Final Fantasy sure has changed over the years.

These days, Square is substituting surface flashiness for that unique FF element that, in earlier titles, conjured genuine wonderment. This is especially evident in the new trailer for XIII. The original FF magic has been lost, and unfortunately, it’s in Square-Enix’s best interest to cultivate the evolution.

Some fans claim the franchise peaked around VI, others that XIII will be the best one yet. One thing’s certain: no matter how much the older fans miss bygone FF eras, the games will never be the same again.

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Audiences love macho men. Video games cater to this need by providing us with strong heroes, and we love to step into their shoes.

It makes gamers feel like badasses.

Whether or not all gamers have dreams of power trips, there’s no doubt an interesting protagonist is usually a plus. That said, here are some of the most memorable video game characters, presented in all their manly glory.

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A few months ago, Stephen Dinehart’s inner tech geek flashed on. Flexing mental muscles he hadn’t used since grad school, he set out to create The Narrative Designer’s Network, which officially launched Tuesday.

Sporting a slick front page and a pronounced audio intro, the Web site is a product of Narrware, an indie developer. Dinehart, creative director at the company, hopes the site will foster community among narrative designers, though he said it could also benefit gamers.

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Comic lovers everywhere are worried over Disney’s recent $4 billion purchase of Marvel. Granted, other comic fans, far from scared, are excited or even indifferent — the whole spectrum of emotions comes into play with big news.

Nothing is concrete yet, but this merger’s possibilities are endless. Let alone odd mashups, it could change the way we view comics, for better or worse, or even spell a new era of Marvel movie madness. Here’s a look at just three things that could happen.

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Since the trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar was released, opinions have shot back and forth, mostly from extreme ends of the spectrum — either it looks like trash or it’s going to be the best movie ever made. One particular opinion that stuck with me was my friend’s when he said, “This looks so fake. It looks just like a video game.”

Which was interesting, because to many an outsider that’s all Avatar appears to be: a glorified video game. But that doesn’t mean it’ll suck. And not to contribute to the hype machine, but there’s a lot of potential riding with the release of this new sci-fi epic.

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As with anything, when it comes to the gaming industry, there’s tons to complain about. Casual games, for instance. Or monstrous price tags. Just choose your poison.

But the biggest problem, by far, is that they’re too damn long. In this fast-paced culture, who has time for 20 hours (and upwards) of gameplay? We can’t even find time to cook our own food anymore, let alone churning through whole days playing video games.

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Kids play tons of video games, which is great. Games are not only fun, but they can be valuable educational tools as well.

The problem is, many kids don’t read books anymore. And with such entertaining, 21st century spectacles at our fingertips, who has time for hard-to-access, brain-straining storylines locked inside ancient tomes anyway? Right?

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I’ll shamefully admit it: I’ve never beaten Super Mario Bros.

So the other day, I buckled down for a Super Mario Bros. 3 marathon with my nephew, age 7. While playing, I realized that Mario is timeless, and sure as my little nephew is growing up with him now, we’ll still remember Mario in a century.

Mario, Link, Master Chief, Solid Snake. These gaming monuments speak to desires and dreams rooted deeply inside of us, and the experiences they offer will never die.

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