cstGaming

We’ve all wondered for some time now when the day would come when the DVD just isn’t enough and I think it’s about that time…

Let’s have a little history lesson first off:

It all started with the DVD and the PS2. The orginal PS2 disc’s weren’t infact DVD’s, but a Hybrid disc that Sony developed specifically for the PS2. They did make the PS2 compatible with DVD’s as an added feature but eventually this “added feature” became the standard media format to develop games on. The orginal X-Box used it and with the “earlier” realease of the X-Box 360, they also followed suit. Time passes and Sony who is falling behind in the gaming market boldly moves ahead and decides to develop games on there “next-gen” media format, the Blu-ray Disc. Mircosoft inturn adopts the HD-DVD and the format wars begin. Utimately the Blu-ray Disc wins because of Disney (my opinion, but do you blame me?) and Mircosoft allows returns on all the HD-DVD players that they sold for their X-Box 360′s. So here’s the result: PS3 with minimal console sales using Blu-ray, and Mircosoft using the DVD with rather large console sales. Everyone’s okay with that, right? Wrong. Microsoft’s big asset this time around was the number of Playstation exclusives that they turned into multi-console games and the number of exclusives the company acquired; The same move that Song made on the gaming world during the era of the PS2. The problem lies in the fact that their is such a dramatic difference between the DVD and a Blu-ray disc we as consumers always knew that one day this quality would play a large factor in game development itself.

This is a comparasion chart of two media mediums: (it’s a bit dated but it’s still accurate)

The medium that a game is on can make the life of a gamer much more enjoyable. Anyone remember when Half-Life 2 came out and if you bought the CD version you had to sit through a 7 CD install? Then you went over your buddies and he had his DVD version sitting there in it’s “one disc glory”. The X-Box is feeling these same effects. Developers are either packaging multiple DVD’s in one box and requiring installs of the additional discs to the harddrive or limiting the product as a whole. These limits can even be seen in graphics or features throughout the game.

One of the biggest examples of this issue is in the upcoming release of Final Fantasy XIII. The game itself is slated to be around 25gb total. This either means one dual-layer blu-ray disc or 3 DVD’s. 2 of those DVD’s will need to be preinstalled; a total of 18.3gb of data on your harddrive whether you like it or not. Rumor has it that the game was developed on a different graphics engine to compensate for the space restrictions of the DVD. If you search the internets you can find several sites with comparasion screenshots between the two versions but little can be distingushed between the 2, so if they did use a different graphics engine they did an awesome job with the equivalent. As a developer that has to be a major pain. (<-Great Movie) 

Games like God of War 3 are releasing with 35 gigs of content and if Microsoft doesn’t see this as a problem they should. They may have the “real” next-gen console lead but if they don’t look over their shoulder and try to fix some things the PS3 is going to sneak up on them with the consumers and the game developers leading the rush.

DcS, this one’s for you…

A little back story goes a long way so i figured i’d let the people behind the magic explain it best…

Pulled Directly From http://crimsonechoes.com/

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Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes was a fan project modification of the Chrono Trigger ROM begun in late 2004. Development continued thanks to a dedicated group of fans through 2009. By May 2009, the game featured ~35 hours of game play, 10 multiple endings, and 23 chapters, much like the original Chrono Trigger; it was around 98% complete. The plot featured the original cast as they struggled against a new villain risen from the legacy of Zeal.

The team planned to release Crimson Echoes on May 31, 2009 as the first feature-length fan Chrono series game, and an unprecedentedly exhaustive work in the ROM modification community. On May 8, 2009, Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes received a cease & desist letter, along with all other game modification activity (even research) at the Chrono Compendium. In compliance with the letter, the development team ceased development on the game, and existing modifications (including Prophet’s Guile) were taken down.

We thank those fans who followed the game’s development, and also those who poured countless hours into the vision of a fun, new Chrono game, made by fans for fans without copyright claim or intent to make profit.

We understand the frustration. I sincerely hope this action is a sign that Square Enix cares about the franchise and intends to produce future titles, and not merely a shortsighted legal exercise that will further alienate a tired, neglected fan-base.

As a matter of public record, you may view the cease & desist letter here.

Signed ZeaLitY, Saturday, May 9th, 2009

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So here’s my take on it: I’m not a Chrono fan-boy so i had no idea that this project even existed up until this all went down, but what did they expect to happen? I can see them going about this and creating this ROM’d game and everyone getting to play it and be happy, but not on the level that they went about it. There was nothing legal about this…especially with the exposure that this thing had. These kids took a game that Square-Enix (SE) still had the legal rights to and decided to make their own game based on the same characters and basic story without consent from the owning party. Haven’t you people learned, if you’re going to do something blatantly illegal keep it on the DL.

Now, from what I’ve read about this SE has been a pretty big asshole about the Chrono series. They embrace the world of Final Fantasy but leave this huge Chrono fan base to wither and die. And from that i see why that fan base would decide to take action into their own hands and make a new game themselves to continue playing something they obviously love. The problem resided in the fact that the exposure of the project got too out of hand. That’s also why the latest news beyond the “Cease and Desist” letter was so huge.

Apparently this game was in Alpha/Beta testing for several months. After the news surfaced that the team had to shut down the project, surfaced so did the game. We’re lead to believe that a higher up Alpha tester decided to leak the game to spite SE, which i have no qualms in seeing. The production team recognizes that the game was leaked and that it was only an Alpha version but it still allows the public to have a taste of what could have been.

Actual Game Footage

Seeing that i’m one of problem 1000 other blogs/websites reporting on this same story i’m not really worried about the legal ramifications of hosting the links to get the game, so here you go:

Get it while you still can…

and the fans respond…