Resolution Resolutions For Final Fantasy XIII And XIII-2

Final Fantasy XIII was a disappointing PC port, suffering that rare-yet-still-too-common problem of only running at a 1280x720 resolution. Gawd bless modders, as Dark Souls and Deadly Premonition saviour Durante released a tool to stick a knife inside the game's workings and jiggle it around, opening up higher resolutions, but it's a shame he was even needed. Square Enix have noted the discontent, and promised that Final Fantasy XIII-2 will support other resolutions when it launches on December 11th. They also plan to patch resolution options into FF13 that month.

XIII-2 will have options to run in different resolutions (a press release mentions "720p, 1080p, and more", so it's not clear how comprehensive this is) at 60fps, and will introduce graphics options (also absent from XIII) so you can keep it there. It looks like Japanese voices are still bundled in by default, rather than split off as optional, which was another complaint about XIII. Can't win 'em all.

I'm not usually one to grumble about technical aspects of games, as long as they're not a complete shambles and don't stop me from playing, but playing a long, long game in a blurry non-native resolution would be physically painful.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 will cost £12.99 when it launches. It's £10.99 to pre-order from Square Enix and £11.69 on Steam but, more than ever, I'd recommend waiting to see how the game turns out. The final part of the trilogy, Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns, is due in spring 2015.