Look, there aren't too many franchises that I'm utterly in love with. The Ryu Ga Gotoku/Yakuza franchise is one of them. The story is fantastic (even with the poor localization in the first game), the characters are believable, the graphics are gorgeous, and the combat is brutally satisfying. Hell, I ran out and imported Ryu Ga Gotoku: Kenzan! the week it came out. I've pestered Sega for Yakuza news at PAX for last couple years. The guy I talked to this year gave me the usual spiel about not giving up hope, trying to gather a community of fans at Sega's website to support the series etc, etc.

I'd just about given up hope until tonight.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3176109
You read that right.
1up doesn't say it's a rumor. It says the game is coming. If this turns out to be untrue, I'll be thoroughly pissed off.
But, as it stands now, the world looks so damn beautiful.
Here's a fun video for you with the game's theme song and some pain.

Who else is happy?

Now, I'm sure a lot of you are wondering to yourselves "How will I recognize TheCleaningGuy at PAX? He seems like an amazing, intelligent, and incredibly attractive person from his comments, and I really want to meet him! But how will I recognize him in the sold-out crowd? He's never posted a picture of himself before, nor has he ever been to a NARP!" Well, read on, lovely Dtoider, and be enlightened as to how you will recognize me (and see a photo).

Or, if you don't give a damn about that, and you were wondering "Should I listen to that strange Australian podcast that shows up every fortnight? I've always been interested, but just needed one guest testimonial to push me over the edge" then you can read on, too.

First of all, a little bit of backstory... Anyone who has listened to Refused Classification knows that I am a huge fan. Nothing makes me happier than to bombard these poor bastards with a cavalcade of questions. Well, sometime around episode 7, our hosts Hugh Jackman, DahhhhnnnnnMazkiiiiiiinnnnn, and that one guy who curses a lot, reposts things, and can't hold his liquor got drunk enough to think it was a good idea to invite me to co-host their podcast. A couple weeks, careful timezone planning, a missed recording date, and a few Skype/computer crashes later, Episode 8 was born.

For some bizarre reason, these backwards Australians thought it would be a good idea to reward me for causing all sorts of damage to their podcast, and keeping them up late. I gave them my address and T-shirt size and a few days before my birthday (They didn't know about my birthday, but I like to pretend they did), I received the greatest single T-shirt I have ever seen.

That's right mofos.

This will be how you recognize me on Friday, when I enter PAX for the third year running. I will be the only person at PAX with a custom Servbot shirt, made exclusively by the amazing, sexy, and creative people who host Refused Classification.

So thank you very much James, Dan, and Moses. I absolutely love you guys and just want to let you know how grateful I am. You guys are amazing, and I'll be sporting your custom threads at PAX!

It appears that Microsoft's newly announced Halo-centric branch, 343 Industries, has set up a deal with a a number of well renowned anime studios to create a series of 7 short films based around the Halo universe. The project will be called "Halo Legends." details are scarce at the moment, but I'm going to presume it's something along the lines of "the Animatrix" or "Gotham Knight".
Production I.G.'s Shinji Aramaki is overseeing the project and the films will be done by Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Tohei, and Studio 4-C.


What do you think Dtoiders? As a fan of both Halo and anime, I'm pretty excited.


News via Kotaku, via the LA Times.

I wish I could add something incredibly witty or exciting here, but I'm just really happy that this is coming out.
SUMMER 2009 BABY!
This is a fantastic year for fighting games.

The title says it all really. It's coming out for Wii, PS2, and PSP!
Kliff and Justice are back, a new story mode is in (Hell Yeah!), and 3 on 3 Fighting! (More Hell Yeah!)
Full info/Press Release here: http://www.aksysgames.com/2009/01/27/hear-ye-hear-ye-guilty-gear-xx-accent-core-plus-in-the-house/
I personally love the Guilty Gear series, and now the best version of XX is being released in the States! With this and Devil Summoner, today has been a good day for game releases.