What? Snow in LA? In May? Fortunately, we're not talking about cold flakes of ice. We're talking about three huge Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Xbox 360) posters in downtown LA, one of which shows the face of Snow.

One thing to note about his poster though, other than it might get gamers in car accidents down Olympic Boulevard, is that it reads the release margin for Final Fantasy XIII - coming 2010.

The other two billboards show the FFXIII girls, Lightning and Vanilla. There's no sign of Sazh Katzroy, but the main point of having them up there isn't about showing little Chocobos nesting in afros - it's to let the Western world know that the faint hopes of a 2009 release for Final Fantasy XIII are officially dashed. So if three 124-foot ads aren't confirmation enough for you, you're seriously in denial.

As far as the Japanese are concerned, they can bank their hopes on the Square Enix rep who said, "I'll try." The fourth quarter of the 2009 fiscal year ends in September 2009, so they have four months left to deliver on that little encouragement.

The posters are now plastered over what used to be a GTA Chinatown Wars ad. If you want to see them, they're at South Figueroa St. at Olympic Boulevard, right next to the Staples Center. You should go see it the next time the Lakers host the Nuggets on May 27th. It's a little hard to miss from there.

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More on Final Fantasy XIII:

• Hope floats: Final Fantasy XIII may come to Europe "sooner than a year after Japan"