Electric Sista Hood :: Video Game Reviews, Tech Gadget Reviews, and Anime Reviews

Out With the Old and In With the New

posted @ 2/20/2007 10:46:00 PM by Douceswild

The time has come for me to upgrade one of my gaming machines. My computer needed to be beefed up so I thought I’d give you a before and after look at the past and present of my PC transformation.

My computer has been in need of an overhaul for the longest time. I’ve just been putting it off because it has been getting the job done as far as gaming and internet browsing, so I saw no need to drop the cash on a better system. My GeForce 128MB MX 4000 PCI graphics card and 512MB of RAM was more than enough to keep World of Warcraft running decently and looking good on the Dell Intel Pentium 4, 2.20GHz processor, and 60gig hard drive kept the machine operating smoothly. It came with a 17” flat screen Dell monitor that looks pretty sweet.

I’ve had my eye on another MMORPG named Vanguard Saga of Heroes but after some research, I found that my system was barely meeting the minimum requirements to run it at a playable performance. After some research on some new parts, I found out that it would probably be cheaper (and safer) to purchase a new system rather than attempt to upgrade my current one.

As of last Friday, I am the proud owner of a Compaq Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz processor with 1gig of RAM, 160gig hard drive, and a GeForce NX 6600 LE 256MB graphics card. This baby is running Windows Vista Ultimate and I’m loving it. I can’t believe I waited so long to get this done. As soon as I fired it up, I noticed the difference in video playback and internet performance. I was completely floored to notice the improvements in graphics when I booted up World of Warcraft on my Phillips/Magnavox 32” widescreen LCD HDTV monitor. The game was good-looking before, but now it’s absolutely gorgeous. The new MMORPG, Vanguard, installed and loaded up with no problems, but I’ll get into more details on that once I do my review of the game after the initial trial month.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that my new computer is nowhere near the top of the line uber systems that are on the market, but as for what I need out of a computer at the moment, this baby does deliver. I look forward to bringing you more gaming, anime, and gadget news from this machine and to all of those who are unfortunate to come across me in WoW PvP Battlegrounds now, I only have these words for you.

YOU BETTER RUN AND HIDE, ARTARDS!!

Labels: Computers, Douceswild, PC-Games, Upgrade

Finish what you start...

Cingular (The New AT&T) Really Raises the Bar

posted @ 1/31/2007 11:28:00 PM by Douceswild

This years Macworld brought news of what is sure to be one of the hottest gadgets of 2007, Apple’s iPhone. It was also announced that Cingular would be the only cell phone company carrying the phone for a long time. Douce is here to fill you in on what Cingular has planned for its release.

I’m sitting at CC’s drinking a cup of coffee and pecking away on my laptop when I hear a guy and a girl sitting one both over from me talking about Apple’s new iPhone. I’m going to use fictitious names because even though I was eavesdropping, I have no clue what their names are. I hear Pete tell Sue that he can’t wait until the iPhone comes out in June. Sue says she’s seen it and she can’t wait to pick one up either but she’s not sure if the phone will work with her T-Mobile service because the phone will be exclusive to Cingular. Pete assures her that if she just goes in to a Cingular store and purchases one at retail price then he can get it unlocked for her. Pete goes on to say that he has Cingular service but isn’t eligible for an upgrade until the end of 2008, meaning that he renewed his Cingular contract at the end of 2006 for two years and received a discount on a new cell phone. He will not be eligible for another discount for two years.

As I listen to Pete and Sue make plans to get the iPhone in June, I can’t help but snicker to myself for a number of reasons. There are a few kinks in their plans that I wanted to make them aware of but I didn’t because it was so darn funny. Here is what Pete and Sue will find out about the iPhone sooner or later, but hopefully sooner.

1. Cingular is not allowing the purchase of the iPhone WITHOUT a two-year contract. In other words, you no get Cingular service, you no get Cingular iPhone from Cingular store.
2. Even if you currently have Cingular service, if you are not eligible for an upgrade then you cannot purchase the phone. Again, no two-year contract, no iPhone. Retail purchase is not an option.

Cingular may decide to change these regulations as the release date gets closer, but as of right now, all I can do is snicker at Pete and Sue and shake my head.

Poor Pete. Poor Sue. Cingular raised that bar even higher. I hope you can jump.

Labels: Apple, Cingular, Douceswild, Gadgets, iPhone, Upgrade

Finish what you start...

Soul Calibur 3

posted @ 12/04/2006 07:42:00 PM by geekwoman

Soul Calibur 3 Review by Geek Woman

Soul Calibur 3 is a fighting game that is an exclusive on the PS2. That was a big disappointment for many people. On the whole it is a truly great fighter. There are some problems with it, as there are with any game. It is a quality offering considering that we are in the twilight days of the reign of the PS2.

Games that are vast and that have achieved a level of praise from gamers on previous installments, have a rough time of it when something like a third sequel is finally rolled out. That can go several ways. The game could just be terrible for many reasons. Sometimes a sequel isn't finished, and it doesn't have the depth that early versions of game had when the developers were trying to curry favor. This is not the case with SC3. It is almost too vast this time. It falls into that trap of trying to be the "everything for everybody" game. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it means they are trying to give you more stuff for your money. The good intentions don't always translate well. The addition of a real time strategy (RTS) game into the mix largely failed.

Not all game play modes are available from the start of the game. Many of the characters move lists have been changed which apparently has p'oed the hardcore fans to no end. Why would the developers of a much loved franchise do something like switch up the moves? It would seem that since the game is exclusively for PS2, that it was directed mainly at an existing fan base. Why mess with them?

OK counter to most reviews that you read which tell you the good stuff first, we've gotten the only two bad points about this game out of the way. First of all there is tons of content. Some of it is lousy granted, but still you won't run out of things to do. There are several new characters. Three of them are introduced right off. Access to the other new characters is gradual. There is new game-play, and the new modes too. If you have played Soul Calibur before you won't really be disappointed. If you haven't played any Soul Calibur games yet, get it or rent it.

Soul Calibur 3 has some of the most fun and interesting female characters in gaming today. Each one has a complete move-list. They have a selection of weapons that upgrade. You can buy more weapons, and armor. There are several costumes for each avatar.

Best of all is the character creation feature. You can design an avatar that suits you perfectly. There are endless combinations of clothing, armor and accessories. You chose a profession, appearance and even the voice of your character. That seems to be the most fair way to settle the issue with nudity in avatars. If you want to wear "barbarian underwear" to fight in - you can. If you want to cover up - you can. There are hoods and headscarves, your character could be clothed from head to toe and layers of armor can be piled on. The character creation capability gives a range of options that not only enhance the looks of your character, but it adds a new component to the game. You get to create your own ultimate fighter.

Game-play
There are about 18 different modes in the game. If you want to be hardcore and get all the unlockables, you would have to beat all of the modes to get absolutely everything. There are many surprising features in this game. Bottom line is it is the best 2 person fighting game out there. Still in all, you can win with button mashing. It's a fighter plain and simple, in spite of all the fancy window dressing. The AI is pretty predictable which can be good or bad depending on how you like to play. They seem to try to push your character into a wall or a corner. If you like a big challenge it is there. If you like to take it easy and see the whole game, you can do that too. Like many games, I can analyze what the game "punishes" you for. If you don't get the opening move right, it is likely that you will loose. If you turn your back to your enemy, or if your attacks fall short you loose. The timid are not rewarded in gaming.

There are around 30 characters to play with in the game as well as a strange random character generator which is fun. Two of the new characters are female. Tira, is a girl fighter who uses a razor sharp hoola hoop as a weapon. Setsuka is a Japanese geisha with a parasol and a sword. Someone must be hearing us. The fighting engine was revamped and improved. The weird Chronicles of the Sword mode enables you to take your new custom players onto a map, where you need to occupy enemy forts by beating them in battles. That was done better in SC2. The Arcade mode is called "Quick Play". The Tournament mode puts you in fictional competition. What is that about? There is no online play for this game which is a terrible shame. I have to say that SC3 beat the pants of Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks - which I was looking forward to more, but MK Deception has online mulitiplayer.

Graphics
The environments in this game are stunning. There are gorgeous landscapes. Marvelous temples, over flowing water falls and Ivy's over decorated mansion. The camera pans quickly over pink hued clouds in the background, water effects shimmer with some of best eye candy you can see. For a fighting game SC3 has the best looks going. And I am including DOA when I say it is the best looking fighter out there. There is no lack of colors. It is bright, bold and conspicuous.

Sound
The sound is a disappointment. There could have been better music for this game. I would have saved the space on the disk that was wasted on the RTS mode for better music. The voice acting is still very poor, and amusing because of it. The voices and the sound effects have not changed or been upgraded. While other games are integrating song lists and even iPod interfaces into games, SC3's lack there of is a letdown. I guess the developers missed the bit that Morgan Webb did on Xplay where they dubbed the weird grunts and groans from SC2 into suggestive parody skits.

Despite the superfluous extra features the game still is the top of the line fighter for PS2 beating out Tekken 4 with style. Soul Calibur 3 has a lot to offer girl games that like to kick butt. They built this one for us. (Yeah, I know they built it for guys that like to play with sexy female avatars.) I give Soul Calibur 3 a 4.5

Labels: Games, iPod, Parody, PlayStation, PS2, Tekken, Upgrade

Finish what you start...

We's Going To CES!

posted @ 12/03/2006 11:43:00 AM by Ninjasistah

We finally got some cash together and figured we ought to hit a big convention/tradeshow and CES was the obvious choice. CES is the Consumer Electronic Showcase, basically anything and everything electronic that companies could possibly want to sell to you [the consumer] make their debut here. CES has been going strong and growing strong since 1967, so to say that we are excited to become part of this rich tech history would be a slight understatement.

Now you might be saying to yourself, "Why is the ESH crew going to CES? Isn't it just a bunch of TV's on display?" It's a valid question to ask, but it ain't accurate. CES is actually the show that COMDEX and even the former incarnation of E3 were modeled after, and while there will be a lot of new TV technologies introduced at the show there will also be lots of home theater setups, sounds systems and components, wireless technologies, and even video game related items that will surface from the show. I think as gamers sometimes we forget that getting our hands on the latest and greatest game stuff isn't limited to just a console, or piece of software.

No matter who you are you have a gaming rig that you use, be it just a 23" TV or an elaborate setup containing a 7.1 surround sound system, 42" flat screen LCD TV, a chain of UPS', several gaming consoles, a harmony remote, and a theater style seating arrangement. [Huge sigh] With that said, one of the things that you will start seeing around ESH will be our takes on different components that you may or may not want to add to your rig, so it only makes sense to us that we start by going to CES. We are going to be looking at different audio setups, home theater systems, peripherals for both computer based and console based gaming, LCD TV's [this will come in handy for those of you wanting to upgrade that tiny little 25" TV to something a little sexier] mobile gaming, and gaming in general. And we can't forget portable media stuff, mostly because they won't let us. We'll be on the look out for the hottest new gadgets at the show that will help you get the most out of your iPod, portable video player... hell we'll even take a look at stuff for the Zune while we're at it. We are committed to covering your electronic needs, but only in the good way.

While CES is not E3, Microsoft and Sony are going to be there, and there is going to be a separate "video gaming" section on the tradeshow floor, so we aren't going to be forgetting our roots any time too soon. It just seems to us like it's time to take that next step forward in covering the whole spectrum of gaming life, that I think sometimes gets overlooked. You can't use a game console without having a TV to hook it up to. You can't hear the games without some kind of sound system hooked up to [or built into] that TV your connected to, and you have to have some place to park your ass in order to play and enjoy those games you are playing... and in January, NinJaSistah and Evermore are going to bring you some first hand accounts of the new toys you'll want to add to your rig from CES.

This will be one time that what happens in Vegas, doesn't stay there!

Labels: evermore, Gadgets, Games, iPod, Microsoft, Ninjasistah, Peripherals, Sony, Tech, Tradeshow, Upgrade

Finish what you start...

Inuyasha Feudal Combat

posted @ 11/11/2006 08:45:00 PM by geekwoman

Bandai Games has finally scored big with the RPG "Inuyasha: Feudal Combat" for the PlayStation 2. The game is based on Inuyasha, the top-rated TV series from VIZ Media that airs on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. "Feudal Combat" the game has undergone an engine overhaul. It is now a genuine fighting game with a variety of moves and combos. You can play as Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku and Sango. The story mode has actual resemblance to the game. Thankfully the new battle system includes the ability to play along with a friend as a partner character in the cooperative mode.

Game play commences as you choose which team that you want to play as. In this way it becomes a two player game, or you can even choose a female lead character almost all the way through the game -- Inuyasha and Kagome or Miroku and Sango. Kagome has her bow and sacred arrows that purify negative energy. Sango has her heracos and Ki La La by her side. They all have special bonus moves that you have to let charge up, much like many RPG games of the past have.

The loading screens are a little slow but the artwork makes up for it. The graphics are much better this time with 3D renderings of the 2-D manga characters. The environments look pretty, and they are well drawn. Environments that have been on the TV series appear in the game. You play against familiar enemies such as Kikiyo, Koga, Kohaku, and Naraku.

The game takes place in ancient Japan. It is set in a fairy tale-like setting where demon oni and magic priestesses practice their sparkling skills in feudal Japan. It features 12 playable characters. Inuyahsa is a half-human, half-dog demon. Naraku is an evil shape-shifter. The combat system is new and original and a big improvement from Inuyasha: the Cursed Mask.

The environments are interactive which can give players an advantage in battle depending on what element or spells they can cast. There are three different game-play modes, including the mission, story, and two-player versus modes, which create a variety of ways to play the game. The game advances as characters are given the chance to develop more upgraded, Increased compatibility with partners to improves attacks.

The game is beautiful -- the backgrounds and other screens are nice watercolors. The characters themselves look much better in the updated 3D format. The whole game seems more in keeping with the style of the artwork and level of production that the DVD Inyusha movies have. The music and sound effects are good.

Inuyasha is my favorite animé. This game has it all down, the supernatural story line, the romances and the tragedies. The gameplay has been improved to match the show's exemplary art style and deep plot line. I am satisfied. I give Inuyasha Feudal Combat a long awaited 4.5 out of 5.

Labels: Adult-Swim, Anime, Games, Manga, Movie, Priest, Upgrade

Finish what you start...

Return of MonkeyDoo

posted @ 10/31/2006 03:57:00 PM by Monkey Doo

I have not been around very much lately, I got a little wrapped up in my schooling. I recently had a revelation though, one that would set my path straight. Why am I wasting my time on all this education and things like that when I could be out playing video games? It was this startling realization that brought me here tonight to give you a little taste of a game I like to think of as one of the best RTS' ever made, Rise of Legends.

The premise of Rise of Legends is pretty simple. Long ago a spacecraft broke into three pieces (and I think I saw a fourth >.>) and crashed upon some planet. These three parts (and maybe a fourth >.>) developed into three distinct and equally bad ass nations, the Vinci, the Alin, and the Cuotl. Each of whom have really cool Master Units that you can only have one of. The game is similar in structure to most RTS' except for a few things. You are given a city, much like other games, and you build upon this city. Say you want to have a higher troop capacity, build a military district. If you cap out on how much resources you are gathering, build a merchant district. Each of the three races also has a unique district that only they can build. As you get more districts you can build palace districts to upgrade the cities size. You can go from normal city, to Large, to Great. Each time you go up you get sweeter upgrades.

The first of these cool nations is called the Vinci. They are basically Spanish Conquistadors meets steam technology. They have cool units like Gyrocopters, Clockwork men, and even a Juggernaut tank. They improve their technology by building industrial districts in their cities. These guys are my favorite so far. There is something so cool about leading an army of clumsy robot men and spiders that look like miniature versions of the one from Wild Wild West. You can also build research centers as these guys, which you can upgrade to do all sorts of nifty things. Their Master Unit is called the Land Leviathan. It basically is the huge thing from Wild Wild West. Alas, I have yet to figure out how to get this unit, if any of you can get it, send the info my way.

The next group on the list is the Alin. The Alin are almost straight out of Arabian Nights. They are a magic using desert people. These guys have some pretty crazy units, everything from giants made out of glass to soldiers that can hide in the sand and spring out for an ambush. The Alin use magic and creatures related to three things, Sand, Fire, and Glass. Glass units can be upgraded to Dark Glass, which do some really wicked things. Their special unit is the Magus District, which gives them research points and buffs their hero’s magic beefiness. The Master Unit for these guys is probable the coolest in my opinion, a huge glass dragon.

Finally the last army is the mysterious Cuotl. They are by far the oddest of the lot. Basically they still use much of the technology that was available to them when the space ship crashed, and they worship Gods…. Gods that you can actually get on the battlefield to fight for you. They use a lot of units that remind me of the Power Rangers. I feel the urge to call out beasts and then have them morph into wicked robots. Alas, this is not their Master Unit, though they do have a really cool one. It’s a big floating building called the City of Vengeance. This guys absolutely tears things apart, and he can store troops too! Instead of wealth, the Cuotl gather energy. This means their Merchant District as been replaced with a Reactor District. They also get a Holy District, which allows them to expand their land and it rewards them a free unit.

Rise of Legends is well worth the money I spent on it. I find myself losing hours upon hours playing this game. Not only is it pretty to look at, but it is the most inventive RTS I have ever played. I would recommend this for any fan of the game type, and I think it would be a worthy play for someone who is looking to get into RTS for the first time. Now I shall go and waste more time upon it!

Labels: Games, Monkey-Doo, Tech, Upgrade, Videogames

Finish what you start...

Samurai Warriors 2: Stay Away

posted @ 10/22/2006 12:01:00 AM by Ninjasistah

If you have ever listened to our podcast, you know that I have been a fan of the Dynasty Warriors series, so when I saw that Samurai Warriors 2 was about to drop and spread the DW love, I thought I was set.

As it turns out, I was wrong.

A better way to put it would be to say I was robbed. Robbed of a fun experience, robbed of a better version of the game, robbed of any joy that could be had exploring a solid hack n' slash type game.

I guess I should explain a bit about why I loved the series in the first place. I liked the RPG elements of Dynasty Warriors games. I can level up my character as I go on fighting, but don't have to take time out from handing down an ass whoopin' to do so. Games like that will always get my money. But the game also presented me with an awesome roster of playable characters, each with their own spin on the central plot of the game. [Which is a Romance of the Three Kingdoms dealie] And while they carry this over into the Samurai Warriors 2 game, it's pretty obvious that they didn't put much effort [if any at all] into this port. For instance, all of the characters have these one-liners they spout off every time they kill an enemy officer. On the surface this doesn't sound bad, but the officers only have the single one-liner, and there are some missions that your only goal is to take out ever enemy officer which means hearing the same one-liner up to ten times in a twenty minute period. It gets old, then it gets annoying, then I turn the voice sound down to zero in hopes of making the game better. Gone is the option to have Japanese as the spoken language with English subtitles, it's all English now kids... and bad English at that. Listening to this audio hurts my soul.

One would think that innovation was on the minds of the developers [Omega Force] when deciding to expand on the DW brand. And from the looks of the game, all they were able to come up with was a new "Monopoly" type game mode called Suguroku. How like "Monopoly" is it? Well you have to go around the board buying up the pieces of land that you land on. When other players land on your property, they have to pay you money, or they can wager the amount of the property to try and duel you for it. Make a lap around the board and back to your "home" square with the predetermined amount of money, and you win! YAY! Well, not really. Suguroku> is slow. Because it's slow it's also a tad bit boring. Add to this already "awesome" mix the aforementioned one-liners, and the fact that no matter how you've leveled up your character in story mode in Suguroku all players are level 1, and you've got the recipe for a mode of the game you should steer away from. [You can thank me for this advice later.] No versus mode folks. So you can't do a player 1 vs. player 2 dueling, though the two player co-op from previous DW titles is back as is the survival mode, but they don't add much. As for the online "capabilities" they too, suck out loud. You don't get to take your suped up character and play the suped up character of someone else online, no, you get to have some split screen "who can kill the most enemies" type action. Why be able to build a bad ass samurai if you can't really test him against the warrior of another. Slashing down mindless drones online just ain't fun Omega Force, you should know that.

You may be wondering if Samurai Warriors 2 has any redeeming qualities, and they answer, surprisingly is yes. All money that you find or earn in the game to buy various ability, battle, mount, or weapon upgrades carry over from character to character. Think of it all going into a community account, anyone can draft from it, so if you particularly suck with one character, grab one of your better ones and go traipsing through the free mode to bank some dough. Then come back and supe up your sucky character and give story mode a go again. I only say this is a good thing if you are playing the game on the XB360. You get 50pts for your gamer score per character you unlock, so you have the potential to add 2000 points overall to your gamerscore, which doesn't suck. [Especially if you are like me and don't have a whole lot of time to play games these days.] There isn't one level yet that I've played that takes more than twenty minutes to get through, and that's just because I forced myself to secure all reserve gates. If you make a bee line for the boss enemy you can probably knock out most levels in 10 minutes, so it can be a short-ish investment in your gamerscore. In the time that I've had to actually play I brought my score up to 520... I told you haven't gotten to play much.

All things being equal, I give this game 1 and 1/2 candies. One blue one because it's sad. Not a sad story, but sad that this game wound up being the lame thing it is now and half a green one because you can get your gamerscore up pretty easily with this game, you greedy bastid. :)

Do yourself a favor, and only rent this game if your XB gamerscore needs a boost, otherwise you'll hate yourself in the morning.

Labels: Games, Ninjasistah, Podcast, Upgrade

Finish what you start...

.Hacking Again

posted @ 9/30/2006 11:02:00 AM by MagicMystic

There's a new .hack game coming out, aren't you excited? I can hear you sighing and shaking your head as I write this. Now I know, just as well as the next person that .hack is getting a little old, what with 4 PS games, 3 novels (and a novel series), 2 anime, 3 OVAs, 2 manga, an online roleplaying game and a collectible card game, but I'm confident that .hack//G.U. will be different from .hack//SIGN, .hack//INFECTION, .hack//MUTATION, .hack//OUTBREAK, .hack//QUARANTINE, .hack//Liminality, .hack//Legend of the Twilight, .hack//DUSK, .hack//AI buster, .hack//AI buster 2, .hack//Another Birth, .hack//GIFT, .hack//ZERO, .hack//ENEMY, .hack//fragment and .hack//XXXX.

I'll start with a little introduction for those of you who are reclusive, blind, deaf hermits who live under rocks in a remote area of the moon and have managed to avoid encountering any of the .hack franchise. The basic plot is that due to a worldwide computer virus epidemic, there is only one OS that anyone uses, Altima OS. Altima has created the largest MMORPG in history, creatively called 'The World.' The game is hugely popular, with over 4 million users signing up at its launch. Each of the .Hack titles focuses on a series of bizarre events known as the Twilight Incident, in which players actually sustained RL (real life) damage when their characters were hurt. Multiple users are put into comas while playing the game. Most of the .hack storylines focus on a group of anomalous AI including Aura, Morganna and Aura's daughter Zefie as well as the system errors and bizarre occurrences in "The World".

In the original 4 title game series, you play Kite and Black Rose, two typical snot-nosed school kids as they investigate the net. Kite accidentally dies when a data error causes a high level monster to spawn in a low level area. Aura appears, revives him and when he wakes up he is wearing a bracelet that allows him to 'Data Drain' enemies (basically hacking the program to reset the level of the enemy.) Kite and Black Rose run around trying to find Aura, figure out what has happened to the unconscious players and defeat what I call 'glitch monsters' or monsters that have infinite HP and can only be defeated with the data drain. That is also what most of the other .hack titles involve, little kids trying to save 'the world.' Urg, Retch! Uh, that is... I mean, yay!

The game .hack//G.U. is much darker, and from what I've read, it sounds awesome. Basically it's 2017, 7 years have passed since the end of the original .hack games. ALTIMIT OS has been replaced by ALTIMIT MINE OS and The World is now The World R:2 (WHOO, now those are some Big Changes.) After a group of players set off a Cataclysm (oops) the game lost most of its data and was shut down, until R:2 came along. Because the original "The World" accounts couldn't be recovered the RPG lost many of its origional players, and a new population took over. Ok, in order to understand R:2 here's a reference: Take WoW (which was recently recorded as having 6.6 million paying subscribers) and double it, make all the servers PVP without the aid of alliance and horde groupings, and you've got The World R:2.

It is a bit post apocalyptic, think Mad Max. Instead of players helping each other explore the endless litany of dungeons, the players are busy killing each other and competing to survive. PK (player killers) abound and it's damn hard for an honest gamer to survive. The worst of all is Tri-Edge, a notorious PK who will unhesitatingly and wordlessly destroy any player that crosses his path. However, one day one of his victims falls into a RL coma just after getting PKed, and Tri-Edge draws the attention of Haseo, a famous PKK (Player killer killer.) Unfortunately, not even Haseo can't defeat Tri-Edge and his level 133 character is data drained to level 1 and stripped of all equipment. You heard me right, the bad guy, who looks like an evil twin of Kite, is the one who wields the all powerful Data Drain. Bit of a turn around from the original. So what does it mean to The World that Kite, Shugo and Tri-Edge all have the same character design and all three are chosen to wield the data draining bracelet?

What G.U. stands for is never officially and definitively declared, but supposedly there are 12 or more refrences to things that could be G.U. within the game. True to .hack form //G.U. will not be a single game, but is a trilogy that will be completed over the course of 2007. Also true to form there will be an accompanying anime. According to Newtype

"...the entire experience is more online RPG-like with more action-focused battles, a more robust skills set, and group attacks that get your entire party involved... just pop into a town area or designated battle area out in the field and you'll find scads of PKs for Haseo to hunt down... not to mention an almost startling graphical upgrade."

The first volume is being released this October from Namco Bandai Games for the PS2. If you are too lazy to play the game you can still get to know the characters by watching .hack//Roots an anime currently airing in Japan that covers Haseo's exploits prior to being downgraded.

Game and anime trailers for .hack//G.U. and .hack//Roots can be found at Cyber Connect 2's official web site or through the .hack hub site

Labels: Anime, Games, hacking, MagicMysticGrl, Manga, MMORPG, PlayStation, PS2, trailer, Upgrade, World-of-Warcraft

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Out With the Old and In With the New

posted @ 2/20/2007 10:46:00 PM by Douceswild

Cingular (The New AT&T) Really Raises the Bar

posted @ 1/31/2007 11:28:00 PM by Douceswild

Soul Calibur 3

posted @ 12/04/2006 07:42:00 PM by geekwoman

We's Going To CES!

posted @ 12/03/2006 11:43:00 AM by Ninjasistah

Inuyasha Feudal Combat

posted @ 11/11/2006 08:45:00 PM by geekwoman

Return of MonkeyDoo

posted @ 10/31/2006 03:57:00 PM by Monkey Doo

Samurai Warriors 2: Stay Away

posted @ 10/22/2006 12:01:00 AM by Ninjasistah

.Hacking Again

posted @ 9/30/2006 11:02:00 AM by MagicMystic