News

OK, maybe it's not the remake fans were waiting for, but it's something, right? Square-Enix's 2001 megahit will receive a high-definition makeover and be available as a PS3 game and a PS Vita download. Final Fantasy X follows hot on the heels of several other PS2 games receiving HD remakes on the PS3, including God of War I and II, ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and the entire Sly Cooper Series.

This continues a trend of PS Vita games and PS3 games receiving near-identical ports. Multiplayer Vita games can play online against PS3 players and include many other connectivity features. Presumably, Final Fantasy X HD will have trophy support and scale up to 1080p, just like the other HD remakes mentioned above.

There is no release date yet for Final Fantasy X on the PS3 or PS Vita, but you can bet your memory card Caves of Narshe will report it as soon as it's made public.

Source: Kotaku

Square-Enix held a press conference yesterday in Japan (very early this morning for Europe or North America) detailing the much-anticipated Dragon Quest X. Turns out it's been structured as an multiplayer online RPG, complete with selectable races and subscription fees.

Dragon Quest X: The Wake of the Five Tribes: Online will have Wii and WiiU versions made, very similar to the GameCube and Wii versions made of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess soon after the Wii's launch. Players will create their own character, choosing from one of five different races, and can choose to play either entirely offline (with other online players replaced by NPCs) or pay a subscription fee to play online with others. The game will retain the series' trademark turn-based combat and menus, but will take the limited online features of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies several steps further.

DQX still has no formal release date (neither does the Wii U, for that matter), but lead designer Yuuji Horii is hopeful that it will come out in 2012. There is no word on a release outside of Japan, but Square-Enix and Nintendo have been pushing the DQ brand somewhat recently, so an eventual English-language release is likely.

Source: Kotaku

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, the 2007 PSP remake of Final Fantasy Tactics, will be released on iOS compatible devices in June or July of this year. First announced to be coming to those platforms at E3 2010, soon iPhone and iPad users will be able to enjoy the game with a new touch-friendly interface and slightly wider viewing window.

Square-Enix has not given an official, concrete release date for the game yet, but promises the iPhone version will land in June or July. The iPad version may take a little longer to hit Apple's app store due to the challenges presented by developing for a the larger screen, but one of the game's producers assured fans that the gap between formats will not be a long one.

Source: Square Enix's Facebook page

As an apology for the recent hacking and outage of the PlayStation Network, Sony is offering free games to PS3 and PSP owners who lost service during the outage. In addition, users will receive 30 days of free PlayStation Plus service and free rentals from their online video rental service.

To claim your free games, just log onto the PSN Store anytime the first 30 days after it's restored (which it should be soon) and download the games. Two game downloads from the list of available games are allowed for each system - 2 for PS3 and 2 for PSP. Five games are available for each platform, including the critically acclaimed inFamous on PS3 and LittleBigPlanet on both the PSP and PS3. Check the listed source for the full menu of free games and other stipulations of the deal.

This is for the North American PSN Store only; other regions will likely have their own "customer appreciation packages" announced later on. I dunno about you guys, but I'll be getting my Wipeout on at the first opportunity.

Source: North American PlayStation Blog

Final Fantasy VI, one of the most beloved SNES games and the namesake for this very website, will hit the Japanese PlayStation Network on April 20th. This will be (perhaps obviously) the Playstation version of FF VI, which was released in the United States as part of Final Fantasy Anthology along with Final Fantasy V. There is no concrete information about a North American or European release on PSN available at this time.

When will this come to North America's PSN? Probably sometime after Final Fantasy V makes it; FFV was announced to be in the North American PSN pipeline one week ago. Before too long PS3 and PSP owners worldwide will be able to enjoy these two classics disc-free.

Source: Kotaku
Kotaku again (FF V news)

From March 2012 to September 2012, the Smithsonian Institute's American Art Museum in Washington, DC will show an exhibit of video games, with an emphasis on their evolution and change over the generations. But with a limited amount of space, how will they decide which games are included in the exhibit? An online vote, that's how.

After registering an email address, anyone may vote for the games to be shown in the exhibit, with one vote per era per system per genre. Each category (80 total) has three choices, so the final exhibit roster will be 80 games from 240 total candidates. Virtually every major video game system since the Atari is included in the exhibit, with the notable exceptions of arcade games and handheld systems.

The four genres being implemented are Action, Adventure, Target, and Combat/Strategy. Most RPGs are included in the Adventure category. Final Fantasy I, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Chrono Trigger are all included as choices in their respective categories. So everyone, go forth, vote 80 times, and in about two months we'll see which games make it in.

Final Note - laszlow's quick 100% opinionated thoughts and prognostications:

Some of this categorization is puzzling. Platform games (Mario, Mega Man, etc.) are found in both the Action and Adventure categories, and shooting games (Doom, Call of Duty, etc.) are all over the place. I really don't understand the reasoning behind some placement choices. Most of the online forum buzz on the Smithsonian subject is complaints about why game X is in but game Y isn't. Cry me a river.

For now, I'll just talk about CoN games and their odds. Final Fantasy I is dead in the water - it's up against The Legend of Zelda. Nice knowing you. Final Fantasy VII is in a pretty good position - it's up against Lunar and Grandia, and is way more popular than either series. Final Fantasy Tactics is up against Red Alert, so here it comes up against which gamer demographic comes up stronger in the vote. I think that category is FFT's to lose. The SNES Adventure category is Chrono Trigger vs. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past vs. Earthbound. Three games with ravenous fanbases. I think it's a toss-up between CT and ALttP. If any of you are asking 'why didn't FF VI or FF IV make it in?' then there's your answer. They liked Chrono Trigger, Link to the Past, and Earthbound better.

Source: Art of Video Games