Advent Children gets US release date, voice cast

It's been a long time coming for North American fans of Final Fantasy, but the countdown can officially begin--home versions of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is coming to the US April 25. The computer animated film based on the Square Enix franchise was previously released in theaters and on UMD and DVD in Japan, where it has sold hundreds of thousands of copies. The 101-minute film was directed by Tetsuya Nomura and Tekeshi Nozue, and written by Kazushige Nojima.

The stars of the game's English-language cast were also revealed today. Steve Burton, who gamers may know as the voice of Cloud Strife in the Kingdom Hearts games, was a lock to reprise the role of Cloud for the movie, but two Hollywood starlets will also become very familiar to FF fans soon. Rachael Leigh Cook (Josie and the Pussycats, She's All That) and Mena Suvari (American Beauty, Six Feet Under) will voice Tifa and Aerith, respectively, in both Advent Children and the upcoming PlayStation 2 game Kingdom Hearts II.

Those who can't decide between the DVD and the PSP-friendly UMD formats may want to opt for the DVD version. The 2-disc set features a bonus DVD with a story digest, deleted scenes, a "making of" featurette, footage from the film's debut at the 2004 Venice Film Festival, as well as peeks of upcoming Final Fantasy VII-based games.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is rated PG-13 and will retail for $26.96.

Master Chief Dual-Wields His Way to Windows Vista

Halo 2, the game that redefined first-person combat and multiplayer action for millions of gamers worldwide, is set to explode ontoPCs exclusively for Windows® Vista. Halo 2 for Windows Vista will be developed by a dedicated Microsoft Game Studios team in partnership with Bungie Studios.

Only for Windows Vista, Halo 2 will offer gamers both the single-player campaign and multiplayer experience of the original, as well as the additional maps offered in the Halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack. Gamers will also have the exciting opportunity to build, create, and customize their own multiplayer levels.

Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequel Halo 2 have achieved phenomenal success on the Xbox® video game platform as gamers around the world follow the saga of Master Chief in his battle against the Covenant forces. In 2003, the original Halo roared onto Windows PC. In Halo 2 for Windows Vista, the action picks up where the first game ended. Master Chief, with the help of a small group of marines, has destroyed the religious artifact and artificial world known as Halo, and is making his way back to Earth. There, he and the last surviving Earth forces mount a titanic struggle against the marauding Covenant enemy. To date, the Halo franchise has sold more than 14.5 million games worldwide with over 600 million hours of multiplayer action logged across Microsoft®'s Xbox Live® online gaming service.

The Legend Builds: Nintendo DS Offers Bold New Features

DS Gets Free Retail Game Downloads, Voice Chat and a New Look

The video games industry's "story of the year" for 2005 is growing even more compelling early in 2006, as Nintendo today announced major new initiatives for its hot-selling Nintendo DS portable game system.

In a matter of weeks: DS owners will sample free games simply by visiting their local game retailers; players will enjoy live, real-time Wi-Fi voice interaction with their portable game play; the 1 millionth DS owner will log onto Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, Nintendo's wireless gaming service; and a new lighter, brighter DS will make its debut in Japan.

Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales & marketing, announced the new DS features during his keynote address today at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' D.I.C.E. conference in Las Vegas.

"Nintendo DS was the only video game system that exceeded expectations in 2005, simply because it dared to be different," Fils-Aime said. "By further enriching the ways in which players can compete, play and sample new games, that process is accelerating in the opening weeks of 2006."

Here are the details announced at the D.I.C.E. conference:

DS Download Service: Starting next month, Nintendo will offer all DS owners free downloadable game demos and other downloadable content at thousands of participating retail locations around the United States. An in-store kiosk will beam wireless demo versions of games and other downloadable content into a players' Nintendo DS system. Users simply stop by the store with their Nintendo DS, click "DS Download Play" on their system and choose one of a variety of DS games they want to sample. The game will download automatically and users can play all they want (even if they leave the store) until the Nintendo DS is turned off.

Sequentially, players can try out as many games as they want, letting them test drive the wide array of games that can only be played on Nintendo DS. The first DS Download Service stations will include free demos of Tetris DS, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, Mario Kart DS, Meteos, True Swing Golf and Pokémon Trozei, along with a Metroid Prime Hunters video clip. The selection of games and other downloadable content at DS Download Service kiosks will refresh quarterly.

Metroid Chat: The new Metroid Prime Hunters game for Nintendo DS will give gamers the ability to chat directly with one another before and after matches played via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Players in North America can simply click the chat icon and say what they have to say. The microphone of the Nintendo DS picks up voice communication and transmits it to the people on their friend list. Players can use the chat function before a match to agree on settings or after a battle to relive their glories. This Teen-rated first-person adventure arrives March 20 and promises to open a dramatically fun new facet of gaming to Nintendo fans.

Nintendo DS Momentum: Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection now boasts more than 21 million different connections, representing more than 860,000 unique users worldwide. Nintendo DS has enjoyed extremely strong sales worldwide, selling more than 14.4 million units worldwide through December. The Japanese sell-through of the existing Nintendo DS hardware exceeded 5 million within 13 months, which made Nintendo DS there the fastest-selling video game launch ever. In addition to Metroid Prime Hunters, Tetris DS also launches March 20. Using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, up to four players can compete in wireless two- or four-player Tetris DS battles against friends or strangers, near or far.

Nintendo DS Lite: The lighter, brighter Nintendo DS system goes on sale in Japan next month. Nintendo DS Lite is about two-thirds the size of the original Nintendo DS and more than 20 percent lighter. Its availability in other regions will be announced at a later date.

PlayStation 3 FAQ

What is the official name?
PlayStation 3.

When was the system officially unveiled?
Sony officially revealed the PlayStation 3 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo during its press conference on May 16th, 2005. The system and controller were shown along with various tech demos and game trailers, though most of the trailers were CG "approximations" of what developers were aiming their gameplay experiences to be like.

When is the system launching?
Sony is currently quoting a Spring 2006 launch. Whether this is the timeframe for the Japanese launch only, the North American launch or a worldwide release is unknown. Sony's past products have been launched in Japan first, North America roughly six months later and then Europe and the rest of the world sometime thereafter.

When is the likelihood of a simultaneous worldwide release (like the Xbox 360)?
Given the fact that Sony has shipped less than 500 dev kits to developers so far, and doesn't plan on ramping up its production of 3000 new units per month until October, the chances of having enough software and finished hardware to meet even a fraction of the demand for a worldwide release would be pretty low. Officially, though, there is no confirmed answer.

How much will the PlayStation 3 cost?
Unknown at this point, though Sony guru Ken Kutaragi has stated that "It will be expensive" -- so it will almost certainly be more than the sweet-spot launch price of $299. In a recent interview with Japanese economic website Tokyo Keizai, Kutaragi said the company wants "for consumers to think to themselves 'I will work more hours to buy one'. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else."

What ports and external connections will the PlayStation 3 have?
A whole crapload. There are six USB 2.0 ports, four on the front and two on the back. It has slots for Memory Stick, SD and CompactFlash cards. There are also three wired gigabit Ethernet ports, an optical port for audio, a multi-AV connector and two HDMI ports.

How is the new controller different from the PS2's Dual Shock 2 controller?
Sony hasn't released a whole lot of information about the gamepad just yet, but as you can see in the photos, the layout of the button and analog sticks basically seems to be the same as the Dual Shock 2 (though the overall design is quite different).

Will the PlayStation 3 come equipped with a hard drive? How big will it be?
Sony will make a hard drive available for the PlayStation 3, but it will be a separate add-on. It will be a 2.5" removable drive, allowing you to transport large files and swap it out for other drives for more space. Additionally, the drive will come with a version of Linux pre-installed, thereby making the PlayStation 3 a full-fledged PC as soon as the HD is installed.
Sony has not yet announced a size for the drive, though it's basically hinted that it will increase the capacity of available drives for sale over time.

What kind of disc drive will the system use?
Sony announced some time ago that the PlayStation 3 will make use of Blu-ray technology. Sony and Toshiba had been in talks to combine the competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats into a single standard, though those talks have been disbanded. The drive itself will be slot-loading.

How fast will the optical disc drive be?
Blu-ray technology transfers at 36Mbps at 1X speed, or about 4.5MB per second. If the PlayStation 3 needed to load 128MB at the start of a level, it would take nearly 29 seconds (assuming nothing is cached on a HDD). 2X or even 4X speeds would cut this time down either by 1/2 or by 1/4. As Blu-ray drives aren't really available to the public yet (aside from a handful of pre-final parts in Japan), coupled with the price of the drives, we expect the PlayStation 3's drive to run at 1X (but the official speed is still forthcoming).

by Jeremy Dunham, Chris Roper