NewNews - Screenshots for Cave Story 3D

A few days ago, I mentioned that Cave Story 3D is one of the games I was looking forward to on the Nintendo 3DS.  Well, a few game news media got a hold of some screenshots:

Source: GameSpot link below

The game won't be out until August 2011.  If you've never played or even heard of the game, go get the free PC version that Daisuke Amaya took 5 years during his free time to create: Cave Story Download.  Cave Story is an Action Platform Adventure game that was originally released as a freeware for PC.  The game is a true classic with challenging gameplay, a charming story, and tons of secrets.  I didn't get the port to the Wii since it was on the WiiWare section (didn't really want to get into stuff like WiiWares and PSN downloadable games), but it's on there as well if you want to play an updated version (I recommend the original since the pixel art and 8-bit music is part of the charm).  Head over to GameSpot (or any other game media site) to check out the screenshots:

Source: GameSpot - Cave Story 3D Screenshots

GameLight - Little Cave Hero

Official Site: http://www.facebook.com/littlecavehero

Source: Facebook Page

Title: Little Cave Hero
Platform: Facebook
Genre: Casual
Structure: Micro-Transaction

I want to do a review of the game, but I simply haven't played enough of it to have a strong opinion.  I usually don't like Facebook games because I find them to be OCD inducing, text-based, RPGs that usually requires spending real money in order to participate in the main contents of the game.  I've been continuing giving Facebook games a chance (especially with games made by big name companies) and so I've been trying ones that seem interesting.  I saw an ad on the sidebar of Facebook that showcased a little pixel character and asked if I liked retro game art.  I saw it a few times and curiosity took over and I clicked it.  So I'm going to say now that one of the most charming aspects of the game is the art style.  It's simplistic, easy on the eyes, effective as a way of presenting the game, and it runs very smoothly with fully animation.  The game reminds me a bit of Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon since it's half building your town (rather than farming) and half dungeon exploring.  The interface is a bit overwhelming at first, but the game teaches you about everything one at a time.  The game has full on music and sound, something I find commendable in browser-based / Facebook Games.  I kind of forget how the story begins, but the town is desolated with only you and the mayor.  The Mayor is a stereotypical quest giver with snide remarks towards the player about having you do something because he doesn't want to.  The dialogue is quirky and light-hearted making it a welcoming game for players of all ages and skill level.  The Mayor will ask the player to perform various tasks and the player will learn how the game works by following through with them.  The game can be expanded to full screen which increases the field of vision of everything around you rather than just stretching it full screen.  I really like that function since I don't have to keep scrolling and squint my eyes on certain objects and words.  The game runs even smoother full screen in my opinion.  The actions of the player is limited by a stamina bar like many other facebook games, and so I don't  linger for long durations when I decide to play it.  Overall, I think it's a step in the right direction in how to make fun facebook games.  Even though I still don't plan on spending any money on the game, I really do enjoy the game thus far since I have so much more control over everything around my character rather than just clicking buttons and watch everything happen.  If you're looking for a fun little time waster, I highly recommend Little Cave Hero over the other Facebook Games I've played so far (Facebook Games are getting better.  Hooray for free games!).

GameLight - Gameboy 3DS Games

Just a small update on the PSN:
-Gamasutra - Class Action Lawsuit Brought Against Sony Over PSN Data Breach
So Sony is going to be sued for about $25 Billion for the breach of sensitive information of over 70 Million user of their service on the Playstation network.

The Rothken law firm has filed a federal class action lawsuit against SCEA on behalf of the 77 million PSN customers it says were harmed by "one of the largest data breaches in the history of the internet." 

Are you kidding me?  They're doing this on our behalf?  I highly doubt that is seriously the case as dozens of lawyers have already lined up to take a chunk of money out of the situation.  Way to kick the man when he's down.  Yes, the breach of our personal information is unacceptable and unexpected; however, I don't think giving money to lawyers and the government really helps any of us does it?  Sony is not 100% at fault here since it's the "outside intrusion" that caused this entire situation at hand, but a more appropriate punishment should be taken in effect rather than having money-hungry political businessmen take advantage of what happened to the company and what happened to us PS3 gamers.  Tightening up security and ensuring that such an event won't happen again is a good start.  Then after protecting its customers, perhaps a compensation of sorts can be taken effect such as a Playstation Plus membership for a duration or a certain amount of credits to be used in the PSN store can be given to encourage players to continue using their services.  Compensation also needs to be given to developers and publishers who were affected by the down time (especially those relying on the Playstation Network to sell and play their games).  So if Sony were to be punished, it should be because it's for the people that were affected by the event, not because some guy in a suit wants to get rich off the situation.

Okay, onto the main topic and into something more happy.  The Nintendo 3DS has already released and Satoru Iwata says they're .60 million units short of their expected sales.  There can be many reasons for it.  Here are mine:

-Waiting for a new model to be released (GBA -> GBA SP / NDS -> NDS Lite)

-Wanting a different color (I want orange, I saw a mock model in orange at E3 last year)

-Waiting for more games to come out (Going to talk about that today)

-Waiting for a sale like at Costco or Amazon

Perhaps there are many gameboy players who are think the same thing (mainly waiting for the games to come out).  That is not to say that all the game out right now are bad (though most of them I don't want to pay money for).  There's going to be a lot of remakes and ports with the added 3D, and many gamers (including me) are kinda excited to see them released.  I may have to play Super Mario 64 one more time just for the 3D effects if it happens to come out.  Anyways, here's a list of games I'd buy or will buy if I had a Gameboy 3DS:

Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition 

Source: Youtube Channel machinima

So this is an obvious choice since it's the highest rated game out of all the 3DS games thus far (according to Metacritic) and is also one of the most anticipated games when announced last year.  I finally got to try it out at Game Stop last week and I was sincerely impressed by it.  I still think that I'll get dizzy from playing the 3DS for long durations, but I'd make the time I play the game worth it.  With 34 characters to choose from, single-cartridge multiplayer, wireless battles and much much more, this is one must-buy game for the 3DS.

Samurai Warriors - Chronicles

Source: Youtube Channel GameNewsOfficial

I have mentioned many times before that I'm a fan of Koei's Warrior Series.  I thought the GBA version of Dynasty Warriors was okay and the one for DS was kinda boring, but I think a warriors game on the 3DS is nice with all that new technology they have to work with now.  I really want to see the 3D in action in this game as well.

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift 2

Source: Youtube Channel realtactikz

I have BlazBlue: Continuum Shift for PS3 and I heard the patch with the changes to BB:CS 2 will be applied to the game (excluding extra characters, each $8).  I should play it more, but Hazama (Main Boss) pisses me off to no ends (even at the easiest difficulty level).  Despite that, I am very excited about a 3DS version of the game since it includes all the characters, extra content, the 3D effects, and a chance to play it while on the go.

Here are some of the other games I'm looking forward to:
-Dead or Alive: Dimensions - Finally a DoA on a system I (in the future) own.  The gameplay looks solid and the graphics are nice thus far.  I have yet to see the 3D in action on it yet.
-Cave Story 3D - Whoa, Cave Story in 3D!  I love the original and have high respects for Amaya Daisuke (the one and only to create the entire game in 5 years) so I'm excited to see a 3DS port of it.
-Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D - I guess I'm kind of looking forward to this one.  I'm not a huge Resident Evil fan, but I've enjoyed playing the few that I have.  It looks more fun for multiplayer though.

Like with many other games, I have a crazy backlog of NDS and PSP games that still needs to be played and finished.  It's the RPGs that's taking the longest to finish, but they're also the ones I'm having the most fun with.  I'm not sure when I'll get a 3DS, but I hope a lot of good games come out by the time I pick one up. 

NewNews - PSN Users' info gets compromised (Reactions)

Source: Gamasutra

If you're a Playstation 3 player who has a PSN account, you're more than likely to have heard about Sony's announcement that user information has been compromised by an outside source.  It's been a week since the Playstation Network went down in speculation of the "anonymous" hacker group's involvement.  They have denied responsibility to the incident and have since not been heard of.  Whoever has committed this heinous act on the PSN servers has succeeded in preventing 70 million users from accessing multiplayer capabilities, locked players out of DRM ridden games, extract personal information such as name, address (city, state, zip), country, email address, birthdate, PlayStation Network/Qriocity password and login, and handle/PSN online ID as written by Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications for Sony Computer Entertainment America as well as the harrowing fact that the hacker might have access to the credit cards of all those users.  Sony has urged users to keep an eye out on suspicious transactions on their cards as well as changing their passwords to anything linked to the PSN.  I'm trying not to get too worried about the situation myself since I never made any purchases on the PSN and the most information that was registered should be just an email, password, and security question.  I do worry about losing my account though since it's connected to things like levels in online games (Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, MAG, etc.).

What was most alarming about this news was the reaction from the readers in all the articles I visited today.  It's not surprising to see fanboys flame Sony in their predicament when their loyalty is with Microsoft in X-Box 360 or PC gamers with Steam accounts, but to read all the atrocities of people blaming exclusively Sony and how the company has no concern over their customers while other companies are like saints that protect their users really astounded me.  It wasn't Sony that gave out all those personal information, the hacker was the one that broke in and took it.  I really doubt Sony wanted that to happen at all.  The most common reason for this distress is that users believe that their commitment and money is being put into the services with the insurance that their personal information is protected.  Isn't that the common goal for all companies?  Even if Sony really was after the money of their user base, they wouldn't want anything happening to their customers (because that's where all the money comes from!).  Some examples people pointed out were Xbox Live, Steam, Amazon, and eBay.  If one were to type up security breaches to ANY of these companies on google, they will find articles of Xbox Live accounts being compromised by hackers the same way back in 2007.  The same with the other companies: Steam accounts that are worth over $300-$500 are stolen, credit card numbers and identity theft befalls users of eBay and Amazon, and other company like Blizzard falls victim to these incidents (I have a friend who got his account hacked into 3 times because of his high level WoW characters.  He gave up and made a new account).  The problem here isn't just the companies, but the hackers breaking into the accounts of those companies.  No company wants their faithful customers to become a victim to identity theft or information compromise, and so they will always do their best to protect them.  Right now, Sony has been breached and they're doing their best to prevent any further problems by asking their customers to take extra precaution.  Yes, it did take them a week to tell us, but how do we know they didn't know until just very recently?  We as humans need to find someone or something to blame when something goes wrong to fill that void of uncertainty, but we need to have reason and be rational about our actions and judgment.  I would probably be furious at Sony too for allowing such an incident to occur had I actually put any of my personal information and credit card number on the PSN, but it happened and we all need to take care of our own matters rather than just pointing fingers.

There is much more I can rant on about and counter-argue many of the complaints on the comment section of all those articles, but I think it's more useful to take note of some actions we can all do to protect ourselves.
-Change any passwords linked to PSN such as Netflix
-Change the password to your PSN account when the server is back up
-Monitor your bank account for any suspicious activity
-Cancel your card if you feel uneasy that there might be someone out there that has your credit card number
-Wait patiently for the Playstation Network to be back up.  It's better to have a secure network with a hack-free server running than starting it up again with a chance of another hacker breaking in.
-If you want to make another purchase on PSN in the future, go buy a pre-paid card at Game Stop or a local electronics store to avoid using your credit card number and personal information.  Yes, it sucks having those extra few dollars just hanging in the account like that, but it's better than having $100-$10,000 taken out of your bank account by some random guy holding your credit card number

It's possible that the hacker is not after anyone's money or personal information at all, but rather an attempt to destroy the faith and customer base of Sony by implementing heavy doubts on the company's ability to protect its customers (remember the lady that put a finger in the chili at Wendy's and tried to sue them for money?  It ruined Wendy's franchise and took forever for them to recover).  There's also a chance that the news of this compromise may not be as bad as it seems since the media has been known to blow things out of proportion and get a reaction from their readers (it's working if that's the case.  I've never seen so many comments on an article in one day).

In terms of the modding community and those who want to "hack" in pursuit of science, technology and experimentation, I fully support such interests when it's not hurting or damaging any person or entity.  Running Linux and other OS on a system?  That's cool.  But the main concern that Sony had with the recent actions by the "anonymous" group was that it was a gateway to piracy of their software, even if the group had no intention of doing so themselves.  Piracy is a serious issue that's hurting the industry a lot, and so we must try to support those companies when we can (even if it means waiting for a game to drop down to $20 before buying it).  I sincerely hope that no one is affected by this predicament and continue to use the services provided by Sony as well as hoping that Sony has learned from this incident and tighten up their security by 100 times over (I really don't want to lose my account, let's hope for the best).

Sources:
-Engadget: Sony provides PSN update, confirms a 'compromise of personal information'
-Gamasutra: PlayStation Network Accounts Compromised, Personal Information Stolen
-Joystiq: Sony says PSN 'intrusion' compromised personal info; hopes to have 'some services' back 'within a week'
-Kotaku: Sony Comes Clean: PlayStation Network Hackers Have Stolen Personal Data
-CNBC: Sony: PlayStation Breach Involves 70 Million Subscribers (There's no mercy even in the comments on CNBC).

GameLight - Phantasy Star Online 2

Phantasy Star Online fans rejoiced at last year's Tokyo Game Show 2010 (TGS 2010) when they revealed that Phantasy Star Online 2 was in development.  During the presentation, it showed the past 10 years of Phantasy Star games and then finally showed the Title logo for PSO2, that's it.  Today, we got actual footage of the gameplay!

Source: Youtube Channel leroykthx

Someone graciously translated the Japanese into English Captions (not sure if this user was the one, it was not stated) to let viewers know what the new functions of this iteration of Phantasy Star has in store.  Here's the list if you were too laz...err busy to watch it:

-Random Areas: Randomly generated levels
-Custom Combos: Creating your own attack combinations
-Third Person Shooter-Style: A Third-Person Perspective with the ability to aim and shoot manually
-Jumping: Players are no longer bound to the ground anymore!
-Combo-Combinations: Huh? Japanese says Hybrid Custom Action. Chained Skills perhaps?
-Seamless Weather Transitions: Weather changes in-game
-Interrupt Events: Challenges that occur in the middle of the level I guess.
-Aiming for an Endless Adventure: Bringing back everything that was great about PSO and then some

Phantasy Star Online: Episode 1 & 2 on Gamecube is the only game I have invested 1000+ hours in for a videogame (I'm pretty sure) and remains to be one of my most favorite games of all time.  I've played Phantasy Star Universe and Portable (still playing them) and liked them, but did not put as much passion and dedication as much as I did for PSO.  Maybe it's not because of the game itself but perhaps the fact that I am much busier than I once was (surprisingly).  I've liked all the Phantasy Stars in the past 10 years (Universe, Portable, Zero, haven't tried Ambitions of Illuminus, Portable 2, and Infinity yet), but am all psyched out for Phantasy Star Online 2.  I'm a little worried since it's only announced to be out on PC (though it'd be nice to play with mouse and keyboard for Rangers since it's possible to play in a Third-Person Shooter style) and it's very likely Sega will be charging for online play again.  I played PSO offline split-screen with friends instead of paying for online, so I was hoping that if a Playstation 3 version came out, it would have a similar capability (local multiplayer games are dying out in favor of online multiplayer).  I'm also worried about compatibility and graphics demand; however, if it's only going to be out on PC, you can be sure I'll be picking a copy up on the first day it comes out.

GameLight - Spiral Knights

Official Site: http://www.spiralknights.com/

Source: Youtube Channel SegaAmerica

As far as I can tell, Spiral Knights is a free-to-play Action Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that plays in an arcade style rather than the typical point-n-click.  The game is developed by Three Rings and published by Sega.  The art style is a cartoonish, cel-shaded, 3D world in a top-down view.  The music in the trailer has old-school 8-bit chip sounding music combined with typical modern day orchestration.  It sounds rather charming doesn't it?  I haven't tried the game out myself yet, but I heard about it 2 weeks ago (I did mention about wanting to talk about an MMO 2 weeks ago).  I've read some comments from players that the game limits players to play a certain amount each time like a facebook game by using the "energy" structure.  A player can't perform any actions unless they have enough energy to spend on them and energy takes time to replenish one point at a time.  Of course, players are welcome to purchase items and buffs to play for longer durations and have certain perks to help them in-game.  I think it's possible to use your facebook account to log-in and play Spiral Knights, but with a lot of these games requiring your name, email, and other personal information, I'd rather just make a separate account on their site.  If the game interests you, go check it out at their website linked at the top.  Have a good weekend.

NewNews - Playstation Network down for now

Source: Gamasutra (check bottom)

When I tried to log-in to PSN so that I could connect to the servers for Demon's Souls on Playstation 3 last night, I kept receiving a message about an error in connection.  I thought it was my internet, but it wasn't since it worked on my computer.  Usually when PSN goes down for maintenance, I'll see a report on Joystiq or Kotaku.  I personally find it very difficult to find out when PSN goes down for an update or maintenance.  So it seemed to have started at 8:50PM Eastern time on April 20th when Sony saw some problems with network connections.  Some are speculating that it might be an attack by the "anonymous" hacker that has been threatening Sony for their actions against the group of modders and hackers who were working with different operating systems on the Playstation 3.  There also has been an on-going boycott against the new Digital rights management (DRM) implemented in games that prevent players from playing a game unless they're connected to the internet and have it registered at all times when playing.  This was created as a counter-measure against pirating games which has been a major issue in the entertainment industry.  Problems occurred with the DRMs in the past which locked players out of their own game, prevented a game from being played when the internet goes down (even if the game is single-player or offline), and still manages to have hackers break through the DRM and continue to pirate games.  Having the servers go down for the PSN locked out many players who owned games that have a DRM on it from being played.  I actually didn't even know that Playstation 3 had DRMs on them.  My own problem was that I couldn't connect to the servers for Demon's Souls and I'm near the end (I think) which makes a lot of the messages that players leave behind very important (as well as their bloodstains).  I ended up playing Call of Duty: Black Ops since I haven't played through the campaign yet.  Through this little predicament, I think Sony should have a more efficient way of letting players know that the server is down, what happened to it, and have estimated times of when it will be back up.  Also, the industry needs to find a better way of preventing pirating without having players who bought the game go through so many problems with connecting to the servers and always having an internet connection in order to play their single-player games.

Source: Gamasutra - Sony Investigating PSN Outage, Service May Be Down For 'A Day Or Two' 

UPDATE:
The Playstation Network outage that hit Playstation 3s last night looks like it's turning into a bit of a mess.
"While we are investigating the cause of the Network outage, we wanted to alert you that it may be a full day or two before we're able to get the service completely back up and running,"

Source: Kotaku - PlayStation Outage Makes Some Capcom Games Unplayable Offline

Hmmm, maybe I should play some PC games the next few days...

GameLight - Portal 2

So Portal 2 is finally out, and I never planned on getting it right away.

Source: Youtube Channel Valve

It's not that I don't think it's a good game (I'm pretty sure it's an incredible game), but the fact that I have a crazy backlog of games right now is preventing me from getting a game unless I desperately want it or it has a nice sale that's only for a limited time (Just bought 3D Dot Game Heroes for $13 and Persona 4 for $20 on Amazon on Monday).  So far, I heard the game is much more difficult and the 2-player co-op is a blast to play.  I think what might get me to buy the game is if there's a sale for a cheaper price or if one of my friends intend to co-op play.  For now, I want to enjoy the games I already have and still needs finishing while waiting for games that are out now that I want to get cheaper in the future when I'll be ready to buy and play them.

Source: http://nerfnow.com/comic/502/comments

You know, I still haven't beat the original Half-Life 2 yet (let along episode 1 & 2).  I should probably get around to doing that...

VGCulture - On Downloadable Content (DLC)

When Downloadable Content was introduced to the industry, it was pretty exciting.  Games received extra maps, glitches and bugs were fixed even after its release, and extra content was available to the players.  The problem started when publishers started charging players for DLCs.  This erupted into many ways publishers had developers release their game contents and how games were distributed.

Source: Youtube Channel MachinimaTrailer

(^Extra characters for BlazBlue cost $8 each)

-Incomplete games are distributed in order to have earlier release dates while fixing problems by having players run into them and having their consoles send the error reports back to the developers to fix (Microsoft is infamous for this whenever they release a new operating system).
-Extra contents are set at high prices knowing that there will be consumers who would buy them anyways.  This cuts off a lot of players who bought them and those who have not in multiplayer based DLCs.
-Publishers holds off on certain aspects and contents of a game such as aesthetics (character outfits), content (weapons, vehicles, equipment), or even entire sections of the game (game modes, maps, extra stories) and then sells them separately from the game.  And don't even argue that it's optional "extra" contents when some DLCs are released on the same day as the release date of a game.
-Digital distribution became prominent and charges players a lot of small digitally downloaded games.  Sometimes this is okay, but other times the games can be short or poorly developed.

-The Music Rhythm games have players pay per song or song pack and can accumulate a price higher than the game itself.
-Many First-Person Shooters have a lot of problems with lag, glitches and bugs in multiplayer and have players go through it before eventually patching it (if ever).  They also hold out on a lot of maps, game modes, and weapons and sell them for $10-$15 each when released.
-Fighting games have DLCs for extra characters and are charged for EACH character (not a pack, each) which cost anything from $5-$10 with alternative outfits costing $1 each (add that up with 30+ characters each game).  Sometimes they get huge patches and additional contents.  Super Street Fighter IV will be receiving one which will cost $15.

The list goes on and on.  I fear that the condition of our economy with the consistent drawback of incomplete games will affect games in the industry entirely until games can no longer withstand regular releases where we'll one day have to pay for every piece of a game in order to have the entirety of what we once paid one regular price for in the past for a complete game.  I hope that this trend eventually dies out and the industry can go back to making complete, fulfilling games or have a better method of DLCs and distribution come out.

VGCulture - How I imagined Sonic the Hedgehog 4 to look like

I may have mentioned already that I tried out the demo for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and was disappointed by the art style and clunky feeling of controlling the character.  I saw a video today of a fan made sonic game called Sonic Fan Remix and was blown away by the graphics and animation:

Source: Youtube Channel pelikan13x

What's even more impressive is (from what I heard) that the game is created with Game Maker and Unity.  That is intense! (Especially to those who have worked with those two programs)  The game captures the essence of the retro sonic while still looking modern in a way that Sonic the Hedgehog 4 couldn't.  The art style is somewhat similar to the original games I suppose, but they've been re-created in 3D models and have a very clean look that a lot of modern games have now.  I also really like the animation of Sonic done in this fan made game.  I guess the team that worked on Sonic 4 was trying to change the animations that were used before with new ones; however, put together along with a heavier control setting, the game didn't feel very fluid.  I haven't actually tried the fan made game yet, but there is a demo available.  Click on the YouTube button and you'll find a link under the uploader's video.  Someone hire this guy to work on the future Sonic games!

GameOn - Web Comics - VG Cats

Official Site: Videogame Cats - Scott Ramsoomair

Yay, it's Friday and I really need rest from the weekend after this crazy week.  So I tried to choose a strip from VGCats that didn't require too much knowledge of the game it's parodying, but I guess the ending does require a bit of knowing to get the joke.  Anyways, I found out about VGCats on Youtube when Super Smash Bros. Brawl was releasing information about the game and someone took one of Scott's comics and turned it into a video.  I looked VGCats up and really liked the comics and started to follow it.  Once I caught up, I realized that it took Scott to add a new comic between each one.  I really don't blame him as comic artists take a LOT of time and effort to produce even one strip.  What's great about VG Cats is that a lot of the jokes are general and don't focus on specific game references.  This makes it more welcoming for many in the gaming community.  I also like the two main characters Leo (Grey cat) and Aeris (Pink Cat).  They usually take the role of a character from a game when referencing one, but there are also times where they're themselves.  Despite that, their personalities are pretty distinct and is reflected even when taking the role of another character.  Scott started another comic called "Adventure Log" which had to do with Final Fantasy XI Online but gave up after a while.  He also started a comic called "Super Effective" which follows the stories and jokes of Pokémon.  He generally updates "Super Effective" more often now, but still takes a while before updating it.  Reviewing all these web comics has inspired me to get back into drawing, and so I am working hard to improve myself and draw more.  Well that's it for this week's GameOn, have a good weekend.

GameOn - Web Comics - Nerf NOW!!

Official Site: Nerf NOW!! - Josué Pereira

Nerf Now is a unique Videogame Web comic in that a lot of the earlier comics, you don't need to understand English or read in order to understand the story or jokes.  I posted this one in particular since the comic artist does a lot of story arcs and jokes based on Team Fortress 2.  Using minimal lines and color, the art style is very easy on the eyes and a joy to read.  A lot of the recent comics require a bit of reading and some knowledge of the game that it references, but it's much more welcoming than some of the other web comics and their references (ex. Penny Arcade and their usual satire of important figures in the game industry).  Nerf Now is up to strip # 499 as of today and continues to grow as a well known videogame web comic on the internet.

GameOn - Web Comics - Penny Arcade

Official Site: Penny Arcade - Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins

I thought it'd be appropriate to post the strip that related back to yesterday's topic on MegaTokyo.  In fact, it was Penny Arcade that linked MegaTokyo's first 2 strips that generated a lot of attention to MT comics and thus resulting the continuation of it.  I'm not sure what their relationship is between Penny Arcade and MegaTokyo, but they've mentioned each other a few times in their comic.

Source: http://megatokyo.com/strips/0057.gif

I've known about Penny Arcade forever but never bothered reading their comics.  It's a good thing too until just recently this past year when I did start reading it.  Their comics are heavily intertwined with references to games, the industry, and the community.  I started learning more about the industry and started reading game news (ones that affect real life and economy) just these past 2-3 years and so I wouldn't have been able to understand a lot of their jokes and satire when mentioning a public figure such as Sony's CEO or co-founder of Valve Gabe Newell, things like that.  The comic has changed from when it first started and has delved far deep into the many aspects of game culture rather than make obvious jokes of games themselves.  Despite the directed audience of hard core gamers, they're very successful and has since brought their success to organizing charities such as "Child's Play" which donates money to medical fundings of sick children.  Their jokes are provocative and their content is rather mature, so it may not be to everyone's liking.

GameOn - Web Comics - MegaTokyo

Official Site: MegaTokyo - Fred Gallagher

The comic isn't strictly based on games, but it references and parodies it so often that it might as well be a comic about it.  The comic started back in 2000 when two guys on the internet decided to a comic strip and noticed that there was an audience for the first two strips they made and decided to continue on.  Over the first few years, Rodney Caston and Fred Gallagher had their creative differences in story and so their partnership in creating MegaTokyo comic strips was dissolved with Fred continuing the story.  In a way, the two main characters, Piro and Largo, are loosely based on the two creators "Fred and Rodney" since those were their online names.  The comic starts with them failing to get into the Electronic Entertainment Exposition (E3) and ended up going to Japan only to end up getting stuck there.  The art style leans toward the typical Japanese manga style face features with a bit of Fred's own style leaking into the artwork.  Fred is actually an architect which is why a lot of his drawings of structural buildings are so nice and intricately drawn (in the later chapters).  The story favors a lot of Japanese manga/anime fans as well as Western gamer fans with heavy references to gaming culture and the Otaku culture.  I first found out about MegaTokyo when I saw the first book at the library back in high school (this was already 2004 when the comic started 4 years prior).  Ever since then, I've had great interest in Fred's work but haven't followed it since book 2.  Looking at it again, I want to re-read everything from the beginning and catch up to the latest strip.  Fred's art style is rougher than most web-comics since most of his drawings are the bare-bones without the inking (outlining), clean up, coloring, etc.; however, it's still very pleasing to the eyes.  Match it up with absurd humor and references to cultures the reader have a common interest in and you get a really enjoyable comic.  Out of all the ones I'll be mentioning this week, this is probably my highest recommendation to follow.

GameOn - Web Comics - Awkward Zombie

GameOn with a week of videogame based Web Comics.  Today, we're going to take a look at Awkward Zombie by Katie Tiedrich.
Official Site: Awkward Zombie - Katie Tiedrich

Not all of Katie's comics are exclusively on a specific game.  There are times where she would make a strip based on real life events with references to videogames.  I enjoy a lot of her quirky jokes that she makes that reference a game's actual gameplay, story, or character.  Most comics are based off of Nintendo games with Super Smash Bros. Melee and Pokémon being more of her well known references to games.  Her art style is simplistic, but effective in what it wants to achieve.  The Awkward Zombie site does experience problems loading and I can only hope that it's because a lot of people read her comics.  She is currently up to strip #193 from when she first started back in September 2006.

VGCulture - Music - Filler with Gameboy Music

I was going to do another GameLight of a new MMO that's out right now, but I'm pretty tired and I still have a lot of work to do.  So I decided to show you something I saw on Kotaku today:

Source: Youtube Channel MrSeberi

I wanted to do something similar about 3-4 years ago, but with kitchen appliances.  I never got around to it, and it's a very tedious task to edit (not so much then than it is now, I need to buy a hard drive camcorder...).  Anyways, have a good weekend and enjoy the music.

Source: Kotaku - You’ve Never Heard A Game Boy Make Music Like This Before 

NewNews - Global Agenda goes Free-to-Play all the way!

Global Agenda is a 3rd-Person Action Shooter Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game that focuses a lot of its gameplay on instances, competitive matches, and a constantly evolving, on-going world with defense raids and open-world quests.

Source: Youtube Channel mmorpgitalia

Later in the month, Global Agenda will switch from its one-time purchase structure to a Free-to-Play structure with the option to have a one time payment to obtain the status of "Elite Agent" which makes leveling, gathering currency and items easier.  Those who have paid for the game already will automatically receive this status when the new patch is applied to the game.  For those who want to play for free, don't worry about the levels, items, and currency too much because the game is heavily skill based with team-work in mind.  Players who are at level 10 will go up against players who are level 50+ and still win if they have a solid team to work with.  Global Agenda is one of those rare MMOs where players of any level can play together (for the most part, some restrictions for instances).  Because of this news, I'm going to get my friends who don't play the game to join.  I haven't played the game as much as I had hoped, but I enjoy it every time I log on.  The graphics are nice, the thematic atmosphere is immersive, the sounds are unique and recognizable as its own, the gameplay is fast-paced and challenging, the various game modes provide a variety of ways to play the game, but I wish there was more music going throughout the game (what is up with all these MMOs with no music?).  The team working at Hi-Rez Studios has worked constantly on improving Global Agenda throughout the year.  I have seen the game go through an entire change in equipment systems, skill tree changes, user interface, adding new items, constant updates in class balance (the nerf on the Recon made me sad, but it made sense), additional game modes, and entire expansion pack was given for free to all the players.  Hopefully this switch to Free-to-Play structure will give players who had doubts about the game an opportunity to truly enjoy this amazing MMO.

Source: Gamasutra - Hi-Rez Makes Full Free-To-Play Switch With Global Agenda

GameLight - Moon Diver

Moon Diver is a 2D Action Platformer that has elements of RPG and capability to play 4-player co-op local and online.  It is developed by Feelplus and published by Square-Enix for the PSN and XBLA Market.
Official Site: http://dlgames.square-enix.com/moondiver/na/index.html

Source: Youtube Channel machinima

I remember seeing the advertisement for this game and telling player to get ready for some "Ninja Flipping Action".  While they look nothing like ninjas, the characters have a plethora of abilities, move sets, and weapons to help them fight off the numerous enemies.  I'm not sure how to describe the game other than that it captures a lot of elements of old-school action platformers that made it fun and challenging.  The enemies aren't particularly threatening, but death comes quickly to those who let up for just a second.  I liked that it put me on edge and forced me to play more carefully because of the possibility of losing so quickly.  The graphics are a mixture of 3D art with a lot of influence from 2D games.  Like shown in the video, the gameplay is fast and frantic with lot of enemies on screen and the player being able to jump, climb, air-dash, and unleash group abilities by using their specials together.  The music is pretty cool, but it doesn't really stick beyond playing the game.  I have yet to try out multiplayer since I played the demo and not the full version; however, I am considering on buying this game because of how fun it was and I've been looking for a good co-op game for the longest time.  I'm not sure about the Xbox 360, but the demo is out on Sony's PSN for PS3 players to try out.  The game has already been released for PSN for $15.  Another game to look out for is Hard Corps: Uprising.

GameLight - Battlefield Play4Free

Battlefield Play4Free is out in Open Beta now!

Source: Youtube Channel dasBA3R

Battlefield Play4Free is EA's response to the hardcore gaming community that Battlefield Heroes did not fulfill.  Free 2 play games were thought to be of a community of casual gamers and thus Battlefield Heroes was more of a cartoonish style shooter rather than something a bit more realistic.  What the developers realized was that a lot of free 2 play games were played by Hard core gamers when they were taking a break from their usual games, and thus EA decided to bring a free 2 play game that suits those Hard Core gamers.  It follows the same structure of Battlefield Heroes where the main portion of the game is free while extra weapons, boost items, and attire can be purchased with real money.  From what I heard, it has many elements of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (without the destructible environments) along with the maps of Battlefield 2.  There are four classes to choose from: Assault, Medic, Engineer, and Recon.  I'm probably going to go with medic because I can't stand having a team full of useless healers that care more about killing than healing (happens in every game that has a healer of some sort).

It's pretty easy to start playing:
-Make an Electronic Arts account (for free)
-Make your soldier (Assault, Medic, Engineer, Recon)
-Download (It's 1 GB worth of Hard Drive space)

You can do that here: http://battlefield.play4free.com/en/

Have fun!

VGCulture - Gamers Heart Japan

If you haven't watched it yet, here it is:

Source: Youtube Channel GamersHeartJapan

Gamers Heart Japan is a collaborative project that interviews many gamers, game developers, game editorials, and game enthusiasts in an effort to show how much Japan has contributed to the game industry and to bring the game community together to support the relief in Japan.  All donations to Gamers Heart Japan goes to the Red Cross.

It wasn't a surprise to see the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the tsunami that followed it, and the radiation leak have an affect on the world in one way or another.  Economics, technology, energy preservation, disaster preparations, and such are being discussed throughout the world in how to recover from it and how to avoid having as much damage and casualties in the future.  For the videogame industry, servers for online games have been halted to preserve energy, release dates for certain games have been delayed for those coming in and going out of Japan, and the fear of progressive damage to the Japanese game industry as well as its economics have been brought up many times in the past month.  In the video collab for Gamers Heart Japan, game developers, writers, and players share with the viewer some of the most influential figures of Japanese game development, some of their favorite Japanese developed games, and some of their own insights about Japan and how they have been affected by the earthquake in Japan.

For me, I was affected in many ways when I found out about the earthquake.  For one, I would've actually been there near the earthquake and tsunami in Sendai had I been accepted to the Japanese English Teaching (JET) Program.  I had many friends up and down Japan studying abroad and contacted the immediately to find that they were safe but after about a week were asked to come back to their respective homes or to stay in closer areas such as southern Japan, Hong Kong, and Southern China.  I've always had an interest in Japan because of its history and its culture.  Because many cities have been raved by the tsunami, a lot of northern Japan will have to change and rebuild itself.  I also couldn't help but think about how it has affected the gaming community as well since many gamers had their start with a lot of Japanese games.

Following some of the interviews from Gamers Heart Japan, I would say on of the more influential games from early day Nintendo for me was Metroid because of its open-ended gameplay.  It didn't demand that the player go to a specific area at a certain time or at all.  The idea of having a progressive enhancement with power ups and energy tanks was also interesting to me since it gave me an incentive to look for secrets and have an awareness of the environment that I may not have for other games.  Trying to pinpoint a favorite game is near impossible and is one of the questions I have difficulty answering.  But if I had to choose one to talk about, I would say Phantasy Star Online Ep.1 & 2 for Gamecube is one of my favorite games to come out of Japan.  The structure of the game is rather simple (4 areas each episode with a boss at the end of each area) but the whole embodiment of the game is what really enticed me.  Different combinations of weapons and builds based on the growth of your pet/guardian Mag changed the way the game was played.  The freedom the player had in choosing quests or setting their own goals was very involving and immersed me into the game's world.  What kept me going back to the game was all the surprises that kept me interested.  There would be weapons or items I've never heard of drop from an enemy, special monsters would appear all of a sudden, and the change from Very Hard to Ultimate was a drastic one.  It solidified many aspects future online games that came out after it and remains a fan favorite up till now.  Choosing an influential figure of the game industry is equally difficult since there were so many developers and producers that has done so much to bring all the games we've played and loved throughout the decades.  I would have to agree with many of the interviewees and say that Shigeru Miyamoto is one developer that has influenced many gamers and game developers alike; however, I would like to talk a little about Daisuke Ishiwatari.  Ishiwatari is one of the most influential game developers that I have come across to what I want to do in my future career in the industry.  He has made a name for himself on the fighting game series Guilty Gear and now BlazBlue with his involvement with directing, development, concept art, character creation, voice acting, writing, and composed all the music for the games.  For someone like me to have interest in so many fields in the industry, I aspire to do the same and have my visions fulfilled through my involvement in writing, art, music, and development if and when I become a lead designer.  His stories are intricate to the point of being convoluted, his characters are memorable with distinct music themes that match their personality, and his design in having a smooth combo system with elements that favor both casual and pro gamers truly inspired me when I started to become more serious with my involvement in the game industry.

Be sure to visit http://www.gamersheartjapan.com/ and send your donations in an effort to help Japan out of this crisis.

VGCulture - Shu's Guide to April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is a dangerous day for all gamers.  Rumors of untold games and trailers that crush the hopes many tend to show its face to the gullible and curious.  So here are a few tips I've made and followed throughout the many years of being on the internet during April Fool's Day:
1) If possible, don't use the internet.
2) If you have to use the internet, avoid opening any suspicious e-mails, links, or instant messages
3) If a friend asks you to "watch this" or "check this out", politely ask them to send it to you tomorrow
4) If for some reason you run into an amazing story that's too good to be true, read/watch it tomorrow
5) Stay cautious and if you do get April Fooled, laugh it off

Some of the past April Fool's Jokes has been:
-The Legend of Zelda Movie Trailer
-Bollywood's version of a Halo: Combat Evolved Movie Trailer
-The usual Rick Roll, Mudkipz, etc. video linked with an amazing story title.

So have a safe and healthy April Fool's Day and have a great weekend.