Op-Ed

Emily Balistrieri checks out this year's Final Fantasy XI Fan Festival and learns that what fans really really want is...new summoner avatars?

On the gaming buffet this week in history, you'll find several helpings of lawsuits, a deathmatch or two, and a cult classic RPG.

This week, we remember Ubisoft's under-the-radar Beyond Good & Evil, hard-boiled detective Max Payne's Fall, and take some of our favorite game series portable with Portrait of Ruin and Portable Ops.

This week, we're reminded of the curious numbering of Final Fantasy, the long-lasting impact of both Pong and World of Warcraft, and the days when Sega asked "Are you up 2 it?"

The Escapist is pleased to present the winners of our 2nd Annual Film Festival! This year we had so many excellent videos, we had to award two First Prizes.

This week in history is marked by console launches, drama on public transportation, and a very happy birthday.

Is it possible to open the floodgates of user-created content and not drown in a sea of conflict, chaos, and crap?

Gaming consoles step into the spotlight this week in gaming history, to join one of the most successful sequels of all time.

Bejeweled Twist is probably the most hardcore casual game you'll ever play.

A professor in Connecticut suggests we should be blurring the line between videogames and education and asks, what if we could use Halo to teach students about The Iliad?

This week in videogame history is home to hostile takeovers, Gears of War and more MMOs than you can shake a Murloc at.

Sean Sands is rather annoyed at the zombie outbreak in World of Warcraft, but that doesn't mean he doesn't think it's brilliant.

The Escapist takes a peek at the world's first comedy third-person shooter.

This week in gaming history is all about staying power: the PlayStation 2, Civilization, and Final Fantasy.

Reanimated corpses on a spaceship? Not scary. Mannequins in a department store, now that's scary. Matt Turano examines why some things give us the willies and others just make us shrug.