Satiate your hunger for more FPS action by buying this month’s issue of Game! as we present you KOS: Secret Operations. Inside you’ll find a precise walkthrough of the game and some of its available …
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SM Megamall’s Megtrade Hall 2 was loaded with gamers and animé enthusiasts as Otaku Expo kicked off last January 23-24, 2010.
As expected, the place was filled with cosplayers of different animé and gaming characters.
Aside from the cosplay competition, gaming tournaments were also held. Run Up Philippines held tournament for their game Luna Online. Crafting challenge, guild relay, and newbie package redemption were some of the activities they prepared. And who could miss the gorgeous Luna Girls?
And of course, the event will not be complete without the Otaku Maid Café, where food like sushi, crepees, parfaits, and croquettes were served. The Café also served a special Luna Online-inspired dessert buffet.
Okay, enough talk. I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.
Capcom has announced some of the suprises that will come with the Super Street FIghter IV. Rumor has it that a total of 10 new challengers will be added up on to their roster.
One of the confirmed additions is T. Hawk from SF II. Also , you’ll be seeing some friends form the street brawling game Final Fight. They are Cody and Guy. Coming from Street Fighter Alpha, Adon, the Muay Thai fighter will be making its way to the new Street Fighter game. Another is Juri, a Tae Kwon Do expert is going to be introduced for the first time.
Issues ago, a very detailed TeamSpeak article focused on the differences between Free-To-Play (FTP) online games and Pay-To-Play (PTP) online games. By all means, I do agree for a fact that both forms of online gaming have its pros and cons, but these days, one particular notion has caught my attention.
While it is true that dealing with FTP games would more or less net you with encountering people bearing unfavorable attitudes (as the previous TeamSpeak article has mentioned), but these days (or even before), some people playing PTP online games can be utter douches.
Look no further than with the neverending World of Warcraft. Experiences may differ between people, but I can tell you firsthand, dealing with people in PTP games are no different, albeit similar, to dealing with FTP gamers. Familiar with the internet trolling phenomenon? It’s a staple language in WoW, as much as being a jerk towards other people is a natural occurrence. Though some people may look at saying racial profanities online as a humorous thing and not to be taken seriously at times, it is still shocking to see things like this take place.
And let’s not forget about the superiority complex found in such games. End-game content is tough business indeed, so everyone has to get the best gear possible in order to succeed. The problem, however, is how elitist certain people can be. Let’s face it, people online, on a more or less basis, don’t exactly like noobs who have either low gear or lack of experience in dealing with dungeons. If anything, there are people with high gear who look down on people with low gear just because the latter may not have been lucky, too busy, or something else. And with that kind of thinking, expect to be blacklisted, be it within the game society or within your guild.
Of course PTP has positives, that goes without question, as much as FTP has as much. But PTP games have as much negatives as FTP has. In other words, it all depends on players’ perspectives. Everything has positives and negatives.
Everyone’s favorite chore simulator not called Animal Crossing lands itself a release date. November 10 is when Natsume’s bringing out their new Harvest Moon title, and here’s what the nice people at Natsume have to say about the game’s plot:
In Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands, players rejoin all of the beloved characters from Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, and meet some new faces as well! Years ago, a powerful earthquake struck the Sunshine Islands chain, and most of the islands sank forever…or did they? It’s up to the player to find the magical Sun Stones and raise the sunken islands. As they do, they’ll meet new characters, harvest new crops, and befriend animals such as ducks, monkeys, and badgers. Players will grow their farm, care for animals, mine, fish, and compete in festivals in their quest to restore the Sunshine Islands to their former glory. With a little luck, they may even find true love and start a family along the way.
“Just in time for the holidays, Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands is a wonderful game for players of all ages. You get to meet some great new characters, train your pets in fun minigames, and grow a huge variety of crops. It’s the best Harvest Moon yet!” said Hiro Maekawa, President and CEO at Natsume. “Whether someone is new to the Harvest Moon series, or a long-time fan, Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands is a great game with tons to offer.”
Due to incessant public demand, NIS America has announced that they will be releasing a limited run of the previously digital-distro only PSP release, Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! through online retailer RosenQueen.
NIS PR dude (dood?) Nao Zook chimes in, “We have received lots of emails from our fans about the UMD version of Badman, and we did a poll for it. Turned out, lots of people are still interested in Badman UMD. So we decided to support their needs. (And, we really REALLY wanted to make the UMD version of Badman, too!) We’ve decided to start the preorder, and if we get 1,000 orders we will go ahead and manufacture the UMD version of Badman. We are also trying to get support from retailers. If they support us, we’ll create the UMD even if the preorder doesn’t reach 1,000.”
I never got around to getting the PSN release (I did import the original Japanese title, however), so this upcoming UMD release is great news for folks like me who held out. And of course, great news overall for the boxed-copy brigade.
And we are back, with some more bits of news for you folks out there. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?
SplitFish Announces Release Date for New FragFX Controller
SplitFish Ltd., will ship the much anticipated wireless version of their critically acclaimed FPS, PC crossover controller, the DUAL SFX FRAG PRO, in time to hit stores for Activision’s® CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 release. SPLITFISH first revealed this latest addition to its line of innovative controllers for PlayStation®3 to rave reviews at E3 and GAMESCON 2009, as part of SplitFish’s brand-new Frevolution X System to be available worldwide in fall 2009. SPLITFISH will have the new WIRELESS DUAL SFX FRAG PRO and the DUAL SFX EVOLUTION both in stores by end of NOVEMBER 2009.
The DUAL SFX FRAG PRO brings all the best of the dominating FRAGFXv2 mouse gaming design in a DUAL WIRELESS COMBO. The new controller showcases a 2000dpi customized gaming mouse and FREVO “Fragchuck” and functions as a full featured wireless PS3 and PC gaming controller with programmable button configurations and adjustable mouse aiming that provides unprecedented levels of accuracy. It improves upon the tremendously popular FragFX, adding a dual wireless rechargeable system to the intuitive controller and a new “FRAG CONTROL CENTER” utility to adjust button configurations and sensitivity and save individual game configurations. The ergonomic, 2000 DPI laser mouse provides PC-like accuracy and easy PS Home navigation, while the left-hand grip provides full SixAxis motion control and a whole slew of customization functions and other special performance features. Read the full story »
Breaking News! Sega’s making consoles again… Well, not exactly. Innex announced the release of two Genesis-themed retro products, a handheld and a console respectively.
The unnamed handheld (pictured left) will contain twenty classic Genesis games; titles mentioned on the press release included Sonic and Knuckles, Ecco, and Golden Axe. The handheld will have a 2.4″ LCD screen and has three buttons, so that probably removes SF2CE from the equation! It’s probably all emulated, like your regular old Chinese MP4 knockoff, but at least the games are officially licensed.
The FireCore console is a bit more interesting. Featuring another set of twenty titles as well as the ability to play standard Genesis carts, it also features some interesting tech in the form of a standard SD slot. “Dubbed the Firecore SD cartridge, the Firecore is also built to support newly developed games which use true color technology.” Looks like it’ll be a platform on its own as well? Or perhaps Innex plans to import some sweet Brazilian Genesis games. The FireCore also has an IR port for wireless controllers, and will probably face an uphill battle for living room spaces as the Wii already does Genesis emulation pretty admirably.
“Skins,” protective layers of vinyl for small electronics, are a dime a dozen nowadays. Almost everyone’s jumping on this manufacturing bandwagon, and unfortunately, the production values on most manufacturers’ skins are uniformly awful: applying the skins is an ill-documented, bubble-filled malady; and removing the skins is an even worse experience—good luck not leaving semi-permanent gunk on your gadget on the way out. Moreover, skin manufacturers offer the tackiest designs ever. I mean, really, who wants to cover their devices with terrible fractal designs straight out of Kai’s Power Tools circa 1998?
Exo-Flex’ new line of Snake Skins miraculously solve all of the complaints I previously had with similar products. The company was gracious enough to supply us with a packet of skins for various devices (their product range covers quite a gamut of gadgets), and I applied some of their skins on my toys over the weekend. Read the full story »
The inaugural edition of Today’s News Bits kicks off right now! Today’s News Bits is an all-new section here on the GAME! Blog featuring little, interesting bits of information you may have missed (aka stuff that drops on my mailbox that I can’t really do a full blog post on).
Bethesda Releases Premium Fallout 3 Theme for the 360
Taken from the press release:
Today Bethesda and Microsoft revealed that a premium theme for “Fallout 3” will be released on Xbox LIVE on Oct. 1 free of charge for all players who have purchased all five “Fallout 3” Game Add-ons as of Sept. 22. Gamers who have purchased all five Game Add-ons (English only), including “Operation: Anchorage,” “The Pitt,” “Broken Steel,” “Point Lookout” and “Mothership Zeta”, will receive a token from Microsoft to download the theme for free starting Oct. 1. “This is something we’ve been asked about a lot and we’re happy to finally be able to bring it to fans as a small token of our appreciation,” said Todd Howard, game director and executive producer for Fallout 3. The theme is also available for purchase at 240 Microsoft points.
Neat stuff; let’s see ‘em do a PS3 dynamic theme next!
Tecmo’s Family Fun Football Goes Gold
TORRANCE, Calif., September 15, 2009 – Video game developer and publisher Tecmo® today announced that the Wii™-exclusive Family Fun Football™ has gone gold and will be launching in North America on September 29, 2009. Families will enjoy the casual, “pick up and play” gameplay style, simple playbook, and intuitive motion controls that help create the ultimate fun football experience. Addicting mini games, whimsical characters, and mascot modes keep kids and parents alike coming back for more, not to mention the ability to play as your Mii caricature!
Game Features
* Simple playbook: A coaching playbook that makes it easy for everyone to learn and play the game of football!
* Power-ups: Earn power-ups during gameplay to enhance certain attributes including speed, strength, passing, and interception for a limited amount of time. Use them wisely to gain momentum in the game!
* Quickplay: Jump right into the action! Select two teams and the stadium you want to play in to get started. Up to four players can play for 2-on-2 football fun!
* Season: Play through a nine game season, each game against a different opponent. Defeat every team to be the best!
* Tournament: Play your way through a double-elimination tournament and be the last team standing to win it all!
* Mascot Mode: You can play as your team’s mascot, or as one of 10 unlockable mascots in Mascot Mode!
* Mii Compatibility: Load in your own Mii and play against your friends’ and family’s Miis for a more personal experience.
Nintendo released their 2009 Holiday lineup today via a press release, and well, it looks like they’re letting the third parties ride the software wave once again, with very little of note from the Big N (Holiday 2008 was really disappointing as all they had to show was Animal Crossing: City Folk and Wii Music). Though there are a couple scattered, decent releases, nothing of note was revealed, other than the predictably fantastic Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth getting dated for Q3 — that means it’ll be out in a couple of weeks, maybe?
But wait, what’s this? Shan…tae? For DSiWare? Hell yes!
Though the DSi’s download service has been nothing but slim pickings so far, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge already justifies the roughshod couple of months we had with nothing of note to download. Well, kinda. Anyways, never look a gift horse in the mouth! And for the uninitiated, Shantae was a semi-obscure (though not anymore; as with all things semi-obscure, the Internet has blown its mythos way out of proportion already) platformer published by Capcom late into the Game Boy Color’s lifespan; it was one of Contra 4 developer WayForward’s first handheld forays, and by all accounts, it was pretty much required playing! And it’s a quazi-Metroidvania title, to boot; bumping it ten notches up the awesome scale. Unfortunately, it didn’t sell all that well (being a very late GBC entry, of course), and plans for a GBA sequel were canned, and WayForward spent several years in shovelware development limbo, before bouncing back and dumping out the mound of manliness that is Contra 4.
To say that I’m hyped for this long-awaited sequel is an understatement. Anyways, press release is after the cut, go ahead and check for anything notable we’ve missed! Remember, this is a partial list of upcoming titles, so everything’s still subject to change!
Somewhere, in a parallel universe, Activision somehow beat Harmonix/EA to the punch and got the Beatles license for their music game, and instead of the tasteful rendition of the Fab Four’s musical library, they got… …
As of today, The Perfect World servers are down for the Lost Empire Patch. So, we think and ponder, what will be the changes within the game? Well, most of the content will now be …
Yes, it’s finally here! The Lost Empire patch will now be patched in our local servers this coming September 8, 2009. We know that there will be several instances that will be opened like the …
After the absence of the Lottery boxes in the item mall, Perfect World’s inhabitants were a bit sad. However, the future seems to be brighter as Perfect World Philippines will release several cool items in …
Last August 29, 2009 marks the last leg of the Dynasty Wars. The competition was held at Quagmire Internet Café in Davao City. There are a total of 8 teams in the event from various …
A friend of mine, Mitch, invited me to attend and celebrate Luna Online Philippines’ official launch last August 14, 2009 at the Phi Bar located in Metrowalk Ortigas. To say the least, it was a …
Sony never said that they were good at keeping secrets. Yes, the internet’s worst-kept secret has finally been let out of the bag. The slimline PlayStation 3 is indeed incoming, and at quite the tempting …
A 30-year-old Tondo man was stabbed and killed late last weekend over an argument stemming from the (ever) popular PC shooter, Counter-Strike. The victim apparently exchanged disparaging words with the suspect after losing a bet, …
Pretty sure I’ve talked about the Dingoo Digital A320 elsewhere on the Internet, citing its potential, okay looks and great D-pad/face button placement, only hindered by its closed-source nature and that its parent company, Dingoo …
So folks, we hit a bit of a posting lull there for a bit, eh? Blame real life, work (actual work, day jobs, work that pays the bills!) and everything in-between. We’ll get back to …
Now here’s a neat piece of news: DotEmu and Japanese emulation specialists (they do most of the emulation for Virtual Console games) D4 Interactive are bringing over Sega’s (well, Compile’s, but let’s not get into …
When Sam Raimi saw his horror directorial return in the form of “Drag Me To Hell” some time ago, give or take, when it comes to the genre that is in his nature (i.e. The …
We talked about the item mall on Part 1. As promised, I will deliver the game changes within Perfect World Philippines. Please bear in mind that not all the changes is listed here, however, as …
To continue on my cavalcade of monthly Atlus portable titles, this month I bring you Landstalker developer Climax’ platforming-puzzle hybrid Steal Princess. Note that I didn’t classify it as an RPG—though it shares a bit …
