Haven't been here in a while, but man does it feel strange. It's as if I never even existed on Dtoid. Guess it's a classic case of "out so sight, out of mind." Lol. Oh well..... Just wanted to stop by and say "hi" to all to all the people that remembered me.

During my usual cruising the Internet routine for all things gaming news, I stumbled upon this article, in which Square-Enix was quoted as "wanting to get it off their chest" that bringing Final Fantasy to the Xbox 360 was not in any way, shape, or form, a sign of betrayal to faithful PlayStation fans.

OK, I'll go with that. Great games shared among consoles is a great idea. With production budgets on par with Hollywood movies (and bursting at the seams), it makes business sense not to want to limit your audience. Think of all the Xbox 360 owners out there who simply don't possess a PS3, but would purchase a FF game if it were an option to do so. Then again, it would makes sense to port it to the Wii as well, wouldn't it? I don't care if the console can't run it to visual perfection, due to technological constraints. Nintendo is top dog at the moment, right? Let Square-Enix go all out, and really spread the love.

Now that I think about it, let all games be interchangeable. It's the path we're steadily going down, anyway. At this rate -- and not far from now -- there will be little difference between what MS, Sony, and Nintendo offers at any given time... other than variations of controllers, and online infrastructures. Oh yes, I almost forgot the differences in cases. Add to that checklist " how each of the consoles look, perched proudly in your entertainment center."

See what I'm getting at here? Back in the day, your choice of console (if you couldn't afford more than one) was based on the amount of "must have" games that were specific to it. With that line being continually blurred, we are winning on the consumer end, but I have to wonder if this is going to eventually lead to a thinning of the herd. When you can walk into a store and no longer have to trouble yourself with having a specific console to play your games on, the guy that offers the one that's readily available, durable, and cheapest, is going to win.

We may scoff at the idea of living in a single console world, but I say to you -- it's coming, and has been for a long time. By demanding that we "share" everything, including games and the ideas between competitors (NXE and rumble anyone?), everyone starts looking the same. When that time finally comes, you just might find that tired, old cliche about getting what you wish for to be a painful lesson in reality. I just hope that in the end, we're ready to sleep in the proverbial bed that we made.

Consumption based billing? Calls from the CSA? Service termination? And you thought throttling your service was bad...

Oh noes!

My fingers bled just watching this guy setting a new record for speed playing. Witness 320 bpm and marvel. One can only imagine what kind of solo he could pull off.

"Don't call it a comeback, I been here for years."

In the immortal words of LL Cool J, don't let this little snafu give you the wrong impression. I have no intentions of disappearing from the Destructoid scene, and plan on being around for as long as the crew can put up with me.

You will see me drop off the radar every so often, as life has a way of keeping us all busy behind the scenes, but rest assured that I do and will continue keep tabs on the robot sanctum whenever this is the case.

Now that I got that out of the way, it's time to hit up the Dtoid tip line for some goodies. The front page needs more Vader.

-Alan "Back in Black" whatever his last name is

I don't know if any of you have ever heard of a guy named Keiji Inafune, but he thinks that you might appreciate hearing what he has to say about giving the thumbs up to Bionic Commando and responses to whatever other questions you want to throw his way.

I don't know him personally, but apparently he is tied to some lesser known games called Mega Man, Onimusha, and Dead Rising. Rumor has it that he'll be stopping by the Bionic Commando podcast somewhere down the line, but don't quote me on that. A small Japanese company called Capcom seems to be providing the backing for the project, but I can't tell you much about them either.

What I do know for certain, is that the drawing looks mighty cool, and just might be valuable some day. If you can find someone who has played or even heard of that Mega Man game, you might want to pass this on to them. I'm not psychically gifted by any means, but my intuition tells me that there's a small army of people who may of quit reading after the first sentence, and immediately clicked on THIS LINK in an attempt to win that picture and have their special question answered by Keiji Infume. Since this guy might be famous some day, I'll cast my pride aside, overlook the fact that you never read my hard work in the first place -- and go to my happy place as you wrestle with your internal demons and lust for material gain.

Now if you'll excuse me for a moment, I have a link I need to visit.... *ahem*... I mean some "research" I have to do on that Capcom group. Who knows? I just might find that they make some pretty sweet games.