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· RttS 2008 · Games · Features · News · Media · Release Dates · Newsletter · Chat · Message Forums · Staff Bios · Feedback · Jobs Listing  |
by Benbola Recently my Playstation broke down. I saw it coming, for years. People all over the internet talk about how crappy the Playstation is, in terms of lifespan. "Two years, then it's toast," said popular opinion. Fortunately for me, mine lasted 3 years. Then it started freezing once in awhile. Then it started freezing twice in a while. Finally, it got to the point where the machine couldn't last 15 minutes without freezing. I called a whole bunch of repair shops, and eventually even called Sony themselves. Basically, repairing the unit costs $70, even though it's so common a problem they just ship out a new one instead of repairing the old ones, presumably to save time. Seeing as the PS2 is due out in a couple months, and it's supposed to be backwards compatible, I decided to wait out the remaining months with Bleem! Shortly after downlo.. er, buying the full version, I went to check out the Bleem! website to see which games that I have, and the ones I want to have work. Hmmm.... FF7 works... FF8 kinda works... Azure Dreams doesn't work!? Wait... I don't really like that game anyways. Things seemed promising for the future of my personal gaming. I had a job, so I had money to buy games, and I had a good idea of what game I wanted next. Bleem's website rates it's compatibility with Lunar: SSSC as partial. That was OK though, the site said it got the "Partial" rating because of some minor sound and graphics problems. Lunar's not exactly a game you play because of the graphics, so I thought it would be fine. Nonetheless, I decided discretion is the better part of valor (can you guess how this story turns out? :), and decided to test out Bleem! with Final Fantasy 7, the game with the supposed "Yes!" rating. I popped the CD into the drive, configured the controls and video options so it would run smoothly, and began playing. The stars above swirled back and forth. "Something's missing..." I said to myself. Slowly the stars changed into green lights floating around Aeris' face. "DOOT DOOT DEE!" went the music. "That doesn't sound right..." I spoke aloud again, referring to the harsh noises that vaguely sounded like the soft music that was supposed to open the game. As I played more, I realised that I couldn't put up with the screeching noises my computer was making in feeble imitation of the Playstation. I turned off the sound. I can deal with no sound. Although the game lost ALOT of it's atmosphere from the lack of music, I was used to having to turn the sound off when playing video games. My SNES and PSX have always been in the living room, and my parents don't have the same appreciation for digitalised, looping music that I do. I kept playing the game. There were other problems with the game, although they were minor. I don't have a great video card, or a big monitor, so the screen was tiny, and I could still see Windows in the background. There's something unsettling about seeing Cloud and the start menu at the same time, and I don't know why. There wasn't that cool, trippy swirl of color before every fight that we all love so much (although admittedly, loading time was practically non-existent). The experience screen was really slow, so you'd have to skip it and not get to see the little red bar increase. It's the little things really. Finally, the last straw. Bleem's memory card system. It's less reliable then a "Super Xtreme Playstation Memory Card Pro" that you can buy at the dollar store for 50 cents. Basically, you can lose your saved data at any time. I only played the game for two hours (creating a whole bunch of back up cards just in case), and I had to reformat the card three times. Of course the average Bleem! user probably creates a new memory card for each game s/he has, but what a hassle, and what a risk you run all the time. When the game froze right before a video clip, I knew it was time to call it quits. I went downstairs, had some lunch, and played Heroes of Might and Magic III for the rest of the day. My name is Ben Robinson, and this was my story.  |
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