In an apparent lapse of concentration, Surfer Girl (or one of the few Surfer Girls as we presume) previously let the games of GDC ‘08 slip, or at least she made unconfirmed predictions. She has now removed all of her comments from the article, stating in an update:

Note to self: Don’t answer things when half-asleep leaves rooom for error.
Note to self: Don’t type things when half-awake leaves room for errorr.
Note to self: Proofread.
Note to self: Go back to sleep.

As with the nature of these things, any listed titles are of course rumours and Surfer Girl does not act as any sort of confirmation. And yes, we noted the irony in the spelling of “errorr” too. Get some sleep Surfer Girl.

However, nothing has changed from our predictions. The Final Fantasy XIII engine will be presented in a tutorial by Square Enix, and we’re hopeful that there’ll be extensive footage of this previously unseen game.

The Force Unleashed engine will be on show, along with a discussion on Far Cry 2’s procedural storytelling. Pandemic will be presenting Mercenaries 2: World in Flames’ destructible environment, and ID Software’s Rage engine has a high chance of making an appearance.

There will be a walk through of the Frostbite engine (Battlefield: Bad Company), in addition to three big Fable 2 announcements. You can also expect new footage of Sony’s HOME and XNA announcements from Microsoft.

There is a chance that you’ll see the first footage of Resistance 2, since Insomniac will be discussing the improvements they have made with their PS3 engine. However, if we don’t see the game at GDC, I’m certain we’ll see it elsewhere very soon.

It is unknown whether the public will get to see any of this, but at least you’ll hear about it from us.

In a response to a poster who asks what games will be at GDC this year, Surfer Girl says “YES” to seven games. These games are MotorStorm 2, Alan Wake, Too Human, InFamous, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2 and Gears of War 2.

There are three other games that might possibly make it to the event: SOCOM PS3, Metal Gear Solid 4, and WipEout HD.

Unlike last year, Sony and Nintendo won’t be having keynote presentations, so it might be wishful thinking to expect anything on the scale of Sony’s reveal of Home and LittleBigPlanet.

On the other hand, there is a Microsoft day booked for Tuesday, along with an hour long Microsoft keynote. Big things could be coming from the Xbox camp.

What games can we confirm for GDC? Mercenaries 2, Far Cry 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and Battlefield: Bad Company.

In addition to these, Square Enix will be presenting their Final Fantasy XIII engine, and three big Fable 2 secrets will be revealed. You heard it here first.

Make sure to come to Ripten for all of your GDC coverage.

*Update* -  Surfer Girl has since retracted her predictions, blaming sleep deprivation for her original outburst.  Please read about this here, along with further titbits on what will be at GDC’08.

The release date rumors regarding Final Fantasy XIII received an official response from Square Enix via the press section of their North American website. The full statement can be found below.

ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING FINAL FANTASY XIII RELEASE DATE

Although information regarding the release date of FINAL FANTASY XIII has been reported by certain videogame websites, Square Enix itself has yet to make an official statement on this topic. Any reports of a confirmed release date are erroneous and should be disregarded.

Square Enix will make an official announcement in the future concerning the release date when it has been determined.

The future certainly looks promising for the PS3 and FF fans, however it seems that the actual release date for this game is still up in the air. Sit tight, keep your ear to the ground, but don’t hold your breathe. We will continue to follow this game closely so check back often.

Source: Square-Enix

Current and future UE3 clients will be eligible to witness these latest upgrades and enhancements within Epic’s expo suite at GDC.

The first presentation on February 20th will see Epic Games’ Programmer Martin Sweitzer dropping some programming edu-mi-cation on your ass, followed by an Unreal Tournament 3 postmortem two days later presented by President Michael Capps and Producer Jeff Morris.

You can look forward to GDC ’08 coverage as it happens here on Ripten.

Source: Next-Gen.biz

Talking in the latest issues of Japanese mags Famitsu and Dengeki, Nomura said there would be a demo to give gamers a chance to get to grips with the new combat system – which is looking quite reminiscent of the combat in the FF: Advent Children movie.

No mention of when said demo is going to make an appearance, but Nomura also hints at the release date, saying: “I wonder when we’ll be able to sleep…” We can but hope this means they’re pulling the stops out to get this on shelves in 2008. But I’d bet the other way, frankly.

Here’s the full excerpt – along with some more nuggets for you to start drooling over:

* Nomura: “2008 will be the year. There will be tons of news bits, info on characters and summons, and an unexpected connection between the keywords Cocoon and Farushi.
* We’re aiming for a demo to give players a hands on on the battle system.
* FF13’s theme: determination.
* Farushi: Their existence surpasses humans.
* Rushi: Those chosen by Farushi to carry out a mission. The pigtail girl is a Rushi.
* Farushi is not the Crystal.
* Mr. 33cm is also a Rushi.
* This time summons are in digital form.
* A new monster that looks like a cross between a turtle and elephant.
* The red thing on Carbuncle’s head is a ruby.
* Hint on release date: “I wonder when we’ll be able to sleep…”

Via ff-xiii.net

The latest issue of Jump featured screens from the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII and its seemingly obligatory spin-offs. They look good.

I won’t talk much about them because you and I both know that all you care about are the scans. The following scans are predominately of Final Fantasy XIII proper. FFXIII Versus and Agito get a measly one scan each.

Note: We did take the time to include English translations, however you are still free to stare at the amazing images.

Source: V-Jump Magazine via NeoGAF
[ Translation via finalfantasy-xiii.net ]