Cross Edge, the fan service crossover RPG featuring characters from Gust, Capcom, NIS, Idea Factory and Namco Bandai, is making its way to the Xbox 360. It’ll be released later this year in Japan in the form of Cross Edge Dash.

The PS3 version was recently released in North America, but it’s been out in Japan for about a year. Compile Heart will be treating 360 gamers with content not seen in the PS3 version. Cross Edge Dash will feature additional event graphics and a Colosseum Mode where players can win extra items.

I’m surprised to see a game like this being ported to the Xbox 360. Cross Edge Dash is slated to release later this year in Japan. No word yet on a US release.

Source: Siliconera

Back in 2006, Atlus brought us Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army – a real-time combat spin-off of the traditionally turn based Shin Megami Tensei series. Despite mediocre critical response,  Atlus gave the Devil Summoner series another whirl with Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, the direct sequel to The Soulless Army.

While many JRPG developers have long since made their move to HD console development, Atlus continues to dish out their critically-acclaimed MegaTen titles on the PlayStation 2 and proves that the console still has some life left. Atlus made us sing with Persona 3, FES and Persona 4, but will they maintain the harmony with Devil Summoner 2 or will it be another weak entry like its prequel?

In DS2, you take the role of Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha the 14th to save the Capital of Japan from utter chaos. Accompanying you is your feline mentor Gouto, feisty journalist Tae and detective Narumi – the owner of her own self named detecitve agency. The adventure begins when a mysterious woman hires this agency to look for a character by the name of Dahn. Though reluctant at first, Narumi decides to take on the case, which sends you and your companions through a complex and intriguing tale of assassin clans, bizarre rituals, and even “luck locusts” – insects that steal people’s good fortune. While this may sound complicated, it isn’t necessary to play the first game to understand the story. Just keep in mind that it starts off painfully slow – taking roughly two hours to really get interesting.

The story is broken up into several chapters, and at the end of each Narumi will ask you questions regarding the case – very similar to Hotel Dusk’s mini-quizzes. It’s a great feature because it recaps what happened in that chapter,  clarifies the overwhelming events, and refreshes your memory if you haven’t touched the game in a while.

The best thing about the story is that it plays with your mind and diverges from the standard “good vs. evil” plot.  You’ll often find yourself relating to, or even sympathizing with your enemies – which will make you think twice before engaging them. During certain events, you may look back and wonder if the actions you took were indeed the right thing to do. The game will ask you some uncomfortable philosophical questions, the answers to which affects the game’s ending. Players accustomed to light-hearted stories like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy might be turned off by Devil Summoner’s mature themes.

Despite it’s strong story, DS2 falls short in the category of character development. While a few cast members display unique and rich personalities, many are completely lifeless.  Another issue is the repetitive dialogue; it gets very tedious reading the same lines over and over.

Much of Devil Summoner’s gameplay revolves around using the abilities of the various demons you recruit along your journey. For example, you may use one demon to extract clues from a stubborn character via mind-reading, or another demon to walk through a wall. This mechanic forces you to recruit or fuse demons in order to overcome the various obstacles that hinder your investigation. A few such obstacles were ridiculous and time consuming, and require a demon that possesses a particular, difficult to obtain skill,  or has one of his stats elevated above 30 (meaning you would have to spend time leveling and hope that stat increases).

As stated before, Devil Summoner ditches turn-based combat in favor of real-time, which makes for much more fast-paced and entertaining battles.  Raidou is able to dodge, block, and attack with both a gun and sword – but his moves are still limited. His abilities will only take you so far – for the rest you will rely on your demons. In the same way they help you overcome the in-game obstacles, they also assist you in combat.

At the start of a battle, Raidou can summon two demons to fight alongside him. You can give them direct commands, or have them repeatedly execute a move by auto-selecting it. The demons’ AI is incredibly smart – casting spells and using abilities only when the situation calls for it. For example, a demon won’t waste MAG (The game’s version of MP) to heal you unless you’re below a certain threshold of health.

Every demon uses the same MAG, and it can be overwhelming how fast your MAG drains during the first portions of the game.  The only way to regain this vital resource is to expose your enemies’ weakness and attack them while they’re stunned. Compounding the issue is your reliance on MAG – without it, you’ll struggle in battles, especially those against bosses.

Instead of capturing demons like the first game, they are recruited via negotiation – similar to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. Demons will ask you questions regarding life, your character, or the demon itself. If you tick off the demon with your answers, he’ll slap you and refuse to negotiate. If you succeed, you’ll get down to nitty gritty- which consists of bribing the demon with items or energy to make him join you. The negotiation process will not always be successful; some demons will just take your stuff and leave. It can be a little frustrating to give up items and get nothing in return, but that’s luck – which plays a huge role in Devil Summoner 2. It controls the positive and negative effects you’ll receive in battles – which is an interesting concept, though poorly executed. No matter how high your luck is, you can still receive negative effects several times in a row.

By far the most frustrating aspect of Devil Summoner 2 is its repetitive nature.  Raidou doesn’t learn any new maneuvers – only the demons do, and despite having a variety of spells, they execute them all in the exact same manner.  Boss battles also lack variety, and a few of them are fought several times. Character dialog is extremely limited, with demons and companions often repeating the same text over and over. All of this is exasperated by an extremely high encounter rate – there were times when I would take but three steps  before being sunk into a battle.  Fortunately these  encounters no longer occur in the city and load times are practically non-existent.

Arguably the best thing about Devil Summoner 2 is the unique 1930s Japan setting, which the game does a fantastic job of recreating. Pedestrians and vehicles realistically migrate throughout the city – even reacting to Raidou as he enters their path. Furthermore, the quirky, yet well-written dialogue further immerses you into the environment. Villagers would say “yew” instead of “you” which added to the old-fashioned style.

The game is pleasant on the ears, and features a fantastic soundtrack of jazz and rock tunes (though some are repeats from the first game). Unfortunately, some of the music seemed in contrast to the mood of a situation – often playing an upbeat track during a dramatic scene. Sound effects like swords or demon grunts are well done, however the game has no voice-overs which might bother some players.

It’s time to dust off your PS2 for Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2. It’s a fun and entertaining game with brilliant sound and art direction. Not only should you remember Devil Summoner 2 for having an extremely long name, but also for being one of the freshest and craziest JRPGs we had in quite a while.

Ah, the internet poll: How worthless you are. Cheaters will cast multiple votes on you by refreshing the page or using proxies. You are easily skewed and meaningless as a measurement of anything. Ron Paul is a perfect example on how internet polls shouldn’t be taken so seriously. He would single-handily win them if they actually represented voter intention, but the same didn’t happen outside the internet world.

If you’re like me, who frequents many gaming sites, you’ll notice that most will have some sort of poll. I take my time to vote for my favorite, but at many occasions, my choice isn’t in the lead. It won’t change my opinion towards my choice or prove anything meaningful. Internet polls basically serve as a form of entertainment (GameFaqs’ “Greatest Game of All Time” poll is a perfect example), but to fanboys, they are truly serious business.

A few weeks ago, CNET ran a poll, asking their readers which racing sim will be best: Forza Motorsport 3 or Gran Turismo 5. There were no options for “both games are going to be great” or “both games will suck”; it was just vote for GT5 or FM3. The poll might as well read “click here if you’re a Sony fanboy or click here if you’re an Xbot” because you know the poll was going to cause a fanboy war.

The shit really hit the fan when news about the poll made its way to N4G, and the headline read, “Forza Better Than GT 5, Says Vote.” I was hoping that people would ignore this or call it pointless because it was an online poll, but the fanboys made a big deal out of this.

A couple of them treated this as the Holy Grail or the be-all, end-all of all arguments. Here are a few comments:

“Zhuk: Xbox 360 and Turn 10 are victorious against the evil Sony Empire in this poll. Gamers have chosen Forza 3 as the ultimate simulator franchise this generation.”

“Vhero: Even when offering a free gift they cant win?? how much proof do we need which games better before they have even been released?”

“mirroredderorrim: It’s good to be the King.”

Yes, a poll where 40,000 (completely unfiltered or cross checked) people voted is an accurate representation of millions of gamers, and it also determines which game is better. I loved how Vhero acknowledges that both games aren’t even out, yet he treats the poll as something significant.

There was even a celebration post at N4G where GT 5 was dubbed “King of all Driving Sims” which is pretty silly because both games aren’t out, and it didn’t win anything meaningful; it didn’t even win the poll.

But wait, there’s more to this farce. What made this poll so popular was because Turn 10, the developers of Forza, were giving away a free car to those who voted for Forza 3. Some people were calling it bribing, but it was blown completely out of proportion.

It was posted on the Forza forums where the users were most likely going to vote for Forza 3, and the free car was limited to Forza 2 owners. Also, Turn 10 weren’t asking for proof; all you had to do was say “I voted,” even if you didn’t vote for the game. If Turn 10 were giving away free prizes to GT5 fans, then you can somewhat call it bribing.

The voting would have a similar effect if Turn 10 informed the forum goers about the poll without mentioning a free prize – I have no idea why they didn’t do that unlike Sony. Sure it’s a little silly that Turn 10 would bother to do such a thing over an internet poll, but stuff like this happens all the time to them. You guys are treating like it’s a federal crime.

“SpoonyRedMage: OMFG Turn 10 are giving Forza 2 owners who go on the Forza forums a free car in Forza 2 if they vote for them in a poll!!!! OMFG. They’re practically handing out bags of money!”

Well of course. How else do you think Scrooge McDuck got so rich?

Lastly, it was an online poll. Why are you all taking them so seriously? I can’t stress enough how pointless they are. Nothing bad was going to happen if your game didn’t win it. It wasn’t going to be the end of the world. The winner wasn’t automatically going to become the better game or get better sales. It’s not like an internet poll was going to affect your purchase decision or opinion on the games.

The poll is over and guess what? Nothing happened. We’re still waiting for the games and debating which one will be better; Forza fans still prefer Forza 3 while Gran Turismo fans still prefer Gran Turismo 5. Next time, please don’t take internet polls so seriously.

Ever wondered how deep the combat system will be in Bayonetta? Dream no more as a new gameplay video, courtesy of GameTrailers, reveals how deep and fantastic the combo system is. It shows Bayonetta executing some insanely over-the-top moves and combos with her rockets, guns, swords and whips.

Hit the jump to watch the video.

Bullets shooting out of her heels and rocket launcher tonfas? Yes please. After watching this video, I’m pretty sure Platinum Games will be delivering a thrilling action experience with Bayonetta, and I can definitely see why our E3 crew awarded it “Best Overall Game at E3.”

Bayonetta is slated to release later this year for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Do you hear the radio static? It’s getting louder and louder as you walk forward. Your flashlight illuminates the room, but you still feel uncomfortable about your surroundings. Whispers and footsteps surround you, but no one is there. The building then starts to decompose. Monsters start to appear and the music gets louder, making you run for your life; you try to exit the building as soon as possible. You exit the building, but the thick fog limits your vision, making you feel uneasy.

This Memories segment will be a little different from the previous ones. Instead of focusing on one game, this one will focus on a series. It was originally going to be about Silent Hill 2 due to its magnificent story, but the other installments were too good to ignore – well mainly the first and third one. They all brought something to plate and made them stand out from other horror games.

Narrative

The Silent Hill (SH) games have excellent, mature stories in them (except for Origins and Homecoming) which sets them apart from other horror franchises. The game that really wowed me in terms of narrative was Silent Hill 2; it had an incredible charm embezzled within it. Once you analysis and decipher the plot, you’ll notice how deep, mature and wonderful the story is. I hail it as one of the best stories in a video game.

*Begin Spoilers*

James, the main character, goes to Silent Hill to search for Mary, his wife who died three years ago due to an illness. A letter from his dead wife told him to meet her at Silent Hill which motivates him to go there. James’ is a mysterious person at first as we know nothing of him; his personality starts to unravel as you progress.

He meets Maria, a person who looks very similar to his wife, but she gets repeatedly killed by Pyramid Head; miraculously, she comes back to life every time. This didn’t make sense to at first, but when I got to the shocking plot twist, it all made sense.

In a hotel room, James sees a video tape of him suffocating his wife with a pillow. That’s right; the main character is a murderer. What I, along with many, came up with Pyramid Head killing Maria is that James is being forced to watch ‘his murder of his wife.’

In fact, Silent Hill summoned him to face his inner-demons; he faces a few bed-like monsters with a figure lying on the bed which represents Mary.

*End Spoiler*

There are a lot more that I haven’t covered like the non-playable characters and female monsters. The game’s plot is deep, twisted and fantastic.

One of the most remarkable things about the series is that the actions you take affects the game’s ending. Homecoming did a brilliant job on the alteration of the ending. It introduced the series to the dialog option where the player can choose the dialog, and some options will affect the game’s ending. Some games don’t have a true ending, so it leaves you pondering which one is the logical one – it’s a great feature.

Atmosphere

If there’s one thing the Silent Hill does best, it’s the atmosphere. Both the fog and fixed camera-angles limits your visibility, and every building you enter is dark; your only source of light is the flashlight. Accompanying it are some of the best and scariest levels in a horror game. The first ‘Otherworld’ level in the series was the school, and it was filled with little creatures and corpses nailed to the wall which really made me feel uneasy. What happened to this place, and why is the building made of rusted metal?

The two levels that made me sleep with a nightlight were the prison and hospital levels. It seems to be a standard to have a hospital level in SH. Imagine being in a dark hospital filled with disturbing nurses, slowly walking towards you with a knife or gun. No matter how great their bodies were, I wanted to be far away from them. Upon entering the hospital in SH3, I heard loud breathing from the nurses and my radio going crazy. Yes; two nurses were right near the entrance, and I struggled to make my way forward.

In the prison level in Silent Hill 2, loud footsteps and grunts surrounded me. I checked to my right, left and behind me, but no one was there. It terrified me, and I wanted to finish the level as soon as possible. Along with the jail cells, there were other places that got into my head like the mannequin and storeroom. Instead of making cheap scares like having a dog jump out from a window, Silent Hill takes advantage of its levels to get inside your mind and make you feel petrified.

Sound

Akira Yamaoka, the music composer for the Silent Hill series, does a fantastic job with the music. Silent Hill is mainly composed of rock and piano tunes. Some tunes featuring vocalist Mary Elizabeth may be too out there for a horror game, but it’s fantastic and relaxing; the ones without vocals perfectly sets the mood when something shocking happens. When the Otherworld arrives, expect to hear loud banging or eerie music – making you fear for your life; Yamaoka does wonders on frightening you with his work.

Along with the soundtrack, it makes you feel uneasy with its sound effects: heavy breathing, footsteps, whispers and rustling metal. All you’ll hear are your footsteps and your radio going static crazy every now and then with faint sounds like glass breaking or something falling. The series excels with its sound direction.

Overall

Out of all the horror games I’ve played, nothing comes close to Silent Hill in terms of theme, atmosphere and sound. Not only does it make you feel like you’re in danger with its controls and music, but it gets inside your mind with its twisted story and environments. The latest two games were disappointing in the narrative aspect, but one can only hope for another deep, twisted story like Silent Hill 2.

If you’re an Atlus Faithful, meaning you subscribed to Atlus’ newsletter, then you might have received an e-mail concerning the Persona PSP remake today. Atlus will once again spoil Persona fans with a nice bonus. Along with the bonus, the e-mail confirms a September release.

Every launch copy of the game will come in a premium boxed package which contains a two-disc soundtrack. The remake will have new animations, music and content like the Snow Queen quest.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is scheduled to release on September 22.

Atlus has become a favorite among RPG gamers for their localization of hardcore RPGs, finding their own little cult; and one of their latest DS offerings certainly supports that claim. Developed by Success, The Dark Spire is an old-school first-person dungeon crawler, very similar to Wizardry or even Atlus’ very own Etrian Odyssey.

The game may be too traditional for the average RPG fan, so it’s important to take a look at what it offers them. Does it do a good job at delivering an old-school experience? Read on to find out.

Upon booting up the game, you are given the option of using the preset characters or creating your own. You can name them, opt their alignment and race, and “roll the dice” to determine their stats. Sometimes a message will appear, informing you that the stats you rolled don’t meet the requirements, but oddly, the game doesn’t tell you what the minimum requirements are. Not only that, but your created characters are set to level 1 while the preset characters are on level 2. By the looks of it, the preset characters seem to be better selection. Sure, you can create characters with higher stats, but that’s going to require a lot of luck and time. This leaves the initial character creation impression as confusing and frustrating.

After you’ve selected your characters, your party is sent off to the training grounds, and training will be provided by Sir Garland. The training battle doesn’t clarify the battle mechanics. I even asked Garland the basics of battle, and he responded with “you have to experience it by yourself.” It’s like joining the boy scouts and being sent to the woods on your first day without knowing the basics.

Once you’ve finished training, your adventure begins; you are told to explore a tower called The Dark Spire and defeat “Tyrhung” in order to recover stolen treasure. While in the midst of exploration, you’ll meet some crazy characters, like pirates and bandits. Each NPC group has their own back-story as to why they’re in the tower, but their dialogue adds little to the main plot. The plot is pretty simple and isn’t the main focus, so if you’re looking for a story-driven RPG, you might as well look somewhere else.

Instead of plot direction, The Dark Spire focuses on character customization and dungeon crawling. As stated before, the start-up character creation process is annoying and confusing, but the beauty of character customization comes after you’ve leveled up your characters. You are free to leave and enter the tower to optimize your characters. You can go pray to the temple of your choice to build their faith, and go to the guild to select their abilities or spells. As you level up their secondary class, your warrior can evolve into a ninja while your priest can evolve into a paladin. This evolution causes them to learn more powerful spells; the possibilities are endless

The level up process was pretty irritating, and it made me believe that it was just based on pure chance. Sometimes, a character would gain 1 to 2 HP after leveling him up, but after loading up the saved data a couple of times, the character gained somewhere between 4 to 13 HP. On another note, there were a bunch of skills characters can learn, but most of them were useless, like cooking and dancing. They serve a purpose in some quests, but the objectives can be completed without them.

Dungeon crawling is presented in a first person view, and it gets addicting. Each floor has a unique look, personality and music, so dungeon crawling never gets old. As you’ve finished exploring a floor, it leaves you with the impression of “what’s next”, and motivates you to keep on exploring. Dungeon crawling can be dangerous as you can get lost or activate a pit, causing damage to your party. When you check your map, there is no indication telling you where you are. Instead, you have to cast a spell to pinpoint your location or memorize the floors.

The Dark Spire requires you to backtrack throughout the whole game for the main story or quests. Sometimes you’ll need to leave the tower and re-enter in order to gain access to the upper levels. Luckily, you are able to save wherever you want which makes crawling a little easier. While crawling and backtracking, you’ll find your characters on the edge of dying, and reviving them will cost a hefty sum. Money is an issue in the first few hours, and it’s cheaper to create your characters instead of reviving your current ones.

Battles are triggered through random encounters or when you enter a room. You input commands for each character at the beginning of each turn, and the characters with the highest speed attacks first; it pretty much resembles a traditional turn-based system. Some attacks or spells may delay a character’s turn and give enemies the advantage to attack first. Without a doubt, the game is incredibly difficult, which is perfect for those who are craving for a challenge. Battles can get both intense and fun when enemies come in large groups (somewhere between five to fifteen foes).

Like the statistic gain mechanic, part of me felt the battle system was also based on luck. In one boss battle, there were fifteen enemies present, but when I restarted the game, there were ten, which made the boss battle considerably easier. The lack of explanation of how things work contributed to the game’s difficulty. Dark Spire doesn’t inform you how things work, so you’re left to find out on your own.  Also, there was no indication that equipping a weapon eliminates the ability to cast spells. If you equip a sword to a priest, the priest can no longer cast spells, but if you un-equip it, the priest will be able to cast spells again.

One of the biggest issues I had with the game was the controls. When I wanted to use an item, I had to select the character instead of the item first. You select the character using the shoulder buttons instead of the d-pad. On another note, the game doesn’t use the stylus, which just feels odd for a DS RPG.

If you’ve seen screens of The Dark Spire, you would’ve noticed how fantastic the art direction is. It’s colorful, yet Gothic art brings life to the tower. You can switch between normal and classic mode, the latter of which brings out the old-fashion Wizardry look (a big bonus for purists). The soundtrack is composed of great classical rhythms and is reminiscent to Castlevania, which perfectly fits the tone.

The Dark Spire was clearly targeted towards hardcore and old-school RPG gamers due to its archaic and challenging gameplay. Even hardcore RPG gamers might not like this game, but for those who find enjoyment, you’ll find yourself spending hours dungeon crawling and customizing your characters. Despite a couple of flaws and annoyances, it does a good job on delivering an old-school experience.

Sony shocked the world yesterday when they announced Final Fantasy XIV will be coming exclusively on PlayStation 3, but that may no longer be the case. Square-Enix hosted a press conference this morning to clarify the game’s exclusivity.

At the press conference, Square-Enix stated “in terms of all other hardware, including Microsoft consoles, we are considering all other options at this time.”

This isn’t a confirmation, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 360 version of Final Fantasy XIV. Final Fantasy XI, the first MMO in the franchise, was released on the Xbox 360 back in 2006. FFXIV could end up being a PS3 timed exclusive.

Final Fantasy XIV is scheduled to release in 2010 for the PC and PlayStation 3.

Source: Kotaku

Yesterday at Sony’s E3 conference, a brand new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII was shown. It gives us an insight on the plot and shows off some gameplay. Also, it looks like a new party member is revealed. The trailer confirms a 2010 North American release.

Hit the jump to watch the Final Fantasy XIII E3 2009 trailer.

The trailer looks awesome, and I’m just glad this game is coming out next year. You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this game, and I’m sure you Final Fantasy fans have been eagerly anticipating it as well.

Ready to enter the world of demons and darkness? Atlus has released a new E3 trailer for the upcoming action RPG, Demon’s Souls. The trailer shows a couple of cinematic and battles, even one against a giant knight. Along with the trailer, the official American website for Demon’s Souls has gone live. We rated the import version highly, so you may want to check it out.

Hit the jump for the E3 trailer and official press release.

ATLUS LAUNCHES WEBSITE, OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR DEMON’S SOULS^TM FOR PLAYSTATION®3 COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

Enter a world of demons and darkness, where death looms around every corner

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 2, 2009 – Atlus U.S.A., Inc. today made available the teaser website and official trailer for Demon’s Souls^TM, a groundbreaking action RPG experience for PLAYSTATION®3 system. Beautiful, compelling, and unforgiving, Demon’s Souls is the hardcore RPG experience PLAYSTATION 3 system owners have been waiting for since the platform’s launch.

Revolutionary online features support your adventure like never before, presenting seamless interconnectivity that serves in every instance to enhance the single-player game. Team up with two other players in simultaneous cooperative play, working together to topple some of the game’s colossal bosses, or force your way into the games of skilled players and challenge them to PvP battle. Leave hints and clues for those who will follow in your footsteps; either intentionally or through your own inadvertent demise, your bloodstains will allow your successors to view a replay of your death, hinting at how to avoid your gruesome fate. Unprecedented in its depth and subtlety, peerless in its relentlessly challenging gameplay, Demon’s Souls is the ultimate action RPG.

Experience the game Eurogamer.net awarded 9 out of 10, hailing it as “absolutely compelling; dark, detailed, unforgiving, creatively cruel,” and adding, “you can learn to love Demon’s Souls like few other games in the world.”

Demon’s Souls for PLAYSTATION 3 system is scheduled for North American release in fall 2009.

VISIT THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE: WWW.DEMONS-SOULS.COM

About Demon’s Souls
King Allant the XII, the last king of Boletaria, searched tirelessly to expand his might. The Nexus, a great ice shrine nestled in the mountains, bestowed the power of the souls onto him, bringing prosperity to his kingdom. Still unsated, he returned again to the Nexus, where he foolishly awakened the Old One from its eternal slumber. This long forgotten evil, now wrought upon Boletaria, plunged the realm into darkness and fog. A mighty demon horde poured into the kingdom, devouring the souls of men.

Champions from other realms learned of Boletaria’s fate and sought to deliver the kingdom from evil; none would return from the cursed land. Called upon by a mysterious maiden in black, you go forth, the last hope for humanity in a place lost to demons and darkness…

Key Features

* Ultimate hardcore RPG challenge – In this brutal land, death is inevitable, but not final. Combining the best features of an action game and RPG, you’ll slice, smash, shoot, and ensorcel some of the most horrible, vicious enemies ever encountered. Are you strong enough to face the impossible and win?

* Groundbreaking online capabilities – Network features go far beyond any previous RPG, allowing players to leave hints for each other, replay death scenes, cooperatively revive dead players, or invade another player’s game to wreak havoc. Not merely an add-on feature, multiplayer options are vast, and uniquely focused on changing and intensifying the single player experience.

* Freeform and flexible – The open-ended structure of the game means that there is no single path, but rather a wealth of options. Set your own pace and progress as you like. Build exactly the character you want by creating a detailed avatar, nurturing the right stats, and customizing your skills and equipment.

* You act, the world reacts – The World Tendency system changes the aggressiveness of monsters and the rewards for killing them based on players’ actions. Different events and NPCs may be triggered, as well.

During Microsoft’s E3 conference, Infinity Ward revealed a quick demo of their upcoming first-person shooter, Modern Warfare 2. Soap returns as Captain, and he’ll be giving Roach (you) orders. The demo showed a snow level filled with explosions, ice-climbing and snowmobiles.

Hit the jump to watch the video.

Soap? Roach? I wonder how they come up with the characters’ name. Anyways, the snowmobile part looks very fun, and it’s shaping up to be a solid title.

Modern Warfare 2 is scheduled to come out November 10, 2009 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

During Microsoft’s E3 conference, Square-Enix has revealed the first ever gameplay footage of Final Fantasy XIII running on 360 hardware. The video shows a boss battle and Lighting summoning Odin.

Hit the jump to watch the video.

It’s a surprise to see the game running on Xbox 360 hardware since Square said they wouldn’t work on the 360 version after the PS3 version was complete. Either way, the game looks fantastic. The voice acting doesn’t look bad at all.

Expect Final Fantasy XIII to hit North America on spring 2010.

Source: Gamekyo