pancho

Eurogamer piece up on the event for anyone interested.

...at the Final Fantasy event in Santa Monica this weekend. Just got back to my hotel after the main event and thought you'd like to hear first: Corsair, Blue Mage and...Puppet Master. Loads of new additions and changes to the game across all platforms announced too - all of which will be included in the 360 version from launch. The new exapnsion is a really big overhaul. Most excitably, Chocobo Breeding a la Final fantasy 7 with Chocobo Races announced are to be implemented by the end of the year.

This (and others like it) are silly points I think. This is the highest scoring FF game yet reviewed in famitsu. They are saying that in their four opinions they think this is the best FF game yet; so, whether you agree with their overarching score framework or not is irrelevant: relative to itself, Famitsu is saying this is the best FF yet and that is certainly something to take note of.

Check this video if you haven't already seen it. (Arcade stage 3 download).

Hi all, Could someone that a) has this up and running on their PC; b ) is pretty good at the game and can get to XIGA fairly quickly; c) has the capacity to take reasonably large screenshots and d) has half an hour between now and Monday they could spare to help me out, possibly PM me. I'd be most grateful. goz

OK- quickly: The fight system, a 3rd/FPS feel shooting hybrid, is plain horrible; aiming is extremely cumbersome and no amount of adjusting speeds etc seems to get the balance right. It visually has the feel of a God of War or Devil May Cry but has none of those influences' fluidity. The run, stop, aim, fire, repeat gameplay flow is crusty, dated and shoddily implemented; the physical attacks are utterly redundant and the three main weapons all horrible to use with no sense of weight or urgency. The deep customisation seems totally superfluous; it has the feel of a nasty cash-in - a game crowbarred into a universe it shouldn't be in by a developer that is way out of their depth in a genre they have no expertise in. All sugar-coated in Squenix's usual high production values. Even though those are just initial impressions, I don't want to play it anymore.

Goodness this is horrible.

I went in rathbone last week to trade in some jap games- they wouldn't takwe them . said that they will no longer sell jaanese games- even retro ones (I had a couple of Jap PSone DDR titles). It's a real shame- seems like yesterday that I was buying AES carts from there. Does anyone remember when the Cex retro was in an entirely separate store to rathbone- neaer Goodge street but can't remember the name of the orad now. Those were by far the best days then. That shop was incredible- like a museum and had rare titles I had never, ever seen nor heard of anywhere else before.

Yes- this is in fact the most important of all the weapons once you start to get good. But you will need to use all of them in certain situations. Quite how well the game will work on a keyboard I've no idea. I own the arcade version and the Saturn conversion and would actually recommend the Saturn one over the arcade port (yes- it was that way round). The button configuration is much easier and more manageable on th Saturn version. If you have any love for shooters and enjoy this on mame I urge you to buy it on it's host platform. It's one of the greatest games.

I don't live there, I just buy 360s there. I got there before they started trying to get you to buy their £400-odd bundle or nothing. I walked out with no games which I then decided was a little silly so went to gamestation and bought a cheaper PGR3. I am mericlessly discerning through PeteBrant.

I walked into Game yesterday (Worthing branch) on the off-chance and walked out with a premium pack. Couldn't quite believe it. You might get lucky too.

Yes but things are funny usually solely because they make a point.

Things are funny usually solely because they make a point.

I look at it backwards and Arikado is utterly meaningless backwards....

I've been playing Square's Bahamut lagoon (SNES) through again on my PSP this last week and it reminded me what an utterly fantastic Strategy RPG it is. If you are a fan of Fire Emblem, Advance Wars or Shining Force et al and haven't played through the fan-translated version then I urge you to pick it up. I wrote a little piece on it if you want more convincing/ something to read.

Yes- well in the film the newly dead are given seven days in purgatory to choose one single memory from their lives to take with them into the afterlife proper- everything else will be discarded. That memory is then reenacted on film for the person and, by doing so rekindles the emotions and feelings it originally drew up in the person. I'm interested in the same idea applied to videogames- which one memory of or from a game would you pick above another- be it a scene from an RPG, when you were the first to bring a gameboy and tetris into school and the other kids clustered round you, the moment you got your first all perfect track on dancing Stage at the Trocadero in front of a crowd, when you completed Ico, the first time you loaded up your SNES and Super Mario World one Christmas etc etc. In other, more succinct and clearer words- which is your fondest memory relating to videogames in each decade.

sheesh- I already made it easy by giving you one from each decade- technically- going by Hirokazu Koreeda's film, it should just be one game in total. I'm really just interested to see what people pick from the nineties for something I'm working on.

If you could take the memory of just one game from each decade with you into the afterlife which ones would you pick?

Boxed with manual guarantees nothing. If the box is really shiny then they're fake.

Yes- card fighters clash is amazing. Buy it, learn the system and get really good at it- it's well worth it. I spent my honeymoon perfecting my deck. By far the best card videogame around. Also, there are rumours an update is on its way...

Has anyone managed to get all the items yet?

It was Alien Soldier that was Treasure's first game to work on the sequential Boss fight mechanic not Freak Out. Carry on.

eloquence?

Get good on a stick then you have the bonus of being able to play well with sticks or pads. Get good on just a pad and you won't have this advantage- plus you'll never be able to play outside of your front room.

They have lovely effects all round. The "bug-HAAAAYRE" screech upon inserting a credit in Puzzle Bobble 2 is a particular favourite.