There are a lot of people here complaining about the poor graphics in FFVII, and this only encourages game companies to continue their endeavor towards style over substance. Sure, the character models were damn low on polygons, but the developers made up for that by their use of characterisation by many other means such as framing, timing, transitions, well written dialogue, etc. These are things that we just don't tend to see anymore, and even when we do it's done as conventionally as possible.
There seems to be this conceit among publishers that we want our gaming experiences to make us feel like we are in a movie, which I personally wouldn't mind sometimes if it was a particularly good movie, but it never is. I played KOTOR all the way to the end, and it felt like I was watching a dress rehearsal for a star wars play, with the scripts removed from their hands in post-production. I'm one of those people that doesn't want realism in games(especially if it's poorly done), because it becomes too much of a passive experiece. It DOES become a movie, whereby we merely trigger the events in a timely manner. Voice acting, realistic models, these are very lazy devices for the developers to convey meaning and emotion, and they take away that wonderful contribution of the user - their imagination. This was Final Fantasy VII's strength. It struck just the right balance between the textual and the visual. It's the Director that elevates this games above most, if not all, others.
I never felt so invested in characters and, apart from FFVIII, I haven't since - because games no longer require the same degree of psychological investment. You only have to watch Advent Children and see the characters fleshed out so perfectly on the screen, to realize how much individuality those low-rez polys must have conveyed at the time - without facial expressions.
Firstly, all the EB Games in Australia have the returns policy that I spoke of, although I think it is now shortened to 7 days. Secondly, I never ran the store, and nobody there implemented their own policies - we simply did what we were told, even making horribly affected conversation with customers about the weather.
Just about every game you get from EB is second hand anyway, in terms of it's usage. All their game discs come out of a big drawer behind the counter, and everyone takes advantage of their returns policy, at least once, which allows you to bring back a game within two weeks if it just didn't "float your boat". These returned discs go back in the drawer with the new ones and it's not unusual for someone who purchases a new game to get one which has already passed through several sets of hands before. They have even started doing it for their xbox games, which means breaking the little xbox seals before they get to the customer, and this seems just plain dodgy to me.
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There are a lot of people here complaining about the poor graphics in FFVII, and this only encourages game companies to continue their endeavor towards style over substance. Sure, the character models were damn low on polygons, but the developers made up for that by their use of characterisation by many other means such as framing, timing, transitions, well written dialogue, etc. These are things that we just don't tend to see anymore, and even when we do it's done as conventionally as possible.
There seems to be this conceit among publishers that we want our gaming experiences to make us feel like we are in a movie, which I personally wouldn't mind sometimes if it was a particularly good movie, but it never is. I played KOTOR all the way to the end, and it felt like I was watching a dress rehearsal for a star wars play, with the scripts removed from their hands in post-production. I'm one of those people that doesn't want realism in games(especially if it's poorly done), because it becomes too much of a passive experiece. It DOES become a movie, whereby we merely trigger the events in a timely manner. Voice acting, realistic models, these are very lazy devices for the developers to convey meaning and emotion, and they take away that wonderful contribution of the user - their imagination. This was Final Fantasy VII's strength. It struck just the right balance between the textual and the visual. It's the Director that elevates this games above most, if not all, others.
I never felt so invested in characters and, apart from FFVIII, I haven't since - because games no longer require the same degree of psychological investment. You only have to watch Advent Children and see the characters fleshed out so perfectly on the screen, to realize how much individuality those low-rez polys must have conveyed at the time - without facial expressions.
Firstly, all the EB Games in Australia have the returns policy that I spoke of, although I think it is now shortened to 7 days. Secondly, I never ran the store, and nobody there implemented their own policies - we simply did what we were told, even making horribly affected conversation with customers about the weather.
Just about every game you get from EB is second hand anyway, in terms of it's usage. All their game discs come out of a big drawer behind the counter, and everyone takes advantage of their returns policy, at least once, which allows you to bring back a game within two weeks if it just didn't "float your boat". These returned discs go back in the drawer with the new ones and it's not unusual for someone who purchases a new game to get one which has already passed through several sets of hands before. They have even started doing it for their xbox games, which means breaking the little xbox seals before they get to the customer, and this seems just plain dodgy to me.