Oooooh, Sony's gotta be a tad peeved on this one but just in case you missed it, DMC4 is going to be on the XB 360 as well as the PC.

That's gotta smart.

So remember back a few months ago when Capcom SWORE that it was going to be exclusive to the PS3. Like, the pinky swore to Sony and before God that it was going to never EVER going to have any other home than on the PS3. Well, they lied. They are dirty, rotten, skinky, [I mean in desperate need of a bath] liars... but that's a good thing. Why? Because, more DMC4 madness on more platforms means more likely to have an online component.

Can you imaging Dante and Nero and maybe even Virgil grudge matches over XBLive? What about those old mansion survival modes? Remember those? [I made it 35 levels once... once] Imagine rooms and rooms of those mansions filled with other Live players in a winner takes all type melee battle. Can't imagine it? I hope that Capcom does.

Finish What You Start...

Dante is the main character in the video game franchise Devil May Cry... and Dante is hot. If you put Dante in another game, I'll play it. If you tell me that lord hotness is going to be in a manga, I'm going to find a way to lay my hands on it... and that's what this article is about.

I've just finished reading volumes 1 and 2 of the Devil May Cry 3 manga and I have a few things I want to share with you.

I usually don't do the manga thing. I leave that to Pandalicious and MagicMysticGrl... they know what they are doing. Whenever I get a new manga novel I always start at the wrong end. Yes, that page that annoys most regular manga readers on how to read the panels and start at the other end of the book... yeah, they make that for me. Sorry. But I'm digressing, I need to talk about the manga. I actually liked this manga. It took me a while to get the hang of following the action [as a newb, I find it difficult to track fighting sequences in manga form on occasion] but once I did, I found many of the things I love about the DMC series to be present in the manga.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that the badassedness that is Dante can adequately be conveyed by print alone, but I did appreciate the attempts to include as many Dante-style one-liners in both volumes. There is at least one per page in the manga, but they somehow don't pack the same punch as the one liners in the actual original DMC1 game. If I'm fair, none of the subsequent DMC titles after the first game had Dante dropping the entertainment gold that previously spewed forth from sir I'm-so-hot-I-don't-need-a-shirt. [which is true, he doesn't need a shirt] But Dante was still a rough hero with a vendetta, and I wanted to know more about him.

The two volumes that I read cover some familiar territory: the lore about the legendary knight Sparda, and his twin sons that inherited a great deal of his power... one that embraces his human side, the other his inner demon. The manga traces the storyline set up by the DMC3 game where Vergil seeks out to open the bridge between the world of the demons and humans in order to bring man to his end. Been there done that. What is interesting about the story is the addition of a Madhatter, Alice, and Rabbit character.

The hatter, who speaks in riddles most of the time, is used to set both Vergil and Dante on the path to breaking all the seals needed to bridge together the two worlds of light and dark. The Rabbit ends up being the crutch of Alice, who turns herself over to the dark in order to be older faster. I'm not sure just how Alice will figure in later, but I have an idea. When I get closer to the end I'll tell you what it is and if I was right about it.

My only complaint would have to be the addition of the Enzo character. Enzo is a sidekick for Dante that has been thrown in kind of haphazardly if you ask me. Enzo's job is to set up gigs for Dante. Since when does the Archbishop of Arsewhoop require a middle man? Dante always answered his own phone and was a lone wolf. That's what added to his badassedness in the original game, and made it cool when he teamed up with Trish after defeating Mundis. The only sidekick Dante should ever have is one that is a strong, and bawlzy as he is. Trish and Lady are acceptable partners, a cowardly, sweaty, fat, loser-dude is not. A reaper seriously need to kill Enzo and I'd be happy.

I'm going to give the first two volumes a of the Devil May Cry 3 manga a 2.5/5. The only reason it's not a 3 out of five is that I think the DMC storyline was out there enough without adding the Alice in Wonderland arc to it.

All-in-all, if you've never picked up a manga before and like the Devil May Cry franchise, you should give this manga series a peek.

p.s.
I found this great DMC themed image while looking for the manga artwork, give this dude props for a neat lil SD version of the DMC3 main characters.

Finish What You Start...

It was three whole months ago now that I got my fall issue of Takuhai from Tokyopop. It detailed a whole list of releases for each month. After this November list there will only be one more left, December.


November Releases:
12 Days
Blame! 6
Boys Be... 11
Dears 8
Devil May Cry, Novel 2
!The Dreaming 2
*Elemental Gelade 2
Gatcha Gatcha 3
!GetBackers 16
Gundam Seed X Astray
Happy Feet Cine-manga
!ID_ENTITY 8
!*Immortal Rain 7
Initial D 24
Kat & Mouse 2
The Kindachi Case Files 14
King of Hell 14
Last Fantasy 3
Le Portrait De Petite Cossette 2
!Mark of the Succubus 2
My-Hime
Neck and Neck 6
!Never Give Up 3
Off*Beat 2
One 10
!Otogi Zoshi 2
Peppermint 2
Queens
Recast
Redrum 237 2 (of 3)
Remote 10 (of 10)
Rose Hip Rose
Samurai Deeper Kyo 20 (of 31)
!*Shutterbox 4 (of 6)
*Strawberry Marshmallow 2 (of 4)
Telpathic Wanderers 4 (of 4)
!Satisfaction Garanteed 2 (of 9)
Trinity Blood

The manga I plan to check out in November are Queens and Recast.

Queens is the story about Pil-Hyun Jun, a feminine bishonen trying to learn to be a manly man in order to win over the heart of his crush, Song-Ah Che. Pil-Hyun finds a comicbook "Escape from Being a Pretty-Boy" that reads as an account of his life. He seeks out the author, hoping to learn a thing or two, but the author turns out to be a SHE with sexually over-zealous roommates. Somehow he ends up moving in with the girls in order to learn the art of comicbooks and being a man. Meanwhile his crush is falling in love with a manly jerk.

Recast is about JD, a young boy raised an groomed by his grandfather to become the last hope for the world. He's a terrible student and is far more interested in the newest and most popular magical items than in conflict between good and evil. So when bounty hunters from the Fourth World come after JD and his grandfather will he grow into his powers or die trying?

Finish What You Start...

Seriously, I'm not trying to stir up any trouble here, but I saw this article on the Destructoid site [y'all are the bomb!] and my heart missed a beat.

Ok, more than just one, but you get the general idea. Assassin's Creed [as well as that Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway game have been delayed by Ubisoft. Not indefinitely, but have been delayed in order to help strengthen fiscal year 2007-08. Now, as Dtoid writer Robert Summa reminds us,

"keep in mind that a delay is often a good thing. I'd rather see a polished game than a rush job."

and he's right... but damned if I still ain't twitching over the fact that I'm not going to get my Assassin on as early as I had hoped.

Right now there are not a whole lot of games that I am looking forward to this season like Assassin's Creed. I am not ashamed to say that I want to play Viva Pinata,Rayman: Raving Rabbids, or even that Super Swing Golf game on the Wii, but I have almost been desperate in lust for games like Assassin's Creed and even Devil May Cry 4. Mostly due to my lack of satisfaction with the games I have been playing up until now. You know how disappointed I was with Samurai Warriors 2, and N3 if I'm honest, so my saving grace was the upcoming months with the Wii and PS3 a few weeks out from launch. "Bated breath" doesn't begin to acurately explain how exciting and trembling with an-ticccccci-[SAY IT!]-pation I've been the last couple of days as the nearness of launch day 06 comes closer. How could any gamer not be excited right now? The KOTOR 2 restoration is underway, Phantasy Star Universe drops in three days [3] while Marvel: Ultimate Alliance will beat it to the shelves by a day.

Oh yeah, can't leave out:
Need For Speed Carbon, F.E.A.R,
Gears of War, Tony Hawks Project 8,
Heavenly Sword, Strangelhold,
Ridge Racer 7, Genji: Days of the Blade,
Red Steel, and the hotly desired Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess*
*note, this game list included in depth to aid any and all folks that want to buy, gift, or provide a title to the hard working NinJaSistah.

These are good times to be a gamer... if you have a shugah daddy/momma, six figure job, come from money, or have recently had a winning trip to Las Vegas. When I say I'm broke, I do mean it people. No mon, no fun.

But I, like Mr. Summa over at Dtoid, will hope that this delay will give Ubisoft the time they need to really blow the lid of the action genre on all three next-gen platforms... else I'll be broke-assed and pissed-off which is neither fun for you or my shugah daddy!

Finish What You Start...

I try not to take up "girl gamer issues" while writing for the site, but I've been asked this question so often that broke down and put this together.

Most of my guy friends are gamers, and ask me how they can convert their girlfriend into a gamer. It has always been my belief that all girls are gamers, it's just finding the right game for the right girl. At the same time, I get asked in conversation by my girl gamer friends how they should break it to the guy they are dating/boyfriend that they are a gamer. I am not "Dear Abbey" or [belch] "Dr. Laura" but I offer this as help.

No. 5: Accessory Love
Wear some game related article of clothing or jewelry accessory. Some 1up mushroom earrings, or a t-shirt featuring some well known game character that you like When he notices it, he'll probably mention how cool your earrings/shirt/whatever is and why he thinks it's cool. This is your opening to share your knowledge of games and start the "I've been playing video games since..." conversation.

No. 4: Technology To The Rescue
It might seem simple but let your tech speak for you if you [for whatever reason] don't know how or when to start this conversation. Got a computer? Set your desktop wallpaper background to one from a video game you love playing. There are plenty of game wallpaper resources out there. You can visit the official websites of video games and check out their downloads or media sections for wallpapers, Google image searches, they all work. Or, you can change your ringtone to some well known tune from a video game. Many cell phones today can play MP3's as ringtones, so get you a transfer cable [if neither your computer nor phone have Bluetooth] and slap one of these tunes on your phone. I find it's a definite attention getter, and you'd be amazed how many other gamers you'll "out" using this technique. In any case, either of these things will help get the "I enjoy video games" idea passed on to your man.

No. 3: Magazine Oppsies
Now I have one friend that was terrified that the guy she had been seeing for a couple of months was going to ditch her when he found out she was a gamer. I don't know why but she was absolutely positive he was going to think she was some kind of masculine chick hiding in a petite girl body. I know, it's stupid, but as she went on and on about how she was hiding her game systems before he came over, I realized it was a serious fear in her mind, so I had to help. I told her instead hiding all of her OPM and Computer Gaming magazines, leave a couple out on the coffee table. When the boyfriend comes over, let him in and offer him a seat on the couch by the mags, then excuse yourself to the bathroom to finish getting ready and leave him there with nothing but the gaming mags to keep him entertained while you are away. When asks when you got into gaming [because he's never seen this stuff before] just be honest. Say you've been into gaming for a while and why, and then just say that you put all that stuff away because you didn't want him to think you were weird. I'll all but guaranty that 10 times out of 10 he'll be excited and cool about it.

No. 2: Don't Hide Your Systems.
The same friend from suggestion number 3 was also hiding her game systems every time the dude came over to pick her up. I told her she needed to stop that shit... pulling all those cables out and putting them back a few times a week had to have been a huge PITA. Leave them out. Duh, he'll get the clue. [I told you he would Jenn ;)]

And finally, No. 1: Just Tell Him You're A Gamer.
I know it seems over simplistic, but admitting that you are a gamer is not like owning up to a case of herpes... no one's going to start running for the hills because you like Halo2, and if they do they're an asshole plain and simple. Being a girl an enjoying video games doesn't make you any less feminine, attractive, smart, or anything. It's nothing to be ashamed of, or hide. I'm really tired of having to play 20 questions with women that I meet to find out if they are a gamer. Most of the ones I ask directly if they like video games go all the way round the bush, "Oh, I guess they are ok... I don't really have time to play them... My brother has a system and makes me play with him." But once I get to know them, find out that they are as into gaming as I am and I get a little pissed. I think about all the time we missed out on playing together, sharing game tips, raggin' on Sony and their fanboys, and all because of some stupid presumed stigma of being a girl gamer. Get over it already. A lot of other girl gamers have. There are more and more girl gamer clans out there that actually have some hard core gamers in their clan... if they can be proud to be gamers that happen to be girls, so should you.

As I said, I usually stay away from this kind of topic because I hate being in a position to enable these kinds of feelings in other girl gamers. That being said, I'm also getting tired of the look of astonishment on guy gamers when I tell them I'm a gamer. First I get the look, then I get the "you probably play stuff like Nintendogs and The Sims [which I do] but I also play God of War, Devil May Cry, Amplitude, BloodRayne, Dynasty Warriors, and Zone of The Enders. After that list, the next thing that happens is I get a little respect out of them, and then they want to know how to get their girlfriend into gaming. I say ask your girlfriend if she likes video games. Whenever you are dating with people, especially if you are just starting out, you have that conversation where you talk about all the stuff you like and don't and crap. Bring this up then. "I dig playing video games with people, how about you?" It's short, sweet, and to the point. Here's the hard part: listen closely to the answer. If you get the, "My brother makes me play with him, I think they are cool, but I don't really play all that often" lines just follow up with a, "Would you like to play with me sometime?" Put the ball in her court and don't push. Let her decided if this is an activity that she wants to share with you or not. If she says sure, ask her what kind of game she likes or thinks she would like, don't just make her play something that you have because you're the bomb at it. [She'll think your a controlling douchebag]

And that's that. I've done my good deed for the day in trying to help folks out on both sides of this thing, so no more complaining.

Date, play, and be merry!

Finish What You Start...

Do you have love in your soul for Dante from the Devil May Cry video game series from Capcom?

You do? Well then you will be happy to know that Capcom along with two other partners announced that a new 12 episode Devil May Cry anime series is in the works. I'm not sure what is actually being said in this video from Kotaku, but I'm down for a DMC anime series. Dante is hot! I'd love to know more about him.

Oh yeah, Capcom launched the official DMC4 website so you should skirt yourself over there and check it out. The TGS DMC4 trailer looks great. I want to play this game, NOW! I have gone too long without the pithy one liners and letter grading combo comments that run rampant in the DMC series.

DMC4 now please. Thank you.

Finish What You Start...