The Vile Peaks

What is it? What are the Vile Peaks? I wouldn't have had any idea Monday. Tuesday, I still wouldn't have an answer for you. Ask me on Thursday now, and I can tell you that The Vile Peaks is the name of Chapter Four in Square-Enix's long awaited RPG Final Fantasy XIII.



Off and on over the past few months up to the March 9th release of the game I couldn't decide if I wanted to risk the $60 on a game that even though I loved the things back when it was Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II. The game has come so far in the years since I last ran through one of these massive titles.

I read some reviews online and even caught one in issue # 203 of Game Informer magazine. Across the board, the title has been bringing in some impressive scores! GI magazine gave it a remarkable 9.25! Although they reviewed only the PS3 version, I also have read that the 360 product is nearly identical. The talk is that while the PS3 version may be crisper, the Xbox 360 game is running a bit smoother frame rate wise and is loading quicker if installed the the hard disk of the Microsoft console.

If you are a 360 fan boy, or like me own both consoles but picked it up for the 360, be prepared to eat up 18.3gb of space on your hard disk when installation is complete. I recommend, if you like to install, to do it one disc at a time, and only install the next when prompted to swap. This is unless you have a 120gb unit, or a 250gb unit. I have a 120gb hard disk so I chose to install all 3 discs prior to playing the game. This rather long install time allowed me to skim through the manual and the strategy guide I purchased for the game, to get a leg up on the adventure ahead.

So far I have racked up about 8.5 hours of honest game play. The game clock counts at all times unless paused so I rarely let my character stand around picking his ass when I go to drop a deuce. Once my play through of the game is complete I should have a fairly accurate total of hours spent playing the game. It will be most interesting if this title is able to keep it's current grasp on my. It is a pretty tight grip if you ask me, and even Battlefield Bad Company 2 can't break the bind we have! Next week Metro 2033 drops, then what!?! If this game isn't completed by then, I think the latest post-apocalyptic THQ publication will have to wait!

If I have the motivation I may add to the FFXIII discussion here in the near future. I'd like to do a full review but the game is so complicated that I'd hate to make an erroneous judgement on a topic because I fully didn't understand the task the game presented my with. All other topics could be considered opinion, and I'll be damned if anyone is going to tell me they are wrong.

Rob