Real time strategic Gears of War type battling with your pokemon in the trenches of the great TEAM ROCKET WARS! Battle for survival over Wifi or with a girl, if you happen to know one, and ultimately free the LEGENDARY POKEMON from the evil grasps of TEAM MAGMA, ROCKET, and AQUA. Communicate using hand signals and flash cards with NINTENDO's adaptive real time response visual attachment. Game is expected to ship to retailers Mar 2010 WORLDWIDE!


Image not from game.

Big Announcments:

*-larger sexier stylus on the way for Nintendo DS. Reggie said 'it will be like a baby's arm holding an apple'".

*-Microsoft has partnered with Sasha Baron Cohen for an exclusive Xbox Live game..

*-Sony's partnership with American Express Platinum for Platinum Card PS3 owners, triple points on micro-transactions. No blackout dates for mileage redemption on travel in United States, must have latest firmware and use latest browser to fully benefit.

Suprises:

Jack Tretton's call on developers to eliminate load times "in my lifetime." Interspersed with footage of crying children watching load screens, Tretton's emotional presentation left many people speechless.

FFVII - Restless Child Broken Dreams - exclusively for all consoles it explores the mythology of Aerith and uses all new "static summon, tactical recall active or real time combat"!

Zune games on your 360. Now you can play them at home. and on the go "scores updated wirelessly"!

The Let Downs:

No new Mario Party games for the next three months...

Live Titanium Service... fifteen managable payments of 39.99 over two years guarantees you lifetime LIVE service or until the new console comes out.

Could you believe it?  They let me out of the slammer for selling those bootleg copies of King of Fighters '94: Rebout just in time to wish all the BlendSpottingers a very merry (and hopefully white) X-Mas!!  To celebrate the season, I've compiled my five favorite BlendSpotting articles for yours and everyone's holiday enjoyment.  Behold!

CONRAD to jump into the video game t-shirt market!

Xbox360 Mascot Revealed

Sony's new PlayStation Portable Micro to have "S-pad" !!

RUMOR PATROL: FIRST PRODUCT OF THE SQUEENIX-TAITO MERGER LEAKED

Rapid Fire #3 (Friday, August 5th, 2005)

Think of it as some sort of BlendSpotting clip-show.  Don't hate me!

Yes, folks, BlendSpotting is still alive and well! Fresh off the lawsuit, I'm proud to reveal (for the first time anywhere) Capcom's bringing their critic-impressing Okami out for Nintendo's next-generational powerhouse! Details are sketchy as to when and why, but an inside source has confirmed that one new character, three Devil-slaying new stroke techniques, and four new bosses will be in the game. Capcom also confirmed the Wii's controller will be utilized in some fashion but wasn't too clear how. This is a sure sign that things are in the earliy stages. Most Wii games are designed based on the controller's movements. However, to reverse-engineer a game to the high gaming standards Nintendo's Wii is sure to represent, Clover Studio seems to have a lot of work ahead of them if they are to make the November 19th launch date.

Electronic Arts will be releasing a new game in their "Madden" series some time this year for the Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, and an as of yet unnamed platform.

Project Manager Allan Greensworth had this to say about the new game in the Madden lineup:

Our new Madden game is going to be the best in the series to date, as it will include updated rosters, the ability to micromanage the entire league right down to details such as parking, concessions pricing, and fans. We have even included a fan editor in the game! You can also play as any NFL team to ever have existed, going all the way back to the league's creation in 1920. Additionally, we've secured licenses for the AFL (American Football League), the AAFC, NFL Europe, the SSFL, the MCFL, the Arena Football League, as well as teams from the other "football" (known over here in the US as "Soccer"), so you can see how the teams stack up. We've been busy getting motion capture from players, living and dead, in order to recreate the accuracy of these teams.

Of course, with every game, there's always some sort of a developmental snag; Greensworth told us this outright:

However, adding in all of this customization has come as a price - we have had to downgrade the quality of the graphics in order to fit all of this information in the game.

What follows is a screenshot of the newest Madden game:


Greensworth remains adamant that this leap backwards in graphics technology will not hinder the latest Madden game, however:

I'm sure that all our fans around the world will recognize the sacrifices we have had to make in order to create the greatest football game ever made, past, present, or future.

Upon release of this news, EA stock (ERTS on NASDAQ) shot up 1% to $55.23.

(Photos leaked from the website, subject to change)



No longer having to depend on Cafepress or Hot Topic for new and played-out trends of video game-based articles of clothing, this new clothing line is designed "For today's gamer. Someone too important to actually talk and voice his or her or his opinions. I think this will be so popular I'll have to spend all the money I make before the bank tell's me they're full of all my money!" said CONRAD.

CONRAD is the premire guru in the fast-paced world of tacky Game Boy Micro faceplate designs. His experience of well over 10 months has earned him numerous awards and three ulcers. While invested heavily in this new enterprise, he will continue his work with the Micro faceplates at the request of Nintendo. No BlendSpotting model/secret agents were killed in this BlendSpotting update. Yes, "this one" .... MWA HAHAHAHAHAHAH!

World-famous visionary Uwe Boll gives up movie-making and returns to his first passion in life: exotic animal veterinarian. It was his dream since childhood but was unable to pass the final residency tests and was expelled on unrelated charges. "It was a crushing defeat," says Boll in a 1998 interview, "but I was quick to find hope and direction in life as a director. Get it? Hahahaha! Director! Hahahaha!"

Boll was believed to be in Siberia, finishing the last of the on-location shooting for the upcoming Postal film, but dissappeared four days ago and was believed dead. Losing people from a Boll production is a first. The actors are chained to their trailers between shots and the filming crew would wear thoses cool neck-exploding-thingies from that Total Recall movie, the Director (Boll) was never restrained to the shoot in any way. A mistake that has now jeopardized the Postal film target release date of February 14th.

Boll made his most recent appearance at the Berlin International airport, making a formal statement about his business and goals... But it was all in German for some reason. Our German-speaking German BlendSpotting correspondant, Holger Tesselheifer, was unavailable so we have no idea what he actually said. Boll was said to be enrolling in the Winter classes at the Munich University of Animal Sciences and use his good looks and international fame to take another shot at becoming the man whose hands will soon be wrist-deep in the beautiful and beloved endangered species of the world.

We here at BlendSpotting wish him really good luck.

Based off the up and coming hit film "Out Of Time", you play as Segal's character who has to kill a bunch of terrorists before they blow up something really important. Plot details are scarce at the moment as the film is still in production and EA were keeping mum on nearly all of it but from what we were allowed to see there will be stages set in a crackhouse, a laundromat and also a drug mansion at night which will be the game's 'stealth' section.

The build we got to play was still very buggy and incomplete. We experienced frequent crashes, poor animation, stiff controls, uninteresting textures and the voice acting that was present wasn't very good and needed to be redone. EA said that they wanted to keep very close to the experience of being Steven Seagal in a game so perhaps all of this was intentional but as the game is less than 60% finished some content may be liable to changes. We're going to chalk it up to limitations of the hardware though improvements can still be applied. One thing that was very noticable at this stage was the quality of the explosions, they weren't half bad and the rag-dolling was quite nice though a little overdone.

What we played of the game's stealth mission was fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. You basically infiltrate a mansion, slap a few drug dealers around and snap a few necks and wrists. It crashed at random places each time but out of all the playable sections we could try out it was the one that best showcased the fighting system. The fighting is a bit awkward as you have to stand still in order to attack though again that might be the development team keeping true to the various films that Seagal has starred in. The other stages weren't much, mainly just unfinished rooms with lots of crates and boxes stacked against the walls. It's was hard to get an overall idea of what you had to do in these stages since frequent crashes rendered these areas almost unplayable. Shame really.

It should be noted that the game allows you to control another character Rocks, who in the film is played by Lil Jon. He doesn't really have that many fighting moves, instead he used guns and bullet time. You could perform an "instant kill" move where his nuts the enemies with his chalice when you sneak up on them from behind but the AI kept catching us out most of the time. The game also allows you to "level up" both characters at the end of each stage. Points can be assigned to stats like strength, speed, health points, constitution, etc. We asked EA whether the characters would have a charisma stat but they said they haven't thought of that one.

Here at BlendSpotting we hope to keep you further informed on new developments on the game. If what EA is promising is true, then we should expect all the fun of being Steven Seagal on the small screen.

BlendSpotting's authentic and reliable inside source over at the Nintendo.com forums (a true fan and master of all things Nintendo) has come through for us here at BlendSpotting. We'll give you a few minutes to go and call your friends over to "check this out".

At first, you may notice the familiar and sleek clamshell is gone, and a see-through, more "warpy" design has emerged. The two screens are roughly the same size, and the unit seems to be more streamlined to them. No more "boring box handheld" for Nintendo! While speculations originally ran high over a more Revolution-like design, or something like an iPod, the opposite seems to be true. Straight out of 1999 comes the awesomely puntuated aesthetics that made the Nintedo 64 so eye-worthy (almost like a hot swimsuit model). The molded plastic curves and a low-set button layout almost look like those old Tiger handhelds, rememeber?

The three new buttons to the systems read "WEB", "MAIL", and "PRIME". We at BlendSpotting can't wait to see how these new buttons will affect and EFFECT gameplay in the future. Our hats are off to you, Nintendo. A detailed report is being written as we speak, but we knew you faithful BlendSpotting readers couldn't wait like the rest of the stupid would! We bet you feel as special as us right now, right!?

(ps: Hey, Nintendo, send us free units okay?)

With great anticipation for what's sure to be the next craze, the makers of Bawls Energy Drinks comes this new and totally different energy drink for a new, untapped market. BlendSpotting was luck enough to sit down and read an email possibly typed by Corporate Moneymaker and P.R. Fiend, Jeff Rosely.

"Thank you, but an interview will not be possible at this time. I will talk a little about what our new product, Lawls, is and maybe a little about it's design.

For the hardcore internet users out there, daily life consists of surfing along the highways chock-full of information and memes and porn memes. They post in forums and whine about drycleaning and paying rent and maybe even family problems. We realized long ago that people get thirsty while complaining and harassing others and like to drink things while they are online. Unfortunely, they are afraid of spilling drinks on their equiptment and are forced to get up and drink something elsewhere. BUT! What if "something" could be drunk NEAR a computer with no problems or worries??

We were 100% up to the challenge and created (and patented!) a special cardiohydroxilate enzyme-compound beveragoid that WILL NOT damage or impare a computer board, key board, or even mother board in the unfortunate "spill". Having safely tested Lawls on l33t and non-l33t, or "unleet", electronics, we feel the market has waited long enough for such a quiality drink.

At first, the flavor was really hard to nail down. Something... sugary enough to hide the septimonic polyphoshate aftertaste early batches had. Then we decided that adding fruit juices, while healthy and low on carbs, was preobably out of the question until that damned monkey in the warehouse has been captured. Initial taste-testing was done in Canada, by well over 400 internet-addicted felons in the fine Forstone County Correctional Institution. The side-effects were studied and slowly hammered out of the system. Long-term results are currently classified, but in a good way!

;-)

A few weeks ago, we nailed down the name and purchased the website. The first ads will go up in PCInternetter, The Gamer's Quarterly, Hardcore Forums Digest Monthly, Yahoo Internet Life and CatFancy starting with the February issues. The actual retail product will be shipped to the 45 continental states that have no "laws" preventing our fine product to be sold and/or ingested. We are expecting good things, and feel our valued customers have no real option in the matter.

Thank you."

Consider us warned! The price will be about $2.45 a bottle, but each one will have 4 free iTunes downloads writen in front 3 on the cap. The flavors will be "Blue", "Sky Water", "Aqua", and "BeefJurky".

Redmond, WA. Hot off the heals of the massive Xbox360 launch. J. Allard is not one to rest on his laurels. Allard states "We're really shifting paradigms here, we're the first Next Next Generation console here, no other console ever trumped Sony like this!" He also chimed in "Look how hot this console is...we need something that exemplifies that symbolically."

With a console as focus tested as this one, many expect Microsoft to do the same with their mascot. However Microsoft decided to go it alone. An anonymous employee told Blend Spotting that a lot of the 'focus testing' charges really hurt J. Allard's feelings, so he wanted to prove he could do something on his own. Meeting secretly with a group of artists that were forced to sign multiple non-disclosure agreements, Allard finally invented something he could call his own.

"It's the second high-point of my career." Allard states. The first obviously being his mountain biking injury which earned him the instant respect of hardcore gamers. "This little monster," Allard says referring to the new Xbox "finally has a monster that billions of consumers will be able to identify it with."

Sega has Sonic, Nintendo has Mario, Sony has Ico, every console through the ages has been identified with some kind of furry creature or Italian stereotype. Now Xbox360 has Gil the Hockey playing Green Dragon of Xtremeness!



Allard talks about Gil as if he were a real living thing. A creature born of the fires of earth. A creature that transcends space time and hopefully market demographics. People might wonder why he plays hockey, or why he wears sneakers. Allard can explain every detail and nuance of the creature. Here is sample of the official biography as written by J. himself.

"Being a dragon isn't easy, especially if you like Hockey. Gil, the Xbox360 mascot, overcame much adversity on his home planet of Katon to go on and become the hero of ages. Gil's mother and father died at the hand of an evil dark wizard, Meldor, which left Gil to fend for himself. The only thing he loves more than hockey is Xbox360. It's extremeness ecompasses all the qualities he has and he is willing to die for his belief that it is the greatest console on the planet that he isn't even from."

Mad crackpot ramblings or the inklings of true salaryman genius. It's to early to tell. First the market reaction is going to dictate Gil's success. Though Microsoft has alot riding on it too. Microsoft plans to have Gil mock Sony outside its Japan headquarters, and also turn up at various major Xbox360 planned events in the next few months.

It is strange timing that the mascot managed to turn up right before the Asian launch of the console. Maybe this creature will be the impetus that Japan needs to finally give in to the power of Xbox. Whether it turns the tides or not is up to fate and Japanese fickleness. In the mean time the world will have yet another reason to talk about Xbox360.

*-gm contributed to parts of this story(basically he agreed on the name).

Dragon Quest proves everything that is wrong with this generation and why need to discard the current generation of consoles NOW.

First off, you can't open every drawer. How am I supposed to immerse myself in a game world where I can't open up everything? Secondly the battles are random. You can't see your enemies comimg. This would be because of the severe limitations PS2 technology imposes upon developers. Thirdly...the voice acting isn't in Japanese. It is English which proves that with a bigger storage medium we could have more voice options. Finally the graphics look dated and dull. There aren't enough effects on screen sometimes and no flashy things occuring to make me feel more immersed in the game.

Overall I'd have to say if it weren't for the FFXII demo, this game wouldn't be worth the disc it was manufactured on. You'd be better off lining up at your local BestBuy tonight and getting a Xenon. Finally we can put loading times behind us and enjoy games the way they were meant to be played.

Legal issues aside, we had our Man In Japan dig up the latest Famistu scans and send them to us. He doesn't have a scanner, and sneaks quick photographs of the pages at the convenience store when no one is looking. If you think you can do better, and live in Japan, then send your resume to "jobs@blendspotting.com".





Apparently the next Final Fantasy X game will be X-2-2, pronounced "exs-two-two", not X-2 Gaiden, as many other gaming news sites have incorrectly predicted. Details are sketchy at best, but rumor has it that we at BlendSpotting have had verbal confirmation via email with Square Enix that it will be a first-person shooter set in a post-apoccalytic alternate future of the X timeline. Besides Yuna, there will be an entirely new cast (and some old faces, for sure!). We here at BlendSpotting have no idea why Square Enix's site still lists this game as "in development", when it looks and plays so well (Editor's note: according to the article, it's 98.2% complete).

This will surely be the Halo-killer Square Enix quite desperately wanted. Set phasers to "froth"!

We will be making an announcement soon. Please stay tuned.

Redmond, Wa

J. Allard could hardly contain his glee when he saw an early Christmas present for Electronic Arts. "I'm thinking we might still win this generation too." He said staring at the box that EA had shipped to him this morning.


Fans Get Ready

Today EA announced Xclusively for Xbox the Madden 'fan pack'. The cover is slightly different and it features all the aspects of the original game, plus it has Xtras that are only available on Xbox.

Chip Wilkins of EA says it plainly. "Xbox is the most powerful console of this generation, so why shouldn't it have fan service." He continued "The new features available only for Xbox will make most other console owners feel really stupid."

In the fashion of Dynasty Warriors Xtreme Legend packs, the Madden 'fan pack' contains extra unlockables. A God Madden difficulty mode, EA Trax remix jukebox, All the original AFL and NFL teams, a special Johnny Unitas card that can be obtained in the game that unlocks even more stuff, and finally reciever vision mode.

Reciever vision might be a taste of next years Madden a bit early. It allows the player to run and catch but not throw the ball. Basically you are a reciever and that's all. So if your team loses, most likely its because you suck.

How Nintendo and Sony will react to this news remains to be seen. Still you might not need to trade in your Xbox just yet...

Of course BlendSpotting will be there to cover it all.

For a hardhitting new feature, Blendspotting takes a look at the news floating about on the video game community, to leave you hard hitting facts to back up the rumors. This week is a bit RPG heavy, so you can put on your fresh coat of hair gel after watching FF7:AC again, we'll still be here.

Sukioden 1 and 2 coming to America for PSP.
Source: Some guy on the internet.

Yeah probably.

Solid Snake will die in Metal Gear Solid 4.
Source: Some guy on the internet.

Yeah probably.

Madden 2007 will sell a lot of copies.
Source: Some guy on the internet.

Yeah probably.

Mario 128 to be revealed at E3 2006.
Source: Some guy on the internet.

Yeah Probably

The Next Secret of Mana game to be a revolution launch title.
Source: Some guy on the internet.

Yeah Probably

Tetsuya Nomura is directing yet another game which has the plot of a bad fanfic and stars a rather unoriginal character design which is basically Nomura self-inserting him into his own fanfic creation.
Source: Some guy on the internet.

Yeah Probably

Katamari Damacy being ported to the GBA for Famicom Classics Collection.
Source: Some guy on the internet.

Yeah Probably

We'll be back next week to take down more rumors, so be sure to stick to Blendspotting for all your latest gaming news.

Redmond, WA.

On the eve of conquering the game industry with their awesome power. Microsoft has announced it's new Xtreme campaign to bring in casual gamers and old people alike.

"Are you 360?"

J. Allard states that the console puts the gamer at the center of the gaming universe. This new campaign highlights that. It will feature various people of all walks of life doing Xtreme things. Whether or not this was inspired by J.'s recent accident, Microsoft isn't being too clear.


This campaign will be launched around the same time the viral campaign begins. Set to debut and be attached to all of Sony Pictures big fall movies. Microsoft will air arthouse style ads/trailers that feature children talking about their first time. The end will show "Do you remember your first time?" and link to a site. If you follow the clues you will eventually get full details and specs on things related to Xbox360.

It is to soon to tell if this will work or not, but we can expect that this may be the catalyst that people need casual and hardcore gamers alike to preorder Xbox360. Of course Blend Spotting will be there to cover it all.

Specs are limited and Sony is officially being tight-lipped about this leaked bit of info. Our source, "Kawaii Menji-san" said in what may be his last annonymous email, to us at BlendSpotting, that this was supposed to be a big announcement at Tokyo Game Show in two weeks. I'll quote the rest straight from his email:

-----

"The PSPM will feature a screen that is appoximately 20% smaller than the PSP, resulting in 80% longer battery life. The battery of the PSPM is also 20% smaller, allowing for the 80% longer battery life to stretch further, according to this Sony press kit I stole. Their early estimates and goals both have them looking at somewhere near 50 hours off one charge. That's enough to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy 5 times should you ever fly 39,000 miles in a 767 going from New York to Sydney to New York to Sydney again without stopping. I suppose you could play a few games on it, too. If you had run out of movies to watch, ROMs to illegally play, and MP3s to listen to.

"The handheld market has grown stagnant and 2D. Nintendo thinks they are the only one who can shrink their own technoloy? Ha! We're going to show them "small". The PSPM will be 40% more powerful than the PSP, have loading times that are 3-5 times faster than the PSP and (don't quote me on this) the tech boys are thinking of dropping the square button completely. And the 'right' on the D-pad. And maybe the D-Pad. I know it sounds crazy, but the image I'm giving you now is only to sate the general internet public. Something roughly familiar, like that PS3 controller. Damn we were laughing for three weeks after that got passed around the forums. I think Penny Arcade did a comic on it, but I'm not sure. The Japanese translation sites really don't do all the PS comics, only most of them. It's lazy.

"Again, BlendSpotting, the real PSPM will not look like this, cost a butt-load of money, and ship sometime 6-8 months after we announce it at the TGS. The "faster, more powerful" story will probably be true as well. The chips we need don't actually "exist" now, but nobody really needs to know that now. I can't stay silent on this, and hope you can spread the word. Sony must be stopped. If you don't hear from me by the TGS, assume the worst. Goodbye."