ISML 2010: Ruby Necklace Winner

Posting for Gangster, since he's sick >.> *Copy and pastes*

Gangster: Yay! Mikoto from Railgun/Index, the so-called level 5 railgun who controls electricity, wins the Ruby necklace! And it's her first one :3

Let's give a big clap to Mikoto for winning her first necklace!

Milktea: Biribiri, mai waifu <33333
Lol good thing Shana didn't won again, just saying. Since I'd be shocked o_O

ISML 2010: Emerald Necklace Winner

Shana wins the Emerald necklace~ She's the second girl to win a necklace in two periods (Haruhi was the first girl in 2008 that did the same thing, she had the Ruby and Diamond necklaces).

Shana's necklace count is 4 now, and Ruby Period will start soon next week... can't wait for it :D

E3 2010: Preview: Dead Space 2

Isaac Clarke Returns to Battle the Necromorph! . Engineer Isaac Clarke returns for another blood-curdling adventure in the sequel to the critically acclaimed Dead Space™. After waking from a coma on a massive space city known as “The Sprawl,” the lone survivor of a horrific alien infestation finds himself confronting the catastrophic new nightmare.

Battling dementia, hunted by the government, and haunted by visions of his dead girlfriend, Isaac will do whatever it takes to save himself and dominate the gruesome onslaught. With an arsenal of tools to dismember Necromorphs and new determination, an engineer will bring the terror to space.

E3 2010: Preview: Crysis 2

The world has been ravaged by a series of climatic disasters and society is on the verge of total breakdown. Now the aliens have returned, with a full invasion force bent on nothing less than the total annihilation of mankind, starting by trying to rip the heart out of Earth’s most iconic city.

In New York, terrifying alien invaders stalk the streets and a nightmare plague strikes down the city’s myriad inhabitants with brutal epidemic speed. The city’s systems are in chaos, its streets and skyline are smashed and in flaming ruin. This is New York City like you’ve never seen it before. Neither paramilitary law enforcement nor the might of the US military machine can stand against the invaders, and all who choose not to flee are dead men walking.

Just to survive in this maelstrom of death will require technology beyond anything any modern soldier has ever seen. One man will inherit that means to survive. One supersoldier, wielding the combat enhancement technology of the future with Nanosuit 2, will make the last stand to save humanity from destruction in the urban jungle that is New York City.

E3 2010: Preview: The Sly Collection

The critically-acclaimed Sly Cooper series makes its triumphant return this fall with The Sly Collection for the PlayStation®3 system (PS3™).

The Sly Collection features three PlayStation®2 action-packed classic hits; Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racconus™, Sly 2: Band of Thieves™ and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves™ fully remastered in high definition.

The Sly Collection sees the mischievous raccoon and his gang of eccentric friends pull off daring heists in this entertaining platformer adventure.

Packed full with mini-games and thrilling missions from across the globe, The Sly Collection masterfully blends stealth, thievery, combat, strategy and exploration into one huge world.

E3 2010: Preview: Max Payne 3

Fast-paced, highly advanced and furiously violent, Max Payne returns to reinvent the shooter genre with the most sophisticated, stylized shooting action, and a dark and deeply immersive story following one of the most iconic characters in video games. 12 years after the events of Max Payne 2, Max finds himself in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where security work is plentiful but the risks are high. But murder and betrayal dog his every step, and once again, Max is thrust into the heart of a brutal city with nothing but his weapons and his instincts in a desperate search for the truth and a way out.

E3 2010: Sony Playstation Move

Sony's PlayStation Move motion-sensing wand-based peripheral for the PS3 will debut on September 19, the company revealed at its E3 2010 press show today. It'll be relatively cheap, too, starting at $50 per controller, or $100 for a pair.

In a trend reverse that's seen Microsoft cram optional peripherals like WiFi into its new Xbox 360 "slim," Sony's breaking things out and offering the Move in several uniquely priced flavors.

For instance: You can buy one wand-controller for $50, which'll take care of you for games like Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf, where you're double-clutching a single club. You can buy two wand-controllers for $100, which'll cover you in a game like Motion Fighters, Sony's upcoming Move-centric boxing game. $100 will also buy you a single wand-controller, the requisite PlayStation Eye camera (necessary for tracking the light globes on the end of each Move wand), and a copy of the Move game Sports Champions. Or you can just pony up the $400 full monty for the latter bundle and a brand new PS3.

The sub-controller, which looks like Nintendo's Wii Nunchuk with several additional PS3-style buttons and minus the cable, will set you back and additional $30. It's necessary if you want to play games that require propulsion or camera repositioning via more traditional thumb-nub-related input.

Compare all that with Microsoft's Kinect, which requires no controllers (it's just you in front of a camera) and costs $150.

Response to Sony's Move pricing was mixed, with some in the audience booing and others cheering. One person in the amphitheater yelled "Too much!" while the guys sitting next to me yelled "Yeah!"

I'm sitting back on this until I've seen more of the games. Sony's Move looks notably more precise than anything I've seen from the competition, and that's about all I can say at this point.

E3 2010: Microsoft Kinect

Microsoft officially renamed Project Natal, the full-body motion control system for the Xbox 360, Kinect on Sunday evening during a kick-off event for the E3 2010 trade show. The event wasn't a keynote presentation, but a Kinect-themed 45-minute theatrical performance by Cirque du Soleil. The show featured a 76-person cast of "dancers, muscians, acrobats and clowns," 25-foot high projection screens above the stage and a 9-foot elephant puppet. The performance was also interspersed with brief demos of upcomong Kinect game titles.


During the performance, Microsoft did not show much more than the Kinect name and a brief look at some of the anticipated titles planned for Kinnect's launch later this year. Microsoft will release more details Monday morning during a press conference in Las Vegas scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time.


Until then, here's a quick breakdown of what's been announced, and some of the rumors circulating in advance of Microsoft's official Kinect announcement.


Games

There are supposedly going to be around 12 titles available when Kinect launches later this year. Some of those titles, according to USA Today , include:

Kinectimals: a game where you can interact and train 20 different cats including the more carniverous felines like lions and cheetahs.

Joyride: a racing game.

Kinnect Sports: similar to Wii Sports, this is a grab bag of sporting events for Kinect systems including boxing, bowling, soccer, volleyball and more.

Kinect Adventures: a river-raft race game for up to four players (2 per boat).

Dance Central: a dance game produced by MTV.

The Los Angeles Times also has a breakdown of several games that Microsoft was showing to journalists last month that may also show up in Kinect. One game was an obstacle course that players make their way through, and another was Ricochet where you use your hands, head and feet to block oncoming bouncing balls. Ricochet was part of Microsoft's Project Natal demo last year during E3 2009.

Star Wars

At the moment most of the games for Kinect appear to be new and original titles. However, LucasArts will bring a more familiar franchise to Kinect by developing a full-body motion control game in the Star Wars universe. It's not clear if the game will be based on an older Star Wars title or something new, but Sunday's performance involved lightsaber duels so if Kinect works as promised Star Wars for Kinect stands to be a big hit.

November Rumor

There's no clear launch date for Kinect other than a holiday season launch date; however, UK-based gaming news site MCV is reporting that anonymous sources inside Microsoft are saying Kinect will launch in November.

Pricing

Pricing is another detail expected to be announced Monday morning. Current rumors suggest there will be two version of Natal with the more expensive version priced at $189, according to inside sources speaking to the gaming blog VG247 .

That's about all the information and rumor circulating about Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360, but all will be revealed Monday morning at 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Other rumored announcements for Monday include a slimmer version of the Xbox 360 with 250GB storage and intergrated Wi-Fi.

Video Controls

In the video below you can see how Kinnect can be used to fast forward through a recorded television program by simply waving your arm. USA Today says you will also be able to control menus for the Xbox 360's integrated Netflix feature with hands-free gestures.

You can watch Microsoft's announcement live on gamespot.com, and don't forget to check in with PCWorld as well as our sister site GamePro for all the post-press conference action.

E3 2010: Nintendo 3DS

The 3D consumer electronics trend reached a boiling point today when Nintendo announced the portable 3DS gaming device, a no-glasses 3D system promising simplicity and elegance for gamers seeking a 3D experience. After getting a hands on with the new gadget at E3, there is little doubt that the era of effective and sensible 3D has finally arrived.

That said, at GeekTech, we care just as much about the engine under the hood as we do about the rims on our ride, and in that respect Nintendo still has a lot to answer regarding their revolutionary portable.

What's that 3D effect?

We've previously posted a rundown of the various 3D technologies available, and after prodding the Nintendo reps for more info, it's clear they aren't revealing their secrets just yet. However, given that the depth of the 3D effect on the 3DS can be turned up or down with a slider button, it appears that there is some degree of light diffusion happening directly in the device.

I predicted back in March that the 3DS would sport a parallax barrier screen, which works by diffusing separately polarized light to each eye. This may still be the case, but the specifics of how Nintendo is controlling the degree of depth is still a mystery.

Level Up Your Wi-Fi

Nintendo announced a robust Wi-Fi system-to-system communication mechanism that will transmit data on games you aren't even playing to other 3DS devices you may encounter in public. As awesome as this sounds for my Pokemon collecting game, I'm most worried about reliving the horrors of my WEP-only Nintendo DS. Expanded security options are a must for a new system and while you're at it Nintendo, please future proof your system and add some Wi-Fi N connectivity, too. The DS always felt stuck in the past in terms of hardware specs so a more future-thinking engineering design would help keep this device relevant in the eyes of geeks for years to come.
The Megapixels!

The 3DS sports three cameras, two on the back for taking 3D pictures and one front facing camera for head-tracking. But how many megapixels are we talking here? The DSi had one 3-megapixel camera and one .3-megapixel camera, but I'm hoping Nintendo we'll do much better than that for the 3DS.

The prospect of having a device that can take and display 3D pictures will be a massive selling point for the consumer market, but it'll need some good specs around that camera to ensure longevity on the gadget scene. From my hands-on with the device, I was not impressed at all with the picture quality. The 3D effect was great and fun to play with, but the actual pictures themselves would've looked horribly ugly on a typical 2D screen.
Multitouch?

The 3DS features a touchscreen, the same feature that made the orginal DS a huge consumer success. The Nintendogs demo being showed by Nintendo allowed people to use a stylus to control the screen.

While it worked great for this game, I wonder if Nintendo has ignored the huge multitouch gaming scene taking place on the iPhone. The DS platform has always prioritized interface before looks or hardware, so adding multitouch is something that can feel at home with the device, not to mention it would add another dimension for game designers to play with.

There's a lot left to uncover on the 3DS. What kind of beefy processor lies under the hood to power the 3D full motion pictures Nintendo is promising? What about screen resolution and that funky IR port on the back of the device I held? For the moment, Nintendo is mum on releasing any more info. I'm sure all the attendees at E3 gushing about Kid Icarus and Star Fox speaks volumes about the device for the time being.

Hopefully by the time the Tokyo Game Show rolls around later this year, Nintendo will be ready to spill whole can of beans on their portable wonder.

E3 2010: Microsoft unveils Xbox 360 Slim

Microsoft marked the unofficial kick off of E3 2010 Monday morning with its Xbox Media Event at the Wiltern Theater in downtown Los Angeles, whose highlight was the launch of the anticipated "slim" version of the Xbox 360.

Microsoft had one final surprise up its sleeve — or, rather, beneath a fake white Xbox. A new sleeker, "whisper-quiet" and black version of the console made its debut at the event. The console features built-in 802.11n networking and a 250GB hard drive. It ships this week for $299, which includes an Xbox 360 wireless controller, Xbox 360 headset, HDMI input, USB flash drive storage capabilities and more, and a one-year limited warranty.

With the announcement of the slim Xbox 360, one of the rumors for E3 can also be confirmed as true.

ISML 2010: Sapphire Necklace Winner

Guess who? :D Shana wins another Sapphire necklace. Shocking, eh? Shana wins the 2010 Sapphire necklace and now has 2 of them. Will Shana get more necklaces in the upcoming rounds? Or will she get pushed out of the way by the contestants?

And for those who are DYING to see her old first ISML sapphire necklace/is a noob/hasn't see it yet, then here.

ISML 2010: Aqua, Topaz, Amethyst, Sapphire Holders

Current Necklace holders:

Aquamarine

K-ON's bass player & scaredy cat, Mio Akiyama, wins the aquamarine necklace. Shocking, isn't it?

Topaz

ToraDora's tsundere, Aisaka Taiga, the so-called "Palm Top Tiger" wins the Topaz Necklace. Doesn't she look adorable? Of course she does look like an angel :3

Amethyst

TMoHS's silent, moe Nagato Yuki wins the amethyst necklace. 1 necklace in ISML 2009, 1 necklace in 2010. Will Yuki win more necklaces, or will she just have two forever?

Sapphire