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#culturesmash It finally happened. For years, Japan has been waiting for the latest Dragon Quest game, and yesterday, it launched. Anxious gamers lined up in droves to purchase the title. In Shibuya, there was a special countdown event at retailer Tsutaya for the game. The first person in line appeared on stage and received his purchased copy directly from DQ creator Yuji Horii. What a wonderful way to get the game. More »

In Sleeping Dogs, from Vancouver-based developer United Front Games, you play as an undercover police officer investigating gangs throughout Hong Kong. In a new walkthrough video, you can check out some of the available side quests in the game; namely, police investigations.

#sleepingdogs You can get a pretty good glimpse at a lot of open world game Sleeping Dogs' features in this walkthrough led by producer Dan Sochan. Driving, conversing, hacking, and more. More »

#dragonquest When Mr. Sato isn't eating whoppers with a thousand pieces of cheese, he's eating whoppers with a thousand strips of bacon. And when he's not doing that, he's patiently lining up for video games. More »

PC players who can't wait for a taste of Hitman: Absolution are finally being catered to - the standalone promotional game, "Sniper Challenge," is now available for folks who pre-order Absolution on PC.

The game is free (insofar as making a pre-order is "free") from certain retailers across the globe. You'll find the full list here, but be sure to check with your retailer of choice before you place an order. Once ordered, you'll receive a code that can must be redeemed on the Sniper Challenge website.

#kingdomhearts There is a pedigree of role-playing fan out there that inherently 'gets' the Kingdom Hearts series. To these magical people each new entry in the series is another skein of thread being woven into a glorious tapestry of fantastic fiction. More »

#squareenix The creators of Final Fantasy are working on an action-role-playing game that will be platform-agnostic, according to a new report. More »

#finalfantasy As previously hinted, Square Enix will be revealing the latest entry in its Final Fantasy XIII "Lightning Saga" at the upcoming Final Fantasy anniversary event in Tokyo's Shibuya on September 1. More »

#review There are moments in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, when, caught up in a storm of hectic keyblade slashing and chromatic aerial theatrics, you might not notice the ticking timer on the bottom of your screen. Until it hits 0. More »

Square Enix is bringing its Android version of Final Fantasy III to Ouya. Sure, FFIII is a game you've played—and bought—a million times. And you can buy it again when it hits Ouya in March 2013! [Square Enix] More »

Clearly, Hong Kong gamers are getting the bost bang for their buck when it comes to the limited edition of Sleeping Dogs. Square Enix is tossing in four different content packs and enveloping Sleeping Dogs in some custom packaging, according to Siliconera.

The George St-Pierre pack is modeled after the MMA fighter of the same name, and includes the fighter's signature outfit and "flying punch" move for use in-game, and increased throw and grapple damage. The Police Protection pack unlocks an exclusive mission, SWAT car, SWAT outfit and rifle. The Martial Arts pack unlocks a shaolin warrior outfit and training dummy granting combat buffs. Finally, the Deep Undercover pack gives players a special undercover car and "plain clothes" costume, making it harder for criminals to detect undercover officer and protagonist Wei Shen.

Our more astute readers will recognize all of these packs as pre-order bonuses for various retailers here in the US, announced back in April. Sleeping Dogs - Hong Kong Edition will launch in Hong Kong on August 17 for 388 HKD, which comes out to about 50 US dollars.

#explainers There's a new Kingdom Hearts game out tomorrow. It's called Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and it's the seventh game in a series that now has 250% more spinoffs than main installments. More »

Hot on the heels of Final Fantasy 3's launch on Android, the original has made its debut on the Google Play store - well, a remake of the original, anyway. Final Fantasy on Android is the same as the iOS version from years ago and the recent Windows Phone 7 version, both of which are based on the PSP remake from back in 2007.

Final Fantasy on Android is available for $6.99 in the Google Play store right now, and runs on Android 2.1-compatible devices and up.

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Psst. Hey, Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Are you dead? Don't answer that if you are.

The fate of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, which has rarely been seen outside of lavish computer-generated video since it was announced in 2007, has been debated and doubted enough to push the game well into the realm of vaporware. Yoichi Wada, the CEO of Square Enix, took to Twitter this week to euthanize our latest, seemingly premature obituaries. "It seems someone is spreading a false rumor about Versus being canceled," he wrote. I hope he lets us know as soon as someone starts spreading the real one.

His comment, while without evidence, represented the first proper answer to come out of Square, which up until then had done nothing to mitigate the "false rumor." The games press would love nothing more than to quash or confirm the story, and it's one that shouldn't be simpler to resolve. Is your game still in development? Y/N.

#finalfantasy Released ages ago on iOS and just recently for Windows Phone 7, the original Final Fantasy (well, the PSP remake) is now available in the Google Play store for Android devices, prices to slowly plod along at $6.99. [Thanks, Jason!] More »

#finalfantasy Because paper is awesome! Comic artist George Alexopoulos turns role-playing game Final Fantasy VII into adorable 2D paper figures. More »

#finalfantasy More »

Don't call it Final Fantasy XIV-2. Square Enix's second Final Fantasy MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, is getting re-released after its tumultuous launch, and that means it's also getting a new name: "Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn."

Square Enix says the game is "rebuilt from the ground up," and it features "a new world to explore and storyline to experience." A CGI-heavy trailer for the new content can be found above, if you're into that kinda thing.

#finalfantasy More »

#wii So Nintendo is releasing an official USB memory drive for the Wii so players can enjoy Dragon Quest X. It's...not cheap. More »

Dragon Quest X is getting weekly updates with new quests and story segments—which should keep players busy! That's not all—ten weeks after release, there will be a massive update with new systems and gameplay elements. [Siliconera] More »

Sleeping Dogs? Great, another open world game about gangsters. We've seen all this bef... wait, did that guy just slam a dude's head in a car door? Did he vault over cover while simultaneously disarming someone? Did he jump off a moving motorcycle and hijack a car? Yes, yes he did.

#quantumconundrum Delightful puzzler Quantum Conundrum will receive two new downloadable content packs this summer, publisher Square Enix said today. More »

#bravelydefaultflyingfairy Square Enix's upcoming 3DS RPG, Bravely Default, looks gorgeous. As does its collector's edition, which includes what for most would games would constitute the entirety of their merchandise offerings. More »

#bravelydefaultflyingfairy The ridiculously titled Bravely Default: Flying Fairy will use a job system similar to Final Fantasy V, according to a report by Dengeki Online (as translated by Andriasang). More »

#dragonquest Not everyone in Japan likes massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Generally speaking, most people like Dragon Quest. So what happens when you turn Dragon Quest into a MMORPG? More »

#minecraft If Mojang and Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of Minecraft, end up down at a courthouse in east Texas, they'll probably see some familiar faces. Hell, it might be enough for a quorum of the Game Developers Conference. More »

#review Heroes of Ruin is an incredibly apropos title for Square Enix and N-Space's online multiplayer action role-playing game for the Nintendo 3DS. More »

#finalfantasy Square Enix will announce news about the future of Final Fantasy XIII on September 1, Andriasang reports today. More »

#randomencounters You know how people like to use the word "rehash" to describe games? "Oh, that Call of Duty 44 is such a rehash." "Can't believe they're rehashing Halo again." That sort of thing? More »