In the latest PSM, the unofficial PlayStation Magazine, some tasty and possibly regrettable claims are made about the graphics of Square-Enix's upcoming Final Fantasy XIII. Invoking the unholy name of Sakaguchi's Hollywood abortion Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, PSM's Kaiser Hwang sets us up for some serious overhyping.

Says Hwang, courtesy of FF-XIII.net:

The graphical quality is simply stunning. In fact, we'd say it's, at worst, on par with The Spirits WIthin. Think about that for a second. Sometime in the next year or two, you'll be playing a game on a home console that's, so far, visually superior to a Hollywood movie that required hundreds of computers to make.

Gah! Despite some very pretty pictures shown off by Square-Enix over the past year, I have my doubts that they'll look like that in the final product. Maybe he's right and FFXIII will melt my eyeballs. I'm just a very sensitive man and can't have my heart broken by another lofty "better than Toy Story" type claim. Hold me. Michael McWhertor

Kotakuite Spence sends in this interesting tidbit about the possibility of Loco Roco coming to the PS3. It seems that during Phil Harrison's keynote speech at this year's GDC, an eagle eyed NeoGAF forum poster noticed a Loco Roco achievement trophy within the Home demonstration.

Now, Spence has found an ad for an upcoming edition of PSM3 magazine in this month's edition of UK's EDGE magazine. I know, it's all a little confusing. But, suffice it to say that the ad is touting a feature called "Future of PS3" and shows a bunch of hand drawn Loco Roco blobs with the line "Loco Roco - PS3!" written underneath them in huge letters. Now obviously this isn't rock solid proof of the game appearing on the PS3, but it certainly does give one hope. All will be revealed when the issue of PSM3 in question hits UK shelves on April 12. Flynn De Marco

Singing balls coming to the PS3 [Spence What?]

No longer content to advertise in places trolled by 360 gamers, Microsoft, it seems, has taken out a back page ad in the latest PS3 magazine for the Xbox 360's Gears of War.

I suppose that's not as gutsy as occupying the borders of the Gamespot Playstation 3 pages. Brian Crecente

Younger whippersnappers, whom I'd appreciate getting off my goddamn lawn, can also check out the more recent fanboy mag, PSM with previews of Final Fantasy VII and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Mmmm. That's some ripe nostalgia! Michael McWhertor

PDF: Playstation Magazine #1 - September 1997

Their proof? The latest issue of PSM... a story which was thoroughly debunked days ago. As we reported, PSM was just quoting the rumored price, not actually claiming an authoritative source. It's worth mentioning that a Sony representative told Kotaku that no price has been released yet (no kidding).

So Forbes, a highly respected business and finance publication, couldn't even be bothered to call up either PSM or Sony and verify their story. Yet Kotaku's gaggle of Control+C/Control+V monkeys could. As much as we love watching Forbes take an electric kool aid acid test up some gossipy gaming journalist's news-excreting wazoo, we're sick of the PS3 pricing teases. Someone tell us what it costs when Sony tells us what it's cost. Oh, and renames the PS3 to "Piii".

Latest PS3 Pricing Rumors [Forbes]
Previously: Playstation 3 Secrets — Revealed!

PS3 Interviews on Playstation Magazine [Playstation 3 Blog]

PSM has an in-depth look at GTA: Liberty City Stories for the Playstation Portable and of course someone out there decided to transcribe the whole thing for the net, because God forbid we spend a couple of bucks to read it.

And now to be a hypocrite here's a few excerpts from the article:

Guns? Check. Carjacking? Check. A fully realized 3D world in which you are free to do pretty much anything you want, including meeting with shady characters who send you on missions of questionable legality? Check, check and check. Yep, this is GTA all right.

This GTA takes place in the Liberty City of GTA 3, but this time around you play as Tony Cipriani, the guy who handed out missions in 3.

Taking place three years before the events of GTA3, that's about 1998 or so, for those who dont want to do the math- Liberty City Stories follows Toni Cipriani as he moves up in the criminal world. While it may not seem like it, three years is alot of time, and there are bound to be some changes. For example, three years before Sex Club 7 became the place where Luigi (Joe Pantoliano) gave work to the mute GTA 3 protagonist, the strip club was called Paulie's Revue Bar.

The game sounds like it's packed with almost everything that we love about Rockstar games, no, that doesn't mean it's just really, really violent. Liberty City will be a truly open-ended game, feature tons of customization and lots of vehicles to jack.

According to the article, the game will support downloadable content, but Rockstar is still being tight lipped about whether it will offer up WiFi multiplayer.

GTA: LCS Unplugged [GTA Central]