A message posted to Square-Enix's official Final Fantasy XIII site on Friday indicates, after not too much work, that some news is forthcoming on Friday.

The news post dated Friday - no link, nothing further - said simply: "A puzzle for FINAL FANTASY XIII fans! Solve this anagram to find out what lies ahead: A Henchmen Inventor Tent Unto. Check back Monday for the answer!"

We can check back on Friday, actually, because a couple users on the finalfantasy-xiii.net forums unscrambled it to say "Announcement Nov Thirteenth." No word if that's the game's long-awaited North American release date. Guess you'll have to check back then.

It was bad enough when Valve enabled pre-loading of the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, forcing potential zombicidal maniacs to stare at the game they have and yet don't for an entire madness-inspiring weekend. Now, the developer has begun allowing pre-loading of the full version of Left 4 Dead 2 through Steam. If you've pre-purchased the game through Valve's digital distribution platform (which still nets you a 10 percent discount off the price of the title), you can now put it on your computer, and just ... let it sit there until it finally unlocks on November 17.

Here are the 15 characters you can play once Lego Indiana Jones 2 releases on Nov. 17. Many are "Hey-it's-that-guy" recognizable, if not by their names, then at least as minifig Watergate conspirators.

I kid. That guy to the left is "Enemy Mechanic," aka the Von Kaiser/Bald Bull hybrid who duked it out with Indy under the flying wing in Raiders of the Lost Ark. According to Video Games Blogger, the rest of the characters are:

Not even a week after its release does Dragon Age: Origins put out its official Toolset for download, allowing PC users to assemble battles, campaigns, and lip-synched cut scenes to share with the game's community.

BioWare just launched the Toolset page, touting the ability to "create new adventure," "stage massive battles" and of course, "be the director," with a "powerful cinematics editor" offering complete control over the camera, plus voice and lip synching tools.

The still-fresh PC version of Dragon Age: Origins recently got a huge booster shot in two delicious flavors. The first came in the form of Patch v1.01a, which, in addition to fixing a few character corruption issues and display glitches, makes the game easier as a whole. The second, much beefier improvement came with the release of the Dragon Age: Origins tool set, which allows users to create their own adventures using the game's extremely adaptable (and powerful!) engine.

Continuing today's theme of "Devs Commenting on Other Devs," here, for a change, is Epic's Cliff Bleszinski weighing in with something polite about Borderlands.

Many have made the comparison of Gearbox's Borderlands to Diablo. Cliffy B certifies it with this unsolicited Tweet: "Borderlands, I adore you. You're Diablo for a generation raised on first person shooters. I want a Claptrap statue."

That can be arranged, Cliff.

Activision shooter dominates busy holiday release week; new Dragon Ball, Pro Evo Soccer games also set for launch.

There are more than 40 games set for release this week, but one title stands head and shoulders above the rest. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC--touted by Activision as "the biggest entertainment launch ever"--will make its long-awaited arrival in stores on Tuesday. Accompanying it on store shelves will be the spin-off Modern Warfare: Mobilized on the DS, and Modern Warfare: Reflex for the Wii, a port of 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

While not directly addressing Chet Faliszek's slap at PlayStation 3, the Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford - no stranger to stirring s—t with Valve - has taken a poke at the Left 4 Dead developer's posture toward Sony.

Pitchford, speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine, called Valve's posture toward Sony - specifically as expressed by Doug Lombardi - similar to that of fanboys'.

"Doug Lombardi had to take a swipe at the PS3 again, and I thought it was foolish," Pitchford told OPM, according to AnalogHype.

Lock the doors and board up the windows, folks. Considering the seismic backlash to the announcement that the (formerly) 360-exclusive Tales of Vesperia would be coming to the PS3, we fear for what might happen when this story gets out. Japanese voice actor Rikiya Koyama, who provided the voice for Vesperia's pseudo-antagonist Duke, recently mentioned on his blog that, "Tales of Vesperia is coming out on one thing after another: Xbox 360, then PS3, and now upcoming, goes on sale even on the Wii."

At the risk of making this story sound like one of those annoying local advertisements for personal injury attorneys, here it is: If you or someone you love recently purchased and played an iPhone game from developer Storm8, such as iMobsters or Vampires Live, it appears your phone number may have been collected without your consent. Or, at least, that's what Lynnwood, WA resident Michael Turner is accusing the company of doing in a class action lawsuit he recently filed (BoingBoing, via Joystiq).According to the lawsuit, Storm8 is accused of exploiting an "electronic backdoor" with the use of "malicious software code" in their games to collect phone numbers without the iPhone owners knowing, and without the authorization of Apple.

No, it's not some preorder bonus. But quantities are limited. Sega's offering 40,000 codes to play the Bayonetta demo early on Xbox 360, but you have to be a registered Sega Pass member to be eligible.

Here's the deal - once you register (free) for a Sega Pass, go back to this site on Nov. 9 and register to get your code. Registration for early access will be open until Nov. 13, but given the first-come, first-serve nature of this offer, my guess is it won't last that long.

When Activision announced their IWNet matchmaking service will replace dedicated servers for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2, it predictably angered a lot of PC gamers. But apparently when you're dealing with what's already been anointed as the likely-to-be best-selling game of the year, angering some of your customers isn't too much to worry about."We're, of course, watching this very carefully and paying attention to it," said president Mike Griffith during an earnings call (via Kotaku), in response to a question about whether the backlash could affect sales. "But we're not overly concerned about it."

We all know the timeless adage: "If you can't beat them, then think of cleverer ways to entice them, then break down their spirits, showing them the error of their ways, which will ultimately lead to you beating them." Developer RedLynx employed this strategy when trying to make a foothold in the piracy-riddled PC gaming market when it released its motorbike platformer, Trials, last year. However, the method of this "release" were unconventional, to say the least: The studio actually beat PC pirates to the punch, and uploaded its own game to a number of popular torrent sites.

PopCap and Square Enix have announced that Gyromancer, the result of their collaboration to make a game combining Bejeweled Twist and the general experience and level-gaining elements of a Final Fantasy, is set for release on Xbox Live Arcade and PC on November 18 (via Shacknews).If "a cross between Bejeweled and Final Fantasy" sounds familiar to you, then you've probably heard of or played Puzzle Quest. PopCap and Square Enix don't really seem to be hiding the fact that Gyromancer will be a direct competitor to the popular puzzle/RPG hybrid, though, so it'll be interesting to see if the higher profile names attached to it help Gyromancer catch up to the surprising success of D3 Publisher's franchise.

For a company that's long been notorious for delaying their games, is it any surprise to see they'd be cagey about committing to anything so early in a project's development? Speaking to Geoff Keighley on the latest episode of GameTrailers TV, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was very deliberate in not setting a release timeframe for the new Legend of Zelda in development for the Wii."We haven't committed to Zelda in 2010," Reggie elusively said. Keighley clarified that Miyamoto has so far said the game is "tracking" for 2010. "That's what he said, and we'll see how that continues to develop," retorted Reggie.

GameSpot reports that a man has sued Sony, Sony Online Entertainment and Sony Computer Entertainment of America, contending the company violates the Americans with Disabilities Act for not making its virtual worlds more easily navigable by the visually impaired.

The nature of Alexander Stern's visual impairment isn't clear from the report, whether that is total blindness or partial blindness, or some other form of sight disability. But his suit, filed in federal court in California, claims that Sony has ignored repeated requests to modify its games - the suit seems to focus on SOE's MMOs - and that the realms Sony maintains here are essentially public accommodations as defined by the ADA.

As if, in this world of economic hardship and international strife, you need another thing to worry about. iPhone developer Storm8 has been accused of stealing the phone numbers of players that downloaded its apps like Vampires Live and Zombies Live in a suit filed in San Francisco on behalf of Lynnwood, WA resident Michael Turner.

The company acknowledged the number harvesting in August, calling it a "bug," though the suit claims only specific code could have recorded and transmitted the numbers. So ... apparently that's a thing that happens. Have a great Saturday!

Was GLaDOS, the artificial intelligence in 2007's critically acclaimed Portal, in fact a game designer? And if so, what does our relationship to the computer, and its abuse of our trust, say about the other games we play?

Guido Pellegrini at Playtime Magazine raises that point, among many others, in examining not just the meta-narrative of Portal, but also that of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Portal gets a deeper treatment, but both games deliberate puncture the illusion of control game players feel they have. In the end, Pellegrini writes, we are still following commands, taking cues and completing tasks in order to ultimately complete the game. Sons of Liberty in its way, and Portal to a much larger degree, are completely open about such manipulation.