Completed 1st Game of 5 for 2008

Final Fantasy XII -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XII

You can read the details of this game there.

It took me about 100 hours of play-time (in about a month). This game sure has great animation scenes and strong story-line. As the game progress, it only reveals details and historical backgrounds of events that has unfolded, not told in the beginning of the story. As with most RPG games, it requires you to spend time interacting with NPC (Non-Playable-Character), and many side-quests, develop your Characters in order to defeat enemies in the form of monsters, evil characters and "Big Boss" characters that are a lot more difficult to vanquish, FF-XII is no different. What really stands out is the fantastic details in the back-ground art-work, the sound and story-line. No doubt, this is going to be a game to remember for a long time.

Interesting points to remember:
1. Revenge can be a strong motive and could easily lead you down a path of no return or self-destruction. Those who follow the path of revenge are usually those who have been hurt by others, may it be a close-friend or stranger.

2. Letting go of revenge and hatred can be difficult, yes. But not impossible. Often, it is important to remember and accept the fact that we are partially to blame to allow another person to hurt us or betray us. In fact, we should thank the person who has hurt us or betray us for 3 things. The first is that it allows us to know more about the person. The second is that we learn that trust is earned and not given and finally, we learn to be patient in assessing someone's true self, before we can allow someone to earn our trust. We then move on with life. Why should we live in torment and shame for being the victim? We move on. Life goes on.

3. Friendships are important and so is who we choose as friends (or allies).

4. Remaining calm and focus is key to victory. In other words, we must emotionally balanced or happy or content. To achieve this, we must constantly get enough sleep, exercise regularly to strengthen our immune-system, relieves stress and anxiety and finally learn to let go of unhappy events. Learn to apply #2. So you can remain calm and focus at all times, or at least most of your waking hours and sleeping hours.

In any case, we are reminded of the fact that life is interesting. The fact that games have been designed to simulate life is not a new one. However, no game ever designed have made me want to stay in it for a long time. Life has still much to offer me and much more to teach me, show me and most importantly, Life is something that needs to be shared with those close to me, my family and my friends. We must all learn to Embrace Life, Cherish Life and Live Life to the Fullest!