I never thought I’d be in love, but I was wrong (I don’t get to say that often). I remember exactly what I was doing when I realized I was in love. I was in front of my TV and about 4-5 hours in to Final Fantasy XIII. Some serious business just went down and the entire game changed. That’s when I realized I loved this game. I continued playing well into the night, and it was bliss. However, she quickly started abusing me, but I still stuck with her. After 47 hours, I finally left her, but mostly because I finished the game.
People will try and tell you that Final Fantasy XIII is too linear. While you do spend the first half of the game going from place to place, there’s a pretty good reason (i.e., they explain it in the story) why you’re going from place to place. Eventually you get to do side quests, and there’s a large number of things to kill and things to do (there’s even “end game” stuff!). People will try and say the combat is simply reduced to “press x and win”. As you progress through the game, you’ll wish that was true. They’ve up the difficulty significantly, and not by having random things you have no business trying to kill like in Final Fantasy XII. You can, and will, be killed by normal enemies. Bosses will kill you in seemingly unfair (but completely fair) ways, and there’s a limit to how much grinding can help. People will tell you the story is stupid, but I disagree. However, my biggest problem with the story are the characters. I find it hard to take Lightning McFlippySoldier seriously due to the fact that she decides to run into combat wearing the shortest skirt she could find. However, my biggest problem with the characters is that all of them aren’t Sazh. I’d be happy rolling with 3 Sazhs in my party.
Regardless, the game was great. I would have defeated it much sooner if my mom and brother didn’t decide to visit me. I took time out of my busy Final Fantasy XIII schedule to clean my apartment and do other things I wouldn’t have done if I wasn’t expecting visitors. It wasn’t so bad. I came home after work to an apartment smelling like delicious food and brownies. Who hates brownies? No one worth liking.
André//9:14 AM//No one ever leaves commentsLet me tell you a story about a laptop. In September, I bought my mom a laptop from HP. Why? Because I’m a good son who does good things occasionally. Since I was going to Alabama for my aunt’s wedding (I hate weddings), I figure I’d have the laptop delivered to my apartment and deliver it to my mom personally. Of course, I panic slightly because the laptop seemed like it wouldn’t make it on time, but lo and behold, FedEx makes it happen. I find that the laptop arrived on the day of my flight, so I decide to stop at my apartment and grab the laptop before heading to the airport. So I go home, see that laptop was left at the apartment office, which is apparently what delivery guys do when I’m not home. Let me tell you about packages left in the apartment office. If you have a delivery guy leave a package in the apartment office, it gets put in a closet. No one watches the closet, anybody can waltz in and jack stuff from it. Not only that, they explain this to you when you sign the “you can’t sue us for lost packages” clause in the lease. So I roll (yes, roll) up to the office expecting a laptop. I open the closet, and notice a severe lack of laptop from HP.
No one knows where it is. FedEx says the delivery guy distinctly remembers leaving it in the closet (although there’s no way of verifying it actually made it to the closet). After repeated calls and several days, FedEx eventually told me that they’re waiting on documentation from HP to go forward with the claim. FedEx suggests I yell at HP, which is exactly what I did. HP apologizes and tells me that they’ll look into it, they’re likely going to send me a replacement laptop, and they’ll call me back. Of course, they never call back. In the meantime, I get a call from the Olathe Police Department (OPD). I panicked a bit (in my head, of course), then remembered that I use TrueCrypt, so all was well. Apparently, they found the laptop! It’s stolen property! Unfortunately, they found just the laptop (no charger, CDs, etc.) and the shipping info. It has been used! It’s no longer new! I, of course, haven’t told HP or FedEx about this. If I did, they’d just say “Oh, the package is found! Great!” and kindly tell me to die in a fire.
After the OPD called, I was promptly reminded that my mom doesn’t have a laptop, and HP & FedEx haven’t called me. So I called HP and they told me that they considered it a valid delivery. So I inform them that I had an expectation that the package would be delivered to me and signed by me, not some third party. Furthermore, he delivery guy left the laptop at the leasing office without my permission, and that’s why it went missing. They told me they considered it a valid delivery and I should talk to the leasing office. I informed them of the “you can’t sue us for lost packages” and reminded them about expectations and permission. Then the lady repeated what she said and this went on until I talked to her manager. She told me she’ll forward this to the people that handle this and I should call back on the next business day.
When I called back, she said what her subordinate said; however, she added that it was FedEx who old HP that the delivery was valid, and I should get into contact with them. So I call FedEx and they say that they’re still waiting on documentation from HP. I informed them of what HP told them and they said they considered it their fault and I would need to take it up with HP. This went back and forth until I HP said they won’t do anything unless they hear otherwise from FedEx and FedEx tells me they considered it a valid delivery and are still waiting to hear from HP. My mom suggested I decided to try and dispute the claim on my debit card, which is something I apparently can do. Bank of America temporarily credited my debit account, and I wondered why I didn’t do this sooner. By the way, we’re in late December now.
The day after this, I get a call from the OPD and they inform me that they still had my laptop, and if things don’t go well with HP/FedEx, I can still pick it up. “Aren’t cops great!?”, exclaims the young black male. Eventually, I get a letter from Bank of America saying my temporary credit is now a permanent one. Awesome, although it took them 75 days to sort it out. So I got my money back, and now I’m going to buy my mom another laptop (definitely not an HP). If any good has come from this, it’s that my apartment complex now locks that closet door and has people sign for things. As for the stolen laptop, the OPD still has it. If they call me about it, I’ll tell them that they should let HP know, because it’s not my problem. Am I going to tell HP about their laptop? What do you think?
André//4:03 PM//Someone felt like leaving a commentYesterday, I finally beat Persona 3, and it only took me 70+ hours to beat. If you count the amount of times I died painful, brutal deaths, it took me 80+ hours. 10 hours of death? Yes. I think Persona 3 is the only game in recent memory that has made me drop/throw my controller in anger/disgust, and I’ve played Mega Man 9. The sad part is that I have the FES version; it comes with a second part that you get to play after the first. Atlus says the second part is 30+ hours long, and they’re probably right. I would be all over that if it wasn’t for one tiny fact: Final Frickin’ Fantasy XIII.
I’ve bought a PS3 for FF XIII (that, and God of War 3) since the XBox 360 version is subpar. I considered taking the day off of work, but I settled with just leaving work early. I got FF XIII at midnight, and the moment I get home, I shall be glued to my TV until I have to sleep. That’s the one thing I miss about being and undergrad (if I ignore the semester I took Advanced Calculus 1): the absurd amount of free time I had. I definitely didn’t work for 40 hours a week. I could always postpone doing my homework for a day. However, I can’t just not come to work without using my sweet, sweet vacation time. But alas, work allows me to just buy a PS3 because I feel like it, so work I must. I’ve heard some unpleasant things about FF XIII, but Final Fantasy games get the benefit of the doubt from me, since I’ve found all the ones since FF VI to be enjoyable.
Speaking of vacation time (and getting a bit off-topic), I kinda want to take a week off of work to do absolutely nothing. I don’t want to go anywhere, do anything, visit anyone, or have anyone visit me. I just want to sit at home, and not be productive. But I kinda feel like that would be a waste of vacation time, especially considering I only get 3 weeks of it per year. On the other hand, I usually spend my vacation days going to visit family, and traveling to Missouri/Alabama is a time consuming task. It would be nice to just take time off and not have to drive anywhere. And it’s not like I really have any desire to travel to some far off land. Well, I kind a want to go to Japan, but I never want to go to Montréal again. It’s like going to France, except everyone is Canadian. And you know what they say about Canadians: they have awesome health care.
André//9:23 AM//No one ever leaves comments