So last night I finished up Shenmue II. Boy did I like it...in many ways this game delivers on the promise of the series. It's a vastly superior game to the first one, and dwarfs it in both size and scope. Look for my ShackReview soon. I'm not against the Xbox version, of course...I can't wait to see if they add anything to take advantage of the new hardware (I'm not holding my breath though). What I do dislike about it, is that it means AM2 is currently working on an Xbox port of Shenmue II, instead of concentrating themselves to cranking out Shenmue III this year. Hopefully this won't delay part three too long. Of course, with Shenmue II behind me, I'm now ready to move on to something else...on the console front, I've got Kessen II, Final Fantasy X and the rest of Grand Theft Auto 3, while over on the PC, I've got Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Soul Reaver and Anachronox. Anyone have any advice?

• Square has announced that Final Fantasy XI will be released on April 27th in Japan. The $50 price tag gets you two months of access, after which you'll have to pay roughly $3.75 a month to play.
• Spoilers be damned...if you want an advance look at Xenosaga, Gamersquare has posted the game's intro movie in its entirety along with a look at the opening battle sequence (thanks The GIA, who apparently can't get enough Gitaroo Man!).
• We've seen what the Xbox one will look like, but here's a glimpse at The Lord of the Rings for Game Boy Advance. It's a single-player RPG (there are others on GBA?) and it looks pretty good.
• Some kid in Japan was caught trying to steal Xbox accessories. Apparently nobody told him the system doesn't need a memory card.
• Much like their PSOne program, Sony has announced a new "Greatest Hits" line of lower-priced PS2 games. The first batch includes Twisted Metal: Black and Grand Turismo 3.
• Konami sends along word that they have shipped Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars for Game Boy Advance. Here's a bunch of screenshots.
• Game design guru Shigeru Miyamoto has been talking about his design philosophy again...as usual, he's emphasizing content over style. He also says there will be several new GameCube announcements at E3 (like we needed confirmation about that).

Console Game of the Evening: Fantasy Zone for the Sega Master System. This oddball game seems to be one of those Sega franchises that will never come back (aside from collectible toys in Shenmue, that is). It's a shame, because it's a really fun and visually unique game.