Final Fantasy XIII had three discs to hold all of the content in that game. Other high-profile games, such as Mass Effect 2 and L.A. Noire, have recently shipped with multiple discs.

This doesn’t mean a shorter game, or less content, however. Instead, the game simply uses less pre-rendered video scenes that are stored on the disc. Instead, action cutscenes will be rendered on-the-fly by the Xbox 360 console. Square Enix promises about 40 hours of gameplay in Final Fantasy XIII-2.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 is due out on December 15 in Japan, but worldwide markets will be waiting until 2012 to try out the sequel. North America will get the game on January 31, 2012, while Europe gets it on February 3.

Good news if you’re a bit too lazy to get up and swap discs once every ten hours or so.

We’ve got a new look at the upcoming Battlefield 3! This trailer shows off some campaign gameplay (Operation Guillotine) on the Xbox 360. Check it out:

Battlefield 3 is due out October 25, 2011 in North America, on October 27 in Australia and October 28 in Europe.

Microsoft has announced during its pre-E3 conference this morning that it is working on the next installment of the Halo franchise. Halo 4 will be out for the holiday season… 2012.

Halo 4 will once again star Master Chief, the protagonist from the original Halo games. This new game will also mark the beginning of a new Halo trilogy, according to Microsoft.

In the meantime, Microsoft announced a remake of the original Halo for this year.

Microsoft has unveiled a host of new services that will be coming to their Xbox 360 platform over the next year.

Among the services is Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. Bing on the Xbox 360 will allow searching with voice commands using the Kinect.

YouTube service has also been announced for the console. Further, ESPN and UFC on demand videos will become available to Xbox 360 owners.

In addition to the Internet video, the Xbox 360 will include the capability to be used for live TV service with cable providers. No information on which providers will be supported has been provided so far.

These new features are announced to be coming within the next year, though specific dates have not been provided.

At a pre-E3 press conference today, Microsoft announced that a remake of the first Halo game for the Xbox 360.

The remake, called Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, will make use of the graphics engine seen in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, updating the game for high-definition, current-gen graphics.

Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary will be out on November 15, 2011. The new game should keep Halo fans busy until Halo 4 comes out a year later, during the holiday 2012 season.

If you’re not already enjoying it, and not a Gold subscriber, U.S. Thanksgiving weekend means free online play. Microsoft has made online Gold access free for the weekend, giving gamers who haven’t subscribed to the service a chance to check it out.

In addition, a number of Zune music tracks are also free this weekend for download on an Xbox 360 console.

Check it out!

EA DICE has announced that it will give players who order Medal of Honor‘s Limited Edition will get access to the beta of the highly-anticipated Battlefield 3.

Battlefield has seen three Xbox 360 titles, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Battlefield: Bad Company, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  Modern Combat was a scaled-back version of the PC’s Battlefield 2. This will mark the first time that a flagship Battlefield title will come to a console.

DICE did include a little gotcha in the announcement. The offer is only valid if Battlefield 3′s beta is available within a year from Medal of Honor’s release. You’ll also need to be over eighteen to be eligible, and Xbox Live subscribers must have a Gold account to play.

As for Medal of Honor itself, having tried out the Beta I find it fun, but a little too much like Call of Duty. Now, that’s great if you’re a Call of Duty fan — but I was hoping that it would be blended with a little bit of the Battlefield feel.

Medal of Honor will be out on October 12 in North America, and October 15 in Europe. No details yet on Battlefield 3.

At Microsoft’s pre-E3 media briefing, the company unveiled its audio-video motion-tracking controller, previously known as Project Natal. The new control system for the Xbox 360 is now known as Kinect.

Kinect sits in front of you and responds to your body’s movements and vocal commands to control games, chat and media features within the Xbox 360.

A number of Kinect games were announced. Kinect Sports is obviously an answer to Wii Sports, but does offer the improvements that come with the full motion tracking of Kinect. Kinectamals, meanwhile, gives kids a virtual pet that they can play with. The animals respond to kids’ vocal commands and movements. Kinect Adventures, meanwhile, puts you on a moving platform where you need to move your entire body to dodge obstacles and collect tokens.

MTV Games and Harmonix are bringing Dance Central to Kinect, a dancing game that removes the pads of DDR and replaces them with full body tracking. Ubisoft also showed off a Kinect title. Your Shape: Fitness Evolved will provide a workout that watches your entire body’s movements to provide tips on improving your form. A new Forza racing game was also announced, one to drive simply by placing their hands at a ten-and-two position.

Last but not least in terms of games, a new Star Wars game was announced from Microsoft and LucasArts, showing off both lightsaber battling and force moves that are done without a controller in hand.

Microsoft showed off the communications benefits of Kinect, with a webcam chat that took place between two Kinect users. Besides the obvious voice and video chat, people can watch movies, sports or news content together while in video chat. Also a neat feature: Kinect follows you around the room, panning the video so that you don’t wander off screen.

Zune features are being extended in the Xbox 360 with Kinect. Now, audio and video can be selected, played and controlled using Kinect. Simple gestures can be used to move between tracks or pause/fast-forward/rewind videos. Alternatively, voice commands like “Xbox Pause” and “Xbox Rewind” can be used to control media.

Alongside the new Zune media controls is an announced partnership with ESPN to bring sports coverage. Recorded and live games will be streamed to the Xbox 360 console through the service, which will be available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers at no additional cost. A neat feature: say “Xbox Replay” to get your own instant replays on demand. (As a Canadian, I’ve got to say the noticeable absence of NHL content was a bit of a let-down — though I’m not sure if the ESPN coverage will even be available outside of the U.S.)

Microsoft’s Kinect will be launching on November 4. 15 Kinect titles will be available at launch.

Changes are underway at Microsoft as both Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft’s entertainment & devices division, and J. Allard, CTO of the same group, are leaving the Xbox team.

Robbie Bach has been with Microsoft for 22 years, and has most recently headed up the division that manages the Xbox line. Bach is retiring from Microsoft, with the aim of leaving on a high note. His recent projects, such as Project Natal, are promising upcoming releases. Bach will stay on with Microsoft until the fall.

Meanwhile, J. Allard, who co-created the original Xbox and was a big part of the Xbox 360 team, is also making his departure from Microsoft. Allard has recently been missing from much of the Xbox 360 news scene, reportedly on sabbatical. Allard has spent 15 years with Microsoft, and will continue to serve as an advisor to Steve Ballmer.

Both roles have been instrumental in the creation of the Xbox 360 platform, and no doubt Microsoft will have a bit of struggling to do as they reorganize their Xbox division and look to fill the void left by these departures.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Oh, the wit. The wit of that headline. Superb.

Anyways, on September 14, 2010, Halo: Reach will be released everywhere except Japan, where the game will be released on September 15.

Chances are, it’ll sell well. In the 18 days that the Halo: Reach beta was live, 2.7 million players logged in and spent 16 million hours playing the game. People who bought Halo 3: ODST were invited to participate in the beta.

Halo: Reach is Bungie’s last Halo game, as the company is moving on to work on a new series with Activision. More on Reach as it comes.