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Final Fantasy XIII's Final Trailer Debuts Wednesday
by Alex Osborn | 11/21/09 | 5:45 AM PST



With Final Fantasy XIII's Japan release only weeks away, news has been pouring in regarding what to expect from the series' next installment. While Japanese gamers don't have to wait long to get their hands on the game, North American and European gamers will have to wait until March 9 to explore the world of Cocoon.

There is however, one more tidbit of content that is sure to come our way before year's end. In fact, you can expect to see a new trailer, the final trailer for the game on Wednesday of next week. Check Square-Enix's official site to see the countdown.

It's gonna be big.

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Supreme Commander 2 Moves Out in March
by Eric Jones | 11/20/09 | 9:55 PM PST

Square Enix hasn't been known for advancements in the real-time strategy genre...or Western-developed games at all for that matter. However, that will change in March 2010, which has been announced as the official release date for Supreme Commander 2, the sequel to 2007's acclaimed RTS by Gas Powered Games. Oh yeah, and there's a new making-of video too!



While we're excited to finally see the game released, I gotta wonder what Square Enix is thinking put it up against of their hugely-anticipated games, which is Finally coming out the same month.

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Mass: We Pray a Dante's Inferno Marketing Stunt
by Kombo Staff | 11/20/09 | 8:22 PM PST

Last week's satirical advertisement for Mass: We Pray, which featured cross-shaped motion controllers and gameplay modes like 'baptism' and 'ring the tower bell', has turned out to be another bit of sneaky marketing for EA's upcoming Dante's Inferno.

All of the game's marketing efforts have tied into the seven deadly sins.
Back at E3, EA held a contest asking attendees to take pictures with booth-babes, which tied in with 'Lust'. EA also sent out checks to media outlets as a tie-in with 'Greed'. Apparently the Mass: We Pray advertisement ties in with 'Heresy'.

Seeing these marketing stunts fall flat, I wonder if the controversy EA is trying to raise is doing the game any good.

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November Marks the Launch Anniversary of Many a Gaming Platform
by Kombo Staff | 11/20/09 | 4:08 PM PST

A lot of console and handheld anniversaries are being observed this year, such as the SEGA Genesis, the Dreamcast, and the Game Boy. But November seems to be the month to remember, as many a memorable platform celebrate can celebrate its launch going into the Winter holidays.

First and foremost, one cannot overlook the platforms of this very generation. Earlier this week, November 17th marked the third anniversary of the PlayStation 3's North American launch, while the Wii celebrated its own third just yesterday, November 19th. And at the start of next week, November 22nd, the Xbox 360 will also be able to celebrate, except this will be its fourth.

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FFXIII Gets "T" Rating Long After Nintendo Tried Marketing Original to Adults
by David Oxford | 11/20/09 | 3:08 PM PST

Following the announcement of a release date, The Examiner reports that Final Fantasy XIII now has a rating by the ESRB. And that rating is... T for Teen. Like you thought it would be anything else.

The reason for the rating is Violence (natch), Mild Language (yippee), and Suggestive Themes-- hello. Examiner says that "While the rating shouldn't be a shock to anyone, the use of suggestive themes could be. With the game appearing to have a heavy atmosphere of love and caring, two women who link together to form a car, are surely some other sexual like surprises, the suggestive themes are likely to be minor sequences."

On a related note, did you know that Nintendo once tried to market the original NES Final Fantasy toward adults?

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Microsoft to Reveal More of Project Natal at Gamefest in February 2010
by David Oxford | 11/20/09 | 2:29 PM PST

While earlier rumors of information surrounding the release of Project Natal were dismissed a inaccurate, Microsoft has gone on to confirm that it will reveal more information to developers at its Gamefest conferences in February, which are planned for the U.S., U.K., and Japan.

For the multi-track American event, Microsoft says it will be have "two full tracks solely dedicated to disclosing never-before seen details of game development using Project Natal." One will regard designing for the peripheral, while the other discusses the device's technical aspects.

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GameStop's Black Friday Video Game Deals Revealed
by David Oxford | 11/20/09 | 12:33 PM PST

The dreaded date of Black Friday on November 27th, 2009 draws ever closer. And while Kmart's gamer deals did little to excite, perhaps GameStop's offerings will do a little more for you.

So if you decide to venture forth out into the November cold at 6am for the named-in-poor-taste "Doorbuster" deals that run until 11am, or just any of the other deals which run all week, here is what you can expect.

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"We Interrupt This Deathmatch to Bring You the Following Announcement..."
by David Oxford | 11/20/09 | 11:13 AM PST

Some of you might be familiar with the Emergency Broadcast System or its successor, the Emergency Alert System, which tend to interrupt television shows and commercials with their shrill sound tests. And on occasion, they even warn you of imminent danger, too.

That is, unless most of the time your television spends on is used playing video games, in which case you'll be halfway to Oz before you know what's going on. That's why state officials in New York are planning to send the alerts issued by the Emergency Management Office over video game networks.

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Infinity Ward Considered Alien Warfare?!
by Alex Osborn | 11/20/09 | 8:45 AM PST



The team at Infinity Ward is made up of quite a unique and creative group of guys, and as such, I'm not surprised when I hear some of the outlandish ideas they originally had for Modern Warfare 2. From zombies and viral outbreaks to alien invasions, the development team considered a number of different possibilities when approaching the sequel.

In an interview with GamePro, Infinity Ward writer Jesse Stern describes the initial thought process that was involved in deciding what direction to take the game.

Hit the cut to see how it all began.

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British Government Recruiting Over Xbox Live
by Daniel Sims | 11/20/09 | 8:20 AM PST

Gaming has been prospected as an armed forces recruitment tool for years, so it was only a matter of time before online games were targeted as an avenue. It's just that the British government ended up doing it first.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) – a British intelligence agency working with the armed forces is initiating a recruitment drive over Xbox Live using in-game ads. The six-week campaign will target the 18-34 male demographic with streaming video banners and in-game ads. The effort will be led by GCHQ communications recruitment partner TMP Worldwide.

The first time GCHQ advertised over Xbox Live was its 2007 ad campaign for job opportunities in Splinter Cell Double Agent. The drive increased traffic to its website by over 500 percent.

The most famous gaming-related government recruiting tool has been the free America's Army games which seem to be proving legitimately effective. Real dynamic advertisements have been appearing in games and even on the Xbox Live dashboard for years now. A government as an advertiser in gaming seems like the next logical step.

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Rebuttal: Is Infinty Ward Anti-PC?
by Matt Pearce | 11/20/09 | 6:16 AM PST

A few days ago we published an article under the title "Modern Warfare 2: The Battleground for PC Gaming?" in which one of Kombo's Editorialists, Eric Frederiksen, discussed the hardcore PC gamer's opinions regarding Infinity Ward's move to do away with dedicated servers for their latest release. Like Eric, I'm a huge PC gamer. I've been playing PC games since DOS, and I don't plan on quitting. I fondly remember Quake LAN parties and dialing-up friends for Warcraft 2 matches. I'm also sad to see that games are straying from dedicated servers. In fact, the only statement of Eric's that I directly disagree with is that Infinity Ward's decision to use matchmaking in Modern Warfare 2 is "...one of the loudest shots fired from the bow of a major publisher against PC gaming." Infinity Ward isn't anti-PC, they're anti-piracy. If they were anti-PC they wouldn't have spent the time and resources to port the game to the PC. I know piracy played such a huge role in the decision, because shortly after the first Modern Warfare was released, Kotaku dug up a blog post of Robert Bowling's (creative director of Infinity Ward and a major proponent of the new matchmaking system) in which he mentions a disturbingly large number of people playing pirated versions of the game on the online multiplayer. Mr. Bowling titled this blog post "They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More". With that said, it can't be denied that Infinity Ward did, in fact, anger a lot of their hardcore PC fans with the decision to use matchmaking in Modern Warfare 2.

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15-Year Old Calls 911 When Parents Seize Xbox
by David Oxford | 11/19/09 | 5:08 PM PST

CNET News relays a story from the Chicago Tribune of a 15-year old boy from Buffalo Grove, Illinois, who called 911 to ask whether his parents were within their rights to take away his Xbox.

The boy soon hung up, said Commander Steve Husak, but officers went to the residence anyway to inform the youth that yes, his parents do indeed have such a right, and that maybe he should consider listening to them. Why they chose to take it away remains unknown, though one can only guess.

Upon learning of this, Microsoft's Director of Programming for Xbox LIVE, Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, would say "No no no NO folks. Do NOT do this." We concur.

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The Re-Imagining of Mortal Kombat That Might Have Been
by Kombo Staff | 11/19/09 | 4:58 PM PST



Before departing Midway last year, artist Vincent Proce put together a proposal for a new Mortal Kombat game that was "a re imagining of the Mortal Kombat franchise from the original premise but mixing modern muti-player and dismemberment game design with the original fighting mechanic." As a part of that proposal, he redesigned four of the characters from the original roster.

Given that he's no longer with the company, the idea isn't going to happen and only stands as a vision of what might have been. Nevertheless, he says "I still would like to one day redesign all the rest of the original characters if I ever find the time.

You can check out the four designs in much higher resolution alongside brief descriptions at his blog, along with some other cool stuff, including various MK vs. DCU endings and images.

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'Return to Ostagar' in New Dragon Age: Origins DLC
by Jeff Grubb | 11/19/09 | 4:44 PM PST

Bioware announced today that it would be releasing DLC for Dragon Age: Origins this holiday season. Players will literally Return to Ostagar. The expansion involves a quest, a King Cailan, and said king's honor. If you've played the game that might make sense, but I have my doubts.

This marks the third DLC pack to be released for the game since it was released. This is an unprecedented pace for DLC for a game that doesn't involve guitars or bands.

The expansion will cost 400 MS points, 400 Bioware points, or $5 in the Playstation Store. As is usual EA has received some criticism for not including this obviously planned DLC on the disc in the first place. Considering the game on the disc could take 60+ hours it does beg the question: what do gamers paying $60 "deserve."

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Gamer Fails at Suing Sony, Goes After Microsoft and Nintendo Instead
by Kombo Staff | 11/19/09 | 4:35 PM PST

One lawsuit-happy gamer by the name of Erik Estavillo didn't have much luck when he tried to sue Sony Computer Entertainment America for banning him from the PlayStation Network, so he has instead decided to try his luck against the industry's other two big platform holders.

And at the same time, no less.