In another brilliant form of viral marketing, a contest has been set up to for people to add a widget to their site. The top number of grabs of the widget from a site gets an exclusive advanced screening in a theater in their hometown for you and all your friends. There are some pretty nice runner-up prizes as well.

Source: Blogs@Newsarama

Not too long ago, it was revealed that Blizzard (now formally known as Activision Blizzard) had another MMO game in the works for the near future. With Starcraft II still being months if not years away from completion and release, it would be hard not to assume the highly likely chance of the game being associated with or a size-story of Blizzard’s crowning achievement, World of Warcraft.

Turns out that those assumptions would be wrong. Blizzard has recently announced that the new MMO will be it’s own separate game, and not linked to WoW or any of the other games produced in the past by the company. While this very well might not be the Diablo III that many of Blizzard’s loyal fans have been wishing for, it seems as though the PC gaming giant may be trying to spice up it’s MMO’s with something new.

At the very least, it could be the respite that people who don’t wish to shell out gobs of money a month have been waiting for. That, and it would be a welcomed fix for those twitchy individuals anxiously awaiting for more development to be released about Starcraft II.

Revoltech Expo 2007 was recently held in Japan. I know what you’re thinking, I didn’t think such a show existed either. Good for us it does. Lots of goodies were unveiled. Among the figures on the display were Transformers Starscream and Hot Rod. (Images from tfw2005.com)
 

Also on display were a number of new additions to the recently announced FRAULEIN line of female figures. One large standee depicted Asuka Langely Sorhyu from Neon Genesis Evangelion and another female I did not recognize, along with Rei Ayanami whom we already knew about.

There’s a lot more info after the jump.
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This past week was Thanksgiving, and we have a lot to be thankful for. Friends and family for being in your corner, Butterball and a bunch of dead turkeys for supplying dinner, and the staff at Powet for giving you the latest news, insights, and info. Castlevania fans have Konami to thank for finally releasing Dracula X over here, and they also have Sindra to thank for letting us know how awesome it was as seen below. Gamers on a budget have me to thank for giving them the lowdown on cheap games. Most importantly, the citizens of Metro City have Mike Haggar and his friends to thank for keeping the peace, and beat-em-up fans have Capcom to thank for allowing them to witness his adventures first hand, by way of the Final Fight series.
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No, this doesn’t have anything to do with Dave Chappell, conscious hip hop music, or a brief Fugees reunion. However, Ultimate Block Party (known in Japan as Kollon) is a fun little anime-inspired PSP puzzle game brings back memories of Tetris Attack. You arrange colored blocks in groups of four to clear them out. As with many good puzzlers, things aren’t nearly that simple. When playing against a CPU or friend, the disappeared blocks are sent to the other player’s side, adversely affecting their game screen. Blocks can glue together, become harder to move, or even cover up the playing field. Clearing out blocks can earn magic squares, which give certain advantages such as changing all the blocks in a row to a certain color and blowing up clusters of blocks. As expected, you can chain together blocks and add on to your score. You play as one of 8 characters, but there are no real differences between them. It offers a Vs mode, an arcade mode, and a single player endless mode. There is also a campaign mode, but all it is is simply Arcade mode with just one character and some intro animations. In a nice little touch, the game offers Ad-Hoc play (something that wasn’t in the Japanese release), but good luck finding another player who has a copy of this game.

Ultimate Block Party may not be Lumines, and it doesn’t offer a whole lot in the way of game modes, but it’s still a solid title for casual gamers. It’s hard to find thanks to the lack of decent marketing around its release, but puzzle fans should definitely check this game out. Now that I think about it, this would make a good Xbox Live Arcade game.

In 1995, late into the Super Nintendo’s life cycle, Square-Enix, then known as only Squaresoft, released Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger was a role playing game which took place over the course of several time periods. It had an innovative battle system, beautiful graphics, an awesome soundtrack, and multiple endings. It was, and still is to this day one of the greatest RPGs ever made. Half a decade later, Square would release a follow up. While it wasn’t as critically acclaimed as the original, it would be an excellent game in its own right.
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I featured this game’s sequel as this week’s $20 GOTW, so with Halloween less than a week away and Dracula X Chronicles hitting the PSP this week, lets take a look at this classic but overlooked installment of Konami’s signature horror series. While it had the look and style of earlier Castlevania games, Bloodlines introduced some subtle changes in the formula that made it stand out from the rest of the series.
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Later this month, Konami will be bringing Dracula X to the US for the first time ever as a PSP remake of the original PC Engine game. The original version of the game, as well as Symphony of the Night, will both be available as hidden extras on the disc. No time like the present to look at the most recent entry in the series. This follow up to 2005’s Dawn of Sorrow, sticks closely to the franchise’s more recent “Metroidvania” style of gameplay while adding in some new twists of its own. Not the least of which is that you’ll be controlling two characters at once, each with their own skills and abilities. Features such as this help keep the formula as enjoyable as it has been in the past several entries in the series.
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