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The World Ends With You Anime Coming 2021 July 3, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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When it launched back in 2008, The World Ends With You was one of the most iconic games ever released for the Nintendo DS. It has since seen a rerelease on Nintendo Switch, Android and iOS. Today, at Anime Expo Lite, we got the first ever trailer for the animated adaptation of the classic story. Take a look at the trailer!

Anime Expo LITE Streaming This Weekend July 3, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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Big news for anime fans unable to leave their homes, several major anime conventions will be streamed for free this weekend online! Anime Expo LITE is beginning right now with a major feed coming to YouTube and a second channel streaming exclusively on Twitch.tv! Here’s a direct feed right to channel below!

If you’d like a feed for the second channel, here you go!

If you’re busy this weekend and want the opportunity to watch video on demand of panels you missed, check out their YouTube Channel!

Pokemon Twilight Wings Episode 6 Released July 3, 2020

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On the same day that Pokemon Go has begun issuing weekly research events in anticipation for Pokémon Go Fest 2020, The Pokémon Company has just released episode 6 of their online-exclusive animated series Twilight Wings.

Pokémon: Twilight Wings is a series that focuses around the characters from the Galar region made famous in Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield. Check it out!

Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are out now for the Nintendo Switch. Pokémon Go is out for Android and iOS.

Iron Man VR Launch Trailer July 3, 2020

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PSVR owners should be happy to discover Iron Man VR launches today. To celebrate, Sony and Marvel have released this launch trailer for the new game. Check it out.

There’s still some question about if this game falls in the new Marvel GamerVerse, and the recent revelations during the recent Avengers War Table have made that less likely this (or Marvel’s Avengers) is connected to the same universe that the PS4 Spider-Man is part of. We will see.

Iron Man VR is out now exclusively for PSVR.

Movies to Binge Watch for Tabletop RPG Players July 1, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Editorials.
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It’s Independence Day Weekend, and with venues all over the country still closed due to ongoing safety concerns, many RPG players who play their games on tabletops with pencil and paper will be stuck home unable to resume the games they’ve been playing with their games. So, to kill some time, I’ve been combing through several of the various online streaming services for some films I’ve enjoyed about the subject over the years. I’m going to include a little bit of something for everyone here. Some of these are fictional, some of them are non fictional. None of them, as far as I know, received a major theatrical release.

Just a few notes here. A lot of these movies are made with low budgets, but in my opinion that kind of adds a layer of sincerity to them. All synopsis will include a trailer and a tip as to what online service might be offering it. Honestly this is not a complete list and if there’s any movies you’d like to see in this list post a comment below and I’ll check it out.

Of Dice and Men

This was probably the first fictional film I ever saw that was about Tabletop RPG players so I wanted to talk about it first. This is the story of a DM who has to pull together his players after life and politics causes turning point in their lives. From what I heard, it was based on a play that was originally written for PAX and was adapted to a film. You can find it on Amazon Prime.

Zero Charisma

This was the first RPG-inspired film I had ever heard about but since it had been off certain streaming services for a while. I wasn’t able to watch it myself until recently. This is about people who keep their lives the same for as long as they can. Just a heads up about this one, it has a lead that’s hard to love but a lot of people can relate to him. You can find this on Tubi or Amazon Prime (I’ve also been recently informed it’s on Crackle).

Monster Camp

I have mentioned this documentary a few times when I’ve talked about Live Action Role Playing (LARP) so this is a little something for the LARPer crowd. This documentary goes into great detail about everything that goes into creating a fun LARP, what the players are expected to do, and what kinds of characters end up running it. You can find this on Amazon Prime.

The Dungeon Masters

I first saw this on Hulu many years ago and it’s been floating around streaming services for quite some time. This is more a reality show type documentary about specific gamers and how they deal with their desires to play, and how the game effects their lives. You can watch it on Tubi.

The Dwarvenaut

This is a documentary about the life of artist and businessman Stefan Pokorny of the Dwarven Forge. Stefan’s plan is to start a kickstarter for an all-new expansion set. He needs to generate several million dollars to to release the expansion, can he make it? Sadly, this is not a film you can find on any streaming service right now but it’s so good I could not ignore mentioning it. After it got pulled from Netflix in my region I haven’t seen it return to any other service. If you want to check it out, try seeking out a home video release.

Preorder Stories – Aliens Vs Predator June 29, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Preorder Stories, Site Videos.
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In the year 1999, Aliens Vs Predator was one of my favorite PC games. Based on the classic 20th Century Fox films, you could play as an Alien, a Predator, or a Colonial Marine in a single or multiplayer campaign for supremacy. It was terrifying, violent and absolutely fun as hell.

A year after the original PC game was released, Rebellion planned to release a new Gold Edition of the game. It included new multiplayer maps and updated in-game cinematics and was essentially going to be the new version of the game. However, while it was not uncommon for PC games to receive post-release paid expansion packs at retail, it was not common for users to to have to rebuy an entire game they already owned just to receive that expansion. To split the difference, Fox Interactive sold an expansion pack disc as an online exclusive. For anyone who preordered the expansion disc, they received one of the coolest preorder incentives in gaming history. Take a look.

Aliens Vs Predator is out now exclusively for PC.

Pokken Tournament DX Invitational 2020 June 29, 2020

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The Pokémon Player’s Cup Invitational continues and this past weekend, the best Pokkén Tournament DX players from around the world competed to see who could be the best like no one ever was. In case you happened to miss it, here are the archived streams of both days of the event. Enjoy.

Pokkén Tournament DX is out now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

Gaming History You Should Know – The History of Showbiz Pizza’s Band June 28, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Gaming History You Should Know, Uncategorized.
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When I was a 90s kid, I was in love with arcades. It didn’t have to be special, but it had to have all the latest games, and maybe some VR headsets. However, if you were an 80s person, you might remember a specific arcade franchise that also served pizza and offered a cute animatronics show with anthropomorphic animal musicians. No, I’m not talking about Chuck E. Cheese, I’m talking about Showbiz Pizza.

Showbiz Pizza was an early amalgamation of restaurant and arcade, a business strategy later perfected by places like Dave and Busters. Unlike Dave and Busters, Showbiz Pizza would offer more than just arcade games while they waited for their food, their restaurants included a custom animatronics show starting an entirely original band, The Rockafire Explosion.

I know what you younger people are thinking, didn’t Chuck E. Cheese have an animatronic band and why haven’t I heard of The Rockafire Explosion but I’ve heard of Chuck E. Cheese? The Rockafire Explosion was a casualty of Mr. Cheese, but not in the way you might have guessed. So who created this crazy animatronic band, what is up with their characters, and why are they so fondly remembered to this day? This independently produced documentary, titled simply The Rockafire Explosion, answers all of those questions. In wake of Chuck E. Cheese declaring Bankruptcy this week, I think it is the perfect way to cap off your week.

Preorder Stories – FEAR June 27, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Preorder Stories, Site Videos.
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Welcome back to Preorder Stories, where I chronicle some of the coolest preorder promotions from throughout gaming’s history. In 2005, Monolith, riding high from the success of No One Lives Forever, developed one of the coolest PC demos for an upcoming game I had seen in quite a while, FEAR. The hype from the demo was so impressive in fact, an empty box preorder campaign was launched at Best Buy. It included a special DVD with early episodes of content that would be included with the Collector’s Edition, and download codes for access to the multiplayer beta.

Let’s take a closer look at this preorder, and why it meant so much to me.

FEAR is out on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals Remastered – New Features Trailer June 26, 2020

Posted by Maniac in Game News.
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One of the games I greatly regret missing out on was the original Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles for the Nintendo GameCube. Now, we are just two months away from the game getting remastered for modern platforms. Let’s take a look at what went into this update and how we’ll be able to play it.

Square Enix has announced that a free LITE Edition will be released on the same day that the full game launches. That’ll give us a chance to try out the game’s dungeons for ourselves to see how we like the game before buying it.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remastered is coming August 27th, 2020 to PS4, Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android. The game’s multiplayer supports cross platform play.