Nathan

Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous, I'm a huge fan of Roosterteeth though (I've met some of them several times, I even went to there PAX after party and tickets for that sold out in less than 5 mins) and I also took a family friend who was also a big Roosterteeth fan, so I kind of had to. The $50 per ticket was definitely too much for what it was (most other conventions here $50 would get you a 3 day pass and I feel like you get more out of them since your not waiting in line so much). I guess it was a way to reduce how quickly tickets sold since it was there first event and they had to start small. I think a lot of people were expecting more announcements and hands on gameplay for upcoming titles, and like I said I think Comic Con may have hurt that.

I had no idea what you were talking about...I had to try and find out by looking it up.

So I went to PAX Australia this past weekend with the intention of giving you guys some news straight from the source. Unfortunately I spent far more time standing in line than I would have liked, but I thought I'd cover the events of the convention anyway. To those who don't know PAX (Penny Arcade Expo), it is a gaming convention run by the Penny Arcade team (which started as a video game themed web comic and has since expanded to a podcast, reality show, video game and more). PAX itself now includes the annual events PAX Prime (in Seattle), PAX East (in Boston). Now PAX Australia, held in Melbourne, Victoria, marks the first international PAX event.PAX Australia ran from the 19th to the 21st of July. Tickets were fairly pricey at $50 for a day pass and sold out incredibly quickly almost six months ago due to limited space. Based on the number of tickets sold there was about 15,000 people in attendance each day. I'll start with what I was personally able to experience at PAX. Firstly the enforcers didn't seem to have the same standards in "enforcing" the rules as I've heard they do at their US events; again, this can be partially put down to the fact that it was the inaugural event on the other side of the planet, and the enforcers were just as much fans and gamers as any of the other attendees. On the plus side this meant they were really enthusiastic and I could tell that as soon as I walked in to the showgrounds. However it also meant they didn't really know what they were doing and several times I was in a line and in an attempt to fit as many people in an area as possible an enforcer would break the line and get everyone to bunch up into a tight chaotic crowd of people rather than an organised line. Unfortunately I didn't get to walk around the show floor as much as I would have liked but from what I did I could see that Booths had way more effort put into them than any other convention I had been to and they were able to use the space more effectively than other conventions that had been held at the same venue. On that note, and I think possibly as a side effect of being held while Comic Con was on, many of the larger game developers and studios that you would expect to see were not exhibiting. The only major games and companies that were in the Expo Hall were Nintendo (and it was all 3DS content, nothing particularly special), the Australian modified version of Saints Row IV, Ubisoft (although I didn't even notice them), and World of Tanks (which had way more space than seemed necessary). Smaller developers were much more prominent, with Halfbrick Studios (an Australian developer that created Fruit Ninja, and Jet Pack Joy Ride) being a major sponsor for the event, really impressing attendees. There was also a lot of emphasis put on Indie developers. The main thing I attended for was to meet some of the RoosterTeeth staff (the creators of Red vs Blue, Achievement Hunter and more) including Burnie Burns, Jack Pattillo, and Gus Sorola. They were awesome as usual. About 1000 people attended their panel (so almost a tenth of the number of people attending PAX that day. They also released the first episode of their new anime style series RWBY that day, which I will most likely be covering in my own blog on the site at some stage. I was lucky enough to get into the line for their signings (but only just) and had to wait 3 hours if that gives you guys any indication of how popular they were. I mentioned Wargaming had a massive World of Tanks area, and I may be biased due to the fact I was waiting in line next to one of the tanks they had on display, but it really felt unnecessary. I was also concerned that the rules from other PAX's weren't being implemented "down under" when I noticed the Wargaming area filled with what could only be described as booth babes (despite not being in bikinis) which is something PAX has already had a strong stance against. Not that I have a huge problem with it, but again its unnecessary and it would be far better if they just showed off great content rather than employing cheap tactics, and I feel like PAX's strict rules are one of the things that make the events run smoothly. I later heard that the women promoting their game were asked to cover up a bit. League of Legends also took up a lot of space but it was all being used, with tournaments running on all 3 days of the event. Microsoft had a space dedicated to showing off the Xbox One, although it was only there in a glass case for a few hours on Saturday and Sunday, I've heard the reason for taking it in and out was due to the fact it was the only Xbox One in Australia at the time and it was being used for demonstrations at panels. As I mentioned Halfbrick, developer of Fruit Ninja and Jetpack Joyride, was a major sponsor of the event, and provided attendees with lanyards to keep their passes on. At their panel they announced their next iOS game, Collosatron: Massive World Threat. The game will put you in the role of a giant robotic snake from outer space causing destruction and mayhem on Earth. Overall PAX Aus was a good experience for a first year event, but there are definitely some kinks that need to be worked out for next year, and I think a different time of year for it would possibly help (or at least not clashing with Comic Con, and thereby hopefully encouraging more exhibitors). The best thing about PAX was how friendly everyone was, and it was pretty easy to talk to complete strangers simply because you had that connection as fellow gamers. Click here to view the article

Welcome to the site. I'm glad to hear you find it to be such a great resource. Personally I'm not a big MMO or Elder Souls player at the moment but like most of us here I'm sure I will try out ESO when it is released. As you will probably notice although the site obviously focuses on the Elder Scrolls franchise we have a lot of other video game content and discussion. I can also definitely relate to not being a big party animal XD. Anyway I hope you continue to enjoy the site and I look forward to seeing you around more

I'd be happy to try and make something for you. I wouldn't ask for money for it though (I've never heard of anyone asking for money to do signatures, since its fairly simple). Do you have an idea of what size and dimensions you want the signature to be? Since signature sizes and rules for them on forums can vary quite a bit. Also just to be clear, did you want someone to design a character for the signature (as opposed to using an existing image)? This is the most recent signature that I've done, and I did that at least a month ago. There's some more in my gallery on this site also feel free to check out my deviantART page to get an idea of the other stuff I've done.

Since we didn't release an article last week we'll make up for it in this one. Very few games have been released in the last couple of weeks but there's plenty of news to catch up on. Game Releases Dynasty Warriors 8Platform/s: Playstation 3, Xbox360 Release Date/s:Previously released early 2013 in Japan, July 16th in North America, to be released July 19 in Europe and July 25 in Australia. Dynasty Warriors 8 is the eighth official installment in the Dynasty Warriors series which is based on the classic Chinese novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". It uses the same system and engine as Dynasty Warriors 7, focussing instead on adding more content for replayability and tweaking the combat system, and includes more than 77 characters. The Walking Dead: 400 Days (DLC)Platform/s: Playstation 3, PC, Xbox360, iOS, Playstation Vita Release Date/s: July 2 for PS3, July 3 for PC, July 5 for Xbox360, July 11 for iOS and to be released for Playstation Vita sometime next month. 400 days is a special episode of the Walking Dead video game which serves to bridge the gap between Season 1 and the upcoming Season 2 of the game. In general it has been criticised for being too short and not letting you get to know the characters well enough. Gaming News and Announcements [*]Earlier this month Don Mattrick left Microsoft where he was President of Interactive Entertainment Business to join Zynga as CEO [*]Saints Row IV released a new trailer for Independence Day, check it out here. [*]There have been several Security and Privacy issues in gaming recently. [*]Personal information of user stored on Arma III and Day Z servers had been compromised [*]23,925 Japanese Club Nintendo accounts had personal information stolen including real names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. [*]Similar problems have been suffered recently by UbiSoft and indie game developers such as Cube World. [*]Microsoft allegedly assisted the NSA to intercept private Skype and email transmissions which comes as further bad news for the Xbox One which will have Skype integrated into it. [*]Trailers for Pikmin 3 (for the Wii U) have been released that show off and [*]Sony have confirmed that the PS4 will be playable at Comic-Con next week [*]The iOS game Deus Ex: The Fall wouldn't allow players on a jailbroken device to fire their weapon, Square Enix has since apologised for not being clear about this and will be releasing a patch that removes restriction. [*]Rockstar has released a gameplay trailer for Grand Theft Auto V which [*]When Disney acquired Marvel, and then later Star Wars many fans expressed interest in seeing characters from these franchises in Kingdom Hearts, and whilst nothing has been confirmed yet Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura commented in an interview recently that he would be interested in implementing Star Wars into the series. Weird Gaming News and Facts [*]One Piece:Romance Dawn, the upcoming 3DS game (ported from PSP) based on the popular manga and anime series is not planned to be released in the US despite being localized for several European English speaking countries. The game is set to be released in Japan August 8th and in Europe in November and you can watch the trailer here. [*]The US government now recognises League of Legends players as professional athletes and awards visas to them to play. [*]A manga adaptation of Assassins Creed IV will be launching in Japan on August 10th. [*]Whilst not strictly video game related and English version of the popular Japanese Hatsune Miku software is going to be released this Summer. On that topic a meme has recently started using the 3D animating tool "Miku Miku Dance", Check out this " " video to find out what I mean.[*]The Little Sisters from Bioshock were originally planned to be tiny mole-like creatures rather than little girls. There won't be a Weekly Gaming Article next week but we should have some pretty interesting and unique content for you guys in its place. Click here to view the article

Clan Friend. I logged in to Runescape for a few minutes yesterday and there about 10 people around me who were in the same situation (hadn't logged in for a while, and then log in to find they can't even play f2p anymore since they have to many items in there banks from being p2p and its just not appealing anymore.) It sucks about the clan war falling through too, Hopefully you can find another one soon because that will really help reboot the clan. And if there are any clan ads on other sites that I started that you need removed so you can change the info on them, just let me know.

Yeah i know right, I mean he obviously said some pretty stupid and thoughtless things but to treat it as a real terrorist threat is just overboard. Yeah, I didn't even remember hearing much about it before it came out either.

Let's get right into it, shall we? Game Releases Game & Wario Platform/s: Wii U Release date/s: Previously released in Japan in March. June 23rd in North America, June 28 in Europe and June 29 in Australia. The game was originally a technical demonstration of the Wii U's GamePad planned to be pre-installed on every Wii U system before they decided to release it as a game with a Wario theme. It consists of 16 mini-games, twelve of which are single player and four are multiplayer only for up to five players. It has received mixed to positive reviews with a score of 62.67% on game rankings Company of Heroes 2 Platform/s: Windows Release date/s: June 25 As a sequel to Company of Heroes the game is set in World War II, focussing on the Eastern Front. It features new technology to better emulate troop visibility in real combat. Weather also plays an important factor, troops can die of frostbite if caught outside during blizzards, bonfires can protect soldiers from the cold but at the risk of enemy detection. It has recieved positive reviews with a score of 81.62 on gamerankings Deadpool Platform/s: Xbox360, PS3, Windows Release date/s: June 25 in North America and June 28th in Europe. Deadpool is an action video game based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name and features cameos by several other Marvel characters. It has recieved mixed reviews, it has been praised for its humour but its gameplay has been called repetitive. It has a score of 68.44% on gamerankings Gaming News and Announcements [*]A trailer for Mario and Luigi: Dream Team has been released and you can watch it here. The 3DS game has players exploring Luigi's dreams [*]A series of videos showcasing different classes for Dark Souls II have been released. Here are links to the videos of the , and [*]Microsoft recently reversed many of their unpopular DRM policies for the Xbox One. After a single system set-up with a new console an internet connection will no longer be required to play offline Xbox One games, and you will be able to trade-in, lend, resell, gift and rent disc based games just like you can with the Xbox360. [*]A video for New Super Luigi U has been released that shows off the differences between Mario and Luigi. [*]The new Namco Bandai, Dragon Ball Z game (Dragon Ball: Battle of Z) based on the recent movie has been confirmed for release outside of Japan including North America, Europe, Latin America and Brazil. The game will include a battle royale mode for eight players as well as four player co-op and online multiplayer. It is set to be released for PS3, Xbox 360 and PS Vita. [*]Google has announced that they are working on a new Android gaming console, though with the reception the Ouya has received its not something to get too excited about. Weird Gaming News and Facts [*]In an E3 Interview Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura mentioned that all the data for Kingdom Hearts 1 had been lost and so everything had to be completely recreated for HD. Check out the full interview here [*]A Texas teenager has been held in jail since March over comments he made on facebook from a converstation that started in League of Legends where he referenced a school shooting. [*]Sweden has introduced a tax and permit system for LAN parties by lumping games, PC's and consoles in with poker machines and other electronic gambling devices. [*]Saints Row IV and State of Decay have been refused classification in Australia, showing that there's still a problem with the way games are classified in Australia despite the new R18+ rating that was introduced earlier this year. [*]According to studies conducted by Iowa State University the Pokewalker is one of the most accurate pedometers ever. Click here to view the article

True, but I think there is potential for more kinds of games, even more kinds of party type games than there currently is. Its just that developers still don't really know how to use it I guess.

I have one, but I rarely use it. Mind you it has much less functionality outside of the US, it wasn't that long ago that they finally added voice control in Australia. The biggest problem with it, is much like the wii, there are very few games that make use of it, or use it well.

Yeah, I definitely think Microsoft was overconfident due to their success with the 360. They also won't give up on the Kinect and the inclusion of that probably raises the price a fair bit.

I'm glad they've finally reversed a lot of there DRM policies, but for a lot of people its far too little too late. Now people who were happy with the DRM changes and the push towards digital gaming are annoyed and the people who wanted it changed now want the kinect removed (which I doubt will happen). I'm not that concerned about the kinect, but if they do make it optional I think that will be a huge step in their favour as it should reduce the price a lot too. As for Sony changing their policies, I'm not sure they will, for one thing not as many people know about it (I would have missed it if it weren't for the fact I was looking through everything for writing my article) and they seem to be a bit better than Xbox's. Only time will tell though I guess, I'll probably stick to what I've done for every gaming console and wait quite a while after its released before getting one, heck despite being pretty much an Xbox360 gamer now it was only about 4 years ago that I got one (which would've been about 4 years since its release)

This week of course there weren't many important gaming releases. However, there is plenty of industry news to discuss due to E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) having been held from the 11th to 13th. Game Releases The Last of UsPlatform/s: Playstation 3 Release Date/s: Its to be released in Japan on June 20th but it was released everywhere else on the 14th. The Last of Us is basically the only game to come out this week that is really worthy of mention, however its managed to still stand out and cause discussion among gamers even with all the distractions of E3 which is a really admirable feat. The game follows the protagonist Joel, as he tries to survive the post-apocalyptic world caused by a fungi/plant-like parasite that mutates human hosts into rabid killers. The game has received enormous praise and has an extraordinary score of 94.58% on game rankings. Gaming News and AnnouncementsThere's been so much news and drama in the gaming industry particularly centered around Sony and Microsoft's next generation of consoles... Where to begin? MicrosoftSo as you probably have already heard even, if you haven't heard anything about E3, is that when the Xbox One was revealed Microsoft outraged gamers when it was revealed that the console would be required to connect to the internet at least once every 24 hours otherwise gaming would not be possible. They also stated that is would have very limited support for used games (in essence if you tried to use a game disc on another's Xbox, you would have to repurchase the game). Strangely, it was only later that Microsoft revealed that they were leaving the decision regarding the lack of support for used games up to each individual developer. On top of that the Xbox One isn't backwards compatible, and although achievements will be transferred even games that were downloaded to the Xbox 360 won't be playable on the Xbox One. Their press conference was rather poorly received, and consisted of several awkward pauses where an applause was expected; when there was applause it was usually half-hearted or polite clapping rather than excitement. Compared to conferences by other companies there were very few games shown. They announced a new model of the Xbox 360 which is made to look like the Xbox One, which is an odd move considering you would hope they would be more focused on the upcoming release of the Xbox One at this point, and besides the look of the Xbox One was yet another thing that people criticized. They also announced that as of July 1st, people who still have an Xbox Live gold subscription will be able to download two free games per month, including Assassins Creed 2, and Halo 3. Furthermore, at the end of their conference, gamers were put off by the rather expensive price of £429 UK, 499 Euro, and US $499. When the PS3 released, Sony was over-confident due to their success with the PS2, and as a result made several mistakes, and I feel like Microsoft is now in the same position and making many of the same mistakes. For example, just like the PS3 was, the Xbox One is significantly more expensive than its competitors. The PlayStation 3 also suffered because Sony continued to give the PlayStation 2 too much continued support, and Microsoft seems to be doing the same with the Xbox 360. That said as a consumer obviously I would like my existing console to be useful but at a certain point they need to stop supporting past products in order to improve the future of the console. SonyMicrosoft put themselves in a position where they could be absolutely humiliated by Sony, and Sony took every opportunity to do just that. They showed lots of amazing games, far more than Microsoft at the very least, and the crowd was genuinely excited about them. They showed the return of classic titles such as Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy 15 to the crowds delight, and also showed several games that weren't necessarily exclusive to Sony but had additional bonuses exclusive to Sony Consoles. They also revealed that several of the games that they showed at E3 would be available at no extra charge to PlayStation Plus subscribers. To top that off they announced that an online connection was optional, they supported used games as usual (even deliberately poking fun at the Xbox one by posting ) and that it will be $100 cheaper at the price of £349 UK, 399 Euro and US $399. All of these things caused massive cheers from the audience and resulted in a sky rocket in Sony stock prices and a crash in Microsoft stock.Despite claiming that they support used games as normal, they stated sometime after E3 that they actually have essentially the same DRM policy as Microsoft. As third party games they are leaving it up to individual developers. As disappointing as this is, at least they marketed themselves better and showed that they understand gamers are not going to be happy with these DRM issues rather than Microsoft who seemed to advertise it as a feature of the Xbox One. So in summary it seems that the only difference now between the two consoles is price, the online check-in, and exclusive titles and the Playstation 4 seems to be better in those aspects but I suppose only time will tell, and its usually not a good idea to get consoles immediately anyway. Other News[*]EA announced Star Wars Battlefront 3. [*]Nintendo have released several gameplay trailers which you can find here [*] [*]Second [*] [*] [*]A new Super Smas Bros. for WiiU and 3DS was announced along with new playable characters including Megaman, a villager from animal crossing, the Wii Fit trainer. The much hated tripping feature of Super Smash Bros. Brawl will not be included. [*]Apple had their own developers conference at about the same time as E3 and announced Mac Pro, iOS7 There are far more title announcements that came out this week but it would be impossible for me to cover them all so I'll leave you with this imageof a spreadsheet of all of this years E3 titles and what consoles they will be on and you guys can look up what your interested in that way. Weird Gaming News and Facts [*]A stop motion Zelda series has been released, which also includes Black Rock Shooter from the game anime and manga. You can find the first episode here. [*]The Pokemon Drowzee is based on Tapirs, an animal which in Japan, is said to eat dreams. [*]A study in America found that playing Super Mario Sunshine made people more helpful in real life. See you next week! Click here to view the article

After the news at E3 that Star Wars: Battlefront 3 will be coming out, Star Wars fans might be in for some more good news. Since Disney acquired Star Wars last year, many have anticipated a Star Wars themed expansion to one of the disney parks, and there have been several recent reports that it might now be in the works. Here is one of the articles that discusses some of Disney's planned expansions to Florida's Disney Land including the Star Wars expansion. What do you guys think of this news? Do you think it's likely to happen? If it is true when do you think we can expect it to be ready? What would you like to see in a Star Wars theme park?

Thanks for the feedback. Yeah I felt the same way about the ALO arc, I thought it was still good but definitely nowhere near as good. I wanted to talk about that in the article but I felt like just mentioning the ALO arc kind of spoils the ending of the SAO arc. I've been intending to read or at least watch Accel World, I knew obviously that its by the same author and similar themes but I didn't realise it actually takes place in the same universe as well, that's pretty cool. Also its awesome to see you on here again