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Square Enix has launched a teaser website for the long-awaited Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers, with page visits determining when new videos of the game are released.

In case the trailer included in the Japanese version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time weren’t enough, this new teaser site should provide more than enough proof that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers for the Wii is still a going concern. The top right corner of the website currently features the aforementioned trailer, along with the wallpaper seen above, in sizes up to 1920 x 1200. There are also two grayed-out items, “It’s Gonna Be A Long Night” and “Public Spectacle”, with the words “More Visits, More Movies” flashing over them. You know what this means. We’re going to have to visit the hell out of the page. Here’s a link to kick things off.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers [Official Website]

Starting today, Capcom’s selling a BSAA North America zippo lighter.

BSAA stands for Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance and was formed by the United States, the United Nations and the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium to deal with severe biohazard threats.

This light is yours for ¥12,390 (US$127). Smoke if you got ‘em.

Days after Activision unveiled their teaser for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Codemasters serves up a gameplay trailer and new screens for Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, welcoming us to “open world modern warfare.”

Of course it could just be a coincidence…modern warfare is a rather common term, covering all things pertaining to warfare in modern times, and Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising does cover both of those bases. Either way, with Modern Warfare 2 not coming out until November and Flashpoint dropping this summer for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, there’s no reason the two different styles of modern warfare can’t co-exist peacefully.

Sony’s Jack Tretton says that dropping the price of the PlayStation 2 to $99 will bring new consumers to the PlayStation platform. Microsoft rolls its eyes.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft’s VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business Chris Lewis dismissed Sony’s announcement, suggesting that the key to staying competitive in the console market lay in developing the current generation consoles.

“This move from Sony at the end of the PS2’s life cycle is not unexpected. We believe, however, that the future lies in the growth of current generation consoles and Xbox 360, as the fastest growing games console last year, with sales up over 80 per cent, will continue to drive the market.

Essentially this is the corporate equivalent of rolling your eyes and muttering “whatever”, perhaps to cover abject relief over the fact that Sony didn’t lower the price of the PlayStation 3, a move that really would have give Microsoft a run for their money.

The sequel to Call of Juarez is actually a prequel, set 20 years before the original western shooter.

In Bound in Blood players take on the roles of the McCall brothers. The story opens with the two deserting the confederate army and becoming outlaws. It ends, we were told, with a confrontation between the brothers.

“It’s a story about the ties between brothers and how they can be destroyed,” said producer Romain de Waubert de Genlis. “It’s a very dramatic story, mature, adult.”

When they set out to make the sequel, the team decided to concentrate on several key features.

They wanted to create a visceral shooter, de Waubert de Genlis said, getting back to the sense of the shooter, something action oriented with the focus on shooting.

The team added slow motion modes, concentration modes, for each brother to help gamers feel more like gunslingers in the game.

They also wanted to make sure to build iconic wild west moments into the game, so you get to rob a bank, attack a train and see plenty of wide landscape in Arizona.

The biggest focus, though, seems to be on the cooperative gameplay of the brothers. At the beginning of each level gamers get to choose which brother they want to play as. Each has a distinct style.

Ray is strong, skilled in close combat and is a more brutal character. Thomas is the smart one, using long rang weapons. He also can use a lasso to climb to higher vantage points.

The developers dropped into the game, about two-thirds in, to give me a chance to check out gameplay, though I wasn’t allowed to actually play, just watch.

The level opened in a native American village with the colonel of the unit you deserted attacking. The colonel, they tell me, is the game’s arch enemy, chasing you throughout the game.

The player runs up to find some cover and then uses a mode to slow down time and quickly paints a number of rebs with a targeting reticule. When time resumes, the character unleashes a flurry of bullets from his six shooter, killing all of them.

This special mode is activated once you get six kills, an icon shows you it’s available, but you have to use it within sixty seconds or lose it.

Next he switches to two six-shooters, aiming and killing men as they run up to attack. Once he empties his guns he finds cover to methodically load each chamber of the gun before attacking again.

I also get a chance to see some horseback riding, with one of the characters shooting as he rides around the area. The game also features roping, which uses the thumbstick to sort of simulate the movements of trying to lasso an object.

Later, in another section, the developers show me a different special mode attack. In this mode you have to fan the thumbstick as if it’s the hammer of the six shooter to take out multiple enemies.

The game will also have the occasional duel. In this mode you character takes up a large section of the screen, with the camera focus on the player’s hip, hand and gun. You can also see the other character standing with his hand ready to draw.

Players will have to use one thumbstick to try and keep their character’s hand as close to the gun as possible without touching it, and the other thumbstick to try and keep the enemy centered in the screen. When you hear a bell ring you slap the thumbstick toward your gun and your character draws. Then you have to pull the trigger as the targeting reticule automatically zips up from the ground, making sure to hit your target.

Without trying it myself, I can’t tell how well it will work, but it looks like the type of experience that will be both fun and, in some ways, authentic feeling.

Bound in Blood’s multiplayer is meant to be a gaming version of cops and robbers, with one side playing as the sheriff and his posse and the other playing as the robbers. While I didn’t see multiplayer demonstrated, they told me that it will include a bounty system which increases the pay off for killing a player the better they are doing. The bounty earned in mulitplayer can be used to unlock classes.

Multiplayer will also include a wanted mode, with a team trying to take out the single wanted player and his protection.

As the presentation wrapped up I asked de Waubert de Genlis why he thinks previous western shooters haven’t done so well and why he thinks this one will be different.

“There are a lot of reasons for that,” he said. “There are trends. The sad reality is that because of what’s going on in the world modern warfare has become more popular. Awhile ago it was World War II games.

“And I don’t think there have been that many good western games with high production value. This is a fast-paced shooter, a very polished experience.”

While the price of the PlayStation 2 is officially dropping in the U.S. and Europe, the price remains the same in the United Kingdom.

Starting tomorrow, the price of the PlayStation 2 in the states drops to $99. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has released a statement saying that the European price will be dropping to EUR 99. That leaves our friends in the UK, who according to a statement issued to Eurogamer, won’t be seeing a price cut whatsoever, remaining at its GPB 99 price point.

This is more than likely due to the voliatile state of the British Pound, which caused Nintendo to raise the trade price of the Wii console earlier this month.

Battlestations: Pacific is a very fan-driven project.

The developers went through all of the forums for Battlestations: Midway and got all of the fan feedback for this sequel, said Alastair Cornish, a designer at Eidos.

“We have a very vocal, articulate group of fans,” he said. “We were able to take into account most fan feedback. THat ranges from smaller things like the inclusion of a cockpit view, which fans really wanted, to larger things like skirmish mode. And everything in between.”

In Pacific’s skirmish mode, players can access the multiplayer maps for singleplayer gaming.

Gamers will have five different modes to choose from, each with eight scenarios.

In Escort players have to protect or attack a unit or squadron. In Siege, players assist a landing operation or a fleet defense. In Competitive, players try to achieve the highest score by attacking hostile units. Duel is essentially a unit-specific deathmatch. And Island Capture has players fighting for control of a large area with different bases and outposts.

And all of the skirmish modes mirror the mulitplayer functions, Cornish said. so you can turn on or off AI bots, you can chance the difficulty settings for each. You can tweak the weather.

Cornish said you can even set it up so that a team of players take on an AI-controlled team.

Wolfenstein has a lot to live up to.

The original Wolfenstein 3D popularized, if not defined first-person shooters. Return to Castle Wolfenstein’s multiplayer introduced some of the most popular features of multiplayer gaming to the PC.

What will Wolfenstein deliver?

What It Is
Wolfenstein is the latest first-person shooter in id’s popular franchise. This time around Raven Software continues the story of 2001’s Return to Castle Wolfenstein with B.J. Blazkowicz using a mystic amulet to find the source of supernatural power that Nazis are tapping into.

What We Saw
I played through a chunk of a single level using some of the amulets abilities.

How Far Along Is it?
The game, due out this summer, was in pre-beta when I played it.

What Needs Improvement?
AI: The enemy artificial intelligence didn’t seem to sharp, not always getting behind cover or reacting to your sudden appearance on the scene. The developers said they’ve spent a lot of time working on AI and that the enemies react better and communicate with one another, so let’s hope it was just a pre-beta issue I ran into.

Dialog: Increasingly, I expect a bit more depth to my dialog. In the build of Wolfenstein I played I was hearing the same phrases way too much for my liking.

Those Hats: I made a joke yesterday about how, when disintegrated, the Nazis’ hats remained fully intact, falling to the ground where once an enemy stood. It’s a neat effect once or twice, but seen over and over again, starts to look a little silly. I’d lose it.

What Needs to Stay the Same?
Details: The game is meticulously detailed. For instance, I noticed that some of the enemies I shot left a spray of blood on the nearby wall. Very nice touch.

Gravity Wells: Early in the game an explosion causes the mystical veil to go haywire, creating these pockets of fluctuating gravity. Enemies didn’t just float in them, they flipped and tried to find their balance. It was a spectacular effect that I hope the game doesn’t skimp on.

Weapons: Despite the hats, the disintegration effect of the particle cannon is fairly stunning to behold. It was the only veil weapon I used, but I hope that Raven includes a nice selection of similarly interesting guns.

The Veil: Sure alternate realities in a game have been done to death, and I have to admit I was slightly disappointed to see it rear its head in Wolfenstein. But, once I started playing I started to like how it was used. I’ve only seen two effects in the veil so far, so I’m hoping the other powers will add new facets to the concept.

Controls: It’s not surprising that Raven nailed the game’s controls, id wouldn’t have it any other way.

Final Thoughts
I was pretty excited when id announced Return to Castle Wolfenstein, it was a surprising, for me at least, return to a franchise I loved. This time around my expectations are not nearly as high.

It could be that the recent glut of shooters have jaded me, but what I’ve heard and seen so far doesn’t seem to offer anything new for the genre.

Wolfenstein will be a solid shooter, but I’m still not convinced it will be the sort of seminal experience that Return to Castle Wolfenstein offered.