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Shonen JumphasanotherFinal Fantasy XIIItreatfor us, and this time it involves everybody’s favorite perennial mascot, the Cactuar.Final Fantasy XIII‘s take on the noble Cactuar is far less radical than itsredesigned Chocobos, given that it looks totally unchanged. Still, great to see with such lovely graphics. The rest of the magazine scan shows off huge landscapes and monsters, boasting ofXIII‘s sense of scale. If there was any doubt that this was aFinal Fantasytitle, the monster designs seen here put paid to such thoughts....

Sure,Project Gotham Racing 4will have a slew of cars, online modes, and fancy weather effects. That’s great, and we’re all very excited. But the real reason why we’ll be buyingProject Gotham Racing 4this October? The inclusion ofGeometry Wars: Waves.LikeGeometry Wars: Retro EvolvedinPGR 3, Waves will be playable on the virtual free standing arcade cabinet located in your garage. The title looks like it will play identical to previousGeometry Warstitles, but will contain new enemies and enemy patterns....

The Into the Pixel art exhibit opened last night here in San Francisco. The show is being held at the Hotel des Arts and contains four floors worth of artwork. Among the artwork on display are various pieces printed on LTL PRINTS, which are wall graphics that are basically giant stickers but can be moved around up to 100 times without losing their stickyness. Plus, they don’t leave any kind of sticky residue behind....

Spotted onTouch Arcade, today’s free app is a pretty neat little zombie killing sim that ought to amuse you for a few minutes. Taking an overhead view of a city, players have to eliminate zombies (red dots) before they take out the citizens (blue dots). The alienating visual style ofThe Raging Deadis actually quite cool and the gameplay is repetitive but has enough staying power to get you through a boring bus journey....

I’ve been completely hooked watchingFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhoodfor the last few months now. A new episode is released every Thursday onFunimation’s Web site(it’s also onHuluandYouTube, but a couple of episodes behind the ones on Funimation’s site) and every single episode has been awesome. With every popular anime seems to come a videogame of sorts andBrotherhoodis no different.Fullmetal Alchemist: To the Promised Dayis coming out on the PSP in Japan on May 20 and follows the events taking place in the series....

Fire up your Internet Argument Machines — the nominations for Game Critics: Best of E3 2010 have been revealed today! You can find the full list after the jump, but first a few notes. id Software’sRagereceived the most nominations across multiple categories (five), including “Best in Show.” It’s followed closely byDisney’s Epic Mickey, Harmonix’s and MTV Games’Dance Central, and Valve’sPortal 2, each of which received four nominations a piece. Electronic Arts has the most to write home about, with a whopping 17 nominations; Microsoft’s Xbox division trails behind with 11....

Last week’sdebatewas the last odd game debate in ouralmostyearlongjourney! It also ended with one of the best “odd debate” matchups of the entire series, with a legendary multiplayer game with virtually no story going up a legendary single player game that oozes in verbal detail. Even though Valve didn’t create the initial spark inPortal, I think the torch has officially been passed. Don’t worry, we’ll get someTeam Fortress 2debates going in a few months....

Hating videogames in Germany has always been popular, but it’s become a downrightfashion statementever since Tim Kretschmer’sschool shooting. Busybodies have been rubbing their hands with glee and condemning the so-called “killer games” with a passion, but the recent claim that videogames are asinister Pentagon conspiracytruly takes the cake. “During the nineties the killing simulators, employed for hand-to-hand combat in the US army and police, were released by the Pentagon to be sold for private use on the public markets,” claims German researchers Renate and Rudi Hänsel....

Games on Demand, the Xbox 360’s way of letting you spend a needless amount of extra cash on games for the convenience of not leaving your home, is making its way toGames for Windows LIVE. The service will be added on December 15, with a few games headlining the debut.Resident Evil 5,Red Faction: Guerrilla, andBattlestations: Pacificare set to be the big three. Surprisingly, “LIVE-enabled” versions ofOsmosandWorld of Gooare also going to show up in Games on Demand....

Most of you will know Fry & Laurie as “thatLittleBigPlanetguy” and “thatHouseguy” but I know them as a pair of very talented humorists who had a terrific sketch show known asA Bit of Fry & Laurie. As an example of their wonderful comedy, I have provided a video this week of one of their most brilliant sketches, the Michael Jackson interview. The sheer genius of it cannot be understated and it can be viewed post-jump, with a high recommendation that you do....

According to aGameStop online listing, Nintendo’s clever flinging and smashing game,FlingSmash, will only cost $29.99. Originally calledSpan Smasher, the game has players flicking the adorable Zip (or the female Pip in two-player mode) across the screen using the Wii Remote. My hands-on with the game (which requires the Wii MotionPlus for subtle angle movement) gave me the impression of a curious platforming, pinball, and raquetball mash-up. When contacted, Nintendo was having none of it, and wouldn’t confirm whether or not GameStop’s listing was accurate....

GameStop has listed a release date for the highly anticipatedMetal Geartitle,Metal Gear Solid RISING. According to the retail behemoth, Kojima’s next mindscrew will launch in North America on June 11, 2025. Of course, this is far from an official confirmation, but retail listings regularly turn out to have more fact than fiction in them, so it can at least be taken as a potential ballpark date. Metal Gear Solid RISINGis an action title starring the cybernetically enhanced Raiden fromMetal Gear Solid 4....

There’s still a few game series I lack under my gaming belt. I’ve decided I’ll be fine withoutStarcraft, and I totally passed on the wholeHalothing. ButMonster Hunter? There’s got to be something to all of that. It has sold millions of copies in Japan. And when you’re there, everyone has their faces in PSPs — on trains, in parks, out on streets — and they’re all playingMonster Hunter. I’ve been intrigued, but all of my play experiences have been quick sessions that didn’t amount to much more than frustration....