Nvidia's GeForce RTX graphics cards are supposed to usher in a new era of gaming highlighted by ray-traced rendering and DLSS (deep learning super sampling) for better visuals. Not many games support one or the other yet, though the latest 'Game Ready' 417.35 WHQL driver release finally lets RTX owners enable DLSS in Final Fantasy 15.

The feature is in beta, and we haven't had a chance to try it out ourselves. According to Nvidia, players who own a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card can hit 60 frame per second at 4K with the quality settings maxed out and DLSS turned on.

"To enable DLSS, download the Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition update once available on Steam, open the in-game options menu, set your resolution to 3840x2160 (4K) and enable DLSS under Graphics > Anti-aliasing setting.  Then let us know your feedback on the first DLSS beta so we can continue to train and refine the performance and image quality of the deep learning network via future Nvidia software updates," Nvidia says.

Nvidia posted video attempting to show the full performance benefits of running Final Fantasy 15 maxed out on a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. However, it's only compared to a GeForce RTX 1080 Ti. We'd be interested to see how performance compares on the same card when enabling DLSS, versus turning it off. Anyway, here's a look:

Nvidia also fixed a handful of issues with its latest driver release.

• [SLI][Titan Xp]: SLI is disabled by default after installing the driver.
• [Titan V][Nvidia Control Panel]: The Workstation->Manage GPU Utilization page appears when it shouldn’t.
• [Rocket League]: The game launches to a white screen with audio in the background and then crashes.
• [Battlefield V: Day0 97][Ansel]: After being moved all the way to the left, the Ansel field-of view (FoV) slider stops following the click-and-drag mouse movement.
• [Hitman 2 Silent assassin]: There is flickering texture corruption in the game. [Notebook][3D games]: Frame rate of 3D games may drop to under 30 fps on notebooks.

You can download the 417.35 driver release through GeForce Experience, or go here to grab and install it manually.

Final Fantasy XV game director Hajime Tabata has left the company, Square Enix announced today. The revelation came during a livestreamed Final Fantasy presentation, which outlined the company's plans for XV's forthcoming DLC packs and the newly standalone nature of XV's multiplayer mode.

The news on the DLC front is surprising: three of the four announced DLC packs scheduled for release in 2019 have been canceled. Episodes concerned with characters Aranea, Lunafreye and Noctis have all been ditched, though the Ardyn pack – which focuses on the game's main antagonist – will still come in March 2019. "The Final Fantasy XV development team wish to thank all players who have taken this journey with them and will celebrate the experience with fans to the end," the publisher said in a statement.

On the topic of why these DLC packs were canceled, global brand director Akio Ofuji says the team assigned to developing them have been moved on to another "AAA title".

"A new company called Luminous Productions was formed, centered around the staff who had previously been developing the main game as part of BD2, and they have continued to work on the project since," he said during the stream. "The main purpose of establishing Luminous Productions was to create a studio that can deliver a completely new AAA title to the global market. The desire is to deliver this new AAA experience to everyone even a day [sic] sooner, and due to this directional change, the company decided to focus our resources on the development of this AAA title."

While the previously announced modding tools and Steam Workshop support have already been added, it's unclear whether the level editor is also forthcoming.

Meanwhile, it was announced that Final Fantasy XV's multiplayer component Comrades will get standalone editions on Xbox One and PS4, though no specific mention was made of PC. Later, it was announced that Final Fantasy XIV will get a special event designed for XV owners, which features Noctis in a quest titled 'Adventurer From Another World'. More info on that is here, but you can see the trailer for Episode Ardyn below.

Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy 15 is collaborating with Tomb Raider and Terra Wars, a spin-off from the mobile RPG, Terra Battle, and currently in development by Mistwalker. This brings players a new questline, new comrades gear, as well as in-game music.

Final Fantasy 15 is no stranger to collaborations—we've seen the gang show up in Minecraft, and Noctis risked messing up his hair by joining the ranks of Tekken 7. Here's what they're up to this time.

The first crossover sees Noctis join Sarah from Terra Wars in a whole new questline. The trailer, above, shows them stranded together in a mysterious location—with neither having any idea of how they got there. The questline is available to play now in Chapter 5.

Next up is the collaboration with Tomb Raider, which will let you dress up—well, your character—as Lara Croft with new avatar parts added for use in Comrades. Additionally, Tomb Raider music tracks have been added to the music player in the main game.

You can check out the details here.

We know why blockbuster series ultimately exist: if the games remain good enough to their audience, they'll generally keep selling big numbers. And hey, we love a whole bunch of them, but sometimes a cooling off period can't hurt. Take Assassin's Creed, which was flagging after the release of Unity and took a break after Syndicate, but came back last year with the far better Origins. 

This week, then, we ask the PC Gamer writers this: which game series should take a break? Guest contributor Fraser Brown also kindly takes part. As ever, we want to read your answers in the comments too. 

Joe Donnelly: Sonic the Hedgehog

I should probably say FIFA, Pro Evo or Football Manager here, given the fact each annual iteration could probably be reduced to a paid-for patch. But I actually enjoy the ritual of buying each new game—and drawing a line under the previous one—each year. Call me daft in the comments. 

Sonic, on the other hand, could do with a rest. If Sonic Mania taught us nothing else, it's that Sonic can still be relevant and, crucially, enjoyable in today's market when it sticks to what it knows. I'm a sucker for nostalgia, admittedly, but who really wants more Forces, Runners and Boom and the likes? Not me. Put your feet up for a wee while, Sonic. Chill out. Let's keep things simple moving forward.

Wes Fenlon: Total War

I write this while being fully excited for the next Total War game, Three Kingdoms, but: I wouldn't mind waiting a few years between big, majorly improved Total War installments. With the launch of the Warhammer series, the Total War dev team has obviously grown to support the simultaneous creation of new historical Total War games and the fantasy spin-off. Now that the two exist side-by-side, we can expect one or more new Total War releases every year, and these aren't games you just blast through in a sitting. They're deep and replayable for months on end, and the longer they have to gestate with the community, the better the mods for them end up being. I'm hopeful that Three Kingdoms brings with it some major changes to a formula that's been starting to get stale. I'd be totally fine with a new Total War game coming out every three years and being a major event. 

Fraser Brown: Assassin's Creed, maybe

I’m in two minds about Assassin's Creed. Origins ended up being one of my favourite games last year, but everything that connected it to the rest of the series was crap. The Order of the Ancients, First Civilisation and Abstergo stuff just didn’t matter. It was a game about a loveable Ptolemaic sheriff solving everyone’s problems. Odyssey looks like another step in a new direction, pushing the RPG stuff even more and throwing mythological monsters into the mix. I’m actually excited about the series again, but it’s entirely in spite of them being Assassin’s Creed games. 

So while Assassin’s Creed definitely needs a long break, I’m equally keen to see more open-world RPGs that blend history and mythology, but free from all the bloat and convoluted narrative that has developed over the last decade. 

Chris Livingston: Far Cry

Since 2012 a new Far Cry has come along almost every year (if you include Blood Dragon and Primal). I think they're generally good, fun, entertaining games, though they have sort of settled into a comfortable formula. Maybe it's time for a major re-think, rather than just a new map, new setting, and some tinkering with features. Far Cry 2 was vastly different than the original, and 3 was different than 2, so it would be great to see the next one, whenever it arrives, really step away from the mold, even if it takes an extra year or two. 

Jarred Walton: Final Fantasy

Okay, I admit I've never really been into the Final Fantasy games, but when 15 launched on PC I gave it a shot. And bounced off it so hard, I can't even imagine how people enjoy the series right now. The prologue was this lengthy teen-angst-meets-soap-opera and made me care about none of the characters. I hear it gets better, but it's going to take a lot to get me to consider wading back in. Maybe it's time to live up to the "final" part of the name and give it a rest.

Also, every yearly sports game. Madden 2018, NHL 2018, FIFA 2018, and so on. Working on those yearly installments must require some serious passion for the specific sport which I lack.

Samuel Roberts: Halo

Halo has already been on a break of sorts, if you don't count Halo Wars 2. Three years have passed since Halo 5 was released on a console I will probably never own (unless my 360 breaks, and I no longer have access to older Halos and Red Dead), and Halo Infinite made a splashy but detail-free appearance at E3. I think 343 has a lot of reverence for the lore of Halo, and clearly some of its multiplayer innovations (like Warzone) have gone down really well. But it's missing something for me: a big, sandbox-y campaign, and it has been since Halo 3. 

I'm predicting Halo Infinite will be in the 'living' looter shooter vein of Destiny and The Division, based simply on the name and the current shooter trends. I'm hoping that when Halo finally returns to PC, they put more of those classic larger-scale exciting encounters in the game, along the lines of Assault on the Control Room from Combat Evolved, or the double Scarab fight in Halo 3. This is what the series was always best at. 

With the arrival of Final Fantasy 15's mod tools last month, the Steam Workshop is already rife with reskins of the game's four nice car boys and their weapons. While you've got the obvious transfers of popular characters from other media and game series, you've also got a few that tap into different elements of the characters (hence Ignis's chef costume above).

Here are just ten highlights we've picked out, but it's worth scanning the Workshop page to see the full range of weapons and reskins that the community has created. Special shout out to creators Jazneo and Kyriya, whose creations pop up more than once in this list. 

Gladio as a lifeguard

For all those Final Fantasy fans who have dreamed of Gladio rescuing them from drowning off of the Dorset coast after a failed scuba expedition (like no one I know), user Kyriya has created this lifeguard outfit. "Look ready to run down a beach in slow motion...and look good while doing it," goes the description. Indeed. 

Kratos from God of War

This creation by Jazneo is based on the classic God of War 3 Kratos design, rather than the recent PS4 game that's generated so many insufferable dad memes. Since you do basically go to war with gods at the end of Final Fantasy 15 (well, one), this seems appropriate. 

Spider-Man

There are a few versions of the Spidey suit on Steam Workshop, all by user Snacks: a mask-on version, mask-off variant and a black suit version, the latter of which probably fits Noctis's aesthetic the best. Much like that scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming where Peter finds himself in the middle of a field unable to use his web shooters, I'm not sure how useful Spidey's powers would even be outside the city of Insomnia in FF15, but the costumes do look the part here. 

Chef Ignis

Ignis's cooking is one of the best parts of FF15, and this skin by Kyriya allows you to take that to its natural conclusion. It's a nice-looking outfit, and the best part is you can combo it with Hot Sauce and rolling pin weapons, also made by Kyriya.  

Solid Snake 

User AaronTheSnob has created this fully rigged Solid Snake costume mod, based on an original model rip by MrGameboy20XX. He looks far too happy on that Chocobo for my liking, but hey, maybe Snake's more into human companionship these days. Snake can be combined with his memorable SOCOM pistol and a CQC knife as part of this mod pack.

Squall from Final Fantasy 8

Squall and Noctis are both unmistakeably Tetsuya Nomura creations, and this mod by Jazneo lets you swap one for the other. Mods also exist for Final Fantasy characters like Lightning and Cloud, as well as their numerous weapons.

Dante from Devil May Cry

It's been over five years since the last Devil May Cry game, and next year we'll finally get to play a new one. In the meantime, this mod by Jazneo captures the Son of Sparta as he looked in DMC4, complete with working physics on his coat when he moves. You can swap him in for Noctis or Gladio. For a really deep cut, you can get Dante as he looked in Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne when he appeared as a guest character. 

Bahamut

I could never work out if FF15's Bahamut was actually a dragon or just a large man dressed as a dragon. In the case of Kou153's mod, there's no ambiguity: Noctis is cosplaying as probably the most famous summon from the entire series. I think it's a bit garish to wear on a road trip, but what do I know.

Freddy Krueger 

There's something about swapping FF15's affable chef for Freddy Krueger that I find mildly disturbing, especially when he's following you around at night. A Michael Myers mod is also available for Gladio, if you want more horror icons (who have mostly been robbed of their scary powers after years of dreadful sequels) in your crew.

Ignis cosplays as Ifrit

HAL's Ifrit outfit gives the mild-mannered chef a fiery makeover. You never really get to see enough of Final Fantasy 15's gorgeous summon creatures throughout the game, which seems like a waste, so dressing them up as such seems like the next best thing.

Final Fantasy XV boasts one of the most memorable casts in not only a Final Fantasy game, but any video game. Ignis, Gladiolus, Prompto and Noctis are all lovable, but are they as lovable as the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers? 

Actually, yes. Much more so, to be honest. But what I'm getting at is this: you can now play Final Fantasy XV as the bloody Power Rangers, thanks to this incredible package of mods by modder Jazneo.

In addition to all four Power Rangers (you know, the blue one, the red one, the black one and the green one), each of their weapons are available, so you can cruise around Eos taking out foes with a power lance, a power sword, power daggers and more. Notice how all their weapons have "power" added to the beginning? Nice touch.

Cheers DSO Gaming. 

Final Fantasy 15's long-awaited mod tools have arrived, allowing modders to create new weapons and character models and then upload them to the Steam Workshop.

What that means, apparently, is that you can now replace Ignis with a cursed Thomas the Tank Engine.

The tool set, called the Mod Organizer, currently only covers weapons, character models for existing NPCs and outfits. It's not designed as a space for you to create custom 3D models—rather, you can create your own assets in other tools and then import them into the Mod Organizer, where you can edit some of their properties.

So far, new weapons are proving the most popular on the Steam Workshop. You'll find keyblades from Kingdom Hearts, The Monado from Xenoblade Chronicles, and...er...a headless version of your companion Prompto that you can now whack enemies with.

New weapons will be governed by a 100-point stat distribution system to ensure they remain balanced. You'll be able to set their attack, max HP/MP, vitality and resistance to elemental magic before importing them into the workshop.

You'll also find quite a few character models aside from cursed Thomas the Tank Engine. There's one that turns Cidney into a Cactuar and another that replaces Noctis with Kenny Crow, one of the mascots for the Crow's Nest in-game fast food chain.

These have all arrived in the two days since the modding tools were added, so you can no doubt expect more elaborate creations over the coming weeks.

You can find out more about how the tools work on their official website.

Whether it’s an Easter egg, a joke character, or just a little nudge at a competitor, developers love slipping the odd reference to other games into their own. Sometimes though, they go beyond just slapping a Dopefish on a wall or quipping about a ‘doomed space marine’, and we get to see our heroes stride into entirely new, often completely inappropriate new worlds.

Here are a few of our favourites, along the ones that caused the most ‘wait, what?’ blinking on discovery. 

Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Jedi

Yes, he can hold his breath underwater for ten minutes and quip his way through any sword-fight… but only The Force Unleashed II let him try his luck with a lightsaber. Turns out that you don’t need a sharp wit if you’re waving around two of the universe’s deadliest glowsticks and aren’t afraid to use them. Guybrush Threepkiller is so famous in-universe, he even has his own statues. We’re almost positive that’ll be brought up at some point in the next movie. After all, Rey does need a new teacher. Just as long as Elaine never finds out about it. 

Final Fantasy makes history in Assasin's Creed

Obviously, everything in the Assassin’s Creed series is meticulously researched and true to life, especially the alien gods and the time Ezio punched the Pope. Write it all down in your history homework! Which means that, while aliens might not have built the pyramids, they definitely got up to a bit of chocobo racing on the side. That’s according to this crossover, where Assassins ended up in Final Fantasy XV, while its villain ended up pounding sand for a bit before being dragged back to his own game by a hastily summoned Bahamut. There’s even a stuffed Moogle lying around in case you feel lonely after they’ve gone, and some fancy weapons to keep and confuse archaeologists for a few thousand years. Along with that Stargate, obviously. 

Commander Keen hangs about in Doom II

There’s a few odd appearances in Doom 2, including the severed head of John Romero as the end-boss, and a trip back to Wolfenstein 3D in the secret levels. By far the strangest thing though is what lies behind those: former id star Commander Keen… murdered and hanging from meathooks. The story goes that Adrian Carmack was the childkiller in question, having chafed at making cutesy games instead of enjoying himself with blood and guts. However, that was not enough to get rid of the boy-genius forever, for both John Romero and Tom Hall have confirmed that Commander Keen, real name Billy Blaze, is in fact Wolfenstein hero BJ Blazkowicz’s grandson… and father to the Doomguy. What a strange family tree. 

Earthworm Jim digs into Battle Arena Toshinden

He’s the world’s mightiest worm! He fights aliens! He travels galaxies! He gets flattened by a lot of cows! And he’s one of the few 90s mascots to actually be awesome, starring in two excellent platformers, one surprisingly good cartoon series, and… well, let’s not mention the sequels. Like Bubsy, 3D was not kind to Earthworm Jim, though unlike Bubsy, people actually cared. His most successful jump into the third dimension turned out to be this Easter Egg in the PC version of Toshinden, where with the help of his super-suit and a really big club, he was finally able to make the future of gaming eat dirt. Pound them into the ground. Bury himself in glory. Be cut in half and yet… no, wait. Not that one. But it was still as good as fans were going to get.

Everyone plays Poker Night at the Inventory 

Easily the most ambitious gaming crossover in recent memory… and it’s all about hanging out between games. Telltale’s Poker Night series combined, amongst a few others (deep breath) The Heavy from Team Fortress 2, Max from Sam and Max, Strong Bad from Homestar Runner, Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade Adventures and also some webcomic whose name we forget off-hand, GLaDOS from Portal, Brock Samson from the Venture Bros (not a game, but never mind), Claptrap from Borderlands, Sam from Sam and Max replacing Max from Sam and Max, and Ash from The Evil Dead. Phew.

They weren’t great poker games, but that wasn’t really the point. It was about the banter between the different competitors as they sat back and shot the shit without the customary heavy artillery. We could also have had members of the cast from The Walking Dead and Back to the Future, but they were deemed unsuitable for the atmosphere. They didn’t want anyone crying, or any kids seeing Doc and Marty in a sweary environment. A pity. When the game revved up, they could have seen some serious shit.

Portal 2’s Space Core invades Skyrim 

When Bethesda showed off DLC for Oblivion, it was horse armour. And everybody laughed. Come Skyrim, the laugh was far more positive. One of the earliest additions saw the exiled Space Core (spoilers for a decade old game there) crash-land in Tamriel, still just as eager to explore SPAAAAAAAACE. Going bizarrely unnoticed by the locals, all probably fretting about that whole dragon invasion thing, it came crashing down in a plume of smoke. Pick it up and it still kept blinking and talking in your inventory, delivering… well, not very varied dialogue. In summary:  “Space. Space. Space!” And yet, still it was less annoying than all those guards and their epic tales of glory curtailed by the sudden impact of a ballistic stick to the lower-leg.

XCOM defends Civ V: Brave New World

What does XCOM do when there are no aliens to fight? Apparently, they learn to ****ing shoot straight. The XCOM Squad in Civ V is an elite tactical unit that gets the job done, air-dropping into friendly territory and laying down the law. Specifically, Thou Shalt Not Screw With XCOM. In the absence of aliens, they have their eyes set on "Giant Death Robots," and are happy to act as shock troopers or defensive units while they watch the skies and await their destiny. But since there are apparently no aliens interested in Earth during the Civ games, they’re probably going to be waiting a while. Should have taken the flight to Alpha Centauri.

Princess Rosella favours Leisure Suit Larry 3

Sierra On-Line loved its in-jokes. Not one but two sequels (this one and Space Quest III) ended with the characters somehow finding their way to the developers’ own offices for a chat with studio leads Ken and Roberta Williams, with Larry also taking trips to a Westworld style factory where adventure heroes are rebuilt after every stupid death, complete with King’s Quest’s King Graham being readied for duty, and finally showing up in the Old West for a cameo in Freddy Pharkas Frontier Pharmacist. By far the strangest cameos came at the end of Leisure Suit Larry 3, where the trip to Sierraland involved trekking through scenes from games like Police Quest and Space Quest 2, before meeting Roberta Williams directing a particularly annoying scene from King’s Quest IV, in which Princess Rosella is trapped in the slobbery mouth of a giant whale. Strange.

Frank West covers Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

He’s covered wars, you know. But oddly, Dead Rising’s original and best hero doesn’t seem to know how to cover himself in this odd outing. Despite Lost Planet being set on a frozen world, everyone’s favourite photographer show up not only without his camera, but also without his trousers. Somehow avoiding hypothermia, he runs around in nothing but underpants, while still managing to rain destruction on the armies of insects happy to not have to peel their food for once. What a trooper. 

Scorpion goes mental in Psi-Ops

Fighting game characters are probably the most cameo-friendly of all, whether it’s a full game like Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe, or bonus combatants-without-a-k-because-that’s-how-it’s-spelled in the likes of Injustice. But they show up in other games with curious regularity too. Lightning god Raiden for instance showed up in Unreal Championship, while invisible fighter Reptile could have popped into basically any game. Ever seen a flicker on your screen playing, say, Fortnite? As far as you know, it might be him.

But still, this was an odd one. Even though Midway was the publisher of both MK and Psi-Ops, it’s a bit of a leap from fighting game to third-person action game. Sadly, just wearing his palette-swapped ninja outfit didn’t actually make you the world’s clingiest fighter. He still had to swap out his “get over here!” attack for regular guns. On the plus side, having to beat every character in the game two out of three times would have gotten pretty darn tiring.

It looks like Final Fantasy 15’s road-tripping boys have gotten a wee bit lost on their way to a wedding or a fight or a chocobo race. They’re so lost, in fact, that they’ve managed to drive right out of Eos and enter the considerably more blocky world of Minecraft. They’ve dragged some pals along, too, including those of the more monstrous persuasion. 

Premium skin packs aren’t the most tempting of offers for a game that’s so customisable and already contains more player-made skins than you could hope to use, but you do admittedly get a fair amount of bang for your buck here. If you’ve got the Windows 10 version of Minecraft, you’ll be able to add Noctis and pals—all 43 skins—for a measly $2.99. 

Honestly, the image of Prompto riding a pig has already sold me on this, and I don’t even play Minecraft these days. But if you’d rather use characters from other Final Fantasy games, there are plenty of free alternatives. There are some skins from 15 in there, too.

At PAX East last week, I spoke (via a translator) to Final Fantasy 15 live services manager Shigefumi Tanaka about FF15's upcoming mod tools, which we were surprised to hear about last year—rarely do games of Final Fantasy 15's size commit to modability. The tools won't give modders total control over FF15, a fact foreshadowed by the inclusion of Denuvo DRM, but cautious as they are, they're far more than I expected back when the Windows Edition was first announced (which was nothing).

The first of the tools, releasing this spring, will allow modders to create weapons and outfits upload them to the Steam Workshop. There will be a set of guidelines for modders to follow, though Square Enix has not yet outlined exactly what those guidelines will be (I've asked and am waiting to hear more). 

Below is a brief clip from last Friday's PAX East panel with glimpse of what to expect:

Later this fall, the devs will also release a level editor. "[Players] can create their own little locations, dungeons, things like that, and play around with the assets we provide," says Tanaka. It won't be powerful enough to create "new characters and original stories"—not like Divinity: Original Sin 2's mod tools—though Tanaka says the tools releasing this year aren't necessarily going to be the extent of FF15 modding. 

"Ideally, we want to see it take off to the point where we can continue expanding it, and continue providing more tools for people to really enjoy their experience with the game," says Tanaka. "What we're providing with the initial set of the characters and weapons mods and the level editor later on are at the first stages of what we could provide. So once we have a chance to see how people respond to that, we would love to continue expanding that into providing better tools, bigger tools, and really just see how far we can go as far as giving content for players to customize and enjoy."

Below is a clip of the level editor, showing an interface for placing existing assets around an environment, as well a scripting system. At the end of the demonstration there are a couple of more complex-looking mods, including a golfing game.

I suggested that players may want to change the Regalia (the car central to FF15's road trip), and Tanaka said they had thought the same thing. "We have that idea bouncing around internally … It will probably be something people enjoy if we do ever release an official Regalia tool."

For now, the future of Final Fantasy 15 modding depends on the response, just as we previously heard that the future of Final Fantasy modding in general depends on what modders do with it. 

"For our team, this is the first time we're putting out an official mod tool for our game," says Tanaka. "We actually don't have any expectations, we're just curious to see what people are going to make. And then maybe we'll get a glimpse of what players wanted to do with this game from the outset—just depending on what we see, we'll see what kind of things they were interested in."

In a separate interview, I also asked Dragon Quest 11 producer Hokuto Okamoto and assistant producer Hikari Kubota if, now that the Final Fantasy 15 team is experimenting with mod tools, they might consider making Dragon Quest moddable. "Looking into the future, there is a potential for us to consider mod support, particularly if this game does well on Steam this time around," they said (their answers translated together). "But obviously this is all hypothetical."

"Is that something you're interested in? Mod support for [Dragon Quest]?" asked Okamoto. I said that PC players enjoy the freedom to make changes if they want, to add characters or modify battle systems, as examples. "I see," said Okamoto, laughing, adding that "it's very difficult" to add mod tools.

My impression from both interviews is that Square Enix's studios are excited to venture into PC-oriented publishing, but are taking careful steps. Modding is probably off the table for Dragon Quest 11, and Final Fantasy's first mod tools will won't be the basis for any total conversions. But PC gamers always find a way to make the best (and often the worst) of what they have, so I look forward to the elaborate, strange, and surprising FF15 add-ons that are sure to populate the Steam Workshop before the end of the year.

Square Enix has released a few sample mods, including a Half-Life costume, to show off what will be possible when the first of the tools release this spring. Though the tools may not initially be powerful enough to do this, I doubt the mod community will rest until it's somehow turned every chocobo into Sonic.