Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
The Dreaded Viacom Layoffs: 850 People  —  The long-feared Viacom pre-post holiday layoffs are here, and they're not pretty.  We heard earlier that as many as 300 layoffs might be coming at MTV today, but the total, Viacom-wide numbers are even worse: 850 people are being cut, about 7% of the company's global staff.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/62108?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Zimbabwe+moves+to+tackle+cash+shortage+as+soldiers+riotch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Zimbabwe%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Chris+McGrealc7=2008_12_04c8=1128359c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Zimbabwec13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FZimbabwe" width="1" height="1" //divpThe Zimbabwe government has greatly increased the amount of money people can withdraw from banks from today in an attempt to quell unrest, including riots and looting by soldiers this week, over a cash shortage caused by hyperinflation. /ppThe central bank has raised the withdrawal limit from the equivalent of 18p a day to about pound;33 a week following protests in which scores of troops angry at waiting in long bank queues targeted shops in th capital, Harare, that will only accept payment in US dollars and black market money changers dealing on the streets. /ppThe anger among soldiers and other Zimbabweans is in part because of the difficulty of using the national currency to buy anything but a few locally produced vegetables and bread after the US dollar was made legal tender. /ppThe central bank is also issuing new Zimbabwe dollar banknotes today worth Z$50m (pound;17) and Z$100m to keep pace with inflation officially put at 231,000,000 percent in July but which economists now estimate runs in to the billions./ppRiot police yesterday arrested trade union leaders and broke up a protest over limits on cash withdrawals. The union leaders were detained as they led a march of a few dozen people to deliver a petition to the central bank demanding an end to the restrictions. /ppThe demonstrators carried placards reading "No to cash limits" and "We are tired of sleeping at the banks" - many people spend hours queuing each day just to get enough money to cover transport and a few basic foodstuffs./ppThe police yesterday also broke up a protest by doctors and nurses trying to deliver a petition to the health ministry in Harare objecting to the lack of medical supplies and the closure of some large government hospitals. /ppThe collapsing health service is grappling with the extra burden of cholera. The UN said yesterday that it had confirmed 565 deaths from cholera among 12,546 reported cases but medical charities say the real toll is at least double. /ppOne-third of the deaths were in Harare, where water has been cut off for days because of a lack of chemicals to treat the supply./ppThe government said it will punish troops involved in the protests but some of Robert Mugabe's critics suspect the demonstrations may have been orchestrated to justify a further crackdown on his opponents and possibly the introduction of a state of emergency. /ppThe former home affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa, who has joined a breakaway faction from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, told the IRIN news service that the protests may not be what they seem. /pp"I do hope the demonstrations by the soldiers are genuine and that it is not a ruse to come up with an excuse to crack down on the people, or even worse," he said. "You can't rule out what they [the government] might do. They have so many problems ... such as cholera and money shortages. They want to rule a country where they have total control over the people."/ppSuspicion is rife because the government has sought to retain the backing of the army by ensuring that banks regularly delivered cash to the barracks. /ppHowever, the troops still have much to be disgruntled about. The central bank is issuing the new banknotes today as the national currency continues its interminable decline. A new Zimbabwe dollar was launched in August after 10 zeros were wiped off the currency because banks and shops could no longer handle the numbers./ppBut the new dollar has plummeted just as fast, falling from about Z$10 to the pound in early August to Z$3m today for cash. Twenty-seven new currency denominations have been introduced in Zimbabwe this year alone./ppThe government caught up with reality by legalising the use of US dollars and other hard currency in September. Dollars and South African rand were already in use in what amounted to underground supermarkets selling imports. Now the transactions are legal, it is almost impossible to buy anything in Zimbabwe dollars./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/zimbabwe"Zimbabwe/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9v-rkuzkooZ4O2uXuEkN2RsAna4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9v-rkuzkooZ4O2uXuEkN2RsAna4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

via MacNN:

iPods are becoming increasingly difficult to find in the wake of last week's Black Friday sales, says Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Immediately following the sales, the only vendor to report any shortages was Amazon, which lengthened its lead times to 11 days for the 8GB iPod touch, and three to five weeks for the 16GB player. The company's situation has since been made even worse however, with...


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iPods are becoming increasingly difficult to find in the wake of last week's Black Friday sales, says Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Immediately following the sales, the only vendor to report any shortages was Amazon, which lengthened its lead times to 11 days for the 8GB iPod touch, and three to five weeks for the 16GB player. The company's situation has since been made even worse however, with...

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/78651?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+US+service+sector+sheds+250%2C000+jobs+in+a+monthch=Businessc3=guardian.co.ukc4=US+economy+%28Business%29%2CGlobal+recession%2CUS+news%2CBusiness%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29c5=Credit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CUS+Economyc6=Kathryn+Hopkinsc7=2008_12_03c8=1128198c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=US+economyc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FUS+economy" width="1" height="1" //divpMore than 250,000 private sector workers in the US lost their jobs in November, according to new figures from the a href="http://www.ism.ws/"Institute of Supply and Management/a (ISM)./ppAs the credit crunch further takes its toll on the a href="http://www.gardian.co.uk/business/useconomy"country's already fragile economy/a, the ISM's employment index plunged to a record low of 31.3 last month, from 41.5 in October. Any mark below 50 signifies a contraction as opposed to growth./ppPaul Ashworth, the enior US economist at consultants Capital Economics, said that the data puts it at a "level consistent with monthly declines in service sector payrolls of more than 500,000". /ppHe said there had probably been a 650,000 drop in overall non-farm payroll employment in the month, comprising "half a million job losses in services, then conservatively add on another 150,000 job losses in manufacturing and construction"./ppThe non-manufacturing index also plummeted to a record low of 37.3 in November, down from 44.4. A number of economists polled by Reuters had predicted a score of 42./ppThe index is now at a level consistent with a 3% annual contraction in GDP. "That is even worse than what the manufacturing index is telling us," Ashworth said.br / br /Every major category in the ISM survey hit a record low including the service sector, which takes in businesses such as banks, airlines, hotels and restaurants and accounts for 80% of economic activity in the US./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/useconomy"US economy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/globalrecession"Global recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa"United States/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8NzMwDhezdonp4EeNlZB1M9QUxI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/8NzMwDhezdonp4EeNlZB1M9QUxI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

If challenging 2D games are your thing then you'll love span style="font-style: italic;"/spana style="font-style: italic;" title="More news on the Demon Penguin's hero debut" href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/category/Prinny-Can-I-Really-Be-the-Hero-/cid/5316"Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero?/a Get a thick, rubber coating for your PSP 'cause you might end up throwing it straight unto the nearest wall in frustration.brbrFirst of all, Prinny is a terrible jumper. Prinny's bones must be lined with metal plates from all his bone-breaking adventures, and that waist pouch must have a full-size sedan in it. Despite being able to suspend in mid-air when sword-slinging, Prinny feels very heavy, needing good momentum to get some good distance out of a jump. He IS a penguin after all.brbrp style="text-align: center;"a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126978/Prinnyfull_qjpreviewth.png?328791" rel="lightbox[article126978]" title="Err... 20Now 20what 3F 20- 20Image 201 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126978/Prinnyfull.png 3F328791 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-top: 3px; margin-bottom: 3px;" alt="Err... Now what? - Image 1" title="Err... Now what? - Image 1" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126978/Prinnyfull_qjpreviewth.png?328791" align="" border="0"/abr/pbrJust like X and Zero, getting hit in mid-air means you drop straight down like a used diaper. Lucky for the a href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/tags/maverick/1885" id="tag" title=""Maverick/a Hunters, they've got moves to cover that weakness - Prinny does not. You have to be extra careful that you clear the way before you jump.brbrThe worst part is that Prinny, despite being heavy, is not heavy-armored. The poor thing can only endure three hits - and that's in Normal Mode. You basically have to go through the levels - taking enemies down and jumping like a rock - then you have to take a boss down, all on three points of health.brbrHell Mode is even worse, take ONE hit and you're dead. Fortunately, a href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/tags/nippon-ichi/3234" id="tag" title=""Nippon Ichi/a acknowledges the difficulty with a good amount of checkpoints. Still, Prinny seriously needs to start using those wings, 'cause he can't live on swordplay alone.brbrhr style="width: 100 ; height: 2px;"brspan style="font-weight: bold;"More news on Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero?br/spanullia href="http://www.qj.net/Yes-Prinny-you-can-be-the-hero-and-you-ve-got-3-vids-to-show-for-it/pg/49/aid/126659"span title="Prinny's got 3 vids" style="font-style: italic;"Yes Prinny, you can be the hero, and you've got 3 vids to show for it/span/abr/li/ulbrbrdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?a=56KVz1uW"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?a=QsHwn2wG"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?a=onI4aI54"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?d=43" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/QJ/PSP/~4/zKzB5aYUqxg" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/83656?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Zimbabwe+tackles+cash+shortage+amid+riots+and+lootingch=World+newsc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Zimbabwe%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Chris+McGrealc7=2008_12_03c8=1128153c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Zimbabwec13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FZimbabwe" width="1" height="1" //divpThe Zimbabwe government is set to greatly increase the amount of money people can withdraw from banks from tomorrow in an attempt to quell growing unrest, including riots and looting by soldiers this week, over a drastic cash shortage caused by hyperinflation. /ppThe central bank has raised the withdrawal limit from the equivalent of just 18p a day to about £33 a week following the protests in which scores of troops apparently angry at waiting in long bank queues targeted shops in Harare that will only accept payment in US dollars and blackmarket money changers openly dealing on the streets. /ppThe growing anger among soldiers and other Zimbabweans is due in part to the increasing difficulty of using the national currency to buy anything but a few locally produced vegetables and bread after the US dollar was made legal tender. /ppThe central bank is also issuing new Zimbabwe dollar bank notes tomorrow worth Z$50m (£17) and Z$100m to keep pace with inflation officially put at 231m% in July but which economists now estimate runs in to the billions./ppRiot police today arrested trade union leaders and broke up a small protest over the limits on cash withdrawals. The union leaders were detained as they led a march of a few dozen people to deliver a petition to the central bank demanding an end to the restrictions. /ppThe demonstrators carried placards reading "No to cash limits" and "We are tired of sleeping at the banks" because many people spend hours queuing every day just to get enough money to cover transport and a few basic foodstuffs./ppThe police today also broke up a protest by doctors and nurses attempting to deliver a petition to the health ministry in Harare objecting to the lack of medical supplies and the closure of some large government hospitals. /pp"We are forced to work without basic health institutional needs like drugs, adequate water and sanitation, safe clothing gear, medical equipment and basic support services," the letter said./ppThe collapsing health service is now grappling with the additional burden of cholera. The UN said today that it had confirmed 565 deaths from cholera among 12,546 reported cases but medical charities say the real toll is at least double. /ppOne-third of the deaths were in the capital, Harare, where water has been cut off for days because of a lack of chemicals to treat the supply./ppThe government said it will punish troops involved in the protests but some of Mugabe's critics suspect the demonstrations may have been orchestrated to justify a further crackdown on his opponents and possibly the introduction of a state of emergency. /ppThe former home affairs minister Dumiso Dabengwa, who has joined a breakaway faction from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, told the IRIN news service that the protests may not be what they seem. /pp"I do hope the demonstrations by the soldiers are genuine, and that it is not a ruse to come up with an excuse to crack down against the people, or even worse," he said. /pp"You can't rule out what they [the government] might do. They have so many problems ... such as cholera and money shortages. They want to rule a country where they have total control over the people. Anything is possible - they face so many problems that I don't rule out any move to contain the situation."/ppSuspicion is rife because the government has sought to retain the backing of the army by ensuring that banks regularly delivered cash to the barracks. However, the troops still have much to be disgruntled about. /ppThe central bank is issuing the new bank notes tomorrow as the national currency continues its interminable decline. A new Zimbabwe dollar was launched in August after 10 zeros were wiped off the currency because banks and shops could no longer handle the numbers./ppBut the new dollar has plummeted just as fast, falling from about Z$10 to the pound in early August to Z$3m today for cash. Twenty-seven new currency denominations have been introduced in Zimbabwe this year alone./ppThe rioting soldiers told bystanders they were angry that what little money they have can be used for little more than paying for transport and buying a few of the sparse locally produced goods. /ppThe government caught up with reality by legalising the use of US dollars and other hard currency in September. Dollars and South African rand were already in widespread use in what amounted to underground supermarkets selling imports. Now the transactions are legal, it is almost impossible to buy anything in Zimbabwe dollars. /ppThe Spar in Ballantyne Park, in northern Harare, is used by middle-class Zimbabweans and their domestic workers. It prices almost everything in US dollars and will accept payments only in the American currency, rand or sterling. /ppChange is given in bread rolls because of a shortage of small foreign notes. Only locally produced vegetables, eggs and bread can be paid for in Zimbabwe dollars./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/zimbabwe"Zimbabwe/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YFRFX4MaPuMkawLl7pW8MdNKws4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/YFRFX4MaPuMkawLl7pW8MdNKws4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

p style="text-align: center;"a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-1_qjgenth.jpg?910834" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 201 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-1.jpg 3F910834 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 1" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 1" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-1_qjgenth.jpg?910834" align=""/abr/pbrNew span style="font-style: italic;"Dissidia/span scans from a href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/tags/famitsu/106" id="tag" title="Gaming Magazine"Famitsu/a! And they aren't your usual character spotlight either. With the Japanese release looming ever so close now, it looks like Famitsu is milking everything they can from the devs: this span style="font-style: italic;"Dissidia/span feature is huge.brbrThe only bad thing is we can't translate much. Which means... you can trust your ever loyal QJ.NET span style="font-style: italic;"Final Fantasy/span geek (i.e. yours truly) to bring some details to light.brullia href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/tags/cloud-strife/4141" id="tag" title=""Cloud Strife/a's getting his Advent Children alternate costume (I still wish we had his outfit for Don Corneo as another alt)/liliSephiroth is getting his... uh... fanservice-for-the-females alt-costume (or the lack thereof, rather)/liliUltros is BACK! (...as a summon)/liliThe EX modes of Zidane and Kuja are shown (go, monkey boys!)br/liliThe EX modes of Bartz and Exdeath are also shownbr/li/ulMeanwhile, tipster jack_gllghr points out via email that the scans also confirm the following:brulliThere will be no span style="font-style: italic;"Final Fantasy XIII/span representation in span style="font-style: italic;"Dissidia/span/lilispan style="font-style: italic;"FFXII/span gets representation though - we're just not sure who yet (oooh, I love secrets!)/liullias jack_gllghr clarifies, "representation" doesn't automatically equate to character; it could be a summon or a stage or something totally useless... (err, like Penelo - cardboard character, par exellence?) Chances are though, it's a character, seeing as there's a title="Dissidia has one more unannounced character" href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/Dissidia-has-one-more-unannounced-character/pg/49/aid/126885"one more left that's not yet been revealed/a.br/li/ulliOnly Cosmos' army (i.e. the heroes) get story mode campaigns, villains don't/liliThere's a feature to save Replays on your PSP memstick/li/ulI cast my vote: my guess is it's going to be Gabranth to represent span style="font-style: italic;"FFXII/span! My guess would have originally be Balthier, but... Gabranth's one of the few characters that remotely suits the "both good and bad at the same time" trend that span style="font-style: italic;"FFXI/span's Shantotto already set for Easter egg playables. So there. My guess is Gabranth. I could be wrong. Maybe span style="font-style: italic;"FFXII/span representation comes in the form of the License Board. Oh. a title="Sphere Grids and License Boards? Dissidia's chessboard explained" href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/Sphere-Grids-and-License-Boards-Dissidia-s-chessboard-explained/pg/49/aid/124377"Wait/a.brbrp style="text-align: center;"a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-2_qjgenth.jpg?595810" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 201 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-2.jpg 3F595810 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px;" alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 1" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 1" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-2_qjgenth.jpg?595810" align="" border="0"/anbsp;a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-3_qjgenth.jpg?975266" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 202 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-3.jpg 3F975266 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 3px;" alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 2" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 2" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-3_qjgenth.jpg?975266" align="" border="0"/abra href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-4_qjgenth.jpg?945214" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 203 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-4.jpg 3F945214 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px;" alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 3" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 3" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-4_qjgenth.jpg?945214" align="" border="0"/anbsp;a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-5_qjgenth.jpg?971365" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 204 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-5.jpg 3F971365 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 3px;" alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 4" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 4" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-5_qjgenth.jpg?971365" align="" border="0"/abra href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-6_qjgenth.jpg?251437" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 201 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-6.jpg 3F251437 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px;" alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 1" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 1" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-6_qjgenth.jpg?251437" align="" border="0"/anbsp;a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-7_qjgenth.jpg?796699" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 202 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-7.jpg 3F796699 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 3px;" alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 2" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 2" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-7_qjgenth.jpg?796699" align="" border="0"/anbsp;a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-8_qjgenth.jpg?965241" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 203 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-8.jpg 3F965241 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 3px;" alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 3" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 3" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-8_qjgenth.jpg?965241" align="" border="0"/anbsp;a href="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-9_qjgenth.jpg?025689" rel="lightbox[article126952]" title="Dissidia 3A 20Final 20Fantasy 20- 20Image 204 20 26nbsp 3B 20 20 26nbsp 3B 20 3Ca 20href 3D 22http 3A//img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-9.jpg 3F025689 22 20target 3D 22_blank 22 3E 3Cimg 20src 3D 22/img/newwindow.png 22 20title 3D 22Open 20in 20new 20window 22 20border 3D 220 22 3E 3C/a 3E"img style="margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 3px;" alt="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 4" title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy - Image 4" src="http://img.qj.net/uploads/articles_module/126952/dissidia-9_qjgenth.jpg?025689" align="" border="0"/abr/pbra href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/tags/square-enix/281" id="tag" title="Game developer, Father of Final Fantasy series"Square Enix/a's a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/Dissidia-Final-Fantasy/cid/3836"Dissidia: Final Fantasy/a for the PSP is to be released in a href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/tags/japan/109" id="tag" title="island country in East Asia; capital city Tokyo"Japan/a on December 18.brbrspan style="font-style: italic;"Thanks to heiwa_ryu jack_gllghr for the heads up!/spanbrbrspan style="font-style: italic;" Article originally posted Dec 03, 2008 at 09:10AM/spanbrbrhr style="width: 100 ; height: 2px;"brspan style="font-weight: bold;" Update /span We finally found some translations care of a rel="nofollow" title="offsite" target="_blank" href="http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171614"1Up/a. This covers only the round-table interview with the devs (creative producer a href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/tags/tetsuya-nomura/3259" id="tag" title="FFVII character designer"Tetsuya Nomura/a, senior director Takeshi Arakawa, planning director Mitsunori Takahashi, main programmer Ryuji Ikeda).brbrMost of the details above remain the same though. We just get more clarifications on certain manners. On the other side of things though, they made matters even worse by hinting at unspoken things. I think it's an unwritten rule somewhere in Game Development 101 that torturing the fans with sentences ending in ellipses and what not is perfectly OK. Sigh. On with the show!brbrOn the introduction of Shantotto, a black mage NPC from span style="font-style: italic;"Final Fantasy XI/span, to the lineupbrp style="padding-left: 40px; padding-right: 40px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Takahashi:/span There were assorted candidates to choose from [in span style="font-style: italic;"FFXI/span], like Prishe. We wound up asking the span style="font-style: italic;"FFXI/span fans on the staff what character would make them the most happy to see in the game, and they all said "something Tarutaru"! Shantotto wound up being the choice from the Tarutaru available. They're a small target to strike, so balancing their hit detection was a difficult process -- we can't let Shantotto have a unique advantage, so we were messing with her right to the very end./pbrSo where are the span style="font-style: italic;"Final Fantasy XII/span characters at?brp style="padding-left: 40px; padding-right: 40px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Nomura:/span Introducing Shantotto and not one of the span style="font-style: italic;"FFXI/span player-characters was one of the surprises we've given people in interviews from the beginning of the project. As for span style="font-style: italic;"FFXII/span, just stay tuned for now (laughs). One idea we had was to include an span style="font-style: italic;"FFXIII/span character, but having one debut in span style="font-style: italic;"Dissidia/span would lock down the image of his or her skills and so forth, perhaps affecting span style="font-style: italic;"FFXIII/span in the process. As a result, we couldn't get permission./pbrOn the pleasures of being an evil character in span style="font-style: italic;"Dissidia/spanbrp style="padding-left: 40px; padding-right: 40px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Takahashi:/spanThere isn't a story mode for the Chaos side, but that doesn't mean the story's weaker for those characters. If you play from the Cosmos side, you'll get to see the Chaos story along the way./pp style="padding-left: 40px; padding-right: 40px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Arakawa:/span If you're trying to raise all the Chaos characters, I'd recommend waiting until after you complete all the Cosmos characters and see the ending. Exactly why I say this is a secret, but.../pp style="padding-left: 40px; padding-right: 40px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Takahashi:/span You can always use PP to access the Chaos characters early on, but you can use a certain mode after viewing the ending that will make raising them a lot more fun./pp style="padding-left: 40px; padding-right: 40px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Ikeda:/span The Chaos story events are great, too. Basically, one side wants to destroy the world and the other wants to rule over it, and they have conferences and things./pbrThoughts on completing the projectbrp style="padding-left: 40px; padding-right: 40px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Arakawa:/span I'm just happy to see everything work out. It's a relief that we made the 20th anniversary safely./pp style="padding-left: 40px; padding-right: 40px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Takahashi:/span [The hardest part] was balancing -- not just between characters, but between all 100 levels and the equipment they may be carrying. It took a long time, and there's really no good ending point to it, but I think we're pretty confident about the results. /pspan style="font-style: italic;"/spanbrhr style="width: 100 ; height: 2px;"brspan style="font-weight: bold;"Related articles:/spanbrul style="font-style: italic;"lia title="Dissidia: Final Fantasy guidebook to be released alongside game" href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/Dissidia-Final-Fantasy-guidebook-to-be-released-alongside-game/pg/49/aid/126912"Dissidia: Final Fantasy guidebook to be released alongside game/a/lilia title="More Dissidia pwnage: Cloud vs Sephiroth gameplay video" href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/More-Dissidia-pwnage-Cloud-vs-Sephiroth-gameplay-video/pg/49/aid/126818"More Dissidia pwnage: Cloud vs Sephiroth gameplay video/a/lilia title="Dissidia scans introduce FFXI's Shantotto, Firion and Emperor's EX mode; official PSP box art revealed" href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/Dissidia-scans-introduce-FFXI-s-Shantotto-Firion-and-Emperor-s-EX-mode-official-PSP-box-art-revealed/pg/49/aid/126713"Dissidia scans introduce FFXI's Shantotto, Firion and Emperor's EX mode; official PSP box art revealed/a/lilia title="FFXI, represent: Dissidia gets first non-main character confirmed" href="http://pspupdates.qj.net/FFXI-represent-Dissidia-gets-first-non-main-character-confirmed/pg/49/aid/126576"FFXI, represent: Dissidia gets first non-main character confirmed/abr/li/ulbrbrdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?a=tj5v8usD"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?a=atMRIFtV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?a=D5Icpc79"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/QJ/PSP?d=43" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/QJ/PSP/~4/66PPHgID6sU" height="1" width="1"/