MAG (Massive Action Game) Official Trailer

Sony has unveiled MAG, an enormous action game exclusive to PS3 that boasts 256-player online battles.

The name means Massive Action Game, in case you were in any doubt, and SOCOM outfit Zipper Interactive is the studio behind it.

Lead designer Andy Beaudoin took to the E3 conference stage to fill us in, and revealed that each side will be broken down into eight-player squads led by those who had previously proven themselves.

There will be a character advancement trees to climb and you can fine-tune your soldier to fit your style. Eventually you will rank up and assume more responsibility in your throng.

The idea is to combine large-scale battles with the intimacy of squad combat.

All of this was illustrated in what appeared to be a CG trailer, which showed huge armies and multiple views of the action: commander view, top-down view - presumably depending on what role you take.

We'll hopefully have that for you soon.

MAG is due out sometime in 2009, or "beyond holiday season", as Sony boss Jack Tretton put it.

FF Versus XIII "PS3 Only Worldwide"

August 2, 2008 - While most of the attention regarding upcoming Final Fantasy titles have been heaped upon Final Fantasy XIII, Versus XIII is still being diligently worked on by Square Enix. At the DKΣ3713 Private party event in Harajuku today, Square showed off a brand new trailer that highlighted a large number of new characters, settings and even battles that look phenomenal.

The trailer started out with a quote stating that this game is "a fantasy based on reality." While we don't know what exactly the reality of the setting happens to be, the camera focused on a car that was speeding through a tunnel, and eventually showed the main character reclining in the back seat looking extremely bored as he was driven through the passageway. The next shot was a phrase that popped up, stating that "the real figure is still hidden in the sleep." Again, we weren't entirely sure who this real figure is, if it's the main character, who's the young king that's trying to defend his kingdom, or how they relate to the reality or fantasy of the game, but we were shown a sequence of the main character walking down stairs as a large group of armed soldiers opened fire upon him. This, and the deflection of the bullets with a crystalline shield, wasn't new, as we saw this at E3 two years ago. However, what was somewhat new was the addition of a mysterious woman that the main character appeared to come upon suddenly.

The amount of time that was provided to this sequence was quickly cut short, as the trailer went through a fast montage of various scenes, including the battle between the main character and how he destroyed the troops that fired on him, appearing to dislocate one soldier's arms with a sword and impaling others with another weapon. It also focused in on a group of men sitting in an elaborately decorated great hall, many of whom wore suits (akin to those of the Turks from Final Fantasy VII) and deferred their attention to one man that sat at the head of the table. With the scene taking the appearance of a boardroom meeting, it was quite apparent that the "chairman of the board" was rather displeased at events and it seemed like heads would roll.

One facet of the trailer that we weren't expecting was introduction of three new characters, who all interact with the young king much like a group of close friends or brothers would. We watched as the young king gets put in a headlock by a young blond man with a gun that looks like a cross between a sawed off shotgun and a grenade launcher. In turn, this guy is put into a headlock by a man with a scar across his left eye. The fourth man, who wears glasses, simply looked on and shook his head in disapproval. It's apparent that these men have some connection, and the trailer highlighted a few scenes that showed the four of them travelling in the king's car as well as walking away from an outcropping after noticing that a highway was washed out and they couldn't proceed along the road anymore.

Similarly, we weren't expecting that we would be shown someone that would stand up to the king, but we were shown two figures like that. The first was a hooded man who projected a large ring of swords around him as soon as the main character approached. The other was the mysterious woman mentioned previously, who fired up her magical abilities that flashed red as the young king's flashed blue. Both projected swords and appeared to clash with each other.

The trailer closed with a Shakespearean quote: "Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." While no date was given, the trailer did emphatically state that it was only for the PS3. So don't worry Final Fantasy fans, there's still one FF title that isn't going Microsoft's way.

By: Jeff Haynes IGN.com