If you’ve attended an anime, videogame or comic convention in the last two months, chances are you’ve seen someone wearing a Spirit Hood. The irresistibly soft and stylish nature of the Spirit Hood locks and pulls attention in like a tractor beam on a Star Destroyer. Not to mention Spirit Hoods are sexy to boot. With that said, I am going to go on record and say that Spirit Hoods have officially crossed the moat, broken down the gate and are taking the geek, otaku and nerd nation by storm.

A few days prior to this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) I received a press release announcing MMORPG publisher/developer Nexon’s first foray into the the industry-only event. The release also gave mention to Spirit Hoods, and stated that Nexon would be handing them out regularly to booth visitors in effort to promote their forthcoming title, Vindictus. Now, truth be told, the first thing I though to myself after reading this release was “what the hell is a Spirit Hood?” However, I found my interest peaked and decided to do a little research. One Google search later and I found myself shooting off an email to set up an interview.

My efforts proved fruitful and I managed to catch up with Spirit Hoods co-founder, Alexander Mendeluk at E3 to talk Spirit Hoods, fashion and being wild at heart.

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Self-described as a narrative paramedic, Rhianna Pratchett is most known for her work on the Overlord series with additional credits in Mirror’s Edge, Heavenly Sword, and Viking: Battle for Asgard. I had the opportunity to interview Rhianna about her creative approach to writing, general thoughts on videogame development, and emotive storytelling.

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No, Bad Kids Go to Hell is not he name of the next hit reality series on Fox, rather a comic mini-series combining the talents of former Hollywood FX master and playwright Matthew Spradlin with Producer/Director/Writer and actor Barry “Bazza” Wernick into a rich storyline reminiscent of a demon spawn between John Hughes and Wes Craven. Filled with every teenage stereotype and excellently crafted panels by artist Anthony Vargas, Bad Kids pushes the envelope in terms of content, violence, and other “mature” themes. The best part is you are loving every moment of it. I had the opportunity to interview the creators of Bad Kids Go To Hell. I’ll let you read what they had to say about their teen angst story after the break. Read more!

It’s no secret I hold a special place for the survival-horror genre, specifically the Silent Hill series. There have been some bastard children from the franchise, but it still maintains a good fright-fest with a reasonably developed storyline. So when it was reported Konami was going to remake the original, fans were expectantly up in arms with an arsenal of questions. Would it be a straight up remake?  A re-living through a familiar character? Why do this to such a well established classic?

Thankfully, producer Tomm Hulett helped ease some fears pointing out that Shattered Memories will not be a remake, rather a re-imagining. The full interview is on Joystiq. Set for an ambiguous release, Fall 2009, for both Wii and PS2 (with a possible launch on the PSP); I’ll be interested to see how this actually plays out.

Some choice quotes from the interview:

Where do you draw the line between messing around with people’s expectations and completely jumping the shark? There’s a lot of differences, but I wouldn’t say we jumped the shark, because they’re all very calculated, they all serve the story and they’re all surprising.

He’s the guy that’s always there for Silent Hill [Akira Yamaoka]. Every single Silent Hill game, no matter whether it’s The Room, or Homecoming, Akira’s always there. Could you make a Silent Hill game without him? I wouldn’t like to, because I am a fan of the series and I do love his music. I think it adds a special element, it’s kind of the atmosphere of the town. If Akira’s music isn’t there, it just doesn’t sound quite right.

Is it more difficult to make something feel really scary on the Wii — just because I think survival horror games are very dependent on the production value and graphics and sound. …we’ve done some amazing things graphically here. Every object self-shadows with the flashlight that you’re moving around in real time, even the snow flakes. …What we’ve done with the Wii version is you’re interacting with the Wii remote. With puzzles, you’re not coming to a separate puzzle menu where you select options with the cursor, you’re reaching into the game so you’re immersed at all times.

[Joystiq]

When you were a little kid, did you ever tell yourself “I’d love a fantasy game that simulates everything”? One where you could be your little group of warriors and build the best base ever, go trade, wage war, drink beer, and breed cats indefinitely? Well, Tarn Adams told himself the same thing, but instead of just idly wishing it, he started to make it. And thus was born Dwarf Fortress.

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Several weeks back a few friends and I found ourselves trolling the floors of the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA for WonderCon 2009. It was my first time attending Wondercon and it was a sheer blast, not to mention a bit overwhelming too; so many sights, sounds and…undesired smells to take in.

For the most part, my first day at Wondercon was spent attending panels and getting a feel for the lay of the land. I had to prepare for day two where I would blow exorbitant amounts of hard earned cash on PVC figures and other miscellaneous spoils of war. It would also present me with the opportunity to thoroughly examine the sea of independent artist booths that blanketed the show floor.

Hit the jump to read about my WonderCon discovery. Read more!

A Dark Diamond Exclusive

Earlier this year developer SpiderMonk Entertainment unleashed onto the gaming world Roogoo. A cute n’ cuddly story-driven puzzle game in which Roogoo, is tasked with saving his home world from the power-hungry clutches of King Moo, his son Prince Moo and their motley crew of followers, the MeeMoo. In order to do so Roogoo must travel across 6 different environments and 45 stages to collect and sort the falling meteors that once brought life, energy and joy to the peaceful world of Roo.

Taking a short Roo-nap from his adventures on both Xbox LIVE Arcade and PC, Roogoo is gearing up for two all-new adventures on the Nintendo Wii and DS.

I caught up with with President/Creative Director, Scott March of SpiderMonk Entertainment to ask him about the wonderful world of Roogoo and what we can expect too see from the upcoming Wii and DS versions of the game.

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Bright-eyed and excited as usual, Cliff Bleszinski discussed everything from the storyline, themes, characters, and gameplay mechanics of Gears of War 2 in this new interview from Gametrailers.com.

First Bleszinski explains that the Locust have returned, and are back with a vengeance, so you’ll be up against similar foes as in the last installment. He then explains that the game is going to focus on a theme of “intimate violence,” which will play into the more central role of the chainsaw. For one there are now Chainsaw duels, which “are a simple b-button mash.” There are also more weapon-specific executions.

Perhaps the best news concerns the multiplayer: Gears 2 will ship with more maps than the original, will have more multiplayer modes, and can accommodate five vs five battles.

Overall, Bleszinski wanted to hammer home the messages that Gears 2 will be “bigger and more badass,” will have a deeper storyline, and will feature “buckets and buckets of blood.”

You’ll be able to chainsaw enemies “from their taint to their throat” on November 30th.

[Gametrailers.com]

Website DSmeet has an exclusive interview with Brandon Kuzma, better known as the N64 kid from that infamous youtube video. Brandon recently put his Nintendo 64 up for auction on Ebay and so he has made the news again.

Of all the question asked in the interview I think the best one is when DSmeet asks Brandon if he is a gamer and he says:

N64Kid: NO not at all actually, haha I spend my time filming skateboarding and short films, editing, working on my website, skateboarding, being with my girlfriend, and what not.

Amazing, that beacon of remembrance from holidays and the joy of a new videogame/console past is in fact not a gamer anymore! Thats a shame, but really the best question might just be this one:

DSM: What’s your favorite flavor bowling ball?
N64Kid: Probably the ones with the flowers and the happiness that comes out of it.

Yes, don’t we all love the happiness that comes out of it?

[DSmeet]

Today we have for you a special feature interview with GWX, the creator of a very unique site: Wii Game Ideas. For some months now, GWX has written and collected a vast amount of game and gameplay concepts for the Nintendo Wii. He has even tried several times to get Nintendo to listen up, sadly this has yet to happen. Now I should warn you, GWX (who asked to keep his name private) is quite the Nintendo fanboy, not a crazy one but still a fanboy. So those of you who are fanboy intolerant and/or fanboys of opposing factions in the console war might want to read this with discretion.

Who am I kidding…. most fanboys love getting angry at ‘the enemy’ so lets just get on with this.

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