Sony Australia and Square Enix just had a 'sneak preview' of Final fantasy 13 at the IMAX in Sydney (apparently the 'biggest screen in the world'). You had to sign up to be able to go, and only the first 400 people were allowed. My friend and I got in and just got back then.
They started off by taking us all into the cinema and began playing the game from the start, up until when Lightning kills some monster. The fact that the screen was so big was actually annoying - when there was a lot of movement on the screen (mostly in the FMV's) it was almost impossible to tell what the shit was happening. it would take you a second to focus first and realise whats actually on the screen. but thats just because it's an IMAX screen, not the game.
Then they got out of it and loaded a previous game save from 4 hours in where...
**SPOILERS**
...Snow has been separated from the group and fights the Shiva sisters or whatever they're called. You have to fight and impress them in order to be able to summon them, apparently.
*END SPOILERS*
Anyway, they then let us back out into the foyer where there were around 10 PS3's hooked up to bravias with the game playing. I got a couple turns, and tried out the battle system. Its not as 'real-time' as I thought, and it actually impressed me slightly. I don't really like the battle system in the first place from what I've seen, but when I played it I could see how it actually works. I still think they could have done better, but it's not as bad as I thought.
They gave us free pizza and drinks, and then did a raffle, where people won a regular copy of the game, a limited edition copy, and a signed strategy book.
Overall, it was pretty cool. I've been trying to avoid watching videos of the japanese version because I don't want to spoil it, so this was kind of the first time I'd actually seen how it looks/works. It reminds me a LOT of FFX, in the graphics, art design, characters and especially the music. luckily, I enjoyed FFX, so hopefully I'll like this one too!
