That’s Right: Two Final Fantasies in 2010

It’s old news by now (it's even our new header), but I had to comment on it. Last week I caught about fifteen minutes of Sony’s press conference before a rainstorm knocked my satellite’s signal out of commission. Lucky for me, I tuned in just in time to see them show a preview of Final Fantasy XIII, and then follow that up by saying “but Square Enix isn’t done yet, they’ve got another thing to follow it up,” and proceeded to show a trailer for Final Fantasy XIV, which was followed up with the statement “that one didn’t leak out, huh?” and a promise that it would be out by 2010, exclusively for PS3. Pretty shocking, considering that FF games are usually spread out with huge gaps because of massive development time.

But doing some digging, it starts to make sense. FFXIV will be a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG), setting it apart from FFXIII’s story based play. Square already has ventured into MMORPG territory with Final Fantasy XI, and probably want to get a new online game out to compete with WoW. It’s great news for console gamers, and especially PS3 owners. And maybe with all the other Final Fantasy stuff coming out now and in the near future (FF games on Wii’s Virtual Console including the recent release of FFIV The After Years, FFXIII, FFXIII Versus and the FF Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers) two FF games for one console in a year isn’t that surprising. But is Square Enix giving the fans what they want or flogging a dead horse?

Max

Max Gives Brief E3 Thoughs, Excuses Why He's Not Posting...

E3 nearly passed me by. Almost. I only found out it was E3 last week when I saw a news story about Nintendo’s press conference on Newsarama (which goes to show how I’m way more into comics than games these days). Since then, I’ve been playing catch up. I caught a little bit of Sony’s press conference, and thanks to the Nintendo Channel, have been able to get a dose of Nintendo’s videos. This week, they’ve even put the press conference up this week, so I’ll be digging into that soon. And I gotta say, I was pretty (pleasantly) surprised that Nintendo is actually utilizing the Nintendo Channel for this stuff. I'm just used to them not doing anything like this, while Sony & Microsoft have done it for awhile!

Unfortunately, this is final’s week at my University, and I have a ton of stuff to do to wrap up the quarter this week. No tests, but lots of papers to write and short stories to revise. Therefore, I can’t delve into blogging just yet. After Thursday though, expect a ton of reactions from me, which will (of course) be a Nintendo-centric response. I will say now (without trying to be a fanboy) that it seems pretty funny both Sony & Microsoft are trying to cash in on the motion control introduced by Wii. Granted, each do it their own way, but too bad Microsoft’s super-de-duper motion/voice controlled “controller” NATAL costs about $200. I don’t see legions of non-gamers signing on for that.

I’ll post a couple quick things though before delving study time!

Max

Holy Shit...........someone is going to be pissed.

God of War, as a series, has always been pretty brutally violent. But this is almost too far. Someone is going to be really, really pissed off. Pulling the eye out of the gorgan looking thing was the icing on the cake. Oh, and I'm totally preordering this business as so as I get the chance.

J.

Mario Protests Commence Amidst E3 Happenings

Angry Italians are pissed off at being purveyed as a bunch of plumbing, turtle stomping, mushroom eating buffoons that aren't responsible enough to drive around giant ? blocks in the middle of the road. Hear what these guys had to say about it.

Wii Bowling Ball + Punch-Out = Perfect Combination!

Don't believe me though, just watch the video!

The best E3 trailers: Uncharted 2

Holy shit again!!! I don't think anyone thinks this game is going to be anything but awesome. This demo had me ducking and dodging like a really good action movie. Which is what they were going for. The collapsing building was the capper for me. I'm going to get this one day one. And the online stuff could be cool as well. More about this later today. (maybe)


J.

The best E3 trailers: Metal Gear Solid: Rising

Well, 360 owners finally have MGS on their console. But it's not MGS4 like people thought. It's the next MGS game starring our favorite cyber-ninja, Raiden. It didn't show alot, but come on. It's MGS. It'll be great. And in case you were wondering, yes, it IS coming out on PS3 as well. Don't get your hopes up on stealing any Sony's exclusives this year.

J.