There's nothing quite like the feeling of exchanging your very own hard-earned cash for virtual ducats, knowing you'll never get it back. As it turns out, Japanese publisher Square Enix is a big fan of your money, and has just introduced its own proprietary currency to Japan.

Named "Crysta" (not just the name of that questionable girl from your high school anymore!), the virtual money can be used for "online community games like Party Castle ... MMO Fantasy Earth Zero, and to purchase soundtracks off the Square Enix e-Store," according to Siliconera. No announcement has been made on whether or not "Crysta" will end up in North America just yet, but we imagine that Square Enix would be happy to take our money as well.

Sadly, pre-ordering a copy of Divinity II: Ego Draconis from GameStop won't net you any divinity. Or any dragons, for that matter. What you do get for putting your money down on a copy of the Xbox 360 sequel to Divine Divinity is some exclusive in-game armor and armaments, representing the Blood Echelon, "a select lodge of elite Dragon Slayers who have earned the highest of distinctions on the battlefield."

Both online and in-store pre-orderers will be entitled to look like they're in the Blood Echelon when they freely roam around Divinity II's landscapes, reading minds. But only if they buy the Xbox version: the PC release does not list any bonus items. Divinity II will be available December 29.

This trailer for Star Ocean: The Last Hope International, the new PS3 version of the once Xbox 360-exclusive RPG, starts off by introducing a bunch of characters. It's like the trailer is showing off that all these anime stereotypes and more can be yours if you just play the game. And then there's some fighting.

If you like the Japanese voice work you hear in this trailer (that is, if you don't mind not being able to understand it), remember that the International release will feature both English and Japanese voice tracks, in addition to several subtitle languages. It'll be out February 9, just before the spring 2010 release of an actually new tri-Ace RPG.

[Via Famitsu]

The average American viewed over 9 million advertising messages over the past decade -- logically, a few would stick out in your mind as being better than the rest. Advertising trade publication Adweek recently voted on the best piece of video marketing to be released this decade. Two video game ads you might remember made the final nominees: "Diorama," for Halo 3, and "Mountain," for the PlayStation 2.

Sadly, both of these ads lost to Honda's "Grrr" ad -- if only Sony's "Horrifying, Reverse-Weeping Baby" spot had made it into the list of nominees, the company could have brought home the gold.

[Via IndustryGamers]

EA has just announced that a new round of pummelers and pummelees have signed on for EA Sports MMA. The game's site lists seven new fighters in total: Cung Le, Gilbert Melendez, Robbie Lawler, Ronaldo Souza, Matt Lindland, Scott Smith, and Josh Thomson -- a few of whom have participated in UFC fights in the past. Considering the UFC president's stance toward EA's game, we have to wonder if their participation jeopardizes their chances with the UFC in the future.

We've also got a few in-game screenshots for you to train with. Practice your virtual arm bars by checking 'em out in the gallery below.

[Via @EASPORTSMMA]

Japanese gamers are braving the cold right now, waiting on line to pick up Final Fantasy XIII. Square Enix and Sony have partnered up to create a limited edition bundle that includes a copy of the game, a white controller, and a pink Lightning-emblazoned 250GB PS3 Slim system.

It's unlikely this system will ever be officially released outside of Asia. Unless you're looking to do some import shopping, these pics from Joystiq Japan's Ittousai are the closest you'll get to owning the first-ever special edition PS3 Slim.

Much like the comical co-host of The Tonight Show with Conan O' Brien, we were infuriated by Hugh Jackman's victory in the "Best Male Voice Actor" category during last week's Video Game Awards ceremony. That Vector Monkey was destined to land in the hands of Andy Richter, who, you may or may not know, provided the voice of Assassin's Creed 2's titular killer, Ezio Auditore de Firenze a Lamborghini et Manicotti Formaggio.

You can view Richter's outburst, as well as a bit of his work in the game, in the Tonight Show clip posted on the show's official site.

Continued →

After a strong 2009, Sony plans to focus its efforts in the coming year on some new initiatives -- notably the still unnamed and, with a "Spring 2010 release," curiously under-promoted PlayStation Motion Controller, 3D games, and the PlayStation Network. In a recent GamePro interview, Sony marketing head John Koller said the company will be focusing on these "three big pillars" going forward, and detailed its plans to expand on each. "I think the areas that are going to be really critical to our success will be family games, as well as shooters and sports games ... they're areas that quite honestly, I think Project Natal and the Wii are going to have trouble matching," he said of the company's motion controller plans.

Without getting too specific, the PlayStation Network will apparently be seeing the addition of "a number of very critically demanded features" in the coming year, while the company strives to reach day-and-date release parity between UMD-based PSP games and their digital counterparts from third-party devs on PSN. He even teased the concept of "placing you as a consumer into the game physically" -- an idea he called "the Holy Grail of gaming." We get the feeling 2010 is going to be kind of a weird year, folks.

Though we had little more than names to go on before, Ubisoft let some details slip today about the two forthcoming chunks of Assassin's Creed 2 DLC, due at the end of January and end of February respectively. In "Battle of Forli" ($3.99), you'll defend Forli (surprise) from the Orsi brothers with the aid of Machiavelli and Caterina Sforza. With six new memories, the DLC will allow you to "accomplish a daring rescue and prevent the Piece of Eden from falling into the hands of the Templars." Also, the flying machine is back!

In "Bonfire of the Vanities" ($4.99), you and Machiavelli will free Florence from "the grip of the mad monk Savonarola" by offing his underlings in ten memories. There's also a new district of Florence, and a new move for Ezio: the spring-jump, as if his similarity to Luigi wasn't already striking enough.

As many have speculated, the two additions fill in the missing sequences (12 and 13) from the game, meaning the DLC is a great buy for people who love murder and people with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

We really should keep a count of how many times "raw" and "brutal" show up in the Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days marketing materials. Anyway, above you'll find the debut trailer for IO Interactive's "raw and brutal crime shooter" – so says the email it came attached to – that shows Kane ... wait, Lynch longingly staring at a bottle of pills, while Lynch, er, Kane has apparently survived a big shootout and is coming to visit the other guy in Shanghai. Ah, yes. Kane and Lynch are the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for a new generation.

Are you bored with the unspoken, yet powerful sexual tension between Resident Evil 5's protagonists, Chris and Sheva? Yeah, we are too -- that's why we're so excited about these scans from the latest issue of Famitsu (as uncovered by Siliconera), which reveal that the second chapter in the game's Alternative Edition DLC, titled Desperate Escape, will let you play as Jill Valentine and Josh Stone. In case you didn't recognize that last name, Josh Stone is actually a pretty popular British female soul singer. Seems like a weird choice, but what-evs.

Okay, Josh Stone is actually the BSAA member who helps out Chris and Sheva throughout the game -- mostly through the deus ex machina helicopter rescues for which the series is well-known. But wait -- if you're playing as Josh Stone, who's going to come rescue you at the end of the game in a helicopter? This could be bad, folks.

The PSP Digital Comics store will launch in several countries today. According to a PSNComics tweet, the US will receive access at noon Pacific time (3PM EST). The European PlayStation Blog states the comics store will open at 5PM GMT in the UK, Ireland (technical issue), Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The system will supposedly launch with hundreds of comics from Marvel, IDW, Titan, iVerse and 2000AD. Everything that's available should be listed on playstationcomics.com after launch. We're definitely looking forward to taking the service for a test drive with that "free comics" button.

Enterbrain reports that the PS3 has crossed the four million mark in Japan, selling over one million consoles in nine months for a total of 4,020,563. Though this milestone is impressive, expect the next million to go by much more rapidly, thanks to the price drop, the PS3 Slim, and, most importantly, Final Fantasy XIII.

The Wii also achieved impressive sales, but it's the Wii, so its total is a bit higher: 9,048,012 units. Many of those Wiis were likely sold to people buying New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which reached a life-to-date total of 1,401,558 copies in its second week.

While the last million sales have occurred since April in Japan, over a million Wiis were sold last month alone in the US. The difference in scale can be attributed both to the US's larger population and to the Black Friday phenomenon.

[Via Andriasang]

It appears the recently unearthed Ridge Racer: Accelerated trademark pointed to an iPhone entry in the long-running racing series. The title is now available on the App Store (try iTunes if you're not finding it through your phone yet) for $2.99.

The initial reviews state that the game comes with two tracks and three cars, but observe a few instances of crashing (as in the game, not the cars). If you've taken a chance on Ridge Racer: Accelerated, why not share your impressions with other readers in the comments?

Continued →