When we last left our heroes…

“What was that?” Ash asks as he studies the rainbow colored “water” dripping from him.

Brock draws his blade and walks outside, only pausing to take his harp case from the closet at the entrance. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t look friendly!”

Episode 5: Fighting Outside the Canon

Ash, Dawn, and Raina dash outside, where they find Brock staring down the creature. It unleashes a whinny-like roar, but Brock is unfazed by the noise. “A serpent horse…” Raina gasps. “No one has ever battled one and lived to tell about it!”

“Well, I’m going to try and be the first!” Brock snaps back before calling “Icy wind, take flight through the stars! Snow Firefly!” With that, he begins a rendition of a song Dawn recognizes as Zelda’s Lullaby, creating small fairy-like creatures in the stream of light blue energy.

“Where’s Happini?” Ash asks in a panic.

“I have her for the time being…” Dawn replies, showing Happini, who is crying profusely, to Ash.

“It’s gonna be okay…” Ash tries to assure Happini but the rumbling of the serpent horse trying to swat away the icy fairies and the harpist conjuring them with rocks suggests otherwise.

“The best way to attack a serpent horse at to attack from a long range, be this through a weapon or magic.” Raina suggests as the serpent horse smacks a hoof on the ground, prompting Brock to roll out of the way of the resulting avalanche of rocks and find a safe place to perform more Song Magic.

“Then I’m going to give Brock some help!” Ash runs over to a small knoll and waits for Brock to join him there. Once his friend is safe, he takes his bow and readies an arrow. “Wings of flame, bring dawn to a dark sky! Flame Tail!” With that, the arrow flies towards the serpent horse, into flames while in the air. The monster roars in pain, but the flames fizzle out a few seconds later.

Ash is shocked. “Did it not work?”

“No, you wounded it a little…” Brock starts as the sepent horse writhes in pain from the arrow embedded in its coils. Suddenly, the serpent horse picks up the arrow in its mouth and bites it in half!

“You were saying?” Dawn sighs over Happini’s squalling.

“You have a sword too, you know!” Ash is just as frustrated.

“Okay, let’s see how this will do…” Brock draws his blade and aims it at the serpent horse as it lumbers closer and closer to the hill. “Spirits of the colorborn, sing in tune with my call…Harmony Blade!” At this, a rainbow beam flies from the sword, making the serpent horse rear back in pain.

Dawn sets Happini on the ground. “I’m going to give your daddy some help fighting that monster, okay?” Happini smiles through her tears–maybe there’s hope for her caretakers after all!

Brock motions for Ash and Dawn to join him on the knoll. “Okay…I’m going to stun this guy again with Harmony Blade, then you two attack while it’s stunned–maybe if three attacks hit at the same time, it’ll weaken it a little.”

“Got it!” Dawn replies.

“Although…where are we supposed to hit it if we don’t know where its weak spot is?” Ash shudders as the serpent horse demolishes an abandoned house.

“Would you happen to know, Raina?” Dawn asks.

“Every creature has its own weak point.” Raina explains. “As for what the serpent horse’s is, that is one of the few I do not know.”

Ash grumbles as he readies an arrow. “Let’s try the same place I hit before!”

“Spirits of the colorborn, sing in tune with my call…Harmony Blade!” At this, a rainbow beam flies from Brock’s sword, making the serpent horse rear back in pain again as the beam impacts the creature’s stomach in an explosion of color.

“Wings of flame, bring dawn to a dark sky! Flame Tail!” The serpent horse roars again as Ash’s arrow lands a little to the left of his previous shot.

“Earth, fire, wind and water, create a rainbow with your power…Prism Halo!” Dawn commands as she sends a shining disc flying into the serpent horse’s head. The colorful ring has no effect, however.

After several hours attacking the serpent horse, the group begins to tire. “It’s no use…” Ash sighs as his Flame Tail fizzles out without the serpent horse batting an eye.

“We’ve tried everything we know that defeats a serpent horse in the canon….” Brock agrees.

“Maybe not…” Dawn interjects, a wry smile crossing her face.

“You mean…you’re actually going to try Song Magic?” Ash gasps.

“You can’t! Not at your skill level!” Raina protests. “You’ll tire yourself to the point of exhaustion!”

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take if it means saving my friends!” Dawn assures Raina as she stares down the serpent horse…

o^-^o: Don’t close that browser! Here’s what’s coming up this week on “Pokemon: A Mage’s Tale”…

BEGIN PREVIEW

“It’s no use…” Ash sighs as his Flame Tail fizzles out without the serpent horse batting an eye.

“We’ve tried everything we know that defeats a serpent horse in the canon….” Brock agrees.

“Maybe not…” Dawn interjects, a wry smile crossing her face.

“You mean…you’re actually going to try Song Magic?” Ash gasps.

“You can’t! Not at your skill level!” Raina protests. “You’ll tire yourself to the point of exhaustion!”

“That’s a chance I’m willing to take if it means saving my friends!” Dawn assures Raina as she stares down the serpent horse…

END PREVIEW

o^-^o: So will Dawn successfully sing a spell, if at all? Stop in tomorrow and see!

Plants vs Zombies
Developer: Popcap Games
Price: $3 Dollars
Platform: iPhone
Genre: Tower Defense

There is something delightful about the charming simplicity of Popcap’s titles, and Plants vs Zombies continues this legacy. Much like Peggle and any of its past franchises, Plants vs Zombies takes a single round to comprehend all of its basic rules. Though it never becomes difficult to progress, there is always a continued sense of mystery due to the constant experimentation that it asks of the user. It differentiates itself from most tower defense games, by relying on the constant variation of enemy (ie Zombies) and weapon (ie Plants) types. The player is rewarded with a new armament after each round but the structure of the game never forces the player to adapt to a certain play style. Include this with an attractive art style and practical iphone controls, making the 3 dollar price tag much too easy to swallow.

Final Score – Excellent

Age of Zombies
Developer: Halfbrick
Price: $5
Platform: PSP (available from the PSN store)
Genre: 2D shooter

A sweet but short PSP mini that seems to be a long lost version of Left 4 Dead for Super Nintendo. You are placed in five different time eras where the sole goal is to outlive and massacre large hordes of zombies including bosses that come in such forms as a T-Rex zombie. Though the humor is a bit exaggerated and hits several low notes through the brevity of the adventure, it still retains some of the quirky charm seen in 16 bit games such as Earthworm Jim. The five levels last about an hour and half but it is definitely a game deserving of several playthroughs specifically by experimenting with different guns and strategies for higher scores.

Final Score – Good

Following the rumored allegations of “insubordination” and “breaches of conduct” by the departing co-founders of Infinity Ward, Activison has announced its plans for the future of the Call of Duty franchise.

From what’s already known, this year’s Call of Duty is being helmed by Call of Duty 3 and World at War veterans, Treyarch and not to much surprise, 2011 will also see the release of another Call of Duty video game. However, the series will be extending into the “action-adventure” genre that is being crafted by the newly formed Sledgehammer Games – headed by ex-Visceral developers Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey – that is also expected for release in 2011.

Activison has somewhat addressed the future of the franchise which includes putting the Call of Duty name under a singular business unit, intending to follow the model established by Blizzard Entertainment for their own intellectual properties. Keeping in line with this, the company has announced plans to bring Call of Duty to “new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.” This is not a surprise given the fact that Activison has publicly stated plans for a subscription based Call of Duty and talks with partners of entering the Asian market, where its one of the fastest growing regions for online multiplayer games, is an example of their efforts.

As for Infinity Ward, Activison has stated that the developer remains “central to Call of Duty’s future.” IW is still in development for the first two downloadable map packs for Modern Warfare 2 and has stated that Steve Pearce (Activision Publishing CTO) and Steve Ackrick (Activison Publishing Head of Production) have temporarily taken charge of the studio.

Story first broken by G4’s Patrick Klepek, two key employees from Infinity Ward in an unseemingly bizzare turn of events. Evidence is reported by an SEC Filing by publisher Activision today regarding a human resources investigation into “breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward.”

One of these employees includes Infinity Ward’s CTO Jason West and the other rumored to be Vince Zampella. Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling has vaguely addressed the issue on his Twitter account by stating that he has “no info” on the matter at this time.

A screenshot has previously surfaced at Kotaku of Infinity Ward CTO Jason West’s Facebook page with the status update “”Jason West is drinking. Also, unemployed.” His Linkedin profile has been updated to reflect the following change in employment:

“President/Game Director/CCO/CTO Infinity Ward
January 2001 – March 2010 (9 years 3 months)”

Earlier in the evening, Klepek posted that a source close to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s developer has informed that a bunch of security guards have showed up at the studio offices unannounced and were unwilling to disclose any information why they were there. Infinity Ward’s studio heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella were reportedly meeting at Activision today and has not been seen since.

The atmosphere at the studio offices are described as “tense,” regarding the relationship between Infinity Ward and its publisher Activision. People are “freaked out” and “confused.” One source states, “We just wanna make our games.”

OPINION
In recollecting these distressing accounts of events, it seems of concidence to note Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s choice of words of how he views the video games business, in promoting an atmosphere of “skepticism, pessimism, and fear and keeping people focused on the deep depression.” This is an example of corporate restructuring at its core. Activision has constantly shown their hand in developers affairs and by removing the Infinity Ward studio heads, effectively demonstrates the brutal nature of the business. Activision sent security guards as a cautionary measure for such an occasion like this to keep productivity afloat, but it certainly does not bode well for the job environment at all – considering that recent events have cited, for example, protest by former employees to the terrible working conditions at Rockstar Games San Diego.

While not all Playstation 3 have been affected, worldwide, owners are currently unable to play certain games and connect to the Playstation Network. If you feel optimistic about facing the apocalypse, try logging on to your PSN account today. Sony has issued a statement on the Playstation Blog concerning the status of the situation.

The issue originates from a bug in the clock functionality and according to Sony hopes to have a remedy within the next 24 hours. So far, the problems have only appear to affect the older Playstation 3 models with more recent slim models unaffected by this. Sony has addressed a temporary solution by stating that owners of older models should just avoid using their PS3 system, since disaster will occur e.g. errors in functionality, recently obtained trophies, and recovering certain data.

From an analyst’s perspective, Michael Patcher shared with shacknews.com his view:

I think it’s a glitch and nothing more. It’s clearly a software fix, so no need to replace hardware units. If Microsoft can recover from RROD, Sony should be able to recover quickly from this. Keep in mind it’s only the original models, so probably 20 – 25% of the installed base, and that likely fewer than half of users have tried to play in the last 24 hours (I know that I haven’t tried). So only around 10% affected, and they will likely have a software patch in place by Friday. If they offer a free Pixeljunk download as compensation, they won’t have any complaints.

Patcher’s perspective points out that the length of time Sony releases a bug in contrast to Microsoft’s response to the RROD holds that they will not recieve any backlash if the matter is quickly resolved.

Update: As of this writing, we are getting reports from news sources that the PS3 bug has been squashed. Our copy editor, Francis Rodriguez, has personally confirmed to us that his PS3 – a pre-slim model – has been allievated of the bug:

alright
it boots up
that is extremely creepy though
cause there was no update
lol
and I haven’t connected to the internet
so I don’t know wtf just happened
lol
conspiracy confirmed
sony has chips in our PS3s
that can be accessed at any time
CONFIRMED

In an afterword, Francis brought up potential reasoning for Sony’s failure to see the Y2K glitch incoming.

….my dad actually had a fairly good theory, I didn’t think much of it until I thought about it just a while ago
not so much a y2k scare, but essentially when we move from the ‘08, ‘09 to the ‘10, ‘11, etc
and because this february isn’t a leap year
there is a discrepancy in the calendar formula
that–to my dismay I’ve forgotten the exact technical mish-mash–the calculations will be off
rather, the calendar algorithm can’t produce a date
this was an offhanded conversation at the dinner table I had with my dad back in november I think
but now that this has happened, it really makes a lot of sense
yeah, it’s based on the fact that I think the original algorithm is considering ‘10, ‘11 as being a part of 1910, 1911
since when digital logging of dates started, that’s what the abbreviations were for
like when my grandfather filed for a health card
his birthdate year was abbreviated as ‘18
cause he was born in 1918
but now I guess the algorithm hasn’t matched up to differentiate that ‘10 now is 2010, and not 1910
meh, either way still creepy
clearly there is another network that I’m connected to with Sony
outside of ethernet and wireless

Clearly, there are forces at work that go beyond our rational intelligence. Time to put on our tinfoil hats.

When we last left our heroes…

As the crowd disperses and Ash and Dawn pick up what coins are scattered on the pavement, the tall woman approaches Brock. “Well told, Song Mage…I would expect nothing more from the great Arran Seluna.”

“You speak the truth, Jelan Mirana…” the woman replies before addressing Brock again. “As thanks for a wonderful performance, I bid you spend some time at my house, for I know much of the quest Karmina has given you…”

Episode 4: The Legend of the Crystal Auras

The group walks down a street leading to an alcove of houses nearby the marketplace, being careful not to lose Raina in the crowds of people. Raina, powever, points out the house closest to the street overlooking the temple. “Here…this is my home.” With that, she invites the group inside.

“Thank you for having us.” Dawn replies as the group enters and makes themselves comfortable around a wooden table.

“How is it that you know of our quest?” Brock asks, interested, never mind that the question seems out of character for the role he is playing.

“Karmina herself told me about it.” Raina smiles as she returns with what looks like bowls of herbs, amused that someone as well known as Arran Seluna would be surprised at her abilities. “I presume you also know about the Pendant of Crystal Auras?”

A wry smile crosses Brock’s face–this meeting is playing out very much like the real show! “Every minstrel in Thianon knows about that, Song Mage or not!” He takes his harp from his bag and starts a soft melody Red is the stone that brings the fire, orange is the stone riding on the wind, yellow is the stone that raises the dark’s ire, green is the stone commanding winter to rescind…

“Uh, Brock…” Ash waves to get his friend’s attention.

“Too late…” Dawn groans.

One blue stone is cold and frosty, the other as blue as a rolling sea… Brock continues, still lost in his performance.

Raina stifles a giggle. “Yes, I see you know of the Eight Dainas, but what about the pendant they form? Have you a verse telling me about that?”

When these eight stones come together, a mighty treasure do they form. Within this pendant is the great power, power of the color-born. Brock sings.

“The color-born?” Ash is stumped by the lyric’s meaning.

“Arran is referring to the elements that make up our world by the color-born.” Raina explains. “When the world was created, Karmina and her sons and daughters were quite impressed when Faivan, god of magic, demonstrated his craft to Marli, queen of the gods. At that time, magic had no physical form, so Marli convinced her husband Vaner, the king of the gods, to give Faivan’s craft a form in the world of mortals and in the world of gods. So Vaner created the elemental spirits, and they spread throughout both worlds, giving us the elements. Each type of spirit prefers a certain color, so sometimes the elements are called the color-born.” Ash nods to show he understands the myth.

“So if magic is really the energy of elemental spirits, how does Song Magic work?” Dawn asks–she’s wondered if the process is ever explained in the real show.

“That is the second part of the myth, Loras Kimbore.” Raina replies. “Karmina could sense mortals’ emotions, and often sent spirits to aid those that sang of their emotions. In time, mortals learned that they could channel their emotions through song, summoning spirits that way–that is how Song Magic was created.” She turns to address the boys. “Arran has studied it and knows it well. Jelan will eventually learn it not long after you begin your quest…”

“But what about Loras?” Ash wonders. “Won’t she be able to learn Song Magic?”

“Has she displayed any talent for it?” Raina asks.

An awkward silence fills the room before Brock finally decides to answer the sage’s question. “No–she has not shown any talent for it that we know of.”

“She is perfectly capable of learning to use it, but she has to want to learn.” Raina replies. “This will becomes your song, and the song then manifests as magic.”

“Do I want to learn Song Magic?” Dawn scoffs at how Raina is treating her like her own mother back in the real world. “You bet I do!”

“Then close your eyes and calm yourself–magic won’t awaken in someone who is angered or only wants to use it for their own gain.” Raina cautions as Dawn closes her eyes. The strength of your song is also tied to the strength of your body–if you are tired, your magic will be very weak at best.”

Dawn nods as she focuses on a calm location in her mind–the yard back in the real world. Gotta catch’em, I can see it, Victory Road! Of all the water in the world, which one has blue Shellos? She begins to glow in a rainbow aura as she continues singing. Is the Hoothoot’s leg the left one or the right?

“Is she singing ‘Which One’? from ‘Sesamon Street’?” Ash recognizes the song.

“No, you’re thinking of ‘One of These Things’…’Which One’ is a completely different song from ‘Inspiration Station’” Brock gently corrects him, at the same time worried about the size of Dawn’s aura and the part that is coming next.

Ah… Dawn continues the song, her rainbow aura getting brighter and stronger all the while. Ah…..ah…ah, ah, AH!!!! On the last “ah”, the aura goes flying at Raina, the Pokemon and the boys in a wave of rainbow light.

“What was that?” Ash asks as he studies the rainbow colored “water” dripping from him.

“I don’t know…” Dawn wheezes, exhausted from casting the spell. “I just pictured us being at home, and me in the yard, listening to Brock finding another show for Happini as the ending to ‘Inspiration Station’ played…and the part with the ahs was the first part of the song I remembered.”

“A most interesting choice of song for your first spell, Rainbow Shower.” Raina giggles. “But, I think you may have chosen too strong of a spell for your skill…”

“No wonder I feel so tired…” Dawn complains. “It’s like I ran a mile in gym class multiple times!”

Raina then hears what sounds like the whinnying of a horse. “Oh no…not here…”

Ash looks out the window and gasps–he sees what looks like a snake with a horse’s head and mane headed in their direction! “What is that?” he gasps.

Brock draws his blade and walks outside, only pausing to take his harp case from the closet at the entrance. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t look friendly!”

TO BE CONTINUED….

I made up a little fun game if you bored and using Twitter. Make sure some sort of gaming event is going on today. Follow key journalists and see which of them posts the latest updates first. Today was the Nintendo Media Summit so for an hour my Twitter was filled with Nintendo goodness. I had 3 people fighting to get the news out their first, Brian Crecente, Nick Chester and Geoff Keighley. Geoff won for twitting first, followed by Nick. Though Crecente was first post the information on Kotaku with the Jim and Nick combo close behind on Destructoid. A nice fun interlude during a boring coursework session. Now for the day today in the world of gaming.

Prince of Persia in Prince of Persia

Buying the Wii version of the next PoP game Forgotten Sands? No? Well this might change your might. The Wii version will have the original SNES Prince of Persia available on disc and some sort of 2 player co-op, but the added game sounds great. With the Wii always been the worse of all the multi-platform games this sort of bonus is a nice extra so all those Wii owners don’t feel jipped.

Nintendo Media Summit

Tons of Wii News today from the Nintendo Media Summit so Here is a simple list of them all so we don’t have Nintendo hog the whole NewsVine.

Metroid: Other M coming out June 27th
Super Mario Galaxy coming out May 23rd
Photo Dojo for DSi
Monster Hunter Tri coming April 20, Wii Speak and free online
DSi XL Next Month, $190
WiiWare Titles announced, MegaMan and Cave Story
E-books on Nintendo DS
Dragon Quest IX this Summer

All I can say is way to go Nintendo. Amazing line-up. I hope they keep it up after E3.

EA want cheaper consoles

Not just the PS3, the 360 as well. “I think pricing has not come down as much as we would have expected at this point in the cycle compared to the last. We do have a long way to go with respect to pricing. Last cycle, approximately 48 percent of PlayStation 2 units were sold at a price point of $149 or less. Clearly at $299 we’re nowhere near that price point.”

Don’t forget this is a much longer life cycle than the last, so this point is a bit flawed. In an economic time of constant bad news, another price cut isn’t going to help.

Split/Second Dated and Renamed in Europe

It’s been dated for May 18th here is good old Europe and has been renamed to Split/Second: Velocity for some reason. I’m personally looking forward to this game, I like more destruction based driving game. Chances are I’ll be picking this year. This is looking to be the best year of game. Many great games are and having coming out every month. It’s a nice change.

o^-^o: Don’t close that browser! Here’s what’s coming up this week on “Pokemon: A Mage’s Tale”…

BEGIN PREVIEW

“But what about Loras?” Ash wondered. “Won’t she be able to learn Song Magic?”

“Has she displayed any talent for it?” Raina asked.

An awkward silence filled the room before Brock finally decided to answer the sage’s question. “No–she has not shown any talent for it that we know of.”

“She is perfectly capable of learning to use it, but she has to want to learn.” Raina replied. “This will becomes your song, and the song then manifests as magic.”

“Do I want to learn Song Magic?” Dawn scoffed at how Raina was treating her like her own mother back in the real world. “You bet I do!”

END PREVIEW

o^-^o: So will Dawn be able to learn Song Magic like her counterpart Loras? Stop by tomorrow and see!

Sorry for a lack of NewsVine the past week. It’s been a mixture of a busy schedule and my first illness in over 5 years that wasn’t directly caused by alcohol. It was indirectly caused by it this time. Now for the day today in the world of gaming.

Gordon Brown Boasts About Video Games

The UK’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown has actually got something nice to say about video games, stating that “We’re leading the way in creative industries: by far the biggest producer of computer games in Europe. And we’re leading the way in digital communications. In a country with only one per cent of the world’s population, more than a third of all internet traffic is routed through UK servers.”

Oh god. Praise from Gordon Brown? The industry’s now cursed. Still any good news for a politician is still good news.

Recent Success of ‘Click Flicks’ Blamed on Video Games

Video games are being blamed for something yet again. Only this time not for the health and safety of your children but rather the success of chick flicks. People are calling it the ‘Xbox Factor.’ As the females partners are staying inside playing their wonderful games, more females are becoming bored and decide to go to the Movie’s. Males entering the cinema are diminishing leaving a larger audience for shit romantic comedies. That’s right video games aren’t just changing our kids or your television habits. No, it’s changing the cinema demographic. So expect less Ninja Killer 15 and more Puppy Island 7.

Sony Admit PSPGo Price is High

Sony’s Rob Dye has admitted that the PSPGo price may of been too high and that scared consumers. Also stating that “it was silly to charge more for a product that does less” something that stupidly didn’t cross my mind. I believe they focused too much on eliminating piracy, and are maybe a bit too early for an all downloadable based consoles, let along a hand-held console. A majority of gaming sales still come from retail at this point despite the industries heavy integration of it. Once DLC really hits the causal audience then maybe it might work. We’ve all seen how successful the iPhone is, in which the app system is effectively the same as DLC.

More Playstation Motion games than Natal?

Rob Dye also thinks that Sony’s motion controller will harvest more games than Natal, due to it’s ease of use on the production side of things “You can use the same code base that you currently use for PS3 or 360 or even the Wii in order to get a motion controller game out. You can’t do that with Natal.” I see their using the logic that worked for Microsoft with the 360 being easier to make for during the early days of the PS3’s life.

It’s all well and good saying that, but they need to get the damn thing publicised. Microsoft has been doing this for the past year, yet Sony has done nothing. Oddly enough Michael Patcher has recently predicted that Natal will outsell Sony’s Motion Controller 5 to 1. Interesting.

Warner Bros Acquires Rocksteady

Warner Bros has recently acquired a majority stake in Batman: Arkham Asylum developer Rocksteady Studios. Warner were impressed with how Arkham Asylum turned out that the company want a bigger relationship with the developers. This means we will see more DC Comic based titles from them. (DC are owned by Warner) Rocksteady seem to be more than happy to agree. So all is good. YAY.

Update – Capcom has announced that Mark Beaumont, their Chief Operating Officer died this morning. Everyone at MonsterVine give their regards to his family, friends and colleagues.