Previously on The Final Fantasy XIII-2 Diaries! Noel, a boy from the future has to get main character Serah, Lightning’s younger sister, to Valhalla via time warp gates! A moogle with a fat head named Mog accompanies them! The Paradigm Shift battle system from Final Fantasy XIII returns with a few tweaks, random encounters with weak monsters happen, and I’m pleasantly surprised by just about everything so far!

Part One of a chronicle through the time-traveling odyssey Final Fantasy XIII-2. Does this RPG sequel start with a bang or a whimper? With this sequel, Square Enix set out to right the wrongs of the previous game, namely tunnel vision level design, off-kilter pacing, and a lack of player immediacy. But this new one promises to be a different beast. Let’s find out together if that’s true. Instead of playing, finishing the game and then posting my final review I will chronicle my time with it. This will be different from my typical reviews. The format will be looser, a bit more free-form. It should be fun! So let’s dive in.

HD, dual soundtracks, Miles “Tails” Prower… Available on Steam, PSN, XBLA and many other platforms, the downloadable version of Sonic CD is the definitive version of the game. It’s the new shining example of how to resurrect an old game for new audiences. Pick up, errrr, download this game right now. It’s a must-have for hedgehog fans.

Resident Evil 6 revealed! The trailer shows new gameplay, old characters, new characters and a whole lot of promise for a series that’s been dragging its feet for a while! Res Evil experts Avion and Tim weigh in!

People love Final Fantasy, and if there’s anything people love more than Final Fanatsy, it’s arguing about Final Fantasy. Who’s the best villain? What’s the best piece of music? Where’s the best place to dry clean my replica Squall jacket? Too many arguments, too much to fight over. And, of course, every discussion about Square’s flagship RPG series devolves into “Which game in the series is the best?” Well, that’s easy. There are five of them, and you can find out which ones they are right now, right here.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 really has potential to bring burned players back to the fold. Goes to show, sometimes strides can be made between the demo and the final product, or uh, the second demo in this case. With the game only a couple weeks away I think it’s safe to say it’s representative of the final game. And strides were made here.

At CES there’s a lot of stuff. Too much stuff. Robots, cars, haptic displays and entire houses just sitting in the middle of the convention center. It’s a wacky place. Panasonic brought a little order to the show’s chaos by hosting a sit-down conversation with three directors of the James Bond franchise in honor of the 50th Anniversary Blu-ray set ($199, Amazon.com) coming out this year. After walking for hours across the show floor I was relieved to find a place where I could sit, rest my feet, and listen to three film veterans discuss one of my favorite movie franchises.

Beside the Wii-U Nintendo had Kid Icarus Uprising on hand and it’s basically the same game I played last year. Wow. A whole year and nary an improvement to be found. The flight controls are okay. Shooting and dodging enemy fire in the sky is easy enough to control, but once Pit gets on the ground just throw your hands up in the air and walk away. I did. After punching everyone in sight and declaring myself master of the realm.

There was one thing I saw a lot of at CES this year. A whole lot of Street Fighter IV. A company called Aiwi used it to demonstrate an app that controls the game with motion sensing. It worked… kind of. It worked very poorly for me, but the booth’s attendant had a good handle on it. Plantronics used it to demo one of its headsets as well.

Now, two instances of Street Fighter IV is a coincidence. Three’s a pattern.

Mad Catz hosted a nice room at CES for us to try out its latest gadgets. Among them, the MLG Pro Circuit controller. The accessory company took a lot of feedback from the major league gaming community to come up with it and boy, those tournament guys are smart.