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The real life crimes behind L.A. Noire: Nicholson Electroplating Disaster Arson Case

Kelly Teng
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The real life crimes behind L.A. Noire: Nicholson Electroplating Disaster Arson Case

Rockstar have made it no secret that many of the cases in L.A. Noire are, in fact, based on real life crimes from 1940s Los Angeles: for example, The Red Lipstick Murder homicide case took elements from the real life murder of Jeanne French. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the latest piece of DLC – the Nicholson Electroplating Disaster arson case, available on the 21st of June – is in fact inspired by a major crime back in the 1947 L.A.

The crime in question is the explosion at the O’Connor Electro-plating plant on the morning of February 20th, 1947. More than 151 people were injured and 15 people were killed in the disaster, and one of the casualties would become the key suspect for the crime. Robert Magee, the plant’s chief chemist, had obtained his position at O’Connor’s plant following his great credentials (he had a PhD from M.I.T.) and his presentation of a new compound he had created: a blend of perchloric acid that could plate aluminium to gleam like silver without the expense of polishing and buffing.

However, after the blast occurred and Magee was long dead, some disturbing information surfaced: reports claimed he was, in fact, never a student at M.I.T…and the man hadn’t even graduated from high school. His knowledge of chemistry was self-taught, and the dangerous formula was ultimately mishandled by Magee and his team. O’Connor was sued by blast victims and pleaded the fifth amendment during the inquest into the explosion.

But, of course, Rockstar and Team Bondi never take the cases at face value and the Nicholson Electroplating Disaster case holds even more twists and turns in the plot. The DLC is priced at $6.95 on PSN ($7.90NZD), 320 MS points, or free with the Rockstar Pass.

Amy Acker Interview at Supanova Sydney 2011

Kelly Teng
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Amy Acker Interview at Supanova Sydney 2011

Both Ben Webb (or Linkage Ayexe, as he’s known to you on the site) and myself had the pleasure of chatting with Amy Acker at the Supanova Pop Culture Expo 2011 in Sydney. Amy is best known for her roles in Angel, where she played Winifried Burkle and Illyria, and Dollhouse where she portrayed Dr. Claire Saunders.

In this interview, Amy speaks to us about her visit to Sydney, her experience both on Angel and Dollhouse, what it’s like to work with Joss Whedon, and her fans. Amy’s latest film is The Cabin in the Woods, a thriller directed by Wendy Lin and due to be released October. She’s an absolute delight to talk to and is actually more gorgeous than her photos (yes, that is possible!). You can take a look at our interview down below.

Just a note: apologies for the noise surrounding us and for the occasional freeze in the frame. We only got a quick ten minutes to talk to her and a panel was going on about 100 metres away.

If you have any questions or comments, leave them below, and check out the rest of our Supanova coverage here.

Robin Officially Revealed for Arkham City!

Dustin Spencer
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I can’t believe I am saying this, but as of now I am actually excited to play as Robin. A while back, we brought news about Best Buy‘s pre-order incentive that enabled Robin to be a playable character in Batman: Arkham City. Today, a new screenshot along with some confirming information has been released for the once rumored bonus, showing off a very different Robin than you would expect.

Here is the what players can expect to see in this new DLC:

While supplies last, pre-order the game for an exclusive downloadable Robin character. Robin is a fully playable character in the new and improved challenge mode in Batman: Arkham City. The Tim Drake Robin pack is available exclusively to fans who pre-order the game from Best Buy on Xbox 360, PC and PS3.

Robin comes complete with his own unique gadgets and special moves, and will be playable in all challenge maps in the game, as well as two additional challenge maps that are included with the pack: Black Mask Hideout and Freight Train Escape.

The pack will also contain a bonus Red Robin character skin.

The Arkham City Robin will be portrayed by Tim Drake for the game, hence the name, the “Tim Drake Robin pack”, which is said to be a Best Buy exclusive. While this is awesome news in itself, a new question arises on the topic of Dick Grayson, who went on to become Nightwing. Since other retailers are certainly going to be competing with their own DLC bonuses, we very well could see other incarnations of everyone’s favorite sidekick come along as the release date approaches. We will keep you updated as more news is released on Arkham City’s pre-order bonuses, so stay tuned.

Shadows of the Damned launch trailer released

Travis Bruno
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We’ve seen many months of different trailers that highlight Shadows of the Damned’s unique humor and interesting characters, but tomorrow the game is released in the United States and on June 24th it will be released everywhere else. The game will be available for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 so there is no more time left for jokes.

Especially if you are Garcia Hotspur and are trying to save the soul of your true love. The launch trailer released today helps emphasize the storyline while also revealing some of Garcia’s enemies and allies. Practically any game that involves Suda 51’s handywork is enough to make me want to purchase it, but with Shadow of the Damned’s interesting humor there should be no reason to not give it a look.

3DS Games we might never see outside of Japan

Philip Federico
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For the past week and a bit, I’ve been travelling around Japan, visiting all the cool places to taking in some fantastic sights. One such sight is electronic stores. (yes I get very excited when I see those)

So while shopping at Yodobashi Kamera in Kyoto (similar to Best Buy in US, or Harvey Norman in AU) I came across some 3DS games that we might not NEVER see in the US or AU. I was instantly excited and whipped out my camera for some happy snaps and was going to buy all of them, but then a hard mental backhand slapped me in the back of the head and said “MULTI-REGIONAL GAMES – They won’t work on your AU – PAL 3DS” So I just took the pics DROOLED for like 15-20 mins then check out the Pokemon and Capsule Station toys (also shown below) and went off to do some more sight seeing.

Check out the pics below : Front and back covers of some great looking titles which as I mentioned will never be getting our hands on in the US or AU with English translations.

3D Cube – Puzzle Game Shanghai – by Sunsoft (this might be localized by Atlus)

Cubic Ninja  – by AQ Interactive (this might get to US shores .. but not sure yet)

GunDam The 3D Battle – by BanDai

One Piece Ultimate Cruise SP – by BanDai – (this game looks very cool)

Tales Of The Abyss – by Namco (this was announced that it will be making its way to the US)

Touch Double Pen Sports – by Bandai

Resident Evil Mercenaries – by Capcom (this is coming but i had to throw it in) 😉

Pro Baseball – by Namco

Professor Layton and the Mask Of Miracle – by Level 5 (of couse this will be coming to US and AU but I thought I’d throw it in just for fun)

Some Capsule Stations (dont you just LOVE the name 😉 where you can pick up some really cool figurines from your favourite anime or video game series

And for you all you Pokemon fans out there, POKEMON as far as the eye can see.

I was actually thinking about picking up a Japanese 3DS to play some of these games; what do you guys think? I know that One Piece looks and plays great (I got to play it in the store as they had it on a demo unit) I know Luke here would probably have triplets if he saw this in AU and for the Gundam Michael Marr (spike) would most certainly deliver QUADRUPLESTS if they could get his hands on that game.

Let us know what you think 🙂

Jackass star Ryan Dunn dies in high-speed car accident.

Luke Halliday
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Ryan Dunn was a star of the Jackass series and was known to do daredevil stunts and all around crazy things for his work. After apparently driving at high-speeds after a night out with friends, Dunn’s Porsche was found by the side of road west of Philladelphia, completely engulfed in flames.

Police identified had to identify his body by his tattoos as it was too badly burnt. A passenger was also found in the car but has yet to be identified. Police are attributing the accident to a bout of drink-driving, as witnesses claim he spent four hours drinking at a bar, prior to hopping behind the wheel of the vehicle.

Dunn’s former Jackass star Johnny Knoxville posted this response on his twitter after the news broke, “Today I lost my brother Ryan Dunn. RIP Ryan, I love you buddy.”

MTV has made the following statement, “We are devastated by the tragic loss of Ryan Dunn – a beloved member of the MTV family for more than a decade.”

Dunn was 34 at his time of death, he had appeared in all 3 season’s of Jackass, all 3 Jackass movies and various other MTV series.

Peter Molyneux’s E3 badge up for sale with proceeds going to Child’s Play

Travis Bruno
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Peter Molyneux’s E3 badge up for sale with proceeds going to Child’s Play

If you weren’t able to attend E3 this year then you shouldn’t feel so bad. But if you really want to have a badge of your own why not make it an expensive one? So expensive in fact it is over a $103 at the moment on eBay. This isn’t just any badge however, this is Peter Molyneux’s badge that he wore during the entirety of E3 itself.

The badge was given to Eggplante! and is being auctioned off on eBay with all proceeds going to the charity Child’s Play. The badge itself also has Molyneux’s signature and a note about the new Fable game saying: “It’s not on rails.” The badge won’t come with the Zelda: Skyward Sword lanyard nor the Catherine holder, but I’m sure there are plenty of those up for sale on eBay as well if you look hard enough.

Amy detailed as survival horror evolved

Travis Bruno
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Usually when something involving the PSN is mentioned lately it only has to deal with bad news, but that is not the case involving the newly released details for a game called Amy. Amy is a PSN exclusive and it will be a horror game that apparently will hearken back to the days of classic survival horror. But this time around, it will do it better.

The details posted on the PlayStation Blog went over a number of features in the game as well as covering the basics of the storyline. Amy will take place in the year 2034 and players will be controlling a girl named Lana. Global warming has caused an outbreak of new diseases, natural disasters and to make matters worse a comet has just struck Silver City, the town where Lana lives.

Because of the comet, Lana finds the majority of the townsfolk transformed into hideous monsters by a new virus. Players must fight off infection by either taking medical units from dead soldiers or from a strange girl named Amy. Amy has the ability to heal Lana as well as keep her free from the virus. The army and the monsters want Amy’s ability for themselves so you must do your best to escape Silver City alive with her.

The game will allow different approaches to situations, including spying on enemies from inside closets or sneaking around them. You can also engage them in combat but Lana isn’t a trained fighter which means that this is not always the best choice. An interesting note is that if Lana becomes infected, monsters will usually ignore her. However if Lana is not cured quickly she still can die. So far only three locations have been mentioned, these include a train station, the city streets and of course a hospital. No word on how much Amy will cost but this game certainly has me reaching for my pocketbook.

Ocarina of Time 3D soundtrack offer extended until midnight today!

Travis Bruno
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0

Ocarina of Time 3D was released yesterday and as I wrote previously, if you purchased the game you could register it at Club Nintendo to receive a free soundtrack CD sometime in the near future. Now while my registration and subsequent CD order went off without a hitch, lots of Zelda fans were unable to take advantage of this offer due to failed email confirmations and the Club Nintendo site itself crashing.

Nintendo has now offered a new extension to the deal however for those still looking to purchase Ocarina of Time 3D early and get the soundtrack. The page has been updated to say that the cutoff point for CDs will be Midnight (12AM) Pacific Time on June 20th, which is tonight. Nintendo says that those who have yet to receive their email confirmation should receive theirs within seven days of ordering the soundtrack.

Halo Anniversary to feature Kinect support; won’t affect core gameplay

Travis Bruno
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For some people when they hear the word Kinect integration, they cheer. For the rest however they usually just sigh and walk away. Now Microsoft announced today that Halo: Anniversary will indeed feature Kinect integration. In an interview with GameSpot, Microsoft Studios boss Phil Spencer said “As a first party we believe that Kinect will be important to all genres of games even games like Halo Anniversary has Kinect integration.”

Now Halo Anniversary was shown off at E3 earlier this month and we even had a chance to preview some of the content. However there was absolutely zero mention of any Kinect support at the time. One of the Halo Waypoint administrators named ‘bs angel’ helped shine a little light on the topic. He said to everyone:

“Just to let everybody know, the Kinect features we’re exploring with Halo: Anniversary are optional and won’t affect your core gameplay experience. Our mission, from day one, has been to deliver a faithful recreation of the original game, and we remain dedicated to seeing that through to completion.”

From the sound of his explanation this means that the Kinect use will follow along the lines of Mass Effect 3 and Ghost Recon Future Soldier. Meaning that the games will be “Better with Kinect” but not focus entirely on the peripheral.

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