A few days ago, I watched the second episode of The Cape with my girlfriend. I was disappointed to say the least. “If I knew this was going to turn into Spawn for Babies, I wouldn’t have started watching to begin with!” I thought I was clever – I mean the guy has a magic cape, can’t interact with his family and is always an angry sad sack. Hell, his mentor is even the voice of Spawn from the old cartoon show! They might as well have just neutered the old Spawn show and called it a day, amirite?! But when my girlfriend asked me who Spawn was, I had a hard time explaining. I didn’t really know much about him at all. It was such an influential series in the 90s, but I had never read a single panel. What’s his deal? Why was it so popular? Why isn’t it still popular 18 years later?
I was 7 when Spawn #1 hit shelves in 1992, but even I knew that it was a big deal. Spawn was everywhere – there were toys,...

Marvel vs Capcom 3 has been announced, and it looks like it will be sporting a new engine. The downside is that it probably won't boast the 52 character roster of the previous title. In fact, the teaser image only looks to have a cast of 16 or characters. We know that Wolverine, Ryu, Hulk, Iron Man, Morrigan and Chris Redfield are confirmed, but who are the other 10 fighters? Here are my guesses based on the teaser image.



SuperSkrull
Strider
Dr Doom (might actually be a Monster Hunter)
Deadpool
Monster From Monster Hunter - Possibly a Yian KutKu
Ken

I also think that I see Thanos next to the "Monster", and that girl's silhouette on the bottom left looks familiar too.

So I was watching a video at 1up.com, and of course it loaded a little ad at the beginning for GameStop's GameDays. Okay, whatever, but here is my qualm: Is this really a good ad for the XBOX360?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QgkjJz8yk8

Think about it: that poor rabbit finally gets his XBOX, then gets stabbed, burned and crushed. I thought it was going to be a commercial for an extended warranty, because all I could think of was the red ring. Bad commercial. Bad.

I’m a Monster Hunter. No, it’s okay, I’m not going to try to evangelize you; I just want to talk. When I tell people of my love of Monster Hunter, they usually reply with “I tried that but I didn’t get it because of the lack of targeting,” or “I couldn’t get used to the camera” but is it really that simple? I rarely like to admit that a game can be made better by simply adding familiar mechanics from another game – if that were the case “Gears of War Clone” or “God of War Knockoff” would have a much more positive connotation. So what if Monster Hunter had a targeting system? Would it catch on in the US? I’m going to hazard a guess and say “no.” There is a lot more about Monster Hunter that keeps Westerners at an arm’s length.
No Motivation

Americans play a lot of Loot-Grabs, that is to say...

Has anyone been paying attention to this?

http://www.konami.jp/kojima_pro/next/index.html

There was a little buzz when it popped up, with people interpreting the source code and pulling out words like "next" and "MGS5", and people reading "Raiden" into the lightning storm, but then I hadn't heard anything since then.

Well, the count-down trailer hit Zero last night, and apparently reset to give more information on Sunday. Here is the low down on the information given so far:



When the lightning strikes, it randomly displays one of the following :
3 - P - e - E - R - 5 or (as of last night) a picture of Big Boss wearing an Outer Heaven beret. I think the words are "PRE e3 5" meaning the reveal for MGS5 will happen prior to e3 (which makes sense since the count down timer ends on Sunday) and...

It's been a while! Well, for the sake of upkeep, I will launch an update, piercing the blogosphere en route to interspace!

My biggest news is that I've started reviewing games for Tech-Gaming. So far, I have only written two reviews, but I have also been throwing in my two cents for the pick of the week segment. It's a start! It has been a lot of fun so far, and it's nice to get recognized for my writing (My Valkyria Chronicles DLC post got picked up by Sega AND the PlayStation Blog!).

My other news is moving to LA. I finally have my very own apartment, all to myself. It's taken a while, but the apartment is finally coming together. I am getting a couch today, and then the only major furniture I'll need is a bed frame and a real entertainment center (right now, my TV is sitting on some box shelves that are too small to fit my consoles or even the cable box inside of). I like my new surroundings; I'm just a stones throw from Little Tokyo and Chinatown,...

A few years back, I purchased Resident Evil 4 for the PlayStation 2. I had been a fan of the series up to this point, that is to say, I played all the games and enjoyed them, but had never beaten one before this point. I started the game with tepid expectations, hearing how much had changed. After the first 15 minutes, I was hooked. I had never played anything like this; nobody really had.

I remember thinking, as I watched Leon ride into the sunset, that this was the perfect translation from action movie to video game - fun to watch, fun to play. The game had an over-the-top story with a goofy, lovable main character, tons of action and a resolution at the end. I devoured every inch of the game and started to starve for a similar experience. I can actually recall thinking "why aren't all games RE4?"
...

I've actually seen this exact post in the CAGBlogs before, but I don't think repeating it is necessarily redundant : There still may be people that don't understand...

This may be a surprise for anyone who has been reading the blogs for a while, mainly because half of my posts sound like I'm giving Sega handjobs in return for them reconsidering my childhood, but I never played Sonic The Hedgehog for the 360/PS3. I got my PS3 far enough after launch that Sonic had disappeared into the growing library of games, and I had heard that it was pretty unforgivably awful. I was shopping for a new headset at Fry's, and there was an open copy of Sonic The Hedgehog marked down to $15.

At this point, my inner fanboy poked his nose out. He said things like "how bad could it possibly be?" "They said Sonic Adventure 2 was bad, but we loved Sonic Adventure 2" and "It's only...

Phantasy Star Portable hits stores today, and it should be no surprise to regular readers that there is a copy waiting patiently for me at GameStop. I've had this abusive relationship with the series for almost a decade now, and although I do love PSPortable, I recognize that the series has a lot to overcome if Sega wants to make it relevant again.

Believe it or not, I have an active PSU account. I bought it a few months back when I got my laptop and picked up a cheap $5 copy of Ambition of the Illuminus. The game is basically a ghost town now with only 1 server populated at a constant 1.5 stars out of 6 (Server 2 Caelum - side note, it hit 2 stars for the first time since I started back up in February). On the other hand, I played PSO Blue Burst, the free-to-download PC version of the original PSO, on a private...

So, if you haven't heard, Last Legion Games is releasing an iPhone-Only MMORPG based on the world of the Watchmen to coincide with the release of the movie. The game uses a technology called CloudMMO, designed specifically to make these types of mobile MMOs possible.

Watchmen fanboyism aside, this is a very exciting proposition. Massive Multiplayer on a mobile device with a wide install base is something that has been a pie-in-the-sky dream for a while, and this looks like the first title that could make this fantasy a reality.

If it takes off, it won't take long for industry veterans to take notice and revisit the lucrative possibilities of iWOW. The idea that, in the near future, Blizzard could keep their hooks into their audience even while they are separated from their life-giving PCs is both frightening and exciting.
...

On a whim, I preordered Legacy of Ys: Books I & II for the DS. The only Ys game I had played at any length was Ark of the Napishtem on the PSP, and to be honest, I didn't really like it. Who knows why I decided to pre-order this game, but I got the call on Tuesday from a very enthusiastic android from GameStop, asking me to pick up my pre-order, and far be it for me to tell them "no."

I am only a few hours in, but I can tell you right now: I love this game! It's a very old school action RPG, which makes sense, seeing as how it is a remake of an NEC-PC game from 1987. But the game is not old school in a bad way; in fact I am finding it very refreshing to play a Japanese RPG that hasn't been tainted by all of the post-95 tropes that plague a lot of the more modern games. It has been very interesting...

Like a lot of people, I recently picked up The Watchmen so that I could fully appreciate the movie when it hits theaters in 10 days. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting to like it. So many people had told me that it is the greatest comic ever written that I thought that there was no way that I could read it without being disappointed I was also worried that Wombat's commentary on The Watchmen being a bunch of Batmen and a Superman would negatively effect the story for me, but it in fact added another dimension to the story, so if you're reading this, thanks Wombat . Much to my surprise, I ended up loving every single panel! People have not been over hyping this book; it really is that good. But finally reading the book opened my eyes to a lot of things surrounding The Watchmen that concern me; most of all, the upcoming movie.

When I first saw the trailer for The Watchmen, I knew that...

With all the new releases and video game news happening stateside, you might have missed that the Ryu Ga Gotoku 3 (or "Yakuza 3" to us Yankees) is coming out in Japan this Thursday. It probably also escaped that the demo was made available on the Japanese PlayStation Store last week. Fear not, fellow CAGs! I visited the land of the rising DLC and gave the demo it's fair shake.

The demo starts you off in front of Stardust (a familiar location to Yakuza veterans). Kazuma saunters inside to see his buddies Yuya and Kazuki once again getting hit up by the mob for protection money. Needless to say, Kazuma Kiryu won't stand for that! In true Yakuza fashion, a fight breaks out and you're tasked to defend Stardust from a squad of unruly gangsters. After the fight, you can explore the streets of Tokyo. It actually tells you to head north on your radar, but the police have blocked...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zaAVUwN4pQ

My girlfriend made this short(10 min) documentary on my friend Reade's over-developed plans for Zombie survival as her Intro to Cinematography final last semester. I must say, it turned out pretty well. It showcases Max Brook's zombie survival guide, Left 4 Dead and the Warcraft III SWAT mod, so it seems appropriate to blog about here. For the record: No, that isn't me, that's Reade. Yes, those guns are real. No, Reade isn't REALLY crazy...at least not any crazier than most of us.

Anyway, enjoy!

A Warning
Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for the PS3 and 360 shipped yesterday. I had a meeting in Manhattan Beach that was supposed to last all day, but only lasted until 1:30, so I took the afternoon off and tried to see if I could find a copy on shelves yet (I figured that Sega of America is only a few hours away, maybe we'd get it early). I went to a GameStop, they said that SUGC is a limited release title and that they were only allowed to order enough copies to fill out their preorders! I checked 2 other GameStops, and they gave me the same story. LUCKILY, the 3rd GameStop's order hadn't been placed yet (apparently the orders are shipped overnight), and so they let me place an order and guaranteed a copy today at noon. But what it means is that if you were hoping on picking up a copy at your local EB or GameStop, you might have a hard time. I know for a fact that Fry's will have some,...

I'm not really what you would call a "hardware kinda guy." I've never built my own computer (although I understand how to do it in theory), I don't follow which processor is better than the other and the most complicated crack-my-computer-open procedure I've ever done is adding RAM to my girlfriend's laptop. So when people kept telling me how easy it was to swap out the PS3 harddrive, I was skeptical.

The way I saw it, if it is really as easy as everyone says, then wouldn't Sony sell a cheap 20GB system with instructions on how to switch out a new harddrive? Wouldn't they partner with Seagate and slap stickers on 2.5" drives that say "works with all PS3's" and convince GameStop to sell them in their stores? Surely, if it were that easy to switch out, Sony would be smart like that.

Well, I filled up my 40GB drive and cautiously purchased a new 320GB, 7200RPM harddrive...

So, I haven’t blogged anything in a while, so I thought I would share this with everyone. It’s a head for a project I am working on. I banged this out this morning in about an hour, and I just noticed that it looks suspiciously like Jeff Goldblum. It wasn’t intentional, but still – I laughed when I realized it, and now I kinda wanna change up the character a bit…if only I was in charge…Anywho, back to work!

As soon as Sega announced that Phantasy Star Zero would be seeing US and European shores in 2009, I took it upon myself to track down a copy of the Japanese release to give my fellow CAGs an idea of what they can expect for Phantasy Star's first foray onto the Nintendo DS. Expectations have been high for this game, since developers had been promising a triumphant return to Phantasy Star Online's style of gameplay, but how does the game translate to a handheld?


Well, those of you who are looking for a nostalgic look toward the Dreamcast's goldenboy, rejoice: Phantasy Star Zero's gameplay hits the nail on the head. In fact, after playing the game for just a few minutes, it becomes apparent that the original intent of the developers must have been a port of the original game. The controls are almost identical,...

Earlier this week, I was hanging out with my girlfriend's family, and around dinnertime, we decided to go pick up some food and bring it back. We were all hungry and no one was up for cooking, and none of us had really gone out to eat in a while, so it seemed like a nice treat. So my gf's dad and I set out to grab some take out to feed the family.

We went to this little Italian place, that they had frequented for the past 18 or so years, called Vittorio's and, lo-and-behold, it was out of business. It was kind of a shock for him, because it had been one of those cornerstone, memory-filled places that had been so important to him for the better part of 2 decades and now it was gone.

We picked ourselves up by the bootstraps and looked for another restaurant and, long story short, we found 3 more restaurants closed down before we finally found one that was open.

We sat at the bar and waited for our food to come, and I got to thinking about how...

I think this picture says it all. But just in case,




And just because it's a video game blog, check out that famicom


Booyah



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