An American bakery called SugarBeez also produces some of their own, in the more traditional black. Either way I’m hungry.

The plot focuses on the fal’Cie, beings created from crystals. 13,000 years ago, a mythical Crystal told the fal’Cie to construct a paradise for humanity. The shell-like city of Cocoon was created and floated high above the surface of the world known as Pulse. Cocoon’s Crystal created life forms and machines for its inhabitants to use, and humanity flourished. Over time, the people of Cocoon began to fear for the safety of their world, and were worried that it would be cast down from the sky. In present day, the wilderness of Pulse has strange effects on people, and the Holy Government of Cocoon quarantines and exiles from the city anyone who has been influenced by Pulse. A woman codenamed Lightning is chosen by the Crystals to be the enemy of humanity and bring about the downfall of the world.

Gameplay will be familiar to anyone that has played any of the existing Final Fantasy, specifically VII onwards, with a few changes. Like in Final Fantasy XII, enemies are integrated into the world environment, but unlike XII battles do not take place in the same “dimension”, but rather a short flash transports players to a new battle screen, separate from the main playing world. The Active Time Battle (ATB) system will return, but it works differently from its predecessors. Users will, for the first time, be able to chain large numbers of commands together in order to achieve attack bonuses.

The Final Fantasy games are usually incredibly well made and well received, and this one is sure to continue the trend by selling bucketloads of titles. As you can see from the pictures above the game will be released on both X-Box 360 and PS3, on March 9th, 2010.

UEFA has released the latest co-efficient rankings which place Ireland at 25th. These rankings are important as they are the basis for the qualifying draw that will take place in Warsaw on February 7th, 2010. With Poland and Ukraine qualifying automatically for the finals as co-hosts, the other 51 of UEFA’s 53 member national associations will be allocated to six pots in accordance with their rankings. The draw will then choose six groups of six teams and three groups of five.

25th spot means that Ireland will be placed in the 3rd pot of teams, alongside our compatriots from the north. This means that we could potently have to face to powerhouses of European football, but is a marked improvement of being in pot 4, which we were for the World Cup 2010 qualification.

I’ve had a look at the full pots, which you can see below, and I’m made two groups. The first is the Group of Death (basically the worst possible group we could get), while the second is the Group of Life (the best possible group). I based this not on the rankings themselves but on the likelihood of Ireland winning or losing against the opposition home and away.

Group of Death:
Spain (defending European champions)
Serbia (tough trip to Belgrade)
Ireland
Slovenia (just beat Russia to qualify for WC)
Montenegro (Difficult in WC qualifying)
Azerbaijan (Long away trip of to relative unknown)

Group of Life:
France (purely for revenge reasons)
Denmark (excellent record against them)
Ireland
Wales (great away trip to Cardiff)
Liechtenstein (minnows)
San Marino (minnows)

The full list of pots is as follows:

Pot 1:
Spain
Germany
Netherlands
Italy
England
Croatia
Portugal
France
Russia

Pot 2:
Greece
Czech Republic
Sweden
Switzerland
Serbia
Turkey
Denmark
Slovakia
Romania

Pot 3:
Israel
Bulgaria
Finland
Norway
Ireland
Scotland
Northern Ireland
Austria
Bosnia-Herzegovina

Pot 4:
Slovenia
Latvia
Hungary
Lithuania
Belarus
Belgium
Wales
F.Y.R. Macedonia
Cyprus

Pot 5:
Montenegro
Albania
Estonia
Georgia
Moldova
Iceland
Armenia
Kazakhstan
Liechtenstein

Pot 6:
Azerbaijan
Luxembourg
Malta
Faroe Islands
Andorra
San Marino

Giovanni Trappatoni in his press conference this afternoon ruled out the replay idea as “impossible”, but that hasn’t stopped the FAI from launching an official complaint with FIFA. There is some merit to the notion of a replay as one has been sanctioned before. FIFA sanctioned a replay of the Uzbekistan-Bahrain after ruling that the referee erred in the first leg by disallowing a penalty scored by Uzbekistan’s Server Djeparov in the September 3rd, 2005 match because defender Timur Kapadze invaded the box before the penalty was taken.

In this instance however all the pleading in the world is unlikely to make FIFA sanction a replay. It’s just not in their interest. France are one of the largest footballing nations in the world. Ireland aren’t. Neither were Uzbekistan or Bahrain. Not having a team the calibre of France in the World Cup would diminish the contest from an advertising stand-point and Ireland, no matter how enthusiastic our supporters are, are not going to make up that revenue stream.

In the end it all comes down to money and the World Cup is principally a business first and a competition second. The draw in Paris is said to have cost the Irish economy millions and that is easy to see. World Cup fever encourages people to spend, to go out to pubs to buy merchandise, flags etc. When England failed to qualify for Euro 2008 Sports Direct, Britain’s largest sports retailer, was forced to issue a profit warning. Football is that big a business.

Yes Ireland were cheated out of a chance to go to South Africa, but it was a chance only. There were still 15 minutes to play before the lottery of a penalty shoot-out would have begun. We cannot know what would have happened in those 15 minutes and it is pointless to speculate. What we need to do as individuals and as a nation is rally behind our team, support them and congratulate them. They’ve done us proud and no-one, not even Monsieur Henry can take that away from us.

Henry had his chance last night to become one of the greats in the modern game and admit to the referee that he handled the ball. Instead he did what most of us would do in his situation and let things be. The biggest problem that I have with Henry’s actions was not the handball or cover-up. It was the excessive celebrations and mile-wide grin that accompanied them. He knew he’d done wrong, his conversation with a dejected Richard Dunne at the end of the game said as much, but yet he celebrated wildly. It sends a dangerous precedent which flies in the eye of the saying “cheaters never prosper”. France cheated and now they’re going to the World Cup.

The saddest thing about all of it was something a friend said to me this morning. His 10 year-old son was watching the game with him and afterwards asked his father why Ireland didn’t cheat too. His father told him that it was because Ireland were the good guys and that cheating was wrong. His son then told him yes but France cheated and they won. Henry who is a huge role model to kids these days has just told an entire generation that it’s okay to cheat as long as you win.

The result left me saddened and angered that such a travesty of injustice could be imposed on people who gave it their all in pursuit of victory. We all know now of the circumstances that led to our exit, by way of the hand of a Frenchman who once was a model for integrity in the modern game. Tomes and songs will be written about that “goal” and I don’t want the game to remembered for just that.What last night was was the finest display of football by an Irish team in years and perhaps the best display I’m seen in my lifetime. Yes I can recall Italia ’90, against Italy in USA ’94, the defeat of Holland in 2001 and the draw with Germany in 2002 but this eclipsed all that. This was an Irish team fighting for themselves, each other and an entire nation, against a dubious play-off seeding process and a French side of superior footballing prowess. This was David versus Goliath stuff and for 90 minutes we dominated a footballing giant.

From the off the Irish took the game to the French. Sure the French started confidence but you could see that the Irish team was not overawed by the task at hand. Time and time again Ireland were winning the 50/50 ball, prodding and poking the French defence and testing ‘keeper Hugo Lloris. The French suffered an early blow when, in the 9th minute, defender when Julien Escude went down with a head injury and could not return. Sebastien Squillaci was brought on in his place but there were still 81 minutes of normal time to go and an early substitution would not have been in coach Raymond Domenechs game-plan.

The Irish were getting plenty of play down the wings and Kevin Doyle came closest to opening the scoring for the Irish. He failed to make enough contact with a close-range header after a sublime cross from Liam Lawrence. At the other end new sub Squillaci had a chance from a Henry cross, but his header sailed over the crossbar. The French midfield was being dominated and their full-backs were enduring a torturous time from Ireland’s raiding wingers.

With Ireland looking more and more dangerous the ball fell to Kevin Kilbane on the left. The winger turned full-back, enjoying his record equalling 102 appearance in an Irish shirt, played a beautiful neat ball into the path of Damien Duff. Duff raced down the wing and looked like he was heading out of bounds when at the byline he spun and turned the ball back into the box. Ireland’s captain and record goalscorer Robbie Keane was lurking with intent and sure enough he side-footed the ball, beyond the out-stretched diving arms of Lloris and into the back of the net. Goal 41 in 96 internationals for Keane and surely one of his most important. The 15,000 strong travelling support in the Stade de France erupted and for Irish men and women at home and around the world the believe returned.

The dream was on and France looked shell-shocked. The ten minutes until half-time stretched to an eternity and some nervousness entered the Irish team. France spurned a couple of good balls but never looked like restoring parity. Half-time arrived with the Irish confidence in full swing and with Shay Given looking relatively untroubled in the Irish net.

So here we were 45 minutes down, a potential 75 to go, sitting on a one goal lead that would be enough to take us to the lottery of the penalty shoot-out but not quite to South Africa. 22 years since we had last beaten a side ranked above us away from home in a competitive international, was history about to deny us again?

Whatever Giovanni Trappatoni said at half-time seemed to work for the Irish as they started the second-half the brighter. A great chance fell to John O’Shea but the Waterford man shot over from a tight angle. We knew a second goal for us would leave France needing two, but we couldn’t risk going for the jugular lest we leave ourselves exposed at the back.

A big chance came for Duff in the 61st minute when Lawrence played a beautiful through ball into the path of the Irish winger. Under pressure from the encroaching Bacary Sagna, Duff shot early but French ‘keeper Lloris rushed quickly from his line to close the angle and pull off a fine diving save. Still we were threatening and France had yet to impose their might.

The physical exertion started to extol an attrition on the Irish players and soon Glenn Whelan was forced off injured, to be replaced in midfield by Manchester United’s Darron Gibson. Defender O’Shea quickly followed replaced by Paul McShane. Groans of despair went round the Stade de France and through Irish fans as McShane has been known on occasion to make rash and costly bad decisions.

France started to gain the upper hand and as the half wore on they began to create more and more chances. Nicholas Anelka spurned a golden opportunity, flicking a header wide of the far post. But the Irish were back in it with Robbie Keane getting possession in the box only to take a heavy touch, which pushed him past Lloris, but out of play behind the goal-line.

France continued to push for a goal that would send them through to South Africa without the need for extra-time but the Irish defence stood resolute and defiant. Full-time came and 30 more minutes of action were guaranteed. Irish nerves were frayed and an entire nation left on tenterhooks. Could we survive 30 minutes of French attacking flair, could we nick a goal that would secure or qualification or would we go out after defeating one of world football elite teams over 90 minutes on their own turf?

Into extra-time and Irish hearts were in mouths as 5 minutes in Anelka tumbled in the box. The referee ruled that the pressure from Given was not a foul and a goal-kick was the result. Crisi averted for now but the French were definitely in the accendancy.

Moments later and the Irish were not so fortunate. French defender William Gallas bundled the ball into the back of the Irish net but Given and the rest of the Irish team were quick to rush to protest. TV replays clearly show French striker Thierry Henry handling the ball but the referee should firmly by his decision and the goal stood.

Aiden McGeady was sent on as the Irish fought valiantly to restore their lead. Their efforts were in vain as in truth the damage had been done and only the home side looked like grabbing a second. So after 120 minutes of joy, despair, agony and heartbreak France were on the plane to South Africa and Ireland on the flight home.

We’ll be back but with 10 months between now and the next competitive international it’s hard on us fans. We should take heart from the performance of this, our Irish football team. They deserve or respect and admiration for giving it their all and leaving every ounce of effort they had out there on the pitch. It will be hard watching the World Cup in 8 months time and thinking what might have been. The calls for video referees and of French cheats will ring long into the night, but for now let us reflect on those brave men in green and white and offer them a toast.

We salute you, proud sons of Erin.

The game is the sequel to the best-selling Mass Effect, and focuses on the continuing adventures of Commander Shepard, learns that entire human colonies are mysteriously vanishing. Shepard must team up with the human supremacist organization Cerberus in the investigation, and journey across the galaxy.

The game itself has a unique selling point in that saved games from the original can be transferred into the new game, allowing gamers to continue the arch from that game. Decisions in the first game impact how events unfold in the sequel. That is not to say that new gamers can’t just start with this one, as the game is complete in and of itself.

Personally I loved the original, and I’m currently deeply involved in Bioware’s latest Dragon Age: Origins. The company have a long lineage in RPGs, having created Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and this game is shaping up to be one of the highlights of the new year.

With the original now selling for between €15-20 it’s a good time to pick it up and see. The new game will be released  on PC and Xbox 360 on January 29th, 2010

I still prefer the first box art though.

That is why I am thankful that cinemas such as Screen on D’Olier Street in Dublin still exist. The theatre stands as a bastion of cinematic entertainment and one of those rare places that still captures the nostalgia and old emotion of attending the flicks. One of the things that makes this relatively small enterprise, in the heart of Dublin city centre, stand out is that despite the fact that it appears like a relic from a bygone past it is in fact Ireland’s very first digitally only art house cinema.

The Screen team have invested quite a substantial amount in order to bring the technology bang up to date but it is a welcome and noble effort. It offers a wonderful contrast of old and new that adds to the importance of the venue. And it is important. For Screen shows movies most are unlikely to see in the multiplexes, foreign films and cinematic artistry of determined majesty, the likes of which Hollywood could only wish to evoke in its big-budget brash and somewhat vulgar movies. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy the big-budget movies as much as the next man but they do not connect emotionally with an audience nor live long in the memory.

What Screen offers then is a chance to see movies that you won’t see else-where the way that they were mean to be experienced. One of my fondest cinema memories is of attending Screen during the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in 2006 for a screen of The Civilization of Maxwell Bright. This movie was wonderful, an unknown gem and I was privileged enough to meet with its star Patrick Warburton that day. The man is better known for playing the Tick in the TV series of the same name as well as providing the voices for the Tick in the animated series and Joe Swanson on Family Guy. While that might not be a fair example I have had the ultimate pleasure of attending many other fine films there which I knew little about but which I knew would be interesting and arresting. My confidence in this stemmed and still stems from a deep trust in the knowledge and conviction of the Screen team who seek out movie from far afield and unknown origin but are powerful and epic examples of the medium.

To coincide with their recent renovation Screen had a gala relaunch party last week. While unable to attend myself, due to being stationed outside Ireland’s fair isle, some of my friends and fellow contributors at Culch.ie did and by all accounts it was a star-studded affair and an event worthy of the surroundings. The relaunch aired the Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire classic Singin’ in the Rain and ushered in a new season of classic movies that will soon light up the silver screen once again. This marvellous new season will bring us the likes of Oklahoma!, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Wizard of Oz, An American in Paris and Meet Me in St. Louis. Films that have stood the test of time but that many will never have seen the way that they were intended, in the dark, projected on that magic screen.

The first movie of the new classic season will be Singin’ in the Rain, which will unroll November 17th, a chance for all those who couldn’t attend the gala to catch this legendary performance. It will be followed every Tuesday from then until Christmas with more iconic movies. Hopefully interest in these will spur a second season as many classics deserve a cinema airing once again. For this and many other reason Screen cinema has my eternal thanks as a film-loving nut.

Find out more on their blog or follow them on Twitter.

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There’s a new Blackberry on the market with RIM’s development of a sucessor to it’s best-selling Storm, the Storm 2. Not much has changed from a physical standpoint but internally there’s a new chipset which should make the whole device a lot faster (which was the biggest gripe with the old one). The new case is much slicker than before. The metal battery cover fits absolutely snugly, and the physical buttons have been merged into the display. The Storm 2 packs Wi-Fi along with 3G, and a 3.2MP camera. Expect to see it launched on the Vodafone network in the coming weeks.

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Sky and Microsoft have confirmed that Sky Player on Xbox 360 will officially kick off on 27 October. The service will allow you to watch up to 22 live channels directly through your Xbox 360. Sky is sketchy on the details but do say that you’ll be able to avail of the offer even if you’re not an existing Sky customer. To get the service you will need to be subscribed to Xbox Live gold and pay an additional charge. Actual pricing, however, hasn’t been announced yet. No word on availabilty in Ireland so I’m assuming it’s not going to be.

You can check out the Sky website for more details.

I have a regular column for movies showing each week called The Friday Feeling as well as a semi-regular column called Cool but Ultimately Pointless. CBUP is about new technology or innovations that are really interesting but will never amount to anything (in my opinion). The most recent CBUP was about Sony’s latest gizmo the PSP Go. There are numerous reason’s why this is pointless and I covered most of them in the post. I also try to review movies that I have been privileged to see before their Irish release date including Up and Adventureland.

Recently I’ve posted news stories about Doctor Who, the new International Amazon Kindle, He-Man and Barbie movies, the 61st Emmys, Monopoly City Stories, Facebook Lite, the A-Team movie cast as well as tributes to the late Keith Floyd and Patrick Swayze. I’ve also examined the modern obsession with 3D cinema as well as doing a feature on TV Bars.

I love Disney/Pixar and for Culch.ie I have posted about their forthcoming 2D feature The Princess and the Frog (twice) in addition to the review of Up. I’ve also examined the impact of the Marvel-Disney/Pixar merger.

I plan on writing a lot more and ideas are always buzzing around in my head. I’ve created this blog to post them all and weed out the good ones for a place I hope they’ll be appreciated, Culch.ie.