Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. Does omniscience rule out free will? Dunno, but I'd like to see Xenogears' take on it. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Looking back on this past week, I see a lot more whining and bitching than I intended. Ironically enough, my original intro yesterday mentioned how I was all back and functioning and stuff. But to the best of my knowledge, this time I really am back and functional and all that rot. I'd apologize for these past few days, but that would be more of the same. No more excuses. Today's column will be  long and interesting and cool, even if I get a meteor dropped on my head. (If it doesn't stop a Final Fantasy character, why should it stop me?) And next week should be equally good. So let's get going.

Now, you'd figure that after a shut-the-place-down-and-shoot-out-the-lights declaration like the above, I'd have something more interesting to talk about than computer architecture. But I can't help it. A lot of you have probably read this already, but I lost my whole rant on it yesterday, so I'm gonna talk about it some more and you're gonna sit there and like it. Or you're gonna skip ahead to the actual letters, but I'm still gonna say my piece.

The article is interesting for a couple of reasons. We see that for once, we console gamers get to play with cooler, shinier toys than our PC brethren. (Heh.) We also see that the advent of heavy duty rendering demands different architecture than current general purpose boxes possess. But it's the implications for developers suggested by the new architecture that interest me.

Consider that many early reports have suggested the Dreamcast might actually have sharper graphics than the PS2, due to PS2's smaller texture buffers and lack of anti-aliasing. But if I understand Ars Technica correctly, what's needed here is a new approach to rendering, where the main model data resides in the main memory, rather than in a secondary buffer. While you obviously don't have the whole of main memory to play with, the flexibility of not having a fixed cache size in which to hold your models must be somewhat liberating, and might ultimately mean more detailed frames as a whole.

Totally blue-skying for a moment, I have to wonder if new approaches to graphics programming won't also suggest new styles of graphics, or even new styles of games. Certainly the early days of vector games were different from sprite games, and the earliest polygon games (Out of this World) relied on different visual tricks than other 2D styles. Admittedly, the PS2 is merely a different way of getting at the same end result as other systems (3D polys) but perhaps bigger bandwidth and faster processors will inspire more inventive effects on models. Instead of the relatively static models of Soul Calibur, imagine a modern version of F-Zero, with the vehicles awash in motion blurs and lighting effects. I'm gonna be very interested in seeing what later generations of PS2 software look like, once developers start to get creative.

Onward.

Three hours and fifty minutes is roughly the time it took for someone to reply to my sob story and say "you should have done it with a straight text editor, dumbass." I knew it was coming, I just wasn't sure it would be the very first response I got to that column. It was.

There are a couple of good reasons why I use Front Page rather than Notepad. Ignorance of straight HTML isn't one of them. The vast majority of my edits on the column aren't done in the WYSIWYG editor pane of Front Page, but in the raw HTML section. I wrote my first column and my DA application (which included a mock column and a mock vault, both in GIA style) entirely in Notepad, mostly to assure myself that I could.

But after a few columns, I started looking for ways to speed things up. Front Page was available to me, thanks to a $5 CD program UT offered last year. Front Page does some very nifty tricks in the raw HTML editor, such as automatically matching tags. I only have to type the opening paragraph tags on your letters, and it places the closing tags for me. It also does great auto-indenting and color highlighting. But the big reason I like Front Page is it gives me a word processor-like environment to write my responses in, complete with spell check and thesaurus. I admit, it's a weakness, but the first time I ever typed anything was on a 128K Macintosh running MacWrite. WYSIWYG editors are one of my brain's primary interfaces to the outside world, and it's seriously distracting for me not to see the text as I'm accustomed to, or have to write in tags when I'm trying to get my ideas across. Also I've generally been staring at a computer screen for 8 hours by the time I write this, so staring at the Notepad font doesn't do my eyes any big favors.

And even if I had done it in Notepad, I'd still have the same problem. I've seen Notepad crash and die before, and until last night I thought FP had an auto-save function to combat just such an emergency. Other people suggested things like Dreamweaver, but FP feels more natural. There were suggestions for Linux or BeOS to insure stability, both of which I've been meaning to install and will probably get around to, one of these days. I can only assume the entire VI/EMACS crowd is sneering at me, to which I can only say, mucking with things like VI config files is an exercise in masochism I don't need.

So there you have it, the whole sorted story. And hopefully that's the last discussion about my software preferences we need have for a while.

As to the instrumentation quality in CC, I maintain that it's well above anything I've heard on the PSX so far, including FF7 and 8, which I thought were pretty good. Suikoden and SotN's music quality weren't memorable for me, meaning I literally can't remember what they sounded like, and since that's the case I'd tend to rank CC's instruments above either. I find your comment about SNES FF sound quality totally wrong headed, but I won't argue the point.

Pokemon certainly should have been mentioned before now. Indeed, from a commercial standpoint, Pokemon may already be considered Final Fantasy's equal. As you noted, as far as cultural consciousness goes Pokemon already exceeds FF, and while we're still salivating over FF's first movie Pokemon's already released a movie, with plans for more. Counting Pokemon Red/Blue/other Japanese colors (but not Silver/Gold) as a single game, it's sold more copies than any given Final Fantasy, if not as many as the FF series as a whole.

But I can't quite credit Pokemon with the same critical respect I give FF. Yet. First, Pokemon has to show the same longevity as Final Fantasy. It may indeed be a long-running franchise for Nintendo, but it's also possible that it'll be swept into the dustbin of history, along with TMNT and My Little Pony. Second, Pokemon has to show it has the same quality and innovation as Final Fantasy, or even Dragon Quest. Pokemon 1 is an excellent RPG, I'm not disputing that, and from what I've read of Pokemon 2 it looks to be equally good and appropriately innovative. But until we see Pokemon 3 on the GBA, and maybe Pokemon 4 on Dolphin, I can't seriously compare it to the sweeping evolution FF has undergone in 8 iterations.

Still, good call.

And I'm sure that there are more than a few NIN lyrics that are appropriate to Galerians. For a group of foreigners who speak English as a second language, Japanese developers are exceedingly crafty about putting clever American pop references in their games. Now if they could just quote the Simpsons a few times...

Hmm, didn't know that.  Rather cool, if true. And I guess by the same logic, the CC arranged album will feature Mitsuda-san smoking a cigarette on the cover.

Don't know anything about Strider being cancelled, and wouldn't be too worked up about it until we hear one way or the other from Capcom.

And I can't quite agree with your disagreement. It's absolutely true that a great game is more than isolated scenes or gameplay segments. In the context of a solid plot and strong character development, a great scene solidifies the excellence already in the game. But often a bad or mediocre game can be made somewhat worthwhile by a poignant moment or a particularly enjoyable level. Shadows of the Empire is not a great game, but the opening snowspeeder sequence is one of the better things I've played on the N64.

It'd be nice to say cartoons do evolve and get better, but it's unfortunately not true. Anyone who's ever wept bitter tears comparing the brilliant 1940's Fleischer Superman shorts to the pathetic 1970's Superfriends knows of what I speak.

I got a lot of irate complaints about Mr. Toriyama's earlier comments, so I figured I should give him the chance to clarify himself, or dig himself a deeper grave, as the case may be.

However, I don't feel the same way. So addressing his points one by one:

1. Metal Gear Solid was maybe 12 hours of gameplay on two disks. Enough said.
2. By game standards, at least, Lunar's dubbing is excellent. Admittedly, some have complained about their ears bleeding from Nall's voice, but that aside I thought the acting was appropriate to the overall WD translation.
3. The basic playstyle of Lunar is one of the few times I'll defend a simpler combat system. Between the tactical positioning of characters and multiple attacks per turn, I found battles in Lunar to be one of the better parts of the game. And having an old-school game that works well as an intro to younger players is not that bad an idea.
4. The extras are a matter of personal taste, and I personally didn't care too much about them. But I've at least got to give WD credit for trying.

Now Akira's had his say, and I've had mine. We can continue to argue the point, but ultimately I think Lunar's sales figures speak for themselves. End of story.

For what it's worth, I agree with you. C-minor did work better in the original context, at least to a musical illiterate. And don't sweat forgetting the small stuff. I'm an Electrical Engineer, but figured out the other day that I didn't know the physical units for Volts. (Joules per Coulomb, before I get twenty emails telling me so.)

Right now I'm averaging about 40 emails a day, standard deviation of about 10. The practical answer is: a lot more than I can use, since just about every one of them is printable. The fact that I could do Monday's column with a grand total of 10 emails really says a lot about the quality of email you've been sending in. Keep it up, folks.

Grandia depends on if you've got anything else to do in the meantime. It gets significantly more interesting in the second disk, maybe about 10 hours in. But if it was a choice between finishing Grandia and starting Saga Frontier 2, I'd go for SF2.

I think you're partially right. There are a few key plot points I wish I didn't know about the game that you'll probably get a kick out of. However, I can pretty much guarantee that there are no spoilers in the soundtrack, and you're depriving yourself of some great music. There might be some value in encountering certain tracks in their appropriate context, but all things considered, I'd still say go for it.

No, Ian, it doesn't make you a freak. That James picture however...

Ok then.

Closing Comments:

Better. I know I'm gonna enjoy my weekend, hope you do the same. See you Monday.

-Chris Jones, saving every five minutes