Titanfall 2 Announced(ish)

EA and Respawn have announced that they are going to announce Titanfall 2 on June 12th. And for this Announcement they have released the following trailer.

Right now we don't now much about the game, just that it is happening and it will be out for Xbox One, PC and PS4.

Fingers crossed that this time we get an actual single-player campaign. I really enjoyed the multi-player, but would get bored quickly. I also don't care as much for only multiplayer games. There is a reason I don't have Battlefront or why I have not played Call of Duty or Battlefield. 

The Professional Gamer - April 18, 2016

This has been the week where I had something scheduled to do every evening.  In spite of that, I managed to play a lot of video games this week.  However, I only managed to watch a very small amount of anime.  Anyway, read on to find out what I've been doing for the past week.

Let's start off with the shortest discussion.  I'm down to the final episode of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.  At this point, I'm expected the series to end one of two ways: either everybody lives or everybody dies.  I'll probably find out next week.  I also ended up showing Golden Boy to some friends.  I'd forgotten exactly how lewd this series was.  It's so bad; but it's also a lot of fun.  And the friends enjoyed it too!

While I was waiting at some of my meeting commitments, I played some Fantasy Life.  Once I finished Ocarina of Time last week, I needed to find something else to play.  And so, I've spent a bunch of effort on increasing some of my crafting and gathering professions.  To some degree, its a lot of work, but I'm having fun with it.

Finally, I've continued working towards a new ship in Elite: Dangerous, but don't feel like I've made a huge amount of progress this week.  To be honest, 2 million credits is nothing to sneeze at, but I've still got another 9 million to go.

That's all I've got for this week.  See you next time and game on!

Anime Southwest is Coming

Good news (I hope) anime fans! Denver is getting a forth anime convention. Anime Southwest is being held April 29 - May 1st at the Ramada Plaza at I-25 and 120th Ave. This convention is being put on by the group known as Sukoshi Con who have done other anime conventions across the country, so they do bring some experience with them. To some this group may sound familiar, and yes they have worked with Animeland Wasabi, possibly the most controversial convention in town on whether one should go or not. Well while they have worked with them they are a separate group and deserve the benefit of the doubt. So why should you got to Anime Southwest? Well that is always the question.

The panels / events of Anime Southwest include the standard array of costume contest and a dance. For Utena fans there will also be a Rose Ball where you can "Dance the evening away in a rose filled wonderland". The guests will also be holding their own panels. Samantha Inoue-Harte, whom has worked in over 33 anime titles and video games, will have panels about Auditioning for Video Game Voice Acting, Old School Anime Fandom, and what it is like Inside the Japanese Anime Studio. Then we have Blake Shepard who has been working in anime for over 10 years by lending his voice to shows such and Angel Beats, Sacred Blacksmith, One Piece, Air Gear, Elfen Lied and more. He is also a animator and will be doing an Animation 101 panel over the weekend. Kazha is also attending as a musical guest so we can expect to see a concert on the schedule. Lastly we will see two cosplay guests, DugFinn Cosplay and Umbra Cosplay. 

Hopefully we will see more events as the convention closes in. If you want to pre-registers you can do so here for $45.00 for all three days. Look forward to seeing you there.

The Professional Gamer - April 11, 2016

I feel like I just keep having very busy weeks, but I'm still managing to have a little fun on the side,  I've watched a little TV and played some video games.  Read on to find out what I've been doing.

First, I've watched a few more episodes of Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash.  The series has been slow going for a few reasons.  The violence is rather brutal and the character relationships are nuanced and requires a high degree of attention.  I'm glad that after some of the initial pain in the series, that things are going better for the main characters.  I'm constantly worried that everything is going to go downhill again at some point soon.

Some of you may be aware that Nintendo released their new social network platform Miitomo this past week.  I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.  It feels like Nintendo has combined the typical social platform with a game.  Also, lots of questions.  Kinda like doing speed dating or a network event.

Speaking of Nintendo, I finally went back and finished my playthrough of Ocarina of Time on my 3DS.  I'd left myself at a point where I could basically have explored Ganon's tower and finished the game.  I don't recall what the circumstance that led me to leaving my save file in such a state.  I'm just glad that I managed to finish it now,

Lastly, I've been playing a little more Elite: Dangerous. I feel like I've got my ship fairly well equipped., since I was able to take down 2 NPC's without any aid.  Which is considerably better than I've had previously.  And, I'm about halfway to earning my next goal ship. Yay!

The Professional Gamer - April 4, 2015

Hi everyone, sorry for no article last week, but with extra work hours and DINK, I didn't have the time to do much for fun, let alone write an article about it.  Anyways, lets talk about what I've been doing this week.

First, I've managed to find a few spare hours to dedicate to Elite: Dangerous, and am a bit closer to getting to a new ship.  I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy merchant ship (most likely a Type 7) or an explorer (most likely an Asp).  At this point, flying out into the black sounds like a nice change of pace compared to flying between stations selling stuff.

I'm looking forward to the upcoming DLC for Hyrule Warriors, and in anticipation have been playing a little bit more, trying to finish up all of the adventure maps, and level up the characters a little bit more.  I'm not sure if I'll buy the Game Boy version of the game, but since a portion of the DLC will be available for the WiiU only, that should be a lot of fun.

Finally, I've been watching Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, which might be the most depressing version of .hack//SIGN that I've seen to date.  There was a weird amount of fanservice in the first few episodes.  But that seems to have died off as we have had some more serious events transpire.

That's all I've got for this week.  We'll catch you again soon.

Jim at Denver Independent Comics Arts Festival (DINK)

This has ended up being a year for a lot of firsts.  First year for a new anime convention and now the first year of an independent comics festival.  The first year of the Denver Independent Comic Arts Festival (DINK) seemed to be mostly successful.  I can't speak to the degree of financial success (either for the artists or the organizers), but there was a wide variety of artists and panels presented.  I had a lot of fun listening to some comics artists talking about autobio comics and the history and future of underground comics.  I also went to a workshop about how to make a zine, which got me out of my shell enough to make a short autobio zine.

I had a lot of fun.  My only regret, was that I did not have the budget to buy all of the amazing comics that I saw.  I hope that this convention can continue for many more years, since its a great change of pace compared to the large, mainstream comics conventions that are typical.

The Professional Gamer - March 21, 2016

This has been a week full of emotions.  As you may have noted in my article last week, I started watching Your Lie in April last week.  I finished up the series on Thursday of this week, and was pretty much left an emotional wreck at the end of it.  Although emotional draining, the series was really great.  It has a really uplifting message about artistic endeavor and recovery after trauma.  There were a few cases where I felt that the series pushed a little too hard to produce an emotional response.  For the majority of the series, however, the pathos generated was genuine.  The animation was of very good quality through the entire series, with some great use of computer animation to produce the instruments, especially the piano.  There are some great sweeping shots going the from the stage area with Arima at the piano, to inside the piano showing the action of the hammers and dampers.  And they blend the CG well with the traditional animation.

Overall, I recommend the series.  But keep in mind that it could leave you emotionally drained.  Personally, I recommend following up Your Lie in April with a large dose of Joy of Painting with Bob Ross.

StarFest in Pictures

I love geek conventions. There is always so much to see in such a small amount of time. In order to try and remember everything that happened I let my photographers ADD go wild, and here are results.

These photos can also be seen here.