Event Aftermath: T3Fun Press Launch 2011

T3Fun, along with Redbana Philippines, has officially announced their release of two of their major MMORPGs and invited bloggers and some of the press media for the press launch at the Oakwood Premiere last February 26, 2011 at around 2PM. The two MMORPG that they announced were Aika Online and CardMon Hero; both were developed by Hanbitsoft.

The press launch was kick started by DJ Sky of 99.5 RT (and also Playboy PH April 2010 Playmate) along with the introduction by Mr. Taesun An; one of the big officials of T3Fun, about their company and their goals.

After the introduction, the GMs of T3Fun showed their presentation of the two MMORPGs, here's a brief infromation about the games:

Aika Online

• Offers 6 different job classes
• Pran System: a pet-like system that assists players in their adventure
• Nation War 1000 Vs 1000: able to wage war with large number of characters
• Castle Siege battles
• Can be played even on low spec computers
• Free to play

CarMon Hero

• Summoning System: Mercenaries can be summoned during battle to assist players
• Role Distribution System: Able to command Mercenaries to do different roles in certain situations
• Card Combination System: Combining different kinds of mercenary cards can unlock a new kind of card at your disposal.
• Extensive Hunting Mode: Instance missions where players can hunt for stronger monsters for high experience points and rare items
• Extensive Quests
• Free to play

After the presentation they showed off their cosplayers from the CardMon Hero game. I managed to chat with some of the people at T3Fun and they mentioned that they will be planning to put up events and free play programs to iCafes to hype the game in the Philippines, and they also planning to release new games this year (hopefully they will also release Mythos this year, let's hope).

I'll be preparing for a Carmon Hero review in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that one. For more information about the games, you can visit their website:

Aika Online Global

CardMon Hero

Siegius

I just stumble upon this game trailer a while ago that is rather interesting.

Siegius is a side-scrolling strategy/action game that features cartoony 2D sprites and offers multiple campaign missions. The gameplay really reminds me of those addicting flash tower defense-like games There are only few details about the game and there were no mention on who were the developers and publishers of the game, and whether if this is a web-browser flash game or a stand-alone PC game. You can check out the Siegius game trailer for more details.

Ozine Fest 2011

Ozine Fest 2011

April 8-10, 2011

Megatrade Halls 2 & 3, SM Megamall

Geek Talk: Loki

We'll be introducing a new section for the Reimaru Files, called Geek Talk. For this new section, we will be interviewing people from the gaming/anime/hobby world and find out more about them, from their success stories, most memorable moments and more.

For our first interview, we have a cosplayer who also has a business in creating and designing costumes for cosplayers, talk about best of both worlds.

Name: Kimberly Empestan

Nickname: LOKI / Kim

Occupation: Registered Nurse / ESL teacher for Koreans / Amateur Designer / Shop Owner

Favorite anime: Rurouni Kenshin

Favorite game: Final Fantasy Series

Cosplay debut:

• 2010 June Toycon as Ragnarok Online's Archbishop
• July 2010 KPOP Convention as Sunny [trio villains in ShinHwa]
• December 2010 XMAS Toycon as Uzumaki Kushina Shinobi Version

What inspired you to do cosplay and to become a cosplay costume maker?

- Before i started cosplaying, i begun as a costume maker. I never had the guts to wear costumes in public then. After almost a year of costume making i began to wonder why i don't lose customers? It's because i have learned that cosplay is very rampant in monthly conventions. I was quite surprised to know that cosplay in the Philippines is like a whole-year event. So i decided to try it to see why a lot of people are addicted in cosplaying.. so there, after the experience of cosplaying way back June 2010 i also got addicted as well. I can't say why but the feeling is really good because i can wear my creation in public.

Do your cosplays have a particular theme to them?

- So far no. I vary my theme all the time, i don't stick to one genre. As you can observe, I started cosplaying a game character then i cosplayed a Korean Drama character, and lastly a manga character.

Do you have a character you've always wanted to cosplay?

- YES! but it's a secret :)

What was your most memorable cosplay moment?

- It was during my first cosplay experience as an Archbishop way back 2010.

Have you attended/planning to attend a cosplay competition?

- I plan to be more active in the cosplay community this year, i already have 7 costumes in line for various conventions that i plan to attend this year, 2 costumes are almost finished so i have to make 5 more for myself. talk about major bankruptcy in my savings. hahaha. But i don't plan to compete yet... i might but not this year. I still need to polish my skills in costume making before i can proudly compete sometime in the future.

What are the best things about being involved in the cosplay world and in making cosplay costumes?

- The best thing there is in costume making is that i have a part of myself in every costume i make. As you can see i do the patterns of the costumes then i have a seamstress who puts them altogether but she can't do so if i don't give her my patterns. I also do the detailing in embroideries and accessories so it's really painstaking to do complicated costumes since i am the one who always does the finishing touches. I know how to sew but i don't have time to really study sewing in a formal way so i have a seamstress who does that for me. We work as a team. The best thing there is to be involved in the cosplay world is that i get to meet new friends.

Which was the most difficult character you've cosplayed/created so far?

- None since my costumes have been very simple so far.

What are your future plans for your cosplay career/business?

- I don't wish to be known as a cosplayer... i wish to be known as a good costume maker.

What do you think a cosplayer should pay attention to while cosplaying?

- As a cosplayer i think they should be more particular with the character's personality. When they pose they should embody the character's usual expressions so that they can look believable. It's the cosplayers' role to make their characters come to life.

Any advise/tips that you can share to people who wants to enter the cosplay world/costume making?

- Be particular in details and accuracy. If have both then you'd definitely have a kick-ass cosplay.

Also be sure to check out her website at http://fioriefarfalla.multiply.com for details on how to request for costume commissions, and don't forget to like her Fan Page.

Shotgun Tribute

One of the most essential weapons in First Person Shooting games and even action games is the shotgun, one slug is enough to eradicate anything that moves and sends one flying if they are close enough to the blast, may it be zombies, nazis, aliens or robots. It may have a limited range and takes hell a lot of time to reload, it is still one of those weapons you will be bringing on the battlefield.

And as a tribute to the ever trusty shotgun, Gamtrailers created a video tribute for the shotgun from footages of different video games that uses this every trusty weapon, can you name every game that was shown in the video?

Video Games | GT Tribute! | Shotguns

Xbox 360 | PlayStation 3 | Nintendo Wii | PC Games

One Million for Dragon Age II

On February 22, Bioware will release the demo version of Dragon Age II for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 to give the players a glimpse to their epic RPG before its full release on March 8. And Bioware announced a special event called Dragon Age II Call to Arms; where if the players managed to reach one million downloads of the demo within the week after the release, Bioware will unlock two items to be used in the full version of Dragon Age II.

Players only need to log into their EA account while playing to get their download counted. The items that can be unlocked will be The Far Cliffs of Kirkwall and Lothering's Lament; two ancient books that can give money and experience points when read.

Visit the Dragon Age II official website for updates on the demo.

Also, Felicia Day, of the popular web series The Guild, will write and also star in the Dragon Age web series entitled Dragon Age: Redemption. The web series will consist of six episodes and will begin to broadcast online within this year, the story will focus on the adventures of Tallis; a character which was created by Felicia Day for the Dragon Age franchise. A teaser trailer was unveiled recently at the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Xperia Play Arriving in March

Sony just held a press conference for the latest line of Xperia smart phones and it also includes the announcement of Xperia Play, which most of us will be familiar with it as the "PSP Phone".

Xperia Play will have a high definition screen as well as a dual shock-like button layout that can be slide down from the phone. It will also offer local wireless multiplayer. Sony mentioned that 50 games will be available at the launch, games including Assassin's Creed, Dead Space, Guitar Hero. There are 20 game publishers working with Sony for the Xperia Play games.

There will also be the PlayStation Suite that allow PlayStation One and PlayStation quality games to be developed for Android devices, including the Xperia Play.

Here're the specs of Xperia Play:

Hardware

• Size: 119 x 62 x 16 mm
• Weight: 175 grams
• Phone memory: 400 MB
• Memory card support: microSD™, up to 32 GB
• Memory card included: 8GB microSD™
• Operating system: Google™ Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Processor: 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7

Design

• Auto rotate
• Keyboard (onscreen, 12 key)
• Keyboard (onscreen, QWERTY)
• Picture wallpaper
• Touchscreen

Other features

• 5.1 megapixel camera
• 3D games
• Dedicated gaming keys
• Bluetooth™ technology
• Micro USB Connector
• USB 2.0 high speed support
• Wi-Fi™
• Wi-Fi™ Hotspot functionality
• Google™ services
• Android Cloud to Device messaging (C2DM)

Battery life

• Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 8 hrs 25 min
• Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 425 hrs
• Talk time UMTS: Up to 6 hrs 25 min
• Standby time UMTS: Up to 413 hrs
• Talk time CDMA2000®: Up to 7 hrs 40 min
• Standby time CDMA2000®: Up to 405 hrs
• Game play time: Up to 5 hrs 35 min
• MP3 playback: Up to 30 hrs 35 min

There is still no announcement for the retail price of Xperia Play, but it will be scheduled to release on March, hopefully there could be a Philippine release within this year.

sources:

Siliconera

Kotaku

Happy Hearts Day

Event Aftermath: Granado Espada Philippine Gathering 2011

IAHGames; the publisher of Granado Espada Southeast Asia (SEA), prepared a special players gathering for the Filipino gamers of their flagship MMORPG which was held at T.G.I. Friday's in Trinoma last February 12, 2011.

Gamers waited until 1pm in the afternoon and lined up to get their accounts registered for the event. The venue was jam-packed with hungry gamers (which was according to the staff at the event, the total attendees were around 170, and the maximum seating capacity of Friday's was 190) which occupied the whole venue, the IAH staff never expected that large amount of players. During the event they announced that the distribution of IAH Game Cards will be handled by Phil Portal, another surprise is that IAHGames Philippines (they are also the distributor of Starcraft 2 SEA in the Philippines) will be handling the community for the PH gamers in Granado Espada (they will be handling the support, events, etc.), but there are still no reports on whether or not they will cancel their contract with E-Games, E-Games is currently the distributor of Granado Espada SEA in the Philippines.

The event was hosted by the Product Manager of IAHGames PH Toby Lozada, where he also announced the news to the players. They also offered GE merchandises from t-shirts to laptop skins to game cards, and also they held a raffle where players can win GE merchandises (including the limited edition wine glasses) and in-game premium items (including the sought after Asoka RNPC card).

Overall, the gathering was a success, although the venue wasn't able to accommodate all of the attendees, the Filipino players were thrilled that they were able to meet other players and showed that the PH community is still alive and kicking.

credits to EldeonRose of Rembrandt Server for the additional images

Upcoming Square Enix PSP Games

The PlayStation Portable's lifespan is becoming shorter, with the announcement of the NGP and with fewer game releases lesser support from game developers. But Square-Enix still has some surprises on its sleeves with more PSP games that are scheduled to release this coming weeks, so let's take a rundown on the following games.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy

This is the prequel to the popular fighting game/ sort of RPG which was released last 2009. The story revolves on the events that happened before the first Dissidia game.

The game offers new characters from other Final Fantasy series as well as some additional game mechanics such as the Assist system. The single player mode offers a new mechanic, where they follow the traditional free world exploration, similar to traditional Final Fantasy games.

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy will be available on March 22

The 3rd Birthday

This is the third installment to the classic action-RPG Parasite Eve. The story still focuses on Aya Brea 10 tens after the events on Parasite Eve 2, the 3rd Birthday was dubbed as the "cinematic action RPG" by the developers. A new feature called the "Overdrive" system lets you switch bodies from your team members, allowing you to freely control other characters, the systems also lets you dive into enemies to unleash lethal damage. The gameplay of the game will more of a third person shooting style.

The 3rd Birthday will be out on March 29

Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection

This is the remake to the classic SNES RPG Final Fantasy IV, although the remake is not similar to the Nintendo DS version which has 3D graphics, but the remake will have improve 2D sprites and spell/skill animations. The collection also includes The After Years, the direct sequel to FFIV which was only a download for the Wiiware on the Nintendo Wii.

Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection will be available on April 19

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

This was the remake of the classic strategy RPG on the Super Famicom (SNES in Japan) where it was also re-release on the Sony PlayStation and SEGA Saturn. The remake will offer new features such as revamped visuals and effects, new character growth system, the Wheel of Fortune system, and a re-arranged soundtrack from the original composers.

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together will be available on February 15

Massive Super Bowl Movie Trailers

If you are an American Football fan (not the other Football) heck you are always present when there's a Super Bowl being aired on cable TV, and chances are, if you are watching it live, you've probably saw some of the TV ads that premiered on the Event itself.

Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL) and the most viewed by audiences on television, so this is the best opportunity for companies to promote their advertisements on TV, and of course, most viewers are also anticipating new movie trailers being aired for the first time on TV for the upcoming movies this year.

So let's take a look at the movie trailers that were aired on Super Bowl XLV (courtesy of Clevver Movies):

Kung Fu Panda 2 (May 26th, 2011)

Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (May 20th, 2011)

Thor (May 6, 2011)

Captain America: The First Avenger (July 22, 2011)

Fast Five (April 29, 2011)

Rango (March 18, 2011)

Cowboys & Aliens (July 29, 2011)

Rio (April 15, 2011)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (July 1, 2011)

And by the way, congratulations to the Green Bay Packers for winning the Super Bowl XLV against the Pittsburgh Steelers, 31 to 25.

Aika Global Lifts IP Ban In North America

Get ready to roll out the red carpet as AIKA GLOBAL welcomes the new addition to the family; the North American players! This February 17, AIKA GLOBAL community is expected to roar up high as North American gamers march in to experience the award-winning AIKA GLOBAL. This major modification will also bring forth AIKA GLOBAL at its best.

This expansion is still in line with the outpouring public demand to open the AIKA GLOBAL server to North American market which is banned from playing AIKA GLOBAL since the game’s global launching last August 2010. AIKA GLOBAL, a game directly handled by its developers pride itself with its smooth and hassle-free game play, world-class service and dynamic community composed of players all over the globe. In the next few days, top AIKA GLOBAL gamers should watch out for the new American gamers who will break in to put them the game field on a feral challenge!

Fresh from its major Level Cap 70 update, this major change is only one of the finest ground-breaking developments of AIKA GLOBAL for this year. Expect more as the game steps forwards and intensifies the global services and game-play like never before.

February Event

Also for this month, get ready to rumble with the unstoppable wave of love as AIKA GLOBAL celebrates Chinese New Year and Valentine’s day with its three major in-game events; “Explore Termes”, “Make War not Love, Make Love not War” and “Show me Love, Master!”. Jazz up your February as exclusive bundle of prizes wait to the lucky winners.

For more details, you can visit Aika Global's Official Website.

PlayStation Phone is Now Official

Finally the PlayStation Phone; now also called Xperia Play, will be revealed next week on February 13, 18:00 GMT. The revealing of the Xperia Play will be announce on Sony Ericsson's Facebook Page., as you can notice they have a countdown timer and a trailer for the video ad of their latest gadget.

Also Sony announced that they will release the PlayStation Suite, a online store where you can purchase PlayStation One games and play it on your Android tablets and phone. You can watch the video ad of Xperia Play below:

Dynasty Warriors Gundam 3 Release

Namco Bandai confirmed that the third installment to the Gundam themed Dynasty Warriors will have an English version.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 will now have cel-shaded graphics for a more anime feel to the game, the third installment will also have over 50 playable characters and over 70 mobile suits to choose from. New series were included to the new title including Gundam x, Gundam 00 and Gundam Unicorn. The gameplay was also tweaked and several gameplay elements were added.

Gundam fans will definitely get this game once Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 arrives for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this summer (the Japanese version of the game; Gundam Musou 3 was released last December).

Dragon Age 2 Demo Coming Out This February

Bioware has just announced that they will release a demo of Dragon Age 2, the sequel to their hit RPG Dragon Age: Origins on February 22, 2011 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The demo will let the players venture into the prologue portion of the game, where they will learn more about Hawke, the protagonist in the game and will be able to hone his skills and abilities to become the ultimate warrior.

Completing the demo unlocks the Hayder's Razor, an ancient dwarven blade which increases the wielder's health, mana and combat abilities which you can use in the full release of Dragon Age 2.

Dragon Age 2 will be available on March for the PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

You can also visit their Official Website.

Something to Hype You for Marvel Vs. Capcom 3

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 is on its way this coming February 15, but before you start to drool on your monitor screen, let's take a look on some of the characters rosters, Capcom has a Facebook Page for MVC3 where you can check each of the character's background story, videos and also a partial move list. You check out the Facebook App here, and don't forget to like their Page for the latest news on MVC3.

And to give you a headstart on the basics in Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, Eurogamer made a tutorial video on how to chain combos in the game, video link here.

Meanwhile, there is a rumored leaked image which shows that you can change the character voiceovers to either English or Japanese, per character. Yes, you can change Dante's voice to English and have Ryu use his native language at the same time. There is still no confirmation whether the rumored image is true or not.

Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 will be available on February 15 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. For more details, visit their Official Website.