The AR Supercam - Live-Action Fruit Ninja

Introducing the Augmented Reality Supercam, the free-roaming behind the scenes camera that captures the behind the scenes action that happens on the blog. Like that one time we all went out and sliced a bunch of fruit with a katana blade. Special appearance by Wintercon founder Mitsu Bloodmoor.

Perseus and Quickshot: Robo-Tech Support

Perseus is feeling a little run-down, so he decides to make a call to tech support, and it looks like his production assistant, Chuck is actually being helpful for once...Or is he?

MAS8705 interview with John Perez

How is it going everyone? I’m MAS8705 and today, I’m actually not going to talk about video games!

…

Don’t look at me like that! Fact is that I have more interests than just simply video games, like movies. While I’m not much of a movie goer myself, I do normally enjoy the indy movies done in and around the el paso location. In fact I did star in one as a main actor’s stuntman; I was dragged away zombies by the end…

…

Anyway, back to my explanation… While there are many indy groups in El Paso, there are just as many people who like to make fan Parodies of their favorite shows. One such person is John Perez- Age 17.

Yea, he was very comfortable talking to me...

…

Anyway,

John has done a fair share of fan parody work, and now he is planning a Yugioh Fan movie. While Augmented Reality is working with John to make his movie, I was able to speak with him and ask a few questions.

MAS: Hello John, thanks for taking some time to speak with us

John: No problem, I'm honored to have this opportunity.

MAS: Alright then John, first off, tell us a bit about yourself.

John: Well I'm currently a Junior High School. I'm extremely involved in my school's theater program and I'm a youth leader at my local church, which I also volunteer for their drama ministry. Other than that, I've been directing for about a year now, including the Night of the Living Dead production that my school performed, the fan-made mini-series, Kamen Rider DX and currently this project, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Blood of Razel.

MAS: We will be talking about your latest project in a second, but first, go ahead and tell us about some of your earlier projects.

John: Before I began this project I was heavily involved in another fan-made production which was Kamen Rider DX. If you don't know, Kamen Rider is a yearly Japanese show. Well I decided to make a fan-made miniseries. I spent nearly a year on making costumes and creating scripts. It was very rough and eventually the project died out. I felt a little disappointed because both I and my actors spent a lot of time and we worked really hard especially on the stunts which on occasions were dangerous and it just didn't work out in the end. Other than that I directed The Night of the Living Dead play which my school's Theater Club performed and I'm proud to say that because of its popularity, my school will now be doing horror plays around the month of October.

MAS: Also from what you told me earlier, some of your action sequences in you Kamen Rider DX episodes were a bit dangerous correct?

John: Yes, actually most of them involved me. One stunt involved me jumping over an actress and kicking and actor. I made the jump but by the time I was in front of my fellow actor, I couldn't kick so I punched him and I actually connected with his chest, so what you see on the episode was real. He was fine but we decided another take was out of the question. In another scene the same actor runs away and I'm suppose to appear suddenly in front of him and he's supposed to bump into me and jump back. Well when he bumped into me, he accidentally shoved me, some of my armor went flying in the air and I nearly fell down a ditch. The last episode we filmed there was a stunt where I am kicked by an actress and I fly back and land on my back. We had to do several takes. On the second take I land really hard, and because the helmet was very hard, I actually was knocked out for a few minutes.

MAS: Scary, hopefully you don’t try and do anything like that again anytime soon. So now let’s talk about your latest project. Go ahead and tell us more about it.

John: Like I said, right now I'm directing a fan-made film based off the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series and franchise. I don't want to give much away, but I will tell you this: This movie will follow a whole new protagonist and will take place between Yu-Gi-Oh! And Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Expect to see duel disks and Shadow Games galore.

MAS: Very nice. What do you hope to achieve by the time this project is completed?

John: I hope to be able to develop a great relationship between myself, my actors and Augmented Reality. I hope that not only I, but everyone involved will be able to make a name for themselves and become respected as actors, cameramen, make-up artists, hairstylists, etc. I want everyone to be able to enjoy themselves and for everyone who sees the film when it is finished will be able to enjoy it as well.

MAS: Alright then, well best of luck to you John. We hope your YuGiOh fan movie turns out well.
John: Thank you very much MAS.

So there you have it, the main actor taking a bit of time out of his busy schedule to speak with me. Of course, we can’t say for sure how the film will turn out (as it is still being planned out), but you can bet that Augmented Reality will be following John’s progress from beginning to end…

And I don’t mean because we are helping him produce his film and how a few of us are going to be in front of the camera.

…

Whatever gave you that idea? Anyway, if you want to see some of John’s work on his Kamen Rider DX Series, click the link below to go to his youtube channel, while the 2^nd link is to his personal youtube page.

http://www.youtube.com/kamenriderdxseries

http://www.youtube.com/icantgetausername6

I’m MAS8705, and if you excuse me, I have to practice how to throw down a facedown without accidently hurting myself… Those duel Disks can be dangerous if left in the hands of an untrained professional…

…

Oh yea, one last thing… While John Perez isn’t working on fan projects, he also likes to do his own set of rants and reviews on his youtube channel… We here at Augmented Reality are always looking for those who want to take their creativity to the next level, so for the time being, we are letting John Perez in as a… a…

…

Well… I can’t say for sure since I’m not Mike or Alicia, so I can’t give John a proper title…

…

How about a special guest commentator? Yea, that will work for now…

So be on the lookout for Augmented Reality’s Special guest commentator: John Perez as he talk about Kamen Rider and other things of interest...

MAS8705's Rant under 500 words: $60 downloadable games on CDs

How is it going everyone? I’m MAS8705 and today we are here to talk about the future of games! I’m so excited since I can’t wait for the Wii U, but for now, we got details on the XBOX 720! I mean, yes this is a rumor, but bet it is going to be something absolutely incredible!

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/121/1217310p1.html

…

WHAT!?! Are they serious about this? This has got to be the most stupid idiotic thing I has ever heard of since SOPA! In case those of you can’t connect the dots, allow me to do it for you…

*start the count*

First off, this can be understandable as this could be a mean to combat Gamestop, who goes ahead to sell used games… Now I admit I am part of that small percentage that loves to do business with Gamestop as I do love to get rid of my old games to get new ones, I can understand why people feel ripped off if they decide to trade in games, but really if you have a problem about it, then why trade your games in the first place? However, in this case it is completely stupid to make CDs work on only one system and that’s it…

Imagine if you will the same examples giving in the article here: Used Cars, used Books, Used clothing, what do all of this have in common? The idea here is that much like games, these are traded in or donated in order to get credit back for other goods. Imagine if you weren’t allowed to get used books for college, you are spending another $50 compared to used books, or you have to spend $1000s to get a new car when an older car can still get you from point A to Point B. Hell, we can go as far and say that there would be no goodwill store if this wasn’t allowed…

Basically, if this is true, this is basically DOWNLOADABLE GAMES ON CDS! You see the problem here ladies and gentlemen? Why the hell would you spend $60 on downloadable games? Even complete 360 games are being sold for $30 at best, but would you seriously spend $60 on a game, especially if the price may drop in the future? And what rental stores like blockbuster? If you try to knock out used games, you also knock out rental games too…

This is almost as stupid as SOPA; they want to stop the idea of trading, but they are only shooting themselves in the foot by doing this, as it is taking away the ability to try out games before buying.

Why not simply say that Blockbuster ruins Hollywood studios because people rent movies?

I can understand that when you buy used games, no money goes to the developer, however this plays off the idea of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Not to mention, if a friend of mine wants to play this game I have, how can he play it? Do I need to give him my system too?

In conclusion, unless if games are going to be sold at $20 each, don’t expect people to fall for this trick. By removing the ability to play on multiple systems, you might as well be playing Downloadable games, and screw the CDs all together. Again though, this is a rumor, however let’s hope that it stays just that and Microsoft realizes that this is a completely stupid idea, for if they don’t, I’m getting a PS4 or Wii U…

I’m MAS8705 and that was my rant under 500 words…

Word Count: 499

Side Note: As always, if there is a rant you would like to see, feel free to leave a comment below and I will be happy to discuss it...

MAS is Back

*Walks out into the center of the ring and looks around at the cheering fans... After looking around for a good minute or two, he takes off his sunglasses and speaks into the microphone*

FINALLY!!! MAS8705 has come back to Augmented Reality!!!

*Tosses microphone off to side and he steps back into reality*

As much fun as it is to rip off the Rock's intro, I need to get serious here (or as serious as I can be when I do write in the blog)... For those of you who have no idea who the hell I am, I'm MAS8705, self-proclaimed "MASter-Gamer" of Augmented Reality and fellow contributor, or at least I was until about a month or so ago when school started... I admit that the start of the semester hasn't been too kind to me due to complications that have arisen, however I'm happy to announce that I have not only taken care of them (more or less) but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things providing all the ins and outs for all you gamers out there!

I admit that I will need to get caught back up to speed as to the upcoming events, and to get ready to help contributing more ideas that we hope the rest of you will enjoy... And don't worry, I plan on doing more of my 500 word rants and video showcases in the very near future, alongside showcasing my awesomeness...

In fact, Why don't I show off my awesomeness right now?

In the world of video gaming, there are alot of ways to show your greatness, such as achievements (TheMASterBlader-110k+ gamer score), completing games (there are way too many to count), or partaking in gaming tournaments (have placed in Top 16 and Top 32 in several fighting game tourneys around the El Paso/las cruces)... However, the greatest way to show your excellence is through the practice I like to call, Speed runs.

Have you ever seen Mario beaten in under 5 minutes?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRyhpxR3l_g

If you ever wanted to see some of your favorite games get dismantled to a point where Hours on end games get beaten in a short time, look no further than speed runs... From Games beaten in three seconds, to RPGs being cleared in under a couple hours (FFX- 10 hours, Skies of Arcadia- 12 hours), any game that is any can be broken down if you have the devotion in it to succeed...

I am part of a site called Speed Demos Archive, and while I am the Rookie of SDA, I am slowly making a name for myself and will hopefully be seen as a big name as a bunch of other people on the site. However, much like many other things in life, you have to work hard and pay your dues before you can hit it big, and I have many lumps to prove it. Case and point, here is the speed run I have done that is actually featured on SDA:

Megaman Powered up: Fireman Run

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD8696D87DA6851E6

Is the run the greatest speed run ever?

...

well no, of course not... But you have to start somewhere and work your way up... Anyway, the point is that in case if there maybe slow weeks, I might show off some of my gaming sessions, including speed runs on games that have yet to be featured yet... But again, we will find out how things will work... Again, I need to catch up with the crew, including meeting up with some of the new staff we have since my mysterious disappearance, but I hope I can get you guys to read and enjoy my articles again...

Until next time, I'm MAS8705 and in the words of the great frank Sinatra: the best has yet to come and you Ain't seen nothing yet!

Awesome videos on Youtube (WIP TITLE)

How’s it going everyone? This is MAS8705, and welcome to a new segment on Augmented Reality that I like to call, “Awesome Videos I found on Youtube” or something like that… I’m not really good at putting titles on new topics, but hey, let’s call it a W.I.P.

Anyway, how this works is simple. Sometimes when I go on youtube, I see this one video that makes me go back and watch it several times over just because it is that awesome. Granted that in the future I might use one session to post my own created videos or material, but we can hold off on that for the moment. So once a week, might as well give it credit for all to see. Sometimes I’ll feature one video, or sometimes I’ll feature more than one, depending on what I can find in the week. Another reason why I did this was that back at FAL-Con, one follower of the show approached me and told me that she liked my rants, and had no idea that Freddy Kruger was going to be in Mortal Kombat. It was a pretty awesome feeling to have to know that not only does someone read your work, but also thanks you for it. Also I am willing to leave this open to other fellow bloggers that want in on this fun too, the last I want to do is to be doing it solo (although with Freddy and the “Good Vs Evil” and the Top 5 EVO moments, might as well make this a segment in itself right?)

So let’s begin, shall we? This first video actually was posted a few days ago by “CookieWaits” which is a mashup of Tom Waits and Cookie Monster called God’s away on Business. When you watch the video, you might be surprised to hear how closely this guy’s voice matches Cookie Monster. I’ve seen this guy’s music video and it is hard to believe that his low tone of a voice seems to be cookie monster. Anyway, this guy uses various clips from Sesame Street to match Cookie Monster’s lips to the song and it comes out especially well! Watch closely and be amazed, meanwhile look out for the part with the typewriter, that part came out especially well…

Next video was from a week or so ago that also inspired me to start this new segment. It is from user “Trpchakai” which she shows off her “Wheatley Puppet” from Portal 2. While most people usually have some very cheap knock off of a character, this Weatley is eerie realistic with its eye movements. Of course the blasted doll squeaks when it moves, but look at it! (I would throw in that clip of Patrick’s look at it clip, but this is far from ugly). If this proves anything, it is that the mechanics in Portal’s Cores is actually possible! Someone in Disney needs to approach Valve to do something portal related so that we can really see what this can accomplish.

Finally might as well round it off with three in order to start off on the right foot… Err.. Give me a minute… Alright here we go.

Now why would I post this video? Well this week, the Nostalgia Critic posted a video of the Top 11 Best Batman TAS episodes and his number 9 was actually this episode, “Mad Love”. While the critic always has great points (and points out great moments from the episodes), he left out this one part of batman actually laughing. Batman Laughing? Isn’t that one of the few things in this world that can cause it to end abruptly?

…

I’m surprised that no one has made this clip on youtube yet, and even if they did, I couldn’t find it anywhere… Like the old saying, if you want something done, do it yourself… Anyway, I can understand how this can be overlooked, but still, that would have been perfect to point out…

Anyway these are some of the awesome videos I found this week, I hoped you enjoyed and will come back next week to enjoy more. As a special bonus, here is one of the best lines from Batman TAS.

What does this scene and “The Dark Knight” have in common? The Joker Burns Two-Face! (Kudos to VenomShock for that joke).

Thanks for watching, and if you have any videos that you would like to share, be sure to either leave a comment or send me a message. See you next time...

This month (and last week of July) in Gaming History

How is it going everyone? This is MAS8705 and for today’s rant, I’ve decided to take things easy this time. There will be another 500 word rant later, but for today’s talk, it will be a little more informative than usual, so sit back, relax and be sure to read and watch. I’m going to tackle three things in today’s post.

First off, before I get started, I would like to say that while I do pick the topics for the rants at random, I also would like to start taking requests on topics that you think I should discuss. If I started off with Nintendo Porn, I am practically open to any suggestions. Just be sure to keep it as clean as possible and have a link to the article (if there is one) so that I can do a proper research before performing my rant. So after you finish reading this week’s Rant under 500 words, you are welcome to leave a comment below to suggest new rants or email me for anything you would like to see. Now why would I go through the hassle of explaining that? Well, to be honest, I am running out of ideas. It is one thing to crack two rants a week, but it is another to have constant ideas available.

Now then, let’s talk about big events in gaming that happened earlier this month. As some of you gamers know, earlier last week we had EVO, which is a worldwide fighting tournament that features the greatest fighters from around the world playing games like Marvel vs Capcom 3, Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, Mortal Kombat, Blazeblue: Continuum Shift II, and Tekken 6. In case you missed the action, you can always look up the videos, BUT you will find it much easier to just watch this video.

Each of these moments are mind blowing. I mean, an 8 year old who moved to the top 48 in MvC3 (what did you accomplish when you were eight?!), Justin Wong still pleasing the crowd, deadpool trolling, and some of the best fights you will ever see in street fighter. I saw some of those fights in Super street fighter 4, and my mind was blown watching each fight in the finals. If you have the chance, I would highly recommend watching the finals, for you will not witness such great fight anywhere else.

Now there was one other event that happened this month, in fact it was this last weekend. Recently there has been in increased rise of charity marathons that feature “Games being done quick Quick.” There have been marathons for All Zelda games, Final fantasy games, Mario games, sonic games, Kirby games, resident evil games, and so on. While I almost named off all the Bonus stage marathons, they weren’t the ones in action this weekend. Over at Speed Demos Archive, we got “Summer Games Done Quick” that featured 50 different games beaten in just over 50 hours. I know what you are thinking, “wouldn’t they play 50 short games to finish it easy? You would think so, but games like Castle Crashers, Rayman 2, Legend of Zelda minish cap, even Kingdom hearts 2 & birth by sleep were all shown and raised over $20k for the Organization for Autism Reasearch. Truly, it is great to see the gaming community unite together for a good cause, (previously the also did Japan Relief and prevent Cancer as well raising $25k & $53k respectively.) Funny to think of how watching someone beat a video game fast can inspire people to donate, I mean what is the deal of these “Speed Runs” anyway? Well I could tell you, but then again I have a new story idea I got to work on now. I’m MAS8705, and next time, we are talking speed runs (or Sonic when I can properly finish that topic).

Fal-Con's biggest event- Good VS Evil!

How is it going everyone? This is MAS8705 and I am not going to rant today, but rather to discuss Fal-Con! Much like everyone else on the Augmented Reality Team, I enjoyed my time at Fal-con as not only its guest, but as a staff member as well, Hopefully we will get to see more conventions in the city so that we can have more interactions with the community. While the two day event had alot of things to do, one thing that caught my eye was the panel called "Good vs Evil." Hosted by Sexy Taco Productions, it was going to be a featured video that the team would edit. The reason why I was excited about this though was that it had something that El Paso conventions didn't have before, FULL ACTION STAGE COMBAT! That's right, every person here was part of an action sequence where we pretend to fight each other and have lots of fun doing it.

I'm going to say a few more things about this, but here is the video in case you want to start watching it...

The planning itself took about 30-45 minutes and the filming took another hour or so. Of course a few of these fights aren't meant to be taken seriously (as you can tell by some background fights and a few featured fights), but everyone here was having a great time putting together their own fights. Another thing you might have noticed was how each person in the fight was brought down one way or another, except Sonic Man, who apparently after winning his fight, ran off and was not seen again (Truly he was the smarter of the fighters due to it ending literally in a stalemate). Also in case you didn't figure it out already, I was the man wearing the red shirt (and took it off to reveal a blue shirt) and wearing a top hot/black cap. I would like to say I looked pretty badass in spite of being dominated by the storm trooper, but hey at least I got to walk away from the fight, he suffered from a heart attack and died when he was done (death notes can do that to you of course >.>).

The event went over its time limit a bit, but in the end, it was a great show for those who watched and those who partook in the event. If anything else, we should really try and do more of these events whenever we can. I mean, some conventions have decided to do a battle chess cosplay and those are awesome, if we can have something like that then we could really have something. Until then, please be sure to be ready for the next convention on Sept 10-11 EPCON 2011 and FrankenCon on the weekend of October 28.

I'm MAS8705, and that was still under 500 words, but really more to the point that has been my analysis of FAL-Con 2011.

MAS's Rants under 500 words: Renting Games becoming more difficult?

How is it going everyone? This is MAS8705, and today I’m going to rant on something that has rubbing me the wrong way for the last few months; renting games. No articles to share, no pictures to show, no videos to watch; this is going to be a flat-out rant this time, so if you are looking for humor in this one, you might be disappointed. I promise though, the next rant will be more clever. Until I get around to the next rant, let’s get this one over with...

*start the count…*

With the increase of people using Netflix, it would seem that video rentals are becoming obsolete. I can’t say for sure what alternate video rental places there are outside of blockbuster, but there was one called Hollywood Video in El Paso, Texas. It was a great place considering how their selection of movies and games was much bigger than blockbuster. Sadly they had to close due to the economy. This means that Blockbuster is the only place you can go to rent anything. While this isn’t really a problem per ce, it is getting irritating that I can’t find the new games to rent. Recently, I wanted to rent Alice: Madness returns and the new Dynasty Warriors Gundam game, but they aren’t at any of the blockbusters; all they have new is Duke Nukem Forever (A rant of Duke Nukem in the future? Time will tell…) and I really don’t want to waste my time with that game. What really pisses me off though is that all the other blockbusters outside of El Paso has the games available. Am I missing something here? Why the hell does El Paso get left out but other cities get the chance at these games?

Recently, Redbox also has begun to carry games as well. This is great because it works in the same way that you pay for the time you want to hang on to it. This would be even better though if they had more of a selection. Yes, you can claim that because they just barely started, thus they don’t have much, but they have a “Coming Soon” where they show what games they are going to add. They don’t have these games mentioned from earlier, but they are going to have the Smurfs soon. O yeah, Smurf takes a higher priority in the view of the distributors.Heaven knows that the game is going to completely suck.

Before you start saying “Why don’t you just get Gamefly then?” Well, I don’t have a thing against Gamefly, but I don’t like the idea of having to pay a subscription fee if I don’t plan on renting games every month. Not to mention something could happen in the mail system that you could get blamed. So where am I going with this?Simple really, Blockbuster needs to stop neglecting the gamers; otherwise if they do go bankrupt, the gamers are really going to suffer. Otherwise, I really hope that we will get to see a Netflix type service soon. There is Onlive but I haven’t heard much from it yet, but I don’t think they work in the way that Netflix does on the xbox, PS3, and Wii. All I can hope for is that if it does have to come to Netflix, I can put a freeze to subscriptions if I decide I don’t want to rent anything for the month. This is MAS8705, and that was my rant under 500 words.

Word Count: 492

An update from the editor [#1]

Hey Guys! Akia here with some updates regarding what the AugReal crew has been up to and why some of our articles were late this past week. I personally apologize for that and hope you can forgive us!

First order of business is what we've been up to. Mike, Ruben, MAS and I were at the Fellow Anime Lovers Convention this past weekend where we hosted several panels (namely Mike's fanfiction panel, my History/ showcase of anime and manga plus a plethora of trivia panels of all types), helped with registration and other duties as main staff members. It was an enjoyable time of which we were able to get several hours of footage so you can look forward to some coverage to be posted on our YouTube page in the coming weeks. OH, and we did get a "live" podcast recorded, so that should be out soon as well.

Due to preparation for the convention on Wed-Friday of last week, Rich Boy Cy was postponed until today. Again I apologize to any RBCy fans who had been looking forward to last weeks video and had to wait 'till this week. In order to thank y'all for your patience Cy and I are working on a bonus video for his behind the scenes YouTube that will also be posted some time today or tomorrow at the latest in bonus to also getting a full video on Thursday. Cyberpunkish is also working on his Shiro comic which was suppose to be out yesterday but due to me having a recovery day from the convention he focused more on building a real grade Gundam... hey, he has his hobbies too besides being rich and bragging about it you know!

Lastly, I did publish this weeks Anime of the Week but I decided to move it back to it's original location on the reader//watcher[girl] blog. Feel free to view it here. You can also expect a Gundam related article from me this week. I've recently picked up a new tool that'll help with making my Gundam kits look more professional and look forward to sharing a technique to do so.

Thanks again for your patience with us and I look forward to your comments on the several things mentioned in this update.

MAS's Rants in under 500 Words: Death of the Blue Bomber

How is it going everyone? I’m MAS8705 and we are here to pay our respects to a gaming icon that has seems to have been killed off by the very company he has represented for almost 20 years.

This tombstone was generated from jjchandler, there also do street signs, warning labels and warning signs (Giving credit where credit is due). Anyway, one can only hope that megaman will still get a game in the future, but considering everything that has happened last week, Capcom pretty much just killed megaman. So bow your heads, & silence your cell phones, we are going to pay our respects to the blue bomber.

*start the count…*

It seems only yesterday Megaman 10 was released (March 2010), and everyone was enjoying old-school platforming on current gen games. It was more or less about this time when we got word that Capcom announced “Megaman Universe” and one month later, Marvel vs Capcom 3. When Capcom announced the first few characters, Mega Man was strangely not mentioned, but chances were that they were going to build up the suspense. During the time we waited, (September 16) we got word of Tron’s inclusion into Marvel vs Capcom 3, and two weeks later, another Megaman game was coming, Mega Man Legends 3 for the 3DS. Tons of people were excited because this was going to be the latest “Legends” game in over 10 years and a demo would come out at the same time when the handheld launched.

Everything was looking good for Mega Man, or so it seemed before October 29 2010, when everything would change forever (or at least the position of “Research & development and online business and global head of production for Capcom”) as the creator of Mega Man, Keiji Inafune leaves Capcom. At first, no one thought much of it, after all, two weeks later, Zero gets confirmed for Marvel vs Capcom 3, so Mega Man’s chances were still there to get added, right? Well… this is when our story begins to turn into a tragedy.

By the end of January, two weeks before the Marvel vs Capcom 3 is released, the last two characters are announced, and while Tron and Zero get added, no variation of Mega Man was; he was excluded from the game due to “not retaining his original character anymore”. [link]

At least Legends 3 prototype was soon right? Well, when the 3DS launched, prototype was nowhere to be seen. It also didn’t help with the fact that a few days after the 3DS got launched, Mega Man Universe got canceled due to “Various Circumstances” (one guess from many people was “the game looks ugly.”

Again, notice Keiji saying all the good things about this game and since he left, this got canned. May 20^th, we finally get word that Megaman Legend 3 Prototype got delayed (took long enough) and that is basically the last we hear from this game. Fast forward to last week, and we not only find out the Megaman Legends 3 gets cancelled due to “lack of support” (You, the fans just didn’t want the game enough! *disabling sarcasm mode*), but Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 get announced, new characters are leaked a day later, and still nothing mentioned about any plans for Mega Man; Has Capcom really forsaken their Main Mascot? Will we ever see Mega man again? Time will tell, but facts are facts: Until we get word of a new Mega Man game (which will hopefully be sooner than we think), Mega Man is officially dead. I’m MAS8705 and that was my (hopefully temporary) obituary in under 500 words.

Word Count: 495

Ending Comments: I wonder if Blue has become an unlucky color in the world of video games, next time we talk about the decline of another “Blue” character. You guys should know exactly who I’m talking about.

Also I would have given hello kitty x street fighter a mention as merchandise, but considering how some people got offended by it (and calling me an idiot for bringing it up) I left it out of the rant, but I’ll at least give it a special mention and post hello kitty dressed as Chung-Li.

See you next time…

MAS's rants under 500 words- Follow up and corrections over "Mortal Kombat > Capcom"

How is it going everyone? I’m MAS8705 and who would have guessed how much can happen in a single week? In just the last few days, we got some major news from both games I discussed in my previous rant, so because of this, might as well do my first follow up, where I plan on “amending” whatever I said previously, meanwhile to add in things that has just happened. Let’s get started…

*Start the Count!*

As I said in the previous rant, I didn’t base my assumptions of how “Mortal Kombat is better than Marvel vs capcom 3” as per the downloadable content. Before I start talking about Capcom, I just want to get Mortal Kombat out of the way really fast…

Since the beginning of the summer, we were told that Mortal Kombat was going to get four new characters being added on each month for five dollars each. We were told about Skarlett, the ninja chick has is made of blood (and showers in it), Kenshi, the blind swordsman that is apparently very broken, Rain, the purple ninja (purple rain, ha ha) who uses water (and sometimes lightning) to beat his foes as the first three characters, with a fourth remaining a mystery. This was driving some people into speculations thinking that it was going to be either Frost or Fujin, but low and behold, we get the one person, no one could have possibility guessed… Freddy Krueger!

Something I bet no one ever saw coming. At least it makes sense that you have people like Freddy or Kratos in Mortal Kombat than having Star Wars in Soul Calibur (“A long time ago was back” during the 16^th century?) Anyway, check out Freddy in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaSBkBDcepM

On onto Marvel vs Capcom 3, where right after my previous post, it was indeed confirmed, including 12 new characters. Funny how when we were shown the first four characters, the other eight also got leaked,

Marvel	Capcom
Doctor Strange	Firebrand
Ghost Rider	Frank West
Hawkeye	Nemesis
Iron Fist	Phoenix Wright
Nova	Strider Hiryu
Rocket Raccoon	Vergil

One thing I forgot to mention was that due to a certain disaster that hit Japan earlier in the year, it had screwed up Capcom’s ability to release DLC, so instead of new characters being added on, we only get the two that were already on the disk. In fact, a few of the character listed above were going to be those DLC. Still, this doesn’t change the fact though that this is still Capcom’s way of getting more cash, by re-releasing a newer version on disk than simply doing an add-on (like they did with the Arcade Edition of Super Street Fighter 4). Also they decided to add a spectator mode, but again, they should have added it much sooner. If the roster proves anything though, it is that we want a raccoon more than a duck (howard), a lot of people from the previous game are still left out (venom, gambit, Cyclops, Cable, Ken, Sakura, Bison, Dan, the list goes on), and how Capcom seems to officially hate Mega Man! As much as I would love to discuss Mega Man more, my word limit is almost up, but next time on 500 word rants, I will be going into more details about Megaman’s decline in the World of Capcom and Video games. Until then, I’m MAS8705, and that was my Follow-up Rant under 500 words.

Word Count: 498

MAS's Rants under 500 words Double Feature- Mortal Kombat > Capcom & How Collabs and Ideas will work (in the perspective of MAS8705)

How is it going everyone? This is MAS8705 ready to get violent with two franchises that really has made a name for itself. Mortal Kombat: the series that literally started the ESRB and started to label games with a similar rating system you see in movies & Marvel vs. Capcom, which has given us one of the most unique fighters known in recent memory.

Before I start though, I want to go on record to say that while I love to collab with fellow editors, I try very hard as to not take anyone’s topics or ideas away from them. Fellow editor, Cyberpunkish has recently reviewed Mortal Kombat (2011), and while I could easily do that as well, I feel as though I would be taking his ideas away from him and thus make it seem that he isn’t doing anything (or make it seem as though one is more professional or more fun to listen to than the other).

If that is going to be a problem, then why not just do a collab with him on a review instead? Again, while that can be done, I don’t want to start a series of videos of “MAS & Cyber review: ___” because it can get old fast, a duo reviewing a game has been done so much. That and I don’t want to hassle Cyber anymore than I already am (I know he says that he doesn’t mind, but you can say that to someone for so long before you stop saying it. That and I just met Cyber and I don’t want to trouble him anymore than I need to). Don’t get me wrong, me and cyber are planning on doing a collab review for Infamous 2 (stupid moral system, you will be the next to feel my wrath), but this should be reserved to be done like once every so often videos, and for those special games, which isn’t to say that Mortal Kombat isn’t a good game, but I prefer to avoid review something if someone is already planning it. Many sites usually has just one person review something, that guy with the glasses and blistered thumbs are notable examples, and while they do have some editors that review the same thing, they either space it out or they will collab, but they never try to overstep or overtake another editor. Augmented Reality is just like those two sites in the sense that we are a group of people that want to spread the word of games, anime, toys, tv, conventions, and anything that we want to talk about; if we all talked about the exact same thing, the site wouldn’t be all to interesting. This is one of the many reasons why the Captain M Show didn’t seem to take off after a year and a half. But I’m getting ahead of myself, I’m not Mike or Aika-Chan so I can’t say how the site works on their behalf, but that is where I currently stand on how I wish to do my business on Augmented Reality; to work and help others, but not to outperform or even steal ideas from others. So what will I talk about then for Mortal Kombat? Well, I suppose I can quickly explain why Mortal Kombat is better than Marvel vs Capcom 3. That should be interesting talk…

*Start the cou-*

Wait a second… *goes back to count the words in the previous explanation*

495 words!?! Jesus- Well I guess this week’s rant is going to be my first double feature rant then. I don’t plan on making this a habit, but I feel that it is still important to cover my opinions on this. I know you guys probably don’t even care about the rant above, but that is how I work; I don’t want to start discrediting my fellow editors by taking their ideas as my own. Enough of that though, let’s finally talk about these two games.

If you are reading this, you should already know how the two games work; this will be a simple comparison and I’m not going to compare the history between the two series, talk about the gameplay styles, compare roster sizes, the game scores both have received or say character X is cooler looking than Character Y. This will compare the mechanics of the two games. If you look at it from this stand point, you will agree that Mortal Kombat is the better game. Also just to make this clear, I don’t have anything Capcom; I enjoy playing Marvel vs Capcom 3, I currently own it and I am actually quite good (or decent to say the least). I would say more, but I don’t want to start a third rant in the same post, so let’s get to it…

*Start the count!*

So, why exactly am I discussing this topic right now? A rumor has been circulating about that this year’s comic-con that Capcom will have a full panel about the game, and may also announce: “ULTIMATE Marvel vs Capcom 3!” While this isn’t anything new that capcom has pulled (three different kinds of street fighter 2s, 3s, and 4s. and two different Tatsunoko vs capcoms), one can’t help but notice the cheap ploy being done to get more money…

Gamers seem to do this all the time, but you can only trick someone for so long before they catch onto the tricks. If this does happen, that means that a lot of people just wasted 10 dollars on characters that would be seen in the remake. At least, they agree that each character should be five dollars and nothing more. However, after five months, we only see Jill and Shuma-Gorath as downloadable characters, but no one else in planning (except for alternate costumes). This is where Mortal Kombat gets the first edge; within three months, Mortal Kombat already has three characters (the fourth to also be announced at comic-con).

Again, there’s more to a game than the character count and having more doesn’t make it a better game (Insert examples here), but if you look at what each game offered, you will see how Mortal Kombat takes it. When you play online with Mortal Kombat, you have a seemingly well streamed fight (besides the pass you have to buy if you rent or buy used) and others can even rank your fight as they watch it. The online for Marvel vs capcom is also fairly decent, however instead of watching the fight, you get to watch two icons bump against each other as you watch the player’s health bars drop. Street Fighter 4 had no problem letting others watch the fight if they are in the lobby, but for some reason, they left this out in Marvel vs capcom 3. The last point though, should be the one that sells this idea: additional content. Besides the basics, Marvel vs capcom 3 only has a “Ghost battle”- fight harder characters and “Mission”- where you perform 10 moves/combos while Mortal Kombat has the challenge tower- over 300 kinds of unique challenges and story mode, which retells the events of the first three games, not to mention the krypt that gives you much more additional content to view (Heck they even have tutorials! Not even Marvel vs capcom has tutorials!). Even the endings in Mortal Kombat are more engaging (and animated) than the endings you see in Mortal Kombat. These are one of many reasons how I see Mortal Kombat as the better series. This in no way is to say that Marvel vs capcom 3 is a bad game, but if you are looking for a game with great mileage, look no further than Mortal Kombat. I’m MAS8705, and that was… well, both of my rants, each under 500 words.

Word Count: 498

P.S.: Not many references can be made here, but I will give credit to Mr. Angry Joe for his review on Mortal Kombat. In case you would like to have a more in-depth look at the game (beside’s Mr. Rich Guy Cy’s review) I would suggest to check out his review.

MAS's Rants in under 500 Words: Console games are dying!

How is it going everyone? This is MAS8705 and this is my “Rants Under 500 words.” I have to say, this has been fun so far having these discussions and challenging myself to stay under 500 words. It can be difficult since there is a lot that can be said, but hey, I need to limit myself with keeping people’s attention just long enough for them to read through an article. So lets get started with Today’s Topic: Angry Birds Developer proclaims Console games are dying!”

*Start the Count!*

You don’t have to be a gamer to know about the game that has swept the world: Angry Birds. It has been out for about 19 months, and it has swept away the world with its simple concept of flicking wingless birds at green pigs (and monkeys); having over 250 million downloads between all platforms- Regular and Special Editions. Due to its popularity it already has a market for merchandise featuring the characters and there are long term plans to make a featured film or a television series of the birds (Please let it be the Television series, I don’t see how you can make it a movie, but hey, leave a comment and prove me wrong).

Anyway, to the topic of discussion… The creator of angry birds (Peter Vesterbacka, who was on Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential people in 2011. Here is his sketch on time.com

Oh yeah, that right there is a face you can trust. Also he is from Finland…) had mentioned during a discussion at the Game Developer Conference that, "Mobile games being an exciting place, full of innovation, which is something tough to argue against. Console games are "dying" and the idea of paying $50 for a game is going the way of the dodo."

...

So yeah everyone, forget the idea of Call of Duty, Super Mario Galaxy, Uncharted, and any other Console blockbusters, the future of gaming is Mobile! While that does make a bit of sense considering the development of newer, more advance cell phones in the last few years (iPhones, Android phones, Droids, etc) this seems to be quite a bit of a stretch for someone to think that Console games are "Dying" off. There is also no denying that indie games are on the rise and with developers starting to make more high end games on the cheaper, it is understandable how someone like the so called "Mighty Eagle" would think like this.

So what do you guys think? Is there a possibility that console games are really "dying"? or at least losing steam?

Personally, I don’t think that is going to be the case. Saying this would be like saying, "America is getting bored of Football, or baseball" or something; a possibility but overall, something that probably won't happen anytime soon (however, if you consider how negotiations have been going lately, I could be wrong, I’ll leave that for someone else to discuss. I’ve never been one for watching sports or playing sports games). Considering how technology continues to evolve, it shouldn’t be any surprise to see that console games can still be on the rise, even as we speak. And don’t take my word for it, Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata agrees that Mr. Peter is delusional.

I would say more about this topic, but I have reached my limit for today. As always, please leave a comment and I’ll talk to you guys next time. I’m MAS8705 and that was my Rant under 500 words.

Word Count: 499