So, I SHOULD be sitting by the pool right now with Dyson, Dale, and Colette eating Sour Cream and Onion Lays and drinking beer, but Nick Chester is being a slavedriver and making me work and I can’t go to the pool until I finish writing this. Here are some fanboys saying some stupid shit about something. Hit the jump. Resident Evil 5is out today! Gametrailers has made me incredibly happy, as always, by putting up a comparison video showing the “differences between the PS3 and 360 versions of the game....

One of the games getting a new trailer at PAX this weekend isFinal Fantasy XIII-2. This video shows off some gameplay, gives a peek at the combat and introduces new characters. It also reintroduces Serah who, despite being a major character inXIII, spent most of her time off-screen. This time she actually gets some real screen time. I did not enjoy Final Fantasy XIII very much, I wasn’t able to connect with most of the characters or just did not care about them....

I have some new screenshots ofFinal Fantasy XIII-2today. They’re pretty enough, as expected, but I realized something after looking at them today that I should have noticed a long time ago. The military outfits inFinal Fantasy XIIIandXIII-2are ridiculous! They make the hair, belts and buckles on the main characters seem sensible. I mean, come on! Instead of something dark or camouflage, these guys are wearing bright yellow. And what’s with the neon rings on their legs?...

Finally we get to lay eyes on what we’ve been wanting to see all this time: real timeMetal Gear Solid 4game play. Hideo Kojima said that he would eventually get to show actual game play at a later time at Sony’s press conference during the E3 Media & Business Summit earlier this month, and he stuck to his word, showing it off at Konami’s Metal Gear 20th Anniversary Party yesterday.GameVideoshas managed to sneak us this demo video, hot off the presses....

What are Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, former Visceral/Electronic Arts devs who worked onDead Space, doing for Activision? Well, they’re starting their own game studio, of course. We already knew that, but now we have a name — Sledgehammer Games. That’s… a name, for sure. The team is already hard at work on a game, but obviously not saying much other than that “the titles needs the support of a strong publisher to make the game a success....

Not literally. But while Japan’s economy is sucking almost as hard as ours is, former Sony chairmanNobuyuki Idei (1999-2005) says that companies like Nintendo give him hope that Japan’s electronics industry will pull out of this slump. He told The Financial Times that‬”In the past,‭ ‬Japan was criticised for being an over-banked country‭; ‬now it is over-electronics,‭” ‬he‭ ‬says. That doesn’t make complete sense, but we know what he’s saying here....

We have a real treat for you today, with one of the most prestigious freebies ever featured.Minigoreis one of the best known iPhone games out there, and right now you can get your filthy, wretched hands on it for no dollars and no cents. Big thanks to Sagatron for tipping us off! Minigoreis a twin-stick shooter, but unlike most twin-stick shooters, this one isn’t a pain to control with touch-screen controls....

Turbine’sLord of the Rings Onlineis going free-to-play this fall. More specifically, the free-to-play version of the game will launch for PC’s in North America and Europe on September 10. What does free mean? Well, just that — you’ll be able to download the full game and play up to level 50 for no cost. Here’s where the opening the wallet comes up — there’s a newLord of the Rings Onlinestore opening up, where you’ll be able to drop dough on expansion pack, premium content, additional character slots, items, and more....

Is it really Friday already? Where does the time go? Well, you know what that means: Friday Night Fights 19 is upon us. We’re going to be playing many of the same fun multiplayer games you’ve become obsessed with since FNF’s inception. There will be plenty ofCall of Duty 4action for the (al)TOID clan,Team Fortress 2for the mouse/keyboard-lovers,Halo 3for those of you who love screaming “veto” repeatedly, and even the return ofGears of War....

Game worlds are getting big. Like really, really big. Have you playedJust Cause 2? That island is massive. In game world sizes it’s practically a continent. Don’t believe me? Well, I’ll let someone else’s photoshopping skills in the image below prove my point that I only made in the first place because I saw the image below. courageousrobot over atRedditgot to thinking (possibly while attempting to run acrossJust Cause 2‘s entire map) and decided to compare some of gaming’s biggest worlds by placing them over one another....

I had a video I wanted to post with this week’s GotW, but embedding was disabled on it, so really, screw it and screw whoever disables their Youtube videos. Instead, I made a drawing of a dragon that I’m using for a header image and you’ll just have to deal with that. I’ve decided the dragon’s name is Dragon. Dragon the dragon. He’s a dragon. Speaking of dragons, videogames were played this week....

Next Generationis reporting thatGAME, the evil band of megalomaniacs whoacquired Gamestationand threaten the UK with itsperverse monopoly, is now viewing the online realm with envious eyes and draws its plans for a digital download service, clearly bored of selling secondhand games that don’t work and offering you a poisoned bag of pennies and earwigs for your traded in goods. To be fair, the service doesn’t look too bad, which is a huge compliment for anything that British companies attempt online....

We had a chance to playNaruto: Ninja Destinyfor the Nintendo DS this morning, and fans of the series will be glad to hear that the portable pummeling action is a blast — and not a drag. This game is an upgrade to the 2006 releaseNaruto: Shinobi Retsuden, a 3D brawler which was appealing to fans of the franchise, but ultimately disappointed with low frame rates and poor response times. This is no longer the case, as framerates have been upgraded to a silky smooth 30 frames per second....