Borderlands: the multiplayer/FPS/loot hunt that will not die.  Not only are we getting a new Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution DLC, but Gearbox is planning on a free update which will raise the level cap to 69 and re-balance the game to accommodate the new higher levels. The update is scheduled for around October 12 to coincide with the release of the Borderlands Game of the Year edition (which will include all previously released DLC packs).

[Source: Announcement made by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford at PAX]

The first humongous nitpick I have is with the item creation system. It works exactly the way you craft items in Monster Hunter, right down to the overall types of ingredients- stuff carved out of monsters (but it’s generic bits and pieces instead of things unique to each enemy), herbs, fruit, rocks, what have you. You even gather resources from spots the same way, though in a surprising bit of detail you can see an item spot getting “used up” as you gather stuff from it. It’s not quite as blatant as the way Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce copied the central hub, village upgrades, single quests AND item crafting from Monster Hunter, but it shows that no effort was made to individualize the item creation.

The other part that seriously burns me up is the rock-paper-scissors damage resistance and immunity. Each type of enemy might be resistant or totally immune to a certain type of damage. Adol’s sword attacks and Dogi’s punches are different types, so you’ll see them dealing “Bad Attacks” to certain enemies. This part’s no big deal, because all you need to remember is to use Adol for fleshy enemies and Dogi for armored enemies. The first extra character, Elk, also deals slashing damage with his weapon, but at the point where Aisha joins you, it all goes south. Aisha uses a bow and arrows, so her attacks deal a new type of damage called piercing. Sure, she can fire arrows while moving, but shooting at armored enemies does absolutely nothing, and she’ll just score Bad Attacks against some of the fleshy enemies. The only ones Aisha is meant to damage are fast, flying enemies, like the big bugs that body-slam you. You’d think that her Somersault special move would deal blunt damage, but it doesn’t!

It makes sense that you have to use the heavy character to fight heavy enemies and the fast character to fight fast enemies, but it’s really not something you expect in an action-RPG. I also wish that whatever two characters I’m not controlling would actually use their normal combo attacks instead of just the first swing over and over again.

Can’t get enough Katamari Damacy?  Live in the Portland, Oregon area?  You might want to check out this show at Floating World Comics with art inspired by the games Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy.  Opening night is tonight, Sept 2nd, from 6-10 pm.  Short notice I know, but it’s going to run until the end of the month if you miss it today.

Over 30 artists are featured, including: Jeffrey Brown, Michael Deforge, Ana Galvan, Zane Kozak, Chris Kuzma, Edward Kwong, Le Merde, Luke Ramsey, David Rubin, Alena Skarina, Katie Skelly, Zack Soto, Pete Toms, Angie Wang, and more!  The show will be a mix of original works and archival prints of digital submissions.  In addition, they are partnered with PANIC, the company officially licensed to make Katamari and Noby Noby Boy T-shirts.

This is a fundraiser with 100% of the profits going to local non-profit organization JOIN.

The address is:

Floating World Comics

20 NW 5th Ave #101

Portland, OR 97209

Preview some of the artwork here: http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2010/08/the_king_of_all_katamari_damac.php

Fans need not worry, as Telltale has done an excellent job with their previous adventure games. You may recognize them: the episodic new adventures of Sam and Max, Tales of Monkey Island, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, and of course Wallace and Gromit’s Grand Adventure. Attendies of the upcomming PAX this weekend will get to see a DeLorean replica in all its glory.

We look forward to this release as well as the vague Sam and Max, Team Fortress 2, Strong Bad, and Penny Arcade crossover. Maybe even a trailer at PAX.

Good news everyone!  Recettear: the Item Shop’s Tale is now going to be distributed by Steam and GamersGate as well as Impulse.  The release date is still 9/10.  Color me pleasantly surprised, especially after reading stories about how notoriously slow the process of getting a game on Steam is.

My impressions of the demo:

http://blog.vidyagamez.com/?p=1113

[Source : Carpe Fulgur webpage ]

9/7

Spiderman: Shattered Demensions

Dragon Age Orgins: Witchhunt  (PC, PS3, Xbox360)

Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions (PS3, Xbox360, Wii)

Batman: The Brave and the Bold the Videogame (DS, Wii)

9/8

Plants vs. Zombies (Xbox360)

Amnesia: The Dark Decent (PC)

9/10

Recettear

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale (PC)

9/12

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

Professor Layton and the Unwound Future (DS)

9/14

Painkiller: Pandemonium (PC)

Halo: Reach (Xbox360)

9/21

Etrian Odyssey 3

Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City (DS)

Civilization V (PC)

Deathspank: The Thongs of Virtue (PS3)

9/22

Deathspank: The Thongs of Virtue (Xbox360)

Final Fantasy XIV Online (limited edition) (PC)

9/28

Dead Rising 2

Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland (PS3)

Dead Rising 2 (PS3, Xbox360, PC)

Fifa Soccer 11 (DS, PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox360, PSP, Wii)

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (PC, PS3, Xbox360, Wii)

9/30

Final Fantasy XIV Online (PC)

“Thank you for being a valued member of Xbox LIVE Gold. We hope you are enjoying the many exciting and exclusive features that are included in your membership. We wanted to let you know about an upcoming price increase for your Xbox LIVE Gold subscription and how you can lock in your current price to continue enjoying everything you’ve come to love about Xbox LIVE, plus all the upcoming additions including ESPN and Hulu Plus.

Over the past seven years, Xbox LIVE has evolved from an online gaming platform to an all-in-one gaming and entertainment service. As an Xbox LIVE Gold member, you can not only play blockbuster games, such as Halo: Reach with your friends online, you can also stream movies from Netflix* and music from Last.fm right to your TV. You can even connect with friends near and far on Facebook® and Twitter™. Plus, you also enjoy exclusive discounts and early access to game demos.

And we aren’t even close to being done. This holiday, Xbox LIVE is adding new Gold features, including ESPN and Video Kinect, with Hulu Plus coming on Xbox LIVE in 2011.

• With ESPN on Xbox LIVE, you can stream and watch over 3,500 live and on-demand sporting events plus highlights.*

• Video Kinect allows you to chat with family and friends on the big screen, right from the comfort of your living room—no headset or controller required.*

• With Hulu Plus on Xbox LIVE you will be able to enjoy a customized Hulu Plus experience that will include Kinect navigation and Xbox LIVE Parties*

Besides launching the new features and titles, we will also be increasing the price of Gold membership on November 1, 2010. The new prices are as follows:

Old Price

New Price

1-Month Gold Subscription

$7.99

$9.99

3-Month Gold Subscription

$19.99

$24.99

12-Month Gold Subscription

$49.99

$59.99

At only $5 per month, our 12-month offer continues to be your best value.”

As an XBL Gold user, I can say that I wouldn’t be so frustrated about this if I used all their services. I don’t use Facebook, Twitter, Zune, or much of those other things on XBL at all. I play games online, I download demos, I use Netflix, and I may use ESPN when it comes out. Unfortunately, it seems that Microsoft wants you to pay for all of it, or none of it.

With the amount of services that XBL has now, if Microsoft wants to continue to charge these things, then I think they need to start charging them as add-on services instead of an “All-in-one” package. My suggestion is to make them like the premium movie channels offered for cable companies such as Comcast, where you pay an extra bit a month to be able to view HBO or Starz. However, I highly doubt Microsoft will think of that, as this is an easy way to exploit money from users who wish to play online, even if they don’t use all the services.

Street fighter enthusiast and all around joystick monster Daigo “The Beast” Umehara received a certificate from the Guinness World Records Gamers Division while competing in the ‘Super Vs Battle’ tourney in London, England on Aug 22nd.  The record he now officially holds in the Guinness Records is “most successful player in major tournaments of Street Fighter” after winning 15 national and international Street Fighter tournaments.  Billy Mitchell confirmed for biting his fist in jealousy.  World’s fattest man remains apathetic.

Speaking via his translator, Daigo Umehara commented,“Receiving this award at the culmination of a spirited international tournament is truly a great honor, one made all the more special when considering the fierce competition in the international fighting game community. Receiving the award makes me more determined than ever to continue honing my skills and I look forward to representing Team Mad Catz at the Tougeki‘Super Battle Opera’ tournament, taking place at the Tokyo Game Show shortly.”

Daigo in action vs Justin Wong at EVO 2009:

and vs Ricky Ortiz at EVO 2010:

[Source: Mad Catz press release]

As if to be reading our mind, Golden Sun’s third installment was set for release today November 29, 2010 in North America. Unfortunately, no European or Japanese date has been set yet. Anyone outside of North America may have to wait just a bit longer for Camelot’s new installment into the popular Golden Sun series, about seven years after Lost Age was released.

If there’s one kind of game that stays true to what it’s about, it’s H-Games. However, in recent events I’ve found myself completely mistaken with the H-Games I’ve acquired. Today I would like to point you to one of the more well known H-Games and the deceptive piece of pornogrophy it is. But I guess you should probably learn what an H-Game is first. Essentially, it is a Japanese anime porn game. That’s right. They are eerily plentiful in Japan, it seems. They usually take the form of a visual novel in which you read a story and make small choices, and those choices change the events of the story.

The game I played was simply called “Do You Like Horny Bunnies?” This came off as a rather intriguging title, so I tried it out. It was pretty simple and straight forward in terms of gameplay and decisions. Sakura Wars: So Long My Love was more complicated than this visual novel. However, staying true to what visual novels are about, you never see your own face, nor does your character have a voice actor. With this, you are free to imagine yourself performing these lechorous acts in the place of the character.

So, your character is a guy that looks like a girl that ends up working at a restraunt. He becomes a waiter and is surrounded by other waitresses. The catch? They wear bunny outfits. A dream for many men, I’m sure. Each of the girls seems to really want to sleep with you, and they all succeed at least once. If this is what Japanese women are all like, I’m surprised we don’t hear about women raping men there more often! The story follows your characer as he chooses a girl he wants to go out with, then branches off with how each of the relationships works.

I guess this game is also for lesbians?

The characters seem to cover a wide range of fetishes. Incest since one of the girls is your cousin, one girl craves sperm, one girl pees when she has sex, one likes toys, and one is your general older woman. Each one is rather nice, but each also creeped me out at least once in a way. Nothing too bad, though, I suppose.

My beef with the game is simply this, however: the game is called “Do You Like Horny Bunnies?” yet I found no bunnies at all! There were girls dressed in bunny ears and tails, bunny girls if you will, but there were no rabbits of any kind! What kind of false advertisement is that? You spend half the game wondering when you think you’re going to see a cute, fuzzy bunny, and then they never come! I could not even come to comprehend the nature of this game. I was expecting a visual novel teaching me about rabbit breeding habits. What I got was a visual novel teaching me how to sleep with Japanese waitresses wearing bunny outfits.

While I felt outraged that I was mislead by the title of the product, after I finally sat down and gave it a chance, it really wasn’t all that bad. While it wasn’t as educational in the subject matter that I wished, it was certainly some kind of educational. I’ve been informed, though, that there was in fact a sequel to this game. I’m tempted to try it to see if they fixed any of my general concerns. Well, until then I can enjoy my renamed “Do You Like Bunnygirls?” game.

Where are the bunnies!?

You will like this game if:

• You like bunnygirls

You will NOT like this game if:

• You like horny bunnies