Adventure Game Studio (AGS), the same engine behind retro-styled adventures like Gemini Rue and the Blackwell mysteries,  is putting on its first ever indie game “bake sale” for the sole purpose of raising money for an awesome charity, Child’s Play.  Child’s Play is a great organization/charity that helps give sick kids the chance to play video games.

The AGS Bake Sale Bundle consists of 14 unique and individual games showcasing the different styles of each author as well as the diversity of the AGS engine, as these aren’t all just “adventure” games.  It consists of a wide variety of games across a few different genres.  Here’s a sampling of the indie games included in the “bake sale bundle:

• 9 Months In: a traditional adventure game about a pregnant woman in prison trying to clear her name before her child is born.
• Indiana Rodent and the Raiders of the Lost Cheese: the biggest, most ambitious platform game ever made with AGS (quite an accomplishment considering the engine wasn’t created with Mario-style platforming in mind!)
• Escape The Barn: a classic “escape the room” puzzle game, suitable for all ages.
• RAM Ghost: an adorable virtual house simulator in the style of Little Computer People. Adopt an abandoned, unloved bit of code floating in the endless sea of information and tend to it in the hopes that it will one day grow up to be a proper program.
• Abner The Amazing: a fantasy adventure in which a boastful knight and his sidekick must find out who stole all the colors and left the world a grainy black and white.
• Zombie Attack: a top-down retro arcade shooter that has you battling waves of monsters, accumulating power-ups, gathering weapons, and unlocking new characters – all in a desperate attempt to stop the forces of evil from taking over the earth.

You can see the full list of bundled games on the AGS Bake Sale website: http://www.agsbakesale.com (note: all games are PC only).

The Bake Sale bundle has “pay what you want” pricing, with one small caveat: a minimum of $1.50 is required to cover payment processing. Beyond this, any money donated goes straight to Child’s Play to give sick kids a bit of gaming cheer. The developers themselves aren’t making a cent – they’ve pitched in their time, their talents, and their bandwidth to raise some money for a really good cause.

This bake sale runs from Jan 20, 2012 – Feb 29, 2012.  So what are you waiting for?  Donate now to give some sick kids the chance to run around Gotham City, experience the power of a Dragonborn, solve puzzles in Aperture Science’s labs, etc.  The distraction will only help their healing process!  http://www.agsbakesale.com

That was like, 3 months ago, right?

Yes it was.
And yes, we’re uploading those pictures today. Why? Well..
Your dogs attacked our server physically, and ate all of our hard drives.

Don’t believe us? Okay then. Here’s the “truth”:
We thought we’ve lost all of the photos taken that day from that particular memory card.

So then we prayed to anime Goddess, and on its 100th day, she finally answered and decided to let us find that particular memory card, so we could restore Akicon 2011 photos!

ああっ女神さまっ!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.
And while at it, say “Thank you” to arisa, our newest addition to the event coverage team.

Capcom has partnered with the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) for the release of Street Fighter X Tekken in the UK.

CALM was set up to reduce the high suicide rate amongst men under 35, currently the single biggest killer of young men in the UK. Men are three times more at risk of suicide than young women – in 2010 75% of suicides were men. Since CALM’s launch in Merseyside in 2000, suicide numbers in young men in the Merseyside area have fallen by a massive 55%, and now having opened an office in London, the charity has expanded its operations UK wide. CALMzone Coordinator, Simon Howes said of the partnership:

“…CALM is delighted to be working with the team behind Street Fighter X Tekken. Our partnership shows how the gaming industry can work for social good; it enables positive messages and innovative campaigns like CALM to engage with massive audiences in a dynamic way that could literally save lives.”

Capcom will be holding two eBay charity auctions to raise money on behalf of CALM; the first will see 30 exclusive character prints signed by the legendary games producers Ono-san (Street Fighter) and Harada-san (Tekken) being auctioned off.

The second auction will see a very limited number of tickets to the Street Fighter X Tekken Grand Final event. The highest bidders will be joining a private media launch for the game in central London.

100% of funds raised by each auction will be donated to CALM.
http://www.thecalmzone.net
Talk to CALM
The helpline is open 5pm-midnight on Sat, Sun, Mon and Tues, every week of the year. Call 0808 802 5858 within London – or if you’re outside London call 0800 585858. It’s free, confidential and anonymous.

“Uhhgggguuhh?”

I mumble like a new born zombie. As I look at my clock and turn off the alarm, it reads 8:30 and I think to myself, “Why so early? It’s freaking Saturday. . . Ohh yeah, it’s the Portland Retro Gaming Expo today!” As soon as I realize this, I’m up, running around trying to get ready. LOL, now it’s on like Donkey Kong!

I’ve participated in many other gaming conventions before, but never a retro gaming event, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. As I rode the local Light Rail towards downtown, I could hear the anticipated excitement of fellow gamers going to the same event. 35 minutes later I finally reach my destination and to my surprise I see a Geo Metro remodeled as a Ghostbusters mobile! That’s when I knew this wasn’t an ordinary event.

Vendor Marketplace
I guess the Portland Retro Gaming Expo started out primarily as a collector-focused convention, which would explain the insane number of merchants there. There were sooooooo many vendors with all sorts of things for sale that I didn’t even know existed; from 70’s gamer consoles to Nintendo cartridge shaped soap! Being a fighting game fanatic, some of my favorite unusual items I found were a Street Fighter 2 styled rock’em sock’em game and some Guile’s SONIC BOOM energy drinks!

Even though most of the vendors had something unique to offer, 2 really stood out. The first was the Game Trader booth. Owned and operated by Danny Kim, a very cool guy to hang out with, the Game Trader booth had lots of retro and new merchandise to offer. As soon as you walk up to it you can see all the variety he has to offer thanks to his orderly, clean, inventory.  The Game Trader booth also had a large staff, so transactions went quickly and smoothly with great customer service, but that’s not the best part! Danny and his crew didn’t come off as people trying to make a quick buck. They were really down to earth and just had FUN with everyone!

The second booth was Pink Gorilla. Not only did they have their own selection of rare retro and new games, but they also had various gaming and anime related items, such as T-shirts, talking key chains, toys, hats, and plushies! Everything was also very well presented and priced for your convenience. So all in all, if you’re looking for rare hard to find items or just like shopping for cool and unusual things then the Portland Retro Gaming Expo definitely has you covered!

Tournaments
Games are not really fun unless there is a decent challenge and some good competition! So naturally there had to be some tournaments going on. PRGE’s featured tournaments included Nintendo World Championship, Pac Man Jr., Capcom Bowling, Madden Football 94 and last but not least Street Fighter 2 Turbo! Hosted by Portland’s Best Bout Gaming, the Street Fighter 2 Turbo tournament was definitely a huge hit! I wanted to sign up for it, but I had arrived at the expo too late on account of my indecisiveness about  what to wear. Yup, I was trying to look stylish for all the Lora Croft and Samus wannabe’s! Anyways, I’m about 25 mins late to the PRGE so I figured I was still going to be able to get to sign up, WRONG! All the slots were taken and the line was wrapping around the convention! Apparently everyone wanted to show off their fighting skills and have a chance to win an enormous trophy and the bragging rights that come with it. I even recall a 10 year old girl salivating at the chance to SHORYUKEN any rival she came across. I was surprised she even knew what this game was. It was twice her age, and she knew how to pull off a Dragon Punch; uber insane! Although I wasn’t able to compete, I was ecstatic to see the fighting game community coming out strong like a Chuck Norris kick to the face. It was really fun watching the matches and seeing old veterans and the young new generation of fans bonding and enjoying the con in a challenge of fisticuffs.

Retro Gaming & Sick D.J.’s
The selection of retro games was overwhelming! PRGE had tons of consoles and games to choose from. Ataris, Nintendos, Commodores, and Segas galore! They even had a ton of real arcade cabinets and pinball machines! I spent a lot of time playing Dragons Lair 2: Time warp. I love this game, but I found my skills are not quite as sharp as they used to be; I died a lot! Thank God this game was free. I could only imagine how many quarters this game ate when it first came out. The graphics are really well animated and the game play is fun and hilarious as you try to control the main characters reflexes though quick time events. I also played a lot of Karate Champ with a friend of mine; I saw Jean-Claude Van Damme playing this in his movie Blood Sport and after years of waiting, I finally got to try it out! Oh, the time we had.

The other game I really enjoyed was the pinball machines. I don’t know about you, but there’s something so alluring and captivating about those machines that I can’t step away from. Other people must have felt the same way because the lines were kind of long. The Superman Machine seemed to be the people’s choice; I know it was mine!

To top it all off, for the 1st time ever, PRGE featured live D.J.s. They played various BBoy and 80’s hits like “The Life of the Party”, “Super Bad”, “It’s Just Begun” and so on. Not only did the convention goers get to indulge themselves in awesome moments of gaming but they also got a sweet soundtrack to go with it! You see, little things like that make PRGE such a delight!

Overall, such a great weekend it was. Every time spent was worth the anticipation; as a gaming fan there was something to love about PRGE around every corner! Before I finish this article, I would like to thank all of the PRGE staff and personal friend “Blackstormy” for great photos. Hopefully we get to participate again next year!

Various propeller airplanes, racing to the finish line.

Unless you’ve never played any kind of arcade racing game, you’d expect some features that are common to good racing games; speed, items, different game modes and multiplayer to extend the great experience.

You see, if a game I’m about to review overachieves or underachieves my expectations, the idea for the article sparks everywhere. But when my prediction is dead-on, I have nothing; nothing to complain about, nothing to be over-excited about. So, what were my expectations, you ask?

I expected a somewhat fluid, 30fps graphics with challenging levels, shifting and transforming into something different in real-time here and there. I also expected twists done by power-ups on Power Race Mode, wrist-twisting actions from Speed Race Mode and heavy tension from Survival Mode. And SkyDrift delivered. I also thought the audio was done right, but not exceeding my expectations.

Seasoned gamers with development in mind can easily detect that the graphics engine of SkyDrift is probably not optimized for local split-screen multiplayer. If you guessed that, you are correct. Dropping frame rates below 30fps is never a good idea for any gaming, and compromising visual effects might not deliver the same experience that SkyDrift offers, when played alone. It does however, support online multiplayer, and it gives a good amount of replay value.

When you play each course for the first time, you’re probably not going to find it much fun. This type of racing game usually comes down to how well the player knows the courses. And once the player gets used to certain routes or airplanes, that’s when the real fun begins. Well, if you’re a natural racer of any type of racing game, you’ll probably achieve that earlier than other gamers.

In simple word, SkyDrift is a very rich flavored vanilla. Is that a bad thing? I don’t know, every gamer has a different set of expectations for games as a form of entertainment. But in my opinion I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. Not every game is suppose to have some kind of twist or mind-blowing feature. Sometimes all you need is pure fun, flying in the sky while racing to the finish line. SkyDrift delivers that, and that’s probably why many critics and gamers are spreading the good word about it, and we’re about to do the same.

Our Score: 7.5 /10

Good amount of sky-racing fun included.

“Joe vs Zack” series though, it was something that I could relate to, as a PC gamer. If you were a serious old school PC gamer (remember Quake 2? LPB vs HPB?), you will probably enjoy this little more than the rest.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also check out the Alienware Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/Alienware - for a full effect.

If you have already played the BloodRayne series, you know how it’s gonna go down.
If you don’t know anything about this game, but are reading this review anyway, the title has the word “blood” in it, so my initial guess is that you want some kind of blood-action in your gaming.

Whatever the reason is, congratulations. You’ve found the right game. BloodRayne: Betrayal definitely packs tons of blood, and whether you like it or not, it’s going to be splattered all over your TV/monitor. So, is the blood the only thing we’re going to discuss for this game?

Nope. Blood only covers the basics.

The first thing  you will immediately notice with BloodRayne: Betrayal is the graphic novel themed style. A very pleasant experience for your eyes, unless you hate the style with a passion.

The storytelling also takes advantage of the graphic novel themed style, using dialogue bubbles to move the story along. Though it is a clever and classy approach, I almost wish that they were sequenced with cutscenes. I think the game has interesting twists and clever comments, but without zooms or dramatic visuals, it felt like I was just reading dialogues in small bubbles.

Audio is also a great part of the game. If you have low HP, you don’t hear the background music anymore. I’m not sure if it was done intentionally or a bug, but it strengthens the tension. Also some of the sound effects went with the BGM which is a nice touch.

One of few things that I’m wondering about is the BloodRayne: Betrayal’s difficulty level; there were times that I had to try for more than 50 times to get it done. Maybe my gaming skills have toned-down a bit or maybe I just plane suck at such game, but last time I had this much trouble with game was when I played Ninja Gaiden II. Okay, it may not be that hard but nonetheless there were moments when I wanted to throw my PS3 controller at TV screen and scream.

So yes, this game is not for faint of heart. But beating such difficulty does give you an overwhelming satisfaction, and for many gamers out there, such reason is all they need to take on this challenge.

This is a downloadable arcade game, so it may be too greedy to ask for more content, storyline, weapons and etc. But then again, if a gamer beats the game, and wants more out of it, it’s generally a good sign, yes?

If you’re up for a challenge, or love graphic-novel style artwork, or all of a sudden feel like playing something classy, I think BloodRayne: Betrayal won’t betray your gaming needs.

Our Score: 8.5 /10

A beautifully designed game. May seem overwhelmingly difficult at times, but once you get through it, you’ll find yourself wanting more.