Super Street Fighter 4 was released today. All the details you’ve been salivating over for the past several months are now at your fingertips…. or are they?

We received today (what we thought was) a prank email from a group of guys we met at the PAX East Street Fighter 4 “unofficial” tournament that happened in the free play area. Their email states:

“What’s up guys,

It’s ****** and ********,  we met you at Pax east about a month ago at the SF4 tourney ****** set up. We were wondering if you guys are interested in some screen shots of a secret character that wasn’t announced for SSF4. We found him today after playing a certain combination of win/losses with Ibuki. We have screen shots of the game paused with the secret character “Pandar” in play. We believe he may just be an easter egg but he is playable.

Email: ***** if you would like to discuss payment arrangements. We have attached a cellphone pic of the screen shot so you can see we’re serious. The actual screen shot is taken with a better camera and has been saved on our computer. We will give you the first copies for the right price.

This isn’t a joke. “

While the above email is corny at best, the attached photo was pretty damn convincing. We’re having Rocket take a look at it to see if its been tampered with… but it looks pretty damn good.

If you have unlocked this “Pandar”, please let us know. Take a picture if possible and send it to GameGamePOW@gmail.com.

We’d like to have the WORLD premiere of the infamous ”Pandar”. We’ve heard that he is originally from the original 1994 Street Fighter Anime TV series that only aired in Korea. There are a few images, but we’ll let you be the judge once they are examined.

Apple has done it again: they’ve made an already perfect product perfecter.

As everyone knows iPhone OS 4.0 was announced today and with it brings a plethora of never before Applized features.  The biggest is multitasking for 3rd party applications.  In Apple’s brilliance they have enabled this option without costing performance and battery life.  I love you Apple.

But of course there are morons out there who are pissed.  You see, while the bulk of the upgrade will be made available to iPhone 3G and 3GS (along with their iPod Touch counterparts), multitasking is only coming to the iPhone 3GS.  Why?  Let me explain this to your small brains…

You see, the 3GS has much more processing power than its earlier counterpart.  So much so that it is nearly twice as fast.  Of course this simple fact hasn’t stopped anti-Apple loyalists from literally pissing their pants and demanding that Apple clean up the mess.

I’ll try to explain this real clear-like for you folks (who clearly have ancestry south of the Mason-Dixon line).  Technology (a.k.a. “The Wizard”) moves fast.  So fast that most anything is outdated within a year.  Don’t believe me?  Then you’re stupid.  You see while “The Wizard” moves along it’s path of progression it gains more and more features.  This is where you socialists feel entitled to getting what’s new and great for free.  You communist fucks…

You see Apple, has been kind enough to grace us with free upgrades and new features for ALL iPhone software updates thus far.  You neanderthals now feel entitled to get what’s new and awesome for free.  Well let me tell you ass-hat, you’re not.  When you bought the product you bought it because of what it HAD, not what it might have someday.  Lord Jobs made no promise that you’d recieve multitasking in the future, so you shouldn’t expect it.

If you buy things based on what it might do in the future, you might want to go back to mommy so she can clean the skids out of your underwear.  Good job shitting your pants asshole.

In conclusion, fuck you all.

Oh yeah, and there was some game thing announced.  I’m still waiting for this video game fad to pass…

Now onto the move and let me get this out of the way.  Is it similar the Wii motes? Yes.  Did Playstation just copy the Wii controllers? No.   Is there a difference between the Wii and PS Move? Yes, a big difference.  I was one of the first people to enter the event and to get the move in my hands. It felt ergonomically correct compared to the square like controllers of the Wii.  All the buttons on the controller felt natural and had less weight to it than a DualShock 3.  The orb on the top of the controller is actually rubber and can withstand the jamming into the hand of the developer.  The colors in the orb change depending on the programing of the game play on screen and also can gradually change depending of the location of the pointer on screen.

PAX East is done and over. So how did it go? What did I see and/or play? Find out below.

There really isn’t a coherent way of blending everything we came across at PAX East into a well flowing piece of writing. So I’ll fall back to the old standby of making a list. Here is what I saw or got hands on with and a bit of opinion about it as well. Cause we all know I love to express myself.

Let’s start with the games.

Mafia 2: If you’ve played any of The Godfather games or The Saboteur you know what to expect out of this one. Nothing really new here, except now you can collect ancient porn that you didn’t want to see anyway. Thanks for bringing negativity to an already beat up gamer stereotype. (Twitter @ MafiaIIGame)

Shank: A fun side scrolling brawler with some amazing art and animation. The controls are simple and intuitive. Think of it as a beefed up Double Dragon turned up to 11. I got to talk with the Creative Art Director Jeffrey Agala for a bit while he freehand drew an amazing GameGamePOW logo with the star of Shank Brock Samson. He was genuinely excited to be at PAX and get to hear gamer’s hands on impressions with the game. Great guy and I look forward to talking to him again.(Twitter @Klei)

Red Dead Redemption: First of all this was obviously an old build that we were able to play so I will leave out the graphical quirks and broken gameplay elements that were present. This game has the largest map of any Rockstar game to date and it shows. You could get lost out there in the desert. You can expect to come across people being robbed or even animals fighting each other while exploring. The physics are spot on and people react to being shot perfectly. Shoot a guy in the leg and he will go down, but watch out cause he’s going to be shooting from the floor looking for revenge. There is a moral system, but they weren’t getting too in depth as to what that entails. The shooting and cover system were fluid and its got this “bullet time” like feature they are calling Dead Eye. I’ll try not to take offense. (Twitter @RockstarGames)

Red Steel 2: We only got about a 10 minute demo that was performed for us and almost half of that was the opening cut scene. While it is an impressive looking Wii game and the first to be designed exclusively with Wii Motion Plus even the girl giving the demo was bored after a few minutes. (Twitter @UbiLeak)

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands: This game looks great and plays great as an action platformer. If you loved The Sands of Time then you will feel right at home with this release. With new elemental powers you will need to pay close attention to your surroundings to progress through a level. The combo system is real button mashy and you do some weird moves, like jumping on enemies heads, but it does what it needs to do and doesn’t really seem to be the focus of this title. If you’re into running on walls, manipulating the elements and rewinding time if you screw up than this is right up your alley.

Split Second: Going into PAX I had zero interest in this arcade racer.. Seemed gimmicky at best. Then I got my hands on it. Super simple controls allow you to drift in and out of turns with ease building up a powerplay meter that you can then use against you opponents. Powerplays change the terrain of the track causing destruction and chaos for the other drivers. Build your meter up enough and you can drastically change the course of the track gaining a huge advantage. There is no HUD in this game besides the powerplay meter, which looks more like ground effects. Its gorgeous, fun and has multiplayer lobby support so you can meet up with your friends easily. It has now become a must buy at release.

Breach: This is a multiplayer first person shooter by Atomic Games. Realizing that Six Days in Fallujah keeps getting delayed they decided to pour the millions of dollars they had invested into the engine into this XBLA title. It’s got a really great cover system that pulls out to third person view when activated allowing you to see all around you and over the cover. The destructibility in this game is its most impressive asset. There are no preset destructions. It’s literally brick by brick. You can shoot out a single brick in the wall and scout the enemy. Or set a breaching charge and blow a big whole in the wall. In my opinion this is the XBL title to watch out for.

Joe Danger: I had never heard of this game before walking up to Hello Game’s booth. At first glance it looks like a new version of Excite Bike, but it is so much more. You’re a stuntman and the goal is to get to the finish line, or more specifically one of the goals is. Each level has multiple paths, and ways of completing it. Collect all the letters to spell D-A-N-G-E-R, get all the stars, land on every bullseye, there is just so much to this game. Sure you can go for a speed run and go for the best time, but you can also jump all around the multiple levels on these Sonic the Hedghog style springs. That’s right, it has a whole platforming gameplay side to it as well! With the most in depth, easy to use, on the fly level editor I have ever seen this is surely a game I will be putting many many hours into. It also has couch co-op so you can play with your friends right next to you, a commonly left out feature in current gen games. (Twitter @hellogames)

Now moving onto hardware that I tested out.

Turtle Beach PX21: When you first pick up this headset it feels like a child’s toy. It has almost no weight to it at all. They are comfortable to wear and don’t immediately give you an discomfort. The sound is surprisingly low quality. Its got that chunky sound of an old boombox and has no sense of depth. The mic is a joke, looks like something they pulled out of the door panel of an ’86 Ford Escort. Seriously, don’t even try these let alone buy a pair.

Tritton AX-720 and AX Pro: I currently own a pair of the AX-180’s and was planning on upgrading to the Pro’s since Tritton was offering a discount. At their booth they had all of the headsets available to try out on MW2. After spending some time with each model I really couldn’t justify the cost to “upgrade”. All they seemed to do was make the sound louder, and that certainly does not mean better. As a gamer who already owns the 180’s I don’t recommend paying any extra for the other models.

Let’s get into the subject of what it’s like being surrounded by fellow gamers for three days straight. The first thing you think about when you think gamer is what? If you said someone who looks like an unmade bed holding a bottle of MTN Dew than you are correct. To put it into perspective, the store across the street form the convention center sold out of MTN Dew. They had a hard time keeping up with the demand at the vending machines. People were walking around with 2 liter bottles of it the same way runners carry water. If MTN DEW had a booth it would have had a longer wait than Skate 3 and Red Dead Redemption combined.

The smell of Axe body spray and BO lingered throughout the halls like a Junior High School locker room. Threadless T’s as far as the eye can see. Gamers raiding their pockets for lunch money they’ve been saving for months to drop it all on the counter for some Official PAX merch. Sticking swag they scored from every booth all over their bodies proudly displaying their willingness to become a free public billboard. It’s truly a scene difficult to describe unless you have in fact witnessed it first hand.

And with all that, the second I even heard a rumor that they were doing it again next year, my heart skipped a beat. I’d wait in line now if It was the only way to secure tickets.

Thank you Penny Arcade for hosting a great show and thank you fellow GameGamePOW staff members for making it unforgettable.

We met up with Chris “Cuz” Parry (Producer) at PAX East and asked him about Skate 3. After unintentionally insulting his work on Skate 1 and 2 I was able to ask some questions of relevance and learn a thing or two about the most recent installment due out May 11th.

We’ve got 3 other interviews coming your way in beautiful HD. Stay tuned for an interview with the developers of Joe Danger, and also Hudson Entertainment.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Cushman Rd,Boston,United States

Heading to PAX

Found it!!

Yes!!! Cosplay nerds!!!!!!

Joystiq Stalking

Crackdown 2

Party Van

Location:Franklin St,Boston,United States

My 60gig PS3 went down less than a week ago. I knew it was coming. The fan had been running on high like it was its job for about two months straight. My warranty has long since been over and when the system finally gave me a yellow light followed by a flashing red… it was official.

When this happens to someone who doesn’t have a warranty, you have two basic options:

1) Pony up 150$ to Sony and have them mail you a coffin (I call this the “Sony up” method).  You will then either receive your system back in the mail after its been repaired, OR you will get a refurbed/new system. The problem with a refurb is that it will NOT contain your save games or even be compatible with your original HDD.. so you will lose anything you didn’t/couldn’t back up.

2) You can fix it yourself. YEP you can. It may seem daunting if you are not an electronics expert, but that shouldn’t be an issue if you follow the guide I used.

I have never built a computer by myself. I have never messed around with a mother board or any internal PC parts in my life. Despite these hindrances, I was still able to follow a guide made by a very generous British bloke named Colin Gilks. HERE is his step by step guide on how to reflow the solder on your GPU and CPU.

To prove that it works, I made a short video documenting parts of my repair:

Where there is a will there is a way.

If you find this method helpful, please donate to Gilksy’s PayPal account to help support his efforts:  HERE

The PS3 has what would appear to be limitless potential when it comes to the number of ways adult entertainment can be fed into it.

Just to name a few…

Removable Media:

Let’s be honest. The majority of porn out there comes from the internet. I’m not going to ask HOW you got it, or where you torrented it from. Instead I will let you know that the PS3 accepts almost all video codecs and formats. Certain container issues will arise with some DIVX files as the PS3 is DIVX Certified, which basically means any DIVX encoded file, must maintain certain standards. The PS3 does NOT currently support .mkv containers. If you download a file that your PS3 does not support you can try converting it with THIS tool.

You may not have considered this, but USB drives are cheap now a days. I saw a 2gb key chain “memory stick” at the grocery store for less than 12$. The PS3 accepts a VERY wide range of USB devices ranging from memory sticks, to external USB HDDs. The trick is to make sure you have all “Video Content” placed in a folder on the root directory called “VIDEO” in all caps. Also, if you use an external USB HDD, you will need to make sure that it is formatted to the FAT32 file system.

This method can be useful for people who don’t want to store porn on their internal HDD in the PS3 itself. It will both save room AND help to keep your stash secure.

DVD/Blu-Ray:

Obviously the PS3 has a Blu-Ray drive. This offers the MAXIMUM in HD Porn. Unfortunately HD Porn can sometimes show you things you didn’t want to see… such as stretch marks, acne, body hair, and even scars in pristine 1080p. If that doesn’t bother you, enjoy. This is a sore-wristed experience that you can’t get on another console.

If you are still emotionally attached to your DVD collection.. REJOICE! The PS3 is an excellent DVD upscaler and will enhance most experiences without making them seem as real as their Blu-Ray counterparts. Also, the PS3’s color-pallet is much richer on a whole (which I’m sure involves the whole spectrum of skin-tones as well).

You can even play burnt DVD’s or a DVD/CD with applicable media files on them as the PS3 is able to read data discs without an issue.

Local Network Streaming:

So let’s say you have a TON of XXX content. The problem is it’s all on your PC and you don’t want to be bothered by burning it or copying it to another device. In this scenario it is still possible to stream the content through  your router (wired or wireless) to your PS3. It’s VERY easy in fact.

Step 1) Make sure your PS3 and PC (containing the porn) are connected to your router.

Step 2) Download and install PS3 Media Server. Then Run PS3 Media Server.

Step 3) Under the “Video” tab of the XMB select Search for Media Servers and hit X.

Step 4) Once the search is completed you should see the PS3 Media Server icon appear underneath the Store icon. Use this to browse through your PC’s HDD remotely until you reach your secret stash folder and BAM! Time for some She-male action!… or whatever you’re into.

The PS3 Browser:

The PS3 is well known for its modest browser capabilities. Most flash video is supported by the PS3 and thus, most flash based porn sites are also supported. While the list of supported sites would be far to long to mention. I will instead mention the most convenient option of them all: PornHub. I won’t be creating an actual link to this site for obvious association reasons, but if you clicked your way to this article… you can figure it out if you REALLY want.

PornHub works fantastically with the PS3 and offers a wide selection of tastes for any porn connoisseur. All the videos work with the PS3 browser and they even offer a multi-frame thumb so you can preview a given video before watching.

*iRule’s tip: PornHub.com also works EXTREMELY well for the iPhone, and the iPod Touch!!

Browser based porn has distinct advantages. You can watch without having to store the information yourself. You have a LARGE variety (that’s what she said) of material(s) to chose from. It updates daily in most cases. It is FREE! if you aren’t stupid about it. Speaking of being stupid about it…

The PS3 browser like many other browsers; has a history. Any/all pages you visit are stored to the history. So like you would on any computer, it is advisable to clear the history on your browser after visiting obscene material you may not want a guest or wife to stumble upon by accident. Also note that the PS3 has a predictive text feature for its on screen keyboard. This means that if you visit PornHub regularly… and then your wife tries to use the PS3 browser to visit “Playgroundsforchildren.com” the system may suggest “Pornhub.com” the second she hits the “P” key. It can be annoying to clear the predictive text cache (under the settings>system settings>Delete Predictive Text Dictionary menu by the way) every time you visit big-kid sites. So there are two ways around this:

Option 1) Don’t use your PS3 Browser to Jerk-off

or

Option 2) Use the browser under a secondary account. EXAMPLE: If you have a UK  or Japanese account, use the browser under that account only. *insider info* The PS3 stores SEPARATE predictive text and browsing histories for EACH user. *

This way, your friend/wife/mistress/mom/son/neighbor will see nothing suspicious the next time they use the main account on your system sometime when you are away. Unless they need to use your Japanese account for some strange Nancy Drew-esque reason.

This article has been a quick overview of why it’s better to “beat-it” in front of the Playstation 3. So to sum it up with a terrible pun: When it comes to the competition, the others fall limp.

… Yep I ended it with a fuckin pun. Deal with it.

We’ve all seen it before. There’s always at least one of them at every store. Lurking… waiting to ask an awkward question or overwhelm you with Sci-Fi knowledge. I’m talking about the special group of individuals hell bent on making sure that the term “Gamer” is synonymous with “Loser”, “Freak”, “Nerd”, “Shut-in”, “Bobby Kotick”, etc. These people are normally featured whenever the talk of what it means to be a gamer comes up. So we thought we should make a special tribute blog of sorts (a la People of Walmart). We did try other blog titles… but “GameStop-Watch” didn’t click the way we thought it would.

The best part is YOU can be involved! We’ve added a “P.O.G. Blog” uploader on the right side of the page. You have to be a user to upload, but that’s free.

You can even win PAX SWAG by having your submission featured! DETAILS

So get out there, start taking pics. Then upload to The People of GameStop Blog . Don’t be discouraged if there isn’t a GameStop near you. We are taking submissions from ANY store that sells video games. The trick is that the person in the photo must be either a) IN the games section, or b) holding/using/wearing something that makes them distinguishably a gamer.

We look forward to your submissions!

PAX East badges came in the mail this week. I took pictures of mine. I did this because I was exited… not because it’s necessarily news worthy.

I also did this to remind everyone that GameGamePOW will be doing coverage of the event semi-live via Twitter @GameGamePOW and also with video interviews and other coverage of the various goings-on of the first east coast PAX ever.

We have a countdown timer that you have probably noticed in the upper right hand corner. That will let you know when to tune in. If you have any suggestions or ideas for what you would like to see from this event, please leave them in a comment below. Here is a schedule for you to pick through for ideas: PAX SCHEDULE

If you are a site member (you should be.. its free) you can also PM our OFFICIAL coverage team which includes: Me(Hunt720),Arkum,RocketJohnson, and DustinRocks.

Also, it came with a “Charlie Card” so that I can go and meet the local homeless on Bostons public transit system! YES!