Heroman is a boy-meets-robot story, dressed up in red, white, and blue. Literally, our robot hero has a stars and stripes design, and his human buddy is also an American kid.

Some freak occurrence turns the protagonist’s busted toy into the hero robot. That robot then proceeds to punch monsters. HARD.

Creepy robot stare means "love"

If you’re no stranger to giant robot anime, this trailer will not show you any new tricks. The animation is great, as is the action. Stan Lee might have another hit on his hands.

You’ll have to do a bit of navigation through the  Heroman site to get to the trailer. Hit “menu” then “movie.” Watch the punching!

Be sure to pass along this video to your friends and tell them to subscribe!

We also sneak in a bit about God of War 3, Dante’s Inferno, and some of the Infinity Ward/Activision business. Be warned, this episode if chock full of conversation around plot points and twists in Heavy Rain’s gameplay as well as speculation as to how to get specific endings in the game. If you don’t like spoilers, this episode is not for you. Heck, even looking at the following list of titles we came up with and didn’t use might even tick you off, so proceed at your own peril:

• Nice Guys Don’t Finish Heavy Rain
• Panda Likes Peeing Standing Up
• Origamu – I Choose You
• You’re Going to Need to Borrow a Friend’s Fingers for Some Parts
• And finally
• For People Who Hate Kids, Its a Barrel of Laughs

It’s time to grab your favorite beverage and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 187: And Don’t Forget the Sex

If you’re looking for a free MMORPG that still give you the feeling of playing the top dog at the moment, World of Warcraft, then you’ve got to give Allods Online a try.

Allods Online is a 3D Fantasy (elves, orcs, etc.) MMORPG with some interesting Sci-Fi elements, but with a much greater emphasis on fantasy. A planet called Sarnout was destroyed which led to the formation of floating islands in space called Allods. The game feels like WoW and plays like WoW. I was surprised as to how polished this game is. One of the reasons why it’s a joy to play is because almost every detail of it copied from WoW and that’s not a bad thing.

For example, the character creation resembles World of Warcraft, giving you two factions to choose from; either The League or The Empire (Alliance and Horde respectively). Next, you select a race from one of six types; Elves, Gibberlings and a human variation called Kanians for The League, and Orcs, Arisen and another human variation called Xadaganians for The Empire. Once your race is chosen, you can pick one of the eight available classes which are very similar to WoW, but with a little variation. You can choose from a Warrior, Paladin, Scout, Healer, Warden, Mage, Summoner or Psionicist. Certain classes are specific to particular races, and depending on the race you select, your archetype changes completely. For example, if you were to choose to be an Arisen Healer, your class would be Heretic, whereas if you were to choose an Xadaganian Healer, you would be a Inquisitor. Each archetype has its own flavor and style as far as aesthetics and a passive ability which is a great addition to Allods.

Now that your character is created, you’ll begin playing through an instanced story-line tutorial (similar to Lord of the Rings Online) that is unique to each faction. The League takes you through the destruction of their home city as you escape; and The Empire starts you on a flying airship in the midst of battle. If you’re familiar with WoW’s interface, gameplay mechanics, spells, professions, hotkeys, quest markers and style, as well as the equipment screen, then all of the aforementioned will be familiar to you from the jump.

Allods Online isn’t just your cookie-cutter mmo. It introduces a few new elements. The first being fatigue,which puts an twists on WoW’s popular ‘rest’ system. The longer a person spends playing and completing quests, the more fatigue they can accumulate. Fatigue gains at a 1:1 ratio with regular experience. So if killing a mob rewards 50 EXP, you’ll also get 50 Fatigue. Fatigue accumulated can be exchanged at an Innkeeper for additional experience up to a certain amount each day, which essentially creates a soft ‘cap’ on experience each day. You can continue playing and leveling even after hitting the daily cap on fatigue, but EXP will be gained at 50% of the normal rate because they won’t be able to exchange fatigue for EXP.

Allods also brings a new dynamic with the death system. When you die you’ll automatically be taken to Purgatory, and required to wait there to be resurrected. There are penalties applied at later levels, sort of like WoW, but minus the corpse run. You just respawn at the nearest resurrection point. At first look, the talent system seems identical to WoW, but with a little more detail. Every time you level up, you receive a point, which can then be used to purchase a new skill or upgrade a current one. Also like WoW, progression through the talent tree is dependent on set point goals. Leveling in Allods is SLOW. It took me about 5 hours of consistent playing to reach level 8, but I really didn’t mind because there are so many quests to complete which alleviates the “grinding” aspect popular to most Korean MMO’s. Also, quest locations and turn-in points are marked on your map, which is also something I love.

I’m not big on PVP, but for the sake of a well-rounded review, I gave it a try. Some areas of the world are always open to PVP. So enter the zone at your own risk. Others sections require you to ‘flag’ yourself (much like WoW), effectively saying that you’d like to PvP. However, in the sections where you are required to flag to PvP, players who are flagged earn 110% experience from enemies, whereas those players who do not, only earn 90%. Also, Allods has an Airship PvP system, which puts you in control of an flying ship doing air battles and boarding an enemy player’s ship to fight them, with loot from the ship’s hold being available to you if you win. I’ve yet to experience the Airship battles because I’m not high enough in level, but I’m looking forward to giving it a go. There’s also arena based PvP for those interested in that.

Overall, Allods Online is an extremely impressive free-to-play MMO. Despite the occasionally lag issues and interface glitches, it’s a very enjoyable MMO that I’m having trouble walking away from because of it’s amazing visuals, impressive gameplay, and barrage of quests. This is hands down the best free to play MMO out there, in my opinion, and definitely worth a download for those looking for something new, but still familiar.

I must’ve woken up in Bizarro World; that’s the only explanation. Here I am watching a Yuri anime comedy that not only isn’t perverted, but it contains an actual plot?! AND IT’S GOOD?! Yes, boys and girls, miracles can happen, and 2009’s Sasameki Koto is surely one of them.

Based on the manga series by Takashi Ikeda Sasameki Koto (translated as “Whispered Words”) follows two childhood friends: Sumika and Ushio. Sumika is in love with Ushio, but can’t figure out how to properly tell her. It also doesn’t help that Ushio only likes “cute girls,” whereas Sumika is tall and athletic. During their stay in high school they come across another lesbian couple (Tomoe and Miyako) and the cross-dressing Masaki, who only does it to catch the attention of Sumika (whom he has a huge crush on), but is blackmailed into doing modelling under the alias of Akemi after his sister discovers. Ushio sees the photos, and quickly falls in love with the man in girl’s clothing. So to recap: Sumika loves Ushio, Ushio loves Akemi (who is really Masaki) and Masaki loves Sumika. I’d make a Zero Punctuation-like chart for you, but I can’t draw to save my life.

I have so far watched nine out of the thirteen episodes, and I will admit that the show starts off slow. The opener where Ushio falls for a second-year student is the weakest episode in the series, but I will give it credit for pulling off some some dramatic elements to the show. Episodes dealing with Sumika and Ushio’s first kisses and “forbidden love” have been done before in many other series, but here we see it with a more touching element to it (and I will have to admit the scene after the end credits in the first kiss one made me fall out of my chair laughing). One complaint I do have with the series is the character Azusa, the yuri fanatic. I wouldn’t say that she’s a bad character, but she shares too much of the same appearance and attitude as Akane from Kanokon. If you want proof, just look below:

Left: Akane from Kanokon, Right: Azusa from Sasameki Koto

Can you spot the difference? Well neither can I! However I can easily overlook this similarity for two reasons; the first being that there are a lot of anime series that feature characters that are similar to Azusa. The other reason is that of what happens in Episode Nine of the series. It deals with Azusa writing her own Yuri novel, and at first it seems like another comedic episode with an epic punchline waiting to happen. Instead, however, you’re brought into this girl’s world and seeing how lonely she is. (Don’t worry, it has a happy ending.) It shows how to properly evolve a two-dimensional character without going an unrealistic route.

As a whole Sasameki Koto works in many ways, and can in fact be used as a teaching tool of sorts for those that don’t yet have a concept of love within the GLBT community. Also as a friend to those that are gay, lesbian, bisexual or any of the other demographics I can say with all my mind and heart that Sasameki Koto does same-sex love justice. It’s sweet, funny, touching and above-all just plain good and down-to-earth. Granted it may be a bit predictable, but a lot of romantic comedies are like that.

Sasameki Koto earns itself an A. Those that are curious to watch it can view it on the show’s Crunchyroll page.

This is a massive week, because there are a couple of big demos available. My first of 3 good demos is Darksiders: Wrath of War.

Read on!

Dante’s Inferno got quite a bit of crap for being a blatant God of War clone. If it had done it like Darksiders, maybe it would have been taken more seriously.  Darksiders is inspired by action titles like GoW, but it also does more exploration, which also lead to it being compared to The Legend of Zelda.

Darksiders is its own monster, though. First off, main character War looks more like he belongs in Gears of War or Starcraft, and not an action adventure game. You can thank comics artist Joe Maduiera for those designs.

Darksiders is about War, one of the four horsemen, after he has been betrayed. Being, you know, the GOD OF WAR, he has quite a varied selection of weapons available to him. In the demo, I was surprised that I had so many weapons I could use.

Besides the character design, the colors are also what stands out. This is quite a brilliantly colored game. There may be monsters and dreary locales, but that doesn’t stop Darksiders from looking pretty.

This demo was really good, if a bit late. Darksiders was available in stores a while before this game came out, but putting out this demo was a good idea. Now I want to at least rent this game!

Speaking of the God of War, here’s God of War 3!

The big daddy of third person beat-em ups is back for its third (and most likely, last) iteration. When you first play the demo, you may feel like it’s more of the same, but there are both massive graphical improvements and a big dialing up of the gore.

Now that I think of it, maybe the Darksiders demo was deliberately released at the same time as the God of War 3 demo? Pretty sneaky!

OK, back to the gore. This is only a demo, but I think it’s safe to say that Kratos is not playing around. If guts spilling out makes you queasy, you can be excused from playing GoW 3.

To catch you up on the GoW 3 story, Kratos is mad. VERY MAD! You start the demo with all the weapons Kratos forcibly ripped from various gods, men and monsters. As the demo continues, it only gets more difficul. The hardest part is when you use your wings to navigate through a deadly maze, which angered and fired me up all at once.

If you avoided God of War for this long, I think you can still pick this up without knowing about the previous plot points. It helps to know why Kratos is so mad that he would rip peoples’ heads off, but it’s not absolutely necessary.  If you don’t play this demo, Kratos will probably feed you your own spine. Probably.

Digger HD

I feel like my Good Demo/Bad Demo premise is slipping away from me, because I didn’t think Digger HD was bad at all. It hearken’s back to the past, but now it’s a side-scrolling game with 3d character models.

Digger HD is good for people who want to purchase a title that hits their nostalgia spot. You might also want to show your kids what they missed out on in the  “good ol’ days.” Everyone else should steer clear. This is a simple game where you roam around like Pac Man, collecting riches and avoiding underground monsters.

That’s it for this week. Next week is Just Cause 2!

This is a cops-n-robbers MMORPG, with a ton of style and customization. Basically, it’s a mish-mash of all of the post GTA 3 Grand Theft Auto games. It’s somewhat unfair to compare APB to GTA, but it is a favorable comparison.

You can drive cars, shoot guns, create gangs with other players, and all that fun stuff. From all I have seen, I have high hopes for this game making waves in the  ranks of the MMO genre, which is cluttered with games that have yet to move out of Clicheville. Crimecraft, the most similar title to APB, tried the criminal theme and basically crashed on takeoff. APB, at least, has style on its side.

News has come down from Sony that a fix for PlayStation Network’s version of Y2K will be solved in 24 hours. What does that mean for you, my fellow PS3 Fat owners?

Well:

a) Tread lightly on what you decide to do on your PS3. Users have reported loss of game saves and trophies due to this Playstation 3 error.

b) You’re not going online!

c)Probably no Netflix streaming through your PS3. I’m not sure about that one, but I’m too scared. to do ANYTHING on my console!

4) I’m just seeing if you’re paying attention

So, until tomorrow, it’s a wrap for using the full capabilities of your PlayStation. Slim users? Go about your business! Nothing to see here.

This episode of the podcast contains clips of the ladies talking about various movies over the past year which we thought would be a great way to ramp up to the Oscars. That, and we are still emotionally recovering from Heavy Rain. Some of the flicks we talk about include:

• The Dark Knight
• Iron Man
• Face Off
• Doom
• Wild Hogs
• Hancock
• X-Men 3
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Alice In Wonderland
• and other nerdy type comic book movies.

It’s a fun little collection of bits, and be sure to holler at us on Twitter and tell us what you think. Next week we’ll be chatting about our Heavy Rain experiences as well as the PSN downtime and upcoming PAX East plans.

Until then, kick back and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 186: The Sistah’s Go To The Movies

When Pandalicious, Nenya and I went and saw Amanda Palmer perform with the Boston Pops this past New Year’s Eve, we headed on over to the bar for some drinks. To our surprise we discovered an up-and-coming ragtime band by the name of April Smith and the Great Picture Show performing in-between Symphony Hall’s two bars. After I downed an Appletini I went and pre-ordered their upcoming album Songs For A Sinking Ship, which arrived at my doorstep this past week.

Opening with the cheerful “Movie Loves a Screen,” Ms. Smith makes the listeners clap their hands and sway their hips to a happy beat with a ukulele and trumpet backing her soulful voice. “Terrible Things” creeps in and grooves like a band of dancing skeletons and the spirit of a New Orleans funeral (and I mean that in the most positive way possible), with Smith saying that “she can’t help” doing these things that seem to bring pain to others and joy to herself. “Drop Dead Gorgeous” comes off sounding like a vengeful Motown tune that could’ve fit perfectly with the Little Shop of Horrors musical (perhaps a duet between Audrey & Audrey II).

“Can’t Say No” shows off Ms. Smith’s vulnerability, and whether that’ll help or hurt her chances to finding the right man (or woman, if she swings that way) is yet to be seen; but even when she coos like a dove you can tell that she’s ready to pounce like a cheetah. “What’ll I Do,” I’m sure, will one day be played during wedding receptions, as it is perfect for slow couples dancing. “Colors” brings listeners back to the days of vaudeville and swing, and even sounds like a happy sea shanty waiting to happen. On top of that it’s got one a great chorus that you will not be able to get out of your head for days.

Starting off like a James Bond theme song, “Dixie Boy” has April Smith shows off her claws and tears into any woman who even looks at her man in any way. She sings “when it comes to my boy, I will fight like a man” as if her enemy is in sight, and proclaims that she “can be a bitch when it comes” to her stuff like it’s nobody’s business. (Ladies beware: keep your damn hands off her man, or she’ll bite your head off!) “The One That Got Away” has Ms. Smith seemingly not care about the man in her life leave her, as it will be more of a mistake on his part than her’s. The electric guitar solo plays like an alley cat sauntering on a broken fence, knowing that it’s in danger of falling but not caring in the least bit. It’s sly and cool, even at its most defenseless moment.

“Beloved” is Sinking Ship’s most ravishing track, with Smith’s powerful voice backed with a lovely string section. You can just feel her heart break as she says she’ll “gladly settle for your ghost,” and whether or not this is a metaphor for an unrequited love or if April lost someone near and dear to her has yet to be determined. Still it’s April Smith at her strongest point. She goes 180 with her emotions with “Wow and Flutter,” which brings the listeners back to her jaunty self. She sings she’ll “have her cake and eat it too,” which perfectly fits the motive of Songs For A Sinking Ship. April Smith will dabble with many melodies and different emotional points, and will still manage to make them her own with ease. “Stop Wondering” closes the album, bringing — or waltzing — the sinking ship back to safe harbor after its wondrous journey, with a crescendo of carousel-like music and Smith proclaiming that she’s “got better things to do.” With that final comment Ms. Smith and company leaves the listeners craving for more.

Clocking in at just 34 minutes April Smith and the Great Picture Show’s debut manages to already be one of 2010’s best albums. Its playful tones mixed with a bit of heartbreak here and there help breathe new life into the realm of pop folk. Now I don’t expect them to sell out arenas or stadiums, nor do I think she’ll become an overnight sensation. However Ms. Smith and the gang will have no problem whatsoever finding an audience for their music, and Songs For A Sinking Ship is a fantastic album to get her and the rest of the band on the right track to the fame and notoriety they rightfully deserve. A perfect opening chapter for the Great Picture Show? Bitch, please! But it’s pretty damn close.

**** ½ (out of five)

Hit the jump to peep it.

Yakuza 3!!! Yakuza, for the U.S., is the little open world beat-em-up that could, with sequels that were in danger of  not coming to our shores. Now there’s the Yakuza 3 demo, which puts me in a precarious position, since I haven’t beaten Yakuza 2 yet.

If you love low resolution images taken straight off a TV screen, then you’re gonna love these Yakuza 3 demo pics!

If this is your first time ever hearing of the Yakuza games, I first want to say that I think you are in for some fun gameplay. Yakuza is made by our eastern cousins, and once you play it, there will be no doubt of that. There are some Japanese games that prefer content over style, and Yakuza 3 still has a “budgety” feel to it, where you get stuck in a combo animation once you trigger it, and the stock bad guys would feel at home in Final Fight.

Yakuza has grown a lot from the last time I’ve seen it, though. Your camera control is no longer restricted, your weapon set-up has allowed you to switch weapons on the fly, and there is the graphical face-lift. Still, the game feels a bit stiff and of the previous generation.

When it comes to kicking ass, thought, it doesn’t matter much what the game looks like. It’s a joy to be able to take on a bunch of goons with any object in your sight, and when that doesn’t work, use your fists and feet.

Each weapon you carry or pick up has a certain strength and number of times it can be used before it breaks. Unarmed, you can gradually upgrade your strength, learning new moves and combos. Our hero, Kazuma Kiryu, does some amazing moves, which is what makes me love this series. A fight can go as easy or as hard as you let it, limited only on your imagination and the skills at your disposal.

There are two issues I struggle with:

1. Why is Kazuma still slumming around the same neighborhood? We’re up to the second sequel and he’s still running around the same streets? I guess that makes it easy for newbies to pick up any of the series and get the same experience as people who’ve played more.

2. Why does anyone screw with or doubt Kazuma Kiryu? This is the 24 disease, where someone will look down on Jack Bauer, even though he’s saved America countless times! Well, bring it on, gangsters. Kazuma’s got a dropkick with your name on it!

This would make you think that Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing would be the bad demo for this week, especially since Sonic has fallen out of favor recently; but I don’t have too much issue with the game.

This is Sonic’s Mario Kart, so I think that it’s good for gamers who want a detour from standard action fare or are looking for a family friendly title.

You are most likely familiar with the whole Sonic cast, but the rest of the lineup might be confusing for you. A lot of the Sega characters are from the Dreamcast era of Sega, so if you missed out on the lifetime of that console, you might not pick one of these characters from the short-lived beloved console.

This is a simple racing game, complete with the crazy special moves and power ups that are now standard for a game like this. After the great introductory animation, don’t expect much more from this game. The fun will be in playing against other people in multiplayer or against friends/family locally.

I grew up loving audio. My uncle was a DJ and had the most amazing vinyl collection I had ever seen in my life. My dad was a huge tech fan, especially when it came to speakers so monkeying around with turntables, speakers and microphones was second nature to me by the time I was 12. When I stop to think about it, the fact that I have ended up in working in the IT industry and host an internet audio show should come as no surprise to anyone including myself. But back to the topic at hand, the Yeti.

Blue Microphones [founded in 1995] has been focused on studio recording since Apple dropped the first version of their GarageBand application, and over the years they have created a strong lineup of microphones spanning the spectrum from enthusiast to professional audio producer. Before my trip to CES I was only partially familiar with their brand having taught podcasting while I worked for Apple Inc Retail, I often recommended the Blue Microphone SnowBall mic as a great sounding, highly portable and affordable interview or starter microphone to many a customer. I would often demo some of the other microphones in store against the SnowBall and internal microphone options and more times than not a customer left with a SnowBall. I even purchased a SnowBall for myself last year which I fell in love with and used regularly to record the ESH podcast before giving it to Pandalicious. You might ask why I would give up a mic that I obviously liked and was happy with, but the title pretty much gives it away: I have replaced my SnowBall with a Yeti and I’m damned happy with the results.

Before my visit with Blue Microphones at CES 2010 I had not really investigated their lineup of microphones which is surprisingly deep. Blue has microphones for mobile recording on the go (the Mikey for iPhone users and the SnowFlake for laptops), products aimed at the prosumer market (which includes the SnowBall and the Yeti) and a drool-worthy lineup of professional grade microphones that look great but also contain internal hardware designed to be perfect for very specific types of recording. I plan to do a write up of some of their more pro level mics down the road but I want to get back to the Yeti.

Overall, I have been very happy with the audio quality that my SnowBall gave me over the last year, but I typically record my audio for the ESH podcast in a guest bedroom that I have been slowly turning into a nerdcave. While my nerdcave is definitely coming along (I need to nerd out the walls a bit because they are quite drab so hit me up if you have any suggestions for wall coverings) it creates a heck of a echo for me when I record, egg-crating the room though I’d like to is neither finically feasible nor allowed by my apartment complex so I really needed an alternative to help with the sound issue.

They Yeti is one of the most diverse USB microphones I’ve ever used. Under the hood, the Yeti has 3 condenser capsules and sports four polar patterns for recording: Cardioid, Bidirectional, Omnidirectional and Stereo. The microphone also has a separate gain control on the back, mute button, and stereo mini-jack out for monitoring purposes. What grabbed my attention immediately when looking at this mic were the polar patterns as the hardware “dampening” or “sweeting” my audio recordings was exactly what I was hoping to find in a new microphone and the Yeti was much easier on my wallet than then Shure microphone I was researching at the time. Not to mention it is THX certified and very sleek looking. Sexy.

I wish I could say I completely tested the Yeti before writing this review. The fact of the matter is that I personally have little use for the stereo or omnidirectional pattern recording modes. I’m not going to be making or recording any ensemble or concerts/live band performances anytime too soon, but I did spend a bunch of time testing the cardioid and bidirectional modes which are great for podcast and interview type sessions respectively and the audio quality was much improved over my past recordings of these types which include our shows like our E3 episode. The Yeti is sensitive to sound coming at it, but not aggressively. During a recording session you won’t find a need to be “on top of the mic” or play with its position in order to get the sound levels you’d like, but the built in monitor out will be a huge help in checking levels before you hit that record button should that sweet spot elude you.

Really, the only downside I could come up with with this mic is its weight: this is not a mic to throw in your backpack for the day. While the stand and mic come in at a total weight of 3.4 pounds it is a solid 3.4 pounds. If you are rolling with a laptop, power cables and this sucker you will be getting one hell of a cardiovascular workout. Honestly, that kind of use is not really what the Yeti is designed for so I can’t really knock it for that. you can unmount the microphone from the base and screw it into a stand (similar to the SnowBall’s tripod stand if you have ever seen or used it) and it does fold into itself to help it conserve space on your desk and that should really be enough.

Sleek design, USB 1.1 with Mac and PC compatibility, a plethora of specialized supported recording modes with insane affordability ($149.99 USD) and the Yeti is hard to pass up if you are interested in getting into podcasting or starting a band in your garage or basement.

There’s only one demo that made a big splash on the PSN, and that is Heavy Rain. If you think that adventure games, detective noir, and quick time events are like a thousand ants crawling on your leg, this is not the game for you.

Still,  I would say that even if you are cautious about playing a game that is not constantly full of excitement, you should still take a chance on the demo.

Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain’s spiritual ancestor, was about uncovering a larger mystery, with occasional quick time events. Heavy Rain takes it even further, where you can access the characters thoughts, trigger certain lines of questioning and, at times, do some character specific actions. So there is a lot more to do, but it’s still pretty slow paced in comparison to games of other genres.

There are many characters to play as, and in the demo you get to play a PI and an FBI agent. Playing the Private Investigator gives you an inkling of how this game differs from Indigo Prophecy, and the FBI portion shows you how far this type of gameplay has come.

When you play as the FBI agent, you get to use the ARI system, a pair of glasses and a glove that allow you to analyze a crime scene, access records and follow trails (like pollen or footprints). Your glove is what lights up the area and exposes potential clues for you, but it only exposes a certain area. If you don’t look around enough, you could miss some important clues. Even during conversations, options will pop up that you might miss, and you will never be able to ask them again.

Heavy Rain will be very challenging, and I will admit I had slight frustration. Sometimes doing the right command (especially circular motions with the analog stick) is tricky, and having time limits will freak you out!

As long as I’m talking negatives, let’s talk the voice talent. In the PI segment, you meet a “lady of the night” whose son was murdered. Her acting is on the edge of being downright terrible. It also sounds like English is not her first language. It’s the same with the FBI agent, who doesn’t sound like an American. His acting is all over the place. At most, he’s mediocre. We do have the PI, who is a really good actor and felt like a great fit for this game. I hope that we are in for more acting of his caliber, and not like the rest.

Heavy Rain is practically a buy for me, but I’ll be starting with a rental. With so many good games that I have yet to play, I don’t want another one sitting on my shelf.

This is my good demo, and the only new demo for this week.

If you enjoy these video excerpts, please click the Subscribe button on the YouTube page. It would certainly help us out.

We all know that online gamers can be tools. We expect them to be. But what happen when it seems an Xbox Live moderator is abusing his power. Controversy ensues!

Let me start by saying that the “victim” has performed some serious editing to the following video, which he says is due to audio issues, but could quite possibly be to make himself seem like, well, a victim.  Even though the accused moderator, who goes by the gamertag “The Pro”, was being antagonistic, the edit job is cause for an eyebrow raise.

The Pro : XBOX Live Moderator Abuses His Power

Xbox Live Chief of Police, Steven “Stepto” Toulouse says he “will certainly speak to The Pro about his tone” and any banning mentioned in the video was in reference to those caught modding the Modern Warfare 2 gameplay. Toulouse also recognizes “the audio is clearly recut to omit the threats and ToU (Terms of Use) violations” made towards the moderator.

It could go either ways folks, but I simply think the buy was busted for violating Terms of  Use (ToU) and edited the video to swing things his way, BUT on the other hand, The Pro was out of line with his threats and taunts so should be disciplined as well.

Galford's dog, Poppy, from the Samurai Showdown series

Rush from the Megaman series

Your dog (whatever you name him) from Fable 2

Dogmeat from Fallout 3

Shadow from the Dead to Rights series

So that’s all I can think-

Dammit!

In this episode of the podcast the ladies of ESH talk about Visceral Games newly released title Dante’s Inferno and its drive to be not be God of War. NinJa starts off the hour with a run down of the game and it’s mechanics, similarities and non-similarities to other action-rpg games like Devil May Cry. Be warned, NinJa has some rants about this game that will spoil a few things for you so don’t listen to this episode if you don’t like spoilers.

Pandalicious talks a bit about the soothing and calming experience she’s been having at the end of the day playing flOw on the PS3 made by thatgamecompany and then adds in her hopes and dreams and giddiness over the newly released and release pending Resident Evil 5 DLC packs Lost in Nightmares and Desperate Escape.

The ladies also talk about President Obama’s comment about American kids playing video games while kids from other countries are learning the math and science to make video games. It’s a charged conversation for sure. Need a little more incentive to grab this episode? Check out some of the titles we came up with for this episode but didn’t use:

• Punish or Absolve? It’s a Perfect Game for Lent
• The Walls Have WHAT? You Don’t Want to Know
• What’s Satan Got to Lose? He’s Already in Hell
• and finally
• If You’re Fighting in a Volcano, You Don’t Care What’s Happening Elsewhere

So grab that cup of whatever it is that you enjoy drinking while you listen to our podcast and enjoy Electric Sista Hood Podcast Episode #185: The Story is Very Gripping – and That’s Not All That Grips

As I have grown disappointed of the anime industry in the past year, I decided to search for a couple series that have yet to be licensed in America that were released before the “anime crash.” One show that I came across via Crunchyroll was called Skip Beat, and man is it shiny.

Skip Beat follows the story of Kyoko, a girl who thinks that she’s living with her dream prince of an actor Sho Fuwa, her childhood friend.  However, she soon finds out that Sho was merely using her as a maid so he wouldn’t have to do anything for himself, revealing that he’s quite the bastard in a basket.  “If you want to get revenge on me,” Sho states, “you’ll have to go into showbiz.”  With those words from that heartless assclown Kyoko changes her image, and becomes a completely different person.  After countless auditions and failed attempts, one agency decides to hire her, and creates a new branch specifically for Kyoko called “Love-Me.”  Unfortunately, this sort of “Love-Me” is an insult to her personality, but nevertheless Kyoko does everything she can in order to become a bigger star than Sho.

For a girl’s anime, Skip Beat has a lot of stuff that us guys can enjoy.  The humor and silly fight sequences will have anyone falling off their seats laughing.  Even though the rise to stardom portrayed here isn’t that realistic the way everything just seems to fit into place is fun to watch.  The characters, though exaggerated a bit, are very humanistic; and Kyoko can even be served as a role model for those who want to be famous, but worry that they don’t quite have what it takes.  Granted some of the bits here have been done before in past series like Kodocha and a little bit in Honey & Clover, but we can forgive this sort of repeat because it’s somewhat standard in shojo series.

“Skip Beat” earns an A-, and you can watch all the episodes here in America online on Crunchyroll. It’s funny, touching and definitely something that both men and women can relate to; especially if they are looking to get into the acting business.

Love, the Quel Solaar procedural MMO, is ending its beta sign-up period and it will open up to the public about  month from now.The creator puts a $10 (just about) price tag on monthly access, so if you want to see whether the game is worth buying, your last chance to suing up for the 5 euro version is within 2 days.

Jason David Frank MMA Debut

You’ve seen the trailer, now stare at some pictures! The Japanese Tekken movie site has nearly two dozen pictures available, with some of the characters who will be fighting on the big screen. Here are those who have shown up in the trailer and pics so far:

Christie Montiero

Raven

Eddy Gordo

Marshall Law

Heihachi Mishima

Jin Kazama

Kazuya Mishima

Bryan Fury

Anna Williams

Steve Fox

Nina Williams

Lee Chaolan

Yoshimitsu

Changes you’ll notice is that, first, obviously, this would most likely take place during Tekken 5, so we’ll get an abridged history of the crazy Mishima clan before we learn about Jin Kazama and his quest for revenge.

You will also notice the absence of Ling Xiaoyu, the happy-go-lucky Chinese martial artist who paled around with Jin. Fan Fic writers are going crazy because Ling and Jin seemed like a match, but Christie and Jin have barely any tie to one another. Ling hasn’t shown up in any form so far, so you might now get your hopes up to have her show up at all.

Expect more disappointment like that, because it looks like the new generation is getting the shine over the classic fighters who have shown up since the original game. We can always hope for a cameo!

Those of you interested in tentacle rape are going to be disappointed, but we think you’ll enjoy it anyway. We’re planning many more of these kinds of videos, so be sure to click the “Subscribe” button so you’ll always be notified.

And be sure to tell all your friends.

In this episode of the podcast, NinJaSistah and Pandalicious talk about video game franchises and sequels on the current console generation and the observed emergence of a new video game genre, “psychological thriller.” The conversation then turns to re-defining the “mature” game label and ponies.

Need a bit more convincing that this episode is interesting, check out some of the titles we came up with, but didn’t use:

• Losing a Finger for Valentine’s Day
• I Know All About Horses – I’ve Read Animal Farm
• See SAW? Not Me
• and finally
• Shepard. Space Jesus

It’s time again to grab your favorite beverage and enjoy ESH Podcast Episode 184: We Want Everything Under the Sun (And a Pony)!

I find that most anime series dealing with butlers have been both successful and entertaining. Hayate the Combat Butler, They Are My Noble Masters and Kuroshitsuji are three fine examples of butler-based anime series that prove my point. When I heard about Ladies versus Butlers!, I thought I was going to watch a great comedy that would help turn the anime world away from the funk it got itself into last year. Alas, I was dead wrong.

Based on the light novel series by Tsukasa Kōzuki, Ladies versus Butlers! follows the adventures random pointless moments of Akiharu, a new transfer student and butler-wannabe that everyone assumes is a delinquent by Day One. How, you may ask? Let’s see…how about every single screw-up that can happen in a harem series taking place in ten minutes. No lie, there’s breast-grabbing, chase sequences and girls being stripped of clothing. On top of that, once the craziness is over the animators decide to add a pointless scene of the female characters bathing nude without the conspicuous fog covering their bodies. Usually that spells “must-see TV,” but here it reads “writers came up with nothing, so let’s just have a dumb irrelevant chase sequence followed by a worthless fan-service cut-away.”

On top of all that nonsense it appears that Akiharu is one of only five boys at this high school for etiquette. They use the “strict requirements” excuse, which means another harem may be on the horizon. Out of all the female characters, two seem to be the main focus of LxB. The first is Tomomi, who is a childhood friend of Akiharu, who behind that cute smile is the sinister snicker of a devil. The other is Selnia, who just about is the fall girl to almost every one of Akiharu’s screw-ups (no thanks to Tomomi). Only one maid, Sanae, seems to have the spotlight on her side; and what a surprise: she’s clumsy and always manages to have her naughty bits rubbing up accidentally in Akiharu’s face.

I managed to get through two episodes of Ladies versus Butlers, and so far there seems to be no plot to be found. To be honest I could care less to stick around to find out if there is one. Sure the animation is great, but just because it looks nice doesn’t mean you should sit put and watch it. I know anime is supposed to be fantasy, but there needs to be some sort of realism in it. Alas, there is none to be found. It must’ve ran away with the comedy part of the show, which LxB is also lacking. This anime just seems to want to do one thing: fan-service, which is what about 85% of anime last year wanted to do. Apparently anime fans in Japan have yet to discover what Kevin Smith likes to call “quasi-indie films.” (Read his Chasing Dogma comic to see what I mean.)

Ladies versus Butlers has “earned” itself a D-. I guess all that boobage was doing its best to hide the fact that it’s a craptacular show, but sadly it didn’t work this time around. If the anime world keeps making series of this sort, there may be little to no hope of rescuing it from its never-ending creative block.