MARVEL at the luminous 'magic is happening' lightshow! THRILL to the giant spiders! SWOON at the one where it is all dark apart from the glowy red bits!

And GAWP at the really quite improbable physique of the protagonist Ayumi. That's quite a big sword for a lass with arms like two Men's Pocky.

Before I got my turn playing the game, the TopWare Interactive rep manning the booth explained to me that X-Blades had added story and RPG elements to the original game, but the hands on time I spent was all about the action. After waiting what seemed like an eternity the guy before me finished playing, cleaned up his area, and left me to my own devices.

My device of choice was the Xbox 360 controller, hooked up to the PC version of the game. I started off in a rather nondescript rocky corridor without any sort of explanation, so I went with instinct and began killing everything in sight.

The game essentially plays like a poor man's Devil May Cry. You've got your blades for close combat, your gun for taking out those annoying bastards who materialize in the air 10 feet above you, and a few spells at your disposal to keep things interesting.

I was a bit disappointed, really. Though Ayumi is animated quite well the action fell a bit flat, with no real sense of impact. Rather than feeling like I was taking down hordes of enemies, I felt as if I was swinging my weapons and there just happened to be relatively insubstantial monsters nearby. What's worse, the game follows the old formula of running into a room, room seals, kill monsters, room unseals. Seems a bit primitive in this day and age. Block the path with debris that the last dying monster smashes free, or go the Gauntlet route and make the enemies the wall...just don't fall back on the old mystical forces path-blocking mechanic.

Ayumi still looks lovely, as do the environments she is running through and the foes she disperses (to a lesser degree), but I just didn't quite get the feeling she was actually there, carving her way through the armies of darkness. The style is definitely there, but the substance is a bit lacking. Damn anime women, always messing with my emotions.

Look for X-Blades this fall on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Enjoy the new screens!

X-BLADES TO SLASH ITS WAY ONTO MULTIPLE VIDEO GAME PLATFORMS THIS AUTUMN

Fearless Treasure Hunting Beauty To Fight Darkness On PLAYSTATION®3 Computer Entertainment System, Xbox 360 and Windows-Based PC

London, UK – August 14, 2008 – SouthPeak Games today announced that X-Blades will be available on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft® and Windows-based PC when it releases later this year. Developed by Gaijin Entertainment in conjunction with TopWare Interactive, the anime-inspired X-Blades follows Ayumi, a brave and beautiful thrill seeker, whose obsession with hunting lost treasures lands her in a fight for her life.

"One of the greatest challenges we face with multi-platform games is how to deliver an equally fantastic experience across each platform," said John F. Kaiser, III, Producer at SouthPeak Games. "With X-Blades, we've taken time to ensure the same intense hack-and-slash gameplay is delivered seamlessly on all platforms."

Ayumi, a stunningly seductive yet tenacious heroine, travels the world hunting highly coveted artifacts. After finding an ancient treasure map she sets off on the most dangerous adventure she's ever faced and quickly finds herself outmanned and outgunned. Armed with only her fighting skill, magic spells, guns and blades, Ayumi must fend off rival treasure seekers, hordes of evil creatures and powerful dark forces in order to survive.

For more information on X-Blades check out www.x-blades.com.

SouthPeak's apparently betting big on Ninjatown, X-Blades, Edge of Twilight and the rest of its lineup, which will include follow-ups to Two Worlds, hoping for big hits. According to Takahashi, SouthPeak is hoping to ride Two Worlds, which it considers its biggest to-date success, to fiscal year revenues of $30 million.

The publisher just went public in April, through a semi-complicated "reverse merger" situation it recently went through in April with Global Services Acquisition Corp - the quick story on that deal is the merger let SouthPeak go public without an IPO.

SouthPeak Interactive raises $12.9 million for indie games [VentureBeat]

I saw a couple of Southpeak's upcoming titles today, including one that I didn't even know existed, to be perfectly honest. A development team of Russian Japanophiles - get this, their name is Gaijin - set out to create the most anime-styled action title they could, and came up with X-Blades, headed for PC and next-gen consoles in the Fall.

Like anime style? Like cel-shaded 3D cutscenes? Like crazy outfits? This one could be for you, maybe.

The lead character is a relic hunter named Ayumi, and the character design is distinctly RPG-inspired, right down to the fact she has three blond ponytails, robot shoes, and ass-less pants with just about nothing covering her butt except a piece of strategically placed floss.

The basic idea is, against better advisement Ayumi tracks down a dark artifact of great power, determined to win it for herself, and must wrest it away from some hordes of monsters both great and small. I didn't see more than the intro sequence and the first stage of gameplay, but the cutscenes are, in a word, absolutely beautiful, and so are the action animations. The art just looks great, and the character moves feel especially fluid and responsive. I loved the way Ayumi's hair and blades moved around - think Nariko a little bit, but in cute 3D cel-shaded art.

In addition to the blades, Ayumi has a gun and can also learn various spells that can be manually assigned to any button on the controller - I tried a fire spell against an ice elemental, and an earthquake spell in a craggy area full of little beasties.

The build I played was quite early, and the rep told me the team's still working out game balance and some control issues. That sort of work still obviously needs to continue, as it got a little hard to tell what was going on with some of the enemy swarms, and the gun, using the trigger buttons, doesn't feel nearly as spot-on or satisfying as the hack-and-slash X button moves.

So it's hard to tell whether this title will be a big win, but considering I hadn't heard of it until today, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with some key aspects of the look and feel. We'll see if the rest of the gameplay comes up to snuff.

SOUTHPEAK'S CUTTING EDGE REDEFINES THE GENRE

Blade-Swinging Blonde Bombshell Battles Evil In X-Blades

Friday 29th February/...SouthPeak Games has announced X-Blades, a dynamic third-person hack-and-slash action title for next-gen consoles and PC, due for release in late 2008. X-Blades sees players controlling an enchanting anime-style heroine who must battle through a host of locations using guns, blades, magic and a healthy dose of cinematic flair.

"The unique anime-style backdrop combined with high-octane, multi-discipline combat gameplay really pushes X-Blades into brand new territory," said Melanie Mroz, CEO of SouthPeak Games. "The 3rd-person 'hack-em-up' genre needs a fresh perspective and X-Blades is poised to deliver it."

X-Blades features a special combination of cinematic style, beautiful animation and relentless high-speed gameplay. Players assume the role of Ayumi, a stunningly seductive yet tenacious heroine who battles enemies with her pistol blades, acrobatic ability and magic spells. With full anime-style cut scenes, the story unfolds revealing demonic hordes and spectacular landscapes, all ripe for exploration and frenetic supernatural battling.

"We are big fans of anime and that was really our inspiration for X-Blades," said James Seaman, Managing Director at Topware Interactive. "Our goal was to create stylistic characters and artwork and to mix that bombastic visual style with lightning fast action. The result is a killer title that gamers and animation fans won't be able to put down."

X-Blades will be released for next generation consoles and PC in late 2008.