What can be called hands down South Florida’s best arcade, Arcade Odyssey, has decided to create its second podcast Arcade Oddities weekly on Mondays at 8 PM (Eastern Time). The podcast is hosted on Twitch.tv alongside their first podcast AO Plays which will also livestream on Youtube. The subject of this podcast is, of course, video games where they’ll also answer fan questions.

The arcade’s trademark.

Arcade machines imported from Japan. Unrelated but they’re awesome.

The first episode went live last Monday and you can see the full stream by clicking here (takes a while to begin, NSFW). The second episode shall be available next week at the listed time. Check it out.

Hello ladies and gentleman, my name is SFX Major Threat. I am the co-host of the SFXX Podcast and we are delighted to bring to you a podcast with news varying in video games, movies, anime, comics and more. Expect to hear lots of vulgarity and somethings that may be offensive. Don’t worry it’s just comedy but we strongly advise that children do not listen to our show.

So sit back and enjoy our latest episode where we discuss Bioshock Infinite and tons more. Enjoy would you kindly…

Please leave a comment below to help us with feedback about the show.

Of the big name games shown at PAX East, Saints Row IV promises to be the most outrageous, with a gun that allows you to dubstep people to death and the admission that there would have been a dragon you could ride if they’d had enough time to fit it into the game.

Plot

Players control the President of the United Saints/States (your main character which you can import from your old game save) and must battle evil aliens in a computer generated world using only their super powers and wits. And guns. And monster trucks. Etc., etc., etc. Check out the teaser trailer here.

Gameplay

Gameplay is similar to the previous Saints Row games, but with even more insanity. Players roaming this sandbox style game will have new found superhero powers, such as jumping to the tops of buildings, freezing people, flying around and throwing cars with your telekinesis. There will be drop in/drop out co-op as well as mechs you can ride around.

Most of the gameplay will take place in a cyber world, where the President will have to subdue alien hotspots in order to regain control. You will also occasionally get back into the real world before jumping into your cabinet members’ virtual realities to rescue them.

So What’s New?

There are a lot of things different with this game as opposed to the previous titles, but the changes make sense. There will be less choices in this game based on feedback from the amount of choices in the previous games. You will also start from a position of power instead of starting as a nobody and working your way up to leader of the Saints. You will also only fight one unified enemy: the Zen, an alien race bent on indoctrinating you.

The weapons are now very customizable as well. For example, you can have a gun that looks like a guitar case. Volition also claims the weapons and super powers will work together to create fun and exciting effects.

Jim Boone, the senior producer on Saints Row IV, emphasized that they wanted the game to be over the top for the sake of being fun, not over the top for the sake of being over the top. Hopefully they have found the right balance of challenge and hilarity in this newest entry in the series.  I got a very “final scene of Avengers” vibe from the demo and can’t wait to check out more Saints Row IV.

Saints Row IV comes out August 2013.

Talk at the Game Developers Conference is suggesting that Miiverse for Smartphones and web browsers will become available in May. When released, Miiverse on web browsers and smartphones will provide basic functionality, including posting comments, drawing, viewing posts and participating in communities. It was also confirmed that Miiverse is still coming to Nintendo 3DS. No release date on that yet.

Nintendo has also announced that it’s planning a large number of improvements to Miiverse over the coming months. Here’s a summary of the changes.

Players will be able to send and receive comments in-game.
Players will be able to see ‘Yeahs’ in-game.
Players can also follow users, and see who users are following in-game.
Users will be able to launch games from Miiverse Posts.
Launch buttons on Miiverse posts can contain program arguments, so it will be possible to boot directly to a certain level or menu in a game.
Can work with online data store for additional functionality.
User Sub-Communities (like Mario Kart 7?s) are coming to Miiverse,
Can be used to organize and hold tournaments.
First game to use them is Wii Fit U.

It’s exciting to see that Nintendo is hard at work at polishing the Wii U. With time we should have a solid console with block buster hit games.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is like a kung-fu action movie that is hopped up on steroids that you just don’t want to end. Developed by Platinum Games (Bayonetta; Vanquish; Madworld) and published by published by Konami this is the mutant off spring of the formally cancelled Kojima Studios game Metal Gear Rising. The game was cancelled then later picked up by Platinum and completely reworked from the ground up with the consent of Hideo Kojima.

It’s an action, hack and slash game that is high paced and features an amazing new system mechanic. The mechanic is like bullet-time with a sword, but much cooler. Once doing enough damage to an enemy you are prompted with a slow down effect where you can in turn slice away at your opponent in slow motion. Doing so causes tons of dismemberment and it is truly a sight to behold. Mind you, this game is not for the faint of heart.

The story takes place four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4. You play as Raiden, the awesome ninja cyborg dude who used to suck in Metal Gear Solid 2…yeah that guy. You work for a Maverick security working to save money for his family by protecting Prime Minister N’Mani of an unknown African location. Next thing you know you are ambushed and the prime minister is captured then killed. During your rescue you become injured and defeated by one of the captors working for another group affiliated with Desperado Empires, a group associated with terrorism.

Not long after you soon end up trying to seek revenge a couple weeks later after your defeat. The story then unravels to several different plot points that seem very Metal Gear-esque. Without me spoiling the very convoluted plot, let me say it is all over the place with tons of codec dialogue and moments that will make you go “huh?”

Unfortunately the story mode is very short. I personally beat the game in a little under five hours. Granted those five hours were very awesome and filled with great action that is simply indescribable. Luckily, for those not willing to play the game multiple times, which I highly recommend, there are extra VR Missions that can be unlocked through the story. These test your sneaking ability and your combat skills. Not to mention the tons of skills and other statistical things you’d want to gain and extras to collect.

The sound design is another very strong component of this title. Composed by Jamie Christopherson it features amazing rock/techno/orchestral music. It’s so good I enjoy listening to it even after I am done with the game. Not to mention the awesome sounds of explosions, decapitation and sword slashes. It’s overall just awesome.

The graphics are also a marvel. Environments feature fully cut-able things from which you can wreak your destruction upon. The action looks so good as the game runs at a very smooth 60 fps. Sadly, some of the stages are just too open and barren. Understandable though considering how much work it must take to do such feats.

Most importantly is how the game plays. Safe to say it is very intuitive and yet simplistic. The game’s simple light and heavy attack system complement each other well. Combos are easy and fluent when stringing attacks together and can make you feel very badass. The only problem is the camera, which for the majority of the time works until there are either way too many enemies or you’re in a weird spot.

Overall Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an amazing experience that Metal Gear fans and action fans shouldn’t miss. Sure the campaign could stand to longer but, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were to see a sequel in the future.

So, if you follow my Twitter, you may have noticed that I did not originally have a very positive outloook on the new Lara Croft in the reboot of Tomb Raider. Besides her ugly haircut, it really seemed like another Metroid: Other M move, where a newer game makes a female character more of a crybaby and more weak than she was in previous games.

However, after watching the rest of the trailers for the new Tomb Raider, I’ve realized that might not be the case at all; at least, not in a bad way.

Survivor Over Everything

There are at least four new trailers, and they each show bits and pieces of the story. A young Lara Croft is off on an adventure and runs into a terrible storm. She has no training, no skills. She’s a young adventurer getting ready to go off and prove herself to the world. It’s obvious that she isn’t at all ready for what she stumbles upon. I suggest watching “Tomb Raider 9 Trailer” first.

Lara is forced to push herself. Climbing to scary heights, jumping over canyons, killing animals for food, and killing the men who try to abduct her. Watching each trailer added a vital puzzle piece for seeing the trend of the game towards an action-survival game. I also got a very Uncharted feel from it, and that’s not a bad thing, since one can argue that games like Uncharted owe a nod to the original Tomb Raider (both series owe Indiana Jones, so don’t get started on that). I am also reminded of Far Cry 3, which is another game with great gameplay. Here’s a video showing off some of that gameplay.

I really did get the sense that Lara was going to have to do things that she wasn’t comfortable with to survive, and I like that notion of actions having weight and consequences in games.

Are Tomb Raider purists going to love this game? Probably not. Although tombs are mentioned, they definitely don’t look like the sprawling tombs of past games, and most of the footage shown takes place outdoors on an island. I also didn’t see any T-Rexes or bats. >_>

Controversial Rape Scene

So let’s talk about the rape scene. Yes, some places have said it isn’t rape at all, and they’re right. That was an attempted rape, which Lara aborted by fighting for her life and succeeding in killing her attacker. As a rape survivor, I honestly felt proud of this scene. You can see the trauma, the desperation, and then the cost of victory. This is something that a young woman, stranded with a group of hostile men, would really be in danger of. It’s a realistic, not contrived, occurrence and it was handled well. You can see from these trailers that Lara gets stronger and stronger, and she continually has to push herself further and further.

Here’s that trailer

But What About the Series?

Now, the real question will be, how will they move forward with this in the sequel? Will she end the game as her normal cool, calm, and badass Lara who we know and love? And then will the next game not involve any of this survivor vibe?

Notably, this is the first Tomb Raider game to be rated mature. As the newest game in one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, Square Enix has its hands full living up to that legacy.

Check out this behind-the-scenes look

I honestly think they showed the wrong trailer first, and I’m very excited to check out the new Tomb Raider, which will be released March 5th for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

How far will Lara go to survive? I look forward to finding out.

First appeared on NerdyButFlirty.com

Mahjong is a game that most people by now have played or at least have heard of. The game involves of different tiles and the goal is to match them all up to clear the game. The game is widely available, in fact most people play this at work when they should be working, since it’s available in most computers. This game finally came to the PS3 back in 2009.

Mahjong has been around for quite sometime and is generally known as a time killer in China. As stated earlier, you start with a stack of mahjong tiles that have icons as well numbers that are in a certain shape or pattern. These tiles are to be matched up with each other and removed from gameplay. The concept is very easy just continue doing this until the board game is complete and cleared out.

The controls can be a little frustrating. The cursor is pretty much the same cursor you see on a computer, but the PS3 controller is nowhere near as precise as a mouse, obivously. As you can see from the video, when you move the pointer with your D-pad or your left joystick the selector doesn’t snap to the tiles. Instead you are having to navigate to each tile individually. It would have been a lot easier to have your arrow glide past the block and just scroll to each one. You need to micromanage and adjust for every…. single…  move.

The developers of the game where able to give it a nice little twist, they took something that was old and gave it a new fresh look and concept. It features five parables that are told through nine chapters and narrated storybook cutscenes. After getting a piece of the story, you play a game of mahjong to advance to the next scene, which is a static background with the characters and objects moving around on top of the image, but it fails a bit. Example, the quality of the narration is bad. It’s one guy narrating the stories, and sounds tinny and echoy or far away. Also, the art is pretty plain and simple.

I liked that game, burned time. Which is what I would need when I was bored. Although I really can’t recommend to download this one. This game has plenty of potential if the story line, graphics and sound were a bit better. Not to mention the controls. The music is relaxing and calming. Once again as I stated in my Super Stardust HD review, this was one of those games that I downloaded mainly for the trophies.

First off, I’ll start by saying I am not a fan of Hello Kitty. Yes it’s adorable and whatnot but I see really nothing in it so I don’t concern myself with their merchandise. However the project entitled in Japanese Hello Kitty to Issho! has gained my interest with the puzzle games coming out and the unique female characters in each, entitled “Kittylers.”

This figure is one of them, and her name is Kei. Kei had a previously made figure which sold very well and made Sanrio decide to make another one of her, hence the “Part 2″ in the title.

The front of the box is quite awkward with the splatter wall and chain link fence while bejeweled music notes float in thin air. There’s a large opening to display the figure with its name displayed on the right and the project name at the bottom.

However you must prepare yourselves for the other sides!

The rest of the box is much more beautiful, with pretty illustrations of Kei, including the one the figure is based off.

 Now to assure you bought an authentic product make sure  there’s a Sanrio sticker put on all the Kei figures. The real thing also comes with an instructional guide (in Japanese of course) on how to affix the guitar case on the handle and keep the figure standing.

And now for the actual product…….

Only she can make a Hello Kitty cap look that good.

…….Beautiful.

On the subject of putting the figure together it’s a bit odd. Making Kei stand requires some serious pushing, but once she’s broken in she’s easy to move and remove. Putting the guitar on the handle goes against every single  collector instinct I have. The  handle and guitar are made of hard unflexible plastic so I begin softly in fear I might break something only to hold my breath, recite a silent prayer to the figure Gods, and jam it in there. I’m just glad it popped in perfectly the first time I did that. I will never remove the guitar case as long as I have the figure. When it comes to positioning the guitar case you could have the case stand at an odd  angle and it won’t budge, also if you move it it smoothly glides. When it comes to the hand with the handle it’s pretty odd. When you look at it you can see it look square and the handle is just stuck in there. There’s also some of the skin’s paint on the handle, nothing really noticeable until you look. Despite it’s plainness the guitar case is quite beautiful, and looks very smooth and polished, I couldn’t think of a nicer one myself.

The most captivating part of this figure is all the detail that went into the simple clothes she’s wearing. Her beautiful red jacket is stunningly tinged perfectly with shades of dark red in all the right places, her blouse has folds that seem natural, and her layered skirt has dark shadows accentuating its texture. They also managed to do something I thought would never happen, put a bunch of tiny bows all over an outfit and made it look perfect.

The knee high socks have bows too perfectly placed and adorable to ignore. The five red stripe also fit in perfectly. They’re not painted perfectly, but impressively enough.

No comments on the “absolute zone.”

The shoes also match the outfit and, of course, have their own bow. The lace are red so the bow can be red, in Hello Kitty fashion. Sadly I had the misfortune to buy a figure with a manufacturing error that day and so I ended up having a shoe with a bow and another with a tiny empty square, didn’t let that ruin my appreciation for the figure though.

However, I can’t forget one of the key piece of the figure, the Hello Kitty hat. It is perfectly detailed, I find no fault with it. The color is rich and vibrant and really  makes the figure better.

Without her hat, she has a hair divide that is hidden with it on.

Her hair is amazing when viewed from the side, it looks as if a breeze is lightly lifting it, like in a calm anime scene. When viewed from the beack it can be seen the ends are not  more sharp, and the paint has accumulated and dried out unevenly on some part, but it still maintains a beauty to it.

The most amazing part of everything though, is her face.  It looks like she’s calmly pondering something with her lips in a slight pout and her eyes upward. Her eyes only compliment everything else with their deep solid red, glints of light in it. Her hair style is also unique. Her rather short braid stands out from her long straight hair and bangs, and her humble necklace is the only piece of jewelry she needs to compliment her.

Overall this figure is absolutely stunning. Any collector who has the chance to get her should, as she’s one of the best quality figures that doesn’t break the bank I’ve seen in a long time. To fans of Hello Kitty, get with the Hello Kitty to Issho game series, I think you’ll really like it and all the merchandise that comes out of it. I’ll leave you all with this.

If you’ve been keeping up with The Last of Us news and trailers, you know that the player will be accompanied by a girl named Ellie. But who is Ellie? Naughty Dog has been pretty close-lipped about her so far, but with the game far off in the future, it only makes sense to keep the level of mystery high. So what do we know?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W01L70IGBgE]

Well, a recent interview on VG24/7 has shed some light on the little girl in a terrifying world.

The Game

The Last of Us takes place on a post-apocalyptic earth, after civilization has mostly succumbed to a deadly fungus. Much like in I Am Legend, nature is reclaiming the city streets, creating a beautiful, but deadly, urban jungle.

The game is a survival/action/shooter with a stealth focus and features Joel, a jaded survivor, working with fourteen-year-old Ellie to survive escape the military and other threats.

Despite the action-filled premise, the developers have stressed that this is more of a family-love story than a zombie game, influenced heavily by Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan’s interaction in the Uncharted series. The game focuses on emotions and the father-daughter relationship of Joel and Ellie.

The Girl

Ellie, born after the cataclysm, was raised in a quarantine zone – a place fairly safe from the horrors of the post-apocalyptic world. Despite growing up in such a hopeless setting, she still maintains a relatively optimistic outlook on life. This will be important to her relationship with Joel, as her views may change his own outlook on the world.

Ellie is played by Ashley Johnson, who claims that the belief that Ellie will be a shallow kid who exists to cause trouble (a common trope in games and movies, and a reasonable expectation in escort games) is a misconception.

“With Ellie, I know she’s fourteen, but this is the only world she’s ever known. Every day, you have to survive. It’s not like she thinks, “‘Oh, I wake up, what am I going to have for breakfast’ or ‘Who am I going to hang out with today?’” said Johnson in her VG24/7 interview. “She’s not a normal fourteen-year-old girl. When I first got the audition and saw the scenes, I could tell she was wise beyond her years and not your average teen. I didn’t think the whole time we were shooting it, ‘I’m fourteen, I’m fourteen.’ I honestly haven’t been thinking about age.”

Naughty Dog has become known for its portrayal of interesting and layered characters, characters that are deeper and more complicated than they first appear. For example, in a trailer that actually disturbed me during E3, Ellie is shown helping Joel as he brutally murders a group of people in front of her. She isn’t standing there looking squeamish as a guy gets his head bashed in, she is busy trying to see how she can help. And then she throws a brick at a man’s head.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9-I0CF1tsI]

According to Naughty Dog, Ellie’s character is heavily influenced by Mattie Ross from True Grit. She is coming-of-age, and Joel is both corrupting her and helping her gain her independence.

What we don’t know

Naughty Dog is adamant that this isn’t a traditional escort mission kind of game. But if it isn’t, then what is it? Will we get to choose strategies for her? Is she a completely independent AI? It’s clear in the trailer that she can stay out of trouble, but is it possible for her to get caught or killed in combat?

Also, is she always as hardened as she’s shown to be in the E3 gameplay trailer? Because I found it pretty hard to believe that a kid could watch men get beaten to pulp and not at least throw up in her mouth a little. Even grown men are shaken by their first kill or by watching someone get murdered in front of them, so I find it strange that this kid can be so jaded about violent death so young.

The Portrayal of Women in Games

The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann, who wrote the game’s script, said that he tried not to let stereotypes and industry standards effect how women were portrayed.

Both Ellie and Tess (a black market dealer played by Annie Wersching) are characters with layers, not static, walking, talking sex symbols.

Johnson, Wersching, and Druckmann all expressed their concern with gender portrayal in games, particularly the negative reputation the industry has.

“Typically they’re [women] either over-sexualized, or they’re the damsel in distress, or simply there to be a love interest. There may even be one female in a game who’s a badass, as opposed to, ‘Just another male character.’ It does bother me, which is another thing that attracted me to this game, and Naughty Dog games in general,” said Johnson.

She and Druckmann went on to talk about how many game companies won’t put women on the covers of games because they’re afraid they won’t sell.

“I know I’ve been in discussions where we’ve been asked to push Ellie to the back and everyone at Naughty Dog just flat-out refused,” said Druckmann.

And I actually know that to be a true story. A friend who works there told me about the focus group and what was said about the covers featuring Ellie long before this story came out. It is amazing that Naughty Dog is standing up for this character, and I really hope this can be the game that serves as an example to other developers.

Between this and the recent Twitter movement, I’m starting to see instances of the industry taking itself to task and trying to create a change in how women are viewed in games. It would be awesome if my nieces end up with strong heroines in their games.

I, for one, can’t wait to get to know Ellie.

The Last of Us comes out May 7, 2013, exclusively on PS3.

First appeared on Nerdy But Flirty.

The tragedy at Sandy Hook still echoes strongly in many hearts, mine included. In fact, I didn’t even have the heart to try and write something up about it (which would be appropriate, since video games were brought into the discussion as one of the scapegoats).

I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing.

Then, Commander Bedlam reached out to me to see if NBF would help with something she called Gamers for Sandy Hook, an initiative to raise money for the affected families and community.

Mark Meer (aka the voice of Commander Shepard!) is donating a Skype date with the person who donates the highest amount (in total) on February 6th 2013 at 9 pm EST. You have until January 25th, 2013 at 8 pm EST to try to be the highest donor. Yeah, you read that right…a date with Commander Shepard (if you close your eyes).

Mark isn’t the only voice actor down with the cause. Elias Toufexis, the voice of Adam Jensen from Deus Ex: Human Revolution (and others such as Assassin’s Creed, Splinter Cell, and Need for Speed), shared a video endorsement of Gamers for Sandy Hook

Subscribe to http://www.gamersforsandyhook.org for updated prize information, as I hear there may even be a signed copy of Mass Effect‘s OST in the pipeline!

Click to donate or for more information!

Join us in giving back to a community torn apart. Let’s show them that they are not alone, and that we care.

Article first appeared on NerdyButFlirty.com