Its here!

The news is all over the web, its finally here. After being pushed back over a year Final Fantasy XII has arrived in Japan. We over on this side of the big pond should see it before the US Thanksgiving. Checkout 1up.com for an in depth look at the game.

I love you Kotaku.

Well, this quote made my day, head to Kotaku for the full story.

"If you want a Playstation 3, we hope you’re willing to wait outside of Best Buy on launch day, then accost one of the five people in your area who managed to buy one and smash the rigid palm of your hand time and time again into the base of his nose until his cold, dead hands finally loosen around the PS3 he just purchased. Because short of nine-tenths of the world suddenly ascending in a Christian Rapture, that’s the only way you’re going to be able to get one."

I thought it was pretty awesome. Peace.

Sony: Open mouth speaks lots.

Following the story over at Next-Gen there are 10 major points that Sony has officially announced today at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing. They are as follows.

1. Sony plans to make and sell 6 million PlayStation 3 units by March 31st 2007.

2. The PSP will soon support an emulator that will allow you to play PSOne games that are stored on your trusty mem stick.

3. The "PlayStation Network Platform", The Playstation's live service will do everything you have come to expect from an online service. Voice, lobby, blah blah blah. The real news here is the online distribution for games.

4. Our PS3 will, according to Ken Kutaragi, be backwards compatible with both the PSOne and PS2. It will even support HD resolutions for the old games it seems.

5. Finalized PS3 dev kits will be shipping to developers in June.

6. PS2? No price chop yet...Sorry.

7. Another interesting tidbit, Kutaragi said that the PS3 will require the HDD, but said nothing about it being packaged with the system. Here's hoping. Anywho, the HDD will be a 60Gig with Linux OS support.

8. One HDD equipped PS3 is supposed to be sort of a central point to your home entertainment package.

9. Sony will release a new firmware upgrade for PSP which will support Flash in its Web browser. Thus more hits to Homestarrunner.com will be made.

10. PS3 games will be featured exclusively on Blu-ray discs to protect against piracy. O, and Sony will also loan you a Ninja to protect you against the more vicious pirates out there, but the Ninja's are pretty expensive.

Edit: I forgot to mention the biggest news. The official set date for the PS3 world-wide release is...Wait for it...NOVEMBER! Ta-da. Yeah, its fall, just gives you more time to make money. Stop crying, you'll get your PS3 soon enough. No, really man. Stop it.

Ads of unhappiness: Part 2

Well, the bad ad news continues today with the news from Kotaku that Auto Assault, the car-blowing-stuff-up MMO from NCSoft coming out soon will have ads from Massive Incorporated. Its somehow supposed to make it more realistic...yeah, like mutants in the post apocalyptic world are gonna wanna stop by McDonald's for a Big Mac. Oi. This had better bring the monthly cost down or something.

Ads of unhappiness: Part 1

Have you seen the new Gamesradar.com? If you haven't, really, don't bother. Since the re-opening of what used to be a respectable UK gaming website has turned into an Ad powered mess. There are now so many ads all over the website its hard to navigate around or even find any real news. Take my advice and just don't bother. There are many more worthy websites around.

Best Game Ever.

Just watch this, make sure you watch it all...it gets better and better.



The game is called "Spore" by Maxis. Watch for it.

Steam-ing hot friends.

The not-so-great friends locater and IM that has been a non-functional part of Valve's "Steam" system is set to come back. According to the Steam update message they are getting ready to take it out of Beta and let all the user's of the software to partake in friends-list goodness. But really, when your shouting "BOOM! HEADSHOT!" over the mic in CS:Source every other minute, do you really have a need for a friends list?

The 1up Show rolls a 20.

Just thought this was an amusing episode if "The 1up Show" with a few people attempting (and ultimately failing) to play a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Check it out, they also talk about GRAW, Untold Legends 2, Mega Man: Powered Up, and even take you to Japan where the team waits all night for the Game Boy DS: Lite. Just amusing.

Nintendo's Next-Gen not HD.

A piece on GamesRadar.com caught my eye recently. Though not as big a concern as the Playstation 3 seems to be, the Nintendo "Revolution" is almost as shrouded in mystery. To help ensure we aren't confused though, Nintendo has added a nice automated message to there customer service to tell us that HD (High Definition) though may make things look pretty, the nice visuals come at too much of a price for Nintendo. Meaning, unless I read this wrong, the Revolution won't be HD capable. Now, props to Nintendo for staying as far away from Microsoft and Sony and being there own brand with there own customer base, but how much further can you take the current resolution of old TV sets? Without HD, is it really necessary to spend so much time working something that's not really going to perform much better the Game Cube? Who knows...We'll see what Nintendo's real plan is.

Microsoft not to be pwnd by GameBoy and PSP after all.

Recently there has been a lot of rumor and speculation about a secretive project my Microsoft code named "Origami". For the last little while it has been said that Microsoft was entering the handheld gaming market with this new halo playing device. Now, according to 1up.com Microsoft has revealed the "Origami" to us, and its just a mini touch-screen laptop named the Ultra Mobile PC. Well, a least we don't have to deal with Xbox fanboys in our face on the bus.

Speaking but saying nothing...Again.

Well, though not really news at all, I do like to post anything I hear about the PS3. Over at GamesIndustry.biz they have a story about a senior spokesperson for SCEE telling people that they do not have any plans to simultaneously launch the PlayStation 3 in Japan, the UK and over here. Nor did they ever have any plans too. While Sony keeps making sure they stomp on the rumors as they come, its hard not to listen to the rumors when we have absolutely nothing official from them. Thanks for clearing this up for us Sony, but really...Toss us a bone here, when are we going too see it?

Microsoft product crashes, I'm sure your very surprised.

This one coming from Kotaku. According to them, a resent update to the latest in Microsoft's attempts to rule the known world, the Xbox 360, has caused some to "lock-up". Posts on Kotaku from angry Xbox users continue to flow into the comments box. Me? I'll just wait for my PS3.

Famitsu seems to think FF XII is ok.

Famitsu, the very popular Japanese gaming publication, has given Final Fantasy XII a perfect score. Now, this (according to 1up.com) doesn't happen often at all, actually it seems that only about one game per system ever gets the 40/40 rating. Final Fantasy XII now rates as high as The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and Nintendogs. Well, that doesn't say much to me, but good for SE. I just hope it really is good, cause vagrant Story...well....yeah, that got 40/40 as well. Eww.

NCSoft getting pwnd..er...Sued.

According to GamePolitics.com (a great place to get game news) MMO publisher NCSoft is being sued by players of Lineage in Korea. The players say they have had there i.d.'s stolen and had game logins created using the i.d.'s. My question is, how can you hold a game publisher like NCSoft responsible for the hackers that steal online i.d.'s? Read the full story at GamePolitics if you wanna know more.

Orcs in an MMO?! Nooo!

If you haven't seen the latest cover of PCGamer, its telling you to read all about the latest MMO in the making (also summing up all MMO's currently in production, and its a long list.) Mythic Entertainment is currently working on an MMO based on the extensive world of Warhammer. Ah, and if your not sure what Warhammer is, find a geek and have him direct you towards the nearest Games Workshop for a free demo. Its fun.

When the Chinese Attack!

According to Kotaku, Chinese WoW players aren't too happy with Blizzard. It seems in China, players pay per-hour for the MMO. This time being payed for seems to include time spent logging in (or attempting too) and waiting in queues. No violence or burnings have been reported yet.