Sunday, July 25, 2010

SDCC10: Cosplay...Do or Do Not! There is no try!



With SDCC10 wrapping up today all the wonder and magic will be boxed up and stored away till next year. All the excitement of new video game and movie announcements is drawing to a close, and all the festivities are winding down, and the cosplayers are sheathing their swords, guns and staves, the paws and claws are coming off as well as the cosmetics, prosthetics and what ever else they've incorporated into their costumes.
I can appreciate the cosplayers that do it well but I feel obligated to share my feelings on those poor misguided souls that try and fail miserably, not the ones who intentionally fail, but those who honestly think they're doing it right.

Below is a collection of cosplayers....some doing it right, some not.

Here's some common sense rules to steer potential future cosplayers in the right direction.


1. Is your character physically fit? Are you physically fit?
2. Are you even slightly attractive? If your not perhaps a character with a mask is a good choice.

3. Do you have a thorough knowledge of your character you plan to Cosplay? Outfit, hairstyle, hair color, personality etc.

4. Is your character female? Are you?

5. Is your character old/young? Are you?

6. Can you operate a sewing machine?

7. Do you have any fashion sense at all?

8. Do you know someone skilled at applying cosmetics?

9. Do you know a skilled hair stylist?



10. Do you realize there is a difference between Halloween costumes and cosplay?

11. Be prepared to be ridiculed on the interwebs for all eternity if you suck

Many have tried few have succeeded at cosplay but there is one who has taken the hobby to another level, and I included some of her work in the pics in this post, I've also included a link to Yaya Han's website for all .
http://yayahan.com/


















































































































































































































































































Saturday, July 24, 2010

SDCC10: Street Fighter X Tekken rumor control


Yoshinori Ono just wrapped up the Street Fighter and Beyond Presentation at Comic Con and the rumor of a collabrative effort between Capcom and Namco to make a brand new cross platform fighter has been confirmed!
Capcom will be making Street Fighter X Tekken and Namco will be making Tekken X Street Fighter!
2010 has been an insane year for the fighting game genre!








SDCC10: Sucker Punch Trailer




Six hot chicks in leather and lace...check
Giant Mech's...check
Giant Samurai....check
Dragons...check
Zepplins...check
Machine Guns...check
Swords....check
Batshit crazy action and s'plosions....check
Six hot chicks in leather and lace in slo mo...check

I'm in!









Friday, July 23, 2010

PS3 FPS assault Riffle Peripheral..AWESOME!!!!


This is my controller, this is my gun, one is for fighting (online),one is for fun!

It all started with a guitar, then a drum set, now thanks to CTA Digital FPS can enjoy cool peripherals also!
How freakin awesome is this!
Now go choke yourselves! Then go preorder this on amazon before the gubberment gets word of this!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003E8LA7M?ie=UTF8&tag=prey0f&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B003E8LA7M


SDCC10: Mega Man Universe Announced



The blue bomber has a new game coming to XBL and PSN! The trailer doesn't give too much info but from the Capcom panel my guess is that Mega Man Universe is going to be Capcoms version of LBP...just a guess.
The trailer does drop some possible hints, like 1:31 on the clock could be a date. Being able to create your own robot masters and levels then uploading them for the rest of the world would be cool.
I got dibs on Hentai Man!







SDCC10: RED trailer


Anyone ever tell you to respect your elders? Here's why...some of them old fart can still bust your ass, just look at Epic Beard Man!
The AARP showed up at Comic Con this year to support this movie! Nothing ground breaking here, Willis is kick ass as expected, looks like he's channeling John McClane, Malkovich is awesome, Freeman looks great in the Napolean outfit..WTF! Dreyfus and Hellen Mirren are great additions that round out this cast of old folks blowin shit up!




SDCC10: Tron Legacy Trailer


I was 9 when the original Tron hit theaters, and I haven't seen it since. At the time the special effects were ground breaking, the story although cheesey was actually quite innovative and a bit ahead of it's time considering the technology at that time.
If you read a plot synopsis of 1982's Tron you can see strong similarities to movie's today like Gamer, The Matrix, Surogates, Avatar and others.
Basically Jeff Bridges is the first person to play an online game! He became an avatar of his RL persona!
I don't expect Tron Legacy to be as revolutionary as the original but the recently released trailer does look exciting.
http://disney.go.com/tron/




Thursday, July 22, 2010

Deculture award 2010 goes to Brew Dog!


My blog may focus heavily on video games and movies but when I say we celebrate the deculture of the 21st century, well this is what I'm talking about! Now this is DECULTCHA!
Don't ask me, I haven't the slightest F'n idea!


"At BrewDog we want to push the boundaries and challenge people’s perceptions about what beer is and how it can be enjoyed. We ultimately want to show people that there is an alternative to the mainstream, generic beers and make other people as passionate about craft beer as we are. We have pushed the limits of beers in many directions, ultra hoppy low abv beers (such as Nanny State), Islay Barrel Aged Stouts, Ageing IPAs on the Ocean and doing off the wall collaborations.
In true BrewDog fashion we've torn up convention, blurred distinctions and pushed brewing and beer packaging to its absolute limits. This beer is an audacious blend of eccentricity, artistry and rebellion; changing the general perception of beer one stuffed animal at a time.

The impact of The End of History is a perfect conceptual marriage between art, taxidermy and craft brewing. The bottles are at once beautiful and disturbing – they disrupt conventions and break taboos, just like the beer they hold within them."





The End of History from BrewDog on Vimeo.



http://www.brewdog.com/index.php

MvC3: FTW Comic Con10 Gameplay footage


Comic Con 2010 officially kicked off today but yesterday Capcom began opening the flood gates and those of not able to make it to EVO 2010 can now see some gameplay footage of MVC3:FTW

With todays character reveal MVC3: FTW roster is up to 16

Capcom Characters

Ryu - Street Fighter

Chun Li - Street Fighter

Dante - Devil May Cry

Trish - Devil May Cry

Morrigan - Dark Stalkers

Felicia - Dark Stalkers

Amateratsu - Okami

Chris Redfield - Resident Evil

Marvel Characters

Wolverine

Hulk

Iron Man

Dead Pool

Captain America

Doctor Doom

Super Skrull

Thor

What if the rumors about Capcom collaberating with Namco to make a Capcom Vs Namco are true? Hopefully we hear something at Capcom's Comic Con conference!

Capcom @ Comic Con 2010




If you want to keep up with all the latest news on all Capcom's Comic Con announcements, they have a live stream via UStream at http://www.capcom-unity.com/go/event/comiccon .

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

SYFY presents: Sharktopus...the creature with a double feature...sigh

We're gonna need a bigger budget! Just when you thought it was safe to watch SYFY again the terror returns. If you enjoyed Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus you're gonna LOVE Sharktopus!!!
This SYFY special is gonna redefine the B movie genre, I'm a bit upset that Debra Gibson isn't starring in this masterpiece. Shark week is no longer a Discovery Channel exclusive...

Film Review: Inception


Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a special sort of thief -- he steals information, but not from bank vaults or corporate offices. He places his target in a dream state of his own creation, then enters that dream and takes the information out of the dream. This time around he's attempting what has never been done before: inception -- the placing of an idea into someone's psyche.

The film starts with Cobb requiring a talented 'architect', Aridane (Ellen Page) to join his team of psychological thieves. This gives us a chance to learn from an innocent person (Ariadne) the peculiar physics of the dream state. The 'architect' is the person who enters the dream and constructs the world that the mark experiences. The subconscious mind of the mark (and the thieves) supply life to fabricated world in the form of 'projections' -- the people walking the streets, etc.

Cobb explains to Ariadne how important it is to make the dream state seem as real as possible because once the cover is blown that this is not reality the projections all immediately look directly at the architect and if the 'failed' deception continues they will attack, like white blood cells attacking a foreign body. It's actually somewhat creepy to see everyone on a crowded street suddenly look directly at you and prepare to rush you.

Director and Writer Christopher Nolan (the guy who brought The Dark Knight to the screen) manages to make a movie that's exciting, with action and spectacle that also works on an emotional level. Ariadne learns that Cobb can no longer act as an architect due to psychological problems of his own concerning his dead wife. Because of this, Cobb's dead wife, Mala, occasionally intrudes on whatever caper that is underway.

Cobb's latest heist is meant to be his last. He cannot return home to the U.S. because he is blamed for his wife's death. In exchange for this one last heist (or deposit, rather) his client will erase the charges against him and allow him to return to his children.

The movie is not for the faint-hearted, however. There are dreams within dreams, complications, deceptions, improvisations and perfect timing is required for the team of thieves. In some ways it feels like a much more serious version of a Ocean's Eleven-style caper. Each member of the team brings something necessary to the plan -- and the plan is as labyrinthine as the inner worlds that the team tumbles through. You'll need to pay attention.

The movie does risk being laughable at really only one point -- the team enters a dream, and then discover that the person whose mind they've entered has had training against just such an incursion. As a result the 'projections' are militarized, shooting at them and hunting them down. The next phase of their master plan was to go one level deeper into the subject's mind by entering yet another dream level. They pile into a van and the driver (a team member) sets them up with the dream-invading equipment, putting them to sleep. Keep in mind, they're already dreaming. Then he drives around, avoiding SWAT teams that fire automatic weapons at him. For every level 'down' you go into a dream state time passes slower and slower.

By the movie's climax the driver in the first level of dream has driven the van off the edge of a river bridge. But since the team is perhaps two more levels deep into dream, a single minute in 'van-time' could equal hours, maybe even days for the rest of the team.

So as the climax rages on at a crazy pace we sometimes cut back to the scene of a van very slowly falling into a river! The Matrix gave audiences 'bullet-time' -- Inception gives us 'bus-time', and while it does serve to ratchet up the tension by showing the team working on multiple 'depths' of dream state, some people (like me) will have to chuckle at the sight of a van falling so slowly for about half of the movie.

Inception's real achievement is making a rollicking action movie, a heist movie, while turning it on it's head (they're not stealing, they're inserting a thought) and giving it a dramatic, emotional edge. The heist characteristics of the film are a motley of interesting characters (thieves are always interesting, right) but gives it a very clever twist. It doesn't feel like science fiction, either. It's not about the technology, there's no techno-babble. The film also explores issues of reality itself -- which would you prefer: reality as it is, or an augmented (but fake) reality? If you cannot detect the difference, is there any?

The movie's ambiguous ending made my fellow audience members yell out in dismay, but that's what's wonderful about Inception, it gives you thrills, not necessarily answers. It's a movie with enough twists and details to watch more than once. So far Inception is this years best summer movie -- a must-see movie.

A

Friday, July 16, 2010

Final Fantasy XIV The Grinding Question???

Since Square Enix's 2009's E3 announcement about FFXIV I've had two little Taru Taru's on my shoulders pulling me in different directions, one says c'mon dust off that AF gear throw on my Carbuncle ring and step out of my Mog house and rejoin the adventurers patiently waiting to explore Eorzea!
The other saying you're adventuring days behind you, you spent almost 4 RL years in Vana Deal, met some great adventurers, had some fantastic adventures and truly enjoyed my travels under, over and across Vana Diel.
Many things in my life have changed since I traversed Vana Diel, most important of them is my son.
I know this nagging question must be in many gamers still playing FFXI minds, "Do I want to start all over from square one?" For many people, like myself, who invested so much time grinding out hours upon hours to level up your character in multiple job classes and crafting, NM and HNM hunts and suffering thru the agony which was CoP Eorzea might not seem very inviting.
Compound that with my initial impressions that Eorzea is Vana Diel 2.0! The mobs shown so far are the same as in Vana Diel. There's three main cities: Limsa Lominsa, Gridania, Ul'Dah, Limsa Lominsa has some subtle similarities to Bastok, Gridania to Windurst and Ul'Dah to San d'Oria.
The similarities don't end there, the five main character races are back but with different names!
Galka are now Roegadyn
Humes are now Hyur
Elvaan are now Elezen
Mithra are now Miqo'te
TaruTaru are now Lalafell
WTF! Not even one new race SE???
Despite all the logic saying don't venture in a new Final Fantasy MMO, I have to admit there's still something luring me and I can't figure what it is. Maybe it's the call of adventure...to the enjoyment of discovery in the gorgeous and enormous worlds of Square's MMO's.
If I do decide to play FFXIV I will start a new blog to chronical my travels in Eorzea much like I did with Tryptifaeris in Vana Diel http://whatsthedealinvanadiel.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html


Thursday, July 15, 2010

Olympic Gold..BAH! GamerBee reached top 8 in EVO 2010


Four days have past and Gamerbee has returned home to Taiwan after defeating Justin Wong. You ask "What's EVO?" here in the US and most people will say a car made by Mitsubishi, but in Taiwan gaming is a large part of the culture and this dude "Gamerbee" makes the prime time news!
Poor Justin Wong, all he gets is another video on Youtube of a "shocking loss"...better luck next year dude.
DAIGO RULEZ TEH HADOKEN :P

Ultra Kawaii Chun Li Cos Play


I'm pretty sure this pic is courtesy of this years Anime Expo, and is just too dam cute, Capcom needs to find this pint sized Chunny and have her appear at all future EVO's!
KAWAII!!!!

One shall stand...one shall fall

First Japan constucts a lifesize Gundam( http://willsfreeswim.blogspot.com/2009/06/rx78-gundam-attacks-japan-wheres-gojira.html ) now China responds with a lifesize Optimus Prime! Optimus stands over 30 feet tall and is made of sterner stuff...10,108 parts of scrap metal. Pretty Impressive China....but does he transform? Huh??














Gundam and Optimus are cool and all but if you wanna impress me you're gonna have to go bigger...I'm talking Super Dimensional Fortress Macross people! 3970 feet, 18,000,000 tons, c'mon the Macross was supposed to depart February 2009...get cracking people!



Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Living like the Elves of Lothlórien

Every kid at some time wants a treehouse, I had an awesome one, two stories made of drift wood and other stray materials I found on the rocky beach facing the Long Island sound. It was awesome till Zeus decided my tree house was too dam cool and blasted the tree with a lightning bolt. Later as a teenager, a couple friends and I built another treehouse in an empty lot, this one was even more impressive as it was completely off the ground....in retrospect the tree probably wasn't mature enough as the entire treehouse swayed with a good gust of wind, but it was our command HQ, our hidden fortress.
Back when we were children we had limitless imaginations and had to at times make our own fun, nowadays everything seems prefab and safe....it sucks in my opinion! I see kids today with so much and yet they still ask for more....where's they're imagination?
About a year ago I saw an article in the paper about custom tree houses, and not these peices of shit you buy in Toy's R' Us, but real Tree Houses made of wood and strong materials that won't bend or break under todays portly kiddies. After a quick Googlesearch I found the site of the company the article was about. I was blown away at some of the jobs they had done when I took a look at their portfolio.
This company takes pride in their craft and it shows! Here is just a few pics from their portfolio!
The TreeHouse Workshop has been building quality custom Treehouses since 1997. They even offer tip's for DIY projects as well as workshop retreats to help you with your own project.
. . where craftsmanship and artistry meet in the trees! http://www.treehouseworkshop.com/index.html























Monday, July 12, 2010

Evo 2010 concludes

Amazing job with Evo this year! I'm so happy to see the jump in the numbers of participants as well as viewers. Huge props to G4 for the support! The stream wasn't perfect all the time but it beats the alternative. And huge congrats to all the participants... You make our community what it is and inspire future world warriors!
This years Evo did have some some memorable moments, for me they were Scumbag throwing his Stick when he lost to Juicebox.


And Justin Wong losing to Gamerbee's Adon!




Super Street Fighter IV — Top 8
1. Daigo Umehara (Ryu)
2. EG.Ricky Ortiz (Rufus, Chun-Li)
3. Infiltration (Akuma)
4. Mike Ross (E. Honda)
5. Bruce “GamerBee” Hsiang (Adon)
5. Vance “Vangief” Wu (Zangief)
7. Henry Cen (E. Honda, Dhalsim)
7. Shizza (Chun-Li)




Tekken 6 — Top 8
1. Nin
2. Rip
3. Mr. Naps
4. Devil Jim
5. jfj
5. Tokido
7. Crow
7. GMMA Kor



Super Street FIghter II HD Remix — Top 8
1. Snake Eyes
2. DGV
3. Afrolegends
4. Daigo
5. Afro Cole
5. Tokido
7. Alex Valle
7. Ryry





Super SF4 Women’s Invitational — Top 4
1. AAA Kayane
2. Burnyourbra
3. Yellow Gal
4. Lina




Tatsunoko vs. Capcom — Top 8
1. EG Marn
2. KBeast
3. EG Justin Wong
4. Kurasa
5. Psychochronic
5. Royal Flush
7. skisonic
7. Keits





Marvel vs. Capcom 2 — Top 8
1. EG Justin Wong
2. EMP Santhrax
3. Clockw0rk
4. EMP Yipes
5. Neo
5. Crizzle
7. Chaos Nightwolf
7. Regency Rob







Melty Blood — Top 8
1. Yoichiro “Garu” Aruga
2. Stephen “Lord Knight” Barthelemy
3. Antonio “Kusanagi” Medrano
4. Byron “HF Blade” Barzabal
5. Brandon “Brandino” Lee
5. Yuji “Yat” Tanaka
7. James Xie7. Eric “Numakie” Gutierrez



Friday, July 9, 2010

G4 EVO 2010

Just a friendly reminder fighting game fans, G4's EVO 2010 live stream begins in 15 mins!

http://g4tv.com/EVO

Judge me by my size do you? The Antonov of skateboards

The spirit of innovation lives!!! Why ride solo when all your wanna be Tony Hawk friends can shred together???

Brandon Flowers Crossfire Video

I've never posted about a music video before but this one by Killers lead singer Brandon Flowers kicks so much ass, plus the song is awesome too! C'mon Charlize Theron kicking Ninja ass....Yes plz! I don't know about you but I can totally relate to the video, I've had days where life is a bunch of ninja's beatin the shit outta me and my wife has come to my rescue...yeah cheesey but it's true.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Ken Master's Agent

With Ken Masters limitless wealth and resurgence of popularity (read: flowchart) with the release of Street Fighter IV you think he could find a better agent...





Walking with Dinosaurs RRAAWWWR!!!


Doctor Malcolm was right! Life found a way! RUN!!!
Jurassic Park has been moved to Madison Square Garden for five days this month, from July 21st thru the 25th.
"Internationally renowned designers have worked with scientists to create 17 life-size dinosaurs, including the terror of the ancient terrain, Tyrannosaurus-rex! Be amazed and thrilled as the greatest creatures ever to walk the earth return before your eyes.
It's a dazzling 10 million pound arena spectacle of unprecedented size and quality set to captivate young and old alike. Marvel at the story of their 200 million year domination of life on earth. Watch them walk. Hear the roar. Be there as they fight for survival and supremacy. From the ripple of their skin to the glint in their eye, you will know the dinosaurs really have returned! So make sure you have your seat to see the return of the dinosaurs! "
These shows will sell out fast so hit the link below for further details!