I played Section 8 again at E3 and the game had moved from the early stages to a very high intensity multiplayer battle arena. There were more weapons and I was playing a 16 vs 16 match with 8 human players and 8 bots. The combat was more tuned to the FPS scheme and the animations and character models looked a lot better than when I played it at GDC.

Section 8 may be a sleeper hit for the Xbox 360 and PC when it arrives, and while not much has been released about the single player campaign, I can say the multiplayer will not be outdone by it.

Check the video below about the behind the scenes to Section 8.

The highlights of this trailer deal with more fight demonstrations that the gamer can see. Of course, the game will be looking a lot better once it is played on a HDTV and the sprites should move with some interesting swiftness.

The online mode has not been shown so far, but with the differing modes for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it will be interesting to see which version is the more complete one.

When it releases, Six Days in Fallujah will be one of the most controversial games ever made. Dealing with the War in Iraq, its immediacy is unprecedented, and with it, Atomic Games can single-handedly change our expectations for video games.

The animated documentary Waltz with Bashir parallels Six Days in lots of ways. With any luck, Six Days will treat its subject matter as seriously as Waltz, because in order to be justified, it has to become more than just a video game. It has to paint the reality of war, not glorify it the way so many games do.

Video games are essentially, well, “games,” so it’s easy for them to trivialize death and war. Understandably, there’s been outcry against Six Days; if handled incorrectly, it will insult the memory of those who died in the Second Battle of Fallujah.

So Six Days has a tall order: it must transcend the genre of video games as we currently know it, even become a documentary, which, Atomic Games says, is one of their goals.

The company has the potential to do it, the same way director Ari Folman did with his animated film Waltz with Bashir. Animated films are usually made for kids, but Waltz explores the circumstances surrounding the Sabra and Shatila Massacre during the Lebanon War. Ari Folman lived through the massacre, and with Waltz, his goal was to illustrate the horrors of war.

Both Waltz and Six Days use underappreciated mediums to get their point across. Both are being made with firsthand knowledge of the incidents. They’re also more than an old shoot’em up way to pass the time. They’re dealing with real people and events. Settling for anything less than a meaningful portrayal is unacceptable.

Six Days needs to go further than say, Grand Theft Auto. It needs to use the story of Fallujah for good reason, because the world needs more than an ultra-realistic first person shooter that’s simply a lot of fun. Atomic Games is pushing the limits of what constitutes “acceptable” content for video games, and I’d hate to see it spark controversy for the mere sake of it.

At the end of Waltz, no one wants to join the army.

Unfortunately, as of right now, it looks as though it’s only another FPS, albeit one with destructible walls and more accurate depictions of combat. But what’s the point? Will prepubescent teenagers play Six Days and think, “Oh, awesome, I want to shoot some Iraqis!” or, “Man, just give me a gun, I could do that.”

Last I heard, most families of the deceased weren’t willing to have their loved ones’ lives and deaths recreated in the game. But we need to truly understand the struggles of a soldier throughout those six days, what they lost, the gravity of their decisions, the ambiguity of war’s morality — as in Waltz, we need to understand these things if this game is going to become all that it can be.

And Six Days can make this come alive in a way we’ve never experienced before. It has the potential. This is a game that needs to be made, and if Atomic Games make this work, using Fallujah as a backdrop will be worth it after all.

She was sweet enough to grant me an interview, sharing the details of her adventures in hardcore fandom.

First, a brief bio: In just a few years, HezaChan went from her first anime convention to becoming an ambassador to the community. She’s appeared in several publications, including Animerica and G4. She’s established a strong web presence for herself, maintaining her website as well as regularly updating her LiveJournal, YouTube channel, DeviantArt, and assorted photo galleries.

HezaChan as Cutie Honey

There’s tons of material covered in this interview, so let’s get this party started!

Tell me about your otaku origins. How did you get into anime and what lead you into cosplay?

Otaku origins eh? Well when I was a young girl (around 4-5) I got heavily into the Sonic the Hedgehog games for Sega Genesis. I had toys, dolls, books, shirts, cups, comics, and I watched the tv shows religiously (there is photographic evidence of this sadly). I always had love for the big eyes and cheesiness of it all.

Then I started getting into Sailor Moon and met my best friend Valerie in Middle School who knew that it was called “anime” and that it came from Japan. Ever since then I would watch any sort of anime I could get my hands on which wasn’t an easy task back then.

Then, in 2001, I attended my first anime convention with her and cosplayed as Lime from Saber Marionette J. I had no idea what cosplay was at the time, so I just figured, “hey if they dress up at Star Trek conventions, why not dress up at an anime convention?”. Then I found out that dressing up as anime/game characters was cosplay. I was hooked from then on.

Who are your favorite characters? Either to dress up as or in general… Who would you most love to transform yourself into next?

Some of my favorite characters would include Chibiusa from Sailor Moon, Felicia from Darkstalkers, Yoko from Gurren Lagann, and Komugi-chan from Nurse Witch Komugi-chan Majikarte. I’ve cosplayed several of Komugi’s outfits and plan on doing more in the future. I just can’t quit her!! As for the question of who I’d love to transform myself into next is Taokaka from BlazBlue. She’s just so cute and psycho looking!

HezaChan as Chibi Usa from 'Sailor Moon'

What is the typical creative process for producing your costumes? From concept to raw materials to putting it all together…

Normally I’ll just get this overwhelming feeling to cosplay a character. If I don’t start working on it ASAP I’ll often lose interest and/or give up. When I decide I’m going to cosplay a certain character it’s almost always a character I’m really into at that moment in time. I look at their outfit and decide what kinds of materials would flow/work best and then I start my shopping. I can draft my own patterns for plushies, hats, bootcovers, and small accessories, but when it comes to the actual garment I look for a pattern that is close and alter it. I just keep working on it until it gets done. I don’t like taking too many breaks or else I’ll end up getting lazy and it will never get finished. I can finish whole costumes within a few weeks.

On average, what do you usually invest in these costumes? How do you come up with the larger props, like Yoko’s rifle?

I usually invest anywhere from $50 to $200 total. I’ve only had one costume go over that amount though. Yoko’s gun was made completely on a whim in a grand total of 2 weeks for an online costume contest. It cost me about $100 total to make. I just kind of winged it after looking up a few threads on forums on how others went about making their guns. It’s not the best but it worked for what I needed it for at the time.

HezaChan as Felicia from 'DarkStalkers'

You’ve set up an online business selling your über-cute handmade plushies. Do you also model professionally or is that more of a labor of love?

I wish I could model professionally! I don’t think I have the look or the height for that though. Most of my photos I actually take myself using my DSLR on a tripod with the timer set. It can be time consuming and I don’t always get the shot I’m really wanting. Also, I think a lot of people who end up catching me doing this think I’m crazy since I’m in a costume going back and forth in front of a camera. Only recently have I had some photoshoots with cosplay photographers and I have to say that I kind of like not having to do all the work myself!

How are the professional photoshoots usually managed? Does the photographer have certain shots in mind and direct you or do they follow your visions of the scene?

The times I’ve had them were completely random. None of them where really scheduled, they just came up to me and asked. It’s a bit of both. The photographer will tell me how to pose or stand to get great shots, and sometimes I’ll just pose on my own while they take the photo.

I’ve heard that you recently had a clash with Kotaku over some scandalous Cutie Honey photos. Would you mind telling the story?

Oh man does that make me laugh! What happened was the guy who wrote the article (Owen Good) had come across this site called Kenzins who had an article themselves about the “Top 50 Cosplay Clevage shots”. They had a few of my pictures in there (about 2 I think) and Kotaku had chose one of them to be the top image.

HezaChan as Ranka Lee from 'Macross Frontier'

Now, my boyfriend works in the video game industry and one of his coworker friends had messaged me on facebook with the link to the article. Instantly I was thinking “oh crap” because they chose an older photo where I was a bit on the chunky side. I knew this would cause drama so I got an account and messaged Owen asking if he could use a more recent photo where I’m not as chub-o-licious. He was really sweet and changed the photo for me!

I’m not going to get all mad just because some person made an article about cleavage and had a photo of my boobs. I mean hell, it’s not like I don’t have cleavage in my cosplay so what’s to be ashamed of? Also, my mother ended up seeing the article through a coworker of hers who is an otaku/gamer and visits kotaku regularly. She called me up to congratulate me and joke about it (in which I started to sweat profusely). I love my mom. She’s so silly!

That’s great that your family took it so well! How have they been involved in your fandom as you grew up and now as an adult doing these geeky/impressive things on our own?

My mother is a bit of a Trekker and she was into comic books and the sort. She would often play video games with me when I was younger and she’d watch anime like Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Dragon Ball Z with me after school on Toonami. She also made costumes for me when I was a little girl around Halloween time. Once I started getting into anime and going to conventions I’d ask for her help on my costumes. After she helped me make two she told me “I’m not going to do this every year for you”, so I ended up learning myself — which turned out for the best because I don’t think my mom would be happy helping me with 3-5 costumes a year. ;P My father on the other hand, well, he’s into his own things, but he supports my geekdom wholeheartedly.

Many newspaper, magazine, and other printing-reliant industries have already made the switch from printing texts, to simply posting them online because readers have found it much easier to use their web browsers instead of their mail boxes.

So what’s next? My bet is on television, and to be honest, it’s about time.

It’s about time television studios submit to what the masses actually want. For the last couple decades, it has been the masses that were submitted to the will of the studios.

But thanks to the Internet, viewers have more freedom to choose for themselves, and it is this freedom that will eventually make television an outdated technology.

There are two major things that make television a pain to watch.

First, we can only watch what the studios allow us to watch on certain dates and times. If television is entertainment, then shouldn’t viewers have the ability to neatly fit it into their own schedules? Why should we have to construct our schedules around what studios believe are optimum time slots?

Second, those long commercial breaks. To avoid getting into an off-topic rant on American “consumerism,” let’s just say commercials suck. Of course, one can just simply switch channels, but constantly switching back and forth between channels is an action that should not be necessary.

These two problems are almost completely eliminated by the Internet, making it both appealing and convenient. It comes to no surprise then that more and more people have been using the Internet as their television source.

Studios and companies immediately reacted to this increasingly popular trend by labeling it as piracy. Indeed, many of these sites were using copyrighted property without authority.

However, isn’t business all about adapting to change? And if more people were going online for their television, shouldn’t companies have taken advantage of this change rather than opposing it?

With no doubt, there was an obvious financial motive involved, but there was also an issue of control. These companies were slowly losing control of their audience.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em…right?

And so they relented, sanctioning the use of their copyrighted material for online use.

Hulu serves as the best example of this. It has become a melting pot of various shows from numerous sources, which is symbolized by the use of Seth MacFarlane (Fox) and Alec Baldwin (NBC) in its commercials.

While Hulu does not incorporate everything, several stations, Comedy Central for example, have added full episodes of shows on their own sites.

This is a trend that will likely continue and even grow more popular as time goes by. However, there is also the risk that companies may transform the Internet into the marketing machine that television was, but for now that is not a problem.

With such a centralized audience, how will other businesses react to these shifting conditions?

Movies, music, news, shows, maps, and virtually anything else, if you can name it, chances are there is something on the Internet about it.

It is not inconceivable to think that the Internet will soon be the source of everything - if it already isn’t for some.

It’s easy to see why video games use WWII so often. It’s the most devastating war in human history, and its sheer scale — spreading across every continent and involving most of the world’s nations — lends itself well to countless FPS’s and RTS’s.

But this year’s Fourth of July, why not reflect on the American Revolution instead? After all, it has plenty of high-stakes scenarios perfect for a video game and offers a much-needed escape from familiar battlegrounds of the 1940’s.

So here’s a salute to our American Revolution, which can serve as an alternate wartime setting for those players who feel (inevitably) worn out by the WWII era.

Why is it that so many video games set themselves circa 1940?

You’d be hard pressed to find many war titles set during any other time period. Sure, Vietnam War games exist here and there, but with thousands of years of history and conflict in the world, you’d think we wouldn’t limit ourselves to WWII.

WWII is definitely a massive conflict worthy of our remembrance, but even so, other historical struggles, such as the Korean War or even French Revolution, have a lot to offer. These conflicts aren’t as far-ranging as their larger counterpart, but they have refreshing content and settings that more developers should be taking advantage of.

As I said, just take a look at the American Revolution.

The midnight ride of Paul Revere, an important patriot.

What American schoolchild can forget Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride right before the battles of Lexington and Concord? Or the famous quote, “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes,” during the Battle of Bunker Hill? How about John Paul Jones, a naval fighter who shouted, “I have not yet begun to fight!” when asked to surrender his ship by a British officer?

It’s these memorable leaders and high drama that fuel the epic potential of an American Revolution video game. Play as George Washington himself, commanding your ragtag group of troups. Cross the Delaware, even. One potential type of game is a wartime strategy in which the gamer competes against Britain’s superior resources, another an intense first person shooter or action adventure game (as long as we control a badass like Mel Gibson, it doesn’t matter). The one-shot musket, in particular, would add a new dimension to the shooter, making it more than a “point, spray bullets and kill” affair.

Alas, video games have neglected the American Revolution. Aside from a mod or two, one being an educational tool developed with Neverwinter Nights, there aren’t many games dealing with it. Empire: Total War allows gamers to play through the Revolution as part of its tutorial. But that’s about it.

Who knows? Maybe a bigger project is somewhere on the horizon. It’d certainly be nice to see more than WWII in our historic war games. It’d be especially nice to see the Revolution.

When it comes to video games, Hollywood has it all wrong.

But with the recent release of indie film The Legend of Zelda: Hero of Time, it seems gamers can finally watch a faithful adaptation of a great game. It’s not a big budget production, but the film crew nailed it better than the hot shots at large movie companies.

Sure, they don’t have the best special effects or big-name actors, but where the rest of the movie industry has failed, indie filmmakers can create movies actually deserving of their video game-based content.

This isn’t to simply bash the movie industry, though. Making a movie, with monumental budgeting and copyright issues, is no easy task. Video game movies are little more than a money-making scheme anyway, and since big budget filmmakers’ sole priority is to break even, it’s understandable when their movies completely suck.

A big screen Metal Gear Solid movie is planned, but the indie films might be better.

But when an indie filmmaker like BMB Finishes makes a video game-based movie, they don’t need to worry about broad audience appeal. They don’t need to worry about licensing, contracts or even making money, for that matter. They make their movie out of pure love for the content, the way other fans would like to see it.

More than anything, it’s that love that separates indies from big-time filmmakers.

So I’ll look forward to upcoming films like Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy (this Solid Snake adaptation too), applaud the incredible amount of effort that goes into making these movies and forgive a lot of their shortcomings.

Without a doubt, the quality of these no-budget productions suggests that Hollywood can and should get it right. Unfortunately, this hasn’t happened yet. With plenty of film adaptations planned for the future, the big guys will certainly have lots of chances.

Prince of Persia is coming out soon. Bioshock is in the works, and Gears of War, not to mention a “real” Metal Gear Solid movie.

I’m just as hopeful as everyone else, but I’m not holding my breath.

Check out the trailer below.

Does the lack of UMD only entice previous none PSP users? Is 32 GB enough for a download only system?

There are so many questions above and so many left to answer about Sony’s PSP Go to address. To be honest, a main question that I would raise is that if Sony unveiled that Go a bit too early for consumers tastes.

As website develop reported, Sony was simply waiting for the right time to show off their goods. However, it was too soon based on the fact that Sony had no plan (and still doesn’t) to integrate owners past UMD purchases to the entirely new device.

Sure, sure, Sony reported they were working on a way for the hundreds UMD’s to make their way to their new Go, but alas, its seems that they’re promises were all a front. Boo!

So just how many games can the Go hole on its 32 gigabyte storage? Well, if the average game is about a gigabyte in storage that means a bit less than 30 games per PSP Go. Is that enough?

I say absolutely not. There is a reason why Sony is continuing the run of the PSP 3000. The Go is for early adopters, in addition to those who have yet to own a PSP. Even so, the $250 that is required to purchase the new PSP still eclipses that of the recently introduced Nintendo DSi for $170.

But I have been laying on the trickery since I first started writing. Silly reader, you thought that the PSP Go and DSi were a comparable bunch. Wrong!

Sure it may seem as if the DSi and the PSP Go were to be competitors, but that is not what the PSP Go’s aims are. Being an entirely download based system, with Sony rumored to be gathering small developers attention in order to create applications similar to Apple’s joyous device, a device that will most likely, if not already has overtake the PSP in worldwide sales numbers.

But this is just the start for the PSP Go. Remember when I said the Go was for early adopters? I meant early, early adopters because the introduction of the go paves the way Sony’s next step with the digital only console…a phone.

What perfect sense it makes when thought about, it seems as if Sony were simply paving the way to launch and all out assault on that which is the iPhone.

Is this a smart move for Sony, considering the iPhone is entering its 3rd year of consumer introduction? Actually, when it come down to games, it does make sense.

When it comes to games, the iPhone suffers in creating a price point for games. Charging any were North of 9.99 on the phone is outlandish, and cause consumers to stay away because of the proliferation of free-$2.99 apps there are for the platform.

Sony has a $40 price point for its potentially new PSP Go phone. That means that Sony could essential drop the price of the game to $30 and still be charger at the least $20 more than the iPhone. This would be more attracting for game devs since there is more return on their business venture.

So what do you think? How long will it be until Sony announces a PSP phone? We’ve heard these sorts of rumors before, but how long until they become a reality?

It looks like Army of Two: 40th Day is going to fix all the problems that plagued the original game and then some. Urban combat was always where Army of Two excelled and with the environments shown in the previous trailers, there should be something amazing coming.

Check out the video below!