Quick bit of news from the resident Castlevaniac; it would appear that Konami has registered a title and logo for their supposed upcoming new Nintendo DS title – Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Though no official word has been announced by the gaming giant, Konami has indeed been confirmed to have registered the title name. (screenshot courtesy of Gamefront) This is, of course, all speculation until Konami actually releases an official statement.

The term Ecclesia means “a gathering of those summoned”, though as is well known with other Castlevania games, a title doesn’t need to necessarily have anything to do with the actual game. (Harmony of Dissonance for example had neither). There is also no account of this having anything to do with the supposed leaked game images that I reported on a few months ago, though the silvery design of the logo does match up with the previous images in Japanese.

Late April Fools? Konami holding out on fans? Who knows. All I hope is that this is a precursor to actual official news on *any* Castlevania game in the works being released in the very near future. Any tidbit I find out about I’ll be sure to pass on to you.

I wanna see a show of hands people, and be honest. How many of you would have bought this game if not for the Halo 3 beta invite enclosed within? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? That’s a crying shame too, because while this game may not be Oblivion, or even Saint’s Row, this is one of the finest open-world games available on the Xbox 360. For good reason too, as David Jones, the original creator of Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings is the brains behind this package. Crackdown features a unique spin on sandbox gameplay, and its playing style encourages players to have as much fun as possible with it. Throwing in the Halo 3 beta invite wasn’t a bad idea either.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

You can buy the Blu-Ray disc from amazon.co.uk for a reasonable price. They will ship to North America, and the disc will play on Blu-Ray players here too. Mine worked on a North American PS3.

Note that the cover art shown on the amazon.co.uk website shows the “Ultimate Edition” 2 disc version with 5 hours of extras and with a PG rating, as opposed to what I have which is a single disc, no extras version that is rated U. I ordered my disc on that same site so you may or may not end up with something better than I got. I did not notice this discrepancy when I shot this video, and was not aware of the art and extras listed when I ordered this.

Watch Zac’s review of the 20th Anniversary Edition DVD that came out in 2006

OK, so GTA IV is merely days away. Saints Row proved itself to be a worthy contender to the open world genre when it debuted, and the sequel looks to amplify that. Of course, no personality is more amped than Gary Busey, so the following videos show off some of Saint’s Row 2’s improvements with comments from Gary.

More after the break…
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Its the question thats asked by all. The question that guides the survivors of 815, and confounds them at every turn.

Hopefully an answer will be found when the show returns on April 24.

If you are not reading Captain America, you should be. After the recent death of Steve Rogers, the mantle of Captain America was passed on to his long time sidekick, James ‘Bucky’ Buchanan. Diamond Select Toys has announced a Marvel Select action figure based on Bucky’s modified Captain America uniform. The 7 inch tall figure was sculpted by Sam Greenwell and features 14 points of articulation. It will also come with a rooftop gargoyle base (pictured).

To my knowledge, this is the first action figure based on the new Cap uniform.

Mezco has announced that there will be two Toys R Us exclusive figures from their upcoming Heroes line of action figures. Based on the hit tv series, the line already has three waves scheduled for 2008 starting in June. The two exclusives will be ‘Fire Rescue Claire’ and ‘Times Square Teleportation Hiro’.

Here’s a snippit from the release:

Fire-Rescue Claire features the Texas teenager in her iconic cheerleader outfit from the scene where she rescues a fireman and risks revealing her powers. The figure boasts over 9 points of articulation and comes complete with a miniature reproduction painting by award- winning artist Tim Sale depicting the dramatic rescue scene.

Times Square Teleportation Hiro features the Japanese office drone in the iconic scene where he teleports to New York’s legendary Times Square in front of the famous Toys “R” Us flagship store. Hiro comes complete with an alternate head, his ever present messenger bag, a Times Square backdrop, and his highly detailed sword of Takezo Kensei

It might just be me, but the expression on Hiro’s face seems more appropriate in a bathroom than in Times Square.

  

This is the sequel to Capcom’s Rival Schools: United by Fate, one of the most underrated 3-d fighting games ever. Before Bully, Rival Schools and Project Justice made use of a high school setting, risking post some serious post-Columbine controversy. Thankfully, there was no big uproar, as the game was off-beat and hilarious instead of simply being violent. It made use of the same unique gameplay as its predecessor, and its presentation made served to make it one of the most unique fighting games available.
[Read the rest of this entry…]