Of all the non-first party games being shown at the Sony PlayStation Canadian fall preview held on Wednesday at the Republik night club on Richmond Street in downtown Toronto., the one garnering the most adoration from attendees was the long-awaited Final Fantasy XII from venerable developer Square-Enix.

Over the last several years, the massively successful role-playing game (RPG) franchise has been focused on its online iteration, Final Fantasy XI, leaving single-player RPG loving fans out to dry. No more.

The twelfth entry in the series looks like it will be showing the lone-RPGer some serious love. From its stunning cinematics to its intricate character building and battle systems, FFXII appears to be everything one would expect from a triple-A RPG developed by a world renowned studio.

A pair of music titles, RedOctane's Guitar Hero II and SingStar Rocks! (actually a first-party Sony game), were also receiving plenty of attention.

The follow-up to last fall’s surprise hit that saw players wielding a miniature plastic axe and hammering out classic rock songs, Guitar Hero II will ship with a new, sturdier guitar-shaped controller, molded in classic red plastic and with raised thread buttons. The sequel will feature 64 hard rocking tracks from artists like KISS and the Foo Fighters, and for the first time will allow players to choose sections of songs they want to play rather than forcing them to play through entire tracks.

For folks more interested in singing than strumming, SingStar Rocks! actually analyzes and judges a warbling player’s pitch (just like Konami's phenomenally successful Karaokee Revolution games... coincidence?). On screen cues indicate whether the singer is above or below tune, with the game awarding points for staying in key. This reporter was a bit too bashful to try it—especially after witnessing another journalist butcher a track by Keane—but it looks like it could be a blast in the company of a few good friends and a several bottles of liquid courage.

While shooter fans are charged for the upcoming release of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas for Xbox 360 and PlayStation3, a third, lesser-known version of the game was making waves at this event. Actually, that’s not entirely true; the story of the PlayStation Portable edition isn’t the same as that of the next-gen games, but rather runs parallel to it, focusing on a pair of new soldiers that the player switches between during missions. It appears to have all of the elements that have made Ubisoft’s series so popular over the last seven years, including excellent controls, real world tactics, and even a few gadgets, such as a snake cam that players can slide under doors and use to mark enemies. It will even have ad-hoc and wireless play for up to four players.

But it was American developer Eidos that turned out to be the dark horse studio at the event. The American developer’s game based on the cult film Reservoir Dogs had plenty of visitors itching for a chance to take on the role of a thug in a black suit with a primary color for a name and cut off a few ears. The game borrows liberally from other titles, using an effect similar to Max Payne’s bullet time and a hostage taking mechanic reminiscent of what players can do in Splinter Cell. We didn’t get to see much of the story, so we’ll have to wait for its release later this month to find out whether it does justice to the movie’s memorable dialogue (though we were told that one of the stars of the film, Michael Madsen, lent his voice to his own character).

Another Eidos game that attracted our eyes was Chili Con Carnage for the PlayStation Portable. This third-person action game tries to mimic the sort of over-the-top stunts seen in Hollywood movies, and it looks to have a great sense of humor. The opening sequence sees a giant combine break through a police station wall, and once the game began the fellow running the demonstration plowed a tractor into a silo resulting in a massive, slow-motion explosion (don’t worry—we were told there are many non farm-equipment related stunts as well). It may not be pre-order material, but it’s nice to see an original game that doesn’t take itself too seriously among so many dramatic sequels.

Other notable games shown at the event included Rogue Galaxy for PlayStation2, SOCOM: Fire Team Bravo 2 for PlayStation Portable, Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception for PlayStation Portable, Star Wars: Lethal Alliance for PlayStation Portable, Lumines II for PlayStation Portable, Need For Speed: Carbon for PlayStation2, Okami for PlayStation2, and Tales of the Abyss for PlayStation2.
 
 

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