Wii U price and release date

Yesterday, the price point and release date for the Wii U were finalized. There will be two models debuting on November 18th - the white 8GB system will retail for $299.99, while the black 32GB mocel will retail for $349.99 and will also include a copy of Nintendo Land along with a few different controller stands and cradles. Nintendo has stated that all of the Virtual Console games from the Wii will be transferrable to the Wii U. Also, a new feature highlighted during the big announcement was that of Nintendo TVii, which is a free service that allows users to watch their favorite shows and movies through a variety of services including Hulu, Netflix, Tivo, and On-Demand streams such as ABC.com. Below is a reel of all the major releases that have been announced thus far, and most of these games will be released within the launch window period (between November 2012 to March of 2013).

DLC review: Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money

After your Pip-Boy picks up a new radio signal, you are granted access to an abandoned bunker formerly used by the Brotherhood of Steel. Moments after entering, gas fills the bunker and you pass out only to awaken in the courtyard of the Sierra Madre, a first-class casino that never got a chance to see its glory days thanks to the nuclear war. You are instructed by Father Elijah to seek out three others who will participate in a heist with you, and he informs you that - thanks to the explosive collar around your neck - you have no choice but to cooperate. The first stretch of your mission has you rounding up your partners-in-crime - a split-personality super mutant named Dog, a mute human named Christine, and a former musical star Ghoul named Dean Domino. While Father Elijah comes across as a demanding prick, these three prove a colorful cast amidst the hopeless backdrop of the Sierra Madre.

From the moment you set foot inside the Sierra Madre Villa, you are denied use of anything and everything you might have gathered during your adventures in the Mojave. Your weapons, apparel, aid, and bottle caps have all been taken by Father Elijah. While the Sierra Madre Villa is a decent size, there isn't much of anything to explore. There is a hologram merchant who can sell you a few useful items, but you'll have to sell other things that you find in the area, since you have no caps on you. Certain areas are blocked off by toxic gas, though Dean Domino grants you a perk that allows you to walk through it unharmed. Far more frustrating are the numerous traps inside of seemingly every building and the speakers that set your collar on a timed countdown. Some speakers are easy to spot and can be destroyed, saving your life. Others cannot be destroyed at all and you must find a nearby computer terminal in order to shut off the speakers and save your brain from being splattered all over the walls. The DLC does not bother to differentiate between the two types of speakers, and thus it is up to you, the player, to be extra cautious anytime your collar begins to beep.

Dead Money introduces two new types of enemies, the first ones you encounter being the various rankings of Ghost People that inhabit the Sierra Madre Villa outside of the actual casino. The Ghost People place an interesting spin on traditional combat, as they are capable of jumping incredible distances as they dodge your attacks. They bear a creepy visage by wearing gas masks and hoods, and they will only fall unconscious when their health bar reaches zero. If you do not follow this up by hacking their limbs off, the Ghost People will rise back up and continue fighting. However, combat as a whole proves rather frustrating, as only a very small number of stimpacks can be found in the Sierra Madre. Access to food is also restricted, as the vast majority of it is accessible only through vending machines that require you to collect Sierra Madre chips. And as most of these chips are found in areas crawling with Ghost People, the result is zero-sum as you've fought long and hard to spend your chips and end up using all of your food to heal the wounds that you earned fighting to get those chips in the first place. To top things off, once you've completed the first leg of your trials in the Sierra Madre Villa, the game sends a horde of Ghost People to throw spears and gas bombs at you while your struggle to make your way back to the central fountain so that you can continue on to the casino portion. Hologram patrols await within, and they can strike you down with a just a few ranged hits. Combat is incredibly unforgiving, even if you are playing with a fully leveled-up character, and this entire approach seems poorly planned.

The casino portion is relatively short - less than an hour if you have decent stats in lock picking. You will interact with your three partners briefly, in scenarios that test your abilities to sneak and play defensively. As you explore the upper floors of the Sierra Madre and the vault beneath, the loudspeakers come back into play, though it is (once again) frequently unclear if the speakers in the immediate area can actually be destroyed or if you simply need to high-tail it to a nearby safe zone (usually a secluded corner or hallway between rooms). What should be a relatively short distance to travel ends up taking the most time out of anything in the casino, and frequent saves are recommended.

In the end, you don't earn as much in the way of special items or equipment as you do in the other Fallout: New Vegas DLC packs. Those weapons that are exclusive to the Sierra Madre prove mediocre when compared to the high end of what the Mojave can offer. The presentation of the Sierra Madre incorporates an atmosphere along the lines of action-horror, which is an interesting and welcome spin on the adventure-RPG formula already established. In many ways, Dead Money feels like more work than it's worth, and can be thoroughly frustrating in large chunks. It is not uncommon for the early DLC packs for a game to feel weaker than those that follow, but it seems counter-intuitive for Bethesda to have released the most challenging one first.

My rating: 6 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

Anime review: Durarara!!

Mikado Ryugamine recently moved to Ikebukuro to attend school with his longtime friend Masaomi Kida. The two kept in contact with one another via a chat room during the years they were apart, and now that Mikado is living in the big city, Masaomi lets his fun-loving side off the chain as he gives his friend a prime tour of the area. He points out all the different people in Ikebukuro that Mikado should consider either befriending or staying as far away from as possible. When a girl named Anri Sonohara catches Mikado's eye, the two boys sport a friendly rivalry over her. Much of what is covered in the first episode seems relatively normal; akin to slice-of-life anime. But it quickly becomes apparent that there are greater forces at work in Ikebukuro - some human in origin, others not.

There are two major story arcs in Durarara!! and one minor one that comes into play during the last few episodes as a means to wrap everything up. The first arc is primarily centered around Celty, the headless rider, as she is viewed by nearly everyone in Ikebukuro as a sort of urban legend. Many have seen her for a brief moment as she speeds by on her motorcycle, but only a select few like Shizuo Heiwajima and her love interest Shinra know anything about her. While Celty is concerned first and foremost with recovering her lost head, her actions indirectly influence those around her. This formula allows the main trio of Mikado, Masaomi, and Anri to round out effectively, and also introduce the supporting cast including Russian sushi chef Simon, former Blue Squares gang members Kadota, Walker, Erika, and Saburo, as well as the complicated relationship shared between Mikado's classmate Seiji and Mika, a girl who is obsessed with him.

Whereas the first story arc sprinkles the fantasy elements throughout, it primarily presents a fictional look at life in Ikebukuro, with a gradual shift from the everyday school and work routine to the influx of gang activity. The second arc explores said gang activity more in-depth, and things eventually come to a head between the Dollars, the Yellow Scarves, and a third group tied to an elusive slasher. There is a much heavier emphasis on dark fantasy elements, and Celty becomes less of a plot device and more of a fully realized character as she wrestles with letting go of her past to lead a relatively normal, human life with Shinra. The pacing slows down, but for the benefit of storytelling. The pool of characters shrinks a bit, with most of the supporting cast taking a backseat to Mikado, Masaomi, Anri, and Celty.

Throughout the entire series, Izaya, an information broker, is shown playing a hodge-podge board game that combines Shogi, Checkers, and Chess onto a single board. Izaya never plays against anyone but himself, and the pieces are clearly meant to represent the major players and gangs in Ikebukuro. Izaya prides himself on his ability to manipulate people and relishes in the results of their interactions. Early on, it is implied that he is at the center of everything, but just what he hopes to accomplish is never fully explained. Near the halfway point of the series, the story seems to direct the focus toward one valuable interest, but as this point is reconciled shortly thereafter just what exactly Izaya gained from the whole scenario is not so much as even hinted at. Thankfully, the other characters see impressive development and stories that come full circle. While some are written out long before the final episode, there is a sense of satisfaction that comes with the closing of each of these individual subplots.

Durarara!! has some solid animation throughout. Environments tend to be heavily shaded, while character models are bright and colorful. Crowds in the background are usually rendered as grey silhouettes with black outlines, unless a large gathering is important to a scene. While this might seem a bit lazy on the part of the animators, it keeps the focus on the main events at hand. As a whole, the animation presents a nice balance of realistic and stylized views of Ikebukuro. The soundtrack is nicely varied, with some loud and jazzy tunes accompanying Shizuo's fights and quiet themes of suspense building the atmosphere of uncertainty about Izaya. A few of the songs are used a tad too frequently, and it would have been nice to hear some variations of songs like the slasher's theme.

Durarara!! does well to balance a number of different genres and as a result carries a unique air about it. There are so many characters at play, but each has their own important place in the big picture, and for the most part they are all quite likeable. Though the story is paced well and most plot points are resolved before the finale, there are a couple of major points left ambiguous, and it feels like the creative staff could have made one more episode to clear those off the record. Still, Durarara!! is a nice blend of real world issues and fantasy elements, and never loses its identity as a fun-filled series.

My rating: 8.25 (out of 10)

DLC review: Fallout: New Vegas - Lonesome Road

In Fallout: New Vegas, you were made aware of the fact that you were not the only courier in the Mojave - just the one carrying the all-important Platinum Chip. In the Lonesome Road DLC, you finally come face-to-face with another courier, though not in the manner you might expect. Beyond a pile of rubble in the Mojave lies passage to the Lonesome Road - a path that weaves into a long-abandoned area known as the Divide. Along the way, the protagonist courier will discover ruins of a city and the few Marked Men of the Legion sent to scour it. Walking among the ghosts of the Divide, the courier will rediscover his past and make one very important decision regarding the future.

The Lonesome Road lives up to its name from the moment you begin walking along it. Though you will have encounters with enemies like the Marked Men, wild Tunnelers and Deathclaws, the journey is entirely concerned with you and your fellow courier. You are not allowed to bring any companion characters along, as per Fallout DLC tradition, but you will meet up with another ED-E robot with his own small tale to tell. You can collect optional upgrades for him, making him a relatively useful ally in combat.

Unlike previous New Vegas DLC, keeping an eye on your radiation level is a key component to Lonesome Road. Not only is there a good chance that you might wander into areas with significant amounts of radiation, but your Pip-Boy's radiation detecting abilities will help you to locate small nuclear warheads that block your path. A laser detonator, which is given to you early in your trek across the Divide, allows you to blow up these warheads from a safe distance. You will encounter the vast majority of these warheads in order, due to the overall linear nature of this DLC. But there are a handful that lie off the main path and can grant access to areas teeming with vicious Tunnelers or stacked with medical supplies and ammunition.

As mentioned before, the one person in your company from start to finish is Ulysses, your fellow courier, who regularly converses with you through the ED-E robot. Ulysses' cryptic messages gradually reveal that you once visited the Divide, and that he has found something of great worth buried in the wreckage. Though most of the answers to what Ulysses is posing you with are not reconciled until the last half hour of the experience, the element of mystery is what makes the story so intriguing. Ulysses is by far one of the most entertaining, complex, and human characters in the world of New Vegas. The dusty atmosphere and solid storytelling realized within the confines of this desolate realm mesh surprisingly well with the linear direction of the Lonesome Road, and in the end makes for the strongest add-on to Fallout: New Vegas.

My rating: 8.75 (out of 10)*

*(rating applies solely to downloadable content, not its inclusion with the content on the original game disc or other downloadable content)

Anime review: Deadman Wonderland

His class slaughtered at the hands of a mysterious figure known as the Redman, Ganta Igarashi finds himself in front of a court, answering for a crime he did not commit. Despite his insistence that incriminating video evidence has been altered to frame him, Ganta is sentenced to serve time inside Deadman Wonderland, an experimental prison facility that provides both maximum security for its inmates and a source of revenue from visitors who only ever see the amusement park exterior. A stranger in a strange land, Ganta transitions from innocent student to battered and beaten newcomer at the bottom of the food chain before he unlocks his full potential as a Deadman and makes a name for himself as something of a hero to the other prisoners who wish to escape.

From the outset, Deadman Wonderland feels strikingly original. The combination of creepy amusement park and industrial cell blocks is handled surprisingly well. There are a number of crazies that Ganta encounters, with arguably the most important being the one he sees the least of - Tamaki, the apparent ringleader of Deadman Wonderland, who decorates the facility with giant stuffed animals and provides the inmates with candy that will extend their lives, provided they put on a good performance for patrons.

The first episode does what any good dark mystery should - presents a tense atmosphere of intrigue. We are introduced to Ganta and his plight, but for the most part the introductory episode poses the big picture questions, like who is the Redman and why is Ganta tied up in all of this? The second episode does a little bit to show off just how Deadman Wonderland operates, but in the most gruesome and unnecessarily bloody manner possible. As a whole, the show is bloody and violent. But more often than not, when characters die, there is a reason behind it. The gauntlet run presented in the second episode is neither here nor there, as the staggering body count does little more than to make Ganta more scared than he already was. Beyond that, the next couple of episodes take their time to adjust and redefine what the series is all about, but for the remaining episodes, the tone of Deadman Wonderland remains quite consistent.

Earning almost as much time in the spotlight as Ganta is his longtime friend Shiro, a quirky girl with seemingly uncanny luck when it comes to surviving the horrors of Deadman Wonderland. Shiro brings a much needed sense of hope and humor to the table, and while she is not always the brightest, she makes a fun parallel to Ganta's increasingly serious nature. Beyond that, there are only a handful of side characters of any real importance. Crow is another Deadman who Ganta goes toe-to-toe with in battle and ultimately befriends. While he does not appear as frequently as some of the other characters, Crow acts as an older brother/mentor to Ganta late in the series. Two other Deadmen, Nagi and Karako, enlist Ganta's aid in hopes of leading a mass exodus from the prison facility.

Not all of the side characters are as well developed, though. Mockingbird is a Deadman whose name precedes him, as seemingly everyone has heard of him but only a few know any concrete details about him. He is not introduced until after the halfway point, and while the air of mystery about him is perpetuated, it is entirely setup for a second season. Makina is in charge of security, and is one of the first people to introduce Ganta to the hardships of Deadman Wonderland. Her distrust in Tamaki leads her to dig into the prison's history but what she digs up is left ambiguous. As a countermeasure to the Deadmen's rebellion, Tamaki hires an undertaker monk named Azuma Genkaku, who is by far the most shallow character in the show. There is practically zero substance to him other than the fact that he thoroughly enjoys killing. The final episode attempts to explore his childhood and round him out some, but the scene is so out of place and unnecessary that it significantly distracts the flow of the finale.

Throughout, the series attempts to explore a host of characters and their individual subplots to shed light on how they are tied to Deadman Wonderland. One such is the relationship between Shiro and Deadman Wonderland's founder; another is Ganta's childhood. These present new and interesting information, and have so much potential to improve the larger story. Unfortunately, most of these subplots only go so far, yet the writers continue to open more doors. Many aspects of the series end up feeling only half-completed as a result.

Though Deadman Wonderland does kill off a number of extremely underdeveloped characters, the ones that stay alive are quite an enjoyable crew of misfits and rebels. The tragic circumstances that land Ganta inside of the prison draw out a very human tale, and his determination helps fuel both the action and the drama. As a whole, though, Deadman Wonderland is good from a conceptual stage - there is a sufficient amount of style and substance presented, but the writers seem at a loss as to what to do with it all.

My rating: 7.5 (out of 10)

"We've managed to avoid drowning!" - 25 Years of Metal Gear

Though Solid Snake officially debuted back in 1987 with the original Metal Gear game, his popularity did not gain major momentum until the release of Metal Gear Solid, which hit the Playstation in 1998. Since then, Solid Snake has become one of the most recognizable faces in gaming history. The series has also earned itself significant praise for the ways it changed the experience of gaming. While I have not played every single game in the Metal Gear franchise, the games I have experienced have all proved thoroughly enjoyable.

My first experiences with Metal Gear came in the form of the Metal Gear Solid Essentials Collection, which was released shortly before Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots as a means for newcomers to familiarize themselves with the series, or for veterans to revisit Snake's previous adventures. I knew very little about Metal Gear at that point in time, and I figured a thirty dollar price tag wasn't too bad a deal for three games - if I ended up disliking them, it would be easy enough for me to turn around and sell them. Thankfully, that was not what happened.

Metal Gear Solid is not a graphically pretty game. Even for the time of its release, it has some rather grainy textures and Snake's character model wears a bandana that covers his eyes instead of having a proper face. But what it lacks there it makes up for in some truly groundbreaking game mechanics and storytelling elements. The use of cigarette smoke to detect lasers, Psycho Mantis reading your memory card, and the placement of a codec number on the back of the physical game case are inclusions that are honestly quite simple in concept, but make the game so much more immersive and fun. Hell, the simple fact that Snake has to sneak around enemies instead of fighting them head-on is a welcome departure from the all-too-familiar run and gun routine of so many other action games.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty added a few new features that would have been helpful in the first game, such as the ability to enter a first-person view. I don't mean to knock the PS1 classic, but from a design perspective, MGS2 handles much more smoothly. Sons of Liberty certainly retained the masterful storytelling element, though it was handled in a different manner. Snake took on the role of a side character, with Raiden stepping into the spotlight. Like many other fans, I found Raiden to be quite annoying at first - not as nauseatingly so as his support/girlfriend Rose, but he was still whiny and immature. But patience yielded great results, as the final few hours of Sons of Liberty delivered a phenomenal ending that answered as many questions as it asked.

As far as I am concerned, though, the best of the bunch has to be Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I have experienced few video games so perfect in their design. Snake Eater took everything that worked in MGS2 and improved upon while simultaneously adding in a host of new elements, each of which proves just as polished and helpful during Naked Snake's trek through the jungles of Russia. Only a handful of games have genuinely moved me so emotionally, and I'll be damned if Snake Eater does not have one the most beautiful and bittersweet conclusions ever written into a game. All of the MGS games rely heavily on cutscenes to deliver their stories, and though MGS4's may be the most Hollywood high-budget, I still feel that MGS3 does the best job of all the games in the series in weaving a story that trumps many a film and novel.

Though not as perfect a game as Snake Eater, Peace Walker did a solid job of continuing the story of Naked Snake as he builds his own personal and becomes involved in the late days of the Cold War. Hot Coldman isn't a particularly memorable villain when compared to the likes of the Cobra Unit, but the boss fights against the Chrysalis, Pupa, and so on are both challenging and varied. Peace Walker is a little more action-heavy than other MGS games and it is also shorter than the main numbered entries, but I felt it did a good job of bridging the gap between the era of Naked Snake and that of Solid Snake.

The series has such a wonderful cast of characters, from Psycho Mantis to Solidus and Otacon to Ocelot - I could list them all, but I think it's just easier for me to say that there are only a few select characters that I don't like. And as much as I enjoy exploring Hyrule and Zebes, the world of Metal Gear is also one of the best visions ever realized in gaming. It's a perfect blend of practical realism and dystopian science fiction. Though the storyline of the main games may have come to a conclusion, the upcoming Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes indicates that there is still plenty of story to be told in the Metal Gear universe. I look forward to whatever new directions Hideo Kojima takes the series in, because even when a Metal Gear game hits its lowest point, it is still a whole tier above most other video games.

Some of my favorite boss fights from the series include:

- Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid
- Harrier Jet in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
- Metal Gear RAY in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
- The Fury in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- The Shagohod in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
- Chrysalis in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Some of my favorite songs from the various soundtracks include:

- The Best is Yet to Come from MGS
- Main Theme from MGS2
- Yell Dead Cell from MGS2
- Father and Son from MGS2
- Snake Eater from MGS3
- Debriefing from MGS3
- Old Snake from MGS4

Some of my favorite characters include:

- Solid Snake
- Grey Fox
- Otacon
- Solidus
- Naked Snake/Big Boss
- Young Ocelot
- The Boss
- EVA

Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes debut trailer

A trailer for the newly announced Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes has debuted, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. The game runs on Kojima's FOX Engine, and features Naked Snake (aka Big Boss) in a post-Peace Walker era. There is still a great deal of mystery surrounding the plot at present, but considering how masteful the storytelling is throughout the entire series, I have high hopes for whatever direction Kojima decides to take it in.