Hybrid Blu-Ray/DVD Coming..., Soon?

Only in Japan, that is!
Yes! Yet again Japan gets all the cool stuff first. Infinity Storage House has recently announced a Blu-Ray/DVD Disc. This disc will be a dual-layer disc that can be read on both Blu-Ray players and DVD players. This is a great idea because it will create a universal disc that can be read by any player. Here's an image of how the hybrid disc works;


The top layer consists of the Blu-Ray and the lower layer is the DVD. Simple, right? In general terms a blue laser will read the bluray layer and the red laser will read the DVD layer. Simple as that!

Source: Read Write Web

Gamasutra Lists Their Top 5 Handheld Games of the Year

This is actually a pretty good listing. I haven't played all the titles but I read what they posted about each title and can agree with them 100%.

5) The World Ends With You (Square Enix/Jupiter, DS)
4) Aurora Feint (Danielle Cassley/Jason Citron, iPhone)
3) Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer (Chunsoft, DS)
2) Patapon (Pyramid/Japan Studios, PSP)
1) Space Invaders Extreme (Taito/Gulti, DS/PSP)

I'm glad to see that the list made sense. I can't wait to see what they post for 2009's Top 5 Handheld Games!

Source: Gamasutra

Gaming Takes Part In Murder, Insanity Blamed

We all remember my posting a few days ago about Daniel Petric, right? Well it seems that his lawyer wants to claim "Insanity due to video game addiction." I'm not sure if this is the correct route to go with this, but who am I in legalities and homicide. His lawyer got Petric's sister and a friend to witness on his behalf, stating that during the time he was home-ridden he became addicted to video games.

But wait, there's more!

According his family and friends, Daniel was kicked out of the house a week prior to the incident that killed his mother and injured his father due to playing video games. This shows that he and his father were already stressed due to Daniel's "addiction" to video games. Petric's friend was then cross-examined and was asked if Halo 3 was the reason why he tried to kill his parents. The answer was "No."


Daniel Petric told the adolescent forensic psychologist during a pre-trial mental health evaluation that he had thought about killing his parents weeks before the homicide took place. Between that and his attempt to make the crime scene look like a murder-suicide between his parents, I don't think the insanity plea is going to work.

With Daniel having waived the right to a trial by jury, it is now up to County Common Pleas Judge James Burge to render a verdict, which will be announced on January 7th.

To be honest I don't think that Daniel Petric is innocent. I also think that he should be tried as an adult due to it being contemplated before the act.

Souce: Kotaku

Metal Gear Sold Touch Coming Soon

According to GamePro Metal Gear Solid Touch is coming to the iPhone sometime in the spring.
This is really good news for fans of the franchise. This is also good news for iPhone and iPod Touch owners. I'm just not sure where I stand on the matter. I'm not sure if motion and multi-touch surfaces will mix well with this game. Maybe Super Mario Bros. but not Metal Gear Solid. We will have to wait and see.

Source: GamePro, Kotaku

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots..., Sackboy's?

For those who love to play Little Big Planet, there's now confirmation from the Japanese PlayStation store that has MGS:4 characters listed for download. There are no prices set, as of yet, but will hopefully be soon. Good tidings for all!

Source: Kotaku

Gaming Takes Part In Murder, For Real This Time

When Halo 3 launched about a year ago the parents of Daniel Petric were shot for having taken away his copy of the game. This, for once, has concrete evidence to support the case of video game violence and adolescents.


Petric's parents, Mark and Susan, cared about their son and what games he played. They told Petric that he wasn't able to get the game and he decided to sneak out of the house to make the purchase, against his father's orders. His parents caught him with the game and took it from him. His father put the game in a lockbox in a closet where he also kept a 9mm handgun.

About a month later Petric got the game out of the lockbox. He also took the 9mm handgun with him to the living room and said, as he sat on the couch behind his parents, "Would you guys close your eyes? I have a surprise for you." With that moment at hand, young Daniel Petric shot his mother and his father in the head. His mother died instantly but his father survived. Mark, Daniel's father, said his son shoved the gun into his hand saying, "Hey Dad, here's your gun. Take it."

After the shooting young Petric's sister and her husband came to the door. Daniel said that his parents were in a big argument and said for them to not come in. As reported by the Northeast Ohio News section of Cleveland.com states;

"The couple, Heidi and Andrew Archer, testified they heard a moan - possibly their names being groaned - from inside the house, pushed their way in and found the elder Petric wounded and his wife dead. The elder Petric, through his shattered jaw, managed to say his son had shot him, while Daniel tried to blame his father.

Heidi Archer called 9-1-1 and then realized that Daniel had picked up the handgun that had been lying on the couch. Her husband took the gun from the boy, who gave it up without resistance.

The boy ran out of the house and fled in the family van. He was caught by Wellington police a short time later, the Halo 3 game still on the front seat."

Apparently Daniel had suffered from a snowboarding accident to where he was homebound for a year with nothing to do but watch television and play video games. During this time he grew to love the game series by playing it at his friends' homes. His father forbade these games in the house because they were too violent and sexually explicit.

I think it's clear to say that the parents made the right decision to enforce their belief of video game violence to protect their son. However, it backfired on the family. During the court proceedings his family stated that they want him to come home. They cannot heal as a family until they are a whole family. I'm not sure what to think of that. Maybe they don't want to lose another family member to violence.

Source: GamePro

Conviction Dated for PlayStation 3, too!

Originally intended solely for the XBox360 and PC's, Splinter Cell Conviction is now coming to the PlayStation 3. This is good for PS3 owners that are fans of the popular game series. They've also dated it as a simultaneous release to arrive at retailers with the other systems, respectively.

According to retailers the release date for the game is,as of the moment, April 1^st, 2009. Bear in mind that whenever retailers make release dates known, some developers change release dates.

This is the original trailer created for the first release date in 2007.



Source: Computer and Videogames (CVG)
Game Trailers

White Knight Chronicles - New Screens

I missed yesterdays update on White Knight Chronicles for the PlayStation 3. Level-5 revealed new screen shots. I'm sure they posted the pictures on their own site, but I'm linking to the first place I saw the screens posted. If you'd like to view all of the pictures on IGN's web site, simply click on the picture above.

Being that it's release date has yet to be announced I'm hoping that the release is within the first two quarters of 2009. I don't want to have to wait for the holiday season to get a copy of this game.

PlayStation 2 Downloadable Games

Sony has revealed that they are interested in bringing downloadable games to the PlayStation 3. In the story at Kotaku, John Koller [of Sony] states "We've concentrated most of our efforts on our download service, both rentals and downloads of movies and TV shows," he says. "Our efforts will continue to be there, because our customers want to own the content."

Sony has little, to no, interest in bringing Netflix content to the PlayStation 3 any time soon. Netflix has already made mention that they would like to provide content and Sony hasn't taken it into consideration just yet. Koller explains that there are "positives" to the XBox360 experience, with Netflix, but he doesn't want to get involved in the confusion of "owning content."


Source: Kotaku, GamePro: Sony talks PlayStation 3, PSP success in 2009.

Barack Obama Criticizm Takes A Different Turn

Throughout the election President Elect Barack Obama has fallen under scrutiny and speculation. Today's Yahoo Homepage (blurbs, links, etc.) has an article titled Court: No review of Obama's eligibility to serve. The article tells of a recent appeal to the Supreme Court that Obama wasn't born in America. He was born with a dual nationality. Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J. claims that this doesn't make Obama a "natural born citizen."

Here's a link to the article that I referenced above. Read it and understand it. Then tell me if President Elect Barack Obama isn't eligible to become the next President of the United States of America.

Here's a little video preview of Level 5's White Knight Chronicles.

I've been watching this game ever since it's announcement a few years ago. This game is one of the primary reasons I bought a PlayStation 3. As of right now it's coming out towards the end of the calendar year in Japan. No word yet on a worldwide release.

Good Morning Neverland!

Greetings and salutations to all!

Welcome to my new blog! I intend to make your stay as interesting as it is informative. Interesting in a way of "whoa that's cool" and informative as in "wow, I didn't know that." As I said. Interesting and informative.

My name is QMarc80. I'm a gamer. I'm an avid anime fan. I consider myself a well-informed person when it comes to my passions. Aside from video games and anime, there's also school. School is important for anyone. It doesn't matter if it's part-time, three-quarter-time, or full-time. Just as long as school is there. You never know how much you will learn about until you get there.

"I am a student of life."
-Kintaro Oe, Golden Boy