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Watch Disgaea 5's anime opening take on an army
There's something very apt about a half-operatic, half-rock ballad for a Disgaea opening, and for me this one is a decent track too. Also, is that Psyduck in demon form at 0:54? So anyway, Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance hits Japan on March 26 and the West sometime this fall. [Image: Nippon Ichi Software]
Expansions, introductions, and the rails
I was reading through twitter (like you do) when I came across an interesting conversation involving Jeremy "Muffinus" Feasel - he asked the question how long is too long for an expansion intro? Well, he asked it better than that. .@DonaldHindle @tanjon Here's a Q for you, what's the right amount of time for an intro experience before you're left to explore on your own - Jeremy Feasel (@Muffinus) April 19, 2014 But it still amounts to the same question, and it got me interested. Some expansions had extremely minimal introductions - The Burning Crusade, for instance, basically shoved you through the portal, handed you a few breadcrumb quests and said you figure it out, while Wrath basically had two starter zones so four different starts (two per faction) but still got you into the questing fairly quickly. Ultimately, though, those expansions had new races or classes, so you still got an introductory experience, just not necessarily for your max level character. Rolling a DK, blood elf or draenei, you had a more involved introduction to the expansion than you did as a formerly max level character embarking on the new climb to max level. Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria continued this to some extent - if you were a level 80 character, you didn't get much more introduction than 'bad stuff is happening, you can go here or here' but the two zone options, Hyjal and Vashj'ir, were very detailed and had extended sections of on-rails questing. Cataclysm also had two complete starting zones for worgen and goblins that served as introductions to the meat of the expansion. Mists had the pandaren starting zone, but it also had the Jade Forest which had an outright introductory feel that was a lot stronger than any zone introduction had ever been, combining elements of the DK starting zone and the Vashj'ir start.
LinkedIn shutting down iOS Intro integration, and other news for Feb. 10, 2014
LinkedIn has announced that it will shut down its Intro service next month. LinkedIn Intro was introduced last fall and was unique in that it used clever coding to connect LinkedIn contacts data with iOS' Mail app on the iPhone. Intro was actually a clever integration of the service for LinkedIn power users. Each time a user received an email in iOS' Mail app, a LinkedIn banner would appear above the message to show the user how they were connected to the sender via LinkedIn. However, in order to achieve this, LinkedIn used some clever coding (though still not breaking any of Apple's existing rules) and did not work with Apple in any way on the service. In a blog post announcing the forthcoming shutdown of the service on March 7, LinkedIn said: We are shutting down LinkedIn Intro as of March 7, 2014. Intro was launched last year to bring the power of LinkedIn to your email inbox on your iPhone. While Intro is going away, we will continue to work on bringing the power of LinkedIn to wherever our members work. Email, where the average professional spends more than a quarter of their time, is one of those places, so we'll continue to look for ways to bring this kind of functionality to our members through existing partnerships. Users of Intro will be able to uninstall it between now and March 7 and switch back to their previous mail accounts. Members can continue to use Rapportive, which brings the power of LinkedIn to Gmail. There are no signs Apple has asked LinkedIn to shut down Intro and the two companies appear to have a good relationship, as LinkedIn support is baked into OS X 10.9. Given that Intro was a useful solution that added context to messages, here's hoping Apple and LinkedIn might be working together to add more integration between the professional network and iOS in iOS 8. In other news: If you are interested in the legal complexities of dealing with the justice systems in America and Italy while trying to obtain an iPhone's passcode lock to solve a murder case, read this interesting article about how international criminal law can be so confusing to navigate. Speaking of laws... a judge has denied Samsung's request for a new trial in the never-ending Apple vs. Samsung battle that feels like it has entered its fifth decade now.
LinkedIn Intro puts the power of LinkedIn directly into your iPhone email inbox
Like it or not, email is still central to the vast majority of workplace communications, so we suppose it was only a matter of time before professional network LinkedIn integrated into your inbox. That time is now. LinkedIn Intro is a new service that brings folks' LinkedIn info accessible directly from the iPhone's email app. Essentially, this means that an additional pane will appear in individual emails just below the subject line that shows a person's LinkedIn profile picture, title and employer. Tap that pane, and it expands to reveal the rest of their info, like employment history and education -- and, you can add people to your LinkedIn network straight from your email. Sound good? You can sign up for Intro at the source below, and see it in action in the video after the break.
Discover the origins of New Eden and the Melding in Firefall's opening cinematic
Last weekend we gave you a look at Red 5 Studios' upcoming MMOFPS, Firefall, and all of its glorious shooter action. What we didn't really take a look at, however, is the lore of the game. After all, why is everyone running around in crazy armor and shooting everyone else? And why is the last bastion of humankind on the planet a Brazilian island resort? The studio intends to answer some of these questions with today's release of the game's introductory cinematic. And man, is it heavy. From the looks of things, humanity decided it was about time to try its luck with faster-than-light travel and failed miserably, causing a gargantuan starship to come crashing into the Earth... right on top of Brazil. But wait! If the starship crashed on Brazil, then why is it still around? Because the starship's wreckage, and the energy field it generates, is the only thing currently keeping the Melding at bay, leaving the surrounding area as the only currently inhabitable site on Earth. Could have been worse, I say; at least Brazil's pretty even after the apocalypse.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: Watch the Alliance intro to Pandaria
You've seen Garrosh get mad at a goblin and toss him around the throne room. Now, watch as Varian Wrynn shouts about the missing White Pawn. Join the elite SI:7 team on a mission to rescue priority target White Pawn. Lost in uncharted waters, you and SI:7 take to the skies on the important mission. The Alliance introduction is metered and well played out. I like the focus back on the Horde and Alliance conflict -- it feels like an old friend you haven't seen in a long time but can quickly pick up the conversation with again. Suffice to say, I'm liking this brand of cinematic storytelling over the Uldum type any day. It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Watch My Intro, Touch My Katamari
There are two things you're never too old for: Eating the stick from your Lik-M-Aid Fun Dip before the powder, and the world of Katamari. So go on: Treat yourself to the above nostalgic madness from PS Vita launch title Touch My Katamari as you meditate on just what a fantastic name that really is.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm intro unleashes Deathwing
If you've been keeping up on your World of Warcraft lore, you may know this infuriated beast as Neltharion The Earth-Warder. But once you've seen Blizzard's introductory cinematic to the WoW: Cataclysm expansion, you'll see why his second name -- Deathwing the Destroyer -- is the only one on his business card.
Sonic fans remix Sonic 4 intro, get way too excited
Oh, Sonic fans. Every time a new Sonic is announced, you joke about not getting fooled again and you promise that, this time, you won't be taken in. And we believe you -- why would you go back to Sonic after everything he's done to you? But then a few weeks go by, and suddenly we click a link and find you remixing the 10 seconds of intro screen music that's been revealed from Sonic 4. Seriously? Did you have to create a rock version, an 8-bit version and even a Dreamcast-style version? Sure, they're cool, and sure, we've embedded them after the break, but isn't this exactly the kind of excitement we all agreed we wouldn't have for the new game? Yes, we're glad to see that longtime Sonic musician Jun Senoue has been announced as the composer for new game, and we're looking forward to hearing more music when the Sega blog releases it. But as your history teacher said, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Let's wait until we play the game before we start remixing it 10 seconds at a time.
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep intro video released
The latest portable iteration of Squeenix's keyblade-wielding franchise, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, also known as "Not The Card-Battling One" or "Not The One With The Stupid Numbers On The Title," recently got released in Japan. Without hesitation, its purchasers set to capturing its visual delights, which they then posted on the internet. One such delight is the game's intro video, which we've posted after the jump. As you might've guessed, it's rich with spiky-haired children wielding weapons bigger than they are, slow-motion running, and that one song that's been in every Kingdom Hearts game ever. It was even in the Kingdom Hearts manga, which is impressive as books typically aren't capable of playing music. [Via Siliconera]
Watch Shanghai blow up in Army of Two: The 40th Day's intro
Modern Warfare 2 has made blowing up American capitals so passé. EA Montreal is far more visionary, preemptively blowing up the largest city of our future masters: Shanghai. The explosive intro to Army of Two: The 40th Day certainly fits the studio's new "blockbuster-type" focus and reassures doubters that this game will be a more serious affair than the first. Perhaps you've noticed the deliberate lack of bromance in this clip?
Sing along with the intro to Phantasy Star Portable 2
There's a lot of reason to be excited for the upcoming Phantasy Star Portable 2. Well, there's at least one reason that stands out quite a bit: online Infrastructure support. The Sega-developed RPG was always meant to be played with friends, but the first game was relegated to local Ad-Hoc support. With the addition of Infrastructure, we can play PSP the way it was meant to be played.The Japanese website for PSP2 has been updated with the intro movie to the game which features a theme song by Hideaki Kobayashi. Don't be surprised if you find yourself humming along to the catchy, English language chorus. Phantasy Star Universe ...[Via PSPHyper]
Persona's opening movie is catchy, stylish
With Persona's PSP port arriving in Japan soon, Atlus has just revealed the game's brand new intro -- and it's as stylish as those seen in the modern PS2 Persona games. The theme music also has that right Persona Jpop vibe -- classy, without being too upbeat. We're going to be listening to this track a few times during our blogging shift today.[Via PSPHyper]
WoW Insider Show Episode 78: Thrusting Hodir's shoot 'em up aces high
It was chaos on the WoW Insider Show this past week -- we had Zach Yonzon on from the Philippines, Turpster in from England, and Michael Sacco from Austin, TX, so we were stretched across the world (and you can probably hear it in our audio). But we still got some good WoW discussion in, including our favorite daily quests (I've done Shoot 'Em Up every day since we recorded this, and I still really like it), a little bit about Ulduar and what we might find in there, and the coming PTR and what we might see there as well.Plus, as scrambled and confusing as this show may be, it has probably the funniest moment in my memory of all our recordings -- I think we were all pretty much "ROFL" at the new Meat of the Show intro, as they say on the Internet. If you want to send in an intro, a comment, or anything else, feel free to send it along to theshow@wow.com, and you might even hear it on the next recording, next Saturday at 3:30 Eastern as usual.Enjoy. We'll see you next week.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
WoW Insider Show Episode 77: The Lady Factor
We had a great time on the WoW Insider Show this past weekend -- Turpster and I welcomed back Michael Sacco (formerly known as Belfaire on the official forums and now a blogger here on WoW Insider) and manly man Matthew Rossi to talk about what's coming up in patch 3.0.9, what we thought of the dual spec news we heard last week, and our progress (or lack thereof, apparently) on the Love is in the Air event. We also answered lots of emails from listeners, and speculated on what Blizzard's future release schedule might look like.And a huge thanks to all of our listeners for hitting 4,000 fans on our Facebook page -- Turpster's song is coming soon (hopefully next week), and as a mini-reward this week, by request, here's a downloadable version of Sammy T's great "Meat of the Show" song (just right-click save as, and if you do anything with it, be sure to let us know).Our next goal has to do with our Twitter page -- as we announced on the show, if we can get "over 9000" Twitter followers there, we'll do a video version of our podcast, either with ingame video or Turpster and me on camera ourselves. So tell your friends and Twitter followers to check us out over there. Enjoy the show, and we'll see you as always next week.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
WoW Insider Show Episode 70: The year that was
It was a great time as always this weekend on our podcast -- Dan O'Halloran, Adam Holisky and I all went on the virtual airwaves to talk about WoW's extra half-million players, answer lots of reader emails, and run through the top 10 posts of 2008 (along with a little insight on how they came together and what was really popular on the site this year). It was a lot of fun to make, and hopefully you'll enjoy listening to it as well.Plus, this show was our first with a fanmade intro -- big thanks to Mialoha on Hydraxis for stepping up and being first. We've got a few more in the buffer, but if you'd like to make an intro to the show (and do a shoutout to your guild, toss in a plug for your own website, or just say something funny about Turpster), all you need to do is record an mp3, and email it to our email address: theshow@wow.com. That is, of course, also the place to send any questions, comments, or what have you for us.It was great to put a capper on 2008, but we'll be back next Saturday at 3:30pm Eastern over on Ustream as always (and the T tells me he'll be back) with yet another 52 shows about WoW Insider and World of Warcraft. See you then.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
Year-ending WoW Insider Show live this afternoon
Our podcast will be live once again this afternoon (3:30 pm eastern), and since it's been a relatively slow week with the holiday and all, we're going to spend today's show looking back at the top 10 posts of the last year. Co-lead Dan O'Halloran will be on board with us, as will Adam Holisky, and unless Turpster is still in too much of a haze from his holiday festivities last week, he should be around as well. Should be a great time.If you want to join us, feel free -- we'll be live over on Ustream at 3:30pm Eastern (and I've also embedded the feed right after the break on this very post). As always, you can email us as well, at theshow@wow.com (and that's also the place to send your intros, as we said on last week's show -- we've gotten a few amazing ones already, so you'll hear our first one on the show today). And if you do stop by the show, make sure to save some time to stay afterwards, as we've been doing a quick, exclusive aftershow after we stop the usual recordings.We'll see you this afternoon for the very last WoW Insider Show of 2008, and a look at the most popular posts on the site over the last 12 months.
WoW Insider Show Episode 69: Azeroth's Next Top Models
This week on the podcast we welcomed back BRK to talk about some things that didn't involve Hunters, including (but not limited to) Winter's Veil and how to take down heroic Loken, and Amanda Dean also joined us to talk about why she's Scrooge-y on the Winter's Veil stuff (I am too, though I am excited about the presents we're going to get on Thursday) and why people may or may not be civil when PuGging. And we talked about the Sons of Hodir quest chain, answered some questions from the email, and just had a great time talking about World of Warcraft.It was a nice, relaxed show, and hopefully you'll enjoy it -- you can listen below, or use one of the myriad ways that we have to listen, including subscribing to the show in iTunes (and reviewing us if you do head over there -- some of the reviews on our listing are a little old).We'll be back next weekend after the holiday, and if you are handy with a mic and a computer, we've got a little favor to ask after the break -- check it out if you want to try to get your voice on our show.Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[Ustream] Listen to the unedited recording in Ustream.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
Disaster: Day of Cliche
Oh, man. Listen, Disaster: Day of Crisis is a game we've been waiting on for a long, long time. We like the idea. We like what we've seen. We even like this video (showing off nine minutes of opening gameplay, including the intro movie), despite the questionable YouTube quality. It looks pretty decent and more than playable. We daresay it could even be fun. But the dialogue is a little lacking.Okay. Let's get real: it's repetitive, unrealistic, and silly. But hey, we're used to less-than-stellar game writing, and Disaster has one thing going for it at the start: a hero with an indestructible noggin -- and that's all any action game really needs, right? Gallery: Disaster: Day of Crisis [Thanks, Alex!]
Metal Gear Solid 4 intro video sneaks out
The intro for Metal Gear Solid 4 is up and let us tell you: War, it has, like, totally changed. There aren't any real spoilers in the video above, so feel free to watch; unless you've been avoiding all media on MGS4 and its story so far.For those who have been paying attention to the media and still know next to nothing about what's going on in the MGS plotline (join the club), sit tight and wait until GameTrailers' excellent Metal Gear Retrospective starts making sense of it all. With any luck, MGS4 will come with an optional, "Previously on Metal Gear Solid" opening.
