The unexpected journey of the FF7 save in the nighttime

 Well, I never expected this endeavour to be so difficult.

I play Final Fantasy 7 on my android phone. I own the game, 2 copies of the PS original to be exact, and all I want is to play the save that is on my phone on my PS3 and my PS Vita. Of course I had to buy the game again on PSN, but I don't have a problem with spending €10 on something again that has given me so many hours of enjoyment (Ignored the re-released PC version though).

Anyway, this post will detail the fun fun journey to do something that should be simple - moving the save file from my phone to the vita. Going to say now... It's wasn't easy, but it is possible.

Called it…

In the last post, I mentioned this:

“…looking to the future, I can easily see that The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will have timed exclusive DLC on the 360. It’s blindingly obvious.”

And surprise surprise, the dlc is exclusive on 360 for 30 days. Bethesda still are not sure what the dlc will entail, all they know is that it’ll be a timed exclusive. And that just irritates me.

If there is any consolation, it’s only 30 days rather than a full year.

Exclusivity

This is a topic that has been on my mind for a while now. I started thinking about it a lot when I was informed that “From Dust” would be released early on the X-Box 360 compared to other platforms, such as PSN or Steam. Now, I am probably biased when I talk about this, as I don’t have an X-Box. However, this has been weighing on my mind for a while.

Limbo is being released on PSN and Steam (also) finally. It sounds like a great game – nominated for a BAFTA, etc etc… But isn’t the release a little bit… Late? They previously mentioned that is was intended to be a 360 exclusive, but now they seem to have changed their minds. Microsoft managed to get Minecraft exclusively released on the 360, despite the fact that the original version is PC, Mac and Linux, and they are developing an Android version. The Fallout 3 DLC was EVENTUALLY released on PSN, after a very long delay. The DLC for GTA 4 also eventually got released on PSN and PC. Microsoft's timed exclusivity on all Call of Duty DLC. That's not saying that PSN doesn’t have exclusives, they do too. Same for Steam. Literally, there are too many examples of this.

Back in the days of the Playstation, if you were told that a game was going to be released on one platform, it got released on one platform. Was the supposed greatest shooter of all time (Goldeneye, N64) ever released on other platforms? Nope. Wii doesn’t count either. People would usually purchase one platform, and for better or worse, they had to enjoy the games that were released on it. That seems to have completely changed.

I suppose I feel almost socialist when I say this but I don’t think that what happens nowadays is a good thing. “Timed Exclusivity” would be a mixed blessing, if only they were allowed to announce that. Typically companies are not allowed to say when the exclusivity period ends, or even their intensions. And as a consumer of these entertainment products, this tarnishes the image of not just the game companies themselves, but the big corporations that offer these decisions on the game companies with boatloads of cash. Typically it’s not even companies that need that cash boat. I can see why they do it. It doesn’t seem to harm anyone, and the developer gets loads of cash. Isn’t that partially harmful?

The games industry seems to be purely running on Exclusives, Timed Exclusives and sequels. Oh god the sequels… Look at the November release schedule. It’s like sequel month. But looking to the future, I can easily see that The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim will have timed exclusive DLC on the 360. It’s blindingly obvious. I don’t enjoy exclusives. Big games, yeah. Uncharted. Gears of War. Halo. Resistance. Mario Galaxy. They are developed by second party developers, and being released on other consoles will never happen (For the foreseeable future). It’s the third party games and DLC that just ticks me off. It’s purely done for greed, rather than for the benefit of the consumer. I hope that in the future, we see less of this ridiculous timed exclusive releases tied in with NDA’s about the length of time even. Just annoying, that all.

Summer of Gaming

Well, more like the past Summer of Gaming. I’ve played a good number of games over this summer, and I decided to come up with a list of the top 13 games I’ve played.

Why 13? It’s a good number. It’s very prejudiced.

The Ultimate "Ocarina of Time" playthrough - Chapter 11

Were getting close to the end now… Just two more parts to go! This chapter explains all the side missions… The out of the way ones… That were required to complete the game. Most I started by chance. Then at the end of this chapter, some more story, then we arrive at… Gannondorfs Castle!

The Ultimate "Ocarina of Time" playthrough - Chapter 10

And it was thus said, it is now the time to use Windows Live Writer, for it doth make life easier to upload more rubbish, instead of using the not so good built web experience that is the blogger edit utility. This is the holy word of Microsoft. And it’s actually pretty good.

But enough of that. It’s time again to rip open my heart and purge the hatred for Ocarina of time from its depths. This month we experience drama, ruination (which is a word apparently) and shadows. Plus this series has reached it’s 10th entry! Not really worth celebrating really though.

Interesting read of... this... [timespan]

http://trustygamer.com/tg/home/industry-thoughts/i-miss-color/

You know someday I'm going to remember to put the Labels on before I publish the article. But that isn't any day soon I imagine.

Anyway it's an interesting article. Game Development related, no doubt. And so very true.