The Negative Edge News Report 06.13.07

Posted by Tommy Coloma on 06.13.2007

Teabagging in Halo 3, video games as recruitment tools, hot anime chicks, and More!

If you don't know what teabagging is, take a look at the following video. Even if you know, look anyway. It's classic!



Last Sunday marked one of the best social experiences I've ever had on Xbox Live. It was almost midnight and the group that I was with was two games away from the end of the Halo 3 beta. We kept partying up so I was with the same people for the past hour or so. Some time earlier I started to teabag people on the other team while taunting over the mic. Bastardous I know, but things were ending so I figured that I might as well have as much fun as I could while I could. Then a weird thing happened - everyone started to teabag. Thankfully, we only did it on fallen enemies and not on people in our team. But it was a thing of beauty to see a huge firefight and people just ignoring death just so that they could get in a teabag or two. It's too bad we can't record voices along with match videos. The reactions and taunting were just pure gold. Anyway, I'm looking forward to more of that in September. Until then, lets take care of the things that really matter -


The news as I see it

I can't afford them, but I can look on with envy

Oh man. If people knew how much I've spent on video game equipment over the years, they'd say that I'm CRAZY. Luckily, I don't spend as much as I used to these days. It's weird since now I can actually pay with cash instead of using credit. Some of the more expensive things I've gotten are two joysticks I got from a stik (that's how he spells it so I'll roll with it) builder that calls himself Byrdo. Well, Byrdo just redid his site and it looks like he's starting to sell stuff again. You can check his revamped site out here. It contains some of his artwork and all of the stiks he's put together over the years. Damn, that Afro Samurai stik looks so sweet! (edit: looks like it was sold while I was putting this column together) In case you're wondering, I have the Maya and the Mini Maya. I always feel bad when I spend lots of money, but I never felt bad after I bought those. Basically, out of all the stuff I own, these are the only items that I can guarantee will never end up on eBay.





"Greetings, Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur, and the Kodan Armada."

The Last Starfighter told the story of how a teenager from a trailer park made something of himself thanks to his leet skills at a video game called Starfighter. After he broke the record for the highest score in the game ever, he was whisked away to another world where he finds out that the game is a recruitment tool used to find the best Starfighter on Earth.

Never saw the movie? Then read along -




Have you been inspired?

In an example of life imitating art, the US government created a game called America's Army with the intent of recruiting potential soldiers through the game. That's both cool and scary at the same time. Cool because it shows that at least some people know how much influence video games can have on impressionable minds. Scary because it's the government that's using this knowledge.

In the past the game was offered as a free download for the PC at the official site. All that will change in September when Ubisoft, in collaboration with the U.S. Army and Red Storm Entertainment, releases America's Army: True Soldiers exclusively for the Xbox 360. According to the press release, "The America's Army: True Soldiers game accurately portrays the values that guide Soldiers in the U.S. Army, by specifically incorporating gameplay based on mission accomplishment, teamwork, leadership, rules of engagement and respect for life and property. Just like in real combat, honor and respect must be earned, and in the game, the Play-Lead-Recruit feature allows players to earn respect as they move up through the ranks and become true leaders. Teammates can award points to other team members who play honorably and jump in when the mission is on the line."

I'm sure that the government can reach a lot more people with an Xbox 360 release, but is this something that Xbox 360 owners would go for? Is teamwork something that people partake in in multi-player games on Live? I only played Team Slayer matches in Halo so I don't really know how well people work together. It'll be interesting to see what the numbers tell use once this game is released. It'll also be interesting to see how much this game will cost. The original was distributed freely on the net. Is this going to be a budget title so that they can reach more people, or are we going to have to pay $60 for the chance to show the government that we're ready for war?

More info - Uses the GRAW 2 engine; 16 player co-op (nice!)

Side note - Wouldn't it be cool if Jack Thompson takes on the US Government because of this game? I'd love to see the aftermath of that scenario.


The Week In Releases

Days of Memories



What the hell is going on at SNK? First there's Doki Doki Majo Shinpan! Now they've got a dating simulator starring everyone's favorite female King of Fighters characters. There's no way tha- AH! Who am I kidding. If this was in English I'd be all over it. This web site indicates that SNK is at least entertaining the idea of making an Enlish version of Doki Doki Majo Shinpan. But what about us KOF fans? Why do we always get screwed?



Oh well. It's available for import over at PlayAsia. You can also take a look at the official web site here.

Raw Danger



Ok. So the graphics are a little dated and the cover looks like something you'd find at the 99 cent store, but, from what I've read, Disaster Report, the game that came before this, was an underrated gem. Seriously, every place that I looked at while researching Raw Danger said that Disaster Report was super duper awesome cool. At $19.99, this game may be worth it for those of you that like to live on the edge, that like to experience... Raw Danger! (Ok. So I need some sleep!)



Prince of Persia Classic

The last time I play this it was in the 80s on my Apple ][ Plus. It seemed pretty hard back in the day. Either they dumbed this game down considerably or I'm just infinitely better at playing games now than in the past. Though it pains me to admit it, I'm leaning more toward the latter. The main thing that makes this game easier is the butterfly that tells you where to go. What happened to the thrill of exploration and discovery? Now it's "go here," "go there," "ignore that for now," etc, etc. What fun is that? I'm also pretty sure that they tweaked the controls a little bit. I'm positive that they weren't as forgiving as they are in the Xbox 360 version. Overall, Prince of Persia Classic is cool for those who haven't played it before, but it lost some of its old-school appeal thanks to the dumbed down difficulty.


This week's background wallpaper

What's the longest that you've put something off? Ever notice how you waste more time putting that one thing off than you would had you just done it in the first place? I remember reading an article about procrastination and video games earlier this year. It's true. It's so true! I've had a review for Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja hanging over my head since March. I'm tired of thinking about it. It must be done. It must be done this week. And to remind myself, I've decided to put Izuna-related pictures on my desktop so that every time I decide to do something else, I'm reminded about how I MUST finish it before I go crazy! Fortunately, the official pictures from Atlus' web site aren't bad at all -

Izuna and Shino



That's Izuna on the left and her "sister" on the right. Ummmm. Yeah. Their family is really close. After clicking on the image go to the download section.



Note: To get the high resolution version, click magnifying glass with a + in the middle.

This picture was available on Atlus' site when the Izuna section first went live. For some odd reason people thought that it was inappropriate so they took it down. What do you think? It took me a little while to track this down so don't be bashful. Download, download, download! The picture above links to the high rez version. Here are links to all three resolutions - 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024


That will be 255 Rupees please

"Recently I've been hearing rumors of a secret agency that's been training littler girls as assassins"



Ah yes. Anime dubbing. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. Guess what end of the spectrum that golden nugget of a line fits in. The other day I purchased the first episode of the recently released (on Xbox Live) anime series called Gunslinger Girl. As you can probably guess, it's about little girls with guns -

Gunslinger Girl is an anime series that will definitely yank your chain and jerk around your emotions as you follow the story of Henrietta and the girls that belong to Section 2, a secret Italian government sponsored corporation. Officially, Section 2 belongs to the Social Welfare Agency, an agency that is in the business of saving young, terminally ill lives. In reality, the agency is actually a cybernetic research institute. They give terminal patients another lease on life through the use of cybernetic implants. In turn, the cybernetic research is funded by jobs assigned by the Italian government. It just so happens that all of the patients in this program happen to be young to pre-adolescent girls.

Upon receiving cybernetic implants, each girl's memory is wiped out. All of her prior memories are completely gone. Next, the girl is paired up with a handler. A handler is responsible for the girl's training, conditioning, performance, and overall welfare. A handler and cyborg are referred to as "fratello", Italian for sibling. The conditioning process that the handlers put the girls through shapes them into efficient killing machines that are more than capable of handling all of the government's dirty work. (description from AnimeOnDVD)

This series is way too serious for me. I'm more into action/comedy myself. But, enough about the series. What I really wanted to do was talk about the service. See? I tried it out so that you don't have to. I'm that dedicated!

Gunslinger Girl is a thirteen episode series. Each episode costs 160 Points so in order to get the entire series you would have to use up 2080 Points which comes out to $2.08 per episode and a little over $25 for the whole series. First of all, the points system sucks ass. It's obvious that they're using this system so that they can make sucke- I mean gamers feel like they're getting more for their money. I don't know how other people can stand this shit. It just pisses me off! Now, if you were to buy the DVDs it would cost you $26.99 for each of three volumes (for a grand total of $80.97) or $49.98 for a single complete set. Of course, there are always discounts, but you'll usually pay a lot more than $25. Either way, buying on Xbox Live would be cheaper, but is it a good deal? At this point, I don't think so. And here's why -

- No Japanese audio with subtitle option. Dub only. The intro is different. They replaced the vocal track with some instrumental stuff. WTF? Ummm. No!
- Standard definition only. No high definition option.
- Most people only have 20 gig hard drives. Each episode is over 200 megs so things will fill up fast. Of course, you always have the option to re-download later, but who wants to do that? DVDs are more permanent.

There were some good things about the service though -

- The video can be played after only 30 seconds of downloading.
- It's fast. If it's 3 in the morning and I want to watch something, I'm only a few button presses away.
- It isn't a rental. I now own episode one of Gunslinger Girl forever.

Overall, I think that the service is cool but I'd rather pay the extra money for the DVDs.


A little bit of randomness

The Doki Doki Majo Shinpan English Web Site

Probably the funniest thing I've seen this week. I won't spoil it for you. Just take a look here. Remember to answer "Yes" to the first question.


That's it for this week. I had to cut things a little short. Two birthday parties. Two columns. A review. And some other stuff. I'm just getting attacked on all sides by life! I just need to wait until they're all in Death Blossom range before I press the switch. If the weapon of last resort is successful, I'll be back next week.