Dreamcast, ‘Final Fantasy’
video game breakthroughs
Pulliam Journalism Fellowships
Graduating college seniors are invited to apply for the 27th
annual Pulliam Journalism Fellowships. We will grant 10-week
summer internships to 20 journalism or liberal arts majors in the
August 1999-June 2000 graduating classes.
Previous internship or part-time experience at a newspaper is
desired. Winners will receive a $5,500 stipend and will work at
either The Indianapolis Star or The Arizona Republic.
Early-admissions application postmark deadline is Nov. 15,1999.
By Dec. 15,1999, up to five early-admissions winners will be
notified. All other entries must be postmarked by March 1, 2000.
To request an application packet, visit our Web site, e-mail us or
write: Russell B. Pulliam
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Indianapolis Newspapers
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Game: “Final Fantasy VIII”
System: Playstation
Company: Squaresoft
Grade: A+
On very rare occasions, a gahic
transcends the definition of “videc
game” and crosses over to the tern
“art.” It’s a very rare event, happening
perhaps only a dozen times in the his
tory of the genre.
“Final Fantasy VIII” is one o
those games.
It... is art.
At the root of it, the game is th<
story of two rivals, Squall Lionhear
and Seifer Almasy. We follow then
from their humble beginnings as stu
dents at a mercenary academy t<
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much higher and more important
roles as the game progresses.
Just as important to the game,
however, is the romance between
Squall and Rinoa Heartily, which
slowly develops over the course of
this epic adventure.
When I say “epic,” I’m not just
r blowing smoke in your face. The
’ game spans four separate discs.
FFVIII deals with real people and
- real problems. As much as I liked
“Final Fantasy VII,” I often felt as if
the characters were having problems
, that simply> weren’t something real
' people ever faced.
{ FFVIII is very different. Squall,
the main character, has to deal with
( problems any one of us might have to
go through, from the burden of lead
ership to when merely to follow
1 orders and when to rebel.
That is, however, almost every
thing I’m going to say about the plot
line. I honestly don’t want to spoil it
for anyone, because, to be frank, it’s
that damn good.
In addition to the incredible story
line, FFVIII offers amazing graphics.
FFVIII pushes the Playstation in
ways previously thought impossible.
Squaresoft incorporated a lot of some
of their previous games to form the
core of FFVIII (the greatly-unappre
ciated “Parasite Eve” and
“Xenogears” are prime examples),
but some of the innovations are new
to FFVIII.
Squaresoft has always been well
known for their beautiful CGI
movies, but in FFVIII these movies
will often be played as background
material while you’re doing things in
the foreground.
Also, Square introduced a mini
game inside FFVIII where players
gather trading cards and play a domi
nos-like card game that’s called
“Triple Triad.” They might as well
have called it “crack,” however,
because it’s addictive as all get out,
simple in principle and yet very com
plex in strategy, like Go.
p In addition to all of this, some lit
tle changes add up, like getting paid
at regular intervals instead of just
finding money on monsters (killing a
snake and finding money always
bothered me - where did it keep its
cash?) or the fact that magic isn’t
| learned, it’s “drawn” or stolen.
The combat system of FFVII has
I also been refined and improved and
now flows a great deal more natural
ly
This isn’t to say FFVIII is perfect,
' but the errors are so minor that they
| are easily overlooked for the greater
I good.
Bottom line, if you own a
Playstation, you must own FFVIII. If
you’re a role-playing game fan, and
you don’t own a Playstation, think
long and hard about buying a system
just for this.
Yeah, it’s that good.
-Cliff Hicks
System: Dreamcast
Producer: Sega *
Grade: B+
Let’s get the main question out of
the way up front - should you buy a
Dreamcast? If you’re a video gamer
in any sense of the word, the answer is
yes.
On Thursday, Sega finally got its
butt in gear and released a damn fine
128-bit video gaming platform. .
The box itself is little, only about
half the width of a Playstation, but
inside this box lingers a massive beast
of a machine.. u ,v<
Early critics said the graphics did
n’t look much better: than the
Playstation’s. These critics, to be
blunt, were wrong. . < ;
When you take your first look at
Soul Calibur running on the
Dreamcast, you’ll know Sega means
business. The game’s just friggin’
beautiful! High-resolution textures,
realistic models and vivid colors.
Hell, my PC can’t perform this well
half of the time.
But, as we all know, the proof is in
the games. Sega’s last system, Saturn,
was doomed early on, having few
titles and not enough power in the
system. Neither of these are a prob
lem this time around, obviously.
At its launch, the Dreamcast had
approximately 12 titles available, the
most ever for a system on launch day.
These range from the good (“Hydro
Thunder”) to the flat out amazing
(“Soul Calibur”) and cover almost all
the flavors of gaming - sports, racing,
flying, shooting, adventure, action
and fighting.
Another thing the Dreamcast has
that you aren’t going to get elsewhere
(not yet, anyway) is a modem. While
Sega loses a point for not having any
games playable over the Internet at
launch, they assure gamers that we
should be playing people across the
country by Christmas. Joy.
The other hesitation I have about
the system is the wacky-ass con
troller. I suspect that it’s going to
grow on me much in the way the
Playstation and the Nintendo64 con
trollers did, but, for the moment, it
feels a little awkward. Anyone who’s
planning on buying a Capcom fight
ing game should seriously invest in a
joystick as an alternative.
Still, to counter that is the fact that
the Virtual Memory Units (VMUs)
have little LCD screens on them. The
VMUs plug into the controller, not
the main system, so you have a little
LCD screen peeking out at you.
Sounds a little strange, and it is, but
imagine playing a football game with
a friend and being able to keep your
plays secret from him or her until
they’ve been executed!
In the old days of gaming, both
players would input their plays on the
main screen, and both people knew
somewhat what was going to happen.
On some of the games for Dreamcast,
plays can be entered using the little
LCD screen, and your opponent is
none the wiser.
Some people are refusing to buy a
Dreamcast because Sony plans on
having a new system (hopefully) out
next year. Their loss. Sure, Sony’s
system will probably be technologi
cally more powerful, but by Sony’s
own admittance, the system will not
be out here before Sept. 9, 2000, will
cost between $300-$400 and will not
have a modem with it. Can you say
“ouch?”
l his aoesn t mean ^ony s oui tnor
Nintendo, who’s also working on a
new system), but the term “console
war” is juvenile and outdated. There’s
roont for three systems in the market.
It means more competition, more
games and the people who win out in
the end are, ta da, die gamers.
Many gamers now have more
than one system in their home, and a
Dreamcast will satisfy both the casu
al gamer and the hardcore.
Go on, buy a Dreamcast now. If
you still need convincing, go watch
the thing play. Seeing is believing.
-CliffHicks
V
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