News

Final Fantasy XIV is coming. The closed beta is now winding down, and European and North American gamers will all be able to jump into the open beta sometime overnight between August 31 and September 1. That is, in fact, only five days and counting, so if you were bitter about folks that got into the closed beta but couldn't do much due to the limited hours and crashing, you need no longer be jealous. Also new is this brand new trailer, which is of course made of unfiltered pretty, but as befitting its upcoming open beta shows more gameplay than previous trailers (and breaks out lots of epic tunes to boot).

For those who have not been following, it appears that Final Fantasy XIV won't let you grind as if you're getting paid to do so rather than paying for the privilege. While, just like in Final Fantasy XI, you can change jobs fairly easily, you are going to be allotted only eight hours per week of full experience earning in each job, and only another seven hours per week of steadily-decreasing EXP. After fifteen hours in a job in a week, you will get no experience at all in that job. Naturally, this has caused an uproar among the hardcore MMO players, as their desire to play their game with every free waking minute might not be met by the new Final Fantasy. For me, though? It actually kind of makes me want to try the beta, and I've never said that about any MMO. The fewer hardcore players there are, the more I think I'd like it.

The launch date for PC is still tagged for the end of September worldwide, and for PlayStation 3 in March of 2011. No break yet on the impasse of bringing it to 360.

The Tokyo Game Show is now on the horizon since Gamescom is over, and it's time to start looking at what might crop up there for Square Enix. Mindjack will almost certainly be part of it, but it's hard to tell where the game is at, because some retailers are moving the North American release date out to January 2011. There could be a soccer title in the works, as Square Enix Europe has filed new trademarks for titles including "Manager," including "Championship Manager Legends." Dedicated soccer fans know that Championship Manager was once the premier soccer sim in the world, and that Eidos still holds that brand even though the original developers left to create the Football Manager games instead. Might only show at TGS if you can manage a J-League team, though. SaGa might appear, as Squenix have launched yet another of their famous teaser sites, this time with "SaGa" in the URL. I bet The 3rd Birthday will show up, too, as it's nearing release and getting lots of play over in Japan. And for Parasite Eve fans out there, andriasang reports that the success of The 3rd Birthday will dictate the future of the Parasite Eve franchise.

What probably won't be at TGS, though? Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Despite having seen more of it recently, Square Enix won't commit to launching the game anywhere in 2011. There might be some level of visibility at the show, but it probably won't be anything much more than we've seen previously. What could be taking so long, one must wonder - it's a single-platform game, after all. Perhaps Squenix are just spreading their employees too thin.

Final note for the day, and it's not Square but CoN. Over the years, I've prattled plenty about Alexa rankings, and how they mean nothing but are still fun when they show CoN climbing the ranks. Now, the folks at Nmap have created a side project around Alexa and site favicons (those little icons that show up next to the URL in your browser, or next to the bookmark you no doubt created for CoN long ago). The software they wrote grabbed the first 288,945 favicons starting at site number one, and then scaled them in size based on the site's popularity and inserted into a giant mosaic. Of course you have figured out by now that CoN is in that mosaic - search for it and you'll see! I will warn you, though, since naked ladies are a big part of how the internet works, you might find some icons in searching around that aren't safe for work. Search at your own risk!

Between CoNnews and Square Enix email notifications, I've been hearing a lot about the upcoming cycle of Distant Worlds concerts, and it's fairly likely you have too. For those of us that don't live in Los Angeles (is it just me or does Distant Worlds really like LA?) or any other included city, however, there will still be a chance for you to enjoy a fully-orchestrated version of your favorite videogame soundtracks, complete with flashy lights.

Later this week/month, PBS will be hosting a concert called Video Games Live, which will feature music from several different videogames. The concert is performed by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, a chorus and a rock band, as well as some other soloists I've never heard of. A video preview can be found on the IGN link below. The part with the head banging cello player is enough to get me to tune in, even if it is a little discomforting.

Some of the games included in the concert are:
Final Fantasy
Chrono Cross
Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros.
World of Warcraft
Halo
And a "Classic Arcade Medley." That can be nothing if not a good time, right?

In order to see when the concert will be aired in your area, you'll need to go to the PBS site linked below and type in your zip code and then search for "video games live." If you really enjoy the concert, it appears that there will be a DVD/Blu-ray release of the entire program complete with the ever-tempting lure of bonus materials.

Source: IGN, PBS

Bioware late last week kicked off the first round of user testing for the upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic. I'm not sure how many of you saw the game on demo at E3, but I will say that even for me, one who is utterly ambivalent toward MMO play, the game looked pretty great.

That said, this counts as newsworthy for a couple reasons. First, of course, is the fact that it's an MMO by the same company who did Knights of the Old Republic, which is probably one of the top two or three games in the Star Wars Universe. Second is that now that early testing has begun, the game's one step closer to being available. Sure, it won't ever knock off WoW, because, what really could? But this game has the potential to be huge if it's successful in combining MMO players with Star Wars fans en masse.

If you're not in this first wave of testing, but want to have a shot at the next one, there's still time. However, you must be 18 and, if the status of the first wave continues into the second, you must be in North America. Tests later will go global, though Bioware hasn't yet said which phase or when will be open to those outside of North America.


Source: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Dragon Quest IX is the big story this week, as it's finally about to make its North American debut this weekend. Squenix and Nintendo have set up a bit of an event in New York City to commemorate the launch; if you're near Manhattan tomorrow, 10 July, you can swing to the World of Nintendo store in midtown (which sadly, I never got to visit when I was living there - it looked awesome from the outside). Yuji Horii, creator of the DQ franchise, will be there, and apparently there will be some Dragon Quest-themed treats for eating too. And you can buy the game a day early! No word on whether you can drink Slimes, though.

My call, though, is that if you really wanted the game that badly you probably preordered it anyway.

In other game news, developer Obsidian says they want a crack at the Chrono Trigger franchise. Obsidian are best known for sequels to original games, one of which they're working on for Squenix already (Dungeon Siege 3). Would they ever get the keys to the castle that is Chrono Trigger? Yeah, pretty much no chance if you ask me. Perhaps they should just start on a sequel and see how far they get.

Finally, here's one that snuck in under my radar: Square Enix and GamePot are bringing a new action MMO to the States. The game, Fantasy Earth Zero, is a free-to-play MMO with a primary focus on large PvP battles. It's been out in Japan for over three years but launched in the US in May.

Source: Kotaku, SiliconEra, Square Enix North America

As noted with our coverage of Nintendo's conference yesterday, there's about to be a pretty significant influx of games from Square Enix to the big N. Of course Dragon Quest IX is on the way to the DS already, as well as Kingdom Hearts Re:coded and The 4 Heroes of Light. Not only that, Nintendo announced yesterday that Squenix would be working on titles in no fewer than four franchises for the new 3DS: Chocobo Racing, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy. Kingdom Hearts is already being shown at E3 in the Squenix booth, but not much news coming from it as yet beyond that it is an all-new title, not just an old game remastered for 3D.

What else could come up at E3 from SE? Well, now we know a bit more. The company has announced two ports to Apple devices: a port of War of the Lions, the PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, and also a port of the SNES classic Secret of Mana. There's not much more to know about these two games right now - both videos are nothing more than trailers superimposed onto an iPhone screen, and the only date given is "2010." There's a trailer for The 3rd Birthday as well, the successor to the Parasite Eve games of the PlayStation, in which Aya appears to pick up the ability to take over the bodies of some NPCs as she fights in an over-the-shoulder shooter fashion. That game will be on PSP in Japan later this year.

Something I had yet to see anything about is another 2010 release, "Necromachina," coming for the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network as a downloadable title. It looks to be a four-player co-op sidescrolling brawler, and if the trailer is a good representation of the overall game, it looks to be pretty hyperactive as well.

Finally, if you haven't seen the trailer for Final Fantasy XIV yet, or even if you have, you owe it to yourself to check out the source link below for the high-definition version. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and there's a nice big chunk of classic Crystal theme in there too. Of course, these aren't all the games that the giant Square Enix now have their hands in, but they're the most relevant. Check out their E3 site below for more, and we'll keep you updated if they sneak any surprises or further information out the rest of E3.

Source: Square Enix E3 2010, Square Enix YouTube Channel

I don't even know where to start this. There were some interesting bits and pieces here and there, but in almost two hours, there were very few things that caught the attention of #narshe. A few of the things that did were general fails on Sony's part - for example, ranting about exclusives and then showing Medal of Honor and talking about Metal Gear Solid: Rising, also out on PC and Xbox 360 respectively. Anyway.

What seemed like most of the conference was demonstrations of the Playstation Move, and the Playstation 3 in 3D. The videos of the latter were a little lost on everyone who wasn't there. You know, because my monitor isn't 3D, and I don't have those super-cool sunglasses. Hopefully this will be rectified next year where a select few of the staffers here at CoN will be getting invites to E3... we wish. The Playstation Move was a bit more visible, and although it did have some good footage, I didn't see much in the way of brand-new innovations.

There was little in the way of Square-Enix news, unfortunately. Obviously, they had a trailer for Final Fantasy XIV, but pretty much no information was released other than "ooooh, pretty". A short shot of a Kingdom Hearts game was also shown, for the PSP I believe, but nothing was given on that, either. The surprise announcement was easily the most exciting part, and that was Portal 2 to be released on PS3, with a short trailer. I want this so much, though my want will have nothing to do with the PS3. PC all the way, baby.

Other things that stood out include LittleBigPlanet 2, a virtual Sony E3 Booth on Playstation Home for you to explore, an-OH GOD WHY ARE THERE CREEPY CLOWNS GET THEM AWAY FROM ME NO I HATE YOU AAAAAA-

Quote of the conference goes to Kevin Butler for:
"If you have an awesome girlfriend, and someone else gets an awesome girlfriend, who wins? EVERYBODY."