This month we feature on our cover the perfectly rendered face of Lightning, one of the stars of Square Enix's new epic, Final Fantasy XIII. We visited the company's headquarters to meet the game's lead developers, producer Yoshinori Kitase, art director Isamu Kamikokuryo and game director Motomu Toriyama, and talk about the series' past and future, exposing one of the most hotly anticipated games to be released this year.

As such, the team faces great pressures, as Kitase tells us: "It is true that the cost of creating an RPG on a console is almost unfeasibly high today. But I don’t think that means that we as a company are averse to taking risks and trying out new ideas and approaches. Whereas before we’d use consoles as the platform for both our core games and more adventurous, leftfield ideas, nowadays we will try out different ideas on the handheld platforms or the various download services. You’re right that there is an unusual sort of pressure on Final Fantasy XIII. I’d say that we need this game to have ten times the success and impact of these smaller titles."

We also meet Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale and forthcoming Alpha Protocol creator Chris Avellone, see upcoming superhero MMOG Champions Online and startlingly promising Dead To Rights: Retribution, and experience Blitz Games' stunning new 3DTV technology. We also look at the making of Leisure Suit Larry In The Land Of The Lounge Lizards and take an extended look at the indefatigable Viewtiful Joe.

In Start, meanwhile, we look at the PSP's fortunes in the wake of persistent rumours of radical hardware revamps, Sony's recent affirmation of support for the platform and the growing importance of downloadable games via PSN. We also meet the father of rhythm action, Parappa-maker Masaya Matsuura, Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley to talk about his new MMOG, Free Realms, and Infocom designer Steve Meretzky to talk about his street racing MySpace MMOG. They're alongside a visit to Sega AM2 to meet the makers of new coin-op shooter Border Break.

In Hype
Infamous
The Sims 3
Fuel
God of War III
Ghostbusters
Overlord II
Bionic Commando
Star Trek Online
The Conduit
Boom Blox Bash Party
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
Battlestations: Pacific

Reviewed
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars - 9
The Chronicles Of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena - 8
Little King's Story - 9
The Godfather II - 6
Wanted: Weapons of Fate - 4
Madworld - 6
Plants Vs Zombies - 9
Wheelman - 4
Battleforge - 7
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes Of Time - 6
Sonic and the Black Knight - 3
Valkyrie Profile: Covenant Of The Plume - 7

Click here to subscribe to the magazine in the UK (and enjoy a special free gift of each of our 200 covers in postcard form while you're at it).
Click here to buy a US subscription: subscribing in the US ensures that you will receive your copies three weeks before they arrive on newsstands.