I Wrote this for my college news paper The Daily Titan at Cal State Fullerton but I figured I may as well post it as it is video game related

Many of you know about the massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft (WoW). If you don’t play it already, chances are high that you know someone who does. With a subscription number of over 11.5 million, it can be assumed that WoW has a grip on someone you may care about, or even yourself. Much like the addicted smoker, logging on to WoW can make players feel hopeless and not in control of their own lives. Well good news, you can indeed quit WoW. With the help of this article and a supportive group of close friends, you too can quit WoW, or help a friend temporarily or permanently quit WoW.

Step 1: Avoid WoW Drama

If you play WoW with a group of friends you have no doubt experienced this all too common and unnecessary travesty. WoW drama can be caused by a seemingly infinite amount of events, but a major catalyst of WoW drama is when a friend suddenly quits WoW. When quitting WoW, make sure everyone you are close to gets plenty of notice before you quit. Let them know why, give them your email, and let them know you are up for talking “in real life” (IRL for you WoWers). Surprisingly real life relationships are just as beneficial as WoW relationships.

Step 2: Guild Relations

When your character or characters are in a “Guild” within WoW you must give prior notice of your decision. Much like having a job, you are part of fine tuned, well oiled, and efficient killing machine known as a “Guild.” Also much like having a job, sudden abandonment of this position can create serious consequences as dungeon raids are planned weeks in advance, and you as a guild member have an obligation to these raids. So when quitting WoW please, like youR current real pay roll job, give a two weeks notice to your guild leader.

Step 3: Don’t be Dick

Much like dying, that’s right dying, your character is going to have plenty of “epic” items in his or her bank that will go to waste. If you are inconsiderate and greedy you are going to keep it all to yourself forever like King Tut in his tomb full of unused riches. Instead go about it Mother Teresa style and donate all your best materials and epic items to your closest WoW buddies. This will not only improve your standings with friends before quitting, but if you choose to come back, guildies and friends in general will welcome you with open arms.

Step 4: Doing the Deed

Finally you can be free. Log on to your account and cancel it. Don’t worry you can do this. If it’s really that hard call up a friend and ask them to do it for you. Once your account is frozen and you and your credit card are free from the burden of paying $14.95 to a faceless entity, you have completed the hardest step.

Step 5: The Proverbial Nicotine Patch

Quitting cold turkey is for soulless robots, androids from the movie Blade Runner and badasses. Most normal human beings, no matter what the addiction, need something to focus their left over energy and effort on. So when quitting WoW it is necessary to have something to put that left over dungeon raiding energy on. Your best bet is another non-online video game. Try playing normal single-player RPGs, or even some first person shooters. Better yet start reading books or comics.

Step 6: Level Up!

Grats! If you have been without WoW for more than two months or for those serious addicts three months, you have achieved your goal of quitting WoW. Whether it be temporarily until the next expansion, or permanently thus appeasing your girlfriend’s, parent’s or friends’ concerns, you have successfully ventured further than most have dared. Enjoy the world outside of WoW, it has been waiting for you.

Hopefully this guide has helped in someway and I myself will be taking a break from WoW. I know Azeroth, Outlands and Nothrend are waiting for me, but there is so much out there. Other video games, books, and my hopeful career are beckoning me. Farewell WoW, not until the Cataclysm expansion shall I wander your vast terrain, and I look forward to our future meeting.
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For those 2 of you out there who don't know what Overclocked Remix is... I'm sorry you've been missing out here is a life altering link http://www.ocremix.org/

Now for those of us who do. The popular (almost god-like) remix community that is OC Remix that brought you such hits as the Street Fighter II HD Remix soundtrack and some beautiful Dale North content is hosting the Megaman 9 Remix Project. If that does not cream your jeans, soil your undergarments, and many other references to spunk in the pants, I don't know what else could.

http://kwix.shackspace.com/mm9/index.html

Now here is a picture of megaman made out of what reminds me of "now and laters"

Every time I watch a good scary movie, play a great survival horror game, walk down a dark street, or turn off the lights in my house to go bed, I will occasionally get a feeling. It is a feeling of genuine fear and excitement: eyes tearing up, pulse pounding fast through frozen veins and arteries, hair standing on edge, the want to turn around but the complete inability to move your locked eyes, and a slow cold breath down the back of the spine. This is a feeling that I love and a feeling many people seek out when in the mood for excitement or adventure. It is also a feeling I hadn't had in a long while until I watched a popular episode of the hit BBC series Doctor Who.

The show had been recommended to me years ago but I procrastinated and didn't start watching until now through netflix instant watch on NXE. I am absolutely and hopelessly addicted to the series now, but that's not the point. The point is that I finally reached one of the episodes everyone talks about called "Blink." I have seen the classic horror movies and I was raised by a mom and dad who are both obsessed with scary movies, and I haven't been creeped out like I was while watching "Blink" for quite some time.

***SPOILER ALERT****STOP READING HERE****GO WATCH THE EPISODE NOW!!!******

The first time I saw the "weeping angel" in the backyard of the house I knew that I was about to see something special. The angels themselves look so very lifelike but just a little bit off to make the chills start to creep. Then the moment the angel shifted to reveal its blank emotionless eyes I had to reach for a pillow let out an excited squee because I knew the episode was going to be great. When the main character of the episode Sally Sparrow and her friend Larry Nightingale are confronted with the true mystery behind the weeping angels



my heart skipped a beat. The later moments of terror that lead to the angels falling for a trap set by Doctor Who (he does all while stuck in 1969) are equally intense. But no chill, no breath down my neck, no pulse was as cold, slow and intense as the first time a weeping angel attacks.

Now why am I mentioning this on a gaming blog, well if the title didn't make it obvious enough the episode made me feel the emotions I had while playing silent hill 2 for the first time, or any fatal frame game. It made me miss those genuine moments of fear I experienced with a controller in hand, miss moments I feel like I'll never have again. Those imaginative scares creepy moments that seem to beckon the player to explore just a bit further; moments that make us hold our breath while we push forward or squint our eyes and skew our head a bit away from the screen just before pressing the circle button to bring up the camera. Moments lost to attractive combat systems and overwhelming enemy forces.

I will admit that I do love Resident Evil 4, enjoyed Dead Space, Silent Hill: Homecoming was pretty to say the least, and I very much enjoyed Resident Evil 5 (although it kicked my ass), but why cant I have those games and my old survival horror back. Fatal Frame 4 does look promising (if it ever comes out in North America) and Ive been waiting anxiously for it, and Winter is another game that looks promising but that's not enough to feed my hunger for survival horror.

So far only indie games have been able to scare me in 2007 and 2008, and only one or two actually gave me chills. This is why I hope game developers who wish to make scary games will stop looking at past achievements such as resident evil and silent hill only to make game similar to it with a new "fixed" combat system and slicker graphics. I hope that developers will look to the book, films and tv shows that scared millions of people around the world: disturbing Italian horror movies such as susperia, classic horror novels written by H.P. Lovecraft or classic American cinema like The Changeling or even absurdist cinema like David Lynch's Inland Empire could inspire survival horror creators.

To make a game scary more than just disturbing visuals and overwhelming situations are required, a horror game requires imagination and fear of the unknown. A game needs input from the character, mental interaction that drives the player to explore what scares them. Although gaming is still in its teen years as a medium, I hope that developers will see the potential hidden within the gaming medium to scare the living shit out of millions of so called hardcore gamers around the world.

What do you think? Have we dug ourselves in a hole with shovels made of bullets, zombies and military trained heroes? Or is there still hope in the future that I can be terrified of an enemy that I haven't even seen. Is there hope that will fear whats around the corner again. Will I one day be too creeped out by a game, to mesmerized by fear, too terrified to blink.

I can only hope.

In June of 1995, there was a movie that changed the lives of many, it was an epic tale of good versus evil, deceit versus truth, hope combated with loss, power rangers battling with Ivan Ooze. As a mere sapling in the world of popular culture, I chose the power rangers as my leader into the frontier of awesomeness. My want to become one of those mighty and morphin elite rangers was strong from the ages of 6 to 10 and was soon stifled by my eventual quest to "catch them all." However that power ranger need stuck in the back of my sub-conscious only waiting for a catalyst. That catalyst was my discovery of a treasure at my local retro gaming store Games 4 You, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie...The Game, for the Sega Genesis.

So after a late night session of Zack and Wiki, my friends and I plugged the rangers into my Genesis 1 and started a game in the two player co-op mode. The game lets you choose between all six rangers at the start of the game, including the white ranger. The gameplay is much like final fight or streets of rage only its the power rangers... where can you go wrong. The answer is you cant.



The controls are A: Kick B: Punch/Combo C: Uppercut/Jump, and if you double tap to run into an enemy you can grab and throw them. Each ranger has a similar play style, the only difference being their weapon of choice and their charged B attack. The blue ranger is equipped with a staff; the yellow with ninja sai that he could also throw; the pink with a sword, the red with a katana; the black with an axe that turned into a huge gun (my personal favorite); and the white with what I called the sword of epic luls because it shoots fire across the ground when charged, thus destroying everyone in his path. The music in the game is only what I can assume the 16-bit version of the movie soundtrack. However after completing each stage it plays the "go go power rangers" theme, and then I cried.

The total of 5 stages were broken up with amazing giant robot battles, where I got to morph into the giant robot that the five rangers form together, and my friend played as the white rangers giant fucking mech bird. Due to the fact that the white rangers bird is broken and can destroy just about anything by picking it up a boss and dropping it repeatedly, I would only be able to sit back and watch the destruction and helplessly spin kick through the towers of angel grove. The awesomeness of the giant robot battles is only increased as the last level takes place in space.

The pawns in the battle of Ivan Ooze and the Power Rangers were easily dismissed by either a good punch combo, a running B attack, or just simply throwing enemies into other enemies (or sometimes my friend, whoops). Some of the rangers were equipped with projectile attacks (the black rangers huge gun), which came in handy when swarmed by Ivan Ooze's badies. Mini-bosses were also present in the form of three sentinels: sentinel ear (a woman that attacks with her hair, NOT her giant fucking lobes hanging from her skull), sentinel neck (hes got a big neck) , and sentinel ring (wtf).

The game itself only lasted a little over an hour, but that hour that it took to save Zordon made both myself and my friends life a little more complete than it was before. If you have genesis and have the ability to find this on the cheap (I found it for $4), it will be money well spent. If you've already played it, then we can both share a moment of nostalgia and look back on where our path in life led to hardcore nerdiness. I can only sum up this game with a term recently coined by editor Chad Concelmo, RETROMAZING!!!

I’ve been going to AX for three years now and this AX has by far been the best one. Although the location was less than convenient (no one got mugged or raped that i know of), the LA convention center is amazing. It is a perfect home for AX only to be beat by the ridiculously awesome Anaheim convention center. Seeing Kratos, every fucking character from Naruto and Bleach, and other random anime cosplays walking around the streets of downtown LA was, liberating for lack of a better word.

So since I’m not posting for japanator, I will instead speak of only the video games and overall nerdiness that I experienced. First of all the demos, holy shit in a hand basket this was a great year to be a hardcore gamer at AX. Bangaio spirits, Naruto Clash of Ninja: Revolution 2, Soul Calibur IV, Guilty Gear 2: Overture, Naruto Ninja Storm, several other Naruto games, and the eye bleedingly beautiful BlazBlue.

First I'll start with the Bangaio spirits because this game caught me off guard. I saw only one person play this game aside from myself the entirety of AX which is a shame because this game is amazing. Part arena shooter part ridiculous version of contra; this is a game in which you can launch 100 missiles from a tiny mech on screen. 100 MISSLES!!! However the demo got hard fast, which I didn’t mind because once the game is released in I believe October, I will spend a lot of time mastering it.



Secondly, Soul Calibur IV. This is my favorite fighting franchise of all time. It is a nearly perfect fighting game in my opinion and has stole many hours of my life and forced me to duct tape a controller specifically for SCIII because of the much bashing it endured. Needless to say I will continue the tradition for SCIV because this game was so much fun, and so beautiful. So much so that I forgot to take a picture of the booth and the screen, sorry. The only characters that were offered for demo were Mitsurugi, Siegfried and the new challenger for the soul edge Hildegard von Krone. The game itself plays more like Soul Calibur II which should excite plenty, and disappoint a few. Both Misurugi and Siegfried played exactly the same except a few combo alterations and however the interesting thing to learn was that Hildegard played very similar to Setsuka. However much unlike Setsuka Hildegard and dangerous reach due to her huge lance that she thrusts with malicious intent in every single combo. (hint: use kicks to stun and the lance to destroy)

Third in the line of amazing games was BlazBlue, which I also didn’t get pictures of, lest I be shot down by the ARC reps. Now I'll admit I’m not that great at 2D fighters (actually im quite horrible), however I've always been a fan of the Guilty Gear franchise; and ARC seems to have another hit on their hands with BlazBlue. I stared at the game for nearly a half an hour just watching competitors get utterly destroyed in HD fashion. Now to call the sprites and the backgrounds in BlazBlue beautiful is an understatement; it is literally like watching an anime. Now the downside of BlazBlue (and a fact that the reps loved to remind us) is that there is no planned release for the PS3 and no release date for the arcade version either. Only Nihon will be receiving it for the time being. On a small note Guilty Gear 2: Overture was to me less than impressive but that doesn’t mean its going to suck. The game played like a watered down dynasty warriors but with a prettier coat of paint. Also I accidently sent the unit into debug mode whilst playing, whoops.

Lastly there is EVERY NARUTO GAME YOU COULD EVER WANT!! There was one for the DS, one for the Wii, one for the PSP and of course Naruto: Ninja Storm for the PS3. Considering the DS, Wii, and PSP versions are just continuations of old franchises, I will focus on Ninja Storm. Remember when I said BlazBlue is like watching and Anime be played? Well ninja Storm is like watching a playable version of an episode of Naruto... if pixar was making Naruto. It is beautiful, and the combat system isn’t half bad either. It plays like both clash of ninja and Ultimate ninja, with only the best elements thrown in. If you aren’t already a Naruto fan, I doubt you’ll be interested; but it cannot be denied that the Naruto franchise still holds its own in the video game market.

Needless to say I had a lot of fun at Anime Expo 08, as I’m sure many other Detoiders did.

Now I will leave you with my photos from AX and the awesome cosplaying that I saw. Dr. Who, Afro Samurai and Captain Planet were all in attendance this year. I’ve never felt more at home in my life.

In my frequenting bored state I often find my self perusing all 6 aisles of my local gamestop in search of my next feed. So what do I find to much excitement. Otogi AND Otogi 2! Not an incredibly hard find I know but just the mere sight of the game sparked memories of completely destroying downs wall by wall and beam by beam. So in hopes to reel in the nostalgia I purchase both for a reasonable total sum of $20 (along with oddworld: strangers wrath). In my gleefull ride home a little voice of wisdom spoke these words "its probably not backwards compatable," however my extremely optimistic self though "no no no of course its going to work, it was supposed to be a rival for devil may cry and it was one of the most beautiful games on the system." So I rushed over to my 360, plugged in the game and much to my (lack of) suprise IT ISNT FUCKING BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE. "How can this be true?! Must be a mistake! Do I need to update?" So I upload my internets and checkup on the list of playable original xbox games. BMX XXX: Check! of course a classic (fuck you) Drake: Check! also a classic, best cel shaded game ever (not, fuck you) oh and of course Barbie Horse Adventures: Check! always my favorite, cant get me enough of that equestrianism. BULLHONKEY! SHENANIGANS! FUCK YOU MICROSOFT! god damnit.... How can they igonre such a classic albiet semi-flawed game in the backwards compatibility line up? Just get over yourselves and jump to full backwards compatibility. Is it too much to ask for to be able to play my originial xbox games? Games you wont even make a profit off of because the only way to get them is by purchasing them used, just fueling profits to the stores that sell them and not you? Or do you REALLY need to attempt imitate nintendo by reselling franchises on XBLA for unreasonable prices at massive file size (sadly I have the 20gb still)? God God Damnit Damnit. Part my fault for not doing the research and part MS fault for being MS. Way to go both of us.... MS you d-bag.

Also Strangers Wrath ended up not being backwards compatible -_-