New York. Only slightly more violent than it's real life counterpart.

Prototype starts out in a chaotic battlefield in what remains of Manhattan, New York. You play as a fully powered Alex Mercer who is fighting both the army and infected citizens. The tutorial type level ends before you get totally overwhelmed by all the powers at your disposal and quickly rewinds to the beginning of the story. Through various flashbacks and flash-forwards, we learn that a virus is spreading throughout Manhattan that turns people into mindless monsters. Alex is also infected with it, but for some reason it has granted him superhuman and shape shifting abilities. Alex also has a nasty case of amnesia, so it’s a good thing he is able to absorb people and their memories which slowly restores his memory as you progress through the game.

You can easily travel to the top of any of the buildings.

Gameplay is broken up into a series of chapters. Each chapter has one main mission that must be completed before you can move on. However, you can spend as much time doing whatever you want before taking on these main missions. In the early parts of the game, it’ll usually be side-missions that involve killing enemies or running through a small part of the city within a certain amount of time. However, as the game progresses so do the number of things you can do in the open world. You can seek out and destroy infected hives or sneak into and infiltrate army bases. The variety does tend to die down about halfway through the game and you may find yourself skipping it to get to the main mission.

Movement is fluid and frustrating at the same time.

Alex controls fluidly to a fault. His main method of traveling is simply running and jumping. Like a parkour practitioner on speed, he is able to run up the sides of buildings, launch himself over another and glide across city blocks. This method of travel feels very smooth, but you can’t help but wish there was a speedier way to get from point A to point B sometimes. Also, running up buildings is twitchy at times, you’ll be running in a straight line and veering off even in the slightest direction can send you horribly off course. In addition to just running and gliding across the city, Alex can also hijack army tanks and helicopters as well. These tools of destruction add some variety to the basic hack and slash combat, and there is something satisfying about taking down army bases and infected hives with them.

Combat is a gruesome affair.

Similarly, combat is also fluid to a fault. Alex can shape-shift his body into a number of melee weapons you might expect in any kind of action game, the balanced one, the fast but weak, and  the slow but powerful among others. Alex can perform simple 3 hit combos, but things get really interesting when you start powering up your abilities. Nothing is more satisfying than killing off thirty infected with one screen clearing move. Enemies range from one hit kill fodder, to larger beasts that will relentlessly follow you to army tanks and helicopters. Combat will frustrate you at many times during the missions. The problem is you are just one person against numerous waves of enemies. Even with Alex’s powers, he is still within a fragile body. One mission, for example, has you destroying waves of tanks. Normally fighting against one or two tanks is not much of an issue, but when you are trying to handle four tanks, plus infected who won’t let up attacking you, trying to avoid rocket launcher shots and fire from helicopters, you end up the victim of many cheap shots. Most of these frustrating moments are contained within the missions, so you can always get your destructive nature on outside of them and not feel like you’re constantly fighting against an overpowered AI.

Destruction from above in a hijacked helicopter.

Honestly, the most fun I had with this game was outside of missions. While Manhattan is nowhere near as large as say Liberty City, there’s still a decent amount of space to play around in. However, don’t expect any semblance of realism among its citizens. As you progress through the game, the island gets quarantined off and more and more of the populous come infected. Infected parts of the city are rampant with chaos as the few normal people run for their lives and the army tries to fight off the horde. However, on the flip side, the neighborhoods that remain uninfected always remain calm and collected. They go about their normal lives as if they aren’t trapped on an island with no way of escaping and death just a few blocks away. They also must have seen some amazing things in their days to not react at all to someone running up the side of a building and gliding halfway across the city.

There are worse ways to go in Prototype than getting your ribcage smashed in.

Overall the story is what is going to get you through mission mode, and not to spoil the end, but it will probably leave you more confused than anything. The carnage and destruction are really the highlights of this game and to its credit it does it well. However, this charm has diminishing returns and soon you’ll be wishing it had a little more substance. Still, the idea of Devil May Cry meets Grand Theft Auto is merit enough to play the game, just make sure to monitor your stress levels while playing. 

Shibuya. Always the hip happening place.

The World Ends with You is not your typical group of teenage stereotypes saves the world from evil forces storyline. It refreshingly takes place in modern day Shibuya, Japan and immediately introduces you to main character, Neku Sakuraba. He wakes up in a busy crossroad of Shibuya, voices in his head, little memory of how he got there and a text message on his phone saying if he doesn’t get to a certain area within 60 minutes he will face erasure. Brushing it off as a joke, he soon realizes it is real as a timer displaying 60 minutes appears on his hand. You soon learn that Neku is part of a game in which he and the other players are fighting for their lives against a group of people who call themselves Reapers. As you progress through the game the mystery slowly and slowly unravels itself never fully explaining itself until literally the last boss.

This story is both simple at its core and incredibly deep and profound if you wish to explore it in depth. At its heart this game is a mystery novel that throws just enough questions at you to feel compelled to play more, but not so much that you get bogged down or confused. I can honestly say that I was surprised at the ending and even more surprised when I read the epilogue of sorts.

Neku and Shiki are shocked to find they are sent on another kill quest.

I found the characters to be really likeable. Each one has their reason for being part of the game and you really feel for them when you find out why it is. Neku in particular was a great example of how to make a Square Enix emo character. I felt he had great character development without feeling like they forced a personality change into him. I remember not being able to stand Neku at the beginning of the game and slowly over the course of the game found myself cheering for him. I also remember making a big fuss about how if the characters were older I could relate to them more, but eventually I realized that even though the characters are in their teens, they feel almost ageless so it really became a non-issue for me.

Trust me, leave the AI on auto attack.

Gameplay wise, The World Ends With You uses unique ways to take advantage of the NDS. During battles you have both a top and bottom screen. The top screen shows your partner and the bottom screen is Neku. You control both players at the same time with the d-pad controlling the top and touch screen based actions controlling the bottom. This initially starts you off with a huge learning curve as paying attention to both screens is quite difficult. Luckily you have the option of having the top screen go on auto-attack and honestly you never really have to control them.

Utilizing different pins keeps a fresh spin on battling.

Neku must equip different pins in order to attack and that changes the way you interact with the touch screen. Some pins will make you slash with the stylus, some will make you tap the stylus and some even make use of the microphone. It’s great to see a game actually integrate the touch screen controls instead of feeling like they were tacked on. There are many other little gameplay touches that make the game feel unique, such as eating food to increase your stats, decreasing your levels and being weaker in order to get more pins to use, different clothing brands that reflect equipment and pins that get stronger or weaker depending on what style is hot in the area you are in, and even a built-in mini game that can be described as marbles on crack.

Nothing screams out fear more than a barrage of giant stuffed plushes!

After you beat the game you can come back and replay the chapters in the game to access additional storyline content. In addition there’s one mode where you play through a day with the characters as they exist in an alternate universe which ends up being really humorous. These do add a bit of replay value, but if you really just want the story and don’t feel like playing through the same game again, just do what I did and check out spoilers online. You’ll see how deep the storyline can really be for this game.

Overall, I feel the Kingdom Hearts development team hit it out of the park with this one. It was refreshing that it broke many JRPG stereotypes and it goes to show that new IP can be a success if done right. I realize the game is over a year old by this point, but if you missed out on it the first time around I highly recommend you pick it up and add it to your DS collection.

These plushies were originally only available at this year’s Blizzcon, but Blizzard just put two of them up on the store today. Knowing the amount of WoW fans who weren’t able to attend Blizzcon, I would be willing to bet these will sell out within a short amount of time. So get them to sell before they show up on Ebay!

Murky and Lurky Plushies via Blizzard Store

Announced on ADVFilms’ website today

Those of us who grew up watching AD Vision remember their debut on the scene with the memorable Mamono Hunter Yohko, but I will always remember such titles as Bannou Bunka Neko Musume Nuku-Nuku and Kido Senkan Nadesico, and who could forget their big budget rollout of Shin Seiki Evangelion.  As the ADV label has now officially gone the way of Geneon/Pioneer LDC, I will continue to prize their products within my DVD library and now I’ll be hunting for used DVDs on eBay and Amazon.com.

I guess I’ll say what everyone else is thinking: Who’s next?

Post your memories of ADV titles in the comments.

As of August 26, 2009, 10pm PDT: Cryptic and Atari have reinstated the discounted subscriptions.

Original Entry

Cryptic Studios, the developers of the upcoming superhero-based MMORPG, Champions Online, announced yesterday that all of the discounted Lifetime Subscriptions and 6-month Subscriptions were sold out and they would not be permitting any further purchases.  This came after a post on their website that there were only 1,000 Lifetime Subscriptions left and 500 6-month Subscriptions before they would be sold out.  Their previous announced deadline was September 1st, but also included the line about supplies being limited, though neither Cryptic nor Atari (the producing studio) has admitted what the total numbers were for the sale.  This announcement subsequently enraged those players who were waiting until payday or for reasons unknown to the last minute to pull the trigger.

For posterity, the different subscriptions offered the following perquisites:

6-Month Discounted Subscriptions:

• Price: $59.99 USD, $65.99 CAN, €44.99 EUR, and £35.99 GBP
• Saves $29.95 USD (33% off!) over regular monthly subscription!
• Retro Future costume set
• Access to the Star Trek Online Closed Beta, beginning later this year!

Lifetime Subscriptions:

• Price: $199.99 USD, $219.99 CAN, €147.99 EUR, and £119.99 GBP
• Access to the Star Trek Online Closed Beta, beginning later this year!
• Exclusive Art Deco costume set, available only to lifetime subscribers
• Retro Future costume set
• Unique Mirror Universe outfit for Star Trek Online, available at the game’s release
• Exclusive in-game Foxbat action figure, available only to lifetime subscribers
• Eight additional character slots!

Having been a fan of the MMORPG genre since the early days of MUDs and joining the GUI-based games in 1999 with EverQuest, I’m no stranger to the wild and craziness of pay-for-play online games.  I’ve carved a path from EQ to Anarchy Online to Dark Age of Camelot to the late, great Earth & Beyond to World of Warcraft to City of Heroes and beyond.  I’ve actually dropped all of my subscriptions except CoH/CoV and have been really looking forward to Champion Online so much so that I’ve been playing the Open Beta event after a lengthy 2GB+ download from FileFront.com.  After playing the Open Beta for an hour, I pulled the trigger on a Lifetime Sub immediately.  As a lifelong Trekker who’s been dying for Star Trek Online since 2006 during the Perpetual Entertainment debacle, it was a no brainer to suck it up and nab it ASAP.  Offering the STO Beta was pure genius, but I’m guessing that they were counting on the rabid Trek fanbase (carrying their massive disposable income with them) to eat up every subscription in short order.

Obviously I had some disposable income to play around with, but not everyone did.  But now all I’m reading on the forums is a long list of players who’re swearing up and down to cancel their pre-orders (impossible if they used the beta code that came with it).  So much so, that the Cryptic online community moderators are passing up a suggestion from many of those raging players to at least offer the discounts to those who pre-ordered, without the STO Beta offer.

My opinion on this is pretty simple: As with everything else, you snooze, you lose.  I’m not indifferent to the notion of not having the money, but if a car dealership offers a sweet deal on a ride you want so bad it hurts and every model of that car sells out in the first day of the sale before you get to the lot with your money in hand… do you blame the dealership or do you just taste the bitter regret in the back of your throat that you didn’t camp that bitch the night before?  How bad do you want it?!  The early bird always gets the worm.  And if you can’t afford it, then you’re probably better off just paying for the monthly or maybe the not-so-discounted 6-month offer at 17 dollars more.

By the way, if you’re looking for a review of Champions Online?  In one word: Awesome.

Publisher: Cryptic Studios/Atari
Platform: PC and 360
Release Date: 9/1/09 (US-PC), 9/10/09 (AUS-PC), TBA (360)
Price: $49.99 box plus 30-days free, $14.99 per month thereafter.
http://www.champions-online.com

PS3 Fat and PS3 Slim comparison.

After much speculation that Sony would be launching a slimmer version of their Playstation 3, they finally dropped the bomb at Gamescom earlier today. The Playstation 3 Slim is now confirmed and even more is set to launch the first week of September.  It will have the same features and functionality of the current generation Playstation 3 and will come packaged with a 120GB HD. It’s 36% smaller and lighter.

What will appeal to many people however is the price point will be $100 cheaper than the current MSRP on the 80GB Playstation 3. It will launch at $299 in the US. With the redesign of the system and the price now matching the MSRP of an Xbox 360 Pro, it should help nudge people who have been sitting on the fence. Sony seems to be arming up for the Holiday season, we’ll see if Microsoft has anything to fight back with.

Source

Kotaku.com

One of the many cameos from the first two Ghostbuster films.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game takes place in 1991, two years after the events of Ghostbusters II. You play the role of a new recruit who the other Ghostbusters only refer to as Rookie. The game starts off with paranormal activity that centers on the Gozer exhibit at the museum. A shockwave is sent out, which attracts the attention of Ray and Egon, and which also frees resident ghost mascot Slimer in the process. The team chases Slimer to the Sedgewick Hotel where he is eventually captured, destroying a familiar looking hotel reception room in the process. No sooner had they wrapped up this incident, than they were greeted by a familiar Gozer destructor form. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is wreaking havoc in Times Square and once again the team is called into action to defeat him. What unravels after these events is a plot which, of course, will bring about the destruction of the human world.

If you cross the streams, expect to get an earful from your teammates.

Gameplay is mainly comprised of third-person shooting. You start the game off with the iconic proton pack which weakens ghosts until the point where they can be captured and sent into a trap. Since there is no ammo in the game, you can continue firing your weapon until it overheats. If it overheats you temporarily cannot use your weapon, you can stop this by manually cooling it down. However if this were the only weapon in the game, the gameplay would get really stale really quickly. Luckily, being the new guy, Ray gives you all the new equipment to test. While some of these new weapons give you the feeling they were just thrown in without much thought, they are all distinctly different so it just doesn’t feel like a slightly different proton pack. You also earn money for every ghost you defeat that you can use to upgrade your weapons. The upgrades are minor and you can upgrade them all fairly quickly, but it’s a nice touch to have them.

First person mode with the PKE meter.

Similarly, there are different types of defeating enemies to vary things up. While the stronger ghosts are captured, some of the lesser ones you just destroy by depleting their energy. Some are distinctly unique like the gargoyles which you must capture and slam into the ground to break them. There are also first person elements as well when using the PKE Meter. In the game, you use the PKE Meter to scan enemies for their weaknesses, reveal ghosts you normally couldn’t see, find passageways to the next area and search for hidden bonus items you can collect. There is no HUD that displays health, instead like many shooter heroes, your health regenerates when you aren’t getting attacked. If you happen to fall in battle, as long as there is another team member near you, they can revive you.

Egon's character model looks eerily spot on to Harold Ramis.

As mentioned earlier, this game does not try to hide the blatant Ghostbusters’ fan service. This is great for fans of the movies, but also limits the audience of who will enjoy this game who might not understand why a giant painting of Vigo the Carpathian constantly taunts you at Ghostbusters headquarters. But even for hardcore fans it may give you the feeling that it falls a little short of being a total revival for the franchise. At times it feels like it relies too heavily on past movie references. The storyline makes it feel like Ghostbusters 1.5 rather than a true third movie. Some of the performances feel a bit subdued as well, primarily Bill Murray as Peter Venkman. You get the feeling that he isn’t quite putting his all into the role. That being said the performances by Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis feel spot on and there have been more than once instance where I found myself laughing at the writing. Ultimately that is what’s going to keep you playing the campaign mode. The gameplay, while unique, doesn’t exactly carry single player. Since storyline quality can be a subjective thing, if it doesn’t draw you in, you may not find much to keep you playing.

Imagine this hulking beast times 3. That's a good idea of what multiplayer throws at you.

It won’t take long to complete the campaign and it does not offer much replay value, but there is a surprisingly robust multiplayer mode that is available. All multiplayer modes are co-op up to 4 players and they all vary in mission types. For example one mode is a survival type mode, where you capture ghosts until your team is defeated. Another mode however has you protecting 4 relics from being taken away by ghosts until time runs out. Another mode has you destroying ghost spawn points. You can play these multiplayer missions on their own or you can play a campaign which has you playing 3 different missions one after the other. I was very skeptical of the multiplayer mode, but after playing it I found myself really enjoying it. It really does give the game a breath of fresh air after you’ve completed the campaign mode and it gives you a chance to check out other player’s crazy ghost capturing techniques. If you feel the storyline doesn’t carry the campaign mode for you, you can probably find a breath of fresh air playing with other people in smaller gameplay bursts.

One more thing I have to mention. The game does a great job at giving you a creepy atmosphere that you normally don’t find out of games like Residen Evil  and Silent Hill. While you won’t find any pyramid heads doing questionable activities with mannequins, you will find yourself at the receiving end of some cheap scares. It took me by surprise, because the movie, while having to do with ghosts, was never really scary.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game definitely does one thing right. It completely caters to the Ghostbusters fanboy crowd. With anything involving fandom, many hardcore fans may be able to ignore the shortcomings of the game, but those who don’t quote Ghostbusters in every day life may find it hard to ignore them. Take away all the big name actors and the story and you have what feels like a fresh third person shooter with new mechanics, but eventually falls into a repetitious trap. For most people I would say this game is a solid rental. You’ll enjoy the experience and you’ll also enjoy that you didn’t pay full retail price for it.

I can’t imagine the kind of person this would appeal to as Megmaan 9 is already one of the most frustrating platformers I have played to date. More importantly, I can’t imagine why you would want to pay for this either. Granted it’s only $1, but really if you wanted to pay money to make your life more stressful you can just give it to me and I’ll come to your work and periodically tase you throughout the day. The DLC is available for the Xbox 360 version only and will include no new achievements or leaderboard functionality.

Source

IGN

Japanese Michael Jackson impersonator, singing the Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea theme song. Hilarity ensues.

Edit: Apparently I’ve been scooped! LOL, no matter, I like Kumo’s web site. You can see the comparison video on his blog post.

From the official press release:

“Our goal with BlizzCon is to deliver an unforgettable weekend of entertainment, and we can’t think of a better way to close out this year’s show than having Ozzy rock the house,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Many of us at Blizzard are lifelong fans of Ozzy’s music, and we’re thrilled that he’ll be performing for all of our BlizzCon attendees as well as those joining us via DIRECTV and the live Internet stream.”

Personally I think this is a great addition to Blizzcon. The past two years, they closed the show with Blizzard’s in house band, L80ETC, and a mini Video Games Live concert. While those are great in their right, seeing the same thing again for a 3rd year in a row would be very stale. Ozzy joins Jay Mohr and Patton Oswalt as celebrities who have appeared at previous Blizzcons.

Source

Blizzcon

Source

Famitsu.com

Sources

Anime News Network

Fate/Stay Night official home page [Japanese]

Anime News Network, you too! Japanator, you too! Anime Vice, you too! *blat* *blat* *blat* Hand me my choco taco!

Joe, dude! I hope you’re reading this. Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson will be making a cameo voice appearance in the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 game. Unfortunately, Tony Yayo is not yet confirmed, but we can all hope! Now I know how much you love 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, so I hope you can hold that enthusiasm by November 10, 2009, rated M for Mature, available on Xbox Circle and PS Triple. Anyway, keep in touch!

Source

Giant Bomb

(Note: In order to see the romanized lyrics and English translation, make sure to turn on the Annotations, in the lower right corner of the YouTube player.)

A couple of months ago, we showed you Miku’s melancholy rock ballad. This time, it’s Vocaloid newcomer Megurine Luka’s turn to make you grab the tissue box and yet at the same time, tapping your feet as you listen to the rhythm of this awesome song.

This fan-made music video is called “Just Be Friends” composed and produced by Dixie Flatline and Yeheyuan Studio. (The song is also a bit old; it has been floating in the Internets for a month now, but I stumbled upon it just recently.) This dance song is the story of  a loving couple. It follows their relationship from the good times, to the emotional drift and eventual falling out. The melody and rhythm is incredibly catchy, but the lyrics is very depressing. Even though you can dance to this song, you can’t help but feel the loneliness in Luka’s synthetic voice. Despite Luka’s robotic sounding voice, Dixie Flatline does an incredible job of programming her intonation and diction which made her sound honest and sincere in this sad song.

In any case, the song is awesome and you should buy it when Dixie Flatline releases it on iTunes. In the meantime, you can buy Dixie Flatline’s first album “Fragments” featuring Miku, Rin and Len on iTunes right now.

For more “Just Be Friends” goodness, check out the fan-made versions below.

Chorus Version

Piano Ballad Version

Just one of the many crowded aisle in the Exhbit Hall.

This year marked my second time to Comic-Con. Having been attending anime conventions regularly since 2000, last year really opened my eyes to how large Comic-Con is in comparison to even something like Anime Expo. This year was no exception. First timers can really get a scope for how massive it is on Day Zero. The day before the convention opens, they give 4-day attendees a chance to visit the dealer’s hall to get a head’s start on their shopping. The moment I step foot into the dealer’s hall, I was overwhelmed. My first step into the dealer’s hall filled me with an overwhelming feeling. Looking up you see a sign marking you are in aisle 5200, and far in the distance you might make out aisle 100 on the opposite side of the hall. There are booths for video game publishers, movie studios, TV networks, toy makers, comic publishers, vendors and everything in between.

Pictured: Bumblebee Replica. Not Pictured: The 2 hour line to buy Hasbro exclusives.

For those unfamiliar to Comic-Con, but who might have gone to anime conventions in the past, nothing can quite prepare you for the more popular booths. One booth that stands out in particular is Hasbro’s. Comic-Con has always been famous for offering exclusive merchandise that you can only purchase at the event and Hasbro – makers of such popular toy lines as G.I. Joe, My Little Pony and Transformers – leads the pack. The Hasbro exclusives are so popular that in order to get in line, you need to line up at a separate location and get a ticket to return to the booth. That’s right, you need to line up for a chance to go line up in another line.

Many stopped to admire the overall hunkiness of this Wolverine wax model.

Many other booths share the same kind of craziness. For example network booths that offer autographs sessions from its stars end up feeling like controlled chaos at best and drowning in a sea of people at worst. For example, even though I had a ticket that allowed me a chance to get an autograph with the cast from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, did not necessarily mean it was going to be an easy process. What made things really difficult was that no lines could be formed until 15 minutes before the actual signing, and of course people showed up long before that time. Milling around the booth, it felt crowded but relatively comfortable, that was until they announced the line was officially starting. What followed after that was a massive rush of people trying to get near the front of the line. Feeling like I was about to be swallowed up by the mob, I took refuge near the corner of the booth and was at a point where no one else could cut in front of me. It was possibly one of the most stressful moments of the convention, but in the end getting a chance to tell the cast members of your favorite show how much you enjoy their work and having them respond back to you in a truly thankful way really exemplifies what Comic-Con is all about.

This close from MST3K greatness.

Now all that I have talked about, that’s just the dealer’s hall and there are still many other things I can talk about that one aspect, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Of course it wouldn’t be a convention without panels. Looking at the panel schedule you’re sure to find many panels you would love to attend; unfortunately, what you find is that so many of the panels overlap each other that you have to choose which ones you truly want to go to. While it is cool to go to panels in the massive Hall H, which seats 6500 people, with its high profile movies like Iron Man 2 and celebrities like Robert Downey Jr. in attendance, I prefer the smaller more intimate panels. Two of my favorite panels from this year were the Rifftrax and Kung-Fu Extravaganza. Rifftrax is a group of 3 alumni from the old Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV show. MST3K was one of my favorite shows growing up and having a chance to be 20 feet away from the original cast far outweighs seeing someone like Robert Downey Jr. on a large screen. They did a live riffing of a safety training video and took suggestions from the audience to what movie they should riff next. Sadly the Super Mario Brother’s movie lost to Dragon Wars in the end.

The second panel, the Kung-Fu Extravaganza was hosted by Ric Meyers, who Fanime attendees may already know very well. For people who love Asian cinema, the panel is sure to entertain you with 3 hours of the best action scenes from films old and new. In fact, because of this panel, I can recommend two great films fans of the genre should check out – Red Cliff and Yip Man. Red Cliff, released last year and directed by John Woo it is a great period piece from the Three Kingdoms era. The second film, Yip Man, is a movie about the life of the celebrated master of the legendary Bruce Lee. Both of these film feature awesome fight scenes that will leave you stunned.

Matt Groening stares at Bender like God staring at his most beautiful creation.

So you got a brief look into the dealer’s hall and panels, which granted make up much of what Comic-Con is all about and yet there is still so much more to talk about. On the gaming side, I got to try out games like Left 4 Dead 2, Brutal Legend, Dragon Age, Singularity, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Tatsunoko vs Capcom. On the autograph side, among the famous people I got to meet included Matt Groening, Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick – the creators of The Venture Brothers, John Kricfalusi – creator of Ren and Stimpy, and Danny Devito to name a few. In addition to what I purchased at the dealer’s hall, I got swag that ran the gamut of free t-shirts and comics, to door hangers and a unique one of a kind Venture Brother’s cup. Among one of the bigger events I missed was the masquerade. It’s such a huge event that you can either watch it live in the hall, or watch a simulcast in a panel room. You could even watch it on a big screen as you enjoy free munchables at a party-like environment that even features a bar to get your drink on.

See you next year Comic-Con! Don't forget to wash the nerd funk from your halls before then.

Of course I’m sure most people will agree that the best thing about Comic-Con and conventions in general are the memories that you forge. Whether it’s staying up all night playing board game and swapping stories with your friends in the hotel room or meeting new people who geek out at the same things you do, it’s always a great feeling knowing that you can celebrate your fandom with thousands of other people. Even our road trip down to San Diego, which consisted of me driving for over 8 hours each way, is something that I wouldn’t want to replace. If you haven’t been to Comic-Con yet, I can’t recommend it enough. As I said before and I’ll say again, even if you have no interest in comics whatsoever, no matter what your fandom is, you’ll find a large group of people to share it with at Comic-Con. I look forward to returning year after year after year as I know that each year will be better than the last. Here’s to you, Comic-Con International! Congratulations on 40 years and counting!

Awww, look at that tiny amp! And that tiny bass guitar! Daaaaaaaw!

I apologize, this post is very self-indulgent. Finally the K-On! Nendoroids are revealed at the K-On! official web log, starting with the ever-popular-scared-of-barnacles-uber-bassist Mio, seen here. Look at her, it makes you want to say, “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw.” There’s no word yet of the price and release date, nor is there info if this is a regular or special edition release. Either way, I must have her and of course the rest of the “After School Tea Time” band.

Speaking of Nendoroids, I’ve pre-ordered 6 of them… SIX! I can’t wait for Nendoroid Raspberryl (Disgaea 3), Asakura Yume (Da Capo), Zange and Nagi (Kannagi), Drossel (Fireball) and last but not least Saber Lily (Fate/Unlimited Code). Halp me!

Source

K-On Official Blog

Having played the game and being a fighting game fan myself, Battle Fantasia unfortunately is lackluster compared to it’s 2D fighter cousins. With the revival of fighting games reminiscent of the early 90’s when Street Fighter spawned many imitators, are we heading towards another over saturation of fighting games? I hope not because I’m still trying to erradicate my memory of this atrocity.

Source

Kotaku.com

If you haven’t tried out Peggle and you don’t mind having a little bit of WoW flavor to your casual puzzle game, go out and download the game. Before you know it, you’ll be alt-tabbing to get one more shot in during those anime ending sequences in no time. And PopCap if I can make one more suggestion going forward? I know that Bjork is the Peggle mascot and all, but can you make his power more than just something you’d find in Puzzle Bobble?

Source

PopCap Games-Peggle World of Warcraft Edition

The 80s were a simpler time. You had girls in mechanical suits...

From the Unwound archives. Way back in the days of my budding anime fandom, a dear friend of min pulled me aside and said he had something to show me. It was called ‘Bubblegum Crisis,’ and he was positive that I would enjoy it. Now, of course, I had my doubts as to the veracity of his claim. After all, it was kind of a ridiculously absurd name and did not really pique my interest all that much. In response, he simply told me to ignore the name and try not to judge an anime based on the title. I was too tired to put up much of a fight, and after work we ended up at his place and settled in for an afternoon of anime watching.

Yeah, I was taught a rather valuable lesson that day. Had I gone with my instincts of begging off, I would not be the same person I am today. I think, along with many other early titles I watched, Bubblegum Crisis is a staple of anime fandom. At least, it’s a staple of mine. I’m not talking about the remake from Pioneer/Geneon, either. I’m talking about the late 80s produced original, where you could tell it was all hand-drawn and not computer-assisted. along with classics like Urusei Yatsura, Macross, Yamato, Gatchaman, and many others, BGC is a must-see for any anime fan out there. It’s a common frame of reference, a point of contention between fans over what constitutes a bad dub, and if you haven’t seen it, you’re punched right out of the conversation, I guarantee you.

gaudy yet awesome outfits, ...

What’s BGC about? Four women battle against the out-of-control creations of the Genom corporation: one driven by revenge, one driven by boredom, one driven by excitement, and one driven by loyalty. Led by Miss Sylia Stingray, the Knight Sabers band together to crusade against the injustice of androids with too much power. Underground singer Priss Asagiri, Linna Yamazaki, and police data specialist Nene Romanova round out the group, wearing Stingray-designed hardsuits and kicking some serious Boomer ass through eight episodes of OVA goodness.

Can you sense my enthusiasm? Good.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this series. It delivers action, romance, drama, and a memorable soundtrack the likes of which has never been reproduced. Every character shows a level of depth that you really only got to see in much longer series. What a story like BGC, it would take a series such as Full Metal Panic or Gundam much more than eight episodes to provide you with a clear background, and even then it took Crash to really screw the pooch. Which in a sense was an additional three episodes to the story, but you see how perfect the eight was? It really didn’t even need the full eleven, right? See?

... and big hair.

Though… Crash had good music. What is it with all these series that are bad, but have kickass OSTs?

Not that BGC was any slouch in the OST department. Quite possibly the most recognizable set of vocal tracks in anime history belongs to this series, which includes the perennial Konya wa Hurricane and my personal favorite, Bye, Bye, My Crisis. The latter of which is just a fun song to chairdance to. Also, it took me forever to find the music in the pre-Complete Vocal Collection days. I could write a full review on the music, itself, so I’ll cut myself short here. The bottom line is, if you haven’t yet watched this series, then crawl out from underneath your rock and get thee hence!

All other religions don't matter! Only Haruhi-ism matters.

I know I need to wait until we broadcast the first episode, but I don’t think I can properly contain my being almost completely enamored with Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. I finished watching this fourteen-episode series just yesterday and all I can do is keep humming the ending theme, Hare Hare Yukai, which comes complete with a crazy dance sequence that many many people are trying to emulate on YouTube. Haruhi reminds me exactly what anime is all about, and that’s good all-around fun with a dab of drama and romance to it. This series literally has it all, from sports junkies to space opera fans and everything in between. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was skeptical beforehand, but when you hear from many many people about how awesome a series is, there’s something inside that tells you to believe them and I’m so glad I did!

Haruhi's loyal followers.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you’re probably in need of a torrent download. Head over to Animesuki and download the torrent right now, if you haven’t yet. Go ahead. I’ll wait. (Editor’s Note: DON’T download this anime; instead buy it at your local defunct video megastore or Amazon.)

Done? No, seriously… go and grab it.

Okay, now that you’re about to embark on this riproaringly funny journey, you need to understand that not since School Rumble have I been so completely enraptured by this series. You’ll rush to your nearest SOS Brigade branch and join up! Check with Negi Springfield on the forums, because I think he’s starting a chapter up as we speak. Hell, I think I might have to sign up, myself.

Normal time-traveler greeting.

The only problem I could even think of with the series is the fact that it’s a mere fourteen episodes! C’mon, folks… a series this good needs at least twenty-two to twenty-six installments so I’m not going crazy waiting for a second season (which rumor has it, is in the works). However, I think the beauty behind Haruhi was the order in which the episodes were broadcast. Instead of telling the story in a linear fashion, the episodes were shown out of order, starting with the eleventh and ending with the sixth. Therefore, if I wanted to, I could rewatch the whole thing in chronological order. For the new viewer, I would recommend experiencing it in the broadcast order first and then electing to do what I will be doing, which is spending more time with Haruhi in a new way. This makes the series rewatchable! And it’s like I have 28 episodes instead of just 14!

In reality, we all have day jobs and we barely had the time and energy to write anything at all. Even though it’s summer for everyone else, the Unwound crew’s schedule feels like autumn. That doesn’t mean we’ve given up on the web site! We’re still going to deliver content to you, our faithful visitors, but please keep in mind that this is not our day job, though it would be cool if that were possible. (QQ)

It seems that Miyazaki is trying to combat this but not only appearing a major pop culture event, but also by casting many top names for the English adaptation. The voice talent features Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Nesson, Betty White, Lily Tomlin and Cloris Leachman. Will it be enough to make Ponyo a domestic hit after it has already grossed $182.1 million internationally?

Source

Los Angeles Times

Don't be fooled by the typical love story beginning.

From the Unwound archives. This was one of those series that had been sitting on my hard drive for a while. I’m not sure how anyone else watches anime, but I tend to be a collector of digisubs. I’ll download a metric ton of anime and then get daunted by the fact that I have a metric ton of anime to watch, until one day I’ll be bored or someone pushes me to watch something. A majority of the first season was generally: “Oh, you have to watch [title X]. It’s awesome.” “Oh, yeah, I downloaded that like a month ago. Haven’t gotten around to watching it, yet.” “Why not?” “I don’t know. It’s never come up.” When Jesse said we were watching Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, I was like, “Oh, yeah, it’s on my hard drive, but I only watched the first episode and it didn’t seem like much.” He told me, “You have to watch the second episode. Trust me, man.”

The episode where I got owned.

Holy crap. The second episode owned me.

And then the third and fourth, until the end.

Kimi ga Nozomu Eien is a story of a group of three friends. I say three, because the fourth friend is really just background noise. A lame attempt at a comedic foil that failed miserably. But anyway, the story centers around a love triangle. Two girls and a guy.

The basic recipe for Kiminozo is: Guy dates Girl. Girl’s Friend also likes Guy. Girl gets hit by a car, goes into a coma. Years later, Guy and Girl’s Friend get together. Girl wakes up. Add drama liberally and stir until angst is thick enough to be used as molasses, unable to be cut with a damned lightsaber. If you make it all the way the last episode, feel free to reach for the tissue, because you’ll need it.

Is this considered cheating if you believe your girl will never come out of a coma?

The whole series is a mere fourteen episodes long, but they manage to pack enough angst into each episode to make you think it was twice as long. I realize that may not be appealing to some, but the fact is that each episode felt more like it was an hour than twenty-six minutes. I don’t mean to say that it dragged, but more like that there was so much going on in each one that there was no way it was that short after getting to the ending theme. I kept having to check my computer clock to make sure I didn’t accidentally hit daylight savings time or something. Needless to say, each episode had something of a hook at the end, and I was firing up the next one almost immediately. Note to self: never try to watch a gripping series as a means of falling asleep. I just won’t sleep until the series is done!

Sleep is for the weak, anyway.

Overall, Kiminozo is for anime fans who thought Kimagure Orange Road was lacking in drama or Maison Ikkoku didn’t have enough angst. Be prepared to get sucked in by the end of the second episode, and be prepared to rip your own heart out over it. I nearly did.

I'm sure Equality Now will looooove this series.

As the name suggests, ToLOVEru’s premise is all about trouble — you see what they did there? The story revolves around Yuuki Rito (Watanabe Akeno), yet another normal Japanese high school boy and the trouble (or more like catastrofuck) that follows his otherwise mundane life. For most of his adolescent life, he has a crush on Sairenji Haruna (Yahagi Sayuri); he wants to confess his feelings for her, but whenever he musters enough courage to do so, practically everything including the kitchen sink gets in his way. Now in his second year in high school, Rito tries to confess his feelings for Haruna once more. However, on that fateful day, divine intervention struck again, when a UFO crashed between him and Haruna. If that wasn’t incredibly cliched enough, later that night, a despondent Rito was taking a comforting bath when suddenly a pair of bewbs appeared in front of him, and he accidentally grabbed them. The pair of knockers just happens to belong to the voluptuous Lala Satalin Deviluke (Haruka Tomatsu), or Lala for short. Unbeknownst to Rito, by fondling Lala’s naughty bits, he entered a marriage contract and must marry her on  some predetermined time (essentially whenever Rito is unguarded).

And UNICEF too.

ToLOVEru tries to be all of the rom-coms in anime history, but practically ripping them all off at once, from old school series like Urusei Yatsura, Ranma 1/2, Tenchi-Muyo! to newer series such as Girls Bravo, DearS and School Rumble. There’s just too many ingredients in this anime series, all you get from watching ToLOVEru is excruciating constipation, which is trouble in itself — you see what I did there?

The only saving grace in this series are the character designs and the opening theme song. The illustrator and character designer Yabuki Kentarou, who also designed the characters for Black Cat, created a nice and rather provocative cast of female characters for the series. The band THYME performed the opening theme song for ToLOVEru, “forever we can make it”, is the only legacy the series will be remembered for. While the opening theme song is the standard pop rock you’re accustomed to on the radio, it is both appropriate and catchy enough that attempts to hook the viewer to watch the series.

Who am I kidding? This series will be banned in the near future.

Like I’ve mentioned in the radio show, ToLOVEru is probably better off as a hentai series. The entire series is essentially a bunch of individual vignettes where the hapless Rito gets into various relationship and sexual misunderstandings that eventually goes nowhere, leaving this reviewer frustrated in every possible way. Though it contains a lot of sexual innuendos and themes, ToLOVEru is ultimately juvenile; this may as well be called “Date Movie, the Anime Version.” Unless you want more cliched, mindless and unentertaining rom-coms and you couldn’t buy hentai, do not watch ToLOVEru ever.

The game will also have its share of new content such as new missions and a coliseum mode. The game is scheduled to release in Japan in October. No word on any of English release as of yet.

Source

The Examiner

OH SHI- Spoilar alart!

Basically, you have yourself a kind of love story the likes of which you’ve seen many times before. A guy moves from the country to the city and upon his arrival becomes very interested in a girl he sees doing the high jump on his future school’s grounds. It’s love at first sight and so far I was buying into the premise. Until they started talking and interacting, and then it was like I was watching someone rip off three great romantic comedies all at once. Within the first episode alone, I groaned at how the writer seemed to rip whole plot elements from Kimagure Orange Road, Maison Ikkoku, and Love Hina right before my very eyes… and not even with any sense of flair. Most romantic comedies nowadays find it difficult to be original, but the fact is that most of the best series out there take an unoriginal idea and make it their own. Suzuka managed to simply adopt those concepts and executed them with all the finesse of open-heart surgery with a rusty chainsaw. I didn’t think the series could get any worse, but then the main “male” character, Yamato, apparently uses his audacious tenacity to pursue a girl, the eponymous Suzuka, in spite of the fact that she thinks he’s a complete moron and doesn’t want anything to do with him. By the way, this all takes place in a bathhouse attached to a dormitory for girls. It’s like Love Hina and Maison Ikkoku, except both of those series were actually good. Kimagure Orange Road’s comparison lies in the fact that Suzuka is like Super Madoka, only I actually liked Madoka… oh, and KOR was actually a good anime.

Seriously, don't watch this anime, unless you want your balls to shrivel up.

Twenty-five damned episodes of this bullshit! Don’t get me wrong, I like a good strong-willed female character just as much as the next guy, but this one kind of took it to an extreme and after then fourth episodes, I was like… c’mon Yamato, there are other girls out there for you to fall for. No need to waste your life trying to get this bitch to fall in love with you. I mean, for shit’s sake, man… grow some balls. By the twenty-fifth episode, I was convinced I was watching two women and not a guy and a girl… or quite possibly, Suzuka was carrying enough balls for the both of them, because Yamato had to be standing behind the door when they were passing out balls and spines. Possibly brains. And guts. I find it very difficult to like a character or even bother caring about what happens to him when in the end, I have no respect for him. It’s called piss-poor writing, or quite possibly, how to screw up a story in a hurry.

Use Suzuka if you need to forcibly extract information from someone. Do not look directly into the screen or else your soul will ache.

Since these are "student council" "girls", they're not allowed in future erotic games. Sorry!

Some companies have now taken drastic actions. Danny Choo recently reported that eroge companies including  minori, the creators of ef ~a fairy tale of the two~, began banning non-Japanese IP addresses to access eroge developers’ web sites. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but I’m starting to agree with the Sankaku Complex bloggers’ sentiments. Sankaku Complex’s Artefact wrote, “it seems only a matter of time before a similar assault is launched against anime and manga, to say nothing of the wider pornography industry…” How will this affect hentai anime, anime, manga and even pornography?

For more information on EOCS’ regulations, check out the sources below.

Sources

Sankaku Complex and Danny Choo

This fake Matt Hazard game looks more fun then the real one.

The game is a third person cover based shooter with very simple goals, walk from one end of the level to the other, killing enemies that spawn along the way. The thing that is supposed to make up for this stale kind of gameplay is the humor, but really there is nothing terribly clever about it at all. Matt Hazard is voiced by Will Arnett, but Matt’s dialogue doesn’t take advantage of Arnett’s talent. It makes it feel like anyone with a gruff voice could have done Matt’s voice. In this universe Matt Hazard is the stereotypical hero of an action game franchise, much like Duke Nukem or Max Payne. The game even shows you the history and evolution of these fictional games from an 8-bit sidescroller, a first person shooter, a GTA style game and a kid friendly shooter with water guns instead of real ones. Matt Hazard games stopped being made in the late 90’s and Eat Lead is supposed to be Hazard’s comeback game. Sounds good enough right?

Here’s where things take a massive turn into confusion. To sum it up, they want you to believe that Matt Hazard is both a video game character and a real life person. Matt talks in a way that makes you think he is a real person. He constantly breaks the 4th wall and is fully aware he is in a video game like when he makes fun of the level objectives at the start of the level. What more is the CEO of the game company wants revenge against Matt Hazard because he could never beat any of Matt’s games as a kid. He plans to get his revenge by killing Matt Hazard in the video game. That would be like me wanting to kill Mario because I could never beat Super Mario Brothers. It doesn’t make much sense in real life and it doesn’t make much sense in this video game either. What confuses me even more is real world is rendered using the same in-game graphics as the video game world. This makes me feel like both worlds exist on the same plane. I think they could have been much more effective if they used cheesy FMV video for the CEO scenes, especially since he’s played by Neil Patrick Harris in this game.

One of Matt's enemies from his previous Western themed game.

I could almost forgive this game for its non-sensible storyline, after all it’s supposed to be a parody and not to be taken too seriously. But the gameplay is just way too shallow and repetitive to make up for it. Enemies can be taken down in two ways, one way is by melee attacks. You can go up to enemies and do a quick melee combo that will usually take them down. But since it is risky to expose yourself in this manner, most of the times you’ll be trying to shoot them from behind cover. Headshots are very powerful in this game, so even though there are multiple weapons to pick up, often times you can get through a whole level with your default pistol. While this is nothing new to shooters, the game never varies on this basic run and gun formula. Sure it tries to make you feel like it does. One of the gimmicks in the game is the programmers are pulling enemies from Matt’s old games to fight against him. So in the same level you may fight against cowboys, Russian soldiers, zombies, water gun soldiers, and even 2D Nazi’s that turn sideways to avoid your fire. Ultimately, it all just feels like different skins on the same enemies as the same basic strategy of headshots seem to work against everyone.

Just your typical emo JRPG hero.

To me there is only one saving grace about this game. Matt Hazard is a game about parodies and the funniest by far is the inclusion of a boss that is a parody of JRPG protagonists. The boss is named Cloud Strife Altos Tratus and he is from the game Final Fantasy Penultimate Illusion. During the in-game cinema he even talks to Matt using text boxes complete with brooding over drawn monologues and ellipses. You may think the game is worth playing just to get to this point like I thought it was, but in the end this other method proved to be far less painful.

Ultimately the idea behind Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is a unique one but just lacks in its execution. The storyline feels very non sensible and wants to blur the lines between reality and video games. While there are many enemy types, they end up all feeling like the same ones just with different weapons. It gets dull in a hurry and almost makes you wish you could play Matt Hazard’s Go Kart racing game instead. To sum it all up in a line I might say if I were in this game, playing this can be very hazardous to your enjoyment.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard is available now for the Xbox 360 and PS3.

In the year 1999, an alien spacecraft crash lands on an island in the Pacific known as Alita Island. Over the course of a decade, mankind realizes that he is no longer alone in the universe and is in fact the recipient of advanced technology. They renovate the crashed ship and turn it into the first Super Dimension Fortress and name it Macross. Just as they launch the darned thing, the super-sized aliens return to recover it. Enter the Zentraedi. Somewhere in there, there’s a love triangle between the series’ three protagonists, pilot Hikaru Ichijou, Lieutenant Misa Hayase, and singer Lynn Minmay.

Macross. It's like no other.

Macross holds a special place in my heart. I’ll admit that my first exposure to the animation was none other than Robotech, as back in 1985 I was all of nine years old and one could not possibly expect a nine year old to have the sense to know the difference between Japanese animation and the Super Friends. But I was intrigued by Robotech mostly because it dealt with issues that were pretty unknown in the realm of mindless American animation and that much was impressed upon me. I mean, a cartoon that had kissing and death? Sign me up! By the time I reached high school, my best friend and his brothers were all Robotech nuts, and informed me that my favorite part of the saga, the Macross Saga, was a Japanese series unto itself that lasted thirty-six episodes. One weekend, I stayed over at his place and all of them let me watch all thirty-six episodes in order and with very little in the way of a break. For the record, I stayed up for nearly seventeen hours straight until the crack of dawn, and their father walked into the living room and peered at me oddly. “You’re still awake?” Like a ghost, I pointed weakly at the screen and mumbled, “Macross…”

I’m sure that amused him to no end.

With the original series being what it is, the legendary sequel Macross II had nothing charming about it. In fact, the only good thing that it had was the music. With songs sung by the amazing Kasahara Hiroko, it was hard keeping me from bolting to the computer to find the CD upon which Mou Ichidou Love You was located, because that song was awesome. It was not as awesome as Mari Ijima’s Oboite Imasu Ka or Tenshi no Enogu, but it was good. While the story was a pale comparison to the original and the fact that they literally destroy the massively-huge main character of the series with a single scene, Macross II failed to live up to the hype and in fact, only paved the way for Macross Plus to truly reintroduce us to the idea and concept behind the whole Macross story.

Macross Plus arrived on the scene in 1995, I eagerly embraced this as the true sequel to the series. Not only did it turn itself on its side to retell the classic story of a love triangle involving pilot(s), but it invoked the memory of how amazing the storytelling was for the original by raising the bar a little higher in Plus. Advances in animation and an equally outstanding soundtrack made the presentation stand out from its contemporaries and easily found a place on my ‘must-buy-now’ list of anime. I must have watched the first two episodes of Macross Plus many times over within the first week of having them in my collection. I could not get enough of Isamu Dyson and Guld Bowman and their competative antics while trying to advance their respective projects. Plus, seeing the Macross universe evolved some time after the early part of the twenty-first century was interesting as we got to see the UN Spacy in the 2040s with all the advances of their modern technology.

I must admit that I never watched Macross 7 or seen more than two episodes of Macross Zero. I am not lazy, I just have this huge list of anime to watch and Jesse’s cracking the whip.

In summary, Macross awesome. It is a required part of any anime fan’s collection.

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The End of K-On! and The Resurrection of Suzumiya Haruhi

Source: Random Curiosity

She exits the pool before she does.

It’s finally over. Time flies when you’re rockin’ out to cute animu girls playing muzak. I’ll certainly miss  Tsumugi’s subtle lesbian fantasies, Ritsu’s bokke antics, Yui’s Rain Man-esque skills, Azusa’s innocent faux-tsundere quality and Mio’s unhealthy fear of barnacles. Okay, this isn’t really newsworthy. What’s newsworthy is the fact that Haruhi and the SOS-dan is really back, and it’s no joke. While the new Haruhi episode was aired a few weeks ago, I thought it was just a one-and-done deal. Coinciding with the final ending of K-On!, a new episode of Haruhi, called “Endless Eight”, broadcasted on Japanese airwaves this week. The entire episode is all about the SOS-dan’s summer activities, which apparently includes fanservice, frog suits and Mikuru being meek the entire time, or so I’ve been told. I haven’t seen the episode yet, so don’t spoil it for me! In any case, I’ll really miss the keionbu, but I’m really glad that the overbearing, uber-selfish, teenage overlord is back, and I certainly welcome her return.

(Postscript: That screencap totally reminds me of Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Is Kyoto Animation referencing 80s teen movies now?)

Bioware Interested in Ninty’s Waggle

Source: Kotaku via Joystiq

According to a Kotaku report that Joystiq reported, Bioware is sorta kinda interested in the Wii. Dr. Ray Muzyka of Bioware said, “If we did a Wii game, I think we’d approach it with the target audience in mind first and the vision of delivering an emotionally powerful narrative and go back to our basics in terms of some of the pillars of gameplay we’d like to bring to bear — exploration, progression, customization, conflict, story, narrative, and characters.” In other words, they’re developing a game where your moral choice is determined by how hard you waggle your Wii-mote.

In all seriousness, anything other than friggin’ party games, and well, more friggin’ party games is more than welcome on the Wii. But as it stands, Dr. Muzyka’s comment should be taken with a grain of salt.

Don’t Believe Everything, Not Even the Head Cheese!

Source: Kotaku

Microsoft CEO pitching for Natal and OxiClean.

On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, plainly said that a new Xbox will be shipping next year with Natal, Microsoft’s groundbreaking motion sensing peripheral. Of course, everyone was losing their shit when they heard the news. People seem to forget how challenging it is to release a new console; if Microsoft is developing a new console, their partners and the third party publishers, will certainly not be pleased about the prospect. So obviously, the Xbox division had to calm everyone’s fears and confirms that there will be no new Xbox anytime soon. Of course, there are always conspiracy theories abound.

More Cute Japanese Robotic Servants

Source: Danny Choo

And to close off this week’s news, we present to you Hina, the coffee-semi-making-and-preparing roboto:

This tiny robot can grind beans, add hot water (sorta), and serve coffee. Okay, so it’s not perfect, but I can’t create a robot this adorable (or at all for that matter).

That’s it for this week’s edition of stuff we can’t bother to report ourselves. Enjoy the weekend, and don’t forget to tune in to the Unwound show at Japan-A-Radio this Sunday night, 5pm Pacific. We’ll be back bloggin’ next week!

EA’s Fake Christian Protest Drew Ire From Real Christians

Source: Los Angeles Times

EA needs to research harder.

EA has publicly admitted that the protest against the upcoming Dante’s Inferno video game was indeed fake. This isn’t the first time EA has pulled a PR faux pas before. Because of this stunt, some Christians didn’t find this amusing at all; Margaret Cabaniss of InsideCatholic ironically wrote, “It’s been clear for a while now that the entertainment industry views Christians on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers.” Uh, isn’t complaining about some childish PR stunt makes you priggish and thin-skinned?! Anyway, at least other Christians like blogger Andy Kirchoff of Catholic Video Gamers, have a more creative way of making EA’s marketing department look like fools: “Instead of engaging in a shamelessly anti-Christian stunt to promote your poor excuse of a product, maybe you ought to work on making this game, you know, something better than a blatant God of War rip-off and make it, ya know, something worthwhile?” LOLZ! Got pwned by a bible-thumper!

Jimmy Fallon is Cuckoo for Natal

Source: Hulu.com

The deal is that people are skeptical about Microsoft’s so-called revolutionary motion sensing peripheral, Project Natal. So, how do you dispel the skepticism? Why, by doing a live demonstration on live television of course! See for yourself! (Note: fast forward near the end of the episode to see Natal in action.)

After watching the video, are you now convinced? Still no? What is it then? Is it because of the red jumpsuits? The large rectangle on the floor? The inconsistent controls of the driving game?

Although I’m not gushing over Project Natal, I really think this could be the future of interactive entertainment, and not necessarily hardcore games.

First Seiyuu to Hit #1 in Charts

Source: Canned Dogs

It’s official, Mizuki Nana is the first ever voice actress to ever reach the top of the weekly Oricon charts, the Japanese equivalent to the Billboard 100. Not one voice actor until now has reached #1 since the Oricon charts began four decades ago. Though it is quite an historic achievement, Mizuki Nana’s album may have benefitted from sagging CD sales of mainstream artists and the power of the otaku yen (or credit). Either way, nothing much to say, except to congratulate Mizuki Nana for this achievement.

The HUEG Gundam is Finally Alive

Source: Pink Tentacle

Rounding off last week’s news, we bring you the 1:1 Gundam in Odaiba… again. So what’s different this time? Well, it seems that the Gundam is not just for display. See for yourself!

Wau! It lights up and it moves! We're doomed!

Well that’s about it for this last week’s news that we didn’t report. Be sure to come back in a few hours to see what we didn’t report for this week. Also, please listen to the Unwound show at Japan-A-Radio, this Sunday night at 5pm Pacific.

Stumbled across on the Shoryuken forums, KOF aficionado Dandy J created two videos for beginners. It gives you a taste of the strategy and mind games you never thought existed in fighters.

Part 1

Part 2

This one particular level mod ascends to something so much more. It involves another autopilot Mario World level, but uses the sound effects that plays along with a medley of anime and game music. Not since Mario Paint has Mario been applied to such an amazing musical score. It comes in at a massive 10 minutes. See how many songs you can recognize without looking at the list.

Note: These are NOT Japan's cute ambassadors.

Though it seems to be an innocent way to promote Japan, some politicians doesn’t feel the same way. New Komeito politician and Diet member, Kaori Maruya warned the Foreign Ministry to be careful not to draw “unwarranted criticism” from other countries of their ambassadors in skimpy skirts.

You have to give the Japanese government some credit for trying to keep Japan in the limelight, appointing cute girls isn’t going to help Japan’s image in the long run. Especially now that other countries think of Japan as some kind of pervert haven. Instead, Japan should promote its culinary robots and gunpla prowess to the world!

Source

The Japan Times

Part of Microsoft’s new Xbox Live Primetime idea, 1 vs 100 simulates the gameshow of the same name by pitting Xbox Live users against each other in trivia. The beta is currently free to Xbox Live Gold subscribers, but some Kotaku readers have found something that may hint that it’s not.

During the beta, these readers have found an option to buy a “Season Pass”. Microsoft plans to run the game show over 13 week periods. It is unclear exactly what this pass is as Microsoft has yet to comment on it. Could it just be an option that would allow Silver level subscribers to play the game as well? Or is it truly an indication that 1 vs 100 will become pay-to-play? Hopefully the former, as I’m all up for prizes that are free to win. If I have to pay to win these prizes? Not so much.

Source

Kotaku

There is absolutely no need for this kind of extravagance in a fansub.  Fansubbers have to be careful of many things as it is; errors, timing, translations, font, and color. A majority of the groups out there right now have no issue with those priorities, and on the whole, I don’t have any problem with watching fansubs. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule. Now, I’ve always believed that if you can’t present a solution, you’re part of the problem, and speaking as someone who’s been loosely affiliated with fansubbing (error checking, timing, and translating), allow me to list a few helpful hints to those out there as to what makes a good fansub:

• Be consistent with your subtitles. This means, keep them the same color(s) and in the same location.  I like how some fansubbers assign colors to characters or inner monologues. Those are cues taken from excellent subbers like AnimEigo or Soulsword Studios.
• Never place your subtitles in an unreadable position. Don’t align them along the side of the screen or against a similarly colored background. As above, you want to keep them in the same place at all times and of course, you want them to be legible!
• Try not to put too much information on the screen at the same time. Our eyes are trying to watch the show, and some of us occasionally have to focus on words, while some of us are able to take in the whole picture at once without difficulty. If you have notes from the translator or liner notes that go beyond a single line, then you need to either put your information at the beginning (ala AnimeMPEG) or keep it on the screen long enough for everyone to read it and understand. Do not assume everyone speed-reads.
• Do not add to the presentation. This means, keep the font/style to something readable and don’t have words explode on or off the screen, bounce around, flaming… just subtitle it and try to keep the vanity/ego to a minimum. If you want to make the words dance around and do all that crap, put it on your logo and then go back to number one.
• Finally, karaoke should not distract my attention from the opening/ending animation. I don’t mind the color-changing, but I do mind it when words scroll in from off the screen or explode into existence in an eye-catching fashion.  I really don’t care for karaoke; I think it’s unnecessary as a part of the fansub presentation, but I can live with it.

Not following these simple tips makes your production look like an amateur hour. While I realize that fansubbers don’t get paid (having been one), there’s a certain standard to which all fansub groups must follow in order to be considered a reliable group. Those groups that follow these guidelines get it, and this is why they’re popular and downloaded more often than others. In the end, fansubbers have one job: to present an English translation to the audience. Subtitles are a support mechanism; they’re not the whole of the show, so don’t bloat the subs so much that they take away from the awesome artform we love.

Notes

Based on the rant presented in U104: Unusual Girlfriends & Lovers.

Without further ado, here’s our chatcast (and our longest blog post yet) on what went down on E3!

Joe: So we’ve been covering E3 for the past week now and I have to say this year really brought out the sequels, remakes and series reboots. All of the big three console makers had a bunch of these during their press conferences.

Jesse: Yeah. Pretty much the same story from the last E3. Not to say it was boring or predictable mind you.  There was a fair share of “wow” moments.

Joe: Halo, Mario, Metroid, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy, I’m surprised Sony didn’t announce a new Crash Bandicoot.

Jesse: Crash Bandicoot is no longer owned by Sony and Naughty Dog by the way.

Joe: Well let’s talk about one of those “wow” moments, Kojima announced not just 1, but 3 Metal Gear titles.

Jesse: Yeah, it was a bit of a “wow” moment.

Joe: We got Metal Gear Solid: Rising for the 360, Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker for the PSP, and Metal Gear Solid for the arcade which looks like an arcade version of Metal Gear Online.

Lightning bolt action baby!

Jesse: I was a bit surprised about an MGS announcement for the 360… and disappointed.

Joe: Were you hoping for MGS: 4 to be ported?

Jesse: Not necessarily. At first I thought, “awesome, Kojima is handling this new MGS for the 360.”  Then when he showed up on the Sony press con, he said that him and his MGS4 crew will work on MGS: Peacewalker. Which makes me a bit pessimistic as to who’s actually handling MGS: Rising. Is Kojima actually directing, or is he just Jerry Bruckheimer?

Is Kojima and company only working on Peacewalker and not Rising?

Joe: Not only that, but the way Kojima talked about how MGS: Peacewalker was a TRUE Metal Gear Sequel, he made it seem like he was talking down his earlier appearance at the MS press conference.

Jesse: Yeah, exactly. I’m not a trying to be strictly rooting for the 360. As a primary 360 owner, it is a bit disheartening. But, business is business. I really need to get a PS3.

Joe: Well you are forgetting one important thing with MGS: Rising, something we don’t know that could change everything. Lighting bolt action baby!

Jesse: Hahaha. Because of that tagline, I’m expecting Raiden to do naked cartwheels like he did on MGS2. Hopefully, Kojima’s second string team can do a good enough job to pull it off.

Joe: Well moving on from that disturbing image, let’s take a step back. So we posted our thoughts on the big three’s press conferences, but let’s talk about defining moments of those press conferences were. You go ahead and start with Microsoft.

It stares into your soul!

Jesse: There’s no question that Microsoft pulled out a rabbit out of its top hat with Project Natal. Now, first of all, yes it’s a prototype and yes it’s not proven, and yes this could be just like that Killzone 2 “in-game” graphics trailer back in E3 2006. But much like Killzone 2’s announcement 3 years ago, Project Natal kinda does lead to new gameplay and interactive possibilities. It could be the start of something big. Maybe this is where the Holodeck begins!

Joe: I agree that Natal was Microsoft’s big moment during the press conference.

Jesse: Will it replace traditional gaming in the near future? I don’t think so.

Joe: I defintely don’t think so at all either. However, I like how they took an existing technology and idea and really refined it into their own.

Jesse: But, game developers, nay developers in general should continue the research and development of gameplay without the aid of a controller or handheld device.

Joe: It’s really taking motion control to a whole new level, with 1:1 body 1:1, and speech recognition. I’m glad Microsoft is taking a risk. Will it work out?

Jesse: Well, not for all games anyway. I wouldn’t want to play Street Fighter, for real.

Joe: Hey as long as I can control my menus all Minority Report style, I’m good to go!

Jesse: As to will it work out? I think if any company can do this, it’s gotta be Microsoft. (Or Google, but they’re not in the games business, thank god)

Joe: And we’ll be one step closer to sentient machines taking over and enslaving humanity, I mean the Natal prototype does look like a mini Hal after all.

Jesse: LOL Yeah it kinda does. But hold on. If Sony or Nintendo announced Natal, do you think the media would take it seriously?

Joe: That’s a good question, I could see Sony, but not Nintendo.

Jesse: I’m not an expert in computer engineering, but I’d assume it would take considerable research, manpower and resources to even attempt this.

Joe: I mean if you look at Nintendo’s track record, they don’t tend to repeat technology, so it’s hard to think they would announce something that basically says, “Hey guess what those Wiimotes? Throw them away! This is the real shit!”

Jesse: And with Sony being in last place, and Nintendo doesn’t have as much technical resources, only MS can do this because the company has all three.

Is this the future of controllers, more peripherals and attachments?

Joe: And they have the Wii Motion Plus anyways. Which they claim is more accurate than Natal is.

Jesse: That’s true.

Joe: Which is a good segue yeah?

Jesse: Well, one more question, and then let’s move on. Now the bigger question is, is Microsoft too late to do this? I think, in the public eye, Microsoft have jumped in the bandwagon too late. Or maybe, they didn’t have the chance at all. The one major hurdle to MS’ plan for world domination, is itself.

Joe: Well I think people need to realize that consoles are no longer limited to 10 year or less life cycles.

Joe: Natal could very much well come right in the middle of the 360’s life cycle. Or maybe it could lead the way to the next generation console.

Jesse: I don’t mean to suggest that the 360 is nearing its end. I’m suggesting that the timing for MS to jump on the motion sensing controller bandwagon is not good. They should’ve done so in the beginning, same with Sony. Public perception will take this as, MS and Sony copying Nintendo. Even though theirs could be superior to Nintendo. Don’t you think so, or are you done with this question? LOL, I thought you wanted to be serious business with this “chatcasting.”

Joe: That’s chatcastingTM

Jesse: Okay, how about this… NEXT! Nintendo, better or worse than last year’s showing?

Joe: And well, it’s blantantly obvious they are copying Nintendo by jumping onto motion control.

Joe: Nope! Let me get one last comment off.

Jesse: Type faster!

Joe: Really it comes down to the games. The technology is awesome and all, but just remember motion control was revolutionary when it was announced for the Wii. I just hope developers really think of creative ways to use this technology instead of just more shovelware, but in HD. So that’s also a good segue into Nintendo!

Jesse: The press did test out Burnout Revenge with Project Natal, so maybe there’s hope for high fidelity games with motion controls. Okay, so yeah… Nintendo, worse or better than last year? You answer that first.

Joe: Defintely better, I was listening to an interview with Denise Kaigler, the VP of Corporate Affairs and Nintendo. She said they defintely heard the outcry to last year’s press conference of Cammie smiles and Ravi Drums. So in response, they drugged Cammie up something good so she wouldn’t smile… ever!

Jesse: LOL. So they replaced her with a cyborg?

Joe: In a stylish 70 style white bottom deal too! I think they did a good job of not relying too much on sales numbers, but I can say I am really sick of seeing all these marketing photos they use of casual people enjoying the Wii and DS.

Jesse: I thought it was a better presentation too, but it’s still a far cry to what MS and then later Sony had to offer. I think the best part of Nintendo’s presentation is the first and last game they presented.

Joe: Yeah it seemed a bit subdued compared to the other two, but at least they announced games that the audience would actually care about.

Thank God, 2D Mario is back on the console!

Joe: I’m honestly really excited about New Super Mario Bros Wii

Jesse: And the new Metroid game from Team Ninja… at least a little excited about it.

Joe: The DS version of New Super Mario Bros was awesome and the 4 player co-op is really icing on the cake. It’s looks really chaotic playing with all 4 people.

Jesse: I agree, I love 2D Mario platformers. And this one looks like a blast.

Joe: Finally a party game that doesn’t involve 50 million mini games.

Jesse: I don’t know about you, but I’m more excited about this than Super Mario Galaxy 2. Although you know that I don’t like Mario in 3D.

Joe: I am excited about Super Mario Galaxy 2, but I just can’t shake the feeling that it should be an expansion pack if anything.

Jesse: Hopefully New SMB Wii will have hidden levels and crazy glitches like New SMB for the DS. This is like the first “true” sequel to a Mario game isn’t it? I mean, in the NES you have SMB 1, 2, 3

Joe: Yeah unless you count Yoshi’s Island.

Jesse: SNES only had one with Super Mario World.

Joe: But even Yoshi’s Island 2 had enough differences from the first one to make it feel like a new game.

Jesse: Okay correction, first “true” sequel to a Mario game in a LONG time.

Joe: That launches this holiday doesn’t it?

Jesse: I think so. But don’t take my word for it; I don’t really keep track of 3D Mario games. Hahahah

2D Metroid is also back on the console!

Joe: Well that last game they announced, man was that a real surprise to me. After not warming up to the Prime series, the trailer makes it look like the next gen Metroid game I always wanted.

Jesse: Yeah, but the more I watch the trailer, the more I realize that, it isn’t your typical Metroid game.

Joe: People are already QQing about it, saying those kind of sentiments.

Jesse: I mean, I don’t remember Samus ever speaking with an actual voice.

Joe: They also complain that it doesn’t give you the same feeling of isolation that the other Metroid games had.

Jesse: LOL. I’m not saying it’s bad per se, I just realized it is all.

Joe: Honestly, are people going to complain about a new Metroid game?

Jesse: If it turns out horrible, then yeah I can see it happening.

Joe: It’s like I can imagine Nintendo right now being like “WHAT THE F— DO YOU WANT CORE GAMERS???”

Jesse: LOL. Well speaking of getting what you didn’t ask for. What is up with the Vitality Sensor thingy that Iwata presented?

Finally! I can finally play doctor, without being asked to take a seat by Chris Hansen.

Joe: Uhh yeah that made the audience give out a collective, uhh what? Basically Iwata was like, hey guess what screw 1/3 of the gaming population. They NEVER will get into gaming! So I’m going to bridge the gap with this!

Jesse: Or maybe he’s going senile?

Joe: You could use it to you know, check your heartrate? Maybe we could make a lie detector game?

Joe: Maybe when you die in real life, your character dies?

Jesse: What could’ve helped if there was an actual game that uses this. A demo, anything!

Joe: I’m Iwata, and I’m rich bitch! And I’m OUT!

Jesse: Hold on. I have this feeling that the reason they even brought this out was that they’re trying to combat MS’ Natal. They’re trying to be different.

Joe: More like they were like, “Quick come up with something! We got nothing!!!”

Jesse: LOL. Exactly! The picture of their heart monitor thing, looks like it was photochopped in a few minutes. I guess that’s pretty much it with Nintendo. I know there were a lot more games that they presented compared to last year.

Joe: You need to post some of those up on the site.

Jesse: But personally, it’s nothing to write home about.

Joe: So let’s move on to Sony. Sony I think, really hit it out of the park this year.

Jesse: Yeah for the first time in this generation.

Joe: The PSP GO! Your thoughts?

Jesse: Firstly, I noticed that Sony was a lot more self-deprecating this year, than in years past. They made themselves look more likeable instead of the big badass company you love to hate.

Joe: Yeah they poked fun of the fact that they had information leaks. Including the PSP Go! Which seemed like it really wasn’t supposed to be leaked.

Jesse: They made themselves a bit endearing and at least sympathetic. Yeah the PSP Go! What is up with the (!) exclamation point? LOL

This is Sony's iPod killer?

Joe: It’s like Punch-Out!!! You gotta say it with enthusiasm.

Jesse: There’s nothing to be enthusiastic about the PSP Go to be quite honest.

Jesse: Can I explain myself for a bit?

Joe: Yes please.

Jesse: (1) It’s priced at $250, (2) you can’t play your PSP UMD-based games, (3) it’s fatter than an iPhone, (4) and also, after the Apple keynote address at this week’s WWDC conference, the PSP Go is effectively useless to the crowd its trying to appeal to. I don’t know if you remember that part of Sony’s conference. Kaz Hirai pointed out that the PSP Go’s main target is really the iPhone/casual crowd.

Joe: Yeah I do remember that.

Jesse: He didn’t say it specifically, but he mentioned “people on the go” and “a casual demographic on the move.” I doubt he’s talking about the DS, because the DS has more hardcore gamers than casual.

Joe: Well even the design of the PSP Go itself seems to appeal to that kind of demographic. Very minimal, just the screen itself. Slide out controls.

Jesse: Even still, I think again, it’s one of those “too little, too late” situations.

Joe: Honestly, points (1) and (2) you made are more than enough, to turn off most people.

Jesse: (1) and (2) turned off the hardcore crowd. But that’s not Sony’s motive with the PSP Go in the first place. It reminds me of how they lost their dominance in portable music to the iPod. They thought their Walkman brand is unbeatable. As it turns out, iPod took over Sony’s seat in the portable music player category. I doubt the iPod crowd will even flinch to think about getting a PSP Go, over the iPod Touch/iPhone. So, anyway, even though Sony’s press con was a lot better than years past, the first hour was really dull and rocky, don’t you think?

Joe: I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say it’s that hopeless, but I will say it’s defintely underwhelming.

Jesse: It barely had anything, except for Uncharted 2 and MAG, but most of the time was friggin’ montages.

Joe: And yes all the talk of the PS2

Jesse: And PS Home!

Joe: and the PSP games, which really ehhh I’m not interested in.

Joe: I don’t have time for epic style games. I have them for games I can play on the can.

Jesse: However, they did pick up steam in the second half of their presser.

Sorry, we don't have a screenshot for Final Fantasy XIV.

Joe: Yeah once they got to the games for PS3 it defintely picked up momentum. The announcement of Final Fantasy XIV was one of the biggest shockers. It was like hey we know we’re not even done with FFXIII yet, but here’s the next game!

Jesse: I almost forgot about that game… I mean, I shouldn’t have, but I almost did.

Joe: Even if it is just an MMO, it was still a great surprise announcement.

Jesse: Yeah it was a shocker, but while I was watching it, I noticed that the graphics weren’t PS3 graphics, so I immediately knew it was the sequel to FFXI.

Jesse: Or the very least, a spiritual successor.

Joe: Hopefully the next MMO from the Square Enix won’t be as hardcore as FFXI was.

Jesse: Ugh, tell me about it. But that’s for another time!

Joe: If they can appeal to the World of Warcraft crowd, I think they can really give Blizzard a run for their money.

Jesse: Help me refresh my memory a bit though, what other games they presented?

Joe: MAG. 256 player online!

Jesse: That’s in the beginning. I mean, refresh my memory of the second half.

Joe: To not go in order God of War 3.

Jesse: MAG by the way does look amazing.

Joe: God of War 3 to sum it up, looks like more of the same. BUT for me, not a bad thing. It could be just what Sony needs to really have a definitive must play action game for their system.

Jesse: No not at all. Not too exciting, but not bad. Kind of like Halo: ODST or even Halo: Reach.

Joe: Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank were great, but I don’t think they’ll draw more Halo-ish kind of gamers than God of War could. Another announcement was a racing version of Little Big Planet.

Jesse: Yeah, even though Uncharted 2 in particular looks amazing.

Joe: Called Mod Nation: Racers

Jesse: I hate cart racers, and I’m sure I’m not gonna like this one either.

Joe: Yeah this looks like a real hit or miss. The idea is novel, but it doesn’t have that general appeal that platformers have that makes Little Big Planet work.

Jesse: I don’t know, I don’t get why they chose a cart racer out of all the possible genres. I guess it’s the only “kid-friendly” genre that adults can play? But I digress.

Joe: Well we’ve come a long way since Fighter and RPG Maker for the PS2! The last big announcement was The Last Guardian, the next Team Ico game. Once again it was all trailers, but Team Ico has yet to dissapoint to really redefinte what an epic game is.

Jesse: Yeah, I’m excited, but I really wish they’d show gameplay.

Joe: I’ll defintely be keeping my eye out on the progress they make for it.

Jesse: I think we’re at a point where, CG cutscenes are no longer exciting. And should never be used in marketing a game ever again.

Joe: Well we’re at a point where CG cutscenes ARE gameplay.

Jesse: But some companies still use CG cutscenes that doesn’t use actual in-game graphics. Like the new Wolfenstein game.

Joe: And Dragon Age.

Jesse: Wolfenstein’s cutscenes looks like it came from 10 years ago.

Joe: Anyways I’m glad to see that Sony took a lot of momentum out of their press conference this year.

Jesse: Not showing off numbers too much (or at all) is always good. So, let’s wrap this up.

Joe: Yeah I was thinking the same thing

Jesse: Who “won” the E3 press conference show-off?

Joe: For me personally? Sony

Joe: It finally gave me a reason as a PS3 owner to be glad I made that purchase.

Joe: To know that they actually have exclusive games coming out.

Jesse: Really, that’s unexpected. For me, it’s Microsoft… but only by a VERY small margin.

Joe: Yeah honestly it really is close, if I didn’t own a PS3 I would give it to Microsoft.

Jesse: I’m excited for Sony because of MAG, Uncharted 2 and its other exclusives.

Joe: This definitely was the E3 of “Hey look at all these exclusives we have!”

Joe: After last year’s announcement of FFXIII on the Xbox proved no franchise is safe from going multiplatform.

Jesse: I’m also excited for Microsoft because of Alan Wake (finally showed some gameplay), Splinter Cell Conviction, MGS: Rising, etc.

Jesse: But really the icing on the cake and the 360’s X-Factor is Natal.

Joe: Yeah there’s a lot we didn’t talk about, which leads me to one final question I want to ask.

Joe: What one game did we not talk about are you most excited about?

Jesse: I think this question should be saved for a later chat session, but real quickly, out of these 3 press conferences, the game I’m really excited about… this is a shocker… New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Joe: Wow, will that be the game that finally makes you get a Wii?

Jesse: Maybe, maybe.

Joe: Or at least start hanging out more often with people who own them lol!

Jesse: Hahahaha, yeah, I hope you get the game, so I don’t have to! But seriously, I might get the game, and it’s probably a good time to get a Wii, especially since there’s a few nice games that are coming out for the system.

Joe: Muramasa for one.

Jesse: And games that doesn’t have “party” in the title! How about you? Out of the 3 press conferences, and only these conferences, which game are you excited about?

Joe: For me, it is quite a tough choice but I am going to say God of War 3. I was surprised about how much I loved the first game. And the second game felt just as fresh despite being very similar.

Jesse: The third game looks like it’ll be just as good, if not even more epic.

Joe: I want to see the next generation upgrades they made, plus for me, the storyline has always been a big draw. I love their take on twisting Greek Mythology, and if you didn’t know God of War 2 ended on a cliffhanger, literally. So I need to know how it ends! LOL

Jesse: Hahaha, well on that note then, we should leave a cliffhanger of our own. Are we going to do an overall discussion on the games themselves that were shown at E3?

Joe: Yeah maybe we could do like an actual podcast style next time with some of the other crew.

Jesse: Alrighty, well on that note, we’ll end it right here. So take it away man! LOL

Joe: Hope you all enjoyed this first ChatcastTM! Remember the Unwound Show is on every Sunday at 5PM PST.

Uh... hey, how you doin'? Ahhh, my soul's being sucked!

File this under “wait, whut?” Okay, colored contact lenses have been around forever, but these contact lenses takes it to the extreme. These extra-wide pupiled contact lens are from GEOLens, a Korean fashion contact lens maker. You too can scare the bejeebus out of people, by looking more cartoon-like. I don’t know what’s creepier, these lenses or this or this. Warning: All links (except for the source) are not safe for life!

Source

The Frisky

I'm sure Chad Wardenn approves of the moe-fied PS Triple!

About a couple of years ago, there was a viral video of some dude named Chad Wardenn (or “Woh-ennn” as he’d like to pronounce), who made a video claiming how the PS3 or “PS Triple” is better than the “gay ass” Wii and Xbox 360. Because of the ridiculousness of Chad’s claims, the video went viral and the PS Triple became a meme. It’s hard to tell whether Chad is faking his allegiance to the Triple or not, but nonetheless the video was a comedic hit.

Now, the “PS Triple”, the term that Chad coined, is now the name of a manga series you can buy for the iPhone/iPod Touch. PS Triple is about anthropomorphized moe video game consoles, including of course, the Playstation 3. Kinda like the Troubled Windows characters and equally as strange. Anyway, you can check out the web comic at their blog on the 1up web site.

In honor of the PS Triple, I present to you the origin of the term, coined by Chad Woh-enn himself. Enjoy (or maybe not).

Warning: The video may cause cancer of the AIDS of the leukemia of the eye.

Source

Anime News Network

RPGs

Best in Show – Star Wars: The Old Republic

Developers: Bioware/LucasArts
Platform: PC

Fancy CG trailers aside, what makes Star Wars: The Old Republic my choice for Best in Show is Bioware has created some real innovations for the MMO genre. Most notably is every bit of dialogue in the game will be voice acted. This is a massive undertaking and they think it’ll be one of the biggest voice recordings for any game ever made. If that wasn’t amazing enough, just like in other Bioware RPG’s, your choices have an affect on the storyline. In the demo they were showing, players were in control of a Sith character. At one point during the demo, players had to choose between killing a captain of a ship or sparing his life. If they killed him, the ship was then boarded by Jedi they had to fight off. If they spared his life, the captain would later shoot down the pods the Jedi were approaching in. This is mostly unheard of in current MMO’s where storyline usually follows a linear path.

However, the biggest draw and what could also be its biggest weakness too, is the appeal of playing a Jedi in an online game. There’s no denying the appeal of going online, force choking, throwing lightning, and generally being evil towards other players. However, Bioware has to make sure all their classes are attractive to play, so every player doesn’t end up rolling a Jedi class. Bioware has already proven that they can innovate the single player RPG genre, let’s see if they can take that same innovation to the online world.

Runner Up – Borderlands

Developer: Gearbox Software
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

If this is the first time you have ever heard of the game Borderlands, don’t feel so alone. Just like you I had never heard of this game before E3. After hearing people talk about it and seeing a really awesome trailer I am really excited about it now. At first glance you will look and tell me I put this in the wrong category as it is a first person shooter. You soon learn it moves quickly past that with a level up system, a skill tree, a loot system (they claim they will have over 1,000,000 different guns in the game) and everything else that makes up an RPG. Seeing the Diablo formula applied to an FPS is ultimately why I think this game can do well. On one hand you have the addictive formula of leveling up a character, collecting loot, armor and weapons with friends online. Add in the FPS style gameplay that can draw from a player base that may not normally play RPGs, and you have a formula for a massive hit. We’ll see if Borderlands becomes the Diablo/PSO/Monster Hunter for the FPS crowd.

Missing in Action – Kingdom Hearts 3

Developer: Square Enix
Platform: PS3 Exclusive?

In an E3 year where console exclusivity was the big rage, I’m a bit surprised that Square Enix did not announce any information regarding Kingdom Hearts 3. The first two Kingdom Heart games have been Playstation exclusives so it makes sense that the third one would be a PS3 exclusive. Then again, if E3 2008 showed us anything, it is that no series is safe from going multi-platform. Could Kingdom Hearts follow the same trend and join its franchise brother on other consoles? Is that why we haven’t heard any information regarding Kingdom Hearts 3 yet? I guess I’ll have to settle for spin-off after spin-off after spin-off until then.

This ends my look at some of the most anticipated games coming out of E3. There were quite a few genres I didn’t get a chance to talk about, but just like the three genres I covered they were full of so many candidates. Among some of these are games like DJ Hero, Rock Band: The Beatles, Alan Wake, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Split/Second, Forza Motorsport 3, Halo: ODST, and Left4Dead 2. 2009 and early 2010 already look like another wallet burning game season. Look forward to Unwound’s coverage of all these games and more in the months to come!

To save you the trouble from clicking the video link, here's the picture of the robot chef.

Note: Reuters doesn’t allow video embedding, so poo poo on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt5q9PkhGH0

Japanese robotics is progressing at an alarmingly scary rate. Just yesterday they revealed the life-sized Gundam mecha, which is scary (and cool) enough. But now, they’ve gone too far! They’ve now created Rosie the Robot Maid. Okay not really, but we’re getting there, and I’m scurred for my life! If it ever teams up with Microsoft’s HAL 9000, I’d be very weary of the meals it prepares for me.

Source

Danny Choo

If a frog invasion does occur, I better prepare my Gundam models.

If you think climate change is screwing up our world and our ecosystem, then maybe you should talk to the people of Ishikawa Prefecture. According to the Mainichi Daily News, tens, if not hundreds of tadpoles rained on the prefecture in the past week. No one knows why. Locals speculated it could be waterspouts sucking the tadpoles from an estuary and rained on parts of the prefecture. Scientists argue that it has been cloudy in the past week, which is not ideal for waterspouts to occur. Either way, this is a perfect opportunity for me to welcome our new frog overlord, Keroro Gunsou. Gerogerogero!

Source

Mainichi Daily News

Side Scrollers

Best in Show – New Super Mario Bros Wii

Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Wii

New Super Mario Bros. Wii reminds us that next generation gaming can be as simple and fun as the first time we picked up a controller. We have come full circle as the gameplay looks identical to the original Super Mario Bros on the NES. Of course they had to add some new mechanics and there’s just enough to shake up the old formula. My favorite new addition? The Penguin suit that lets you shoot ice balls and slide around on your belly. The biggest change by far is the inclusion of 4-player co-op. Based on the gameplay that I saw, this looks like a fun party like experience that casual and core gamers alike would enjoy. Nintendo has gone back to their roots with this title, and I’m more than happy to come along for the ride.

Runner Up – Shadow Complex

Developer: Chair Entertainment
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade

The first thing that impressed me was the quality of graphics not just for a 2D game, but also on a game that is a downloadable title. The second thing that drew me further into the game was the Metroidvania style gameplay of exploration and combat. What makes this game stand out is the way they present character progression. Just like Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night before it, your character levels up and finds better items that allow for greater exploration. Unlike those two titles, the main character is not a space bounty hunter or half-vampire. He’s a regular hiker with a flashlight looking for his lost girlfriend. So to show the progression from hiker to one-man army, your character dons technology he finds until he ends up looking like something out of Robocop. Shadow Complex looks like a great addition to Metroidvania style games, so look for it this summer on Xbox Live Arcade.

Most Jawdroppingly Beautiful – Muramasa

Developer: Vanilla Ware
Platform: Wii

The thing I love about next generation hand drawn 2D games is the amount of detail they can put into the sprites. Just like Vanilla Ware’s previous game Odin Sphere, Muramasa looks visually stunning. The above screenshot can hardly do it any justice. As not much of the gameplay has been revealed, we’ll have to hold our breaths and hope that it doesn’t turn into a repetitive beat-em-up.

Hope you enjoyed Part 2! Come back Thursday for my final Best in Show post where I’ll discuss my thoughts on the RPG’s of E3 2009. Plus a quick list of all the other genres I’ve skipped over. See anything you don’t agree with above? Tell me why in the comments!

I see what they did there. Tsukasa as Ranka, Konata as Alto, Kagami as Klan-klan and Miyuki as Sheryl

If you think combining Macross Frontier and K-On! is sweet, you should check out this twisted collaboration concocted by Banpresto. This unholy cross-promotion of moe and mecha is perhaps an attempt to revitalize both franchises, since anime fans consider them OLD news. Too bad Good Smile Company didn’t jump on this, I would like to see a Nendoroid version of this crossover. Oh well, at least I’ll settle with this for now.

Source

Tomopop via ToysDaily

Unexpected Self-Deprecating Humor

One of the more surprising things that came out of the Sony presser is not some new game announcement or what’s in store for the Playstation brand. It was Sony’s candor and self-deprecating humor that surprised us. Jack Tretton, CEO and President of SCEA, joked about how he’s thankful that people showed up to the presser because of all the product leaks. Kaz Hirai also joked how the PSP Go is also known as “the worst kept secret in the game industry.” Not to be outdone, Jack Tretton also joked about Hannah Montana games as being important to the Sony brand. Which was promptly followed up by an enthusiastic “WOOOOO!” from a few people in the audience.

More Live Demos, Less Fakery

For the past 3 years or so at E3, Sony repeatedly promised to showcase more games than their competitors. But time and time again, they haven’t delivered anything tangible, or anything that was actually playable, until now. Sony delivered the goods this year by showing actual in-game footage of their first party lineup. Uncharted 2, MAG and God of War 3 are among the few that Sony fans, and gamers in general have been waiting to see in the flesh, with no gimmicks or misleading tricks.

PSP Go Attempts to Take Out the iPod Touch

Hmm... I don't know if this is the iPod killer Sony is hoping for.

In the last 10 years, Sony’s once dominant Walkman brand has been reduced to dust thanks in large part to Apple’s intuitive iPod portable music player (and bullish marketing). Now, Sony is trying to return the favor by releasing an update to the PSP — the PSP Go.

The PSP Go has similar specs of the PSP-3000, except that it doesn’t accept UMD and has a smaller screen. Instea, it has a built in 16 GB flash memory and has a slot for Memory Stick Micro M2 for up to an additional 32 GB. To tie it all together, Sony also announced their take on iTunes with Media Go, a PC application to access the Playstation Store for the PSP and PS3. Sense Me, Sony’s version of Apple iTunes Genius playlist, analyzes your media library and will automatically create playlists based on your mood.

The one major setback for the PSP Go is the exorbitant price of $250 (that’s $50 more than a 360 Arcade!) Understandably, the iPod Touch is priced at $230, so I can understand where Sony is coming from. However, much like the Xbox 360, the Sony PSP has a hardcore gamer reputation. This attempt to expand the audience will only alienate the more experienced gamers and non-gamers unfamiliar with Sony’s offerings will only gloss over the product.

Hideo Kojima the Weapons Dealer

Hideo Kojima took the stage once again, and like an arms dealer, he’s selling ammunition to the ongoing console war by presenting Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker for the PSP. In a somewhat subdued “backstab” after his brief appearance at MS’ press con, Hideo Kojima announced that MGS Peacewalker is written and directed by Kojima and the entire MGS4 staff is also working on the title. Which leads me to believe that MGS: Rising for the Xbox is getting the shaft much like how Kojima didn’t want to get involved with the NES port of the original Metal Gear, because he thought the system was inferior to the MSX. Just saying.

Playstation Home

Sony shows a quick video of a few people in their normal lives who then transition to their online Home avatars. They show off some new content like Street Fighter outfits, the games that you can play on Home, and themed areas like the Uncharted Home space.

Frankly, still not sold on Home at all. I once tried to login onto Home when it first launched and it gave me a connection error and I never tried again since. I’m not quite sure exactly what Sony is trying to accomplish with Home. Is it their answer to Xbox Live? Is it their attempt to cash in on the Second Life crowd? Whatever it is, Sony is dedicated to make it work.

Surprise Announcements

Sony announces that Rockstar is going to be working on a new IP called Agent. Agent will be exclusive to the PS3 and Sony claims it will do for the PS3 what Grand Theft Auto 3 did for the PS2. Without any other information, concept art, or screenshots, these are very bold words indeed. Grand Theft Auto 3 defintely help make the PS2 what it is, but as far as Rockstar’s track record with new franchises? Let’s just say we have yet to see a Bully 4: San Andreas.

The surprise announcement didn’t stop there. After Sony showed off some footage on Final Fantasy XIII, they announced Final Fantasy XIV which would be a console exclusive to the PS3. It took everyone by surprise and for a second it didn’t make sense. I mean how could Sony announce FFXIV before FFXIII was even finished? It made more sense when it was revealed that it would be the follow up to the Final Fantasy XI MMO. Defintely not a traditional Final Fantasy, let’s hope that Square Enix addressed the problems that many casual MMO players had with FFXI.

The Era of Motion Control Wars

Sony, not to be outdone by Nintendo and Microsoft, announced that they too were working on motion control software. What they showed off was an early prototype of their motion controller. As if to take a cheap shot at Microsoft, Sony mentioned how they think that in gaming there are certain experiences that you just cannot do without buttons. They quickly showed off some tech demos using a Playstation Eye. The presenter was shown on screen and they were able to overlay various objects where the controller was. They believe in finding applications for motion controls that will appeal to core gamers. They ended the demo by fighting a skeleton army using the controller as a bow and arrow.

I think Sony’s stance on making motion control attractive to the core gamer is a daunting task. For me motion control will always be just a novel thing, but I could never picture using it in say a first person shooter or a fighter. That being said, the controller does look more accurate than a Wiimote. The PS3 defintely has more power and capabilities than the Wii, and compared to the Natal, this motion controller actually looks like it could happen sooner rather than later. Now I feel the war between these big three companies has truly begun and as long as all developers continue to innovate it’ll be a great ride.

Little Big Racers?

Next on Sony’s lineup was a game in the spirit of Little Big Planet called Mod Nation Racers. Just like Little Big Planet before it, Mod Nation Racers is a game that will thrive on community content. Except instead of creating platforming levels you’ll be creating kart style race tracks. The game makes it easy to create a track. All you do is drive and the track will auto populate behind you. You can fill in things such as scenery, road terrain, powerup boxes, ramp and hazards afterwards.

The game does look simple enough for anyone to pick up and play, but I can’t help but think that kart racing does not have the same lasting power and creativity that Little Big Planet users have shown. Then again I never thought you could re-create Gradius in Little Big Planet, so maybe the Mod Nation Racer community can accomplish the same thing.

God of War 3 Arrives, Violence Ensues

Lastly the developers of God of War 3 showed off a live demo of the game. The story picks up where God of War 2 ended, with a very pissed off (is he ever not?) Kratos alongside the Titans extracting revenge against the gods of Olympus. Gameplaywise it looks, well like God of War 1 and 2. And I can defintely confirm Chimera impaling.

I think Sony really needs God of War 3 to really bring in everyone who has been holding out. While the first Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank Future have been must haves for the PS3, I don’t think they have the same appeal as God of War 3 would have with it’s over the top violence. The way the audience reacted to the demo, you could get the feeling everyone was on the edge of their seat and wishing they could get a chance to play next.

Now About That Price Drop…

I believe that Sony had plenty of momentum going out of that press conference. Unlike Microsoft which tried to show that they were the multimedia solution for gamers and casuals, and Nintendo who proved you can never have too many peripherals, Sony seemed more focus on the core gamer. Sure stuff like Home and motion control may never pan out to core gamers, but from Uncharted 2, to MAG, to Final Fantasy XIII to God of War 3, Sony is quickly shaping up to be the console of choice for core gamers. One major thing they didn’t announce that many people were speculating was a price drop to their consoles. I think a price drop is inevitable and if done at the right time, it will close the gap between Sony and Microsoft.

The End of an Era?

Not quite. After a very dull first hour, Sony redeemed itself by showcasing actual in-game footage of its games. The presser could’ve been much worse if they kept on talking about the successes of the PS2, the dull unveiling of the PSP Go, and how millions of people are quincying in PS Home. After this presser, Sony have made a bit of a comeback after Microsoft’s dark horse announcement. Even without the price drop, Sony have made a better case that their platform can also have great, if not better games than the 360. Only time will tell if Sony made the right call.

Action Games

Best in Show – Assassin’s Creed 2

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

This E3 was particular full of action games for the core gamer demographic such as God of War 3, Uncharted 2 and Bayonetta. Assassin’s Creed 2 puts you in the Italian Rennasiance as a man named Ezio who is extracting revenge against the rival families in Italy who killed his family. One of the main reasons this game stood out above the rest is the scope of the world they presented. The large crowds are still around from the first Assasin’s Creed and yet the world is big enough for Ezio to ride a flying machine across the span of a city. Ubisoft Montreal said they fixed many issues players complained about the first game, a big one being the combat. From the demo, you could Ezio disarming the guards and using their weapons against them. Assassin’s Creed 2 launches in November of this year.

Runner Up – Metroid: Other M

Developer: Nintendo and Team Ninja
Platform: Wii

Nintendo did not have too many major surprises (at least none that weren’t met with a big resounding HUH??) at their press conference save this one, Metroid : Other M. What really made this a surprise was seeing that Team Ninja would be a co-developer on it. The trailer and screenshots show that this iteration of Metroid will possibly have a mix of 3D and 2D action, but little is actually confirmed. Also with Team Ninja being Itagaki-less, the question remains of what talent is left behind from the old Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden staff. Nevertheless, it looks considerably different than the Prime series and looks like an exciting reboot to the Metroid franchise. See? Nintendo still cares about hardcore gamers! Metroid: Other M is slated for 2010 release.

Missing in Action – Dead Rising 2

Developer: Capcom
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC

The US may have stopped caring or forgotten about swine flu, aka the new Black Plague, but Japan hasn’t. Due to concerns about traveling abroad, Capcom of Japan decided not to attend this year’s E3. This move denied the public more information into the follow-up to their smash hit Dead Rising. Hopefully we’ll hear more info soon like how the infection spread to Las Vegas Fortune City, will they be any changes to the gameplay and most importantly, does the new main character forgo waxing?

ZOMG! This is saucesome! I wonder if bailout money was given to Anaheim Electronics.

The massive 1:1 scale Gundam RX78 mecha (the original Gundam of the Universal Century timeline) in Odaiba is finally complete! Blog author, Punynari, who was on his last day in Japan, decides to check out the construction site of the Gundam mecha one more time. He was pleasantly surprised that the construction of the mammoth Gundam was complete. Visit his blog to see more detailed photos of this awesome project.

Source

Moé Passion