the game at all).

Being such an addict of social gaming, I was quite excited to get Game Center added to my 3Gs iPhone (you can find me as tia_marie).  The interface looks really slick but the giant draw back is that I can't find a single damned game center enabled game to play! Extremely frustrating for a launch product and in poor taste as well.  I'm under the opinion that if you're going to give your users something shiny to play with, you'd better make sure that they can explore it's complete functionality.  

Despite this glaring drawback, what will Apple's Game Center mean for competitors in this space?  OpenFeint has a dedicated staff and thriving community of users and game developers, there are always new games and new achievements to be earned.  Will Apple be able to beat this?  I personally have low faith that Apple will be able to even match functionality.

Apple has never proven to be competent in the gaming side of things.  They do a decent enough job letting other companies to take up the responsibility of serving their user-base best, but I have low expectations that with Apple running the show themselves that they will be able to be up to par with other social gaming platforms such as OpenFeint and Plus+.  They will shove the responsibility of making enticing achievements and such up to the game developers and do very little to no follow up on the quality.  Most likely, game center enabled games will either be games related to advertising campaigns or big marketing platforms (such as games for movies, recording artists and TV shows) or worse the dredges of App store games (like those stupid iFart games) that just hope to jump on the bandwagon for more market exposure to their applications.

What do you think? Will Game Center dominate or will other platforms like OpenFeint and Plus+ continue to be leaders in this space? Share your thoughts either through comments or shoot me a tweet to @tia_marie.

 

 

The Birth of a Gamer

Clipped from: en.wikipedia.org (share this clip)

 

I wish to share a very personal story with all of you.  This is the story of how I became a gamer and I write it because I want you my friends to know how gaming came to be with me.

The year was 1987, I was a young child of five and we didn't have a great deal of money.  I don't know how my mother convinced my father to buy a Nintendo in the first place, but she did.

Her favourite game was "The Legend of Zelda." The first installment in Miyamoto's dynasty of the Zelda universe.  My mother was in love with the game.  Despite being so young, I can clearly recall the time my mom spent at the NES.  She had her pencil and graph paper out, carefully marking every hidden item in the game.  Each and every bush, rock, wall or secret place in the game that you could burn, bomb, push or play a recorder at, that woman had it marked (on the 1st and 2nd quest). Then she helped me through it. It was another one of our reading bonding exercises.  She'd help me read the clues and the speech boxes and give me gentle nudges in the directions of the clues. I fell in love with gaming.  It was even better since my mother had such a direct impact in my life as a gamer.

Clipped from: en.wikipedia.org (share this clip)

 

My last memory of my mother was the night before she died. I was sixteen years old, it was a Sunday night over the summer.  We were playing the original Diablo over battlenet.  I had introduced her to "hacked" characters and showing her that you could PlayerKill with these. She was laughing herself in tears telling me how horrible I was as she controlled the mouse to kill unsuspecting players as I trolled them over chat.  I'd never seen my mother laugh so hard. Nor had I remembered having so much fun playing a video game before in my life.

 

I'm all grown up now and I'll never forget where I got my start as a gamer.  My mother's influence in my gaming origins will never be forgotten.  Legend of Zelda had such an impact on my life and my memories of my mother that I had forever etched the tribute of the game that first tied me to gaming on my right forearm.

Clipped from: www.tia-marie.com (share this clip)

In closing, I had the most awesome mom ever. <3

Gaming for Charity take two!

  It's very early to announce this, but I wanted to get this up.  As you remember from last year, I participated in Sarcastic Gamer's Extra Life charity. It's a 24 hour gaming marathon to raise money for children's cancer research.  I want to thank last year's sponsors heavily and everyone who supported me last year during the 24-hour run through!

 I had an absolute blast last year and while I was working at Justin.tv I helped promote the gamers who took part in the charity marathon and participated with them.  Together we raised nearly $20,000 for Extra Life.

I wanted to take a moment to highlight two of my favourite moments from last year.  I broadcasted the entire event and these two video clips come from hour 23, when I was totally starting to lose steam and getting very sleepy and everything devolved into "That's what she said" jokes and sex humour.

This year I'll be doing it again and you can help me!  I'll be joining up with team WNOHGB with my good friend @otaking to try to raise money for the Children's Hospital & Research Center of Oakland, CA.  I have a personal goal of $1,000 this year, but I know that with your help, we can do this together!  I'm also dedicating my participation in this year's event to my friend Drew Olanoff who has been kicking Cancer's Ass and has gotten thousands to #blamecancer in the hopes to raise awareness and funding to cancer research. I've always adored Drew and he's been an inspiration to me both as a Community Manager and a person. 

Now, the question remains. How can you help? Below is a clip of my donation page, you can choose to sponsor me as I play for 24 hours straight on October 16th 2010, spread the word to your friends or sign up with me!  Join me and team WNOHGB and help raise money for cancer research!  Together we can help kick cancer's ass! If you have any questions don't hesitate to shoot me an email or contact me on twitter: @tia_marie, I'll be happy to answer your questions!

Clipped from: https://www.hospitalshelpingkids.org/ExtraLife/m.aspxi176117A819CE77DDA by clp.ly

 

Review: Chaos Rings

Clipped from: itunes.apple.com by clp.ly

You don't typically see a lot of iPhone reviews here on SFX-360, but when I saw that there was a Square Enix game on the app store with the largest price tag I've seen on a game, I knew I had to pull it apart! Chaos Rings, which is presently in the iTunes App store for the beefy price of $12.99. Holy-shit-thats-expensive! 

Why would anyone pay such a hefty price of a stupid iPhone game?  Well let me tell you it this way.  This game is what we have all be wanting from a turn based RPG in such a long time.  Square Enix teased us with Final Fantasy XIII.  They gave us the Active Time Battles back and the elements of the turn based RPG... but it was just lacking.  

It's not fair to compare Chaos Rings for iPhone to a epic multi-disc game like Final Fantasy XIII released for the console.  However, I will say that it was highly comparable to a Final Fantasy game released for the PS2. First, let's delve into the story before we start talking about the nuances of the actual game play.

The story revolves around a tournament where combatants fight for their lives: the Ark Arena. Upon choosing a pair of characters, one male and one female, you will then have to fight against the other pairs. Each pair has their own story, and the truth behind the Ark Arena will not be revealed until each story is completed.

From itunes.apple.com via clp.ly

  The game starts out allowing you to pick between to pairs of characters: Eluca and Zhamo or Escher and Musiea.  There are other pairs that you can play as once you unlock them: Garrick and Alto, Olgar and Vahti and Ayuta and Mana.  The characters were designed by none other than Yusuke Naora, the art director for popular Final Fantasy titles such as: Final Fantasy VII, VIII and X.  

It doesn't have a Final Fantasy tag to it, but I honestly believe that this game should be a Final Fantasy title.  It is simply beautiful, music and storyline.  

It's completely turn based and you have the option of fighting as a pair or individually.  Through your battles you are able to collect "genes" of various types of creatures that you have defeated and you can equip their genes and as you fight more of that type you unlock skills specific to that creature type.

There are some quirks about the game that make it a bit too easy.  After every battle your HP is fully healed up and for the most part, I found that if you simply used the "pair" option for battle every time you smash through people. The boss fights though, can be a bit tricky.  All in all, the graphics and music were incredible for the iPhone, the controls didn't suck!  Seriously, this surprised me the most. The turn-based battles were certainly a gift from the JRPG elder gods and I found myself not angry that I spent so much on an iPhone game.

Seriously, if you are a lover of the old PS2 era Final Fantasy games, buy this game for your iPhone or iPod touch.  You won't regret it and you'll be happy you took my advice.  Now, look below at all the lovely screen shots I took from the game play.  

If you've played this game, let me know what you think! Shoot me a message on twitter: @tia_marie

Final Fantasy XIII - Sexiest movie you'll play this year.

When looking for the words to sum of my gaming experience over the past few days, one word keeps popping up over and over again "Sexy."   Square Enix once again has proved themselves to outshine their competitors with another installment of the best looking "game" you'll play this year. I was fortunate to finally have a sexy HD big screen TV to enjoy FFXIII in full 1080p glory, but aside from looks... How is the game play?

Final Fantasy games have historically been very formulaic in their gameplay: Cut scene, introductory linear gameplay, storyline, save point, boss fight and then a slightly less linear game is opened up with some exploration, side quests and some character backstories.  Over the years the amount of time that the first part of the game took has gradually increased, but Final Fantasy XIII takes the cake.  I bought this for my XBox 360 and it wasn't until roughly 20 or so hours (into the second game disk) that I found myself finally thrown out of the linear game play.  

After my frustrations with the battle mechanics of Final Fantasy XII, I was pleasantly surprised to see that FFXIII had returned to my much missed ATB battles. I was thrilled to see the changes that they had made with this game.  The Paradigm Shift system, opened up for your characters to wear many hats and to shift your party's focus multiple times during a battle.  The inability to control your other party members was frustrating to me at first, but a relief later on as the speed of boss fights increased and I eventually had to accept that the computer was a far better healer than I would ever be.  

Storyline wise, I did find myself immersed once again in the beauty of a universe that only Square Enix could've created.  I was pulled into Sazh's story pretty strongly and really liked him as a character.  I was also relieved that they managed to tone down the annoyance level of the stereotypical happy giddy female character, Vanille proved to be just cheerful enough to keep everyone going... but not didn't come even close to enraging me with nauseating joy like Rikku did in Final Fantasy X-2. 

I was reluctant to see a female lead again in a Square Enix title, as FFX-2 has gone down in my mind as the worst Final Fantasy game in history.  Lightning proved to be strong enough to be a reminder of other male leads (like Squall and Cloud) but retained a feminine frailty that kept her real as a character.  I did come back with the feeling that they put a vagina on Squall though.  

I really wish that the first 10 chapters of the game weren't so linear.  Playing the game kept feeling like a chore, where I kept reminding myself "Just one more boss fight and it'll get better."  The game kept switching parties on me.  Just as I would get one group powered enough to comfortably go through battles, they'd switch me to a grouping like Sazh and Vanille, who were desperately under powered.  

The cut scenes were pretty overwhelming though, I was strongly reminded of FFX which was filled with cut scenes.  I felt more like I was playing a movie than a video game.  I know most of the Final Fantasy games are like this, but this game certainly took the cake in feeling like I wasn't in control.  I regularly felt like what I did mattered precious little to the gameplay, as the game's focus was to show me this cool story and killer graphics and my job was to push some buttons.  

Gaming for Charity

This weekend I'll be participating in a US wide charity event, Extra Life 2009.  It's a 24 hour charity marathon starting at Saturday October 17th 8am PT. 100% of the money goes to Texas Children's Hospital Donate here!

In thanks to Swiftor for all of the charity events that he has helped make a huge success on Justin.tv, as well as being a great friend, I have joined the GameOn team for this event!

If you broadcast or want to fund raise on your own and contribute to the GameOn group you can do that here Join the GameOn Charity Team!

So please join me this Saturday on my Justin.tv channel: http://www.justin.tv/tia_marie, as I participate in this event and please if you can find it in your heart to donate, even if it's just a dollar, I encourage you to! You can donate here!

Texas Children’s is 503(c) so donations are tax deductible in the U.S.  If you live outside of the U.S., send an email to giving@texaschildrens.org and they should be able to help you figure out if the donation is tax deductible in your country.

27 years of Gaming.

I've been a gamer my entire life.  Granted I'm not hard core like the folks who do competitive gaming in tournaments et cetera, but I can pinpoint the games over the past 27 years which shaped my gaming preferences and who I am. I'm going to list the games and the systems that I played them on.  My memory may be shady about the older ones, but they are all systems I recall having. So here goes. 

Sands of Egypt - Apple IIc     
This was my very first gaming experience ever.  I don't recall how old I was, I don't recall the year.  The only thing that I remember is that this particular game was paramount to my discovery of the English language.  I never had the pleasure of playing this game in anything but the standard green on black that I had on my Apple IIc.

I was a child at the time, younger than my son is now.  This game taught me cardinal directions, basic typing skills and most importantly was anal retentive about spelling.  It wouldn't let me get away with misspelling "rope" or "shovel" or anything like that.  The hardest word I remember trying to grasp was "Oasis". I was young enough that I wasn't being taught to read, but old enough to grasp reading.  This was my very first game and I wish I could play it again. 

Nethack - Commodore 64
My favourite Dungeon Crawler game of all time.  This game is one of the few games from the "stone ages" that I'm still downloading and playing to this day.  I've tried all variants, it's cousins and I'm still addicted to Nethack.

The thing I've always liked the most about NetHack is the witty humor and the play style. It gave me the feel of the text based games that I had enjoyed so much on the Apple IIc, but with an even more simplistic interface.  It was also my introduction to a genre of online gaming called "MUDs" as well as "Dungeons and Dragons"

Montezuma's Revenge - Atari 2600
 I'll have to be completely honest that I don't recall a lot of details about this particular game.  The most important thing I do remember is that it was my first game that I really played on the Atari.  It was challenging and I remember those damned rolling skulls killing me constantly, and trying to collect all of the keys.  Looking back, it reminds me a lot of the challenges that Kid Icarus posed for me later on the NES.  I don't believe I ever beat this game, but I loved it for it's quirky ways.

Super Pitfall - NES
This game used to infuriate me.  My proudest moments was finding the hidden level that I think took me to the end.  I would spend hours on end playing this game.  It was my first movement to crappy gamer to super find the easter eggs gamer.
 
Super Pitfall is amongst some of my favourite games for the NES.  I remember it's predecessor Pitfall! for Atari and that was hard as hell.  The NES version had an appeal to it that was definitely great.  I think I still remember all of the little secret codes.  I'll have to sit back and play this game again. 

Legend of Zelda - NES

Man, where do I start?  Well first off, this game was the seed of the inspiration for my Hyrulian Crest tattoo that I got recently. I can't say this is one of my favourite Legend of Zelda games, but what I can say is that this one has the most memories associated with it.

Travel back in time with me, the year was about 1987 and like most five year old girls, my mother was my hero.  I thought my mom was the coolest thing ever and The Legend of Zelda was her current addiction.  She would play this game obsessively, I think I had more fun watching her play this game then I did playing it myself.  Since we didn't have money at the time for a subscription to Nintendo Power, my mother figured out all the secrets the old fashioned way. I helped her map out the 1st and 2nd quest on grid paper, we practically set fire to every bush in the over world, bombed every wall in the dungeon and tried to walk into every waterfall one could find.  I think we spent an entire year hunting down every inch of this game.  This was the first of many games that became a "mother daughter" bonding for me.

Final Fantasy VI - SNES

If you were to ask me what my all time favourite video game was, Final Fantasy VI would be the answer.  This game out of every turn based role playing game, that I had ever consumed had the best characters, music, storyline and setting that I can imagine.  I fell in love with each and every single character, their story line and how they grew during the game. 

Most importantly, I fell in love with Nobuo Uematsu, one of my two favourite composers of the 20th century. The music that he composed for this game is astonishing and with such grace, meaning and passion.  I'm going to try not to rant like a fangirl, but I can't think of a piece that he wrote for this game that I did not adore. 

Diablo - PC
No game will have as much sentimental value to me as Diablo for PC does.  Earlier I mentioned that my mother was a gamer, often times we'd find games that the two of us would end up playing together and they would be our "mother daughter" bonding times.  Diablo was the very last game that my mother and I played together.  Forgive me for telling a personal story, but it's the justification of why this game has such memories for me.

It was July of 1998, I was about 16 years old and Diablo was my mother's current favourite game.  She was really good at it and it was the first time that we had played any game online over BattleNet.  Anyhow, one particular night, my mother and I were playing Diablo together.  By together I mean, she controlled the character and I did all of the chatting over battlenet and explaining to her what needed to be done.  BattleNet back in those days was filled of hackers and Player killers.  I am shamed to admit, but I was a cheat and a player killer.  It was so easy. We were using my hacked character over BattleNet and I encouraged my mother to user my character to "gank noobs" in dungeons.  She thought this was both the most horrible thing and funniest thing in the world. To make matters worse, like the stupid teenage aggressive gamer I was, I of course taunted my recent kills over chat.  Yeah, I was one of those gamers that we all hate on WoW now.  That was the last time I heard my mother laugh. She died the next day.  Morbid story as this may be, I'm glad that my last memories of my mom are geeky ones :)

 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - PS1

When I mentioned that Final Fantasy VI had the best game music ever, it was in great debate with myself that I said that.  Michiru Yamane's music for this particular game was amazing.  It was really hard for me to pick FFVI above this.  I still to this day have the scores stuck in my head.  I played hours and hours of this game.

Symphony of the Night was by far the best Castlevania game in the series.  The storyline, playthrough and music was all-star.  I don't think you could've gotten better than this.  Many Castlevania games following tried to improve upon the gameplay and style, but I personally think that they all fell short.  No Castlevania game has ever came close to this one.

Final Fantasy XI - PS2

I have a couple of fangirly things to admit about this game.  1. I had my wedding dress Commissioned (link is my actual dress) by a professional seamstress based off of Yuna's wedding gown. 2. I cried at the end of the game. 3. I spent more money on FFX fan crap than any other game.

All of that being said, I think that FFX was a great game.  Not the very best of the Final Fantasy Series, but up there as probably the 2nd best in my book. I think that in this game, the characters really advanced emotionally and based off of their experiences grew together.  I loved the battle scenes, the cut scenes were great (although way too many, as I have a 2 DVD set of these just movie scenes) and the music once again was all star.  Everything was so well done in this game that I can't think of a better game to end this listing with.

So that is that folks, the games over my entire history of life that I've enjoyed or have meant something to me in my development.  Thanks for reading this, if you've made it this far.