Square Enix first put up a Japanese site, and then a similar North American one, that sent a very clear message.  Now, the news has also been made official (via press release) — Chrono Trigger is coming back.  The game will be released in North America for the Nintendo DS this holiday season.

Like recent reincarnations of old Final Fantasy titles, Chrono Trigger will make use of the Nintendo DS’ improved graphics and touch-screen functionality.  The story, battle system and styles of the game will remain unchanged.

Chrono Trigger sold some 2.5 million copies worldwide, and became a favourite for many fans.  It only makes sense that it should be part of Square Enix’s recent strategy of remaking/re-releasing classic titles.

Fans of the Chrono series were disappointed when Chrono Break, which would have been the fourth installment in the series, was cancelled.  Perhaps renewed interest in the series will prompt a new Chrono game to appear in the next couple of years?

Many Final Fantasy XI players are aware of a rash of account hackings that occurred over the past couple of months. A number of players saw their account passwords suddenly changed after their gaming computers were compromised. Square Enix has been unable to help most of these players, who saw hours of game-work disappear when their characters were stolen.

One 20-year-old has taken it upon himself to seek justice with his local police department, reports a Minnesota newspaper. Geoff Luurs reported the crime, in which 75 million Gil worth of virtual items and coin that belonged to his character were stolen. Although Square Enix prohibits players from participating in real-money trade (RMT) between game items and real currency, the gil is worth about $4,000 U.S. on the FFXI “black market”.

The police, however, refuse to investigate the event. According to them, virtual items have no monetary value whatsoever and no crime has taken place. The response angered law professor Joshua Fairfield of Washington and Lee University:

“What happened here is somebody stole almost USD 4000 and got away cold. This is just a matter of zeros. The first time IBM loses USD 10 million, we’re going to see some police action. The argument that a magic sword isn’t real, that doesn’t make sense to me. You can ask the question, why would somebody buy that? But you can’t say it’s not worth real money.”

Putting aside the fact that swords in Final Fantasy XI aren’t normally magic, Fairfield brings up a good point. Despite the fact that it’s against the rules, RMT is a common thing in FFXI as well as in most other MMO games, some of which allow and even participate in the trade of virtual items for real-world money.

Recent hackings involved exploits on some Final Fantasy XI information sites that were finding back-door entries into players’ computers, but in the case of this player, it’s also suspected that he gave out his information at some point. Luurs named another FFXI player as a former friend and current suspect, raising the question of whether or not he actually gave out his password in the past. This is a somewhat common practice, although it’s also forbidden by Square Enix due to security risks.

So what’s your take? Is this a case of the law being behind the times, or is this FFXI player crying over spilled milk? Having spent hours in Final Fantasy XI myself, I can certainly respect the amount of time and energy it takes to build up a character — there’s certainly a value to what was stolen, even if it’s hard to quantify.

Psychology/self-help writer Cooper Lawrence, who recently appeared on Fox News, has apologized for taken back her criticism of the Xbox 360 game Mass Effect. Lawrence’s appearance on the program was to comment on the game’s alleged nudity and its effect on children. If you’ve read this blog recently, you’re probably familiar with my thoughts on the matter.

In the segment, Lawrence accused the game of objectifying women and depicting full nudity. When asked during the interview whether or not she had even played the game, she answered no. But in an interview with the New York Times, Lawrence explained her situation and took back her remarks:

“I recognise that I misspoke. Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography. But it’s not like pornography.”

My comment earlier was that worse content regularly appears in film and on network TV… and it looks like Cooper Lawrence agreed with that, too:

“I’ve seen episodes of Lost that are more sexually explicit.”

Some fans of Mass Effect were angered by the original broadcast and hundreds went to Amazon.com to give negative reviews of Cooper Lawrence’s book. Some of these attacked Lawrence’s character, while others sarcastically pointed out that they don’t need to read the book to know it’s ignorant (referencing how Lawrence commented on Mass Effect without having played or even seen the content she discussed). Amazon deleted most of the reviews that didn’t directly discuss the book, but several remain. It’s unknown whether or not this pressure led her to retract her comments.

Personally, I say good for her for admitting her mistake and putting her neck out there to fix the problem. Hopefully she, and others, will think twice about reviewing content you’ve never seen — or having a knee-jerk reaction to anything Fox News says. Meanwhile, Fox continues to refuse to apologize or clarify its remarks about Mass Effect, as EA continues to request a retraction.

So what’s the deal, Fox? There were actual lies in that segment (not a difference of opinion — lies), and anyone who’s actually played Mass Effect knows it.

Anyways, thanks for helping to set the record straight, Cooper.

Fox recently aired a segment about BioWare’s Mass Effect game. In the segment, which is labelled “SE”XBOX, they talk about how the game contains graphic nudity and sex scenes. They talk about how Mass Effect carries a Mature (17+) rating, but how at the same time it’s marketed to kids. They talk about how, in reality, kids will play it. And finally they talk about how children and teens are apparently stupid, and can’t tell fact from fiction.

I honestly can’t help but to get angry when I watch it. It’s difficult for me to express, in words, just how much I disagree with nearly everything they said about this game.

Look, I’m all for good parenting. Kids shouldn’t be watching sex or shooting people in video games at young ages. But that doesn’t mean that total censorship is the answer, or that anyone wanting a realistc video game is a horrible person. You just need to put some of the responsibility where it lies. Parents need to decide what their kid can and can’t handle, and do their job.

In truth, Mass Effect contains a few seconds of partial nudity. The game itself takes some 30 hours to play. The nudity in the game isn’t any more graphic than what you might expect from a movie that’s rated PG-13, or 14-A in Canada.

I have no idea what these people actually propose. I’m not sure if they want to ban video games from having any nudity (ie censorship), restrict games like this to adults-only stores or… well, what?

EA, which took ownership of BioWare this year, responded with a letter claiming, truthfully, that FOX’s portrayal of Mass Effect was absurd and inaccurate.

FOX has apparently just come back with a statement asking why EA won’t come on the air to give its argument. (I think EA should come on FOX to point out all the questionable material FOX has ever shown on its channel.)

Let’s go over some quotes from what was said in the discussion at the end of the segment. I’d give these people’s names, but I don’t respect them enough to record that information at this time.

“You have to pick up the box, look at the back for the rating.”

Incorrect. It’s on the front and back, more prominently than it is on most films.

It says on the back: “Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence”. That’s accurate. The game does contain some sexual themes. The game does contain a little bit of partial nudity.

The game absolutely does not contain “graphic sex” or “full nudity” as claimed in this segment.

“Who can argue that Luke Skywalker meets Debbie Does Dallas is a good thing…. it’s not. It’s just not good, and I’m definitely not going to let Mass Effect in my house.”

Uhm…. Debbie Does Dallas is a pornographic movie. You’re insane if you’re serious about that comment. If you don’t want Mass Effect in your house because of your kids, fine. It’s a violent game and it’s supposed to be 17+. That’s fair. But it’s not porn.

One woman goes on to explain that the “reality” is that a kid can’t be controlled.

“‘I wanna play my dad’s video game while he’s not here.’”

First, your saved game shows up on the Xbox and is attached to your profile. Dad can go and see anytime if it’s been played. Second, parental controls are available. Third, the sexual encounters in the game take a while to get to. So if Dad really wants to control what the kids are up to, he can. It’s called parenting.

At the same time, if the kids want, they can get hardcore pornography in about 2 minutes on any PC. Mass Effect is hardly hurting things here.

“…Adults Only — that’s the highest rating it can have. First of all this board that rates them has to have its head examined.”

Mass Effect is rated M for Mature, which means 17+. AO games are 18+ and not carried by most stores.

You see about a second of a partial bum and a little bit of side-boob. Depending on who you go after, that body might be blue and alien. Seriously. That’s it.

“What happened to Atari and Pinball and Pacman?”

Industries evolve. This didn’t happen overnight. Gamers aren’t interested in playing games from the 70s exclusively. Should developers stop making games that use current technology? That tell real stories about emotional people, in the way that films do? You’re not big on video games, I get that. Why are you on a panel talking about them?

The last guy came across with some sensibility, at least.

“It’s up to parents to control what their kids are seeing.”

Finally, someone with half a brain.

Here’s a clip of the whole thing:

(Sorry for the rant, folks… but this insanity needs to be kept in check.)

News that BioWare is developing a role-playing game based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise surfaced last summer, and today the title may have surfaced.

A recent filing by Sega to the U.S. Patent Office has revealed the title of an upcoming game as ‘Sonic Chronicles’. Whether or not this is in fact the RPG under development by BioWare remains to be seen — Sonic Chronicles could just as easily be another platform game on the drawing board, although the name hopefully suggests otherwise.

BioWare is best known for its popular RPGs. The Sonic series has recently had suffered from mediocrity in the video game world, so this might be a chance for BioWare to do for Sega what it did for LucasArts when Knights of the Old Republic revived the Star Wars franchise in the gaming world.

BioWare’s Sonic RPG is being developed for the Nintendo DS and is expected to be released within the year. The February 2008 issue of Nintendo Power is supposedly scheduled to give the first preview of the game, so we shouldn’t have to wait very long for new details.

Update:  The rumor has been confirmed! Nintendo Power has revealed the Sonic RPG in all its glory — we can expect Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood to appear in 2008.

Well, as of this month the deal that puts Canadian developer BioWare under EA’s control goes into effect. As a big fan of BioWare games, including Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic, I can’t help but to worry about what will happen when BioWare gets absorbed.

The Ultima series is a prime example of how EA has swallowed an RPG series whole, leaving very little for gamers to enjoy — pre-EA titles made by Origin belong in the RPG hall of fame, while games after the EA acquisition belong in a recycling plant. As EA took over, the bulk of the original creative team disappeared. (Ultima creator Richard Garriott, for example, is too busy with his MMO, Tabula Rasa, and his trip into space.)

So will BioWare and its properties suffer the same fate under EA control? EA says ‘no’, of course — they’re maintaining BioWare as an ‘independent’ branch of EA, and keeping the whole BioWare team on board. Great news, until you realize that they’ve said this before about previous acquisitions that later saw their creative teams disband.

Last week saw a little bit of encouraging news, as BioWare confirmed that they’re already working on Jade Empire 2 for the Xbox 360. They’ve also promised us two more Mass Effect titles over the next few years. Hopefully that will keep things running smoothly for a while.

I suppose all we can say is, “BioWare team, please don’t cash out on the billion-dollar deal just yet. You deserve it, of course — but you’re just too good.”