I thought it was pretty interesting that Abel started off as a girl/trap (don't we all), and while Juri's original design didn't feature any gender-bending functionality, her creation process was pretty cool in itself.
According the latest Super Street Fighter IVdevelopment blog, there were about 500 different versions of Juri at one point, including an old woman, an ice skater, and an—ahem—chubbier version of what we have now. The huskier Juri was supposed to be cute, but as she thinned out, she also became more evil. The team had a hard time deciding whether Juri should be associated with Shadaloo or S.I.N. but finally decided to associate her with Seth instead of M. Bison—the reasoning was that, as a new character, Juri would be a better fit for the Street Fighter storyline as a member of the newer organization.
Like that matters.
But anyway, this is what you guys care about: once the team had settled on a "bad and somewhat erotic" character, producer Yoshinori Ono decided that we should be able to see her (ample) sideboob which lead to the creation of her current outfit, which he likened to "a spider."
Here's where I would usually ask you what you thought about the idea of having an ice skater instead of the Juri we know and love, but what's the point? She's already the best thing about Super Street Fighter IV, and that's not even counting the lip-licking.
With Bayonetta out in Japan, Sega can finally concentrate on saturating the West with video trailers and promotional chicanery. Here's the first trailer, a new video that shows off the weapons and combos in Platinum Games' over-the-top action title. It really is an awesome game.
Of course, the quality of the game and what you do in it doesn't matter. What does matter is that Bayonetta's head is allegedly too small for her body. You may continue to make those baseless and untrue accusations while I continue to build my filthy, stained, slightly worrying Bayonetta shrine in the cupboard.
"@TheStripe: Hear hear! Viddler is killing your content with ad spam, Destructoid, and the natives are restless. I'm more than willing to view ads to help support such a great community, but Viddl..."...
In amazingly mindblowing news that everybody cares about, it's being stated that almost a third of all Guitar Hero players are female. Wow.
"A very large group really wants great guitar music, and they don’t want us to confuse that," Guitar Hero CEO Dan Rosenwig boasts to GamePro. "And there’s another group of people who love that, but also love to have more current music, more family music, music more popular for girls -- 30% of our players are already girls, and we want that to grow. One of the great things about having a franchise like this is you can really meet all kinds of consumer demand"
The very fact that I wrote this story should give you some indication as to how quiet and boring things have been this morning.
Seduce a SuicideGirl is a new iPhone App where you'll be playing a choose your own style adventure in order to make out with Zoli Suicide. Your goal is to chat up Zoli in a comic book shop and if you're good at bullsh*tting your way through the conversation, you'll get to have a "17+ make-out session" with her. Pick the wrong answers and she'll humiliate you.
Yup, this is a thing that is happening. If you win the game, you can make out with your ... iPhone. The App is available now on iTunes for $0.99.
I don't understand how this will work or how this is appealing. The only way this would be appealing at all is if you could make out with a man horse, like Rey and Colette demonstrate in the gallery. Seriously, what the f**k.
Is it your time of the month? You on the rag? On the blob? More importantly, have you ever wanted to bleed out of your minge and onto Pikachu's face? If you answer in the affirmative to these questions, then we have a very special treat for you and your vomiting vadge. Yes, it's a Pokémon menstruation pad and it could be your for eight bucks!
Who knew that squirting out your uterine lining could be so much fun? The best thing about this is that it's completely washable, meaning that you can splatter it with your mangled endometrium time and time and time again. It is truly the classiest thing you could stuff up your baby cavity.
If Pokémon isn't your thing, don't worry! These vaginal vampires are handmade and customized to be any way you want them to be. Perhaps you'd like Kratos or Solid Snake down there? Or maybe you'd like the cast of Dexter? Whatever you want.
This story is only loosely connected to videogames in a vague sense, but it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter.
"You do realize you don't ACTUALLY put it IN your vagina right? Also, this is the back of the pad. The part you bleed all over is on the other side."...
Trish Stratus as a brunette with glasses is stunning. She was always hot, but now she's just ... wow.
Oh, right, videogames. Fitness model and former WWE actor Trish Stratus has teamed up with Frima Studio to develop a new yoga game for the Wii called Stratusphere. The game will make use of the Wii balance board and other Wii accessories in order to make it so you can do awesome things to yourself. Really really really awesome things to yourself.
Trish will be coaching players along as Zen 3D backgrounds play in the … background. Expect to see several video segments of what I’m assuming will be Trish Stratus bending her body in lovely ways.
The game has no publisher yet, but Frima Studio is shopping around to see who will bite. They’re expecting Stratusphere to release sometime in the second quarter of 2010.
Last time I talked about Trish on Destructoid, I included a bunch of photos of her. This time around though, you’re going to get some videos. Check them out after the break!
In other news: Am I the only one that ALWAYS says flame after reading the word yoga?
"She always looked like a man to me. Always. I think I was about 12 or 13 when she was first in the WWF and right from day 1 I assumed she was actually a man and it was all a big joke we were supp..."...
Girls. They have stumped men for ages with their ways. The biggest mystery of all? Why they don't play games as much as men. A recent study from Michigan State University has discovered the conclusive truth (until another study comes along and proves it wrong). Women have better things to do and thus have no time to play games. They study found that men have more leisure time because women usually do about twice the amount of work each week than men do.
“Our findings suggest that one reason women play fewer games than men is because they are required to fulfill more obligatory activities, leaving them less available leisure time,” said Jillian Winn of MSU’s Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, and one of the co-authors of the study, which studied 276 MSU undergraduate students. Aside from the fact that men are evidently massive slackers, the study points out the fact that games aren't really directed at women, and if they were they'd probably be more interested. Also games aren't designed by women... blah, blah, blah. We've heard that stuff before.
Also interesting -- maybe even more interesting -- is that while playing games does mean that less schoolwork gets done it does not mean a decrease in one's GPA. Hear that? Gamers are smart... or everyone had low GPAs to begin with.
One of these 16 lovely ladies could appear in the next Ryu Ga Gotoku (Yakuza) game as a virtual hostess. Sega went through 1,500 applicants and now need to figure out which lady will make it through.
There’s a photo, video and a personal blog link for each of the ladies to help you get to know them a little better. They all want to become a star in the next Ryu Ga Gotoku game and they need your vote to make it happen.
This is my dream job, by the way. Getting to judge models in a competition. Oh, also, this girl right here is a pornstar. Hot.
JoWooD Productions and DreamCatcher Games is coming out with a yoga game for the Wii simply called Yoga. That’s not the story here. The story here is that international model Anja Rubik will be featured in the game. Actually, that’s really the entire story.
So just what does Anja Rubik look like? Well, I’m a very generous man and have looked all over Google Image Search for pictures of Anja for you all. I’ve shared them in the gallery mixed in with screenshots from the game below so you can get a really good look at what Anja looks like. You’re welcome.
Also, girl needs to get a damn sammich. Seriously.
Lara Croft has gone through a few changes in her life, most of them based around graphical advancements in breast rounding technology. Back in the day Lara was naught more than a couple of polygons stuck together to vaguely resemble large breasts and Angelina Jolie-esque lips. Yes, Lara has come a long way and Lara Croft fanboy Nicobass felt that it was time to update some of her classic sexy poses since the old ones really did look old.
Now that I'm seeing these side by side, old Lara was really creepy. Her head is way too big, her ass is unnaturally large and I'm pretty sure her lips would have to have their own zip code. Maybe my maturity level has been raised since those original images came out (doubtful), but I don't see what I saw in old Lara at all. New Lara on the other hand, well, I'd totally raid her tomb. Know what I mean? Eh? Eh? A nods as good as wink to a blind beggar.
E3 2009 feels like what a real E3 should feel like again this year. There's actually excitement in the air as people are hustling and bustling around going from booth to booth. I'm actually kind of sad since everything is quieting down right now as E3 09 is about to end.
My sadness has quickly disappeared though, as it's time for the E3 09 booth babe gallery! Oh yeah, you knew this post was coming. E3 brought back the booth babes and there were some mighty fine looking ladies around this past week. There wasn't that many booth babes as I would have liked, but it's a step in the right direction again.
Ok, picture this: an evening of entertainment provided by hot girls dressed like video game characters who then proceed to take off their clothes for an audience? Uh ... what I've just described is the wet dream of the majority of male gamers on the planet (and some female ones, ahem). Believe it or not, it went down this past weekend in Los Angeles. On May 9th at the Bordello bar, ladies dressed as Princess Peach, Samus Aran, Princess Zelda and Link, Chun Li and Rayne (from Bloodrayne) put on a grand show in the tradition of a good old fashioned striptease.
Feel like you missed out? Well, you can check out our favorite pics in the gallery, the full slideshow over at LA Weekly, or best of all, you can see the show happen again during E3. Devil's Playground will put on their encore performance the evening of June 3rd, which just might be worth taking a break from furiously pounding out stories to attend. Although, attending may mean I see a few other people pounding something, if you get my drift.
Time to clean house! Nerdyshirts is closing out the last of our 08' Destructoid skull & crossbones shirts for $5 plus shipping (all men's sizes are sold out, sorry!) but here's how to get it for free: To get the coupon just copy and paste this exact self-referring thing into your tweet:
@Nerdyshirts is giving away $5 gift certificates to anyone who follows them & retweets this exact message! http://Nerdyshirts.com
You may also want a groovy Duke Nukem shirt while you're at it. Also, Destructoid turns THREE friggin' years old next week so look for all kinds of contests and giveaways real soon from me real soon. No need to sleep with one eye open: just eep in touch with us by following Destructoid on Twitter or via RSS feed. Thanks and enjoy!
"Designer like ,Burberry handbag, Hermes bags, , Tiffany bag, Christian Dior bags,, Chloe handbags, Dolce & Gabbana bags,Fendi handbag, and are available at our site. All sold by thereplcabags...."...
For whatever reason, Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild reviewed Tenchu Shadow Asassins. Well, it’s not actually a review. It’s really just clips from Tenchu mixed together with NSFW clips of naked women from Girls Gone Wild.
I wish real reviews were like this. I would be pumping out reviews left and right if I could do it like this.
Oh, and there’s a shot of a tiger in this video. Tigers are pretty effing cool.
Because dividing people by gender is lots of fun for everyone, Ubisoft is claiming that the Wii is a "girl-driven" system, something which the publisher's senior brand manager, Ann Hamilton, thinks lies at the heart of the system's success.
"What’s driving the Wii sales is the use of Wii by women, girls and families," explains Hamilton. "It’s a really female-driven platform."
Ubisoft is never one to keep away from a gravy train, and has already targeted the female demographic with all the enthusiasm of a pedophile in a playpen, with such nonsense as Imagine and Ener G.
So, the next time you're looking at someone to blame for the "MTV-ing" of the videogame industrey, please don't blame Nintendo. The blame lies where the blame for everything has lied since the dawn of time -- with women.
Maxim has compiled a list of the sexiest videogame babes from games released in 2008 and I don’t agree with some of their babe choices. I’m not saying the list isn’t good in any way; it’s just my list of sexiest babes of 2008 would be completely different.
I’m really glad to see that Zoey from Left 4 Dead at least made the list. I have a very special place in my heart for Zoey. Other babes that I’m glad that made the list include Chun-Li, Elika, Lara Croft, and Trish from Devil May Cry 4.
As far as the other selections go, I would have picked MGS 4's Crying Wolf over Naomi Hunter solely for the fact that she’s already on all fours and Faith from Mirror's Edge over Celeste as Faith is way hotter without a doubt. The biggest crime on this list, though, is the fact that Natasha Volkova and Jenny McCarthy both made it OVER Gemma Atkinson (pictured above) from Command & Conquer 3. No ways are Natasha, and batsh*t crazy Jenny hotter than Gemma Atkinson.
OK, it’s decided. CTZ is making his very own end of year game babe list for 2009. CTZ is also referring to himself in the third person now. Deal with it.
If you are a very long term reader of the site, then you'll remember that if I have one fear, it is Nobi Nobi Boy, the terrifying worm hybrid freak who comes to the PS3 courtesy of Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi. He is nature's cruelest mistake, and I hate him.
Regardless, one has plucked up the courage to post these Nobi Nobi Boy screenshots, returning elastic monstrosity to your memory. Gaze with curiosity upon God's twisted misfortune and recoil in horror at his every grotesque movement.
He has been confirmed for the PAL territories in early 2009.
Ladies and gentlemen, I now present to you evidence of what happens when fanboyism is allowed to become something ... more. Sure, we all have our gaming vices, and I am sure we have sometimes gone above and beyond the call of duty in the name of our videogame loves. However ... commissioning a picture of Mega Man drawn in F*CKING MENSTRUAL FLUID is a bit too frigging far!
Yes, you read that right. The attached document is Mega Man drawn with dried up uterine juice. He's never looked happier about it either, from the looks of his plasmin-soaked face. What a dirty bastard.
Anyway, the worst part of all this is that the work was not created for just for the amusement of one woman with too much time on her hands and a paintbrush up her snatch -- this monstrosity was made to order. Yes, this woman used her c*nt claret to draw for somebody else. Her husband, to be more precise.
How do you even get around to asking that of you wife? "Baby, I love you, but I also love Mega Man. Can you squat over this piece of paper and push real hard?" I just don't know how the subject can be broached.
Anyway, while you squint at that picture, I'm off to ask if my girlfriend can draw Sonic with her own piss and pubes!
The above video should inspire women all around the world. This bizarre "game" uses a webcam and special boxes, a process known as Augmented Reality, to simulate a virtual girlfriend for you. A girlfriend which is heavily advertised as susceptible to all kinds of physical and mental abuse.
Can you believe it's from Japan? I would NEVER have guessed from hearing the concept.
The "Cyber Figure Alice" doesn't exactly portray women in a, shall we say, progressive light? In fact, the message of this commercial seems to be that if you consistently beat your woman and mess with her head until she's a hopeless, despair-ridden wretch, all it takes is one material gift and she'll instantly forgive you.
"@unangbangkay
...Sex and violence, when on video games, are not related. (Because in real life they can be unfortunately.)
Violence winds up being nothing because it's not real people, it's not r..."...
I turned 23 earlier this week, and as people often do when they grow a year older, I started thinking back to my younger years. I have done a lot of growing up, but there is one thing that has nearly always remained constant: I loved video games, and spent nearly as much time writing and drawing about them as I did playing the games themselves.
This morning, my mother surprised me with a big collection of drawings she had saved from my childhood. Sadly, they were but a tip of the iceberg of the art that I cranked out as a kid. Much of my artwork has become lost in time, left behind during moves or casually thrown away. But I was happy to find there were a few real gems in her collection that were video game related.
We are all familiar with the Ashley Davis who writes and draws about her favorite video games today. But what about the young gamer she once was? Keep reading, and I will share with you some potentially embarrassing pieces of my past.
Well, that's not how the NPD put it. They say that this year young girls are fitting more gaming into their busy girly schedule than they did last year.
The NPD Group's study, called -- no kidding -- Girl Power: Understanding This Important Consumer Segment, says that younger girls still prefer to play with traditional toys, but they're now also migrating to computer and videogames.
Socialization is gearing up among the pre-teens, and the advent of interactive gaming really hits home with these girls who are looking for friends from the confines of their homes.
When we say "young," we mean 9-12 years of age. Like, ohmigod. The study found that ages 13 and 14 were also gamers, but they also like to send text messages and listen to their MP3 players. Hey, that sounds just like Destructoid's teen correspondent, Taylor Tiffany.
“The growth in use of social networking and virtual world websites by girls is a natural extension of this core value which needs to be recognized by manufacturers who count girls as primary market for their goods and services," said NPD's Anita Frazier.
Does this mean that we're training the next generation of MMO girls?
"Not really surprised about this. My own younger sister played Toon Town (that one Disney MMO) for about a year or so, as well as quite a bit of Wii games. Not specifically girly games, but more c..."...
I've known many guys who would rather game all night than get decent sleep, but I thought I was one of few staying up until the wee hours to plow just a little but further in Persona 3. Turns out I'm far from alone -- according to a recent study, fielded by E For All and PoshMama.com. One-third of the women polled said they would prefer to game than get their beauty sleep.
Other mentionables included the percentage of women who game while on the phone (32%), while at work (20%) and while getting ready for work (12%). I was not surprised to see "playing on the way to work" did not make this list, as this dangerous habit was one I frequently conducted in my car on my half hour commute -- sometimes while driving.
Now, if you read the title as a general statement, it seems like rubbish, and in truth it is -- you must be aware that this poll was taken among Poshmama members, and while the community is all female, it seems to appeal to the type of woman who would be interested in unique forms of entertainment -- fashionable, but also quirky. I'm pretty sure if I approached your average Miami tanning obsessee with the same question, she would laugh at my pathetic excuse for womanhood and spare a moment of pity on me before she went to get her nails done.
Has a girl every stayed up all night to game with you (or, if a girl is reading this, do you stay up all night to just get past "one more level")?
In this video, Jenny McCarthy says she has a warrior inside of her. This opens itself to any number of lewd comments that may or may not involve facepainted and barely coherent WWF wrestlers from the eighties. I will leave those comments for you to make.
In other news, Jenny McCarthy has Warrior Femininity, which she apparently got to grips with while playing Tanya in EA's upcoming Red Alert 3. There really isn't much more you can say than that, really. So ... enjoy.
I'd like to shake the hand of whoever came up with the idea to put videogame industry folks into a bed with scantily clad Penthouse Pets. Das Gamer and Complex magazine, I salute you.
The latest in Das Gamers' video series, Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack (wearing a sports coat, jeans, and sneakers) explains the forthcoming Too Human to two Pets (who are wearing nothing but their underwear). Denis does a pretty decent job of keeping his composure as he explains the mythology behind the game, as well as "what defines the human soul."
After taking it all in, one Pet responds: "Very cool. Very cool."
Right. Check out part one and part two over at Das Gamer. Also, I am wearing all of my clothing, but be sure to check out my hands-on Too Human preview.
Today, Electronic Arts has announced Boogie SuperStar for the Wii ... penises need not apply!
This latest entry in the Boogie series is targeted at a female demographic, providing "girls the ultimate gaming experience: to sing and dance their way to superstardom." And here I was thinking all girls wanted to do was have babies and cook -- shows how much I know, right?
The title looks to mirror previous Boogie titles in terms of gameplay and features, just with chicks wearing short skirts and sparkling boots instead of pink broccoli aliens. The title will feature rhythm/dancing and karaoke to more than 40 tracks made famous by Rihanna, Fergie, Maroon 5, Leona Lewis, Good Charlotte, Britney Spears, and more.
Wait ... this sounds awesome, actually. I'm headed to GameStop to pre-order. If you want more information on Boogie SuperStar, you can find it in the press release after the jump.
Don Ryan, the new COO at Oberon Media (AstroPop, Zuma Deluxe), has somehow come to the bizarre conclusion that women can be just as competitive as men. Maybe if they’re competing in a pot roast cook-off, amirite?
"My experience at MSN and Xbox Live is that women are as competitive if not more competitive than men, except that they just don't want to spend or have the time or learn 'up-down-X-X-Y-Y'...They don't want to deal with that. You give them one button, they'll kick your butt," Ryan told GamesIndustry.biz.
Honestly, I don’t even see why something like this needs stating. A person’s gender doesn’t automatically lend itself to what types of games they might favor, the sort of mindset they have while playing, or skill level. I’m sure there are plenty of girls that enjoy memorizing scores of complex combos in fighting games, just like there are plenty of guys that prefer having only one button to deal with.
Game companies should just be focusing on developing fun games -- with people naturally gravitating towards the types of gameplay that they enjoy -- and stop trying to pigeonhole gamers into distinct categories based on arbitrary physical differences. Or am I just spouting crackpot nonsense here?
""They don't want to deal with that. You give them one button, they'll kick your butt."
every bit as insulting as if he'd said:
"They (Black People) don't want to deal with that. You give them ..."...
James Scalpello, THQ's wireless director, has humorously stated that girls simply have more important things to do with their time than play games. Statistically, he ain't wrong, but you've got to love the bluntness of it all.
"When girls play console games, they have to have gone through a whole other list of things they could have done before sitting down with them," stated James, before screaming at his wife to get dinner on the f*cking table. "Guys get home, have dinner, and play a computer game. It's much higher up the list of priorities. To put it bluntly, girls have got better things to do."
Apparently, the original quotes of Scalpello have been changed up, but CVG recorded them for posterity. Scalpello is also yet to confirm what the "more important things" are that women have to do, but we're expecting him to list shopping for drapes, getting pregnant and ruining the lives of honest, hard working men.
While the more astute listener may notice that today is, in fact, not Monday (the regular release day for RFGO!), he or she will be glad to have endured the extra day wait for this week's episode. Why? Because, and this is also a warning, this week's show is all about ... the show. Yep, we do something we've yet to do here at RFGO! by giving the listeners a show about the show from our perspective.
Included in today's show we have never before heard sound clips, along with lots of reminiscing. So much so, that the show length exceeds our normally robust lengths by clocking in at 2:40! Sounds great, but remember there was a warning?
The latter part of the show is all five of us speeding through all 200 some comments that we got on yesterday's post. So by telling you this now, I hope to stave off the "talk about games" comments that may come flooding in. I assure you, next week will be business as usual. Now ...
Highlights!
Rev has Internet SARS -- avoid
Chad wants his stapler!
YARDSALE!!!
Accents are fun
Chad as a naughty pirate?!
Who happens to be a scamp ;)
Salt of the Earth
Bunny pump 2000?
Pizza Rolls = Pure awesome
Chad <3s lists
Screw you Trebek!
Shut your whore mouth when men are talking!
Give it a listen, folks. We here at RFGO!, could not have made it this far without all of you, so we truly hope that this episode is everything you thought it would be and more. Also, feel free to leave your 2¢ below with your own favorite moments from the show! But before all that, go right over here to the official show page, and then give yourselves a pat on the back for being so awesome. <3
[Contest winner will be announced next week, along with the soon to be humiliating results from our bet that ******* won!]
A recent survey conducted by Destructoid showed that the vast majority of our readers are of the male persuasion, live in the US, and would prefer breasts in their faces at all times. The makers of Soul Calibur IV must be going after a similar demographic, as there are more BEEG AMERICAN TEETEES in these screenshots than there is fighting action. We asked our resident uterus-enabled editor Colette Bennett for a reaction, whom offered:
You gotta love the male ideal of how female fighters dress for combat with their tits and vaginas flying everywhere! What fighting game do guys have their penises flailing in the air?
My dear, have a look at the package on Ryu! Why penis why?
The latest preview of the fourth-generation fighter franchise seems less polished than previously released screens, as anti-aliasing appears to be completely missing in some of the boobs sequences, presumably due to frame-rate issues during peak times of intense next-gen jubblie-jiggling action.
It intrigues me that the box art for the game completely lacks knockers. Maybe Namco knows this is the only way to get moms to buy it for their little otakus? The game hits shelves June 8, so mark your calendars and pace your tissue paper consumption.
A petition has been formed to force new legislation in Japan that could see an end to videogames portraying underage characters in "erotic" situations. The Japanese Diet will listen to this petition and its goal of a ban on games and anime that feature underage illustrated erotica.
Our towns overflow with adult anime magazines and games which often depict elementary school girls, and the minds of the youths who are seduced by these games are unwittingly destroyed; they lose their very humanity, there are already incidents of young maidens being plucked from the streets and murdered. Since it is plain that our society has now become one where young girls are placed in great peril, the issue of free expression is a thing of the past. To curb these profit seeking companies with no conception of social morals, to restrict the creation of products which place young girls in peril, there is a pressing need for penal regulations and the accompanying laws.
We wish to see enacted laws restricting the manufacture and sale of bishojo adult anime magazines, and bishojo adult anime simulation games.
Personally, I find this so-called "loli" stuff pretty disgusting and more than a little creepy, but I'm never a fan of using the law to remove what I don't like. It also doesn't account for the fact that you can pretty easily claim that an illustrated character is any age you want it to be.
I don't agree with the proposed law because not only would it be difficult to enforce (a law that says "make anime characters look a bit older plz" won't work), the games and anime themselves don't actually hurt anyone. As they say; if it harms none, do as thou wilt. Just don't expect to be asked to look after small children or household pets.
It’s Mother’s Day! Stop reading this for a second and go call your mom to tell her how much you love her. I don’t care if your mother “accidentally” ran you over with an orange truck or dropped you on your head at the local bar. She is your mother and deserves all the love and respect in the world.
Well, most mothers do, anyway.
In videogames, the mothers of main characters generally fall into three distinct categories: they are either completely insignificant, evil, or not talked about whatsoever. Some videogame moms, though, stand out as being truly interesting characters. Not only do they play a significant role in the game, they also personify what the perfect real-world mother should be: caring, compassionate, loving, and protective souls who only want the best for their family and loved ones.
Hurry up and finish signing that last-minute card and hit the jump for a list of the ten best videogame moms ... ever.
It’s Mother’s Day! Stop reading this for a second and go call your mom to tell her how much you love her. I don’t care if your mother “accidentally” ran you over with an orange truck or dropped you on your head at the local bar. She is your mother and deserves all the love and respect in the world.
Well, most mothers do, anyway.
In videogames, the mothers of main characters generally fall into three distinct categories: they are either completely insignificant, evil, or not talked about whatsoever. Some videogame moms, though, stand out as being truly interesting characters. Not only do they play a significant role in the game, they also personify what the perfect real-world mother should be: caring, compassionate, loving, and protective souls who only want the best for their family and loved ones.
Hurry up and finish signing that last-minute card and hit the jump for a list of the ten best videogame moms ... ever.
Hot Chicks with Cheat Codes is Spike TV's special series where they have hot chicks giving out cheat codes. The premise is extremely simple, and is also completely retarded. But hey, I'm not complaining here. The mini-show started back in November of last year, and has covered various games with a few girls in rotation.
Their latest episode gives out cheats for the original Rainbow Six: Vegas. One complaint I have is that the show tends to give cheat codes for older titles. Another complaint I have is that the girls are wearing too much clothing.
The girls basically just read off codes from WikiCheats in a seductive manner, all while wearing skimpy outfits. Bless you Spike TV, you know exactly how to appeal to what I want from my entertainment. Hot, half-naked girls who aren't directly looking at me, all while talking about videogames. Bow chicka bow wow, baby.
Earlier today, participating Best Buy stores held a nationwide event claiming to celebrate women and (Nintendo) gaming. I threw on my best blond wig, shaved my face with a five blade razor, strapped on a padded bra, and headed out to my local participating store to get a hands on feel of the event. After registering, I was half expecting to get a "hands on feel" right back at me, as everything about this promotion screamed "bad first date".
Hit the jump for this lady's first hand account of Nintendo/Best Buy's tribute to womanhood.
While the small percentage of female gamers out there are constantly bombarded with undermining crap, there are some female-specific things about gaming that seem more or less free of gender judgement. Or maybe Best Buy just wants chicks gaming in their stores to attract men's attention. Either way, they are sponsoring an event in their stores this Sunday called Wii for Women, which is from 1 to 4 pm and will feature giveaways like a Garmin GPS unit, spa gift cards and a Wii console (of course.)
I'd be curious to see what kind of turnout this event gets. It's probably too good to be true, but in my mind I fantasize the girl that normally isn't into games stumbling into this event and accidentally having fun. Maybe it'll be more like 40 year old women having fun (for the first time in a decade) or angsty teenagers hogging up all the free Wii time, but either way if even a single woman who isn't normally into games stops there and finds something new she didn't realize she loved, that thought makes me kinda happy.
By the way, there's no disclaimer that men can't play, and as I can't see Nintendo or Best Buy shpping customers away, it's likely you can go check it out even if you don't have a pair of funbags. Yep, I called them that, and you can cringe all you like. I have a sense of humor about all this chick stuff.
For this month's musing I chose to digest the sub-culture of 'Girl Gamers' that has managed to quickly surface alongside the increased popularity of gaming in the mass media.
So to avoid any confusion, the term 'Girl Gamers' is intended to define the populace of female gamers who identify with said terminology and who particularly rely on the alienation of their gender as a means of gaining attention from the larger gamer demographic.
Pics or it didn't happen? Hit the jump to hear more of my take on what being a 'Girl Gamer' is all about.
"WHY DO "GIRL GAMERS" NEED A FUCKING ARTICLE ON EVERY GAME SITE EVERY FUCKING WEEK NAO?!
This shit is so old.. you all fucking fail if you think girls game for attention or if you believe in GIRL ..."...
[Editor's note - A contact at G4 confirmed that the top ten shown above are actually being submitted as nominees to be a new G4 host. Winning this contest does not guarantee that the winner actually gets a job at G4, so it looks like all ten ladies above still have a chance. Thanks to G4 for clearing that up!]
You may remember mention of the G4 hunt for a new female host (or "Gamer Girl", as they called it) recently, bringing many a hopeful out of the woodwork and double the amount of overdone MySpace pictures to accompany them. It seems a winner has been announced, 18 year old bunnyXablaze, who has been gaming since age 4 and apparently enjoys putting game-related items in her mouth.
Of course, several good friends of Destructoid were in the running for this contest as well, so I'm sorry not to see them as winners, but I'm sure bunnyXablaze will do a fine job. She's attractive, which sadly was the major underlying motive in this contest anyway. It seems the competition ruffled quite a few feathers with its style, seemingly pitting girls up against one another in a fashion that seemed cheap to gamers.
The theme of women in gaming provides quite a conundrum for young females, in my opinion. Many of the games we play are littered with images of barely-clad women with huge breasts and skintight clothing. If we present ourselves in such a fashion, we are quickly labelled "whores," but men continue to wallpaper their bedrooms with posters of those women and idolize them openly. I can't support or criticize the girls in this contest who are guilty of that (and not all of them are.) It's a major societal pressure to appear sexy, and not just in videogames.
"If Bunnyblaze has any clue as to what she's talking about that's fine. I know Nikole used to come on our forums a ton, and was Summas lovetoy for awhile but I've seen the things she's written abo..."...
Someone's got to track this crap, right? The Entertainment Software Association has done that for us, and they say that 38 percent of gamers are female. These gals spend 7.4 hours a week playing games, and the survey says that the majority of them prefer casual games. They usually use the Nintendo DS or a PC get their game on. Whatever.
A CNN article ties these statistics into how many women are actually making games. They say that women represent just under 12 percent of the game industry and quote attendees of the San Francisco G.I.R.L. event we attended a few weeks back.
While I'm all for the push for more women in the games industry, I can't get behind making these girl gamer statistics big news items. Yes, it's great that that almost half of gamers are females. But guess how many gamers were female the previous year? According to the ESA, 2006 had the exact same figure, 38%. What's even more eye-roll-worthy is that 2005's number was higher: 43%. And 2004? Yep, 38% again.
Can we stop making this a news item? Girls play games, we get it!
The fine folks at Sony Online Entertainment were kind enough to invite the Destructoid crew out to a GDC after-hours shindig here in San Francisco to celebrate the establishment of the new SOE G.I.R.L. scholarship. The Gamers In Real Life scholarship partners with The Art institutes to encourage and promote the development of games that are more interesting for women to play.
SOE created this program in response to findings from a survey they conducted on women and videogames. This survey showed that 61% of female students surveyed believe that male dominance in the games industry is a deterrent to women pursuing a career in the industry. Also, almost half of those surveyed said that they'd like to see women portrayed as leaders in games.
"It's no secret to female gamers: Women are out there in significant numbers, playing MMOs, action games, first-person shooters, etc. What is lacking in the equation are women behind these games and we hope GIRL can help support this program," said Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment.
"SOE's program is a key component of our GIRL initiative because the scholarship will be the gateway for one student into this field of expertise; I invite other publishers to join us in supporting this initiative."
This scholarship offers $10,000 to any student (male or female) attending any Art Institutes school. Applicants are required to submit an in-game design, concept art, and two essays before March 31st of this year.
SOE also showed off hot new footage of The Agency at this event. The G.I.R.L. team is involved in the development of this upcoming MMO.
We've all heard the legends, the hushed whispers emanating from herds of awestruck, greased con-goers, and the awe-inspiring tales of heroism at the hands of a mythic creature: the girl gamer. And while my feigned shock and awe simply serves as a sarcastic device, sadly, game developers and gamers themselves seem to hold a similar opinion; a point Professor Celia Pearce makes well (in spite of some questionably factual statements) in a recent(ish) article.
Unfortunately, Prof. Pearce seems to fall in to the same trap many do when expounding on the infamous "girl gamer;" namely, assuming that all women who play games want games that are "female friendly." She attributes the success of the Wii and DS in part to its casual appeal and thus ease of accessibility to women, which in spite of her good intentions sounds uninformed at best, and insulting at worst.
In her lambasting Microsoft and Sony for focusing on "higher-end graphics" rather than the introduction of a new gimmick and focusing on "casual" games like Nintendo, Prof. Pearce makes an egregious mistake in assuming that "girl gamers" want "girly" games.
Of the female gamers I know, not one of them owns a title I've seen that was specifically marketed to women. Why? Because girls that game like killing giant monsters, racing obscenely fast cars, saving the universe, and stabbing hookers post-coitus just as much as I or any other gamer does.
Granted, my conjecture could be just as mistaken as Prof. Pearce's. However, I'm operating under the assumption that girls that game don't want to be treated like delicate flowers, spoken down to, or marginalized simply because of their sex. They want to be treated like gamers.
Would a broader spectrum of protagonists and less oversexed and unrealistic female characters be welcome? Sure. But that doesn't mean that everyone with two X chromosomes wants to play Imagine Babyz or Barbie Horse Adventures; or even if they do, that they can't enjoy a couple hours of kicking your ass in TF2.
"There are a few issues here. FIrst off, there is no need to market TOWARD girls... just include girls in the marketing. Nintendo is a great example of this. They could be playing Playboy: Th..."...
Yoshinori Ono, producer of Street Fighter IV, was interviewed for the latest issue of EGM on their big SF IV blow out issue. Among the many questions Ono was asked, EGM wanted to find out whether Final Fight's Poison is really a girl or a guy:
"Let's set the record straight: In North America, Poison is officially a post-op transsexual," Ono reveals. "But in Japan, she simply tucks her business away in order to look like a girl."
I was all into the SF IV preview in EGM until that bomb shell smacks me in the face. I just found out about the gender confusion from the latest ScrewAttack video (Top 10 hos). I didn't think too much of it though. I just shrugged it off and just wanted to continue on with my fantasies. But now Ono has ruined everyone's dream of Poison.
At least we have some hot cosplayers to make up for this tranny ordeal (who are hopefully naturally born women).
"Poison and Roxy's gender is matter of confussion: When this chars were created, they are women (Akira Yasuda say so), but this situation changes when an american Capcom employee was worried about..."...
I don't know how else to title this article, nor do I know what to say, really. This is a weird one, that's for damn certain. Go Nintendo reader Tony sent an email to the aforementioned site telling the story of how his wife cheated on him while he served as a soldier in Iraq. Certainly not out of the realm of reason, however scummy the act. Where this story becomes relevant to us, however, is the method by which the final nail was delivered to poor Tony -- Wii Sports.
There's nothing I can really add to the story that does better than the post itself, so I recommend you hit the jump for the full tale from Tony. Just beware as you do -- your Wii might tell the world more than you want it to.
This past Friday night, Charlie, Dexter345 and I decided to brave the wild streets of Los Angeles and crash attend the 2008 Nerdcore Calendar launch party on Sunset Blvd., conveniently right down the street from my house. Going without CTZ (the proclaimed king of Nerdcore) felt like sheer and utter blasphemy, so the three of us formed a gigantic Voltron-like robot in his shape to honor him in his absence: I was the head, Dexter was the arms, and Charlie held the whole thing together with some surprisingly sexy mechanical limbs. Sadly, when we got to the event we were asked to transform back to mild mannered humans in the fear that a giant CTZ would scare the pretty, robot-fearing ladies. Drat.
Regardless of our boring visages, the night was a big hit, filled with half-naked women, free alcohol, and more horny nerds than you could shake a +4 mace at.
Hit the jump for a summary of our misadventures and check out the gallery for some amazing pictures, courtesy of Charlie and yours truly. (I had to add that I took some of the photos because a handful of them suffered from serious unprofessional glare and I didn’t want you all to think the super talented Charlie was the reason.)
If any of you ever catch me looking as retarded as these two girls do playing with this new Wiishaft control thing, I want you to do me a favor. I want you to take the nearest blunt object you can find and I want you to hit me square in the face. I don't mind if you make a permanent injury as it will remind me of looking like a douche and hopefully ingrain the lesson not to repeat the error.
As far as the joystick itself goes, it could be cool or it could be tragic, but all I know is that commercial just made me want to puke. Also, the "shaft" thing -- What? So it's girls playing with a controller called a "Wiishaft"? Wow. Aren't you guys at Overline Gaming witty? Chicks jerking shafts around. In future, you may not want to attach such thinly-veiled sexual innuendo to your product, so as not to alienate the entire female gaming population, which is larger than it's ever been.
If a woman did this for me, I would marry her too. That is, if I was a man in the military. The more I think about that idea, the more confused I get, so I think it's best to just move on. Fun For Our Troops was started by a military wife named Stefanie Doctor Shea. The idea behind the non-profit was to help deployed military personnel to relax between missions by helping them to feel as if they were at home. The couple were both active Wii gamers before Sgt. Shea shipped off for duty in Iraq.
Dana Blackman Brady is Stefanie's partner-in-crime behind Fun For Our Troops and is married to a former Army ranger herself. While it's no surprise there is no official support for the cause from the Defense department, the women have worked out a program that allows them to get the games to the troops, which Stefanie describes below:
We are working on an official website which will allow troops to sign themselves up as recipients or family members can sign them up. They will also be able to tell us what, if any, systems they do have so we can donate appropriate games.
Hopefully the site will be up in the next week or so (we have someone donating their services to build the site). We are willing to work with all branches of the military but the recipients themselves must be on a deployment. Our intention is that the equipment we send over will be passed on to troops in the unit that will replace them.
This is just incredibly cool, presenting the absolute reverse of the stereotypical wife or girlfriend who constantly complains about her spouse's gaming habit. If you should want to donate to the cause, check out the Web site, which happily accepts any form of gaming related donation from consoles to gift cards.
"it'd be a better non-profit if they lobbied to bring the soldier's home and get them rehabilitated into civilian life after witnessing the horrors of a real war, rather than just giving them some..."...
Wow. Wow. Wow. To drive home how insulting this is, I'm going to reverse the situation: You meander into Barnes and Noble, and whilst perusing the aisles you stumble upon a bright blue book titled "The Boy's Guide To Gaming: How to Beat The Girls At Halo Every Time!" If you vomited on the floor and not on the actual book, I tip my hat to you.
I wish I was joking, but The Girl's Guide to Gaming is very much a real book(with a pink cover no less) and available for sale this very moment. Here is the way the book is summarized on the product page:
Do you want to take on the boys at their own game and beat them every single time? You want to prove that games AREN'T just for the guys anymore! Are you, your daughter, your niece or your best friend a Nintendo DS or DS Lite girl gamer? Tired of other gaming publications ignoring all your favourite games in favour of the latest big boys toys? So you want all the latest gaming gossip and the hottest hints and tips especially written for you? So do we, and its about time. The Girl's Guide To Gaming! is the must have accessory for all Nintendo DS and DS Lite gaming girls, just like you.
The biggest issue with women in gaming is crap like this. If I march into a LAN party wearing a pair of pink crotchless underwear and no pants and expect to be taken seriously, I have no room to bitch that boys don't look at me as a gamer. Perhaps toting this book around is a step less dramatic than the vagina-on-display tactic as mentioned above, but still and all, it only calls attention to the issue.
Just play games, girls. Gender is only an issue here if you choose to make it so.
The name inspires thoughts of B-Movies starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a futuristic police officer sent back in time to do the splits and pronounce words in a hilarious fashion. Hearing the game's premise (evil corporation, dangerous technology, alternate history, etc.) does nothing to dissuade the suits at the Sci Fi Channel from salivating over the film rights for what could possibly be their next Mansquito, but getting beyond the clichés and the fact that I'm actually watching Mansquito right now and will probably mention it three or four more times during this review, how did Timeshift actually turn out?
Playboy is having another round of naked digital women in this months issue of Playboy. Here's the list of the women that are going to be in this years spread:
“Keaira” from Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
“Church & Black” from Clive Barker’s Jericho
“Morenn” from The Witcher
“Yoko Retomoto” from Kane & Lynch
“A’Kanna” from Conan
“Sarah Morrison” from Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa
Playboy gave an early preview of Keaira and Yoko which you can take a look at after the jump. They're pretty much NSFW so make sure you stand up and start doing some stretches directly in front of your monitor so no from behind can see. Or, if you're a fat person, you can just stand up and do nothing to block the screen.
A few weeks ago our own Faith was invited to be a panelist for an Xfire debate about Women and Gaming, but she was unable to make it and asked me if I could participate. I was happy to do so, and last Thursday I patricipated in a debate along with some other key females in the industry. The transcripts of our debate are now up at Xfire, so check them out.
The Xfire system is really cool, and I actually was interested enough to want to investigate it more after participating in the debate itself. There are a lot of worthwhile gaming communities out there, but my biggest problem (one I'm sure many of you sympathize with) is having the time to participate in them all. I suppose it's a matter of prioritizing which sites you choose to spend time with (or you could just quit your day job and loaf about on the interwebs all day.)
The Women and Gaming debate can be a pretty tired one when all you hear are the general "CHICKS ROXXOR" type comments, but having a strong group of intelligent women to discuss it among made a real difference. If you care about the issue but feel fed up with the usual bollocks, this debate may be a breath of fresh air for you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did participating in it.
Well, well, well, my little ghosts and robots, I'm sure that all of you have been eagerly waiting this week's episode of RetroforceGO! almost as much as you've been awaiting the candy fueled bender that we Americans like to call Halloween. Since we're a giving bunch here at the show, and our generosity is equivalent to that of the house that gives out full size candy bars, I will present this week's episode without further ado (along with some sage-like advice for those of you giving out candy this year: Popcorn balls and Pal brand bubblegum are gross and should never, ever be handed out on Halloween).
And there ya' go, my little rapscallions. As always, you can be a lazy punk and just click here for our podcast page, or increase your laziness by a factor of +10 and subscribe to us via iTunes. Either way, enjoy this week's show and remember that no one loves you like RFGO! loves you.
"Strictly NTSC Batthink, but our man Lethal just beat you to the punch with winning the ad hoc contest. Yay! Please contact me at retroforce@destructoid.com. And bbl code is a fucking bitch, isn't..."...
It could be said that artist Shelby painted the above mural imbued with high art aspirations of a piece that flirts playfully between pop culture and pop gaming. Or perhaps it was merely a colorful solution as to how she and her game journalist beau Jared Rea would decorate their living room. However, we here have the better sense to know that true art is all but subjective, so I will make make a bold gesture and assume that Mister Warhol exclusively reveals the candy coated underbelly of Master Chief's night life. Or something.
While Shelby may already be well known in the Cosplay community for her faithful costume-work (from her head down to her toes, even), she simultaneously creates a precious variety of game-related art that ranges from the wearable, to the edible, to the weighted companion cube-able. Enjoy these tidbits of her work and be sure to check out her other projects on her blog!
Has it really been almost eight months since my last Nerdcore? I mean a true Nerdcore too, not some horrible 'shopped April Fools joke or my demented sense of humor that involved kitty cats from earlier in the week.
No my friends, this is what a true Nerdcore is all about. Women (and even Men) wearing next to nothing or baring it all only covered up by videogames. Nerdcore started off originally as a joke but Niero and I soon saw that this was going to be something big. The original Nerdcore is still one of the most viewed articles on Destructoid (thank you Spaniards perverts)!
All in all, I think the wait was worth it. This is the most Nerdcore girls I've ever used and I can easily say this is my best one ever. Hit the jump to check out all the beautiful women.
Courtesy of Famitsu.com, we bring you the above clip: footage direct from Nintendo's recent conference where they dropped all those huge announcements you've been hearing so much about. Of course, the text on the clip is in Japanese thanks to its origins, but at least you can see the games that your fellow Nipponese brethren were privy to.
Upon watching the clip, I was struck by a few thoughts:
WiiFit looks much less idiotic when clad in business attire and brightly colored hospital booties.
The Zapper looks damn comfortable. Short of giving us each a breast as a controller, I think Nintendo might be onto something.
NiGHTS looks phenomenal. This is the sort of game where saying you want it inside of you may not actually be hyperbole.
Playing Zack & Wiki Quest for Barbaros' Treasure may no longer offend Muslims, but it will probably rile anti-masturbatory gesture advocates.
Soul Calibur Legends really ought to be retitled Soul Calibur Legends: A Mitsurugi To The Past.
Hudson is putting out a bullet hell shmup for the Wii? How did I miss that announcement?
I have no idea what that last title was, but the adorable lil' guy in the corner who kept jumping into the air reminds me of myself, back when I was a tiny yellow square.
"dude, name one thing that doesn't look better when clad in business attire and brightly colored hospital booties.
i think the wii definetly does have a huge amount of potential. i mean how could ..."...
Do you want a good friend on Xbox's greatest new game Halo 3? Wish you had someone to play with? Well here's your chance! Yes, for those us who have Xbox Live and for some reason haven't added a single friend, this is the auction for you. A self-confident chap called nismofrontier has set up a bidding war for his companionship on Live so YOU can play Halo 3 with him as best friends forever.
I know your thinking, I can be anyone's friend. Well you'll have a great friend to chat with and play with all the time. There's only one of me and no one just like me! We can play games together in a room and chat. I will play with you more then just Halo 3, any games I have that you have, we can play together as well. We can use the chat option and message each other back and fourth.
If bidding reaches $1,500.99 I will include a HALO 3 Game SIGNED by me that will be un-opened! You never know, I may be famous one day!
With the bidding starting at only $0.99, what's to stop you?
What a steal for a great new best friend! Once payment is received via paypal, I will message you my gamertag name and let take fun times begin! A lifelong gamer friendship!
This is actually the greatest Ebay auction I've ever seen. I don't know what's more pathetic though -- the fact that this guy is selling his companionship like some desperate prostitute, or the fact that if he was a woman, the bidding would have passed that $1,500.99 mark by now. All I do know is that I'm currently offering Destructoid's readers my adding of them to Yahoo Instant Messenger for the frugal sum of eight bucks an add. Don't delay, add me today!
Ubisoft, in an attempt to pacify the market of young girl gamers out there, have created a new line of games called Imagine to cater specifically to said girls. What type of games do young girls want? According to research, it seems they want to cook, go shopping, take care of animals, and raise babies. The demographic was 6-14, so if you want the frank truth, the baby raising game (titled Babyz, which is just wretched) makes me feel a little uncomfortable. Why does my eight year old need to practice baby raising?
These titles are probably a good way for young girls to have fun and experience gaming, but it makes the nine year old gamer in me cringe. I would never have played this tripe. I played Metroid and the Legend of Zelda, the way that gamers are supposed to be made! Why, in my day.....oh dear, I sound like my grandmother. At any rate, I feel giving your child these games means condemning them to casual gaming for life, not to mention stereotyping them as typical girls. Don't make more typical girls in the world, people!
While my colleagues were dutifully attending press conferences, scribbling notes, and giving the burgeoning video game industry a critical eye ... I was busy groping hot Asian chicks introducing our web site to Japan as Mr. Destructoid. As expected, Japan was SO not ready. We have hours of ridiculous video that I will be editing on an airplane for your enjoyment later next week. Just imagine what happens when a guy dressed in a robot runs jumping and screaming into a crowd of high-pitched three foot tall Japanese girls. Yeah, my head almost exploded from kawaii overload.
On spiritual note, everything you've ever heard and seen about TGS is true -- there are thousands of gorgeous women at every turn and they can all kick your ass at Soul Calibur. All jokes aside, you'd be surprised how effective booth babes are at this show. In contrast to the clueless and bored bimbos that largely staffed E3 2006, most girls at this show attended Harvard, could speak extensively on stem cell research, were bilingual, and knew their games in and out. There were also very willing to step on my crotch when requested and ride horsey. Check out our exclusive Tokyo Game Show booth babe gallery and set-as-wallpaper as needed.
[Special thanks to John from Hudson for snapping these]
This is perhaps the greatest video I have seen all week. It's definitely the greatest video you've seen all week. A hardcore grandma plays Overlord and finds herself stuck at a particularly nasty boss fight. Her reaction is one that I'm sure we can all sympathize with, her language one that I'm sure we've all used. I love Overlord from the bottom of my heart, but I really can agree with Hardcore Grandma's stance on that particular part of the game.
Also, since she's a female gamer, I'll be sorely let down if half the Destructoid readers don't want to seduce her over the Internet. Just remember that I saw her first!
Last week was a hairy debate of man versus woman. Some argued that the Russian's ripped chest and limbs would rip any female fighter apart, while others claimed that Chun-Li was so skilled that even Capcom had to tame her moves down as the fighting series progressed. Despite great arguments from both sides of the gender fence, the grass was definitely redder on one side by the end. Here are the manslaughter results:
Zangief: 18 votes
Chun-Li: 39 votes - Winner!
As the classic dance video above shows, the end of this four month long game debate has finally come to an end. Ryu and Chun-Li have fought through dozens of respected opponents to make it this far, and we're only one week away from crowning 2007's fighter of the year. This has got to be one of the closest matchups we've seen play out in a while, and I'm eager to see what the Dtoid Army will decide.
We've seen Tifa tear it up in the past, and Samus slaughter all that stood in her way. Will Chun-Li join the female hall of fame with the rest? Or will Ryu prove to be the best face in the entire fighting genre? Next week will either be one small step for man, or one giant kick in the face to all mankind. The outcome is up to you -- who is the better fighter, and why? Cast your votes, give us a reason for your decision, get some friends to give their opinions, and check back next week for the winner.
[Editor's note: This year's San Diego Comic-Con was full of the usual surprises -- celebrity appearances, videogame announcements, sweet comics (of course), and the obligatory crew of chicks in costumes. Since Niero looks fat in his Lara Croft costume, and my Emma Frost outfit shrunk in the wash, we didn't make it to "the con" this year.
Destructoid community member Virtualgirl (Meagan VanBurkleo), on the other hand, had a great time. She's pretty excited about it, and she has a lot to say about her experience. And who can blame her? She rubbed elbows with some of her favorite comic book artists, was close enough to Thomas Jane to smell his deodorant, and may have used Tommy Tallarico's bathroom.
Envious? Read on to find out more. Oh, and if you just like looking at pictures, there's plenty of those too. No seriously ... there are a lot of pictures. I'm not kidding. Take it away, Meagan. -- Nick, Editor-in-Chief]
Wow -- where to start? San Diego Comic-Con was one of the most amazing trips ever. There is almost too much to talk about, but I will try my best to get it all out for you!
You know it's true love when your girl gives you crabs for your one year anniversary. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
The lovely Vintage Lust over at Girl Gamers decided to make her sweetie a 3D head crab from Half Life 2 plushy for their one year anniversary. Finding the pattern on the 3D2TOY Project Web site, she sewed and painted the little Hedy Lamarr herself. How Martha Stewart meets Gordon Freeman of her.
I truly suggest all the crafters out there give handmade videogame goodies to their sweeties for birthdays, Christmas, and any other day you feel it appropriate. Plus, it’s cheaper than actually buying them something.
Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press living the dream since March 16, 2006
8:30 PM on 11.04.2009, 
Has it really been almost eight months since 
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