Japanese gamers are braving the cold right now, waiting on line to pick up Final Fantasy XIII. Square Enix and Sony have partnered up to create a limited edition bundle that includes a copy of the game, a white controller, and a pink Lightning-emblazoned 250GB PS3 Slim system.

It's unlikely this system will ever be officially released outside of Asia. Unless you're looking to do some import shopping, these pics from Joystiq Japan's Ittousai are the closest you'll get to owning the first-ever special edition PS3 Slim.

Much like the comical co-host of The Tonight Show with Conan O' Brien, we were infuriated by Hugh Jackman's victory in the "Best Male Voice Actor" category during last week's Video Game Awards ceremony. That Vector Monkey was destined to land in the hands of Andy Richter, who, you may or may not know, provided the voice of Assassin's Creed 2's titular killer, Ezio Auditore de Firenze a Lamborghini et Manicotti Formaggio.

You can view Richter's outburst, as well as a bit of his work in the game, in the Tonight Show clip posted on the show's official site.

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After a strong 2009, Sony plans to focus its efforts in the coming year on some new initiatives -- notably the still unnamed and, with a "Spring 2010 release," curiously under-promoted PlayStation Motion Controller, 3D games, and the PlayStation Network. In a recent GamePro interview, Sony marketing head John Koller said the company will be focusing on these "three big pillars" going forward, and detailed its plans to expand on each. "I think the areas that are going to be really critical to our success will be family games, as well as shooters and sports games ... they're areas that quite honestly, I think Project Natal and the Wii are going to have trouble matching," he said of the company's motion controller plans.

Without getting too specific, the PlayStation Network will apparently be seeing the addition of "a number of very critically demanded features" in the coming year, while the company strives to reach day-and-date release parity between UMD-based PSP games and their digital counterparts from third-party devs on PSN. He even teased the concept of "placing you as a consumer into the game physically" -- an idea he called "the Holy Grail of gaming." We get the feeling 2010 is going to be kind of a weird year, folks.

Though we had little more than names to go on before, Ubisoft let some details slip today about the two forthcoming chunks of Assassin's Creed 2 DLC, due at the end of January and end of February respectively. In "Battle of Forli" ($3.99), you'll defend Forli (surprise) from the Orsi brothers with the aid of Machiavelli and Caterina Sforza. With six new memories, the DLC will allow you to "accomplish a daring rescue and prevent the Piece of Eden from falling into the hands of the Templars." Also, the flying machine is back!

In "Bonfire of the Vanities" ($4.99), you and Machiavelli will free Florence from "the grip of the mad monk Savonarola" by offing his underlings in ten memories. There's also a new district of Florence, and a new move for Ezio: the spring-jump, as if his similarity to Luigi wasn't already striking enough.

As many have speculated, the two additions fill in the missing sequences (12 and 13) from the game, meaning the DLC is a great buy for people who love murder and people with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

We really should keep a count of how many times "raw" and "brutal" show up in the Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days marketing materials. Anyway, above you'll find the debut trailer for IO Interactive's "raw and brutal crime shooter" – so says the email it came attached to – that shows Kane ... wait, Lynch longingly staring at a bottle of pills, while Lynch, er, Kane has apparently survived a big shootout and is coming to visit the other guy in Shanghai. Ah, yes. Kane and Lynch are the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for a new generation.

Are you bored with the unspoken, yet powerful sexual tension between Resident Evil 5's protagonists, Chris and Sheva? Yeah, we are too -- that's why we're so excited about these scans from the latest issue of Famitsu (as uncovered by Siliconera), which reveal that the second chapter in the game's Alternative Edition DLC, titled Desperate Escape, will let you play as Jill Valentine and Josh Stone. In case you didn't recognize that last name, Josh Stone is actually a pretty popular British female soul singer. Seems like a weird choice, but what-evs.

Okay, Josh Stone is actually the BSAA member who helps out Chris and Sheva throughout the game -- mostly through the deus ex machina helicopter rescues for which the series is well-known. But wait -- if you're playing as Josh Stone, who's going to come rescue you at the end of the game in a helicopter? This could be bad, folks.

The PSP Digital Comics store will launch in several countries today. According to a PSNComics tweet, the US will receive access at noon Pacific time (3PM EST). The European PlayStation Blog states the comics store will open at 5PM GMT in the UK, Ireland (technical issue), Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The system will supposedly launch with hundreds of comics from Marvel, IDW, Titan, iVerse and 2000AD. Everything that's available should be listed on playstationcomics.com after launch. We're definitely looking forward to taking the service for a test drive with that "free comics" button.

Enterbrain reports that the PS3 has crossed the four million mark in Japan, selling over one million consoles in nine months for a total of 4,020,563. Though this milestone is impressive, expect the next million to go by much more rapidly, thanks to the price drop, the PS3 Slim, and, most importantly, Final Fantasy XIII.

The Wii also achieved impressive sales, but it's the Wii, so its total is a bit higher: 9,048,012 units. Many of those Wiis were likely sold to people buying New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which reached a life-to-date total of 1,401,558 copies in its second week.

While the last million sales have occurred since April in Japan, over a million Wiis were sold last month alone in the US. The difference in scale can be attributed both to the US's larger population and to the Black Friday phenomenon.

[Via Andriasang]

It appears the recently unearthed Ridge Racer: Accelerated trademark pointed to an iPhone entry in the long-running racing series. The title is now available on the App Store (try iTunes if you're not finding it through your phone yet) for $2.99.

The initial reviews state that the game comes with two tracks and three cars, but observe a few instances of crashing (as in the game, not the cars). If you've taken a chance on Ridge Racer: Accelerated, why not share your impressions with other readers in the comments?

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POP247 kiosks are popping up at 150 locations around the UK, particularly in locations of heavy human traffic. The dispensaries, which apparently exist in the US too, can hold up to 400 units of games, DVDs and Blu-ray movies. The boxes are a collaboration between Sony Pictures and Universal Studios.

The kiosks will soon provide downloadable games and movies, as well, transferable to Sony memory sticks. This is a feature that should prove convenient for travelers on the go -- especially the PSP Go.

The traditionally Canada-based ELAN Awards today announced intentions to bring the show to San Diego next July 17–19, ending just before the San Diego Comic Con kicks off. Celebrating "video games, animation and visual effects," the fourth year's show makes it's US debut with two days of lavish events before culminating in the actual awards ceremony on the 19th.

Though the event's promoters promise everything from a welcome pool party to a red carpet engagement, we're most excited about something called the "sexiest party ever thrown for video games." Aside from knowing that it's a "street party" taking place in the "historic gaslamp quarter" of San Diego, we're just as flummoxed as you are as to what a sexy party for game industry folks could possibly be. With all those nerds in one place, though, it's assured that iPhones will capture the whole thing in all its confusing, clumsy, awkward glory.

Top Gun on iPhone is one of the device's many hidden treasures. Not only does it have cool, After Burner-esque gameplay, it's also got one of the best easter eggs of all time (as you can see above). Unsurprisingly, nailing the unintentional humor of the movie is one of the things that Freeverse designer Justin Ficarrotta says his team got right in a new postmortem published on Gamasutra.

The dev's top mistake? Using the wrong plane, or at least a different plane than the one fans were counting on. But again -- and we don't think we can stress this enough -- you get to play volleyball with the disembodied heads of Maverick and Ice Man. Doesn't that grant some sort of perma-forgiveness?

For the first time since the announcement of the game's burial in the first quarter of 2010, WBIE has released new media for The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest. In case you've forgotten about the upcoming Wii/DS/PS2/PSP action-RPG, it's a kid-friendly game starring a cuddly incarnation of Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn -- and, in the Wii version, an equally huggable Gandalf (for a second player to handle).

It seems that, even though you're in the middle of a war and hacking up thousands of monsters, the game's been approved for kids because your avatar has big feet.

Do you love the Dead or Alive franchise? Do you wish Tecmo would just get rid of all that pesky fighting and volleyball gameplay and give fans what they really want out of the franchise: quality alone time with the DoA girls? Thankfully, Tecmo has answered that call. Seriously.

The latest issue of Famitsu reveals a new Dead or Alive game for PSP called Dead or Alive Paradise. However, this isn't a new game in Tecmo's franchise. In fact, it's barely a game at all. The Examiner notes that this is a port of a mobile game, one which lets you play mini games with the girls, as you continue to purchase skimpier and skimpier outfits for them. Classy.

Paradise is scheduled for a Spring 2010 release in Japan and, thankfully, it's a single-player only experience. We'd hate to think what kind of terrible multiplayer modes Tecmo would imagine for a game like this.