Gaming Weekend

I've been plugging away at Final Fantasy XIII since it came out, and have added Dragon Age: Awakening to the playlist.

FFXIII is, sadly, one of the worst Final Fantasy games I've played. Not terrible, but it's fallen down on what is usually its strongest point: story telling. An annoying, almost contradictory plot and, though I don't hate any of the characters, I'm not strongly behind any of them either. With a weak combat system, and some issues with the power/challenge progression, I've lost interest in finishing the game, and plug away at it only occasionally.

Dragon Age: Awakening - a sequel/expansion of the excellent Origins - also suffers from a slightly flatter story, though with a much better battle system. The flatness of the story is not from the plot, which is reasonable, but from the characters. These simply do not pop and intrigue as much as the characters from Origins (many of whom it would be impossible to bring back). But, still, fun so far.

FFXIII wins hands-down in the prettiness stakes, though, and I'm itching to play FFXIV, which will probably put a major dint in my writing time when it releases later this year. But I'll be analysing the story! It's research! Honest!