Thanks for sharing, Dave Brown, Jonathan Barrett, Adam Olson and gyophry (who did both Brütal Legend and Final Fantasy VII).

In it, Short recounts her first brush with Fable II's romantic interaction system. She was told non-playable characters would have gifts for her, so she mistook the ring icon above a villager's head as being the thing that would be gifted to her if she raised their relationship stats. It's an easy mistake to make, I guess — and you do get that gift in a manner of speaking. But Short took issue with the whole system, because it made a cock-tease out of an otherwise honest woman.

[W]hen he'd fallen in love with me and wanted to get married, I was startled and not at all pleased. I realized what the ring on his meter indicated then, when it was too late and I'd led him on. I had no intention to get married, but when he started to follow me around (a mistake thanks to more confused socialization on my part), I let him.

Then she led him out into the wild where he was killed by bandits. Bummer.

But it got me thinking about dating in video games and how the courtship ritual is either over-simplified or confusingly elaborate. Take the entire Sims series, for example — in the early days, you couldn't even Ask Out On Date, just Flirt. Now, in the Sims 3, you can sleep with somebody you're not even in love with, but damned if you can get them to marry you without sinking a ton of time into the Flirty interactions. And then there's weirdness like Final Fantasy VII's Gold Saucer date. Which you can wind up having with Barret, despite not being able to pursue any other romantic interaction with him.

Strangely enough, the only "normal" dating scenario presented to me in video games comes from Grand Theft Auto and Bully. That's even funnier to me than Short's misunderstanding.

Column: 'Homer In Silicon': Communicating Character [GameSetWatch]

At the Gamescom convention in Germany, website VG247 asked Square Enix producers Yoshi Kitase and Motomu Toriyama about the possibility of a FFVII remake. The translator replied:

There's not official project that's up and running for a remake ofFinal Fantasy VII at this point. Both Toriyama-san and Kitase-san were involved in the development of the game, however, and it holds a special place in their hearts. They do talk about it on a personal level, like, 'If we did it it would be like this or like that.'

So, they do talk about it, but there's no official project yet. But there's that PSN release that just came out, so if you could play that for the time being, it should be fun.

So while Square Enix ponders the possibility of FFXIII, you can go occupy yourself with Final Fantasy VII on the PSN. M'kay?

FF bosses: No FFVII remake project "yet," play PSN release "for the time being" [VG247] [Pic]

It wouldn't be Distant Worlds without the music of Final Fantasy and it wouldn't the music of Final Fantasy without Spehiroth's theme from Final Fantasy VII, One Winged Angel. There have been many performances of this number over the years – nearly all of which you can catch on YouTube – but it never hurts to have one more, so here it is for your viewing pleasure. You might say it's over done, but really, if Uematsu digs it, why shouldn't you?

Distant Worlds: music from FINAL FANTASY is a world concert tour commemorating Final Fantasy's 20th anniversary. The tour kicked off in Sweden December 4, 2007. I'm not sure where the concert is heading after leaving Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, but here's hoping it wasn't the last we heard of Uematsu and Roth.

Enjoy!

Final Fantasy VII, originally released on the PlayStation in 1997, hit the PlayStation Store on June 2nd. Over 100,000 downloads in a fortnight is a nice haul for Square Enix and Sony Computer Entertainment, considering the classic Japanese role-playing game was released at the premium PS one Classics price of $9.99 USD.

Sony announced today it will continue its plans for more PS one releases, confirming Wild Arms 2, Mobile Light Force (aka Psikyo's shooting game Gunbird) and Spec Ops: Stealth Patrol as upcoming, undated releases.

THere isn't really much else we can say. It's Final Fantasy VII...you know, the one with Cloud and the dead flower girl? And you can purchase it today on the PlayStation Store. As we are in the middle of the Sony press conference at the moment we can't exactly check, but it's either up now or will be soon. Go play!

FFVII came out 12 long years ago for the original PlayStation, and was the first of the series to feature 3D graphics. Groundbreaking doesn't begin to describe its influence. Spoiler alert: Aeris dies.

Final Fantasy VII Rated For Playstation Store [One Last Continue]

While not yet officially announced, GameStop locations are receiving copies of the Blu-ray movie based on Final Fantasy VII with instructions to stuff them inside PlayStation 3 boxes. Priced at $399.99 USD, the bundle is designed to move existing PS3 hardware with an 80GB hard drive. It doesn't apply to the 160GB version and won't feature an all-new package.

This appears to be a short-lived promotion, as GameStop employee communication reads "There are no hard bundles coming at a later date. This is a one time only pack-in by stores offer to boost sales" on the PS3 80GB units.

The bundle will go on sale Tuesday, June 2nd, the day of Sony's E3 press conference—and Advent Children Complete's street date. Whether this is due to be announced at the company's keynote is unknown, but this sounds like this might be a GameStop only promotion—employees who have contacted Kotaku with the information believe otherwise.

Best Buy is also rumored to get its own PlayStation 3 bundle soon, which may mean that Sony has more plans to push the console at its current price for a while longer.

In honor of Mother's Day, we celebrate moms in gaming – from the bit parts to the big players. Some are examples of the best parenting you could imagine; and some are so evil, they're unfit to be called "Mom." Join us now as we separate the June Cleavers from the Joan Crawfords of video game mothers.

Mothers in… Role-Playing Games
Role-playing games have the highest number of moms of any video game genre. This is because RPGs have huge, sprawling plots with huge, sprawling towns and a huge, sprawling casts of characters who you may or may not encounter depending on how you play the game. In most RPGs, you see moms as non-playable characters in towns, in flashbacks depicting the hero's reason for revenge. Some RPGs even have them as playable characters or main villains. Sadly, RPGs are also the number one "mom dies" offender, as nearly every RPG features a plucky youth out to avenge a destroyed village that usually has within it a dead mother – or at least one that's been turned into a monster.

There are way more mothers in RPGs than we could count – especially if you're going through side quests, all PC RPGs, all Japanese RPGs that were never released in the US, Final Fantasy X-2 and every single optional flashback for every possible playable character. So we've populated this list with moms who 1) had the most impact on the game's main plot or that 2) appear in the game beyond a single expository cut scene. This leaves us mostly with moms who appear in Japanese RPGs; but be sure to apologize to your dead mother in Fallout 3 for us.

Mada, Dragon Quest V – Mother of the main character: Mada gets kidnapped and becomes the subject of his quest.

Matriarch Benezia, Mass Effect – Mother of Liara T'Soni: Benezia is enslaved and later killed by Shepard in battle, but she makes up with Liara right before dying.

Polka's Mom, Eternal Sonata — Mother of Polka: this country lady is very well adjusted to time loops and apparently never taught her daughter not to talk to strange 19th Century composers she might meet while wandering around at night.

Yohn, Suikoden Tactics — Mother of Kyril: Yohn is a mute demon trapped in the wrong world who sticks around to care for her son, even though he doesn't know who she is for pretty much the whole game.

Gina , Chrono Trigger — Mother of Chrono: In one of the game's endings, Gina accidentally goes into the time portal, thus restarting the whole plot from the beginning.

Jenova, Final Fantasy VII — Mother of Sephiroth (sorta): Jenova is... an alien? We're not even sure she's a she, but "she" spends a lot of time in a jar and looks creepy.

Angeal's Mother, Crisis Core — Mother of Angeal: This small-town lady is very nice to all of her son's friends from the army, even the ones that turn evil and cause her matricide.

Queen Brahne, Final Fantasy IX — Mother of the real Princess Garnet and foster mother to her lookalike of the same name: Brahne gets fat, turns evil, tries to kill her adoptive daughter and later repents and dies in Garnet's arms.

Sarah Sisulart, Lost Odyssey – Mother of Liram: Sarah goes a little crazy and turns herself into an old woman when she thinks her daughter's been killed, but turns back into a hot nerdy chick when she finds out she has grandkids.

Seth Balmore, Lost Odyssey – Mother of Sed: Seth is immortal, but her son isn't, which is sort of weird for both of them. But they're both pirates, so there's some common ground at least.

Best Mom: Yohn… because she's selfless as only a mother can be.

Worst Mom: Jenova… because she's emotionally unavailable. And responsible for Sephiroth.

Mothers in… Fighting Games
Fighting games have a fair few mothers among their playable characters. The plot structure (or lack thereof) leaves room for all kinds of people to enter whatever world championship fighting tournament of the week is going on for various reasons that don't necessarily make any sense. So if you can have a panda, a geisha, a cyborg and whatever the hell Voldo is supposed to be enter a tournament for personal gain, a mother doesn't seem like such a weird contender. Here's a list of a few prominent mommies:

Sophitia, Soulcalibur series – Mother of Patroklos and Pyrrha: Sophitia is an Athenian who fights on behalf of the Greek God, Hephaestus, to regain Soul Edge. The sword entwines itself with her daughter's spirit, forcing Sophitia to spend eternity defending Soul Edge from anyone who tries to claim it. She's protecting her daughter.

Michelle Chang, Tekken series – Mother of Julia: Michelle fights in one of the Iron Fist tournaments to rescue her kidnapped mother and then adopts an abandoned baby named Julia. Then Julia goes on to fight in an Iron Fist tournament to save Michelle when Michelle gets kidnapped. Circle of life.

Dural, Virtua Fighter – Mother of Kage: Dural probably started out as a good mom when she was human, but then she got kidnapped and turned into an evil cyborg. That knocks her out of the Mom of the Year running.

Jun Kazama, Tekken series – Mother of Jin Kazama: Jun is the Chosen One, a wildlife activist, and a single mom. Over the course of four games, she somehow found time to save pandas, birth a son, thrash a bunch of her extended family and possibly fake her own death or perhaps dies for real when her house burned down.

Nina Williams, Tekken series – Mother of Steve Fox via in-vitro fertilization: Nina is a world class assassin who gives birth to a son while in cryogenic sleep. Though it appears she couldn't care less that she has offspring, she does neglect to assassinate him. That counts as maternal instinct, right?

Maria, Dead or Alive series – Mother of Helena: Maria is a world class opera singer who had an affair with the head of a sinister corporation. She later took a bullet for her bastard daughter onstage in the middle of an aria… what a way to go.

Crimson Viper, Street Fighter IV – Mother of Lauren: C. Viper is a working mother in the spy profession. Her life's goal is destroying the weapons produced by a sinister corporation, but somehow she made room in her busy schedule to have a daughter.

Justice, Guilty Gear – Mother of Dizzy: No one's really sure how it happened – least of all Dizzy, who was found abandoned at age 3.

Best Mom: Maria… because nothing says "Mommy loves you" like taking a sniper's bullet to the heart.

Worst Mom: Crimson Viper… because she's a workaholic. Did she even call her kid after fights? No!**

Mothers in… Action/Adventure and Survival Horror Games
Here's where the role of the mother in video games become complicated. Because these types of games usually have a more focused plot than fighting or role playing games, adding a mother usually means casting her in a narrow role that doesn't include speaking parts. Occasionally, these moms even wind up as antagonists by default. However small their part, though, these mothers sometimes make an appearance worth mentioning. Here are a few notable examples:

The Queen, Ico – Mother of Yorda: She basically had a daughter so she could sacrifice the kid and live a bit longer. I guess some species do eat their own young, but jeez…

Annette Birkin, Resident Evil 2 – Mother of Sherry Birkin: Depending on how you play the game, Annette either hid the G-Virus in her daughter's locket or cures her daughter of the T-Virus. Either way, she did abandon her kid during a zombie apocalypse. Poor form, Mom.

Amelia Croft, Tomb Raider series – Mother of Lara Croft: Like her daughter, Mrs. Croft has issues with touching ancient artifacts she probably shouldn't. Luckily, Lara learns from her mommy's mistakes and everybody's happy… until Lara has to shoot zombie Amelia when they meet up in Underworld.

Mrs. Sanderson, Chibi Robo – Mother of Jenny: Mrs. Sanderson has real marital problems that cause her to lock herself in a bathroom and threaten divorce, leaving all the housework to Jenny and her toy robot.

Ex-Mrs. Hopkins, Bully – Mother of Jimmy Hopkins: This woman lacks both fashion sense and parental priorities. She ditches her kid at a boarding school to run off on a honeymoon with a new husband and then sends Jimmy a fugly sweater at Christmas.

Maggie Monday, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse – Mother of Andrew Monday: Like Jimmy Hopkins' mom, Maggie could use some priority adjustment. She lets her son's city get sacked by zombies and then becomes a zombie herself so she can marry Stubbs. This basically leaves Andrew with a wrecked city and a zombie for a stepfather. Thanks, Mom!

Ma Cipriani, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories – Mother of Toni: Toni never called his Ma while he was in hiding. Given that she dates guys who are into paraphilic infantilism, I can see why. Ma puts a hit out on her son and then calls it off in a fit of maternal pride when Tony finally becomes a made man.

Best Mom: Amelia Croft… because not even good moms get it right all of the time and how was she supposed to know that sword would teleport her, her husband would die and her daughter would be left an orphan?

Worst Mom: The Queen… because what she did to Yorda is way worse than what Joan Crawford did to her daughter. You think being hit with wire hangers is bad? Try being turned to stone.

Mothers in… Shooters
Here's where you barely see any moms at all. The shooter genre is reserved for masculine things like guns and aliens and spies and other stuff that doesn't leave much room for maternal influences. You'll find a lot of dads in shooters, though – but Father's Day isn't for another month, so sit tight.

*SPOILER WARNING: BioShock, F.E.A.R. 2, Metal Gear Solid 4*

Jasmine Jolene, BioShock – Mother of Jack: Jasmine was Andrew Ryan's mistress and a "dancer" which is 60s code for "prostitute." Even if she didn't accept money for sexual favors, she was certainly in a hurry to accept money for her freshly-conceived embryo. That's worse than the fairy tales where parents trade firstborn sons for magical enchantments.

Dr. Bridgette Tenenbaum, BioShock and BioShock 2 – Mother of all the Little Sisters and the Big Sister: Tenenbaum didn't give birth to any of the poor darlings, but her research created them. She eventually stepped in to foster them and shower them with toys and secondhand cigarette smoke to make up for the brainwashing.

Eva, Metal Gear Solid 4 – Mother of Liquid and Solid Snake (kinda): Eva would have gladly had Naked Snake's babies the ol' fashioned way, but the Patriots had other plans. She eventually serves as surrogate mother to the clone babies Liquid and Solid and starts calling herself Big Mamma to compensate for having nothing to do with mothering them.

The Boss, Metal Gear Solid 3 – Mother of Revolver Ocelot and the US Special Forces (which one do you think she's more proud of?): The Boss probably had no business leading the Battle of Normandy while nine months pregnant. But despite being a bad mom to Ocelot, The Boss wins major motherhood recognition as a Mother Goddess figure to at least half the cast of the Metal Gear Solid series.

Alma Wade, F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin – Mother of Paxton Fettel, Point Man and countless telepathic clone soldiers: Alma became a mother at the tender age of 15 against her will. It's hard to tell if she harbors any feeling for her offspring conceived in captivity – bloodlust sort of obscures any tender intent. However, in Project Origin, Alma's grown up a bit and appears to have invested in being mother to the protagonist's baby, which she deliberately conceives.

Best Mom: The Boss… because out of this sorry lot, she's easily the best role model.

Worst Mom: Jasmine… because she sold her only son to his father's enemy before the son was even born. That's like the opposite of mother-like behavior.

(Dis)Honorable Mentions
Sora's Mom, Kingdom Hearts — She has one line and the whole first part of the game is about her son trying to build a raft to run away from home. Clearly the parenting thing isn't working out.
Mother Brain, Metroid — "She," if that's what that thing in the jar can be called, is an alien with no maternal feelings whatsoever.
You, Fable II, The Sims games and Harvest Moon games — Even if you play as an upstanding paragon of parental vigilance, you're going to be guilty of neglect at least half of the time in these games.

At this point, you're probably wondering why Cooking Mama isn't anywhere on this list. Apart from the lack of a convenient genre into which to cram the game, there's no evidence that Cooking Mama is even a mother. Do you see her kids at any point in the game? For all the player knows, she's just calling herself "Mama" so she doesn't have to call herself a chef, the poor self-hating hash slinger.

That's all we've got for the best and worst mothers in video games. Think we missed somebody important? Drop a line in the comments. And don't forget to call your mom on Mother's Day!

**CORRECTION: C. Viper occasionally does call her daughter after fights. But the workaholic ruling still stands.

The Japanese release, with its clearly inferior box art, is just a few days away, something we expect to do exciting things for PlayStation 3 sales in its homeland. At least for this week, as the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete special edition PlayStation 3 will likely kick hardware sales up a notch.

It will also bring about the masses' first opportunity to play Final Fantasy XIII, as well as carry some high-definition trailers along with it. We'll have to wait until June to get it here in the Americas. Until then, we'll just stare at these two lovely men as they fly toward the other's embrace.

US Advent Children Complete Boxart Revealed [UFF Site - thanks, Alex!]

Final Fantasy VII International is how Square Enix re-released the new and improved American version in Japan on the PlayStation. The International version featured improvements like on-screen arrows, an enhanced management system and an added cut scene that helped explain Cloud's past.

The Japanese language game is priced at ¥1,500 (US$14.93) on the PSN.

The new edition is dubbed Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition. It includes new FFVII related info from Square Enix, a new interview with Cloud voice actor Takahiro Sakurai and new artwork.

The book will be released April 16 in Japan.

FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania Revised Edition [PSP Hyper]

As has been previous announced, Square Enix has gone through and amped up Advent Children for this HD release.

Fan favorite FFVII has been revisited multiple times with the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series, which encompasses games and movies like Advent Children. To date, there have been four Compilation of FFVII games and two films. The series is headed up by Nomura and fellow Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase.

When asked about the next entry in the series, Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura replied, "We do have an idea for the next Compilation, and for the time being, that's all we can say. It won't start up anytime soon."

With Nomura busy with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Kitase producing Final Fantasy XIII and all hands on deck for both games, Nomura's probably right.

The movie was originally released in 2005 in Japan and is set two years after the Final Fantasy VII game. The story follows hero Cloud Strife as he tries to pin-point the cause of a mysterious, lethal plague.

Besides the Final Fantasy XIII demo, the HD Blu-ray version of FFVII: ACC features over 30 minutes of added footage and also features the English voice track. The disc also features an original anime called Final Fantasy VII: On the Way to a Smile - Episode: Denzel - from animation studios A-1 Pictures and BeStack.

Three versions of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete will go on sale in Japan this month.

『ファイナルファンタジーVII アドベントチルドレン コンプリート』新情報が判明 [Famitsu]

Importer National Console Support is first out of the gate on pre-orders for the "limited" edition version, offering the complete package — one 160GB HDD PlayStation 3, one Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete Blu-ray disc movie and one Final Fantasy XIII demo — for $619.90.

Their notable competitor Play-Asia has not yet opened pre-orders.

I guess the question you have to ask yourself is: How desperate are you to play a Japanese language version of an FF XIII demo?

Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Cloud Black Bundle [NCSX]

First Edition
Final Fantasy XIII demo, Final Fantasy Agito XIII trailer, and Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer included on special edition disc.

PLAYSTATION 3 First Edition Bundle
PS3 console and special edition disc (with FFXIII demo, FF Agito XIII trailer, FF Versus XIII trailer) included.

Regular Edition
Does not include special edition disc.

So... Which are you interested in?

『ファイナルファンタジーVII アドベントチルドレン コンプリート』超高解像度で綴られる物語 [Famitsu]

What, no bloody, lifeless Aeris corpse at his feet? You've gone soft, Sideshow Collectibles, you've gone soft.

In an interview with Otaku USA's Patrick Macias, Nakagawa says she might not be considered an otaku by the hardcore. "I play video games and enjoy anime until the early morning," admits the idol. "Normal people might think I'm an otaku just because I'm into anime and video games," she says. "But hardcore otaku, who might know much more about anime and manga than me, could say, 'No, she's not really an otaku.'"

Oh, but you are otaku, Shoko-tan! Don't sell yourself short. Case in point:

"We only have a limited life. You don't know how many more pictures you can draw. You don't know how many more songs you can sing. You don't know how many more times you can play with your cat," says Nakagawa. "You don't know how many video games you can complete while you're alive... I'm constantly thinking about playing Final Fantasy VII." Deep.

Otaku star Shokotan offers a little fan service [The Japan Times] [Pic]