Last week I wrote about Square Enix’s decision to re-release Final Fantasy X over remaking Final Fantasy VII. My reasoning for this: an HD update of a PS2 game would be way easier than remaking a PS1 game, as it wasn’t a full rebuild. A day after the post went up, Square announced that Final Fantasy X on Vita was in fact a full remake using the Final Fantasy XIII engine. My post was rendered completely moot, and it seems that yes, maybe Square does in fact want to just mess with its fans.There’s a whole other post about why I think the company made that decision and I’m still vaguely on their side, but that’s for another time. The whole thing did get me thinking about games we should probably just stop asking for. READ MORE
During TGS, Sony held a press conference about its plans for the Japanese game market in the next year. Of course, most of what was shown was heavily focused on their new handheld console, the Vita. Despite Sony’s stream crashing, forcing many of us to find another venue to watch without English subtitles, I was able to enjoy the whole thing. And even though 90% of it was people talking about things that aren’t video games, I was very pleased with what I’d seen. READ MORE
Working in a game store for a living means I interact quite often with the “normies” or “muggles”. These people go to a game store with no idea what they’re going to buy and ask questions, like “what’s the newest game out?” That’s all that concerns them about their purchase. There are without a doubt hundreds of cheaper, most likely better, titles on whatever console they own, yet the newness of the game is most important. Writing about games for a pretend living means this type of behavior fascinates me and leads me to constantly ask why. READ MORE
Just for a second, could you all keep watch so I can slip this incredibly-late column under my editor Graham Russell’s office door? See I’ve been very, very busy lately as I’ve started a new full-time job. My new gig is at a place I’m sure you’re all very familiar with. It’s an establishment where one can purchase video games. It’s called… Play… Shop. Yeah, PlayShop. That’s the ticket.
I really shouldn’t be telling you this because at my store we get all the hottest game news before the general public. Having my own column on a popular game site such as this one, I can’t help but leak some upcoming game news to my adoring readers. I’ll even let you guys in on all the best pre-order bonuses coming up later this year. This season is going to be huge for games, with popular titles like Gears of War 3, Batman: Arkham City and Camping Mama, so there’s a lot of very juicy info after the break. READ MORE
Americans seem to share some kind of cultural ADD. Our media is pretty much built on repackaging and reselling the same ideas to ourselves over and over again. Whether it’s remakes, sequels, reimaginings, adaptations or good old fashioned plagiarism people can’t help but eat up anything familiar and safe. READ MORE
