Square Enix Wants to Redo FFXIV...

As most of the gaming community already knows, Final Fantasy XIV was pretty much one of the biggest flops in recent years. It was almost as if the game were only 20 percent done, but they decided to just throw it out into the public anyway. I mean, it only as a score of 49 on metacritic. For a Final Fantasy game, or any game for that matter, that's just depressingly awful. But it seems Square Enix is still trying to make it work, even after doing as much as they can do.

Here's the juicy part. Square Enix's CEO, Yoichi Wada, recently stated that FFXIV's studio is willing to start again from scratch, fully re-doing the game. You can read some more about that here: http://www.gamesradar.com/square-enix-determined-redo-ffxiv-defends-dragon-quest-x/

I understand that the game was piss-poor, but those are some drastic measures. I guess its mostly a big deal because the Final Fantasy brand is so well-established and respected around the world, and each of its games has brought in critical acclaim and millions of dollars. For a flagship title to do so poorly is certainly very embarrassing and damaging to their name. But I'm gonna have to support their decision on this one. There's nothing more they can do for FFXIV in its current state; the best course of action is definitely to start an entirely new game.

Anyway, the real point I wanted to make is, I feel like this could have been less of a disaster if the online games were NOT a part of the main series! I feel like they could have easily made it into a sub-series and called it Final Fantasy Online. Even Final Fantasy XI was only half-decent and I really feel like it doesn't belong with the other flagship titles, considering it is an MMORPG. It really breaks the flow of Square's line of amazing RPG's. Now look what they did with FFXIV, it tanked and hurt the brand even more. Remember Dirge of Cerberus? That got lukewarm reviews, but it wasn't a big deal because it was just a spin-off title.  All they need to do is keep these MMO's out of the main series. Quit taking up precious space that belongs to our beloved Final Fantasy games, ok?

3D Gaming is...just annoying?

A recent study showed that nearly 30 percent of players thought that the 3D feature on the 3DS actually detracted from the gaming experience. You can read more about the study here: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/09/24/3d-gamings-approval-rating-low-blamed-on-inherited-wars-and-ec/

I've always hated this sudden 3D trend, but I hadn't realized that a good percentage of people actually thought the 3D feature on the 3DS is just distracting and unnecessary. I mean, the whole "3D without glasses" thing was  the selling point of the 3DS. However! I've feared from the beginning that people would just be ignoring the 3D, turning it off completely while playing games.

Developers keep ignoring the fact that people just want to play GAMES. They want to sit back, relax during their free time, hold a controller, and look at a normal television screen. This obsession with new trends has gone far enough. Motion controls are an unnecessary trend that should be dying very soon too, but that's another story. 3D, however, is just silly. Why is it that a stupidly simplistic technology that we've had around for DECADES is suddenly becoming the biggest thing in media? We don't need 3D for movies, and we certainly don't need it for video games. Moving around to play games is stupid enough, I don't need eye-strain to go with it.

Times are tough for the 3DS. It was selling poorly to begin with, but now its entire concept is meaningless. Nintendo needs to get with the times, and fast.

R/C Helicopter - Syma S107G

Man, I just turned 20 but I gotta say, remote-controlled helicopters are fun as hell. I've been wanting one for a long time, so I went ahead and bought one that was cheap and highly recommended. Searching through countless products, I gotta say, there's no better chopper than the Syma S107. I'm no expert on RC helicopters, but I've tried a few other models, and this one is almost flawless and flies great.

Again, I'm no expert so I'm not about to turn this into a review. I just want to say, I could definitely get into this hobby. Flying RC helicopters is no kid's hobby, these things are definitely adult toys. Most of the other models on sale are extraordinarily more expensive than the S107, so I'm going to need a lot of money as usual~