Last weekend Joe and I attended the local anime convention Zenkaikon, and it was there we decided to do something a bit different from my normal con review for this post. We had the idea we would do a sort of roundtable ‘Tales from the Con’ post from 2 very different perspectives. Mine from having been in anime fandom for most of my life, having had attended anime conventions in various roles from attendee to guest for the last 12 years. As opposed to Joe, for whom this was his first foray into anime cons.

We both had two very different views of the con and I think there is something there for the people who are long time fans and those new to the genre. Check it out after the jump!

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The guys over at Brave New Worlds have been doing their Book Discussion Club the last couple of months and are  preparing to start a second monthly meeting. Their second discussion club will meet for the first time next Monday, November 16th @ 7pm, and will focus on the Mike Mignola series Hellboy. This month they’ll  kick things off with the first volume of Hellboy, “Seed Of Destruction“.  If you’re like me, and haven’t read Hellboy in a while now, it would be the perfect time to get back into story. For those of you who have yet to jump into the series or have no idea what I’m talking about, this would also be a great opportunity to begin reading this epic story and discuss it with others. If you need to buy “Seed of Destruction” or any other comics for that matter, head over to Brave New Worlds today. You can also RSVP to this event by joining BNW’s Facebook page here.

Hope to see you there!

Yeah, I know. A lot of other blogs have already done this and some, like our friends over at Joystiq, even posted videos. But whatever. Words can’t describe how excited I was to open up this ridiculous special edition. Steelbook packaging, an art book, exclusive downloads, and of course, the night vision goggles.

Regardless of what some needlessly concerned folks might be saying about the goggles, this is one awesome box set. It’s going to look great on the shelf.

For those of you without a flash player, I’ve posted some snaps of the unboxing on the Geekadelphia Flickr.

Video game arcades are all but dead here in America, but in a magical place called Japan not only do they still exist, they are still the place to check out the newest games before they hit the console market. Tekken 6 for instance was released in Japanese arcades November 2007, and was later revised in 2008 as Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion. Tekken 6 was originally scheduled for a 2008 PS3 console debut, but was delayed an entire year with a very controversial announcement at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show: that this would be the first installment of Tekken NOT to be exclusive to the Playstation hardware. As far back as I can remember, Tekken was Sony’s flagship fighter much like DOA for the Xbox hardware. This all just seemed weird to me, like the first time I saw Sonic in a Nintendo game.

Tekken 6, which combines both Japanese arcade versions, was released in the US on October 26th for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and later this month drops on the Sony PSP. For this review I will be covering the PS3 version exclusively, and I will tell you how to win a copy of the Xbox 360 version later in my review.

The first thing you notice when you put in your disc is the gorgeous intro, which as an old-school Tekken fan, it was great to see my favorite characters updated for the current console generation. It’s been 3 years since Tekken 5 graced the PS2 and a lot has changed. This game looks beautiful to say the least. I remember seeing screenshots and thinking it can’t look that good, but it does indeed. The backgrounds are amazingly rendered and at times, very interactive.

There are 3 main modes of play in Tekken 6. Scenario campaign (Similar to Tekken Force) which is a story mode beat-em-up style fighter that not only manages recap every Tekken game’s storyline but makes it coherent and make sense as well, which is a feat in and within itself. Then there are 2 arcade modes online and offline, which should be familiar to anyone that has played Street Fighter 4. The online play I found really smooth and the load times were pretty good even if you didn’t have the game installed on your HD. The matching system is based on a very well instituted ranking system so you don’t get in a match you have no chance of winning. (more…)

Dhani Harrison, son of the late Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison, recently revealed the goals of his work with Harmonix on Rock Band 3 to the Chicago Tribune. Dhani discusses Thenewno2, his awesomely trippy jam band first featured in previous Rock Band titles, and later his more direct connections with the Rock Band franchise (i.e. his work on The Beatles: Rock Band).

“I’m working on Rock Band 3 and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game,” he confidently claims. “Give me a couple years, it’s going to happen.” More after the break. (more…)

“Up” Pixar’s newest masterpiece comes out tomorrow on DVD and Blu-ray and if you haven’t seen this film I highly suggest you check it out, or since it is Pixar – just buy it already. You do know: anything put out buy Pixar should have reserved shelf space in any self-respecting geek’s household, after all this is the company that gave us one the of the greatest superhero films of all-time The Incredibles.

“Up” if your not familiar with the story, is the tale of a grumpy old man named Carl Fredricksen and an overeager Wilderness Explorer named Russell who fly to South America in a floating house suspended from helium balloons. Oh yeah, and there dogs that talk with the aid of high tech collars in the film as well. Up to me seemed like one of the more original Pixar films they have done, and one you simply have to see to believe how great it is. I can’t believe I almost passed this by originally when I read the synopsis, but after watching it I wondered how I could have ever doubted them after-all most studios would kill for Pixar’s track record of releases.

I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a junket with Director and Writer, Pete Docter(Toy Story 1+2, Monsters Inc. and Wall-E) and Co-Director and Writer, Bob Peterson(Finding Nemo and Ratatouille) and get some answers to some of my burning questions about “Up”  in anticipation for tomorrow’s DVD and Blu-ray release of the film. Warning spoilers are after the jump.

“Up” became the first animated film to open the Cannes Film Festival. Do you believe animated features are becoming accepted as a more serious artistic platform?

Pete Docter: We were very honored to be the first animated film to open the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Walking around there, I kept picturing Hitchcock, Coppola, Truffaut; these big time directors… and US?!?! It seemed like some sort of mistake! But we do look at our work as filmmaking, just like any other film. And it’s nice to see the world looking at it that way as well.

What inspired the story of “Up”?

Bob Peterson: Various things, including the lives of our own grandparents. For example, I had a grandfather who always wanted to go west from Ohio, but never got the chance. I had the foresight to videotape my grandparents’ home after they had passed 20 years ago. There are the side-by-side chairs – one soft and one hard, which absolutely paralleled who they were as people. Many of our life experiences with our wives and children were put into play in the script, and of course living with our dogs gave us great insight into dog behavior!

As far as the animation style of “Up” goes, instead of going for “as close to realism as possible” kind of visuals, “Up” has an almost caricatured style, especially with the facial features highlighting big points, rather than looking like a human head. What influenced the style of “Up,” and why did you decide to go this route?

Pete Docter: The story called for Carl to float his house into the air buoyed by balloons. For that to be believable, we felt it would be necessary to caricature the world — and therefore the characters as well. I think if we made it look photo-real, you wouldn’t believe it as readily. We work in animation, so we can do things that can’t be done in any other medium. So the idea of simplifying and caricature is always exciting to me.

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Missed the Halloween party with our friends Indyhall? That’s alright, we’ve got a bunch of photos here, just for you. Have a look, and prepare to be jealous.

There weren’t any others, my dear. It’s always been you. That little affair I had with scrapple? It didn’t last, because despite living in Philadelphia, I still think that stuff is gross. That fling I had with faux bacon bits in my salad… it just wasn’t the same. It’s been a long time, my dear, sweet, candy-of-meat, but at long last, I’m writing about you again. Bacon.

The Mew Gallery is presenting the most delicious show I’ve ever heard about, created by Mike Geno. Entitled The Bacon Show, the exhibit celebrates the “glory of bacon in all its sizzling, savory goodness” and features artists “Ellen Cagnassola, Cho, Jacob Crose, Mike Geno, Ken B. Miller, SappyMoose Tree, John Wolfer, and more.”

The show’s been up since Halloween, but runs through December 17th. There’s an opening reception tomorrow at Mew, with the artists on hand, from 5PM to 9PM. If you go, please, bring me back from bacon. Otherwise I’ll start acting like this kid.

The Bacon Show @ Mew
Running Now through December 17th, 2009
www.mewgallery.com

The Fourth Kind is a docu-horror film made up of “real” footage and sound clips from an incident in Nome Alaska where residents who were having sleep issues, turned out to have been possibly abducted and experimented on by extra-terrestrial beings from another planet. As the film has been screened the Internet has been hotly debating as to whether this footage in the film is truly real, and not simply a Blair Witch inspired hoax. Web searches for the individuals named in the film seem to come to dead ends or viral websites that have disappeared as the release date for the film slowly approaches. The trailer and poster both state that the story is based on “actual case studies,” but does not specify which cases. As I write this review for the film, as far as I know the filmmakers have not yet come forward to say the film is a hoax, and it has not been proven one yet as well.

The Fourth Kind is not your standard Hollywood fare, and shares more in common with the current docu-horror phenomenon Paranormal Activity, than anything that has come out of Hollywood in quite a long time. The story focuses on Dr. Abigail Tyler who came forward with the material for the film some time after the events took place. The meat of the story exposition is told through an interview Dr. Tyler did on a Chapman University talk show. It is further elaborated through police videos from squad cars, videos of therapy sessions, audio clips and reenactments.  The reenactments star Milla Jovovich as Dr. Tyler, in a role that I think really gave her more of a challenge than her usual zombie killing fare she is known for – and one she surprisingly pulls off well.  Dr. Tyler is a grief stricken psychologist, trying to overcome the death of her husband who was recently killed in a home invasion. She attempts to work through this by throwing herself head first into her and her husbands’ work as means to escape her grief.

It’s during this work interviewing traumatized patients, that she discovers quite a few people in the town suffering from sleeping issues seem to be having the same experiences and hallucinations. They all note seeing a white owl outside of their window at night.  This revelation is what starts the plot moving in a very slow yet methodical style, which keeps you going until the very end. Since this is supposed to be based on real events, the film is not paced like a normal film and doesn’t offer a normal payoff either, but I don’t think that it hurts the film at all. There is also a lack of gratuitous exposition that you normally find in American films, which I found very refreshing.

more and the rating after the jump!

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Down, Right, Fierce is a weekly column about the video games, television shows, movies, and books that geeks care about. But mostly it’s a soapbox for Chris Holzworth to stand on and bark out his unwarranted, unwanted, and unwelcome opinions.

Like a lot of gamers, I decided it was time to buy a PS3 when Sony (officially) announced the PS3 Slim and the $100 price-drop during Gamecom. But, like a lot of writers, I’m pretty poor. Honestly, I only make enough money to pay my rent, cell phone bill, and GameFly account, so I decided to take on some side-work in order to earn the cash for a PS3 Slim. Fortunately for me, my father’s house, purchased three years ago, was still in disarray so I volunteered to do some manual labor for him. Specifically, I agreed to tear down the metal siding on his house. It was my naïve assumption that this task would take no longer than a week to complete. Unfortunately, thanks to New Jersey’s persistent rain this season, it took me a few weeks before I finally finished.

What I learned from this experience is that it’s easier to just go out, apply for a job, and earn a paycheck. This is the wisdom I impart to anyone reading this column. (more…)

Each of Global Agenda’s four player classes: Robotics, Assault, Recon and Medic (left to right).

During this year’s GameX Expo, I not only had a chance to play the PvP portion of Hi-Rez Studios’ debut title, Global Agenda, but the opportunity to speak with Hi-Rez Studios’ Associate Producer Michal Adam about some of the finer points of Global Agenda. Find out what the developer is doing to potentially break the mold of traditional MMO design in several ways after the break. (more…)

Zenkaikon is almost here. In fact, it starts in two days. And with all the outstanding events going on at the convention, from cosplay contests to video game competitions, there is a lot to choose from. However, I think this Robotech reunion deserve special attention.

The 2009 Robotech Convention Tour is making its final stop at Zenkaikon, bringing with it a wealth of Robotech names. From Robert Axelrod (voice of Rico in The Macross Saga) and Tommy Yune (director of The Shadow Chronicles), to several inkers, writers, and illustrators involved in the Comico, Eternity, and DC comics, they’ve got a lot of people rolling in. Check out the whole list on the official Robotech website.

Tickets are still available for the con, $23 for Saturday, $20 for Sunday, with a two day pass running you $40. Stressed over the SEPTA strike? Think you might not make it? Check out Zenkaikon’s contingency plan for those of you car-less folks out there.

Maybe we can get them to talk about that proposed Tobey MaGuire produced Robotech movie. Cause seriously, I’ve been waiting for that for a while. Make it happen, Tobey. We believe in you.

Zenkaikon 2009
November 7th & 8th
www.zenkaikon.com