When EA announced that their upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title, Risk: Factions, would have "a new animated art style, kooky humor and a choice of five oddball factions," no one really knew what to think. What type of factions would be qualified as "oddball"? That's such a strange word to use to describe something about a game. How could the art style be "kooky"? Who says that anymore? Why not use silly instead? After looking at the first images for the game, I can confirm that they have, in fact, used the words correctly. Good work, PR team, you've proven all of us wrong. You deserve a medal, since I don't think there's another way to describe the art style they're going with or the factions they've revealed so far.

In the first batch of shots, two of the game's five factions are revealed. One appears to be a pretty typical US Army General, while the other is a cat. A kitty cat. The kind that meows. You know, the animal that most enjoys "loling" and dancing as well as, if these images are to be believed, global domination. It's like that movie Cats & Dogs, without the appeal of Jeff Goldblum.

    

There are some more images here, though I doubt you really need to see anymore to realize exactly how different this is going to be from the traditional game. Sure, there will be dice, there will be armies, and there will be world domination, and I'd be willing to bet that manipulating alliances will be a huge part of the experience, but it looks to be a much different game on the whole. That's not a bad thing, since traditional Risk might not work perfectly on the Xbox, and this is a good way of bringing the series up to date for the next generation of consoles.

That said, I need to reinstate that most people will agree that they don't care how different the new mode is, as long as the original is offered as well. For as cool as this looks, and for as fun as it's going to be, give me classic Risk on Xbox Live, or give me death.