Ben’s Week In Review: May 10

LittleBigPlanet is a little distracting going on in the background, but 'tis okay. Gotta do this. 🙂

Bye bye, Duke…or is it Hello, Duke?

When I saw the unfortunate news , I felt the most bizarre combination of sadness and mirth. The latter is just plain cruel; it's never a good thing when a long-time game developer shuts down, regardless of the reasons. We love our games and we want to see everyone involved do well. But that dark side of me – that's in all of you, too – kinda went, "well, duh ." Look, they've been teasing us with one particular game for over 12 years and that's just plain ridiculous, no matter how you slice it. But at the same time, let's look at the bright side: isn't there a good chance that Take-Two (who now has the rights to Duke Nukem Forever , I believe) might actually deliver the long-awaited game at some point? Might it actually become a reality? Might it actually cease to be called "vaporware?" I mean, isn't this what the gamers should desire? If one studio couldn't find a way to finish it, than maybe another can, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. What might be interesting is to see just how far 3D Realms got before everything went kablooey…

Don't "explore," Square-Enix, just DO

So Square-Enix says they're going to "check" on the possibility of releasing a playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII in North America and as far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to examine. It's coming here, isn't it? Japanese gamers are getting the game first, yes, but does that mean this region is meaningless? I think by now Japanese developers – and Square-Enix above all others – understands the importance of the West, and they absolutely can't leave us high and dry on this one. We don't necessarily need the 1-hour demo that came with the Blu-Ray edition of "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" in Japan, but something is required. It just is. And besides, S-E is just annoying PS3 owners again by saying they don't want to release a Blu-Ray demo here, because that means Xbox 360 owners wouldn't be able to play it. Well, sadly, that is the current state of the tiresome situation. I just wish Square-Enix would toss us a bone, here. It can't be that difficult to take a portion of that demo and toss it up onto the PSN and XBLM, and I refuse to believe there's a whole lot to think about. Just do it, Square-Enix. Seriously.

Personal gaming update

Well, I probably should've gotten a little further in LBP before I started on FFVIII, which has already sucked up 10 hours of my time (and I haven't even embarked on my first official SeeD quest yet). I take my time and build up my party, and do everything I want to do before advancing the plot; it's just how I play RPGs. But that means I've stopped going through LBP, which means I really have to make a conscious effort to go back to it every now and then. Normally, I don't play two games at once, but I can play these two at the same time, just 'cuz they're so very different from one another. I'm remembering just how much I loved FFVIII – my only complaint is that I don't think as highly about the characters in combat – and I can't wait to get into the meat of the game. And go ahead and ask me if I care about those original PS1 graphics. Go ahead. Ask . Okay, now here's the answer: NO. Not in the slightest.

As for the current situation …well, Ms. Amy – that's Ms. Amy, isn't it? – will be retiring soon as she's tired and has to get up early for some Mother's Day thing. I'll try and play Resistance with Val and Arnold quietly… At this time, I'm not accepting any questions. 😉