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Square Enix has recently taken the elements of the Final Fantasy series and applied them to a new Facebook game: Knights of the Crystals.

This game has the player completing quests to earn action points, leveling up along the way. Players can earn money from these quests as well, which can be spent on purchasing equipment. The game also features a class system, complete with magic and special moves, and boss battles, where you can gather your friends and/or NPC friend-alternatives to take on your typical boss. There's also an option to fight against other humans. Yay social interaction!

The company has released a second Facebook game as well, called Chocobo Crystal Tower. This application appears to be considerably more light-hearted than the first one, consisting of breeding and training chocobos for battle.

I usually avoid Facebook applications as a general principle (simply because I end up wasting enough time on the internet the way it is), but I'm sure that one or both of these will receive a bit of attention from a half-awake DP during a weeknight/early morning in the near future.

Source: Kotaku

Just wanted to let you all know that Tiddles and I performed a bit of minor surgery on the forums today. It's really no big deal, it was just something that needed to be done to work out a long-standing kink on the news submission system. In fact, you lot won't even notice it, I don't think - however, part of the fix is that links that you put in your posts will no longer open a new window. Since everyone with half a brain now use a browser that has tabs, this is really no big deal: just middle click links like most people have been doing for years already.

This will impact only posts made from now on. Thanks for understanding the changes we needed to improve the site as a whole!

Depending on which source you trust, Sony is either working on some kind of Playstation Phone or isn't involved in a project whatsoever. Engadget has released images of a leaked prototype of the phone, which looks like a typical slideout-keyboard phone, except instead of a keyboard, there's the makings of a Playstation controller. Along with the typical Sony makeup, it also includes a long touchpad in the middle that reportedly supports Multitouch. The machine would use MicroSD cards.

However, according to Gama Sutra, the initial response from Sony said that this was "definitely fake" and didn't offer any further comment. They changed their stance later from "definitely fake" to "no comment" and saying that it was just "rumor and speculation".

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For me, this is interesting on many levels. First off, from the screenshots and the articles, the phone would be running the Android phone OS - potentially 3.0. As a current user (and lover) of the Android system, this would be a big win for both Google and Sony. Second, despite the title of the Gama Sutra article, this does NOT appear to be some sort of PSP - some commenters are speculating that this could be the PSP2, but it definitely will not have any sort of backwards compatibility with the current PSP system, judging entirely on the MicroSD technology. However, and most importantly, the system specs are much more powerful than the current PSP ("...runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655 chip supported by 512MB of RAM. The current PSP, by way of comparison, has a 333MHz processor with 32MB of RAM..."), so it could be the next wave of portable gaming for Sony.

I didn't realize until last week the popularity of the current PSP - I had written it off as an unimpressive and unsupported console, but was completely floored when I wandered into the PSP section at Fry's and saw a ridiculous selection of quality games. It would be an incredible risk to ask gamers to switch their phone to enjoy the next generation of games - especially when the people most likely to enjoy this sort of gaming are probably the same people who are already owners of SmartPhones. They certainly wouldn't convert people over from the iPhone, and current users of the Android system would have to be persuaded to switch over to the new hardware simply for the addition of the gaming functionality.

I kinda hope this isn't true.

Source: Engadget, Gama Sutra

The verdict is out, and it doesn't look good for FFXIV. IGN.com gave the game a weak 5.5 out of 10. A quick look at GameStats.com places most other reviews in the same general area: FFXIV received a 4.2 from Gametrailers.com, a D+ from 1UP.com and a depressing 4.0 from Gamespot.com.

Most of the game's failings are attributed (unsurprisingly, given the responses in our own thread devoted to this topic) to the title's gameplay, which spoils what is otherwise called a "well-realized world". The IGN review praised the game's graphics, music, expansive world and class systems, yet concluded that the interface and performance issues that plagued the game entirely spoiled these strong points.

For those here who have been muddling in FFXIV, Square Enix has also recently announced that it would extend the free trial period from 30 days to 60 days, almost certainly in response to the overwhelmingly mediocre reviews.

In addition to this, it appears that the company is busy trying to tweak their latest release, adding a patch to the market system. Given the sour reviews, I would expect many more of these in the near future. Given the nature of the complaints against FFXIV, I think that Square Enix should be able to fix many of the game's failings. At the very least, I would expect a considerably stronger version of the game to be found in the PS3 release, which is still a ways into the future.

Source: IGN, IGN, GameStats

During Blizzcon proceedings today, Blizzard revealed what will be the final class in the upcoming (at some point) epic Diablo 3 - the Demon Hunter. The Demon Hunter joins the Barbarian, Sorcerer, Witch Doctor, and Monk as the five classes that will be available on release date. She appears to be ranged, with crossbows that fire exploding bolts. Not many details have been released yet.

There's a video from Blizzcon available, but it doesn't actually show the class in action - it's an introduction video, FMV-style, and while it doesn't show gameplay, it's still really cool.

Source: Joystiq, Kotaku

Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy just keeps trucking along; since the last news about DW, the music production has released a bunch of new dates - however, first to the upcoming dates that were already public:

The next dates in the concert series are 6 and 7 November, 2010, in Tokyo. The shows are sold out, but there's a limited number of held-back seats being sold via lottery. If you want to make a quick trip to Tokyo, anyone worldwide is eligible to put their name in the hat.

After that comes the Toronto show, on 27 November. That's the weekend of American Thanksgiving, so a holiday trip might make this show accessible to Ontario and some Americans too. Uematsu has been confirmed to attend this show, as well, which makes the thought of going all the sweeter.

Then, it's time to start planning 2011. Are you Australian or English? Annoyed that you haven't had a Distant Worlds concert in your country? Worry no more. Sydney's getting two shows, 15 and 16 April of 2011. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, even. After that, London's getting a single show on 5 November 2011; given that it's still thirteen months away, tickets won't be on sale there for quite a while. In between, Chicago's getting another pair of shows, a matinee and evening performance on 26 June 2011. The current plan is for Uematsu to appear at all of these shows, too.

That's all for now in terms of tour dates; however, with the huge gaps in 2011, expect to see more quite soon.

Source: Distant Worlds