More reasons

To go to anime conventions or maybe why we all wanted to go to E3 (when it was cool)

So thats the Tokyo Game Show 'booth companions'.. more pics found at Kotaku..
They obviously were more interested in these beauties than doing articles on the new games! lol

Its ok; if people dressed like that at the Anime Cons i've been to, I would have taken more pics and bought less artistic prints! lol

**shows his friend the pictures**
"Okay J, we're going to go to Japan!"

Seriously though, the Japanese people there are crazy into their cosplay.. some of the costumes are fantastic;

if you follow Final Fantasy, these people look exactly like them!
I wonder if that chicken is real.....

ODST review

Everyone has a review, but more information the better for those that still aren't sure.

Likes:
It feeds my achievement addiction: most achiements come from playing the campaign whether it be solo, together, normal or hard
- don't really like games that require achiements through coop play; what happens if none of my friends play it, must i pug? (nonononononono)- or requiring that it be played at hard difficulty or the achievements are just insanely hard to get; it should be a challenge, but not near impossible
The visor is really cool
- basically allows you to see in the dark and outlines features of any objects; if they had this in other games, i would be screaming like a little girl whenever something went 'boo!'
- you can't use it all the time: in really bright areas, it will blind you; and sometimes you want to see how dark it is to see whether you can stealth past a baddie
Silenced weapons
- who doesn't like to be sneaky?
Smart baddies
- or maybe just silly me; there were grunts lighting themselves on fire or sticking themselves with sticky grenades and going kamikaze on me.. maybe taking advantage of the fact I LOVE to melee anything and everything
- hide behind a wall and wait for them to come to you one at a time? ah, No mr odst, you come to us and ill have my sniper sights waiting for you.. pew pew
Firefight mode
- interesting new take on the gears of war horde mode; right off the start, the game gave the enemies the ability to dodge any grenades.. and then the next round they all had unlimited grenades
- the limited amoutn of lives means you can't be all crazy and use up the pool of lives; i think that is why there isn't matchmaking; b/c there is bound to be unhappy people playing with unskilled or griefers that die and use up the lionshare of the lives pool
Multiplayer character customization
- from using actual characters, to the color of your outfit, whether you wear a helmet or not, (more important to me tho:) an insignia and customizable call sign
random enemy encounters-enemies are patrolling all the time, whether they respawn if you just camp an area... i haven't & won't try.. but it keeps it more intense

Didn't like
Lack of ammo in campaign
- unless you're a aiming god and one shot everything, you'll run out of your army issued ammo quickly and resort to using alien tech; hence why i like Mass Effect, unlimited ammo but heat management
Shield/health combo
- when you get damaged, your screen goes red and THEN you start losing health.. ; its confusing to me, you should lose your shields first, THEN the screen goes red.. meh
- maybe i'm not used to halo, but i couldn't tell what was my health bar for the longest time; i actually thought my ammo bar was actually my health "oh no! i'm losing health as i..shoot this gun??"
Its halo
- lol, never been a big fan ;)

Otherwise, I think the game is pretty good; it probably isn't a game for the long haul for me personally; its good don't get me wrong (thats high praise for a person that normally hates the halo brand), but it'll just keep me busy, honing my console fps skills (which i lack; give me a keyboard and mouse!) for future games like Borderlands or Modern Warfare 2.

Riot shields; all I'll use in MW2 ;)

MUA2 Review

I love it.

lol; they seemed to take the good things about the game - the ease of picking up the game, the choice of your (hopefully) favorite hero, being able to lvl your character and assign their abilities, making them unique depending on what you specialize in, being able to equip items on your individual heroes to enchance their abilities) - and make it better.. they removed the bad things too.

First the graphics is amazing
Both the interface they use is more clear, a simple horizontal line for the game menu to pick what you need to do (save, load, check map, switch characters, etc)
- the interface is a lovely white and brownish-red; looks very professional.. than the slightly computer/futuristic theme of the old MUA
The actual game the graphics look great; you can make out each hero clearly; the attacks of each hero/mob is clear and defined, you know exactly what attack they're performing
- ie you see the swipes of wolverine's claws when he does his blade dance, and when he defends, his claws glow yellow (which is not realistic, but interesting nevertheless)

Improved character creation screen
- streamlined abilities - only 4 - one for each button, Y (on 360) doesn't do ultimate attack anymore, so technically you get one additional ability to use- the abilities get better per 4/5 point you put into it, ie. Luke Cage has a pummelling attack, but with the 4/5th point, it knocks the enemy down.. very cool
- anywhere between 4-6 passive abilities depending on the character; for example: wolverine, will have the passive ability to regenerate, cause wounds at a higher rate, do more damage from the wounds etc
- no longer if your finger slips does the screen change to a different window such as abilities, costumes, items and stats becauuuuse
- BEST thing about this is money is shared between heroes in a good way; no longer do i have to let my gf run around and pick up money, there is a common pool; so everyone has 1$ amt and you all get the exact same amt to spend individually
- AND the points you spend on your abilites can be easily transferred at any time without leaving any waste as a single (or a few) points; so you're using an ability that you don't like? change to to something else! You are specializing in doing alot of single high damage abilities, but you need to fight a big group of baddies right now? Pause the game, switch all your abilities to aoe abilities and VOILA! You're all ready. Don't like that combination generally tho? Change it a billion times to your hearts content.
Just for that, BRAVO MUA2

No more personal hero items
- they have a medal system, where atleast at low levels, that you pick up powerups that will affect the whole team, and you can slot it at any time 3 medals/boosts
- you can't sell them purposely or accidently
- they're organized too depending on what they do; and a nice 'New' category too, to find the one you just picked up

Costumes
- you unlock them once you kill (i believe per the pop up) 250 creatures after you select to be Pro/Anti Registration
- it seems like there is only 1 extra costume.. at the meantime..
- and unfortunately it doesn't seem like there are any bonuses to the costumes (but that can be a good thing as well)
- they look sick tho

Hero Selection
- possibly one of the best things too about the new MUA2; you can switch to your pool of heroes at any time during the game, costumes as well.
- there is no need to go to the save point to switch teams, just press start, and switch; its that easy
- the only drawback I see is that depending on your side Pro-/Anti; some characters will be unavailable to you (ie. Ironman if you pick the Anti-Registration side); but that might change as the game progresses

Fusion
- so no longer fusion from actual use of special attacks on the same baddie.. its a separate ultimate attack of two heroes that you pick.. normally you gotta press A to increase the radius, damage or range..
- its interesting and graphically very nice, and doesn't constantly pop to make it overpowered- i kinda wish there was normal fusions as well.. oh well

Landscape
- is filled with items: boxes, containers, tons and tons and tons
- you remember some costumes like Wolverine's allowed you do to more damage when throwing stuff at enemies? Now it makes sense, b/c there is TONS of stuff to throw. And sometimes it's re-usable as well b/c they're really durable

Objective Locator
- if you don't know where your objective is, press on the right stick and it points out to you where to go and what the objective is

Overall; MUA2 is a very well done game, so many things as per above have been greatly improved and polished. I did encounter 2 bugs which made it unplayable; but it was just a matter of doing it again (and only lost 5 minutes of my time at the most). I actually understand what is happening in the game.. though it might be because i've followed the civil war storyline in comics. Alot has changed, but its all for the better. It'll feel the same, but a good same and refreshing too. Obviously a game to be played with your friends, and unfortunately there is only so many times you can play this game (but there are endless combination of 4-man hero teams, so technically you can play it many many times).

Hope you like it as much as I did too =)

Stamp of Approval

Added:
Slurm's Multiplaying.net

and

Kotaku.com

Very good! :D

Finale

I know.. it doesn't really have to do with gaming and such, but just wanted to show it off ;)

Before:

After:

All thanks to mostly Micheals Arts & Crafts store that had a super sale (55%!) on most frames!

So Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 this week & Halo ODST the next,
I got feeling.. that this month is gonna be a goodgood month ;)

More Reading & Viewing Pleasures!

Sick. I love how when they put on their helmets you see the interface boot up..

Anyways; found this site: Kotaku
Tons and tons of relevant gaming info every day it seems... kept me reading more than half my shift.. sweetness..
Below is the link and of some cosplay, some hot girls there.... **draws halo** :D
http://kotaku.com/5354501/the-cosplay-of-penny-arcade-expo

Funny Trailer

Added BioBreak.. i read you alot at work ;)

If you do alot of entries; add a comment so i can add to the blogroll; makes it easier for me to find you while *cough cough* working..

Anyways; below is a funnnnnny trailer for the new game Borderlands coming out in October for the PC, PS3 and 360... Enjoy!

Video Games Borderlands Claptrap Behind the Scenes Episode I

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

Horribly Addicted

Art first, or elaboration on the title?

Art ;)

Possibly when you view it closer, you'll see its different from most other prints I bought from Fan Expo. Even now if you peer closely, the characters all seem to pop out at you.. I think its b/c of the black outlines and the shadows given over it.. I've been playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance recently and been trying to figure out who I want to play as in the new version: Fusion.

Probably my favorite.. I wish it was more professionally done than a sketch, but its from the animated show Invader Zim. It's Gir! love it!

So (duh) I borrowed Mechassault 2 from my friend Hunter and failed to realize something. Guess what? Take a look at the image there... Can you figure it out?
.
..
... (thiiiinking?? i know :P)
..
.
Give up?
Its an Xbox original game.
I didn't realize that until maybe an hour and a half into the game that I wasn't gaining any achievement points.

"Huh, I must really suck at this game if I haven't even got story mode points.. and why won't it show me the kind of achievements i can get??"

Then, what to me was a fantastic game, turned out to be insignificant... why play if i'm not getting achievement points??
Damn you self! Why must you be so concerned about achievement points and unlocks?????
Mechassault 2 is a fantastic game, good graphics, great gameplay (what you expect using a controller AND playing in a mech), good story line, mixes up gameplay to keep you interested.

But the best thing? The music. zomg. lol
I've never played a game where the music was so perfect for the game, that it kept you at the edge of your seat and didn't mind that it kept playing in the background. I wish there were more boss battles just to have the type of music it played ;)

(not to complain too much) But what ever happened to the 'fantastic' music in WAR? Maybe i should have deleted the beta client, then reinstalled the full game on my collector's edition and the music would have been there... but I never really heard any wild music that kept my interest. I liked in UO how, when you went to battle mode, the music turned to battle music ;)

Color dyes in UO.. how I love you...

Anime Related Art

Naruto and Sasuke

Orihime (from Bleach)

I tried playing the new Wolfenstein game... its ok.. not fantastic. I miss being able to look around corners for enemies; I dislike how all games now tend to incorporate bullet-time, or slowing down time... booooring.. most of the achievements are from playing online.. And guess what? Everyone is playing World of Warcraft, again! ugh.

More Art

Wow, Modern Warfare 2 looks siiiiiick... i dunno how i'll do in a fps, but hopefully ill do well with a controller... throwing knives! woot! Shields! :D

So.. Cowboy chick

People at a bar

And the artist I bought it from. I think her art book/comic is called Neozoic.