I’ve been playing a bit of Final Fantasy XIII. Not as much as I’d have liked. Been busy with various bits and pieces so only had a couple of evenings with it. I’m really enjoying it though. It’s reminded me of how excited the series has made me in the past.

Predictably I started with Final Fantasy VII at the tender age of 13 (I’ve sinced played 1-6). I can’t remember where I first read about it but something about it really excited me. I’d played RPGs before on the Megadrive and Gameboy and text adventures on the Commodore 64, but this looked special.

I asked for it for Christmas. It was a big request considering it cost £44.99 but my ever brilliant parents bought me it. I was so excited by Christmas Day that I prodded every wrapped present until I figured out where it was and persuaded my parents to let me unwrap it first. I adored every second of it, completing it numerous times and soaking up all the FAQs and game guides that I could for it.

When Final Fantasy 8 was announced, I was unbelievably excited. I saved up my pocket money so that I could pre-order it and collect it on release day. Due to a mix up I received the prized pre-order bonus of a FF8 demo disc on the day I picked up the game which was a shame. I rushed home with it having pored over the manual in the car. I settle down in front of my TV with a bottle of fanta to keep me hydrated and turned it on. The opening FMV was stunning, truly amazing at the time. The rest of the game…oh dear.

In hindsight it was amazing, it’s one of my favourite Final Fantasys now. But at the time it wasn’t Final Fantasy 7, it stood no chance of living up to the ridiculous amount of hype that my young brain had instilled. Until Final Fantasy XIII, it was the only Final Fantasy game I acquired on release day.

Final Fantasy 9 was good but I played it at the wrong stage of my life. I still haven’t completed it and I doubt I will unless it gets released on the PSN Store so I can stick it on my PSP.

Final Fantasy 10 was stunning and despite whiney Tidus, I loved it a lot. It took me a while to finally complete it though as during the PS2’s era I wasn’t a big console gamer.

I’ve never played Final Fantasy 11. It’s one of the few MMORPGs I’ve never played actually. Maybe I should rectify that at some point.

Final Fantasy 12. Ugh. Did not get on with it. But also probably didn’t give it enough time.

Final Fantasy 13 though….I’d deliberately avoided reading anything about it. I did hear the PS3 vs Xbox 360 debate though, and the fact that it is incredibly slow to start off, and that it’s not meant to be very good. I’ve really enjoyed my few hours with it though. Yup it’s slow to start, hideously slow at first. But it gives me the same buzz that I felt with Final Fantasy 8, but without the silly levels of hype. Instead, I just feel excited and happy. It’s a good feeling.

Waking up feeling drained does not make for a productive day. It really hasn’t been a great day. While I managed to visit work to rent Fantastic Mr Fox and Bioshock 2 (wanted Battlefield Bad Company 2 but all copies were out) and went to Asda so that there’s actually food in the house, nothing else has really been accomplished.

In fact since I’ve got home I’ve felt worse and rather lightheaded which makes me wonder if tonight I’m fighting more than sleep deprivation and that I’ve actually got a virus of some sort. I feel worn out and I’ve got a strong feeling that when I do settle down for some games later, I’ll probably end up falling asleep.

I strongly suspect if this goes on much longer (and I’ve got a bad feeling it will) I’d be best off cutting back a little on some voluntary work and sorting out my head again. Stable, sleeping fine Jen is always better than insomniac, slightly insane Jen after all.

See I’m even talking about myself in the third person now!

But yeah…sorry about the poor entry that’s only really of relevance of myself! Was going to ramble about my fanboy/girl love of Final Fantasy but I’ll leave that for another day.

You see, I’ve been avoiding the news, Twitter and Facebook for most of the day. I recorded the Oscars last night but didn’t have the chance to watch it all until 1pm this afternoon. Meaning I haven’t been able to read any news, check Twitter or Facebook until nearly 6pm, all in case I find out by accident who won all the awards thus ruining the point a bit.

It’s terrible but I did feel a little lost without any knowledge of the news since Sunday night and not being able to check what was going on in the world of Twitter and Facebook.

It’s also been rather relaxing to be so cut off from the world. I’ve checked my emails but that’s about it.

My evening plan is to play Final Fantasy XIII and that’s about it. Lovely.

Will I regret it tomorrow when I have more to do than if I’d done some work today? Probably, but it’s just what I need I think. It reminds me how to relax. Something I’m absolutely awful at doing.

On a final note, hurrah for the winner of Best Film (and possibly et al, I’m trying to avoid spoilers for those waiting for the highlights )!!

Over the course of the week I’d suffered many, many nightmares, almost all bordering on flashbacks. At first it was mostly just dreams of seeing my Dad die nearly 2 years ago. I thought I’d got through the flashback stage but it seems it’s returned for a (hopefully) short while. My imagination shifted after the first few days and the dreams turned into a mixture of all of my fears. Being trapped, being alone, a few dreams that were clearly based on my days of being bullied at school (nearly 20 years ago now!).

By about Thursday night I’d given in hoping for sleep. I mostly spent my mornings analysing what had happened in the dream and what fear it was focusing on. It made me feel terribly insecure during the day. Spending each night facing your fears does I guess.

Nothing seemed to fix my lack of sleep. I tried reading until my eyes couldn’t stay open, I tried relaxing as much as possible with no TV or book to entertain me before sleeping, I tried avoiding difficult to digest food anywhere near before bed. Nothing worked. I hoped that after a shift at work I’d be tired enough to just sleep. Nope.

Last night I finally just slept. I woke up a few times in the night but not due to nightmares. I didn’t feel rested this morning. Instead I felt like someone who had just managed to have a glimpse of what they’d been missing all week. I figure it’ll take a few more good nights till I feel refreshed and human again. I still feel insecure too. All the fears and worries that have hit me over the past week are still at the front of my mind a little too much for my liking.

Will nightmareless sleep happen again tonight? Who knows. I hope so!

Anyway, bear with this rather long roundup!

First up was SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 for the PSP, reviewed for GOONL!NE. Not bad fun really.

Despite being a mouthful of a name to say, SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo 3 is a very enjoyable semi tactical shooter. Think of it as the Taken or Die Hard of the tactical shooting world, it’s not the most intelligent of games but what it lacks in originality it more than makes up with entertaining gung ho action.

Full review

Then there was Your Doodles Are Bugged, an Xbox indie game that is Lemmings-esque. Good fun too and ridiculously cheap at 80 points. There’s mad people that spend more than that on virtual clothing for goodness sake!

Your Doodles are Bugged is a title that has a few too many jokes attached to it. Besides the obvious misspelling of bugged creating a whole new genre of gaming, it conjures up images of doodles with massive bugging devices attached to them. Or at least it does if you’ve got my sort of imagination. In the case of Your Doodles are Bugged, there’s no sign of covert spying devices nor intimate relations with doodles, instead it’s much like the classic puzzle game Lemmings.

Full review

Then Thexder Neo for the PSP which was a little bit rubbish really. Also rather difficult to say the least!

Robots are very cool. We all know that. Sure they’re ridiculously geeky at times but who can resist a good robot, that’s why Transformers continues to be so successful after all. Despite quite enjoying both robots and side scrolling shoot em ups, I’d never heard of the Thexder series of games, that is until Thexder Neo appeared for the PSP recently.

Full review

Along came Space Pirates From Tomorrow, a very ambitious (probably too much so) indie title but one that falls flat on its face due to a truly awful control system and poor pricing.

It started so well for Space Pirates From Tomorrow. Starting with a loading screen akin to a Commodore 64’s was an inspired touch. One that instantly made me want to feel great fondness for the game. Throw in the fact that everything I’d read about the game suggested it was trying to be Elite, and I was really rather keen to give it a shot. So it’s unfortunate that it turns out that Space Pirates From Tomorrow is really rather poor.

Full review

Then Gyromancer for the 360. Enjoyable but not as much fun as Puzzle Quest.

Puzzle Quest was a brilliantly fun cross between an RPG and Bejeweled 2. It was as addictive as Bejeweled 2 but this time round, there was a purpose: to level up and complete the game by saving…well, I can’t remember the story but I know I wanted to keep playing. So it’s not very surprising that we now see RPG heavyweight Square Enix jump into the affair and, alongside casual games supremo PopCap, produce their own Puzzle Quest-esque game in the form of Gyromancer.

Full review

Finally on the review front was Guitar Hero Van Halen. Yeah, that wasn’t too great either. Go buy any other Guitar Hero or Rock Band!

There’s no denying that music game fans have a hell of a lot of choice on their hands these days. With the likes of two full Rock Band games, Lego Rock Band, various Guitar Heroes, Band Hero, and not forgetting band exclusive titles such as The Beatles Rock Band, Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith; there’s a lot of competition when it comes to what music game is the best. In the unfortunate case of Guitar Hero: Van Halen, it all feels a bit lacklustre. There’s certainly no reason why you should choose this full price offering over any of the others available.

Full review

And finally in this roundup, Rumor Killers which looked at the possibilities of a new Zelda this year, a new Epic game to be announced at E3 and NeoGeo games coming to PSN.

Full article

I’m looking forward to a slightly quieter week next week. Getting too burnt out lately and I’d rather focus on a few big things for a while.

I feel as if I’ve got far too much on my mind today. This week’s been an odd one mentally, especially considering I haven’t slept well in over a week. It’s really not helped.

I’m hoping I can spend the weekend recharging my batteries a bit and switching my brain off. I have got work to go to tomorrow night but it’s only a few hours so that shouldn’t be too bad. I keep feeling rubbish about money anyway so can’t complain.

Otherwise I think I’ll be mostly playing WoW and spending some quality time with the PSP. As well as probably watching a few films at the same time. Not sure what the weather’s meant to be like but I went for a walk today and after work tomorrow, I won’t be up to more walking Sunday :/ Another thing bugging me, bleh!

Regardless of dire money situations, I’m determined to have a takeaway on Sunday night though!

Watching Wedding Crashers earlier did briefly cheer me up at least.

What do you do to get through a rubbish day?

Anyway, this means I’ve had more time which means this entry will be a bit more interesting in theory. I’ve managed to encourage a few MMO newbies to try out World of Warcraft so this is a very brief ‘newbie’ guide.

First of all, it’s going to seem rather intimidating.

Your first choice will be what server to go on. It’s entirely up to you of course, but a few pointers/jargon busters.

PvE: These servers are Player versus Enemy, there’s no chance of a real person killing you (unless you decide to duel them for a laugh) and the server type I prefer at the moment.

PvP: Player versus Player. This means other players that aren’t on your side (Alliance and Horde are the two sides) can kill you. Personally I find this can get a little irritating when you’re in the middle of something and some annoying person decides to repeatedly follow and kill you. Others however will find this much more thrilling than standard servers. All depends on your personality I guess and what you find fun.

RP: Stands for RolePlaying. I’d love to say RP servers means everyone acts in character but it doesn’t really seem to happen. I have found a slightly better class of people on RP servers though but maybe that’s just me.

After you’ve figured out what server to choose, there’s the choice of what race/class combination!

To put it simply, both Alliance and Horde is fun and the same can be said of all the various classes. It’s a personal choice. For example, I absolutely love playing Night Elf Hunters. I love the independence (I’m quite an anti social MMORPG player it has to be said!) and the fact that my pet can tank for me while I fire arrows from a distance. However others quite rightly prefer to tank outright as a warrior, be a powerful mage or be a friendly all healing priest type. It’s entirely up to you.

It doesn’t take long to level up to level 10 or so, so I’d suggest trying all of them and see which one works for you. The same is true of which race, although do accept that if you choose to be a gnome, people will laugh at you! It’s the law

Take your time, figure out the early quests. Go talk to everyone with a yellow exclamation or question mark above their head. Most of all have fun! Don’t worry if everyone else seems to know what they’re doing, they probably do. It’s a 5 year old game after all so genuine newbies are fewer on the ground than they used to be. Everyone’s got to start somewhere though Do try to be polite though. Others may not be (all online games are plagued by idiots) but it’s friendly to be nice and doesn’t cost anything.

WoW offers a nice benefit in the form of add-ons which you can download to help you in your efforts. I wouldn’t recommend too many at first while you’re learning the game but once you’ve got the basics sorted, download QuestHelper. It’s brilliant and saves so much time! Try not to be too focused on the grind though, make sure you have fun getting to the high end game after all!

On a security note, I’d suggest only getting your add-ons from trusted sources like Curse. There are a few tales of dodgy add-ons so stick with sites that look major.

Another fantastic resource is Thottbot. It’s as old as WoW and it’s great if you’re stumped as to what to do next in a quest.

That’s all that comes to mind at the moment. The main one to take on board is enjoy it! Oh and try not to get too sucked in. I never have but I did the addiction thing with Everquest so maybe I’m immune :p But if you’re feeling yourself wanting to put off important things like work or sleep or your kids in favour of the game, then take a step back and re-assess things.

Feel free to leave any questions in the comments and I’ll turn it into a future entry.

It reminded me how much I loved The Lion King also. Another film that I haven’t seen in at least 12 years.

I’m slightly desperate for an eventual DVD rerelease or Blu-ray release. It’s bound to happen eventually but I do wish Disney would get on with it. The demand has quite clearly been built to a significant level so Disney, please, just get on with releasing the overpriced Blu-ray Collector’s Edition.

We all know it’ll contain a restored, new shiny improved print of The Lion King. It’ll have a DVD copy included, a digicopy and maybe even a Betamax copy for good measure. It’ll offer countless making-of documentaries that I will never get round to watching, plus a few concept art slideshows that I’ll never see. Maybe there’ll be a few physical goodies too: artcards, a steelbox case or even a cuddly toy. It’ll mostly be pointless tat in the grand scheme of things. But consumerist fool me will still buy it. Just so I can relive the memories. Of course I’ll still fast forward past that scene because it’s bound to cause floods of tears just like before, but I’ll love the rest of it.

It’s been long enough now with no digital copy of The Lion King, so get on with it now please Disney. Right this second now that is.

Actually, not right now. I’m a bit broke after buying the Friends boxset (£23.20!) and I’m still trying to save up to have my sight tested and get new lenses. So erm…….how about May? Is that good for you Disney? Yes? Excellent. Thank you

It’s not bad really, great co-workers and it just about pays the bills. The curse is I’m surrounded by all my favourite forms of media. Surrounded by thousands of DVDs and Blu-rays, a good few hundred games and a ridiculous quantity of junk food, there’s a lot of temptation.

I’ve been extremely good for a few months now, certainly since before Christmas. It’s partly willpower, partly due to being criminally broke due to my hours being so badly cut. I haven’t even bought a packet of crisps, or a bottle of water while there. The water probably being a mistake as I always seem to end up dehydrated after a shift!

The main two things that have tempted me in work lately is The Hangover on Blu-ray and the Friends 10th Anniversary boxset. I justified not purchasing The Hangover for now as I can always rent it again (free rentals, hurrah!) and it’s bound to drop in price eventually.

The Friends boxset however has just been too expensive for me at £50 which is annoying as I’d like to have them all rather than rely on the Virgin TV Choices service which only has half a series at a time. That is until today.

I had to pop into work this morning to have a chat with my boss about something. After that was sorted I hung around for a few minutes to have a chat with my assistant manager about games. As I was talking to him I was idly looking at the shelves behind the counter. There I saw it. A pre-owned copy of the Friends 10th Anniversary boxset for £29! Now £29 seems much more reasonable to me and something I could just about justify to myself (especially as I’m working a few shifts this week rather than my usual pathetic one shift!). I resisted being impulsive though. After all that’s how you end up buying crap that you don’t need/really want, right?

I’ve had the day to think it over. I’m in work at 8 tonight and I’m planning to buy it this time round. That’s assuming it’s still there. It’s usually a quiet day on a Monday and it is behind the counter, partially obscured but knowing my luck someone will have bought it! I don’t think any of my co-workers will so that narrows it down a bit. But still, who knows.

So yes, hopefully after my shift at work I’ll have a Friends boxset alongside me too.

Oh and yeah this is a rather uninspired OneADay. Sorry about that!