Count To Five: AC2 DLC, FFXIII Box Art, and Dante's Demo

This blog really isn't a place I plan on putting a lot of news. The 1UPs, Gamespots, Gamasutras and JoyStiq's of the world or place better fit for breaking news being they actually have full-time staffs dedicated to that. Besides, I more or less reserve my actual reporting for The Game Reviews and some of my opinions for Bitmob. But when I'm not doing a full-blown highlight of something here, I do want to quickly highlight certain news and other random thought I'm probably tweeting elsewhere anywhere.

Welcome the Count To Five. Here I'll highlight five bits of news or things that pique my interest or quick thoughts for which I'm not dedicating full articles here or elsewhere. And being practically everything else new I'm debuting around start with it....

1. Final Fantasy XIII Box Art Reveal

 See, not exactly huge news. But being I'm anticipating this game like a person dying of thirst anticipates fresh water, I'm showing it the love.

2. Spring 2010 Blooms More Assassination

Ubisoft annouced two packs of DLC for Assassin's Creed II set for next spring. Entitled "Battle of Forli" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities" (releasing in January and Feburary repsectively), the DLC would presumably be set near the latter part of AC2's Ezio's timeline or soon after if the actual bonfire is any indication.

3. Abandon All Hope Next Week

EA annouced "Hell's Gate", the Dante's Inferno demo, will release on PSN December 10 and on Xbox Live Christmas Eve. The demo will feature the entire first level of the game.

4. Dan Hsu and Demian Linn Back At EGM

As announced via a press release, the new Electronic Gaming Monthly has brought former EGM Editor Chief Dan Hsu and former Reviews Editor Demian Linn to oversee the reboot of the magazine. Hsu shared his thoughts on coming "full circle" on Bitmob today.

5. Game of the Year Thoughts

Still yet to play some of the major title (Uncharted 2 and Dragon Age: Origins stand out) but my short list of games I'd be considering for year end honors are coming together. Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed II, an Batman: Arkham Asylum stand out in my thoughts as nominees for best console game, Splosion Man and Shadow Complex are personal favorites on the downloadable sphere. Won't be tossing out any nods officially until after Christmas, but there's my thoughts are now.

Square Enix FFXIV Conference Blog

About the free to play rumors circulating: No pricing has been set as of yet. And that's it. Pretty much a FFXIV session.

No porting of characters from IX to XIV (makes sense, different worlds). Can transfer friends lists however.

Specifically, the Galka fighting scene in the trailer was in-engine.

Parts of trailer at Sony's press conference were pre-rendered and parts were from the in-game engine.

Simultaneous worldwide release for XIV. Multi-platform and multi-region beta coming.

Making more content for solo players as well as large scale battles as were in FFIX.

FFXI will be concurrently supported with FFXIV. At least another year of support (content) planned.

FFXIV: Set in a different world so different races. However, the races are similar as not to alienate FFXI players.

That was about FFXIV by the way. The start of this conference seems focused on that game.

Exclusivity update. It's coming to PS3 and PC. They are considering other hardware. (Xbox not completely out of the question yet then.)

Panel consisting of Nobuaki Komoto, Hiromichi Tanaka, and Shinju Hashimoto.

Rundown of the Square Enix lineup as we know: FFXIII and FFXIV, Dissidia, FFC:CB, Front Mission Evolved, KH: 358/2 Days, Nier, Order of War, Supreme Commander 2, FFIV: TAY, and FFCC: MLAADL

Great joke from G4TV.com (credit Brian Leahy): " I think the localization team for FFXIII is running this event." (running late)

Pretty interested in seeing what comes out of Square. The FFXIV online caught me off guard yesterday. Wonder what other surprises are here.

Square Enix Press Conference at 1PM Central. Should be able give some updates as it comes along.