When talking about long game series, I think Need for Speed is one of the few ones that I can say I followed as close as possible, although lately I got anything else but satisfaction from it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of things I missed, and one of those I'll do my best to catch up with is Final Fantasy. Why Final Fantasy?

Well, you could say that the topic of this article is the main reason, but it's not just that. After all, I've seen hundreds of YouTube videos made by fans of certain bands, like Stratovarius or In Flames, so I already got into it, somehow. Getting into it deeper, that's a real challenge!

The reason to say that is simple - it all started in 1987, with a console role-playing game (RPG) developed by Square, and in the next two decades, no less than 28 Final Fantasy games were released, with 12 numbered ones and a bunch of spin-offs. Even more, there are 3 animated productions, a few printed adaptations, as well as 2 full-length CGI films, so there's quite a lot to handle...
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When talking about the Final Fantasy series records, it's enough to say that it holds no less than 7 Guinness World Records, all present in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, 2008.

Now, Square Enix made public its sale figures, showing the following impressive numbers: 85 million units for Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest coming in second, with 47 million, and Kingdom Hearts, who sold 12 million. Since they acquired Eidos, Square Enix can also add Tomb Raider into the pot, with over 30 million units sold so far, and the Hitman series - 8 million units.

Pheew...that's what I call "serious game sales," and I am sure that the Final Fantasy series will bring some more records in the future. After all, now's the right time for successful games to come up - a lot of gamers without jobs out there, looking to find something to do...

About two decades ago, computer games were all about the story. If I think well, in the adventure games realm, there were even more games to choose from than today! I know, I may not be right, but that's how I feel when I look back at those days, and then see what's being offered now. The good part is that you don't need to find some ancient computer to run those oldies once again, because they are slowly taken back to life...online!

Before moving on to the free browser based games from Sierra, let me tell you about Quake 3. I hope you remember it, right? Back in 2000-2001, we were talking about one of the best looking FPS games, and also a pretty demanding one. Now, we can play it in the browser! Needless to say, most low-end computers you will find to purchase these days can handle it without breaking a sweat.

OK, back to Sierra now. If you're one of the older gamers, you surely remember adventure games like King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Quest for Glory. What do they have in common, apart from "quest," obviously? They come from Sierra Entertainment, Inc., formerly known as Sierra On-Line, and now the company has been absorbed by Activision.
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The good part is that Sierra is gone, but won't be forgotten that easily, because Sarien.net is "the portal for reliving the classic Sierra On-Line adventure games," and "hopes to win new gamers' hearts and promote the adventure game genre."

Currently, Sarien is offering Space Quest I, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards. Apart from being able to play these oldies right inside your browser, you can also try Sarien Studio, a resource explorer that shows you how background images and objects were implemented in those early days of computer gaming.

To do that, you need to pick one of the three games currently available, then choose pictures or views, and finally check individual items(for views, you have more graphics to check out - practically, these are frames of the in-game animations).

The best part of it all is that more free browser based games from Sierra should become available in the future, and this is not all, because Sarien.net also adds a whole new dimension to the old games at your disposal - multiplayer! Basically, we're talking about a bunch of gamers trying to solve same puzzles at once. This can become a problem, if too many simultaneous users are in a place, but as far as I can tell now, everything's just great, so type Sarien.net in your browser and let the adventure begin!

Each time I want to have a lot of fun with somebody visiting me I go to YouTube. No, I am not advertising here, especially since YouTube began to severely suck lately. The idea is that we're not looking for funny videos on the site, because that's what everybody does and, to be honest, I am tired of funnies. Think about Guitar Hero and some fast track. Dragonforce seems to be the favorite band of those looking for insanely fast tracks, but I really hope to see some fast death/black metal songs added in the future...

Anyway, the idea was that most of those breaking records use the Nintendo Wii - don't ask me why, but probably because most insanely fast gamers come from Asia. Yeah, it seems Karate and gaming have a lot in common...but let's take a look at one of the new Wii world records, shall we?

According to Enterbrain, a Japanese magazine publisher, the Nintendo Wii sold no less than 8 million units in Japan since its launch in the region, back in December 2006. Consider that Japan has a population of about 128 millions, and about 20% of them are over 65, I guess that a kid without a Nintendo Wii there is like one without a bike in other countries...
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Famitsu reported that the 8 million units sold milestone has been reached on the 19th of April, and also published the top five Wii sellers in Japan. These are the following:

- Wii Sports - 3,481,469 units
- Wii Fit - 3,301,373 units
- Wii Play - 2,672,811 units
- Mario Kart Wii - 2,218,756 units
- Super Smash Bros Brawl - 1,789,924 units

So far, so good, but I hardly wait to see the first Nintendo DSi sales statistics. I know we're talking about different things here, but there's one plague that could enter the Nintendo world with it - piracy. Anyway, I am sure we won't get any accurate information on that before late 2009...