Final Fantasy

When I'm not busy working, watching sports, hitting the gym, or out making it happen, I like to spend my free time playing video games. One of the games I'm currently playing is Final Fantasy XIII. I am what you might call a "second generation FF player", meaning I really didn't get introduced to the series until the big hit on the first Playstation, Final Fantasy VII. There are several FF fans out there that will say some of the best FFs preceded 7 and that I'm really not a true FF fan until I try the first 6, but if you recall my Avatar posting, I'm somewhat of a graphics whore. I can really only go back and play those old school games if I played them growing up, otherwise it's hard for me to get acclimated to the 16-bit graphics or worse. So anyway, call me what you want, but I own every FF that has come out since 7, except the MMO that was 12.

FF13 is the first FF made for the new generation of consoles. I personally own it for the PS3 because I like PS3 better than XBox360 and it was orginally developed for the PS3 anyway (the XBox360 version is ported and you may notice a slight degradation in graphics between to the two). I'm about 15 hours through and these games typically take 40 hours for me to complete. The game is stunningly beautiful, as are most games these days on these systems. The FFs are each pretty different in their own way, although they all center around a role-playing epic storytale theme. This one has the feel of FF12 but does get back to some of the more turn-based style of FF7 through FF10. This game is very linear so far (and kind of easy), but the battle system and story is definitely starting to grow on me the more I play it and the further I get. At first I was a little disinterested in the characters...some of the characters are really emo and annoying, but not surprising since this game originated from Japan, which is these days emo-city. During gameplay, the only challenge seems to be keeping an eye on your health and switching to a paradigm with a medic in it when you need it. Otherwise, it's just focus on attack chain and stagger the enemies so that you can really deal some damage. The game allows you to go on somewhat of an autoplay mode, since the AI is capable of learning what enemies are vulnerable/invulnerable to what and consequently use the right spells and avoid the wrong ones. But for the most part, I actively switch between paradigms to ensure the most success.
As for the story, it's definitely developing into something more intriguing and I'm becoming more attached to it. Although I am a little disappointed of the girls in the story. Lightning has a tomboy personality and isn't very appealing. Vanille has a very annoying voice and is a little too perky for me, plus they all call her a kid, so for all we know she could easily be like 14. Serah wears this kinky little school girl outfit, but she's non-playable and also looks a little young; she's probably 16 or so. So really that only leaves Fang to gawk at (see hot brunette chick in picture below)...

My friend Valentina, who's farther in the game than me, argues that this is her favorite FF to date. I have to disagree based on what I've experienced so far, but then again I loved 7's characters, story, and gameplay so much that I think it'd be hard for any new FF to top it. The music has also gone downhill ever since composer Nobuo Uematsu left after FF9. We'll see though as I still have more than half the game to go. Either way, no matter where the series goes, I'll probably continue to get each game 'til it dies based on loyalty to the franchise alone. Reminds me of The Simpsons in a way...I still watch every episode they make, heh.

The Lindy's Burger Challenge

So last night my buddy Chris attempted the Burger Challenge at Lindy's on 4th avenue in Tucson. For $20, they serve you a 12-patty burger and if you can finish it in 20 minutes or less, not only is it free, but they'll give you a $5 gift certificate and you get your picture on the wall.

They actually have two burger challenges. The 6-patty burger is just called the O.M.G. and runs for $15, but there's no timeline nor free incentive at the end. The 12-patty burger is the O.M.F.G. and is what Chris was trying to complete.

The O.M.F.G. doesn't take long to prepare and actually comes out before the rest of the food since it takes up the entire grill to make. Chris had a buddy doing the challenge with him (nope, not me haha) and they had different strategies. Scott, the other challenger, would take apart the burger in advance to get a head start on eating convenience. Chris, just sat back and enjoyed being among friends, almost making burger eating his secondary goal.

For the first half, Scott was in a zone crushing patties and putting himself way ahead of a 1 minute 40 second per patty pace. Chris meanwhile was just sitting back and chatting while eating, using conversation as a distraction from the gargantuan task ahead.

At the 16:44 mark, Chris finished his last bite easily. He never appeared to hit a wall, but he says he did about 10 patties in, and what helped was eating the last two patties with the buns to change up the taste and flavor. Congrats Chris! That was quite an accomplishment you pulled! As for his buddy Scott, he really hit a wall around 9 patties in, but eventually finished the thing in 34 minutes. Kudos to his effort as well.

Lindy's has some good burgers, but they're more well known for being unique and creative. As for me, this was my second time here and I tried the Donkey Punch this time: green chiles, jalapenos, pepperjack cheese, guacamole, and a chopped up habanero pepper that easily made it THE spiciest burger I have ever consumed. I actually thought finishing it was a challenge in itself because it was so freakin' hot and this is coming from a guy who can really handle spicyness. I forgot to take a picture of the thing since I was too busy taking pictures of the challenge, but let's just say it was very painful for me at the end of the night trying to take my contacts out... :)

Happy Birthday Duncan!

Are you surprised I haven't blogged about my cat yet? Well today is Duncan's 5th birthday! Today I gave him a tuna fish birthday cake! Unfortunately I was out of candles, but I think he would've just stared at them anyway.

Happy Birthday Duncan! I love you!

Opening Day!

Today is Opening Day in baseball! ESPN is showing 5 games today and I'm currently watching the Cardinals and my favorite pitcher (see left) as I'm typing this...ugh, he just gave up 2 bombs to the Reds in the 4th inning. I think Opening Day should be a National holiday! I'm not crazy either; there are a ton of people in the baseball stadiums today and a majority of the games are played in the afternoon in their respective time zones. I guess I could take the day off, but it's much easier to just watch the games from home or from my work computer and save the vacation day for later.

I love baseball, but I also do fantasy sports, and you could argue that fantasy is the reason I love Amercian sports so much. The fantasy basketball season just ended and I finished 2nd and 3rd in my two money leagues. In the league I commish were I ended in 2nd place, my friend Kyle just missed the finals by 1 defensive rebound or 1 block. If I had played him instead of Sike who I actually played, I would've won the championship. So that 1 missed stat (that we can blame on Jeff Green fouling out with 5 minutes left in a Sunday game haha) cost him $80 and ultimately cost me $120. Fantasy is funny, but sometimes that's just the luck factor at work. If your curious how successful I am as a fantasy manager, feel free to browse my profile for private leagues and my profile for public leagues. But I must warn you, my sheer prowess may overwhelm you. ;) Haha, j/k.

So with the end of one sport is the birth of another! If you're a hardcore fan like me, I hope you get to watch at least two or three games today! Here's to Opening Day! I love baseball!!!