Feast your eyes on probably the first Final Fantasy XIII “transformer” that I would ever purchase.

Square Enix’s Play Arts Kai figures are an improved version of their popular Play Arts action figure series. With a larger scale, a greater attention to detail, more articulation points, and additional parts, these are their finest action figure yet. Based on Final Fantasy XIII, the highly-anticipated role-playing game coming to the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 in Spring 2010, this deluxe action figure recreates the Odin summons from the new game.

The chief Norse god, Odin transforms from a human-like god into an impressive horse that can be summoned by Lightning, the game’s primary character.

Up for pre-order at NCSX for $189.90 and due to ship in July of 2010, some 4 months after the US release of Final Fantasy XIII.

[ Links: NCSX - Odin Action Figure, Square Enix NA ]

Before this dwindles into a Sony PlayStation 3 versus Microsoft XBOX 360 argument, let’s just start and stop with the warning via Destructoid that if you enjoy Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 on the XBOX 360, I would wait from playing online until this is fixed for good.

If you’re playing Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360, you might want to lay low for a few days. Yet another problem has been discovered in Infinity Ward’s game, and this one’s a real bastard, with the ability to “infect” your profile and turn you into the game equivalent of an HIV carrier.

According to reports, players get “infected” by unwittingly joining a private match hosted by a carrier. They then get hit by the same issue – unlimited ammo and no reloads – and can pass it on if the end up hosting any games themselves. Allegedly, it’s “spreading like an STD.”

This unique issue started out as a mod on the PC version of the game, which we spoke about yesterday. It has been transported to the XBOX 360 and put to more sinister work. Infinity Ward is apparently “working” on the issue, and it appears that Microsoft is wielding its banhammer for anybody caught employing it.

So yeah. The potential that you might get hit with a hack, get banned and not even know you got it is rather high on this popular game. I would play it cool and not online for a while.

[ Links: Modern Warfare 2 gets an AIDS-like virus on Xbox Live ]

In the last couple of days, I’ve had three or four of my friends call me and ask if I knew anybody that was looking for a Microsoft XBOX 360 and they all were selling them cheaply. Just over a week, Microsoft banned 1 million XBOX Live Players [Article: CNN] and those machines cannot rejoin the XBOX Live network, which is necessary for updates and playing games online.

This is the stuff that lawyers have wet dreams about. So a week later indeed, there were announcements of an class action lawsuit on the way [Article: Lawyers & Settlements] and at the same time, eBay, Craigslist and other sale outlets [Article: CBC News] are being flooded with these banned XBOX 360′s that look just like any other one until you login to XBOX Live and find out your cheap $100 machine will never get any updates and play online. Sure, it will play games just fine though… but it’s a crippled machine. All because people wanted to be able to pirate games for the Microsoft XBOX 360.

There’s been talk about firmware fixes for those machines that were affected [Article: Tom's Guide] but the fix is a complex set of instructions that will have you probably switching religions and getting the cops called on you because you’ve thrown your HDTV, a trashcan and your Pokémon card collection out of different windows in a fit of rage because you cannot pwn the next dude in Gears of War 2.

So yeah… don’t buy that cheap XBOX. It might be banned.

Some people fell in love with Street Fighter. Some people loved Mortal Kombat. The very first time I played SNK’s Samurai Shodown, known as Samurai Spirits in Japan, I fell in love. Matches could last for mere seconds… time enough for you to pull 5 moves with a weapon, then the end. But I loved it. I even bought a SNK Neo-Geo just to play Samurai Spirits II.

Looks like the Microsoft XBOX 360 will get it’s own updated version of the Samurai Spirits line, to be named Samurai Spirits: Edge of Destiny to be released in Japan on December 10, 2009.

SNK Playmore will release Samurai Spirits Sen [Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny] for Xbox 360 in Japan on December 10, for 7010 yen. The Xbox 360 version will have 26 playable characters, including the two final bosses Dorako and Goruba. SNK Playmore will have a pre-order campaign in Japan, those who order the game will receive a Suzuhime metal paper cutter with looks like the her weapon in the game.

If history repeats itself, this will be the game that finally makes me purchase a Microsoft XBOX 360 system. I can’t wait.