Final Fantasy XIII arrived at my house. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to play it yet, though. I’ve been overhearing people saying that it’s going to take ~60 hours to beat and that the story is far too linear for a modern day RPG.

It’s funny that I don’t mind this being linear. I find that sometimes, you just want to pick up a game and play through the story, and not have to decide. Don’t get me wrong, open world and open story games (ala Mass Effect 2) are some of my favorites, but sometimes, the world can be too open and the story never seems to finish (The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion). The game should be designed with the gamer in mind, or else we’re going to have a lot of people that only going to go through 60-70% of the game and never finish.

That is what I loved about Mass Effect 2, the design team actually took the time to learn from their fan feedback in the forums. That’s why you have such things as 40 minutes missions, interesting characters, and easy pick up and put down game play.

Well, looks like I’m going to be in a cave for a while.