..and his name is Akinori Nishiyama.

Listen to this. This is an interview he did with "Level", a swedish gaming mag, entitled "Five minutes with Akinori Nishiyama".
This is how it reads, translated into english:

LVL: Why did you start working at Sega?



There you have it. The reason why Sonic started kissing girls and overall became a francise for furries and ignorant 10 year olds.

It's true.

• Disgaea 2 - can't ever find the time to sink my teeth into it. 
• Okami - just got it
• Rogue Galaxy - wrapped in plastic for 1½ years now
• Shin Megami Tensei: Digital devil saga 1 & 2 - also in plastic
• Fire Emblem: Path of radiance - Where'd I put my Game cube?

..not counting the ones I've played at least 15 minutes.

New Sonic game is in the works!! OMG!!!!11
Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Those last fifteen years worth of Sonic games were pretty bad but I'm telling you, I've got a really good feeling about this one!
We'll finally see a return to form for sure!

How many times have you heard someone say something like this about a Sonic game? I hear it every time a new Sonic game is announced. Even the corporate gaming sites are guilty of this.
But we all know what will eventually happen. We know because it always happens. The game will come out and people will get a chance to play it for themselves and realize what they should've known from the very beginning: that Sonic games are not good. They're sometimes downright terrible. If any other franchise were to release such a horrendeous game it would spell disaster for that franchise, but not for Sonic. Somehow he's developed some form of immunity to failure.

I don't understand. Whenever a trailer is released the response is always the same: "It looks awesome! I can't wait!" or  "Finally a true sequel to the original".
Sometimes I wonder if I saw the same trailer as them or some other, shittier, version sent to me by mistake. All I see is usually Sonic running and jumping. Sometimes bouncing all over the screen and the camera swoops around him for dramatic shots. The only thing that bores me more than running and jumping is watching something run and jump. The fun of that is simply lost to me I guess.

Where is all this enthusiasm coming from? Why are Sonic games always given the benefit of the doubt? Apparently it's okay to dismiss Killzone 2 for being "not quite good enough" but there seem to be this general consensus that Sonic Unleashed will set everything right. The Sonic fanbase is like the Jehovas Witnesses of gaming, faithfully waiting for the second coming ... of Sonic 2.

So if a reinterpretation of Sonic 2 is the "messiah" everyone is waiting for, why isn't Sonic Team making it? Why are they creating plots that would only appeal to furries, adding derogatory characters like Shadow and ripping off Twilight Princess? I don't know the answer to that question. Neither can I say for sure how the next game will turn out but I can make a reasonable estimation based on previous evidence. Chances are low.

Was I the only one who was disappointed with the new Final Fantasy 13 trailer that was shown during the Microsoft press conference at this year's E3? No I don't mean the announcement that it's coming to the 360. I am primarily a Playstation player but that bit of news doesn't bother me. I mean the actual trailer.

My main issue is the lack of any real content. It's like we're watching the same trailer over and over again with every new TGS and E3. Square Enix keeps slapping on the whatever CG their cinematics department has produced since the last time. The only bit of news we can take away from the latest iteration of the trailer is the introduction of a cutesy new cast member.

Where's the gameplay? Is it still too early to expect gameplay footage? Looking back, I don't think we got to see any gameplay footage of Final Fantasy 12 until right before the japanese version went gold. But that game was burdened by delays and other problems in development. Are we witnessing the same thing happening again or is Square Enix deliberately keeping the lid on.

I know what you're thinking. What do I mean by no gameplay? There's gameplay right there in the trailer right? No. That's not gameplay.

The parts where the main protagonist fights a squad of troopers and later that big beast thing isn't real gameplay. It's all baked animations and no player is at the controls. It's most likely from a pre-visualization video. A lot of game companies make these to set a visual goal internally for the team to aim towards. Some other examples of these are the notorious first Killzone 2 trailer and the initial glimpse we saw of the Ryu and Ken in the first Street Fighter 4 trailer. The difference here however is that the fighting scene in Final Fantas 13 trailer is actually running real-time on the PS3 hardware.

I know this is old news (as old as this trailer actually) but if you look closely at the HUD in the video you can tell it's all placeholders. The most obvious evidence of this is the misspelling of the word "Blizzard". Other than that it's not entirely obvious how the interface will work. It appears they're going to let you perform fast-switching between spells and skills in the middle of the action but I wouldn't be suprised if the final game will look completely different.

I'm super excited about this new entry in the Final Fantasy series and I'm curious to see what kind of changes Square Enix has in store for it. All I'm asking for is some form of proof that the development of Final Fantasy 13 is progressing. Showing the same trailer over and over again doesn't lend us any more hope of seeing this game any time soon.