Googleshng:
Quite a few people pointed that out. Which is good, because the best guess I would have made would be Kid Chameleon. Others added that it's a cheetah that makes you faster, and someone said they were thinking about selling a copy on eBay.

Googleshng:
Drat. Can I at least have five happy little elementally themed dwarves fuse together and form a titan? If not, I may have to just ignore yon happy fun GM mode.

Googleshng:
Well, I think the box art is nice... and the instructions have a small novel's worth of backstory, which helps pass the time... and GAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!! MUST PLAY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW! Er, ahem. Next question...

Googleshng:
First off, no, there are no current plans to port any of those to a console at this time. Second off, asking me for money is a bit like walking up to someone in a 3rd world country with a bulging stomach and flies on their eyes, and asking for a sandwich. In other words, if I had enough money for you to upgrade your computer, I'd be spending it to upgrade mine. You should really be getting a job if you need money, or failing that, mooch off friends and family.

Googleshng:
The best guess I can make is that you have a soft spot for screaming 5 year olds and/or their crude crayon drawings. Unless you're refering to something else that completely slipped my mind.

On another note, when you run this column for as long as I have, there are two kinds of questions you learn to avoid like the plague. The rest of this letter contains BOTH OF THEM, and yet I'm printing it anyway. Tomorrow, you'll probably see why I normally avoid them.

Googleshng:
Well, he looks like Magus, acts like Magus, floats like Magus, and turns out to be Magus in what is effectively the rough draft of the game, so the only reason not to think he's Magus would be that he really doesn't factor into the plot much at all. However, it should be noted that said plot is the sketchiest one ever thrown into a game, and it glazes over a huge number of things it should focus on. If anyone would like to debate this point more, the editorials section is really hungry for submissions lately.

Googleshng:
I wouldn't say CC is particularly darker than CT. I mean, CT had the whole distopian future and distopian past and other distopian past and not one but TWO tragic fangirl magnet characters. Plus there's a scene where failure to press a sequence of buttons fast enough causes someone's legs to be mangled in a piece of heavy machinery. I think it's just that CC was set in the same world as CT, so fans were looking forward to revisiting various locations and seeing the return of various characters, but didn't get either one. Kinda like how Alien 3 killed off Newt and Bishop before the openning credits ended. There's just certain things you can do as a writer that are guarenteed to tick the audience off.

Googleshng:
You know, honestly, I can't think of even one game on the PS2 that's really worth buying one over. Shadow Hearts is a pretty spiffy game, but it's nothing spectacular, and in all honesty, the only the FF10 offers that can't be found in any other FF is a story that actually serves to LESSEN one's drive to advance the plot as it unfolds. As in, "We must defeat the evil boss! ... well, actually, we don't really. See, there's a few dozen other small parties of adventurers with the same job, and any one of them could probably do it no problem..." None of the other RPGs on it even bear mentioning. In fact, as far as I can tell, PS2 sales are still primarily based on nothing but momentum and unholy quantities of free advertising the media keeps giving GTA3. And heck, that has a PC port now.

Googleshng:
There's a few places in Arc 2 where you can't play with Arc Arena. In the last dungeon there is evidently one of them, and most of the rest are parts where you don't have Pokégirl with you. Anyway, you can just chalk Arc 2 up on the big list of games that don't let you do weird side stuff after entering the final dungeon.