eighthphase

Yesterday I was standing in line at GameStop to pick up my FFXIII guide. Then mum was all, "Ughhhh... fine, surprise early birthday present, I'm buying them both for you." And I almost died, I was so happy. Coincidentally, yesterday I was in an incredibly good mood because 1) FFXIII, 2) writing an essay about ~*~space exploration~*~ in APE, 3) getting the only 100% on my last French test out of both classes, and 4) finishing my 16 hours of tutor training in AVID. (That sentence sucked, but I'm too lazy to fix it.)

And now I wish I had the PS3 so badly right now. x: I mean, I've got like two hours! I could play more in two hours! But no, the PS3 is at dad's. And... I think that may be a good thing, what with his ridiculous LED TV. Normal shows usually look like soaps on that TV, but video games look real on it. I had to fiddle around for a good half-hour to get everything to work properly; his TV is supposed to be able to do 1080i, but when you set the PS3 to that (which it will do automatically, which was the problem) you get no picture or sound. I thought, well, we'll just do it AV, but then there was no sound (I never did figure out why). So I kept fiddling with the HDMI settings, and finally figured out that you just have to leave 480i as the only one checked, because the other three don't work right. So while the resolution wasn't the absolute best it could be, it was still in glorious, shiny HD. :D

Which is really important since the graphics in FFXIII? Are amazing. The prerendered stuff, obviously, is absolutely stunning, but the stuff working off the PS3's processor is... also really really amazing-looking. Half the time, it looks like real people on a set. I'm not sure how much of that is the amazing graphics and how much of that is dad's TV, but it's awesome.

And speaking of the characters, I was able to make a couple of predictions really early on. I'm thinking Sazh is the comic relief character (though I don't really care because, baby chocobo! In his hair!) and I'm also thinking fandom is going to bash Hope for being a weak, whiny kid. I'm thinking I'm going to like him, though; well, I already do. I mean, if you'd led a sheltered life, then got dragged off into what was practically a war, and then saw your mother fall to her death, I think you might be really skittish and shy and nervous, too. And he's so cute, I just want to give him a really big hug ♥ Meanwhile, I'm liking Snow and his hero complex (and his band of la resistance, their banter was so lulzy), I'm trying to figure out more about Lightning (who is so cool omg she snaps and defies gravity that is so cool), how Sazh even ended up there in the first place (he says he didn't have a choice... what does he mean by that?), what the hell Vanille's accent is (sometimes it sounds Australian, sometimes it just sounds weird), if the entire party will ever be a whole party (probably, but not soon; I mean, I'm only an hour and a half into the game), and if I'm going to like Serah. I think I'm going to like Serah, but she hasn't even shown up yet.

Also all I'm saying about the guide is it's hardcover and really legit and looks amazing. It's amazing. And I'll stop fangirling now, honest. (: