Only three posts in, and we've already moved the site to a new home.

You can now find further updates at It's Dangerous to Go Alone!

Enjoy!

Even with essentially no information behind it, just knowing that Lucasarts is working on a new Indiana Jones game is cringe-inducing. Here's one reason why. View the "trailer" for the game:

Did you notice that? The entire trailer is CGI. Zero actual gameplay footage. None of what was seen in the video will actually be seen in the game. And why is that? Because the game is going to be on the Wii and the DS.

So, we know Lucasarts is making an Indiana Jones game (called "Staff of Kings", but does that really matter?), and that it will be on the Wii and the DS. And, we also know that they aren't even willing to show gameplay footage when they talk about the game. That says to me that the game isn't worth seeing, and they know it. More than likely it will be some shoddy "casual" title that will take the essense of what makes a great Indiana Jones game -- exploration, adventure, chases, and fights -- and boil it all down to a painfully dull series of non-descript puzzles bolted messily within a point-and-click interface.  To people like me, it will appear tedious and ugly. It will sell well to the soccer moms because to them it will be attractive and simple, just what they're looking for in a game their kids can play.

I'm looking forward to more publishers taking the Wii seriously in 2009, but if I'm right about Indiana Jones, and this amounts to a "serious" effort, I'm thinking that it's going to be (yet another) tough year to be a Wii owner.

The developers at High Voltage have released another developer diary for The Conduit, and I have to say, that game is continuing to blow my mind. Diary video embedded:

Absolutely phenomenal. High Voltage has thought of everything. They not only offer completely customizable controls, where every single button can be mapped to any function you desire, but you can also adjust the movement sensitivity of both the Wii remote and Nunchuk, and it also features an entirely scalable bounding box to control your Wii remote "dead zone" for turning sensitivity. As if that wasn't enough, you also have a completely customizable HUD screen, where every icon and window can be moved anywhere, and the transparancy of each is adjustable, as well.

The video also shows off some excellent improvements in the AI, which is something that I was hoping to see.

All in all, The Conduit is shaping up to be the Wii Game of the Year for 2009, even before release.(and despite the dreaded "friend code" system for its online multiplayer). Let's just hope it lives up to be everything High Voltage is claiming it will be.

So, apparently Square Enix is making yet another remake of an old Final Fantasy game. Only this time, it's not so much a Final Fantasy game as it is a SaGa game that was simply given a false "Final Fantasy" moniker in the US in order to drum up sales due to growing popularity of the Final Fantasy brand. The game in question, known in Japan as SaGa 2, was released in the US on the Game Boy as Final Fantasy Legends 2. Yes, I know. Baffling.

In my opinion, FFL2 (and I'm assuming this was true for SaGa 2, as well, for obvious reasons) was a horrible game. It was freakishly difficult, incomprehensible in both method and story, and just an utterly unfortunate waste of time. I ended up playing FFL3, as well, years later, hoping upon hope that it had surpassed FFL2's painful shortcomings, only to learn that the series, in the time between 2 and 3, had essentially learned nothing. I have no idea how this series fared in Japan, but I can only hope it was met with similar marked disappointment.

That, in and of itself, makes me question this decision. But then you have to ask yourself: why remake the second game in the series? The SaGa/FFL series doesn't have the same ridiculous numbering issues that the true Final Fantasy series has had to endure, with number 6 in Japan actually being number 3 in the US, and number 4 in the US being number 17 in Japan, so on, so forth. The SaGa/FFL series enjoys a fairly straightforward numbering, where SaGa 2 in Japan -- ironically enough -- actually corresponds to FFL2 in the US. So why start at the second game in the series? Once again: baffling.

My true gripe here is that Square Enix seems allergic to trying something new. With so many Final Fantasy remakes and Dragon Quest sequels in the pipeline, they've had the appearance of a company fairly bereft of new thought. And, quite honestly, I can't really blame them. Lately, their attempts at injecting fresh ideas into the bloodsteam have ended up performing pretty badly. I suppose if every time you attempt to create an original IP in the world of jRPGs, you might want to consider NOT trying to rip off your own ideas, and then failing at it miserably by making it a buggy mess. Their one bright, shining star of recent releases would have to be The World Ends with You. But it's mainly bright and shiny because it was developed by Jupiter.

Maybe Square Enix will actually end up creating a quality title. A remake of FFL2 with a brand new interface, slick 3D rendering, and a new coat of paint on the story and gameplay might end up working out better than its original incarnation. They accomplished it with Final Fantasy IV; they could do it again. And likely, they will. But I just wish they wouldn't. I don't want old FF and new DQ games. I want fresh and interesting and innovative. Square Enix is the most prolific and powerful jRPG powerhouse in the world, and all they do with that strength is replay the classics and revisit the past. Give me more games like The World Ends with You.

Just don't give me a sequel to it.