In A Few Short Days…

It’s coming.

By JustMattPwn3r

Internet Game Spotlight: VR Defender Y3k

Despite having one of the most hard-to-remember names ever, VR Defender Y3k is an excellent tower defense game. Viruses are heading towards a server, and it’s up to you to strategically place weapons around the map to stop them from crashing the server. Each virus gives you money when you destroy them, with the tougher enemies netting you more cash. Managing this money is important - will you build another weapon, upgrade your existing ones, or save up the money for more powerful virus-destroying devices, risking the chance that some might get to the server that round? There are a few bugs with the sound effects and music, but that doesn’t stop this game from being very deep and addictive.

Rating: (Everyone) - Content Warnings: None

Play this game here!

By Josh60502

Guitar Hero World Tour for Wii to have Downloadable Content

Yes, it has finally happened. Third Party developers are starting to take the Wii seriously. Guitar Hero 4 (World Tour) will feature all the same content as it’s PS3 and Xbox360 counterparts, which include downloadable songs, creating your own songs, and downloading songs other users created. You’ll be able to save these songs on your limited Wii hard drive, or on to an SD card. I’m just incredibly glad the Wii is getting some damn respect from those 3rd party developers.

Link to information here, in case you don’t believe me.

By BurningBaboon

Serious Game Recommendation for them Long Summer Days (Okami)

Now with summer being here, the gaming world becomes dryer than a camels crotch. I usually look at summer as a time to go back and beat games again, if you got stuck in a game and want to go back beat them, or buy games you missed throughout the year. Some games I’m interested in that came out through the year are No More Heroes and Bioshock. But there is one game that only had positive things said about it and probably flew under your radar, and that game is Okami.

Okami is a game that came out for the PS2 back in 2006 and was recently re-released for the Wii, and it is freaking awesome. A lot of people said that it copied Twilight Princess, but I don’t think that is the case at all. This game may even be better than Twilight Princess. “Whoa, better than Twilight Princess!!!!??? OMG WTF ZOMG!!!” is probably what you are thinking, but let me tell you about Okami first.

Sun goddess, Amaterasu

Okami is an Action RPG where you play as the sun goddess Amaterasu who takes the form of a pure white wolf. The plot of Okami is a really deep engaging one, where you will fall in love with the characters, and you will remember them for years to come. The plot goes something like, a monster attacked 100 years ago and was sealed, but the seal was broken and he is spreading darkness throughout the world. It is more detailed and complicated than that, but that is the gist of it. It is up to Amaterasu to restore beauty to the world.

Okami really gets interesting when it comes to the combat system. You can have 3 different kinds of weapons with several in each category. You can have a main weapon and a sub weapon equipped, having different effects depending on the combination that you have equipped. You can learn new moves from a few dojos throughout Okami’s map, which is pretty large may I add, which spices things up. But the huge thing is you may find yourself not using your weapons much because Amaterasu uses her tail and can paint on the screen. You can do things varying from, slashing opponents in half, summoning bombs, or creating a path of lighting. This really mixes things up in battle and is also used for the puzzling aspect of the game.

Using the paint brush in Okami

The art style of Okami is just gorgeous. It is meant to look like an old Japanese painting, and it does an incredible job. You might just stare at the world and surroundings in awe. This game has only positive things to say about it, except for some annoying load screens, and is about a 50 hour long adventure; well for me at least. Get this game it will keep you entertained all summer long, so you won’t have to go to naughty sites on your family’s computer

By BurningBaboon

Appleseed: Ex Machina Review

Frayed Wire welcomes our newest writer: Legend of Link!

Appleseed: Ex Machina is the second and latest installment in the Appleseed movie trilogy, based on the japanese manga of the same name.

Appleseed has always been a story about the future. It’s world is that of cyborgs, offensive mechs, and, most importantly, a bio-engineered sub-race of humans called the Bioroids, who are designed to be resistant to emotions like hatred and rage. Bioroids are often appointed as leaders and officials. They maintain, uphold, and protect Olympus, the city where this story takes place.

The film takes off as Deunan Knute(a particularly hot and experienced human soldier) and her “friend” and partner Briareos(a cyborg from the war) infiltrate a cathedral occupied by cyborg terrorists. When Briareos gets heavily injured and hospitalized because of a blast, he is temporarily replaced in the battle to stop the terrorists by a Bioroid named Tereus, who was contructed mainly from Briareos’ DNA. So basically Tereus is the spitting image and personality of Briareos before he lost most of his bodyparts and became a cyborg. The result is a setup that may not sound like such a great springboard for a story like this, but looks great in action.

Those that got a chance to check out the first film will find that Ex Machina is a very different yet largely superior animal. However, I urge you to watch it at least the first time in Japanese with English Subtitles. The reason for this is that it was originally released in japanese, so the lip sync, voice acting, dialogue and pace are all superior to the american version, resulting in what is just a plain better quality movie experience. John Woo’s entrancing action sequences don’t need to be dumbed down with swear words that are thrown in where ever possible, which is exactly what the english version attempts to do.

For fans of action flicks all-around, this is certainly something worth checking out. But for fans of japanese animation and John Woo’s choreographic style, Ex Machina is going to be nothing less than a must-see.

Pros: Outstanding visual style and action. Much more character-driven than the first.

Cons: Main plot involving cyborg terrorists relies on what has become a huge cliche in moviemaking. Mediocre english dub.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

By Legend of Link

Teabag Your Way to Fitness With Master Chief

Watch and laugh, or watch and be disgusted. It all depends.

By Josh60502

Cosplay from anime convention

I recently went to a local anime convention and took plenty of pictures. I had a great time and bought a bunch of stuff including a Japanese only game called Band Brothers. Well here are some good (mostly) cosplayers and maybe some other things as well.

Mega Man

Ike

Piranha Plant

Gender confused person

Raptor Jesus

Chell(sp?)

L

Cheeze-it Samurai

TF2 Group

Portal 1

Portal 2

Skull Kid

Pyro and Scout

Ryuk

Cubone

Slash

Shin Chan

Yoshi

Tetra

Big Daddy

Hellboy

idk

Zero Suit Samus

Objection!

Chell and Companion Cube

Mewtwo

Santa Babe (lol)

TF2 masks

Riku

Ashley

Paper Mario

Zant

Midna (hawt)

Mario

By BurningBaboon

How to Unban Yourself From a Website (Change IP Address)

[Admin's Note]: Meet GameShowKid222 (Billy B.), Frayed Wire’s newest writer! Look forward to his wisdom on computer hacks/tips!

This is how you unban yourself from a website. (n00bs)

Before you do all this go to — Start <> Run <> Cmd <> And type ipconfig /release
1.) Open up your notepad. (If you don’t know how then you’re an idiot)

2.) Copy and paste this:

@echo off
title Billy B’s IP Configuration Batch File - 2005
setlocal
set OK=N

:again
set /p choice=Please enter 1[Home], 2[School] or END ??
if /i [%choice%]==[END] endlocal&goto end
if [%choice%]==[] goto again
if [%choice%]==[1] goto 1
if [%choice%]==[2] goto 2
set /p xxx=wrong entry, press any key to exit.
endlocal
goto end

:1
echo NIC setting for Home being configured…..
@netsh exec home.txt
set /p see=IP changed successfully to Home Settings [9]see new setting [Enter]exit…
if [%see%]==[9] goto show
echo Ending IP Configuration
goto end

:2
echo NIC setting for School being configured…..
@netsh exec school.txt
set /p see=IP changed successfully to School Settings [9]see new setting [Enter]exit…
if [%see%]==[9] goto show
echo Ending IP Configuration
goto end

:show
@netsh int ip show config

:end
@echo on
cls

And save it as a .bat

Now open it and type 1 for home and 2 for school.

By GameShowKid222

Nintendo Channel Impressions

The newly released Nintendo Channel for the Wii is in my opinion, one of the only Wii channels truly worth your time. It shows great potential, so I hope it will continue to exceed my expectations in the future.

The whole thing could be described as one giant shameless advertisement, since it consists of product information, videos, and demos. However, I found the whole thing to be rather interesting, so I’d use nicer words in my description.

When you first start it up, a “Digest” video is shown, highlighting recent game releases and videos that can be viewed on the channel. Clicking on the screen will instantly convert the it into fullscreen mode, but as a result the quality will be hurt a small bit. This is understandable, since every video is streaming from the internet, and the compression really doesn’t distract too much. The only thing that does distract you during videos on the Nintendo Channel is the frequent need for buffering, pausing your video for about 5-10 seconds before it starts playing again. Strangely though, I found that by pressing the B button on the Wiimote (this brings up a bar where you can select which part of the video you want to watch) during such instances, you’ll usually be able to stop the buffering and resume the video.

Nine pages of videos are shown on the main page of the channel, but you can easily find more by pressing the “Find Titles For You” button at the top. While you can’t view the entire catalog of Wii and DS games, there’s still hundreds of listed titles, each complete with basic information, a link to its official website, and sometimes a video or two. Included in this catalog are all the Wii Virtual Console games, which excited me because finding videos of those games is now much easier. Too bad some of these videos suck (Phantasy Star II, I’m looking at you). Sometimes it looks like whoever is playing in the video has never tried the game before, and as a result we have to sit through 40 seconds of the noob struggle with the controls. And after watching the above-mentioned Phantasy Star II, you’d never know it’s an RPG since all you see is the player shopping at a store. Exactly what was the viewer supposed to get out of that? Still, most of the videos do give you a fair idea of what the game’s like, and it sure beats blindly downloading the game and realizing how it plays after you’ve already paid for it.

Another interesting feature of the Nintendo Channel is the “Everyone’s Recommendations” section. You can fill out a short survey for Nintendo for any game you’ve played for more than an hour on your Wii. The questions are things like “Which gender was the person who most enjoyed this game in your household?” and “How old were they?”. In the search function of the Nintendo Channel you can search for games based on how people described them in that poll, but so far whenever I’ve tried to search for games that way, I haven’t been able to pull up any results. With time and more poll submissions I think that’ll be fixed, though.

The main attraction for many people (and reason enough to download the channel) is the DS Download Station. You can send demos of DS games to your DS through the Wii. If the demo selection keeps getting updated, this will definitely become one of my favorite parts of the channel. So far I’ve tried the demos for both Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword and Jam Sessions, which both played well and downloaded rather quickly. Now all we need are those Wii demos (and is downloadable content for retail games too much to ask?)…. but until then, I’m glad to see that Nintendo has finally started to embark on the right path in terms of bringing videos and demos to the user through the Wii.

By Josh60502

BurningBaboon’s Top Five Games (ever)

I thought it would be a good idea to list, in my opinion, my top five games. Only games that really have meant something to me make this list, and I hope at some point and time they make an impact on your life as well. All the games are amazing and should definitely be picked up during your life time, or you like guys.

#5 Tales of Symphonia

Where can I begin with this game? It is amazing, My first big RPG and I fell in love with it. Tales of Symphonia is a title in the “Tales of” series and is a classic. First off, this has to be on e of my favorite plots in a video game ever. You’ll feel for the characters, get involved, and some of the story reflects on you decisions through the game. The battle system works great, except in the multiplayer option the camera only focuses on P1. And there aren’t random battles which means a lot to me. The main story took me about 60 hours and there are so many side quests available. And with a sequel coming to Wii play this one right away.

#4 Elite Beat Agents

AGENTS ARE GO!!!(Get game to understand) Elite Beat Agents is a rhythm action game that uses the touch screen of the DS. The story is that people are going through tough times, and the Elite Beat Agents, a secret organization, comes and dances to motivate you to do your best. The characters you help vary from a teenager who is about to go steady with her boyfriend when she is forced to babysit to a white blood cell that needs to fight off a virus. The plot is humorous and you’ll find yourself snickering now and then throughout. There are four difficulties, multiplayer, ranks, and 18 songs, enough to keep you loving this game for a loooong time.

#3 Kingdom Hearts 2

Kingdom Hearts is a surprising mix between Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters, and guess what? It works! Kingdom Hearts is an action RPG and a damn fine one at that. It takes everything from the first one and improves on what was already great. The first Kingdom Hearts had a better plot in my opinion, but the second’s plot is engaging and has some twists and cliff hangers. You travel to worlds of Disney and open the keyhole to stop the heartless from having their way with each of the worlds. The battle system is fast paced and keeps you alert at all times. This game holds my record for longest consecutive play time at thirteen hours, so that’s gotta tell you something.

#2 The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

It’s a Zelda game so of course it’ll be good. Wind Waker was no exception to the trend and it was the first Zelda game I played. Wind Waker brought Link into a new light with his spiffy new Cel-Shaded look some people thought this was an odd move, but it added so much character to the game. The plot is good just like in about any Zelda game, but it stands out because of some twists here and there. It play’s like any other Zelda game, go to temples, get something that helps save the world, and get new weapons here and there. Wind Waker hold’s a special place in my sexy heart because of its style, plot, and addictive game play. You’ll want to play through this game several times, it’s that fun.

#1 Super Smash Bros. Brawl

I don’t know what I can say that you already haven’t heard about Brawl. It’s amazing. Melee was in this spot before Brawl because even after having Melee for six years, I still loved playing it. Brawl surpasses Melee in many ways so it now has the number one spot. 35 characters to choose from(some characters that were really deserving didn’t make it however…), 40-some stages plus whatever your sick mind can think of in Stage Builder, Subspace Emissary, 700 stickers, 544 trophies, 258 songs to unlock, and so many other things I can’t even think of. If you don’t have this game and you own a Wii the chances you are a terrorist are rather high. GET IT!

Well I hope you some day own all the games listed above and you enjoy them well. There are some games I really really like that didn’t make the list unfortunately so I’ll list some of them below. I strongly advise you buy these games as well. (Bold titles indicate a must buy!)

God of war I & II(PS2), Okami(PS2), Guitar Hero series(multi console), Shadow of the Colossus(PS2), Radiata Stories(PS2), Metroid Prime 1,2,and 3(GCN/ Wii),Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door(GCN), Kingdom Hearts 1 and Chain of Memories(PS2, GBA), New Super Mario Bros(DS), Animal Crossing Wild World(DS), The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass(DS), A WarioWare game(GBA,DS,GCN,Wii), Tetris DS(DS), Mario Kart DS or Wii(DS/Wii), Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess(Wii), Super Paper Mario(Wii), Fire Emblem Sacred Stones(GBA), Super Mario Galaxy(Wii), Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition(Wii), Sonic Battle(GBA), Metroid Fusion(GBA), and Mario and Luigi Super Star Saga or Partners in Time(GBA/DS).

By buying any of these game you are doing yourself a favor.

By BurningBaboon