Tom Endo has a nice essay up over the Escapist on the issue of finishing games (or not finishing games, as the case may be). "What other medium," he queries, "allows us to be so blithely indifferent to its consumption?". I certainly have a somewhat appalling stack of partially finished games, some of which have been languishing for years. Do games in their current format simply not fit comfortably into the flow of many people's lives?:

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Atlus fans wary of Persona 4 for fear that they'll get FES'ed like they did with the previous installment of the PS2 RPG series can stop worrying now, as Atlus issues a press release announcing...nothing, basically.

"We are today able to announce that at no point in the future will we announce the release of a "FES" version of Persona 4," said Tim Pivnicny, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "The very finest, most definitive version of Persona 4 will be the one released on December 9, 2008."

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With game publishers getting blasted over strict digital rights management solutions in their PC titles left and right these days, Ascaron and cdv Software Entertainment USA are taking a rather different approach. Rather than limit the number of times you can install the game on various machines, you'll be able to install Sacred 2: Fallen Angel on as many systems as you'd like as a sort of "Try Before You Buy" feature. Purchasers of retail or digital copies of the game can pass it around to friends, which lets them play the full version of the game for one calendar day before requiring they buy the title.

"We feel that consumers should have a right to choose, and this innovative system offers the perfect purchasing option for gamers," said Heiko tom Felde, Managing Director of ASCARON. "It's a great system for family and friends, allowing everyone the opportunity to try out the game and play together, then making a purchase decision."

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Sega drove a sketchy tank onto the rather barren field of PlayStation 3 RPGs with Valkyria Chronicles, the turn-based strategy affair that's been turning heads ever since the Japanese debut trailer hit the web last year. With the extremely attractive CANVAS graphics engine giving the game it's distinctive look and the team behind Sakura Wars and Skies of Arcadia responsible for the gameplay, PlayStation 3 JRPG fans devoured every screenshot and gameplay video, eagerly awaiting the day the title would finally fall into their hands.

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Looks like GameStop might have been onto something after all. Codemasters has revealed that their epic action RPG Rise of the Argonauts, developed by Liquid Entertainment, would not be hitting its original November release window, though they are still hoping to get the title out before Christmas, which is an incredibly bad sign. Coupled with the fact that they aren't saying why exactly the game was delayed, we can infer that it isn't ready for release right now, and a game not ready for release given the pressure of trying to get out the door in the next month and a half generally means a buggy mess once it hits retail.

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Kid-friendly massively multiplayer game Wizard101 is now allowing their gamers to pay to play via a monthly subscription or micropayments, Texas-based developer KingsIsle Entertainment announced today.

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Cryptic Studios hired Bill Roper, former Director of Blizzard Entertainment and co-founder of Flagship Studios , as the company's Design Director, they announced today.

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And you thought you played games to have fun — Steven Poole has a lengthy essay trying to prove you wrong. We're working — working for the (video game) man, man. I must confess that even if we're on a literal or figurative rat race when it comes to 'working' in games (I am, after all, a passionate fan of the Harvest Moon series, which is unabashedly obvious about the necessity of work), I still find much of it fun. Still, despite the wet blanket overtones, Poole's essay is thoughtful and makes some interesting point. Is it really just about following orders?:

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Fresh off getting Sega to be the publisher for its Wii FPS, The Conduit, High Voltage apparently is looking to deliver titles with a more traditional appeal to gamers.

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After leaving fans hanging for over a decade, the beloved post-apocalyptic RPG franchise Fallout finally has a new installment in the form of Bethesda Softwork's Fallout 3. Bethesda's goal was to create a compelling, open-ended gaming experience that newcomers and old-fans of the franchise alike could love, while at the same time making sure said fans didn't show up on their doorstep en masse the day of the game's release pitchforks and torches.

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