A fudge up in EA's Warhammer Online billing system resulted in many player being charged up to 22 times the amount of the normal monthly subscription leaving those affected screaming WAAARRRR!Over on the official Warhammer Online forums, a Billing Issue thread is filled with players who got hit with crazy renewal charges starting yesterday. I was trying to do the math in my head, but some guy on the forum was kind enough to post proof of the overcharges.

EA has stated that they are aware of the issue and the money will be reimbursed. Even so, this incident REALLY has me looking into prepaid game cards for my World of Warcraft subscription. I gots bills to pay and I can't afford to have my account fracked with like that.

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with The Doctor. If you're asking "Doctor who?", then you are absolutely correct.

Word just hit the "screets" that the super popular anime/manga, Bleach, will be coming to a theater near you. I'm excited, but skeptical. Thats right! Warner Bros. has snagged the rights to make Bleach a feature length film. Director Peter Segal (Get Smart, Tommy Boy) is negotiating to serve as a producer and hoping to add a darker feel to the film. Those of you familiar with Bleach know the story already. If not then here's a quick summary of the anime/manga as well as the planned film plot. A 15-year-old boy capable of seeing ghosts meets a female Soul Reaper (who escorts the "souls of the dead"), but a fight with an evil spirit causes the Reaper to transfer her powers to the boy, leaving her stranded in the human world and the boy with her old job as a fighter of evil.

I've seen Dragonball, Street Fighter, Tekken, and so many other great anime butchered in the feature film adaptation. I hope Bleach doesn't meet the same fate as its predecessors.

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.

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.

First off, mood plays a big part in the demo so take the time to adjust your lighting and sound settings. I skipped over the "Tutorial" in the menu and went straight to “Start New Demo”. I was anxious, so sue me. You begin as Private Detective Scott Shelby going through a bunch of pressure sensitive right-stick QTEs (Quick Time Events) while en route to investigate a murder.

Once you're out of the vehicle and headed down the alleyway, a series of prompts come up instructing you what to do. This sort of seemed like a tutorial, so I no longer felt bad about skipping it. You also get a chance to use the asthmatic Shelby's inhaler. This prepares you for more stressful situations to come later.

The walking, of all things, takes some getting used to. You hold the R2 button to walk while controlling the direction with the left stick. Trying not to overshoot your destination is a problem at times. It’s a bit awkward at first, but you get used to it.

After the little alleyway tutorial, you head inside a little apartment complex and you ask the guy at the counter for the location of the victim’s mother. He says he doesn’t know, but the fog clears up after you slip him 5 dollars. She’s a prostitute residing in one of the upstairs rooms. She opens the door and says she’ll give you 10 minutes to handle "bit-nizz", but “no kissing and no weird sh**”. (Her rules, not mine.) After telling her that I'm not here for that (but still dropping $50 on the table...), she assumes I’m a cop and is hesitant to talk.

At this point, you can choose a direction for the conversation. With the right prompts, I was able to convince her to open up and give a few more details. The alarm goes off and she asks you to leave, which you do, but not before leaving a business card on her table. Once in the hallway, your asthma starts kicking in again. Probably because you just blew your chance to get laid.

This is where things get a little tense. Another series of QTE prompts have you searching your pockets for your inhaler. Once you find it, you shake it by shaking the controller, then use it a few times with the R1 button. While all of this is going on, a bald walks by you to the woman’s room and pounds on the door. After she tells him to go away, he forces himself in. Once you've composed yourself, you hear her screaming as he’s yelling, so you decide to investigate. You knock on the door and the bald guy answers and tells you to beat it, but you see the prostitute on the floor. Here's where the QTE really comes into play.

You can walk away, but seeing as how I got $50 invested in this chick, I chose to kick the door in instead. You and the man argue for a bit then start scrapping. This fight is crazy but fun because the QTE prompts are all over the place, and if you don't have your PS3 controller button placements memorized, you could end up taking a nasty beating. I missed a few prompts and got whaled on a bit, but when the dust settled, the bald guy running away with his tail between his legs. The entire fight was a pure adrenaline rush and reminded me of some of the events from Heavy Rain's predecessor, Indigo Prophecy as well as some old school Shenmue from the Sega Dreamcast.  Anyway, the woman finally agrees to tell you a bit more and thanks you for the help.

The games shifts to the next playable chapter, “Crime Scene”, which has you playing as FBI profiler Nomran Jayden. The “thought” button (L2) is used a lot more here. After confirming with one of the officers that you’re an FBI agent, you tell him you’re looking for the lieutenant. The officer tells you he’s somewhere around the crime scene. At this point, you can head straight to the lieutenant or begin searching for clues. This introduces you to one of Jayden’s gameplay tools, his glasses and glove combo, which acts as a mobile forensic kit for picking up clues in the area.

Pressing R1 to scan the area, revealed a few unrelated DNA deposits, but also a trail of pollen, which led to the tent covering the victim’s body. I headed towards the tent and took a peek inside, but was stopped by the lieutenant.

After identifying myself (I'm surprised I was allowed to poke around the crime scene as long as I was without being checked), we walked around the crime scene and I was able to ask some questions. After enough questions, he tells you he’s busy and to come back to him if you find anything interesting. A few more R1 scans revealed more clues, including footprints on the other side of the train tracks, blood on one of the planks on the tracks, and blood beside a fence opening. Next to the opening is an embankment you can climb, requiring you to press and hold a series of buttons. After a couple slips back down to the bottom, I made it to the top where you discover more footprints and tire tracks leading onto a busy interstate.

Now you have to follow more QTE prompts to make your way back down the embankment. Mistiming a press will cause you to slip to the bottom level. I ran into the lieutenant who tells me he's leaving, so I decide to roll out as well. I like how the game kind of points you to your next direction, because as I was about to get into my car, Jayden stops and looks back at the body, reminding me there was something left for me to do.

After making my way back to the tent-covered body, I looked back inside and used my glove to scour for clues. I was able to identity the victim, states of the body, etc. There's also an origami figure of a dog clenched in his hand, which Jayden says had to have been placed postmortem. After collecting all of the evidence, he says he thinks he’s got everything he needs. I head back to the car, turn on the ignition, and drive away, bringing the demo to an end as it goes into one of the game-rendered trailers.

Heavy Rain is definitely NOT your cookie-cutter game, so don’t expect something you’re used to. It will be received just as Indigo Prophecy was. Either it's something you're into or you're not.  As for me, I was totally engrossed. It can be slow at some points in the game, but when it picks up then it's off the chain. Every choice you make has an impacting consequence on the storyline, so this adds amazing amounts of replay value to me and puts it in the "Buy" category as opposed to "Rent".

Note: Because of the type of game Heavy Rain is, not everyone will have the same experience as I did. Depending on your choices, failures, and successes, the scenes and dialogue my vary.

CHANGE
I launched the site in April of 06 as SplendidBlunder.com. Originally, the idea was to have a space on the web to create, post, mix, and remix other people’s GarageBand projects. It was going to be a playground for Panda and I, and while we were having all of our conversations about the setup, we kept wasting time talking about Video games and anime.

GROWTH
We realized quickly that we wouldn’t be able to do just the site or the podcast alone, and began recruiting our more than geeky friends to join the family. The first recruit was MagicMystic, then came Evermore, MonkeyDoo, Douceswild, GeekWoman, madameRoslin, theAdmiral, colonelPanic, and most recently KingBabyDuck.
We started out small, with only 1000 people on average hitting the site, and now, we do quite a bit better. I figure it has to be the crazy that keeps them coming back, because there is definitely nothing out there like us.

We will be making autographed DVD’s featuring all of the podcast episodes over the last two years available on the ESH site shortly.

We thank you for your attention, and toast to another hundred. Enjoy podcast episode number 100: Go Team Venture!

A new podcast creation has been assembled by that crazy robot while the ESH podcast crew takes a mini vacay. I would try to describe to you what you are about to hear, but I'm not sure I understand it all myself.

What I will say is enjoy podcast episode #65: Where Do I Buy Manga?

He's researched the field thoroughly, spending his own time and money to immerse himself in the worlds of the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, comic book superheroes and the World that is Warcraft.

Which one comes out on top? Well, you'll have to listen to the podcast yourself to find out, now won't you? I'm sure not giving it away.

Listen for yourself. We're sure you're gonna like it.

With classic overtones inspired by Orson Welles' broadcast of War of the Worlds, this week's episode morphs into a history of modern music. We think you'll enjoy it.