Today I was celebrating my birthday and it inspired me to start a new era with Square Portal as well! The layout of the site has gotten some serious updates and changes.
Now the site has a modern live banner showing the latest news. By pressing the arrows, you can navigate through the highlighted news. The lower part of site remains classic by showing the older news.
I also revamped the categorizing system of the site. Games-widget got deleted and now all games are added to the main menu. By pointing the menu you can view different kinds of sub-menus and read the archive. You can also use the search bar to quickly find specific information.
In the future every menu page will also contain the basic information of the title.
I hope you like this new layout and continue following my site in the future! E3 is near and I will be very busy with it and my summer job. I will try to keep the site as updated and on time as I can!
Love for everyone! I hope you have a great summer! Regards John
As you may know, in some countries it’s a tradition to hunt the hidden Easter Eggs. This has inspired us with today’s article which will be about Easter Eggs that are hidden in the games. They are often very challenging to find but funny and sometimes very meaningful to the developers. This article may include some small spoilers but nothing seriously big!
FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 – PRAY FOR JAPAN
This is maybe one of the hardest easter eggs to find from Final Fantasy XIII-2. In the cutscene where the yellow lines emerge from the chaos and try to grap Lightning, is written in them “PRAY FOR JAPAN” with FFXIII alphabets. They were added in them after the Earthquake happened in Japan back in 2011. DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION (PS3/XBOX360/WII U)
While exploring the building, assassinating people and hacking computers & doors you might have found something interesting from one office! Like you can see it’s FINAL FANTASY XXVII (27) poster! Is Square Enix already teasing about their 27th Final Fantasy game!? Hah, maybe not! Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
Lazard is browsing Youtube and watching a video on Sephiroth – or maybe it’s just one of our commercial?!
FINAL FANTASY IX
Were you more stubborn than a grumpy mule? Yes? Then you may know what this is about! In the very beginning of Final Fantasy IX the characters are planning to kidnap the princess and the leader asks you do what you need to do. If you don’t get it right even after 60 times of trying, you will get a surprising answer!
FINAL FANTASY IV Developer’s Office is a secret location in games set in the world of Final Fantasy IV. The Developer’s Office is populated by different characters that represent the development team of the game. By talking to them, you will get information on their role in the game’s development and fight against them in special battles.
FINAL FANTASY: THE SPIRIT WITHIN
Who said there couldn’t be funny Easter Eggs in movies as well? The team of the Spirit Within hid a very Michael Jackson inspired surprise in bonus DVDs… THRILLER!
Now we have come to the end of this article and here are all Easter Eggs we found! How many have you found? Share your favorite game/movie Easter Eggs on comments! Happy Easter for everyone!
Back in 2012, Square Enix invested lots of money and time on social games, they released many different kinds of IPs – mainly free-to-play games for browsers and smartphones. Now the mobile division producer of the company, Takehiro Ando, has talked on his Famitsu blog about the future of Square Enix’s games.
In the “Goodbye Social Games” post, he talks about social games and states how they all seem to be almost the same. He admits that even Square Enix is guilty of this, and has dragged their own big franchises such Final Fantasy to make some easy and quick profit for the company.
Ando states, while these social games have been entertaining Facebook users etc. the hardcore gamers, who play on handhelds (3Ds, PSVita..) and consoles, have been left alone. This is why Square Enix will be saying “Goodbye” for social games and focusing on “epic and famous” high quality games that provide more entertainment for a long time.
“Gaming Experiences and Completely New Ways to Play”
Earlier this week in New York, Sony introduced their next-gen gaming console, PlayStation 4. This time PlayStation is focusing on powerful graphics, speed, great gameplay, innovations, personalization, new OS, social networking, cloud technology and the system ecosystem. PS4 will be available in the end of the year for holiday season with launch titles such Killzone: Shadow Fall.
“Gamer Focused, Developer Inspired”
According to Sony, PS4 is designed with many developers and they have listened their wishes to make the best possible gaming console for them. This means less complicated system architecture and easier developing and more time can be used to making the games itself than learning the system.
The PS4 system architecture is is centered around a powerful custom chip that contains eight x86-64 cores and a state of the art graphics processor. The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) contains a unified array of 18 compute units, which collectively generate 1.84 Teraflops of processing power that can freely be applied to graphics, simulation tasks, or some mixture of the two.
PS4 is equipped with 8 GB GDDR5 ram that is gives the system 176 GB/second of bandwidth and providing a further boost to graphics performance which means that there will be more details, items, larger areas… For example no disappearing enemies or cars in open-world games.
Social interaction will be playing big part in PS4 experience. There are new features like “always on” video compression and decompression systems that enables seamless uploading of gameplay for friends on Youtube, Facebook and live streaming gameplay on Ustream. There also is a SHARE button on the controller which allows gamers share their experiences with friends like gameplay, screenshots, status updates…
Users can also connect their Facebook account with Sony Entertainment Network account. Through PS4, users are able to play co-op and talk with cross-game chat like in PARTY on Xbox 360.
“PS4 Second Screens”
PS4 will have Wii U like second screen feature which allows gamers see their content wherever they are via PSVita, smartphones and tablets. A key feature enabled by second screen is “Remote Play” which lets you play ALL PS4 GAMES on PSVita.
A new application called “PlayStation App” will enable iPhone, iPad, and Android based smartphones and tablets to become second screens. Once installed on these devices, users can, for example, see maps on their second screens when playing an adventure game, purchase PS4 games while away from home and download it directly to the console at home, or remotely watch other gamers playing on their devices.
Gameplay Screenshot from Killzone: Shadow Fall
“Immediate Gameplay”
PS4 will radically reduce the lag time between players and their content. PS4 features “suspend mode” which keeps the system in a low power state while preserving the game session. The time it takes today to boot a console and load a saved game will be a thing of the past. With PS4, gamers just hit the power button again and are promptly back playing the game at the exact point where they left off. Additionally, users can boot a variety of applications including a web browser when playing a game on PS4.
PS4 also enables games to be downloaded or updated in the background, or even in stand-by mode. The system takes it one step further by making digital titles playable as they are being downloaded. When a player purchases a game, PS4 downloads just a fraction of the data so gamers can start playing immediately, and the rest is downloaded in the background during actual gameplay.
Also used-games can be played on PS4, so no need to worry about buying games from GameStop in the future!
“Personalized, Curated Content”
On the newly designed PS4 menu screen, players can look over game-related information shared by friends, view friends’ gameplay and obtain information of recommended content, including games, TV shows and movies. According to Sony “the long-term goal of PS4 is to reduce download times of digital titles to zero.”
“Gaming in the Cloud”
By combining PlayStation Network with Gaikai’s cloud technology, Sony’s goal is to make free exploration possible for various games. In the future, when a gamer sees an interesting title on PlayStation Store, they can immediately start playing a portion of the actual game. The cloud tech will give players a chance to play their PS1, PS2 and PS3 games on PS4 and Sony has promised to tell more about other cloud services later.
Controllers and PlayStation Camera
The DUALSHOCK 4 controller has got a brand new solid-looking design and includes a new highly sensitive sixaxis sensor and a touch pad located on the top of the controller, which offers new ways to play and interact with games. Start and Select buttons has been taken away and “SHARE” and “OPTIONS” buttons has taken their role with new features. PS4 won’t support PS3 controllers – only Move.
The newly developed PlayStation Camera has two high-sensitive cameras that have wide-angle lenses with 85-degree diagonal angle views which can recognize the depth of space precisely. This will most likely be Kinect like Camera and provides more deeper gaming experiences with Move-controllers.
The pricing or the design of the console weren’t revealed at the PlayStation meeting but expect hear about them at E3!
Today we’re celebrating our second anniversary of news writing about Square Enix games. This year we wanted to do something different than just a basic thank you card or video. By telling you the good and hard side of working news write we want to show you how awesome, problematic and unrewarding it could be at same time. This article is about very personal experience and of course not all fansites have experienced things the same way but we want to share our experiences with new and veteran readers.
THE BEGINNING…
At first we want to thank you all for these two years we have been spending together. For the newcomers, we first started to write news back in January 19, 2011 on a new fansite for Final Fantasy XIII-2, simply called “Final Fantasy XIII-2 News”. It all started because we loved Final Fantasy XIII so much and wanted to create something very own for things we love. After writing tons of news, articles and interviews the site started to grow bigger and bigger and in the end became (one of the) biggest Final Fantasy XIII-2 fansite in the world. We’re still very proud of this success.
Following the development of the game since the very beginning was an interesting experience for us because this time we’re the person who tells the new stuff for others. It sure was very challenging at first because the lack of English writing skills but by continuing it greatly and quickly improved due to lots of translating and writing in English. That has helped us with real life things like school. Seeing lots of positive comments and exciting people was very rewarding and kept us going on.
THE NEW BEGINNING AND THE DIFFERENT TIMES…
After the release of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and its last downloadable content, we started to wonder what to do in the future and what’s the fate of our site. While having a break, we came up with the idea of “Square Portal” – a big news site providing information about every Square Enix game. Crazy, big and demanding challenge, isn’t it? Especially when only one person is doing this site. (Yes, only one person even if I talk in “we” form but it’s just a grammatical thing when presenting a site)
NEWS WRITING FACES THE REAL LIFE CHALLENGES & PROBLEMS
It was a new and refreshing beginning to write news about all Square Enix games. To be honest it was much more than just that. We loved to learn about their other games like Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution… We had all the time in the world, energy and passion to follow and write and translate news about everything daily. Then everything started to slowly change – the weekday started after a long holiday. People went back to the work and school – back to their normal routines. That took lots of time from writing and following news – especially this time when we have more things to write about. When facing the challenges of life, school and own identity problems, it really isn’t easy to deal with everything when building yourself and the future you want to have. To be honest news writing has became stressful and feels like rushing and quickly pushing the information out without feeling excited about it. It just feels empty and unrewarding nowadays – not as good as back in the” old good days.” But something keeps us continuing… You and great games.
WHERE YOU LIVE IS VERY IMPORTANT
When located to Finland, the northern part of Europe, our location is making things harder than for people who live in countries where Square Enix has their offices (Japan, UK, US, China, France & Germany) or where big gaming events are held. Those really are the best areas for living and having your own fansites because it is more likely that you will get invited to community event and see new stuff to write about and making interview with developers. Those are the experiences which make you more passionate about your own site in the end because translating and writing about others stuff will turn out to be boring and unrewarding – especially if you are creative person like me who wants to make his own stuff and do something different. The fact you won’t ever attend events like these makes you feel outsider of the company’s main community and ignored. This problem isn’t just with Square Enix – it’s with every game company.
THE AWESOME & GOOD MOMENTS
So far it may sound like everything have been awful but that’s not the case – at all! While writing news and talking about games, we have met so many great people from game industry and different fanbases. With them we have had tons of fun and learning to see things from different sides. These kind of experiences have taught new things about the world and ourselves. It has helped us to write and understand things in English. Surprisingly, Final Fantasy has also taught us appreciate more art and music and the artistic freedom. Seeing all your positive, excited, passionate and happy comments makes us happy and it’s the thing which makes this so rewarding. Also cooperating with Square Enix in Fall 2011 with community project for new exclusive screenshots & information about Final Fantasy XIII-2 was a great experience as well!
FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO START THEIR OWN FANSITE
When starting a new fansite we recommend you to start with game you are dedicate and passionate with. Too big challenge like writing about everything of everything quick gets tiring and make you lose the interest about them. Also think do you want make your own interviews and attend in community events. Then take a note to the location where the offices of company and gaming events are normally located, nearer you live them more possible it is to get involved in such things. You also need to think, what will make your site different and more special than others. It will be rewarding. It will be funny. It will be everything you create as long as you keep passionate about it. The future of your site and yourself are in your own hands. Everything is possible when working hard and by doing that you will reach awesome stuff. They say you need luck to become successful. That’s true but the thing is that luck follows those people who keep trying and working hard. Good luck with your own projects! THANK YOU
Once again, thank you all for these amazing and instructive two years, let’s see together what the future is holding to us. We try to keep updating site as much as time allows us. We also want to thank Namco Bandai Nordic Partners for doing such amazing work for helping us with press stuff and Square Enix for making amazing games we all want to play. Thank for all people who have encouraged to us to continue this long project. Let’s have another awesome year with Lightning Returns, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, PS4, Xbox 720 and with other upcoming titles!
SPECIAL THANKS
Sacha Ramtohul
Niklas Arnell
Jem Alexander
FFWORLD
…and our readers
This is a day we’ve been looking forward to for a year. In the beginning of 2011, we introduced the new fansite for Final Fantasy XIII-2. It didn’t just change our way to follow the development of the game, it changed the way how you followed it. With one of the fastest news providing writers, always-on-time news and simple English we allowed everyone enjoy reading news of Final Fantasy XIII-2. And the result? Over one million views and 8000 subscriptions in a year.
Well, today, we’re introducing our next project – SQUARE PORTAL.
Square Portal is a brand new gaming news site which provides you the most interesting news, articles and reviews about games from Square Enix like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Tomb Raider, Hitman, Sleeping Dogs, Bravely Default and many others. In the future we’ll be providing news about the next generation of home consoles and their release timing. All news about your favorite games and consoles at same place, could it be any better.
And that isn’t the end. We always want to make our site better for the community – for you. To create working ecosystem we need to make finding us easier from the internet. That’s why we’re soon getting a new domain.
In the future forums will has a big role of our everyday communicate with other fans. The community will have a bigger role this time with creating, sharing and editing. Chatting days and little competitions like weekly comic with our readers were just the beginning. Things are getting bigger and better.
Remember follow us on Twitter and like on Facebook.
The ending of the story is the beginning of another…
Regards, Your admin, Jonttutan.
Check out the announcement trailer of Square Portal below. There will be another trailer coming which is dedicated for games like Sleeping Dogs, Deus Ex and Hitman.
THANK YOU
