News

And the forums sped up remarkably to reach 30,000 posts. The 30,000th post was made by i90east when he started the Mystery Treasure & Flying Star topic. Happy trails to all!

Pseudo bets were made on when the forums were reach 30,000 back when they reached 20,000 posts. Everyone was way off. February 21st was way earlier than anyone predicted — the earliest prediction made was March 12.

Anyway, congratulations, CoN. This will probably be the last news post made about post landmarks until 50,000 and/or 100,000, as they're not really news.

Square Enix has released another trailer for its upcoming computer animated sequel to Final Fantasy VII.

There are a few noteworthy things about this latest trailer. Firstly, both Vincent and Barret make an appearance. There is also an appearance by three white-haired characters. These apparently will be some of antagonists in the story. Finally, the trailer ends by showing September 2004 as the release date.

The kind fellows at Games_Are_Fun.com are hosting the video if you want to check it out for yourself.

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While I'm not going to rush to the store or anything when this is released, the DVD does intrigue me. Hopefully, it does Final Fantasy VII justice. If it does not, that's fine. I'll just deny it ever existed.

Today marks the release of Phoenix Mozilla Firebird Firefox 0.8 (anyone else confused yet?) It has a new name, clearly, as well as a new icon and new branding stuff all over the place. We're assured that this name change is final, just like the Firebird one was. Let's hope some more open-source weirdos don't turn up to stymie this one with their complete lack of acceptance of two different software projects having the same name; especially since, after the initial shock and horror, the name is growing on me, and the new icons and logos are pretty neat.

But none of you care one little bit about all that, I'll wager. What might you care about? Well, when I announced the release of 0.7, one of the common questions was how to install Java and Flash. Here's the good news: version 0.8 for Windows comes with an installer, which means that, with any luck, both Flash and Java will recognise Firefox once it's been installed, and their installers/control panels will happily let you install them into the browser with no extra fuss. Another common problem has been downloading certain files from misconfigured Web sites, receiving a page of garbled text in the browser instead; this should now be resolved for the most part. Also included is a new download manager, which keeps all your downloads in a single window, and a new extension installer based on it. For Mac OS X users, the browser now also uses a more native-looking theme.

A bonus feature for me, and probably other Web developer types, is the inclusion of Document Object Model Inspector as an option in the installer. Previously it was necessary to compile it in yourself, with some modifications to the source code to make it work properly, or to find an unofficial build containing it.

I'm sure there's more exciting stuff in there I've forgotten about, as well, so head on down to the Mozilla Firefox product page today and grab a copy for yourself. I'll remind you of what I told you last time: it's a "technology preview", so don't expect it to be perfect, though in my and a great many others' experience, it's a lot safer and more stable than Microsoft's dated, insecure and generally lacking Internet Explorer. Still, if you're very concerned about using beta software, you might prefer the recently released Mozilla 1.6. Almost slipping under the radar with the excitement surrounding Firefox, its companion mail client, the non-renamed (as of yet, at least) Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 was also released today, and is definitely worth picking up if you want a e-mail client in the Firefox style.

All are great products, and Mozilla browsers are strongly recommended for viewing CoN (hence my excuse for writing these non-Squenix-ish software release articles, you see), though I'm sure you can tell which our favourite is by the tone of this article. For more reasons to switch (probably), check the old news article about Firebird 0.7's release.

Josh and I have recently completed updating the CoN's fanart gallery, this time adding twenty new images total, with some from every game covered. We'd like to thank Narratorway, Kame, Rujuken, Figaro, Bluemonika, Gabe, Blackfauve, SilverMaduin, and Sethron, the artists of these awesome images. Please take the time to view the new fanart and also vote on them.

Have a great time viewing and voting!

In an apparent effort to get gamers to play in the great outdoors, Konami has released it's latest GBA title: "Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand."
The Action/RPG title, designed by the creator of the Metal Gear series, requires players to expose their GBA unit to direct sunlight through a small solar sensor contained within the game cartridge. Sunlight both affects key events in the game and provides energy to the game's weapon, a pistol named the "Del Sol."

Boktai sells for about $35 USD, and is available for purchase.
Further information about the title can be found at Konami's Website.

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Go! Outside! Expose your pale skin to the glory of the sun... and... continue your gaming out there!
Or you can sit next to a window as you play.
At least it's been programmed to only "accept" real sunlight: Desklamps, flashlights, and such don't affect the sensor.

Anyway, I'm surprised the technology for the sensor is so compact and cheap enough to warrant mass production on a video game cartridge. And furthermore, the gimmick behind the game is unique. While the game can be played in the absence of sunlight, Konami notes that it becomes significantly harder since players must be conservative in use of their gun's stored energy.