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Friday, December 31, 2010

Happy New Year


Well the year 2010 is about to close in a few hours, another great year has ended, and a new adventure for new year awaits. And the best part is that The Reimaru Files will be bigger next year; with new games to feature, cool stuffs to share from the intarwebs, and more events to cover, and of course, more features will be added so stay tuned for that.

So let's all chill and celebrate the arrival of 2011. Happy New Year everyone!!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Holiday Game Teasers

Here're some teaser trailers from Gametrailers.com of upcoming new fighting games to keep you guys entertained on the holidays.

First up is a new trailer for Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 showing off the revealed character rosters for the game, where also in the last few seconds of the video hinted more characters to be added in the coming days before it's major release next year. The other teaser is from the the father of Tekken, Katsuhiro Harada giving us a nice Christmas present showing off a video footage of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, that is still in development.

So enjoy watching and Happy Holidays



Saturday, December 25, 2010

Event Aftermath: Megacon

If you thought that the Christmas Toycon was the only event in December, it turns out that there's a follow up event at the venue in the Megatrade Hall 1 in SM Megamall.



The said event was called Megacon, and it was held last December 22 and 23, which was a bit in a tight situation for the convention as it was dated on a weekday, it happen a few days after the Christmas Toycon and a few days before Christmas. But anyway it still offered some gaming, anime and collectible goodness.

The bad part was if you attended the whole three days of the Christmas Toycon, chances are, you'll be seeing some similar booths in Megacon, so if you are looking for some items that were not available from the Xmas Toycon, you're out of luck.


There were gaming booths like a DoTA tournament and a free-play booth from Sony and MAT Online. A cosplay competition but sadly the majority were from the previous event and some are rather uninspired, but there were few good quality cosplayers. You would also notice that the event was rather spacious due to the very few booths at that time



Overall, the event was rather rushed but maybe next time, they'll offer more activities and booths in the future.

You can check some of the images of the Megacon from the slideshow below.




Oh yeah as a bonus, I took a video of an Otaku band performing one of K-On!'s opening song during the event. Enjoy...

Merry Christmas

Monday, December 20, 2010

Event Aftermath: 5th Christmas Toy Fair

The people behind the one of the popular toy conventions held their 5th annual Christmas Toy Fair (which is also known as Christmas Toycon) which happened last December 17-19 at the Megatrade Hall 1 at the SM Megamall, where the site became a collector's haven for three days, with lots of figures, model kits, stuffed toys, comics and vintage collectibles all for sale.



You'll probably noticed that compared to last year's toy fair, the venue has gotten bigger and more booths are open, giving you more stuffs to buy for yourself and as a gift. And of course there were raffles and other activities such as auctions for those hard to find toys. There was also a Toy Donation Drive which will be donated to Kythe Philippines.


On day 2 of the Christmas Toycon, a cosplay parade was held for the cosplayers to showcase their Christmas themed costumes.

You visit their official site: toyconph.com
Check out the slideshow below for more pics of the Christmas Toycon.



Sunday, December 19, 2010

MegaCon

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

VGA Winners and Game Premieres

Last Saturday December 11, Spike TV aired their annual Video Game Awards or VGA in short, at the LA Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, where they recognized the games, both for consoles and computers, that became the best for this year. They also previewed the debut videos that will be premiered for the first time on some of the upcoming announced games.

So for this year, here are the winners on their respective categories:
  • Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption
  • Studio of the Year: Bioware, Mass Effect 2
  • Best Multi-player: Halo: Reach
  • Character of the Year: Sgt. Frank Woods, Call of Duty: Black Ops
  • Best Xbox 360 Game: Mass Effect 2
  • Best PS3 Game: God of War III
  • Best Wii Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2
  • Best PC Game: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
  • Best Handheld Game: God of War: Ghost of Sparta
  • Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Black Ops
  • Best Action Adventure Game: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
  • Best RPG: Mass Effect 2
  • Best Individual Sports Game: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11
  • Best Team Sports Game: NBA 2K11
  • Best Driving Game: Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
  • Best Music Game: Rock Band 3
  • Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero 2
  • Best Song in a Game: "Far Away" by José González, Red Dead Redemption
  • Best Original Score: Red Dead Redemption
  • Best Graphics: God of War III
  • Best Adapted Video Game: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game
  • Best Performance by a Human Male: Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker/Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
  • Best Performance by a Human Female: Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
  • Best Downloadable Game: Costume Quest
  • Best DLC: Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare
  • Best Independent Game: Limbo
  • Most Anticipated Game: Portal 2
And for the game premiers, majority were sequels of popular franchises, while others are reboots from classic games, so here are the videos of the games from Gametrailers

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception


Batman: Arkham City


Resistance 3


Portal 2


Mortal Kombat Kratos Revealed Trailer


Mass Effect 3


To watch the rest of the videos that were premiered at VGA 2010, you can visit Gametrailers' VGA page

Saturday, December 11, 2010

More Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Update

A new set of videos were uploaded today at Gamespot showing two new characters in the upcoming fighting game Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. The video shows Storm for the Marvel side and C. Viper (from Street Fighter 4) for the Capcom side. You can view the videos of the two characters below:

Storm Video



C. Viper Video

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

DJ Max Portable 3 Review


Pentavision has just released the third incarnation of their popular rhythm game entitled DJ Max Portable 3, the sixth game for the PlayStation Portable. Will this game be a hit to rhythm lovers and long-time DJ Max fans?

Long before DJ Max Technika became a hit in the arcades, there were several versions of DJ Max to the PSP, which became a hit. For those who haven't tried DJ Max Portable, the gameplay is similar that from Beatmania, only without a turntable. You have to press the corresponding button as notes fall down from the screen, continue timing the press to make a combo, rack enough combos to fill up your meter to unleash fever mode, a special mode where you can multiply your combos, the longer your combos, the higher your score will become. You can also adjust the speed of the notes before and during the game.


The first thing you will notice in DJ max Portable 3 is the new presentation, it makes you feel that it is whole new game, all of the videos are now in HD, giving a more fluid and crispier look.

DJ Max Portable 3 now features a new gameplay called the Remix System, with the Remix System, you now have an additional two side panels on the screen, making it a total of three panels instead of the original of having just one, when notes come out in one the two side panels, you have to push the analog nub to that particular direction, making the game feels like you are actually playing a real DJ turntable.


In addition to the Remix mode, some of the game modes returns to the game, such as the mission mode, where you are given a challenge to complete a certain objective in order to accomplish the mission and unlock a reward such as new tracks, avatars, wallpapers, most of the unlocked contents can be seen in the Lounge mode.


Sadly it only features quite a few songs compared to the previous games, and most of the songs are from the Technika 2 series and others are remixes from older songs. Despite the somewhat small tracklist, it still offers a variety of songs such as House, Techno and Pop.

Another sad part is the tedious grinding in a casual game, it feels like all Korean games are required to be super grindy, and the bad part is that to unlock new contents and songs, you need to level up and to make it worse, when leveling up, you have to pick from 3 boxes to get a random reward, so the chance of getting a new song is pretty slim. It would be better if they retain the Club Mission mode from DJ Max Black Square to lessen the repetitive grinding.


The multiplayer mode was removed, which was a bad move. and there is no online leaderboards to check on your ranking, instead the game will give you a code where you will input it on the DJ Max website, they could have offered an online feature via WiFi to receive song and mission updates similar that to Rock Band Unplugged for longer gameplay times.

Overall, DJ Max Portable 3 would have been a better game it wasn't for the tedious grinding, and the lack of a multiplayer feature lessens the gameplay time for players. Although the new Remix mode still offers a good amount of entertainment despite with several flaws to the game.

If you are a fan of DJ Max, you might give this a second chance, otherwise if you are looking for a good polished rhythm game, better stick with the older DJ Max games or with Rock Band Unplugged.

Game Rating: 6 out of 10

DJ Max Portable 3 was developed by Pentavision and published by PM Studios

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

5th Christmas Toy Fair


5th Christmas Toy Fair (aka Christmas Toyocn)
December 17-19, 2010 10am - 10pm
Megatrade Hall 1, 5th level, Mega B, SM Megamall


Schedules:
Live auctions – Dec 17-19
Christmas cosplay – Dec 18, registration at 10am-2pm, parade starts at 2pm. Add some Christmas theme to your costume
Toy donation drive – Dec 17-19

With special participation of Mommy Mundo
and Event partner Anime Alliance Philippines and RPG: Metanoia movie

Source: toyconph.com

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Event Aftermath: Battle of The Immortals Guild Leader's Meeting

MMO publisher Cubizone held its second Guild Leader's Meeting at the New Horizon Hotel last December 4. Different Guilds from different MMOs all gathered to witness a launch of their new MMORPG: Battle of The Immortals.



Battle of The Immortals (or BOI as the Cubizone people call it) was developed by Perfect World Games (the people behind Perfect World the Heroes of The Three Kingdom) and features a 2.5D style of gameplay, it also has the feel of Norse, Greek and Chinese mythology, all combined to create a imaginative world.



The game offers five character classes: the Vanguard being the tankers armed with sword and shield, the Vicar being the healer class, the Warlord for the melee heavy hitters, the Magus for the magic damage dealers and the Executioner the DPS (damage per second) makers.



BOI also offers a mount system where you can acquire different vehicles and they are also upgradeable, a pet system where you can capture monsters (and even boss) to tame them and even fuse two pets to create a new one. A quest system where you can also attend instance and earn points to buy powerful equipments, and powerful equipment sets called Soul Gears where the equipments also levels with you.


There are some other notable features such as the Guilder (cash item currency) trading system where you can exchange Gold to Guilder points so you can purchase premium cash items. The Double EXP system is another feature that is interesting; every week, each player has 300 minutes worth of double experience bonus, they can use it anytime they want and it will reset every Sunday. The New Player Reward System gives new comers bonus items that gives them a slight edge when starting a new game.



During the meeting, Cubizone announced that they have some special promos to kick start the launch of BOI, such promos such as raffles where you can win a Nokia C3 or even an iPhone by playing BOI. There will also be a ICafe PvP tournament where players can win as much as P15,000 and ICafe owners can also win cash prizes. You can also win prizes by being the first to reach the level cap.


The Close Beta Phase of BOI has already ended and they will start the Open Beta Phase on December 6. we'll try to make a review of the game, so stay tuned for that...

For more information, you log on to Cubizone's official website: www.cubizone.ph
and Battle of The Immortals' official website: www.boi.ph

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Faces: Voltron Series


Here's another episode of Faces, for this episode, we'll be focusing on the classic 80's cartoons Voltron: Defender of The Universe.

Voltron is about a group of space explorers riding different vehicles that can transform into a giant robot called Voltron, fighting against evil empires to protect the universe.

For those who didn't know, the Voltron series was created by Peter Keefe where he licensed two different animes to be edited, lessened the violent scenes and rewritten the script to make a whole new one. The series focused on the two Voltron forces: The Lion Force and The Vehicle Team, originally this was supposed to be a trilogy series, but due to the poor reception in the Vehicle Force arc, the third arc was canceled. A movie was created that featured the two teams fighting side-by-side. So let's check out each of their opening videos as well from the Japanese versions, take note that the narrator in the opening videos was voiced by none other than Peter Cullen (the guy who voiced as Optimus Prime).

The Voltron Lion Force was the most popular of the two, which composed of five lions to form the mighty robot. This was based on the anime series Beast King GoLion, although this was the first to be aired from the series, this was noted as Voltron III. And then in 1998, a sequel to the Lion Force was created and was dubbed as Voltron: The Third Dimension, the new series was created in CGI (Computer Generated Imagery)

US version



Japanese Version (GoLion)


Voltron: The Third Dimension Version



The Vehicle Team composed of fifteen vehicles and were sorted into three groups: the Sea Team, the Land Team and the Air Team. each group can form into a larger vehicle and also as one giant robot. This arc was the least popular from the series. The Vehicle Team was based on the Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. This was also known as Voltron I.

US Version



Japanes Version (Dairugger XV)



The supposed third arc would be called Gladiator Voltron (aka Voltron II) and should be based on the anime Lightspeed Electroid Albegas, but because of low ratings on the Vehicle Team arc, the proposed arc was canceled.

Japanese Version (Albegas)



As of today, the people behind the popular cartoon series are planning to develop a feature length film based on the Lion Force, and last September, they posted the concept art of the said movie. Although up to now, there are still no news on the development.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Cartoon Profile Picture Campaign

There's been a campaign in the popular social network Facebook recently, where all Facebook users are encouraged to change their profile images with images of their favorite childhood cartoons/animes. This campaign is to support the awareness on violence against children.

Can you remember some of these cartoons?
One picture is already a bonus
(click to enlarge)

This campaign will last until December 6, as I try to research on what the significance is, I found out that it is also the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada; an anniversary of the Ecole Polytechnique Massacre, where 14 women were murdered because of their gender. Also, the United Nations started a 16-day campaign to fight violence against women and children, which started last November 25 and ends in December 10.

Now back to the topic, it is really nice to remember our childhood days, especially the things was enjoyed at those times, but most kids never watched or even know that these classics, it is because most of them weren't even born at that time. Some classics like He-Man, Sh-Ra, Voltron, Thundercats and many more.


So for the profile picture I chose the Centurions, a popular 80's cartoons, what I like this is that the seer coolness of interchanging weapons for land, sea and air operations, and the catchy phrase of "Man and Machine, Power Extreme" is rather cool at that time. I remember watching this on the Betamax and even on the TV.

It's really cool to get the nostalgic feel on these classics, heck there were even remakes so kids today can remember the awesomeness of the 80's cartoons.

So if you want to join the campaign, just replace your profile picture with your favorite childhood cartoons and post the following message on your status:

Change your facebook profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood and invite your friends to do the same. Until December 6 (Monday), there should be no human faces on facebook, but an invasion of memories. This is for violence against children.

And don't forget, this campaign is not just only to remember the good old days, but also to fight violence against children.

Oh I almost forgot, check out this blog a friend of mine posted about the similar Facebook campaign.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

A Tribute to Leslie Nielsen

Leslie Nielsen, famous for his role as the doctor in Airplane! and Lt. Frank Dreblin in the Naked Gun, passed away last November 28, 2010 at the age of 84. A great actor and comedian, he will be surely missed.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

3 Years and Still Counting

Wow, my blog managed to stay alive for 3 years now, and look how it just gotten bigger and bigger everyday.

Reimaru Files originally started as a Granado Espada fan blog, where it featured updates about the game and even hosted real-life community gatherings for the game. It even managed to be featured several times on the GE website. Then after a year and a half, it opened it's doors to console gaming and other MMOs, it even featured some wacky stuffs happening in the world wide web.

And after 3 years, I'm happy to say that my blog has evolved in which I never expected. Although this isn't as popular as some gaming blogs, this still encourage me to write more, as I still enjoy writing things about gaming and sharing stuff to gamers like myself.

So what's next to Reimaru Files? Well I can assure you that I'll continue writing and taking coverage of the latest gaming events. I'm also planning to add new features and surprises for the blog, so stay tuned for that.

And last but not the least, I would like to thank to all my friends for their never-ending support and also to the readers who still enjoyed visiting my blog.

Many thanks and game on! :D

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Faces: X-Men Series

For this episode of Faces, we'll be focusing on the different animated series in one of the popular super hero team: The X-Men

The X-Men, as we all know, are a band of mutants formed by Professor Xavier to use their powers for the benefit of humanity. They first appeared on their very first comic book which was created by Stan Lee and published by Marvel Comics on September of 1963.

The X-Men has spanned different comics book titles, video games, action figures, movies and also animated series, which we are now focusing on this feature. Let's take a look on some of the different animated series of the X-Men along with their opening videos:

X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men (1989)


This was the very first animated series of the X-Men, although it was aired only the pilot episode. The X-Men arcade game from Konami was based on the said series.


X-Men (1992)

American Opening Theme

Japanese Opening Theme

Also called X-Men: The Animated Series, this the second attempt for an X-Men animation. Most of the episodes are faithful to the comic book arcs, including the Phoenix Saga. The series lasted for six years and spanned 76 episodes, this was the longest running series of the all the X-Men animations.


X-Men Evolution (2000)


In the third incarnation of the X-Men, majority of the members are teenagers (including most of the main members of the team) rather than in their adult form to give a new storyline to the series. X-Men Evolution lasted for three years with 52 episodes.


Wolverine and The X-Men (2008)


Wolverine and The X-Men was the fourth and latest animated series for the X-Men. The story focus more on Wolverine as the lead character. The series lasted for only for a year with 26 episodes.


Thursday, November 25, 2010

Crazy Man plays MMO on a Giant LED Ceiling Screen

Are you bored and rich at the same time? do you want to show off your badass skills in MMO games in a crowd of people? and tired of playing games in your HD LCD TVs? Well you can try what this crazy guy did. A Chinese gamer tried to play an MMO for 10 minutes, in one of the second largest LED screens in the world.

This guy really needs to buy his own IMAX theater

The giant LED screen, measured around 80,000 square feet can be found in The Place in Beijing, China, the screen commonly shows scenery of oceans and other images for entertainment, and it even showed broadcast coverage during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The screen is marked as the largest in Asia and ranked second in the world (being beaten by Dubai's own giant LED screen) But one Sunday night of November 21, 2010, one gamer tried something different.

This is what the LED screen usually display in a normal day

Armed with his gaming notebook, he connects himself to the wireless network of the venue and stream his MMO gameplay on the massive LED screen for 10 minutes. There are unconfirmed reports that the man paid around 100,000 Yuan or $15,000 or around PhP 660,000 so he can used the giant LED screen for a short period of time.

Whether it is for a new kind of gaming experience or just to show off his high-level character, kind guy is definitely crazy.

You can watch the video on how it happened (uploaded by MMO Site)

source: mmosite.com

Dissidia 012 Update

After the success of Dissidia Final Fantasy; a fighting game for the PlayStation Portable that pits some of your favorite Final Fantasy heroes and villains in an epic deathmatch. Square Enix was given a green light to produce a sequel to the hit portable game, entitled Dissida 012 (012 is pronounced as Duodecim, a Latin word meaning twelve), the announcement was published on the popular Japanese game magazine Famitsu last September. Although it was already hinted the development team behind Dissidia is also interested in making a sequel.


The story of Dissidia 012 takes place before the events of the first game, making this a prequel. The game will also introduce new characters to add to the original 22 character roster, some say that the additional new characters will roughly around 4-10 characters, as of now, only 4 characters were revealed: Kain Highwind from FFIV, Tifa Lockhart from FFVII, Vaan from FFXII and Lightning from FFXIII. Aside from new characters, there will be new costume sets for each character, some are even from the original works by Yoshitaka Amano. There are plans of including codes to Kindgom Hearts: Birth by Sleep Final Mix and The 3rd Birthday to promote Dissidia 012, these codes gives access to Cloud's Kingdom Hearts costume and Lightning's Aya Brea costume.



A new gameplay feature was been added, called the Assist System, this gives you the ability to call out a support character to aid you in battle by inflicting damage to your opponent, but take note that your support character can be countered, making them inaccessible in a short period of time. Performing an Assist requires consumption of one Action Gauge bar for Brave damage and two Action Gauge bars for HP damage. Along with the new feature, new move list is added for the old Dissidia characters, giving you a chance to experiment new combos with your old favorites, as well as new maps and soundtrack.


And it is already reported that the local version of Dissida 012 is already in the works, and it is expected to be release in Q1 of 2011.


While there are still some characters that haven't been revealed, I will be making a Dissidia 012 wishlist in the coming days to check out which characters do you wish to be included in the sequel (or rather prequel) to Dissidia Final Fantasy, so stay tuned for that.....

sources:

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Hobby Expo 2010

8th National Scale Model Competition

Last November 19 while strolling at the SM Megamall, I noticed a small exhibit at the Event Center in the mall. Turns out that it was an exhibit for the 8th National Scale Model Competition by IPMS Philippines, which ran from November 15 to 19 , all the entries of scale models from Gundams to Macross to tanks, fighter planes and even table top figures were showcased on the said exhibit. Some scale models are customized from the designs up to the paint job, which looked really spectacular.

Here are some pictures that I took during the exhibit.








More screenshots at the Slideshow