What are the top five things you should do in Mass Effect before diving into the sequel? Find out in this week’s Keep Playing!

(Show notes after the jump!)

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Beside Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy IV was my personal favorite of the 8 and 16-bit Final Fantasy games. Millions of other players enjoyed it as well, as it included an epic plotline, memorable characters, and top-notch RPG action. Following in the footsteps of Final Fantasy X, VII, and XII, Square has seen fit to expand on the universe of Final Fantasy IV with an all new sequel, The After Years. Originally released as a mobile phone title in Japan, Square has bought the title over here in an episodic format on Nintendo’s WiiWare service. The main title is available for 800 Wii points, while the chapter ‘Rydia’s Tale’ is available for 300. Subsequent releases will be released throughout the coming months for 300 Wii points each with the final chapter priced at 800 Wii points. You’ll reunite with old friends, meet new ones, and hopefully save the world one more time.
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Last time we went to BotCon. As soon as we stepped on the plane to go home, E3 started. Catch up on all your E3 news here! Also, reviews of Terminator, Conan O’Brien on the Tonight Show, and much more!

(What did you think of the E3 announcements? Leave a comment below!)

Audio Netcast Details
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Direct Link: Powetcast Episode 12: E3 and the 80s

Show notes after the jump!
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The original Osman was a Turkish Sultan who established the Ottoman Empire and ruled it until his death in 1326. The Osman in this week’s Lost Classics is apparently the brother of Capcom’s Strider Hiryu who lives in a futuristic version of the middle east. He can crawl up walls, do flips, and dispatch enemies with the greatest of ease just like Capcom’s ninja. However, there is a good reason for this, as Osman was created by several former Capcom staffers, including Kouichi “Isuke” Yotsui, who also created Strider.
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When one discusses the glory days of the forth generation of console gaming (that would be the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis), one must be careful to exclude SNK’s Neo Geo from the discussion. Between the 16 and 32 bit systems in power, the Neo Geo console’s hardware was unique in that it allowed gamers to play the actual arcade games since it was powered by the actual MVS and AES boards. You weren’t playing versions that had to sacrifice graphical quality to fit within a home system’s specs, nor were you playing versions that had extra features crammed to compensate for being inferior to the arcade game, but the Neo Geo allowed you to play the same game that you played in the arcade, minus the coin slot and the fat guy at the counter who breaks your $20. With a memory card, you could even carry save data between the arcade cabinet and a home console.
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That’s right kids, today marked the 25th Anniversary of the release of the original Ghostbusters movie into theaters on June 8th, 1984 – 25 years of classic spook-antics brought to you by the geniuses of Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis alongside the talent of Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson.

So in tribute, I hope you all celebrated in your own way, such as listing off movie quotes to screw with the minds of family and friends alike. And don’t forget that the Ghostbuster video game, featuring all the voice actors from the original movies, will be released next week for pretty much all major consoles and the PC. It’s the closest thing we’ll ever get to a competent 3rd movie, so be sure to grab it!

The Blu Ray high Definition re-release, the video game sequel, and the double pack DVD of Ghosbusters 1 & 2.
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For as long as anyone can remember, Konami was one of many companies who made video games exclusively for Nintendo systems thanks to the Big N’s heavy license restrictions. Thus, it came as a surprise when Konami finally began to develop games for other console manufacturers’ systems, most notably the Sega Genesis. Sega’s 16-bit had already seen Rocket Knight, along with console-exclusive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and Castlevania games, so players hoped that it would be a matter of time until Konami graced the system with its flagship run-and-gun series, Contra. Sure enough, Konami delivered. Contra Hard Corps would be the first and last Contra game on the Sega Genesis. Although it wasn’t as memorable as Contra 3, it was good enough to stand among the past entries of the series. In fact, it would be the last good Contra game before the series slipped into a period of mediocrity.
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Is the name David Jones familiar to you? If you’re a fan of Grand Theft Auto or the more recent Crackdown (and/or you’ve been keeping up with this week’s E3 coverage) then it should be. You see, David Jones is the man behind both of those modern-day gaming classics along with the upcoming MMOG APB. Years before showing revolutionizing the sandbox genre and showing gamers how fun it is to partake in deviant criminal behavior, he created the puzzle game Lemmings. Although it wasn’t nearly as violent as his later titles, it was just as innovative, and years later it manages to maintain its charm. Although Lemmings has hit almost every major gaming system in the past, this $20 GOTW centers around the 2006 PSP game from Sony Computer Entertainment and developed by Team 17.
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