Hey guys, I have joined the writers of Zone Otaku (Zotaku) so any future updates of video games and anime will be over there =). Zone Otaku is a very fun and casual(?) place to be in and the writers there are very active. You can just leave a comment for a certain article and you will most likely get a reply, whether its from the writers or some of the active visitors. I hope to see you guys there =).

During PAX ‘09, Joystiq met up with Left 4 Dead 2’s Chet Faliszek and asked them about the melee weapons in the game and there are a total of 10. We have seen most of them in gameplay videos, but there are some which are not. Take a look at it:

• Baseball Bat
• Cricket Bat
• Crowbar
• Electric Guitar
• Fire Axe
• Frying Pan
• Katana
• Machete
• Tonfa (police baton)
• Chainsaw

After seeing this list, the ones that I am interested in is the fire axe and chainsaw. ESPECIALLY the chainsaw. Valve has shown us right in the first teaser trailer that there will be a chainsaw in the game. Until now, we have not seen it in action. I guess Valve is saving the best for the last =S.

• Joystiq – All 10 Left 4 Dead 2 melee weapons over here!

I have seen pictures of it on the internet before and the first word that came to my mind was “awesome!”. It is called Kidousenshi Gundam Senjou no Kizuna. It puts you right into the shoes of a Gundam pilot as you get to control your Gundam in a cockpit view. There were only 4 machines in the arcade that I went to, so I’m not sure if the game is capable of letting more than 4 players playing simultaneously. This capsule-like machine is called Panoramic Optical Display (POD).

A more close-up view of a machine.

This is how 1 POD looks like. The plastic window that this person is seeing through is actually the door, so you enter from the left side of the POD. At the back of it there is a green light that says “In Operation”. It is just an indication as to whether or not the POD is in use.

The inside of the machine. You will be controlling your Gundam in a cockpit view.

This is how the inside of a POD looks like. As you can see, it is like a cockpit. There are two joysticks for you to control. According to my friend, the control is like a tank. So if you want to turn right, you have to push the left joystick forward and then pull the right joystick back. Doing the opposite will result in turning left. I’m not sure about looking up and down, but if it works like a plane, then pulling both joysticks back will allow you to look up, and pushing both forward will allow you to look down.

So the joystick controls the directional movements of the Gundam. To make it go forward, you will have to step on a pedal which is located below the screen. Like a typical racing game, there are two pedals. The right 1 will make you Gundam go forward, and the left 1 with make your Gundam go backwards/brake.

The screen in front is like a dome shape whereby you will be given a 180 degrees view during the game. The projector displaying the visuals on the screen is located right above the seat.

On the right side of the seat, is a headphone set with a microphone attached to it. It allows you to communicate with the other players that are playing with you at the moment.

This is the Pilot Terminal.

This is the Pilot Terminal. You can register yourself here and get your very own “pilot license”. If you played Initial D before, it pretty much works the same way. This license will record the data from each battle that you play. When you register, you can choose which faction you want to join. I think they are the Earth Defense Force and Zeon. Each faction will have its own unique pilot costume and Gundam that you can choose. For the registration alone, you will have to pay $5 SGD, and then you will have to pay another $5 SGD for each consecutive game. The screen above the Pilot Terminal shows replays of previous battles.

Zone X's September 2009 brochure scan.

Its pretty expensive for an arcade game, but if you are a Gundam fan the experience is worth it =).

Want to give your anime figurines a treat? You can turn your unused cabinet into a mini arcade! Check out these photos taken from a Japanese blog. The only recognizable figures that I know of are Mio Akiyama, Ritsu Tainaka, Tieria Erde, Kagami Hiiragi, and I think Rei Ayanami?

• Miki’s Blog (Japanese)
• Hobby Blog
• AnimeVice – Arcade For Toys Has All Your Friends
• DannyChoo – Japan Arcade
• Kotaku – Japanese Arcade Cabinets For Japanese Toys

*UPDATED – Final Fantasy XIII is CONFIRMED to be released in Japan on December 17, 2009.

I’m sure everybody is getting really sick and tired of waiting for Final Fantasy XIII to be released. But according to Square Enix, games after FFXIII (I’m not sure about FFXIV or FF Versus XIII) will be developed faster. This is a quote by Square Enix producers Yoshi Kitase and Motomu Toriyama from 1Up.com:

“For FFXIII there are a lot of firsts, and because it’s a new console that the teams are working on, it took a little time for the team to get used to everything,” said Kitase and Toriyama through a translator. “Now that they have the engine built for it the basics are covered, so the development time for future projects should be shortened.”

Well if they put it that way, then I can’t blame them for all the delays. If I am a Final Fantasy fan, I will be really happy that they are putting in so much effort to ensure that players will experience quality gameplay. I will be disappointed by the delays, but I’m sure everybody will get over it sooner or later =).

Final Fantasy XIII will be released in Japan during Winter 2009, and in North America around Q2 2010.

• Official Final Fantasy XIII Japanese Website
• Official Final Fantasy XIII North American Website
• 1Up – Future Final Fantasy Titles Will be Made More Quickly, Square Says
• Joystiq – Rumor: Japanese YouTube ad leaks Japanese FFXIII release date

Hmm I’m trying something new here and see how it goes for the next few months. At the beginning of each month, I will blog about the new releases of anime and video games that catch my attention during the respective months. I’m not sure how long will I be able to do something like this, but I’ll try =).

Anime

Sadly, there’s nothing to write about in the anime section because the series that I want to watch are releasing at a later time. Oh well *sniff*.

Video Games

There are a few nice releases for video games though. There is one game that a lot of people are talking about, and that is Halo 3: ODST. Sadly, I don’t have an Xbox360, so it will not be in this list =(. I am still waiting for Halo 3 to come to the PC! Though I doubr that Bungie is even interested to port it…

Section 8

Developer: TimeGate Studios
Publisher: SouthPeak Interactive
Platforms: PC / Xbox360
Genres: First-person Shooter / Sci-fi
Release Date: September 4, 2009

I have played the multiplayer open beta not too long ago and it is pretty good. There is only one multiplayer mode as far as I know, and it is pretty much Capture The Flag. Well, at least that’s what I thought at the beginning. As the game progresses, there will be side missions that you can choose whether or not to take part in. For example, there may be a time where a convoy enters the map. If you are the team with the convoy, you will have to protect it as it tries to get to its destination. The enemy team will try to destroy it. Other than this, I have played something like a VIP hunt, and also a package delivery. These side missions bring a nice little change in gameplay, and also a challenge to players.

It seems like this game’s main focus will be its multiplayer mode though. I know the E3 trailer looks really nice and really story-based, but the gameplay of the singleplayer mode is like skirmish. There will be 2 teams and you guys will be fighting each other in a map. When you die, you will respawn and continue fighting your way through the objectives. I don’t know what you guys think, but I feel this is a real turn off for me… I will still try it, but I’m not sure how long will I be playing it.

Need For Speed: Shift

Developer: EA Black Box / Slightly Mad Studios
Publishers: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PC / Xbox360 / PS3 / PSP / Mobile / iPhone
Genres: Sim Racing
Release Date: September 8, 2009

For the past few Need For Speed games, it has been all about underground arcade racing and modifying your cars and it all started with Need For Speed: Underground. In my opinion? They should have just stopped at Most Wanted and move away from that them, and that is what EA is doing with Shift. It is street racing and I believe you are still able to customize your cars, but the main focus of this game is realism. Yes, they have moved away from the arcade style racing to simulation racing. Judging from the E3 demo, I feel that they have done quite a good on it, though I may get dizzy with the camera shake in the cockpit view.

Like the previous Need For Speed games, there will be some sort of a story mode where you are a character and then you will slowly work your way through race after race to reach the top. I am really interested to see how this game turns out. It may get back my interest in racing games =).

Resident Evil 5

Developer: Capcom
Publishers: Capcom
Platforms: PC
Genres: Third-person Shooter / Sci-fi Horror
Release Date: September 14, 2009

The only Resident Evil game that I’ve “played” was Resident Evil 4. When I say “played”, I meant going through the first few missions and not touching again. I can live with the slow-paced gameplay, but its the controls which really turned me off. I was not able to strafe and therefore making it really hard for me to kill those zombies which are just around a corner. When I heard that players will be able to strafe in Resident Evil 5, I was really really glad. So now the only thing that concerns me, is that I may not be able to understand what is going on in the story. The game is a direct sequel to the 4th game, so I hope there will be a recap of some sort about the story so far.

Resident Evil 5 was already released earlier this year, but only on consoles. To make up for the very late PC release, Capcom has added exclusive costumes and an improved mercenary mini-game. I don’t really care about the costumes, but what I do care about is the cooperative online multiplayer. I have always love cooperative games instead of competitive ones. It just feel more fun to me. I just really hope the controls and the story turn out well.

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Developers: Volition Incorporated / Reactor Zero
Publishers: THQ
Platforms: PC
Genres: Third-person Shooter / Sci-fi
Release Date: September 15, 2009

Red Faction: Guerrilla is yet another game that has a delay for the PC release. The console versions were released around June this year along with a DLC pack released in August. I have managed to play a little bit of it at a shopping mall and the game feels quite ok. Nothing really awesome other than the nice physics accompanied with explosive visuals… Well… I guess you can look forward to the story? I’m not sure how strong is the story aspect of the game, since it is pretty sandbox-y. You have to go to the different parts of Mars to free them from the Earth Defense Force.

The only thing I can remember most vividly during my short playing experience was driving this big-ass machine that can destroy almost everything in the game. And another thing I did in the game, was trying to tear down a building with my trusty axe! I never get to find out if it is possible though, because there was a line behind me so I couldn’t play too long. The most I did was to completely destroy the walls of one side of a building. I guess I will have to wait for the game’s release to continue where I left off =D.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Portable

Developer: Atlus
Publishers: Atlus
Platforms: PSP
Genres: Role Playing / Adventure
Release Date: September 22, 2009

To be honest with you guys, I have never set my eyes on any Shin Megami Tensei games until this year, and it is all thanks to Giant Bomb’s Persona 4 Endurance Run. I started to look up games under the franchise and so far I have only managed to play Devil Survivor for the Nintendo DS. I am not really fond of the gameplay graphics for Persona Portable, but then again it is a port from the Playstation 1 version, so there were technological limitations last time.

However, it is not just a crappy-ass port. Atlus seems to have revisited the game and edited some things. For example, the in-game cut-scenes were remade and the GUI was revamped. I am glad that Atlus is taking the time to do all this to ensure that it will not be a lousy port. I pretty much have an idea as to how the gameplay will be like, so my only concern is how good will the story be. But then again, the reviews for the original Playstation version were mostly positive, so I guess there’s not much too worry about.

With the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) underway, there will be lots of news about video games so that means I’m going to be busy writing about things as well >.<. To kick things off, there are 7 new screenshots for Left 4 Dead 2. In PAX, you guys will be able to play the new Dark Carnival level. I like how Valve creates some unique looking common infected. Like for Dark Carnival, there will be infected clowns.

• GameSpot – Left 4 Dead 2 Image Gallery
• IGN – Left 4 Dead 2 Image Gallery
• Joystiq – Left 4 Dead 2 sends in the Zombie Clowns

I have to say, this is a VERY well made opening. The animation and editing are really good because they also kept K-ON!’s art style in it. The timing of the animation is also very good, if not almost identical =D. Kudos to whoever made this ^^.

• DannyChoo – Voca-on!

The beginning of the video looks very nice and artistic, but thats just the appetizer. The video shows off a variety of new combat moves that Ezio is capable of doing. At one part in the video, Ezio’s weapon handle broke in half. I think it is just one of the scripted finishing moves, and not really a breakable weapons feature. I may be wrong, but to me, the transition between the weapon breaking and the killing is too smooth.

Assassin’s Creed II will be available for the PC, Xbox360 and the PS3 on November 17, 2009.

*Extra: Not too fond of the music used in the video =S.

• Official Assassin’s Creed II Website
• GameSpot – Assassin’s Creed II Gameplay Trailer
• GameSpy – Assassin’s Creed II Xbox 360 Trailer – Gameplay montage
• GameTrailers – Assassin’s Creed II Visions of Venice Trailer HD
• Giant Bomb – Assassin’s Creed II Trailer: Ezio’s Got Moves

Those of you who watch Inuyasha should know about this pop music group. After performing two ending songs for the Inuyasha anime (Fukai Mori and Shinjitsu no Uta), they are back to perform The Final Act’s opening song. As all of you know, The Final Act will give the anime series a proper closure, as it will finish up the 21 remaining volumes of the manga.

Inuyasha: The Final Act will debut on October 3, 2009.

• Anime News Network – Do As Infinity to Play Inuyasha: The Final Act’s Opening
• AnimeVice – Do As Infinity Does As InuYasha