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Whoa, more than one year is not “very soon” in my opinion but here I am! The controversial anime that took “fish-eye” camera and extreme angles. . .well. . .to the extreme! Here in Hinamizawa you will enjoy enjoy your stay; with all the fascinating scenery, interesting people, and the constant repetition of the same week-long timeline for more than 40 episodes you’ll surely be entertained!

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Sony has filed for and received a US Patent for a “Hand-held device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels.” The patent goes on to describe the device:

The device may comprise a case case having one or more major surfaces; a touch screen disposed on one of the major surfaces, the touch screen; a processor operably coupled to the touch screen; and one or more tactile pixels disposed proximate the touch screen.

Multiple surfaces with spaces for screens, one of which being a touchscreen? Sounds awfully similar to a certain other handheld device on the market. It’ll be interesting to see how Nintendo responds for the next time they announce a new handheld device.

[Joystiq]

That’s right, the mysterious and seemingly ice-themed splash image on Blizzard’s site was actually teasing the incredibly long-awaited Diablo III, which has been officially announced. This image is straight from Blizzard’s main page.

The announcement is actually still underway at Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational event, and is being covered in painstaking detail on Gamespot. Some major features of this game are the new classes: Barbarian and Witch Doctor have been revealed so far. Also there are some interface tweaks, and a more interactive environment. More details as they come.

The 16th edition in the venerated beatmaniaIIDX series of rhythm games is hitting test locations in Japanese arcades from June 25th to July 1st, sporting this adorable new logo. As you can see, they’re really playing up the pink/girly theme in this mix for whatever reason, and that extends to the interface as well.

Many of the new songs here come from well-loved familiar faces of the Bemani stable, including L.E.D., good-cool, Zektbach, and TAKA. Some other good news is that the machines feature shiny new turntables which are supposedly more responsive than their predecessors.

[bemanistyle.com]

You heard right, this ain’t your old bread-and-butter port here. PS3 owners will get a cavalcade of goodies in this version of the game, including new characters, quests, dungeons, endings, costumes, tunes, and concept art!

These upgrades are confirmed for the Japanese version, due out in September 2008, and will probably be in the US port as well, whose date is TBA. In an age of dwindling exclusives, it looks like the PS3 keeps getting more small advantages than was once anticipated. And with titles like Final Fantasy XIII and Valkyria Chronicles on the way, Sony will finally be a strong contender in the RPG arena.

[Kotaku]

The new Namco game, “Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World” is been released right now Thursday June 26, 2008 inside many many stores in Japan (Although the Japanese name is “Knights of Ratatosk”). It is a good time to rejoice since this game is also planned to come to the Americas for the Nintendo Wii. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one. And they better keep the multiplayer feature, it was definitely a great, great idea.

Release date in the US hasn’t been announced but I hope it to be scheduled before Christmas!

[Kotaku]

This week’s Famitsu brings word of a new RPG for the RPG-starved Wii. Arc Rise Fantasia is the tale of Bright, an up-and-coming mercenary that joins up with the army of the Meridian empire to fight an onslaught of “Contaminant Dragons,” which, as their name implies, contaminate their immediate surroundings after death. Joining him is his childhood friend Alse, a prince, Adele, a magic instructor, and Ryphia, the obligatory naïve girl with a mysterious past and abilities.

More scans and info after the jump.

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Get to the nuclear shelters, the world is gonna end! Phantom Entertainment, previously known as Infinium Labs, have finally released their first product: The Phantom Lapboard. You might remember Infinium Labs as the company behind the Phantom Console, a device so revolutionary that it was supposed to change the face of gaming forever.

It did in fact change the face of gaming, putting a big freaking smirk on gaming’s face as the device became the very definition of vaporware. After giving up on their pipe dreams the company reformed as Phantom Entertainment and prepared to launch this, the Phantom Lapboard, as its flagship product. How the mighty have fallen, from a revolutionary game console to a keyboard and laptop combo. It must be said though that Phantom Entertainment has held true to its name as all it has really provided during its 6 year history is precisely that, entertainment.

[Phantom Entertainment]

A source has alerted me to something quite interesting on Blizzard’s Battle.net forums. If you follow this link:

http://www.battle.net/forums/board.aspx?ForumName=d3-general

You are brought to a "The battle.net Forums Are Currently Down" error message. This differs from entering a nonsense forum name, which redirects the user to the Battle.net main page. Could this be related to the mysterious splash page on Blizzard.com?

The many faces of street fashion in Japan never ceases to amaze, from gothic lolitas to ganguro, there’s always something exciting going on. Today we’ll see two videos about Hime Gyaru or Hime Style. A fashion trend about looking like a pseudo-Victorian princess and apparently adding as much curls and volume to your hair as possible. I guess you could also call it blond Amy Winehouse style.

These two videos deal particularly with a store that specializes in Hime Gyaru clothing called Jesus Diamante. Apparently some of the gowns in there go for over a thousand bucks. Where do these people get all that money?! I don’t really see them leading very well paid corporate jobs dressed like this. But who knows, Sanrio needs executives too I guess!

[Tokyomango]

What’s more extreme than football (both games), hockey, and demolition derby combined? Is it Barehanded Bear Wrestling? Hell no! It’s Bean Bag Tossing. That’s right. What? It’s not? Meet me outside. We’ll bring the bean bags. BOO-YAH!

Developed by Incredible Technologies, the company behind the classic sports bar trackball game Golden Tee Golf, is porting one of their iconic trackball games to the Wii. Likely a WiiWare title as opposed to something you’d see on shelves, Target Toss Pro: BAGS looks like one of those titles that you can truly enjoy with your friends after having a few (or a few too many) drinks. Sign me up!

No word on when the game will be BA-BOUNCE-ing onto the Wii Shop Channel, but you can count on us to throw down some KA-CHING and picking this title up for some alcohol-fueled fun.

[Siliconera]

Someone’s viral marketing scheme must have worked, because I have seen these goddamned shirts everywhere, and yet I also desperately feel like buying them at the expense of a few lost meals. The idea behind this clothing line, presented by the “Pokémon Company,” is to offer some stylish and somewhat sophisticated merchandise for the older pokémon fan that already has a closet full of plushies and the like.

The shirts are Japan-only for now, but I could see a US release being very lucrative as well, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that were to happen in the future. As of now we have four shirt designs featuring Hypno, Mewtwo, Articuno, and Cubone. For more updates you can check out the official POKéMON 151 site here.

[Destructoid]

Guilty Gear fans have been salivating over tidbits of info on Arc System Works’ BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, that series’ spiritual successor, for months now. Fortunately for them, it’s arriving at Los Angeles’ Anime Expo July 3rd through 6th in delicious arcade-cabinet form. So far the game looks beautiful, sporting a gothic motif and featuring the kind of eccentric characters and manic brawling that was so well-loved in the Guilty Gear series. If I could go to the expo, that cabinet would be one of my first stops.

[Kotaku]

It turns out that Best Buy, Circuit City, and Gamestop have all slated Starcraft II’s release date as December 3rd of this year. It’s unusual to see multiple retailers agree on identical dates unless it’s been made official, so one can’t help but wonder why else they would choose it. 1up speculates Blizzard could announce this at their “Worldwide Invitational Event in Paris” this weekend.

[1up]

On July 12 a surprise is coming to Japanese theaters. The original Ghost in the Shell movie is playing in 5 theaters throughout Japan. But this isn’t just a re-run of the movie; Mamoru Oshii’s masterpiece is being remastered.

A whole new voice acting track will be laid down by nearly all of the original actors, and all sound and music has been remastered by Skywalker Sound (of Star Wars fame). Most important of all, some of the animation is being replaced for new, shiny CGI. Below is a promo video for the event and 3 before/after images comparing it to the original.

If you ask me the original animation still holds ground and most of these “after” shots just seem darker and browner. Hell, add some bloom lighting and you can slap a Gears of War sticker on the cover!

Watching this has made me realize that the exotic aura surrounding older movies like GITS and Akira is missing from today’s productions. I remain excited. Expect a DVD of this remastered version to come out in a couple of months and hit the torrents a couple of weeks after that.