In video games, what’s the difference between a franchise and a brand? What should we call a collection of two or three or 13 games that share some basic mechanics, a naming convention and little else? And if those games had more in common, would that boost their crossover appeal? You’ll have time to tackle these and other marketing puzzles while you try to play...

(first person to name that reference gets a hug) I’m not sure I need to contribute anything about FINAL FANTASY XIII in print, given that I’m going to try to conscript Benji, who has finished it, to write a review. I expect we’ll be discussing it on the podcast pretty exhaustively Sunday, and I’m only about halfway through, and the...

October 2009 showcased some high-profile titles for the Virtual Console. Let’s get right to it. October 5th was undoubtedly the biggest deal of all. Why? FINAL FANTASY, that’s why! Though this game has seen many remakes in its time, the fact is that the original remains an important gaming experience. each remake tweaked the game a little, and though...

If Square simply would concede that Crystal Chronicles is its own universe, we wouldn’t be stuck with the tongue-tying title FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: MY LIFE AS A DARKLORD. On the bright side, the unwieldy name is this game’s biggest shortcoming. At its heart, FFCCMLAD — you know what, let’s just go with “Darklord.” At its...

Audacity’s a funny thing. Some weekends, it suffers catastrophic crashes every five minutes. Weekends like this one, it works like a charm. We managed to actually record our top five swords and sorcery games this week, and though that particular segment clocks in at more than 50 minutes, we’re happy enough with how it turned out. But 50 minutes is way too...