Independent Playstation Magazine's October 2006 edition included a preview of Square-Enix's Final Fantasy XIII game for the PS3. One of the things that has been talked about is the "White Engine " which will be powering the real-time graphics for the game. There's a shot of a White Wngine generated shot beside a picture from the movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children . Side-by-side, it's not possible to tell which is which unless you happen to remember which shot was actually from the movie.

Square-Enix's goal is to have an engine that can generate imagery as close as possible to pre-rendered CG. Now, I admit I'm a Final Fantasy fan-boy, and I've been so ever since its Nintendo days. Even with that said, I greeted such a concept with skepeticism when I saw the trailer for FFXIII. Trailers are always tricky because they're just that: trailers. Therefore, a company can make a really snazzy looking trailer using pre-rendered CG and the game be absolute crap when you get it in your grubby little hands. From what the Square-Enix folks are saying, though, this isn't the case with the FFXIII trailer. Yes, there is pre-rendered CG, but there's a quite a bit of White Engine rendered work, too. I'm assuming the combat scenes are White Engine rendered, and they look absolutely awesome.

 I'm beginning to wonder if FFXIII will do for PS3 what FFVII did for PS. People who didn't have a PS had to have one when Final Fantasy VII was due out. With the high price tag of PS3, some folks are going to wait. But FFXIII may get them buying the console in order to play this game. I'm one of those people that's on the fence. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of the Square-Enix camp in the coming months with regards to both FFXIII and the White Engine itself.

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