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Console Wars. Ready, Let’s Rock!

With the holiday season upon us and the next generation of consoles on the horizon starting with the November 18^th release of the Wii U, I find myself shifting uncomfortably in making a decision of what console to play on as we ride the last glorious waves of this generation of hardware.

But isn’t this an old argument, Butterfly? I suppose it could be. PS3 versus XBOX 360 has been an argument ever since the consoles were both released. The Wii was never a real contender (but is a fun little machine nonetheless!), but now with the Wii U being a powerhouse it is giving the other two a run for their money. When I got back into gaming after a hiatus, I brought an Xbox 360. The next year I also got a PS3. I have every console and portable that is currently out. It now becomes of a question of does a “true gamer” even need every console?

Source

With all the new hardware coming out and coming up in the next few years, I start considering what kind of gamer I am exactly. I absolutely enjoy owning every console, but is it necessary?

Personally, I have begun to think I own my XBOX 360 for the wrong reasons. It would be the perfect machine for me if I was into multiplayer, but I am old school. Good, old fashioned couch co-op is still my favorite even though I have friends across the world. Most of the games I enjoy most are single-player experiences and, with that, I should just stick to my PS3.

I am head over heels in love with my PS3. It is such a wonderful machine and the images are just gorgeous. I actually think my PS3 is superior to my XBOX 360 just as I expect the PS4 to be superior to the XBOX 360. These are all my own opinions, of course, and I really enjoy both consoles. If I have to choose, however, it would probably be the PS3.

Trophies also do not stress me out as much as achievements and the coveted Gamerscore. There is this undeniable pressure to get every achievement and increase that score. This is stressful for me, a gamer who could actually care less about a number. Trophies do not seem to give me that stress. I can play a game without much worry. If I get a trophy, ok that’s fine. I rarely even check the trophy list. I just enjoy the game. Also, playing offline means much more infrequent updates to my score/trophies. These two screenshots reflect not being online in months.

So, what am I going to do in the next current generation?

Wii U – I am not going to be getting this console at launch, but I will be the first to say that this console is a beast! I have played it for several hours and it’s pretty amazing. An attachment issue to my current Wii is making it difficult to move on. I feel like there is unfinished business with it. Also, it is the first console I completely purchased myself. That is a huge deal! I know that I will probably get a Wii U, but it will be further into its lifecycle. Whenever Bayonetta 2 comes out will probably be when I make a decision.

*Note: I have not looked at specs or guesstimates on either of the next two consoles. I will not start research on them until they are officially announced.

“Playstation 4” – I will definitely be getting this console going off of the fact that I love Sony. I never realized how much of a Sony fan I was until I started looking at my past gaming history. When I was a kid I turned in my N64 for a Playstation 1. Also, the Playstation 2 is my favorite console ever.

“XBOX 720” – I am on the fence about this console, at least at its launch. I am 100% sure that all of my gaming friends will probably get this console.

I recently started purchasing more games in PS3 form. Let’s see how the remainder of this generation goes.

2012: 11/05
POSTED BY: Butterfly Samurai
CATEGORY: Site Updates
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Role Models in Video Games – Aveline

Video games would seem a very unlikely place to search for a role model. With their fictional worlds and oftentimes violent nature, video game characters lead lives very much different from the norm. That is what makes them extremely entertaining, but also difficult to relate to our real worlds. We play them, immersing ourselves in their world. We then return to reality.

Recently, Assassin’s Creed 3 and Assassin’s Creed Liberation were released. Both games feature minority characters in the main role. Aveline is the female character in the PS Vita exclusive Liberation. Ever since she was first pictured, brown skinned women from all nationalities rejoiced everywhere.

But Aveline’s heritage is not the only thing that makes her a “role model”. It is her design.

Aveline dresses like a “lady.” Her design is not at all ridiculous or skimpy like a lot of the other game women. As a cosplayer, it is often difficult to find a character with a design that is not accentuating something for males. There is nothing wrong with skimpy characters. It is refreshing to see not only Ubisoft, but other gaming companies making strong women in their games.

I hope this trend keeps up! Despite the fact that Aveline is, essentially, murdering people, she is also a strong female, minority character. We need more of those in our games!

2012: 11/01
POSTED BY: Butterfly Samurai
CATEGORY: Gaming News By ButerflySamurai
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Silent Hill Revelation 3D | Film Review

Let’s take another trip to Silent Hill

Click above to watch the movie trailer!

I have waited 6 WHOLE YEARS for this sequel movie to finally come out! It’s here and bigger and better than I could have ever imagined. Now I am one of the biggest Silent Hill fans you will ever meet, dating back from Silent Hill (2002) where it all started for me. Even though I was only 12 years old, I found myself completely immersed into the craziness of the town called Silent Hill. At New York Comic Con this year, I was able to see an exclusive sneak peak segment at this film, while also being graced at a panel featuring the producer, director and two main actors of the film! This gave me such a tease and brought such hope for this being a great film and it did deliver. Being a strong supporter and lover of the series ever since then, here we are spoiled with the 2nd film to the Silent Hill movie series and I have to say that this movie has EVERYTHING to give you a good scare this Halloween season.

The first Silent Hill film did surprisingly well ($20.1 million in the opening week) introducing a somewhat different story from the video games to long time fans and new curious ones. One of the things that made the first Silent Hill film so successful had been the beautiful yet creepy presentation, impressive differing storyline and especially the MONSTERS! Every single creature had an amazing contortionist or acrobat behind that latex and they brought every enemy fully to life. Videogame movies haven’t always been that great but Silent Hill remains at the top of the list for one of the greatest adaptations that viewers have seen. Many wonder can that same success be carried over with the next Silent Hill film. I sure say so!

Silent Hill Revelation falls nothing short of the amazingness that Silent Hill brought us. The film has the same great style and keeps the viewers entertained throughout the whole movie. There were no moments where I had to check my watch to see if it was getting closer to the end. Not one yawn slipped from my mouth! Everything was visually stunning and the story stayed close to the game, but also strayed away quite a bit. What I mean from that is that this movie stands on it’s own while adding a little twist here and there to the original Silent Hill 3 game story that we all enjoyed. It’s simple and the complex story is there but not as loose to follow. I know everyone is worried about the 3D and may be thinking, “Oh, just because you slap 3D on a movie doesn’t make it good!” And I would say that I agree with you. This film would be great on it’s own without 3D. It doesn’t add a whole bunch but as they were trying something new, it really turned out pretty swell! Plus Akira Yamaoka has worked on the music in this film. Enough said there!

The story follows Heather Mason (played by the lovely Australian actress Adelaide Clemens) who is now 17 years old and her father Harry who seem to be on the run from something. In this film we see that Heather is older, has changed her name and hair color, and they have been moving from place to place much too often. Heather soon finds that someone is following her, possibly one of the ones they have been running from her whole life. Racing home she finds that her father has gone missing and the message is soon calling out to her to head to the town called Silent Hill. The one that her father told her NEVER to go to. What is this town and why does she need to go there? Does this have something to do with the dreams that she’s been having? Without spoiling anything for those who want to see the movie and fans who have already played Silent Hill 3, you are all are still in for a few new twists. Your beloved characters will be there including Douglas, Claudia, Vincent, Lenoard… and everyone’s favorite executioner, Pyramid Head!

Adding 3D to this movie was a brilliant idea. It felt like we really were immersed just as we feel while playing any Silent Hill game. The fog is BOOMING in your face! There is no shortage of monsters in this film although they all fit in with some sort of meaning behind them. Every creature in Silent Hill is there for a reason and you’ll see why. There are not many cheesy jump scares in this film which is perfect. I like my films to scare my psychologically which is done perfectly here. My favorite thing about the film is how they integrated the ‘Nightmarish’ changes of Silent Hill with the real world. The characters didn’t have as much development as the first Silent Hill film and that’s fine because what doesn’t fit there is made up with the impressive story line. This movie is going to take you on a nice ride! While it’s recommended to watch the first Silent Hill film (you can do so by clicking here to watch FREE from Crackle!) to get the full story, you should be able to pick up and enjoy this one just as well if you haven’t. The movie was created to enjoy in 3D so do go and check it out in that form! Hope you all enjoy your little adventure through Silent Hill. Don’t get lost in the fog. -KittieOnALeash
If you would like to check out a playthrough of the game that this movie is based off of, please check out my Let’s Play Silent Hill 3 video down below the break!

2012: 10/29
POSTED BY: KittieOnALeash
CATEGORY: Gaming News By KittieOnALeash
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EBgaming expo Australia’s answer to E3 sort of…

As promised I am writing about this weekends EBgaming expo. For those who don’t know EB stands for Electronic Boutique Games, this is a gaming store with many located all around Australia. They then decided to shorten the name because everyone kept saying EB was easier to say. So it became known to everyone as EB. Anyway on with the show. I had a 3 day gamer pass and I could come and go as I pleased which was awesome. I also chose to cosplay for the event because I wasn’t sure what to expect. I did Lollipop Chainsaw Juliet Starling with her chainsaw.

Sorry for not smiling but this was by the end of the night. I was exhausted 9+ hrs!

Anyway I got in and thought wow where do I start? There were massive lines for almost everything! There was a Nintendo Booth, Two Just Dance 4 places with dance floors that lit up. Sega had their own booth as well unfortunately the only thing they were show casing was Sonic Karting so that was a bit of a disappointment. Skylanders had their own booth, Epic Mickey 2 had it’s own booth, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Medal of Honor, Zombie U, Playstation, Xbox, all had their own booths, we even had a home grown section! The most exciting thing for me to play whilst I was there was ZombiU for the WiiU. And this is how we played it:

The zombiU bus entrance you had to line up around the corner to get in, thus not seeing the zombie under the bus.

A mechanical zombie that slides inside and pops out from under the bus. Unfortunately this scared a lot of children. It scared me as well as I didn’t realize it was there! They should have put a warning sign up for all!

The downfall with this was there were only three gaming consoles meaning two people per console and that would be one watching whilst the other played or swapping halfway through. I waited in line for over 1 and 1/2 hours with only 6 people in front of me to play the game. Ironically I could have waited for later that night and played to my hearts content as there was no-one around. The graphics aren’t spectacular but the controls are breathtaking. Using the controller as a guide to look around corners or get hints, using it to take out weapons as well as numerous other things. I love the fact that if you die, you wake up as somebody new and you have to go find your old self and basically kill them to regain all your items. There is no health bar in this game, it’s once you are bitten game over. The other particularly lovely thing about this game is it stays true to zombie lore. The only way to kill a zombie is head shots whether that be hacking or a bullet to the brain.

The next game I played was Medal of Honor I only waited in line for 10 minutes for this game. Since I was a single player. The game play was fun but after a while all these war games start to look the same. The terrain is the only difference. You can still through grenades, still pick up weapons. I didn’t bother watching the storyline as the gameplay is limited up to 15 minutes so everyone gets a chance to play.

I went over to the borderlands 2 booth even though I have the game already to meet the lovely Lilith (well the lady whom they modeled her on, yep she is an aussie!)

Yasemin is her name I will let these guys tell you all about her: http://www.co-optimus.com/article/7539/borderlands-2-live-action-lilith-revealed-new-footage-too.html

We just found it hysterical that she actually works for EB! Anyway on with the show I then walked over to the Just Dance 4 booth and got roped into playing the game about 6 times since they couldn’t get other gamers to play. And here is a link to us dancing, we didn’t pick the song unfortunately: Kit Fisto is my star wars buddy, we have no idea who the random kid is or who was in the rabbid rabbit suit, one of the EBexpo staff no doubt we just couldn’t find out who. Sorry for the horrid dancing: I didn’t want to get hit in the head by Kit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnKgOowoybg&list=UUqpZ1RdTWlWuiCR-HiTIexQ&index=1&feature=plcp

The rest of the time was spent getting interviewed by so many different people, getting photos taken for stores like WB who promote Lollipop Chainsaw and for general cosplayers. This happened for the whole 3 days. On the third day I went as Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars the Clone Wars. Ignore the fact that the headpiece is blah I am in the process of getting a latex one. I haven’t seen a pic of me yet. Anyway I scored heaps of freebies. Dark Spyro and stylus pen for the DS from Skylanders Giants I had one of the quickest plays on that, as I knew kids were once again lining up to play. I got a free sonic hat from the Sega store. Tones of games were being given away as well. I got a pair of mickey ears, a diary and a pin just for completing Epic Mickey chapter 1! So many freebies going at this con it was amazing! Anyway stay tuned for the next gaming installment coming to Australia PAX yep you heard right PAX is coming down under. I will leave you with photos taken of mascots, cosplayers galore.

2012: 10/09
POSTED BY: gajinkei
CATEGORY: Gaming News By Kelly
Site Updates
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Project Zero also known as Fatal Frame- Not for the faint of Heart!

As I said I am a huge horror fan and this game made me love it, but it also scared the living daylights out of me.

The game is set in Japan about a girl called Miku and her brother Mafuyu. Mafuyu decides to go looking for his mentor Junsei Takamine, in the Himuro mansion and brings with him a special camera, a camera that can see the other world. It is one week later that Miku decides to investigate the Himuro mansion and what happened to her brother. When Miku arrives at the mansion she finds no trace of Mafuyu only their mother’s old camera. The camera obscura as it will be come to be known is your only weapon as you are now trapped in the mansion. Your only defense in the game.

Inside the mansion Miku decides to continue Mafayu’s investigation on the folklorist who disappeared. The folklorist came to the mansion to document the grisly events that occurred long ago. The folklorist finds out about a strangling ritual and before he and his team can get any further they are set upon by the spirits that were killed in the aftermath. Every room Miku enters the story seems to get worse and worse, but Miku continues on in the hope to find her brother.

As I said this game scared me and I don’t scare easily! There is no music in this game it just has ambiance which adds to the scary atmosphere. Something else I didn’t realize whilst playing this game was the A .I. in it. I had run the rope hallways dozen of times, even millions as you have to go back and forth into different rooms some will be locked by puzzles. Anyway as I was running down the rope hallway the ropes suddenly grabbed Miku and started to choke her! That was the first and last time I played this game alone! I would later come to realize that the camera obscura could be upgraded to fight off these demons and ghosts better.

I actually went searching on the net for a Himuro/Himaro/Himara mansion as this was supposedly based on a true story but couldn’t find anything. I also asked friends who are based in Tokyo, there is a story about a haunted house on the outskirts of Tokyo which this could have been based on.

The controllers are a little difficult at first and trying to get the ghost in frame and at the right position when they fade in and out is annoying, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty awesome. I only kept playing because I wanted more knowledge on what was going on in the Himuro mansion and let me tell you it’s very, very, very unpleasant! I also wanted to find out what happened to Mafayu but by going on what happened in the first couple of opening sequences the player can already guess what has happened. The only thing remains: Will you survive?

Gamer rating: 9/10

Happy Fall everyone =)

2012: 09/12
POSTED BY: gajinkei
CATEGORY: Gaming News By Kelly
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EBexpo October 5th, 6th and 7th in Australia

Like E3 this is the biggest gaming event in Australia. And I will be there to cover the news, the games and the cosplaying! I will be cosplaying myself as Juliet Starling from Lollipop Chainsaw and Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars the Clone Wars. I also thought what better way than to take pics on something gaming related and that is my DSi!

2012: 09/11
POSTED BY: gajinkei
CATEGORY: Gaming News By Kelly
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Mass Effect Series From a Newb

**MASSIVE SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD** IF YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED ALL THE WAY TO THE END OF MASS EFFECT 1, 2, AND 3 DO NOT READ

PRE-GAME INTRODUCTION

I believe I’d initially heard of Mass Effect 3 after it was announced for release on the Playstation 3. Imagine my disappointment when the first game wasn’t also on that system. To be honest, I never heard of Mass Effect prior to that. In fact, this series was one of the major reasons I finally broke down and purchased an Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Gold.

After the rumblings about the ending of ME3 came roaring onto the internet, my interest in the whole thing spiked sky high. My God, the nerd rage was insane I WAS impressed with the 402 cupcakes sent to the BioWare offices though.

A few things about the ending. BioWare had absolutely *no* intentions of ever actually substantially changing the ending of the trilogy when responding to the widespread fan disappointment. Expanded upon, yes. Changed, never. Nowhere in the blog post, and subsequent press releases for the Extended Cut they made, did BioWare say they would do so. It all just came off as *really* polite corporate-speak way of saying “Shut up, calm down and wait a minute. New content is coming.”

I speculate BioWare and EA knew exactly what they were doing when the trilogy ended as it did (possibly fully intending on including the Extended Cut, but for whatever reason couldn’t do so). But the ferocity of the fan outrage, I’m sure, caught both BioWare and EA completely off-guard. I also believe that the Extended Cut *was* already in the pipeline, either nearly or fully completed, judging by the line in the blog post about “…re-prioritizing the Mass Effect 3 post release content schedule…”, BioWare just pushed it up to placate unhappy fans.

I can understand fans’ disappointment in not getting what they thought they were promised but I’d have to play through the games to make a better judgement. Now, onto the games….

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

First impressions of Mass Effect 1 are WOW! This is, for lack of a better term, storyful. What I mean by that is that I get *completely* smacked in the face with tons of story. It is full and immense (this even after just about an hour of gameplay).

Catherine Shepard, normal face

Two hours in, my only *real* issue with the game is getting used to the controls. This is slowly going away as I get used to them. Another issue I’ve discovered is that cutscenes can’t be skipped which is frustration personified. Not so bad but if I keep getting killed (like rescuing Liara), there’s no way to skip the dialogue. For the most part, now that I’ve got a handle on the controls, after about 4-5 hours of gameplay, it has become immensely enjoyable. Another small beef is the music is ever so slightly repetitive but the upshot was that the musical production team and musicians did a bang up job *really* contributed to the emotional highs and lows of the final scenes.

I *was* shocked that I beat Saren the first time I tried considering those krogan hunters were so difficult to kill. It wasn’t altogether as impossible as I thought going into it but more annoying. But as heavily equipped as I was with Ashley and Tali I knew I could handle the situation like a BOSS if you’ll pardon the expression XD

Mass Effect had me literally yelling “aww $#@&!!” at *every* boss fight and almost every other fight for that matter

Having beaten the first Mass Effect in a grand total of 32 hours 17 minutes, I must say, WOW! Just wow! This is overall an immensely terrific game! The voices, the story, the ending! This game is *definitely* a whole bunch of fun. Overall stress out moments were a bit dulled from some minor spoilers I accidentally discovered before playing but it was no less thrilling and heart pounding.

Now. On to Mass Effect 2.

Having gone through in about the same amount of time as the first game (close to 35 hours), it has the same exact high production quality as the first game. I did like the improved time-based hacking ability which was a vast improvement to the twitch reactions of the first game.

There were some minor annoyances though. The planet scanning was incredibly tedious considering I really didn’t even need most of the raw materials I discovered. I found most of the planetary scanning unnecessary except on the of chance I find a random lost signal. Tedious. Also, some of the controls changed but that was to be expected. Minor but acceptable. In a few places sound completely dropped annoyingly for a few seconds.

What amazed me the most though was that somehow I beat the final boss in one go. Amazing because I consistently died on enemeis that were supposedly “simpler”. Now, most of that was because I did tactically stupid mistakes, but still I expected to die at least quite a few times for the final boss fight. But I sadly lost a team member on the suicide mission, which made me sad.

Overall, I am very pleased with this chapter of the game.

Mass Effect 3

This game ended after about 34 hours or so and it was GREAT! I went Renegade FemShep all the way. I *was* a bit annoyed that I

Scary Face Commander Shepard

couldn’t holster my firearm after a fight but the feeling eventually faded. Stupid battle roll though. >_< That contributed to *many* *many* accidental deaths…

I played through the Extended Cut and made the decision to not activate the Crucible. I stayed alive. So the choice I made makes the Reapers continue their work.

CONCLUSION

So overall, I really enjoyed playing Mass Effect. I played through the Extended Cut and Shepard didn’t go out quite a spectacularly as I would have thought/hoped/expected (in my renegade ending). The series is *very* amazing with incredible writing, music and voice acting. It had me screaming in frustration at the crazy level designs and enemies (the controls were no help sometimes), crying when some of the characters died (okay so one of them *was* my fault, but no matter, I STILL cried ), jumping for joy at the end of Mass Effect 1 and so on. The complete original ending *definitely* was not as bad as it was made out to be, in my opinion… The Extended Cut if anything was the part that got confusing to me with Shepard alive and still on the Crucible. i mean how and when and where did she (in my case) eventually die? The jump to the end, with the child and the storyteller, left no concrete clues. But okay, I’m fine with that…

Pre play opinion has changed slightly. Your decisions over the course of the games admittedly DID NOT affect the ending *as much* as apparently had been promised, but wasn’t the whole point of those decisions was to affect everything else beforehand? In my opinion, it was *definitely* not nerdrageworthy (new word coined ). Which, now that I’ve gotten a chance to see the “original” endings, I have no idea why people were so upset with it. I mean so what if Shepard died (and possibly lived again) on the Crucible? And apparently your Effective Military Strength DOES, to a point, affect what choices you are offered. So it’s not like Shep died in vain or anything.

Anyway, loved the games and are *definitely* worth the more or less 100 hours (more if you get ALL of the DLC) of your time. Have fun!