I Finally Beat Tales of Vesperia

A few weeks ago, I beat Tales of Vesperia but got busy so I didn’t get it up here on the site.  It is one of my favorite games since Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger. That says something, given that it’s been almost 15 years since those two titles were released.  I didn’t realize [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Reason the Video Game Industry Is Bigger Than Hollywood

Tales of Vesperia continues to rock my world.  I played for several hours again today after reading wealth reports and working on the upcoming About.com content I’ve been writing this week (I tend to publish the good stuff over there in big batches because I like for it all to work together and be cohesive).  [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Why the iPhone Will Continue to Dominate the Smart Phone Market Even if It Doesn’t Have the Biggest Screen or Fastest Processor

It All Comes Down to the Existing Investment Consumers Have Made in their iTunes Library of Music, Movies, Games, Apps, and Television Shows It seems that a handful of tech folks and business bloggers – and, in fact, even my own brother – don’t seem to understand that the reason people choose the iPhone over [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The View From My Window …

This is the view from my bedroom window when I wake up in the morning … I normally have a cup of black coffee and read.  I normally stay there for a few hours before getting up and starting my day.  That way, I have the reading (sometimes books, sometimes stock reports, or sometimes a [...]

from Joshua Kennon

The Success of the iPad Will Come Down to App Development

Five days or so into my experience with the iPad and it continues to exceed expectations (by far). I’ve spent somewhere between $120 and $150 in the Apple iTunes App store, which compared to my previous purchases of apps (read: $0), means there is more cash flowing into Steve Jobs’ coffers. The overwhelming indication continues [...]

from Joshua Kennon

It Was an Amazingly Productive Day

We are having an amazingly productive day.  Thus far, we have: Paid a ton of bills for one of the businesses. Submitted the final tax documents to the accounting firm that handles our business and personal filings. Had lunch / dinner at Panera Bread with Aaron. Went to Michael’s and got a bunch of our [...]

from Joshua Kennon

I Beat Final Fantasy XIII Tonight

Don’t worry – I’m not going to give away any spoilers (or the images of the final bosses other than the one everyone has already seen), but suffice it to say, I owned Final Fantasy XIII tonight.  I took a break from going over the insurance policy renewals for the businesses, which are due soon, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

First Impressions of Final Fantasy XIII

I’ve played Final Fantasy 13 for roughly five or six hours now and it’s starting to get good.  The only concern I have is that it is feeling really linear.  Part of the magic of the franchise is being able to take 20 hours and go do side quests, level up and get hidden summons, [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Started Final Fantasy XI on XBOX 360

Following several attempts to get into the game when it was first launched in 2004 and later, around 2006, I finally began seriously playing Final Fantasy XI about a week ago after beating Blue Dragon.  I’m on the Alexander server and have been building my character as a Black Mage.  So far, I’ve soloed on [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Mistwalker Studios Might Just Eclipse Square Enix

For a long time, I wanted to be a video game programmer.  When I was still in elementary school, I saved up the $200 or so dollars for an entry-level version of Microsoft Visual Basic, went to trade shows to buy software on 5″+ floppy disks, and worked on creating my own version of the [...]

from Joshua Kennon

Video Game Sales Fall for 5th Straight Month and Wall Street Blames … the Recession?

According to an AP Article, sales of video games have plunged 29% year-over-year and Wall Street is concerned that it is proof the video game market isn’t as recession-resistant as everyone believed.  Seriously.  That’s the crap that’s coming out of these news rooms.  News flash: Look at the game release schedules.  Last year saw a [...]

from Joshua Kennon