Our intern is back to discuss some big problems that have been plaguing “Final Fantasy XI.” Read more…

Square-Enix has presented an offer to buy Eidos, raising the prospect of the Japanese house of “Final Fantasy” and “Dragon Quest” absorbing the British publisher being Lara Croft’s adventures and the “Hitman” series. Square-Enix pitched the stock offer to Eidos on January 7 and an official order, presented in rich detail in filings today, will now be presented to shareholders.

The “Final Fantasy” publisher is in hot water today, reports Bloomberg, after Square Enix stock fell 11% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the lowest for Square Enix in five years, after delaying a report on its earnings results by a week. Read more…

There’s been plenty of pretty pre-rendered footage from Square Enix’s next opus, “Final Fantasy XIII,” but today’s new trailer has what we’ve been waiting for: gameplay. Ready to see how “Final Fantasy XIII”’s combat looks? Head to Square Enix’s website for now; we’ll embed the trailer when it’s available.

Square Enix might be taking their time with “Final Fantasy XIII” on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but “Final Fantasy” fans don’t have to wait much longer for their RPG fix, as the publisher announced today that “Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time” is coming to Wii and DS simultaneously on March 24. Read more…

Updated info regarding the release of “Final Fantasy XIII” serves as an extraordinary reminder of just how slowly major game publishers have gotten into this console generation. Read more…

Video games have a large presence than ever before at Comic Con 2008, but I didn’t expect to learn more (if only a little) about Square Enix’s largest in-development RPGs. Yet, the publisher unveiled to wandering fans figures for “Final Fantasy XIII,” “Star Ocean,” and “The Last Remnant” to be sold later this year and beyond.

More pics of Square Enix figures after the jump…

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At E3 last week I talked to PlayStation marketing man Peter Dille about a range of topics, the first of which, naturally, had to be the announcement by Microsoft that the formerly PS3-exclusive “Final Fantasy XIII” was also going to debut on the Xbox 360.

Did the announcement hurt Sony? I asked, and he said…

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The Microsoft media briefing ended with a bang this morning by showing a new trailer from “Final Fantasy XIII.”

Immediately following the briefing, Square Enix held a press conference about the game, where “FFXIII” producer Yoshinori Kitase and Square Enix exec Shinji Hashimoto answered all the questions they could in 45 minutes.

Here’s a round-up of the facts so far from the brief Q&A session: Read more…

Since the last entry..

*I got to the bottom of my new-game stack and reached into my old-games-I-need-to-mess-around-with pile. In there I found “Silent Hill 4,” “Rogue Galaxy,” and “Final Fantasy XII” all for the PS2.

I tried them each but don’t plan on finishing any of them unless any reader of this diary can change my mind.

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Since the last entry I…

*Brought the hot hail of Internet rage down upon my head by not just playing 10 hours of “Grand Theft Auto IV” by daring to admit that, periodically throughout the weekend, I felt the urge to stop playing the excellent game in order to satisfy a craving for “Super Mario Galaxy.”

I know how to bring more abuse upon me!

Make another comparison to another Nintendo game. Here goes: 10 hours in, “GTA IV” is reminding me of “The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess.” How so? The first major chunks of both games are all about showing better way of presenting familiar franchise tropes, but not about adding many new things. The “Zelda” game doles out the best boomerang, iron boots and horse in the series yet. “GTA IV” presents the best wanted system, mission structure, and handling of taxi and police missions yet. As a result, both “GTA IV” and “Twilight Princess” are instantly the best games in the series to recommend to newcomers. But they both require veteran players of the franchise to re-experience a lot of familiar stuff before getting to content that feels radically new.

Speaking of new stuff, I have high hopes for how Rockstar has re-invented the cop cars and vigilante missions. It’s something I plan to dig more into the next time I play the game.

*Finished “Super Mario Galaxy.” Or at least got as far as I’m going to go. My favorite power-up was the last one in the game. My favorite boss battle was the one at the finale. My favorite galaxy, though, was Buoy Base, which appeared halfway into the game. Final star count for me: 106.

*Just started “The World Ends With You” and already noticing some neat parallels to another game set based in a real city and making heavy use of a cell phone as a design element– you know, “GTA IV.”

*Played a little bit more of “Crisis Core,” but that was Friday and I don’t remember much of what I did.

Next: More “GTA IV” of course. I want to go to Algonquin!

Since the last entry…

*Four and a half hours in, “Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII” has been making me grouchy again because of:

The writing

And I paraphrase:
Zack [angrily to Genesis]: That’s no way to use a summons! What happened to dreams and ideals?
Genesis [calmly to Zack]: We are monsters.
Genesis: Monsters don’t dream.

The main character’s peculiar values

And I summarize (this is a really small SPOILER):
On Thursday morning, while I was playing on the subway, I had the main character Zack wandering through his home base, the Shinra HQ. Zack finds a low-level fellow soldier who is afraid he will be fired if he messes up one more time. The guy is terrified. Zack steps in to offer some advice — and volunteers to do the soldier’s next mission for him. What’s up with that? The solution to one’s problems is getting someone else to fix them?

The developers’ low estimation of the player’s intelligence

And I summarize (another very small SPOILER coming):
After a mission in Genesis’ home town, the game transmits two e-mails to Zack’s cell phone from the game-world’s news service. Both e-mails praise senior soldier Sephiroth for actions in the Genesis mission, even though it was my character, Zack, who did the hard work. Seconds later, I find some non-player characters who have mention that Sephiroth is getting the glory. And seconds after that, the developers still feel the need to cue up a scene involving Zack and some other soldiers in which they discuss how Zack Is Not Getting Credit For His Heroism. Hey, I think I just got steamrolled by all that subtlety. How about a single coherent explanation of the DMW instead?

Bottom Line For Now: The story missions in this game are bumming me out. The side-missions are an entertaining quick-fix grind. Yes, an entertaining grind. I just wish the storytelling in the main game held up better. Who is impressed with this kind of writing, plot and character development?

Next: A weekend in which “Super Mario Galaxy” may be completed. As long as it doesn’t get super-hard at the end.