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Saturday, October 30, 2010

PICCA Fest 2010

Last weekend, while strolling at SM North EDSA, I noticed a gallery of comic artworks that were on display , well it turns out that it was for the 2nd Philippine International Comics, Cartoons and Animations (PICCA) Festival that was held for 4 days (October 22-25, 2010).

Unfortunately there were no scheduled events on the day I visited the exhibit, but nonetheless, I managed to view some artworks from famous local comic book artists, from DC Comics to Pugad Baboy to Culture Crash Comics and even editorial cartoons from famous newspapers.

Take a look at some of artworks during the said PICCA Fest 2010





Friday, October 29, 2010

The Buzz around The PlayStation Phone

It's been months that the rumors of a PSP hybrid phone is already in the works, some speculate that it was the PSP2 (the new portable console that will replace the original PlayStation Portable), some say that Sony wants to follow the success of Apple's iPhone in gaming.


Images from Engadget


And finally Engadget revealed leaked information of the rumored portable console/mobile phone, Engadget posted screenshots of the PlayStation Phone, which is still a prototype version, it was also codenamed as "Zeus". Now let's take a look on the specs of the PSPhone:

Processor: 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8655
RAM size: 512MB
ROM size: 1GB
Screen size: approx. 4 inches

The design will surely remind you of the PSP Go, which is a digital download only PSP hardware, but unfortunately became a flop due to lacking a physical drive and expensive digital downloads. Notice that the phone has a long touchpad in the middle, probably a replacement to the analog sticks and it has a touchscreen, it will also run on an Android OS. It is still unknown on how big will the internal memory is, but it is stated that it will support microSD cards.


Images from Engadget


Some say that the leaked images were fake, due to image showing A and B buttons in the menu screen (seen at the first image), but it was explained that the phone was still in the prototype stage and software was still in the early stages, hence showing A/B buttons.

Some questions are yet to be answered, whether the PlayStation Phone can play PlayStation Portable games or rather can it play PSP2 games (which is also rumored to be in development), Will this brings us PSP quality games that allows touchscreen gameplay? Will it feature dual analog sticks (as fans have prayed for this after being disappointed for the PSP having only one analog stick) When will it be released? (although it was rumored to be release in early 2011) And finally, how much will the PlayStation Phone cost?

Sony is still sticking to their policy of refusing to comment on rumors, but there is one interesting interview by CNN with Peter Ville, Vice President of marketing of Sony, that strongly proves that the PlayStation Phone does exist.

But for now, all we can do is wait for an official announcement from Sony, and this definitely proves that they want to compete against Apple toe-to-toe with their new portable console/mobile phone.


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Cosplay Fever


Cosplay Fever
Letran Gym, Colegio De San Juan De Letran, Intramuros, Manila
December 4, 2010 9am - 7pm

Ticket Prices:
100 - general ad
P150 - with free slice of pizza plus a chance to win gift packs from pik nik and freshman
P175 - free slice pizza and drink plus a chance to win games either for ds, ps2 or psp
P200 - VIP, free slice pizza, drink, 4r souvenir photo, bakcstage pass and a chance to win digital cam

Activities:
Gaming Booths
Cosplay Competition
Drawing Contest
Toy Exhibits
Comic Book Exhibits
Gadget & Tech Fair
Bazaar
Fashion Show
plus many more...

Visit this Facebook link for the full details

Monday, October 25, 2010

Chikara!!...Hats


If you are a regular in attending Anime and Gaming Conventions, heck you should have already noticed those Chikara Hats being worn by Anime fans or Otakus that suddenly sprouted like mushrooms, heck chicks even dig these cute and adorable hats. Chikara Hats are bonnet-like head gears that have designs of cute animals like a cat or a mouse and even on popular cute critters in some anime or gaming series. Some Chikara Hats have limited designs and would cost around 300 to 600 Philippine Pesos...



...But I just discovered one interesting shop. The guys behind Giggle Box offers the usual Chikara Hats, but that's not all, you can request for your own customized hats that you won't usually see in the market, like the Patapon Hat that I ordered (see picture below). Their prices ranged from 150-250 PhP and customized hats range from up to 500 PhP depending on the size and design. For now, they only have a Facebook page and they planning to offer plushies and other accessories in the future.


For more information, you can visit Giggle Box's Facebook Page

Friday, October 22, 2010

KOMIKON 2010


The 6th Annual Philippine Komiks Convention (KOMIKON) 2010
November 13, 2010, Saturday 10am to 7pm
Starmall Trade Hall
(corner EDSA and Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City)
Php 80 entrance fee

Special Guests: Jess and Manix Abrera, Harvey Tolibao, Stephen Segovia, Carlo Pagulayan

Source: komikon.org

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Phantasy Star Portable 2 Review


SEGA has released the sequel of their Sci-Fi themed RPG: Phantasy Star Portable 2, will the sequel surpasses the original and solve some of the major game issues from the original?

Phantasy Star Portable 2 takes place 3 years after the event of Phantasy Star Universe as you start out as the new recruit of Little Wing: a private military group residing on the space colony resort Clad 6, PSP2 offers a whole new storyline and new characters, with guest appearances of characters from Phantasy Star Portable and Phantasy Star Universe (you can also import your character from the first game and also in demo version of PSP2).



Gameplay is still the same from the original with some few changes, you still be able to bring a certain number of weapons during the mission with the inclusion of a new shield weapon. With the shield, you can now block any attacks from enemies, reducing the damage you receive, but reducing your Photon Points (PP) for every successful blocks, performing a perfect block (by blocking any incoming attacks at the right time) let's you land a critical attack, you can also use the block command with any two-hand and twin melee weapons. Aside from the new block command, the evade command is also new to the sequel; this enables you to dodge any attacks from enemies and also avoiding obstacles, of course at a cost of PPs. The new features makes the game feel like a Monster Hunter game, but in a Sci-Fi setting.


Another change in the game is the replacement of the Photon Charge with Photon Points (PP), instead of having different Photon Charge per weapon (you consume PC whenever you perform a skill attack or a range attack, but PCs gradually regenerate over time, and every weapon have different amount of Photon Charge) you now have a unified Photon Point. Some range weapons now have a charging attack, by holding the charge button, you can shoot a more powerful splash range attack, this is very useful in a crowded area. Also, skills doesn't level up when you frequently use it, to get higher skill levels, you either buy one in the battle shop or from monster enemy drops.


Aside from some changes to the game, there're some new additions to it, one of them is the Room customization. You can now roam around your room and add furnitures to it, you can also buy tickets to change you room's overall appearance. You can now also roam around the Little Wing, the simplified map navigation is now replaced with a fully detailed level of Little Wing. Game difficulty has been increase, now button mashing on bosses will be now difficult as they can deplete half of you life in one swing, a well placed strategy and good teamwork will increase you chances of victory.



Graphics-wise, it is still the same with the original, but with more dungeons, monsters and equipments. some certain short cutscenes now have character artworks to add elements to the storyline. Voice acting is still mediocre, they still retain some music from the original and some new musics to add the intensity of the game.


The controls is still clunky as before, the camera control on the directional button is hard to use especially during a heated battle, the lock-on control can sometimes become clunky at certain times. Character AI has improved a bit but still unreliable even with the new command function, there are still situations where your AI teammates get stuck in a map and will only respawn near you if you progress farther from them.

What excels PSP2 from it's predecessor is the inclusion of an online multiplayer mode, which the original lacks. You can now play multiplayer mode with other players via the PSN (the Ad-Hoc multiplayer mode is still available) aside from that, you can chat with other players by inputing messages with the virtual keyboard and animated emoticons. With this inclusion, you can now interact with other players from around the globe just like in a typical MMORPG.


There are also promotional items that you can acquire by inputting passwords from the vision phone in your room, some promotional items include weapons, costumes and furnitures based from previous and current SEGA games and also from popular Anime series.

Overall, the game is still feels and plays the same like with the original with some flaws still retains, but with new added contents it manage to increase the playing time, but what makes it better is the addition of the online gameplay, which will ensure more multiplayer action. Fans of JRPGs and Monster Hunter games will surely get this, if you want an RPG with multiplayer co-op features, then grab Phantasy Star Portable 2

Game Rating: 7 out of 10
Phantasy Star Portable 2 is developed and published by SEGA.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

HERO Face Off


HERO Face Off
October 23, 2010
Skydome, SM North EDSA

Cosplay Competition
for details, visit http://myheronation.com/

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Rock Band Music Finder

How many songs do you have in your Rock Band game? twenty? thirty? or a hundred? If you say you have a hundred songs, well that's just only 5% of Rock Band's over two thousand songs on its library. Yep you heard it right, Rock Band has around two thousand songs.

And to honor the 2000th song, which was Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" song, Harmonix, the who developed Rock Band just released the Rock Band Music Finder Widget to help you find the songs of your favorite artist in a more organized way.


So can you collect all 2000 songs and play all of it?

source: Kotaku

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Event Aftermath: Otaku Expo Reload 2010

The people behind the popular Anime magazine Otakuzine held yet another event at the Megatrade Hall 1 last October 8-10. Called Otaku Fest Reload, a sequel to their successful event Otaku Expo 2010, which was a replacement to the postponed Otaku Fest Encore, where it promises to bring a famous Japanese voice actress (or seiyu) to the country.


Other than that, the Expo Reload event wasn't that big compared last January, as it only caters the fans who are still hungry for more conventions. But it still offered a couple anime merchandises, booths and a cosplay competition.


Online FPS M.A.T. Online was present at the event, holding a free play session and also a tournament.


You can view more of the event aftermath pics at the slideshow below:


Monday, October 11, 2010

K-On! Houkago Live Review

Sega just released the PSP game of the hit Anime series K-On!, will the game promises a great music rhythm gameplay or will it only pleases the fans of the series?


A fair warning though, as there is no English release for the game, expect a lot of Japanese texts and you will have a bit of hard time to navigate through the game if you are not prepared, you can refer to this link for a guide to navigate the game.


If you've been playing the Project Diva series (which is also developed by Sega) you'll notice some similarities to it, such as customizable characters and room and MTV-like videos in every song. The gameplay is the same to any music rhythm games; while the music is playing, you press the right a button at the right time, make consecutive hits to make a combo and your score goes higher, make a lot of misses and it's game over. You can use powerups during the game to boost your performance.


What's good to the game (and also rather interesting) is that every character (5 in total) have different button inputs which correspond to their musical instruments, as if you are really playing the instrument itself. aside from the rhythm gameplay, there's the Sing mode where you create your own music video, it's only difficult to navigate as it is full of Japanese text. Another plus to the game is that it has a multiplayer option via Ad-Hoc (up to 5 players) to play with your friends, which some games like Rockband Unplugged lacks.


The graphics is also quite similar to the Project Diva game, although not that spectacular. You can customize your characters with different costumes which you can acquire as you progress the game, you can also interact at the menu screen where there's a chance to open an event scene will recreates a scene from the Anime.


The tracklist offers 19 songs from almost all of the soundtracks of the first season, the tracklist is really disappointing as it will only a very short gameplay time (you can complete the whole tracklist in just around 1-2 hours) and there is no DLC for additional songs. And the sound is pretty weak even if you maxed out the volume both the PSP and the game, so it's best to use a headphone and stay in a less noisy environment while playing.


Overall K-On! Houkago Live is a still good game, despite having very few songs. And this one of those rhythm games that you can enjoy with friends. Fans of the series and rhythm games will enjoy this game.

Game Rating: 7 out of 10
K-On! Houkago Live was developed and published by Sega

Sunday, October 10, 2010

New Character Update from New York Comic-Con [UPDATE]

Capcom just revealed another set of videos at the New York Comic-Con for the new set of characters in their most anticipated fighting game Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, and it's 4 more characters, with a couple of newcomers debuting and some returnees. And they are: Spencer (Bionic Commando) and Arthur (Ghosts N' Goblins) for Capcom, for Marvel there's Magneto (X-Men) and MODOK (Iron-Man)



[Update]
Aside from new characters, there will be new costume variants (as seen in Kotaku), but for this case, Spider-Man will get this special treatment. So far four costumes were revealed, including the newest costume change.



You check out the videos below and also the character art of the characters, stay tuned for more updates in the following weeks.

Arthur

Spencer

Magneto

MODOK

Friday, October 8, 2010

MMO Console on The Go

New upcoming portable console Nintendo 3DS will be released on February 26, 2011 and a rumored PSP2 was said to be in the works, Panasonic decided to join the portable console war.


Their new portable console called "Jungle" will feature portable MMO gameplay, now MMO gamers can now leave their homes while still continue grinding on their MMO games.

The Jungle boasts a high definition display, includes a full QWERTY keypad with touchpad-like directional and action buttons, other features includes micro USB port, mini HDMI port and 3.5mm headphone jack, it also supposed to run on a Linux Operating System. They will also launch a Battlestar Galactica game and a web show Online Underground along with the console.

So now the information about the portable console is very vague, you can check out for any updates to their official website.

Side Note: Panasonic is not entirely new to the gaming console world, their first gaming console was the 3DO on 1993.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Event Aftermath: Collecticon 2010

It's another event for the Toy collectors and people who wants to buy toys/figures for a bargain price; Collecticon 2010, the event was held last October 2-3 at the Robinsons Midtown Mall. Although there are few attendees on the said event (since the event was held at the same time with Cosplay Mania X at the SMX Convention Center), Collecticon is packed with booths and exhibits that any collector will surely enjoy.

Check out the pics below to see more of the event.









Friday, October 1, 2010

ROGT...What Happened?

Oh before we begin, Let's all wish the Philippine team good luck on the upcoming 2010 Ragnarok World Championship and hope they can bring home the bacon, you can learn more of the details here.

Now back to the topic, what the hell happened to the Ran Online Global Tournament? The last time I heard about this was way back 2008 where the PH team won the tournament, and take note the event was held in the Philippines (more details here), then after the said tournament, there were no news of a 3rd tournament which supposed to have started last year, but from the looks of it, the tournament ceased to exist. The 1st Ran Online Global Tournament started last 2007 with Thailand being the winners.

Funny the same fate happened with Supreme Destiny, during the Supreme Destiny World Championship League last 2008 also with team PH winning the said tournament, but in this case, the Philippine server for Supreme Destiny shuts down a few months after the championship league.

Is there a curse on the Filipino gamers after winning a major global league?, maybe it's the infamous E-Games curse.

So what do you think? hmmmmm