Blowing off work to play a video game. This one's just a TV ad, but we know perfectly well that it happens in real life. This grade school teacher has waited three years to play Final Fantasy XIII and he's not gonna let little things like work and education get in the way of his gaming.

New scans from Shonen Jump has landed, and gracing its covers are Final Fantasy XIII's  (Xbox 360, PS3) newly revealed characters. Pucker up cos Cid Raines is in this party.

Enough with the teaser trailers. Square Enix is out to get going on spreading the word even faster and wider about Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360, PS3). And what better way to do that than with TV spots? Art in fifteen seconds after the jump.

Ahh the Chocobo - racer, part-time summon monster, and all-around encounter-free transpo. Yep, the Chocobo is quite the hardworking multi-tasker. Pretty soon, the mythical Final Fantasy bird will be adding another job to its résume: Avatar accessory.

Just when you think the trailer-teasing and scan-watching has gone old, Square Enix releases another awesome vid for Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360, PS3). This one is five minutes worth of in-game cutscenes and gameplay footages, with a hell lot more action and deeper looks at the characters than anything we've seen before. Enjoy.

It's not as much of a shocker as, say, Cactuar being already taken, but it's just as much of a news. ESRB has finally come out with their rating for Final Fantasy XIII (PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360). Like with the other iterations of the franchise, XIII has been tagged with a T for Teen rating.

The guys at Final Fantasy XIII.net got another scan from Shonen Jump, showing landscapes here and monster enemies there. It's getting a bit old, really. But on the lighter side of things, the scans did reveal how Cactuar would look in Final Fantasy XIII, which is...exactly the same. Don't be dissin' the same old look, it seems to be working for our thousand-needled friend - scans also reveal that Cactuar now has a lady friend.

I'm sure I'm not the only one curious about what exactly Alexander is. Sometimes, he's a castle, sometimes a machine, sometimes he's like a statue. For Final Fantasy XIII, the big boy's a mecha. New screens and info popped up again, featuring the Esper in action, plus some Chocobo-riding, and the new Crystarium system.

Good news, RPG faithful. Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox360, PlayStation 3) now has a North American and European launch date. Hit the jump to find out when Lightning strikes the West.

When the Japanese gaming mag, Famitsu broke the news on a Final Fantasy XIV (PS3, PC) code coming with the purchase of Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360, PS3), many folks went, "Ah, beta access!" over the supposedly good news. As it turns out, it's not a beta code. Famitsu now explains that it is in fact a campaign code, and it doesn't give you access to the FFXIV beta.