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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!

Tetsuya Nomura has been busy on Twitter lately, and some of his comments shed (or attempt to shed) a bit of light on Final Fantasy Versus XIII. First of all, it won't be at Gamescom. The folks over at IGN seem to suspect that it will be showed at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show (September), however. Nomura did reveal that voice casting is currently taking place for the game, as well as its sister project, Final Fantasy XIII Agito.

He also made a comment on the game's world map:

"There have been many questions regarding fields. It's not a completely open world. It's like the 2D FF games in HD. Although, in terms of looks, it's not a top-down view, it's like the screenshots that have been released. You'll move through the world from that view."

While I really have no idea what that means, it certainly does sound interesting.

Nomura also said that there was a lot more to announce in regards to Versus XIII, but that he was currently not allowed to say anything more. Does all this mean that Versus will finally be approaching some playable form? We can only hope so, as I'd like to get my hands on it, you know, sometime while I'm still alive.

Speaking of Gamescom, the European video game show is coming up (August 18 through 22), and even though it isn't as big as E3 or the Tokyo Game Show, there's still a fair amount going on. Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be treated to its first-ever public showing, which looks to be rather exciting. In addition, there will be scheduled presentations of Final Fantasy XIV, which is set to see release for the PC on September 30.

Square Enix will be showing several other titles at the show, including Front Mission Evolved, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep and The 4 Heroes of Light.

To close, why not a bit of Aeris speculation? Yes, there is more less-than-news surrounding Final Fantasy's favorite death, and yes, it doesn't really reveal anything. Pop Fiction, a video game myth-busting series on GameTrailers.com, recently produced an episode devoted to whether or not Aeris could be revived. Well, believe it or not, she can't. The show closes with the speculation that a PS3 remake of FFVII may keep Aeris alive instead. This. Better. Not. Happen.

Source: IGN, Kotaku, More Kotaku

Final Fantasy is a great set of games; what would CoN be without them? Nothing, that's what. They all seem to take place in a mystical sort of world; and contributing to that is the mystical music. From "Town Theme" to "Matoya's Cave" to "One-Winged Angel," the music of Final Fantasy is an integral part of the experience (besides, that victory theme is so dang catchy). Naturally, people are attracted to it and want to hear it, and not just in their games. Concerts are set up playing this music (you've surely heard of The Black Mages) with huge orchestras and stories with plots that no one pays attention to anyway, because I came here to listen to the cool music, dagnabbit.

Anyway, there's a big ol' concert happening in the San Francisco Bay area on October 16, 2010. It's called "Hideo" and it has a standard-for-the-genre "boy out for revenge, won't rest 'till he gets it" story. More interesting though, is, of course, the music. They'll be playing selections from Final Fantasies 4, 6, and 8, as well as Chrono Cross. They'll also be playing music from Mega Man, as well as Fullmetal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop, and some other games/anime.

Their site is http://hideoconcert.com/, and their promo video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY9n17gmC-0. If you live in the SF Bay area and you can get to UC Berkeley, should be an interesting show. Tickets are on sale, and if you watch the promo video you'll know they're very excited about you buying some tickets. Very excited. And hey, if nothing else, there's fun music playing in the background of the video. Check it out!


Source: HIDEO, Promo Video

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

A lot of architects refuse to put a thirteenth floor in their buildings. Thirteen's an unlucky number, remember? Forget that. CoN's had bad luck already in its days, and the fact that we are now celebrating our thirteenth birthday doesn't scare us one bit. Of course, we wouldn't mind doing what those architects do and skipping straight to fourteen, either, but we're full of integrity and can't pull that kind of shenanigan. So, here's a message to commemorate thirteen years, without a black cat or broken mirror to be found.

Normally I write these new-year messages a long way out and edit them for weeks. This year, on the event of CoN's thirteenth birthday, I didn't really have much time, due to the rest of my life making conspiracies against me. Isn't that the way it goes, though? I can see it in all of us, everyone that comes to the site. Things aren't quite the same as they used to be, as more of us have less time to spend around CoN. It makes our fixes slower, it makes our new work slower, and heck, it even makes the forums slower.

You know what's neat, though? We're still here, and we're still having a go of it. The site still brings in a lot of traffic. That means that even if the forums and chat seem a bit slower than they used to, it's not because people have given up on our version of the Final Fantasy universe - it's just that the game has changed and we all have to change with it.

Change is hard, man. I'm a guy who has lived in four different states in the last seven years, and worked in five. That said, we're all here reading this on a site that has looked the same for even longer, and even though we added a new game to our coverage just last year, along with the return of quizzes, you'd be forgiven for thinking that maybe CoN is afraid of change because it's too hard. The wild thing is that we don't. We lust for change, because we've got some ideas that we really love. Life's just a conspiracy, right? Our lives conspire against us bringing these ideas to fruition.

Here's my plan for next year. I've got coverage for two, maybe even three, games that I want to see revamped. We're working slowly on them now, and we want to work faster. We'll do our best. We've got some changes to the CoN backend that we think will give us more flexibility to continue improving the site in a more efficient manner. The current backend is as old as the Persona layout, and with that extra eight years of knowledge, we now know a lot of things we could do differently and better. We'd love to also make some improvements to such features as our fanart and news systems.

It probably sounds like a lot. It definitely sounds like a lot to a guy who not only makes websites all day, but also does freelance work and CoN both. I feel, though, that if I keep putting effort into the site, you folks will continue to visit. That's the pact between us, and it's held up quite well for the last thirteen years; there's no reason to think that it can't keep going a few more. As always, though, we're going to need your help, as CoN is a volunteer job for all of us - not one of us draws their living from working here. There's always little stuff that we can use, be it testing, or proofreading, or writing, or data entry. Additionally, I'd like to bring on some new staff to help spread the workload a bit, a tack that, if the right people are involved, will speed our progress. Here's what I'm looking at:

News Writer

A new News Writer would be beneficial to CoN in order to keep us up to date on RPG-related news that I too often miss in my reading, and to also help out by writing the Friday Square Enix Tidbits that regularly roll up recent small Square Enix news items. This person should be capable of producing with minimal supervision or nagging, and must be an excellent writer. Application would require some writing samples. Additionally, this user should be familiar with the most basic HTML, until such time as I make the submission tool a bit more user-friendly. Note that CoN also has tools to help you find news, meaning you don't necessarily have to read thirty gaming blogs to do well in this role.

Quiz Master

The Quiz Master would assist me in keeping the CoN quizzes stocked up every month. I know that every month, we release only 24 questions, but you'd be surprised with the preparation it takes. This new staff member would help build up our backlog of questions so that we don't ever run out; therefore, someone who is good with research and plays a lot of video games would be helpful here. Additionally, this person would use the tools that I built over a year ago to add new quizzes to the system; because of the toolkit, no database or coding experience is required.

Social Marketing Assistant

Eventually, important information from CoN, such as news, will be automatically posted to our Twitter and Facebook pages. However, to assist this automated process, or even serve in its stead, I'd like someone to help draw people in to CoN via other social media. It will involve posting tweets and statuses, as well as responding to tweets and comments that we get. It will also involve soliciting new traffic by tracking down new fanartists and fanfic authors to add to our libraries. Applicants must be familiar with various sites that can connect with CoN and how to use their basic features; these applicants must also be capable of writing professionally, as most of the output from this job will be read by users who might not already know CoN. It would be beneficial for this person to also participate in chat somewhat regularly to keep up to date with current work and that social aspect of CoN.

All of these jobs are important to the future of CoN, as we work to keep the site relevant as the games we cover become older and older. What's even better is that working for CoN does help your CV or resume - a good number of staff and former staff list their experience on CoN and have even used me as a professional reference down the road. With the job market still terrible right now, worldwide, perhaps you can spare a few hours a week to build up your own credentials with CoN too?

Whether you feel like applying or not (and there are probably a few of you that I will attempt to coerce into applying), there's something you can take away from this. I and my staff still feel a great deal of gratitude to you folks who keep coming to the site and chatting, posting to the forums, submitting creations, or even just using our guides. That gratitude keeps us here, keeps (some of) us working hard, and keeps me paying the bills. We still have no intention of stepping back, standing still, or going any direction but forward, regardless of speed. It might seem like the most boring amusement park attraction in the world right now, but stay on the ride. We guarantee good times if you want them.

Final Fantasy XIV has become the big news, now that it's in a closed beta. I hear that the servers aren't up very often, though, so if you're not in the beta you're probably not missing much yet. (Source: none, the beta players are under NDA.) Squenix has been releasing a bit of information about the game, though, and it seems that if you want to run it at full power, you're going to need a reasonably recent PC. In short, the company is recommending that you have Windows 7 running on an Intel Core i7 with four-plus gigs of RAM, and a screen resolution of 1280x720. I assume this is the recommendation to get a full sixty frames per second, though, as it seems a pretty robust recommendation. One would hope it's still plenty playable on a lower specced machine. Squenix also announced this week the eighteen player classes of XIV, split into four groups. Many are certainly not instantly recognizable, though a great many classic types seem to be represented, such as different mages, a knight-style class, an archer/ranger, and so on. There also appears to be a class who is standing near a sewing machine? I hope I'm just not up to speed on MMO classes and seamstress/tailor is not a class.

Also this week, Square Enix announced a remake of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together for the PSP. I know a great many folks consider this Tactics Ogre to be at the very least on par with Final Fantasy Tactics, and this new PSP version will be getting new graphics and a new arrangement of the score, new characters, and new game mechanics added to the original game. There's no release date yet for Japan, which means there isn't one yet for the West, but I think the odds of us getting the shaft on this game are exceptionally low. And I'm excited - tactical RPGs on handhelds are a great idea, particularly, I think, if they're from the FFT/TO/Disgaea series.

Finally for this week, Squenix has announced a new Final Fantasy Legends property for mobile phones in Japan. This one is called "Final Fantasy Legends: Warrior of Light and Darkness," and it looks much like an updated 8-bit Final Fantasy, much in the same way of the Game Boy Advance Final Fantasy "Souls" game, but with an episodic release much like Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. What makes this more interesting is that unlike every other game branded with the "Legend" moniker, this game is not a SaGa game at all, but instead a brand-new property, marketed as a Final Fantasy branded game even in Japan. Of course, it may never make it over here, but The After Years did after starting out as a mobile platform game, so you never know.

Source: Final Fantasy XIV Official Site, Kotaku, SiliconEra