Con Name: FanimeCon

Location: San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, Ca

Dates: May 24^th-27^th, 2012

Ticket Costs:

Full Weekend: $65
Friday May 24^th: $35
Saturday May 25^th: $40
Sunday May 26^th: $40
Monday May 27^th: $30
Half Weekend (Sunday & Monday): $55
Children (10 & under): Free with paid membership!

Website: www.fanime.com/

History:

FanimeCon, or Fanime, is an annual anime convention put together by the Anime Resource Group (ARG). With humble beginnings of just a few hundred attendees, Fanime started out at California State University Hayward, in Hayward, Ca, back in 1994. Since then, the convention has moved several times to larger venues, finally calling the San Jose McEnery Convention Center its home since 2004. With over 20,000 attendees last year, the convention continues to grow by leaps and bounds each year. Over the past decade they have had major guests such as FLOW, Fred Gallagher, Ric Meyers, Carl Horn, Seiji Mizushima, and countless other anime voice actors, directors, film stars, and musicians. Fanime is the largest anime convention in Northern California, and perhaps one of the most enjoyable anime conventions on the west coast in previous years.

Major Guests:

• Takahiro Omori
• Yumi Sato
• Gilles Poitras

7!!Kaja Foglio

• Tsuyoshi Nonaka
• Darrel Guilbeau
• Steam Powered Giraffe
• ROOKiEZ is PUNK’D
• James Carrot
• Hiroyuki Yamaga

Major Exhibitors:

• Cyberstep
• Electro Flash Media LLC
• Media Blasters
• Shark Robot LLC
• Whimsic Alley
• Yaya Han
• Yes Anime, Inc

The Halo TV series was a fun note, as they brought up the involvement of Steven Spielberg on the project. Sadly, few details were actually given, but as more info comes you can certainly expect us to discuss them here. Otherwise the console’s press conference focused heavily on the many live television and steam video options, as well as blue ray features and other ways to watch things you could probably already enjoy on your television without a brand new console attached to it. The new discussion of Kinect seemed nice, with inclusion of Skype and other features, but it was nothing incredibly beyond what could be done with the motion sensor bar currently. For those who want to know the specs talked about so far, we can expect 8GBs of RAM, a 500GB harddrive, Blu-ray options, cloud heavy service, USB 3.0, blue tooth and smart phone integration, and more details to come closer to E3.

One of the key things that was brought up that stirred annoyance amongst fans, aside from the lack of game coverage, was the restriction on video game disc sharing. The games on the Xbox One will install themselves on to your consoles harddrive and attach their unique information to your Xbox Live account, preventing you from sharing your copy of your game with friends or reselling the title without causing the receiving party to pay a few that might be equal to the original purchasing cost. Fans understandably seem outraged by this, with many believing it is Microsoft’s greatest failure since Windows 8. Once again, there is not enough information on this yet, and with such a strong fan reaction, things could change in the coming months. We’ll just have to wait for E3 for more info on that.

But for those who want to see what the new console, it’s controller, and the new Kinect look like, check below. We have a trailer there that unveils video for the Xbox One, showcasing the console, the new Kinect sensor, and the new Xbox One controller, as well as some of the new options that will be coming with Xbox One, including the personal homescreen, cinematic gaming, Live TV and Skype.

Batman’s Arkham Origins trailer is finally here, as promised back on Thursday. The trailer reminds me of one we got a few years back, featuring Batman fighting off Tyger Guards and Doctor strange. This one, however, has Batman, Deathstroke, Deadshot, and Black Mask all appearing as rather amazingly badass. The game releases October 25th of this year and apparently offers Deathstroke as a playable character if you pre-order now. Even though the developer has switched from Rocksteady to Warner Bros. Games Montreal, and we will no longer have classic voice actors Kevin Conroy as Batman or Mark Hamil as Joker, Origins is looking rather awesome. Replacing Conroy and Hamil is Roger Craig Smith as Batman and Troy Baker as the Joker. Conroy is still reported to be involved with the game as a voice actor, but it is not yet confirmed what character he will be voicing. Expect more news to follow.

The full trailer for the video game releases on Monday, May 20th. The game itself sees release on PC, PS3, Xbox360, and WiiU October 25th of this year, alongside a spin-off game entitled Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. Check back Monday for the full trailer and more.

Now, to talk about the actual game itself. Galaxy Defenders is a tactical board game based on 80′s and 90′s Sci-Fi worlds. There will be different missions included with the game. There are two of them posted on their website as part of their beta-release. The missions control what aliens, events, and close encounter cards are used in the initial setup. There are also special events that can game or change the cards being used in the different decks.

Agents

There are five agents in the base game. Each of them has a very different play style to them. To give you an idea of these agents, some of them are:

Agent Mercury the Infiltrator: This agent starts with a blade and pistol, along with having one more speed than the average speed of the rest of the agents.

Agent Titanium the Hulk: This agent starts out with a machine gun and bladed brass knuckles for when he gets into close combat. The Hulk also has the most health and is the slowest agent out of all of them.

Agent Thorium the Biotech: The speed and health to this agent is pretty average but this agent gets to use a shotgun and is the only character with a built in way to heal any other agent.

Agent Iridium the Sniper: This agent obviously has a sniper rifle as a starting weapon but also has a scoped pistol for closer targets.

Agent Chromium the Marine: This agent comes equip with rifle and pistol, along with a reaction ability that allows him to take a free shot at aliens as they pass him.

Each agent has different armor and abilities to help them out and as you advance through the missions you have a chance to gather more equipment to make your weapons better. If you are lucky enough to advance through all the levels of being an agent, you get to flip the character sheet and become a platinum agent. I have not had a chance to see all of the agents advance that far, but the progression is a fun aspect to the game.

Aliens

There are six types of aliens, some in multiple colors, with the basic box having 18 alien minis in it. If you get in on the KickStarter there are plenty more that will be added. Each mission will tell you how many of which alien to put into the alien deck and each card will have a miniature matching it. There is a nice variety in the aliens and on each card, there are instructions on how the alien is to be played when they are chosen by the close encounter card on each of the alien’s turns. There are aliens that will try to get into the perfect position to take a couple of shots with their gun, while others are meant to rush an agent and keep it locked in combat. More aliens can be added to the board when mission cards are drawn. Mission cards can effect the weather of the planet to cause agents to move slower, cause some equipment to not work or make dice rolls become a lot more inaccurate than before, along with other effects. Each time a mission card is flipped, there is a chance for signals to show up on the planet. Each signal represents something showing up on the radar but not completely identified. As soon as the signal moves into line of sight of an agent, it will be flipped. If the signal is an alien, a new alien miniature and card will be added to the play area.

Round Order

Refresh – Each turn powers and items will refresh and be usable again

Strategy – Alpha Agent (1st player) is selected, if an alien was killed the last round there are chances for promotions by each agent, after four aliens are killed reinforcements will supply a group with items or weapons to help out during the rest of the mission, and you check if you beat or failed the mission.

Battle – This section of the round cycles between agent and alien. First an agent gets the chance to move, perform an action and engage in combat. There are a few special actions like jumping through a window or unjamming a gun that can take up two part of your turn also. After the agent has taken their turn, the aliens get a chance to interact. This is done by flipping one of the close encounter cards to see which aliens will activate this time. Each alien card tells you how to move the alien or if the alien will just attack twice. There is no way to plan for these activations since it is controlled by a shuffled deck of cards. If you are not careful, the multiple alien activations can be very detrimental to the agents moving around trying to complete the mission.

Combat – Combat is pretty easy to get a hang of. Each weapon will give you its range and the number and color of dice you roll. There are two different sets of dice to be used. Green dice and Blue dice. Green dice seem to be paired with the more power weapons and blue dice are a little weaker along with being the color used during the defend step. Each time a hit mark shows up on the dice, the defender will roll one blue dice to try to absorb damage with their armor. There are special abilities on some of the weapons that will remove dice to the defender or that just let you reroll your misses. After you figure out how much damage goes through, you take that many wounds from the agent or alien. If an agent is brought down to 0 hit points, there is a chance they come back if someone can heal them back up. If the aliens decide they are the bigger threat though and an agent with 0 hp is attacked again, the agent is out of the game.

Event – After everyone has gone and the following alien turn has resolved, an event card is flipped. The effects of the event are completed and then signals are moved and added to the board. Then the round starts over from the top.

Once a couple of rounds have gone off, the game moves along at a decent speed. You become familiar with alien’s mechanics and resolving attacks and defense. If you aren’t careful though, there is a chance that the agents will be swarmed by aliens or the party gets split enough that you cannot take out enough aliens to complete your mission. If you enjoy Sci-Fi games or are looking for a tactical game to play with friends to take out some intelligent life trying to stop you from exploring a new planet, this game definitely fits the bill. Either by adding some extra aliens to your stash or just using the cards included in the box, you should have a decent amount of replayability. Aliens will spawn in different orders and on different teleport pads. Missions can be created pretty easily with the number of boards that come with the game and there are a couple of stretch goals that have added even more to that.

With less than a week left, there are still a few spots left to get the game at a discounted price, but if you are considering getting the game in September (date posted on KickStarter) then I would imagine the extras you get with the KickStarter will be well worth the advance payment.

Game

Price: $15

Players: 2-10

Time: 10-30 minutes

Age: 15+

In April Cryptozoic came out with The Walking Dead Card Game. The game is based on the game 6 Nimmt! if you are familiar with that but was easy enough to learn without ever knowing about that game too.

There are 104 walker cards and 6 hero cards included in the game. Each point value has a picture depicting a number of zombies on them. The single point cards only having one zombie and the seven point card having a swarm. The six hero cards are Maggie, Daryl, Rick, Andrea, Glenn and T-dog. Each have an action shot from the show.

There are two different modes or ways to play the game.

Hero Mode

In hero mode each player will get to choose one of the hero cards to start in their hand. Each hero card works the same way so there is they can be handed out at random if wanted. The goal of hero mode is to kill more walkers than the rest of the players by collecting more points worth of walker cards. The points are shown on each card based on the number of bullets printed on each card. Game play is simple enough to learn and to teach to new people. Each player starts with 15 walker cards dealt to them plus their hero card. Then four more cards are lined up in a column. Each player will choose one or two cards from their hand and place them face down in front of them. When everyone has set down their cards you flip them over and follow the rules for placing the cards into rows. Starting from the lowest card, each card is placed next to the closest number that is lower than the card played. So if you played 51 and the cards out are 10, 20, 53 and 100, your card would go next to the 20, as that card is lower than your 51 and closer than 10. If the card is lower than all the cards at the end of the rows, then you place it after the highest card. Once all the cards are placed, you start the next round. When the card is forced to be played on a stack with five cards, your card being the sixth one, you collect the five cards on the table and leave your card as the new starting card. If a player wants, they can place their hero card as the second card when placing two cards down. When this happens, your walker card is placed before any other card regardless of its number, giving you the chance to collect a stack of zombies without it being stolen away by another player. When all the cards are played by each player, the game is over and the bullets are counted up. You can play one time or keep track of your score and play a set number of matches, three being recommended by the instructions.

Survival Mode

Survival Mode plays out almost the opposite of hero mode. You only get 10 cards each and no heros are used this time. Each player will choose only one card but this time the goal is to not be overrun by zombies(to not collect points). The card placement rules are similar to hero mode, except if you play a card lower than all the cards at the end of the row then you have to pick one of the rows to take and place your card as the new starting card. After the ten rounds of playing cards, you count the bullets the same way and either choose single game or multiple games and the person with the lowest score wins.

Both games are quick and easy to pick up after the first game or two. I personally like the feel of survival mode more. The game starts off a little slow but after you have played about half your hand, everyone seems to be a little more panicked about which card they are going to play and trying to figure out if someone else will steal the pile before their card gets played on it. Overall its a fun party game for people whether you have seen The Walking Dead or not. I would say the 15+ years on the age is about right because of the strategy and almost bluff like tactics to the game.

And for those of you curious how to get that awesome Batman skin you’re seeing in the trailer above, it’s part of the Flashpoint DLC skins. That is actually Thomas Wayne, Bruce Wayne’s father, in the Batsuit from the 2011 mini-series event, Flashpoint. The skin is part of a free download for anyone who purchases the Injustice season pass on PS3 or Xbox360. The Season pass will also score you the Lobo DLC and 3 other future character DLCs yet to be announced all for the price of just 3 individual character downloads.

Packaged in a nice, long black box, opening the Ouya felt more like opening a tablet or mobile phone than a video game console. That said, it probably works better considering how mobile this console is. The device itself is tiny and could easily fit in the palm of your hand, taking up no space on your entertainment center. Honestly, the cables that come with it almost weight more and take up more space. But don’t judge it by its size alone, as it has some pretty impressive specs:

• Tegra3 quad-core processor
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB of internal flash storage
• HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth LE 4.0
• USB 2.0 (one)
• Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
• Android 4.0
• ETHERNET!

The controller is a little unique, yet in the same very familiar. It truly isn’t that far off from an Xbox360 controller, but it does have two removable panels where you can insert AA batteries to power the wireless controller. And this controller truly is wireless, lacking even the option to plug it into anything. Much like the Xbox 360, it has 2 analog sticks, a d-pad, 4 lettered buttons on the right of the controller, a console unique button (much like Xbox’s X or the PS3′s PS buttons), and 4 trigger buttons. Oddly, the trigger buttons just feel awkward and I find myself not wanting to rest my fingers on them like I would any other modern console controller. They’re angle towards one another creating a unique valley between them. The controller also has a bit of heft to it, which is unexpected, yet still feels rather fragile. I almost can hear things shaking around in it, and combined with the removable panels that doesn’t make me feel like this would be a kid friendly controller. Still, it does the job and is familiar enough that I was able to operate it just fine once the system was turned on.

Once you get your Ouya plugged in and setup to a network it instantly wants to do an update. The update is actually rather amusing, filled with funny little lines about what the update is supposedly doing, such as “tasting the rainbow” or “maximizing the fun” or even “organizing bits”. But once the update is installed and the system reset, you will have to resync your controller and sign in/create a user account. From there you find the Ouya main screen, which seems like a bland version of most modern console’s main screens. Your options on the main screen are:

Play – Where you can play games or use apps you’ve downloaded

Discover – Where you can download games and apps

Make – A section designed for game developers that we can’t really do much with as users

Manage – Basically your settings section

As the console doesn’t come with anything pre-installed, but does have a decently sized internal hard drive (compared to file sizes), we decided to start downloading anything that sounded interesting. As the console isn’t “officially” out yet, there aren’t that many options, but there are still a good couple dozen. The highlight of these current games and apps is Final Fantasy III. This is a high-definition port of the Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy III, and it looks quite nice. To play the full version you’ll have to purchase it for $15.99, but you can play a fair bit for free. The game looks beautiful and is fun to play with a full controller on a console. But unfortunately, it still is a little glitchy and doesn’t really like the Ouya’s onscreen keyboard like the other games do. Still, it is a fun experience for fans looking to relive this classic Final Fantasy game.

Another game we instantly fell in love with is King of Booze, a drinking game you can playing with friends on your console. It has some interesting ways to make you and your friends drink while also providing a BAC test to make sure you “don’t over do it”. Then there is Tune In, their streaming radio app, which allows you to listen to radio from around the world, even while playing other apps/games on the Ouya.

Many of the games are very basic console like games that aren’t anything extraordinarily new, but tend to be innovative still for their concepts. Games like Organ Trail, a zombie spoof of the classic Apple 2 Oregon Trail game. There are FPS, adventure games, racers, and more. We’ve yet to have time to play them all, but there is enough to keep us busy for a short while. The great part however is developers have only had this console for a short while, so there is sure to be plenty of great content on the horizon. Fans of Twitch TV can already download the app and stream Twitch on their actual television, and Vevo and others are on the way.

Would I say Ouya is ready to replace big name consoles like Playstation or Xbox? Not at all…atleast not just yet. But the affordable price tag, very transportable size (you could carry this to your friends house in one hand, no problem. Hell, you could practically put it in your pocket!), and almost limitless options for what might eventually end up on the system certainly make it worth looking at. When the console sees official release later this year, it might actually give the big boys something to worry about.

The Cake is an actual cake mix with 505g Ingredients and a rewarding candle all packaged in an in-universe style Aperture Science box. The ingredients included are 275g Cake Mix, 50g Cream Powder, 80g Liquid thickener, 100g Chocolate flakes, and the candle in a 16 x 6 x 28 cm box. You can already pre-order the item on Amazon UK or check for various Gaya dealers if you live in the UK or Germany. US fans might have to wait a while for licensing rights, but I’m sure it will end up state side eventually, if not sold for a bit via eBay or those willing to just pay shipping to Amazon. At just £11.99 (or roughly $18USD) it might not be the most affordable cake you’ve ever ate, but it certainly isn’t a lie!