Not quite two years ago, Square Enix pleased its European fans with DISSIDIA, a completely new approach to the FINAL FANTASY series. Originally meant as part of the campaign of the FINAL FANTASY series 20th anniversary, the substantial fighter quickly turned out to be one of the most popular PSP games of all times.

With the release of DISSIDIA 012 [duodecim] FINAL FANTASY, the legendary battle between Chaos and Cosmos returns to our beloved PSP systems. We talked with Game Director Mitsunori Takahashi about his thoughts on the game.

It is quite an interesting time in the development of FINAL FANTASY. Many fans are curious about where the series will head. How does your work on DISSIDIA 012 differ from other games in the universe?

DISSIDIA, in the first place, was produced to mark the 20th anniversary of the FINAL FANTASY series. We have put in our best effort to work out what new gameplay we might be able to provide our users, with combat action elements mixed into RPG. Therefore, although the DISSIDIA series would not exist if it were not for FINAL FANTASY, the direction is different to many of our other games. This means that DISSIDIA has its own challenges for us to face.

Other than familiar characters, how do you retain the feel of the FINAL FANTASY world while also introducing a completely different fighting mechanic?

Actually, the development team did have a debate during the initial stage of the original DISSIDIA project in an attempt to understand what makes a FINAL FANTASY a FINAL FANTASY. However, we eventually reached the conclusion that we should not be too preoccupied by such “Final Fantasy-esque” elements. FINAL FANTASY is a series in which fresh challenges have always been taken for each game and we were afraid that, if too much attention were to be paid to the common elements, we would only allow ourselves a reduced level of freedom and be bound to too many restrictions.

We therefore decided to ensure that the game would not contain anything not suited to the universe, rather than consciously pursue those that naturally are. No sooner than establishing this policy, we began to hit upon many good ideas and, as a result, we ended up with two very “Final Fantasy-esque” games: DISSIDIA and DISSIDIA 012.

The first DISSIDIA was so rich in content; some people said it was the richest PSP-game ever. However, you have added even more to the sequel. How did you manage to put all that on this tiny little UMD?

Cramming everything onto a UMD was really gruelling but we eventually managed everything we wanted after trying various measures, such as designing the game with a view to optimal use of resources and getting the entire team involved in our efforts to reduce the volume, and so forth. From the start of the project, we always committed ourselves to enhancing in-game RPG elements as much as improving the battle system. After all, this tile is predominantly for fans of the Final Fantasy universe and this means that many of its users love RPGs, and that some of them may have given the previous DISSIDIA a miss solely because it was an action game. Therefore we thought it would be essential to add new elements to cater for those gamers’ needs and made the decision to introduce an in-game world map.

Can you give us some details on DISSIDIA 012 Prologus? What is the idea behind this prequel of a prequel?

With DISSIDIA 012, our focus is also on DLC such as extra costumes and distribution of additional BGM. Prologus is a part of this direction we are taking.

We wanted to make Prologus available as a separate product rather than a playable demo. That is why we tried our best at its development stages to produce good enough content to justify the price; content like an original short story not included in the main game and the use of Aeris in the main game as a special assisting character.

If you have already purchased the main game, you might want to get in Prolugus for Aeris, whereas those who have yet to buy the main game may wish to taste the feel of the game with Prologus to see whether they like it enough to get hold of the main game. It would be great for us if many gamers would follow such a process.

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Firstly let me introduce myself to those of you who don’t know me. My name is David Kempshall, I’m the Brand Manager for Virtua Tennis 4 and I have worked on the game since the original version launched on arcade machines across the world in 1999. This is the first of a series of blogs about Virtua Tennis 4, which is out on April 29th, but I’d like to start with a few words about the big earthquake that hit Japan on March 11.

Everybody over here deeply appreciates your concern and consideration for us. Things have still not gotten back to normal and areas around Tokyo are suffering from planned outages due to electricity shortages, but we are doing our very best to deliver Virtua Tennis 4 to you.

Hopefully you’ll enjoy the game when it’s released!

Today’s blog is geared up to tell you all about what’s new for Virtua Tennis 4 on the PlayStation 3; there’s a host of new features including PlayStation Move compatibility, a brand new World Tour and online centre, plus plenty of others.

However, I’m happy to announce that on the PlayStation 3 VT fans can expect some extra exclusive content not available on other platforms, and today is where we’ll tell you a little bit more about this.

Firstly, the game features legend players for anyone wanting to relive some classic tennis moments. On the PS3, you’ll be able to get your hands on Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Pat Rafter, who will be exclusive and playable from the moment you load up the game.
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It’s exciting times here at Codemasters as we’ve officially announced that F1 2011 will be coming to the PS3 on the 23rd September. Not only that, but we’ll be also developing F1 2011 for the NGP too.

F1 2010 marked the long awaited return of FORMULA ONE to consoles, and we we’re very proud to be awarded a BAFTA for our efforts, but we’re not letting that get to our heads and with your help we’re going to make F1 2011 even better.

We’re giving you the unique opportunity to play F1 2011 before anyone else. All you have to do is upload a clip to YouTube asking the developers a question. Maybe you want to know what improvements we’re going to make to the AI, or what new features we’re adding to make multiplayer even better. Whatever your question is, just send your YouTube link to our facebook page.

Your efforts won’t go unnoticed either. We will be hand-picking 20 lucky people and transporting them to our Birmingham, UK Studio. There you will get a studio tour, exclusive hands-on time with the game, and the opportunity to ask your question in person as part of our Developer Diaries.

So get your thinking caps on, and try to be as creative as you can!

For full terms and conditions go to our facebook page.

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It’s not as dirty as I made it sound… I’ll explain… You have loved our gig series, but we thought why do you want to see a gig as if you are in the middle of the crowd with people’s big heads and hands in the way? Why not experience the best bands as if you are at the front, like right at the front, within touching distance of the band? What bands? OK, OK, I was just getting to that! Over the coming weeks you will see La Roux, Chapel Club, The Pretty Reckless, All American Rejects and more!

Not enough? Wow, demanding this week aren’t we? No matter, we have loads more for you, read on to find out… but first:

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Worried about your bandwidth limits? Choose the video quality you want to stream by gong to Settings, Network, Video Quality, Select “High”, “Medium” or “Low”.

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If this feature was a solar flare, it would knock out the whole worlds technology, but it’s not… so it’s ok. Including Black Eyed Peas ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’, Jamie Woon ‘Lady Luck’, Silverstein ‘Sacrifice’ and Milow ‘You And Me’.

Official Playstation Magazine

Still picking the cream of the videos from the VidZone vaults as well as great new videos. This week featuring You Me At Six “Save It For The Bedroom”, Weezer “Say It Ain’t So Universal” and Mew “Comforting Sounds”.
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Here are some highlights of what’s new on MUBI over the last two weeks:

Films by Peter Tscherkassky

We’re terrifically excited about launching a retrospective of this auteur, an Austrian who is one of the most acclaimed contemporary experimental filmmakers. Tscherkassky re-appropriates found footage and twists and turns it (all analog, in this digital world!) to suit his own purposes. My personal favorite, Outer Space (1999), takes an American horror film and re-edits it to make it seem like the film itself is attacking the heroine. As Alexander Horwarth says, with Tscherkassky “the film theoretician meets the film buff in the darkroom.” These shorts show startling new things you can do with film. Must sees!

Available in: Everywhere!

Triangle (Johnnie To, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, Hong Kong)

One of the most unusual heist films ever created: three of Hong Kong’s best genre filmmakers decide to make a movie exquisite corpse style, with the film divided into one section per filmmaker, who would go on to shoot that section without seeing what his co-directors filmed! Besides for being a slick thriller, it is, as our own Ignatiy Vishnevetsky has written about, an illuminating study in the difference between directorial visions.

Available in: France

Brief Encounter (David Lean, UK)

One of the most beloved classics of English cinema is this film by David Lean (Lawrence of Arabia), based on Noël Coward’s play “Still Life”. An intimate and melancholy romance is formed during a chance encounter at a train station between a married couple—married to people, that is. A doctor (Trevor Howard) finds his soul mate in a housewife (Celia Johnson), and the two carry on a impassioned but impossible love affair, famously scored to a piece by Rachmaninoff.

Available in: Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway

Lorna’s Silence (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium)

This prize-winner at Cannes is the most recent film by Belgian brothers and directorial duo the Dardennes. The brothers have a new film due at Cannes this year, a festival that has rewarded them time and again for this film, L’enfant, The Son and Rosetta—all masterpieces of startlingly visceral, verite-style cinema devoted to working class persons in Belgium. Lorna’s titular heroine is an Albanian woman trying to attain citizenship and live with a drug-addicted boyfriend. An intense and intimate portrait of struggling to live in a foreign country subtly evolves into a gripping story of survival, foregrounded by typically amazing performances elicited by the directors from new comer Arta Dobroshi and their regular lead, Jérémie Renier.

Available in: Portugal

Peppermint Candy (Lee Chang-dong, South Korea)

South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong is currently making waves with his prize-winning Cannes favorite Poetry, so it seems a good time to highlight the director’s second film, which put him on the international stage. Told backwards, the film highlights the fact that Lee is a rare auteur who is also a terrific screenwriter. The story starts with a man threatening to kill himself, and as the film moves backwards pieces start falling into place to define just who this man is and how his life’s path has been interwoven into Korea’s recent history.

Available in: United Kindom, Ireland

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