Final Fantasy IV DS remake!!!

Just after making us purchase Final Fantasy IV on GBA, Square-Enix is laying out the bait for those wanting a 3D remake. Hook, line and sinker. It will be using the same wonderful engine that Matrix Software developed on Final Fantasy III DS. FFIV is one of my favourite FF games, after Final Fantasy VI and XII, so this will be a day one purchase (or import) for me. I can't read kanji, but I do hope the character design is again being done by Yoshitake Amano. Regardless Dark Knight Cecil looks amazing in his polygonal self and the Octomammoth looks positively adorable!


Next? Remake Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest III, Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI dammit. We DS owners have a urging need for more old school RPG goodness.

Via NeoGAF

Nintendo hates Europe

Metroid Prime Pinball (a video game developed in the UK) dated. For Europe.

22 June 2007

For comparison purposes:

North America: 24 October 2005
Australia: 1 December 2005
Japan: 19 January 2006

via BGB

Still ain't that bad compared to WarioWare: Twisted! (first released in October 2004 in Japan and May 2005 for the North American market but no release date yet for Europe) or Animal Crossing GCN.

And guys, just import. Cheaper (£13 vs £30) and quicker too.

Confit de Canard

Nothing like having the best of French duck confit without having to set foot in France itself... Thanks Benoit, it was bloody good!

Ken Kutaragi

Last week's news of Ken Kutaragi's departure from Sony Computer Entertainment was greeted with the usual fanboy enthusiasm. Many were glad that the man who heralded the PS3 as 4D to finally step down as chief at SCE. It is a shame because no matter how much you hate Sony (and I don't really like them very much these days), Ken Kutaragi, like former Nintendo dictator Hiroshi Yamauchi, is a rare specimen that will be much missed.

Unlike many industry suits, he at least has inside technology knowledge into what makes a console thick. Remember that beloved SNES of yours? Without the audio processor Sony SPC700 that Ken Kutaragi designed secretly from his bosses at Sony, you would not have classic SNES soundtracks like Final Fantasy VI. Like the rebel he was, he was also critical of Sony's love affair of DRM (way before Steve Jobs jumped on the anti-DRM bandwagon), which many believes was the reason he was demoted from his position at Sony.

Without Ken Kutaragi, consoles would still be viewed as the toys they once were. As a fellow gamer I wish him success in his future endeavours.

Chaos Gate Jingai Makyo Ignis 1/7 PVC figure (Max Factory version)

Just got my grubby hands on Max Factory's Ignis figure, just like every other people. Lovely ain't she?

You can try to get it here.

Helmet debate

I was reading the new WMB and they had a panel with a discussion on the validity of wearing helmets while cycling. Despite the myth that not wearing a helmet on road is safer (as in it would not cause an accident), if and when an accident happens you will be sorry if you are not wearing one, especially if your head gets knocked on the kerb. I understand (slightly) if people do not want to wear a helmet because they believe in the myth, but people who do not wear one because "it looks ugly" or "it doesn't look cool" are, well, idiots.

I myself am a slight hypocrite on this issue. 90% of the time I wear one, but if I wanted to nip over to the store less than a mile away I usually don't wear one (though I am mending my ways now). However I always wear a helmet when I go off-road. It just makes sense. But with people happy slapping cyclists I believe it is time that anti-helmet cyclists should rethink their attitude. Helmets are not what they used to be. Modern cycling helmets are not the hideous creatures they once were just five years ago. They look great (even cool), are cheap (Giro has models from £30), have proper ventilation, fits great and some models even protects your hair from nasty bugs. Many manufacturers also have free replacement policies. Trek for example (well on the model I own anyway) would send a (free) replacement helmet if a Trek helmet is involved in a crash. A similar policy exists for Met.

Another thing - cycling lanes are useless, at least those in London. Especially those that are only three feet wide and share the same lane as buses. A safer way to cycling on-road is to cycle in the middle of the lane in front of a car so the driver can see you. This tends to work in Central London as cars barely go quicker than a competent cyclist anyway.

Forget about Vista (for now)

While I am not a big fan of Dell, I have to say good for them on offering Ubuntu to their customers. Personally I would prefer if they offered Fedora Core but I guess with its Red Hat roots, it might seem too nerdy! Plus Ubuntu's awareness is rising. Ubuntu should prove to be a hit - if Dell could market it outside the usual geeky demographic that Linux is usually associated with. I probably won't be a huge problem as some Dell customers has proven themselves to be pretty tech savvy (though not as savvy as an IBM user!) - even managing to force Dell to start offering PCs with Windows XP again rather than Microsoft's newer, sexier but unproven and rather bloated new OS.

Speaking of Windows Vista, I had the opportunity to test the Home Premium edition on some one's new notebook (and also learnt that manufacturers do not give out recovery discs today, even on uber-expensive PCs). As I mentioned one the previous paragraph, the new OS is pretty nice to look at. But strip the glossiness away and what you have is effectively Windows XP with an updated GUI shell and some annoying security 'feature' and tacked XP Media Centre features.

The new Aero interface is a pretty slick but useless feature with no advantage to increasing productivity (that I know of! - although to be fair the GUI is now vector based making everything pretty, even when magnified). Flip 3D (win+tab) which was meant to be a GUI replacement to the alt-tab task switcher is a novelty feature at best. The first thing we did was to strip away all the useless 3D feature and special effects, then found that everything worked much faster. My opinion on Vista is if you have already have XP SP2? Don't buy it, yet. It is too expensive and it doesn't do anything that XP can't do with the right third party applications (eg. Yahoo! Widget). If your new PC happens to come with it bundled and only have 1GB of RAM, tweak it to allow for best performance or get another 1GB RAM stick. If not wait for Vienna due in 2008/09.

Better yet save that extra hard drive space and instead triple-boot Windows XP, Fedora Core/Ubuntu and Solaris.

Before I sign off I want to mention that I am currently watching the Liverpool-Chelsea match on ITV1. First live football match on the telly that I bothered to watch in a long long time (actually I am not watching, but merely leaving the telly on, with the occasional glance). I guess Jose's child-like behaviour tends to get to you. Not a fan of either... but go Liverpool!

God of War II

Awesome stunt aside, I finally got a copy of God of War II. Oh yeah!